Moe Ran

ABOVE: Moe Lane Rouge


Moe Lane, RedState:
Pelosi. Knew. Hi, Activist Left.

Uh, hi, I guess.

(See also Aaron Gardner’s RedHot on this topic.)

Pelosi knew about the waterboarding.

She knew all along.

It was Friday when I started writing this, and the whole ‘Pelosi knew’ controversy has been going on for a few days, such that it has become Tuesday. Suspicion for this lands naturally upon my old enemy, time. But it’s also difficult, sometimes, to separate any single right-wing spaz from the greater right-wing spazphoon, or if you would, their greater tspaznami.

According to the memo the very first briefing listed is 9/4/02 with then Rep. Porter Goss & Pelosi. The summary of the briefing says:

“Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities,

    and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed.”

This directly contradicts Pelosi’s story, that “we were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.“

Apropos spasticity, here we find our man Moe at RedState working himself into a good one, ‘Friday’ having been a day with a ‘y’ in it — and indeed, having been one where the Sun’s chariot chases the Moon and her silver-runnered dogsled, and is in succession chased by her into night.

And here’s the important thing: we knew this already, and so did you. You’ve been lying to the American people about this for six or so years solely because that way you could maybe stop the screaming that was going on in your own head. It didn’t work, but then, it never was going to: you really shouldn’t have tried it in the first place.

…A day in which the mountains are high and the land abuts the sea and vice versa, and a TV show is scheduled that features a forensic investigation team.

We also keep realizing, especially with rants like this one, the lack of clarity as to who these folks think they’re angry at, as they progress from one googly-eyed spite fugue to the next couch-slashing and glassware-stomping howl-gargle, to a relaxing interlude of nakedly chasing the cat up and down the drapes with a flea-market tactical knife in one’s teeth, and so on. Because while this time it might be a strange blurring of Pelosi with ‘the activist left,’ before it might have been ‘liberals’ or ‘progressives,’ and next time it might be ‘the hard left’ or ‘the radical liberal-left,’ or ‘liberal acti-leftivists,’ or who-even-knows-what — as though each possible combination of those terms described a different aspect of the same movement, conducted by the same people in different wardrobe.

So. when you do nothing about this at all – and you won’t; hardcore antiwar activists are fundamentally moral cowards, and everybody knows it – I want you to…

In its thoroughness, this conception suggests the deathless, apparently Jungian coexistence in the right-wing imagination of a dominant class of wealthy liberal elitists (‘latte-sipping,’ Jewish, crypto-Marxist, or equivalent) and a dominant underclass of unproductive, handout-demanding liberal expropriators (‘latte-sipping,’ Negro, crypto-Marxist, trade-unionist, or equivalent). Between them like Samson scowling between the temple columns is always a vast and beleaguered middle class of ordinary right-wing folks who are always this close to being taunted one time too many, to various result according to the particular wank fantasy that’s being invoked.

…fundamentally moral cowards, and everybody knows it – I want you to remember something. Everything that we said about you and your motivations? We know that it was all true, all along; you know that we know; and you’ll never be able to somehow make that knowledge go away. And you so badly want to: because all of this fleeting reflected glory is as nothing to you unless you hear us say “You win.”

Because it’s a day in which one of these forensic investigators — perhaps the Hot Chick, not likely the Tough Boss, but again perhaps the Rookie or the Cynic — will ‘zoom in’ on a blurry photo, making a small, faraway object like a license plate or a tattoo blow up into a sharp, high-res image announced by a blinking message like “TATTOO IDENTIFIED: SCANNING DNA.”

And you never, ever will.

It is a day when this will happen in synchrony with that high, chittery trill that computers are always constantly making, for instance when you press a key on them or when something moves on the screen.

But don’t feel too bad. Hey, why don’t you go find a woman or minority that doesn’t agree with you on an ideological point, and verbally assault him or her? It always seems to have cheered you up in the past.

Yes, it’s a day like every day, with Moe at RedState — or rather, with those in the category of being, ‘Moe at RedState’ — rearing back for a halitosis roar of blamesturbation.

Hi, Activist Right. To keep from thinking of your various -sturbations any further this evening (chiefly whinesturbating, the inevitable counterpart of a tantrum like this one), we’ve drawn up a list of the terms that right-wingers use to describe the Enemy With a Thousand Faces (i.e. all of us), ordered it from mildest to most explicit, and furnished it with concrete examples drawn accurately from life.

So you see, like so many things in life, this has all been about you the whole time! When next you find yourself snagged up or tempted by imprecision, please refer to these materials.

  • Liberal

    David Brooks

  • Left-liberal

    Andrew Sullivan

  • Left-wing

    The Democratic Party

  • Hard-left liberal

    Kevin Drum

  • Radical-left liberal

    The American Prospect

  • Screaming radical bug-eyed liberal

    Matt Yglesias

  • Demented, spittle-flecked leftard moonbat

    Ezra Klein, Oprah Winfrey

  • Naked, excrement-smeared leftofascist murder thug

    Jesse Taylor, Wanda Sykes

  • Intestine-draped howler goon of the kill-crazy leftist machete cannibals

    Jane Hamsher

  • Four-dimensional hypercube entity of simultaneously laevo-chiral enantiomorphs, spinning both directions to the left at once while watching the PBS pledge drive featuring Pete Seeger: The Power of Song and pledging infinity dollars.

    Teachers unions, the Kronstadt Rebellion, Rosa Luxemburg

  • Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. [sulfurous bang] Screech! Screech! Gibber! Would you like to contribute to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund? Åïâiõüûú-êìií, caco-kyrie caco-kyrie. [wet implosion]

    The “Ninth Jerk-it Court of Schlemiels,” lesbian couples at Whole Foods purchasing fair-trade arugula whilst smelling of patchouli and cat pee, Arlen Specter

  • The activist left

    ACORN, Michael Moore, David Souter, Al Gore, The New York Times, Democratic Underground, Pol Pot, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bill Ayers, Katie Couric, Ward Churchill, Newsweek, Spartacus League, Smothers Brothers

  • And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God said, OMG, George Soros, what are you doing here? And Soros said, I reviewed your grant proposal, and decided that there should be a few changes.

    Saul Alinsky, Janet Napolitano

  • Socialist

    900-foot robot Stalin with Hitler mustache formed out of snapped-together 200-foot communist dictator robots who is pointing to a giant copy of Atlas Shrugged and making a thumbs-down gesture with one hand while theatrically holding its nose with the other hand, army of cloned Jimmy Carters attacking army of cloned Pope Benedict XVIs with gay-making lasers, Barack Obama, gigantic Karl Marx fetus in massive amniotic reservoir at Earth’s core, Harry Belafonte

  •  

Comments: 143

 
 
 

But…but…Bill Moyers!@!!

 
 

Reading RedState is kind of like watching a bunch of lemmings have a circle-jerk after leaping off a cliff.

 
 

What? Is A.N.S.W.E.R. so far left that even along an infinitely long line of left to right it’s off the end?

 
 

Bwahaha left-left, this revelation has cause us to retroactively win all those elections we lost, as well as all elections in perpetuity forever, which you have known all along and KNOWN THAT WE HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU HAVE KNOWN!

 
 

Demented, spittle-flecked

Boy, aren’t those the words everyone associates with Oprah Winfrey.

