FDR Spotted Puking in Grave by Andrew...

A direct steal since not clicking through is not an option:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "But there is an added technique for weakening a nation at its very roots ... The method is simple. It is first, a dissemination of discord. A group - not too large - a group that may be sectional or racial or political - is encouraged to exploit its prejudices through false slogans and emotional appeals. The aim of those who deliberately egg on these groups is to create confusion of counsel, public indecision, political paralysis and, eventually, a state of panic. Sound national policies come to be viewed with a new and unreasoning skepticism ... As a result of these techniques, armament programs may be dangerously delayed. Singleness of national purpose may be undermined. . . . The unity of the state can be so sapped that its strength is destroyed. All this is no idle dream. It has happened time after time, in nation after nation, during the last two years." - FDR, May 26, 1940. I wonder what Roosevelt would have made of Michael Moore, don't you?

With vast swaths -- and a fair argument in play that the majority -- of the Democratic party opposed to the democratization of the Middle East, what new name will they come up with for their party since they aren't advocates of democracy any more? I have a suggestion from Orwell: the Fascifist party. That was his term for the people before and during WWII that bleated about peace while enabling Hitler to gain what turned out to be nearly unstoppable momentum.

What would Roosevelt say indeed? And it was Harry Truman -- another Democrat -- who dropped the bomb on Japan. The Democratic party has been co-opted...

Screw-ups contrasted...

Self gored ... and the comments are interesting too... (Hat tip Andrew.)

Centerfeud nails the ... uh ... center on this one...

And speaking of triangulation, Randy Barnett has some thoughts you absolutely must read.

Considering Mars and Venus

In Iraq. You. Must. Read. NOW.

Moore well done for...

And a prime purveyor of the wobbly snappable nutshell.

Which was foreshadowed by preemptive fiction of course...

UPDATE: Lileks notes that Rex Reed has seen Moore's masterpiece.

No More Parenting or Teaching I'm Afraid...

... not while there's a WoT, anyway...

The farce of the Abu Graib "scandal" has now reached truly amazing proportions. Going far beyond the question of how on earth having a man wear women's panties on his head can be considered to be "torture" while at the same time not proving him to be wildly misogynistic, we have the following from Power Line via Glenn:

Rumsfeld, too, authorized only the mildest forms of interrogation of prisoners, even al Qaeda leaders. I found this paragraph, near the end of the AP's account, astonishing

:[Rumsfeld] approved 24 interrogation techniques, to be used in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions, but said that any use of four of those methods would have to be approved by him in advance. Those four were use of rewards or removal of privileges from detainees; attacking or insulting the ego of a detainee; alternating the use of friendly and harsh interrogators, and isolation.

I hate to disillusion liberals, but as a trial lawyer, I routinely use two of those four techniques in cross-examining witnesses, and I use at least one of the other two on my children. Frankly, I find it appalling that those in charge of terrorist prisoners may only "reward or remove privileges from detainees" with the permission of the Secretary of Defense. If the Democrats had any sense, they would argue that these documents indict the administration as soft on terrorists.

But don't worry, it's we and not they that live in a disorienting echo chamber. Yikes...

The Annotated "You might be a liberal if:"

The following is an annotated version of my previous "You might be a liberal if:" post. This will be a work-in-progress for a while with numerous updates as I don't have the time right now that it deserves. The first annotations will be directed at giving credit where it's due -- then I'll add background.

