agitprop version 2.0

Endangered Species

I've found the only living Republican who hasn't shed an ounce of integrity. His name is Paul Craig Roberts:

The Iraqi war has three beneficiaries: (1) al Qaeda, (2) Iran and (3) US war industries and Bush-Cheney cronies who receive no-bid contracts. Everyone else is a loser.

Amen brother.

Who exactly is Paul Craig Roberts? He was only Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. I wonder if economists are more impervious to bullshit since they are rational thinkers and are not strictly politicians. Remember Paul O'Neill? He was fired because he valued a little thing we like to call reality.

UPDATE: I found the perfect picture to accompany this post via Daily Pepper and Scrutiny Hooligans. Yeah, it's real.  

       

Are War Supporters In Their Last Throes?

I don't want to get too optimistic here but this is where we stand as of mid-September 2005: 

• 67% believe that the President is mishandling the war in Iraq
• 65% believe that the U.S. is spending too much on Iraq
• 63% believe that the U.S. should either "withdraw some" or "withdraw all" troops
• 59% believe that the war was a mistake  (poll sources)

War supporters are truly getting desperate. As they frantically cling their chickenhawk claws to their cherished war, they know deep down that the tide is turning against their favor. Thousands of people are expected to attend this Saturday's anti-war marches in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The anti-war movement, or peace movement depending on your persuasion, needs every single body it can find in order to make a showing of massive dissent. The larger it is, the greater the impact. (That's if the MSM even bothers to cover it).

To prove my theory that war supporters are in their last throes I turn to prominent phone-sex enthusiast and chickenhawk pundit Bill O'Reilly. He prides himself on being a tough-talking, no-nonsense patriot. He lambastes people as cowards who won't come on his show--they aren't "man enough" to face the raw power of the Factor. Well, it turns out that he is the real coward--a scaramouche--to use his own language.

Crooks & Liars has a must-see clip of Phil Donahue vs. Bill O'Reilly. Phil gave Falafel boy a firm ass-whooping yesterday and nearly made O'Reilly's head explode on his own show.  Donahue kept his cool despite Mr. Falafel's ranting and raving.

On a related note, the troubles of Iraq and Katrina may have pushed President Bush so far over the edge that he has returned to the bottle. The National Enquirer (yeah I don't know how valid the story is) asserts that when the levees broke in New Orleans, Bush took a Texas-sized whiskey shot. Oddly enough, Shakespeare's Sister notes that the National Enquirer has been right on the money in its uncovering of political scandals.

If there was ever a moment for George to start drinking again, now is the time.

Dead Bodies = Progress

May 2003:  We don't do body counts . . .

Washington -- The world will never know how many Iraqis died in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, in part because the United States adamantly refuses to estimate the number of people it kills in combat and because gathering accurate numbers is all but impossible after the Iraqi government's chaotic collapse . . .  "We don't do body counts," Gen. Tommy Franks, who directed the Iraq invasion, has said.

September 2005:  Now we do body counts . . .

BAGHDAD -- Using enemy body counts as a benchmark, the U.S. military claimed gains against Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led fighters last week even as they mounted their deadliest attacks on Iraq's capital.

Well, at least they're getting practice in mathematics. This guy would be happy. The Heretik discusses the latest monster to emerge on the scene--Zarqawi. Los Defeatists point out the latest battle in Iraq: British troops vs. Iraqi police. That's gotta be a fun one.

hat tip: A Lie A Day

Madame Secretary and The Bridges Of Babylon

My view of this is that this is a big historical change and they tend to be messy and difficult and violent and, inside, contradictory. On the one hand, positive things are going on; on the other hand, quite negative things are going on. It’s just the way historical changes [are made]. I’ve been reading over the summer biographies of the Founding Fathers. By all accounts, the United States of America should never have come into being. First of all, they were fighting the greatest power of the times militarily and in terms of reach. -- Condoleezza Rice on Iraq, Newsweek

In the late 1700s,  the burgeoning United States was fighting off "the greatest power of the times militarily and in terms of reach"--the British Empire. But the Iraqi resistance is presently fighting off the greatest military power of its era--the U.S. Empire. Funny how things have changed. In fact, these historical changes clearly disprove Condoleezza Rice's analogy of Iraq to the nascent United States.

Condi's comparison of the emergence of Iraqi democracy to the Founding Fathers and the formation of American democracy falls flat on its face. In 1776, a foreign power did not sail to the shores of Virginia, invade the region and then expel British forces from the colonies. Rather, the complete opposite happened. The colonists formed a homegrown insurgency, overthrew the ruling regime themselves (albeit with some French military assistance later on) and then formed their own unique, independent form of government.

