Here’s Michael Steele:
Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”…
“It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”
Everyone knows that there was no land war in Afghanistan until 2009. Since Saddam paid for Al Qaeda’s attack on 9/11, it’s always puzzled me what Obama was doing attacking that other place.
(via)
numbskull
The ads just write themselves:
Scene: Arlington cemetary
Voice over: American troops have been fighting and dying in Afghanistan for over 9 years. Protecting our freedom. Directly attacking those who attacked us.
Scene change: Mikey Steel blathering on about something.
Voice over: So we were disgusted when the Republican Party declared that our troops have only been fighting and dying for less than a year. Just the same old party politics.
This November, vote to support our troops.Vote to honor their sacrifice. Vote to give them the support to win. Vote Democratic.
Sound comes up on Steele’s lying speech.
Sound goes back down.
Voice over: The modern Republican Party. No respect for the troops. No respect for the sacrifices made by their families. No respect for America. Just the same old party politics.
Scene change: Fade to black.
Voice over with white text on screen: This November, vote to support the troops. Vote to honor their sacrifices.
Vote Democratic.
Linda Featheringill
Wikipedia thinks that the war in Afghanistan started on October 7, 2001.
I have not always been thrilled by Obama’s conduct of that war, but he did not start it. Baby Bush did.
Ron
Steele is the gift that keeps on giving.
homerhk
The question is whether anyone will pick up on this obvious lie? Will Hamsherites get on board with Michael Steele now?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Okay now, this is too much to process early in the morn. Sounds like Steele is angling for a guest blogger gig at FDL with this kind of talk. Or, maybe he is besting Obama with some 12 dementional chess? Or, maybe he found Rush’s Oxy stash? The BS is all getting deep out there, that much is for certain.
Comrade Dread
Silly me. Here I thought the reason George Bush and company stopped pursuing Al Qeada and OBL was either rank stupidity (“He’s not that important”) or gross malfeasance.
I never stopped to think that it was tactical brilliance:
“No one wins a land war in Afghanistan, so what we’ll do is bomb the shit out of the place, make it look like we’re hunting Al Qaeda, and the short shrift the place resources and troops so we’re not in a real land war. It’s awesome!
Wha- what do you mean we’ll be letting the Taliban rebuild for the next six years? Silence, fool. You clearly don’t understand tactics. Now excuse me, I have to go sacrifice my queen for your pawn.”
Calming Influence
Stunning. I’m looking forward to the MSM’s “he said she said” reporting on this.
“Democrats are insisting that the war in Afghanistan was started by President Bush. Republicans say that the Democrats are just playing politics. More as this story develops… “
merrinc
I agree with Michael Steele. Now let’s go play a nice game of ice hockey in hell.
ellaesther
Yesterday, over at his place, cleek issued a plea for smarter demagogues: http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?p=9498
In light of these quotes, I hereby second that plea.
pattonbt
Steele had been quite for a while. Glad to see him coming out a bit with elections in a few months.
The man is comedy gold.
debbie
“Clarification” from Steele’s spokesperson:
(via TPM)
cleek
Steele has learned from Palin that history is provisional and truth is mutable.
Indie Tarheel
Candy Crowley relishes the chance to trot out her money line once more.
Asshole
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and at peace with Eastasia.
numbskull
Sorry, I messed up editing. You get the picture.
The ads just write themselves:
Scene: Arlington cemetary
Voice over: American troops have been fighting and dying in Afghanistan for over 9 years. Protecting our freedom. Directly attacking those who attacked us.
Scene change: Mikey Steel blathering on about something.
Voice over: So we were disgusted when the Republican Party declared that our troops have only been fighting and dying for less than a year. Just the same old party politics.
Sound goes back down.
Voice over: The modern Republican Party. No respect for the troops. No respect for the sacrifices made by their families. No respect for America. Just the same old party politics.
Scene change: Fade to black.
Voice over with white text on screen: This November, vote to support the troops. Vote to honor their sacrifices.
Vote Democratic.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@debbie: You do polish a fine turd, bravo!
OriGuy
Inconceivable!
Brian J
I can only begin to imagine the sort of hysterical attacks that would emerge if he decided to scale back the efforts in Afghanistan or stop them entirely.
Shalimar
This part I agree with. Getting out wouldn’t have been easy, but it would have been the right thing to do. We weren’t accomplishing anything in Afghanistan at the beginning of 2009, yet Obama chose to escalate the war instead of bringing it to a close. He owns the damned thing now.
