Bloodthirsty

We Americans like to think of ourselves as a peace-loving nation. We aren't.

Sure, some of us are, possibly many, maybe even a majority. Maybe not. But there's a strong current of blood lust not even a step up from savagery that runs through many Americans' violent and ugly view of the world.

Iran's nuclear ambitions? Don't ask questions. Don't talk. Don't bother with economic coercion. Attack.

To your lastpoint: eliminate their capability now, so they cannot use it later. Do not make the mistake of thinking they won't. and, talking will not get us there. --ronreganfan [sic] (4/9/2009 12:18 PM EDT)

Pirates from lawless Somalia? Don't negotiate the release of their hostages, backed by the threat of force. Attack everyone everywhere.

Yesterday, April 8th, 2009, Somali pirates attacked an American merchant ship. To the government of Somalia, I say the following: You must get contol of your population and end their piracy right now. If you don’t, we will. If ending their piracy means destroying what little there is of your sorry nation, we will destroy your sorry nation. If any Somali pirate ever again attacks an American ship, we will act accordingly. Do not appeal for mercy. Do not mistake our resolve. --camper9574 (4/9/2009 5:22 AM EDT)

Negotiation is not an option. Get Captain Phillips back safely, then take quick and severe action.
If some innocents get in the way then they should not have been in the area. --icepack (4/9/2009 7:30 AM EDT)

These idiots have no idea how vast the Indian Ocean is. (Note: I have no qualms whatsoever about defending shipping. I'm just not willing to kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out.)

North Korean missile? Never mind that Kim Jong Il is probably sick. Never mind that this society will collapse under its own weight quite soon. Attack.

Newt Gingrich says he would have disabled the long-range missile before it ever left the launch pad. --from the CNN story

Yes, the US should have bombed the launch pad as soon as the threat became known. Now the North Koreans will think they can get away with it every time. --Cameron (April 6th, 2009 4:00 pm ET)

Fortunately, many commenters on the Jack Cafferty story of Jingo Newt recognize the Republican war drumbeat for what it is.

This is what the bully faction of the conservative movement has to offer: perpetual war. Fer chrissake, in 2003, they wanted to invade France for merely verbal disagreements with the Bushists.

We're already in theater in two wars, maxed out on both our soldiers and our credit cards. If we fought all the wars the wingnuts want us to fight, we would be on a permanent war footing. And our deficits? We'd never see a balanced budget again.

The stupidest attitude of all that the bully faction of the Republican Party sweats out through every pore is that if you don't agree with their every carpet-bombing knee-jerk reflex, you must want to befriend every enemy and show America's throat to their knives.

So, of course, it's all Obama's fault that these conflicts heated up. It's all Obama's fault that he hasn't yet killed anyone. Never mind that all three of these problems have been going on for years. Nope, the wingnuts' selective amnesia prevents them from ever seeing problems in context, where those problems are more complicated.

Fart in the general direction of North Korea

It's hard to believe that Newt Gingrich gets credit for being smart when he's this willing to pander to the stupid, jingoist wing of his party. Of course, it's just that the non-stupid, non-jingoist wing is so tiny.

Now, we're ready to share power

Jack Cafferty tacks back away from his flirtation with the non-Republicans to ask this stupid question:

Why can’t the Democrats and Republicans work together instead of against each other?

When the Republicans held power, they told the Dems to piss off on a daily basis. And everything went straight to hell.

Now, though, the Republicans want a piece of that good ol' bipartisanship. As long as the Democrats get all the blame for the things that inevitably will go wrong and the Republicans get credit for things they are only peripherally involved in...

I'd smile sweetly at the GOP and let them be peripherally involved. Very peripherally.

We don't work with them well because they believe all sorts of truly nutty things about government, the economy, and the world. Their solutions are more of the same bitter and unhelpful nonsense that got us here. Why would any sane person want to compromise with that!?

I'd let them go on TV all the time with their gripes. I'd get tape. Then when the Democratic plan does work out, I'd smack the Republicans around for the true fact that they only wanted to obstruct the Democrats, but we wouldn't let them and America is better off for that.

But then I'd be a Democrat with backbone even in Washington.

Leave a mark

Jack Cafferty goes medieval on the Republican Party's ass. It's good to see that someone at McCNN is fed up with the bullshit.

