Another sign that the GOP is doomed in 2008

Rasmussen’s latest poll shows four term incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky down by five points against Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford. People, this race should not even be competitive. If Kentucky is willing to vote for a Democrat, 2008 could be a tidal wave election.

So, how’s that media consolidation thing working out?

According to Jessica Yellin, not so well.

But Yellin went much further, revealing that news executives--presumably at ABC News, where she'd worked from July 2003 to August 2007--actively pushed her not do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration.

"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.

So the Mouse was in the tank for the Administration, spiking critical stories and otherwise fluffing Bush. Sweet. These are dark times for the Fourth Estate. Edward R. Murrow must be spinning in his grave.

That is a fastball right between the eyes

Thers linked this over at Eschaton and it is a thing so beautiful that it must be shared. Here is the background and Karl Rove is still an asshole.

New York set to recognize gay marriage

Well color me confused. Another domino falls under the sway of the Homosexual Agenda and somehow Armageddon is not yet upon us. I am sure that the world’s failure to end must have Pat Robertson puzzled. And kudos to Governor David Paterson for doing the right thing when doing nothing would have been so much easier.

Too Arab? WTF does that mean?

Dunkin Donuts has pulled an ad featuring a scarf-wearing Rachael Ray because the wingnuts, lead by the odious Michelle Malkin, thought the scarf looked, wait for it, too Arab and threatened to boycott the donut shop. I am not kidding.

Putting aside the obvious racism involved in declaring something too Arab (or any other ethnic group really), how fucking stupid is this? Moreover, how big an alarmist, paranoid crank does one have to be to get so exercised about a scarf? Do these idiots think that perky little Rachael Ray is a sleeper agent for the Grand Islamofascist Conspiracy? Simply mindboggling…

I draw a few things from this episode. First, to crib from Dr. Freud, sometimes a scarf is just a scarf. Second, the Malkinites of this world are bunch of racist Chicken Littles capable of projecting their bizarre worldview on damn near anything (see item one). Third, the pussies that run Dunkin Donuts ought to be ashamed of themselves for acquiescing and lending credence to those that hold such stupid, bigoted views. Seriously, folding to this crowd is LAME. A Boston Cream would show more spine.

I heart William Shatner

The erstwhile Captain Kirk did a Q&A with Newsweek to promote his new memoir and the brief excerpt I read reinforces my opinion that Shatner is one very cool, very funny guy.

NEWSWEEK: You've had this incredibly varied career. Is it by design?
William Shatner: It's ad hoc. Fate gives you the finger and you accept [Ed. Note – I think I want that engraved on my tombstone.].

You seem to have this healthy sense of humor about yourself. Did you intentionally set out to self-parodize?
No. It's not something I'm doing consciously. Things people say strike me as amusing, and I am prone to saying out loud what everybody's thinking.

Do you get recognized on the street as the Priceline guy?
Haven't heard that one.

Who does the best impression of you?
I don't recognize what. They're doing. When they're doing. Me.

See. Funny guy.

Someone better watch his back

Scott McClellan, ex-White House Press Secretary, has a new book coming out in which he basically admits that the Administration was full of shit and the Press was too soft to call them out. Really Scott, you think?

Now, I have never liked any of Bush’s Press Secs. Ari Fleischer was smart but a complete asshole. I have disliked Tony Snow since the days when he wrote for the Pilot, my local paper, and the current windbag in residence, Dana Perino, is a dreadful blond thing, constantly perplexed that the Press and indeed to rest of the nation fails to view W as the Second Coming of Reagan. When I hear her voice, I want bore my ears out with a power drill. None of this triumvirate had any problem smiling through whatever bullshit, untruthful agitprop the White House was peddling at the time. But McClellan was a little different; at times, he looked uncomfortable when he knew he was selling a lie, like he needed an Alka Seltzer and a nap. So I almost, kind of, sort of have some sympathy for the guy in that he was maybe, just a little bit, human.

Anyway, I guess now he regrets enabling the Worst President Ever and wants to garner whatever ex post facto redemption he can get (a day late and a dollar short, no?). That is a pretty dangerous game to play with Karl Rove. As Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neal have proven, when insiders speak out against this Administration, the Administration will do its level best to smear and discredit the accuser. That effort proceeds apace and McClellan’s play for clemency may result in a horse’s head in his bed.

UPDATE: After rereading this post, I realized that it came off much more sympathetic to McClellan’s situation than intended. Let me be clear - this book is a self-serving attempt to gloss over his own sins by exposing those of his former employer, proving that Scottie is both cowardly and disloyal. So fuck McClellan and his book. He should have said something when it would have made a difference. It is not like he lacked a forum or the opportunity.

