" Like George Bush, I am a uniter not a divider and I hope your hospitality is a sign that the divisions that Democrats have created in this country will soon be healed."

ok, this was a joke, right?

Naomi Klein is tearing idiot Alan Greenspan up on democracynow.org

Sigh. I don't want to be the one to spoil this for you all, but perhaps you should read a little more of the fabulous Mr. Swift before you take what he says at face value.

These signs were all placed in direct sight of freeway traffic yesterday morning and damn near all of them were still up at sunset.

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2007/09/923-war-is-lie.html

My enemies are getting tired.

Friends, each year thousands of Americans suffer daily from the Chronic Inability to Detect and Enjoy Irony and Satire, something that ...well a couple of hundred take for granted.
Please, do your part, contribute to the National Association for the Humor Impaired. And perhaps take some time, sit down with a neighbor and explain the Colbert Report or the Onion to them.
We will all be the better for it.

"Like George Bush, I am a uniter not a divider........divisions that Democrats have created in this country will soon be healed"

Whoever let you guest blog must have been drugged. George Bush a uniter? You are nuts. George Bush is a thug, a member of one of America's biggest crime families and a lying SOB that cares not for this country, its people or the rest of the world. He will wage war illegally against other countries, kill thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians and insist he is right. He can't even speak the language, every time he opens his fool mouth he shows what an idiot he is. A goddamned chimpanzee has more brains than he has. He should be hung for war crimes and hopefully one day he will be. He has divided this country and like you will blame the Democrats. He has used our flag to wipe his ass, has shit on the constitution and the bill of rights.

Bush is no more than a washed up drunk who has obviously pickled his brain. He is a looser who couldn't even serve honorably in a safe US based compacity when his time was up. He went AWOL then did everything he could to keep it quiet. He stole 2 elections, the first by having Daddy's supreme court declare him the winner. The second by messing with the voting machines. This alone should show anyone with the brain of a chimpanzee to see that he and his Republican party are nothing but a bunch of criminals. If that is not enough just look at the number of them in trouble for breaking the laws. It is a sure thing that if Bush would do what he is supposed to do and give Congress oversight it would be seen how many illegal activities go on within his white house.

If people like you continue to be given the right to blog I would think the readership of this blog will start to loose readers so fast heads will spin. If we wanted to listen to shit like this we could watch Fox news.

Were it not illegal in both the eyes of the Lord and our Christian Nation, I'd probably propose to Swift.

randy @ 6:

Sigh. I don't want to be the one to spoil this for you all, but perhaps you should read a little more of the fabulous Mr. Swift before you take what he says at face value.

Yes, and while you're at it, look up "A Modest Proposal", by Jonathan Swift.

American Street looks interesting. You seem to want to attract viewpoints from across the spectrum to comment and interact there. What's good about that is you avoid a closed situation where everyone is simply preaching to the converted and anyone who disagrees is blasted by the congregation. That's a real imbalance that exists in too many blogs. It also may take a little extra effort on keeping the discussions focused and not degenerating into mindless emotional rants ("I have an opinion, yours is wrong, and don't confuse me with facts!").

I'll visit some more.

The problem in Burma is serious. What happened there was flat out wrong and everyone knows it. The fact that no other influential countries such as China, Russia, and the US have not intervened to help the people there underscores the idea that governments are not truly committed to democratic ideals, but only are interested when there's big money to be made, or they see the area of conflict as a potential boon to their empire.

It's pretty clear as far as the Bushies go that they are not interested in promoting Democracy or human rights anywhere in the world, and not even in America for that matter.

A simple but revealing factoid is that the three nations with the biggest known oil reserves that could be the most easily developed (given they were stabilized under a US-friendly regime) are 1. Saudi Arabia, whom, we have a beneficial oil relationship with, therefore we ignore that they have basically a fewudal system and train lots of US-hating terrorists that already have a proven track record of repeatedly attacking us; 2. Iraq, whom we invaded under the Shock Doctrine to simply lay waste to them and take their oil if we can. SAlso, the fact that Saddam was considering changing his oil business to petro-euros instead of petrodollars was a deciding factor to get rid of him; and 3. Iran, where the neocons are ramping up for another Shock Doctrine attack based on false and flimsy premises.

