Mark A. R. Kleiman Is Shrill

Mark A.R. Kleiman finds some very bad news: elements of the U.S. military are now modeling their behavior on that of villains in Robert Heinlein novels:

Mark A. R. Kleiman: "Cardiac arrest of unknown etiology": In a chilling scene in Heinlein's Between Planets, a torturer trying to extract information from the young hero tells him that his uncle has died of a heart attack. He then adds that since everyone dies when his heart stops beating, every death can be described as a heart attack. I suppose I should be glad to know that whoever was filling out the death certificates for the Abu Ghraib victims knew his Heinlein, but I'm really not. I'm really, really, really not. "Cardiac arrest of unknown etiology" on a victim who has been beaten to death? Pah!

(The rest of the story is even more chilling: it asserts that the case involved an innocent family held up back a blackmailer. But that part can't easily be verified. The part about the condition of the body and what's written on the death certificate can be verified, and apparently was verified by the Guardian.)

Or maybe it's hopeful news: in Heinlein novels (as opposed to, say, S.M. Stirling novels) the villains always lose in the end. But I don't think they are very realistic. I see no sign around me of the highly-intelligent super-scientist dragons from the swamps of Venus who arrive in the nick of time to save the day in Between Planets.

Shrillness in Maine!!

Former Maine Governor Angus King is shrill:

Political Wire: Independent Streak: Former Maine Gov. Angus King, an independent who voted for George W. Bush in 2000, has endorsed Sen. John Kerry. According to the Portland Press Herald, King has not publicly endorsed a presidential candidate in the past quarter century, but this year he says "the case for change is overwhelming."

<nasal tone="like a Parasaurolophus">Ayuh! Ayuh! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Angus King Ah'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Ayuh!</nasal>

Ivor Roberts Is Shrill

Britain's ambassador to Italy says Al Qaeda hopes to help elect its best recruiting sergeant, George W. Bush:

MSNBC - U.K. envoy: Bush the best recruiter for al-Qaida: Britain’s ambassador to Italy described President Bush as “the best recruiting sergeant” for al-Qaida, Italian media reported on Monday. The comment, made at a closed-door conference at the weekend, was denounced by one leading Italian newspaper editor, who issued an open letter snubbing the veteran ambassador, Sir Ivor Roberts. Roberts was quoted as telling an annual Anglo-Italian gathering in Tuscany, “If anyone is ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it’s al-Qaida.” Corriere della Sera newspaper said Roberts also told the meeting of British and Italian policy-makers, “Bush is al-Qaida’s best recruiting sergeant.”

Aaaaiiii! Aaaaiiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Sir Ivor Roberts R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!

Seymour Hersh Prays for the Second Coming of Henry Kissinger

Jeebus, this is shrill! This is perfect shrillness: shrillness shriller than which none can be conceived. Seymour Hersh is our new Grand Heresiarch. Via Laura Rozen:

War and Piece: : Seymour Hersh, speaking with Salon's Mary Jacoby, on George W. Bush's national security team:

Jacoby: Is there someone who is the Henry Kissinger in this administration?

Hersh: Oh, believe me, I pray for one [clasps his hands and looks beseechingly upward]. Wouldn't it be great if the reality was that they were lying about WMD, and they really didn't believe that democracy would come when they invaded Iraq, and you could go to war with 5,000 troops, a few special forces, a few bombs and a lot of American flags, and Iraq would fold, Saddam would be driven out, a new Baath Party would emerge that's moderate? Democracy would flow like water out of a fountain. These guys believe it. They believe WMD. There's no fallback with these guys. These guys are utopians. They're like Trotskyites. They believe in permanent revolution. They really believe. They believe that they could go in with few forces. They believed that once they went in it would happen quick. Iran would get the message. What they call occupied Lebanon would get the lesson. Even the Saudis would change.

Jacoby: They thought it would happen quickly?

Hersh: Very quickly. I don't have any empirical basis for it, but if I had to bet, the plan was to go right into Syria. That's why the fourth division was hanging for so long in the desert out there right on the border with Syria. In the early days of the war, before this government figured out how much trouble they were in -- which took them a long time -- they would drive practice runs... that amounted to the distance from the border to Damascus. It's my belief... that the real reason [Paul] Wolfowitz and others were mad at [Gen. Eric] Shinseki when he testified before the war about [the need for] 200 or 300 [thousand] troops -- it wasn't about the numbers -- was, "Didn't he get it? What had he been listening to in the tank? Didn't we explain to him...?... Shinseki just didn't get it! It wasn't about the numbers. He wasn't a member of the clan. He didn't join the utopia crowd....

