Sadly, No!

A couple of things about today’s Krauthammer. First:

It is understood by all that the decades-old American nuclear umbrella in the Pacific Rim commits us to attacking North Korea — presumably with in-kind nuclear retaliation — were it to attack our allies first.

Gruesome stuff, but run-of-the-mill in the nuclear age.

Reopening the nuclear seal? Thousands, perhaps millions, dead? Radioactive rain? Ho-hum. Man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that. Spoken with the blithe impatience of a man who wants to witness from a safe distance the death, destruction and dominion of a first-strike nuclear attack, which he’s already justified to himself morally as the only sane option of last resort. (The world’s a very dangerous place run by unaccountable madmen, etc., and hey, why are you looking at me like that?)

Second: Der Kraphammer seems to believe that a nuclear North Korea proves we should invade Iran.

Above: ‘Kiss of Death’ (1947), featuring Richard Widmark.

This is the definitive paragraph about the 101st Fighting Instaboarders:

This is one of the things that has always puzzled me about some right-wing bloggers: for them, the discovery that someone has some motive that might have induced them to lie or exaggerate implies that everything that person says can be dismissed in its entirety, without requiring any investigation into whether or not it is, you know, true. If someone has ever contributed money to any Democratic candidate, or written a book, or given a talk before any one of the many organizations that have at one point or another gotten a small grant from George Soros, then that fact suffices to make any consideration of what they say superfluous. In reaction to the Foley scandal, they have taken this to its logical conclusion: the fact that some event or claim helps the Democrats is taken to show that it’s the result of a Democratic dirty trick, in the absence of any actual evidence that Democrats had anything to do with it. The result? It’s impossible that anything could ever happen that they would regard as a reason to criticize Bush.

Uh-yahp. It’s a damn creepy phenomenon, too. Normally personality cults revolve around someone who’s actually, you know, charismatic and not, what’stheword, borderline retarded.

On a related note, this is bloody hilarious.

If you darken the same virtual doorways as I do, you’ve no doubt sat spellbound as James Wolcott works himself to fine froth over Dinesh D’Souza’s latest wingnut welfare busy-work, in which he blames the The Cultural Left (friend of yours, Norbizness?) for 9/11. Marvel first at the dull repugnance of the charge (“it’s a sleazy, shameless, ignorant, ahistorical, tendentious, meretricious lie, one that was waiting for the right brazen liar to come along to promote it,” Wolcott writes), but then be sure to pause a moment and appreciate the essence of what D’Souza is saying: In liberalism, American conservatives share a common enemy with our terrorist foes.

He’s already told you what you are, if you would kindly answer the man’s question: What is he?

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In the interest of bipartisan fairness, I should note that my conservative pal Jon Swift has put together a list of ten Republican candidates whom he wants you to help. “When you take a look at their accomplishments, it’s hard to believe that these great lawmakers are not trouncing their opponents,” writes the Reasonable Conservative. Here are some highlights:

Don Sherwood has been the victim of vicious personal attacks from his enemies who accuse him of trying to strangle his mistress. Although Sherwood admits having a five-year extramarital affair with her, he vehemently denies physically abusing her and says that when police were called to the apartment they shared, he was only giving her a backrub, which, as anyone who has ever had a good backrub knows, can seem like being choked although you feel really good afterwards. […]

Rick O’Donnell is a man with visionary ideas. In 2004 he proposed drafting high school kids to patrol the Mexican border, which he said would give them “a society-wide rite of passage into manhood” that provided “a sense of adventure and risk.” […]

Tom Delay is another member of Congress whose name is still on the ballot despite the fact that he resigned. The Republican Party is asking people to write in another candidate with a complicated hyphenated name that is very hard to spell. But I say why go through all that trouble when you can just pull a lever for Delay, who was one of the best congressmen ever. […]

Read the whole thing.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be eschewing much of my usual sarcasm and bitter cynicism in favor of something far more productive: shilling for Democratic Congressional candidates and encouraging you to send them money. Hey, I can smell victory this year, and I really want to win. Every little bit helps. (And no, I’m not getting paid by George Soros for this, you wacky conspiracy theorists. My extreme dislike for the Republicans is motivation enough.)

