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Brit Hume called Gen. McChrystal really dumb because he allowed "Rolling Stone" of all media outlets access to him and his staff for a lengthy interview about how he feels about the war and his Commander in Chief. How dare he use a hippie rag instead of coming to a Villager?

Hume: This is a regular mess. The comments made by General McChrystal himself and by his aides. The astonishing lack of judgement shown in granting access to Rolling Stone. ROLLING STONE! Of all publications. No one over the age of four would speak on the record to Rolling Stone about delicate military matter and 'above all' about laying yourself with all kinds of back room opinions about your partners in the effort and the commander in chief and the vice president. This is a firing offense under normal circumstances. The president would be totally justified in General McChrystal. He may have to do it anyway....

Much of it had to be listening to Biden because he goes on and on and on, but that aside I mean he's still the Vice President of the United States, he's owed respect by General McChrystal and his subordinates aides and then in itself is what they said about him is insubordination, no question about it, I mean, I, Megan, I just don't know as I think about it whether the President can keep him even if he thinks he's vital to the mission. I mean this is pretty blatant stuff...

Kelly: Why? What is the fall out to President Obama if he keeps him?

Hume: Well, what I figure is he'll look weak. He may feel that he'll look weak, but think...(stutter) in a sense look, he may feel that he may make McChrystal crawl across enough broken glass here in Washington tomorrow and humble himself to such an extent..and he may be able to impose him some career....he might find some compromise way to keep him in the post with it being pretty clear that the guy is damaged goods. That might leave the President's prestige intact, but this is pretty strong medicine to be dealt in that article.

Kelly: Couldn't this be an opportunity for President Obama, for lack of a better word, "take the high road?" He's been criticized for having a thin skin and usually that comes with respect from the media, but is this an opportunity for him to say, it was out of line....but he's still the best man to complete a very important strategy that I've committed 30,00 additional American lives ...

Hume:...but these comments were so strong and so negative and so disrespectful and look, the fact that most of them were not made by McChrystal himself doesn't really help because he was clearly present when all these discussions were going on. All this loose talk was going on..I wonder and we may find out Rolling Stone has insisted that it's on the record and everybody knew it and I have my doubts about that. I would be surprised if Gem McChrystal said it was all on the record and we all knew it. Can you imagine anybody, look it. If that's the case the guy maybe outta be fired for being dumb! To have that kind of loose talk to any media outlet.

No one in their right mind, on the record or off talks like this to in front of the media. You just don't do it.

I think he isn't that dumb and just wanted out of Afghanistan altogether since his planning has failed completely. He can now be hailed a right wingnut hero by the fringers for calling out the President, Joe Biden and the Afghan team when he goes on a speaking tour of the AEI's and other tea party events. He can make as many false claims as he wants about what actually happened during the planning and implementation of his counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan since we know he'll lie even about his own troops. (Pat Tillman cover-up) So where's the downside for him to get fired? His military friends in the media, while believing his actions are a firing offense, they will say like Col. Jack Jacobs did on MSNBC that all the troops feel Obama's people are incompetent fools too.

As Karoli pointed out, troops are not happy being sent to die under the General's plan.

And he simply knew he could be labeled the 'General Failure' after General Petraeus was hailed a big hero by the media over Iraq. How are they both measuring up at this point? Any more fainting spells?

UPDATE: I believe he should be fired, but as John Cole points out Obama can do what he wants to do. "Can you imagine going through life with all this artificial nonsense dictating your decision making process?"

Digby has a great post up that says Obama is being advised NOT to fire him and a link to how he can be the one to "save face."

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The Tea Party hero, Rand Paul, had a very unstable couple of days. On Wednesday 'Baby' Paul flamed out quicker than a defective Roman candle with Rachel Maddow. His performance was so utterly enlightening about his beliefs -- and thus truly terrifying. His advisers burned the midnight oil to figure out how far he would run back what he really believes so that he could appear as somewhat normal.

His weak ass flip flop on Civil Rights before the sun came up on Thursday shows you how America views Paul's ideology. His defense is that we're all just conflators.

Evil liberals only wanted to bring up a case that he was too young to remember. Heck, I'm not even bring up his wretched 2002 letter to the Bowling Green Daily News. Things looked bleak so he needed a friend. Hello, Laura Ingraham. He told her that it was a poor political decision to go on Maddow's show because she's a conflater too and he won't be visiting her show for a while.

