From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
I used to like March 19th.
Not so much anymore. It's the day Republicans shot our country in the foot and expected a parade of sweets and flowers for it.
Today is the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, aka the "More Than Twice As Long As World War II" war. As its architects and cheerleaders try to rehabilitate their images by crapping out error-riddled books sprinkled with revisionist fairy dust, let's remember what they and their media enablers really said as it all went down. Please hold your rotten tomatoes until the very end...
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction."
---Dick Cheney, 9/8/02
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"Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof---the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
---George W. Bush, 10/7/02
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"We will win this conflict. We will win it easily."
---John McCain, 1/22/03
Look up 'gullible' in the dictionary...
My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
---Colin Powell & his vial of baby powder at the UN, 2/5/03
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"[T]he area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
---Donald Rumsfeld, 3/30/03
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"There's a certain amount of pop psychology in America that the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all."
---Bill Kristol, 4/1/03
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Who said war never solved anything?
---Brendan Miniter, The Wall Street Journal, 4/8/03
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"The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper Westside liberals."
---Charles Krauthammer, 4/19/03
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TED KOPPEL: [Y]ou’re not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is going to be done for $1.7 billion?
ANDREW NATSIOS [Agency for International Development]: Well, in terms of the American taxpayer's contribution, I do. This is it for the U.S.
---Nightline, 4/23/03
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[Liberals] can't deny that President Bush has won his two wars, and won them resoundingly.
---Paul Mirengoff at Powerline, 4/26/03
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"The three-week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptics' complaints."
---Tony Snow (later Bush's press secretary) on Fox News, 4/27/03
Five years later:
As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq neared, Vice President Cheney flew unannounced into Baghdad on Monday and declared the U.S. effort to install democracy and stabilize Iraq a "successful endeavor" that has been "well worth the effort." … The vice president used the opportunity to reassert that there was "a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda" before the U.S. invasion, despite reports that have found no operational ties between the two.
And
Five years ago today:
Cheney: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.
Martha Raddatz: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.
Cheney: So?
Martha Raddatz: So? You don’t care what the American people think?
Cheney: No.
Is it really worth rubbing their dumbstick-beaten faces in their own muck every year on this occasion? I take the late
Molly Ivins' view from April 29, 2003, barely a month after Shock 'n Awe:
Maybe the American people can be brainwashed into forgetting why we supposedly went to war. Near as I can tell, our national memory span is down to about two weeks, and the media have been spectacularly unskeptical on this issue. But the rest of the world is not going to forget that WMDs were our primary reason for an unprovoked, pre-emptive war.
Neither am I. And I want those fuckers to know I'll never forget it.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Note: Due to the sequester, there is no one working in the C&J control tower today. Sorry about the blimp landing on your car. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til "Play ball!!!": 12 (Rangers vs. Astros)
Days 'til the Chicago Beer Festival: 11
Percent chance that we do not have an immediate debt crisis: 100%
(Source: John Boehner)
Chance that an Israeli Jew believes Israel practices "Apartheid" against Palestinians: 1-in-2
(Source: Harper's Index)
Percent of Americans who consider scientology a real religion: 13%
(Source: 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll)
Year the term "March Madness" was coined by Henry Porter to describe an Illinois high school basketball tourney: 1939
Age of the Vanguard 1, the oldest manmade satellite still in orbit: 55
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Yes Justice Roberts has some kind of skeleton in the closet regarding the adoption of his 2 children. Remember when Robers met with Obama after his 1st election, did Obama threaten him? Or did Obama just drop in to tell him that his real daddy was the American Commie Frank Marshall Davis so he would ignore all the birther issue. One problem Obama, after you were adopted by soetoro, you never re-naturalized so you are not eligible to be POTUS.
---Commenter "Rose" at World Net Daily
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Bark on…
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CHEERS to the new guy. Pope Francis was officially installed today. Fair warning, faithful: he comes without a warranty. (Hey, what do you expect when you get something at a pawntiff shop?)