If we are to swallow Condi's analogy then she must believe in an entirely different version of the American Revolution. Imagine this. French troops invade the colonies and liberate the colonists from King George III's colonial regime. Once the British forces are driven out of power the French install a provisional government which is headed by a young rich Cardinal. This Cardinal purges loyalists from the government, takes over the rum, cotton and tobacco industries, abolishes English common law, and then puts a gun to the head of George Washington and says "you are free, now adopt a French style of government or die, you stinking piece of merde!" If this actually took place, I think the United States would have turned out very differently.

The whole idea of forcing people to adopt democratic government is ludicrous. Democratic government should not be imposed, it should be homegrown, that is, develop naturally out of conditions unique to the culture and traditions of the region. The American colonies had developed a long tradition of democratic values with town hall meetings and local involvement. This spawned a culture which was highly conducive to forming a republic of representative government. What is Iraq's experience with democracy? Non-existent. Right now Iraq is ruled by a puppet regime whose strings are deeply frayed and will soon be cut by a full-blown civil war. One might say, "but we created democracy in Germany and Japan after World War II". True. The Marshall Plan was ambitious, well-led, well-funded and well-executed. The Rumsfeld plan for Iraq was, uh, did they even have a plan? I don't think so.

Let's get back to Condi for a second. This weekend, the Madame Secretary was too busy to attend a dinner with other female foreign ministers from the UN general assembly to discuss women's rights. She does however have time in her schedule to shop for expensive shoes while poor people drown. It's all about priorities Ms. Rice. It is clear that yours lie not with the people (women, minorities, the underclass) but with the powerful. Ferragamoleezza is suffering from the same syndrome that every other member of the Bush administration is plagued by--isolation from reality. Until our government realizes what irreversible damage has been done to Iraq we will continue down the path of failure. When Bush says we are staying the course in Iraq it really means that he doesn't know what the hell he is doing and is too afraid to admit that he is wrong.

I can't offer any solutions to this mess. I don't know what's worse--pulling out all U.S. troops immediately or staying put and incurring more violence, death and chaos. I am not a military planner or a foreign policy specialist. What I can realize is that things aren't going well and if we don't change course we are doomed to failure. That's why I will be in Los Angeles this coming Saturday, September 24, to voice my opinions that we are headed in the wrong direction. My only hope is people will begin to talk more honestly and openly about Iraq and drop all this amphetamine-addicted parrot talk of "we're spreading freedom, we're spreading freedom, we're spreading freedom . . ."

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Galloway v. Hitchens

Public discourse about the Iraq War just got dirtier--way dirtier--thanks to last night's confrontation between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens in New York. The Mad Scotsman, looking more tanned than George Hamilton, squared off against the gin-soaked and bugged eyed apostate of the left, Christopher Hitchens.

Two angry blokes from the U.K. hurling insults at each other is not going to improve the situation in Iraq. People are still dying on an hourly basis. Then again, if I lived in New York I probably would have gone to watch this debate just for the theatrics:

The two rival titans of the raging row over Iraq engaged in an intellectual prize fight in New York last night that quickly degenerated into knock-down, drag-out bar-room brawl. Before a jeering crowd of more than 1,000 in a college auditorium, the two men - once allies on the Left - hurled invective at each other for almost two hours, until exhaustion set in. A scruffy, sweating Mr Hitchens accused Mr Galloway of being an apologist for dictators, fresh from Damascus where he had praised the 145 attacks a day by Iraqi insurgents on coalition troops . . . Mr Galloway, inexplicably tanned and looking worthy of the nickname "Gorgeous George" in a well-pressed beige suit, denounced Mr Hitchens as a former-Trotskyist stooge for a reactionary government in Washington bent on dominating the Iraqi people. "People like Mr Hitchens are willing to fight to the last drop of other people’s blood, " the MP said to wild applause."How I wish he would put on a tin hat and pick up a gun and go and fight himself."

Oona King, the Labour MP defeated by Mr Galloway at the last election, witnessed the debate and offered this review:

"I think Galloway won in terms of oratory skills . . . I think it’s great to see Britons bringing the tradition of debate to the United States. But at the end of the day, they are two very arrogant men who both have very flawed arguments."

Some transcript from the debate can be found here. The war, which by its very nature is insane, has brought out bits of insanity in all of us.

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Freedom Is On The March

Due to the extensive media coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (or Corrina, if you are Laura Bush), Iraq had been neglected. Well, don't fret, because over 150 people have just been liberated:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.

