WTF Is It Now?!?

Asshat of the week

You know, there's stiff competition out there for this title, and it's still only Tuesday, but I have to hand it to Paul Burgess--if there is a bigger asshat out there come Friday, my attention will have been well-earned. Burgess is a former speechwriter for the current Misadministration, and the tone of his editorial is absolutely that of a playground bully, whose face has finally been rubbed in the dirt by someone more agile, smarter, and sick to death of his petty tyranny.

Awwwwh, Paul, I am so NOT sorry that the little party is being spoiled by truthtelling. I also honor our war dead, but I don't believe the way to do that is by the rankest sort of effort justification. And--apropos your tired suggestion that the intelligence community was somehow at fault in providing erroneous information about WMD in Iraq--well, that is so 2003. Maybe you should read this article by Seymour Hersh, explaining in excruciating detail how the Misadministration got rid of the trained intelligence officers who had previously vetted raw intelligence in favor of "stovepiping" all that juicy stuff directly to the White House, where "experts" like Cheney and Rumsfeld could paw over it and cherrypick it. Then whimper some more about how misunderstood Il Ducebag is. You whiny little fuck. You willfully blind Kool-Aid swilling sycophant. Our government is this close to using terror against its own citizens, and the only outrage you can dredge up is against Cindy Sheehan? Let me tell you, Paul, on The Night of the Long Knives, the Rethugs will pretend not to know your name and throw you back out into the street where the brownshirts are roaming, while Cindy and I and all the people you vilify are the ones who will let you hide in the basement.

Now, once and for all: there is a huge difference between righteous anger and hatred. Righteous anger is what people feel when they see their country's reputation and honor dragged through the dirt by warmongers, profiteers, and incompetents, when they see its dearest principles trashed as though they were just "a goddamn piece of paper."

Hatred? I don't actually sense that in you, Paul, even though the word seems to make you feel powerful, to make you feel good. What I sense instead is sheer fear--as evil fears the light that's about to break upon it.

--dg

(story via Talking Points Memo)