One thing all our primary fuss omits is how the future president will handle civil-military relations in a post-Iraq, post Global Strike-fantasy world. Fixation on crosses and who is down with the flu or plays the faux-good ol’ boy card best merely highlights how detached the American people are from international affairs or their own military. This also applies to candidates who have exactly one year of federal national service to their name.
Hoffman’s piece above is a good start but only that. The next president will have to address this issue either by choice or forced circumstance. We suspect the latter. Especially if laying down a phat bass line or purposeful inexperience rule the day.
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* From the Tube
Aldershot says
🙂
Comment says
Aldershot – very well – but in movies lots of suspension of physics takes place – In fact, the very implauibility of the deadly “W” letter makes it noticable – Perhaps, she will throw it at Dick Dempsey, when he harasses her! re Lord Black – We’ve always admired him even though we thought he broke many laws. Life is complicated. re Joe Wilson – defending Wilson was always an uphill battle – His wife was clearly wronged, but he was always a jackass. Bottom line – Aldershot for the ages!
Aldershot says
Comment, a quibble: surely you know the flying ‘W’ would be aerodynamically unstable. With such inattention to detail, empires fall.
Aldershot says
Thanks, Doc. A while back I looked up Wilson’s letter to the Times. It was strange to find him off-putting, even while he did his patriotic duty. Comparatively, Lord Black the Convict retains the affection of his admirers.
Comment says
Oh – one more point – Did anyone catch “toughest interview” Russert blow his one dumb gotcha question? He asked Paul about the number of troops overseas and Paul just laughed the question off = A question fit for clerks, not leaders.
Russert often exposes his parochial mind – One imagines he remembered lots of state capitals in school and the names of mountain ranges and cabinet departments. He probably made personal assesments of himself and others based on such tasks. Incidentally – Paul lacks a personal d edge – so he could have used the moment to remind viewers that he is a veteran who served in the Air force as a doctor, while Russert is a statistic bound phony who spent the Vietnam years up in Max Yaeger’s farm trying to convince some hippie women …
Comment says
Before we read other blog comments – we just want to note one more thing that was odd about Russert’s Ron Paul show – Paul is vulnerable on Israel – to the extent someone who will never win could be called vulnerable.
We could not help but notice that Russert must have really disappointed anyone who was hoping he would nail Paul on being weak on Israel or anti Israel –
Instead – he set up this bizarre hypothetical of Iran INVADING Israel – Something even Bibi would resist speculating. Invading? LOL.
A Random Quote says
“Nixon was of the people – He was the representative inhabitant of what Jack Kerouac called the ‘great unwashed body of America.’ He was laborious but effective, eloquent but not hypnotizing, cynical but compassionate and patriotic. He got where he was by climbing, falling, climbing again, and never ceasing to struggle . . . He was, for better and worse, the personification of a large section of the American people . . . In the years since his death, his legend seems to have grown more quickly than his memory has receded. Richard Nixon will linger in the American consciousness for a very long time.”
~Conrad Black
Comment says
Naturally when Bartiroma metamorphs into her Money Honey alter ego, she has some magic powers – but mostlt insane levels of femine wiles – For instance, her lips contain adjustable levels of arsenic – she can extract strangling wire from her earlob, her shoe heel fires low caliber poison darts (along with de rigeur Rosa Kleb poison stabber in the toe). Street Sweetie wears a Williams cardigan with a removable W letter, that she can toss frisbee-like, at her tormentors and cut them to pieces. But when she takes people prisoner – she locks them up on her Pilates machine, forcing them to do wholesome exercise, so they can work off all the fattening Perle foods.
Comment says
The villian, played by the Duke of Darknessm, would have a cover job hosting a cooking show from his home in a converted Belgrade dungeon. But when he is really cooking up is a special chemical that will leach all the mineral deposits our of the side of huge mountain in the Congo – which will then collapse the mountain on to all the village dwellers – creating a new place to build a resort for Gorilla poachers – Then the minerals will be used to dump on the world market, depress mineral prices, and allow for the profitabel short selling of extraction companies, in the hopes of gaining total control. The Perle character has two malevolent sidekicks, Mr. Sparrow and Mr. Fly – whose claim to fame was killing their old boss, Cock Robin.