Whereas, this part is incredibly insulting to George W. Bush. If his administration never actively prosecuted the war in the country that sheltered our actual attackers, doesn’t they say everything about Bush’s incompetence?
catclub
I think Steele just wanted people to know he has watched The Princess Bride. Of course, he was not paying attention to that either.
catclub
@Shalimar:
Exactly.
If Steele had stopped then he would have been accurate.
kay
@debbie:
Hate to say it, but I agree with that.
Steele is ridiculous (although I almost enjoy him: I don’t think he gives a shit about any of this ) but the basic point is sound.
It’s Obama’s war. Iraq isn’t, but Afghanistan is. Obama actually ran on Afghanistan. He used it to draw a distinction with Iraq, but that was only part of it, and that was the most overtly “political” part. I think he believes everything he said.
It’s his, and he’ll be (rightly) judged on it. I don’t know what Republicans do with Steele’s comment, and I don’t care all that much. I don’t know what they really believe, on Afghanistan or anything else.
debbie
Pity editing function doesn’t work for slower connections, but the quote from Steele’s spokesman is as follows:
(via TPM)
Chad N Freude
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
This is good!
El Cid
I suppose some of you are now going to deny that Jimmy Carter and ACORN attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
JGabriel
Michael Steele: the Black Eric Cantor.
.
debbie
F. This is the quote; blockquoting isn’t working:
The Chairman clearly supports our troops but believes that success of the war effort in Afghanistan requires the ongoing support of the American people.
The responsibility for building and maintaining that strategy falls squarely on the shoulders of the President. Like so many Americans, Chairman Steele wants to hear an explanation from President Obama on what his strategy is for winning the war in Afghanistan. The Petraeus hearings were an opportunity – a missed opportunity – to do that. Instead, all we hear from the President is criticism of his predecessor for doing exactly the same thing.
At the same time, Congress must stop playing politics with the war and provide the funding our troops need to win and come home.
bootsy
@debbie: Yes, Mr. Michael “I wouldn’t be here except for Thurgood Marshall, who hated the constitution so much that he fought for school desegregation” Steele IS making yet another coherent point. Why won’t you people understand that lying is the best way to make a point?!!
Also, lying is the best way to help our troops!
JGabriel
Shalimar:
Our children isn’t learning!
.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Chad N Freude: Thank you, Thank you very much.
Chad N Freude
@debbie: Re original Steele quote, see Dumpty, Humpty:
Allan
Next up: a joint presser with Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink.
El Cid
@JGabriel: Where wings take dream, and put food on your family, and Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love, with women all across the country. Uniquely American.
El Cid
You people with your primitive thinking that time is a linear thing. Republicans are able to see time in all its dimensions, and realize that sometimes causation runs in reverse. They’re strangers in a strange land.
Chad N Freude
@General Egali Tarian Stuck: Why does this make me think of Elvis?
Chad N Freude
I can’t help wondering if even the people who take Michael Steele seriously take Michael Steele seriously.
eemom
@El Cid:
It’s astounding. Time is fleeting, and madness takes its toll.
Ash Can
Whoa — did the Wipe-o take that video down? I tried clicking all the way through and basically got a 404 at the WP’s web site.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@debbie: We got you, and everything you said makes sense, except spinning away Steele’s asshattery. Being too clever by half with a blatant lie.
It currently is Obama’s war, going forward, specifically on how to end it. But rewriting history by excluding his predecessor essentially losing the war a long time ago, is a vital part of the story. And now Obama, having access to detailed info on what is the situation there, has taken the politically unsavory policy position, from CW on wars, and has announced a fixed date for withdrawal of said ground war. Likely realizing it cannot succeed as a ground war. It is debatable as to this needing to occur earlier, but now is policy.
Zifnab
Honestly, I hope Steele keeps harping on this nonsense. Try and make Obama “own” the Afghanistan war and you’ll just pressure him that much harder to get the hell out.
These wars were ultimately political losers anyway. They’re giant sucking tax holes that don’t do us a damn bit with foreign policy. If Steele wants to be one more voice blasting away at the war, more power to him. Any Republicans who want to get in on this are encouraged as well.
Alex S.
What a cynical fuck.