The bloodiest attack killed at least 88 people and wounded 227 in the heavily Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah where the day laborers had gathered shortly after dawn.

Overnight Wednesday, 17 men were executed in a village north of Baghdad, which put the death toll in all violence in and around the capital Wednesday at 169 and the number continued to rise.

It's starting to remind me of this film. Can we starting making bets on when the civil war will commence? Maybe those celebrity poker people will get in on the gambling action.

Senator Joe Biden, fresh off of doing his Robert DeNiro impressions at the John Roberts' hearings, has written an op-ed piece in the Washington Post:

The Bush administration's mishandling of Iraq has brought us to the brink of a national security debacle. To salvage the situation, the administration must fundamentally change course inside Iraq, in the region and at the international level.

Stabilizing Iraq is a political as well as a military challenge. The administration is taking a huge gamble by going forward with a referendum for a constitution that is more likely to divide Iraq than to unite it.

No Joe! It's stay the course, not change the course. You silly Democrat! And uh, last time I checked, you voted for this crazy war and were pretty gung ho about prosecuting it too.

The only solution is insanity and you have two choices this week. You can either kill the kids from Hanson before they kill you or just get on your knees and Pray for the USA!

Dumbass Democrats

Gary Hart earlier this week in a WaPo editorial:

The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating "Stay the course" even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. The truth is we're way off course. We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began.

Last night I watched CNN Presents: 'Dead Wrong:' Inside an Intelligence Meltdown. This was probably the best coverage of the Iraq War intelligence failures that I've witnessed in the MSM. While it is clear that the Bush administration manipulated the raw intelligence from the CIA and packaged it into a slam dunk smoking gun case, most Democrats in Congress voted for the war.

Therefore, let me go on record here and personally thank the Democrats in Congress for the Iraq War. You bastards are as much to blame for this war as our Chimperor in Chief.

So much for an opposition party . . .

UPDATE:  It appears that some other folks have noticed the leadership vaccum on the left side of the aisle. Shakespeare's Sister writes about Frank Rich's latest column and the two-party collective stinkfest.

You Know Things Aren't Going Well in Iraq When...

they want Saddam Hussein back in power . . .

PROTEST: Sunni Arabs in the town of Baqubah, north of Baghdad, chant pro-Saddam Hussein slogans at a rally against the draft constitution and its provision for regional autonomy. (Faris Mahdawi / Reuters)

Holy Shiite Batman! The anti-Constitution fervor has even spread outside the Sunni communities. Juan Cole notes that 100,000 followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in eight cities yesterday to protest the "American authored" Constitution. 

Poor Mr. Bush. He and his NeoClowns just can't win can they?

Bush Unhinged

What do you do as president when a majority of Americans believe that the Iraq War was a mistake? You wine and scream like a spoiled child in cabinet meetings:

“Who gives a flying fuck what the polls say,” he screamed at a recent strategy meeting. “I’m the President and I’ll do whatever I goddamned please. They don’t know shit.”

Read more @ Capitol Hill Blue: Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides

Maybe he's distressed because when he talks to God, God tells him he's a [fill in the blank].

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Read Between The Lines

The War President™ spoke in Bush-friendly Idaho yesterday to a crowd of drooling zombies. Isn't it odd how he only speaks at safe venues with hand-picked audiences? He won't dare visit a place like liberal San Francisco. Anyways, let's take a look at his speech, which happens to be the same damn Iraq speech he's given about 100 times now.

Remember Nine-Eleven. Did I say remember Nine-Eleven?:

On September the 11th, 2001, we saw the future that the terrorists intend for our country and the lengths they're willing to go to achieve their aims. We faced a clear choice. We could hunker down, retreating behind a false sense of security, or we could bring the war to the terrorists, striking them before they could kill more of our people. (Applause.)

That's right Americuh. Whatever you do, don't hunker down!

We will stay on the offense. We'll complete our work in Afghanistan and Iraq. An immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq, or the broader Middle East, as some have called for, would only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations. So long as I'm the President, we will stay, we will fight, and we will win the war on terror. (Applause.)

Phew. All that talk of the "global struggle" not really being a war got me worried last month. I'm relieved to know that the war WILL last forever.

Oh, and we can't leave either. We can't trust those Iraqi SOB's to run their own country because they'll turn Iraq into a staging ground for terrorism. The only person who can prevent Iraq from becoming a staging ground is our wise, all-knowing Father Bush.

Amen. Praise Jesus.

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