The GOP gets a Nader of its own

Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman from Georgia, is running for President on the Libertarian ticket. As a Democrat, I wholeheartedly support Barr’s candidacy and wish him nothing but the best. Let’s hope he can split the Republican vote by capturing the Ron Paul faction and/or some of the values voters disenchanted with McCain.

Now, I doubt this is terribly likely given Libertarian candidates’ historically poor performance but a serious challenge to McCain from the Right would certainly make for a more interesting race.

The living legend that is Lemmy

A new documentary about Lemmy Kilmister, frontman for Motorhead, is coming out next year. You can find the trailer here. The fact that he is 62 years old and still playing some of the loudest, fastest music out there says a lot about who he is and what he is about. Or as Dave Grohl puts it “More than any other rock musician, he is the baddest motherfucker in the world”. Indeed.

Very. Truly. Awful.

Sometimes, stories are so disgusting that I cannot find words adequate to describe my revulsion.

LONDON - Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers is rife and efforts to protect young people are inadequate, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The study said there were significant levels of abuse in emergencies, much of it unreported and unless the silence ended, attempts to stamp out exploitation would "remain fundamentally flawed."

This is one of those times. Go read, and try to keep you stomach from turning.

Good news

All the usual caveats of it is early and the poll sample is small, etc. but SUSA has some new polling up showing Obama with a seven point lead over McCain in Virginia and a nine point advantage in Ohio. Those two plus the Kerry states from 2004 give Obama a comfortable electoral margin.

You gotta be kidding me

Hillary is threatening to take her delegate fight to the floor of the Convention. This is exactly what we do not need – a big ‘ol four day clusterfuck of a grudge match on national TV. If her ego-fueled recklessness costs the Democrats the White House, she ought to be excommunicated from the Party.

Too smart by half

I am sure that everyone has seen the commercial for LifeLock in which the CEO of same advertises his Social Security number on a rolling billboard to emphasis the security of his company’s data protection service. That boast, rather predictably, turns out to be bogus.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.

Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.

I bring this up for two reasons. One, nothing is going to protect you from really determined identity thief. I deal in that kind of data all day, every day and in our modern computerized society, damn near every transaction in which we participate leaves footprints. From your debit card, to automatic toll collection, to your cell phone, everything is logged and stored somewhere, and that means someone has access to it. So unless you sell your car, close your bank and credit accounts, and otherwise fall off the grid, this is a fact of life. Which leads to my second point: do not make available important information like your Social Security Number, date of birth, bank PIN number, or a couple other more esoteric by nonetheless damning data points. Burglars will often skip over a house with a dog or a security system for an easier mark. Same goes with identity theft. Keep this stuff under wraps as much as possible. I know that sounds obvious but hey, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. So for God’s sake people, let’s be careful out there…

Quick question

Will the media types that got the vapors because of Jeremiah Wright go all Scarlett O’Hara over John McCain’s wackjob preacher friend who claims that Hitler was an instrument of God?

John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God's behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.

I doubt it. When it comes to McCain, all that crowd sees is goodness and light.

Huge bummer

Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Not a smart move

Thelma Drake represents Virginia’s 2nd CD, an area rife with sailors and Marines. With no fewer than 5 big military installations in the immediate vicinity, her District must have one of the highest concentrations of service men and women in the nation. One would think that anyone whose constituency contains so many members in the military would support nearly any bill that would expand the GI Bill; much less one for which she was at one time a co-sponsor and would cost only $5 billion a year. Instead, Drake caved, fearing the awesome power of the lame-duck President and his veto pen. I cannot wait for her to try and defend this vote to a bunch of college aged sailors – not going to be pretty. Painting yourself as a tool of the Worst. President. Ever. seems a pretty unwise re-election strategy as well.

Urban farming

This is such a cool idea and one that I hope can be replicated.

John McCain is too stupid to be President

That or he is a giant fear-mongering hack. From Haaretz:

Republican John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day.

The likely Republican presidential nominee made the criticism Monday in Chicago, Obama's home turf.

"Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment. These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess," McCain said at the restaurant industry's annual meeting.

He was referring to comments Obama made Sunday in Pendleton, Oregon: "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.’

Look, this is really not all that hard to understand. On the one hand, the Soviet Union had a developed economy, stable and capable leadership, and an enormous standing military equipped with oh say a bajillion nuclear missiles on a hair trigger, pointed at us, capable of destroying the planet many times over. The USSR was an existential threat. Iran, on the other hand, has a much smaller, less discipline fighting force, an economy dependent on oil, hyper-reactive leadership with a penchant for terrorism (sporting a Members Only jacket, no less), and no nukes. Not to put too fine a point of it but not even in Ahmadinejad’s wettest jihadi dream can Iran destroy Israel, much less the US. We are talking apples and oranges here.

