Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

Andrew Sullivan on “The Unwinnable War:

When one weighs the extra terror risk from remaining in Afghanistan, the absurdity of our chief alleged ally actually backing the enemy, the impossibility of an effective counter-insurgency when the government itself is corrupt and part of the problem, the brutality of the enemy in intimidating the populace in ways no civilized occupying force can counter, the passage of ten years in which any real chance at success was squandered … the logic for withdrawal to the more minimalist strategy originally favored by Obama after the election and championed by Biden thereafter seems overwhelming.

When will the president have the balls to say so?

End the war.

I saw this last night and had a hard time not wanting to punch the face of Marc Thiessen through the screen. Eminently punchable. If you watch this it goes on for three parts–after the allotted time is up Thiessen whines about not getting to talk. If I were The Daily Show I would do a count and show the minutes each spoke. This guy’s such a baby. The problem? Your point is garbage!

Sullivan: “Thiessen’s arguments were both morally repugnant, legally absurd, McCarthyite and ignorant.” Yep, they were that too.

Here’s the thing: I’m just not that convinced that any kind of major offensive against a terrorist network or a nation that “harbors terrorists” is going to prevent 19 guys, or 1 guy, from hijacking a plane, or setting off a suicide bomb on a train, or, pick your favorite option. I just don’t believe that anything we’ve done in Afghanistan or (especially) Iraq has resulted in the increased safety of the United States. There’s no way to prove this one way or the other, but I think luck and planning have more to do with our quiet 8 years or so since 9/11.

There will not be a moment or a signal that this war is won in Afghanistan. Exiting in 2011…will it be any different than exiting now? I guess I just don’t believe it. The only difference will be the death toll, on all sides. I hope I’m wrong. But I am not for this war, even less so than when we originally began it.

UPDATE:

Lest I forget: There have been threats or plans that were disrupted over the years, and these were all thwarted because of law enforcement activities–look here at Fox News’ own list of foiled terror plots. Here’s another right wing site, The Heritage Foundation, with a similar list. It evens says there that “the best means to prevent terrorist attacks is effective intelligence collection, information sharing, and coordinated, determined counterterrorism opera­tions that can stop attacks before they are mounted.”

What any of this has to do with 30,ooo more military men and women going to Afghanistan, I don’t know. The letters FBI will come up again and again when you learn about the thwarted attacks. See also, “police department.”

I swear, I think we bomb the shit out of other countries just to make a certain segment of America feel good about themselves. Small penis complex or something…

My poor lonely blog–ahem, excuse me–Booze Cabinet! My poor lonely Booze Cabinet. Sitting here patiently waiting for something new while I go off and live my life. Eating turkey and drinking Guinness and such. Ah, the pleasures of life. The holidays are here and so suddenly there’s more and more activities like family stuff and then there’s always band stuff and then of course baby stuff, but then it’s always been like that I guess. So whatever, I’m just having a relaxing Monday night watching football and tap tap tapping away at the computer at various things–

Okay, now it’s Tuesday morning. See, this is how it happens. Distractions, stuff, and the next thing you know I haven’t finished my thoughts. Here’s a quick stab at it, I’m trying to understand a couple of things: one, it appears that the two people who crashed the White House party are a Big Deal. Is this for real? Who cares? These people are like Jon and Kate–I don’t know who they are and yet I keep hearing about them. Make it stop.

Second, tonight is the big Obama Afghanistan speech. I am not pleased with what I hear–30,000 more troops. There is no way to “win” this war, if you can even call it that. It is just an ongoing “thing.” How will it be determined that it is time to leave? Perhaps Obama will tell us. But I do not like the sounds of it. I think now would have been the perfect time to get out, in this first year of his presidency, but apparently he wants to do it up.

I read this last night, it is one way to look at the first year of Obama: Brilliant! The article actually makes some good points, I recommend it for those who may be down on him right now. Look, I’m patient, and unlike the media and all the crazies, I don’t expect this all to be wrapped up and done in the first year, all of the shit left behind. And it has not even been a year. I like the calmness of Obama and I am certainly glad he is in there. But I fear that this Afghanistan gig is going to eat up four years like a monster.