Oh, sorry, I was thinking of Crazy Pammy, not Oprah. nevahmind.

 
 

Don’t be so hard on poor Moe. His meds ran out on January 20 when he took a year’s supply all at once — now THAT is going Galt, my friends — and let’s just say that the guys in white with the nets would like a word with the Moester.

But he’s been hard to find, what with the 10000000 tea bags in his mom’s basement and all. Some days it’s all he can do to find the computer.

 
 

As a retired member (though my member is not yet retired) of the activist left, I would be happy to see Nancy Pelosi held accountable for any war crimes she might have been involved in, and I would be happy to see Moe receive the remedial education that he has so evidently been denied.

 
 

Intestine-draped howler goon of the kill-crazy leftist machete cannibals

That is so hot.

 
 

RE: “Four-dimensional hypercube entity of simultaneously laevo-chiral enantiomorphs”

MY COMMENT: All dem fancy words!

 
The Republican Party's Plan for America
 

GOP plan to bring down Barack Obama with the help of Al Qaeda terrorists:

1. Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich “soften” the target with a non-stop barrage of comments in various media to the effect that Obama is making America less safe by his opposition to torture, closing Gitmo, etc.

2. Sometime in the next three and half years, Al Qaeda launches an attack on American soil.

3. Immediately afterwards, top Republicans mount a “blame Obama for leaving America open to attack” media blitz. “Toldja-so!” is our refrain.

4. Obama is toast.

Either that, or:

5. Independent voters and Moderates see this strategy as a cynical and grotesque indication of how low the GOP can sink, as America rallies round its Commander-in-Chief and Obama’s approval rating hits the 90s.

In which case, we go back to:

6. Obama uses a teleprompter!

Also:

7. The wrong kind of Mustard!

 
 

laevo-chiral enantiomorphs
Sounds like Gavin has been hanging out with questionable biochemistry types, and the filthy argot they speak is rubbing off on him.

 
 

rubbing off on him.
Let me rephrase that. Look, something shiny!
And why have you photoshopped that disembodied waxy yellow Beast with Five Fingers onto Mr Lane’s shoulder, where it is administering the Vulcan Hand Frottage?

 
 

This post may be your finest work. Though I’m not sure why you included Harry Belafonte.

Oh wait…

 
 

More than a dozen paragraphs and you STILL did not address the issue of Pelosi’s lying.

Attack the Messenger While Avoiding the Message: S.O.P. of Libruls since 2001.

 
 

Did you go and leave out Amanda Marcotte?

 
 

Also, I once knew a guy named Moe Lane — wrote some gaming material for a roleplaying game called “In Nomine.” Is this the same guy? It’d be pretty disappointing if a fairly cool guy like the Moe Lane I was acquainted with went flying-kookoo-monkey-poop wingnut…

 
 

Demented, spittle-flecked leftard moonbat

Ezra Klein, Oprah Winfrey

Ezra, Oprah. Oprah, Ezra.

 
 

Attack the Messenger While Avoiding the Message: S.O.P. of Libruls since 2001.

Don’t forget our projection!

 
rapido est mucho
 

My god. I’m tempted to just go on to comment on those redstate folks but I’ve got to say that Gavin’s been utterly fucking brilliant for a long time now, but particularly in the last few months. I don’t even know how I would describe his style and won’t try. Just amazing – in all seriousness.

 
 

You seem to have left animal-human hybrids and reanimated Hitler off your classification. Also Mussolini, Mother Teresa, Genghis Khan, That Guy who gives slices of bread to the bums, Mr. Rodgers, guys that had sexual encounters with Larry Craig, former Trotskyists, King Leopold, fake journalists with White House backdoor privileges, IKEA, Xeni Jardin, Lawrence of Arabia, the Chupacabra, Mycroft Holmes, Duke Leto Atreides, and fucking Greta VanSustern.

Also.

 
 

More than a dozen paragraphs and you STILL did not address the issue of Pelosi’s lying.

That’s weird, because to me, every word, every DOT OF EVERY I, addressed the original post. Maybe you have to have some form of critical thinking skills to understand anything more complicated than a tweet from @ewerickson.

 
The Tragically Flip
 

Just tonight I was listening to a podcast from a British conservative talking about the economic crisis and the problem it presented for conservatives (worth hearing what they think went wrong so I can understand their crazy moon language when they discuss it), and he, in the midst of a rather sane and at least comprehensible (though still wrong) discussion of the economic crisis referred to Obama as “the most far left Democrat ever elected to the Presidency” (and I could swear there was spittle as he said this).

I mean really? He’s leftier than LBJ? How about Truman, who openly tried to get UHC. Or FDR and all that “I welcome their hatred” business. Shit, Eisenhower might be leftier than Obama when all is said and done.

They just can’t help themselves, everyone to the left of Lindsey Graham or Lisa Murkowski is ZOMG XTREME LEFTIST. They have no conception of a moderate left, or even just the “left” (without the “extreme” to speak of.

I don’t think we do the opposite either. I’m pretty sure we can discuss regular and moderate Republicans without pretending they’re to the right of Hitler. It’s tough to say because “moderate Republican” is something of a null set, or an unconfirmed hypothesis, like dark energy or the Higgs Boson. Maybe we’ll find one soon!

 
 

This Pelosi woman sounds awful! I shan’t vote for her.

 
 

900-foot robot Stalin with Hitler mustache formed out of snapped-together communist dictators who is pointing to a giant copy of Atlas Shrugged and making a thumbs-down gesture with one hand while theatrically holding its nose with the other hand

This is the nearest I could find.
How about Robot Rosa Luxemburg formed out of TV screens?
Oh look, a glass of beer formed out of little glasses of beer. Umm. What was I saying?

 
 

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. [sulfurous bang] Screech! Screech! Gibber! Would you like to contribute to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund? Åïâiõüûú-êìií, caco-kyrie caco-kyrie. [wet implosion]

Where do I sign up?

(Seriously, could you all maybe occasionally consider that some of us have to get a full night’s sleep and it’s hard to do that if we start to doze off, think of something like this, do that snort/laugh thing and wake all the way up, annoying the fuck out of any bed partners in the process. No outrageously hilarious posts after 20:00 plz.)

 
 

# Left-wing

The Democratic Party

That’s “Democrat Party” Sheesh.

 
 

I’m with Spiny Norman. Investigate all the Beltway villagers, scorn and fire the ones who kept quiet about the torture, including the Democrats, and haul the actual authorizers of the torture in front of a firing squad. So Moe: neener neener.

Oh, and “the radical far left” is everyone to the left of Attila the Hun, don’t forget.

 
 

You forgot:

• Communist

Bill Moyers

• Islamodhimmicommifascist

Michele Obama

 
 

Can someone explain why makes any difference if Pelosi (or anyone else in Congress) knowing about the torture and doing nothing?

Is it somehow now legal if Pelosi was briefed? I can’t even understand that the prima face argument is supposed to be.

 
 

Wouldn’t god say “OMM*, George Soros…”

*Oh My Me

 
 

Pere: I went through the motions but haven’t gotten any badgers yet. Opera 9.6 here, btw. I’ll look into it some more at some point but for now, I hafta go drink some martinis with the Ho. (Being the fundraiser for OPB (PBS/NPR) is a bit stressful these days – he needs a lot of gin)

 
 

And really, I thought I’d been around but blamesturbation and whinesturbating?

