February 27, 2006

• Filthy rats.
• I've been casting around for the right historical analog to bring to bear on what this benighted administration seems so intent on foisting upon us all. Until now, the closest I've seen around is "faith-based" as opposed to "reality-based" but that does both them and their detractors a disservice. Leninism is precisely the right idea -- seeking to change the course of history through the application of a combination of sheer force of will and a (mild, though unmistakable) cult of personality.
• At least one of them has the decency to admit that they were wrong. Not that it does any good now.
• Not that it does any good now. There's always seppuku. Seriously, though -- it's good to have him admitting his mistakes; would that W would do as much. But how about also:

  1. Apologizing to the anti-war movement insofar as we were saying this sort of thing all along ("demand for democracy and reform must be domestic");
  2. Suggesting three concrete steps the US can take now that we've stirred the hornet nest; and
  3. Calling for the total abolition of Project for the New American Century

  for a start.
• There was a good thread on MeFi about this.
• The Beginning of the Neocons' Campaign for John McCain
• There's always seppuku. I was in a play a few years back where I had to operate a whole row of shadow puppets representing the Japanese army. At the end of the war, I had to make them commit seppuku. I stared calling myself "Master of Puppuku."
• There's always seppuku But I'd prefer bukkake.
• I like bukkake.
• Aw, so sorry, Mr. Fukuyama. I really hope it was worth it, you inhuman bastard.
• It's gonna take more than bumper stickers to reverse the damage, according to the Beeb's man in Washington
• 2 or 3 trillion dollars and (?)??,000 dead people later: "Whoops- my bad."
• I'd like to think that if my writings had contributed to a clusterfuck of this magnitude, I'd be too ashamed and embarassed to ever publish anything again. If he had even a shred of shame or decency, he'd retire somewhere and just shut the fuck up before he kills anyone else. Of course, that probably doesn't pay as well.
• big ideas tend to cost lives especially bad big ideas
• Neocons jump ship
• I find it hard to believe any of those people feeling the need to back up or the slightest hint of remorse. In the end, these guys are sticking together in the knowledge that if they don't, they will most certainly hang together. That would be the day, when we all rise together against that bunch of kleptocrats. But only if there's nothing good on TV that day...
• Let's see... "end of history" = wrong "Plan For A New American Century" = wrong "invading Iraq will bring democracy and stability to the Middle East" = wrong And we're still lending the slightest shred of credence to anything Fukuyama says because?
• Because of his hilarious name! Oh, look at it - it looks like "Fuck-You-A-Rama"! HA HA HA! Fucka-You! I'm-a tell-a you that it's-a the end-a of the history-a! Hey, now-a I like to eat-a my pizza! Bad-a-bing-bad-a-boom! Iraq-a go Boom-a! HA HA HA! Oh, mercy.
• My social studies teacher said, back in the early eighties, that America wasn't cut out to be the world police. He was teaching 13 year-olds whose initial thought was that might makes right. It doesn't take genius to realise the truth, and that before thousands of lives are lost in some stupid experiment.
• My social studies teacher, back in the mid-eighties, said our next big war would be sparked over Islam in some way. I guess I owe him a Coke or something.
• His name wasn't Karl Rove, by any chance? Oh, I guess it couldn't have been, since Rove was a college drop-out.
• Oh sure, and next you're going to insinuate that Karl Rove didn't distinguish himself in battle in Vietnam! He won three bronze stars for his service, now salute dammit! This is summed up nicely in the new Toby Keith Ballad, "Livin' In The Ass of Karl Rove, Y'all"
• I prefer Toby Keith's follow up track, "Sipping Karl Rove's Diarrhea from a Golden Chalice"
• Mr Fukuyama now thinks the war in Iraq is the wrong sort of war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. And I'll just bet he can figure out another war in a different place to be carried out at a good time--which will depend, of course, on where the money is.
• What about that soon-to-be-a-standard from Monsieur Keith, I'm Never So Purty As When I'm A-Wearin' Karl Rove's Pearl Necklace??
• Dude anyone proud of the fact they graduated from college is an idiot. Drop out and assume a position of incredible power? I'd like to see that.
• I'd like to see that. You'd like to see Karl Rove?
• btw here's Fukuyama's latest, Europe vs. Radical Islam: Alarmist Americans have mostly bad advice for Europeans.
• > Europe vs. Radical Islam: Alarmist Americans have mostly bad advice for Europeans. yes, fukuyama included. my favorite bit: Europeans should have started a discussion about how to integrate their Muslim minorities a generation ago, before the winds of radical Islamism had started to blow. in europe of the 1970s this question loomed large: should we think about integration now, or wait until radical islamism develops? the consensus at the time was, let's wait. how foolish europe was...
