There They Go Again
War is the goal of the neocon collective; more subhuman than subhuman is its motto. Always has been, always will be. Neocons have to have an external enemy, legitimate or manufactured: it gives them political power and gives them — for lack of a better phrase — personal fulfillment. War is the force that gives meaning to their lives, makes them feel part of something important. Some people collect stamps, others like to attend church; neocons fap to destruction wrought by America or Israel on “eeevildoers,” preferably dusky and Muslim.
Everyone decent reacts to the flood of news out of Iran with despair at the chaos, sympathy for the protesters, and anger toward the regime. So far, the American government has reacted cautiously and correctly. (The same, alas, cannot be said of the EU.) Everyone decent wants a legitimate, democratic Iran reformed indigenously. Everyone, that is, but the neocons, who take to geopolitical tragedy the same way that Friedmanite crapitalists take to natural disasters and buzzards take to fresh roadkill. (This tendency, by the way, explains why Richard Cheney would desire another 9/11.) Ahmadinejad’s Rove-eque campaign and Bush-esque “victory” is a perfect tragedy by which they hope to exacerbate the already considerable tensions between Iran on one side and Israel and America on the other.
Neocons want, in the old commie phrase, to heighten the contradictions. Daniel “Crack” Pipes openly roots for Ahmadinejad:
[B]etter to have a bellicose, apocalyptic, in-your-face Ahmadinejad who scares the world than a sweet-talking Mousavi who again lulls it to sleep, even as thousands of centrifuges whir away.
And:
[Ahmadinejad’s victory is] about the best result possible… it pleases me.
Max Boot, of “earthquake rays” fame, perfectly echoes Pipes, presumably even down to the rapid fapping, the smarmy grin, and the Faster Chickenhawk, Kill! Kill! heavy panting. Or as superneocon Donald Rumsfeld said, “If you cannot solve a problem, make it bigger.” Until it blows up and shitloads of people get killed. Ahmadinejad, a clown, makes the neocons’ job of warmongering easy: Michael Rubin’s and Marty Peretz’s fear of losing him is obvious. Mousavi, on the other hand, would be difficult to demonize, though it won’t stop them from trying. Tim F. has it exactly right when he says:
[F]ringe actors like al Qaeda and the neocons or Ahmadinejad and Bibi need each other for political survival. The relationship isn’t even antagostic, it’s a symbiotic mutualism. Intractable, crazy antagonists legitimize the position of extremists who oppose them.
This has always been the case with neocons. They began by needing (and admiring) the Soviet Union. When the Warsaw Pact regimes fell and it became obvious to everyone that Moscow would do nothing about it, Norman Podhoretz and crew insisted that it was all an elaborate communist trap; then after this laughable period of denial, they moped, looked in vain for a new Evil Empire; finally, opportunistically, they seized 9/11 as a chance to replace the Communist Bloc with the Islamic World. Muslim extremists have turned out to be the best Best Fiends Forevar neocons could wish for, in the sense that the Kahanist and Christianist tribalism as well as the Israeli and American national exceptionalism, which have grown to be core components of the neoconservative mentality, “need” an “islamofascist” counterpart. After all, the bigotry of identity politics always burns more brightly than mere ideological clashes (as per the capitalists vs. commies dynamic).
In the last few days, the despicable pukefaces who got us into the Iraq War have been doing their best to get us into a war with Iran. Either they advocate that Obama directly confront the Iranians, or they characterize his heretofore cautious response (which is the best way to help the protesters) to the Iranian elections as (of course) weakness and appeasement, or they simply use the occasion to applaud the Good Tribe (Jews) and lash out at the Bad Tribe (Persians). Here, then, are several voices among the crapcaphony, a flock of neocon vultures singing of Iran, so far away:
[T]he vicious manipulation by which the mullahs control Iran can no longer be considered as their “internal affair.” Fascism at home sooner or later means fascism abroad. Face it now or fight it later. Meanwhile, give it its right name.
Yeah, well, Hitchens has a special talent for unlearning his lessons, though to his credit he did not this time offer the “faultlines of mass destruction” rationale for regime change in Iran. Meanwhile, Stephen Hayes, Richard Cheney’s most treasured and dingleberried buttpuppet, basically asserts that Obama is a wimp. Jennifer “Bili” Rubin concurs, as ultimately does, after some surprisingly thoughtful suggestions (what’s up with that?) Hayes’s boss, Bill Kristol. Elliott “Mr. Kenilworth” Abrams, meanwhile, can hardly contain his enthusiasm that “[Obama’s] engagement strategy has been dealt a very heavy blow.”
Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, and Mitt Romney all claim Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent victory is Obama’s fault, munichappeasementhitler. Victor Davis Decimus Meridius Vacupithecus Metroplex Malorumus Hanson amplifies this theme, and seems to say that Iran’s elections show that Obama’s foreign policy has caused the whole freakin’ world to go to hell. Hanson the classicist finds one bright spot, however: it makes George Bush look better to history.
James “Marty’s lapweasel” Kirchick sees fit to remind, at least by implication, the New York Times that Iran hasn’t had a legitimate government since the freedom-loving, human rights-respecting, and democratically elected Shah Reza Pahlevi. So put that in your bong and smoke it, Sulzberger!
Roger L. Simon uses the Iranian elections as an opportunity to slag race-traitor Roger Cohen in particular and continue his jihad on the New York Times in general. He thinks the election results mean that “the reactionary” Obama should stop worrying about the Israel-Palestine conflict and instead confront Iran, even though he won’t cuz he’s a liebruhl terror-lover or something. Israel should do what it must (cough cough) with Iran, though it should try not to immolate those nice young Iranian protesters (Simon obviously has some very smart bombs in mind). Moses Whine also finds time to express distaste at so many Iranian-American dual citizens voting in Los Angeles.
Those shifty, cosmopolitan Iranian-Americans of dubious loyalty are also very much on what passes for Michael Ledeen’s mind:
For that matter, dual citizenship is ridiculous. Make up your mind, already, are you one of us or one of them?
Michael Ledeen is Jewish. And a very meshuggah one indeed to make such a boomerang of an argument. But then Ledeen’s so internalized his own tribalism that he probably doesn’t see the irony or the danger. For him, Jews really are the chosen people of the bible while his tribe’s nasty modern rivals, the Persians and Arabs, are equivalent to and deserve the fate of the biblical Amalekites. At any rate, aside the nasty comment above, I’m mildly surprised and amused that Mr. Faster, Please has been so relatively slow to boil (by his standards) regarding the recent crisis. Ledeen, when it comes to Iran, is easily the most insane and bloodthirsty of all the neocons, and the one to watch especially in the next few days.
The Iranian elections are the perfect bait for the multitude of sociopaths in greater wingnuttia, and particularly in its neocon division. Obama’s Cairo speech already got them hyperventilating; some are already apoplectic. There is always a danger, considering Obama’s “bi-partisan” fetish, of a rightwing push influencing his policies which, in this case, would make things worse for the Iranian dissenters. So the stakes are high, and we have to push back, by showing these sick-fuck wingnuts for what they are.
Iran’s elections show that Obama’s foreign policy has caused the whole freakin’ world to go to hell. Hanson the classicist finds one bright spot, however: it makes George Bush look better to history.
Yea. Nevermind that the fact nearly two-thirds of Mousavi’s support comes from students who actually LIKED Obama’s outreach to the people of Iran…
The great irony here is that Iran had a much more moderate president until Bush blundered on to the scene bellowing about an “Axis of Evil”, at which point, Ahmadinejad got elected – legitimately. If they want to point the finger at the parties responsible for elevating an ignorant anti-semitic Holocaust denier to the head of the Iranian government, their best bet is to look at the four fingers pointing back at themselves.
Hey can some little limpwristed staffer stop sucking cock for like ten seconds and go say some pretty words to some concerned leftists? They’re about to go apeshit and I don’t have time for that level of bullshit. I’ve got a raging boner, I’ve got nearly 300 peckers in my pocket and I’m pretty sure if we start building some bombs and some camps right now we can get some Chi-town contractors in on the deal this time. Just tell the little leftwing asspirates whatever they wanna hear….they’ll believe it.
Hope. Change. Excuse me, it’s almost 4 pm here and Israel hasn’t gotten to set any Iranian children on fire and they’re getting antsy.
Fuck the Czech presidency with a molten brass dick. Fuck ’em forever, the goddamn Nazi bootlicks.
Exactly right Jennifer. Which is why they won’t ever point those fingers at the parties actually responsible.
Is this just going to be one long unbroken howling from the collective conservative baby for the next 8 years, while the grownups do *not* buy it the blood-soaked Tonka body-bag dump-truck, or derugulation-coated Captain Economic Crunch?
I mean, it’s starting to blow my mind already. It is literally nothing but howling, all day, all the time, not a shred of sanity or even a pretending at human frakkin’ decency.
It’s the not-even-pretending that’s shocking me. It’s like the final stage in a psychosis, where keeping up appearances is forgotten about because the bugs are everywhere.