Now I know the proper way to acheive a ragegasm.

 
 

you STILL did not address the issue of Pelosi’s lying.

So we admit Pelosi should be investigated/prosecuted to the full extent of the law with respect to “knowing what she knew” about torture — AND WE GET TO SEE BUSH, CHENEY, YOO, AND EVERYBODY ELSE FACE THE SAME TREATMENT FOR MAKING TORTURE HAPPEN?

Fuck! This is a tough one! Gordian Knot! Whoa!

 
 

Wow, what a genius: he’s found something everyone can agree on!

hardcore antiwar activists are fundamentally moral cowards, and everybody knows it

Yeah, I’m not sure which is more gutless – standing up for basic human decency in the face of social stigmatism, not to mention funny little toys like shotguns, batons, tasers & pepper-spray … or willingly doing jail-time for it. Fuckin’ wimpy peaceniks. It’s SO much more morally courageous to blow other people to bits via remote-control from half-way around the world, just because someone with more status than you says you should.

There IS some sort of logic in Moe’s yowlgasm somewhere, right?

Okay, I can do this … here goes nothin’ … because at some previous date during the BushCo Failathon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about Uncle Dickie’s Special Camp For Sick-Fuck Funtime, that means every expression of loathing or outrage on the left as to the obscenity & barbarism of torture, ever since the day she was informed of it, has been a sham, even though they knew nothing of her knowledge – or it all BECAME a sham from the day lefties found out about her knowledge (or maybe both?) … because of … because … oh shit.

I’m gonna need a bigger bong.

 
 

He may not have time to bleed, but he’ll take some time to set the record straight:

…you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour…

 
 

Do they think we wouldn’t jail Pelosi if it came to it? they just can’t get away from the notion of politics as team sport, hey?

 
 

I think the implication is that Pelosi is part of teh left-liberal-left hive-mind, and since she knew WE KNEW, AND THEY KNEW WE KNEW, AND WE KNEW THAT THEY KNEW etc. etc. So we were in favor of torture the whole time and now we’re pretending we’re not because we’re cowards.

 
 

… hardcore antiwar activists are fundamentally moral cowards, and everybody knows it

Yes, I admit it. I cheered on an anti-war in which I repeatedly refused not to fight. Then, later, I needlessly refused to start an anti-war, which I then sent others not to not fight. Finally, I continued not lying about the anti-wars I hadn’t sent anyone…

Listening to this guy, I get the feeling that somewhere, down in that fetid pit he uses for a soul, there’s a little ray of truth, refusing to die. He knows it, he knows that admitting it would eventually force him to admit that everything he’s supported is wrong, and now he’s fighting tooth and nail to kill that last element of decency and humanity. But he can’t. So he rages at the rest of us, all frothy projection, hating us for being right and not getting duped by the obvious failures, liars, torture-freaks and criminals in whom he believed.

It’s gonna be a long, hard road to recovery for our once-great nation, and guys like him are going to fling poo in our faces, every step of the way.

(Apologies for the lack of funny. I’m not Gavin, no not by a long shot.)

 
 

I think the underlying message in Moe’s rant is “If only Pelosi had spilled her guts about the top secret security briefings she received we could have had her EXECUTED FOR TREASON!”

 
The Tragically Flip
 

It’s really about them projecting their worldview onto us. They would rally around Delay or Hastert in the same situation, so they must imagine we draw our personal sense of value of out of our adherence to the tribe and willingness to go to bat for its leaders. They can’t imagine that we really would risk losing Pelosi to see something meaningful happen in punishing those responsible for torture.

 
 

hardcore antiwar activists are fundamentally moral cowards, and everybody knows it

Teh Google reveals that this universally-shared knowledge has not stopped RedState bloggers from quoting Pastor Neimoller.

 
 

I get the feeling that somewhere, down in that fetid pit he uses for a soul, there’s a little ray of truth, refusing to die.


but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

 
 

gotcha forgot to put this at the beginning of his first post:

In relating the circumstances which have led to my confinement within this refuge for the demented, I am aware that my present position will create a natural doubt of the authenticity of my narrative. It is an unfortunate fact that the bulk of humanity is too limited in its mental vision to weigh with patience and intelligence those isolated phenomena, seen and felt only by a psychologically sensitive few, which lie outside its common experience. Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal; that all things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them; but the prosaic materialism of the majority condemns as madness the flashes of super-sight which penetrate the common veil of obvious empiricism.

Signed,

Epstein’s Mother

 
 

Spartacus League
Tsk, tsk, tsk! SpartaCIST League (Mutter, mutter, gripe, bitch)
Yeesh, don’cha know yer lefties by now?!?!?

 
 

The reason they’re so fixated on Pelosi and “the left” is because, by and large, right-bloggers think that she’s really liberal (she’s from San Francisco – wink wink, nudge nudge) and therefore beloved by liberals. Course, she’s about as much a bomb-thrower as Tom Daschle (whom they also considered a radical).

I can’t speak for the rest of the hive-mind, but I wouldn’t lose any sleep if she went to jail. Provided, of course, that the parties actually responsible joined her.

 
 

Wait do I have this right? Let me see if I’ve got it…..

so….there’s nothing at all whatsoever wrong with torture, and especially nothing wrong with people who tortured other people, but if you were a Congressperson who was briefed in secret about it and didn’t tell anyone because the people who were doing the torture said it was illegal to tell about it, then you’re a horrible person

 
Chuck U. Farley
 

You could do better than spend your weekday defending Pelosi pro bono.

“Activist Left” indeed. Pelosi is bought and paid for by big business, just like the rest of them. Her job is to distract you from noticing that the banks are looting the Treasury.

The Fed is now buying up lots of Treasury notes. Once all the bad debt is on the shoulders of the taxpayer, the Fed will dump its Treasuries and pop the bond bubble.

 
 

I mean, yeah, OK, it’s fucking disappointing that someone didn’t say, “Fuckit, I don’t care what the fuck you say,if I have to resign my seat in Congress I’m going to spill the beans on the shit you guys are doing here.”

OTOH, they were members of a minority party that just got told that the Bushies were detaining and torturing people, including citizens, and the Dept. of Justice agreed that it was legal to do that….and let’s just factor into the timeline what those motherfuckers did to Don Seigelman in Alabama?

OK, they were chickenshit, but let’s remember what the fuck was going on then.

 
 

Isn’t what Pelosi knew old news? I’m certain I heard this long before the election.

Sounds like Moe Ran needs rabies shots. He really should stop chewing on his infected feet.

 
 

Moe Lane Rouge

bahahaha.

 
 

Teh rightiefrightie’s justification for everything: but you did it too.

 
 

You could do better than spend your weekday defending Pelosi pro bono.

GodDAMN, you are an idiot.

I’ll go everyone one better: Pelosi should be held accountable for her culpability EVEN IF Cheney et al. never go down. Get her out! She should have been gone anyway, but now especially. But the thing, righties, THE THING IS that we, being generally morally honest and consistent, take that for granted because we are, as noted, morally honest and consistent.

All your wheedling and mocking is missing the point because you’re aiming at imaginary targets.

