Oh yeah, and the implication that we should elect our president based on the opposite of what some madman in a cave thinks. Fuck that. I'll stick with repudiating Bush.

Is this true?

Josh had some personality issues, but his instincts were good. So why did he leave? If Dan can write about his personal life, shouldn't he write about what's going on at the newspaper?

Oh. Google said this guy complained about this way back then.

The other weird thing is the cold, firm, steel-like hardness of the ratcheting metaphor. As things ratchet up or ratchet higher, they are non-negotiable nailed at that point, unable to go back even slightly. That's the nature of ratcheting effect, right?

Whereas soft power, is, you know. Soft?

Heaping scorn and ridicule on bin Laden as he further marginalizes himself is just a side benefit.

Obama for Victory against creepy cave dudes everywhere!

I know for damn sure who's opinion I care more about, and it isn't the mass murderer in the cave.

a) fundamentalist Muslim angry-angries will hate ANYbody who becomes president of the U.S. He'll be the Great Satan, tool of the Zionists, etc etc. (Would have been fun to see Hillary blow their minds.)

b) Howzabout we elect a President who doesn't fulfill every paranoid belief that Arab nationalists (remember them? I'm sure they're still around) and Muslim fundamentalists have? Instead of our current one? Why, anybody we put into power will ratchet down (in discrete, measureable clicks, heh heh) that "yes, we've really come as Crusaders to colonize you" style we've been sporting.

Oh wait, except for McCain.

Edward N. Luttwak, "President Apostate?" New York Times, May 12. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12luttwak.html

Daisy Khan. "Misconceptions About Obama and Islam". Washington Post/On Faith. May 14, 2008. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/daisy_khan/2008/05/obama_a_muslim_getting_the_rec.html

Though it's a reminder that race and politics are complicated subjects when North Dakota is "black."

No, it's a reminder that this political cartoon is kind of stupid. Seriously, what? All the states aren't even labeled correctly.

Also yet another reminder of how our society considers a biracial man to be black long before they would consider him white, presumably because "white" represents categorical purity and anything non-pure is de facto "black".

At least that's my take on it. Sadly, I am guilty of this. It probably has more to do with human tendency to categorize entities using primitive methods (our brains interpret Obama as closer in color to a "black" man than a "white" man?) rather than what we know to be true about the entity (Obama is genetically just as much "white" as he is "black").

"One thing to note: It is not enough to be considered a Murtad Fitri to be born of a Muslim and a Kafir or two Muslims, but to affirm the Shahadas after puberty. If born as such but believed in Judaism or Christianity before puberty, he is not to be considered a Murtad Fitri so that he is killed ... because apostasy requires a Muslim to reject Islam and a child before puberty is not truly Muslim"

http://www.mohaqeqkaboli.org/F3Taha/f3taha09.htm

We're in a quamire in Iraq, and guaranteeing our demise by investing nothing in the future. It's a fucking joke alright, and I'm sure he's enjoying it. Obama elected is not what the enemy wants b/c he might actually get this ship turned, but, when I see stories like this from the CSM, I have to think that Haliburton, KBR or Blackwater are trying to stamp any thoughts of diplomacy and changing course.

Sounds like another good reason to find and capture Osama Bin Laden.

Does anyone seriously think that anyone with a jones to kill an American president would be given pause by who that president is? Killing the commander-in-chief of the U.S. army would be a tremendous coup for any ambitious militant, be the president Bush, Obama, McCain, Clinton or Alex Rodriguez.

Besides, Obama's background will not change the way security operates for the president. Doesn't the secret service act as if the president is in constant danger already?

Luttwak, a strategist, could have two strategies behind his entry in the Fearmonger's Forum: 1. Keep people from voting for Obama, lest he be killed. 2. Continue the drumbeat of fear, uncertainty, doubt, and hatred regarding those ee-vul Islamists who want to exterminate us Judeo-Christians.

I googled the chick in the Monitor to find out she is a contract worker for the Marine Corps. Likely she found it in her own best interest to write her fear mongering essay. I kinda doubt she's a Muslim, so why doesn't she fear a fatwa against her?