· You seem to remember some Clinton-related unpleasantness about someplace called Kosovo but don’t remember what it was all about – least of all that it was not sanctioned by the U.N.
· You believe that everyone reflexively shouts hateful obscenities at people who dare hint that Diana Moon Glampers is not a heroine.
· You believe that the Teheran embassy hostage crisis, the Lebanon Marine barracks bombing, the invasion of Kuwait, the battle of Mogadishu, the WTC I bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the bombing of the African embassies and the USS Cole all happened because "Shrub squandered the world's sympathy after 911".
· You believe that there's "no evidence" that the rising prison population is in any way related to the falling crime rate.
· You believe that relativism is an absolute principle.
· You believe that Arafat's professed admiration for, mentorship by, and claimed lineage from Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini -- the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who spent much of WWII in Berlin advising Hitler to exterminate the Jews rather than expel them back to the Middle East, and was Hitler's genocidal radio voice to the Arab world during the War -- is proof positive that “Jews are the real Nazis”.
· You’ve never given a second thought to the fact that Michael Moore is your ideal spokesperson to attack your fellow Americans for being loud, fat, obnoxious, stupid, greedy and hateful.
· You believe that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.
· You screamed “Bush monkeys!” at the editors of National Geographic for printing that Saddam “disappeared” 5-7 million people in his reign.
· You believe that there was no plan for the WTC I bombing to topple one tower into the other aimed at killing over 100,000 people since Arabs are too stupid to figure out how to do such a thing.
· You’re serenely certain that you’re not a racist.
· You believe that the congressional resolution authorizing Operation Iraqi Freedom listed only one reason for the war and not twenty-seven.
· You believe that the fact that graffiti in Europe that read “Jews out of Europe” before WWII and that now read “Jews out of Palestine” is obvious proof of the European’s superior grasp of history and morality.
· You believe that the U.S. is so evil as to deserve to suffer a “million Mogadishus” but you’re so incompetent with math that you don’t realize that that would mean a billion dead Muslims in addition to the 17 million dead Americans.
· You believe that fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq is a distraction from fighting the war on Al Qaeda. FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS ON RICHARD CLARKE.
· You believe that your wife's SUV has nothing to do with your commitment to the environment – and SUV’s are safer anyway so what’s all the fuss about?
· You’ve never had a second thought about the uncanny resemblance between hooded Islamic terrorists and Klansmen.
· You believe that constant attempts to shoot down American "no fly zone" fighter patrols are conclusive proof that Saddam didn't hold a grudge against the US.
· You believe that it's a good thing that Iran will soon have nuclear weapons.
· You believe that Hitler was one of those “hateful Christians” – and that’s why he exterminated seven million Christians and Communists in addition to five million Jews.
· You believe that none of the Muslim violence in Kashmir, Thailand, Sudan, Bali, India, Turkey, Madrid, Nigeria, Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya, Algeria and Saudi Arabia would have occurred had it not been instigated by Rumsfeld and the Mossad.
· You believe that just because you constantly scream your hatred of "Bushitler" and "Christian Nazis", there's "no evidence" you're not a Ghandi-like and morally superior individual constantly setting the best example possible for peace.
· You believe that you are the penultimate modern interpreter of Orwell but blink blankly when confronted with the word "fascifist".
· You believe that it's "incomprehensible" why the Sudan should be rejected from membership on the UN Human Rights Commission since they "only kill those Nazi Christians" that you hate too.
· You cheered when the Taliban destroyed the statues of Bamiyan since it meant one less religious symbol that your contributions to the ACLU would need to be spent on eliminating.
· You believe that Shrub is lying that there are Al Qaeda in Iraq now and even if there were we should get out now and not fight them because he lied to us.
