Malevolence Only Exceeded By Incompetence, And Vice Versa*

What you might expect from a neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump's Russo- Republican administration -- astounding incompetence:

As President Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Friday, shutting the borders to refugees and others from seven largely Muslim countries, the secretary of homeland security was on a White House conference call getting his first full briefing on the global shift in policy. 

Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order. 

Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. “The president is signing the executive order that we’re discussing,” the official said, stunned.  (our emphasis)

When even the Bushie neo- cons desert you:

Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said that the order and other possible measures have probably forced U.S. diplomats, military commanders and agency station chiefs abroad into damage-control mode. 

“We’ve got good people who will work hard at it, but there is no question that this has already created an irretrievable cost,” Hayden said. The refu­gee order “inarguably has made us less safe. It has taken draconian measures against a threat that was hyped. The byproduct is it feeds the Islamic militant narrative and makes it harder for our allies to side with us.”  (our emphasis)

And, from Eliot A. Cohen:

There was nothing unanticipated in this first disturbing week of the Trump administration. It will not get better. Americans should therefore steel themselves, and hold their representatives to account. Those in a position to take a stand should do so, and those who are not should lay the groundwork for a better day. There is nothing great about the America that Trump thinks he is going to make; but in the end, it is the greatness of America that will stop him.

And, dog help us, even from the fount of evil himself:

"I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I mean, religious freedom has been a very important part of our history and where we came from," Cheney said [snip] 

Cheney called Trump's plan a "mistaken notion" and said to solve refugee and immigration problems, the U.S. must examine why they need to leave their countries in the first place.

[At which point he combusted in a flaming, sulfurous ball.]

It takes a special level of crazy to get the attention of those folks. That's where we are right now.

* h/t LGM.

If Only The Washington Post Editorial Board Read The Post's Reporting

From a news report on today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle front page:

As President Obama was weighing how to halt Islamic State advances in Iraq, some of the strongest resistance to boosting U.S. involvement came from a surprising place: a war-weary military that has grown increasingly skeptical that force can prevail in a conflict fueled by political and religious grievances.

Top military officials, who have typically argued for more combat power to overcome battlefield setbacks over the past decade, emerged in recent White House debates as consistent voices of caution in Iraq. Their shift reflects the paucity of good options and a reluctance to suffer more combat deaths in a war in which America’s political leaders are far from committed and Iraqis have shown limited will to fight.

“After the past 12 years in the Middle East, there is a real focus by senior military leaders on understanding what the endgame is,” said a military official, “and asking the question, ‘To what end are we doing this?’ ”  (our emphasis)

From the lead editorial in today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle:

Mr. Obama’s escalation nevertheless is most notable for excluding the steps that American and Iraqi commanders and military experts have been saying for a year are necessary to decisively reverse the Islamic State’s momentum. These include the deployment of U.S. advisers to front-line Iraqi units, along with spotters who can call in airstrikes, and an increase of close-in air support.

Such tactics worked during the U.S. “surge” in Iraq, and they allowed Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban government in 2001-2002. That they are not being used now, despite the Islamic State’s recent gains, seems to be explained only by Mr. Obama’s political resistance to reversing his decision to withdraw U.S. forces four years ago.  (our emphasis)

Perhaps it's too much to expect the neo-conservatives on the Post's Bugle's editorial board =cough= Fred Hiatt =cough= "Action" Jackson Diehl =cough= to absorb the reporting of their own staff, or to ever ask "to what end are we doing this?"  Rather than being confused with the facts, they prefer to continue to bang the neo-con drum in an effort to browbeat  President Obama (contrary to the advice of his military officials) into sending someone else's children into war.  Of course, both Diehl and Hiatt were vociferous cheerleaders for Dumbya's Iraq misadventure War and, to no one's surprise, have learned precisely nothing from that experience.  Also, we seem to recall that one of the policies President Obama ran on in 2008 was to bring the troops home from Iraq (in accordance with the timetable set by the status of forces agreement with Iraq signed by -- wait for it -- the Post's Bugle's "surge" hero Dumbya). 

No, it seems the neo-cons of the editorial board are determined to have the United States make the same mistakes they foolishly counseled back in 2003.  Fortunately, no one is listening to them.