Also, because the awful (and if McCain had won, potential fucking Secretary of State) Max Boot comes up here, I’d like to repeat one of the few good lines I’ve ever written:
Wonder who how and what helped to put those Mullahs into power.
Iran hates us because of our freedoms.
Have the neocons ever been right about anything ever?
The good news, as I see it, is essentially two-fold.
First, I haven’t seen any of these murderous thugs have any success at spinning election fraud into a clear and present danger to the US or israel, which isn’t to say they haven’t tried, it’s just that the best they can come up with is “AMEDINEJAD WANTS TO BLOW UP THE WORLD” and hey, we’ve already had our old buddy Mahmoud around for half the decade and that hasn’t happened.
Plus, they don’t have cheney in charge, they have obama, and while I don’t think he’d be one to hesitate to go to war for political purposes, it’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t see any political advantage in starting one right now.
So, without their white house power base, they are left bleating impotently and crying for blood that is not within their power to shed. To watch them ratchet up the tantrum level should provide entertainment even as we fear for the Iranian Opposition…
mikey
Israel is threatened. Existential issues! Obama digs existential issues. Reads Kierkegaard and Tillich all the time. He’s gonna be playing 17 dimension existential chess while Iranians are scooping bits of their kids out of gutters and distant motherfucking yew trees. Hey I wonder what Putin thinks about all of this. HA HA HA HA AH AHAHA HAA HA AHAHA. Excuse me cocksuckers, Dick Cheney is on the phone and he wants to talk dirty to me.
Dudez!!! I hear K. Lo resigned. Can we have a tribute to the goddess of comedy here?
RE: not to ruin your routine or anything, but Emmanuel isn’t particularly noteworthy in the ranks of progressive-except-for-palestine American politicos; those politicos have been pretty heavily dismayed (and often disillusioned) by Cast Lead, and given that Emmanuel has a particularly vindictive view of people dicking his team around, I have to imagine he’s fucking livid with Bibi right now.
Also, he prefers his dirty talk from Gates.
I second that, hoaratius! Decorum demands a top ten list, or at least a brief retrospective.
Ah, K. Lo, we hardy knew ye….
@mikey
I don’t think that Obama would go to war for political purposes. He’s just not that kind of person. But that’s neither here nor there. The best reason to think he won'[t do it is that he’s smart enough to know what a total fucking disaster it would be.
May I point out (as “shifty, cosmopolitan” may not have been clear enough; heckfire, I didn’t quite follow it the first time through) that much/most of the Iranian diaspora is composed of Jews. (Ledeen may not have wanted them to vote for Mousavi, of course.)
How’s he feel about people voting his way in Israeli elections? Any “dual-citizenship” issues there?
Hypocrisy, thy name is Michael.
You slander me, sir. I am calling my lawyer and initiating a class action lawsuit for defamation of buzzards. We eat the dead, not the living, and serve a useful function in the grand scheme of things.
On to other topics:
One faction of the theocratic regime in Iran decided to break its own election laws in an outrageous power grab, using force intimidation and election tampering, that in my opinion does almost amount to a coup. The evidence is there for all to see around the world. Arguments about whether Mousavvi is a Western manipulated color revolution liberal-capitalist mole who snuck by the clerics, or which candidate “really” won a fatally flawed election, is beside the point now.
If in an honest election, Ahmadinejad would have really won, is unknowable now. The theocrat thugs did this to themselves and to their country. No one else is to blame. They debauched their own vestige of democracy, their own fig leaf of popular support, and now they may lose all because of it. I cry no tears.
I have to root for the forces for democracy and humane, progressive change in Iran. Right now, only way to support it is be a twitter maven and be able to send IPA addresses to the twitterers, I guess. I hope that the change is not crushed and goes far enough so more people can support them in some way.
Anyway, not Obama’s, or Bush’s , or anybody else’s fault. It is the theocratic thug’s fault. If it weakens the reactionary elements of the regime, that is a good thing.
Need to be very aggressive in countering depraved neocon war mongering now. I would hope news does enough coverage and shows enough photos get to the U.S. population so that they realize the Iranian population are people much like us in most ways, not monsters or tools to be bombed and killed for the mad plans of callous political operators.
Just a heads up for some great material. Good fucking grief.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/06/12/DI2009061202319.html?hpid=talkbox1
alec,
Fuck the Czech presidency with a molten brass dick. Fuck ‘em forever, the goddamn Nazi bootlicks.
Not that I disagree, quite the opposite, but may I ask why this time?
Not that events in Iran aren’t important, but I find the recent lack of PENIS here disturbing.