SiubhanDuinne
@General Stuck: I think Debbie’s entire post was a statement from Steele’s flack, and she simoply had a mmoment of FYWP blockquote fail. I could be wrong but I didn’t take it that the words were necessarily her views.
cdmarine
This is… I mean, just… …
I think this might be the weirdest thing Michael Steele has ever said. And that’s really saying something!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@SiubhanDuinne: This happens with our fywp. If so, my apologies debbie:)
SiubhanDuinne
@General ETS: I guess I don’t understand why you think Debbie is “spinning.” AFAICT she’s simply providing a quote from Michael Steele’s spokescritter. That’s where the spin is, not in anything Debbie said.
Unless I am just completely misreading her. Which is possible.
Joel
@catclub: He does bear some resemblance to Wallace Shawn.
Chad N Freude
@SiubhanDuinne: I must be jaded. I thought that was obvious.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@SiubhanDuinne: No, I see now her entire post was a Steele quote. My bad, and sincere apologies for not catching it in her first comment. And not reading closely her last effort at explanation which was clear. Sometimes, I am an idiot, sometimes.
SiubhanDuinne
General: sorry, didn’t see yours to me before I posted my latest to you (I’m having my own FYWP issues, exacerbated by the fact that half the time when I’m entering text into the reply window on the BlackBerry there is nothing on the screen so I’m essentially typing blind.) (No offense to the differently-sighted.)
scav
They’ve taken their War on Evolution and escalated it to a War on The Arrow of Time itself. Although, as they had that Police Action on Causality, it may be that the fronts have just merged. Existence sure is exciting on this side of the event horizon.
themann1086
My brain had to go into a BSOD to prevent damage from the sheer madness of this quote. Then a “WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN-” followed by “if it weren’t for my horse, if it weren’t for my horse”.
Don’t be too surprised if I wind up dead in my bathtub 10 days from now from an aneurysm.
Corner Stone
I for one am glad we have 88K troops and 110K contractors in Afghanistan, and just passed funding to send 30K more troops and untold contractors there.
Because it really seems to be helping things
“Pakistanis lashed out Friday at the U.S., blaming its alliance with their government and its presence in Afghanistan for spurring two suicide bombers to kill 42 people at the country’s most important Sufi shrine”
Damn, I hope the ninja’s that want to steal Paki’s nukes don’t read this article. They may step up their timeline.
srv
As we approach The Wingularity, spacetime becomes increasing unstable and Republicans will be saying crazier things and saner things, sometimes at the same time.
As for Steele, I think he is really employing someone on the Simpson’s staff.
KG
This is the sentence that I’m stuck on. I simply don’t have the words to express how stupid that sentence is and why I can’t deconstruct it.
Shalimar
@Zifnab: This. I hope Republicans come out against the Afghan war en masse because anything Obama supports must be bad. Couple that with all the leftwing pressure to get out, and maybe we will finally end this war that will never be won.
Nellcote
Coming up this Sunday, these guys will explain it all:
This Week: Sen. McCain (from Afghanistan)
Face the Nation: Sen. Graham (from Afghanistan)
Fox News Sunday: Sen. Lieberman (from Afghanistan)
El Cid
@efgoldman: Okay, my facts were wrong, but there’s no way you’re going to erase ACORN’s responsibility for launching the Civil War by forcing the South to give mortgages to slaves who couldn’t afford the payments.
srv
@Corner Stone: I don’t think Americans will be happy until we have made Pakistan as stable as we made Cambodia in the 70’s.
John PM
Motherfucker!
That’s all I got.
gnomedad
The Repubs want Obama to get out of Afghanistan ASAP so they can start blaming him for “losing” it.
El Cid
@Shalimar: What do you mean ‘will never be won’? Didn’t you hear that we have a counter-insurgency strategy? Are you not aware of how we fixed Iraq? Gosh.
El Cid
@srv: That’s not fair. Every good pundit knows that Noam Chomsky caused all the troubles in Cambodia.
EconWatcher
Bill Kristol just called on Steele to resign. http://corner.nationalreview.com/
I don’t see how Steele survives this one. It’s too big, and what he said was unambiguous; no slip of the tongue.
Comrade Mary
@catclub: and @Joel: Heh. Win.
TomG
Apparently William Kristol is now asking for Michael Steele to resign, specifically because of this speech.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/letter-michael-steele
EconWatcher
I’ll add a prediction: Steele will be gone by close-of-business Tuesday.
freelancer
@catclub:
I was thinking the same thing…that Rob Reiner’s full of shit, man.
frankdawg
@gnomedad:
This!
