Too stupid to breathe: Kenneth Pocsi

We haven't had a "Too Stupid to Breathe" here at Blast Off! in a while, so it's a good thing that Kenneth Pocsi of Palm Beach Gardens has come along to end the drought.

Mr. Pocsi, who, if memory serves, has had his frothy rantings published in the Palm Beach Post fairly regularly (I seem to remember the name), hits us today (fourth letter down at the link) with the already-tired-and-clichéd complaints about Barack Obama's choices having nothing to do with the "change" he promised. But what's really funny (and by "funny," I mean colossally ignorant) about Pocsi's idiotic spew is how he manages to frame the Clinton administration:

For the past 18 months or so we all have been subjected to, injected with and immersed in Barack Obama's vision of total change, no more business as usual, no more mistakes of the past and a fresh way of governing.

But as I struggle to follow the news to get a preview of what the face of the new Washington is going to look like, I see nothing but Clinton retreads all over the place. I thought that liberals were supposed to be smarter than us conservative Republicans and that they have the ability to think more independently and more progressively than the rest of us. But behold, this new administration is shaping up like the old Dem-Lib ones of the past, those who in the '90s gave us higher taxes, fought against welfare reform, attempted socialized medicine and did nothing to protect us against the terrorists who planned the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon.

These are but a few lowlights of what I think we all have to look forward to again. Congratulations to all those who voted for this new visionary. You all wanted to make history. Well, you did. God help us all.

KENNETH POCSI
Palm Beach Gardens

Is it possible to be that dumb and still maintain basic life functions? Mr. Pocsi gives us enough evidence to answer that question in the affirmative.

Before I go after the moronic attacks on Clinton, though, I want to emphasize one thing -- something I think every wingnut and Republican needs to be reminded of (and by "reminded of," I mean "bashed over the head with a baseball bat until they get this through their thick skulls"): by change, Obama means a new direction from the last eight years of disastrous government! This has nothing whatsoever to do with any administrations that came before! Would you say that when Drunky McStagger surrounded himself with retreads from the Nixon administration (Nixon?! Are you fucking kidding me?!) like Dick "Dick" Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, that wasn't a change from the Clinton years? I'd say that was pretty profound change indeed -- destructive, yes, but also profound.

See, the problem is that so-called conservative Republicans like you, Mr. Pocsi, don't know the meaning of the word "change." You'd rather stick with the status quo, even if it continues to drive the country off a cliff. After all, that's the very definition of "conservative" -- looking backward, sticking with policies and positions -- and leaders -- even when they are demonstrable and complete failures.

As for going after Clinton (let's remember something here, folks: Clinton left office almost eight years ago! Let it go already! By the time President Obama completes his second term, there will be an entire generation that barely remembers the Clinton years! Yet like the Southerners who are still fighting the Civil War, you just can't seem to move on. Again, a common symptom of conservatism ...

Higher taxes? Yeah, those Bush tax cuts sure have helped the economy, haven't they? "Socialized medicine?" We could have spent the money we've wasted in Iraq on health care for all Americans and still had plenty left over to shore up our crumbling public education system. It's not "socialized" medicine, Mr. Pocsi -- it's civilized medicine.

But I've saved the best for last: according to Mr. Pocsi's extraordinarily inaccurate misperception of recent history, the Clinton administration "did nothing to protect us against the terrorists who planned the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon." Who was president on 9/11, Mr. Pocsi? More to the point, who was president on August 6, 2001, and received the President's Daily Briefing telling him that bin Laden was "determined to strike in [the] U.S."? In short, who had all the power, all the ability, and indeed all the knowledge to prevent the attacks, yet did nothing? You and I both know that answer, Mr. Pocsi.

Stupid as powerful as this really needs a new descriptive word, something like "idioignoradumb." But for now, we'll just have to recognize Kenneth Pocsi for what his letter to the editor today truly reveals him to be: too stupid to breathe. Just be glad that, beginning on January 20, the grown-ups will be in charge again.

McCain: I see your 21,000 and raise you ...

St. John McCain, the erstwhile "maverick" turned right-wing nutjob, left a trail of oratorical devastation in Florida yesterday.

At a campaign stop in Vero Beach, he said the surge is too small:

The U.S. senator from Arizona said the war has been badly managed and he would "like to send more troops" than President Bush is planning to send in an effort to end the violence in Iraq.

McCain spoke to a crowd of nearly 1,000 attending the Riverside Theatre Distinguished Lecture Series held at the Community Church of Vero Beach.

He also bitch-slapped Rummy ...

Earlier in the day during a stop in South Carolina, McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, blamed mismanagement of war on former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling him "one of the worst secretaries of defense in history."

And he made fun of a foreign leader ...

McCain also called the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "a dangerous regime." In an aside, McCain said he "refuses to learn how to pronounce the name" of the Iranian leader.

Seriously, with clowns like McCain and Romney among the "front-runners" for the 2008 GOP preznitshul nomination, the Democrats could nominate a toaster for president and still win in a landslide.

Ford on Iraq

The other day, in my Ford tribute, I alluded to the fact that President Ford disagreed with Chimpy on Iraq. I didn't have a link then.

Now I do.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

He further described Cheney as "more pugnacious" as VP and criticized Henry Kissinger for "always protect[ing] his own flanks."

It's unfortunate that this interview was embargoed until after Ford's death. But it just reinforces my feeling that he was basically a decent, sensible man and the last reasonable Republican president. It's just a breed that we won't soon see again.

Praise, pageantry, and testimonials for Rummy

Architect of the unpopular war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is no stranger to harsh criticism. But Friday was planned as a day of praise, pageantry and testimonials for the outgoing Pentagon chief.

Blast Off! has been granted exclusive access to photos of today's pageantry:




Bring the kids and make a day of it! It's a celebration!

UPDATE (4:16 pm 12/15/06): I hope they gave Rummy a nice going-away present. Maybe a pet like this would appeal to him.

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Donald Rumsfeld

Outgoing SecDef Donald Rumsfeld said bye-bye today.

I'm so glad he's gone. He Still. Doesn't. Get. It.

"We have every chance in the world of succeeding in both those countries, but only if we have the patience and only if we have the staying power," he said. Asked about the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendations for a change in approach to the Iraq war, Rumsfeld said none of the suggestions were new.

"I can't think of a thing that anyone's thought of that General (Peter) Pace and General (John) Abizaid and those folks have not been working on and analyzing and studying and adjusting to over time," he said, referring to the top two generals overseeing the Iraq war. He said the Pentagon had sent its advice to the White House on possible new approaches.

Shorter Rummy: the ISG can't tell us anything we don't already know. If we just stay the course ...

The "course" is why Iraq is such a mess ... and it's why Rumsfeld was shown the door. But, loyal to the end, despite still trying to dig the knife out of his back, Rumsfeld sticks with the party line, thereby keeping the world safe for democracy eventually blaming the Democrats.

For continuing to hide his head in the sand, I am pleased to extend congratulations to Donald Rumsfeld ... today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

(Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Rummy.)