God even knows why they decided to throw their hats in the ring cheering for Ahmadinejad; I would guess it’s the same kind of neocon moon logic you see out of Pipesey-boy. Because they’re run by the same fuckers who put grist in his pa’s mill, after all – insane, inflexible right-wing delusion is what they do.
The Czech government using the spotlight given to them by the EU presidency to accuse Obama of judeo-Bolshevism is pretty much fucking typical. It’s why Rummy was so big on ‘new Europe’ – they’re the only place where idiocy actually on par with our own, instead of just occasionally sinking to it, succeeds in politics.
I thought having Sarko run the joint was bad. Every goddamn word from Europe since has made me want to tear my fucking hair out, and I’ve always liked the EU. And now they have the BNP there. God almighty.
From jharp’s link:
And so in fifteen words, Beck sums up his entire broadcasting career.
I take full responsibility for the poor PENIS performance of late. In the same way that GWB and etc. said they took responsibility for whatever fuckup they caused.
Also, I blame DKW.
…here disturbing.
Your wish is my command, post-E3 PENIS
Also, I blame DKW.
I blame Obama.
None of this neocon bellowing would have any chance at gaining traction if it weren’t for the fear they’ve ginned up of a nuclear-armed Iran. Part of the blame for that lies in the abysmal ignorance of the American people in thinking that 65-year-old technology can be kept out of the hands of anyone willing to take the effort to get it.
This ignorance has been carefully cultivated and fed by this rabble of course. But now they can’t even make up their minds what they’re hyperventilating about. Either Iran has “thousands of centrifuges humming away” separating U235, or they’re building reactors to produce Plutonium. Which is it? You really think they’re going to pursue both avenues with the world watching? You think they can run a power reactor, producing electricity, then tear down the core after X years and get weapons-grade Plutonium out of it? Really? I know the general public apparently thinks that, but you guys [Mythbusters] are what you call “experts”. [/Mythbusters]
If Obama changed nothing else in US policy, what I really want him to do is, perhaps privately after some meeting or other, take Netanyahu aside and say: “Bibi, Baby, just one thing I want you to know: You pull another Ossirak and you are totally fucking on your own ! Do you feel me, Bubeleh?”
I don’t think that Obama would go to war for political purposes. He’s just not that kind of person.
*slide whistle*
You’re so right, dude. Coz he’s on our side, and our side doesn’t do shit like that.
*eye fucking roll*
I’m surprised Elliott Abrams would pull his muzzle out of the bowl of human entrails long enough to comment. As far as I know there are no death squads operating in Iran yet and he’s not in charge of lying about them.
BECK: We’re not striving for success, we’re punishing success and headed toward a world of mediocrity.
Well, Glenny me boyo, Somalia awaits.
Cmon cmon cmon cmon pleez pleez pleez pleez pleez Baracky Carter!
/character
Jodhpur breath: HA!
I’m sorry, is there anyone in country less suited to write a book called “Common Sense” than Glen Beck? In the solar system?
Have the neocons ever been right about anything ever?
Of course not, you silly goose!
I’m sorry, is there anyone in country less suited to write a book called “Common Sense” than Glen Beck?
There is such a person, and that person’s name is George Walker Bush, 43rd President of these United States.
For that matter, dual citizenship is ridiculous. Make up your mind, already, are you one of us or one of them?
Howzabout we pick a random Iranian protester and bestow Michael Le Dim’s citizenship upon her? She would seem to be more deserving of it. (This assumes she wants it after what he’s done to it…) I know I’d feel better for my country if we did.
Furthermore, we don’t even debate or converse with his ilk. We call them armchair baby-killer wanna-bees, and offer to send them to the Hague as Dick Cheney’s character witnesses.
You know, as long as the neocons scream for intervention, frankly I’m not worried. They’re out of control, they’re screaming in their own little echo chamber, and it’s scary, depressing and hilarious, but no big deal. Who’s listening to them these days? (Which is why they’re pissed.)
What’s going to be the problem is if “reasonable centrists” get the urge to intervene in Iran. Then we’re fucked good and royally.
I don’t know, tensor, I’ve never seen Bush appear on camera with a special picture-in-a-picture close-up on his crazy eyes, with lip quivering and wiping away faux tears.
He-Man needs Skeletor just as much as Skeletor needs He-Man.
I’ve never seen Bush appear on camera with a special picture-in-a-picture close-up on his crazy eyes, with lip quivering and wiping away faux tears.
That’s only because Carl Rove didn’t think of it first.
I don’t think that Obama would go to war for political purposes.