 
 

And I’m just off the page to the left of that. In the nothing. Beyond the abortion horizon. And I turn to my left and I see Gavin IN THE MIRROR. I am sitting on Nancy Pelosi’s lap, if a left singularity could have such.

 
St. Trotsky, Pope-in-Avignon
 

Seriously, what do these things imagine this’ll accomplish? That we’ll be stunned? That we’ll pull a 180 and support torture because Pelosi might have to go to jail for it now?

Fuck her! I’ll be fine seeing her put on trial for whatever it is they’re accusing her of if we get to put all their people, all eight years of evil fuckery, on trial for their ignoble deeds.

I don’t care! She’s not my Congress creature, so I have absolutely *no* reason to give a shit.

Secondarily, yes, all us antiwar and pacifist types are moral cowards fundamentally. Because they’d obviously fold if a gun was put in their face, so we must be just as chickenshit about our beliefs.

 
St. Trotsky, Pope-in-Avignon
 

And I don’t even like *my* Congress creatures! They’re all Floridian Republican or blue Republican douchebags! Send ’em all to the Hague!

 
 

And why do my posts go into the void? Been too long since I last commented?

 
 

I wager the not coward Moe Ran was too chubilicious to pass the military enlistment test. He would have though, HE WOULD HAVE! fought in Iraq if he could have.

 
 

I think their point is that liberals don’t really care bout torture, and it’s just some sham being used to get “revenge.” Of course, they miss the point that we despise Bush, Cheney, et al BECAUSE they ordered torture (and violated the 4th amendment, engaged in an unnecessary war, fucked the economy, etc.)

The right’s inability to recognize any legitimate beef on the part of liberals demonstrates their immaturity and stupidity. Whatever… I’d rather be on the side of the law than desperately seeking arguments to excuse torture.

 
a concerned citizen
 

antiwar activists are fundamentally moral cowards

This is one of the most blatantly anti-Christian statements I have ever seen. They are calling Jesus Christ a moral coward. This is a Christian nation, love it or leave it, blah blah blah.

What is it these asswipes do at church? Even if they spend 51 weeks a year on the fire and brimstone shit, don’t they have to dip into, you know, what Jesus actually said at least one week a year?

 
 

So, Moe wanted a Congress critter to break the law and spout classified information into the public sphere? Well, shit, if it’s good enough for Cheney and Rove, it should be good enough for us libs, right?

Christ, I hope they all hang. Every god damned one of ’em that approved it or knew about it or heard something in the hallway about it.

But God help Moe Lane if I ever meet him on the street. That’s not a threat, that’s a prayer.

 
 

Moe Lane is a cunt. Nothing more needs to be said.

 
 

What is it these asswipes do at church?

Speak in tongues which sounds like Chinese or somethin’

 
 

What puzzles me here is Mr Lane’s anger. He seems to be in quite a state of furious iration.
The story as I understand it, and correct me if I am wrong, is that the Cheney administration have contrived to draw some Democratic politicians into their crimes, as accomplices after the fact. If the self-serving memos prepared some time after the meetings by CIA staff are to be believed, the politicians were given some information about the torture regime, under conditions of security, giving them the choice of condoning those crimes or breaking their commitments to secrecy.

So I can understand it if Moe was now guffawing with glee and bwaa-haa-haaing about the success of this ingenious plan, so now any torture trials will come at some cost to liberal politicians. A comparable case, I suppose, would be if Cheney had confessed his crimes to our favourite parish priest — so now that Cheney is caught, Moe could be all “Hah hah, your friend Father Mulcahy did not dob him in so now he too is caught in the trap!”

But instead, he delivers an apoplectic peroration at an ill-defined target who sometimes appears to be Pelosi but later morphs into a collective opponent of the Mesopotamian occupation.
I like the word ‘apoplectic’ and look forward to using it again as the story develops.

 
 

Moe understands very well that Democratic voters actually do hold accountable their elected leaders and demand things like “Resignations” whereas Republicans tend to jam their tongues up the asses of their own leadership and cheer them to ever higher cruelties.

Moe understands exactly what he is doing…

 
 

This is the kind of good, clean American rant that makes me pause the pornography I was streaming on Xhamster, read all the way through, and grunt appreciatively at the end, boner lost, but deeply edified nonetheless.

No, really. I can’t believe these screeching lumpentard twats could read this and not say, “o fuck, they got me nailed,” and then blow their brains out. If anybody on the Right discovered a way this acute to express just how small-minded, grandiose, and tendentious I was, I would not waste another breath of Bog’s fresh air. I’d end it all. Luckily, they’re such consummate gnards they cannot possibly see the truth, so they will live on.

Onan, come back!

 
 

I never liked the phrase “moral coward” It’s use is ubiquitous across the political spectrum. It is mostly used to describe someone who doesn’t speak up in the face of an immoral act. I always assumed “coward” had enough range to cover that definition. Just as “physical coward” is unnecessary.

But Moe (who, from the pic, was just buried in the sand up to his lips on a sunny day and then, apparently, had his pic taken halfway through undressing after an ice fishing trip so I don’t want to beat him up too bad) seems to have his own definition, or maybe I’m confused.

Did she know of something immoral and didn’t speak up? That his beef? If so he sounds like a liberal left of pelosi. In the textbooks they call that “non-congressman left.”

If he’s just trying to say that she only now is acting outraged to follow the tide of the people, then he might as well use the mundane “hypocrite.” And now that he is super-ultra-with-color-safe-bleach left of left he can give me a lift to the next G8 summit protest. I’ll provide the gas: I turned bong resin and dred grease into biodiesel.

Or maybe he’s like me and has a box of flash cards of incindiary words and has to use one a day.

If so he is a licentious amoral scruple-sodomizing anti-unicorn take-a-penny-leave-NOTHING teddy bear molester.

 
 

Far left-liberal: I don’t know who that includes but if it’s every other word in O’Reilly’s Talking Points segment, it must refer to someone. I know: everyone left of him.

 
 

For people — especially people who came to the political blogosphere just lately — who wonder why I’m such an asshole to certain liberals, Gavin’s post gives me the opportunity to mention another example of their stupidity.

Moe Lane has always been the batshit extremist douchebag as shown above. But he was taken seriously for years (and may still be taken seriously for all I know) by all those Gary Farber/Katherine R. types over at Obsidian Wings. So was/is Glenn Reynolds. So is/was Von. So is/was the absolutely reprehensible Charles Bird (a.k.a. bird dog @ Tacitus.org). So is/was Sebastian Holsclaw, who is like a more pompous, slightly smarter, equally obnoxious, gay version of Josh Trevino (and for that matter, ol’ Tic Tac himself was considered a figure of respect over there for a long time, until he inevitably returned the favor by outing Hilzoy on one of our threads.) IOW, for ObWi liberals, fascists are/were reasonable interlocutors. But back in the old days, the ObWi libs could find little nice to say (and indeed were proud of their ignorance of the politics of) the anti-war/DFH/Chomskyite left.

It’s bad enough to enable/legitimize fascists; but to do it and *at the same time* go out of your way to belittle (at best) the people to your left, well… that, to me, is unforgivable — not because I’m a purist, but because of what it says about their politics (I almost wrote “character”) in the deepest sense. (Actually, it’s both: their liberalism is tepid; they at some deep level think politics like mine is more dangerous and extreme than that of people like Moe Lane; and as far as personal character goes, they value civility over decency.)

