"The tough guy who got his ass kicked with 'Twitter'"

Yes, it's true. I just steal all my material from Sullivan. Because he's a badass like that.

Force as a governing philosophy, same as it ever was

This is what it looks like.

Bloody Saturday in Tehran









"in Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat - blood everywhere - like butcher" - Allah Akbar



And this is how the law is and always has been used by those who abuse power.

Fershteh Ghazi (Iranbaan):

“Head of parliament’s judiciary committee: Mousavi accountable for illegal protests, can be pursued legally.”

“Iran MP: Ground ready to legally pursue Mousavi for ‘acting against national security.”

“Head of the Judicial Commission of Majlis has requested the judicial pursuit of Mir Hussein Mousavi.”


Just in case you weren't sure what you were signing up for.

The spoils of power. Enjoy.

Barack Obama, Come to Save the Day

From my pal, Foutsc and his buddies over at Nietzsche is Dead.



Kind of foolish our expectations of Presidents and political folks of all stripes, if we'd step back to think about it, a moment.

The lucky thing is that they can only be in office, and swimming in the waters of their own bullshit, for a short time. And then we can move on to a new Messiah.

Kind of dumb for Americans to behave this way, don't you think?

Maybe we're better off standing on our own two feet.

And expecting our government to treat us like grown-ups rather than like wards of their largesse. And power.

I know you are, but what am I

Pluck beams from your own eye before plucking splinters from the eyes of your neighbors. Isn't that what Jesus said?

Apparently, Michael Barone, as usual, didn't get the memo.

The Adolescent Angst of Barack Obama

"There is a tendency for newly installed presidents, like adolescents suddenly liberated from adult supervision, to do the exact opposite of what their predecessors did. Presidents of both parties indulge in this behavior, though Democrats who campaign as candidates of hope and change are more likely to do so.

Some of this is a legitimate response to the political process: Voters tend to elect presidents who seem to possess qualities and views they thought lacking in their predecessors. But some of it, and especially in the case of Barack Obama, seems to come from an adolescent-like confidence that everything done by those who came before is (insert your own generation's expletive here).

We have seen this spectacularly in the dozen days since the June 12 Iranian election. Back in July 2007, Obama said that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other tyrants without preconditions. Grownup squares like George W. Bush wouldn't talk to these guys, so as the avatar of the generation of hope and change, Obama would. Obama figured he was cool enough to get the mullahs to agree to renounce nuclear weapons and all that hate stuff...

...A regime of tyrants dedicated to hatred of America, Britain and Israel is not going to be persuaded to abandon a central goal by even the most dazzling display of adolescent charm.

The other example of adolescent rejection of a policy has come on missile defense. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Democratic politicians opposed missile defense on the grounds -- mistaken in my view, but arguable at the time -- that it would destabilize the balance of nuclear terror between the United States and the Soviet Union. Democrats have clung to that position even after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Obama, as a senator and presidential candidate, joined them, routinely expressing doubts that missile defense could ever work.

As president, he has singled out missile defense for cuts, even in the face of missile launches by North Korea and evidence of continuing missile development by Iran. Bush abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and pushed ahead on missile defense, so it must be bad even if there's no U.S.-Soviet balance of terror to destabilize anymore.

Fortunately, there has been some adult supervision: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in anticipation of a North Korean launch, has activated missile defense operations in Hawaii.

Obama has not taken an adolescent approach across the board. Despite the yearning of many Democrats for American defeat in Iraq and withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has pushed for something like victory in those theaters.

But he is persistent in seeking negotiations with the mullahs and obviously disinclined to increase the small chance of the far more promising outcome of regime change. Plus, Obama shows a continued distaste for missile defense when tyrants are aiming missiles at us and our friends.

These moves show an adolescent determination to renounce the policies of those who came before, no matter what. As parents know, it takes time for an adolescent to grow up."

Could everyone in the room raise their hands who is honestly confident that what Michael is demonstrating in this column is grown-up behavior?

Is this what Michael teaches his children? To mock those he disagrees with rather than engage them honestly? To mock their President when they disagree with his policies?

Mocking opponents is hardly a conservative beam. Beams aplenty to go around on this one.

But is this really what grown-up behavior looks like? Really?

The irony, here, is that Barack has never spoken of Michael Barone in such terms that I have ever heard. I've never heard him be so dismissive of anyone.

Because, Michael, what you are missing, here, is that he really is the grown-up in the room on this discussion. I may disagree with him. On many things.

But the truth is that I trust Barack Obama to be a grown-up and honestly engage me around those disagreements much more honestly and respectfully than I would ever expect from you.

And that is how a grown-up behaves. Whether your children have an appropriate role model for those qualities or not.

Jesus would be a good role model to consider on this one, Michael. I really don't remember him talking about the Pharisees this way. I remember him disagreeing with their policies. But I don't remember him trying, lamely, to mock his way through a discussion that he really just didn't understand very well.

Barack is doing a fine job on Iran, is the simple fact of the matter. He's not making huge inroads. But neither is he taking us as clearly backward, by any objective standard, as his predecessor was. His concerns about making the United States the issue rather than the corrupt Iranian elections the issue is clearly legitimate and being borne out to any honest observer, even if you would prefer a different approach. And, regardless, on the larger issue, he happens to be right. It really doesn't matter what the U.S. President does other than speak honestly and let the Iranians resolve this issue as a matter of Iranian democracy and not as a matter of American swagger.

What is terribly ironic about Michael's column is just how blind he is to how little maturity and thoughtful engagement his thinking demonstrates in that piece. As if black were white and white were black.

A lot of that going around these days. Longer we bullshit ourselves, the more get to pretend, I suppose.

In the meantime, perhaps we should take the ramblings of folks like Michael Barone as seriously as they deserve.

And, thankfully, we have a President of the United States who can and will do just that.