To sum up, USSR: capable of ending all life on Earth; Iran: vaguely menacing. These two threats are not even comparable.

So, is McCain a dummy or a panic pushing weasel? We report, you decide…

(Hat tip to Eschaton)

Progress

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), a former Klan member, has announced his endorsement of Barak Obama. Now, I am not naïve enough to believe that America has achieved Coca-Cola commercial levels of racial harmony, but this endorsement is pretty symbolic of the progress that the Democratic Party and a good bit of this nation has made on issues of race. Again, we have not yet reached Dr. King’s “Promised Land”, but damn if we aren’t working on it. America today is a different world from America circa 1950 and that is a Very Good Thing.

Wow indeed

Obama held a rally yesterday in Portland. 75,000 people turned out which is, I think, the biggest crowd of the primary for any candidate.

















"Wow! Wow! Wow!" were his first words as he surveyed the multitude, which included people in kayaks and small pleasure craft on the river on an unseasonably hot day in Oregon.

Jeez, that is a lot of people.

There are problems and then there are PROBLEMS

From the AFP:

NAPLES, Italy (AFP) - Residents of Naples, fed up with the stench from months of uncollected rubbish, on Sunday used the waste to barricade streets in protest at the long-running crisis.

For days running, residents of the southern Italian city have set scores of stinking rubbish heaps alight, some throwing stones at firefighters called out to deal with the blazes, often under police escort.

[Snip]

Some 6,000 tonnes of household rubbish litter the streets of the city, and another 50,000 tonnes line the roads of the Campania region surrounding Naples, according to the latest figures, a product of the dysfunctional waste collection system.

I shudder to think what this must smell like now and with the heat of the summer coming, well, you get the picture.

Vodka – it’s what’s for dinner!

This is an email conversation between Lo and I trying to figure out what to have for dinner tonight. Suffice it to say, it has been a trying week.

Me: So what would make you happy for dinner?

Lo: Hmmm… hadn’t really thought about it. You? Not cooking’s a pretty good idea.

Me: I haven’t put much thought to it past martini olives…

Lo: That sounds like a great dinner. Three for me please!

Gonna be an interesting night at my house…

One of the reasons why I (generally) oppose the death penalty...

Because freeing an innocent man is easier than re-animating a dead one.

When you take diplomacy off the table, war is all that remains

With the recent brouhaha concerning Obama’s willingness to talk to Iran, and the Right’s insistence that doing so invites the Apocalypse, two of my favorite quotes on diplomacy sprang to mind.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. – Winston Churchill
War is merely a continuation of politics by other means. – Carl Von Clausewitz

Look, this is pretty simple when you get down to brass tacks. The US has two options for dealing with Iran; diplomacy or war. Iran cannot be bullied by sanctions because she sits on a sea of oil. Nor can we effectively browbeat them in the UN and the like because frankly, they don’t give a fuck. So what else is left?

We could, as Bush and McCain seem to desire, start a third war in the Middle East but that is, at this juncture, pretty dim-witted. Or, we could sit down and talk. Not capitulate, roll over or appease, but set up an agenda and talk. For some reason, the Right believes that if we go to the table with Ahmadinejad, we will forget how to say no and hand over Saudi Arabia or something. Simply talking to adversaries does not equate to Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hilter, nor should it be considered a sign of weakness. If Chris Matthews can draw that conclusion, then the 70% of the nation with their head not firmly sequestered in their rectum can figure that out as well.

And if it comes down to it and Iran gets serious about attacking its neighbors, I think military action can and should be used but we are a long way from that point. Right now, we still have options. Conversely, by swearing off negotiations, the US is all but guaranteeing that our conflict with Iran ends in bloodshed. This “no negotiation” policy is painting our foreign policy into a corner. How stupid is that?

Califabulous

From the AP:

SAN FRANCISCO - In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

Awesome.

I couldn't agree more

From Balloon Juice:

We should have a January 20, 2009 countdown ticker at this blog, and I think we should have a national celebration when this criminal leaves office. I mean a truly national celebration, with fireworks, street parties, city proclamations, etc that would be televised all over the world. I want President Bush’s last day in office to be the most huniliating experience of his life – one where the American people show him how absolutely jubliant they are that he is no longer the leader of this country. We could call it “National Thank Fucking God Day” or something like that.

Word.

