May 2008

The Carpetbagger Report gets it exactly right. The far right has come completely unglued.

For the entire day yesterday, most of the far-right voices wanted to talk about nothing else but Obama’s shameful “lies.” The Republican National Committee issued a statement, arguing that Obama’s minor error “raise[s] questions about his judgment” and his “readiness to lead.” Unhinged conservative bloggers went completely around the bend — Red State said Obama’s remarks were “sickening” and “a bold faced lie.”

It’s as if Republicans woke up yesterday, ate a bowl of Crazy Flakes, and then went straight for their keyboards. (Regrettably, some of Clinton’s more rabid supporters joined the far-right on this one, though there’s no evidence that the campaign itself was pushing this story.)

The service of Obama’s great uncle was actually pretty amazing. He served in the 89th Infantry Division that liberated Ohrdruf in April 1945, a Subcamp of Buchenwald, which was the first camp liberated by Americans. Obama misstated the name of the camp. What difference does it make? Has the political world become so consumed with bile, and so overwhelmed with trivia, that this harmless error is evidence of something important?

Or, as the LAT’s Stuart Silverstein put it, “What’s worse, Obama’s apparent gaffe or the RNC pouncing on a Holocaust-related historical mistake for political advantage?”

If Obama’s uncle hadn’t served in the military, or hadn’t even left the country during World War II, I could see this being more embarrassing and newsworthy. Ronald Reagan, for example, boasted that he’d served in an Army unit that filmed recently liberated death camps. In reality, Reagan never left the U.S. during the war. Later, Reagan claimed to have seen secret military film of Nazi atrocities, though the film didn’t actually exist.

That’s controversial. Obama’s inconsequential error was utterly meaningless. That this became a huge deal to the Republican Attack Machine highlights just how far off the edge these poor schmoes have fallen.

Morons like Gateway Pundit’s lying sack o’ shit Jim Hoft, slimy lizard bitch Cao, and everyone’s favorite juvenile chickenhawk Justin Higgins flogged this non-story. The wingnuts jump on this kind of bandwagon for a reason: they are intellectually incapable of discussing the real issues that face America in this election year. They don’t even understand why discussing real issues is important.

Poor saps.

Amazing. Just when you think the wingnuts cannot top themselves for flagrant idiocy, they manage to do just that.

Any number of overwrought right-wing screech monkeys, among them Ace of Spades, Jim Hoft aka Gateway Pundit, and everyone’s favorite walking 404 error Big Dog, have been howling their outrage at the thought that former President Jimmy Carter revealed a few days ago that Israel has nuclear weapons. Oh, the horror!

Ace of Spades whines:

Israel has never publicly acknowledged its nuclear capabilities — including whether it even has nuclear weapons — but the former president, who has a fetish for screwing over Israel, can probably be considered a reliable source.

Jim Hoft aka Gateway Pundit mewls:

Let’s hope this man is not privy to any more national secrets.

And Big Dog huffs:

He has divulged one of Israel’s secrets. Carter told the world that Israel has nuclear weapons and then told everyone that the country has 150 of them. Carter disclosed a secret that has been held closely by other presidents as well as the Israeli government.

Of course, the correct response to all this wide-eyed bloviating is the usual: Point at the capering clowns and laugh.

It’s been common knowledge for years that Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal:

The Nobel Foundation: “In the fall of 1986, a former Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, disclosed illegally possessed evidence proving that Israel, by all meaningful definitions of the term, was indeed a nuclear weapons state, and a powerful one as well. Drawing on Vanunu’s photographs from the bomb factory underneath the small Dimona nuclear reactor, Western experts concluded that Israel at the time probably had acquired enough fissile material to produce more than 100 nuclear bombs and warheads. Today, Israel may possess as much as 150-200 nuclear weapons.”