Anyone old enough to have lived through our Viet Nam experience knew where this was going from the moment Boy George decided to get even with Saddam for trying to kill his -Oedipus- -rival- Poppy.
We will flop around badly for too long hearing about how important it is, kids will continue to kill & die for no obvious reason, the whole situation will become a nightmare that can’t be won & can’t be quit . . . and eventually it will all be the Dems fault that we lost.
Alex S.
@EconWatcher:
Wow, Steele is dead, he offended the neo-cons.
liberal
@EconWatcher:
I would have thought he’d have been booted by now, but you’re right, this is the last straw.
cleek
@EconWatcher:
Bill never-once-right-about-anything Kristol ?
El Cid
@EconWatcher: Kristol’s mad because Steele just took credit away from Bush Jr. as the Commander Guy who launched a war in Afghanistan and from His Mightiness The Fixer of Iraq General David Julius Gaius Bracchus Septimus Antonio Banderas Petraeus, who will now fix Afghanistan.
Corner Stone
Reality: What are you saying?
Steele: I said he’ll flip you.
Reality: He’ll what?
Steele: Flip you. Flip ya for real.
inkadu
@OriGuy: Obama is sure to invade Sicily next.
Beej
Is Michael Steele really as double-jointed as he seems? It can’t be that easy to walk around with your foot in your mouth, but he seems to accomplish it with remarkable frequency.
El Cid
Quadrupling down on driving away Latino / Hispanic voters forever: Brewer says illegal immigrants are coming over and chopping Americans’ heads off. Preferably after they finish the gardening and cooking and dishwashing and drywalling, but you never know.
Apparently it’s now all the rage to equate narco-trafficking with illegal immigration, because, you know, if we crack down on illegal immigration, narco-traffickers won’t try to enter the US to ship drugs, because then they would be afraid of running afoul of the law.
West of the Cascades
@catclub: Brilliant. Steele, like Wesley, has spent years building up an immunity to self-contradictory statements.
Bulworth
But we’re America, dammit. This is awfully defeatist, wimpyish defeatism talk. Also, too.
El Cid
@Bulworth: None of the others have a counter-insurgency strategy. We do. This is true because the military says so. Which means it is true.
Bulworth
@Corner Stone:
Oh, is that the one about the hooker with the dysentery?
Jay in Oregon
@EconWatcher:
Great, let’s add another dimension of surreality to this mess.
If Kristol calls on Steele to resign, then he’ll be the head of the party when the stars go cold…
matoko_chan
Im just astonished at all the fundage and study that has been invested in COIN.
COIN is a patch. The mil-strat guys trotted out COIN because of the EPIC FAIL of Bush’s Manifest Destiny of Judeoxian Democracy in MENA.
Bush obviously thought Dobson and Warren and Robertson were going to stage mass conversions to xianity on the mosque steps in Baghdad and Kabul.
The retard thought he was going to fight Gog and Magog to defend Israel. Is there no restraint on a crazy CinC?
Basically, COIN is selfcontradictory. The neocons claimed COIN was successful because of trusted network generation in Anbar province. But accord to classic SNT, every adversary network denoded by killing “insurgents” spawns an exponential amount of new influence opposition. Given that every insurgent has parents, children, cousins, grandparents, brothers, sisters in their bloodnetwork, and the whole Ummah in their social network (all muslims are brothers and sisters), the social network mass of people killed, wounded, made homeless, etc by AMERICANS in MENA is greater than any theoretical amount of trusted networks that COULD POSSIBLY be generated.
COIN didn’t actually work in Iraq….it couldn’t….the sons of Iraq got paychecks to develop loyalty.
It seems like that would be hella cheaper than dead soljahs and 100 billion a year.
Allan
Breaking news: Michael Steele to lead a March on Washington for Peace, Jobs and Justice.
EconWatcher
I would ordinarily agree that we should assume the opposite of whatever Bill Kristol says (and I bow to no man in Kristol-bashing). But on this one, his view is going to prevail. Steele cannot survive this.
By the way, shockingly, Kristol actually suggested that Obama had to fire McChrystal and should replace him with Petraeus–before either of these events happened. If two wins in succession can be called a roll, the man is kind of on a roll. It’s as if my whole world makes no sense any more.
Hugin & Munin
El Cid: But what about inflation? Who can we bomb to stop this out of control inflation? Who will rid us of this meddlesome money supply?
