July 2007

As true in the US as it is in Australia:

Kevin Andrews also says that critics are soft on terrorism. And here’s the nub of the matter. We aren’t soft on terrorism – that is a (excuse my French) fucking stupid thing to say. Does Andrews really believe we critics want a bombing in Sydney? We aren’t soft on terrorism, we are hard on rights. If he had evidence of Haneef’s involvement in a plot, then why was it not brought out in court? It need not have been open court if there were security issues. In camera proceedings are permitted under special circumstances, and if public knowledge of the details of an investigation might jeopardise it or people, that is a reason to hold them.

More background here and here.

If we cannot protect ourselves within the legal structures we have set up with which to govern our society, then our society is fatally flawed and deserves to fall. Either we act within the ideals that we have proclaimed for centuries, or we admit openly that we are discarding those ideals and allow the government to go to any extremes, to violate any principles, just to protect our sorry asses.

The parade of moral incompetence continues. Over at the cesspool known as ‘And Rightly So’, Raven gives us another example of the eliminationist rhetoric that pervades the right-wing’s online hatefests. Expressing her mindless hatred of Congressman John Murtha, she says:

Dumbo surely realizes the US Capitol Building is a high value target; the only good thing that might come of a suicide mission-attack on this building would be that Murtha is in his plush office when the hour arrives.

Yeah. That’s right. I hope he gets blown up. He deserves it.

Now, the wingnuts back a big, big deal about how the “enemy” (aka Terrifying Brown People™) wants to take away our freedoms. One of those freedoms, perhaps the freedom Americans prize most highly, is freedom of speech. Raven herself has even said that "Freedom of speech is great and I don’t want to see that change either". But it seems that Raven only wants freedom of speech when the speaker doesn’t piss her off. When someone says something that she doesn’t like, then Raven decrees that person’s freedoms must be ended by ending his life.

Unfortunately, Raven isn’t an oddity on her end of the spectrum. Read the far right blogs, listen to the far right radio talk shows — so many of the rightwing whackjobs believe that the penalty for disagreement is death. They’ve become just as morally twisted as the Islamic jihadists they profess to hate.

‘coffeeandink’ provides a handy guide on How to Suppress Discussions of Racism:

• Control what your audience sees.
  
• Attack the person, not the argument.
  
• Argue against straw men.
  
• Deflect attention away from the specific criticism.
  
• Racism, however ugly, is better than the alternative.
  
• Prove your opponent has mistaken some other quality for racism.
  
  

I’ve caught wingnut wonder Justin Higgins lying several times: about a 9/11 hijacker, about embryonic stem cells research, about Amnesty International’s statements on Darfur, and about Valerie Plame’s confirmed covert status. So it is no surprise to find him lying about the situation in Iraq:

It seems like Democrats in Congress, and even the talking heads that frequent the Main Stream Media’s various cable news shows, are going to ignore all evidence that the surge in Iraq is working. Iraqi casualties are down, Al-Qaeda in Iraq is on the run, and the changing political landscape in al-Anbar Province is a promising start to the complex problem of curbing sectarian violence and convincing the Iraqi population to stand up and fight against al-Qaeda.

Now, of the three reasons Justin gives to think that “the surge in Iraq is working”, the only quantifiable claim is that “Iraqi casualties are down”. Predictably, Justin is lying about this.

Back in June , the Pentagon released a report entitiled “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq” [PDF]. Among the data in that report, one finds a graph on page 24 labelled “Average Daily Casualties, April 1, 2004 — May 4, 2007”. I reproduce the graph below.
 

Notice the tall dark blue bar at the far right — by far the tallest bar on the graph. It represents daily civilian casualties in Iraq since 10 February 2007. What does it tell us?

That’s right. Average daily civilian casualties in Iraq have peaked since the start of the ‘surge’. That number now stands at just over 100 per day. As noted by the Washington Post, violence is down in Baghdad, but has escalated throughout the rest of Iraq. The total number of attacks on military forces, police, and Iraqi civilians have also increased.

It’s very easy to fool yourself into believing something that isn’t true, just by ignoring the facts. Justin does this all the time, and it is his right to do so. Of course, that isn’t enough for Justin: He wants others to share his delusions as well. That’s why he lies to his readers.

UPDATE 07/29/07 5:12 PM EDT: Justin continues to practice blatant dishonesty. Citing the same Pentagon report I mentioned above, he is careful to cite a graph that displays sectarian murders, but not all civilian deaths, as evidence that casualties are decreasing.

Through a cross-post at Stop the ACLU, I found yet another spewer of utter inanity by the name of Todd Anthony. Todd has chosen to either advertise his abysmal ignorance or deliberately lie to his readers… it’s not yet clear which.

Todd chooses to bloviate about the Bush administration’s use of warrantless wiretaps, and the ACLU’s opposition to same:

This sham of an institution is now bellowing on about the Bush administration’s NSA electronic surveillance program, stating that the program is 1.) illegal, and 2.) steeped in fear.

So what would the ACLU have the government do? The answer is simple: sit on its collective hands while terrorists plot and foment violence. Let’s apply common sense to their argument.

Here we have the first two turds in Todd’s pile. Warrantless wiretaps carried out against American persons, as defined under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (aka FISA), are indeed illegal. A warrant must be obtained under the provisions of the law. Further, the ACLU has never suggested that wiretaps be halted altogether — only that they be carried out in accordance with the law. Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. sets 2008 goal for Iraq security:

A revised U.S. military plan envisions establishing security at the local level in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq by summer 2008, leading one year later to security conditions nationwide that Iraqi forces are capable of sustaining, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Huh. Wasn’t that the point of this year’s “surge”? Watch them goalposts move, folks!
 

Let’s see… Lying halfwit manchild Justin Higgins tells us that…

I didn’t watch the YouTube Debates,

…and yet he knows that…

This whole thing looked idiotic.

Talk about having made up your mind in the absence of any facts whatsoever. Justin admits he didn’t watch the debates, yet he just knows they were “idiotic”.

Can you say “dogmatic and close-minded”, boys and girls? I knew you could…
 

What can you say about a “man” who openly agitates for the murder of a judge?

Is such a “man” stupid?

Morally incompetent?

Simply unfit to live in a civilized society?

All three?

Misha has already made it clear that when the police do not do what Misha wants, they should be murdered. Now he wants a judge killed as well.

This is simply more of the eliminationist rhetoric of the sort that Dave Neiwert has been cataloging for years. Things like Misha are simply animals who have learned to type at a computer. When its rantings inspire someone to actually go out and commit a murder, will Misha accept even the slightest responsibility for the actions he prompted?

Not likely. Responsibility, like all other characteristics of a moral human being, are beyond the understanding of the repulsive subhumans that are the Mishas of this world.

UPDATE 07/29/07 4:03 PM EDT: And the lunacy continues. Misha has now issued a call to murder an Oregon district attorney.

Were we lied into the Forever War in Iraq? Judge for yourself…