(Image:   Fightin' 101st Keyboarder Jackson Diehl -- or is that "J. Fred Muggs" Hiatt?)

Rand Paul: ISIS/ISIL Exists Thanks To Republican Hawks

Republican presidential candidate Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul (Dudebro-KY) is refusing to go along with the diversionary "who lost Iraq" script neocons in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party have been trying to sell ever since John Ellis "J.E.B." Bush's gaffe indicating he would have done nothing different in Iraq, even "knowing what we know now."  Basically, that script holds that the current chaos and the rise of ISIS/ISIL is (spoiler alert) President Obama's fault.  Let's see what a blind squirrel looks like when he finds that acorn:

Somebody pass out the smelling salts to Reince "Prepuce" Priebus, get Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry Butchmeup" Graham to the fainting couch, and check Dick "The Dick" Cheney's pacemaker, stat!

Neocon Republicans And The "Who Lost Iraq?" Fast Shuffle

Several perceptive folks have noticed, particularly in the aftermath of John Ellis "J.E.B." Bush's week-long floundering on brother Dumbya's Iraq catastrophe, that Republicans are cowardly trying to turn the issue of ISIL's recent gains (after a series of setbacks) in Iraq into an indictment of President Obama (and, of course, Hillary Clinton) to divert attention from the Republican originator of the mess (and his "smarter" brother):

After more than a decade bearing the political burden of Iraq, Republicans are making a dogged effort to shed it by arguing that the Islamic State’s gruesome ascent is a symptom of Obama’s foreign policy, rather than a byproduct of the 2003 invasion they once championed.

Chaos in the city of Ramadi, which this week fell under the control of Islamic State militants, has only intensified the Republican outcry.

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog noticed the corporate "mainstream media" is already engaged in tying the recent loss of Ramadi to ISIL into a narrative about the pain veterans of the Iraq War feel over seeing the city fall.  Mind you, not that the whole bloody mess originated in the first place because of the lies of Likudnik chickenhawk neocons.  More evidence, if any were needed, that the "mainstream media" is the perfect foil for Republican revisionists because it has the perspective of Mr. Magoo and the attention span of a mayfly.

Charles P. Pierce noted Steve's catch and had this to say:

...The only way for the people who shook their moneymakers for the war in 2002 to justify their continued place in our politics is to use ISIL to replace the aluminum tubes and hope that enough people don't notice what a grotesque fast shuffle this is. That will clear the way for the candidates on the Republican side -- Rubio, Graham, Jeb (!), and, most recently, Chris Christie -- who want to revive the old neocon hoo-rah while distancing themselves from its savage consequences. It looks very much like "Who lost Iraq?" may replace the disastrous decisions of the Avignon Presidency in this campaign, and that a good chunk of the Republican field will be perfectly happy to allow that to happen. For all the talk of the president's fecklessness from the chickenhawk choir, what those candidates are about right now is the worst kind of cowardice.

That Republicans are trying to turn recent events in the Middle East into a "Who lost Iraq?" narrative is beyond obscene, especially, as Pierce notes, with the same Republican neocons (Sen. "Huckleberry Butchmeup" Graham, Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio and "J.E.B." Bush adviser Paul Wolfowitz) ready and willing to repeat the same disastrous mistakes all over again, with a new generation of someone elses children. That whirring sound must be George Santayana spinning in his grave.

UPDATE:  Ruben Bolling sums it up also (click on image to enlarge):

(Attribution: Ruben Bolling)

Today's Cartoon (and R.I.P.)

(click to enlarge)

If only ...

(Ben Sargent, Austin (TX) American-Statesman)

We also wish to note the passing, on September 14,  of the great editorial cartoonist Tony Auth.  His integrity and insight will be missed.

Sofa Sergeants

We're seeing the usual neocon/Rethuglican suspects criticizing the Administration for their actions toward Libya. One predictable presence on the TV gabfests this weekend was none other than bitter loser Sen. John McNasty (R-Ariz.). Whenever the mainstream media wants to get an automatic criticism of President Obama, their go-to guy is the very cranky former "maverick" (whose keen judgment gave us the Wasilla Wingnut on the national stage).

