Wholly without merit

Matt Yglesias opens an otherwise excellent post with a statement to which I strongly object:

I think it’s fair to say that Howard Dean, and many other liberals-but-not-pacifists, who opposed the war allowed their detestation for the Bush administration to blind them to the merits of the arguments in favor of the war.

This begs the question of whether there were any arguments for war that had merit. There weren’t, because there were no such arguments made at all. Not by Bush, at least. All he (and his administration) did was assert that war was necessary.

• They asserted that Iraq had weaponized chemical and biological arms, suitable for immediate deployment, and a program to make more. They offered no compelling evidence to support this assertion.
• They asserted that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear arms. They offered no compelling evidence to support this assertion.
• They asserted that Iraq had a long-standing, deep relationship with Al-Qaeda, and that there was a real possibility that Iraqi WMD would be given to, and used by, Al-Qaeda. They offered no compelling evidence to support this assertion.
• They asserted that Iraqis would welcome US troops as liberators; that by this time there would be only 20,000 US troops remaining in Iraq; that liberal democracy would sprout from our tank tracks as we rolled out of Baghdad. They offered no compelling evidence to support this assertion.
• Usually in private, they asserted that liberal democracy would then spread from Iraq to neighboring countries like Syria and Iran. We might have to push a few of the dominoes, like we pushed Iraq. But they would fall, remaking the Middle East and choking radical Islamic terrorism at the root. They offered no compelling evidence to support this assertion.
• And finally, they asserted that anyone who questioned their war policy was no true American, was in favor of Americans being killed by terrorists, and was a supporter of Saddam in every brutal detail of his rule.

Hawks, liberal and otherwise, filled in the arguments to support these assertions. They connected the dots, to coin a phrase. Bush did not. Obviously, for one, because he didn’t need to; certainly the mass media did not ever give any hint that they might demand something more from the President than bald assertions. When there were opportunities to present actual evidence, or at least coherent arguments, that war was needed, no such evidence or argument was presented: only more assertions. It was obvious at the time, and is glaringly, blindingly, laser-in-the-retina obvious now, that those assertions were not based on fact, but on supposition. There was no secret evidence to present: that itself was the secret. The case for war was compelling only to those who had already decided to be compelled.

And now, we have 130,000 troops bogged down with no end in sight. Hundreds dead. Thousands wounded, many grievously; hundreds, at least, have lost limbs. Ten thousand Iraqis are dead, by the most conservative estimate. And what did we get in exchange for those lives and limbs, not to mention our tax dollars—$150 billion and climbing? A country we can’t run. Images of American troops humiliating and killing (accidentally, to be sure) Iraqi civilians, steadily beamed all over the Arab world for months. We are no closer to catching those ultimately responsible for 9/11. We can’t even catch Saddam. We have done no damage to today’s terrorists, nor to their ability to recruit tomorrow’s. We have shown our enemies that our military is mighty and mighty quick, but also vulnerable. We are no safer, the world is no safer, and yet we have paid a terrible price. For nothing.

It was Bush’s pursuit of a needless war by means of demagoguery and propaganda, his ready lies, his willingness to sacrifice our collective security for his personal political gain, and his consequent betrayal of the most basic principles of liberal democracy, that convinced me that his mendacity stems from viciousness and malice, not idiocy, and made me detest him. Not the other way around.

Filed under: politics/war

Nose fur aught too?

Linus: cat vampire? It’s possible. He exhibits many of the danger signs. Nocturnal activity—check. Glowing eyes—check. Pointy incisors—check. Considers humans nothing more than sources of food— check. Aversion to religious symbols —sure, why not. Still, how to explain the obvious invulnerability to sunlight, the affection for string, the desire to eat garlic (or anything else, from chipotle cream sauce to listerine breath strips)?

More research may be required.

Filed under: cats

What we are losing in Iraq

It’s an article of faith that true military defeat in Iraq is impossible. Granted. Also: irrelevant. We may not be losing the war as such, but we are losing.

