...And one other thing

Reading Jeffrey Goldberg's... well, to aptly use a term favored by Jerry Holkins, reeking ejaculate regarding Dave Weigel, followed by Ezra Klein's mentioning of the curious matter of Tucker Carlson asking for access to Ezra's private listserv just prior to posting stolen messages from it, reveals the ultimate issue with why DC is unpalatable to people like me: these are the smallest, most childish people on the face of the planet.

When it all comes down to it, it appears that this is a case of a Beltway clique prat scheming to do nasty things to another classmate, and the other Heathers giggling later about how Weigel didn't know his place in the social circle. I see no reason that people like Klein and Weigel set people like Goldberg off other than, of course, that they are twice the writers he is at half his age.

"People who came up in journalism without much adult supervision, and without the proper amount of toilet-training." A person who is regarded as both a journalist and a grown-up wrote that. It should be wrapped around his neck forcing him to keep his head lowered in embarrassment for the rest of eternity.

Washington is a stupid place filled with silly people

Next week will mark two years since I moved from DC to Atlanta, and I often get asked if I miss DC or being closer to politics there, etc. The general answer is that I had a couple of friends I really miss. And to be honest, the job I left that paid more than I've ever made since is something I wouldn't mind still having either. But other than that, and I guess being able to look at pandas for free anytime I want, there's a ton of DC that I say good fucking riddance to and insular, cannibalistic shit like this is one of them.

Though this means very little to the people celebrating Weigel's departure, I should point out for the record that labeling Weigel some kind of rabid left-winger is laughable. He's one of the few non-liberals I've met who I enjoyed the company of, even though I disagreed with a ton of his opinions. Do know what Dave was doing the last time I saw him in person? He was visiting Atlanta to volunteer for the Bob Barr election campaign. Yes, that's really left-wing right there.

Dave's biggest sign of "leftisim" was the fact that he was openly observant of how stupid and insane the right wing in this country has become: a skill that made him perfect for a blog about how the right wing was getting stupider and more insane. I cannot fathom how the Washington Post thinks they will profit, or garner any support from the right, over this. And I will second what John Cole said: that Weigel is losing his job because both him and his girlfriend's privacy was violated is an act that a journalistic entity should be absolutely ashamed of. The Post failed both Weigel and what's left of journalism in this country.

DC is a shitty place, where everyone pretends to be friends and then secretly hates each other, and then pretends to be outraged when someone points out publicly that everyone is an asshole. Days like today remind me why I don't miss it.

Yeah, okay this is still bothering me

Obama's remarks on canning General McChrystal:

I believe that this mission demands unity of effort across our alliance and across my national security team.

And I don't think that we can sustain that unity of effort and achieve our objectives in Afghanistan without making this change. That too has guided my decision.

I've just told my national security team that now is the time for all of us to come together. Doing so is not an option but an obligation. I welcome debate among my team but I won't tolerate division.

The chairman of the Homeland Security committee went to the opposing party's convention and told America that the president wasn't qualified to be commander in chief. And that's really just an easier example.

I joked two days earlier that Lieberman having a job proves Obama wouldn't even consider firing McChrystal. I'm pleasantly surprised. But that's still a ridiculous line right there. The entirety of the Obama administration so far has been defined by people within his own circle of influence - his generals, Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Blue Dog congresspeople, and so on - crapping on him and him looking for ways to not makie a case out of it. So no balls get busted when felow Democrats derail health care or unemployment benefits, but mean things in a magazine roll heads?

Man, I wish the guys who were running Gitmo also said nasty things about the president to Rolling Stone.

"Bloggers Are Everywhere"

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I'll be honest here, folks: I've been doing this cartoon for over ten years, and this blog for about eight, and I've got to say this is probably the most unenthusiastic I've been about politics for that entire time. It's not just becuase Democrats are going to get destroyed in November. I've seen that happen before. It's that no one who supports them seems to actually care about solving that. What everyone does seem to care about, however, is making sure that someone else feel like it's their fault it happened.

I don't watch cable news anymore. I simply can't. It does the same thing to your brain and intellect as any reality show on MTV does at this point. I've resigned myself to the fact that we don't have news in this country anymore. We have bloggers, who as I noted several times before aren't journalists and never will be. Christ, even Talking Points Memo is doing once-a-day "check out this clip from The Daily Show!" links to pull traffic.

But now we don't even really need the blogs, because the same rhetoric is infused into casual conversation, even when it makes no sense. The day after the elections is going to be an endless chain of people repeating blog comments about how someone else didn't clap loudly enough, stretching into infinity.

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