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Must reads:  fair and balanced edition

One fine item from the Reality-Based Community (more specifically, Daniel Benjamin and Gabriel Weimann, writing in today’s Times), offering a Reality-Based Assessment on the situation in Iraq:

There has been a drastic shift in mood in the last two years. Radicals who were downcast and perplexed in 2002 about the rapid defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan now feel exuberant about the global situation and, above all, the events in Iraq.

For example, an article in the most recent issue of Al Qaeda’s Voice of Jihad - an online magazine that comes out every two weeks - makes the case that the United States has a greater strategic mess on its hands in Afghanistan and Iraq than the Soviet Union did in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. As translated by the SITE Institute, a nonprofit group that monitors terrorists, the author describes how the United States has stumbled badly by getting itself mired in two guerrilla wars at once, and that United States forces are now “merely trying to ‘prove their presence’ - for all practical purposes, they have left the war.”

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist now wreaking havoc in Iraq, sees things in a similar way. “There is no doubt that the Americans’ losses are very heavy because they are deployed across a wide area and among the people and because it is easy to procure weapons,” he wrote in a recent communiqué to his followers that was posted on several radical Web sites. “All of which makes them easy and mouthwatering targets for the believers.”

Clearly, the president’s oft-repeated claim that American efforts are paying off because “more than three-quarters of Al Qaeda’s key members and associates have been killed, captured or detained” - a questionable claim in itself - means little to jihadists. What matters to them that the invasion of Iraq paved the way for the emergence of a movement of radical Sunni Iraqis who share much of the Qaeda ideology.

Among the recurrent motifs on the Web are that America has blundered in Iraq the same way the Soviet Union did in the 1980’s in Afghanistan, and that it will soon be leaving in defeat. “We believe these infidels have lost their minds,” was the analysis on a site called Jamaat ud-Daawa, which is run out of Pakistan. “They do not know what they are doing. They keep on repeating the same mistake.”

. . .

It seems clear that, while the administration insists that we are acting strongly, our pursuit of the war on terrorism through an invasion of Iraq has carried real costs for our security. The occupation is in chaos, which is emboldening a worldwide assortment of radical Islamists and giving them common ground. The worst thing we could do now is believe that the Bush administration’s tough talk is in any way realistic. If we really think that the unrest abroad will have no impact on us at home - as too many thought before 9/11 - not even a vastly improved offense can help us.

Now, I’m not exactly helping this argument find a wider audience.  But I do want to point out one important feature of the Reality-Based Community:  we actually think that the “judicious study of discernible reality” (you remember that phrase) involves knowing what the other side thinks about us.  No, not the wolves.  The actual people, people. Because of our doggedly empiricist approach to the world, we think it’s important to know what the other side is doing and saying, and we think it’s perfectly all right-- not flip-floppy at all-- to respond to the news of the day.  So when a Bush campaign flack charges that John Kerry is “basing his attacks on the headlines he wakes up to each day,” we think, ah, that would be nice-- a President who reads the news!

BUT IN THE INTERESTS OF FAIRNESS AND BALANCE, we can’t let the Reality-Based Community have the last word.  So, then, this once-humble but now increasingly self-aggrandizing blog turns you over to Ken Mehlman, who recently sent the following letter to my friend and colleague Charlie Bertsch:

Dear Charlie,

I am appalled.

In Missouri, a flyer shows a photograph of a young black man under a fire hose in the 1950s.  The flyer tells African-Americans this is an example of how Republicans have kept voters from the polls.  In Colorado, Republican voters got calls telling them their family members in Iraq had died.  The callers claimed that call would be real unless Kerry was elected.

In these final days, we can only expect more of this filth.

I urge you to turn on your answering machine.  If you get a call from an unknown number, let the machine pick it up.  It may be the latest campaign of smear, fear and lies from our opponents.

If you get one of these disgusting calls, or an outrageous flyer or mailing, save the message, call our hotline and let us know.

1-888-610-8170

Just a few weeks ago we saw a Kerry campaign manual that told their staff to allege intimidation even if no evidence existed.  Now their allies have begun an incredibly dishonest and disgusting campaign of shadowy calls and misleading flyers.

We need to know immediately if you get one of these calls.  We need to know the lies, threats, and distortions those allied against us are spreading.

With very few days left, we need you to be our eyes and ears on the ground. 

Call our hotline at 1-888-610-8170 if you get any suspicious messages.

Thanks for all you have done, and all you continue to do.

Sincerely,
Ken Mehlman

Now, let’s admit this much-- if any Missouri Democrats are circulating flyers like that, they need to get with the program.  Republicans did not even begin to suppress the black vote until black voters started to vote Democratic, and of course the 1950s would be way too early for that in the major fire-hosing states.  But aside from that, I think we should read this letter as the second part of a two-part strategy:  first, the little Karl Roveans in the Non-Reality-Based Community wage a dishonest and disgusting campaign of shadowy calls and misleading flyers (attributing them, as is their wont, to Democrats), and then they follow up with an outraged letter asking their supporters to report these calls and flyers.

So Charlie suggests:  “Call the number and report the sort of verifiable facts that the Kerry campaign has been hammering Bush with, like numbers on the budget deficit etc. Claim it must be a terrible lie. See what happens.”

