In wingnutnopia heads explode and reconfigure and then explode anew over and over again. It is a byproduct of dealing with a Black man as President and the stone cold fact that he is smarter than they are.
A week ago it was all Donald Trump and yada, yada, yada as the beltway prepared for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. The right–as usual–was in full flame Obama mode. Folks were lining up to get the Donald’s back while others took a phrase out of context from an 8,000 word New Yorker piece on Obama’s foreign policy to paint The President as weak and cowardly when it comes to protecting America and being a Leader. Naturally this wingnut meme had to be expressed with an illustration from the Jim Crow art school of scared big-eyed Negroes:
The competition to pander to racists and fears of diminished white supremacy is the subtext of the modern Conservative era. It informs and drives every Conservative policy discussion, tactic and political strategy. And so it is not surprise that young Billy would use his magazine to push this latest “Who can save us from that uppity nigger” meme forward.
And then on Sunday:
The popping sounds of exploding wingnut heads could be heard when the news broke.
And ever since the mighty Wingnut Wurlitzer has been looking for a meme to discredit and/or discount President Obama’s involvement in the end of Bin Laden. So many efforts are being tried that it is getting hard to keep track of them, but they all fall into a few very rusty old buckets:
- He only did what his white handlers told him to do and was forced into it.
- It was the great plan that George W. Bush put into motion and tried as he might Obama could not stop it.
- After the fact Obama has become (as usual) a credit hog and showboat who is very disrespectful to his betters: men like GW Bush.
- Obama got lucky and he was too frighten to do the job right–and so it was a defeat.
That last point was on display when John Yoo told CNN on Thursday night the President Obama was too afraid to capture Osama bin Laden so he ordered his shot on sight. In Yoo’s view the entire incident was a failure because Obama did not have the backbone to support torture. In Yoo’s rich fantasy life real men torture and Obama is not a real man because he does not embrace the “enhanced interrogation techniques” celebrated by Yoo (and his fellow travelers).
It is a batshit crazy meme, but I suspect it will get some traction. It fits in with the “always frightened and in-over-his-head black man” meme that wingnutopia is selling for 2012. Also, too it fits in with the “weak leader/Black Jimmy Carter” meme. And it fits in with the “he is not one of us (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)” meme they have spent millions to sell.
In wingnutopia to be a Real Man–to be a Real Leader–you must embrace torture. In reality it is quite the opposite, but these folks do not like reality. And yet, this–and things like this–is how the Right is defining the issues for 2012 and beyond. Their world view is pretty fucking nihilistic. We need to organize for 2012 like our lives depended on it, because they do.
Cheers
No one of Importance
In the real world, men who don’t torture other people are considered good and moral.
I’ll be so pleased when America rejoins Planet Earth.
ABL
Fanfuckingtastic.
Corner Stone
I keep wondering why people have wiped away the memory of the death of those pirates who got iced by (I think) SEALS.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
The bottom of the Bullseye at the back of Entertainment Weekly had this next to the picture of Trump: “Last weekend, Obama finally took out the White House’s diabolical, nutty nemesis.”
arguingwithsignposts
in before mclaren/joe beese. yeah. torture is wrong. And John Yoo – he can DIAF and I wouldn’t feel a moment of shame. even if he took two taps to the forehead first. So sue me.
ETA: I’m just adding for the Marc fucking Thiessen bullshit. he can DIAF too.
The Dangerman
I’m pretty sure I saw pigs flying today as multiple Fox News talking heads were saying this was a straight up kill, thus placing them squarely in agreement with Michael Moore. Never thought I would see the day…
…and, ya know, it probably WAS a straight up assassination as the Right would have not only wanted to torture OBL, but to put it on TV on Sunday Night. If Obama wouldn’t waterboard OBL on weekend primetime, well, he would be pussy footing around. Let’s do some polling and see how many people are concerned this was a straight up assassination; I’m guessing around 10^, roughly the same number of ignorant shits that still believe Obama wasn’t born in America (i.e. really, really stupid people).
Also, O/T, and in reply to Yutsano, from early this AM:
– Sadly, the Pismo Clam has been heavily depleted; not only through man (which was bad enough), but through the resurgence of the sea otters locally (which, BTW, are still threatened). Sea Otters are eating machines and they done luv them some clams (I’ve seen estimates of up to 80 per day). Pismo Clam Chowder, some of the best around, gets clams from back east last I heard. I doubt the Pismo Clam ever rebounds (which makes me sad; it’s roughly the same story as the local Abalone).
