comment #1

George Prager says ...

W. is Frank Burns.

comment #2

christian says ...

we know where bin laden is but our "allies" in pakistan can't let us get to him.

other countries we bomb and invade. what up here?

comment #3

Walter Sobchak says ...

Ah, BDS sufferer MoDo.
Not liking Bush, not agreeing with him on anything at all politically, looking forward to him leaving office, even strongly believing that he's one of the worst presidents in history does not make one a sufferer of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

It's much stronger than that.

The fact is, if Bin Laden were captured or killed tomorrow, (assuming he's still alive), the first thought in the minds of MoDo and many people on this site would NOT be, "that's great news... finally, the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks has been brought to justice!" but rather, (assuming they don't believe Bush was behind the attacks in the first place), a dissapointed "so what? that doesn't mean anything...shit, took him long enough...he'd better not get smug and act like he had anything to do with it... Bush it still Hitler".

Dowd's one of the legion of BDS sufferers who whines endlessly about Bush's "silly, so-called war on terror" and the civil liberties that we've had torn from our fingers in the name of security but when and if another terror attack happens on U.S. soil she'll be one of the first to be pounding the keys amidst the rubble to complain how Bush failed to keep us safe.

Okay, D.Z..... quote away!

(And really, Jeffrey... are you that wrapped up in politics or are you just trying to up the hit count on your site? Will I need to start visiting the Daily Kos to get my movie info?)

comment #4

Brian says ...

That's just what we need, someone encouraging Bush to be even more of a cowboy.

Maureen Dowd is an idiot.

comment #5

Arizona Joe says ...

Osama bin Laden has spent a lot of time in Waziristan, and the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan on the Afghan border. In this part of the world, one can buy anything for a price.

Late in 2001 (if I was in government), I would have set up a CIA operation in this tribal region, using Pakistani or Arab physicians. The operation would have consisted of a kidney harvesting/ transplant clinic. The operatives would pay people for kidneys. In most cases, the doctors would just open people up under anesthesia, and close them without taking a kidney. Under this pretext, money would still exchange hands.

It would be a very public business, including a good amount advertising.

Then maybe Osama would show up one day, and ask for help with his renal problems. The rat goes for the cheese. The trap comes down.

Farfetched? Maybe, but not as much as the Iraq War.

comment #6

Stephe96 says ...

The 'Osama on dialysis' story is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked. Not really a surprise that Dowd and the NY Times still believe it, though.

comment #7

Hickenlooper says ...

Maureen dowd should be given a Burka and dropped into Afghanastan.

comment #8

Stephe96 says ...

Besides, haven't the deranged liberal moonbats convinced themselves that Bush himself was behind the 9/11 attacks anyway?

comment #9

caslab says ...

All right, Walter . . . now that you've invalidated those BDS sufferers . . . and I agree that Dowd is one . . . what about the rest of us?

The ones whose first thought WOULD be . . . "That's great news! Finally, the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks has been brought to justice!"

What do you have to say to us? Why are we wrong to hold Bush accountable for this failure? Why shouldn't we be discussing "benchmarks" for this part of the world?

comment #10

a1 says ...

Here's my DZ-level snipe at:

'"a dissapointed "so what? that doesn't mean anything...shit, took him long enough ..." '

Yeah, it would be so unfair to criticize Bush for taking so long to get the guy who attacked us *six years ago*, so out of line to be angry and upset Osama's still running free for so long. But not you, Walter - no sir! When it comes to terrorists attacking this country, you're completely fine with giving George Bush all the time he needs to get around to it. (Or not, he has said he doesn't care about Bin Laden, after all).

And MoDo's the one that's supposedly deranged about Bush?

comment #11

christian says ...

walter suffers from BLS -- bush love syndrome.

its effects are obvious. a slow erosion of logic and reality.

comment #12

NYCBusybody says ...

I'm one of the rare people (capable of independent, intelligent thought) who likes, loves, dislikes, AND hates things about Bush.