Jacoby: With Kissinger, there were lies, and he knew exactly what he was doing ...

Hersh: Yes, one of his aides was assigned -- literally assigned on one of the secret flights they made to China -- to keep track of the lies ... But these guys, do you realize how much better off we would be if they really were cynical, and they really were lying about it, because, yes, behind the invasion would be something real, like support for Israel or oil. But it's not! It's not about oil. It's about utopia. I guess you could call it idealism....

Jacoby: So you don't think that this is some Machiavellian, cynical, manipulative ...

Hersh: I used to pray it was! We'd be in better shape.... I think these guys in their naiveté and single-mindedness have been so completely manipulated by -- not the Israelis -- but the Iranians. The Iranians always wanted us in. I think there's a lot of evidence that Iran had much to do with [Ahmed] Chalabi's disinformation [about nonexistent Iraqi WMD].... I think Iran was very interested in getting us involved. We get knocked down a peg; they become the big boys on the block.... I think Chalabi thought he could handle the Iranians. They were helping him all along with disinformation and documents he could give to the White House. Don't forget, once the neocons decided to go to Iraq in the face of all evidence, they were like a super-reverse suction machine, and anything in the world that furthered the argument that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was hot. I call it stove-piping, because it's a technical work of art. But it was much more than that. It was anything -- vavoom! -- into the president's [office]. It was so amateurish, it was comical. How hard was it to get some crapola into the White House about WMD without the CIA looking at it?

Liberated Iraqis Quit Dancing In Streets, Join Order

The Guardian talks to one of Abu Ghraib's female inmates:

As Iraq lurches from disaster to disaster, from kidnapping to suicide bombing, from insurgency towards civil war, from death to death, what does she think of the Americans now? "I hate them," she says.

Yet Another Member of the Shrill

Yes, John Kerry is shrill:

The administration told us we’d be greeted as liberators.  They were wrong. They told us not to worry about looting or the sorry state of Iraq's infrastructure.  They were wrong. They told us we had enough troops to provide security and stability, defeat the insurgents, guard the borders and secure the arms depots.  They were wrong. They told us we could rely on exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to build political legitimacy.  They were wrong. They told us we would quickly restore an Iraqi civil service to run the country and a police force and army to secure it.  They were wrong. In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and under-performed.  This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence.  And the President has held no one accountable, including himself. In fact, the only officials who lost their jobs over Iraq were the ones who told the truth.

Matthew Yglesias Gets Shriller

And when you think that this was someone who *supported* the attack on Iraq:

matthew: Stop the world: It looks to me like The Washington Post's decided it's time to start getting off the Bush bandwagon. If it makes people feel better to insist that the administration has demonstrated "courage in setting goals and steadfastness in sticking to them" before they concede that there's been "extraordinary recklessness and incompetence in execution," I suppose I'll have to let that stand. What we've actually seen is rule by an extraordinarily vicious and corrupt group of people who don't have any genuine concern for anything other than the perpetuation of their own grasp on power and the enrichment of their cronies.

Time's Joe Klein Is One of Us

Joe Klein is one of the shrill:

TIME.com: Bush's Iraq: A Powerful Fantasy: But all three CIA scenarios [for Iraq] were awful, I pointed out. The best case was "tenuous stability," a continuation of the sapping insurgency we're seeing now. McClellan began to read from talking points. The "pessimists and naysayers" had been wrong, he said, about the Iraqi people's ability to establish a transitional government, a national council and a transitional law. The "Iraqi people" had little to do with establishing any of those, but McClellan plowed on. A reporter asked if McClellan was saying that the CIA was filled with "pessimists and naysayers," but McClellan wouldn't bite....

Scott McClellan is beginning to sound like Baghdad Bob, the infamous spokesman for Saddam who announced hallucinatory Iraqi victories as the American troops closed in on Baghdad.... Bush told his crowds.... Saddam was a threat. The world is a safer place now that he's in jail. We must attack the terrorists before they attack us.... [Bush's] argument is tight, concise and, so far, impregnable. It is also a clever distortion of reality.... [W]e are facing a far more dangerous world than existed before the war. Many intelligence and military experts now believe that al-Qaeda has rebuilt its leadership structure and metastasized; that the U.S. military is overburdened and its leaders are likely to tell the next President that they lack the resources necessary to regain control in Iraq; that the U.S. government has lost the credibility to lead the world into action against future threats from, say, Iran or North Korea; that Iraq itself seems in danger of splitting into three chaotic regions, which—in the NIE's worst-case scenario—may lead to civil war....