Tonight’s Sadlidate for is Tammy Duckworth, who is running for Congress in Illinois’ sixth district against Republicrook Peter Roskam.

Above: Tammy Duckworth. She’s one tough chica.

Why is She So Wicked Awesome, Bradrocket? First off, she’s a Democrat running against a Republican. And while that in itself is reason enough for anyone to support her campaign, I also think Tammy has a lot of terrific qualities that set her apart from other candidates.

As you may know, Tammy served in Iraq as a Black Hawk pilot with the Illinois National Guard. In 2004, an Iraqi insurgent launched an RPG at her chopper while she was flying over Baghdad. The attack cost Tammy both of her legs.

And yet, for someone who has lost so much, Tammy has maintained a positive attitude and a great sense of humor. Take a look at this excellent Washington Post profile of her, and you’ll see what I mean:

“I can’t actually hold a soda between my knees in the car,” she says. “It’s really hard to use a laptop when you only have half a lap.”

She half smiles as she says this, able to find wonderment in discovering the novelties of her new self. The smile builds into a laugh as she adds: “But there are positives. My feet don’t get cold.”

Duckworth still wears pink. She has a baseball jersey that reads, “Dude, where’s my leg?”

If there’s one thing I love more than a woman in uniform, it’s a woman who’s funny.
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Tramps like us and we like tramps.

Shorter Michael Medved: As long as there are elections to be won and a government to eliminate, economic and religious conservatives will find just enough to agree on.

Shorter Walter Williams: Instead of complaining about income disparity, Democrats should teach the poor to invent Google.

Shorter Maggie Gallagher: Unlike cigarettes or foie gras, trans-fat is an unnatural, unnecessary and unhealthy man-made product the government should consider banning.

Shorter Thomas Sowell: Liberal Democrats want to throw the taxpayers’ money at irresponsible behavior, while I would urge conservative Republicans to do the same with their votes.

Shorter Ben Shapiro: Let’s dispense with the niceties: If you aren’t working for us, you’re working against us.

Shorter Tony Blankley: Democrats aren’t fit to govern until their leaders agree on all the issues.

Shorter Jacob Sullum: As a libertarian, I hold little esteem for those who can’t handle their liquor.

Shorter John Stossell: I’m not saying people shouldn’t be able to sue a business when they have been harmed, but there should be consequences if you don’t win your lawsuit against a deep-pocketed corporation with in-house counsel.

Shorter Terence Jeffrey: Sure, the Bush adminstration grossly miscalculated the risk of sectarian violence in Iraq, but let’s give them a chance to fix things.

Shorter Brent Bozell III: Only Republicans have a right to be outraged by Mark Foley’s behavior, because we’ve been against Brokeback since way back.

Shorter Michelle Malkin: It’s wrong for journalists to criticize the government in their private time, but it’s appropriate for them to promote the government while on the job.

Shorter Joel Mowbray: I’d probably be accused of bigotry if I objected to a congressional candidate because he’s Muslim, so I’ll just say he’s not fit to serve because of his shadowy ties to the nation’s largest Islamic organzation.

Shorter Austin Bay: All right, China, it’s time to put up or shut up when it comes to getting tough with North Korea.

Shorter Patrick Buchanan: The U.S. would be wise to let Asian nations determine their nuclear supremacy amongst themselves.

Shorter William F. Buckley: North Korea mocks us with its possession of nuclear weapons, as this fictional account will attest.

Shorter Kathryn Jean Lopez: I say we let kids be kids, and scrap the congressional page program.

Shorter Jonah Goldberg: Liberals should remain silent about American fascism until their paranoid fantasies come true, at which point I’m all ears.

Shorter Paul Weyrich: With hindsight, I should’ve given the right-wing propaganda machine I helped build a chance to spin the Foley situation before I called for Hastert’s resignation.

Shorter Rich Lowry: Ned Lamont bears ultimate responsibility for a nuclear North Korea.

Shorter Johannes L. Jacobse: For encouraging their children to join the military, I hearby nominate Baby Boomers as the second greatest generation.

Shorter John Zmirik: Universities often tolerate homosexuals at the expense of innocent Christians who simply wish to express themselves by denouncing the sinful nature of homosexuals.

