Rude Pundit's Live Whiskey-Blogging

The Rude One watches Obama's Afghanistan speech.

If it's time for another special primetime appearance by a Commander-in-Chief, it's time to break out the sippin' whiskey (the shots are for press conferences). The Rude Pundit was given a bottle of Tom Handy rye, and, sweet belchin' Jesus, he can tell already that this is gonna kick his ass like a 'roid-rager at the gym arguing over who's next on the lat machine.

8:05: Will he actually say that Bush and Cheney fucked it up?

8:06: Nope. "Decisions were made" that led to war in Iraq. He shall still not be named. But, apparently, in 2011, there better be a few hundred thousand more jobs available in the United States for the returning troops and laid-off Blackwater employees.

8:08: So, yeah, he increased troops, just like he fucking said he would.

8:09: "Disrupting, dismantling, and defeating" al-Qaeda and Taliban are the goals. How soon before right-wingers note that Obama pronounces "Taliban" like he's Harry Belafonte?

8:16: Fuck him for making this sound reasonable. Fuck him for making it seem like it'll work. Fuck him for making this whiskey be sucked down faster than it ought to be.

8:19: Speaks to Afghan people. Pashtun goat herders in their thatch lean-to's feel their ears burning.

8:34: Oh, shit, he's actually talking about how we were allegedly so unified just post-9/11. Look for Glenn Beck to sue right after eating his own face on the air.

Shit, I'd watch him if he'd do that!

8:35: That's good: "Right makes might."

And we're done.

Bottom line: he wants one last shot to make right what Bush fucked up. But that doesn't take into account that maybe it was never possible in the first place to get it right.

Much more.

Obama talked me into giving him a shot. 18 months. I don't like it but I can live with it. He's not Bush.

Quote of the Day

Maru:

To the knowing glances of legions of young Dominican boys, repulsive misogynist Rush Limpbag announced he will marry an actual human female on July 4th. Unless the presumably non-feminazi regains her eyesight and/or gets off the crackpipe.

...

We Need to Stop Pretending That Obama Hasn't Been Consistent on Afghanistan

[A big welcome to our pal Badtux' readers - F.]

The Rude Pundit

Let's not kid ourselves here:

"This is a war that we have to win. I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan...We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region." - Then-candidate Barack Obama in his last big speech about Afghanistan, July 15, 2008.

Several more quotes like that.

How many more quotes do you need on this? 'Cause there's probably a couple of hundred or so more, every single one of them with Barack Obama calling for an escalation in the number of troops in Afghanistan. Hell, it was an easy applause line.

His acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination? "When John McCain said we could just 'muddle through' in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11."

Then he'd better invade fucking North Africa 'cuz that's where al Qaeda is these days. What the fuck is there for us in Afghanistan except goats and the men who love them?

So let's be grown-ups here as we get ready for President Obama to make his new, big Afghanistan speech and say that the man didn't lie to us. He told us for the last two years that he was gonna send more troops. In fact, about the only thing he's guilty for during this long period of contemplation and meetings is getting our hopes up that he might be changing his mind. Out here in Left Blogsylvania, we desperately read things like his delay in announcing a strategy and his trip to Dover Air Base as the signs of transformation. Nope. Turns out that he was just figuring out how much to up the number from two brigades.

Americans are also finally getting to the point of accepting that Afghanistan is not the "good war" we had hoped it was. It's just, now that there's at least some movement on Iraq withdrawal, we're paying attention, and, oh, wow, hell, there's actually people dying and we're not really sure why. For so very long, many on the left were willing to use Afghanistan as a way of demonstrating how tough they could be while condemning Iraq.

Guilty, I guess. I supported the war in Afghanistan. Times change.

But this isn't about Obama or even the Afghanistan war. It's about us. As we see Obama capitulate, hedge, or hesitate on all the liberal things he promised, it's just goddamned depressing to see him so readily follow through on the hawkish promises. And it also forces us to realize that all that protesting of the Iraq war was far, far too narrow in scope.

That's what we get for letting profit-driven warmongers hijack our country and now we have to live with it.

Tonight: Live whiskey-blogging the speech.

For some reason, Rude-o's 'live whiskey-bloggings' get a little looser as they go on...

"You gonna say anything bad about boardercross, eh?"

Amy Goodman ran afoul of a batcrap crazy Canadian border guard. Go here and scroll down and watch the video.