Glenn Greenwald reads a poll on Iran:

In the last ten years, the U.S. and Israel collectively have bombed at least six Muslim countries (including Gaza).  Despite that, 40% of Americans want to attack yet another one, and 1/3 want to invade.  Those are the same people who, if there is another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, will be walking around, eyebrows earnestly raised, innocent, self-righteous and confused, and asking:  ”why do they hate us??”  And their friends and neighbors and leaders will assure them:  ”they hate us for our freedoms.”

Reminds me of the David Cross bit:

I don’t think Osama bin Laden sent those planes to attack us because he hated our freedom. I think he did it because of our support for Israel, our ties with the Saudi family and our military bases in Saudi Arabia. You know why I think that? Because that’s what he fucking said!

Nine months in and the extremists’ reaction to Obama is as if he has enacted all of his agenda and changed the course of American history. Now, that’s kind of what we elected him for, but I certainly didn’t expect it all to happen in less than a year. And for sure, it is taking some time. You can feel the impatience on the left.

But does he deserve all of this right-wing nuttery so early on? Of course not. He hasn’t earned it. He may, and if he does I’d say that the liberals and progressives will be happy. But he’s never going to make the kooks happy. I mean, imagine if Bush had even pretended to listen to all of us who protested against the war in Iraq. Imagine that all of those good points that were being made before the war were taken into consideration. But they weren’t, we all know that.

We were ignored, quite proudly, by the patriots in charge and their media brethren. It’s still a little hard to believe that such an atmosphere existed, but you know it did, even past the 2004 election. And now, proven right by the stupidity and incompetence of the war, we are rewarded with…more right-wing wackiness.

A reader at Andrew Sullivan makes a salient point regarding earnings and time served:

The heaviest hitters in the Republican party, and in the conservative media have loudly and proudly called for Obama’s failure. Liberals who even softly criticized Bush were roundly shamed and called terrorist-loving-America-haters. George W. Bush, despite the controversial beginning of his presidency, was given the chance – - no, in fact, after 9/11, he was given all the unopposed freedom in the world to succeed or fail based upon his own decisions and his own performance. Bush EARNED his hatred.

Obama has not had that luxury.

It’s that “liberal media” once again controlling and defining the conversation, pandering to the 20%’ers. This is what happens when we treat politics like a reality television show.

Last night I saw some old Bulls game on, I guess they’re replaying Jordan’s great games to mark his Hall of Fame induction or something. Wow, man. One of the games was from 1987 and it was a one-man gang. Amazing that they got it together to win six championships, but Jordan was truly great. Best ever, no question. Basketball isn’t even worth watching anymore without someone like him to watch. So glad I saw all of that, from right around that time on, the early Jordan years up through number 6 in 1998…eleven years ago? Sheeee-it…

Eight years ago it was a different story. I woke up today and happened to catch the replay on msnbc, not from the beginning but after the second plane hit.  Watched the first tower go down, then the second. Unbelievable. Tim Russert is on there too, which is weird. If only people had not reacted with such fear and instead with resolve. Resolve would not have invaded Iraq or set up torture prisons or carried bogus terror alerts, but Fear would, and did. How different it would have been without the fear-mongering.

Of course it was scary, at least for a while. I would ride my bike downtown to work and expect to see a plane at any moment come flying into the Sears Tower. It’s still odd to see a low-flying plane anywhere near here. But that doesn’t mean you have to panic. And it feels like we panicked. (Re)-elected a dumb ass. Shouted down dissenting views. Bunkered down and lost some freedom. Acted exactly like they hoped we would.

Kinda feels like those same folks are still shouting today.

This isn’t about Tom Ridge and the threat levels. It’s about the way that everything you hear or read about is total bullshit.

So it has gone with the story of Tom Ridge’s assertion. He made a statement. His publisher summarized the statement, distorting it slightly. The press distorted the statement further. The press began talking to itself about the distortion. And then the original statement, which Ridge had put down in the book and remained unchanged, ceased to exist. His statement was replaced by a popular simulacrum: All that remained was the distortion of what Ridge said in his book. The original statement was gone. And so, we have big news today: Ridge Backpedals!!!