If that is the case, mi amigo, perhaps you can explain the practical non-political purpose behind the drone attacks in Pakistan and the massive increase in troop strength in Afghanistan.
‘Cause nobody I’ve read has been able to do so…
mikey
If that is the case, mi amigo, perhaps you can explain the practical non-political purpose behind the drone attacks in Pakistan and the massive increase in troop strength in Afghanistan.
Why, to gain political capital that can be spent on privatizing social security, of course.
Maybe because he’s been handed a shit sandwich by the previous misadministration, which only went into Afghanistan because Bush “wanted bombs falling somewhere within 30 days” after 9/11, carefully chivvied Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar to safety in Pakistan, and then bugged out to start the war they really wanted in Iraq?
Perhaps because the Taliban is poised to move out of their safe havens in Pakistan and return to control in Afghanistan the minute we pull out, and then we’re back to square one, 9/10/2001?
I sure as hell don’t know what the right thing to do is–all the possibilities for a positive outcome, if there ever were any, were cynically thrown away by the Bush administration. All Obama can do is try to prevent the complete return of Afghanistan to the pre-war situation, or worse yet, a nuclear-armed, Taliban-controllled Pakistan from being created. Neither of these things may be possible.
At the very least, he can say: “We’re too busy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq to bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb Iran right now. Ask again later.”
I’ve never seen Bush appear on camera with a special picture-in-a-picture close-up on his crazy eyes, with lip quivering and wiping away faux tears.
Up that close, they couldn’t hide the coke boogers.
*slide whistle*
You’re so right, dude. Coz he’s on our side, and our side doesn’t do shit like that.
No, fuckwad, coz that’s the way I have judged his character. Coz I’ve been paying attention. Coz I judge based not on what someone says at any point but by their pattern of behavior. After 50+ years of carefully observing people being as sceptical as I can manage, I find I’m pretty good at judging character. Piss off, kid.
mikey, we were talking of starting a war. I believe we were already at war in Afghanistan. And also in Pakistan in fact, if not in theory. As far as the tactics go, I think this president is actually listening to the generals, not just saying he is. I have no idea how to put things back together over there – does anyone? Just picking up our marbles and going home is not, I think, realistic.
OK, wait, I got it. Inspired by the sound of a thousand fRiechtards a-fapping, I’ve come up with the Perfect Plan for Dealing with Iran.
1. Load all these Rah-rah, more war while we sit at home and scratch our asses cretins into a big old transport plane.
2. Tell Imalongname that if he doesn’t shape up we’ll carpet bomb his house with 5 tons of blubbery fReichtard.
3. After he has capitulated to all of our demands, drop them over the Artic Circle so the polar bears have something to eat.
Aren’t these the same douchenozzles that wanted to get all belligerenty at Russia because of the Republic of Georgia just a few months ago? Didn’t MadBombler McCain want some kind of military response then, too? How did that all work out for the neocons, the Georgia thing? Is Bipolar Beck lamenting the South Ossetians anymore? Doesn’t anybody keep score on these turds? (howling into the wilderness)
drop them over the Artic Circle so the polar bears have something to eat.
Arky’s plan makes the polar bears sad.
You know, I get the strangest feeling in my gut that at least *some* of this Iranian turmoil is being created by outside forces, there on site. The shots at the crowd of protestors were said to have come from the general direction of an opposition-owned building, but for fuck’s sake, how hard would it be to put a sniper somewhere in the vicinity? I remember cringing several times in the past few years when it was noted in various newspapers, that the U.S. and Israel had inserted teams into Iran intent on causing problems (yeah, that’s negotiating in good faith) and I’ve been waiting for the Obamaites to announce that said bullshit was over and ended. Hasn’t happened.
I guess what I’m saying is that we ought to beware of being emotionally manipulated by created theater that spooks love so much. Keep in mind that most of what has actually happened there is tamer than what takes place when Chicago wins some sports event, yet the breathless talking heads are acting like the Berlin Wall is falling again. We’re all being jerked around like puppets and it bugs the fuck outta me.
It’s also important to recall they’ve always been bloodthirsty cretins. Worthlesswitz of Arabia got his start in 1992, writing a paper urging Bush the Real Military Pilot to attack post-Soviet Russia — over some now-forgotten dispute with a Baltic republic. (Really. He even included which NATO units to use in this crazy act of pointless brutality.) It’s like he wanted to validate all of the Soviet propaganda about NATO not existing for defensive purposes.
We really, really need to start sending these guys to trial for aiding and abetting war crimes.
