Motley Moose – Archive

I fully and heartily endorse Chuck Hagel’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense.  This country has, at times, been ill-served in that position by those who are captured by the military-industrial complex and advocate on its behalf as though they were some kind of lobbyist.  I hold Leon Panetta in high regard, but his recent (there’s no other word for it) lobbying to avoid the sequestration cuts of the DoD’s budget have been unseemly in my eyes.

Chuck Hagel served his country with bravery and open eyes in Vietnam.  He and his brother vowed to one another that, should they ever see another war so foolishly expend human life to so little effect for little reason, they would do something about it if they could.  Chuck Hagel courageously stood up to his own party loudly, proudly, and persistently once he realized that the War in Iraq had become such a war.  Chuck Hagel has made it plain he will not rubberstamp the bellicose warmongering of some of our allies, nor that of our own folks.

As I am sure most of you are already aware, conservative author John Derbyshire wrote a fantastically racist screed on how the children of whites and asians (he being white, his wife being asian) need to avoid blacks.  For example:

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

There’s quite a bit more in this vein.  Sadly, this is no longer the story as far as I’m concerned.  John Derbyshire is absolutely free to believe this crap if he chooses.  He is free to have this “talk” with his children, if he chooses.  He is free to write this crap if he so chooses, and Taki’s Magazine is free to publish it.  I am not simply saying this for the heck of it.  I love living in a nation so free as this one.  This pseudo-scientific garbage is a small price to pay so that I might dip my own pen in the ink of liberty.  No, the problem isn’t what Derbyshire believes or says.  The problem is that conservatives have a very good reason now to see that a significant slice (a minority, I’m sure) of their base agrees with Derbyshire.

Conservatives have insisted that they are not racists, that liberals are the true racists.  Conservatives have, by and large, insisted of late that whites are the victims of racism these days, and not the aggressors.  The reaction of many, many conservative commenters shows that this is wishful thinking at best.

Hello, fellow Meese!  It’s been too long, please forgive my absence.  I’ve spent the last year or more just agog at how craven yet simultaneously audacious our friends across the aisle have been.  I’m beyond disgusted, and more than a little disappointed.  I’m pretty nearly ready for war, and if any of you remember me or my general political demeanor, that’s not the Reaper you likely recall.

I recall RNC Chairman Michael Steele saying a few months ago that the era of apologizing was over for his party.  Fair enough.  I don’t recall hearing very much in the way of apology prior to that, but that’s his call.  Still, that oddity has really stuck in the back of my mind.  The Republican Party has sadly decided to dodge the most valuable lessons of the Bush era, and instead is trying to avoid any and all pain related to their incompetent involvement in staggering stupidity.

And I swear, these folks honestly do not think they did anything for which they should apologize.

This is all too easy for me to write.  

I’ve spent the last eight months trying very hard to agree with then-President-Elect Obama- that we should look forward, not behind us, on the issue(s) of what the Bush Administration did to make us safe. I sympathize with President Obama on this one. There is so much work for us to do on policy! Health care, climate change, credit card reform- and God knows what else is on that list!

Moreover, I agree with the basic premise that the Bush administration, by and large, did what they did in the honest belief that they were doing what (they thought) was necessary to save American lives (and perhaps atone for their monumental fuckup). Well, I give up. I can’t get behind this, even though I cannot condemn President Obama for his impulses on this one.

Attorney General Eric Holder must act, regardless of the costs. If Vice President Cheney ordered the CIA, as has been recently reported, to NOT brief Congress on matters that the CIA is required by law to so brief Congress, well, that’s it. Holder MUST act in order for us to keep this republic our founders gave us.

I can’t deal with this shit.

“The American demand to prevent natural growth is unreasonable, and brings to mind pharaoh, who said, ‘Every son that is born you shall cast into the river,'” Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi) said.

“If there is a family that expands from one child to four or five, what should we tell them – to ship the children off to Petah Tikva?” Herschkowitz added. “This is an unacceptable demand, even if it comes from the Americans, and Israel should reject it decisively.”

Says another:

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said, “The American demand to freeze construction means expulsion for young people living in large locales. I hope the US administration understands that. If not, I don’t want to be an apocalyptic prophet saying we’re facing struggle and confrontation.”

He added that “the concessions they’re demanding of us are a security impediment we cannot tolerate.”

I posted at RedState under the name Han_Pritcher.  I have not been banned.  I simply gave up.  After a year as a “liberal contrarian” I have simply lost any sense of purpose to it.  I learned a lot about politics, the internet, and myself by posting and participating there for as long as I did.  I’d like to share what I’ve learned.

First, we are not magically better than they are.  We can get every bit as angry, as stupid, as blind as they do at their worst.  I’ve seen diaries at DailyKos which are phenomenally stupid and incredibly angry.  You have too.  Don’t deny it.  Oh sure, the content and themes are different, but I’ve learned that the more politically involved we get, the more partisan and frankly angry we can become.  This is a human thing, not a liberal or conservative one.

The Detroit Free Press discusses how President Obama has asked GM’s CEO, Rick Waggoner, to resign as an apparent precondition of further bailout funds.  I’m a tad uneasy about this move.  Don’t get me wrong, I see the sense of it.  If they want more of our money we can damned well call some of the shots.  I dig, I dig.  I just don’t know if I like the road this takes us down…

Barack Obama is a goddamned genius.

Every day this tiff with Limbaugh continues is a win for Rush, true.  His fanbase may be growing in size.  It is absolutely growing in ardor and intensity.  Limbaugh is amped up, as if on steroids.  There is a power vacuum in the Republican party and in the conservative movement.  Limbaugh has been singled out the President and good old Rush has risen to the occasion.  He will tell truth to power!

And it’s goddamned hilarious.  For every foot soldier he collects he’s probably scaring off two moderates, maybe three.  And this is far more devious than anyone realizes.

President Obama is extremely popular at the moment.  The American people support him by a great majority.  Our situation is grim and we cannot abide more of what we have suffered of late.  The American people demanded change and they got it.  Now they are demanding action.  The President gets that.  The Republicans, by and large, don’t.