This weekend on CNN, McNasty and his reliable Likudnik sidekick, soon-to-be-ex Sen. Joe Lieberliar (Party of Joe-CT), criticized Obama for failing to initiate hostilities with Libya sooner, and alone if necessary. This perfectly captures the neocon philosophy of "shoot-ready-aim" that they planned and executed so well in Iraq under former President Dumbya. That anyone values or seeks their opinion on matters of war -- particularly in the Middle East -- is astounding, given their pathetic track record of failure.

Department of Delusion

One of the right's most prominent neocons, John "The 'Stache" Bolton, says that he could win the Rethuglican nomination for President in 2012. [Pause for gentle chuckling]

The 'Stache, who looks like Wilford Brimley and acts like Yosemite Sam, was the failed U.S. Ambassador to the UN who wants to put the UN out of business, and who (like other neocons) used knowingly false assumptions to justify the war in Iraq. He typifies the attitude on the far right that negotiations and diplomacy are a waste of time, and that the use of military force should be our first resort, not our last. Good luck with that message.

(photo: The 'Stache + The White House = Delusion).

How Kristol Begat Beck

Lee Siegel discusses how Irving Kristol, revered as the father of neoconservatism and (not so much) of Wee Willie, was actually just a "tummler" (Yiddish for "master of ceremonies," or cavorter) whose interest was not so much in what the outcomes of his thinking were, as how he could ingratiate himself to the powerful. Siegel notes, "Having used intellect to discredit intellect, Kristol threw open the door to pure irrationality," thus the link to the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity, who are the nihilistic tummlers of the day.

(Photo: Beck: "You mean Irving Kristol was my daddy?! Now I finally know!")

"Think" Tanks

Just to remind ourselves that "deep thinkers" don't have all the answers (in the case of the neo-con think tanks, make that none of the answers), take a look at this timeless piece by Bill Maher. "Nostradamus" Kristol. Hmmm, I like it!

(h/t to Tokyo bureau chief Brian)

It's the Second Annual Hackwhackers Awards!!

Here it is that time of year again! First, a "Happy Anniversary" to Hackwhackers! And now without further ado, here are your award winners for 2007:

Hack(s) of the Year

To Neocons everywhere (Wee Willie, Kraphammer, "Porno 'Stache" Bolton, Pudhoretz, Fred Barnes, etc.). To refer to this assortment of chickenhawks and crackpots as "conservative" turns the common understanding of the word on its (pin)head. These were consistently the most radical ninnies, willing to shed American blood at the drop of a bomb, er, hat, especially if it served the interests of the war party in Israel (the neocon Likud). If any one of these loons ever served in the uniform of the United States, we're waiting to hear about it. Yet they are the first to call for bombing Iran, denying intelligence findings when it doesn't suit their agenda of preemptive wars, supporting the misguided catastrophe in Iraq with ever-changing rationales, and generally being morally bankrupt, physically cowardly and intellectually dishonest.

Runners Up

To all things Fox News, last year's winner who drops to runner up by virtue of the fact that they're losing viewers (octogenarian white folks dropping dead), and are therefore becoming even less relevant than ever. O'Really? Hannity, Cavuto...zzzz. (BTW, how's that Fox Bidness Channel coming along?) And...

To the "main stream" media (stellar lights like Tweety, Timmeh, Fred Hiatt, "Less Is" Mo Dowd, etc.), with particular attention to the turdsqueezers covering the '08 election season. Your ill-disguised motivation to savage whoever is leading in the polls in order to keep the race "interesting", your collective desire to boil down the race into a beauty/ popularity contest, and your timidity in challenging Dumbya's many questionable statements and actions, all more than qualify you as Hacks Extraordinaire. We're certain you'll keep up the bad work.

Dishonorable Mentions

To Division II and III of the neocon blathersphere (Pammy Jugs, Doughy Pantload, Wiener Savage, ad nauseum), the even-dimmer bulbs of the right, who dive for their pop-guns whenever a flea farts. How we doin' on finding Osama Bin Laden? Maybe we should get evil-doer-tracker OJ on the trail (psst...hint: he's not in Iraq).

