SmithAntics

I’m reading Robert Dallek’s excellent biography of John F. Kennedy, which goes into extensive detail about the medical difficulties that plagued Kennedy throughout his life. This passage regarding Kennedy’s entry into military service just floored me:

When, in 1941, Jack failed the physical exams for admission to the army’s and then the navy’s officer candidate schools, he turned to his father to pull strings on his behalf. …. One month later, the board of medical examiners miraculously gave Jack a clean bill of health.

As is well known, Kennedy bucked a series of cushy desk assignments and was eventually granted his wish for extremely hazardous duty as a PT boat captain in the Pacific, where he became a genuine war hero.

Powerful fathers can be very helpful when it comes to military service.

Pelosi hasn't even started her gig as Speaker, but the liberal media already have her pegged as a disorganized failure. It's really quite amazing to see. These people have bent over backwards for six years to give BushCo a pass on thousands of crimes and failures, but they gleefuly pounce on the Democrats for the stupidest shit. It’s just what they do.

I'm off to jury duty today.

An odd mixture of poignancy and hilarity. Just thought I’d share.

Elite opinion in this country is a massive embarrassment of history.

They have no idea what a joke they are.

This is just an intellectual excercise to them.

Have a great one.

I hear he knocked it out of the park again last night with his Special Comment. Unfortunately, I can’t watch at work.

…hammering on McCain.

In fact, I’ve seriously considered making this a 100 percent anti-McCain blog.

You see, there are millions of Democrat voters out there who believe in the “moderate” McCain, the “maverick” McCain, the “wise” McCain, the “practically a Democrat” McCain, the “he was a POW so what he says goes” McCain.*

The fantasy McCain.

And guess what? The MSM has McCain in the oval office in 2009. Think the sheeple won’t comply?

*These are the same dolts who STILL believe in the fantasy Colin Powell. Just the other day I heard a Democrat coworker wishing that Colin Powell would run for president.

I wasn’t sure.

Watch John Stewart dispose of him.

Washington as high school.

Clowns.

I’m on minimal sleep with a brutal day ahead, but it’s well worth it cuz I got to see The Damned last night. It was beautiful.

This Think Progress post supports something I was mulling over during my morning commute— namely that I believe it's crazy to feel any sense of hope or relief that Poppy Bush and his wise men are advising on Iraq.

You may recall that Poppy Carlyle and his election-rigging henchman James Baker are pure evil.

And the “at least they’re not as maniacal as the neocons” argument provides only a marginal level of comfort.

Poppy and Co are the elders of BushCo.

It's up to you guys today.

Atrios:

Well, reading the tea leaves it's pretty clear what's going on. The Iraq Study Group which Democrats have decided is going to save them is going to recommend either sending in more troops (McCain/Lieberman position this morning) or beginning to bug out. Elite Consensus will tell us to double down one more time, send in another 30,000 troops or so, while condemning the Democrats as defeatists. There won't be enough Democrat support to use what little levers of power they have (not many) to force the administration's hand. So more American soldiers will have their lives disrupted and families torn apart, more of them will die, more Iraqis will die, so that soulless Joe "no one wants out of Iraq more than I do" Lieberman can prop up his feeling of self-importance.

God I hate these people.

Let there be no doubt that Lieberman and McCain enjoy deity status among the elite opinion-makers and a decisive chunk of the American electorate — millions of “moderate Democrats” very much included. These twisted senile fucks are two of the most ardent supporters of the greatest American foreign policy clusterfuck since Vietnam — a disaster that was supposedly repudiated in the recent elections. Incredibly, this insanity does not register with great swaths of imbeciles whose political opinions are formed by Tim Russert and Thomas Friedman and --if they're bloggy cool--Andrew Sullivan. These dangerously uninformed people believe in a media-generated fantasy McCain and Lieberman.

BushCo violently shit the bed, and Saint McCain and Holy Joe say the defecation should continue and in greater volume. And America sees them as the adults.

Stunning.

What does the sprawling Smithantics community wish to discuss today?

Hot babes?

Great drummers?

Politics?

With the vote tallies barely complete (some still in progress), the corporate conservative mainstream media has rolled out the new narrative — a Jedi mindtrick that goes like this:

The Democrats would be lefty looney crazy to do anything short of playing nice with the Republicans. It’s clearly time for reconciliation and an end to partisan strife. No serious Democrat should look backwards at past Republican crimes and failures. What’s done is done. It’s time to move forward and forget about all those pesky war crimes, lies, and abuses of power. Tim Russert, David Broder, and Norah O’Donnell will be very disappointed with any naughty Dems. Don’t even think about it.

And you know what? I for one have no confidence that the Democrats will not fall right into line with what the purveyors of cuntservative conventional wisdom believe to be appropriate and acceptable behavior for the newly empowered Democrats. Over the past decade, the Dems have repeatedly demonstrated their hypersensitivity to the DC media’s channeling of GOP talking points. Shit, Nancy Pelosi has pretty much taken justice off the table. And as Liberal Terrorist Sympathizer commented to me last night, the Dems didn’t win on their own merits; they won because enough people in this country are fed up with the gang of criminals and pedophiles that is the Republican Party.

So my excitement about the shift in power is greatly tempered by my deeply engrained skepticism and contempt for the Democrats. Can you blame me? Until the Dems show me they have the nut to do the right thing, I’m going to assume they are they same wussbags they have been for the past decade at least. Sorry to rain on the parade, but there it is.

We're suckers to believe in these deeply corrupted and demonstrably weak people.

Will they win the Senate as well?

They're making me work for my wages again today. Load up that comment box! I'll be chiming in when I can.

Breaking: Rumsfailed resigning.

Let this Nazi piece of shit be first up against the wall.

Six minutes and 51 seconds of beauty right here.

Who is this Cliff Schecter guy?

Take the time to watch to the end. There are some jaw-droppin’ knee-slappers in this clip.

Break out the rusty trombones!

Nothing tickling my fancy today. What do you guys want talk about?

A government of draft-dodging depraved thugs that is murdering American troops is calling out Kerry for stating the truth. The pathetic ball-sucking sycophant Saint John McCain is lending “credibility” to the vile slander. Your liberal media is providing the amplification. Business as usual.