Of course the same newspapers, NYT, WaPo, and the same TV networks FOX, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, and NPR on the radio will collude in EXACTLY the same way they did to help pave the way for the Iraq War, thus proving beyond a reasonable doubt that they are co-conspirators in a Psy-Ops Propaganda Blitz on Americans, and that their editorials sating how they are sorry they made mistakes before the Iraq war are utter BS.

This time add a new name to the list: the new Murdoch political hate tabloid, formerly known as the Wall Street Journal. There goes the neighborhood...

So they send Condi to Burma to say some stuff. She's great for those fluff jobs and that gets her temporarily out of the hair of the hard-core neocons. Nobody who sets policy in the White House listens to Condi, and she only gets press when she's doing what she's told and mouthing the war-mongering party line.

Anybody notice how quickly the news died down about the Nukes being flown across the country to the Louisiana base,which just happens to be the base that sends munitions to the fleet of ships stationed in the Middle East?

Larry Johnson is asking all the right questions over at No Quarter, such as:

Why are such weapons being taken to Barksdale, Louisiana, which is the jump off base for Middle East ops?

A commenter there further observes:

why would we bother with the expense of flying disarmed cruise missiles attached to the firing pylons(or whatever they are called) of a b52 12 at a time? Why not just load them on a truck or a train in gross. after all they are disarmed, why bother mounting them at all?

I concur - why the hurry to FLY these things to a base that is used to send munitions to the Middle East?

The mainstream press has decided those questions are taboo and wants us to just forget the whole thing ever happened...I hope some bloggers and alternative radio DJs press on for answers.

ysbaddaden, if you'll recall the words of the Great Congressman Santorum, man-on-dog is something we Republicans are against. Now, if that dog wants to find a nice Ms. Dog to have abstinence with, well, then we wholeheartedly support that.

randy @ 20:

ysbaddaden, if you'll recall the words of the Great Congressman Santorum, man-on-dog is something we Republicans are against. Now, if that dog wants to find a nice Ms. Dog to have abstinence with, well, then we wholeheartedly support that.

And accordiing to Mitt Romney then we wholeheartedly support dogs on cars.

I think Swift is hysterical and I read him all the time. I get it. There's no way some of these commenters would make it through an episode of Colbert Report.

randy @ 23:

ysbaddaden @ 19:

Being Randy is illegal in both the eyes of the Lord and our Christian Nation, since that's a Britishism for being horny.

I come seeking discourse and immediately a liberal turns it into a personal attack on the good Christian name my lawfully married mother and father gave me. That's the type of attack you'll never see Bill O'Reilly make. I, in a similar vein, hope we can keep this to a discussion of the facts, rather than to a harsh reminder of the cruelties of Middle School.

I'm still waiting for the coffee to kick in. I've only had about six cups so far this morning.

Jon,
I don't want to say I told you so. but...

If you are familiar with Jon Swift's modest efforts on his blog, you have some idea what to expect when he collides with the oh so earnest readership of Crooks & Liars. If not, just check it out. It is sure to be entertaining.

I told you so.

Apparently the Monday readership has a more impaired satire quotient than the Sunday crew.

I don't know who proposed the "modest Jon Swift" for guest blogging, but bravo! I had not previously been aware of his obviously enlightened opinions, but I will have to begin reading his great column, as well as your own. For those of us who find opinions of the media elite (such as Stephen Colbert) too strident, and bloggers such as Jesus' General too religious, it's nice to know that there is someone we can turn to for simple common-sense interpretations of world events. Bravo, Mr. Swift. By the way, not to go crazy on my praise, but let me note (psycho fan-ticly) that I also enjoy the works of your brother Tom.

guest-blogged by me, noted conservative blogger Jon Swift,

I never realized. Mike, you're a genius.

To all of the outraged people above (and probably below). Please, do yourself a favor and go read Jon Swift's blog. Read it with an open mind, and open sense of humor and irony.

I've been reading him for the last couple of years. I don't remember how I first found his column, and I don't remember which was the first article of his I read. I do remember having my jaw on the floor thinking 'this guy can't be for real!'. He is for real - and he's fantastic. It took reading several of his articles before I finally 'got it'. Now, I never miss his work.

After reading an article, one of my favorite things to do is to read the comments left behind. There are some witty people with their own sense of sarcasm, some outraged liberals (who usually come back after having re-read the posting and apologize), and some really scary neo-cons who comment.

His work shouldn't be missed.

