Month: May 2007

Hump Day Music Spotlight: Speaking Ill of the Dead

by matttbastard

Heatmiser – Why Did I Decide To Stay?

Call me a heretic, but I’ve always preferred Heatmiser to the late Elliott Smith’s solo work. Smith’s backbiting, diva-like protestations (‘wah, wah, tehy made my pristine songs teh r0x0r against my will’; ‘wah, wah, I not teh ghey!!11’) were amusing in a ‘Fat Greg Dulli‘ fashion. But I believe his words at the time belied an insecurity which later manifested in a most expressive (if not permanent) manner.

Further heresy: Sam Coomes, though only a very minor contributer who joined during the twilight years of the band, is both A. a better songwriter and B. not yet dead. Go out and buy some Quasi, you morbid, bone-picking ghouls. (PS: Jeff Buckley isn’t Jesus; God’s [bastard] son wouldn’t have drowned, obviously.)

The Latest Last Chance

by matttbastard

Carefully avoiding any treasonous aiding and comforting declarations re: the war being lost, Republican House Leader John Boehner gives Bush’s ‘surge’ another Friedman to succeed (or *gasp* fail):

The leader of House Republicans said today that his members would begin to seek another strategy in Iraq in September, should President Bush’s troop “surge” strategy clearly not be working by then. But he pledged that his caucus would stand firm against any Democratic timetable or benchmarks that mandate the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“We don’t even have all of the 30,000 additional troops in Iraq yet. And so we’re supporting the president. … By the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn’t,what’s Plan B,” Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Echoing Boehner’s invocation of the magic six month interval, (via Cernig) we find surge architect Fred Kagan in Sunday’s New York Times poo-pooing the notion of even discussing a ‘Plan B’ at such an ‘early stage’ of the latest offensive:

As one of the initial proponents of the surge, I argue that there is no Plan B because there cannot be one. The idea that there can be a single alternative strategy, developed now, just at the beginning of the surge, is antithetical to the dynamic nature of war. At this early stage, there are only possible general responses to various contingencies, which will become more focused as operations move forward.

Our favourite erstwhile Newshogger sticks a rhetorical pin in Kagan’s inflated ego assertion that victory in Mesopotamia is imminent as long as the Bush admin continues merrily down its current strategic path, without the unnecessary distraction of a pesky backup plan (haven’t we heard this story before?):

Kagan is being deliberately dense or unutterably stupid – it isn’t “A” Plan B that critics would like to see, it’s “ANY” Plan B. You know – contingency planning. It’s what the military does best – they even have a contingency plan for invading Canada – but according to Kagan those who call for contingency planning of any kind are showing they don’t “understand about military operations”. On the evidence, it’s Kagan who doesn’t understand – and he invented the surge. That’s troubling in itself.

Read the rest to find out which neoconservative apostate is now a terrorist-appeasing loser-defeatist. Hint: he recently discovered that the rumours of history’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Sometimes a Headline Says it All

by matttbastard

Memorial honoring fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan runs out of room.

Heck of a job, Commander Guy:

Since the beginning this whole ill-fated folly has been predicated on empty rhetoric and false patriotism. [emphasis added] No doubt the GOP set up this memorial last June to score pre-election political points by demonstrating how much they support the troops. How appropriate a symbol of their failure to meaningfully support the troops in life, that they also failed to wisely plan for their deaths.

Via Memeorandum