Where's the anti-emetic when you need it?
by eriposte
Today was one of those days. And, it almost turned me into Jesse at Pandagon (sorry Jesse, I know I'm not that good - but let me explain, below).
1. Kevin Drum noted the latest attempt by someone in the Far Right (Captain Ed at "Captains Quarters" - CQ for short) to try and surpass "Powerline-was-completely-f***ing-wrong-gate" [also see this must-read post by Jesse and this piece at Raw Story]. In the process, I discovered that Captain Ed's post displayed this 6/19/05 cartoon - "Day by Day" by Chris Muir, to the left of the CQ post. I urge you all to click through and see that particular cartoon. The "conservative" African-American in the cartoon explains to a white woman why it is justifiable to not care that innocent people may have been tortured in Gitmo. The reason? Why, the world's worst terrorists don't care whether their victims are innocent (cue, plane heading to WTC)! Clearly, such moral "clarity" is what Markos was referring to in his two posts on the American Taliban.
At the bottom of the page, Mr. Muir quotes a bunch of conservatives gushing over his cartoons (although not the specific one I'm talking about here) - ranging from John Cole on the reasonable end to Michelle Malkin on the extremist crackpot end. Now, Mr. Muir's moral "clarity" being what it is, I wonder if Damon (the "hip, young African-American conservative" in the cartoon - as Robert Cox of the National Debate describes the cartoon's main character) would display similar moral "clarity" over the thousands of African-Americans who were lynched (often murdered) without regard for their right to a fair trial (or for their possible innocence). You know, by opining how (in response) a bunch of Whites should be herded into Gitmo by Blacks, for torture, without regard for whether any of those herded actually lynched any Blacks? Somehow I doubt it. After all, Damon is likely too "hip" for that kind of repulsive stuff. Herding Muslims regardless of whether they are guilty or innocent - or had anything to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda? Now that's so not repulsive to Muir Damon and some of his Gitmo-loving friends. Perhaps Steve Gilliard or Rude Pundit or Giblets would care to be amazed by Damon?
Anyway, congratulations to Mr. Muir for pictorializing the sentiments and moral bankruptcy clarity of the American Taliban in his comic strip. Captain Ed certainly seems to approve! (And I can see that the anti-American Neil Cavuto also might).
2. As luck would have it, I also had the "privilege" of being made aware of the abject farce of faux-moderate Sen. John McCain demanding Sen. Dick Durbin's apology for mere words that did not accuse Americans or American soldiers of being Nazis (see Billmon for more), while taking pride in his own corruption as manifested by his strong support for George Bush despite Bush's almost unprecedented mendacity, incompetence, and corruption on the topics in McCain's list (below). Arianna Huffington has captured the ooze well, in her post on McCain's Press The Meat interview. For example:
McCAIN: On the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush. ... And I'm particularly talking about the war on terror, the war in Iraq, national security, national defense, support of men and women in the military, fiscal discipline...
[ALERT! He and Bush are for fiscal discipline too! Wonderful!]
Now, as Arianna points out, McCain was not entirely high on kewl-aid...only, say, nine-tenths of the way there. But she summarized the interview (so to speak) with this:
Wow. So, Russert got McCain to make a huge deal not over the need for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to be held accountable but over the need for Durbin to apologize.
Perhaps the motto for the show should be what McCain said when Russert asked him about the Terri Schiavo episode:
McCAIN: Maybe we didn't use our brains as well as we should have.
Well said.
Look Arianna. Durbin said something against torture that some people took offense to. The Republicans in the Senate on the other hand continue to (say and) do things to cover-up their and the Bush administration's cornucopia of scandals against the State and their tacit or not-so-tacit approval of torture. This is a moment of immoral clarity, Arianna. Don't spoil it by pointing out the faux outrage against Durbin (see C&L for a bit more).
