And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. ... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly.

--- Col. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now

Meet a man of genius.




(via Aravosis), via Truthout)

Well, not really, but its fun to be histrionic. Jim Henley, a man of unquestionable libertarian street cred (dubious honor that), has a solid post up today about why libertarians should be fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party not the Republican one. More of a reluctant admission than an argument, it is still interesting to see the libertarian ship turn slightly:

The great argument among conservative tendencies in which Antiwar.com participated so fiercely from the time of the Kosovo bombings forward ended: war won. I don’t hold out Rockell’s and Knapp’s hope that the Democratic Party can be transformed into a generally libertarian institution by rediscovering its Jeffersonian roots. Nor do I hold out much hope that we can turn many individual liberals from statism. ... But for the time being, if we’re to break the torture state, the Democratic Party is the only institutional tool to hand. And getting out of the Middle East militarily, where “every government . . . engages in torture,”is an essential step toward that end. Would the Democratic Party in power dare take it? I have my doubts.

If you don't laugh at this please post in comments and tell me how to save myself from eternal damnation.

Has anyone been to National Airport lately? They have Republican souvenirs...



...and Democratic souvenirs:



It's kind of hard to see the donkey, since there's a large "Bush Country" T-shirt hanging in front of it. Also, all of the Democratic souvenirs are "Bush Country" T-shirts and caps.

The gift shop also has other tasteful items:



I mean, what is our nation's capital known for if not its vast intelligence-gathering bureaucracies?

So, I was in Florida last week, and this truck was parked on our street:


Now, I've been trying forever to get my Terrorist Hunting Permit, but you know how these goddamn bureaucracies operate. Plus, do you notice how this guy's permit number is "91101"? Isn't that weird? I mean, what are the chances of getting the permit with that number? It must be one lucky terrorist hunting season for this guy. I wonder how many terrorists he's bagged? Hopefully he's doing better than our government, which has bagged one terrorist--well, maybe one--associated with the 9/11/01 terrorist plot.

OK, now speaking of hunting terrorists, check this out:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whose motto is "Conserving the Nature of America" has a new friend. Some highlights:

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has named Matthew J. Hogan to be acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Hogan was formerly the chief lobbyist for Safari Club International (SCI), an extreme trophy hunting organization that advocates the killing of rare species around the world.

SCI members shoot prescribed lists of animals to win so-called Grand Slam and Inner Circle titles. There's the Africa Big Five (leopard, elephant, lion, rhino, and buffalo), the North American Twenty Nine (all species of bear, bison, sheep, moose, caribou, and deer), Big Cats of the World, Antlered Game of the Americas, and many other contests.

To complete all 29 award categories, a hunter must kill a minimum of 322 separate species and sub-species - enough to populate a large zoo.

[...]

They shoot captive animals in canned hunts...

[...]

SCI members have even tried to circumvent federal laws to import their rare trophies from other countries.

[...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now under Hogan's watch, is the agency charged with granting or denying such trophy import permits.

This may be surprising at first glance, but I assure you it is not. The "Nature of America", according to the lights of the Bush administration is bloodlust, hypocrisy, greed, crime, cruelty, cowardice and destruction. Mr. Hogan is therefore the obvious choice to conserve our nature. Under his stewardship these qualities should have small prospect of dying out.

(again via Mike Malloy)

This one's been getting linked a lot around the liberal blogworld and its really worth a look or two. I say "two" because the first time you might not believe it.