Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Salam Pax — the legendary blogger who posted from Iraq before and during the U.S. invasion, as well as afterward — has returned to Baghdad after a lengthy absence and resumed blogging.
Even better, his new blog includes posts migrated from his previous sites, dating all the way back to December 2002. What a concept, eh?
– As the revelations about the Bushites’ politicization of the erstwhile Department of Justice were unfolding a year and a half ago, Atrios wrote presciently:
A sad fact of the current state of our democracy is that anyone who wants to be president has to be by any reasonable definition completely insane. The fact that they are insane doesn’t necessarily prevent them from being good presidents, but nonetheless they are completely bonkers.
This is doubly true now, as any president is not only going to have to deal with this disaster in Iraq, but also a federal government which has been staffed from top to bottom with career ideological Bushies who will fully understand that their job in a Democratic administration is to take it down.
See D-Day for a description of the probable first shot in this coming four-year war.
– Everybody Laughs at Broder wonders why departing Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell didn’t recommend cleaning house at the WaPo op-ed page as part of her recommendations for the paper.
– Whatever It Is, I’m Against It rounds up news of Dubya, including life-size dartboards of him, and his bisexual yearnings. You know, the usual.
– Speaking of which, Zaius Nation sums up the so-called Bush legacy project, noting admiringly that “President Bush has not let the pesky old financial crisis get in the way of the really important work that he has at hand”:
– Seenos at Left-Over, though, isn’t surprised “that the President who put Karl Rove in charge of overseeing the reconstruction after Katrina, or Karen Hughes in charge of improving our country’s image in the Muslim world, would put the two of them in charge of trying to “engorge” his presidential legacy.”
– Whatever It Is, I’m Against It on Barack Obama’s press conference quip about being a “mutt”: “After eight years of seeing the White House occupied by an example of the results of excessive in-breeding, a mutt looks pretty good.”
– Speaking of inbreeding, seenos at Left-Over is befuddled by the California ballot proposition results: “The largest margin of victory came when 63.2% voted in favor of improved standards for confining farm animals (Prop 2). Yet the same population essentially voted 60.0% against improved standards for confining nonviolent drug offenders – by denying treatment as an alternative to prison (Prop 5).” And, noting another pair of decisions: “How about if we just allow gay marriage but don’t notify the religious zealots that it’s happening?”
– In a more serious post-election vein, Reidar Visser notes that contrary to some conventional wisdom among Democratic national security wonks, Barack Obama won’t have any more leverage than George Bush to force any political reconciliation in Iraq. Leaving won’t be a panacea; it’ll just be leaving (which, for many people, is understandably enough).
– Speaking of Iraq, Musings on Iraq is keeping an eye on the below-the-media-radar problems that remain over there, including cholera, the unresolved fate of the “Sons of Iraq” (also known as the former Sunni guerrillas the U.S. had been bribing), and Kurdish-Arab conflicts in Mosul.
– darkblack and Everybody Laughs at Broder (daily mockery of the Washington Post’s op-ed writers) are taking the Democratic election wins as a cue to pull a Billmon and go on extended hiatus. Drop by those sites to see why they’ll be missed.
– Sister Nancy Beth breaks a nearly monthlong silence to reassure conservatives about the exorbitant amounts spent to pamper and primp the GOP ticket: “I have misgivings about Senator McCain spending $8672.55 on cosmetics, as I think it sends the wrong message to our children. However, it’s probably just a bad habit he picked up while he was in prison and away from female companionship, and I’m pretty sure the Bible makes allowances for this sort of deviance if it’s done while fighting Communism.”
– The King of Zembla apologizes for mocking McCain: “The victims of this Satanic scourge deserve our respect, our sympathy, and — for having the remarkable courage to appear before large crowds of people in a state of utter, stupefied bewilderment — our admiration.” What Satanic scourge, you ask? You’ll have to read the post to find out.
– Driftglass. ‘Nuff said.
Update: Zaius Nation on Sarah Palin, “Miss Firecracker”
See Zaius Nation for the full story — the Lectroid mouseovers alone are worth the visit. (Via Starship Tim, which/who aptly notes “it might be more aptly titled Barack Obama Versus the World Crime League.”)
Check out seenos’ disgustingly funny juxtaposition of Repug imagery over at Left-Over.
I think cursor just gave up the ghost. Bummer.
– For anyone who read or heard about columnist David Brooks’ condemnation (in the New York Times) of the Republican party’s collapse into anti-intellectualism, and had the same “Um, wait, but didn’t you…” reaction I did, The Liberal Rising connects the dots as to why Sarah Palin’s gloating ignorance is “the fruit of what [Brooks] has sown.”
– Speaking of Brooks’ ilk, did you know there is a blog devoted to ridiculing Washington Post columnists? Awesome way to fill a niche.
– And speaking of filled niches, Left-Over suggests a new McCain slogan that might boost his, um, sagging fortunes with female voters.
– Today’s caption contests have been outsourced to Watertiger.
– Via Whatever It Is, I’m Against It, Radar magazine has posted an August interview with John McCain about pop culture where he says, “A lot of those zombie movies are political, you know.” We await the commentary of an expert on this subject.
– It’s not a recent post, but Sister Nancy Beth was ahead of the curve several weeks ago with the best summary of the William Ayers controversy you’ll read.
More than a year and a half after closing up the Whiskey Bar, he has a diary at DailyKos about the “real” John McCain.