– As for Seattle Sushi/Sake, yes, the Japanese Food there was glorious, but … I’m a CA boy (read Wintertime Wuss).
Suffern ACE
God, Marc Theissen and Berkley Professor Yoo were bad enough when they were trying to hide and deny torture – like every fucking sane person would – but since they so openly want it known that the U.S. tortures and won’t shut up until we all agree that it is like the greatest idea evah…they really need to be locked up and kept away from human beings…anything living actually. CNN needs to be burned to the ground as well.
Not that torture is better when it is covered up, but at least pretend to be ashamed by it. Its as if our political choices are so out of whack now that one either supports the Democrats or is stuck with a Burmese junta. But the junta at least has some class.
Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen
The thing is, if they hadn’t shot and killed BinLaden then all the wing nuts would be screaming that Obama didn’t have enough balls to finish the job. It comes right out of the Republican “Heads I win, tails you lose” Playbook.
Danny
The reason they’re so frantically aiming to hijack the narrative (apart from that being what they always do) is that they desperately don’t want to talk about Bush failing to get Bin Laden for seven long years.
For all the republican “ownership” of National Security, they tried for seven years and failed, and now Obama has succeeded where they failed. If the talking heads weren’t talking about torture and what amount of credit Bush deserves, they would be asking republicans how come Bush failed and Obama succeeded.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Aren’t bullets to the head the ultimate in enhanced interrogation techniques: We got out of him exactly what we wanted – what was in his head – in the most physical way possible.
The Dangerman
[Ah, shit, I quoted Sarah Palin and ended up in Moderation; I wonder what happens if I try again?]
I’m pretty sure I saw pigs flying today as multiple Fox News talking heads were saying this was a straight up kill, thus placing them squarely in agreement with Michael Moore. Never thought I would see the day…
…and, ya know, it probably WAS a straight up assassination as the Right would have not only wanted to torture OBL, but to put it on TV on Sunday Night. If Obama wouldn’t waterboard OBL on weekend primetime, well, he would be (p word removed) footing around. Let’s do some polling and see how many people are concerned this was a straight up assassination; I’m guessing around 10%, roughly the same number of ignorant shits that still believe Obama wasn’t born in America (i.e. really, really stupid people).
Also, O/T, and in reply to Yutsano, from early this AM:
– Sadly, the Pismo Clam has been heavily depleted; not only through man (which was bad enough), but through the resurgence of the sea otters locally (which, BTW, are still threatened). Sea Otters are eating machines and they done luv them some clams (I’ve seen estimates of up to 80 per day). Pismo Clam Chowder, some of the best around, gets clams from back east last I heard. I doubt the Pismo Clam ever rebounds (which makes me sad; it’s roughly the same story as the local Abalone).
– As for Seattle Sushi/Sake, yes, the Japanese Food there was glorious, but … I’m a CA boy (read Wintertime Wuss).
Mike in NC
For starters, can we waterboard Rummy, Cheney, Dubya, Feith, Yoo, Rice, Kristol, Krauthammer and every other wingnut scumbag who happily killed thousands of people and pissed away a trillion dollars for their neocon fantasy of turning the Arab Middle East into a Randian paradise?
Corner Stone
I think Faith Hill is an alien. She keeps getting way hotter, year after year.
Trainrunner
I’ve been heartily enjoying watching the wingnut’s epic id clash this week, sitting back and seeing whether their Urge to Kill Muslims or their Hatred of Black People will win out.
It’s been fun.
Danny
@Suffern ACE:
I think you’re on to something. Admitting, even glorifying, our torturing past does indeed endanger the troops. And endangering the troops is not only unamerican – it amounts to treason. Aid and comfort to the enemy and all that. Paging Ann Coulter!
Spaghetti Lee
It’s always struck me, as a part-time artist, that the cover art on some of these conservative rags is quite well-drawn. Too bad the subject matter is a stinking pile of bear shit.
danimal
Yoo and Thiessen deserve every torment hell can provide. They are on a crusade to destroy every remaining fabric of American integrity and leadership by pushing for torture.
