Ah Yes, We Can Name That Tune In One Note

Quiddity over at Uggabugga asks:

That GAO report:

… saying that there is little progress in Iraq, is a stab in the back. Right?

Let’s go ask Dan Riehl.

danriehl88u.jpg

Playing Politics With Terrorism And War

While Hillary Clinton continues to take some flak for playing politics with terrorism, will there be a sound about the obvious playing of politics concerning war, given these quotes below from a WaPo article on the leaking of a draft GAO report designed to undermine support for the war in Iraq? And isn’t leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?

So yes, in Dan’s America, it doesn’t matter whether information is actually classified or not: If it’s potentially classifiable, it’s a criminal act to leak it. And since negative information about the war is never value-neutral, but is ‘designed to undermine,’ such a leak is also a moral crime, and a stab-in-the-back (i.e., a dolchstoss).

…That is, if the information treasonously makes Republicans or their programs look bad. Otherwise, you know, ‘free speech.’

Here’s how Dan brings it home (emphasis his):

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

More likely said government official feared recent polling and reporting suggesting a general increase in support for our efforts in Iraq.

Cowardly saboteurs are forever scheming, etc.

 

Comments: 46

 
 
 

Good post Gavin.

Beats the hell out of an LOLcon any day…and then assrapes it just for fun.

 
 

But Hannity DOES suck ass.

Doesn’t that count for anything?

 
 

… designed to undermine support for the war in Iraq?

What support? Who’s left but Bush, Cheney, and Barney.

 
 

Gimme a break! This so-called ‘free speech’ is for hand-wringing, pansy-ass, lily-livered nations that don’t have the guts to hide from the truth.

(I must say that I really admire the way Riehl leads off, accusing someone else of playing politics with terrorism while he enthusiastically plays politics with terrorism. That gets a high reading on my surrealometer.)

 
 

Damn that GAO! Just when you think the Islamobamafascists are on the run in Iraq, they pop up here in the Homoland! We must find out how these fanatic, robe wearing, terrorists got hired by the GAO!

 
 

And isn’t leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?

Wuzzah? The GAO report was going to be released to Congress and the public no matter what. The worry — and the reason it was leaked beforehand — was that some Bushie Komissar would water down the conclusions before it went public.

 
 

Wait. Hang on. Lemme go read this again.

Cause, yeah, I’m pretty sure if you follow the arguments in Dan’s somewhat incoherent piece, when you get through figuring out all the different things that he’s pissed about, you can close the circle. And it goes like this.

Dan is pissed at the GAO for playing politics with terrorism by accurately reporting the status of the occupation without political spin. Apparently they’re doing this because they want to undermine the ‘general increase in support’ for the Iraq adventure. And the GAO wants to do this because, um.

Shoot, he doesn’t say! Maybe there’ll be a part two?

Can’t wait…

mikey

 
 

Quiddity over at Uggabugga asks

This is so very Internetish.

 
 

Anthony Cordesman has been reporting all the same stuff for months.

Let’s not forget that the admin has attempted to *retroactively* classify things in the past. So “potentially classifiable”, crazy as it is, isn’t crazy enough. Even stuff that is not classified could be classified two years from now.

The only way to avoid things that could be “retroactively classified” is to avoid everything.

I’m going to be covering this topic in my blog tonight (at 2AM or so heh), but the short version is that none of this is new information at all. The Iraqi government has not passed any of the required legislation, that’s just a simple fact. (For example)

 
 

God forbid Sen. Clinton should play politics with terrorism.

That’s a Republican job, after all.

 
 

Of course, the Iraqi government and war we’re subsidizing should be completely goal-free and its ‘progress’ kept secret from the American public at all costs. That should go without saying.

 
 

So yes, in Dan’s America, it doesn’t matter whether information is actually classified or not: If it’s potentially classifiable, it’s a criminal act to leak it.

Dan Riehl is potentially the dumbest fucking person on the internet.

 
 

Website oughta be named,

RiehlBadHairpiece.com

 
LA Confidential Pantload
 

John Cole,

Only because Doug Feith doesn’t blog.

 
 

kind of like when Glenn Reynolds said assassinating Iranian scientists wasn’t criminal because Congress could repeal the law that made it a crime.