Comment says
Leo – we are going to have to get in touch with Money Honey and pitch our idea for a movie for her. She’s still got a few years left of bankable babedum. So here is what we propose – Money Honey (Maria Bartiromo) and Steet Sweetie (Erin Burnett) as superhero alter egos.
During the day Bartiromo and Burnette are their same hot selves – dishing up financial journalism with a smile (and smarts too!) But at night – obviously in cat suits or leopard suits – the metamorh into their superhero alter egos, Money Honey and Street Sweetie – with a Batman-Robin type of teamwork between them. There can be a a safe go girl feminism to the role – as the battle a TV cable pundit host slob named Dick Dempsey, the Host of “The Political Zone” – Where Pols Score!
They parachut into Davos to fix a fizzling GATT round – or they save the dollar, bust up cartels opposed to free trade, etc
When Money Honey answers her cell phone, she gives her call sign “Spice-and sugar.” Then when Street Sweetie answers hers, her call sign is “Sugar and Spice”
The first movie should have a good villian. Richard Perle?
Comment says
Russert is going nowhere with the proposition of phony-consistancy – suggesting Paul should reject earmarks for his home district – Russert’s view reflects a banal kind of grad school integrity that most Americans would reject as foolish. Though we do not support Paul – we like him for his views on war and liberty, so we are pleased a bit to see Russert blow his chance – We could have done a better job taking Paul apart – Russert might be getting somewhere with the civil rights act because the memespere cannot grok the Goldwater argument, nor can many Republicans understand that opposing the warlord is not the same thing as opposing the party or the country.
Comment says
So far Russert has failed to land any blows on Ron Paul. This is because Russert is hobbled by what Conrad would classify as a hopeless bourgeois mind.
A Random Quote says
Oh – we forgot to post the actual quote from the show – Oh, well. Nver mind — we’ll have to wait for the transcript. No big deal – just some random stupidity.
A Random Quote says
Just tuned on Tweety this morning – his awful sunday McLaughlin Group rip off show. Early on – he tips his hand. But it is ridiculous to hear Sulliven say the Dems should have cut off war money. As if he and others in the pundit class would not have freaked out when our troops were actually being removed, under fire, without funding. Pat would have liked it, but for differnt reasons.
Matthews idiotic comparison of Obama’s wife to Martha Mitchell shows what a fool he is every way – Leo, audacity skeptica that you are, you must suspect, as do we, that Tweety was intentionaly lying when he pretended last week to think Obama’s mom was a Muslim. Afterall, Tweety keeps saying he read Obama’s book, so he should know that Obama’s mom was white, Christian, and from Kansas. Yet – on four seperate occassions – on his show – after plenty time elapsed to be corrected by his staff – he repeated the lie that Obama’s Mom was Muslim. While Tweetys staff might be scared of him and not correct him – it was unlikely. This was all done under the guise of ‘defending’ Obama from what Hillary was doing. Now Tweety is bringing up that zero ‘evil men’ comment and Biden’s unfunny grammer joke about Rudy. Incidentally – Tweetys is now saying ‘evil men’ was a reference to Bill, when it was most likely an allusion to VRWC.
A Random Quote says
“The goal is to smother the young senator in his crib.”
~Tweety
(His Christmastime analysis
of HRC’s contest against Obama)
Comment says
If we were advising Jon Stewart we would suggest that he not contest anything about Wilson – Wilson is still a partisan figure and not enough people have a nuanced view. It could be contentious – Rather, he should put Wilson on an absurd pedestal and see how long it takes for people to pick up on the irony. Otherwise – the bifurcated Cheney V. Wilson narrative is still too powerful.
Dr.LeoStrauss says
Aldershot — the perfect quote from the article. Simply amazing stuff.
Dr.LeoStrauss says
re Debating Joe Wilson, this is perfect for Daily Show to do sans writers. The script writes itself.
Comment says
Doctor = do you think Wilson made a Freudian slip when he compared the PNSS to vineyards – Wilson the grapepickers will get stuck in his mashing machine.
Comment says
Prediction – Conrad Black will get a pardon from Bush on his way out the door. There will be no lobbying though – no paperwork. It will just be given.
Aldershot says
*crosses arms and taps foot*
Aldershot says
Comment, are you Anon?