Sentient Puddle
TPM:
He may well be fucked.
eemom
@EconWatcher:
do they dare? Elections, only AA in the entire party except Clarence Thomas and that guy Obama beat in Chicago, etc, etc.
‘Sides, who the hell listens to Kristol? Now if El Limpballs disses him, that’s another kettle of fish……
Bulworth
What makes this even more better FAIL is he is basically giving a new party line to the 2010 GOP congressional candidates. Someone in the party, probably rushbo, will have to reprogram them before they go out to regurgitate the latest meme.
Allan
TPM is featuring a recent statement by Steele calling Afghanistan “a war we have to win.”
Josh points out that the most intriguing part of this story is that it was a REPUBLICAN operative who provided them with the story link.
He’s fucked.
eemom
OT, but Oren Hatch can go fuck himself with a rusty Book of Mormon.
Catsy
Michael Steele: worst RNC chairman ever, or greatest DNC ratfuck ever?
I will miss him when he’s gone.
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.” -Voltaire
EconWatcher
Catsy:
That’s the tragedy here: I like Mr. Steele right where he is. God put him where he could do the most good in the world. So I hope I’m wrong, and his star continues to shine in the firmament forevermore.
El Cid
@Hugin & Munin: If we don’t go to the gold standard soon, it’s just a hop skip and a jump until Hillary uses our massive inflation which doesn’t exist into her long-standing goal to use UN-Russian forces to invade the US and impose pagan soshullism.
Joseph Nobles
Dream scenario: Michael Steele leading a Republican coup against Beck’s 8/28 book event/Beck University infomercial/”I have a scheme” co-opting of MLK’s March on Washington.
twiffer
@El Cid: you mean it’s wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey?
twiffer
hope this closes that rogue strike-throughAlex S.
Who will be the first to resign? Michael Steele or Carlos Dunga?
Zifnab
@EconWatcher:
You could have said that about Future Chairman Barton and his BP apology. Or about DeMint or Bunning or any of the other Unemployment Insurance secret holders. Or about Sarah Palin on any given Tuesday.
There is nothing – simply nothing – you can lie about as a Republican and get punished for by your own party, so long as you are attacking a Democrat. The most wide-eyed, bald-faced, flat-out lies will be trumpeted by the wingnut talk radio. And the “liberal media” will be cowed into swallowing the line, or suffer the wrath of a thousand angry phone calls from people who don’t watch their shows anyway.
Jay in Oregon
@Allan:
In that case, I look forward to the following headline on Fox News…
BREAKING: DNC chair Michael Steele resigns
…because no matter what, it’s always good news for Republicans.
robertdsc
When Michael Steele is the voice of reason, the world has truly lost its marbles.
licensed to kill time
Michael Steele is a blithering idiot and demonstrates it every time he opens his mouth. In a just world the only reaction to his statements would be guffaws, followed by unsubtle pointing and mocking. Guffaw, point, mock, rinse and repeat.
GPMRAR!
jibeaux
@Jay in Oregon:
I don’t think so. Republicans really don’t like Michael Steele.
Joe Lisboa
O/T but Sully has finally pushed me into the never-gonna-read-him-again position:
I am a pretty cynical dude, but this is just tone-deaf and, well, heartless. What a self-righteous prick. Can you even imagine flipping the script and putting HIV-positive Sully as the recipient of my sacrifices to Satan or something despite his contrary beliefs? What a smug, privileged asshole.
cleek
this just in: Obama has already peaked. it’s all downhill from here !
or so says George Will.
EconWatcher
Zifnab:
The difference between your examples and this one is that in your examples, the speaker went too far in advocating conservative positions (e.g., apologizing to BP). Here, Steele not only got his facts wrong, he clearly advocated a DFH position completely at odds with his party. He’s gone.
Corner Stone
@Joe Lisboa:
THIS is what did it? Him being a prick to Hitchens?
This was the last straw for you?
Corner Stone
@catsy
I love Michael Steele and I don’t care who knows it.
He’s the King of The Grift, and the long term con.
Bless that man.
Midnight Marauder
@EconWatcher:
Please, oh please, in the name of everything that is good and awesome, let this happen. I can’t tell you how giddy I am at the prospect of a freshly spurned, loosened from the shackles Michael Steele appearing nonstop on television for the next 4-5 months, making life astronomically more painful for the Republican Party.