More Vets Join The Order

It isn't just the powerful and famous. Vets fresh from the front lines are joining in droves. Blogger buggieboy is one them, and now one of us:

This U.S. Army website discusses terrorism in a realistic manner, showing that Al Queda is not the only enemy we face and that 9/11 "changed the world" only for the uninformed. Any national security professionals that didn't realize the danger of terrorism before 9/11 are incompetent and should not be given responsibility for our defense. This includes the entire Bush administration team.

His resume lists the 101st Airborne Division, the Second Infantry Division, and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Does it list the Shrill Vote Veterans for Competence?

British Army Colonel Tim Collins Is Shrill

Neoconservative darling and British Army Colonel Tim Collins is one of us now:

Salon.com News | "A form of common assault": Col. Tim Collins, celebrated for a rousing speech to his troops on the eve of the invasion, said America and Britain were suffering the consequences of toppling Saddam Hussein without thinking about what to put in his place. That failure raised questions about the reason for going to war, suggesting it was to vent anger at Saddam rather than to liberate oppressed Iraqis.... "The evidence would show, in hindsight, that the preparations for a free and fair Iraq weren't made. Therefore one must question the motivation of the powers that went to attack it." He added: "The simple fact is that nature abhors a vacuum and so does politics. If you knock something down, you must be prepared to put something in its place or live with the consequences of that which fills the vacuum.".... [H]e said that if the war was ordered to liberate Iraq, the coalition was guilty of gross incompetence. But there was reason to think it was a "cynical war that was going to happen anyway, to vent some anger at Saddam Hussein's regime with no regard to the consequences on the Iraqi people. In which case it is a sort of form of common assault -- and the evidence would point towards the latter," he said.

---

A year and a half ago, Tim Collins was the darling of the hard-line Bush supporters of the Weekly Standard:

Battlefield speeches: Britain has its first hero of this war, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish Regiment. Collins is heralded not yet for his feats on the battlefield, but for the stirring address to his troops, the regiment's 1st Battalion, on March 19, with battle imminent. As Sarah Oliver of the Mail on Sunday reported that night, Collins was "wearing his kukri, the Gurkha blade he is entitled to carry as a Gurkha commander. He spoke to his 800 men, an arm of Britain's 16 Air Assault Brigade, at Fort Blair Mayne, their desert camp just 20 miles from the Iraqi border." The British have not lost their knack for battlefield eloquence:

>It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive, but there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow.

The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls, and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

We go to liberate, not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people, and the only flag that will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose.

But if you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory. It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. They live with the mark of Cain upon them.

If someone surrenders to you, then remember they have that right in international law, and ensure that one day they go home to their family. The ones who wish to fight? Well, we aim to please.

Stop-Lossed Iraq Veterans get Shrill

Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade--some of whom are Iraq veterans--have been threatened with transfer to Iraq if they do not voluntarily re-enlist. This has forced these brave, patriotic citizens towards shrilldom:

"They said if you refuse to re-enlist with the 3rd Brigade, we'll send you down to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is going to Iraq for a year, and you can stay with them, or we'll send you to Korea, or to Fort Riley (in Kansas) where they're going to Iraq," said one of the soldiers, a sergeant.

The second soldier, an enlisted man who was interviewed separately, essentially echoed that view.

"They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not," he said.

But some soldiers presented with the re-enlistment message last week believe they've already done their duty and should not be penalized for choosing to leave. They deployed to Iraq for a year with the 3rd Brigade last April.

"I don't want to go back to Iraq," said the sergeant. "I went through a lot of things for the Army that weren't necessary and were risky. Iraq has changed a lot of people.''

The enlisted soldier said the recruiters' message left him troubled, unable to sleep and "filled with dread."

Curious how actual combat changes your perspective on war.

MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS: MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: SEPTEMBER 16, 2004

Professor THIDWICK will not meet his class in "Modern American Politics" this morning, or indeed any morning. In partial explanation we offer this note, written by him in the pre-dawn hours:

I begged the Dean not to make me teach "Modern American Politics" this semester. I knew that in order to teach it properly I would have to delve into the secrets of the Bush administration. I knew that I would learn THINGS THAT HUMANS (as we say in these post-sexist times) ARE NOT MEANT TO KNOW. I feared that this would drive me insane--into shrill unholy madness. And so it has.