 
 

John Cole said,

August 31, 2007 at 2:06

Dan Riehl is potentially the dumbest fucking person on the internet.

Unless Doug Feith gets a blog.

OH NOES!

 
 

The Confidential Pantload has beateth me!

Teh Shamez.

 
 

Maybe this word is out of date, but Dan Riehl is seriously fugly.

 
 

And all these are the reasons CNN gives Riehl airtime.

The Cheney News Network.

 
 

The Bushies mantra has been “the Washington-entrenched beauraucracy, (GAO in this case), is reactionary and is undermining our leader’s vision. People voted for G.W.Bush, not for some anonymous GAO pencil-pusher. The President has responsibility to the voters to do what he thinks is right, and not listen to the opinions of nameless reactionary beareucrats”
They are very passionate about this mantra and truly believe in it. It comes straight from the Harvard Business School doctrine for strong, decisive management style that doesn’t get boggled in red-tape; the leader’s vision reigns supreme, the whole team must subscribe to it, dissent is counterproductive and dissenters must be eliminated for the good of the mission/organization.

Somehow/somewhere this doctrine degenerated into: “the vision doesn’t need to be based on reality; willpower and strong leadership will overcome everything; datagatherers and analysts are dissenters and sceptics who detract from our willpower and vision”

The line between “vision” and “hallucination” is blurred. Voices of reason and rational data-analysis become “enemy of the state”. The leader’s freedom for swift operative decision-making degenerates into power grab; the elimination of “detractors” leads to surrounding the leader with lackeys and and adulators…

It never seizes to amaze me how hundreds of years ago the Founding Fathers sought to prevent such anticipated developments. It is all of our duty to protect that old piece of paper called Constition and to keep it relevant today and in the future.

 
 

And the GAO wants to do this because, um.

Shoot, he doesn’t say! Maybe there’ll be a part two?

I know! It’s Bush Derangement Syndrome Motivation!

Republicans are experts on BDSM–it’s the unspoken cause of most of what happens in their world.

 
 

And isn’t leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?

No, you worthless piece of shit. Simple if extraordinarily fucking stupid question, simple goddamn answer. And with three times the profanity of Atrios writing on the same subject! Yowza.

Any other stupid fucking dumbshit questions you want to ask me, you flaming fucking asshole?

 
 

Dan Riehl is potentially the dumbest fucking person on the internet.

I dunno. The competition is pretty fierce for that title. There’s Debbie Schlussel. Melanie Morgan, and Ace of Spades clawing frantically after that same tiara.

 
 

I dunno. The competition is pretty fierce for that title.

Truer words were ne’er spoken. Especially when you consider that each of these dumbshits have commenters and fans who are twenty times dumber (on scientifically-measured average!) than they are.

 
 

Have we come full circle and are back to: “Reporting on how bad things are is treason”?

 
 

tonight tasteless…. you.

 
 

Have we come full circle and are back to: “Reporting on how bad things are is treason”?

Truthful reporting embiggens the islamofascihomocommieterrarists.

 
 

It comes straight from the Harvard Business School doctrine for strong, decisive management style that doesn’t get boggled in red-tape; the leader’s vision reigns supreme, the whole team must subscribe to it, dissent is counterproductive and dissenters must be eliminated for the good of the mission/organization.

Somehow/somewhere this doctrine degenerated into: “the vision doesn’t need to be based on reality; willpower and strong leadership will overcome everything; datagatherers and analysts are dissenters and sceptics who detract from our willpower and vision”

Well, to quote the old joke, it sounded better in the original German. Let’s hope the rest of us survive to write treatises about “The Last Days of the Cheney Reich”…

 
 

And isn’t leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?

A GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE report must considered a potentially “Classified” document?

Only one response to that:

Oooh danny boy!

 
 

Only because Doug Feith doesn’t blog

Doug Feith is the fucking stupidest guy out there. Dan Riehl is the stupidest fucking guy. Does that clear things up?

 
 

Doug Feith is the fucking stupidest guy out there. Dan Riehl is the stupidest fucking guy. Does that clear things up?

Not quite. Where does this leave Pammy? Jonah? K-Lo? and of course, Marie Jon’?

 
 

The choir?

 
Phoenician in a time of Romans
 

Of course, the Iraqi government and war we’re subsidizing should be completely goal-free and its ‘progress’ kept secret from the American public at all costs. That should go without saying.

