The Lapel Flag Pin Patriots.

Yesterday, in response to a question from a reporter suspicious of why he wasn’t wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, Barack Obama explained his belief that for some, the pins became a substitute for “true patriotism.” The senator said he would instead “try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”

I didn’t expect leading conservative voices to understand, but I was a little surprised at the ferocity of the response. Jonah Goldberg described Obama’s perspective as “staggeringly stupid,” and “the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of him doing.” Another prominent far-right blogger responded this way:

“Seriously, you want this for President of these great United States.This is how he catches the attention of a media aligned with the terror force? This useful tool won’t wear an American flag pin? Talk about pandering to the radical base, he ought to run against Ahmadinejad.

“He is scoring points with Georgie Soros, won’t be waiting long for his on his Soros stipend, I’m sure. What’s Obama Hussein’s new campaign slogan, “America Sucks!”

Higher-profile conservative voices were only slightly less unhinged.

“But talk radio and cable news quickly pounced on the issue. “It just shows you he’s not ready for the big time,” conservative Laura Ingram opined on Fox News. Said Sean Hannity: “Why do we wear pins? Because our country is under attack!”

Hannity, a voice of reason in these trying times. Perhaps he believes lapel pins are some kind of protection against terrorist attacks? And if so, why doesn’t he wear one more often?

So the role model for true-blue, America-loving, super-duper-patriotic conservatives is...

...Abbie Hoffman?

(historical note from old geezer to young whippersnappers: Abbie Hoffman, 1970's radical, was arrested for wearing a shirt made from an American flag. Also arrested other times, for other charges -- see "Chicago Seven" -- but the shirt incident was one of the most famous.)

The Value of Torture Depends On the Goal

Torture in Iraq and Gitmo also cows the population here. If they are willing to torture Padilla, then we will damn well give up privacy in phone calls, habeas corpus, freedom to fly on domestic airplanes without taking our friggin shoes off in dirty airports. It means that Bushco means business when it comes to keeping people, all people, in line.

An article that’s making the rounds again about the way the Allies effectively broke down Nazi resistance to testifying after WWII through kindness and playing games of wit with them. It’s very interesting and more evidence against the use of routine torture to “get information”, which is the official excuse for torturing from the Bush administration and all their defenders. It helps to watch lots of “24″ to convince yourself that there’s just oodles of people out there who are one electroshock to the genitals away from spilling all sorts of life-saving information. The article is good—all a refutation of the idea that torture is an effective way of obtaining information.

It’s important to say that torture doesn’t work for obtaining information, but immediately follow it up with, “So if we’re not using torture for information, then what are we using torture for?” And the answer is that we’re torturing in order to cow into submission an unconsenting population we’re ruling over, something that torture is very good at. Information is irrelevant. The government barely had anything to charge Jose Padilla with, and they knew it—they didn’t charge him for years because they were waiting for him to cough up information. They tortured him so badly he lost his mind; if they cared what he knew, they wouldn’t have systematically destroyed his mind and the mysterious information in it. Padilla was a testing ground for the Bush administration to see if they could get away with disappearing people, a la some South American junta, so they could quell the loyal dissent at home with the threat that you could be locked away in prison and have your mind slowly dismantled with no hope for a trial.

What if the military had to run disclaimers in their recruiting ads like the Pharmaceutical Co's?

Great Moments In Presidential Speeches

Really Senator Craig?

White House Retaliates Against UK For Withdrawal

The USA it appears is determined to rid itself of any and every potential ally as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. In response to the withdrawal announcement, the White House has decided to slander Britain. The Daily Telegraph reports today that a senior White House official has revoked Britain’s status of being “the closest Bush ally“:

“There’s concern about Brown,” a senior White House foreign policy official told The Daily Telegraph. “But this is compensated by the fact that Paris and Berlin are much less of a headache. The need to hinge everything on London as the guarantor of European security has gone.”

The White House official added that Britain would always be “the cornerstone” of US policy towards Europe but there was “a lot of unhappiness” about how British forces had performed in Basra and an acceptance that Mr Brown would pull the remaining 4,500 troops out of Iraq next year.

“Operationally, British forces have performed poorly in Basra,” said the official. “Maybe it’s best that they leave. Now we will have a clear field in southern Iraq.”

Translation: This is a job for Blackwater. We will soon be surging soldiers of fortune into Basra to shoot everything that moves.

No worries. After the "quick surgical strikes" into Iran, the south of Iraq will be like a resort spa.

Bush,For Once In Your Life - THINK!

Some things Bush should contemplate before attacking Iran, but won't:

1. It will be far worse than Iraq which hasn't turned out well at all.

2. You will demonstrate to the world the US is no longer a super power.

3. Such an attack will ruin what little respect any country has for the US.

4. Iran will attack world-wide on a scale you won't believe.

5. You can't destroy all of Iran's offensive capabilities fast enough to prevent retaliation.

6. Ten dollar per gallon oil? Oh yeah, that's not a bad thing. I forgot.

7. Obviously Israel, Syria, Lebanon and others will join in.

8. You will wreck what's left of the US military.

9. Even Iranians deserve to live. You will kill civilians in obscene numbers.

10. You will be personally responsible for the deaths of millions of people throughout the Mid-East.

11. People around the world will revile you until the day you die and probably long after. What a great fucking legacy.

12. Your father may finally disown you. Oh, I forgot, you don't really care.

13. Everyone will finally realize just how psychotic you actually are.

14. Your balls will shrivel up and most likely fall off.

15. No doubt almost everyone will see your foreign policy was shit.

16. Paraguay may be too close to the US for you.

17. Because Iran can retaliate, Lebanon is viable, the PA is viable, Syria is viable, you may well trigger the destruction of Israel.

18. You will no longer be able to vacation in the Persian Gulf.

19. Quite possibly you'll see the sinking of one or more US warships.

20. Most likely many of the US's allies will lose thousands of people.

21. You will postpone and guarantee Iran's having nuclear weapons.

22. Its probable Iran won't be the last to develop nuclear weapons as that's the only way to keep you from attacking them.

23. You will prove beyond a doubt you are the most stupid fucker to ever lead a country...period.

24. The 23% approval rate you have may fall down to just members of the US Congress.

25. You will single handedly destroy what's left of the GOP. OK, that could be a good thing.

26. If you're lucky (we're all lucky?) this won't incite a world war.

27. Can you say military coup d’état? They've happened for lesser reasons.

28. You will crush the US economy which you've already decimated.

29. Billions of dollars in military aircraft will be lost. You don't think the Iranians won't fight back, do you?

30. Russia and China are nearby. They may decide its in their best interests to stop you. And China doesn't even have to intervene militarily. It could just call in its US debt. Huge fucking oops!

31. Then there are the American lives to be lost. Can't have enough of those can you, Bush?

This is a partial list. But its a start. Feel free to add to it in comments.