Afghanistan: Can Obama Sell Bush's Used Car?

The last paragraph of a piece by David Corn:

There's much for Obama to address, maybe too much for one speech. He's inherited a mess of a war from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. But with this increase in troops, Obama is fully claiming possession of this conflict—assuming the task of selling one of Bush's leftover used cars. With the public, especially members of his own party, skeptical about the war, Obama will have to demonstrate that he has truly considered (and reconsidered) all the fundamental premises of this endeavor. Relying on familiar or vague—and sometimes contradictory—rhetoric will not help him accomplish that mission.

Fuck sellin' Bush's load. Grind off the VINs, pull the license plates, leave the keys in it and some gas money on the seat and GTFO of there.

Whatever's gonna happen there is gonna happen, sooner or later, with us or without us. Better without us.

Seattle police kill suspect in officer slayings

AP

SEATTLE – The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car early Tuesday. Four people were arrested for allegedly helping the suspect elude authorities during a massive two-day manhunt.

Authorities in two states were criticized amid revelations that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime spree in Arkansas that landed him an 108-year prison sentence. He was released early after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.

Huckabee cited Clemmons' youth in granting the request. But Clemmons quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison. He was released again in 2004.

"This guy should have never been on the street," said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood. "Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out."

Huckabee said on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday night that Clemmons was allowed back on the street because prosecutors failed to file paperwork in time.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley, whose office opposed Clemmons' parole in 2000 and 2004, said Huckabee's comments were "red herrings."

"My word to Mr. Huckabee is man up and own what you did," Jegley said.

That'll happen when pigs fly. It's not Repug or fundie policy to admit mistakes or own up to anything.

Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.

No wonder Huckabee let him go. Yeesh.

A Tragic Mistake

Bob Herbert

Politicians are seldom honest when they talk publicly about warfare. Lyndon Johnson knew in the spring of 1965, as he made plans for the first big expansion of U.S. forces in Vietnam, that there was no upside to the war.

A recent Bill Moyers program on PBS played audio tapes of Johnson on which he could be heard telling Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, “Not a damn human thinks that 50,000 or 100,000 or 150,000 [American troops] are going to end that war.”

McNamara replies, “That’s right.”

Nothing like those sentiments were conveyed to the public as Johnson and McNamara jacked up the draft and started feeding young American boys and men into the Vietnam meat grinder.

Afghanistan is not Vietnam. There was every reason for American forces to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. But that war was botched and lost by the Bush crowd, and Barack Obama does not have a magic wand now to make it all better.

The tougher choice for the president would have been to tell the public that the U.S. is a nation faced with terrible troubles here at home and that it is time to begin winding down a war that veered wildly off track years ago. But that would have taken great political courage. It would have left Mr. Obama vulnerable to the charge of being weak, of cutting and running, of betraying the troops who have already served. The Republicans would have a field day with that scenario.

Lyndon Johnson is heard on the tapes telling Senator Richard Russell, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, about a comment made by a Texas rancher in the days leading up to the buildup in Vietnam. The rancher had told Johnson that the public would forgive the president “for everything except being weak.”

Russell said: “Well, there’s a lot in that. There’s a whole lot in that.”

We still haven’t learned to recognize real strength, which is why it so often seems that the easier choice for a president is to keep the troops marching off to war.

We haven't heard what the President is going to say as of yet, but the word on the street isn't good. We will see.

Will we never learn?

Little Green Footballs

To quote a certain Twitter account "An extraordinary moment in the political blogosphere".

Why I Parted Ways With The Right

Opinion | Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:49:45 pm PST

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)

5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)

6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)

7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)

8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)

10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)

And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

And Tony Blair ...

Should be occupying a cell right next to Bush and Cheney:

Tony Blair made it clear to George Bush at a meeting in Texas 11 months before the Iraq invasion that he would be prepared to join the US in toppling Saddam Hussein, the inquiry into the war was told today.

The prime minister repeatedly told the US president that British policy was to back United Nations attempts to seek Iraq's disarmament, Sir David Manning, his foreign policy adviser, told the inquiry. [my em]

...

Though I doubt the 3 of them, and their enablers and henchmen, will ever meet the justice they deserve.

Great thanks to Chris for the link.

Judgment ...

Mike Huckabee has none:

...