Among other things (all quotes from this AP article; emphasis added in each case):

• Our minds

In Samara, about 75 miles north of Baghdad, six U.S. Apache helicopter gunships blasted marshland after four rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the American military garrison at the city’s northern entrance, Iraqi police said.

• Our souls

One Iraqi passer-by was killed in the air attack.

What kind of “liberators” are we, that we so casually slaughter the “liberated”? That the violent death of this person—someone’s son or daughter, a human being just like you—is only parenthetical?

• Too many good young men and women

After the soldiers’ bodies fell into the street, the crowd pummeled them with concrete blocks, Jassim said.

Not to mention a large measure of our dignity as a nation, which by starting a war under false pretenses, invading a nation which posed us no threat, killing thousands of civilians there, and delivering the remainder from a life of totalitarian repression to a life of random violence, rampant crime, mass unemployment and absolute insecurity, and now preparing to cut and run before the domestic political wound becomes fatal, we are no longer “losing,” but have already lost.

Filed under: politics/war

Web geek interlude

This article is very cool. If you've ever doubted that CSS is the Freddy Adu of web design,

BLAH BLAH FINISH LATER

Filed under: technology

Get a little closer

Well, no, maybe that’s close enough. Yeah. In fact, back up a little. If you can see the fuzz in his whiskers, you’re too close.

Filed under: cats

Anti-Americanism at the RNC

As the New York Times reported today, the Republican National Committee will soon begin running an ad in support of President Bush; an ad that, among other things, pisses on the graves of 3,000 American civilians for political gain. Far from merely calling dissent unpatriotic, the ad strongly implies that Democrats running against Bush support terrorism against Americans and desire more of it. This dishonest and disgusting piece of propaganda is the antithesis of civil discourse.

The Republicans have crossed a line with this ad. They have slithered out of the last dead bits of decency that clung to them. For them, nothing is out of bounds, and anything may be sacrificed to the greater good of the Party. Give George Walker a 5-year plan and a moustache, and we’ll have to start calling him Josif Vissarionovich.

Filed under: politics/2004

Uptime: the new crack

Darl McBride, CEO of stock-pumping concern SCO, in an interview on crn, dropping the enlightenment, baby:

There are only two industries who use the term ‘users,’ computers and drugs. Not sure if there’s a connection there.

Parents: have you talked to your kids about Linux? Your child spends hours on the computer. He could be doing Linux right under your nose. Watch for these four danger signs:

• Computer never seems to crash anymore
• Mysterious drop in virus and worm infections
• Unsolicited job offers from neighborhood ISPs
• “Penguin” symbol on clothing

McBride does step out of his hallucinogenic haze for long enough to get one thing right:

What’s at stake here at the end of the day is not just between SCO and IBM, it’s what’s in the balance for the computer industry. Is the future of software free or a traditional license model and the outcome will have a lot of impact on the industry going forward.

To coin a phrase: “indeed.”

(as seen on Slashdot)

Filed under: technology/linux

Late-night inanimate interloper

Linus confronts a strange, plasticy interloper. An invader-by-mail from rainy, latte-filled climes, who likes to hang out and watch you get drunk. As if that isn’t cryptic enough, let me just add: thanks KT! We tried to make them wear the goggles, but.

Filed under: cats

Peculiar polling

Atrios points to a CBS poll writeup that seems to plain glow with headline bias. Though it shows that the recent good economic news has given Bush a bump in his approval numbers for the economy, it also shows him at his lowest overal approval ever in a CBS poll. What's the headline?

Economy gives Bush a poll boost

Egad! How dare they! But wait. The same poll is referenced two other times on CBSNews.com, with two entirely different headlines.

Poll: More Say Iraq’s Going Badly

And

Poll: Economy, Jobs Top Concerns

Freaky! But why stop at 3, CBS? Here are a few more suggested headlines that you can scatter randomly around your site, each pointing to a slightly different version of the same poll, pre-biased to whatever viewpoint you feel like pimping today. Free of charge. You can thank me later.