But up until now I have still able to teach my course. I am proud of that. Far gone in shrill unholy madness as a result of the incompetence, mendacity, malevolence, and disconnection from reality that I am, I could still communicate with my students in English and. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Krugman R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aiiiiiii!!!

Apologies. The fits come and go. They come more quickly now. By proper effort of will I can sometimes. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh. Stop them. There. But I fear that tonight I have taken another step, and will no longer be able to intelligibly communicate with humanity. I have learned more. So shrill as to be inaudible to human hearing. But the dogs will still hear me, for a while at least.

While preparing tomorrow's lecture I came across this: a letter from Michael Scheuer, the head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit from 1996-1999:

Michael Scheuer: In the CIA's core, U.S.-based Bin Laden operations unit today there are fewer Directorate of Operations officers with substantive expertise on al-Qaeda than there were on 11 September 2001. There has been no systematic effort to groom al-Qaeda expertise among Directorate of Operations officers since 11 September. Today, the unit is greatly understaffed because of a "hiring freeze," and the rotation of large numbers of officers in and out of the unit every 60-to-90 days--a process in which experienced officers do less substantive work and become trainers for officers who leave before they are qualified to support the mission. The excellent management team now running operations against al-Qaeda has made repeated, detailed, and on-paper pleas for more officers to work against the al-Qaeda--and have done so for years, not weeks or months--but have been ignored.

Fewer officers with substantive expertise on al-Qaeda than on September 11. Aaaiii! Nyarlathotep! Aaaiii! No systematic effort to groom al-Qaeda expertise since 11 September. Aaaiii! I can see them approach! Yog-Sothoth! Paul Wolfowitz! Aaaiii! The al-Qaeda unit understaffed because of a "hiring freeze," Aaaiii! They are here! All of them! Shrub-Crawfordath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young! Donald Rumsfeld! Aaaiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Krugman R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aiiiiiii!!! Rotation of large numbers of officers in and out of the unit every 60-to-90 days. The trans-dimensional door! The Opener of the Gate! Richard Cheney! Aaaiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Krugman R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aiiiiiii!!! The Keymaster! Gozer! The Lesser Shoggoths! Experienced officers do less substantive work and become trainers for officers who leave before they are qualified to support the mission. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! Drowned R'lyeh surfaces! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Krugman R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aiiiiiii!!! Sigourney Weaver! He Who Must Not Be Named! Richard Perle! The Young of Shrub-Crawfordath! Why do they hate America so? Rand Beers tried to warn us! Condi Rice! Eldest of All the Shrill, save us!!

Professor THIDWICK's disability leave is expected to be of indefinite duration.

Kofi Annan is Shrill

The member-elected leader of the United Nations and broker of world peace, Kofi Annan, waxes shrill:

In the interview, Mr. Annan was asked whether he felt that the United States "is becoming an unrestrainable, unilateral superpower?"

There had been "painful lessons" from the war in Iraq, Mr. Annan replied. "I think in the end, everybody is concluding that it is best to work together with our allies and through the U.N."

Then the secretary general added, "I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time."

That was when he was asked about the legal authority for the war.

"Well, I'm one of those who believe that there should have been a second resolution," he said, because "it was up to the Security Council to approve or determine" what the "consequences should be" for Iraq's noncompliance with earlier resolutions.

"I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council — with the U.N. Charter," Mr. Annan replied to a further question about the legal authority.

And when asked pointedly, "It was illegal...if you wish," Mr. Annan said first, adding, "from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal."

He has said that it was not in "conformity" with the United Nations Charter. He has "raised questions about the legitimacy" of the action by the United States and Great Britain to go to war without specific authority from the Security Council.

The French subsequently threw in their own hat into the ring but are disqualified from the Order as they are institutionally shrill:

France issued no formal comment on Mr. Annan's remarks, but a spokeswoman for President Jacques Chirac said Mr. Annan's view conformed with the French view. "We consider the action as illegitimate," she said, "and illegitimate it certainly is, since it was done without a Security Council decision."

