I had forgotten in the time since I was last a Salon blogger about the grim pleasures of tracking the Google searches that people do when they end up here.  For the last few days I've been getting a lot of hits from people searching for "Nick Berg Execution Video", or something like it.  There's also the cretin version, which runs something like "guy getting beheaded in Iraq".  And, my favorite:

"dude who got his head chopped off by bin ladden"

If you read the Onion, you know that that's like some combination of Jim Anchower and Jackie Harvey.

11:42:31 AM    comment []

I may as well change this damned blog to "Enough Safire".

Today's column discusses how one shell was found in Iraq with sarin gas, probably left over from the 80's.  This, of course turns into a recitation of the facts in Iraq.  And, by "facts", I mean "total lies only believed by William Safire."  Such as:

1.  Biological weapons will be found very soon. NEW EVIDENCE:  NONE

2.  Al Qaeda worked with Saddam through Zarqawi.  NEW EVIDENCE:  NONE

3.  Saddam was a monster, so our torture isn't so bad.  VERDICT:  ASSHOLE 

As in, you have to be an asshole--a complete asshole--to make this argument.  I have been trying hard on Enough not to devolve into ranting and ad hominem, but for some reason I've just lost it here.  Here's the offending paragraph

The third "no" is no human-rights high ground can be claimed by us regarding Saddam's torture chambers because we mistreated Iraqi prisoners. This equates sleep deprivation with life deprivation, illegal individual humiliation with official mass murder. We flagellate ourselves for mistreatment by a few of our guards, who will be punished; he delightedly oversaw the shoveling of 300,000 innocent Iraqis into unmarked graves. Iraqis know the difference.

Yes, Bill, we're better than Saddam.  Now screw you.  How dare you lower the bar this far? This is an unpatriotic argument, flat-out.  Why?  Because it denigrates America by lowering the standards for behavior to the absolute minimum.  We flagellate ourselves because we should be better than this--god knows that Americans spend enough time talking about how freaking great we are. 

And what's this "Iraqis know the difference" shit?  I can only assume that Bill's been talking to his Kurdish pals again--I'm shocked he didn't mention them.  Yes, Iraqis know we're not Saddam.  But that doesn't mean they like us, and it sure as hell doesn't mean they'll excuse what has happened in Abu Ghraib. 

Asshole.

Finally, Safire says this, even more enraging, perhaps, than number three:

The fourth "no" is no Arab nation is culturally ready for political freedom and our attempt to impose democracy in Iraq is arrogant Wilsonian idealism.

In coming years, this will be blasted by revisionist reportage as an ignoble ethnic-racist slur. Iraqis will gain the power, with our help, to put down the terrorists and find their own brand of political equilibrium.

No one says this, you freaking jerk.  No one remotely serious, anyway.  Can someone--anyone--point me to someone saying that Arabs aren't built for democracy?  That it's a race matter? 

No one sets up the strawman like Safire. 

I wrote a letter to the Times asking for some accountability, but of course it's going nowhere.

11:38:08 AM    comment []