USATODAY.com , April 2004: “Israel continues to make nuclear weapons, said Friedrich Steinhaeusler, a former IAEA nuclear safety expert who now is a physics professor at the University of Salzburg. The best estimates put the size of the Israeli arsenal at 150 nuclear weapons, Steinhaeusler said.”

And as for the claim that this was a secret jealously guarded by the United States and Israel? Well, not so much…

Charlie Stross asks what worthwhile projects we could have tackled in lieu of the Forever War…

So. What fun boondoggles could we have bought with either $523Bn (at the low end) or $6Tn (at the high end)?

NASA have plans for a manned Mars expedition based on the Ares spacecraft they’re developing as a replacement for the Space Shuttle. Price estimates vary from $20Bn (presumably for a single round-trip) to $450Bn (presumably for a single round trip plus all the externalities, like developing the spacecraft and equipment and conducting a thorough prior reconnaissance using unmanned landers).

Either way, the direct costs of the Iraq war exceed the maximum cost estimate for a manned Mars expedition, infrastructure and all, by 20%. If we take $20Bn as the cost per mission and $450Bn as the cost to develop the technology to go there, the direct cost of the Iraq war would be sufficient to develop a gold-plated Mars expeditionary capability and send six crews of astronauts to Mars (and bring them back afterwards).

…

Finally, there’s all the other little stuff we could solve by pointing $513Bn at it, never mind $6000Bn. Eliminating childhood diseases in South-East Asia? Piffle — Bill and Melinda Gates are trying to do that out of their pocket lint. Build first-world grade housing in shiny new cities for 600 million Chinese peasants, nearly a tenth of the planetary population? Yes, this budget will cover that. What else?

Yes, I’m asking you: what would you do with the cost of the Iraq war (take your pick: $513Bn or $6000Bn) in your budget? Colonise Mars? Solve our carbon emission problem and fix global warming? House half a billion people? Or something else …?

(And what isn’t going to happen now, because we pissed it all away on the desert sands?)

Go read the whole thing, and throw in your two cents’ worth.

(hat tip: Boing Boing)

This is hilarious!

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, liar extraordinaire, is making noises about someone else’s supposed “rank dishonesty”.

The man is among the most prolific liars in the wingnut blogosphere:

• ‘Midwest Jim’, you’re a lying jackass
• ‘Gateway Pundit’: Lying, lying, just flat out lying
• Gateway Pundit: Still a Lying Sack of Shit
• Jim Hoft: Still a Lying Asshat
• Lying Asswipe Jim Hoft Does It Again!
• BUSTED!!! Jim Hoft posts another deliberately misleading chart!

Jim Hoft wrote the book on being dishonest. There is no lie that Jim Hoft will not tell.

Here are some shining examples of the way our military has chosen to “defend our freedoms”:

On October 23, 2006 a U.S. soldier or marine peered through the telescopic sight of his M24 sniper rifle and trained it on the face of Nora, a five-year-old Iraqi girl. Her pretty face was close enough to kiss. Instead, he squeezed the trigger and sent a 7.62 round slamming into her skull. The medical report read, “Nora sustained an explosive bullet injury to her head that smashed the skull bones and ruptured her cerebral membrane.” Nora survived the sniper’s bullet.

During the battle for Falluja in 2004, U.S. snipers positioned themselves on rooftops covering the entrance to the only hospital still in operation, creating what locals called “sniper alley.” Iraqi men, women, and children seeking medical treatment were fired on. Ambulances delivering patients and supplies were fired on. Unlike Nora, many did not survive the sniper’s bullet.

On May 30, 2006 Nabiha Nisaif Jasiam and her cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassen were shot from behind by a U.S. sniper as they drove to Samarra General hospital. Nabiha was about to deliver her third child. Neither survived the sniper’s bullet.

No U.S. president or general or lowly lieutenant acknowledged, much less apologized, for these illegal and immoral shootings. No sniper was held accountable.

