The Order of the Shrill continues to grow by leaps and bounds as more and more of the formerly sane and balanced are driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or the simple disconnection from reality of George W. Bush and his administration.
Remember: we can only be as shrill as you empower us to be. Send notable examples of shrillness to shrillblog@gmail.com>
Posted by DeLong at September 28, 2004 04:35 PM | TrackBackShrillblog: More and More of the Security Community Is Shrill: Mike Turner, ex-Pentagon planner, is shrill: "the military is again being asked to clean up the detritus of a failed foreign policy. We are nose-deep in a protracted insurgency, an occupying Christian power in an oil-rich, Arab country. That country is not now and has never been a single nation. A single, unified, democratic Iraq comprised of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis is a willfully ignorant illusion at best. Two thirds of America's combat brigades are now tied down in this war which, under present conditions, is categorically unwinnable. Having alienated virtually every major ally who might help, our troops are simply targets..."
Aaaaiiii! Aaaaiiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Kevin Drum R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!: Yes. In spite of his attempts to resist it (and possibly because of his reading of the Ledeen Texts) Kevin Drum has fallen into shrill unholy madness.... "using scare tactics about terrorism in every imaginable situation has become practically a fetish among Republicans since 9/11..."
The Bushalypse: Horseman Number One: Mendacity: Yes, Uggabugga is shrill.... "Is anyone prepared to defend this by arguing it depends on what the meaning of "lying" is?"...
Anatol Lieven Is Shrill: From that bastion of shrillness, the Financial Times. Anatol Lieven says that the true name of today's Republican Party is the "National Americanist Party." Is this a Godwin's Law violation?...
Tracking the Shrill with Grimoire and Camera: Matthew Yglesias joins those of us tracking the shrill with grimoire and camera. Here he spots the newly-shrill ex-hawk George Packer hiding in the pages of the New Yorker.... "The problem with making sausage the President's way--other than the fact that it deceives the public, precludes a serious debate, bitterly divides the body politic when war requires unity, exposes American soldiers to greater risk, substitutes half measures for thoroughgoing efforts, and insures that no one will be held accountable for mistakes that will never be corrected--is that it doesn't work." And he continues: "In refusing to look at Iraq honestly, President Bush has made defeat there more likely. This failing is only the most important repetition of a recurring theme in the war against radical Islam..."
Hyde Joins the Shrill: Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., criticized the administration for not moving faster against a drug trade that threatens efforts to build a stable Afghan government. "The drug lords are getting stronger faster than the Afghan authorities are being built up," he said...
Iraqi Man On The Street is Shrill: General citizens of Iraq are defying the unbending optimism of their selected leaders with these shrill and unhelpful comments.... "People are very naive if they think Baghdad is safe," said Falah Ahmed, 26, a cigarette vendor in center city. A nearby tailor, Hisham Nuaimi, 52, said Allawi "is either deceiving himself or the Americans."...
Brad, did you notice that the Lone Star Iconoclast, Bush's home town paper, has joined the ranks of the Shrill?
http://news.iconoclast-texas.com/web/Columns/Editorial/editorial39.htm
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Bush Crawford naglwagl pretz'l!
Ia Ia Condethulhu, D'layeh fhtagn!!
This guy was shrill all along, and it's one of the best: http://coldfury.com/reason/weblog.php. Don't avoid it just because he's not a liberal; that gives it all the more "if *they* don't like what's going on..." clout.
Here's a choice cut:
THE MUSEUM OF PAIN AND MAIMING
Following their usual and predictable course, almost none of the hawks or warbloggers will ever mention stories like the following. They are far too busy with much more serious issues: whether Kerry was or wasn't in Cambodia decades ago; just how evil Dan Rather and "big media" are; what a vicious traitor Kerry is for daring to question Allawi's word (even though Secretary of State Colin Powell contradicted Allawi even more definitively); and the like.
As far as I am concerned, the fact that those who so desperately wanted this needless war with Iraq now seem unable to devote even one minute to the enormous and unending pain being suffered by those who actually fight it tells you everything you need to know about the state of what passes for their souls.
For the rest of you, note this well:
LANDSTUHL, Germany -- The medical team that accompanied the soldier on the Thursday morning flight from Iraq had worked the whole way to keep him alive, his body burned and lacerated by the fire and metal of a roadside bomb.
...
Well, the whole premise of Shrillblog is biased against those of us who were shrill from the beginning. Couldn't they have an Original Gangsta Hall of Fame or something?
After all, I was predicting fascism eighteen months or more ago. My reasoning?
1. Politically caused economic crisis a certainty.
2. 10-20 year war under way against a weakly defined enemy.
