These People Have An Unlimited Capacity To Make Me Sick

There's no shortage of current and upcoming exposés of President George W. Bush and his accomplices. I don't have the stomach to read them all. However, it looks like political writer & former talk show host Paul Alexander's new book is required reading. It's called Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove.

Salon has this excerpt: "How Karl Rove Played Politics While People Drowned."

Shorter version at First Draft.

-AF

(HT: Crooks and Liars)

VA Sec. James Peake Is A Huge Asshole

He's dumber than dirt too. Via Think Progress:

Over the weekend, Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake visited Alaska with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). While there, they met with Vietnam veteran John Guinn, who questioned the Secretary about the growing problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst veterans. Instead of addressing Guinn’s concerns, Peake dismissed them:

VA secretary Peake suggested some of the concern about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury has been overblown.

Many of the brain injuries are serious but some of them are akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered, Peake told Guinn.

Guinn wasn’t entirely satisfied with the answers. He said it’s a real issue for returning soldiers as well as their families, and he doesn’t think job training is enough.

On Saturday, Peake also said that many vets with PTSD may just need “a little counseling” and shouldn’t “need the PTSD label their whole lives.”

Despite his 40+ year military career, retired US Army Surgeon General Peake has proven he not only knows nothing about veterans but he also knows jack all about medicine. Where do I start ripping?

Vets with PTSD do not “need the PTSD label their whole lives.” PTSD is not a label anyone would ever want for any reason. With proper intensive treatment, not "a little counseling as Secretary Peake suggests," many vets will lead relatively normal productive lives.

I used to play contact sports. I was also a serious downhill ski racer. I’ve been in a few car accidents. I've whacked my head a few too many times (which explains a lot). I’ve had one diagnosed TBI or traumatic brain injury. I’ve also had PTSD.

Traumatic brain injury is a medical term describing what occurs when your head is struck by something, stops and your brain keeps going striking the inside of your skull. This could be caused by a bomb's concussion blast or a simple slip & fall. PTSD is a psychological term describing a specific response to a severe emotional trauma. While both can happen concurrently, they are completely different medical problems that require specific, intensive and separate treatment.

As long as we have clowns like Peake in charge of their wellbeing, veterans will continue to get short shrift.

-AF

Whereby Pres. Hillary Clinton Resembles Pres. George W. Bush

I'm probably not saying anything new here but I'm compelled to say it nonetheless...

The truth is the longer Hillary insists on staying in this race, the less attractive a candidate she becomes to this voter. (Can you say Senator John Hall, New Yorkers?) Her naked ambition, not to mention that of her husband's, lays her faults bare for all the world to see. What I find most disturbing is how Sen. Clinton, the candidate, has more and more come to resemble George Bush, the President. There, I've said it.

I've already discussed my other Hillary "problems" here and here. What should now be the most critical concern to Sen. Clinton's die hard supporters, and thus all Democratic voters, is two-fold:

1. Her penchant for statements that can easily be "misunderstood" or "taken out of context."
2. Her inability to take responsibility for these statements through a proper, timely apology.

Even if you believe that some of Hillary misstatements were not intentional, and I do not, have we not spent seven-and-a-half years living through a Presidency just like this?

Time and time again we've watched helplessly as our current President has made thoughtless self-serving statements with a total disregard as to how they might be received and/or misinterpreted. Statements that have ranged from those damaging to our country's international reputation (mentioning Hitler at Israel's 60th Anniversary celebration. WTF?) to those endangering our troops' lives ("Bring 'em on!").

For our next Commander-In-Chief, we desperately need the most thoughtful successor possible. Sen. Clinton has offered abundant proof she does not meet this criterion. A sample of Candidate Clinton's most damaging statements:

1. "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."
   
2. "Dr. [Martin Luther] King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964…it took a president to get it done."
3. Florida and Michigan primaries "don’t count for anything.’"
4. "(We have a) basic obligation to make sure that every vote in America counts" implying that the Democratic Party doesn't want every vote to count.
   
5. "I am not violating the pledge" referring to her decision to campaign in Florida after pledging not to.
6. "It is well within the Democratic Party rules to take this stand." Then she implied her opponents, who kept their pledges not to campaign in FL & MI, were comparable to those who were for slavery and against women's suffrage.
7. "We have to carry the states that I’m carrying, the primary states, the states that really have to be in the winning Democratic column” minimizing Sen. Obama's primary victories in traditionally Republican Western states i.e. only big states count.
   

All of this and more Hillary Clinton has said in either total disregard for or oblivious to how hurtful it was to individual citizens, certain states' voters, our entire democratic process and her Party. It goes beyond the self-serving. It's flat-out selfish. And the longer her campaign drags on, the more frequently we see this act from either Sen. Clinton or her surrogates.

This is not Presidential behavior, Hillary. It's just not. It is not when President George Bush does it. It definitely is not when Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton does it. There's no excuse for it. Period.

It's not Senatorial behavior either. There's precious little time left for Sen. Clinton to bow out of the race with a modicum of self-respect intact. By doing so sooner rather than later, she has an opportunity to regain some trust and respect from her constituents too.

-AF

PS If you still haven't yet seen it, what's wrong with you?, here's last Friday's Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Senator Clinton.

You Fucked Up File: ABC

Welcome to the inaugural entry to ASIAF's YFUF. What's a "YFUF"? A dear friend and former colleague in the music biz has to deal with any number of challenging, demanding artists from baby bands to international superstars based all over the globe. Years ago he instituted what he calls the "You Fucked Up File." When the band inevitably fucks something up, it's added to their YFUF. This way if there are any disputes about why a third single isn't released from a disappointing album, tour support is reduced, etc., he whips out their YFUF and sets them straight.

Last night saw the worst ever piece of election coverage by any network not named Fox. After 3,492 Democratic debates you'd think ABC could get it right. Not that I watched it. I have read and viewed much of the press coverage. Sometimes that's more important than what actually happened. Because by all accounts your average American couldn't have tolerated more than 5 minutes of it, this was one of those times.

Yes, the candidates' performance was lackluster. But ABC's Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos acted like they had participated in some perverse pre-debate Right Wing Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. WTF was up with that?

You know ABC fucked up when the crowd actually and loudly booed Gibson. You know they blew it when Obama is asked about some badass he knew when he was 8 years-old. You know it was awful when Editor & Publisher's Editor Greg Mitchell calls it "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years." You know it was bad when one of the many gotcha questions is supplied by Sean Hannity and NY right wing radio looney Steve Malzberg. You know it was terrible when Philly's Daily News' Will Bunch rips it not once but twice. You know it went well past weak when the "flag pin" kerfuffle and every other kerfuffle is resurrected. You know it was ugly when it took an absolutely unforgivable 51 fucking minutes for the motherf***ers moderators to bring up one policy issue(!?!). You know it was shameful when Keith Olbermann sez "The campaign may have seemed dirty. It had nothing on one of the moderators of the debate tonight."

Look, I know Stephanopoulos is ABC's DC bureau chief but he was Bill Clinton's senior political advisor and communications director fer chrissakes.
I don't want to say that George had a hard-on for Obama but he should have put a coat on to cover his naked bias. Fox's Hugh Hewitt would have been a more appropriate choice. Is Charles Gibson really so light that he couldn't have moderated solo?

The only good to come out of this unmitigated disaster is that every single debate henceforth will seem amaaazing.

-AF
++Update: Harper's Ken Silverstein provides one-stop shopping with Deep Throats: A Compilation of Debate Porn.