And I gotta agree with Dowd - Bush hasn't been ENOUGH of a cowboy going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan/Pakistan (because of ridiculous loyalty to the corrupt, terrorist-abetting government of Pakistan). I'm glad to see Dowd throwing down some neocon, but I'm sure she doesn't really mean it. After all, she (and others like her) are the reason the American military can be used so little. Michael Moore was against the war in Afghanistan, and Tom Morello said Bill Clinton should be tried as a war criminal. Bill Clinton!

No wonder Commanders in Chief were ignoring Al Qaeda before 9/11.

comment #13

George Prager says ...

NYCBusyBody is part Cherokee.

comment #14

bents75 says ...

Walter,
I take it you're one of the 26 or 27 out of a 100 people who still approve of our Chimp Commander. I guess the other 70+ percent of us are just morons huh?

What about Cheney? You want to defend him while you're at it? What's his percentage down to now 11? 10? That's just about par with the number of people in this country who claim to have either personally, or otherwise know someone who has been abducted by aliens (12%).

Sounds like a banner f***ing majority right there!

comment #15

jeffmcm says ...

NYC Busybody "I'm one of the rare people (capable of independent, intelligent thought)..."

That's when I knew I could stop reading.

comment #16

Walter Sobchak says ...

Even if just for purely visceral reasons, I would loved to have seen Bin Laden captured, hanged, and fed to starving weasels by now. He hasn't, and I'm greatly dissapointed. But then I'm not so naive as to think that the reason he hasn't been found is because our current president is so "dumberer and blundering-y" that he's let Osama escape capture simply by not noticing his disguise moustache and top hat.

And by the way, many on the left often complain that Bush and other conservatives think of things too often in black and white, good vs. evil and are encapable of discerning the nuanced, subtle shades of grey that comprise real-life situations.
Yet, they have no problem assuming that if one is not a far-left-wing moonbat then they MUST be a cigar-chomping, scotch-swilling, Hannity/Coulter listening/loving, Pat Robertson-worshiping, bible-thumping, gas-guzzling Haliburton executive.

comment #17

bmcintire says ...

A disappointed "So what?" would end up being the accurate reaction - after the intial "Huzzah!" wore off. Al Quaeda has grown into too large a multi-headed hydra since the 9/11 attacks for his capture or death to create anything more than a slight stutter in their operations. It would end up being only more fuel for their fire. Maybe the more appropriate two-word response would be "Oh shit."

comment #18

Walter Sobchak says ...

That's right, christian!
Because I don't blame Bush for the fact that it rained on my birthday, the Cardinals are in third place, and that yellow, waxy build-up on my kitchen floors just won't go away with standard, store-bought floor cleaners, then yes, naturally I LOVE him and think he's the Greatest President EVER! Yaaaay Bush!

p.s. Don't forget, BDS'ers... "Gigli" happened on Bush's watch! Never forget!

comment #19

Ogami Itto says ...

"NYCBusyBody is part Cherokee."

Actually, he was only raised by Cherokee; he's really a mulatto.

comment #20

Derby says ...

I see the words 'Maureen' and 'Dowd' together, and I instantly become ill. She is a fraud and an elitist blow-hard. I'm not saying she isn’t somewhat intelligent, but her op-ed work is inane.

comment #21

Ogami Itto says ...

To paraphrase Stephen Colbert:

George W. Bush,

Greatest president in American history, or merely great?

comment #22

caslab says ...

Walter, is it possible to have a conversation that doesn't turn into an "us" vs. "them" series of exaggerations?

Or consider that, as nuch as you hate to be considered "a cigar-chomping, scotch-swilling, Hannity/Coulter listening/loving, Pat Robertson-worshiping, bible-thumping, gas-guzzling Haliburton executive" . . . others may hate to be dismissed as a "far-left-wing moonbat" . . . that this dumb-ass conversation cuts both ways?

So, if you are admittedly disappointed that we haven't captured Bin Laden right now, what do you think we can do to fix it?

comment #23

York "Budd" Durden says ...

Anyone looking both at the evidence (that which we have been allowed to examine) and the through-line of geopolitical reality must logically conclude that individuals at the highest level of American government simply had to know that something was not only afoot, but pretty much what the nature of the plot was going to be on the day this "war" ostensibly began almost six years ago.

