But I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.

I have been opposed to this war since the beginning. Not because I’m anti-military or even anti-war for that matter, but because this war was started for the wrong reasons against the wrong enemy, and no good will come of it.

I defy anyone to say that my continued and vocal adherence to this opinion is “undermining the war effort.” This administration has unrepentedly conducted the domestic front of this “war effort” with intimidation and fear, consistently characterizing dissenting voices as unpatriotic. As most recently illustrated, when Rep. Murtha (D-Pa) called for withdrawal from Iraq, this administration — rather than allow for honest examination and open discussion of the actions we’ve taken and the direction we’re going as a nation — accused him of being an “ultraliberal” and attacked his character (nevermind their later backtracking). Now that’s bullshit for the sake of “political expediency.”

Before this turns into another pissing contest between my good friend the Foreign Minister and your ever-instigating and ever-undermining Minister of Propaganda, I offer to defuse my point with a humorous illustration.

I’m back from Utah, by the way, if anybody missed me.

Believe.

If Smallholder is a character out of the Lord of the Rings, he would either be Sauraman or Lord Denethor. When the going gets tough… he succumbs to what he preceives to be the inevitable (at best) or completely switches sides (at worst).

Smallholder is the kind of player that quits when he thinks he is beaten, but well before he is actually beaten.

Now, Its kind of unfair of you to say “lets not take into account the Clinton Presidency”. I will only bring it up only as proof that both sides hands are very dirty.

Look, some of the stuff you posted IS true, and the penalty will be paid by those involved…

But a lot of that stuff hasn’t been proven and the evidence is mighty thin.

The Democrat answer to the Bush presidency has not been by running a WINNER against him or even pushing “better” policy for the American people.

It has bee to paint the Bush adminsitration as corrupt, lying and untrustworthy. But the worst action that is being taken by the Democrats is Undermining our war efforts for the sake of political gain.

This is a strategy that will come back to haunt the Democrats. If the Dems are successful in 06 & 08, don’t think that for a moment that every accusation, charge, or crime that we even think might stick on a Dem won’t be thrown at them. For after all, your post shows that they don’t have to be right or even proven to change public opinion.

back to the trenches

take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.


and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.

I don’t know what to say. I haven’t read it, either.

Believe.

At Jackfest this summer, the MOP was quite incensed about the Texas redistricting plan. I argued that while it might be short-sighted and wrong-headed to redistrict out of sequence, it was certainly not illegal since each state has the right to draw districts when and how it feels fit.

I was wrong.

Evidently the people who wrote the redistricting plan knew it was illegal and did it anyway.

Now, in all fairness, the courts have upheld the redistricting, so it isn’t actually illegal. What I find very disturbing is that the Republicans were told by their OWN justice department that the plan was illegal and put it in place anyway. That the courts have subseuently upheld it doesn’t absolve the earlier partisan and unethical decision.

Cunningham’s confession of bribery revealed personal greed. He ought to go to jail, but it is not something that shakes my confidence in the ruling party - there will always be a few bad apples.

DeLay’s fundraising - whether it actually tripped over the legal line or not - is more disturbing because the obvious intent was to get around election laws (and the desire to avoid laws rather than change them is a separate issue from whether the election laws are a good idea or not).

The Abramoff scandal makes one think the systemn needs to be reformed as revelations are coming out about the unprecedently incestuous relationship between the GOP and lobbyists.

The Libby/Rove/Plame thing - once again it is questionable whether a law was actually broken - shows officials purposefully skirting the law and, at the very minimum, obstructing an investigation by not coming clean with the prosecutor.

Come on, conservatives, aren’t you becoming a little bit concerned about the morality of your leadership?

Please don’t leave any comments about how Clinton and the Demoslimes were worse - I’m not interested in comparisons. When is it okay to call your own people out about their moral misconduct, regardless of what the other side does? As an aside, similar morally vacuous arguments about torture make me insane: “Well, they cut heads off so we can waterboard!”

In conclusion, I doff my seed corn hat to the Minister of Propaganda: he was right and I was wrong.

The Minister of Propaganda was right.

I was wrong.

More to follow.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would like to thank Lemuel for this quiz.

take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.


and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.

Actually, your Maximum Leader likes “Heart of Darkness.” He’s read it a few times. It always entertains him. It is so short that one couldn’t really consider it all that awful. Awful books normally are quite long (in your Maximum Leader’s experience at any rate). He was honestly hoping to be Beowulf. Which your Maximum Leader really did dislike when he had to read it in high school (or whenever). It was awful. Although your Maximum Leader is told that there is a pretty good version of it recently done by Seamus Heaney. It is a verse translation with Heaney’s work on one page and the original Anglo-Saxon on the facing page. Your Maximum Leader has seen it in Borders and thumbed through it a little. It didn’t seem to bad actually…

Carry on.