And for what? To save their sorry asses and the former President Bush. I won’t cry if they ever find their testicles in a vice, slowly being crushed.
Yoo’s statement that Obama was afraid to capture Obama is disgusting. It’s especially ironic since it was Bush who wouldn’t commit American troops to Tora Bora when we had OBL cornered. Conservative projection, yet again.
Spaghetti Lee
Also, is that cover really what’s getting published this week, and presumably went to press before the bin Laden news broke? Hilarious. Like “Dewey Defeats Truman” all over again.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’ve been waiting for my winger customers to broach the subject of Bin Laden and there has been nothing but silence from them so far. It’s as if his death has dealt them a hand that they have no idea what to do with. That or they are waiting for the teahadist/winger theme to come along so they can get their groove on once again.
My takeaway from Luntz’s audience polling after the Faux Reptilublican ‘debate’ in SC is: We want to pit our black dood against your black dood! The one line answers to Luntz’s question of What did you like about Cain? were completely detached from the reality of his answers.
It’s as if they think they can pick some other guy who is the same color as the guy they love to hate and somehow win the election.
I did laugh at the audience applauding Ron Paul and his push to legalize heroin…lol! The Republicans in South Carolina luvs them some heroin, eh?
Maybe they need it.
hilts
Dan Froomkin is one of the only reasons left for visiting the Huffington Post
Torture May Have Slowed Hunt For Bin Laden, Not Hastened It
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/torture-may-have-slowed-h_n_858642.html
Mark S.
Yoo is really one of the all-time shitstains. Spitzer did a good job of dismantling him. I loved it when Yoo sniffed that he probably wouldn’t come back on the show.
TooManyJens
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Because that worked so well for the Republicans in the 2004 Senate race.
General Stuck
Yoo better keep his yapper shut, as there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. I think they are getting the jitters that Obama and Holder pull some lawing out of the hat. And the more competent Obama comes off to the public, the more capital he has to use in the national security arena.
There is no chance Holder is going to prosecute lower down grunts at the CIA. There is absolutely no one calling for that, and it would be poison to a liberal dem base. So that was a ruse. I do not expect indictments and trials, but I do expect SOME KIND OF PUBLIC RECKONING Obama and Holder have in mind, at some point. Prolly not in a first term.
Mukasey, Bush, and Yoo taunting Obama like this, seems like more of a pre attack for whatever they fear is coming, which they don’t know what. But the more they yammer in public like this bragging and talking like what they did is and should continue to be good American policy is going to HAVE to be reckoned with. As a matter of legacy for Obama. I don’t know how exactly, but I do predict it in a second term, whatever it be.
And yea, I’m an optimist. sosume
JGabriel
John Yoo almost makes me want to believe in reincarnation — because Yoo really deserves to come back as a kid whose testicles are cut off ’cause his daddy won’t talk.
.
Dennis G.
@ABL: Thanks. I had been struggling for the right words since I saw the cover a few days ago.
Cheers
danimal
@TooManyJens: …and the Michael Steele show was so full of win as well.
Maybe they really think Obama is just a mediocre creature of Affirmative Action and any semi-accomplished African-American can do the same job. Oh well, I suppose there are worse things than being underestimated, at least when it comes to electoral politics.
Roger Moore
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I think that’s exactly right. Wingnuts are generally incapable of deciding what to think about things on their own, so they let an authority figure decide for them. But it’s really hard for wingnut central to come up with an acceptable explanation for why killing bin Laden was a bad thing, so they’re staying quiet or changing the subject.
danimal
@General Stuck: You’re only being an optimistic Obot because Beese hasn’t gotten here yet.
kdaug
@Corner Stone: 3 pirates and OBL. But he’s weak on national security.
snaporaz
Give me a break Dennis, there is nothing racist about that picture, Obama’s eye’s arent bug-eyed stereotypes and you dragging race into it just distracts from the legitimate point.
But hey, there’s nothing our side loves more than calling the other racist, right?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TooManyJens:
As simple minded as those fuckwits are you can bet this is what they are thinking. As danimal says above, they think that any guy who is the same color as their enemy can win as long as he has ‘done something’.
@Roger Moore:
Yup, they are waiting on the proper messaging from the hive mind of insanity because they are too stupid to think for themselves.
General Stuck
@danimal:
Beese is likely running low on bullshit and over at Fort Idiot restocking for a new offensive.