Rendition Mission @ 31:

It would seem so... ;-)

Perhaps we need a day by day statistical analysis to better understand the C&L readership. A daily tally of percentage of the comments that "get it" each day. I think there is a doctoral thesis in this.

Plus it would help John calibrate his blog posts by day of the week.

GonzoD @ 37:

Just the fact that you compare yopurself to G W Bush, tells me that you wouldn't know unison if it bit you in the ass!

Gonzo, it's obvious that Bush knows a lot about unity. He's a uniter. You're the dissident, the one who isn't getting in line with the rest of us and bringing democracy to the world. You know, you could actually talk about unity if you were one of the united, but (and here is the crazy thing) you wouldn't, since you'd have unity with the rest of us.

Protests in Burma? From what I see on the Net there isn't a country called Burma. There isn't a South America, Africa (except when people are starving), Asia (except about toys from China), Europe, nothing either.

We have the greatest information tool in the history of the world, and we have isolated ourselves to a point where all we see is what is directly ahead of us. Iraq is important, and US politics has its place, but there is a world out there that doesn't care a bit about the United States or what is important to us.

Imagine.

Patthemokey @ 40:

Protests in Burma? From what I see on the Net there isn't a country called Burma. There isn't a South America, Africa (except when people are starving), Asia (except about toys from China), Europe, nothing either.

We have the greatest information tool in the history of the world, and we have isolated ourselves to a point where all we see is what is directly ahead of us. Iraq is important, and US politics has its place, but there is a world out there that doesn't care a bit about the United States or what is important to us.

Imagine.

This is most distressing. You should make sure that the world knows about these countries, so we can boycott them for not helping us in the War on Terror. It is as Bush says, "You're either with us, or against us."

ysbaddaden @ 43:

I prefer Swift Bacon.

Undoubtedly. We Republicans prefer chicken for two reasons. 1. As the party of fiscal responsibility, we're always trying to trim the fat(and bacon is 73% fat according to the Brookings Institute, a well respected and non-partisan think tank). 2. As the party of fiscal responsibility, we're always trying to cut out any pork that Democrats might have hidden in a bill.

Here are two very revealing clips from Greenspan's appearance with Tim Russert on Meet The Press. Spread these around the internet as much as you can - this is a really harsh indictment of the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration in general!!

VIDEOS

Alan Greenspan: The Iraq War is Largely About Oil
http://beta.redlasso.com/Community/ClipPlayer.aspx?i=7c626177-7df1-4aab-...

Alan Greenspan Criticizes Bush/GOP Spending
http://beta.redlasso.com/Community/ClipPlayer.aspx?i=364a5dec-8930-4e23-...

I have to agree with earl @ 10 - for liberals, there does seem to be a quite a few who just don't pick up on irony or satire or just good natured self-deprecation. Sad, really. And as someone who has been banging on for years on this site about welcoming more rational members of the Honourable Opposition to these threads I'm pleased (if shell-shocked) that C&L has actually gone so far as to allow a conservative a shot at posting! If... indeed Mr Swift is actually a bona fide conservative...

For those who actually take the time to read Mr Swift's blog, it does read more like satire than Malkinesque diatribe. I'll have to read a bit more before I make any final (ish) decisions about which foot Mr Swift has in which aisle. But in either case, welcome to C&L, Mr Swift, and hope you've got your medical insurance paid up - you're going to get whiplash dodging all the brickabats here...

Wow, Jon Swift is not only witty, he has a brilliantly understated sense of humour. Who knew conservatives like this existed? (Actually, we know they do, but they are continually drowned out.) It's the way to my heart and mind. (To you others, the *wing-nuts*, lose the angry, and meaningless, nut-o-sphere sound bytes.)

You had me chuckling reading the round up Jon.

2x @ 34. I don't remember how I first came across Jon either. But I do remember how I can across Harry Hutton. YearlyKos had just finished, if I recall correctly, and one of the organisers had a car crash into their house. The headline was something along the lines of "YK saved my life!" as he wasn't home due to YK. Hutton did a similarly satirical piece, involving Zulus with spears, that had the same sort of OUTRAGE and DISGUST in the comments. The regulars there reacted to the Kos crowd's comments much the same way as the more intelligent/less humour impaired comments here. They still talk about it.

On another note, why doesn't the comments here have a Preview? Maybe that would give them pause for thought.