3. Vast increases in police powers, starting with Reagan and continuing through every administration. Many of these powers have never been used yet.
4. A Fascist mass movement represented by Ann Coulter, Oliver North, Michael Savage, Pat Buchanan, and others. Small so far.
So where will I be on Nov. 3 if Bush wins? Good question.
Posted by: zizka / John Emerson at September 28, 2004 07:39 PMZizka - what's going on (re lauding of shrillness) is the same thing as catering to the swing voter. Thus we weight most heavily the judgement of the slowest to catch on.
p.s. Hide. I've been thinking that New Zealand better prepare for an immigration explosion.
Posted by: Anna at September 28, 2004 09:22 PM
p.p.s. And this weighting is entirely proper, if the factor of interest is Social Influence. If it's Accurate Perception of Reality, we'll have to weight you heaviest. Social Influence is like pouring a (small) flock of ducks - the duck that's already at the desired endpoint(the coop) has _no_ effect on the laggards - if you're a duck or a member of some other social species, the individuals closest to you influence you the most.
Posted by: Anna at September 28, 2004 09:30 PMI have other options than New Zealand and Canada, thank God. Because they can only absorb so many people.
Interestingly, the Common Market countries are not hospitable to individual Americans, since the labor laws there strongly favor Market citizens.
Posted by: zizka / John Emerson at September 28, 2004 09:43 PMPS. A comment I make from time to time is that when the liberal hawks write their mea culpae, they never raise the possibility that perhaps they should be replaced by different opinion leaders -- i.e., people who were right the first time. There's been no accountability or shakeup at all. Nothing really has changed. The Democrats' CW still is hawkish.
Posted by: zizka / John Emerson at September 28, 2004 09:47 PM“Vast increases in police powers, starting with Reagan and continuing through every administration. Many of these powers have never been used yet.”
Actually the increase in police powers (in the modern era) started with the Carter administration, not Reagan. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) set up a secret court to handle matters pertaining to foreign intelligence. Under the original 1978 FISA, the FBI can get a court order (distinct from a warrant) to obtain “business records,” (records held by a third party), such as library records without a showing of probable cause. Section 215 of the recent Patriot Act modifies the provisions of 1978 FISA so that foreign intelligence must be a "significant purpose" of the investigation rather than "the purpose" of the investigation. Beware, this is an extremely complicated legal area surrounded by a lot of misinformation. The guys over at the Volokh Conspiracy have written on this subject. Here is an faq that might help
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/mie/ctu/FAQ_Patriot.htm
I have finally realized why Bush can't think of a single thing he has ever done wrong. He doesn't want to be shrill.
John E.,
Yes, exactly right. If microphone-wielding professional chatterers had a single thought about informing the public, they'd score the war debate from the beginning for accuracy. They'd be shoving mikes at those who got the answer closest to right, starting every interview with the ones who got it wrong by saying "got it wrong." Why don't we hear more from Blix, you, or the members of the professional thinking classes that were among the majority initially opposed to war? Because in the end, cowardice, fear of having Cheney question their patriotism (last refuge of scoundrels), putting advertisers' demands ahead of their duty to the truth, led professional chatterers overwhelmingly to support our latest martial stupidity.
Posted by: kharris at September 29, 2004 04:14 AMRove tells Bush never to admit to any mistake because he has spun the perfect "fantasy world" for Bush supporters. And, Bush believes 'the people' need to be lied to in order to keep them on the path he deems fit for them.
I think the debates are K/E's last real chance of putting a big dent in Bush's "fantasy world" by pounding the FACTS that Bush/Cheney have been UNTRUSTWORTHY, NOT CREDIBLE, a FAILURE ( esp. in Iraq ) and should be FIRED.
K/E's best chance to win is selling the message that "AMERICA DOESN'T NEED A PRESIDENT WHO GOVERNS IN THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE"
Posted by: standa at September 29, 2004 07:08 AMJohn Eisenhower (Ike's son) has joined the shrill corps. Check out his article in the Union Leader:
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44657
This is the key graf but read the whole thing:
"Sen. Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country. I will vote for him enthusiastically."
I scoff at the idea that "adult Republicans" exist, but actually it's just clever psychology on my part. A few of them do show up here and there. Just recently one Frohnmeyer, a significant Republican here in Oregon (albeit retired) endorsed Kerry. (There are 2 Frohnmeyers here and I can't remember which it was).
Alas, 82-year-old ex-Sen. Mark Hatfield endorsed Bush. Hatfield doesn't deserve snark, but the next day he suffered a concussion in an unexplained fall. He was dedicating a NIH building named for him andyou wonder whether Rove had been working him.