Rand Paul: You're right. And it was a poor political decision. Probably won't be happening any time in the near future. Yeah, because they conflate things and want to say ...

He was exposed to America for his 'Only Open for Big Business Club' principles that were passed down to him by Poppa Paul. And I'm no fan of those beliefs. Show me a liberal and I'll show you someone who really does care about civil liberties.

Michael Tomasky lets it all hang out in his post about Poppa Paul and Baby Paul even before this flameout occurred: Intellectual consistency can be overrated. Read the whole article because it's very funny.

When we write about libertarianism, most liberals feel compelled to say something like, you know, I disagree with that viewpoint, but I respect that it's principled and intellectually consistent.

I say balderdookey. Libertarianism is kookoo. There can be no such thing as a basically stateless society (except for national defense and barest administration of law, I think are the exceptions they typically allow for). It's just ridiculous. Civil society would collapse without the state.

I've written this before, a few months ago. Conservatives, and libertarians, seem to think that we have regulations in this society because we have a bunch of underemployed pencil pushers sitting around dreaming up ways to make small business people's lives miserable.

It's ridiculous. We have regulations because throughout history people in various pursuits did really sleazy and unethical things. They swindled investors, they dumped toxins into bodies of water, they made children work long hours for slave wages. Et cetera. And so laws were passed and regulations were written.

And unfortunately such is man's endless capacity for sleaze and unethicality that this process will never end: as technology presents new ways to be sleazy, we'll always need to invent new ways to prevent sleaze from happening.

---

We all support a few libertarian-ish principles; we all agree that the state should have some limits. For example, I think it's perfectly fine for the state to make fast-food joints post nutrition information. But I would oppose the state having the right to ban the Quarter Pounder. So we all get that kind of thing.But big-L Libertarianism is vapid. I hope in the next few months it is properly exposed as such.

Baby Paul's staff will do everything they can to cover up his beliefs as much of it as he can and then to Luntzify them. Grab the popcorn.

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Glenn Beck hosted one of his hourlong sessions before a studio audience talking about the role of heroes in American life. The consensus, both by Beck and his panelists, was that Americans no longer look up to their historic heroes the way they should. Instead, as Beck suggested, we have "Mao Tse Tung hanging in our White House."

Say again? Oh yeah -- the Obama administration is riddled with radical Marxist revolutionaries. Right. Tell that to progressives right now. Moron.

Anyway, Beck apparently draws the line when it comes to the possibility, heaven forfend, Obama might be regarded as a hero:

Beck: I'm a big visual guy. And if you look at the way Barack Obama was imaged -- he was, as a savior. He was, as a -- you look at it now, anybody notice -- you watch the newspaper, and you watch the photos of him coming out of the White House, almost always, they'll have a shot of him with the seal of the President -- you notice that? And it almost looks like a halo. They'll take a shot from the side, and he's standing there, and it looks like a Russian icon!

He's talking about the photos of the president that have been shot for some time now whenever there's a press appearance at the White House. And it didn't start with Obama:

Indeed, if we're suddenly all worried about presidents being made out to be heroes, you have to wonder where Beck was when W. strutted out to his "Mission Accomplished" photo-op:

Now that's what I call an action hero.

Fortunately, Obama has spared us any codpiece appearances.

We've lost healthcare reform's biggest hero, and it's only fitting that HR3200, the healthcare reform bill, bear his name.

Progressive Change has started a petition asking Congress to honor Ted Kennedy's memory.

In just a few hours, they've collected over 10,000 signatures. You can add yours here.

For many members of Congress, it may be the inspiration they need to get this done.

Wow, it's going down to the wire with many NO votes...207-226 right now.

The Market is tanking badly too...And Newt Gingrich issues a statement that I heard on MSNBC which says he would reluctantly vote for it...Hmmm....

UPDATE: It failed....No one trusts Bush and McCain did nothing....

This mess shows that Conservatism is a failure. I know we are dismayed by our politicians, but don't forget that under conservative leadership, we've had the total collapse of our financial sector and we can never stop saying that.

And if the media tries to portray Republicans as hero figures I'll start my own drinking game.

Crying Boehner is saying it's Pelosi's fault because she gave a partisan speech. What jokers. A speech made them vote against it. They are saying it is not a partisan crisis, but an economic one. Sure---that was caused by Republican/McCain hunger for deregulation.