...now I try to be amused
As opposed to the always frightened and in-over-his-head child of privilege that was Dubya.
ABL
@snaporaz: AL? That you?
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@General Stuck: The threat of indictment over their heads like the sword of Damocles. If I was Obama I’d spend the next 6 years head faking those bastards. That’d be torture.
danimal
@…now I try to be amused: There is so little in wingnutopia that can not be ascribed to the following two words: conservative projection.
Suffern ACE
@TooManyJens: Well, to be honest, every election from the 1790s throgh 2004 featured two men of the same color. 2008 was an exception, so maybe the goal is to return to the pattern where both parties match.
JGabriel
snaporaz:
Right. Wide-eyed reaction shots were never a staple of Stepin Fetchit type performances. Nothing in that illustration evokes the memory of Fetchit. I’m sure the illustrator never intended such an interpretation. Farthest thing from his mind. Don’t know why I even thought of it.
[/sarcasm]
.
...now I try to be amused
@danimal:
Yep. Projection makes them easy to read.
General Stuck
@ABL:
Folks just don’t get it. Their self affirming white brains tell them that if it was a white man, say Clinton, in that picture, that automatically makes it non racist when a black man is presented that way.
Hill Dweller
@General Stuck:
I agree. I think the Bushies almost immediate attempts to validate torture by claiming it resulted in the successful OBL mission was borne of fear. They know there is a reckoning coming on torture. It might not be from prosecution, but the specifics will eventually come out. And when/if said details emerge, whatever legacy the Bushies had will be destroyed.
Even Frum, who has actually been relatively sane in the last couple of years, immediately trotted out the ‘Obama just continued Bush’s policies’ and ‘the CIA shouldn’t be investigated’ talking points on Real Time tonight.
They’re scared. All the Bushies are desperately trying to shape the narrative, because they know that Obama knows about the criminal activity post-9/11 in that administration. But now he has the political power.
And while Obama might have been inclined to look forward early in his Presidency, the entire republican corporate/political machine’s attempts to destroy him probably changed that view.
Moreover, I suspect they’ve come to the realization Obama is as cold-blooded as any man that has sat in the Oval office…when he thinks its warranted. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he feels destroying Cheney, Yoo, Rove, etc. is warranted.
Danny
@efgoldman:
Couldn’t they have just gone right ahead and ignored the complaining unamericans?
General Stuck
@Hill Dweller:
I am sure he doesn’t care much for Cheney et al, but the question is will he leave hanging and unchallenged the notion that the policy of this country include torture. It is a matter of legacy, but also fundamental respect for the law and constitution for such a brazen breach.
Presidents care deeply about what footprint they leave on history, and for Obama to skip over this steaming pile of evil shit would mean a huge asterisk on his presidency. IMHO. It wouldn’t define it, but leave undone something vital for a constitutional expert/president./
And every time these morons open their mouths to seal torture into our national moral matrix, it ups the stakes that much more.
kdaug
@JGabriel:
For the record. That’s what Yoo was asked.
JGabriel
@kdaug: Yes. Thank you for the fix. I tried to fix it myself, but sadly realized my error only after the editing time window had closed.
.
SFAW
Wrong.
Things we like more:
1) Sanctimonious “family values” pricks getting caught with someone not their wife.
2) Wholesale indictment of Bushies like Yoo, Rummy, Cheney, etc.
3) Karl Rove in prison
4) Winning elections, especially ones that matter a lot
5) Seeing Sully moved to “BWMAMAN”
6) All the latter-day Randians going Galt already, as long as they STFU after they leave.
and the list could go on for awhile, but one hopes you got the point already.
That being said: whether we like it – although we don’t – is immaterial. The people running the Rethug party – and I don’t just mean the RNC “brain” trust – are generally racist, even thought they try projecting it on Dems/liberals. (Slightly OT – I’m a little amazed that we don’t see more usage of “HNIC” on wingnut blogs.)
Got it?
WereBear (itouch)
Rock and a hard place, how I love you! When it is Wingers you are embracing, that is.
They lusted after this result for YEARS. To have President Obama give it to them; freakin’ priceless.
And I agree that addressng the torture issue is a second term endeavor; and now that he has some of the heavier National Security thread with the masses, it’s even more feasible.
