Irrelevance

Digby on Richard Perle's explanation that the failure he led the cheers for isn't his fault:

When I first saw that article, like many of you, I was entertained by the spectacle of these scoundrels having to eat crow. But then I remembered that poor kid whose parents were killed and whose legs and an arm were severed by a bomb I paid for.

And I remembered that a television anchor asked the reporter on the scene whether the shocked, traumatized beyond all belief, child really understood that all of this happened to him for a good cause, the liberation of his country.

And after I remembered that I felt ashamed of my schadenfreude towards Perle. For he is among those directly responsible for the murder of that child's parents, and for that kid's own permanent mutilation. And he implicated me, and you, in that murder and gore as well, despite the fact that we protested loud and long. And he helped create the ghastly environment of immoral self-righteousness reflected in that anchor's remarks. And he urged it happen. He wanted it to happen. He rejoiced when it happened. He wants it to happen again in Iran, in Syria, and elsewhere.

And I felt ashamed that this country's public discourse is even now still so unspeakably corrupt that people as morally sick as Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and Ken Adelman still have access to a wide public. And I felt furious that while Vanity Fair fusses to find the most elegant way to fling Perle's shit at America, the rest of us can only wait anxiously for the inevitable catastrophes, the direct result of the advice and avid support of these people, to unfold, with little opportunity to guide the discourse back to anything close to sanity.

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It is high time that Perle, Ledeen, Adelman and the whole sick crew stop getting their phone calls returned from the media. And for the media to stop calling them. For truly, Perle is not Joshua Marshall's peer. Perle is Joe McCarthy's. He is Curtis Lemay's. Perle is a nutcase, a madman. He makes Ward Churchill appear a paragon of insight and integrity. As for not being delphic, he makes Anne Heche seem normal.

Let this Vanity Fair article be the last time any mainstream publication would think enough of someone as utterly worthless as Richard Perle to publish his comments surrounded by the trappings of seriousness. And if it's not the last time, then by God, let's work to make sure its the second to last. Or the third to last.

This is why I don't bother commenting on some of the better-known shitfucks who pollute the public discourse with their innane lies. For one thing, reporting that a certain limp-dicked, painkiller-abusing douchebag said something stupid, or that a certain Fox News O'Asshole repeated a lie at top volume is like reporting that the sun came up today.

These people say nothing worth hearing. To react with wide-eyed shock every time they say something proving they're totally lacking in brains and decency is to pay them more attention than they deserve. Their moronic noise is nothing more than a distraction from the debate about the government and the future of our damaged union, reducing it to a schoolyard game of He Said/She Said that the press laps up enthusiastically.

I don't care that some blonde cunt criticized 9/11 widows. I don't care that some worthless sack of shit accused an actor with a terrible disease of faking his symptoms. I care that George W. Bush lied us into a war, and that untold thousands of people have died as a result. I care that our troops will remain in Iraq until after Bush is scheduled to relinquish office -- even though mercenaries and government contractors are leaving -- because Bush is incapable of admitting he made a mistake. I care that our government imprisons people without charges, and tortures them. I care that Congress passed a bill eliminating habeas corpus. I care about the national debt. I care that I can't enjoy a piece of fish unless I don't mind eating mercury. I care that healthcare in this country is getting worse and more expensive. I care that 37 million people in this country live in poverty. I care about the future of this great nation.

These GOP mouthpieces are irrelevant to any serious conversation, and it's way past time to start treating them that way.