The inevitable meltdown

The knives are out among the Congressional Republicans. Oh how I love this.

House Republicans turned on themselves yesterday after a third straight loss of a GOP-held House seat in special elections this year left both parties contemplating widespread Democratic gains in November.

In huddles, closed-door meetings and hastily arranged conference calls, some Republicans demanded the head of their political chief, while others decried their leadership as out of touch with the political catastrophe they face.

[Snip]

"These races were not in New Jersey or New England, where Republican erosion has taken place over the last decade. They were in the heart of the Bible Belt, the social conservative core of our coalition," Rep. Tom Davis (Va.) fretted in a 20-page memorandum given to House Republican leaders yesterday and provided to The Washington Post.

"Members and pundits, waiting for Democrats to fumble the ball so that soft Republicans and Independents will snap back to the GOP, fail to understand the deep seeded antipathy toward the President, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures and, in some areas, the underlying cultural differences that continue to brand our party."

[Snip]

"We haven't hit bottom yet. I've never seen members so frustrated or demoralized," former House majority leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) said in an interview.

LOL. That has to be the first time Tom f-ing Delay has put a smile on my face.

Taking it in the teeth

The Democratic Party, for all of the caterwauling about the primary dustups and the like, is on a major roll. Yesterday, the good guys won a special election in Mississippi’s 1st District, a place that Bush carried with 62% in 2004. More importantly, the Democrat, Travis Childers, won by 8 points marking the third such win in a row. But the two most significant items to draw from this latest defeat for the GOP; the Party’s reputation among their core voters is shot to hell and its strategy of nationalizing these elections by tying candidates to Obama, Pelosi, et al. has failed miserably. November is shaping up nicely.

Merle Black, a Southern politics expert at Emory University, called a Democratic victory potentially “a huge upset, and an indication of a terrible year ahead for the Republicans.” He added, “In theory, this should be an easy win for them.”

Mimicking a strategy that proved successful in 2006, Democrats ran staunch conservatives in both this and the Louisiana race, forcing their Republican opponents to attack national party figures as surrogates.

Mr. Davis had been hoping for a large turnout in his home of DeSoto County, where roughly 15 percent of the district’s voters live, and which is solidly Republican and mostly white. But a last-minute appearance for him by Mr. Cheney on Monday apparently failed to rally his base sufficiently; indeed a modest room at a local convention center was hardly packed.

“There are indications that the normal Republican turnout is just not there,” Mr. Black said. “If they can’t win up there, where are you going to win?"

Now that is a great question. An unmotivated base, an unpopular administration, the twin shadows of Iraq and ever increasing food/energy prices; people are pissed and the same old bullshit is not going to fly this time around, even in the reddest of districts. Just pointing at the oppostition and screaming “LIBERAL” is not going to work anymore. Things look so bad for the GOP that Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) proffered,

“Voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general. Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward-looking agenda that offers the kind of positive change voters are looking for.”

Translation: Oh boy. Unless we come up with something quick, we are so very screwed. To which I say Mazal Tov losers – you make your bed, that’s where you lay.

Sacrifice

So as not to look even more the part of an out-of-touch nitwit imperialist, President Bush gave up golf a few years back. He claims it was an act of camaraderie with the troops but I tend to believe Rove or some other handler probably pointed out that playing 18 while fumbling a war didn’t look especially great on the 6 o’clock news. Anyway…

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said in an interview out Tuesday that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, now in its sixth year.

"I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said in an interview for Yahoo! News and Politico magazine.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them."

I am sure that his noble abstention from golfing has lent much comfort to grieving families. What a dick. Now watch this drive.

There is a special place in Hell for these people

This is some evil stuff.

Like Atrios, I had a hard time believing that Mark Penn was really this stupid but upon further reflection and accounting for his disastrous handling of the Clinton campaign, this just isn’t all that surprising.

Clinton picked people for her team primarily for their loyalty to her, instead of their mastery of the game. That became abundantly clear in a strategy session last year, according to two people who were there. As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified - and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?"

The answer, Mr. Ickes, is that Penn is an overpriced, ignorant hack.

The Clinton campaign is Jason Voorhees

Hillary got trounced in North Carolina by 14 points and over 200,000 votes and barely won Indiana by a margin of just over 20,000 votes and 2 percentage points. This thing, for all intents and purposes, is over, dead, fini. And yet Clinton promises to keep coming…

"Tonight, we've come from behind. We've broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House," Clinton told hundreds of supporters in downtown Indianapolis as former President Clinton and daughter Chelsea stood by her side.

For the love of all that is good and decent. Just. Make. It. Stop. PLEASE.

