neocons are the dodos of Washington

* dreyfuss:

"What's astonishing about the debate over Iraq is that the President -- or anyone else, for that matter, including the media -- is paying the slightest attention to the neoconservative strategists who got us into this mess in the first place. Having been egregiously wrong about every single Iraqi thing for five consecutive years, by all rights the neocons ought to be consigned to some dusty basement exhibit hall in the American Museum of Natural History, where, like so many triceratops, their reassembled bones would stand mutely by to send a chill of fear through touring schoolchildren. Indeed, the neocons are the dodos of Washington, simply too dumb to know when they are extinct."

* cbs:

"A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
[]
Three al Qaeda suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement. The Islamists deny having any links to al Qaeda."

* wow - rimone is goin' home. g'luck babe.

* some nut:

'In the end, all radical 'religious progressives' are the Judenrat and kapos of their respective faiths and of our time.

By accepting and ascribing to beliefs and ideologies of Leftism, 'religious progressives' have made a deal with the very devil that would destroy them. Disagree with a 'religious progressive,' and like their progressive masters, tolerance goes out the window because dissent cannot be tolerated- because the 'emperor has no clothes.'

The Left has gone from supporting liberal ideologies that were inclusive and universal, to supporting ideologies that are fascist. There is no way any observer can come to any other conclusion. A lot of the moral capital earned by Liberalism, has been squandered by Leftists in the support of causes that are clearly bankrupt and by ignoring causes that go begging."

he then goes on a weird rant about larisa.

* digby on blogging:

It's a strange and almost compulsive thing we do and I don't blame anyone for finally getting burned out or disillusioned or just plain bored with the conversation. I think all of us feel that way at least from time to time. When I first started, I used to take time off, but that's not really possible anymore. So, you just keep keeping on or you stop, I guess."

btw - i think i'm taking a 2 week vacation in feb - and i'm reminded about this comment on blogging from ProfMarcus that I meant to respond to last week:

all we can do is our best... continuing to grope toward the truth and letting it flow out through our fingertips is, in itself, cathartic and a way to retain what little is left of our sanity, readers notwithstanding... the challenge for me is, while constantly facing the black void of current reality, to simultaneously keep in mind a clear picture of what this world CAN be... that is my paradox and, often, my schizophrenia...