The Cheif of the Army Reserve is Dangerously Close to Being Shrill

Noting that the Army Reserve has sustained the highest casualties since the Korean War in the 1950's, Lieutenant Genenral James Helmly reluctantly flirts with shrillness on the subject of military preparedness:

"We're at war, this is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it." Many members of the Army Reserve, like their fellow part-time soldiers in the National Guard, are not used to being mobilized for the kind of long and dangerous duty they face in Iraq.

"Every time I visit a unit I take about 45 minutes to an hour and try to talk to all of them and explain to them every initiative we have underway to properly prepare ourselves and bring the institution to a wartime footing, but it's hard," Helmly said in an interview with a group of reporters.

For years the conventional wisdom among members of the Army Reserve was that they were unlikely to get mobilized, and if they did it would be for non-combat duty in a secure rear area, far from the fighting. The war in Iraq, where no soldier is immune from attack, has shattered that belief.

Too often, Helmly said, he hears that members of a newly mobilized Reserve unit respond to the news of their activation by saying, "I didn't think it was going to happen to us," and they are not prepared.

"I frankly have started to put a boot up some people's fannies about getting everyone ready," he said.

As an example of the mindset he is working to change, Helmly described the reaction he got from the 98th Division, whose main mission is training other U.S.-based Army units, when it was told that about 800 members will be mobilized and sent to Iraq in October to help train the Iraqi army.

"I've gotten cards, letters, e-mails (saying), `How can you do that?"' he said.

In the 45 years since the 98th Division became part of the Army Reserve it has never deployed abroad, according to spokesman Steve Stromvall, although it did occupation duty in Japan in 1945-46 as an active-duty infantry division. It is scheduled to spend 12 months in Iraq.

Give him another few months of increasingly poor management of the occupation. The shrill shall have his soul.

In Which We Answer Your Questions

We are broadcasting from our studio high in the tall steel-and-glass building that is the Hermetic Arts Tower here at Miskatonic University in picturesque Arkham, Massachusetts. Down the hall we have one laboratory where graduate students are trying to make hands of glory out of pigeons feet. If we look down into the courtyard we can see the unholy creations that have escaped from the Mechatronic Lab shamble off into the hills. And we? We are here in the small suite of offices that make up the world headquarters of the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill, here to answer your questions about the Order:

Q: Is Pat Buchanan a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: No. The Order of the Shrill is limited to those who were once sane, fair, and balanced, but who have been driven into shrill unholy madness by one or more of the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration. Pat Buchanan was mad back when George W. Bush was sniffing cocaine.

Q: Is Susan Estrich a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: To the best of our knowledge, she is not. We are aware that she has called on others to be shrill. We are not aware of anything that makes it clear that she herself has been driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration.

Q: Is Charles Krauthammer a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: While there is little doubt that Charles Krauthammer is clinically insane, he was not driven insane by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration. He, too, was mad back when George W. Bush was sniffing cocaine. He is not a member of the Order of the Shrill.

Q: Is Dan Rather a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: No. There is a minimal IQ cutoff, which Rather does not make.

Q: Is Colin Powell a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: There were reports that he was--that he had been driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration and was roaming around Europe telling high officials of European governments that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz were "f***ing crazy." But Powell has admitted under pressure that such reports were lies--that his staff was spreading them in a pathetic attempt to boost his reputation.

Q: Is Andrew Sullivan a member of the Order of the Shrill?
A: Yes, definitely. Although he was a late convert, there is no doubt that Andrew Sullivan has been driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration. Indeed, he was once our Grand Heresiarch--although he has been displaced from that high post by Francis Fukuyama.

Q: What is this about ranks and positions, anyway? What is the organization of the Order of the Shrill?
A: We are those who were once sane, fair, and balanced, and who have been driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration. And you expect coherence? Consistency? Stable ranks and grades? A table of organization? George W. Bush was much more likely to get his request for a ToE of Al-Qaeda accurately answered than you are likely to get a correct and consistent description of ranks and orders in the Order of the Shrill.

Q: But something must be known?
A: Well, yes. It is clear that Paul Krugman is the Eldest of the Shrill. It is clear that Andrew Northrup was once Grand Heresiarch, but was displaced from that post when Andrew Sullivan finally cracked and descended into the deepest depths of shrill unholy madness. And Anderw Sullivan was recently displaced from the post and replaced by Francis Fukuyama when Fukuyama began raving about the Big Lie that was the Republican National Convention.

Q: But what I really want to know is: how can I rise higher in the Order of the Shrill?
A: Diligently study the words and deeds of George W. Bush and his administration. Fifteen minutes a day, and you'll find that you will have transformed yourself into a Greater Shoggoth in notime!