David Vitter watch, day 393

Jack Cafferty asks whether John Edwards's political career is over due to his now-admitted affair.

David Vitter still sits in the Senate after, uh, employing sex workers. (Hey, did he pay their employer FICA, or were they claiming to be contractors?)

I think most of us now agree that we'd be better off if Duhbya had screwed some person instead of every goddamn thing he touched.

Proof of lifelessness

Here again is Obama's paragraph that McCain objects to:

"Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face," Obama said Wednesday in Springfield, Missouri. "So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky."

What McCain really objects to is the definitive truth in the first sentence. He knows he has to scare the voters because he knows that they know he can't fix anything that Duhbya did wrong. Going negative is what he has to do, and he's trying to attack Obama's defense against fear.

Look for the nation's mood to go even lower under McCain's slimy barrage.

Will that help, asks Jack Cafferty? Win, I doubt. But it has already helped McCain blunt the positive impact of Obama's excellent adventure.

It will also further damage America, but McCain couldn't give a crap when faced with the consuming parasite of his own ambition.

Update (3/12/09): Cleaning up drafts, I found this from 7/31/08 about the same quote:

McCain has made his race card objection to this comment from Obama:

"Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face," Obama said Wednesday in Springfield, Missouri. "So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky." (emphasis added)

I see, McCain and his friends think that Obama can't even mention his race without playing the race card (whatever the hell that formula means). Chris Matthews is constantly casting Obama outside "normal Americans" and talk radio is doing worse. The McCain campaign is no doubt casting Obama as risky. But it's Obama who's trying to play on race.

McCain is racing to the bottom, the foul slime that is Republican politics, by himself.

"Wall St. got drunk"

Duhbya said this to disclaim responsibility. Boy, now, that's a new tack for him.

Wall St., among others, did get drunk, but they did because the Fed and other financial regulators failed to take the punch bowl away. They failed in their jobs at frightening and increasing cost to us taxpayers because of their laissez-faire Bushist ideology.

The White House thoroughly endorsed and supported the looting.

McCNN sends the cavalry

Jack Cafferty asks, Why does Obama get more news coverage than McCain?

Jack, who's o.k. but miscast as CNN's liberal (ha!), is concerned about the narrow issue of news anchors going on foreign trips, which is a red herring. Take a look at the current CNN Political Ticker:

• McCain predicts 'spectacular' terror attempts in Iraq
• McCain: 'I don't know' if Obama is socialist
• No Obama-Gore ticket
• Will McCain stop criticizing Obama when he's abroad? No
• McCain touring GM facility
• Pelosi call Bush a 'total failure'
• McCain, Obama camps trade flip-flopping charges
• McCain, Obama praise Gore
• Biden comes to Obama's defense, raises VP buzz
• McCain presses Iraq flip-flop charge ahead of Obama trip
• McCain: 'We have succeeded in Iraq'
• McCain calls Obama health care plan 'HillaryCare'
• Obama blames 'conservative press' for attacks on Michelle
• Commentary: McCain right, Obama wrong on school vouchers
• McCain: Not taking Nebraska for granted
• three or four summary items

Here's the count:

• McCain only: 4
  
• Obama only: 2
  
• both, McCain leads story: 7
  
• both, Obama leads story: 1
  
• other: 1, plus the summary items

Yes, there's an imbalance. Hint: It's not the conventional wisdom. Even worse, nearly all the Obama stories are on defense, parrying McCain attack, attack, attack.

The hell with tax returns

How about medical records? I only knew about one of these treatments, though I suspected another:

[McCain]’s also been treated for melanoma – a potentially deadly form of skin cancer – four times in the last 15 years.

Some = all

Jack Cafferty commits a common media and Green Party fallacy: Just because Democrats and Republicans share some (admittedly bad) attributes, they share all bad attributes. Yes, Democrats in Washington are too beholden to corporate and wealthy contributors. But here's a small list of major advantages the Dems show me:

• The party with anti-Iraq-war impetus even if not enough of it
  
• The party of competent FEMA
• The party that will even talk about reversing the Bushists' reverse Robin Hood tax policies
• The party that cares about the environment
• The party of equal rights
• The party of Constitutional government and the rule of law
  

Yeah, none of that stuff matters.

"A pox on both their houses" is popular because it tells people they can give up on self-government. It's a waste of editorial space.