Take the time, look into it, non-believers. The preponderance of foreshadowing, supposed coincidence, supposed mistakes, and the behavior of certain government officers in the days and weeks leading up to and on 9/11 (in bushspeak: Septemmmber thuh 'leventh) can only lead to the logical conclusion outlined above.

comment #24

tholl-yung says ...

Made me remember I didn't like Transformers. The stuff Bay shot downtown -- same backgrounds over and over, and too many endings and planes slicing through buildings - made it feel unoriginal, terribly mean and cheap.

comment #25

Craig Kennedy says ...

I'm going to have to go with Walter on this one. I hate Bush more than I've hated any elected official in my lifetime, but I think criticizing him for the continued survival of Bin Laden is missing the point. OBL is one of a small handful of people in this world I wish were dead, but I don't think getting rid of him is as simple as Dowd seems to want to believe...there's plenty of blame to go around both parties...nor do I really think that it would solve the "terrorism problem". If I made a laundry list of gripes about George W. Bush, "Osama Bin Laden Not Being Dead" would be somewhere near the bottom.

comment #26

JoeJustice says ...

You don't have to be a Neocon to want to track down OBL with smart strategy and overwhelming force.

Maureen Dowd is indeed an idiot, and so is W.

But so is the nation for giving W. a pass.

W. is basically Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator.

comment #27

Nate West says ...

For a moonbat, Dowd is, eight times out of ten, pretty good. But I prefer moonbat Frank Rich's less cutesy vitriol. And the gripe isn't that Osama Bin Laden "isn't dead," but that, thanks to Bush's policies, Bin Laden's organization has "rebuilt" itself. Just two years ago, Bush was proclaiming that 70% of Al Qaeda's leadership was kaput. Now he says this... not so much.

If, after your nearly six-year "War on Terror," all you have to show for it is a rebuilt terrorist organization living in an untouchable safe-haven in and around Pakistan and a war that inflames the jihadists to even greater "glories," then you really don't have that much to cheer about. It's just a massive failure. Even those are not yet moonbats can see this.

comment #28

Larry says ...

If we'd gone after Bin Laden (and been miraculously successful--getting him without starting a huge war, much bigger than Iraq's), the Maureen Dowds of the world would be complaining we blew it by leaving a bigger criminal, Saddam Hussein, in place.

comment #29

le corbeau says ...

Of course, the problem with this is that Bin Laden is, in fact, quite probably dead. At least that's a reasonable guess from the fact that no new video of him has appeared in nearly six years, and only one audio tape has been authenticated by anybody (while others speculate that it's one of his sons). If after your nearly six-year hiding in a closet somewhere, all you have to show for it is one dubious audiotape, you are probably an ex-Jihadi, or at least a permanent, less than voluntary guest of the Iranians.

comment #30

caslab says ...

And how are you different, Larry?

Both of you enjoy employing hypothetical, diversionary bullshit, right?

comment #31

christian says ...

so now the right-wing meme is that bin laden is irrelevant?

imagine if kerry had said that. oh, actually bush said it first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGmnz5Ow-o

i'm sure the 3000 families don't want justice either.

comment #32

Walter Sobchak says ...

no that's not the "right wing meme" christian

symbolically he's very relevant.... (that's why I like him as weasel food)

however, strategically he's in fact not terribly relevant anymore

he's in a prison of his own device, to quote Emerson, Lake and Palmer or somebody like that

comment #33

christian says ...

you have zero proof of that walter.

and it is the new rightie meme. if he's in a cave with a network of money and resources around the world, or at least the middle east, how is that "not terribly relevant"?

if kerry had said bin laden "is not terribly relevant" he'd be crucified by your terror warrior cadre. god you righties are awful hypocrites.

comment #34

Walter Sobchak says ...

yeah well christian, you're a bonafide, honest to goodness jackass

please have the honesty to admit that if Bin Laden were captured tomorrow you would be bummed out because you'd be afraid that somehow it would reflect positively on Bush, and for you that would far out weigh any benefits of his capture....

btw, were you aware that Kerry fought in Vietnam?