Q: I am shrill, but I am a right-wing libertarian, and I am uncomfortable associating with left-wing and centrist shrill. Is there a place in the Order of the Shrill for me?
A: Yes! Tyler Cowen is the Greater Shoggoth in charge of the right-wing libertarian subchapter.

Q: I am shrill, but I am a right-wing Oakeshottian, and I am uncomfortable associating with left-wing and centrist shrill. Is there a place in the Order of the Shrill for me?
A: Yes! Andrew Sullivan is the Greater Shoggoth in charge of the right-wing Oakeshottian subchapter.

Q: I am shrill, but I am a right-wing world domination and democratization hawk, and I am uncomfortable associating with left-wing and centrist shrill. Is there a place in the Order of the Shrill for me?
A: Yes! Although Francis Fukuyama has risen far above the rank of Greater Shoggoth, he has volunteered to remain in charge of the right-wing world domination and democratization hawk subchapter.

Senior Republican Senators Join Our Ranks!!

Richard Buley informs us that Senators Charles Hagel and Richard Lugar joined the shrill yesterday:

MSNBC - U.S. intelligence pessimistic on Iraq future: Senate Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday denounced the Bush administration’s slow progress in rebuilding Iraq, saying the risks of failure are great if it doesn’t act with greater urgency. “It’s beyond pitiful, it’s beyond embarrassing, it’s now in the zone of dangerous,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., referring to figures showing only about 6 percent of the reconstruction money approved by Congress last year has been spent.

Foreign Relations Committee members vented their frustrations at a hearing where the State Department explained its request to divert $3.46 billion in reconstruction funds to security and economic development.... Hagel said the shift in funds “does not add up in my opinion to a pretty picture, to a picture that shows that we’re winning. But it does add up to this: an acknowledgment that we are in deep trouble.”

Hagel, Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and other committee members have long argued — even before the war — that administration plans for rebuilding Iraq were inadequate and based on overly optimistic assumptions that Americans would be greeted as liberators. But the criticism from the panel’s top Republicans had an extra sting coming less than seven weeks before the presidential election in which President Bush’s handling of the war is a top issue. “Our committee heard blindly optimistic people from the administration prior to the war and people outside the administration — what I call the ’dancing in the street crowd,’ that we just simply will be greeted with open arms,” Lugar said. “The nonsense of all of that is apparent. The lack of planning is apparent.”...

Aaaaiiii! Aaaaiiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Hagel Lugar R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!

Ogged Is One of the Shrill

Today's example of someone once fair and balanced who has been driven into shrill unholy madness by the incompetence, mendacity, malevolence, or sheer disconnection from reality of the Bush administration is "Ogged." Remember Yasser Hamdi? The Taliban terrorist so dangerous that he had to be detained indefinitely in solitary confinement, with no trial and no counsel? The Bush administration is releasing him. Either they are letting a dangerous terrorist go so that he can kill and murder, or they have been lying through their teeth for three years about what Yasser Hamdi really is.

Unfogged:


is there any bad thing you can say of the Bushies that won't turn out to be true? That dread villian, Yasser Hamdi, the American citizen detained without charges, is about to be...released.

The agreement to free Yaser Esam Hamdi represents a stunning reversal for the Bush administration, which argued for more than two years that the former Taliban fighter was potentially so dangerous that he had to be detained indefinitely in solitary confinement with no access to counsel and no right to trial.


But in a landmark ruling last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Hamdi, an American citizen, be allowed to consult with his lawyer and challenge the basis for his imprisonment. This pushed the case back into federal court and forced the Justice Department to mount a hasty retreat.

The result, officials say, is a highly detailed agreement that is expected to be made public later this week. It will result in Hamdi being flown back to Saudi Arabia on a U.S. military aircraft without ever being charged with any terror-related activity....

If you hold someone incommunicado in solitary for years because they are an Enemy of the State, they had better turn out to be a serious Enemy of the State--not a guy who you release, saying merely "don't come back, and don't get into any more trouble out there." Aaaaiiii! Aaaaiiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Ogged R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!

Andrew Northrup Makes Kristoff Shrillarious

The Poor Man:

Nicholas Kristof has a joke for you.

NK: Knock-knock.

You: Who's there?

NK: Ph'nglui.

You: Ph'nglui who?

NK: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Rather R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aiiiiiii!!!

