Instahoglets 28th April 07

By Cernig

A quick roundup of news and blog reactions for the weekend.

Matt Bastard pulls together both of this week's stories about rightwing homegrown terrorism and points out the willful indifference of the LGF crowd. It's ok to have IED's if you're name is Bubba.

Steve M at No More Mister Nice Blog adds the story of the man who shot himself in a police stand-off after rolling a pig's head into a mosque. According to the Freepers the man's a hero and "the libruls made him do it". If it had been a synagogue he targeted...

Tim F at Balloon Juice - when the next Shakespeare pens the epic tale of the Dubya Years, the tragic flaws of the central character will be to numerous to easily track - but his insistence on fealty over competence would be the central theme.

When I want an insight into how US politics plays at the personal level, I always read Mr. M over at Comments. Here, he gives his impressions of the Dem nominee debate.

Cut To The Chase and the odd tale of two millionaire tax-evaders holed up in their mansion who say that the federal government is a fiction. If it's a fiction, why are they hiding from it?

Shaun Mullen says it all in one beautiful paragraph. "I have been reluctant to join the David Broder lynching party. First of all, the guy obviously has lost a step or two and is in the twilight of a distinguished career. Second, I never thought that he was as important as he is given credit for, but that’s because "Dean of the Washington press corps" is about the same as "Dean of a Midwestern cow college" to me." This graph will henceforth be found in the dictionary as the definition of "damned with faint praise".

SWOPA at Needlenose is just fine with moves to include slippery-slope benchmarks in any future funding bills and explains: "The important step right now is to get as many GOPers as possible on record as moving toward ending the war. Even if they think it's non-binding, Democrats should surprise them by insisting on revisiting the enforcement issue as early and often as possible. Once they've stepped into the trap, each month closer to the 2008 elections will make it harder for Republicans to turn back." Put some velvet around the noose to make it more comfortable.

Ron has charts. "As you can see in the chart Halliburton began a descent towards bankruptcy shortly after Cheney became VP, largely as a result of things that happened while Cheney was CEO, and was only able to pull out of the downward spiral after the start of the invasion of Iraq. Cheney of course profited from this and yes this would be war profiteering by any definition."

The incomparible Heretik on George Tenet's slam dunk - maybe someone could now ask Bush about his "F**k Saddam, we're taking him out" a year before the war began. Don't hold your breath, H. For the reason why this won't happen, refer to the Shaun Mullen quote above.

Meanwhile, Smintheus at Unbossed connects the dots between Tenet and the (belated) announcement of Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi. "American news corporations can be proud that they employ the best stenographers in the world."

Michael at The Reaction has a hard look at the popularity of Fred Thompson with Republican hardliners and concludes that they are indulging in imaginary politcs - a fake being better than a failure.

Last, and by no means least, Zenpundit has your weekend book review - J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Children of Hurin".