Michael Huckabee's behavior towards both the Clemmons and DuMond cases graphically demonstrates that he doesn't have the intelligence, judgment, emotional balance, or strength of character to be president of the United States. Yet, he persists in being touted by both the media and many influential Republicans, as a serious candidate for the most powerful office in the world.

This is a very, very dangerous man who has no business holding any political power anywhere.

...

There are 9 children in Washington State who no longer have a parent (let alone the 13 year old girl this guy raped who will be emotionally scarred for life) thanks to then-Governor Huckabee. Regardless of the Washington authorities dropping the ball, had Huckabee not let this guy loose, none of his post-Arkansas offenses there would have taken place.

There should be a special place in Hell set aside for this stupid Jesus freak.

If you didn't see ...

Olbermann's "Special Comment" last night, you should (transcript and video at the link):

...

Mr. President, it now falls to you to be both former Republican Senator George Aiken and the man to whom he spoke, Lyndon Johnson. You must declare victory, and get out.

You should survey the dismal array of options in front of you -- even the orders given out last night -- sort them into the unacceptable, the unsuccessful, and the merely un-palatable, and then put your arm down on the table and wipe the entire assortment of them off your desk -- off this nation's desk -- and into the scrap heap of history.

Unless you are utterly convinced -- willing to bet American lives on it -- that the military understands the clock is running, and that the check is not blank, and that the Pentagon will go to sleep when you tell it to (even though the Pentagon is a bunch of perpetually 12-year old boys desperate to stay up as late as possible by any means necessary) -- get out now.

...

As we've been saying here for a long time, Afghanistan is an unwinnable proposition, since the days of Alexander the Great, through the British, through the Soviets, and once again, somewhere down the line, through our occupation as well.

President Obama, you are making a big mistake.

Update:

George puts it succinctly:

...

note to obamarahma - vastly superior invading armies have always exited afghanistan - just not on the terms they were expecting.

...

Tiger Quits Golf; Will Become Politician

ORLANDO (The Borowitz Report) - In a development that rocked the worlds of sports and politics, golf superstar Tiger Woods announced today that he was hanging up his clubs to become a politician.

"After two days of refusing to speak to the media about suspicious aspects of my personal life, I have proved to myself that I am qualified for a career in politics," Mr. Woods told reporters in Orlando.

His stunning decision immediately drew praise from such disparate politicians as Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who called a press conference to welcome Mr. Woods to the Republican Party.

"Tiger Woods has not yet revealed what his party affiliation will be, but based on what I've seen, he has what it takes to be a Republican," Sen. Ensign said.

Note to Tiger: You better clean yer act up or you're likely to end up hangin' with the wrong crowd. Heh.

Yo, Santa, ya better put in some serious shopping...

Strip club owner’s dog shelter named for Gingrich opens.

Think Progress

Last September, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich retracted an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award he accidentally presented to Dallas strip club owner Dawn Rizos and refunded the $5,000 donation Rizos made to Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future. At the time, Rizos said she would take the money to build a shelter for unwanted pit bulls. The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that “Newt’s Nook: A Home For Pit Bulls” is now open:

So...I guess when ya adopt one, ya gotta get it 'newtered'?

Top 10 uses for "Going Rogue"

Mark Morford

5) Iranian revolution, trigger for. Right now, the last thing Iran's cretinous leaders want is another pro-democracy uprising from the educated classes. What better way for the U.S. to inspire a new round of violent unrest than by air-dropping hundreds of thousands of copies of "Going Rogue" all over the streets, each with a personal note saying, "With love, Ayatollah."

Iranian citizens will be so insulted by this obvious effort to keep them ignorant and oppressed, a new bout of aggressive resistance is bound to be unleashed, leading to inevitable government overthrow. Viva la revolucion!

6) Torture device. A no-brainer, really. Got a suspect in custody? A nasty Taliban leader hell-bent on undermining America's love of shopping malls and sparkling vampires and free streaming porn? No problem. Strap 'em down, gag 'em up, and watch their eyes widen in horror as you pull up a chair and begin reading. "Going Rogue." It's the new waterboarding!

7) Unruly child becalmer. (Similar to above, only family friendly). [...]

My favorite:

10) Apocalypse detector. It has been widely rumored that HarperCollins secretly embedded a tiny sensor in the cover of thousands of copies of "GR" to be sold in various welfare states and Glenn Beck's Elmo fetish dungeon. When the Rapture is nigh, the sensors will cause Sarah's breasts to glow bright red and start blinking furiously. Soon after, the book will begin smoking, and quickly burst into flame. Then Jesus will reappear, laugh hysterically, and with a friendly wink, whisk all fundamentalist Christians away to the great monster truck rally/moose hunting lodge in the sky. Then the real peace on Earth begins. Rejoice!

