Finally, I must say it takes a certain gall to preen and moralize about actions that may be the reason you sleep safely in your beds and tap away at your keyboards today. - Mike Fuzzy Thinking

Kept Us Safe

One of the more annoying conservative talking points, one which the Villagers have swallowed whole and regularly spit out, is that "since 9/11 Bush and Dick kept us safe." The obvious flaw in this type of statement is that there's a big mulligan in there. But aside from that, they, you know, didn't. As Steve [Benen] says:

Cheney thinks it was a sterling success when it came to national security and counter-terrorism. Perhaps there's something to this. After all, except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and the anthrax attacks against Americans, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's inability to capture those responsible for 9/11, and waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush's international unpopularity, the Bush/Cheney record on counter-terrorism was awesome.

- Atrios

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/08/kept-us-safe.html

So, ya know, Mike, you're deceitful, but the only person around here that you're deceiving is yourself. If you're not an actual torturer defending your own behavior (On the internet no one knows you're a dog.), then pity you for being so easily bamboozled.

Glenn, has a new post up which examines it's current manifestation.

should really be left in the hands of skilled practitioners of animal husbandry, otherwise you breed the brains right out of the line, and - as namedujour observes - rather than refinement, you hardwire a certain undesirable coarseness.

The studbook on these families really needs to be opened for awhile.

in need of industrial level inbox cleaning equipment*. A basic manure fork simply isn't up to the job these days.

August 29, 2009, 10:09 am
Summer of hate
[Paul Krugman]

A curious personal observation: I’m getting more crazy hate mail than I have in years, maybe since 2004. But this time the character of the hate mail has changed.

Back then I was a traitor for questioning Dear Leader’s motives in invading Iraq. These days, I’m a socialist piece of, um, stuff because I assert that we might have something to learn from the Swiss health care system, or that debt projections aren’t quite as awful as you may have heard.

It’s not too hard to understand. Presumably it’s coming from talk radio; I assume the ranters are furious with anyone who questions their vision of Obamanite tyranny. Still, it’s odd to get such violent reactions to what are basically dry, wonkish columns.

As we have seen any excuse for spraying fecal matter everywhere will do. Perhaps we need a new appellation for the Teabaggers that better fits their style of discourse.

* http://www.gamajet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=7

Look at the time stamps.

"Mindless, inane tripe?" WTF?

Can we please begin to comprehend all these "mindless" acts and messages under one rubric: namely, full-spectrum dominance; rather than react as if each is an isolated incident of incompetence?

You may very well be correct. Dead to rights accurate and True. I don't know whether Glenn shares your view or not. And, it probably doesn't matter if he does. But, I'd ask you, how would you go about building a case to convince a steady readership of a consequence most of that readership would be inclined to reject out of hand?

I believe there is a truism buried somewhere in clinical psychology that argues to effect change the client must convince themselves. You could tell 'em what's what, but it's more effective for them to 'discover' that what for themselves.

I'd argue that Glenn is building a case; brick by brick. The logical conclusion to that building might be very apparent to some, less so for others. In the end, the completed edifice speaks for itself.

Just so you know, you're responding on the wrong thread.

Thank you for your libertarian voice on this topic. Doubtless, someone will come along shortly to argue that you're not really a libertarian. They'd be wrong, as there are an array of libertarian voices like yours, but they're not as often found here. So, thanks for that perspective other libertarians share, but is too rarely expressed. Or, perhaps, is too rarely owned. Given your philosophical orientation, it takes a bit of courage to run counter to the 'mainstream.' Sincerely. Thanks.

Righteous!

@sig

A Salon short course in HTML:

For bold and italicize:

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/25/nowak/permalink/ae2968dd1db0f5375c6c02a04a56122e.html

For blockquote:

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/05/olc/permalink/2b61805c09f5068bd540249bb31d999d.html

The Subject line does not recognize HTML, but the Body composition window does.