Tin Ear Award

To Rep. John "Man Tan" Boehner (Rethug-OH), House minority leader, who announced an effort this year to "re-brand" the Republican Party. We offered several ideas to Boner, including use of the graphic in the "Sunday Happiness" item below, but got no response. That was before the Larry "Wide Stance" Craig episode, 'Berto's resignation, Mukasy's waterboarding dumb act(?), the destruction of the CIA tapes, Congressional Rethugs continuing to give Dumbya a free hand in Iraq, two vetos of the SCHIP bill, etc., etc. So we'd like to update our branding suggestions to include the motto: "We screwed you, now we're screwed."

Circular Firing Squad

To Hucksterbee, Rudy Toot Tooty, and Willard "Muff/Mousse/Flip Flop Mitt," who are finding, in Willard's immortal imagery, that the Rebunglecan Party is, indeed, a "STOOL," and each of these nimrods is busy sawing off one or more of the legs in order to get the others to fall. May all of you somehow end up grasping said stool as the grand prize!

Golden Drool Cup

To David "The Dean" Broder, who... someone wake Broder up to get his award... to David Br... oh never mind.

STFU Advisories

To the Democratic front-runners in particular, try not to give the Rethugs too much video to use next fall, ok?

Good News/Bad News

First the good news: Time Magazine has dropped neocon-artists Wee Willie Kristol's and Charles Kraphammer's columns. Whoopee.

Bad news: Time Magazine has replaced them with necocon-artist Ramesh "Legal Immigrant" Ponnuru. Whoopee again.

"Self-Inflicted Folly"

James Wolcott has a wonderful piece about the agony in some Rethug precincts about the "self-inflicted folly" resulting from decades of pandering to the Dobson/ Perkins/ Robertson/ Donohue far-right "Christian" crowd. As we noted in "Rethugs Racing to Out-Bigot Each Other" (12/12), when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. (Or was it, you are what you eat... or...). In any event, Wolcott notes how neocons like Peggy "High" Noonan and Charles Kraphammer weren't always so particular about the company Rethugs were keeping.

Let the Assault on Reality Begin!

...Well, it already has, of course, when it comes to the recent NIE on Iran's nuclear program. First, it was the neocons (aka, the Likud Party-U.S. Chapter), notably John "Kwazy-Putz" Bolton, Wee Willie Kristol and Norman "Putz" Podhoretz. Now comes the hand controlling the strings, in the form of Ari Dichter, Israel's minister of public security, challenging the NIE's conclusion that Iran had ceased its nuclear program several years ago. The no compromise, dead-ender Likudists, whether in Jerusalem or New York City, have as their goal to use the American military (hence American lives) as the spearpoint in a "preventative" war with Iran. The war of choice with Iraq was also predicated on Saddam Hussein being the most immediate threat to Israel, rather than on Iraq being a "front" in the war on terror. No, that front was, and is, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One hopes this NIE is a new Declaration of Independence from the Likudists.

"Go Back, Ah Say, Go Back An' Git Intelligence I Agree With"

Rethug Presidential candidate Fred "Foghorn Leghorn" Thompson has awakened from a long slumber to alert us that the recent National Intelligence Estimate that said that Iran's nuclear weapons program was halted in 2003 is, in Foghorn's word, "foolishness." He said, "I don't care what this latest NIE says," not that he has an inkling beyond what wife Jeri Juggs has briefed him on.

Foghorn joins the ranks of the neocons, who were taken aback by the NIE's findings which knocked the legs from under their quest for war with Iran. According to them, the report is (take your pick), an attempt to undermine Dumbya, misleading and inaccurate, or foolishness. Oh, wait. . .what's this? Dead Eye Dick says he "doesn't have any reason to question" the NIE findings. Dayum! You boys need to get on the same page in the neocon manual!

Kwazy-Putz Bolton: NIE a "Quasi-Putsch"

Former Ambassador to the UN (recess appointment) and former and current loon John Bolton was quoted in an interview in Der Spiegel as saying the recent NIE on Iran's abandoned nuclear weapons program represented a "quasi-putsch" by the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies that developed the report, and was a victory for politicized policymaking. We'll pause here to contemplate the breathtaking incongruity of a partisan crackpot like Bolton making such a statement (partisan of the American Likud Party, that is). There, that's enough.