So if I am an asshole (and I think I am), then it is only in reaction to their assholery (which they will strenuously deny the existence of). And I’m not gonna forget or forgive it — hell, I can’t even if wanted to because the people they’ve enabled still remain a menace to decency. When I see Moe Lane with any sort of platform (by which I mean, an audience inevitably accrued over time via cross-ideological exposure or even endorsement, as well as a reputation as a member of the ‘honest opposition’) beyond the fucking notepad, box of crayons, and handful of drooling yes-men normally provided in an appropriate state mental institution, I’m forced to remember who helped give him that platform and point out their responsibility.

Incidentally, this is why I rarely blog anymore. The blogosphere is not just rabidly anti-meritocratic in a perverse corkscrewed inside-out bizarro sort of way, but it’s also amnesiac. These are the kind of liberals who’ve won; they got the jobs, their type is that which has gained entre’ to the administration and NGOs. They’re the safe sort of liberal that modestly conservative people with money (who are often mistaken for liberals themselves as they believe that GWBush finally went too far and that minorities might be real people after all) are hoping to use so that nothing too radical will be done to the country.

[Sorry to put drama in your thread, Gavin, but this was too big for Twitter, I don’t want to deal with an ObiWi avalanche at my place, and I don’t want to get you or Brad or Seb in trouble by making it a front page post here. Besides, it’s not like ObWi liberals are the worst offenders in this regard, but I thought I’d use them as an example rather than the even more egregious types like Ezra, Yggie, DeLong, and Kleiman, who are my usual targets.]

 
 

This relates to some trollspooge that got sprayed on another thread, but: I love it when wingnuts call Obama ‘Barry Soetero’, as if they were suddenly revealing the super-secret African heritage that Obama’s tried so hard to hide from the public.

Here’s a clue, you fuckwits: his name is already HUSSEIN OBAMA, not ‘Smith’ or ‘Johnson’. Everyone’s already noticed that the president is black, and as hard as it might be for you to believe, nobody but you cares.

 
 

This is one for the ages!

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

I think I understand the argument.
First – Not even Cheney is denying that torture was going on (again “props” to the executive for finally allowing themselves to be legally compelled to release the memos!). And now the wingnuttosphere is trying to figure out a way to blame this on Pelosi, or the crazy moonbat dirty fucking hippies or Code Pink or whatever.

Because, as Moe has so kindly pointed out – for those folks that ever disagreed with him on anything, this is all a game. The anti-torture and anti-war crowd really don’t give a shit about torture or war, those inhuman and disgusting acts are mere bludgeons in their on-going savaging of the faithful twenty-x percenters.

Because, seriously who could oppose a lit bit of torture and a lot of random airstrikes in advance of a major ground invasion followed by many years of occupation? Everybody loves waterboaring. Everybody loves war. If you claim to be against those things, you’re lying in order to score political points.

Because, as is obvious to everyone in wingnuttery land, it is Teh Left that demands Ideological Purity. It is Teh Left that is purging moderates.

Because now that demon Pelosi and her faggy San Francisco values have potentially crept into view – people who authorized torture, people who authored those sick fucking OLC memos, people who decided that waterboarding session #181 wasn’t quite enough and they should toss in a couple more – well they’re all clear now that we can stick this on Nancy.

Whoops, looks like I was wrong. I don’t understand the argument at all. It’s TOO FUCKING STUPID TO BE REAL.

 
 

What puzzles me here is Mr Lane’s anger. He seems to be in quite a state of furious iration.

The story as I understand it, and correct me if I am wrong, is that the Cheney administration have contrived to draw some Democratic politicians into their crimes, as accomplices after the fact. If the self-serving memos prepared some time after the meetings by CIA staff are to be believed, the politicians were given some information about the torture regime, under conditions of security, giving them the choice of condoning those crimes or breaking their commitments to secrecy.

I think that largely captures it.

This is a good deal of their incredible outrage on Pelosi. “Hey, we cleverly staged this so as to bring in Democrats to be screwed too, but it’s not entirely working!”

That’s what’s gotten the righties so mad — their clever plan is not completely working, at least to the degree that they thought there would be no discussion or investigation of these matters.

 
 

HTML: I think the situation is way better than maybe you’re allowing yourself to remember it used to be. Okay, there are some left-hating, self-satisfied dicks on the intertoobz. But it’s not like it was 15 or 30 years ago, when you had mainstream liberal magazines and you were lucky if a viewpoint left of that even made it on to the news stand.

I’ve had one interaction with Farber, who out of no where made a really, really stupid yet haughtily angry response to a comment I made not having to do with him, so, yeah, I get the impression. Every time I’ve gone to ObWi and looked at any comments, they’re filled with shit-head anti-left defenses or angry ‘contextualizations’ of colonialism, or U.S. foreign policy (like a defense of those people who chose to overthrow Mossadegh, ’cause, you know, life is complicated, and, um, they didn’t know everything, and, etc.).

 
 

From HTML Mencken at May 13, 2009 at 10:25

But back in the old days, the ObWi libs could find little nice to say (and indeed were proud of their ignorance of the politics of) the anti-war/DFH/Chomskyite left.

I have got to say, it is always really odd to me when folks decide to pile on Chomsky. I’ve heard Chomsky speak, and the dude has always seemed like just a paragon of reason, and moderation, and sense. When people attack him, you have to try and figure out why, and they usually start saying, “but he defended the Khmer Rouge“, and you really examine that claim and can see that its horseshit, you see that under that there’s like an emotional layer that separates them from what he’s actually saying.

In their mind attacking Chomsky or some other leftist is what “moderates” do and they want to be moderates therefore, down with the left! It’s like High School all over again. Talking with them is like talking with scared children.

Like El Cid I tend to view the blogosphere as being somewhat of an improvement on the corporate media, even so. In the sense that shit is better than radioactive waste. At least here you don’t have to be a complete clown to get ‘published’, to say what you want to say. Though of course the blogosphere couldn’t really exist without the corporate media, not as we know it anyhow.

I guess, HTML Mencken, that I see where you’re at with this, and largely agree, but wish you’d appreciate the actual gains that have been made in some areas.

 
 

I think the situation is way better than maybe you’re allowing yourself to remember it used to be. Okay, there are some left-hating, self-satisfied dicks on the intertoobz. But it’s not like it was 15 or 30 years ago, when you had mainstream liberal magazines and you were lucky if a viewpoint left of that even made it on to the news stand.

I dunno, man. I don’t have a memory of those times but I do have a little ex post facto knowledge. 30 years ago you still had The Statesman and Partisan Review (if barely) as well as the Nation, the only consistently decent “big” magazine we’ve ever had. TNR, then as now, sucked horribly. But among the wingnuts, if anything you had more heterodoxy. Harper’s was an absolute ideological clusterfuck in those days; and even NR had Garry Wills. Hell, the WSJ published Alexander Cockburn (something Brad DeLong still complains about). All in all, I think the magazines were better back then. 15 years ago, not so much. The blogosphere more resembles the latter period than the former. At any rate, considering its potential and the current political climate, it should be eleventy billion times better than any previous journalistic period; it’s not.

