or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
September 18, 2004
Uh Oh
I'm amused and pleased to see that according to a recent Salon interview, Seymour Hersh has the same perspective on the Bush administration as I do -- ie, that we'd better pray that they're lying. In fact, he puts it in almost exactly the terms I have previously.
Except... Hersh doesn't feel God is answering his prayers:
SALON: Is there someone who is the Henry Kissinger in this administration?Posted at September 18, 2004 07:30 PM | TrackBackOh, believe me, I pray for one [clasps his hands and looks beseechingly upward]. Wouldn't it be great if the reality was that they were lying about WMD, and they really didn't believe that democracy would come when they invaded Iraq, and you could go to war with 5,000 troops, a few special forces, a few bombs and a lot of American flags, and Iraq would fold, Saddam would be driven out, a new Baath Party would emerge that's moderate? Democracy would flow like water out of a fountain. These guys believe it. They believe WMD. There's no fallback with these guys. These guys are utopians. They're like Trotskyites. They believe in permanent revolution. They really believe... these guys, do you realize how much better off we would be if they really were cynical, and they really were lying about it, because, yes, behind the invasion would be something real, like support for Israel or oil. But it's not! It's not about oil. It's about utopia...
SALON: So you don't think that this is some Machiavellian, cynical, manipulative...
I used to pray it was! We'd be in better shape.
Yep, sadly it's true. Sometimes the most logical explanation, namely "These people are fucking idiots" is the right one.
Jon, I'd like to see you little neocon roundup post sometime with a subject something like "Wrong, In The Most Impressive Ways Possible" that just lists some of these people's historical statements (before Iraq). I seem to remember that Richard Perle had some really scary-funny opinions about Afghanistan in the 80s, and of course Cheney's Congressional tenure is legendary.