Shorter Caroline B. Glick: North Korea stand as a stark reminder that only tough talk will keep nukes out of the hands of tyrannical madmen like Iran and Pakistan.

That sound you hear is Gary Ruppert’s bubble bursting:

Democrats had a 23-point lead over Republicans in every group of people questioned — likely voters, registered voters and adults — on which party’s House candidate would get their vote. That’s double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994 and the Democrats’ largest advantage among registered voters since 1978.

The fact is, it gets worse [Ed. note: I wouldn’t let Bill Bennett swim in the pool, Gavin, if you know what I mean.]:

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It’s not secret that I really want the Democrats to clean house this November. To that end, I’ve set up an ActBlue page for any and all Sadly, No!-approved candidates. I call it “Act Sadly!”

So far, I’ve only got Jim Webb’s campaign posted. If you know of any candidates who are worthy of support and need campaign money, lemme know who they are and why they’re good, and I’ll add ’em to the list.

Gav, Retardo, Seb, Travis, that goes for you guys too 🙂

Y’know, the more I think about it, the more amazed I am at how badly this administration has botched our* foreign policy. We invade Iraq on the pretense of disarming its WMD programs, which turn out not to exist. Meanwhile, we get trapped in a brutal three-year occupation that sucks up ever more blood and treasure, completely crippling our diplomatic and military leverage in dealing with other threats. Iran and North Korea see that we’re stuck in the desert and thus accelerate their nuke programs. All in all, it’s a grade-A fiasco.

You would think that such failure would be humbling to the incompetents and ideologues who have run our foreign policy into the ground for the past six years. Sadly, you would be mistaken:

North Korea’s test could also unleash a nuclear arms race in Asia, with Japan and South Korea feeling pressure to build nuclear weapons for defensive reasons.

Yet a number of senior U.S. officials have said privately that they would welcome a North Korean test, regarding it as a clarifying event that would forever end the debate within the Bush administration about whether to solve the problem through diplomacy or through tough actions designed to destabilize North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s grip on power.

To these assholes, everything, and I mean everything, can be used as justification to push through their crazy regime change plans. They have learned nothing from the Iraq experience; indeed, they see our failures in Iraq as proof that we need to invade more countries.

It’s all very depressing. But hey, at least gays can’t get married.

And on that note, I’m gonna go for a run now. Have a great Columbus Day.

*And yes, I say “our” because we’re paying for this nonsense.

In the comments to this thread, a reader wonders if North Korea getting nuclear weapons will push the Mark Foley saga out of the headlines. He concludes that it “probably” won’t because “who cares if the North Koreans have nukes?” Sadly, I’m inclined to agree.

In a normal country with a normal media, watching the craziest country on Earth get nuclear weapons would be a big deal. It would also be seen as a crippling blow to Bush’s doctrine of preemption, which stated that invading Iraq would somehow, some-way deter countries like Iran and North Korea from pursuing nuclear weapons. But we don’t live in a normal country, with normal people or a normal press. We live in America, a country where nobody reads, where we’re taught to be uncritical, and where we’re bombarded by ridiculous amounts of advertising each and every day. What I’m trying to say is, we’re fucking stupid.

I don’t know where this stupidity comes from, but I do know that it has spread to every facet of our lives. And our television media, which in a sane country would be responsible for educating the public about important issues, loves to get quick ratings by reporting on stories that any dumbass can understand. So instead of getting indepth stories about the Medicare donut hole, the disaster in Iraq, or North Korean nukes, we get Clinton’s penis, Al Gore’s earth tones, John Kerry’s windsurfing, and now Foleygate.

At Drinking Liberally last week, someone remarked that he couldn’t get too outraged about Foleygate because there were so, so many more worse things that the Republicans had done. On a substantial level, that’s true. But on a political level, you have to remember how dumb the voters are. They can’t comprehend our government’s massive failures in matters like Iraq, the deficit, diplomacy or even hurricane preparation. But I’ll be damned if they don’t understand overtly sexual messages sent to underaged boys.

Now in an ideal world, I would love to eschew all talk of Mark Foley in favor of substantial policy issues. But as long as our media’s shallowness and incompetence are benefiting the Democrats for a change, I’m not going to complain.