· You believe that returning all jobs to the U.S. that American corporations have sent overseas will help us "regain the world's sympathy" and further open foreign markets to US products thus doubly improving our economy as well as raising the standard of living in the affected foreign countries.
· You believe that the anthrax attacks shortly following 911 were obviously carried out by Christian radicals -- who quickly cued off of the Mossad's work on 911.
· You believe that Bush’s centerpiece claim in the 2003 SOTU that “Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.” obviously made the case that the threat from Saddam was “imminent”.
· You believe that bin Laden cooperated with the CIA in Afghanistan and that it was the CIA that “made him what he is today” so he’s really an “American creation”.
· You believe the French representative to the EU is right that we should make sure all the Arab countries have nukes.
· You believe the fact that in spite of affirmative action 50% of University of California students are Asian while Asians are only 10% of California’s population is completely unrelated to the fact that Asians consistently score above all other racial groups including Caucasians on IQ tests.
· You believe that Saddam's 1993 assassination attempt on George Bush senior is "no evidence" that he could hold a grudge against the US – and in any case Clinton’s subsequent missile strike at the empty Iraqi intelligence headquarters ”taught him his lesson” and ended any grudge there may have been as Richard Clarke suggests.
· You considered Richard Clarke’s testimony to the 911 commission that there was no Iraq-al-Qaeda link to be “case closed” that Shrub misled us and Clarke to be a flawless witness – but somehow you missed that on page 127 [of his new "Against All Enemies"], Clarke notes that it's possible that al-Qaeda operatives in the Philippines "taught Terry Nichols how to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building." Intelligence places Nichols there on the same days as Ramzi Yousef, and "we do know that Nichols's bombs did not work before his Philippines stay and were deadly when he returned." SEE HERE.
· You believe that it's "no evidence" of a wildly misogynistic culture that Muslim male prisoners could be considered to be "tortured" by being made to wear women's panties over their heads.
· You have no clue that the real “blood for oil” scandal was actually contained within the U.N.’s corrupt, kickback-ridden Iraqi “Oil for Food” program – and the country of origin of the “bribee’s” had no relation to their countries opposition to the war and demands for the end of sanctions against Saddam.
· You believe that bin Laden could never cooperate with Saddam since there’s “no evidence” that he has ever cooperated with anyone so secular.
· You believe that the hundreds of thousands of Mizrahi Arab Jews currently living in Israel did not move there because they were persecuted, attacked and ejected by Muslims in Arabian countries -- and this is irrelevant to the Arab "right to return" to Israel anyway.
· You’re sure that bin Laden's 1998 Fatwa expressed solidarity with the Palestinians but dismissed aiding Iraq because of “that notorious infidel, Saddam Hussein".
· You believe that Putin’s sharing of Russian intelligence reports that Saddam was attempting terrorist attacks on the U.S. and its interests in the period between 911 and OIF are “no justification” for attacking Iraq.
· You believe that a cultural relativist is not "a hypocrite at 30,000 feet". ORIG QUOTE FROM RICHARD DAWKINS IS “Show me a relativist at 30,000 feet,” Richard Dawkins writes, “and I’ll show you a hypocrite.” The reason that airplanes fly, Dawkins points out, is because a lot of Western mathematicians and engineers “have got their sums right.” VIA DINESH D'SOUZA.
· You believe that the 20 tons of chemical weapons including Sarin and VX nerve gas seized in April 2004 by Jordan from a foiled al-Qaeda bombing plot in Amman obviously could not have come from Iraq.
· You believe that IQ tests are the "devil's spawn" and “not fair” because they can be used to indicate an average measure in the low 80's for the Arab world.
· You believe that North Korean No-Dong Long Range Missiles are clearly the most effective and economical way to deliver conventional explosives.
· You believe that Bush is stupid and you're certain it’s provable with IQ testing.
· You stopped reading this list after the first item.

