He's Back - Kinda

Muh man, Keith demonstrates again why "the left" is right and "the right" is wrong.

The World Is A Battlefield

Wondering why Obama isn't following thru on what we all took as a pledge to change how we approach the "War On Terrorism"?  Simple answer = he can't.

It's possible that a lot of the turmoil and upheaval in Western Asia grew out of The Bush Doctrine (tho' it's more probable it was happening by itself anyway), but the main thing is that something very big and very dangerous is in motion, and is gathering a heavy inertia.

All Obama can do now is try to guide the thing on its path; to minimize the damage, and to position us to take advantage of whatever tiny crumbs of benefit might fall out of it along the way.

So here's the thing:  The massive cluster fuck we call The Arab World gets bigger and more complicated every day.

Jeremy Cahill on Democracy Now.
BTW: you know Cahill is probably onto something because our Corporate Government insists on ignoring what he reports.

Hoping (update)

A few days late, but it's still a good thing.

Hoping (update)

Mubarak has resigned, but he hasn't split the country.  No idea what that means, but I'm thinking he's not quite done yet.  Governments and financial houses are busily freezing his assets, so that should make it harder for him to fuck with things, at least 'til they get all that sorted out.  So anybody who tries to tell me it's all gonna be swell needs to get called a moron.

The Press Poodles are still gushing about Freedom Fever while DumFux News is flacking the threat of The Muslim Brotherhood.  Meanwhile, nobody (either in The Kennel or at Fox) has said thing one about any efforts by anybody's diplomatic services - zero, zip, zilch.  The only thing I've heard so far is the standard meme about how Obama got caught flat-footed.  Are you fucking kidding?  Am I really supposed to believe we've spent something like 1/3 of a TRILLION dollars on intel and counter-intel, and anti-terrorism shit - aimed specifically at the middle east and that we got nothing out of it!?!  We didn't see any of this as any kind of possibility at all!?!

Anyway, for now it's all a big smiley-face celebration - I'm bettin' a lot of happy protesters  are gettin' laid tonite - and tomorrow or Sunday we might start to see if we get any clues as to how the Egyptian military intends to spend its political capital.  This ain't anywhere near over.  The really dangerous part starts soon.

Hoping

I just get a bad feeling about Egypt.  Mubarak is in a tough spot, and unfortunately, when guys like him start to feel cornered, they tend to listen to the kind of advice from some of the assholes they surround themselves with, who almost always advocate a get-tough-show-'em-who's-boss approach.  We saw some of that earlier when the Camel Goons attacked.

Anyway, here's hoping it doesn't come to this.

Cartman Speaks

The Press Poodles in the US are finally starting to look at who the protesters actually are.  It's been a nice little narrative so far, about a genuine grassroots uprising; that there are no real leaders; that the whole thing is spontaneous - as if to say, "The noble Egyptian people are just trying to express their Inner American".  It's a big steaming pile of Newsie bullshit.

Hat Tip: Sully

The Arab World

In a post the other day, I predicted a certain bit of crowing about Jr Bush and NeoCon policy because of the revolts that are happening in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and even Jordan.  This was not a hard thing to figure out, so don't give me any credit for my amazing foresight - I was definitely not alone.

But, here's one of the aforementioned 'told-ya-so' articles by none other than Elliot Abrams (one of the pricks who should still be in prison because of Iran Contra).

So how long did it take?  A coupla days?

Now let's see how long it takes 'em to pretzel all this 'wisdom' when it becomes clear that the old autocratic secular regimes in these countries are going to be replaced with new  autocratic sectarian regimes.  That's right - we've destabilized the region; we've taken ourselves out of the game by chasing phantoms in desert shit-holes; we've crippled our military; and we've left the doors wide open for the Islamists to waltz in and take over the joint.  Yay, Bush.

Sully Wises Up

One thing I really like about Andrew Sullivan is that he allows himself to learn, then he adjusts his view according to the new information.

Here's his post from today, citing Juan Cole's assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities and apparent strategy.

BTW: You can get to Cole's blog here.  It can be dense and difficult, but the guy knows his shit.