Please, God, let me keep a straight face

I'm trying hard not to laugh about this, because, after all, we're talking about war and death.

But it's hard not to chuckle at the rhetoric offered by George W. Bush in explaining his veto of the war-spending bill. He said success in Iraq does not necessarily require the complete elimination of violence. "Success," he said, "is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives."

When Democrat John Kerry said essentially the same thing during the 2004 election campaign, Bush and his pals roundly chided the Massachusetts senator, and so did the supplicant media.

With a nod to Think Progress, the Madison blogger Griper Blade details the hypocrisy.

Dimwit of the day

The Republican congressman here in RascalLand, Don Manzullo, doesn't often vote the way I would prefer, but he's not nearly as much an idiot as one his downstate colleagues, John Shimkus, who represents the Collinsville area across the river from St. Louis.

Shimkus, you may recall, was chairman of the House Page Board when Mark Foley was trying to have his way with some of the lads. In numerous other ways, Shimkus has distinguished himself as one of the dimmest bulbs in Congress.

Today, in a speech on the floor of the House, Shimkus likened the war in Iraq to a baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. You can find the text and video here.

UPDATE (Thurs., May 3): It seems that The Rascal wasn't the only one who found Shimkus' baseball metaphor inappropriate. Check this.

Rap this, Dude!

The Rascal doesn't ordinarily go in for rap music, but I find this video a worthy exception, especially on this fourth anniversary of Mission Accomplished.

"One signature away"

As an Illinoisan, as an American, I'm glad to be represented by Barack Obama.

His comment today on Senate passage of a war-funding bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq succinctly framed the issue: “We are one signature away from ending the Iraq War. President Bush must listen to the will of the American people and sign this bill so that our troops can come home.”

Read about it here.

Moyers kicks liberal media butts -- big time!

In a 90-minute report on PBS tonight, Bill Moyers delivered an awesome roundhouse punch to the liberal media for its scandalously unquestioning acceptance of the Bush administration's lies during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

It's too bad that every American -- especially every journalist in the country -- didn't see this important documentary. PBS would do well to re-run it a few times over the coming weeks and months.

Moyers didn't plan it this way, but his devastating piece aired on the same day that this NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that most Americans aren't buying the Bush bullshit on the war anymore and are no longer afraid of being labeled unpatriotic by the die-hard hawks and right-wing nut cases.

The poll also shows that most Americans agree with the Democrats on setting a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

If Bush refuses to sign the war-funding bill, it is he, not the Democrats, who will have betrayed both the troops in Iraq and the American people.

When the media drank W's Kool-Aid

PBS will air a scorching 90-minute documentary tonight in which Bill Moyers shows how the so-called liberal media played lapdog to the Bush administration in the dishonest run-up to the distastrous war in Iraq.

This is counterintuitive, of course, to the stereotype of the media painted by the zanies on the political right. Accordingly, some of them, like this guy and this guy, are soiling themselves in angst over Moyers' report.

Oh, by the way, another phony stereotype peddled by the rightists is that the insistence by Harry Reid and the Democrats in Congress to set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq is somehow out of sync with the thinking of truly patriotic Americans.

But consider, if you will, the opinions of this gang of retired generals.

Mr. Straight Talk on his way out

The man is losing ground in the polls and running short on money. Pretty soon, he's going to slip into the lower tier of GOP hopefuls alongside such cretins as Tom Tancredo.

His dire situation is detailed here and here and here.

Of course, the biggest of McCain's problems is that his candidacy is entirely dependent upon the U.S. military surge in Iraq succeeding. In that regard, he has no Plan B, as we see here.

The surge so far is a big failure. At least 289 people were killed in Iraq just today, as noted here. Earlier this week, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the Green Zone in Central Baghdad, presumably the safest spot in the whole country.

Circle April 25th on your calendar

On that Wednesday night, PBS will air a 90-minute documentary that details not only the lies with which the Bush administration sold the war in Iraq but also how the so-called liberal media disgracefully bought into it all.

That includes PBS itself.

Here are some details of the program.