StillAmused's Comments (514)

“Now, if we can just convince him to replace Michael Steele...

Some gifts CAN keep on giving.

Buh-bye, Wudy.”

“Bears repeating. You're VERY confused.

... and reading-challenged, to boot.”

“It helps that you don't comprehend a fundamental truth: the chances that ANYONE directly involved in planning or carrying out the 9/11 attacks remains in Afghanistan are approximately ZERO. Most went on to their "reward" in the act, the remaining few skipped out at Tora Bora.

You're very confused, but you're not alone. OUR perps have left town, THEIR perps are THEIR problem.”

“Wanna "catch bad guys"?

Try Manhattan, Newark, LA or D.C.

Most especially, D.C.

... oh, you mean THEIR bad guys? So, uh, we're military subcontractors?”

“It would have gone a long way toward easing growing concerns over Obama's Afghanistan policy if he'd talked frankly about the complexity of UNwinding a massive foreign policy blunder... and left it at that.

The guy is incontrovertibly brilliant, which leaves me wondering what kind of twisted guidance he's receiving from the military and foreign policy careerists (and their corporate benefactors) who thrive on invasions and occupations.

9/11 -- and our justifiable reaction in the aftermath -- ended at Tora Bora.

(Thanks again, Junior.)”

“And the casualty count in that 'conflict' was.............?

Bit of a reach, don'tcha think?”

“How about the corrosive evolution of our occupation(s) into a generalized offensive against Muslims (under the rubric of "insurgents" or "terrorists") which has now spilled over into Afghanistan, costing hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in the process?

Would a full-bore military campaign against everyone who shares YOUR religious beliefs or identification spoil YOUR day?

... or hadn't you noticed?”

“Interesting that Hasan was never described as "shattered" by the Iraq tragedy... too easy a target for the "terr'ism" thingy.

The broad damage, psychic and otherwise, of Junior's excellent adventure is irreversible. Plan to live with it.”

“Ironically, the same openness to debate that's driving the bellyaching fringenuts closer and closer to the edge. They fare much better with a comforting Dear Leader, the celebration of ignorance and jingoistic, sloganeering 'patriotism'... saves all that labor-intensive introspection.”

“Teapartiers aren't Nazis... they're the reactionary ignorami the Nazis manipulated and excited.

Republicans haven't been "shut out of all healthcare debates"... they've unanimously BOYCOTTED.

"the White House behind closed doors" ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/25/white-house-visitor-logs_n_370921.html

Anything new on those secret Cheney energy meetings?

"do i have to go on and on?"

Probably... or do we get a vote?”

“Teabaggers prove the truism: it floats.”

“Those "lockstep liberals"? Y'mean, the entire PARTY that's announced it will oppose health insurance reform... but only after they're given the additional time they need to 'decide' they'll oppose health insurance reform?

Re-check your scorecard, Gomer.”

“Ain't Karma just a hoot?”

“What was once a national party is now a diagnosis.”

“"Fox hadn't gotten ahold of it an[d] replaced it with footage from crowds running in a Godzilla movie."

Perfect!

Fair warning... I WILL be using it.”

“"Yet Brooks refused to put his own harsh views in print. Will he do it now?"

Not likely. He's still on his rehabilitation tour, laying thick smoke in an attempt to obscure his enthusiastic cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq.

Is there a coherent reason why ANYONE listens to this guy any more?”

“Movement has been detected in the underbrush... the rodents are regrouping.”

“What, exactly, is "the obvious" that you want investigated? Hasan's religion, which has been literally worn out as a theme in virtually every news report?

Maybe you missed this in Soltz' article:

"I'd add that it was a white man who shot up Camp Liberty. It was a couple of neo-Nazis at Ft. Bragg who killed a black couple near base in 1995, and another who tried to illegally sell military equipment to an undercover FBI agent he believed to be a part of the white supremacist movement, in 1997."

When someone -- in the vernacular -- "goes crazy", there's ALWAYS a reason. Is religion any more of an "Ahah!" factor than, say, extremist political views of ANY variety? Warped religious beliefs of ANY variety? Organic brain dysfunction of ANY variety? Good old fashioned hatred of ANY variety?

The layers of contributing factors in this overstressed military, at this time in history, with these political/cultural overtones, given multiple deployments and compromised enlistment standards (among others) are a potent recipe for trouble.

Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous quote ends with, "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Who should we "investigate" next... once we've finished with Muslims? The military is, ironically, far easier to monitor -- because of its disciplined structure -- than the general population. Have you seen the national homicide and other crime statistics lately?”