Posted by on 10/27 at 01:18 AM

  1. Based on research I’ve just conducted, it appears that the respondent of the letter from Our Dear Leader’s management team you referenced is none other than a frenchman from one of your links.  Didn’t he have to sign a loyalty oath to get on Our Leader’s mailing list? I think Our Gang is falling down on the job. Campaignering am hard work.

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  04:54 AM

  2. I think Charlie wrote a terrific loyalty essay, actually.  It showed how we were safer believing in Bush and not listening those “news organizations.”

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  05:26 AM

  3. I believe in getting as much information as possible. I’m also a campaign volunteer for Lyndon Larouche.

    Posted by Charlie Bertsch  on  10/27  at  05:55 AM

  4. Man, so that was Karl Rove who keyed my car?  And that was Karl Rove who stole my lawn signs?  Wow, we are seriously through the looking glass now, boys and girls-- it’s like a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. 

    Oh, well, back to reality.

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  11:05 AM

  5. Do you believe that old devil Karl Rove struck again?  Take a look:

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040414-123947-2345r.htm

    Hard to keep up with that little rascal, eh?

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  11:46 AM

  6. Oh, stay on topic, Jorge.  Mysterious flyers show up out of nowhere in a Tennessee Democrat’s campaign office and a disgusted staff member, upon finding them, throws them in the trash; a little while later, someone just happens to come by and find them in the trash!  C’est bizarre!  C’est ?©trange!  And the flyers suggest in the most insulting, inhuman manner possible that Bush voters are “retarded"-- as if any Democrat running for elective office would use that language and that imagery (to appeal to swing voters, perhaps).  And we all know how vigorously Democrats have fought against special education and disability rights. . . .  So have an ounce of sense, my good man.  Democrats have said and done some damn-fool things this year.  But l’affaire Fitzhugh ain’t one of them.

    Good lord, next I’ll be hearing that Kerry is a homophobe.

    Posted by Michael  on  10/27  at  12:51 PM

  7. I propose we all call Ken and report on this obviously forged video that’s circulating on the Internet:

    http://static.vidvote.com/movies/bushuncensored.mov

    I mean it’s obviously forged right?

    A good Christian man wouldn’t make the “fuck you” sign would he?

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  02:42 PM

  8. ”. . . as if any Democrat running for elective office would use that language and that imagery . . .”

    Oui, mais cela s’entend! Democrats never get personal, irrational, or even vicious.

    And I am the one that is in want of sense, eh? You can’t be serious in this irrational faith in the honorable actions of Democrats, can you? 

    Lassen wir doch die Kirche im Dorf.  Republicans will do almost anything to get or stay in office, but the Democrats will always, always, always go lower.

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  04:53 PM

  9. Why am I laughing out loud in the middle of the night?  Because of phrases like “the major fire-hosing states.”

    Posted by  on  10/27  at  07:42 PM

  10. Encore un fois, Jorge, stay on topic.  Yes, Democrats can get mean, vicious and personal.  No, they do not go around putting Bush’s head on the body of a Special Olympics athlete and joking about the “retarded.” Everything about the Fitzhugh case stinks to high heaven, and if you can’t smell it yourself, yes, your senses are not working properly.

    Posted by Michael  on  10/27  at  11:53 PM

  11. Michael, anyone would acknowledge that the case stinks, but I’m just giggling at your paranoia concerning “Karl Roveans.” It’s almost as funny as the defense of Democrats based on their moral superiority, not on the fact that the flyer (which I have seen)is so laughably lame, or that the flyers were discovered in such a hoky, contrived fashion.

    And, mon petit canard, I’m actually quite on topic here, because mine are “reality-based” comments.

    Posted by  on  10/28  at  05:26 AM

  12. you mean the terrorists aren’t worried that “more than three-quarters of Al Qaeda‚Äôs key members and associates have been killed, captured or detained”? shocking! does this mean bush should pull his campaign ad asserting that “100% of the 9/11 hijackers have been killed, captured or detained”?

    Posted by alex  on  10/28  at  10:44 AM

  13. Um, Alex, I think I sense some awfully large, crimson-hued herrings streaming in with your posting.  So, I’ll pass.

    Posted by  on  10/28  at  11:44 AM

  14. CONDOLEEZZA RICE: To be clear, we are after Osama bin Laden. He is being chased by Pakistani forces and Afghan forces and American and other forces. We have broken up 75 percent of the al Qaeda known leadership. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia fully…

    WOLF BLITZER: Well, when you say 75 percent, of how many leaders are we talking—75 percent of a quantity of what? 30, 25?

    RICE: Of its known leadership.

    BLITZER: But how many…

    RICE: I would suspect that that’s in the tens to hundreds—tens to 100.

    The great thing about non-reality is that you can create your own batting average.

    Posted by  on  10/30  at  09:14 AM

  15. How are you. How we treasure (and admire) the people who acknowledge us!
    I am from Darussalam and also am speaking English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Fare sales airline museum gift shop.”

    THX :(, Thayer.

    Posted by Thayer  on  03/14  at  08:15 AM

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