THIS MODERN WORLD

George W. Bush, age 61, to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, March 12, 2008:

“I must say, I’m a little envious…If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed…It must be exciting for you…in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”

George W. Bush, age 62, in farewell address, January 15, 2009:

“We see America’s character in Bill Krissoff, a surgeon from California. His son Nathan, a Marine, gave his life in Iraq. When I met Dr. Krissoff and his family, he delivered some surprising news: He told me he wanted to join the Navy Medical Corps in honor of his son. This good man was 60 years old – 18 years above the age limit. But his petition for a waiver was granted, and for the past year he has trained in battlefield medicine. Lieutenant Commander Krissoff could not be here tonight, because he will soon deploy to Iraq, where he will help save America’s wounded warriors and uphold the legacy of his fallen son.”

As Glenn Greenwald points out, Thomas Friedman endorsed terrorism yesterday in his New York Times column:

Israel’s counterstrategy [in 2006] was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large. It was not pretty, but it was logical. Israel basically said that when dealing with a nonstate actor, Hezbollah, nested among civilians, the only long-term source of deterrence was to exact enough pain on the civilians — the families and employers of the militants — to restrain Hezbollah in the future…

In Gaza, I still can’t tell if Israel is trying to eradicate Hamas or trying to educate Hamas, by inflicting a heavy death toll on Hamas militants and heavy pain on the Gaza population…If it is out to educate Hamas, Israel may have achieved its aims.

That’s an interesting theory about using massive force to “educate” people. I wonder how well it worked on Thomas Friedman himself after the 9/11 attacks? His immediate reaction to the “heavy pain” inflicted on New York City’s population was to try to restrain America’s nationalistic right wing, right?

Tim Russert Show, CNBC
October 13, 2001

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: So it’s time we got tough. It’s time that we looked people in the eye. It’s time that the terrorists were the ones who are always afraid, always looking over their shoulder, and to create that, you do have to fight a different kind of war. I was a critic of Rumsfeld before, but there’s one thing…that I do like about Rumsfeld. He’s just a little bit crazy, OK? He’s just a little bit crazy, and in this kind of war, they always count on being able to out-crazy us.

Huh. Well, I’m sure it will work differently on the filthy wogs, given that they’re subhuman.

You may remember Alan Grayson from his campaign commercial about Iraq corruption, one so angry and well-executed that you could hardly believe it came from a Democrat. He won the seat in Florida’s eighth district, and now he’s actually in Congress, actually asking the screamingly obvious questions about the bailout.

Here’s video of Grayson yesterday querying Donald Kohn, the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, about who the hell they’ve given $1.2 trillion to. And Kohn REFUSES TO ANSWER. Matt Stoller, who’s now a senior policy advisor to Grayson, has more, including a request for suggestions on where to take things next.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict Grayson will not be swallowed up by the Horrible Borg. He’s certainly worth admiring right now (uh, mostly).

The thing about my job is that, well, it’s actually a job. And sometimes to do it well takes a lot more time than you’d expect.

Anyway, more from me coming sooner or later. Also: caption contest winners! Eventually.

Obviously our incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is going to lie a lot. All Secretaries of State do. But…we can at least count on her to make up some new lies, right?

Nope.

RECENTLY: Same lie, different mouth.