Life Imitates Art

I wrote recently about Michelle Malkin’s “I am John Doe” campaign.  See, here’s the idea — these tough-as-nails fightin’ keyboarders, many of whom are of suitable age to join our military and actually fight for our freedoms, are doing something even better.  They’re starting a campaign  to make totalitarianism cool again.  Chris Kelly picked up on it at HuffPo.

Some librul hipsters put together a jokey video mocking the whole thing.  You can watch it here.

Gettin’ the Band Back Together?

Looking for a gig? Try Jarvis Cocker (via).

When White People Attack

Oh dear gawd (yt).

Although I do wonder if Scooter Libby thought it was funny.  No one else did.

Congressional Oversight Pr0n

Via Tbogg, here’s a clip of Rep. Bruce Braley grilling a certain Lurita Doan, head of the GSA.

I realize it’s a little too inside baseball, but here’s what you should know: the GSA is a Federal agency, and during the last few years during “team-building brown-bag lunches” Doan invited Republican operatives in to give talks about how to get Republicans elected and/or get Democrats ousted. This is a clear violation of the Hatch Act, which says that Federal resources (i.e., your taxes) can’t be used towards favoring one political party over another.

You can savor the rest for yourself.

John McCain — Still Sad, Still Clueless

Digby says everything that needs to be said about John McCain’s visit to the alternate dimension where an American can walk around the streets of Baghdad with impunity. Here’s journalist Michael Ware’s response.

There are a lot of contradictions that define John McCain. The press loves to bandy about the term “maverick,” and yet he’s the most dependable water-carrier the GOP in general, and George W. Bush in particular, have ever had. In 2000, the Rove machine questioned his bona fides as a war hero, his mental health, and suggested (gasp!) that he might have slept with icky black women. His form of payback? Running around the country at his master’s beck and call during the 2004 campaign, in what I can only assume he believed to be insurance measures for getting the GOP nomination in 2008.

He will never get it. The level of hate and loathing for him among Republican true believers is rivalled only by the amount reserved for Edward Kennedy and Michael Moore.

“I am Jon Maglalang!”

When both an administration and an ideological movement are going down in flames, mostly self-ignited, we get their tortured cries and death throes, mixed with an odd strain of populism. Here’s Michelle Malkin at her race-baiting, fear-mongering best.

If you don’t know who Michelle Malkin is, you don’t watch enough cable news. And that’s a very good thing. She has a blog, and she’s most infamous for writing a book arguing that the indiscriminate detention of Japanese-Americans was an unmitigated good.

Here’s just a taste of her insane babble regarding the supposed need for all Americans, at all times, to give up their civil rights and accept the gentle hand of Big Brother in their lives: “I will support law enforcement initiatives to spy on your operatives, cut off your funding and disrupt your murderous conspiracies.“

The Punk Years

The Punk Years, a surprisingly deep video documentary of punk, both Anglo- and American-, from the 70’s until today (via, with youtube links for each episode).

I’ve seen about a quarter of the episodes, and they’re really well done. Not perfect mind you, but it wouldn’t be the internets if people like me couldn’t bitch about other peoples’ taste in and ideas about music.

Yes, Minor Threat were a really important band for the DC/NY hardcore scene, and they even get the “Straight Edge” thing kind of right — it quickly became more of a straitjacket than anything else for MacKaye. But, um, whither Fugazi? That’s like mentioning Beethoven’s First through Eighth.

Get Well Soon

Tony Snow has a cancer recurrence, disturbingly similar to the one Elizabeth Edwards is dealing with.

Best wishes to them both. And please dear god, let’s start by not having to witness another Katie Couric exclusive. (Which was extra bizarre, when you consider that Katie’s far more accomplished sister Emily died of cancer.)

That said, bring on the subpoenas.

Betrayed

George Packer on the Iraqis who like us, and the same ones who soon won’t.

Pat Tillman, RIP

What a colossal mess.

Friendly fire is a part of war. I think most Americans understand that.

But the cover-up regarding Tillman’s death is just disgusting on so many levels. You can only imagine the many questions, agonies, and frustrations piling up for the families of less visible troops.

Afghanistan and Iraq were supposed to be cheap and painless, in and out affairs. You can only spin the actual sacrifices for so long before people start to ask questions.