Un Pazzo

WaPo today has a long article on the history of "The Italian Letter" and Shrub's famous 16 words. The article largely confirms what we already know: Everybody who had even glanced at the letter and bothered to run even a rudimentary Google search of the names and information in it knew that it was a forgery (and a very poor forgery at that). Shrub's use of this letter to misinform the American public is criminal (I mean that literally). But we all know this already as well. So I'll continue on to my next point.

One pernicious meme I keep seeing during my brief forays onto the rightwing internets is that although the war was ill-advised and although the American people were hoodwinked and yada-yada-yada , we should still support the president's ongoing efforts since a pull-out at this point would spell disaster. In Aristotelian circles, I think they call this the when-caught-screwing-your-neighbor's-goat-at-least-enjoy-the-climax form of rhetorical argument. The logic's disconcerting. When a madman's in the driver-seat, the solution isn't to request that he step on the gas so that we can get home faster. We need to stop the car as soon as possible and hide the keys. About the only presidential task I want to entrust to Shrub at this point is the expansion of the American lexicon. We need to send him on a vacation to his Rancho Corrupto in Texas until we can put together the paperwork to properly arrest him. We definitely don't want him leading the most powerful military in the world on one misadventure after another.

Give the prez more time you say? Certo che so chi è il presidente. Non sono mica scemo.