Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Did any of you watch the Democratic debate on ABC last night? I didn't, but I hear anyone who did could really use a drink right now:

Over the last year or so, we’ve seen debates that were pretty bad. We’ve seen a few that were embarrassingly bad. But at least in this cycle, I’m not sure if we’ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night.

What may prove to be the last Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wasn’t just awful on its face, it was hard not to watch wondering if moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos were actually undermining the public discourse with their inanity. It marked a new low for the media freak-show. I was conflicted emotionally between anger at ABC for this travesty and pity for the network for having sunk so low.

Steve Benen from The Carpetbaggerreport, my darlings: suffering so you don't have to. Give the poor man a drink. In fact, give him two:

The administration’s own counter-terrorism policy and the mission of the National Counter-Terrorism Center mandate that officials have a “comprehensive strategy for meeting U.S. national-security goals” in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. The GAO, however, found that no such strategy currently exists.

[snip]

The same report added: “al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place, including the identification, training, and positioning of Western operatives for an attack. It stated that al Qaeda is most likely using the FATA to plot terrorist attacks against political, economic, and infrastructure targets in America ‘designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the population.’”

And the Bush administration doesn’t have a plan to address this.

Make mine a double. No. A triple. It would be nice to forget for a moment that my country's safety and security is in the hands of a gang of batshit insane lying fuckwits.

President Bush: helping the terrorists win since 2000. Fucking assclown.

Right. We need some better news round here. 'Tis almost Friday. Let's forget that our political press is more flaccid than a 96-year old penis with a Viagra allergy. Let's forget that while Bush & Co. play world-conquering heroes by throwing bodies and money at Iraq, al Qaeda is in Pakistan debating whether to take the C-4 with them on this trip to America. Let's by all means try to forget that while our economy, safety, and national character all go swirling down the toilet, the media continues to bring McSame donuts and spit-shine his loafers with their adoring drool.

And if we can't forget, let's at least reach for an explanation:



Hypnotized. It all makes sense to me now...