• Poll: Majority of Americans think Bush mostly dishonest about Iraq WMD
• Poll: Majority of Americans think Iraq has WMD
• Poll: Majority think Bush policies favor rich
• Sour grapes poll: poor lose jobs, blame Bush rich-favoring
• Right-thinking 5% think Iraq reconstruction is all right
• More Americans think Iraq war will make no difference to US safety
• Some Americans wonder: what’s for dinner?
• Majority say: you just ate. What are you, a pig?
• 50% of Americans have forgotten what they ate for dinner not 3 hours ago
• Americans split over funny poll headlines
• 83% of Americans say question is academic, fake poll headlines “never funny”
• 50% of American children think you hit me first
• No I didn’t!
• Shut up!
• Mom!

Filed under: politics

Executive summary

Things I like

TMQ returns

Gregg Easterbrook has been roundly and justly bashed for his silly religio-scientific bongology. Oh yes, and that money grubbing Jews and the violent movies they love thing. But his football column is great, and happily has returned, hosted for now at the also great football statistics compendium, Football Outsiders. And TMQ is even better with the addition of a comment thread.

SSX3

I don’t like track-based racers—F-zero GX is the least-fun game I’ve paid for in years. And I’m not even interested enough in trick-based games like Tony Hawk to bother to find out whether I like them or not. But somehow, the wedding of dislike and disinterest is pure genius. SSX3 is easily the best snowboarding game I’ve ever played. Wacky tricks, excellent tracks, whooshing speed, and a non-annoying soundtrack. If you are a console owner and you don’t at least rent it, I’m going to be very upset with you.

TAPPED

Is it the ineffable Yglesias mystique? The extra incentive of bylines on the posts? Whatever. These days, TAPPED is more fun to read and more informative than the love child of Jon Stewart and a Civics textbook.

Well, maybe not. But it’s a whole lot better than it used to be.

Kicking Ass

Speaking of good blogs, the Democratic National Commitee’s new-ish offering, Kicking Ass, does its name proud. It’s good to see the DNC finding a voice and using it, loudly and without apology.

CAP

Speaking of unapologetic liberals, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress is fantastic (aside from having the worst URLs I have ever seen), and something we on the left have needed for a long time. Consistent message. Good research. Intelligent argument. And the money and connections to get that consistent message out to the press, as the right has been doing so much better than we have for so long.

Rios Montt loses

Efrain Rios Montt, one of Ron Reagan’s pet genocidal maniacs, tried to slime and bribe his way back into power in Guatemala. He failed. And he will now lose his Senate seat and immunity from prosecution for directing a government that saw fit to slaughter 200,000 of its own people. May he rot in jail and then in Hell. Or the other way around! I’m not picky.

Things I don’t like

Arthur Silber’s predicament

and Atrios readers’ response to it. Arthur likes Ayn Rand. I think Ayn Rand is silly. So what? I don’t have to agree with him to like him, or enjoy his writing, or to sympathize with troubles he’s been handed by the LA transit strike. Such is not the case for a few classless losers who can chuckle over his misfortune while thinking they are liberals. Hey, idiots: think for a minute about how you are mad at right wingers for their intolerance, unconcern for the plight of the down on their luck, and arrogance, and be ashamed.

Thinking like a loser

Kevin Drum doesn’t think Howard Dean is electable. That’s a reasonable position, though one I don’t share, and one I think has little empirical support. But his reasoning for thinking Dean is a loser is not good.

Without going into tedious detail, just try to imagine that it’s April and the $200 million attack machine has geared up. And think about what the ads are going to look like, especially to moderates who aren’t true believers in the Dean phenomenon already. (Go ahead: use your imagination. And try to be brutally realistic.) To me, they look devastating.

Could this be any more defeatist? Politics is rough stuff, Rove is a rough guy, and no matter what, he’s going to put dishonest ads on the air that say rough things about our nominee—whoever it may be. We can’t tailor our message to avoid Rove’s darts. That way lies no message at all, because the darts are inevitable. What we should be looking for is a candidate and a campaign staff who are not afraid of what names the nasty bad men will call them, but who instead are devoted to the expression and transmission of their own ideas—and clever, creative, ruthless and tireless in fighting back. Unapologetically. Is anyone detecting a theme?

