Clinton vs. Sanders

I like Bernie Sanders, but I'm not so sure that he would be able to get much done as president.  I'm not a huge Clinton fan (Hillary or Bill) but I suspect she would be able to be more effective in meeting her goals as president.  That is probably the best reason to pick Hillary over Bernie (and this Vox article kind of gets there).  

My main problem with Hillary is not her pragmatism or even her "liberal creds" on domestic and social issues: it is that she is far too hawkish on the military/interventionist front.  Her single vote for the Iraq debacle is a black mark that is virtually impossible to erase, and all the talk about how knowledgeable she is on...well, everything...makes that vote even worse.  She should have known the correct way to vote (Bernie did) and she voted the wrong way, most people seem to presume for political purposes.  If it was not a pure political maneuver, then it is very strong evidence that she would, as commander in chief, be more likely to err on the side of bombing, invading and killing than on the side of peace and diplomacy.  

I'm not sure how I can vote for a candidate who is supposedly so well versed in detail and understanding of the issues and process, yet who made such a glaringly wrong choice.  

Bill Maher is an Asshole

Sometimes he's a good asshole, but lately he's been on his anti-religion zealotry binge and he sounds every bit as bigoted, stupid and vile as the fundamentalists he is ranting against.  There are some atheists who are every bit as fundamentalist and xenophobic as the various fundamentalist religious groups around the world.  They hate religion and religious people like Fred Phelps hates gays: irrationally and with heavy doses of scorn and vitriol.

I saw a bit of the segment with Ben Affleck and I liked that Ben stood his ground against the fundamentalists at the head of the table, but Reza Aslan is right: you can't argue to convince Bill Maher: his viewpoint is not rational.  It is emotional, and he cannot be dissuaded.

Incidentally: the whole of that linked interview is really good.

Because This Time It'll Work!

Doing Iraq Wrongish

I don't think I really disagree with Obama's (stated, apparent) policies on Iraq and ISIS (or ISIL or just IS or the evil hobgoblins of doom riding the four horsemen of the apocolypse to destroy America and make the world a terrorist paradise of...but I digress).  It's the way he talks about them, and the way that most other news outlets and media people and politicians talk about them.

Digby's put together a piece that covers how I feel about this.

Not Learning Good

I would have thought that after Hillary lost to Barack in 2008 she would have learned that the Democratic base likes their candidate to be less warmongery.  It even sounded like she had really come to see how badly flawed her judgement was on Iraq.  Guess not.  I really want to like Hillary, but it is exactly this kind of right-wing sounding militaristic crap that I find outrageous coming from anyone, much less a Democrat.  I hope that we get a better candidate on military/intelligence that can displace her.  What is more likely is that such a candidate would make her pull back and lots of people would believe she is less of a warmonger than she is.

She's probably worse than Obama...who, still dissapointingly, was not a whole lot better than Bush Jr.  Why the fuck can't we get a presidential candidate that doesn't want to arm and then bomb the hell out of the middle east?!?

Syria

I think the most accurate representation of the problem is The Onion's.  I've no confidence that us going in (not matter how far) will do anything but make matters worse.  The world is a very complex place, and sometimes we just can't fix things.  Still, not trying seems just as bad.  In a better alternate universe we could get a coalition together to go in, arrest Bashar, have an actual trial with evidence and find out "what really happened". 

In our existing world the options seem to be: kill people and blow things up or let Bashar (and/or his loyalists) kill other people and blow other things up...in either case rebel forces will kill people and blow things up, though I suppose we could help them do that more effectively as well.

Syria

I really, really hoped we had learned something from Iraq, but I fear it may have been the wrong lessons.  We should stay the hell out of Syria.

Winged Angels of Death

No comment.

Shorter NPR on Obama

NPR talking Obama/Bush terror policy this morning:

Obama's just like Bush when it comes to terrorism, so why isn't he getting love from the pro-bombing of Muslim countries people?

I guess being the secret Muslim socialist that he is most right wing warmongers just don't believe that his "targeted assassination of American Muslim abroad" program is sincere.

Iraq War Over...Still Killing Troops and Civilians In Afghanistan

So now that we pacifists have won the day and no more war evah*, I just wanted to put a handful of links to various retrospectives.

Someone who was right.
Someone who was wrong and admits it.
Someone else who was wrong and admits it (longer winded).
Someone who was wrong and is trying to excuse it.
Along with someone who is calling that bullshit.

As for me. I was pissed as hell back in 2002-3 that the entire of our government and the vast majority of media was so gun-ho to go to war in Iraq. I wasn't entirely up on the history of the region, I didn't care for Sadam, and I was even willing to concede that he maybe had some chemical or biological weapons. I still thought it was a bad idea, a distraction, a waste of money, and likely to cause a great deal of suffering. Mostly, I was pissed at how my opinion was deemed fringe and wrong by so many "Serious People" who were wrong wrong WRONG!

Now many of those who were right back then are pretty keen to get the hell out of Afghanistan, while many of those who were wrong and have since admitted it are pretty keen to...get the hell out of Afghanistan. Of course, we aren't going to do that, because the "Serious People" in government, even those, like Obama, who thought Iraq was wrong, think that we must stay in Afghanistan...I guess because there are people there who don't like us that we haven't killed yet or something.

*by "evah" I mean we will constantly be at war for the rest of my life, but we are going to pretend that we are a peaceful nation because we have (probably) stopped killing people in Iraq.

Deficit Hawks are Morons

If the "fiscal responsibility" gurus of the US Senate and House were actually remotely concerned about the deficit and fiscal responsibility they would be screaming bloody murder about the war in Afghanistan and supporting a health care reform bill with the strongest no-profit option (e.g. public) possible.

Too bad we are ruled by people with a 3rd grade understanding of money and economics (and for that matter, war).