Comment says
” … spent a career toiling in the vineyards of national security.” (Joe Wilson)
Vineyards? Not bowels?
Anon says
It must be emasculating for someone who receieved an award from Jack Abramoff for his work for Michigan St. college Republicans to wind up being defended by a magazine he probably once regarded as being Soviet in nature.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/12/defending-valerie-plame-who-is-this-punk.html
Anon says
Some more ashes for the heap
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/006862.html
Aldershot says
Intuition may be a laudable quality among psychics and palm readers, but for a professional American diplomat like myself, who have spent a career toiling in the vineyards of national security, it has no relevance to serious discussion of foreign policy.
-Joe Wilson, ibid.
Comment says
One last point – There is a zero probability that Sid Blumenthal proofread that Wilson essay – It’s funny to imagine him reading it and being appalled, but having to pretend not to be appalled.
Comment says
Hate to pile on Joe Wilson (not really) but his writing should be compared to Conrad Black. Black is often mocked for his grandliloquent prose – Sometimes it is ridiculous, but it always makes sense. That’s what is amazing about Black – Buckley often lacks coherence when he piles on the sesquipedalianisms – and he is getting worse with age.
But Black makes sense and his work has true humor to it – But Wilson’s portentious blather is a bit like Frank Rich after receiving a labotomy.
Comment says
Bush was lucky to have opponents like Wilson – You know the type, liberal poseurs who sit around mocking Bush’s twang and lack of reading, whilst sipping claret, having acid flashbacks, and making grammer and usage errors.
Wilson was just lucky that the enemies of his wife were not quite as smart as they were wicked.
Comment says
There’s just so many dumb nuggest in that essay – target rich, as they say. We were so often pained to be on his side during the Plame wars – We recall reading his book and just being appalled and then surprised that the neocons failed to notice a number of things. Indeed, it was clear that Hitchens only skimmed the book because he could have done a much better job at savaging it if he read further.
Damm! That whole episode was a carnival of morons – Tweety misquoting Wilson, Cliff May attacking the misquotes, Wilson invoking Bush Sr, Bush Jr. lying and promising too fire people he pretended not know leaked, Plame appearing in appropropriately name Vanity Fair, Fred Hiatt V Bloggers,
Comment says
If we were appearing opposite Joe Wilson on a cable show and had to sit there and listen to that pathetic defense of Hillary, we would not bother engaging him in debate – But would just turn to him and say, “what is it about black man being President that so ticks you off?” Then we would go thru his spiel, point by point, and declare each point to be racist code speak. Since we’re pretty good at acting, we could pull it off.
It’s justifiable demagoguery – Since Wilson forfit the right to respectful exchange of views.
A Random Quote Note says
As a general rule – we have no problem with mixing metaphores if it’s clever or funny or makes sense in a unique and interesting way.
But Only a total pothead like Joe Wilson could grok the idea of a “march” being “paved.”
Granted, “the road to hell” is probably cliche and Huckabee might have some sort of intellectual claim on it. But still.
Wilson’s book is filled with crap like this –
A Random Quote says
“As we have learned, the march of folly is paved with good but naïve intentions.”
~Ambassador Joe Wilson
HuffPo 12-21-07
Dr.LeoStrauss says
Appalling. What can one say? We’ve always despised him as long time readers know. Our joint riffs on Joe’s stoned trek into the Santa Fe highlands immediately come to mind.
A ‘clean break’ is not necessarily a bad thing. But one year of federal national service without any executive experience at all except at the Harvard Law Review is a role of the dice at this point we would not make.
Anon says
Leo, we know that you are an Audacity skeptic, but this emetic from Joe Wilson shows why many of us want a clean break (pardon the expression) from the Clinton crowd.
Wilson has a pretty wife who was a covert officerf and it was wrong what Cheney and the neocons did, but now that we got that over, let’s dump on old Joe and laugh at his use of Murdoch’s London paper to makes his case. Murdoch’s Times would flush Joe down the toilet on a whim, so it’s sad to see man with such low self awareness refer to it in such an august manner.
Look how lazy and obtuse he is elevating Holbrooke to the anti war status!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-wilson/the-real-hillary-i-know-_b_77878.html