If these are the things he is saying now, while he is still actively the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, then I can only imagine how much damage he will inflict when he no longer has any official obligations to the party. This is probably one of the greatest things that could happen for Democrats, and has to be considered as strong evidence for the idea that Michael Steele has been masquerading as a liberal performance artist all this time.
The gift that keeps on giving, this guy.
Joe Lisboa
@Corner Stone: Okay, ya got me there. Straw, the back of a camel, I dunno. I guess I just identified with being the recipient of NO-I-WILL-PrAY-FOR-YOU-HEATHEN smugness so often.
MikeJ
I’m convinced the RNC wants Steele to remain chairman, and they want him to look ridiculous. They’re trying to give the impression that it is dangerous and stupid to have a black man in charge.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Corner Stone:
Steele: I don’t know anything about no fuckin truck.
FOX News host: Oh, yeah? Well, your friend David Vitter told us a different story altogether.
Steele: Oh, is that the one about the hooker with the dysentery?
El Cid
@twiffer: Don’t blink. Whatever you do, don’t look away, and don’t blink.
Corner Stone
@MikeJ:
To me, this is similar to Cole’s point about CNN hiring Erick Erickson. EE is bound to say some shit you need to disavow, but when you do, EE will win the day with his victimization routine. EE is going to damage you CNN, we all know this.
For Steele, the RNC can now not back off from him without looking extremely bad. What are they going to do, say they gave Big Blackie a chance but he failed?
IMO, Steele’s here for as long as he can grift. And when he sees the money drain he will move on.
Alex S.
I took a shower, has Steele resigned yet?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks. Believe me, I wasn’t defending Steele; I was trying to share what his rep said (which I thought only made it worse). I formatted it correctly, but it kept displaying differently (and wrongly).
Kay, I agree that it’s Obama’s responsibility now (and he hasn’t denied that), but it’s really quite offensive that Republicans frame their statements as if this whole 9-year affair were an Obama mistake. Not that they don’t try to do this with everything else (TARP, GS, etc.), but I recall when going to war in Afghanistan was represented as the ultimate patriotic gesture, and the tiniest of dissent was condemned as traitorous.
Alex S.
@MikeJ:
Hehe, now the Republicans can say, “See! All the blacks are dirty fucking hippies!”
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Jay in Oregon:
(FOX News) BREAKING: DNC chair Michael Steele resigns
FTW!
Corner Stone
@Alex S.:
Steele may or may not resign. But Dunga is a lock to be seeking asylum in some country soon.
cleek
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
boooo!
long live Micheal Steele!
Brien Jackson
Hey look, Democrats are doing it all wrong again.
Martin
@Joe Lisboa: Um, Sully and Hitch know each other pretty well. They’re both public figures. Sully’s not being a dick – he’s just poking Hitch in a spot that he knows Hitch doesn’t mind being poked, and doing it now shows that Sully isn’t going to invite a pity party onto Hitch, which I suspect Hitch would actually appreciate.
Don’t take offense on Hitch’s part – he’s perfectly capable of airing his own offense.
And for what it’s worth, this atheist agrees with Sully. I don’t mind saying that I’ve kicked my believing friends in the ribs just like Sully is doing when they’re down. Its our way of saying ‘No pity party for you. You can blame your problems on Jesus, or you can deal with it and get on with your life, and everyone likes you better doing the latter, so get on with it already.”
Some relationships just work like that. I cannot imagine that Sully and Hitch’s don’t, have read both of them for some years now.
Brien Jackson
@Joe Lisboa:
I get your point, but so far as I know Sully and Hitch are pretty good friends, so assuming that’s true I’m not going to pass judgment on their personal relationship. And so far as Sully’s HIV goes, he kind of addressed that right there in your quote, didn’t he?
Michael
This just in – FDL moron nyceve says everything is Obama’s fault and that “the base” needs to teach Democrats a lesson this fall.
Corner Stone
@Michael:
$30 B more for escalation in Afghanistan, Presidential deficit commission to recommend cuts to our social safety net, States forcing state workers to be paid minimum wage…
Not sure what you’re upset about.
MikeJ
@Brien Jackson: Doing it wrong? Hell, I’m thrilled to see them kick Steele in the nads.
QuaintIrene
He addressed the crowd as ‘federal candidates.’ Just how generic a grouping was this?
celticdragonchick
@Linda Featheringill:
Uh… arguably the Taliban and Al Qaeda did.
celticdragonchick
@Joe Lisboa:
Considering these are two long time friends (and room mates!) who also share a British sense of humor, your reaction seems more like that of somebody who hates Sully to begin with, and who wants more justification for what you have already determined anyway no matter what Sully does or does not do.