There's no doubt that Mr. Bush benefited from favoritism. The speaker of the Texas House has acknowledged making the call to get Mr. Bush into the National Guard.

Does any of this matter? What troubles me is less Mr. Bush's advantage three decades ago and more his denial today. Mr. Bush's own route to avoid the draft underscores the disparities in America, yet his policies seem based on a kind of social Darwinism in which the successful make their own opportunities. His tax cuts and entire outlook seem rooted in ideas not of noblesse oblige, but of noblesse entitlement.

He goes on.

How many non-liberal editorialists do we need in the order before we are shrillimitable?

Max Sawicky Is One of Us

Yet another shrill critic of the Bush administration: Max Sawicky. He writes about George W. Bush and his "Disownership Society":

MaxSpeak, You Listen!: THE ECONOMY AND THE DEFICIT:
AN UPDATE: New report from the Congressional Budget Office on the "cyclically-adjusted and standardized budget measures."... [F]or Fiscal 2002-2004 inclusive, total deficits are projected at $955 billion... $204 billion [of which is due] to the crummy economy. For FY2004, the projected deficit is $422 billion, of which just $47 billion is due to the business cycle....

Homeland security is not a big piece of the puzzle. It's about $36 billion, in a $2.3 trillion budget. Defense by contrast is huge. One could justify borrowing for unforeseen defense and security contingencies, but once they are foreseen there is no such excuse. So Bush's excuses for the deficit -- the economy, the war on terror, and Iraq -- don't wash.

Given the sad progress of the economy since the official end of the recession in 2001, in and of themselves the 02-04 deficit numbers do not reflect bad policy. You need deficits to juice employment growth. The wonder is in how weak the effect has been, which points to the inadequacy of the composition of the deficits -- the reliance on tax cuts, and the targeting of those cuts to higher-income persons.... [T]he tax side [is] doing all the work of "automatic stabilization." This is a critical shortcoming, since even if politicians endeavor to respond to the recession, it tends to be later than optimal.

The most useful ways to make spending more sensitive to the business cycle (go up in bad times, down in good), would be through unemployment benefits, public assistance, and revenue sharing for state and local governments. The first was not well-oiled over the past three years. "Reformed" welfare... is not responsive to recession conditions.... The Federal government, Republicans in particular, did not take the economic slowdown seriously, except as an opportunity to enrich themselves and their donors.... Failure to alleviate recession destroys family wealth. Call it the Disownership Society.

Max is just the latest to succumb to shrill unholy madness: Aaaaiiii! Aaaaiiii! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Sawicky R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!

Neoconservative Hawk Robert Kagan Is One of Us Now

George W. Bush's embrace of Vladimir Putin has driven neoconservative hawk Robert Kagan into unbalanced shrillness:

Stand Up to Putin (washingtonpost.com): Putin's decision on Monday to end the system of direct popular election of Russia's governors, and to have the Russian parliament elected on the basis of slates chosen by national party leaders he mostly controls, is an unambiguous step toward tyranny in Russia.... Putin is imposing dictatorship the old-fashioned way, in the manner of a Ferdinand Marcos, an Anastasio Somoza or a Park Chung Hee. He claims that he needs to strengthen the state to face its enemies. So did they. Russia does need to fight terrorism. But eliminating elections and quashing Putin's political opponents has nothing to do with that fight.

The question now: Does President Bush care about the fate of democracy in Russia? Ever since Sept. 11 he has proclaimed a grand strategy of promoting democracy worldwide. [But]... the Bush administration has turned a blind eye to anti-democratic trends in Russia.... A great deal is riding on whether President Bush can muster the will to denounce the man he has regarded as an ally in the war on terrorism. Some will argue, and Bush may feel, that Putin is "with us."...

Failure to take sides with democratic forces in Russia will cast doubt on Bush's commitment to worldwide democracy. A White House official commented to the New York Times that Putin's actions are "a domestic matter for the Russian people." Really?.... If the Bush administration holds to that line... those hostile to democracy in the Middle East will point to the glaring U.S. double standard; those who favor democracy in the Middle East will be discredited....

There is an even more fundamental reality that the president must face: A Russian dictatorship can never be a reliable ally of the United States. A Russian dictator will always regard the United States with suspicion, because America's very existence, its power, its global influence, its democratic example will threaten his hold on power.... Did the United States help undo Soviet communism only to watch as tyranny takes its place? Is that the legacy President Bush wants to leave behind?...