Naturally. The insurgents know what’s going on, but they have no way of expressing themselves in America. It is vital that the real enemy, the public, be kept in the dark.

 
Johnny Coelacanth
 

The fact that Dan Riehl can appear on TV to offer his asswipe opinions really makes me despair for the state of the media in this country. I mean, what, Bubba the Chimp wasn’t available? They couldn’t find a drunk homeless person to drag into the studio? If the ppl who book these shows ever read his quasi-literate ranting, they’d …. I don’t fucking know. How DOES this idiot get on TV?

 
 

I know that eet has become the rage to describe la blogsfera a la derecha as Bizarro World, strangely, no one has yet mentioned the striking visual similarity between Riehl and Bizarro’s World’s most eponymous resident.

so.

 
 

Johnny Coelacanth said,
They couldn’t find a drunk homeless person to drag into the studio?

Sadly, Dr. Hobo has passed, and will no longer be appearing on pundit newscasts.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=180

 
 

Here’s what gets me about the GAO report.

The Pentagon’s whiny response to the whole thing is “waah, you aren’t paying any attention to how much progress we’ve made – you’re just focusing on those benchmarks that haven’t been made!!!! Waaah!”

Now, I teach at a massively underfunded, floundering inner city school. We are currently under state sanction for failing to meet the requisite benchmarks our state has set under NCLB. Guess what our response is to that?

“You haven’t paid any attention to how much progress we’ve made!”

At least in our case, there’s some substance to the complaint, as the “benchmarks” our state sets change every year. To my way of thinking, this makes them less “benchmarks” and more “skidmarks”. But that’s another story, for another time.

 
 

Doug Feith is the fucking stupidest guy out there. Dan Riehl is the stupidest fucking guy. Does that clear things up?

Not quite. Where does this leave Pammy? Jonah? K-Lo? and of course, Marie Jon’?

Since when have Pammy, K-Lo and Marie Jon been guys? I have the same doubts about Jonah since he was probably cloned from his mum.

 
 

It comes straight from the Harvard Business School doctrine for strong, decisive management style that doesn’t get boggled in red-tape; the leader’s vision reigns supreme, the whole team must subscribe to it, dissent is counterproductive and dissenters must be eliminated for the good of the mission/organization.

Here I was wondering why American manufacturing has gone down the crapper over the last two decades. And wondering why the Harvard MBAs has also managed to wreck the banking sector over the last two years. And why Harvard LLBs had nearly destroyed the Accounting profession with their bullshit legal opinions for Arthur Andersen.

O shit… where did Gonzo and W get their advanced degrees?

 
 

Speaking of “draft” and “report”, you don’t suppose Dan Riehl…

 
 

It’s true, Dan, the career GAO bureaucrats are playing politics! Because, as career GAO bureaucrats, they are up for reelection in 2008, and their only hope for victory is if Iraq is a failure!

This reminds me, I’ve got to pick up a shotgun to deal with these damn raccoons that have been playing politics with my garbage…

 
 

Judging by that screenshot, Riehl needs a case of Dulcolax stat.

 
 

Yes, Riehl, GAO folks, who never havet to think about being elected, are “playing politics.” The only things stupider than Dan Riehl, is his comments section. Sheesh.

 
 

Someone should introduce Mr. Riehl to a legal concept called ex post facto. It’s pretty important.

 
 

Jake. A shotgun is going to be loud, messy, and potentially quite destructive to your garbage cans. Don’t be an elitist. The .22LR is the perfect tool for the job. Quiet, neat, effective. Put a 4X scope on a Ruger 10/22 and clean up the neighborhood in a couple nights. Worked for me with the possums.

One small piece of advice. Before getting started, pick a spot and dig a couple holes. That way you can get rid of the bodies right away…

mikey

 
 

Dan is such a doofus! The WaPo did not leak classified info from the GAO leak. Reading Dan’s tripe reminds me of some of the troll comments on this site. In fact, I think he used to troll here back in the day or maybe over at Atrios.

In addition to Dan’s bullshit claims about the GAO report, the ever-honest and reliable Bill Kristol claimed that training the Iraqi Security Forces to become self-sufficient was an “absurd” benchmark. God he’s a putz.

 
 

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