Taliban take over Pakistan? Not going to happen. Both Pashtuns and extremist nutters form minorities in Pakistan, and would lack a power base. This isn’t true in Afghanistan.
I am seeing just as much hyperventilating on the “left” as the right. Suddenly, the Czechs are fascists, and everything about the EU is shit, because they put out one press release that we didn’t like? Klaus is probably as far right as Arlen Specter (a Democrat), if that. And we have the BNP? Guys, you have the Republicans and they got half the vote.
“I guess what I’m saying is that we ought to beware of being emotionally manipulated by created theater that spooks love so much.”
Maybe we could also bear in mind that the “reformist” we are cheering on is a neoliberal who in no way threatens the theocracy, while Ahmedinajad, for all his failings, is at least a populist. The idea that this is an orange revolution is ridiculous, and simply plays the meme that Ahmedinajad is sufficiently evil that any replacement has to be an improvement.
Ahmedinajad is not building the nukes, does not control the army and does not set Iran’s foreign policy course. Neither would the other guy.
People are worried this is a CIA plot? I don’t see that. The Iranian theocrats decided to screw up their own election. I mean, if the CIA had infiltrated so far inside the power structure that they could make the mullahs clown themselves (perhaps fatally) with a very clumsily rigged election, why not do things in a quieter, more efficient way?
If any facts come out that this is some actually successful deep cover CIA gig, let us know, right now it that is far fetched speculation.
If Moussavi comes to Washington and starts making sweet love to Larry Summers, and starts selling GOP oil corporations oil for a penny a barrel, I will protest that too.
[Ahmadinejad’s victory is] about the best result possible… it pleases me.
Daniel Pipes as Criswell?
“Torture, torture! It pleasures me!”
People are worried this is a CIA plot?
Yes, stupid people. The CIA has been revealed to be a bunch of bumblers in recent history, we haven’t had any kind of real diplomatic or business presence in Iran to provide cover for the CIA for 30 years now and still this is not nearly the first place today that I’ve seen this theory raised.
Maybe we could also bear in mind that the “reformist” we are cheering on is a neoliberal who in no way threatens the theocracy, while Ahmedinajad, for all his failings, is at least a populist. The idea that this is an orange revolution is ridiculous, and simply plays the meme that Ahmedinajad is sufficiently evil that any replacement has to be an improvement.
Who’s cheering on Mousavi? I don’t think too many of the protesters over there are even cheering on Mousavi. They’re trying to gain some level of control of their government and that’s what a lot of people here and in other parts of the world are cheering on. They know what they’re doing and why they’re putting themselves at risk over there even if you have no fucking clue. Even Pipes and Ledeen and the like have a better grasp of the situation even if they want to manipulate it to evil ends.
Jesus fucking Christ. Sorry for my extreme crabbiness but has anyone else noticed that between the “there’s no real difference between Obama and Bush comments” and shit like the above, every 3rd comment on liberal blogs is totally stupid these days?
Jesus fucking Christ. Sorry for my extreme crabbiness but has anyone else noticed that between the “there’s no real difference between Obama and Bush comments” and shit like the above, every 3rd comment on liberal blogs is totally stupid these days?
Arguably, every third comment on the Internet is totally stupid and has been so for a very long time.
Arguably, every third comment on the Internet is totally stupid and has been so for a very long time.
That’s only if you exclude youtube comments, which are the dumbest anywhere and bring the average down to every 1.5 comment.
Then again, as I’ve long been fond of saying, half of all people are of below average intelligence (it’s true! mathematically speaking, even!) so this should come as no surprise.
No, fuckwad, coz that’s the way I have judged his character. Coz I’ve been paying attention. Coz I judge based not on what someone says at any point but by their pattern of behavior. After 50+ years of carefully observing people being as sceptical as I can manage, I find I’m pretty good at judging character. Piss off, kid.
Woah don’t take it so personally, buddy. I’m sure you are just a crackerjack judge of media manufactured “character.” Incidentally, what in Obama’s long, variegated, highly nuanced public record makes you so confident? I mean he’s been in politics for what, 12, almost 13 years now (and since 2005, I think, on the national level) so I’m sure he’s dealt with hundreds of international crises by now.
Or are you saying, as our last President said of Putin, that you have “looked into his soul” and seen the True Character contained therein?
Slightly off topic again: Republicans, still staying classy.
Jennifer, it’s worse than you thought: Given that all the children in Lake Wobegon are above average and you never see them posting, it follows that more than half of all posters are below average.
Clearly, I (from below) balance you out … Please post more, it will help.