Chad N Freude
@celticdragonchick: Arguably Al-Qaeda committed a criminal act abetted by the Taliban, like in 1993. Not the same as starting a war.
Karyn
@OriGuy: Thank you – I thought I was the only one thinking that!!! Politics just feels like a string of poor movie paraphrasing to me at this point.
someguy
I’m going to miss the little fucker. It was refreshing to have an RNC chair who called out Republicans for the sick racist bastards that they are.
Steele probably did it unintentionally, without really knowing what he was doing, but hey, give credit where it’s due.
celticdragonchick
@Chad N Freude:
I think that most Americans feel that the attacks of September 11 were an actual act of war. If the mass destruction and 3,000 dead are just going to be downgraded to a “criminal act”, then there really is no such thing as a Casus Belli.
I absolutely cannot agree with you.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@celticdragonchick:
Fully agree. and so did the UN, who basically declared war before our AUMF.
scav
Well, I’m still not comfortable thinking of 9-11 as an act of war, whatever the UN might declare. Terrorist attack, yes, a big one, but I’m not 100% sure it was the uniquely the result of decision made by a sovereign nation. A helllish lot of people dying from a bad drug batch isn’t the opening salvo of the War on Drugs. But, the “well, the UN said so, and a lot of people died and it just makes us feel better so it must be war” plays well and has a beat you can dance to, so off the world goes. I’m not arguing I’m the majority and am fully aware that the human race is far from logical: I’m just standing here like an idiot light blinking that there are still other opinions.
Mnemosyne
@Chad N Freude:
@celticdragonchick:
I think the act of war that allowed us to invade Afghanistan was the Taliban refusing to hand over Bin Laden after 9/11, not the attack itself. That refusal was what made the UN give us the nod to invade, though you can still argue about whether that is/was/should have been the start of an actual war or an attempt to capture criminals in a lawless failed state where there’s no justice system to extradite them.
It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping!
Platonicspoof
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Uloborus
@celticdragonchick:
Ditto. The Taliban attacked and killed large numbers of American citizens on American soil by means of a third party. Sounds like an act of war to me.
Whether or not invading was a wise reaction I can see as debatable, but let’s be honest with ourselves: Letting George Bush Jr plan a BIRTHDAY PARTY would not be wise.
@scav:
In this case it’s an act of war because the Taliban was deliberately harboring and supporting Al Qaeda precisely so that they could attack us. Well, and their neighbors. And anyone who wasn’t an extremist Muslim government.
mclaren
Well, there you go. The U.S. military knows exactly how to gain the support of the population — bomb them, strafe them, kick in the doors of their homes and shoot their women and children. Just the way we’re doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So presumably we can look forward to the U.S. military mounting a full operation to gain the support of the American population, exactly the way we’ve mounted massive operations to gain the support of the Iraqi people and the support of the Afghan people — by raping them, killing them, shooting them down like dogs, blowing them up with drone strikes, machine-gunning their families to death at checkpoints, kidnapping them and torturing them to death at black prisons.
The American people should support the war in Afghanistan in no time!
Ronbo
What? So now we are the “pro-war” party? I’ll have to call and let Democrats know we changed our minds.
No, wait. Inside the beltway nit-wits changed THEIR minds. I’ll alert the media. I’m sure (snark) all the liberals will be overjoyed to learn that the old, rich, wealthy, male owners have made the change FOR us.
matoko_chan
@celticdragonchick:
then Bush should have declared war on the afghan goverment and gone and taken OBL and then we could have performed a post-WWII Japan-style occupation and reconstruction. Which would have been far cheaper and far more effective IMHO.
Instead we got fucking “democracy promotion” and FAIL-COIN.
More stupid WEC tricks.
Shouldn’t you be off doing a Hirsi Ali fund raiser or something?
Corner Stone
@Ronbo: Oh Ronbo! Don’t you get it?
This was high level snark that served the good for the goose and gander at the same time!
It was brilliant to say if you criticize the war you criticize the troops and if you criticize the troops you criticize mom and if you criticize mom then you criticize baseball and apple pie and YOU CAN FUCKING DIAF!
AxelFoley
@gnomedad:
Bingo.
AxelFoley
@efgoldman:
You kneel to no one but Zod. Do you hear me, son of Jor-El?