An indelible stamp

Billmon on Saint Ronny of Star Wars: “Yes, he was as ignorant and stubborn and incapable of rational thought as our current president, but he wasn't arrogant - or at least, he didn't come across as arrogant. He lacked Bush's infuriating sense of entitlement, and his nasty temper. Reagan smiled, he didn't smirk.” Billmon goes on to remind us of Saint Ronny of Plausible Deniability’s bloody foreign policy, etc. Reagan was arrogant, by the way, being as unwilling to listen to opposing views as Bush. Marc Cooper comments in his blog that the tv coverage has been adulatory and unthinking in a way appropriate to a monarchy with state-controlled media.

Me, I’ve watched none of it (except with the sound off while talking on the phone). I said to people yesterday that there were only two ways to deal with this: unplug the tv and go into hiding until it’s all over, or plunge into the cheese-fest, searching out the worst of it (George Will on Fox, say) and just wallowing in it, yelling sarcastic comments at the tv. You’d think I’d be doing the latter, looking for material to use here and enjoying myself; hell, I would have expected me to do that. But I just couldn’t face the possibility of hearing Reagan described as America’s most popular president.

Also, a little error at my cable company gave me temporary access to HBO, and there was a whole season of the Sopranos to watch, and can you believe that ( ) got whacked? I thought about flipping back and forth between that and Fox News for a compare and contrast between Tony S. and Saint Ronny of Arms for Hostages, but decided not to do that to myself.

Really, can you fuckin’ believe that ( ) got whacked?

Actually, who needs Fox when you have John Kerry planting big wet ones on the dead ass of Saint Ronny of I Can’t Recall. Some excerpts from his statement: “he taught us that there is a big difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship.” “He was our oldest president, but he made America young again.” (yeah, crying and shitting itself). “Our prayers are with his family, and the wife he loved in a way all the world could see.” (No that was Al Gore, and it still makes us shudder). “Today, from California to Maine — 'from sea to shining sea' — Americans will bow their heads in prayer and gratitude that President Reagan left such an indelible stamp on the nation he loved."” (Something like the stain Clinton left on a certain dress). And Kerry has decided that the respectful thing to do is not to campaign this week (you mean he was campaigning before?).

The word of the week continues to be “optimism,” which is short-hand for “leftists run down the United States.”

Sharon gets his cabinet to pass his alleged Gaza disengagement plan, which requires the removal of not a single settlement or settler, each of which will require a separate cabinet vote. It’s a recipe for failure, you have to assume deliberately so. In exchange for the crappy original plan, now watered down to nothing, Bush gave in to Israeli demands on several key points, including denying the Palestinians a right of return. Someone needs to ask him whether that still holds.

Bush admin lawyers issued a brief before the invasion of Iraq saying that it was ok for Bush to order torture as part of his “inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign”, and anyone who followed such an order would be immune from prosecution. They could argue that they were just following orders or claim good faith. (Note, however, that the Wall St Journal has only seen a draft version). The brief includes a list of approved torture methods, which the Journal doesn’t have, although it does allow for the use of drugs. It also says that torture could be justified as self-defense, and that mere infliction of pain and suffering doesn’t necessarily even count as torture.

Another Al Qaida operative turned himself in in 2000, offering to give information, only to be told to go away. Link

LeftI says that John Walker Lindh’s plea bargain included him signing a statement that he had never been mistreated by the US military, which he obviously had been.