Zinger of the Week Goes To Joan Walsh!

We have to heart Joan Walsh today, with her "I heart Dede Scozzafava ...I promised to blog from vacation if Bill Owens won NY23; here's my lazy compromise."

I semi-promised to blog from vacation if Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, the right-wing carpetbagger backed by jobless Sarah Palin, in the NY-23 race. I did that because, um, I didn't think Owens could possibly win. But he did, and now I've got 20 minutes free before my next hike with Sadie, and here's the best I can do: My Twitter stream from last night, as I watched the returns on MSNBC with Anne Lamott and our three dogs.

Okay, she's solid.

She said, even if halfheartedly, that she would duke Bill Owens, if he won, and she did.

The NY-23 was where a flock of Flying Monkeys, including Mommy Moose, the former leader of the Free Alaska, ganged up on the Republican Scozzafava, because she wasn't deranged enough, backing the Flying Monkey who didn't even live in the district.

And, why does Joan Walsh heart Dede Scozzafaza?

I just want to say one extra thing: It's got to be great to be Dede Scozzafaza today. She gives me hope that moderate Republicans will either come to their senses and take their party back, or more likely, become Democrats.

That will only get a few of the Flying Monkey to throw feces at each other.

The real zinger, the zinger of the week, came at the end of the post, speaking to Ms. Ya Betcha's involvement, and her sterling work record;

See you Monday -- unless there's really big news, like Sarah Palin quits whatever she's currently doing, again.

Whatever happens Joan, when the Flying Monkeys swoop in on you, don't cave-in like Letterman.

Jon Meacham, Phone Home

This goes, far, far beyond merely Jon Meacham's head stuffed up, deep, in his butt.

Nor, is it drinking gallons-and-gallons of the Freak Show Kool Aid.

The jig is up ...



He is an intergalactic alien, so benighted in the ways and customs of our country, that he, in his "Editor's Desk' column, in 'Newsweek', he blows his cover;

So we do not want that. Nor, I think, do we want to open criminal investigations into those who participated in brutal interrogation methods. And to pursue criminal charges against officials at the highest levels—including the former president and the former vice president—would set a terrible precedent. (The presidential historian Michael Beschloss suggests that the closest parallel to a president authorizing a probe of his predecessor can be found in the 1920s, when Calvin Coolidge appointed special prosecutors to investigate Warren Harding's role in the Teapot Dome scandal.) That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case.

[snip]

The idea that our only options are to move on completely or to prosecute is a classic false choice.

Dig that?

"That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case."

No, the "false choice" here, the false meme here is that, "based on what we know", based on lies, and fabricated legal advice to package those lies, that The Bush Grindhouse "kept us safe"

That the policy of torture "kept us safe"

Just the other day (and who thunk that Meacham would top this), we had Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain advocating that, like Watergate, the Bush Grindhouse should get a pass.

Glenn Greenwald tears Meacham a new one, in Jon Meacham's subservient defense of monarchical power

And, the other day, his editor, Joan Walsh, of Salon, attempted to bang heads together, perhaps, hopefully, to dislodge that meme of "torture is okay".

I don't know what planet you are from Jon Meacham, but when you go back there, you can tell your people that, here, on Earth, torture is a crime and those responsible for it must be held accountable.

Either that, or pull your head out of your ass.

Jesus ....


Bonus Riffs

For The Want Of A Lie ...

Krugman: Reclaiming America’s Soul

The Narrative Continues To Build!

More PetraeusReportPalooza - Sycophant Savior

You say Petraeus, I say Betrayus ...

Well, Well, Well ... We thought the PetraeusReportPalooza floats had been deflated, the confetti swept up and all the Hooahs fading away into the smallest of echoes ...

But, lo-and-behold, the Conservatives are joining the fray - and Pat Buchanan's magazine to boot ...

American Conservative magazine has the cover story "Sycophant Savior: General Petraeus wins a battle in Washington—if not in Baghdad. ", written by Andrew J. Bacevich, the father of a son killed in Iraq.

Here's some of the bon mots Bacevich drops at the feet of the General Extraordinaire ;

David Petraeus is a political general. Yet in presenting his recent assessment of the Iraq War and in describing the “way forward,” Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes.

Over the previous eight months, a discredited president had effectively abdicated responsibility for managing the war. “I trust David Petraeus” became George W. Bush’s mantra, suggesting an astonishing level of presidential deference.

Petraeus has chosen a middle course, carefully crafted to cause the least amount of consternation among various Washington constituencies he is eager to accommodate. This is the politics of give and take, of horse trading, of putting lipstick on a pig. Ultimately, it is the politics of avoidance.

The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly."

While you wait for "the cheeseburger that sweets" (courtesy of Barry Crimmins), radio's Rush Limbaugh, to firmly denounce Bacevich as a supporter of those "phony soldiers", and the limp noodle Congress (the Senate, in particular) to huff-and-puff on another, responsibility-avoiding, meaningless resolution, check out Joan Walsh, of Salon, weighing in on it with her "Conservatives blast Petraeus as "sycophant savior"

Or, just sit quiet and listen for the deafening silence from the Matt Sludge and rightwing freakshow

Or, Cue up Que Sera Sera...