The wounds we have inflicted on the Iraqi people and their society are deep and penetrating. It will require generations to repair that society. One can only hope that a future US will do all it can to make amends for the terrible damage we have done to the Iraqi people.

UPDATE 05/26/08 07:15 AM EDT: Certain wingnut blogs have suggested that no corroborating reports exist for the report that two women, one pregnant, were shot dead outside the Samarra hospital. Such claims are, of course, utter bullshit:

• U.S. Investigating the Shooting of Two Iraqi Women
• U.S. Troops Kill 2 Women, and Iraqi Death Toll Grows
• U.S. Troops Kill Pregnant Woman in Iraq
• U.S. Conducts Three More Probes Into Military in Iraq

The most instructive thing about watching the wingnut blogs is the consistently poor reasoning skills on display. Read enough of the claptrap these bozos put out, and you get a comprehensive education on how not to construct an argument.

Take ‘Big Dog’ (who is affectionately known as Dogmeat round these parts) and his latest burbling. he appears to be trying to make some sort of point about the high cost of prescription drugs. But he finds a remarkable explanation for the problem:

For the first time in quite some time Democrats are getting more money from the drug companies than are Republicans. Barack Obama has received $639,124 from drug and medical device companies and that is the highest amount given to any of the three… Have we heard anyone suggest that Obama is the reason drug prices are high?

Well, no, we haven’t. Golly willikers, why do you suppose that is?

Maybe we should look at all the numbers involved. According to the Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2006 released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, total domestic sales of member companies was $164.2 billion (page 49, table 6). If we do the math, we find that Obama’s putative contribution to the price of prescription drugs was something like 639,124/164,200,000,000 = 0.00000386, or about .0004 percent. Oh yeah, the high cost of my blood pressure medication is definitely all Obama’s fault.

I should feel guilty about thinking rings around Dogmeat like this — it is so akin to taking candy from the proverbial baby. But this baby is so willfully, joyfully pig-ignorant that I just can’t work up any remorse.

BBC News: US strike ‘kills Iraqi civilians’

Eight civilians have been killed in an air strike by US military helicopters north of Baghdad, Iraqi police say.

Two children were among those who died in the attack on Wednesday evening near the town of Baiji, the police said.

Baiji’s police chief said the attack targeted a group of shepherds in a farming area. The US military said the incident was under investigation.

…

A local man, Ghafil Rashed, told Reuters that his brother and son had been killed in the attack: “The Americans raided our houses… People started fleeing with their children, then the aircraft started bombing people in a street along the farm.”

Baiji’s police chief, Col Mudher Qaisi, told Reuters news agency that the attack was a criminal act, and would make relations between Iraqi citizens and the US forces tense.

“This will negatively affect security improvements,” he said.

Gee, ya think?

This is what the wingnuts’ mantra of “protecting our freedoms” translates to in Iraq: killing shepherds and children.

I tell you, the wingnut blogs are the best entertainment value on teh intarwebs. That’s why I follow as many of them as I do.

The ever-hilarious, semi-literate troglodyte who goes by the easy-to-type moniker “TA” over at Hoosier Army Mom’s has vomited up another puddle of his all-too-tiresome mixture of idiocy and racism. He seems to think that the video he has posted is something terrifying:

Well, guess what, you Twinkle-toed Communist America-hating piece of shit … here’s what your little Spear-chucker rack-buddy has to say in his own words … words you and all of the other dumbass Democrappers don’t want America to hear!

Therefore, I’m posting this to remain here and I hope all INTELLIGENT RED-BLOODED AMERICANS email this hateful video all over America … as it clearly demonstrates he is hell-bent on destroying America; our Military; our Rights and Freedoms!!!

Oh yeah… you got your Random Capital Letters, your ALL CAPS WHICH MEAN HE MUST BE RIGHT, and your ever-popular string of exclamation points!!!!!!. TA’s little tantrum is a masterful example of the art of substituting typography for intelligent discourse.