Bitches Get Stuff Done

Here's delusion for you, in a nutshell:

[Ralph] NADER: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. 24% of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. 61% think both major parties are failing. And according to Frank Luntz’s poll, the Republican, 80% will consider voting for an independent this year. Now you take that framework, of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine to Israel. From Enron to Wall Street. From Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the…all the candidates, McCain, Obama and Clinton, are against single-payer health insurance. Full Medicare for all. I’m for it. As well as millions of Americans and 59% of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don’t like Pentagon waste, the bloated military budget, all of the reports in the press and the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That’s off the table, to Obama and Clinton and McCain. The issue of labor law reform: repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley act, that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media—the mainstream media—repeatedly indicated how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don’t have many rights these days.

That's a wonderful laundry list of things that are wrong. And Ralph Nader thinks he is someone who can do something about those problems?

Please. Ralph Nader has absolutely no chance to do anything this year except siphon off some critical votes that a Democrat might need in a few key states. Granted, 90% of the people who will vote for Nader just want to throw their vote away because they're pissy about something and won't get behind a candidate because said candidate is not 100% perfectly in line with the single issue they are obsessed with. You're never going to find someone who's perfectly in line with the way you think and who is going to do exactly what you want them to do. Be an adult--and quit being a spoiled fucking child--and get used to being mildly disappointed about serious subjects.

You want to do ANYTHING about the issues Nader lists above? See what voting for McCain gets you.

Nader has no legacy now. He's a tired act. And I guarantee you--more Republicans give to his campaign than any other constituency because he takes votes from Democrats. Plain and simple.

Tina Fey has the best line of the year--bitches get stuff done.

Batiste: Stop conflating 'insurgents' & al Qa'eda - they are not the same thing

Major General John Batiste, appearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday had some strong words for this feckless administration and the inept, criminally incompetent way they have prosecuted the war in Iraq.

He is at least as furious as I am at the rebranding effort underway (the MBA presidency has all the characteristics of a failed enterprise), by the administrations spin doctors to paint all insurgents who oppose the occupation of their country by the U.S. military with the “al Qa’eda” brush.

Watch it – and remember that there is a sound gap for a few seconds on either side of the minute mark. It does lose the audio for a couple of seconds, but the part I want you to hear is loud, clear and strong.

For what it’ worth, I do not play along with the administrations message framers, and I never have. Instead, I use some variation of the more intellectually honest term jihadist. While all al Qa’eda are jihadists, not all jihadists are al Qa’eda.

The tendency to blur the lines between insurgent groups was addressed at length in the white paper Rethinking Counterinsurgency by Dr. Stephen Metz that was summarized here a few weeks ago. Dr. Metz warns against the tendency to engage in this deception. It inevitably strengthens the standing of those you desire to defeat, in reality, in the perception of the public and inevitably in the minds of the counterinsurgency forces that are battling against them.

The General is absolutely correct. None of us should sleep well at night.