Dina Lohan, Lindsay’s mother, named Top Mom

OK, who stuffed the ballot box?

The blind squirrel finds a nut

Richard Cohen’s column doesn’t suck today.

22,000

That is the number dead from the cyclone strike in Myanmar. When I heard that number on NPR this morning, I was shocked. And that may be the tip of the iceberg.



Satellite images taken by the NASA MODIS program show the Irrawaddy region on April 15(L) before Cyclone Nargis and May 5 (R) after Cyclone Nargis.(AFP/NASA/MODIS)

YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as the international community prepared to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.

[Snip]

"From the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, said in a statement.

Shameless self-promotion

Last summer, our backyard was reduced to dirt after my neighbor’s tree fell. The lovely and talented Lo took some before and after pictures and posted them here.

Leading indicators

From Reuters:

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana Democrat won a special congressional election in a district held by Republicans for more than two decades, increasing her party's majority in the House of Representatives, results from the state showed on Sunday.

State Rep. Don Cazayoux narrowly defeated Republican Woody Jenkins for the seat in Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, which includes part of the capital city of Baton Rouge.

This one has to scare the RNC and almost anyone running on the GOP ticket in 2008. The 6th CD has not seated a Democrat in over 30 years. If we are winning on their field, particularly some very, very Red turf such as this, the folks running in marginal districts must be freaking out. Congressional Republicans could be(fingers crossed) in for some tough sledding this fall.

Today’s Required reading

Mike Sheehan has a hilarious Q&A with the always brilliant Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone contributor and provocateur extraordinaire. He is among my absolute favorite writers working today and his most recent book, “Smells like Dead Elephants" is one of the funniest and acerbic bits of political satire I have read in a while. The following is a big ‘ol slice of why:

S&R: If you were Jesus, would you use your divine powers to meddle in the outcome of sporting events, as teams like the Rockies believe he does?

Taibbi: If and when I ever get to be Interior Minister, one of my first acts is going to be the putting to death of anyone who thinks God interferes in the outcome of things like sporting events and elections. I’d want to have a giant shark tank built expressly for this purpose. Just throw them in there and then dump a couple of barrels of cow blood in the water.

Word.

Bad idea

So I was driving to work the other day when Lo called me up, irritated because of the stupid gas tax holiday proposal that McCain and Clinton are pushing. The following is a rough transcript from my often unreliable memory.

L: Hey, did you hear about this stupid gas tax thing?

Me: Yeah.

L: It is going to save me like 30 cents a day. Big deal!

Me: Yeah.

L: So stupid!

Me: Yeah.

When my lovely wife and a handful of this nation’s preeminent economist agree that an idea is bad, it is just that. Here are a handful of reviews:

Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw: "What you learn in Economics 101 is that if producers can't produce much more, when you cut the tax on that good the tax is kept . . . by the suppliers and is not passed on to consumers.”

Leonard Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution: "Every summer, the refiners are running full out. If the price fell, people would want to drive more and there would be shortages. It's a basic economic principle that if the supply is fixed, the price is going to be determined by demand."

Lo: “Stupid.”

See, the experts agree - not a good idea. The Post gets into the details here.

Runoff

The Zimbabwean government has finally released its “official” vote tally from the recent Presidential election, resulting in a runoff between corrupt incumbent Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. I say “official” because the vote was nearly six weeks ago, the results are very much in dispute, and in the intervening period, the government has initiated a violent campaign against its adversaries and raided both the opposition HQ and that of the election monitors.

Nothing about this passes the smell test.

Cannot do anything right

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela is on the US terrorist watch list. Nelson fucking Mandela!?!?! Were this level of ineptitude without precedent, it would almost be funny. Given the track record of DHS, it is so very not…

Irony

Today is the fifth anniversary of Commander Cuckoo Banana’s now infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech on the deck of the Lincoln. The take from the Beeb:

President Bush did not say "Mission Accomplished" on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego on 1 May five years ago. But the banner above him did.

And the picture of those two words said more than the 1,829 words of his speech.

What the president said, among a lot of other things, was: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

But the message from the banner said it simpler - mission accomplished. It was all over.

It wasn't. Guerrilla war followed, and this has produced more US casualties than the "major combat operations" did.

The phrase "mission accomplished" has lost that distinctive military ring of finality that it once had. It has become an irony.

Hubris, incompetence, lack of integrity, and a healthy disregard for the obvious are the hallmarks of the Bush Administration. If one had to choose a moment in this reign of error that encapsulated those qualities, the banner debacle would certainly be among the most appropriate if not ironic as well.