I’ve looked around after taking a break and I see Sirota almost quitting and John Emerson nearly packing it in, too. And I totally understand why.

 
 

As far as I can tell:

Far left-liberal = Anyone to the left of Generalissimo Francisco Franco

 
 

Or, maybe I just care too much about my own emotions to get really close to looking at the problem. It is possible. I try to practice detatchment when reading about politics, because so much of it is a Dracula vs. Frankenstein type exercise. Which monster is good? Uh, neither. OK, which monster is less evil? Who knows? I support frankenstein, at least he’ll just kill me instead of turning me into a blood-sucking bat-winged freak under his power. But would I turn on Frankenstein if need be? Oh, yes. Which is why he doesn’t really like me either.

Overall, I find that a powerful sense of cynicism, combined with a low sense of humor, gets me through the day. Cynicism is caustic, but also fluid. It smoothes obstacles a bit while burning away some of the bullshit that is everywhere. Useful.

 
 

Oh, and the NYRB was infinitely better 15ya and 30ya: back then I didn’t have to read Mike Tomasky excuse Obama’s sucking up to the banks in the Senate or read him praise to high heaven a total douchebag mediocrity like Ezra Klein. And while I’m not saying that Paul Krugman sucks or anything, he’s no J.K. Galbraith (who used to be a dependable presence there).

The Atlantic was inconsistent back then, but there’s no way it’s ever been as horrible as it’s been the last few years (Hi Matt, Megan, Jeffrey, Andy).

In their mind attacking Chomsky or some other leftist is what “moderates” do and they want to be moderates therefore, down with the left! It’s like High School all over again. Talking with them is like talking with scared children.

Yah. But this is where I get frustrated. I do these anti-Sensible Liberal posts and get as response either bewilderment or outrage. Not enough people (yes, I’m whining) acknowledge that I’m not being a dick unilaterally; I’m actually turning the other fist to people who’ve been totally sucker-punching *my* peeps over and over.

 
Ted the Slacker
 

Whoops, looks like I was wrong. I don’t understand the argument at all.

There is no argument.

There is only a torrent of noise, along the lines of “Hey libs, see how you hated Cheney? What you gonna do now, hate Pelosi too? Huh, huh?”

When the answer to this is “yes”, the next response is wingnut fallback position 1.01 (aka the Epimenides defense) “You liebruls are always lying. So Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh”.

Pretty much how it always ends up with tools like Moe Lane.

 
 

If it makes you feel any better, your anti-Sensible Liberals posts were always some of my favorites HTML.

 
 

If it makes you feel any better

It does!

 
 

This is infuriating:

“Medicare fund that pays hospital bills for older Americans is expected to run out of money in 2017, two years sooner than projected last year. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2037,”

Trillions have been poured into the black hole of corporate finance with very little oversight and accountability and now medicare and social security are compromised. Jesus H. Christ.

 
 

HTML: Maybe I wasn’t clear. I’m not saying there weren’t leftist writers and leftist publications. There were.

But they were not accessible. They were not common. And, yeah, the Nation was the general limit of left-liberal opposition

If what you’re arguing was that things were better back then because there were a few barely visible left publications and organizations who were never seen in most towns and cities, as a person who was on that margin, I completely disagree with you. The presence of Alexander Cockburn as the house leftist on the WSJ editorial page did not in any significant way change national debate.

The quality and availability of debate today on the blogs is much, much better than what existed 20 years ago. Things are discussed today by ostensibly left-hating or lefti-disliking liberals on mainstream blogs that would back then have been seen as the province of the America-hating Chomsky-Mao brigades.

When the Atlantic was all you had, yeah, people paid a lot more attention to it. Now I don’t have to act the same as I did when I lived in a small Southern city and there was nothing commonly available on the newsstands more ‘radical’ than the Nation and the Atlantic or Harpers.

Does it still piss me off that a lot of these self-satisfied anti-leftist types are now today arguing things that were largely being published a decade or two ago in Monthly Review or the New Left Review? Sometimes. But I’ll trade that sense of noble isolation from back then, when I had to buy a shortwave radio to hear anything other than center-right / ultra-right nationalist discourse, for a time when MSNBC has several TV shows raising points and bringing on guests I never thought I’d see treated decently on TV.

Yes, I think the American, and to a degree the entire Western European left largely fell apart, but on the other hand, their ability to shape actual policy and major debate over the last several decades has been pretty close to nil.

The opposition to Gulf War 1 was about as effective as the opposition to Gulf War 2. The opposition to the entire Reaganite economic agenda was as effective as the opposition to the Bush Juniorite agenda. I don’t want to take credit away from the nearly miraculous things that we dissidents were doing (like the Salvadoran sanctuary movement), but neither do I want my view of today colored by a sense of nostalgia from yesteryear.

Maybe I was more fortunate back then of not having to interact with the unjustifiably arrogant anti-left liberals running major publications, whereas today on the blogs you get to directly encounter the pudknuckles, so it’s a sharper interaction. Way back then you didn’t have blogs, and just waited for the next letters section to see what, if anything, would be the reaction to the content.

 
 

Shockingly, Maureen Dowd has a real, serious column today. No sarcasm. Really. Go read it.

 
 

The fact is, why won’t you liberals debate me with facts or answer a simple question? Why do you want USA to loose?

 
 

Why do you want USA to loose?

We don’t want it too loose, just loose enough that it doesn’t chafe the way it did for most of the 2000’s.

 
 

Shockingly, Maureen Dowd has a real, serious column today. No sarcasm. Really. Go read it.

Cheney has popped out of his dungeon, scary organ music blaring, to carry on his nasty campaign of fear and loathing.

The man who never talked is now the man who won’t shut up.

Enjoyed that.

 
 

I generally disagree with HTML on a lot (I lurk, but don’t usually post) but his Sensible Liberal stuff is dead on target.

 
 

I enjoy yer anti-sensible-liberal posts too HTML Mencken.

 
 

Hey, why don’t you go find a woman or minority that doesn’t agree with you on an ideological point, and verbally assault him or her? It always seems to have cheered you up in the past.

Is he talking to us or Dick Cheney?

 
The Wrath of Oliver Khan
 

Teh rightiefrightie’s justification for everything: but you did it too.

Or you would have if you’d known what I knew. Probably.

 
 

Not just Amanda Marcotte but Melissa McEwan also, two women so evil and bent on destroying the Catholic Church, puppies and Traditional Marriage, they had their very own wingnut movement launched against them.

Surely they are evil enough to warrant a mention? Probably about here: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God said, OMG, George Soros, what are you doing here? And Soros said, I reviewed your grant proposal, and decided that there should be a few changes.”

 
 

Cheney has popped out of his dungeon, scary organ music blaring…

Dick’s scary organ blares music?!

 
 

900-foot robot Stalin with Hitler mustache

Cool! Never saw myself as one of them. That even beats the hell out of Oral Roberts’ 900 foot Jeebus.

 
You Can't Put Lipstick On A Repig
 

Wouldn’t god say “OMM*, George Soros…”

No. When God said OMG, s/he/it invented recursion.

 
 

I’m not quite sure I understand why, if Pelosi knew, it calls anyone other than Pelosi’s character into question.

And please, no more about Dick popping out with organ blaring.