Yeah, there’s no possibility of CIA involvement, right, Buzzard? You might ask yourself why we never (and I mean *never*) hear *anyone* on U.S. televised news telling the truth about Iranian “nukes”. They haven’t got the ability to process bomb material and our eyes in the skies would spot it if they had. You never hear a soul talk about the rules of the NPT and how the U.S. is OBLIGATED to help countries like Iran build nuclear power plants (the upshot of the NPT is, “you promise not to build nukes and we’ll build power plants for you as a reward”). They actually signed the damned thing and we act like this poor and mostly primitive country is a threat to the planet…contrast that with out attitude about Israel, which has over 200 nukes, refuses to sign the NPT and is the closest thing to a rogue country that we have on this planet (not even North Korea has an institutionalised system of apartheid).
I personally find it defies reason to imagine that our multiple news sources have all forgotten to have mentioned these facts, whilst repeatedly hammering their viewing audience with the idea that Iran is a nuclear threat. It can’t be viewed realistically as being anything but an organised conspiracy and given the structure of televised news, a misinformation campaign of that magnitude would have to have political origins (and likely with CIA involvement). If American opinion is actually being sculpted in this way (and I challenge anyone to explain how this is anything but intentional), the notion that spooks would do what they already announced they were going to try to do, by strategically playing the crowds to manipulate Iranian and world opinion (Not possible? Look at what the fuckers tried to do in Venezuela), seems very plausible to me.
For what it’s worth, there were three different polls done of Iranian voters in the two weeks before the election and their results mirror the actual vote. You didn’t hear much about that either, in fact, American news was claiming that Ahmedinajad was going to lose. We’re all being gamed by assholes who don’t believe in democracy unless it rolls in a way that is advantageous to them.
More home grown right wing violence:
Minuteman tied to home invasion: A 41-year-old woman involved with the Minuteman vigilante groups that hunt illegal migrants through the Arizona desert has been arrested for pulling a home invasion and murdering a father and his nine year old daughter last month.
You’re going to have to include the BBC, the German government, etc. in your little conspiracy.
What follows are three paragraphs that say almost nothing about the CIA except this paranthetical:
Case cluesed!
Dear Mr. President, Please Don’t Kill My Kids
What I don’t get is, why does anyone give a shit who becomes President of Iran? AFAIK, this mullah Khameini or whatever the fuck runs everything over there no matter who is president. So what’s the big deal?
Orange Tom said,
June 16, 2009 at 2:07:
What does the well-known neocon propaganda and corporate media machines in the US have to do with CIA covert operations inside Iran?
And, yes, look what happened in Venezuela, the stupid U.S. plotting was called out within days. And in Venezuela they had lots of local US-friendly interests to help provide cover. In Iran, what?
I’ve read the one poll from the Washingon Post, and it does not provide results that mirror that of the election closely. It was also conducted at the beginning of the month long campaign. A lot happened during that month.
Another poll showed Moussavi winning with about 57% of the vote.
There was no multiple high quality polling that allowed accurate tracking of public opinion.
If any real evidence of CIA meddling comes out, I will let the U.S. government know that I condemn it. But, I really need some evidence, not speculation.
And the classiness just keeps on comin’.
Breaking laughable news from K-Lo
Her “successor”? Rich Lowry.
As she says in too many words, the same stupid will continue so whatever. But traffic copping and honchoing. Woohoo!
Dear Mr. President, Please Don’t Kill My Kids
You ask me, the problem isn’t the circumstances of his grandparents’ death – it’s the timing.
I wonder if the vehicle that hit and killed his grandparents in their Gremlin was a one-ton diesel pickup?
Not only does our new car Czar not answer to Congress, he won’t even go on Neil Cavuto.
Hoxha’s Albania, this is.
New Gold Dream said,
Fuckwaddish troll is fuckwaddish.
I think Bush was transcribed poorly. He said “licked into his a soul.”
From Brandi’s link:
I think this would’ve helped.
You’re going to have to include the BBC, the German government, etc. in your little conspiracy.
There’s plenty of room for them in a conspiracy theory held by the likes of Orange Tom.
Now, I have a conspiracy theory of my own and it is mine. Bill (code name Yellow) Keller of the NYT is, like Orange Tom, a CIA asset sent out to spread confusion. Yellow Keller is a lot more sophisticated than Orange Tom and isn’t bothering to try to convince people that Ahmadinejad’s election was legitimate but is instead pushing the idea that Ahmadinejad has seen his hand strengthened by what’s gone on these past few days. (Via Booman). If Yellow Keller and Orange Tom can convince the world that Ahmadinejad is sitting in the catbird’s seat, legitimately or not, then the neocons get their way and will be able to put more pressure on Obama to attack Iran. That Yellow Keller and Orange Tom appear to come from very different perspectives is quite convenient and only strengthens my point because the CIA is just trying out different approaches in the marketplace of dumbass ideas and seeing which get the most traction amongst gullible newspaper and blog readers.