Danny
If this was an episode of cold case, after the detectives cracked the case some investigator that did work 5 years prior would turn up confessing to beating up a witness back then, claim credit for catching the perp, and demand gratitude from the victims mother. Then he would assert it is now proven that beatings are a crucial component of successful police work.
Bob Loblaw
@General Stuck:
They already did that, dumbass. They made a big show of “ending torture” by executive action, and that’s that. Obama’s election (and reelection) is the SOME KIND OF PUBLIC RECKONING. That’s the way things work.
I’m sorry your justice boner has subsided from that event and you’re now feeling sexually frustrated, but just imagine bin Laden getting his head blown off or something and you’ll feel right as rain.
@Hill Dweller:
The specifics are already out. It’s over. For fuck’s sake, you even know the exact number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded. What more do you think is out there?
SFAW
Danny @ 49 –
Or, as they say in Latin ‘Murica: “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc”
Angry Lurker
@General Stuck: @General Stuck:
Um, ALL brains are white (or grayish white) right? ;)
Roger Moore
@SFAW:
I think you missed a big one: getting our agenda items passed. HCR was pretty sweet, even sweeter than the taste of wingnut tears.
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
when someone writes something as lame as this with sexual themes, it is almost always from pure projection. And in your case, some pretty loose screws in other areas that lend to some wild swings on about every issue we discuss here.
Get some help loblaw. Otherwise, I will just say I disagree with your analysis which almost always turns out to be wrong. It is laughable to equate Obama’s election with some kind of resolution to the systematic Bush torture regime. And I lay odds Obama feels the same way.
SFAW
Yeah, Mrs. SFAW says I’m missing a big one, too.
In any event, the list was not meant to be exhaustive (nor even exhausting), so feel free to add to it, as you already have done.
Thank ye kindly!
Bob Loblaw
@General Stuck:
And I lay odds that Obama can go fuck himself because it doesn’t matter what he thinks. As Gitmo proved oh so well.
90-8 in the Senate. For the least controversial part of the fiasco. 90-8. Thank you for stopping by.
fhtagn
@Bob Loblaw:
So, have you and matoko set a date for the wedding yet?
General Stuck
@fhtagn:
loblaw and Matako. Matter/ anti matter union
Odie Hugh Manatee
@fhtagn:
I like to know if it’s so, then I can send a box of clinkers as a present for them to chew on.
Failure, Inc.
A brutal truth that you’ll never get a firebagger to acknowledge. Obama is the President, not the Dictator, and if the Senate says it isn’t getting done, it ain’t getting done.
Angry Lurker
@SFAW:
I generally agree, as I agree with most of the main post. But as for the cover cartoon, it struck me as more in the vein of Bertie Wooster on the cover of an old Jeeves novel. Nor do Obama’s eyes appear to be all that googly in the cartoon– his upper lids are clearly visible, adding to the effete-gentleman-adventurer vibe provided by the pith helmet.
Pretty standard political cartoon fare, used freely on both sides, if you ask me. No need to start reading racism into every random image the other side produces, they’ve certainly provided a vast array of more obvious (and significant) examples of race-baiting in recent years.
General Stuck
@Failure, Inc.:
If, and I don’t think anyone will be formally prosecuted for the torture crimes, but if it came to than, there would be nothing congress could do. The reason they, congress, were able to use their purse string power, was that those to be tried are not US citizens and their alleged crimes are war related. So there is a debatable point that they be tried in military commissions.
For any member of the Bush administration, they are US citizens, whose alleged crimes occurred on US soil that they themselves live on.
There exists no option to try former and current members of the former administration by military commission. And congress cannot prevent the executive branch carrying out it’s express duties under express constitutional powers.
So the analogy of the 9-11 terrorist trials is a phony one and not relevant to any congressional vote for blocking those.
Suffern ACE
@Bob Loblaw: A more principled president would have resigned twenty times over the issue. He should resign at least three times a week.
JGabriel
@Angry Lurker:
Yes, of course. It’s difficult to do a caricature of a black man with it coming across as … a caricature of a black man. Which conservatives would never intend to do.
I think maybe you’re being a little naive. Though it is possible I’ve become too cynical about conservatives.
Nah, it’s not possible to be too cynical about conservatives.
.
Bob Loblaw
@Suffern ACE:
I couldn’t care less about the issue, frankly.