Thinking like a loser II

If this is the plan, we are going to lose in Iraq. We told the Iraqis we were there to liberate them from Saddam, not from life, limb, and property. The only way to beat a guerrilla insurgency is to turn the people against the guerrillas. It is difficult to do this while bombing them and knocking their houses down.

Halo

Halo finally came back to its rightful platform in September. Don't get me wrong: it's not a bad game. It's just so much less than it could have been. I'm biased, of course, by having seen how it began and by knowing some of what was lost in the Xbox shuffle. Even so, the final product seems rushed, and it falls dramatically short of the mark set by Jason Jones' earlier work. Too linear, too claustrophobic, too limited in vision and too boring once the Flood appear. Sorry guys.

Things to think about today

/me signing off

A Marine's Girl writes daily about her marine, still serving in Iraq. Occasionally she posts logs of their IM conversations. Conversations occasionally interrupted by incoming fire. It's hard to imagine what it must be like to have a loved one log off to go see who is trying to kill him. Or how you can wall off enough of your brain from worry to function, when he says things like:

Marine: We had a RPG fly right over the top of the LAV today, missed us by a foot or less. Scary ass stuff. Remember what the LA of the LAV stands for?

[]

Marine: It has been a mad house here, I swear it is worse now then during that “major” combat.

Ted Barlow’s usual eloquence

As applied to the subject of Veterans Day, thankfullness on.

Questions for tomorrow

Or anytime, really.

Where are the WMD?

And why are we in this war, again?

Who outed Valerie Plame?

And who is covering it up? And how long will they get away with it? And why is the same press that hounded Clinton over a bad land deal now completely silent about this actual crime?

Why is football more fun to watch than baseball?

Though I care more about the baseball teams I follow, I wouldn’t dream of watching a baseball game between teams I don’t follow. And yet, I’m happy to watch a well-played football game, no matter who is playing. Theory: baseball is, in fact, boring.

Filed under: notes

Friday

Via Calpundit, father of friday cat blogs, I see that Internet Ronin has posted about losing his cat Phoebe. His story made me think of Jake, one of my father's cats, who was not fortunate enough to enjoy the long life the Phoebe did. Blinds with pull cords are not cat safe. Here are two pictures of Jake taken in early 2001, a few months before he died.

Filed under: cats

I pledge avoidance to the flag

Slashdot reports that the FCC has decided on a broadcast flag mandate. That’s bad news. The FCC thinks we are all copyright criminals first, and owners of the public airwaves second.

The good news is, they’ve decided on a broadcast flag so devoid of sense, relevance, and utility as to render it less of a threat to your TiVO than the spit-take you will be performing upon reading about it. Get this:

• The HDTV stream will not be encrypted. So all current, broadcast-flag agnostic devices will still work, and will be defacto flag-stripping machines.

• They think they are going to allow you to share video over your “home network,” but prevent you from sharing it over “the internet.”

• The flag will not restrict analog output at all.

• “The flag does not restrict copying in any way.”

• “The FCC adopted an ‘ordinary user’ robustness standard”—ensuring that every teenager in the world will be able to shut the flag off in under 5 minutes.

• “Today’s decision by the FCC is an historic step forward for consumers.”

(The quotes are from this FCC press release.)

Now clean up the milk that just shot out of your nose. While it’s funny to see self-important dweebs cocking up so mightily in their efforts to serve their moneyed masters, this stupid mandate is going to hurt the US electronics industry. In 2005 when new TVs start costing more and doing less than old TVs, who will buy new TVs? At least, who will buy a new TV without a debug sequence that disables the broadcast flag “accidentally” left in by the factory—the factory outside the US that is only subject to silly US laws in theory. They should have called it the Masturbatory Bureaucrat Grey Market Enhancement and Offshore Electronics Factory Full Employment Flag.

Filed under: copyright