Bolton is clearly on a mission with his fellow neocons to maneuver the United States into a military conflict with Iran, one assumes because it's enemy #1 of the war party in Israel. Dumbya, meanwhile, can't disavow the NIE, which his own intelligence agencies assembled, and which caused him to tone down his "WW III" rhetoric recently. So, we see yet another fissure opening on the right, dividing the loons with their not-so-hidden agenda (Bolton, Podhoretz, Kristol, WSJ, etc.) from the saps who are actually responsible (for now) for trying to keep our foreign and defense policy vaguely reflective of American interests (Rice, Gates, Hayden, etc.).

Image:
Kwazy-putz John Bolton (via Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog).

Neo-Con-spiracy

The neocons continue to frantically spin the devastating National Intelligence Estimate that blew their plans to bomb Iran out of the water (see yesterday's "Neocon Job"). In particular, as Larry Johnson at TPM notes, the sinister Stormin' Norman Podhoretz, the father of neoconservatism, is imagining a dark conspiracy among Dumbya's detractors in the intelligence community to leak damaging information and to undermine the Preznit's flawless strategery to eventually attack every Muslim country in the Middle East. This slur should not go unchallenged by the Defense and State Departments and the CIA. Their intelligence professionals were burned in the lead up to the Iraq war by the cherry picking of intelligence by neocons, who were truly the ones trying to politize intellegence.

Neocon Job

Well, it didn't take long for the neocon contingent of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders to try to spin the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the shut down of Iranian nuclear weapons program. The same neocons that were pushing false information about Iraq and then Iran are now either "skeptical" about the intelligence, or spinning that Dumbya's deceit about Iran's program was a smart move to keep the Iranians off balance. The New York Times' "The Lede" draws on a few of the more tortured statements.

The NIE story is certainly about the content of the document, which said that Iran's weapons program was shut down in 2003. But it's also about the fact that the report was completed some 6 months ago and held from the public by the neocons in the West Wing that didn't like the conclusions reached. The speculation is that the report's release was forced by an "alliance" within the Assministration, including the CIA/Joint Chiefs of Staff/State Department, that was leery of more dishonest intelligence cherry picking of data by Cheney & Co., similar to the lead up to the Iraq invasion.

One Wild and Crazy Guy

Rabid neocon John "Screw Loose" Bolton has a new book out that showcases his dangerous nuttiness. His main targets are Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, for their desire to use diplomacy before dropping bombs. Bolton even states that the Preznit unfortunately has drifted away from his "gut" instincts when it comes to Iran, North Korea and the Middle East, "gut" apparently being a metaphor for his "ass." Screw Loose is hoping that "events in the external world will validate our position" -- meaning he's hoping for another terrorist attack or some calamity -- so that Dumbya can "return to his gut." What is truly appalling is that someone as angry, unhinged and fanatical as Bolton wasn't screened out of any official selection process for a high position, but was (and continues to be) listened to by many inside the Assministration.

(image: campusprogress.org)

The Pod Men

There are signs that Rudy "Tooty" Giuliani's campaign is becoming uncomfortable with the visibility of his extremist foreign policy advisors, particularly Norman "Bomb Iran Now" Podhoretz, and Daniel "Bomb Iran Yesterday" Pipes. As these two neoconservatives are making the interview rounds with the press, they are proving to be not ready for prime time, much less a political campaign, as their extreme, belligerent views are aired. "Pod" keeps pushing for an immediate military strike on Iran.

Rudy Tooty himself is increasingly seen as an ill-informed, authoritarian "small man in search of a balcony" (as writer Jimmy Breslin once described him). And the "mainstream" opinion leaders are beginning to notice these nutjobs advising another nutjob that has a chance to be the next President.

Why Do The Neocons Hate The Troops?

Glenn Greenwald has a great takedown of the neoconservative cowards who push for expanded war in Iraq and a new war in Iran, without having to put their lives at risk by serving in the military. Fred Kagan, and the Kagan Klan, Wee Willie Kristol, and others are now fighting against a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, a Marine veteran and father of a soldier serving in Iraq, to allow sufficient "dwell time" for soldiers returning from Iraq to be with their families before being redeployed. What's Fred Kagan's solution to giving the troops more down time at home? "Win the war we're fighting." Of course the "we" doesn't include this brave chickenhawk and his neocon associates, who have always viewed wars from afar, fought by others' spouses and children.