 
 

900-foot robot Stalin with Hitler mustache

Now that I think about it, why does that make me think of this cover?

 
You Can't Put Lipstick On A Repig
 

They’re the safe sort of liberal that modestly conservative people with money

cf: Phil Ochs’ “Love Me, I’m A Liberal”

 
 

MoDo coming out against Cheney means that he’s the new sin eater.

 
 

Apropos spasticity, Gavin, would it trouble you too much not to use the name of a real medical condition as an insult? Christ, just because my muscles are tuned to E when they should be at concert C doesn’t mean I’m some kind of gibbering hate-addict, and you don’t need to doubly insult real spastics by comparing us to cut-rate wingnuts.

I’ve got cerebral palsy, for hell’s sake, not…not…not whatever the fuck is wrong with that happy asshole.

 
 

You know who else knew about the torture and said nothing? The detainees .

 
John in Bucharest
 

I tried to help the idiots out by posting a comment, but apparently I’ve been banned. Que sera sera…

“I am a proud member of the “hardcore antiwar activists” you allude to in this article. Formerly an organizer of anti-war demonstrations in a major U.S. city, proudly a card-carrying member of the International Socialist Organization, and an outspoken pro-Palestine activist as well.

Just to help you avoid making a fool of yourself any further, I should point out that as far as most of us “hardcore antiwar activists” are concerned, Nancy Pelosi is just as guilty of supporting the war as most of the Democrats and virtually all the Republicans. I wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep if Pelosi was hauled before an international tribunal along Bush and gang.

However, more to the point, the torture issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the wars, it is a basic – and completely incontestable – Crime Against Humanity (as we ourselves defined it; we even executed Japanese war criminals for the EXACT same behavior, waterboarding) that presumably MOST decent people are opposed to. Even pro-war liberals and even many Republicans can and do oppose torture without necessarily being anti-war.

That being said, I certainly would have no objection to Pelosi – and other culpable Democrats – being held responsible for their actions in allowing, or at least not publicly rejecting, Bush’s torture policy. This view is common among us “hardcore antiwar activists.”

Perhaps you should go back and edit your rant to direct it at the people you meant to, since you plainly have no idea – none whatsoever – what “hardcore antiwar activists” think about these issues.

Peace, John in Bucharest”

 
 

And, yeah, the Nation was the general limit of left-liberal opposition

Really? WTF then is The Progressive, which is celebrating 100 years of nonexistence!

 
 

Really? WTF then is The Progressive, which is celebrating 100 years of nonexistence!

I never once saw either the Nation nor the Progressive on any news-stand until I moved to a city with a major university in it. And what I meant was not that more liberal / more left publications didn’t exist or didn’t thrive, just that for the liberal mainstream, even the Progressive was seen as a little too liberal / left for comfort. A bit of Nation reading was okay, maybe the Utne Reader for flavor, but anything more than that, and you were ideological.

 
 

More than a dozen paragraphs and you STILL did not address the issue of Pelosi’s lying.

Because that’s already been done? Hello? FOXNewsvictimsayswhut?

 
 

Trollblog, Trollblog, read your, read your Trollblog.

 
 

“Dick’s scary organ blares music?!”

That’s what makes it scary.

John in Bucharest, Ted the Slacker, and a few others above have hit it, I think: as with their ‘comedians,’ bloggers like Moe spend all their time and effort running up to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man they’ve labeled “liberals,” punching it in the ankle, and then hoisting their fists over their heads in triumph as their cretin fans applaud.

On a *good* day it’s projection. Usually it’s just acting out.

 
strasmangelo jones
 

Okay, guys, I love you and all, and Moe Lane is a giant prick, and a hypocritical torture-loving tool, but seriously, how did you just go and write a whole post responding to Moe Lane’s “liberals are never going to say a word about Nancy Pelosi knowing about torture” and then not say a word about Nancy Pelosi knowing about torture? Are you trying to make him look good? Are you throwing a boxing match to a jellyfish? What the hell, people?

 
 

It does!

Excellent! You’re also a handsome devil, and a snappy dresser.

Back to your blogging, I was also especially fond of your rants on Over-Invested Identity Politics.

 
 

Everybody knew. Nobody had much passion at all for the issue until it was politically expedient for them to present such passion. I can’t say whether waterboarding constitutes torture. I’m sure if I were the recipient, it would certainly feel like torture.

But we’re dealing with terrorists who are plotting every free moment on how to destroy you, me, and both of our families. That calls for, at the very least, the type of measures introduced in this song of mine, uh, I meant to say Dr. BLT’s song:

Tipsy Toes
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2009
http://www.drblt.net/music/tipsy_toes_rmd2.mp3

(from the CD, from Buck Owens Blvd. to Merle Haggard Drive), for more information:
http://www.drblt.net

 
 

…how did you just go and write a whole post responding to Moe Lane’s “liberals are never going to say a word about Nancy Pelosi knowing about torture” and then not say a word about Nancy Pelosi knowing about torture? Are you trying to make him look good? Are you throwing a boxing match to a jellyfish? What the hell, people?

I don’t know about you, but the reason the point seems so weak is that on this blog and a lot of other types we fringe liberal leftie types have been making the point about Democratic complicity with Bush Juniorite crimes for years.

Go back and read the blogs from day 1 about the emergence of a possible torture policy — there are no lack of screams about the Democratic Congress completely failing to do anything about it.

Here’s the difference: They think somehow Nancy Pelosi and a few other members of Congress (sworn to secrecy, no less) knowing that the Bush / Cheneyites were pulling some criminal shit means that (a) this makes Pelosi an accomplice (which is legally questionable though morally conceivable) and (b) it means SHUT UP ABOUT OUR GUYS’ TORTURE BECAUSE MAYBE PELOSI KNEW ABOUT IT.

Yeah, it’s bad if somebody knows the mob is committing crimes, even if the law said she couldn’t tell anybody, but it doesn’t make her the actual mobster, nor does it confuse anyone as to the source of the criminality: the mob.

Then there’s this:

Congress’s Torture Bubble

By VICKI DIVOLL | May 12, 2009 | New York Times

JUST four members of Congress were notified in 2002 when the Central Intelligence Agency’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” program was first approved and carried out, according to documents released by the agency last week.

They were Senators Bob Graham and Richard Shelby and Representatives Porter Goss and Nancy Pelosi, then the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees — the so-called “Gang of Four.” Each was briefed orally and it was understood that they were not to speak about the program with anyone, including their colleagues on the committees.

It’s logical to ask, so what if it was only four members? If they objected to the program, why didn’t they take steps to change it or stop it? Maybe they should have tried. But as a practical matter, there was very little, if anything, the Gang of Four could have done to affect the Bush administration’s decision on the enhanced interrogation techniques program. To stop it, they needed the whole Congress… For the Gang of Four to have waved their arms and yelled at mid-level C.I.A. briefers, or written harsh letters to the president and vice president, would have been useless. Four members do not have the ability, on their own, to bring the great weight of the constitutional authority of Congress to bear…

It is unlawful for the executive branch to limit notification, as it did here, to the Gang of Four. There is no such entity recognized in the National Security Act. Federal law does provide, however, for notification of fewer lawmakers than the full intelligence committees, but only when “extraordinary circumstances affecting vital interests of the United States” are at stake. Under those very limited situations, the notification may be to the “Gang of Eight,” which includes the majority and minority leadership of the House and Senate, in addition to the intelligence committee leaders…

Vicki Divoll, a former deputy counsel to the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, was the general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003. She teaches government at the United States Naval Academy.