• It's always "let's wait." Similarly couldn't the West have addressed the need to move away from dependence on oil back in the 1970s or 1980s? Sure we could have. This is a problem with democracy: If you ask voters to sacrifice NOW based on issues that may never affect them -- and if they do will only do so LATER -- you lose their votes. At least, that's what politicians fear.
• Please join us for the "TV Turnoff week" thread in roughly two months where we'll subtly and deftly debate the positions of "People know what's good for them" and "People need help in knowing what's good for them" Grab your placards people! We expect a full and righteous / contentious debate! Mac zealots and PC dweebs are not allowed!
• You mean . . . I can . . . turn it off???!
• Who wants to call me a pro-TV whiner? Oh, I know, that guy who had to fuck off. For medical reasons.
• Really? I thought he was just on MoFi turn-off week.
• *click*
• "Leo Strauss, father of neoconservatism, is not the fascist thinker of left-wing caricature. But neither is he a figure with whom democrats can feel comfortable. He believed in virtue rather than liberalism"
• The Irony of Iraq: The neocons have come to embody everything they once mocked and despised in '60s liberals.
• It looks like the Project for the New American Century, the neocon group that promoted the invasion of Iraq, is closing down.
• War without End
• In 1997, Fred Barnes pouted about the “ennui” accompanying that decade’s peace and prosperity: “The last great moment in Washington was Desert Storm…. It was exciting to follow and write about … Every press conference, I watched. Desert Storm was all I thought about or talked about. My stories concentrated on President Bush’s heroic role in the war.” Fred, yer a fargin' idioj.
• couldn't the West have addressed the need to move away from dependence on oil back in the 1970s or 1980s? Carter tried to do this, but as soon as Reagan got elected he put a stop to alternate fuels research and conservation programs. He also put a stop to the metricization of America. After all, America wasn't meant to use no evil commie unAmerican method of counting.
• The neocons' next war: By secretly providing NSA intelligence to Israel and undermining the hapless Condi Rice, hardliners in the Bush administration are trying to widen the Middle East conflict to Iran and Syria, not stop it
• This is bad, but not suprising, on so many levels. This country has a very long history of helping Isreal behind the scenes. It's one of the main reasons that nobody in the Middle East believes anything coming out of Washington.
• The Neocon Menace
• Bill Maher Smacks Around Some NeoCons
• Poor old Berek.
• Don't cry for Berek. He has his sense of self-satisfaction to keep him warm at night.
• Maher: And finally, new rule in two parts: (A) You can't call yourself a think tank if all your ideas are stupid; and (B) If you're someone from one of these think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War and who predicted that we'd be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn't need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMD's would be found, that the looting wasn't problematic, that the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that whole bloody mess wouldn't turn into a civil war, you have to stop making predictions. Hehe. Sweet.
• Neoconservatism -- RIP
• History will be the judge ... and surely judge that it was all Clinton's fault. I love when these clowns claim that history will redeem them as visionaries, when history's certain to deem them utter failures. This line of thinking is the final ellipsis on their history of wrongmindedness.
• Neoconservatives -- exposed, scorned, but still in control
• The real Iraq Study Group: The neocon hawks who sold the war, joined by John McCain and Joe Lieberman, unveiled their new plan for "victory": At least 25,000 new troops in combat roles well into 2008
• A waste of lives and money.
• What an incredible fuckup this whole little adventure has been.
• Recruitment news: Army blunder recruits those killed, injured The Army blamed a computer mix-up yesterday for recruitment letters mistakenly sent out over the holidays to the families of 275 officers killed or wounded in action in Iraq.
• Yes! A zombie army! That's the ticket! This surge thingie will be shock and awe for reals!
• quiet you! *smack*
• The Iraq Gamble: At the pundits' table, the losing bet still takes the pot
• Greenspan says maybe deregulation's not so wonderful after all
• Yeah. Thanks a pantload, Al.
• Neoconservatism dies in Gaza: The recent Israeli offensive has put the final nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's Middle East fantasy.
• And just how much is a pantload? One metric ton, at minimum.