Odds and Ends

by tristero

Many of these come via the wonderful Cursor

Ken Mehlman thinks Republican candidates should align themselves with Bush. I agree. That way it will be that much easier to brand the entire Republican party “incompetent.”

No question about it: Scalia is losing it. First he had the lack of class to write a letter of complaint to the Boston Herald for reporting his rude gesture. And he wrote in part:

From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene – especially when made by an ‘Italian jurist.’ (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)”

In fact, the article called him an “Italian-American jurist.” [Scroll down. Original available only to susbcribers]Unfortunately for the country, his jurisprudence is just as sloppy and immature as his correspondence. [UPDATE: A commenter disputes my assertion that Scalia is sloppy (but not that he’s immature) because the Web version of the article reads as Scalia describes. In comments, at 3.30.06 2:37 am, I respond by examining Scalia’s letter in the light of this discrepancy. I argue that if we assume Scalia read only the online version, then a different part of Scalia’s letter is sloppy.]

[Update: Atrios posted the Boston Herald photograph of Scalia flipping the bird at the camera. When you look at it, remember: You are looking at a Supreme Court Justice. In a few moments, and while still in church, he will say, “Fuck you.”]

Does anyone other than your humble blogger find the headline “Brain drain hits Homeland Security” incredibly funny, in a “I-have-to-laugh-or-I’d-have-to-cry” kind of way?

Howard Kaloogian, he who can’t (or his staff who can’t), tell the difference between Baghdad and an Istanbul suburb, is quite an asshole.

Want to guess who is responsible for all the violence in Iraq? Wrong! It’s not the Clintons! Well, not yet anyway. But it’s only a matter of time before some wingnut will say that in fact, had Clinton invaded Iraq when urged to by PNAC, then the utterly incompetent Bush wouldn’t have been forced to screw up so badly.

[Update: Scalia’s deployment of exaggeration and straw man in his letter looks like a possible geoffy. Amazing how often Scalia seems to do this.]