Headline of the Day

Conservative Senators Embrace Putting Off Health Care For Americans In Favor Of Escalation In Afghanistan

Related Update:

The Rude One, more links at site:

Few things are more revolting than the self-righteousness of Republicans over the federal deficit and national debt. Karl Rove, a man who should have to spend one day a week standing still so people can kick him in the nuts, recently cavilled in the Wall Street Journal (motto: "Actually, our editorial policy isn't so different since Murdoch bought our ass"), "When Mr. Obama was sworn into office the federal deficit for this year stood at $422 billion. At the end of October, it stood at $1.42 trillion."

Or, in other words, Karl Rove, as ever, can go fuck himself or fuck whatever gnarled, cloven-hoofed, demi-demon mutant dwarf that would have him.

There's finally creeping talk about the big damn elephant in the room: that we might actually, horror of horrors, have to think about raising taxes in order to get our fiscal house in order, something that was verboten during the Bush administration. Seriously, did George Stephanopoulos's hair ever ask a member of Congress or the Bush White House if we should maybe, perhaps think that, if they wanna throw a huge fuckin' war on America's tab, we oughta pay for it together? Because he did ask Lindsey Graham yesterday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos's Hair, "If we're going to fight a war, shouldn't the American people pay for it?"

And, like every good barking bitch Republican, whenever confronted with a question about spending so profligate and unnecessary that it makes it look like Eliot Spitzer got a bargain on his diamond-pussied whores, Graham blathered on, "I'd like to see an endeavor to see if we can cut current spending and find some dollars that we're spending today to pay for the war, and prioritize American spending." And, in a remark that instantly rendered him one of the most useless, out-of-touch fuckers in the Senate, he said, "Our national security future depends on getting it right in Afghanistan, and there is no better use of taxpayer dollars than to defend America, in my view." You know whose security depends on "getting it right" in Afghanistan? Afghanistan's. And then Pakistan's. And then Europe's. Ours? Not so much. Oh, at one point it did, but a Republican administration fucked that up.

Sometimes, the craven greed of many Americans is unbearable. We so fucking want something for nothing. Until it wasn't popular anymore in about, oh, what, 2005ish, people loved them some Iraq War, but the notion of asking people to pay for it? That was political death. For the most part, we acknowledge that some vague "something" needs to be done about health care costs, but the solution, that maybe we'll have to pay a little bit more in taxes and make do with 40" HDTVs instead of 45", is somehow anti-American.

Yes, everything that might do Americans some good has to be paid for in front. Everything that does them no good at all in the pursuit of obscene profit for a few can be borrowed from the Chinese and paid for by the taxpayers later. And paid for later. And paid for later. And...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Design for Bush Library Unveiled
Will include animatronic Bush reading My Pet Goat.

Eight In Minneapolis Accused of Recruiting Poor, Impressionable Youths to Train in Military Skills, Use as Fighters Abroad
Shadowy organization known as “U.S. Army.”

Car Remotely Controlled With iPhone Tested in Berlin
Soon you'll be able to drive the kids to school without getting out of bed.

I wonder ...

If Mike Huckabee is gonna blame Clinton for this one too?

The man whom police are seeking as a "person of interest" in the slaying of four police officers was released from an Arkansas prison nine years ago after a controversial decision by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee to commute his sentence.

...

Long before coming to Washington, Clemmons was serving a 35-year prison term in Arkansas for armed robbery but his sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Huckabee, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in his 2008 presidential bid, according to the Arkansas Times Web site.

...

Ain't the Rethugs supposed to be all about 'law and order' and 'justice'?

Great thanks to Watertiger for the link.

East Of Woodstock, West Of Vietnam

Tom Russell performs "East of Woodstock, West of Vietnam" on Letterman.

Hear selections from Blood and Candle Smoke.

Thanks to johntaine.

Break time ...

Well, I got the Mrs' office done yesterday (just waiting for the TV to show up so I can hang it on the wall) and she's all moved in. Now I get to take the winter off from building shit. So now that the boss has her 'corner office' she can start being really productive come tomorrow morning (she had the last week off).

Dolly Parton - 9 to 5