 
 

Scream? I’ve never heard more tepid screams in my life. It were used as the sound effects at a Halloween party, nobody would be startled. It would evoke only laughter.

 
 

I don’t think I would waste too much time debating with someone referencing Dr. BLT.

 
 

The “Spartacus League”?

 
 

I agree with El cid, especially somebody trying to exploit Dr BLT songs for his own political gain. Did I give you permission to use my songs for that purpose, unapologetic pirate? !!! I demand that you cease and desist!

 
 

Did I say “cease and desist”? I meant to say “release and assist.”

 
 

Thanks for the permission, Dr BLT. As I was about to say, before I was so rudely interupted, a president worth his salt tries to do for foreign policy what I , uh, I mean what Dr BLT tried to do for country music with the release of this song:

Kick-ass Country

Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2009
http://www.drblt.net/music/kick_ass.demom.mp3

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

We are the Spartacus League.

 
 

Everybody blart. Nobody had much blart at all for the blart until it was blartically expedient for them to present such blart. I can’t say whether listening to my tunes constitutes torture. I’m sure if I were the recipient, it would certainly feel like torture.

But we’re dealing with blartorists who are blarting every free moment on how to blart you, me, and both of our blartilies. That calls for, at the very least, the type of blarts introduced in this blart of mine, uh, I meant to say Dr. BLarT’s song:

Blarty Blarts
Dr BLarT
words and music by Dr BLarT copyright 2009

 
 

We don’t need a Spartacus League to make this country strong. What we need is president worth his salt—one who tries to do for foreign policy what I , uh, I mean what Dr BLT tried to do for country music with the release of this song:

Kick-ass Country

Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2009
http://www.drblt.net/music/kick_ass_demom.mp3

 
 

This hoopla about “Pelosi knew about the Waterboarding!!!” sounds very familiar somehow. Let me see if I have this right: right-wing-nuts were going on and on about how in order to keep ‘Murka safe we need to do whatever Cmdr. Codpiece says is necessary. Cmdr Codpiece says waterboarding is necessary. Pelosi said “ok” (supposedly). And now the right says we should oppose Pelosi for okaying waterboarding whilst supporting those who actively supported torture?

Oh I know. Right-wingnuts launch a campaign to release Side Show Bob from prison. Side Show Bob is released. And then Mayor Quimby is voted out of office following a campaign (by Side Show Bob, who’s running for mayor against Quimby) attacking Quimby for furloughing Side Show Bob.

As usual, as South Park put it, “Simpsons Did It”. In fact, you may remember that Condi “Nobody could have anticipated flying planes into buildings” Rice was wrong. The Simpsons predicted that too (Side Show Bob flying a biplane into the emergency broadcasting station where Krusty was).

 
 

Is there really one cruel, torture-loving, corrupt party and one magnanimous, glorious party that only seeks good will? Is there one evil party, and one good party, or is the face corruption and wrong-doing the face of politics, as a whole?

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

And you so badly want to: because all of this fleeting reflected glory is as nothing to you unless you hear us say “You win.”

Actually, we’d prefer that you’d just STFU, or as the kids say these days, GO GALT!!!

 
people daaaaaaaaaa ...
 

but I’ve got to say that Gavin’s been utterly fucking brilliant for a long time now, but particularly in the last few months.

This is true.

 
 

Moe’s entire life has gone Galt. He went Galt before Doc Helen coined the term.

There’s something untoward about a pro-war, pro-torture Moe of military service age calling anyone a coward. It’d be a big step forward for Moe if he got a job instead of running around pretending he’s an extra at Medieval Times and posting nonsense.

 
 

What? Is A.N.S.W.E.R. so far left that even along an infinitely long line of left to right it’s off the end?

No, A.N.S.W.E.R. is part of the secret ultra-right wing cabal headed by Ralph Nader and the Green Party who stole all of Al Gore’s votes and held them hostage in his secret underwater fortress, thus causing the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and Ring Around The Collar. Of course, they’re all in the pay of Karl Rove, Joseph Coors and the corpse of William Buckley, Sr.

 
 

The following statement is not meant as any kind of defense of Pelosi’s actions.

I see no reason to take at face value the statements about what Pelosi knew and when she knew it. They are plenty of people who are trying to cover their asses, and spreading the guilt around suits their purpose.

The above statement is not meant as any kind of defense of Pelosi’s actions.

Also: But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg – isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!

Furthermore: also.

 
 

The only proper response to:

Pelosi. Knew.

is:

So. Fucking. What.

 
 

So. Fucking. What.

I would also accept:
“and she is entitled to defend herself in a court of law.”

 
 

Yes, Pelosi knew, and Pelosi didn’t care. She cares about only one thing: covering her tracks, and protecting her political interests. She’s looking out for number one, as most politicians, on both sides, are.

Their views and their efforts are woefully myopic and pathetically self-centered. It’s not the nature of Republicans. It’s not the nature of Democrats. That’s the nature of the political beast within.

 
 

unapologetic pirate of Dr. BLTunes said,

May 14, 2009 at 0:22

Yes, Pelosi knew, and Pelosi didn’t care. She cares about only one thing: covering her tracks, and protecting her political interests. She’s looking out for number one, as most politicians, on both sides, are.

Why? Because renowned truth-tellers such as GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra said so?

In any case, your That’s the nature of the political beast within. argument is superficial, semantic one:

Republicans, and Democrats who act like Republicans, are despicable and all alike. So there, Liberals!

 
 

Wait do I have this right? Let me see if I’ve got it…..

so….there’s nothing at all whatsoever wrong with torture, and especially nothing wrong with people who tortured other people, but if you were a Congressperson who was briefed in secret about it and didn’t tell anyone because the people who were doing the torture said it was illegal to tell about it, then you’re a horrible person

No no no, you haven’t got it at all!!! WE on the sinister fucking LEFT are the complicit ones because Pelosi is our leader–she’s our goddam queen!–so we must therefore hang our heads in shame that she knew about this shit–which has not been proven BTW but let’s slide by that detail. The point is that these cretinous fucks think we gotta keep quiet because PELOSI KNEW and it might somehow cause us LEFTIES to be befuckingsmirched, which is garbage and I’m sure they know that which is why these assfucks’ faces are always so red!

 
 

Wrong again, hanging chad breath! The only real lesson you can derive from this mess simply this: Democrat or Republican, NOBODY GIVES A FLYING FUCK ABOUT TORTURE so long as their team is winning the big game and rah-fucking-rah for the home fucking team now what’s on TV tonight.

The End.

 
 

(..all those failed and tabled Democratic sponsored anti-torture bills aside, of course)

 
 

(…and all the fairy-wish thinking, willful ignorance and sneering snobbery of brain-dead Obamabots aside, of course.)

 
Consumer Unit 5012
 

(And McCain’s brief effort act having a backbone before the lure of the Presidency made him rip it out and eat it, of course.)

 
The Internet Jerk
 

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AIDS

 
 

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