Let me know when the US stops allying itself with torture states like Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain, and we can talk about our “principled commitment against torture.” Better yet, let me know when we take a stand against the Iraqi and Afghan torture states that chug along while we have 160,000 troops still stationed there within.
As if the international torture conspiracy began and ended with Bush and Cheney alone…
tomvox1
Aw, head explosion & pretzel logic is not just for wingnuts, DG. It’s also for “principled” civil libertarians:
Quelle douche.
asiangrrlMN
dengre, this is an excellent post as usual. That picture stuck in my craw as well. Thank you for reading this crap so I don’t have to–you’re really taking one for the team.
Alison
Interesting – in a disgusting sense – how they want to portray Obama as both the Angry Black Chicago Gangster Thug Monster, but also as a weak, wimpy pussy who could get taken down by a toddler with a Nerf weapon.
(Do they still make Nerf shit? Am I old?)
It’s aaaaaaaaaaaalmost like they’re just full of shit. Imagine that.
JR
I’ve said this before, but not here.
The reason the Germans were the bad guys in WWII was (in large part) because they killed and tortured people to death, millions of them. Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, the list is painfully endless.
The reason the Japanese were the bad guys in WWII was because (in large part) because they tortured people to death, Bataan Death March, Rape of Nanking, thix list is also endless.
So now Yoo, Cheney and Bush want America to Torture People… how does that make us the good guys here? It makes Yoo, Cheney and Bush just as evil as Japanese General and Prime Minester Tojo (hung as a war criminal in 1948) Goering (who committed suicide the night before he was to be hung as a war criminal).
Whether these guys ever see an International Criminal Court or not, they are famous war criminals at exactly the level of the famous Germans and Japanese war criminals we hung. They won’t dare to travel to Europe lest they be arrested on a secret indictment. George W. has already cancelled a trip he had planned to make a speech (like his Dad) and a ton of money. So he’ll have to make his speech money here domestically.
So sad!
I would personally like them to visit and get to know Mr. Prison, perhaps even in Cuba…
But just being known across the whole world as the vile objects of failure they are, all of them, that’s almost enough.
TenguPhule
Obviously the only way to counter it is to give Obama a pistol and have him put a big hole in the back of Yoo’s head.
And then every night we celebrate the New Reality Show: Tonight, A Republican DIES!
Uriel
@JR:
Wrong! It was because of soclalimised medicines, vegitarinisms, and genemreralized PC liberalities.
Jonah Goldberg says ‘you’re welcome!’
piratedan
@TenguPhule: Amerika wuld Lub this! we can have celebrity shooters and we”d get to vote and stuff!
Uriel
@Uriel: Also, I would imagine soccer played a role, just as general principle.
Jani
Am i the only one who first through the person in the picture was George W Bush?
It was the ears, i immediatly thought of GWB.
SFAW
No need, perhaps (and I semi-agree that the drawing is not especially Stepin-Fetchit-like), but racism is the bed the Rethugs have made for themselves – and not by accident – so I have no great upset over highlighting that whenever not-completely-unreasonable.
And here I was thinking that it was because they (A) invaded Poland and many other European countries subsequently, and (B) exterminated 6 million Jews (tortured or not). I guess I done larned from one o’ them DFH history book thingies, much to my chagrin.
Well, not so much soccer in-and-of itself, but rather as the vehicle by which we get to see Sylvester Stallone be a soccer star. (Although that Pegleg (?) guy seemed to know how to kick the ball a little.)
Careful! Now you’re starting to encroach on Orange County Rethug territory, and they won’t like someone thinking/hinting that Bush looks like a drunken chimp.
Mark B
One thing which would complete the picture is a word balloon above Obama’s head saying “Meessa bin Laden–He daid”
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
Has any other man ever been so wrong about as many things as Little Billy Kristol has?
Calouste
Every time I see a picture of Yoo, I think that the main reason he supported torture was so that he could be the guy raping eight year old kids in front of their parents.
kay
I’m completely enjoying the nervous breakdown on the Right.
Every minute. I so appreciated the insane reaction to Jake Tapper’s tweet.
Media won’t be able to palm this off on the “crazies” either. Yoo and Rice and the rest of the people engaged in a mad scramble to rewrite facts and history are the serious conservatives.