Will McCain suspend his campaign again and try to cancel Palin's debate?

Reality Principles: A branding & marketing professional noticed something important about John McCain's new ad: He is not being marketed as a Republican. Apparently, Republicans realize their 'Brand' is toxic.

The Daily Dish: The War Criminal President

Obsidian Wings: Another quality BUSHCO appointee going down...

The Big Picture: Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Arthur Levitt says the Bear 'bailout' raises new regulatory issues.

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: FCC opens inquiry into Siegelman report blackout...A gay hero soldier and the Wapo...NPR News: National Pentagon Radio underreports Iraq deaths...and they're in the tank for McCain...Frameshop on the Wright stuff...Obama guilty once again...Venezuela vs. WaPo...Where was the media when the subprime crisis unfolded?...Reality TV kills

We love The General. Frank Schaeffer at Huffpo, h/t Mike:

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild.

...Was any conservative political leader associated with Dad running for cover? Far from it. Dad was a frequent guest of the Kemps, had lunch with the Fords, stayed in the White House as their guest, he met with Reagan, [and]...became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator.

Read more...

Mike Huckabee sure is lining up the choice endorsements on the campaign trail:

First it was martial arts hero and "Walker, Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris, who appears with Huckabee in his first TV ad. Then hard-rocking hunting enthusiast Ted Nugent jumped on the Huckabee bandwagon, citing the Republican's support for second amendment rights. Now, Huckabee is getting ready to rumble: wrestler Ric Flair, a.k.a. The Nature Boy, is supporting the former Arkansas governor in his bid for the White House.

Here's Rudy telling everybody what a hero he was on 9/11.

Giuliani: I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them," Giuliani told reporters in Cincinnati Thursday. 

He's since backtracked, but when you see him say this...well...Giuliani knew exactly what he was doing. Playing his America's Mayor" character. His response was actually quite disturbing too.

"The way I said it, I probably could have said it better, but what I was trying to say was, I was there quite a bit, there are people that were there more than me, people that were [there] less than me. There were people there less than me, people on my staff, who already have had serious health consequences and they weren't there as often as I was," Giuliani said, "but I wasn't trying to suggest a competition of any kind, which is the way it come across. And I think I could have said it better. You know, what I was saying was 'I'm there with you.'"

Giuliani reiterated Friday that he, too, may get sick from the time he spent at Ground Zero following the attacks...

He fed Stu Bykofsky's new BFF---conservative host Mike Gallagher this defense.  A friend who I grew up with in NY was a fireman at ground zero---actually working there for a long time. He still has a bad cough even after he retired two years ago.

Mike Finnegan is touring in Europe this summer.  Lambert Strether from CorrenteWire is filling in this week.  

Greed and fear? I don't do the greed part; if I were any good at making money, I would already have made some. Fear, I can do; but in common with most of the blogosphere, I do political fear of the criminal Bush regime, not economic fear. Of course, in the future, these two fears may merge, perhaps even quicker than we expect.

But even I noticed that the Dow dropped some large number of points yesterday. Mostly, though, the blogosphere didn't (and the wankosphere was too busy ferreting out lefties who drop the F-bomb instead of killing people, lke the Godly do).

So, when the Dow drops three million points and nobody blogs about it -- well, almost nobody (click on the man; he needs the hits!) -- did it really drop? Herewith the results of my random walk through the blogosphere.

Actually, I had a few false starts: My best hits on Technorati came from "Stocks AND Plunge," and they weren't very good. Sneaky Business at least rated the headlines. Then I checked out Brad DeLong. He's an economist! And for some strange reason, he's writing about Grover Cleveland:

The agitation seemed to [Cleveland]... a threat to law and order.... Coxey's Army was met with a barrage of injunctions and... the Capitol police.... The Pullman strike was smashed by federal troops who kept the mails moving, the union leaders imprisoned, and the union crushed. And the financial panic was dealt with through the highly orthodox and [highly] compensated assistance of Mr. Morgan.

The underlying causes... were neither understood nor dealt with... an opportunity was missed.... If, to take one of them, the problems arising out of the concentration of industrial ownership had been tackled when they were still malleable and subject to effective treatment, we might have been spared some aches and pains that are still with us.

Yes, well. But then Holden asks: Have you seen my Bush boom? Good question, and I have the answer:

Yes! It went thataway!

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