He didn’t backpedal. He wrote what he wrote. Whether what he wrote is true, you have to figure out for yourself. But this is one reason why I dismiss stories like this all the time, whether they are political or local or a stupid fake sports controversy. There’s just so much bullshit surrounding them. What did the people actually say? That’s really all I want to know.

The thing about the terror alerts: we knew that was happening back then. It was obvious. The color would change and the fear would rise and the idiots would stick by their man. Polls go up, votes are made and it’s a done deal. That was an easy one to figure out. How else would Bush get elected in 2004? It worked to perfection.

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

The last word on Robert McNamara, here. There’s a great anecdote about a hippie artist attempting to throw him overboard on a ferry. As Dr. Thompson may have said, he was a man who deserved to be eaten by hammerhead sharks and then shit back into the sea to be eaten by electric eels.

I’m just trying to catch up with the world after the big long 4th of July weekend but so much has happened–Sarah, Sarah and Sarah! The brain is a little rattled, a bit loose. Good times up in Wisconsin, rocking Buffestalo with the very first performance of our rock opera and I have now thankfully shaved off the moustache that accompanied the set. It just seemed appropriate at the time, in a Burt Reynolds kind of way, or something.

Also, I see that the Donald Rumsfeld of Vietnam, Robert McNamara, has died. He lived a long full life, 93 years. I won’t get into how I feel about that, but it’s not good. And QB Steve McNair died too, which is weird. Murder-suicide? Yikes.

But Sarah! Oh, we hardly knew ye. What’s next?  I saw a tiny bit of her “speech” a little earlier on the telly and man, she’s gone a little nuts, eh? I mean, a little more nuts? Well, leave some for the squirrels and, ehh…I can’t even pretend to care right now, summerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

Whether it does or not, this is how it should happen. Not by an act of war from the U.S. but from within, the way revolutions do. Cheers to the people of Iran who have taken it up with their government, or whatever it is you call it there–regime, assholery. Just think, if Bill Kristol and many others of his gang had their way, we could have killed many of these same people in the name of democracy for the Middle East. Weird how they become brave heroes when they do it themselves, as opposed to enemies of war when we do it for them.

How many young Iraqis did not live to be able to choose their own revolution, I wonder?

“Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

- DHS Report

“This is the height of insult here.”

- Michael Steele

“[Y]ou have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than Al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong-Il.”

- Rush Limbaugh

“[T]he piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

- Michelle Malkin

An elderly gunman, said by authorities to have a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past, stepped inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, opened fire with a rifle and fatally wounded a security guard before being shot by other officers.

- The News Today

“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.”

- Murderer of Dr. George Tiller, Scott Roeder

You be the judge.

Now, I heard about this, Dick Cheney blaming 9/11 on Richard Clarke, but I had a hard time believing it. Surely, that could not be true. But if I posted something every time Cheney said something stupid we would have way too much Dick on this Booze Cabinet. And there’s plenty already.

Clarke’s book, Against All Enemies, is a detailed account of the months and days before 9/11 and the sad aftermath as we marched toward war with Iraq. Clarke also famously went before the 9/11 Commission and declared that “your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you.”

To read his book you would understand the way that Clarke felt, as he frantically tried to get anyone in that government to respond to the increasingly loud chatter that would eventually result in 9/11. He couldn’t do it. He failed to get their attention.

It makes sense then to hear Cheney first blame Clarke for ” obviously missing it,” and then declare that he never read his book. Why would he? It would have told him what he didn’t want to hear.

Ha ha! I love this, from Jesse Ventura–former wrestler/Governor of Minnie-soda!

I’ll put it to you this way:  You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

Cliff May fantasizes about the interview he didn’t get from Jon Stewart. I would imagine it’s much easier when you can supply the questions and the answers, but in the real world, “it didn’t actually go quite this well,” as he concedes. Cliff May, you are a dwelshbag.