updated 8/29/08

Obama the War President: Will you fight his wars? By Jim Scarantino – The Real Side

Look up ad hominem on Wikipedia and you won’t find Jim Scarantino’s picture. For that, you’ll have to look up “fucking ridiculous.” I know Jim considers himself one of New Mexico’s great bloggers, way up there with Joe Yawnahan (and his Graphics Monkey), another of our gifts to the blahblahblahgosphere. The pressure to perform must be getting to Jim because his latest Alibi column is far from The Real Side. Kinda like the Republican Party these days.

To the extent that Jim’s latest is about anything, here it is: Obama supporters who aren’t in uniform are hypocrites. I don’t quite see the difference between this and the earlier assertion from the Radical Wrong that if you aren’t serving in Iraq, shut the fuck up about the Great War Without End. Don’t you love it when people take every opportunity to say “freedom isn’t free.” I thought we consider freedom a gift from god that even pacifist-atheists like me get to enjoy. No, if you’re not on active duty, a vet, or related to a vet (can I count my Dad and brother here?), you got nothing worth hearing. Hug a soldier and thank god he doesn’t throw you in Gitmo!

So, per Jim, not only are peaceniks deceived by Obama, but we can only prove our loyalty to the Great Deceiver by joining the military. What did Jim do, search and replace “Bush” in an old column? Cribbing from Huffington Post, Jim? Trying for a spot as a McCain speech-writer?

I’m still struggling with this. If you support Obama, join the military. For two-thirds of his column, that’s all Jim has to say. Isn’t that like saying, “If you support DUHbya, sell your oil stock”? Or “if you support McCain, take ecstasy and go to a rave”?

(Blog rhetoric notwithstanding, active duty soldiers are donating more to Obama than McCain. Obama has veteran support, as well. Soldiers have a choice — I think a clear one — but peaceniks don’t need a choice: we have Obama.)

The goal of Jim’s column is quite simple: Divide and Conquer. There is an old saying in AmeriCo: FUD you. Yes, Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt have long been the Republican weapons of choice. Fear consumes them.

Lest I be accused of being as unspecific or pointless as Jim, here are a few points to consider:

* “Obama, the War President!” Puh-lease every single one of us knows that Obama is not a war monger, which is precisely what Duhbya, Cheney, and the rest of BushCo are. War Mongers, Jim, fucking War Mongers.

* “The media and adoring masses were more fascinated with fist bumps than the details of Obama’s Iraq strategy.” Huh? The people who were fascinated with fist bumps were the Bewildered Right who are so out of touch that they didn’t recognize a common urban, young, athletic greeting. Scarethemtino’s cohort referred to the alarming gesture as “terrorist fist bumps.” Clueless. Utterly clueless.

* “Obama forsees no substantial change in mission.” Come on, Jim. I know you want us to believe that, but do you have someone other the Tom Hayden to back you up? While I believe that 4 years down the road there will be no difference between a hypothetical Bush plan, a McCain plan or Obama’s inevitably revised plan, that’s only because reality would force Bush and McBush to come around to Obama’s plan, as is already happening.

* “They righteously humiliated Republican ‘chicken hawks’ who wouldn’t put themselves at risk for Bush’s wars.” Humiliated? I wish. As far as I can tell, the reality of the CHICKEN hawks never came home to roost. We were demagogued into an needless war by a VP who hid out from the Vietnam war in a tiny state (and hid under his desk on 9/11) and a POTUS who hid out in a champagne unit, getting high in more ways than one, whose high point in office was strutting across an aircraft carrier. Plus assorted minor crooks and an SOS who’s Russian education might finally be worth something. The only person I saw humiliated — humbled — was Colin Powell, who I don’t see rallying around McCain.

The bottom line is this: Who is more likely to wage new war: John McCain or Barack Obama? McCain is a notorious hot-head. McCain moved closer to the Neocons to win the nomination. McCain embodies the failed past.

Obama will shock the world. Obama has gifts — that I sorely lack — for bridging gaps. (Don’t hold my support against him. He deserves better.) If Duhbya hadn’t already shit all over the concept of a uniter, one might suggest Obama is the real deal. McCain isn’t ready. peace, mjh