“Which brand of "disaffected" servicemembers are "prone" to the occasional murder spree in the field, say, in Iraq or Afghanistan?

... or did you just fall off the holiday tree, believing that all innocents killed in those "campaigns" are exclusively the victims of insurgents and radical "terrorists"?

If anything proves the 'Fruit Of The Poison Tree' principle, it's been both this terrible crime AND these two insupportable, fabricated, jingoistic and immoral occupations.”

“Series.”

“It's worth reflecting upon a few harsh realities.

What's happening in the Middle East isn't the World Series... a few exciting games, a winner crowned and everyone goes home. The thugs we suffered for eight years jacked up entire cultures, took hundreds of thousands of lives, left countless thousands injured, displaced MILLIONS and installed a private shadow army that answers to no one, observes no moral code.

That we don't experience the daily consequences, in their horrid, grinding inhumanity -- as do those who live where we chose to meddle -- is no excuse for failing to recognize the daunting challenge of undoing all that damage... if, indeed, it can EVER be undone.

I wonder how many Americans, flopped in front of their widescreens, ever close their eyes and imagine a foreign power swarming THEIR communities, killing and injuring THEIR family members, trashing THEIR infrastructure, making even food shopping a life-threatening experience?

... all while burying the staggering financial cost in vaporous accounts that never seem to surface in the roiling debate over our economy.

Attempting to creatively nudge the institutional forces which creatied this state of affairs -- and remain invested in its continuation -- isn't very gratifying to those of us who hoped for quick solutions.

Imagine how it feels to the one man faced with those unrealistic expectations... all the while abraded and resisted by a substantial segment of the population and its cretinous broadcast cheerleaders for whom the whole thing IS, in effect, just another World”

“I wonder, one year after the election, what President Obama thinks of the seemingly permanently-rooted political 'theocracy' who ARE Washington -- and have been, for decades -- who were waiting to block out the sun?

I wonder what he thinks of a calcified GOP which, already a do-nothing, lockstep farce during the preceding eight years, promptly surrendered itself upon his election -- lock, stock and barrel -- to a shameless, braying fringe of pseudochristians, ranting ideologues and (in some clear instances) irrational clinical specimens?

I wonder what he thinks of a fickle, unprofessional, lazy and thoroughly commercialized 'press' which seemed not only willing but anxious to pretend the eight preceding years of grotesque executive abuses, crimes and demonstrable blunders -- all with long-lasting, intransigent consequences -- never occurred?

... mostly, since they never reported it.

I wonder how much the world weighs when it's positioned, by a whining, politically naïve electorate, on one man's shoulders, oblivious to the forces arrayed to keep it there and unencumbered by the impulse to focus their rage on those forces in a very public, unequivocal fashion?

I wonder how many Americans have elected to be 'disenchanted', rather than seriously angry and screaming for accountability?

"Now, watch this drive..."”

“I wonder, one year after the election, what Obama thinks of the seemingly permanently-rooted political 'theocracy' who ARE Washington -- and have been, for decades -- who were waiting to block out the sun?

I wonder what he thinks of a calcified GOP which, already a do-nothing, lockstep farce during the preceding eight years, promptly surrendered itself -- lock, stock and barrel -- to a shameless, braying fringe of pseudochristians, ranting ideologues and (in some clear instances) irrational clinical specimens?

I wonder what he thinks of a fickle, unprofessional, lazy and thoroughly commercialized 'press' which seemed not only willing but anxious to pretend the eight preceding years of grotesque executive abuses, crimes and demonstrable blunders -- all with long-lasting, instransigent consequences -- never occurred... mostly, since they never reported it?

I wonder how much the world weighs when it's positioned, by a whining, politically naïve electorate, on one man's shoulders, oblivious to the forces arrayed to keep it there and unencumbered by the impulse to focus their rage on those forces in a very public, unequivocal fashion?

I wonder how many Americans have elected to be 'disenchanted', rather than seriously p!ssed off and screaming for accountability?

"Now, watch this drive..."”

“Fewer gays, more war.

Sounds like a plan...

Interesting there's no comparable disdain in the officer corps for the war criminals who abused their loyalty and sent them into pointless, immoral and self-defeating occupations.”

“Friedman Accidentally Stumbles Over Coherent Position On Afghanistan

Sees Opening For Redemption

Enthusiastically Embraces Cronkite-Comparison Accolades With Both Arms

... but still the same obsequious, self-adoring dilettante who cheered the invasion of Iraq.”