Semester's First Week = Year's Worse Week

First week of Fall semester always busiest of this or any year, so have bullets:

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Ed Champion on political frauds, of which he counts himself an exemplar. It pings off something I was thinking about a couple of nights ago after watching and re-watching MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech." I've been saying that while technology was meant to keep the comfortably fed numb and dumb, it's been appropriated by the prior quiet for noisy (if ineffectual) disobedience, but maybe it is working better as designed than I thought - I haven't seen a half million people descend on The Mall in protest of torture or domestic spying or that clusterfuckful clusterfuck of all and anything Bushco. Typing is not civil disobedience. Pings do not mean resonance.

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The Forehead

 

 

on Bushco's drive for Democracy in America Middle East:

As recounted by former U.S. officials, the story embodies the mix of hubris and naivete that has characterized so much of the drive for a permanent Republican majority Iraq effort . From President Bush on down, U.S. officials enthused about Republican one-party rule Iraqi democracy while pursuing a course of action that made it virtually certain that Democrats Iran and its proxies would emerge as the dominant political force.

Unfortunately, here in America, the Republicans do have the Democrats going for them, which doesn't mitigate the fact that David Ignatius is one freakingly obtuse and dishonest tool.   

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Because Bushco can be trusted for faithful accountability:

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version -- as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

Lot's of commentary.

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My last word (I dearly hope) on the Idaho Tapdancer - yes, there's the political hypocrisy and the hetero/homo hypocrisy in the Republican response between Craig and Vitter, but please don't forget this critical distinction: Vitter's was a business transaction, Craig's was a sex transaction. For pigs, sexual morality is always superseded by a proper cash on delivery business deal.

UPDATE: Doh! This is obviously the last word on Tapdancer:

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• John Edwards and Windmills.
• Darmok and Jalad at Tenegra. Not once, but twice!
• What, can't call a gook gook, chink chink, wop wop?
• Landru once lived two blocks from here. Coincidence?
• This week in ponies.
• UPDATE: Maryland whoopty-damn-doo!

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Onion lists 15 shows that burned hot and burned out fast. Here's one:

Batgirl - now that's a (Yvonne) Craig I'd spastic tap my foot for!