* And I'm sure every other right-wing dipshit on the internet by lunchtime today. Seriously. Three posts, minimum, on Townhall.

Update: Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha:

Aw c'mon ... the Olympics are supposed to be non political. Just because a candidate has the dough, doesn't mean it's right to use these games for personal political gain. The credo of the Olympics is ... It's not whether you win or not, it's how you play the game. Once again, it appears that Obama will disregard and disrespect any and all traditions in order to win. Once again, Obama will do anything, or say anything to win. The end does not always justify the means. Extreme arrogance and ambition can be a very distasteful character flaw.

It's like there's literally a generator on a website or something where you can enter anything Obama has done in the last 24 hours and get a lame, canned concern troll about how it's "distasteful." I'm going to love the day after the election when people like this are arguing that Obama winning the election was totally bad form.

Of the women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have walked into a VA facility, 15 percent have screened positive for military sexual trauma, The Associated Press has learned. That means they indicated that while on active duty they were sexually assaulted, raped, or were sexually harassed, receiving repeated unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature...

...Since 2002, the foundation says it has received more than 1,000 reports of assault and rape in the U.S. Central Command areas of operation, which include Iraq and Afghanistan...

...The actual number is likely higher than what's reported. Among members of the military surveyed in 2006 who indicated they had experienced unwanted sexual contact, about 20 percent said they had reported it to an authority or organization...

But they had to wear burqas we're the best because we have shows with boobies in them yada yada yada.

(Hat Tip: Kevin W.)

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It's real. This exists. For the love of god, people, do you think I would make something like this up?

I've used this line many times before, but honestly, Hurl! is why the terrorists hate us. I mean, I hate us because of this show. Stupid as it is right on its face, you have to think about the overall concept here to really, truly hate the existence of America in its current state. This is a program where people in a country that- and let's put aside the rest of the world here- cannot feed a percentage of its own citizens- are directed to consume food. Not eat it, not enjoy it, but just consume it... and then, immediately afterwards, compete until they vomit it.

There is not a single part of this show that does not, quite literally, waste resources. Food is wasted. Manpower is wasted. Electricity to power TV to watch it is wasted. It is a show that glorifies in every single aspect the image of Americans having no respect for anything, including themselves. And if Bin Laden's next video is just cut with this, then I imagine we'd have a lot harder a time formulating a rebuttal.

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To really understand the importance of Maliki's comments, you need to consider their opposite. Imagine if Maliki had walked in front of the cameras and said, "at this stage, a timetable for withdrawal is unrealistic, and we hope our American friends will not bow to domestic political pressures and be hasty in leaving Iraq just as the country improves." It would be a transformative moment in this election. John McCain would talk of nothing else. The cable shows would talk of nothing else. Magazines would run thousands of covers about "Obama's Iraq Problem." Obama would probably lose the race.

This, as we all know, is completely impossible and must be a typo, as John McCain is the expert on foreign policy and Barack Obama is completely inexperienced. Because the teevee people said so.

Meanwhile, on Earth, John McCain is now claiming that we won the war in Iraq. I know, I had no idea either, right? Especially since this victory is the type of one where the soldiers keep getting killed and don't get to come home. I guess, like Barack Obama, I just don't understand foreign policy at all.

I need to sit back and contemplate the idea that I might have to buy a $300 video game system for that.

The Japanese. World War II. They waterboarded Americans. We tried, convicted, and sentenced them for war crimes.

Why haven't we issued a formal apology yet? Clearly they did nothing wrong.

Still waiting for Mitt Romney's answer too.

The other thing that I notices is even weirder- I've had Comcast in every placed I lived in D.C. - four different places of residence. And in every one of them, subscribing to the digital service meant I could get the regular basic channels on any other TV I connected to a spare outlet. Not so in my Atlanta apartment. I actually can't watch TV without the digital receiver. This is really annoying because I don't have the DVR meaning I can't actually record stuff on my VCR anymore. And of course, forget about a second TV without paying for a second digital box. Has this occured for anyone else? If they tried this in group-house-heavy D.C. their market cap would plummet.

Comcast, honestly, is starting to become the airline industry of telecom. They know that alternatives are non-existent (apartments don't let you install a satellite dish) and pretty much decided early on that they just need to see how much they can push you and still get your money... and then keep pushing. Ugh.

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There's this thing I have with my sister where we used to be driving around and she'd say something that was just really silly or so ridiculous that I literally had to slow down the car and stare at her for a second. This week's cartoon is dedicated to a moment like that, only instead of it being something humorously nonsensical my sister said, it was something so insanely stupid that I couldn't even comprehend how people can simultaneously be so obtusely blind to the actual world and have somehow managed to acquire a position at a major publication in which you talk about the world around you on a daily basis.

You know, I really don't think Megan McArdle is an idiot. And I'm sure she has to be a nice person in real life, given the vast number of people that seem so inexplicably impassioned* in defending her from criticism of what appear to be repeatedly inane observations like this. But I digress: this was a really friggin' stupid thing to say and we should all laugh at it repeatedly. Let's!

*And Ezra I definitely like. But Jeebus that's funny.

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I understand Greenwald's intent on this, and I of course agree with his views on the legality of the FISA law. But I really think the lawsuits at this point are hand-washing. Democrats caved. Royally. They totally cowed to Bush on this one, and now having a court case that will undoubtedly be denied by the Roberts majority is just a way to cast final blame on someone other than some spineless Democrats.

I want there to be a healthy court system in this country, but part of that is not using it as the scapegoat for ineptitude earlier down the road.

Yes, I understand that, fundamentally, this is discriminatory- clearly the style that is specifically being targeted is one associated with young black men. As one commentor on Pandagon noted, in the more racist states that passed laws like this it's basically a way to legalize cops harassing black people.

But as I've made clear over and over and over again, I can't stand moronic quasi-libertarian "anything that even remotely suggests we can't do anything we want is anti-freedom raaaaargh" rhetoric and defending the inherent act of showing off your ass crack in public leaps past calling people who hate smoking "Nazis" by light years. Beyond "because I can," there's nothing fundamentally practical or appropriate about the fashion "style" to begin with, and if you're wasting your time defending it, well, then, you need a more fulfilling job. Now get off my lawn, all of you.

I have just ruined pants I am not even wearing.