No sane person who bases opinions on observable facts and recent history thought Obama was weak.
But the whole brain trust on the Right did, and they STILL do. Like everything else with them, it’s an article of faith. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality most people live in.
Yoo, the Right’s (allegedly) brilliant lawyer and intellectual super-star, pulled his theory completely out of his ass. It’s him. It has nothing to do with Obama. It’s about him.
Dennis G.
@Hill Dweller:
I think the Bushies are also frightened of the intelligence that was gathered. OBL’s view of their policies may be what makes them nervous. It is one thing for a DFH to say that Bush just did what OBL wanted him to do, that Bush’s policies played into OBL’s hands. It would be quite another thing to hear it confirmed by OBL. I suspect his view of Bush’s GWOT is in the documents and releasing OBL’s view creates a new way to revisit the crimes of the Bush years as incompetence that cost dearly in blood and treasure. That Obama has that card to play fills them with dread. And so they pull out all the stops and play louder.
Omnes Omnibus
@kay:
I have read a bunch of what Yoo has written; it is not good. It is lawyerly on the surface, but he takes quotations out of context, uses cases law that has been called into question, and ( the biggie) never acknowledges contrary authority. The first two could be written off as aggressive advocacy by the charitably minded (of which I am not one), but the failure to acknowledge and counter the whole raft of precedent countering his theory is a killer. His job was to put out a justification for vile behavior that had surface plausibility. I hope he loses his license; he is a disgrace to the profession.
muffler
@Dennis G.: Or if the information gathered has documentation on dealings and communications between Bin Laden and high US officials.
kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
If there was any doubt before, no one should hold any illusions that he’s ethical or “serious” now.
Look at this garbage:
This screed includes every weasel word and phrase on available. “Early reports” “it appears” “some say” “this is hard to take seriously” “would have”
The Right’s intellectual star just accused 1. Brennan of lying and 2. Obama of deliberately not capturing OBL because of political concerns.
Based on nothing. Not one fact. Yoo knows NOTHING other than what he (and we) read in media reports about what happened or why anyone made the decisions they did. Yet he felt free to launch two serious accusations in a major newspaper.
Why did he do it? Because his giant ego and HUGE sense of self-importance is bruised.
SFAW
Pretty harsh, coming from a guy who wouldn’t take my “bail me out!” call at 3 AM.
kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Once again, a conservative is inside Obama’s mind, discerning intent and supplying motive and then moving right to the fact-free conviction on the charges he invented.
He’s no different than a birther. This is a way of thinking, and it is not a coincidence that so many conservatives seem to suffer from it.
On issue after issue issue, they supply the “facts”, they supply the motive, they supply the ill-intent. They operate in a closed circle. They start with the belief and then make the facts fit the belief. Again and again and again, and it isn’t limited to the dupes in the cheap seats who vote for them. It comes from the top.
Geeno
@JR: I’m not even sure that this is strictly true anymore, what with common usage continually evolving, but it was drilled in my head by my 9th grade English teacher. “Pictures were hung; people were HANGED”.
Sorry – It’s a compulsion. I’m getting treatment.
A Farmer
Am I the only one who gets a beastiality vibe from that picture? Leading from Behind? I guess that is the point I think conservatives have reached, that they’d make camel fucking jokes about the President.
ABL
@kay: It’s not just people on the right who do that. Jus’ sayin’.
JGabriel
@Geeno:
You’re right about common usage evolving. It just doesn’t look right when I put “well-hanged” in my Craigslist ad.
.
Angry Lurker
@A Farmer:
Yes, you’re the only one.
BC
Fixed it for you.
fhtagn
@Geeno:
But was your English teacher well-hung as he drilled you?
Inquiring minds want to know!
A Farmer
Oops. I guess it didn’t help that Yglesias had a post about Florida banning human on animal sex, so I get the idea that it is on Republicans’ minds.
The Ancient Randonneur
I volunteer to use “enhanced interrogation” techniques on John Yoo until he confesses to being a cowardly, twelve sandwich eating pussy.
Angry Lurker
@A Farmer:
Wow, I’m kind of stunned to learn that it wasn’t already banned, as I assume it is in all states. Has anyone told li’l Ricky Santorum about this? :P
Citizen Alan
@TenguPhule:
I know you’re being sarcastic, but at this point, I would totally watch that.