A new diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks shows top commanders in Afghanistan wrangling over the issue of what to call yet another troop escalation to re-gain footing in their faltering nine-year effort to control the country.  “The Surge” used in Iraq was a fresh, sufficiently masculine and strength exuding name for the troop escalation, without actually referring to a “troop escalation” and being divorced from connotations of the ensuing gore and violence.  Public opinion tolerated, and was even perhaps vaguely stirred by “the surge,” which struck a nice balance between the need to project strength prudently while avoiding the pale of Rumsfeld’s premature “shock and awe” rhetoric so many years into an ageing war.

But by the time “the surge” was re-deployed by General Petraeus in Afghanistan, it had already become somewhat stale-sounding, and uninspiring.  Similarly, when George H.W. Bush invaded Iraq the first time, it was dramatically named “Operation Desert Storm,” with the troops being led by Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf, but using the same name for the second invasion by George W. Bush simply was out of the question, so the second military action was idealistically re-branded “Operation Iraqi Liberation Freedom.”

In its tenth year, support for the Afghanistan war is wearing thin, and “the surge” branding is thought by commanders to be losing appeal.  Cables revealed that among candidates for re-branding the latest troop escalation (and reasons for rejection) were:  

The billow and the swell weren’t manly enough.  The torrent seemed too excessive and “raging.”  The throb reminded everyone of headaches and boners.  The blast was too violently explosive.  The gush implied a loss of control — open wounds and broken pipes gush.  The pulse reminded everyone that Dick Cheney hasn’t one.  The uptick sounded small bore; plus it’s often used in the phrase “the uptick in violence.”  The heave was associated with vomiting and death throes.  The punch, the prod, the squash, and the squish sounded too aggressive, hectoring even.  The push and the shove seemed rude.  The squeeze were a band from the eighties.  Everyone agreed it was “great song-writing.”  The goose seemed “too butt grabby.”   The thrust and the poke were too phallic.  The press and the dig raised some eyebrows, but were somehow vague or basketbally.  The dragooning reminded everyone of good old-fashioned browbeating and rendition.  The ram, the steamroller, the bulldozer, pouring it on,  going to town on, putting the screws to, etc.,  were dismissed as signs of growing frustration with the brainstorming process.  It really was difficult to find a phrase having all the qualities of “the surge” without the negative associations.  Finally, one commander suggested, “Howzabout just tellin’ ’em  we’re “puttin’ some starch in our shorts?“”

The cables indicated that Petraeus will soon be announcing the nudge, something that can be done to persuade and encourage friends and allies without appearing overly domineering.

It should be clear by now that right-wing extremists, including most right-wing media and blog fora, are completely hardened in their shamelessness, unruly, unprincipled, and irreparable.  They cannot be managed by appeals to reason.    

Does anyone seriously think you have a snowball’s hope in Hell of having a coherent conversation with this woman who thinks repealing DADT caused recent mass die-offs?   She is gone, baby.  Bye, bye.  Never to return to the land of enlightenment.  

The only bumble bee left in the United States is the one buzzing inside the jar of her head.

Attempts at dialogue only make them more feverish and free from moral restraint.  They cannot be reformed by reason, nor do they want to be.  The rejection of modern liberalism is just that: the rejection of reason in favor of idiosyncratic, subjective truths, bugged-out bigotry, personal revelation, and headstrong “my-way-or-the-highway” domineering.  There is no independently verifiable touchstone they accept as an assay for the mutually agreeable truths.

Happy New Year, from Townhall:

By Jove, whatever happened to America’s ethic of solidarity?

What is the media’s influence on diction and syntax e.g., do viewers adopt the diction and syntax of the medium they consume?  My naïve guess (I could, but won’t go there now) is hellz yes, (high-pitched) “mutha fuka.”  People, especially children, pick up verbal clauses often instantly and in their entirety (whereas by adulthood one’s linguistic and other acquisitive powers, relative to the children, that is, not relative to the rest of our bodies, wane).  The majority of children can easily replay “damn your fucking bullshit” after a single trial of learning, or exposure.  In comparison, here’s a short play from the adults:

(Taxi-cab.  Both men are drunk off their asses)

Gerry:  Norm, you’re a portrait of moderation.

Norm: heh.  That’s funny.  Heh.  Remember when we ran through the hotel naked at Jeff’s wedding?  “I’m a picture of moderation.”  H-h-wahaa!

Gerry: I said, “Portrait.”

The End.

Not a “whiff” of corruption from Obama.

 I nominate this post as the wittiest understatement of the year.  Heh.  And speaking only for me.

Obama’s remarkably symbolic legislative agenda of false victories can hug my chub.

Liberal Democrats bragging about their support for Obama can hug my chub, too.  Aside from Obama’s being a major cover-up artist for wealthy corporate interests and war criminals, everything that is wrong with Obama is contained in this graph:  

Fucking “Liberals.”

Whose party is it?

There have been worse generations, but none have wasted so much, so fast, for so little.

It’s not clear exactly when America’s stranglehold over the world will be broken,  but American “exceptionalism,” i.e., debt-dollar discipline is being broken, for reals, and for good.  It’s really an amazing point in history.  I don’t know when it will become apparent to all, but that end-time, when we discover Dick Cheney’s real negotiability, the actual mark-to-market value of “The American Way of Life,” cannot be far off.  I’ve seen enough shocking viciousness, lawlessness, and moral depravity from our elites to know the jig is up sooner than later.

At this point, I am pretty firmly in Stoneleigh’s camp that one should be thankful for and use this time of suspended animation, this period of extend and pretend, to prepare for the inevitable and grim future of massive debt deflation.  As she frequently warns, it’s okay to prepare for it too early, but it’s not okay to be late.   In that vein, I offer the following photo-essay.

Via Lisa Simeone, the US State Department sent out this magically timed press release:

The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

UNESCO’s home page.

On its Facebook page, World Press Freedom Day states that,

World Press Freedom Day provides an opportunity to defend journalists and media organisations from attacks on their independence; to evaluate the state of press freedom around the world; and to pay tribute to those brave journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

Hillary Clinton’s spies at the UN have not yet reported how this message was received by other diplomats, but Joe Lieberman was observed  pumping his fist in the air yelling “Fuck yeah!  America roolz!” in the halls of Homeland Security,just after calling for prosecution of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act and a criminal investigation of the New York Times regarding its release of diplomatic cables redacted under governmental guidance.

What are those howls of derisive laughter?

Hork!

“The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval,” Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais.

“Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign,” he added during an Internet chat interview published online.

“…if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law.”

This guy has a very dark sense of humor.  He’ll be found dead in a fishing net before the US even feigns credibility on the rule of law.

In 1953 the CIA distributed to its agents and operatives a killer’s training manual (made public in 1997) full of hands-on advice:

 

“The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stair wells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve… The act may be executed by sudden, vigorous [excised] of the ankles, tipping the subject over the edge. If the assassin immediately sets up an outcry, playing the ‘horrified witness’, no alibi or surreptitious withdrawal is necessary.”