As for New Gold (note color coded pseudonyman) Soundz up there, is that you Lambert?
sonofabitch er:
fixored
Yeah…what was I thinking of? I mean, the CIA couldn’t operate inside of Iran!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iran
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1543798/US-funds-terror-groups-to-sow-chaos-in-Iran.html
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/29/AR2008062901881_pf.html
You know what, Michael Ledeen? Fuck you. I’m a dual citizen. All my family are American. I was born in America. But I grew up in Britain and am culturally as much British as American, if not more. And guess what? It doesn’t matter one little bit. National identity is way more complex and fluid than your tiny, bigoted little mind can comprehend.
Yeah…what was I thinking of? I mean, the CIA couldn’t operate inside of Iran!!!
So you googled “CIA Iran” and learned that they’ve been funding the MEK and Balochi and Kurd dissidents who live across the border in Iraq and Pakistan so that they’ll cross the border and conduct raids and you think this proves your point that they’re behind the popular revolt going on in Tehran? You CIA people sure are clever.
All Obama can do is try to prevent the complete return of Afghanistan to the pre-war situation, or worse yet, a nuclear-armed, Taliban-controllled Pakistan from being created.
And killing people haphazardly in Pakistan helps, how?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/10-3
“I asked my friend how families cope, when a bomb suddenly blasts their home in the middle of the night. Do they have any kind of first aid available to help the wounded? “You see this,” he said, pointing to the long shawl that I happened to be wearing, a customary part of every village woman’s dress, “they try to use this [as a bandage] because it is all they have.” I imagined the shawl rapidly soaking up the blood of a dying Pakistani man, woman, or child.
On the morning of the 20th, the other villagers had rushed to the section where the missile had hit, hoisting injured survivors onto their shoulders and carrying them across rough, hilly terrain to the nearest road (about five kilometers away from the village) where, lacking vehicles of their own and with no hope of receiving an ambulance visit, they waited for a car to stop, their only means of reaching a hospital.
The first car they saw did stop, but its driver refused to take any of the wounded for fear that his action would be noted by an unmanned U.S. drone, and that he himself would face the reward for his hospitality which the village had received.”
heckuva job, Obama!
This would be a good place for someone to post a list of all the Bush officials who had Israeli dual citizenship.
You may have seen some of the CIA/Iran shenanigans noted here at this very site. People know who Seymour Hersh is.
So you googled “CIA Iran” and learned that they’ve been funding the MEK and Balochi and Kurd dissidents who live across the border in Iraq and Pakistan so that they’ll cross the border and conduct raids and you think this proves your point that they’re behind the popular revolt going on in Tehran?
Nice reading comprehension you’ve got there. Maybe you should scroll downstream a bit and re-read the thread? When I suggested that outside agitators could be behind the shootings that had taken place (yeah, might be CIA but even more likely Mossad), a couple of posters started implying that that the CIA couldn’t really operate in Iran because there was no “cover” for them to operate under. The fact of the matter is the Bushies went out of their way to publicize the sending in of teams to wreak mayhem in Iran in various ways and I have yet to hear the Obama administration disavow that shit. Do I think this proves my point? Since “my point” was a suspicion of possible CIA involvement, it’s pretty frikkin’ impossible to prove either way (go ahead, take a shot at disproving it), but it is clear that we have spooks there, doing what spooks do. By the way, I never said they were behind the popular revolt, rather, that they could be playing games to encourage it. There’s a difference, not that you’re equipped to appreciate it.
“Everyone decent reacts to the flood of news out of Iran with despair at the chaos, sympathy for the protesters, and anger toward the regime.”
I think I am mostly a “decent” sort.
Yet, I can’t get seem to get too “riled up” about this situation, in light of the fact Bush & congress pushed through a $400 million bill late in 2008 to start disinfo and foment unrest in Iran ( Spelt: CIA), nor can I decently ignore the pre-election polls showing that the incumbent out-polled the western supported candidate by better than 2 to 1. Gee, that Iranians might not REALLY support America’s desired candidate is shocking to some Americans? Wow.
Nor can I decently ignore how the BBC was caught cropping a photo of a rally FOR the incumbent, and labeling it a huge rally for the loser.
Sorry, this smells like April, 2003’s rancid “WMD” rationalizations.