Is It 2009 Yet?

I hadn't intended to post again today, but the Murdoch Media forced my hand.

For proof of what a bunch of shrieking McCarthy-ites the Republican base has become under George W. Bush, look no further than the front-page editorial of today's NY Post. It perfectly illustrates the "standard corruption that infects our political discourse" that Glenn Greenwald wrote about the other day.

Ralph Peters-- who was for the war before he was against it before he was for it again-- parties like it's 2002.

He states that "Providing aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime is treason. It's not 'just politics.' It's treason... The 'nonbinding resolution' telling the world that we intend to surrender to terrorism and abandon Iraq may be the most disgraceful congressional action since the Democratic Party united to defend slavery." Hyperbole much, Ralph?

Keep in mind this is a guy who, a year ago, called the Democratic Party the "Osama bin Laden Fan Club" and said that civil liberty safeguards in surveillance law are "overkill". But these radical sentiments aren't isolated to the editorialists of Rupert Murdoch's rags... they are the typical sentiments of the Republican party, as the Jon Stewart clip I posted below illustrates.

And the punditry, which regularly examines the uncouth writings of random liberal bloggers, pays no mind to the rhetoric of the GOP which implies that to try and end a war (apparently something we've never done before) is treasonous and that the majority of the American people, who support this course, are surely traitors as well. So much for all that 'bipartisanship' and 'civil' discourse they seemingly value more than actual policies and progress.

Just another reminder that the insanity of the last six years didn't magically end on November 7th. They've picked their scapegoats and they're staying the course. And Democrats are damned if they do (Republicans will blame them for the war's inevitable failure if they take any decisive action to stop it) and damned if they don't (people will be angry that they didn't wind down the war as they promised).

It's going to be a really, really long two years.