Bonus Golden Boy General Links

Arianna Huffington: Petraeus Ex Machina

Think Progress - REPORT: Petraeus Spent At Least 17 Days In August Flacking For Bush’s Escalation

Good Post Alert - Launching Brand Petraeus

Retro Rudy ... When The Emperor Has No Clothes, I Guess, We're Supposed To Compliment His Hair ...

Just last week, and earlier this month, The Garlic highlighted the shark-jumping abilities of America's Mayor.

Then, on Saturday, Alex Koppelman, of Salon, dug into Hizzonor's claim of his Ground Zero heroics, and came out with "After 9/11, Rudy wasn't a rescue worker -- he was a Yankee; Giuliani said he spent as much time at ground zero as many rescue workers. Where was he really? Much of the time, at baseball games."

Well, apparently, the shark handlers took umbrage to that characterization.

Joan Walsh has a piece today, detailing the blowback on Koppelman's "After 9/11, "Rudy wasn't a rescue worker -- he was a Yankee" from the National Review, and not one defender, but three;

When the National Review attacks

Not sure how that plays out for the Presidential Pennant Race, when you have to go three-deep into the bullpen to bailout a wannabe Yankee. It's more than probable that's there's a stadium-full of inimical press waiting in the on-deck circle.

Bonus Links

Wayne Barrett: Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11

Where's Ernest Borgnine when you need him?

Of Lawrence Welk and Disappointments ... We Yield To Others This Evening ...

The Lawrence Welk Part

As the friends, and regular readers know, we have some cumbersome tasks that we deal with everyday on this end, and Saturday's always seem to add a bit more to it ...

For one, there's the unpredictability of energy - and the dementia - of my Aunt ... It can be smooth sailing, or, you hear every second of the clock tick off, in slow-motion ... Today was somewhere in-between ...

And, being Saturday means it's a "Lawrence Welk Evening" ... Having added over a year ago, a baby monitor to keep closer track of what is going on downstairs, the Champagne Music Man is the only thing that disrupts the endless blathering of TVLand ...

And tonight was a 2-hour Welk ... Including a retrospective on the entire band, and how they came into it (and every week, it makes me think of Lenny Bruce's bit, "The Sound").





The Disappointment Part

It's been 10-days now, and I haven't seen one report yet of the Citizen's Arrest The Garlic called for.

I mean, is it interrupting your summer vacation?

Allowing Bush and Cheney to roam, unindicted and unincarcerated, is just too much. They are both still dangerous, very dangerous, and the country is in peril.

Chiefly do to the above-mentioned Lawrence Welk part, I couldn't get enough time to finish writing a piece on what still needs to be done to clean up the Bush Grindhouse, and get this country back on track.

Look for it in the next day, or two.

Yielding To Others

Just one from the menu of items to take out Bush & Co. Think Progress has a wonderful post today;

The Ever Changing Definition of ‘Mission’ In Iraq

Over on The Reaction, two posts of note to look at.

First is Michael Stickings' pointing out Iraq's PM Nouri Maliki' charge of "international interference" as his excuse for the lack of that big wave of democracy that is supposed to sweep over the country ... Check out "Maliki's progress" ...

And there's Edward Copeland's "Everything may be held against them", talking about The Commander Guy's "executive privilege frenzy"


Salon's Joan Walsh sums up "Bush's worst day ever?" ...


While a Nobel Laureate adds her voice in calling for the Impeachment of the President.


Lastly, to end on a high note, podcasting will soon be coming from Barry Crimmins, which you can read about in "Two, two... two posts in one" (that includes a fine riff about "Uncle Phil and Dad - Wars Never End").

A Thread Of Garlic - Hey AP, Hands Off Olbermann!

As many of our readers know, The Garlic is an unabashed fan of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and the hero-anchor himself. With our Minced Garlic posts, we've highlighted his blistering, but very much needed, Special Comments (while adding in our own two cloves).

And you may be aware of the dust-up that began last week.

First, Olbermann layed into presidential wishful Rudy Guiliani, for his hijacking the Bush Grindhouse rhetoric of "vote Republican and you'll be safe, vote Democrat and you die".

This led Guiliani to complain to MSNBC, as to Olbermann's presence in anchoring on the coverage of the Republican Candidate's Debate and the charge that he is partisan.

This lead AP writer David Bauder to pen an article (MSNBC's Olbermann seeks delicate balance) suggesting that Olbermann is, indeed, not fair, that it is a source of trouble for MSNBC and, the whopper, of comparing placing Olbermann on the debate coverage is akin to the Fox News Network placing Bill O'Reilly similarly.

Olbermann and O'Reilly on the same level?

Okay, I'll wait for you to stop laughing and pick yourself up off the floor.

Riding to the rescue, among others, was Salon's Joan Walsh and Glenn Greenwald (who The Garlic highlighted last Saturday), with two great posts yesterday.

Check it out!

Links

A hit job on Keith Olbermann

Brit Hume is a "journalist"; Keith Olbermann is "partisan"

AP Uncritically Reports Giuliani Campaign’s Efforts To Marginalize Olbermann

Olbermann Equals O'Reilly. Huh?