dar205

This joke about Dachau concentration camp, opened in 1933, shows people knew early on they could be imprisoned on a whim for expressing an opinion:

Two men meet. “Nice to see you’re free again. How was the concentration camp?”
“Great! Breakfast in bed, a choice of coffee or chocolate, and for lunch we got soup, meat and dessert. And we played games in the afternoon before getting coffee and cakes. Then a little snooze and we watched movies after dinner.”
The man was astonished: “That’s great! I recently spoke to Meyer, who was also locked up there. He told me a different story.”
The other man nods gravely and says: “Yes, well that’s why they’ve picked him up again.”

maxomai

Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to the McCain campaign said, simply, "We're fucked."

To really understand the importance of Maliki's comments, you need to consider their opposite. Imagine if Maliki had walked in front of the cameras and said, "at this stage, a timetable for withdrawal is unrealistic, and we hope our American friends will not bow to domestic political pressures and be hasty in leaving Iraq just as the country improves." It would be a transformative moment in this election. John McCain would talk of nothing else. The cable shows would talk of nothing else. Magazines would run thousands of covers about "Obama's Iraq Problem." Obama would probably lose the race.

The national security adviser to the Obama campaign, Susan Rice, said the senator welcomed Maliki's support.

"This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan," Rice said in a statement Saturday.

maxomai

ITEM! With violence down, Al Qaeda slowing things down, and the Sunnis rejoining the government, things are actually looking almost sane in Iraq. McCain is, of course, thumping his chest and declaring "success" in Iraq, claiming most of all that the "surge" for which he argued was decisive in bringing about the reductions in Iraq violence we're seeing today.

Just one problem: from all appearances, it was talking to the insurgents -- which is kinda the basis for Obama's foreign policy -- that led to all this progress. So .. how the hell is McCain getting away with saying that he was right and Obama is wrong? The answer, my friends, is that McCain knows how to spread the manure with the best of 'em.

ITEM! Bush is going diplomatic on Iran! Is this a sign that he might be taking a more sensible stance, and that bombings might not be in the near future? The hell it is. Justin Raimondo lays it out for us.

fraterseraphino

Three journalists were hurt when a gun went off at a press conference called by Chinese police to highlight the success of a gun-control campaign.