CHEERS to the dean of Deans. This is cool---Chris Savage at Eclectablog got a chance to grill none other than Howard Dean recently. They cover a lot of ground (go read it!), including Howard's advice as former DNC Chair for success in the 2014 midterms:
Agh---I hate it when
Dean colors his hair.
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I’d be doing what we did in 2006. I’d be working really hard for a 50-state strategy and I’d be finding candidates that Washington insiders don’t know anything about. That’s how we won. We had a lot of surprises and the reason we had a lot of surprises because we made the party strong enough and worked with the state parties. People who were finding candidates were local people because they knew where the best candidates were. It’s pretty hard to pick a candidate from Washington! The best way to do it is let the local people pick their own candidate and then support them. So, I’d go back to the 50-state strategy.
I was going to suggest the 50-kicks-to-the-groin strategy. But the 50-state one is good, too. Not as much fun, but good.
CHEERS to avian homecomings. Once they make it through Customs, the swallows will be returning to the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. One small difference: this year they're coming to feast on human flesh!!! Which, of course, means the only surviving witness there will be the Fox News reporter.
P.S. We're getting a foot (or more) of snow here in Maine today. The seagulls will be gathering around the dumpster and grumbling.
JEERS to the war on ringy-dingies. The Texas prison system is getting serious about illegal cellphone smuggling:
Final testing starts next week at the first of two Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons where equipment has been installed to block calls to and from unauthorized phones. The equipment, known as a managed access system, also diverts text messages, emails and Internet log-in attempts from contraband phones.
They suspected there was a problem with cellphone smuggling when the inmates' asses kept tooting Tupac.
CHEERS to brevity. Exchange between Politico's Mike Allen and Bill Gates:
ALLEN: Should the Boy Scouts of America rescind its ban on gay members and leaders?
GATES: Absolutely.
ALLEN: Why?
GATES: Because it’s 2013.
Which, coincidentally, is also to answer to the question, "Why should Microsoft start putting out products as smart and easy-to-grasp as its founder's answers to questions?"
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Five years ago in C&J: March 19, 2008
Big speech.
CHEERS to the Barack Heard Round the World. Well, that was
quite the speech on race. Even the conservatocrasy gave Obama a polite golf clap yesterday. In a nutshell, this was our next president's response to the Jeremiah Wright controversy:
"People we love and respect sometimes say stupid things. Duh!" Very inspiring, and my only quibble is that he mentioned whites, blacks, browns, Asians, Latinos, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the male, the female, the Republicans, the Democrats, the religious, the non-religious, the dog owners and the cat owners...but nothing about gay people. As an offended single-issue voter (specifically, creation of "gay dollars" that are tied to the Euro), I'm holding my breath until he calls me on my cellphone to apologize. But first...I should probably go buy a cellphone. BRB.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Common Sense Grandma. My partner Michael's ("Common Sense Mainer's") grandmother passed away a couple years ago, and today would've been her century mark. It's mind-boggling to revisit where our country was when she was born...in 1913:
Gram at 97 with CSM
> The National Woman's Party formed
> The 16th Amendment establishing the income tax was ratified
> Woodrow Wilson succeeded William Howard Taft
> The first U.S. paved coast-to-coast highway opened
> The Shubert Theatre opened in New York
> Henry Ford started using a moving assembly line
> Gandhi was arrested for leading a miners march in South Africa
> The first modern elastic bra was patented
> The Panama Canal opened...and so did the first drive-up gas station
> Charlie Chaplin started his film career
> And... President Wilson said America would never attack another country.
Gram was feisty, smart, impatient with rubes, and very religious. So we're not taking any chances and are just going to assume she's looking down to make sure we didn’t forget her big day. We sure didn't, Gram. Happy 100th birthday, wherever you are, and many blessings on your winged, cherubic camels.
Have a nice Tuesday. Tomorrow: SPRING!!! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
As he patted Bill in Portland Maine on the head, he asked "Are you a good boy?" and Bill nodded. "Are you sure?" the pope quipped.
---AP
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