You might be a liberal if:

· You seem to remember some Clinton-related unpleasantness about someplace called Kosovo but don’t remember what it was all about – least of all that it was not sanctioned by the U.N.
· You believe that everyone reflexively shouts hateful obscenities at people who dare hint that Diana Moon Glampers is not a heroine.
· You believe that the Teheran embassy hostage crisis, the Lebanon Marine barracks bombing, the invasion of Kuwait, the battle of Mogadishu, the WTC I bombing, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the bombing of the African embassies and the USS Cole all happened because "Shrub squandered the world's sympathy after 911".
· You believe that there's "no evidence" that the rising prison population is in any way related to the falling crime rate.
· You believe that relativism is an absolute principle.
· You believe that Arafat's professed admiration for, mentorship by, and claimed lineage from Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini -- the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who spent much of WWII in Berlin advising Hitler to exterminate the Jews rather than expel them back to the Middle East, and was Hitler's genocidal radio voice to the Arab world during the War -- is proof positive that “Jews are the real Nazis”.
· You’ve never given a second thought to the fact that Michael Moore is your ideal spokesperson to attack your fellow Americans for being loud, fat, obnoxious, stupid, greedy and hateful.
· You believe that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.
· You screamed “Bush monkeys!” at the editors of National Geographic for printing that Saddam “disappeared” 5-7 million people in his reign.
· You believe that there was no plan for the WTC I bombing to topple one tower into the other aimed at killing over 100,000 people since Arabs are too stupid to figure out how to do such a thing.
· You’re serenely certain that you’re not a racist.
· You believe that the congressional resolution authorizing Operation Iraqi Freedom listed only one reason for the war and not twenty-seven.
· You believe that the fact that graffiti in Europe that read “Jews out of Europe” before WWII and that now read “Jews out of Palestine” is obvious proof of the European’s superior grasp of history and morality.
· You believe that the U.S. is so evil as to deserve to suffer a “million Mogadishus” but you’re so incompetent with math that you don’t realize that that would mean a billion dead Muslims in addition to the 17 million dead Americans.
· You believe that fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq is a distraction from fighting the war on Al Qaeda.
· You believe that your wife's SUV has nothing to do with your commitment to the environment – and SUV’s are safer anyway so what’s all the fuss about?
· You’ve never had a second thought about the uncanny resemblance between hooded Islamic terrorists and Klansmen.
· You believe that constant attempts to shoot down American "no fly zone" fighter patrols are conclusive proof that Saddam didn't hold a grudge against the US.
· You believe that it's a good thing that Iran will soon have nuclear weapons.
· You believe that Hitler was one of those “hateful Christians” – and that’s why he exterminated seven million Christians and Communists in addition to five million Jews.
· You believe that none of the Muslim violence in Kashmir, Thailand, Sudan, Bali, India, Turkey, Madrid, Nigeria, Kosovo, Bosnia, Chechnya, Algeria and Saudi Arabia would have occurred had it not been instigated by Rumsfeld and the Mossad.
· You believe that just because you constantly scream your hatred of "Bushitler" and "Christian Nazis", there's "no evidence" you're not a Ghandi-like and morally superior individual constantly setting the best example possible for peace.
· You believe that you are the penultimate modern interpreter of Orwell but blink blankly when confronted with the word "fascifist".
· You believe that it's "incomprehensible" why the Sudan should be rejected from membership on the UN Human Rights Commission since they "only kill those Nazi Christians" that you hate too.
· You cheered when the Taliban destroyed the statues of Bamiyan since it meant one less religious symbol that your contributions to the ACLU would need to be spent on eliminating.
· You believe that Shrub is lying that there are Al Qaeda in Iraq now and even if there were we should get out now and not fight them because he lied to us.
· You believe that returning all jobs to the U.S. that American corporations have sent overseas will help us "regain the world's sympathy" and further open foreign markets to US products thus doubly improving our economy as well as raising the standard of living in the affected foreign countries.
· You believe that the anthrax attacks shortly following 911 were obviously carried out by Christian radicals -- who quickly cued off of the Mossad's work on 911.
· You believe that Bush’s centerpiece claim in the 2003 SOTU that “Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.” obviously made the case that the threat from Saddam was “imminent”.
· You believe that bin Laden cooperated with the CIA in Afghanistan and that it was the CIA that “made him what he is today” so he’s really an “American creation”.
· You believe the French representative to the EU is right that we should make sure all the Arab countries have nukes.
· You believe the fact that in spite of affirmative action 50% of University of California students are Asian while Asians are only 10% of California’s population is completely unrelated to the fact that Asians consistently score above all other racial groups including Caucasians on IQ tests.
· You believe that Saddam's 1993 assassination attempt on George Bush senior is "no evidence" that he could hold a grudge against the US – and in any case Clinton’s subsequent missile strike at the empty Iraqi intelligence headquarters ”taught him his lesson” and ended any grudge there may have been as Richard Clarke suggests.
· You considered Richard Clarke’s testimony to the 911 commission that there was no Iraq-al-Qaeda link to be “case closed” that Shrub misled us and Clarke to be a flawless witness – but somehow you missed that on page 127 [of his new "Against All Enemies"], Clarke notes that it's possible that al-Qaeda operatives in the Philippines "taught Terry Nichols how to blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building." Intelligence places Nichols there on the same days as Ramzi Yousef, and "we do know that Nichols's bombs did not work before his Philippines stay and were deadly when he returned."
· You believe that it's "no evidence" of a wildly misogynistic culture that Muslim male prisoners could be considered to be "tortured" by being made to wear women's panties over their heads.
· You have no clue that the real “blood for oil” scandal was actually contained within the U.N.’s corrupt, kickback-ridden Iraqi “Oil for Food” program – and the country of origin of the “bribee’s” had no relation to their countries opposition to the war and demands for the end of sanctions against Saddam.
· You believe that bin Laden could never cooperate with Saddam since there’s “no evidence” that he has ever cooperated with anyone so secular.
· You believe that the hundreds of thousands of Mizrahi Arab Jews currently living in Israel did not move there because they were persecuted, attacked and ejected by Muslims in Arabian countries -- and this is irrelevant to the Arab "right to return" to Israel anyway.
· You’re sure that bin Laden's 1998 Fatwa expressed solidarity with the Palestinians but dismissed aiding Iraq because of “that notorious infidel, Saddam Hussein".
· You believe that Putin’s sharing of Russian intelligence reports that Saddam was attempting terrorist attacks on the U.S. and its interests in the period between 911 and OIF are “no justification” for attacking Iraq.
· You believe that a cultural relativist is not "a hypocrite at 30,000 feet".
· You believe that the 20 tons of chemical weapons including Sarin and VX nerve gas seized in April 2004 by Jordan from a foiled al-Qaeda bombing plot in Amman obviously could not have come from Iraq.
· You believe that IQ tests are the "devil's spawn" and “not fair” because they can be used to indicate an average measure in the low 80's for the Arab world.
· You believe that North Korean No-Dong Long Range Missiles are clearly the most effective and economical way to deliver conventional explosives.
· You believe that Bush is stupid and you're certain it’s provable with IQ testing.
· You stopped reading this list after the first item.

Parlez Vous ...

Perfidy?

Bemoaning the ruins of Dresden without celebrating the liberation of Berlin.

The vEUw from Father's Day...

The EU elections were all about Iraq? ... er ... NO!

Has-been Europe.

Just click through to see the true face of the enema ... er ... enemy.