in some ways, I feel sorry for Hinderaker.... for him life must be like it was for Catholic Bishops who continued to insist that the Sun revolved around the Earth long after the rest of the world had accepted the obvious....

(as an aside... Greg, how about some analysis of what is happening in the Balkans. They seem to have fallen off the "political" map, but I'd really like to hear your perspective on where things stand there right now....)

Posted by: p.lukasiak at October 25, 2006 04:06 AM | Permalink to this comment

"The murder rate for Iraq as a whole is not quite double the 1991 Washington D.C. rate. This is a high level of violence, to be sure. But it is nothing compared to an actual civil war."

Well, just what is the quantifiable rate of murder for a civil war? With the increasingly blurred distinctions between the militias, the police and even what passes for the Iraqi Army in terms of the escalating violence in especially Baghdad, I'm not so sure you're going to have luck selling this notion of 'sustainable violence' to a guy who's just had his family lined up against a wall and shot to death by the 'cops' when said guy called on them to rid their particular block of the militiamen who had just lined up and shot dead the next-door neighbor's family the day before.　

Bright, cheerful formulations like these are made based on the level of violence the TV viewing audience, the Internet surfers, the blogosphere, or what few hard copy newspaper and magazine readers there are left can bear with...in America. In D.C. too, the gangs and the cops were, and still are, usually fairly easy to tell apart. Funny how the world, when held at arm's length, seems so, you know, easy to figure out.

Posted by: sekaijin at October 25, 2006 11:26 AM | Permalink to this comment

The Powerline gang simply have become accustomed to shoveling the power-drill-riddled carcasses of police and workers off the streets of DC. Not to mention the constant car bombs exploding left and right near Capitol Hill.

I truly liked the part where he prognosticates that DEMOCRATS will have blood on their hands because of Iraq's prognosis.

Wow.

Posted by: Barry at October 25, 2006 01:38 PM | Permalink to this comment

Apparently the jackasses at Powerline are unable to distinguish between somewhat organized mayhem--as in the civil war in Iraq--and completely unorganized mayhem--as in killings in Washington, DC.

Their buddy Shrub's invasion of Iraq created a power vacuum--which, despite the US's appointment of al-Maliki as prime minister, still exists--and the various militias are fighting to fill that power vacuum. That should be obvious to even the most ignorant observer. Apparently, Powerline is too ignorant to notice.

Posted by: raj at October 25, 2006 01:59 PM | Permalink to this comment

Be careful, everyone! They've got their "Time Magazine's Blog of the Year" commemorative plaque, a fax machine with an encrypted connection to the RNC, and three heads full of crazy!

Posted by: norbizness at October 25, 2006 02:07 PM | Permalink to this comment

If you listen to NPR this morning, you learn that insanity starts at the top. VP Cheney, talking to Juan Williams this morning, applied the lessons of history to Iraq. Iraq is not in Civil War. Civil War is like Antietam and Gettysburg.

I guess Powerline, in a small way, is an enabler of insanity, worthy of some degree of contempt. But when we have that kind of blither from the lead policymaker on Iraq, it's time for some real worry.

Posted by: Appalled Moderate at October 25, 2006 02:15 PM | Permalink to this comment

Wow is right. They are already blaming a yet to be elected Democratic congress for the failure to secure Iraq. I suppose it's the next "logical" step after blaming the media for suicide bombers. Soon enough they'll fault the Dems for invading Iraq and failing to find WMD's.

Posted by: Tim at October 25, 2006 03:43 PM | Permalink to this comment

Re: The Toady Tent --

Personally, I grow tired of the belief that a politician is somehow not a real man (or woman) unless he submits himself to a generally hostile interview with an anchorman with important hair. Frankly, those interviews are rarely informative, and when the politician acts like a human being and gets irate (see the recent Clinton interview), it becomes a big soundbite event which tells me even less about anything I care about.

The most interesting things come out from questions from informed interviewers who are trying to draw politicians out, and who let the politicians talk. The best way for the American people to see what Bush is would be for him to do an hour interview with Brian Lamb. Frankly, the interview of Dick Cheney this morning by Juan Williams (not a confrontation guy) on NPR did a good job of showing what an empty suit Cheney is.

Anyway -- toadys serve an invaluable function. They deliver the message the President wants delivered without filter. The American people actually deserve that option so that they can make their own minds up.

Now, feel free to mock someone who chooses to be a toady, particularly when they say moronic things. But criticizing an Administration for trying to put its spin on things? Why? If your criticism succeeeded, all you have accomplished is censorship of the administration, and tell me why that's a good thing?

Posted by: Appalled Moderate at October 25, 2006 06:33 PM | Permalink to this comment

All time favorite Power Line quote from John Hinderaker:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Very strange indeed.

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011183.php

Posted by: Eric Martin at October 26, 2006 01:21 AM | Permalink to this comment

I'm glad I wasn't living in Washington, DC in 1991 - I wasn't aware that 750 people a month were being killed there at that time. It's amazing how death-rate numbers that a GOP Congressman and the Pentagon essentially made up a few months ago continue to reverberate around the right-wing blogosphere, apparently on the assumption that no one will have the intelligence or initative to call BS on them. Unforntunately, when it comes to the average right-wing blog reader, that assumption is generally accurate.

Posted by: Mark B. at October 26, 2006 03:15 AM | Permalink to this comment

But criticizing an Administration for trying to put its spin on things? Why? If your criticism succeeeded, all you have accomplished is censorship of the administration, and tell me why that's a good thing?

Armed moderate, it would be wrong to censor the administration.

What the entire public should do, when they find out the administration is spinning, is tell every other member of the public they come in contact with, "The Bush administration lied to us about this topic. Why should we believe anything they say?"

Like we all should have been saying ever since the social security scandal, "We know that Bush himself was trying to steal the Social Security money. Why would we trust him about anything else at all?"

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