"Wassup! Conservatism is inherent in the hizzouse!"

You really must see this. Here, from Michelle Malkin's outfit, is an instructional video for conservatives on how to win back the "youth vote" (that is, us). It entails:

1. All the insane bullshit they believe about Social Security, George Soros, and "individual responsibility," plus
2. The rockin' soundtrack and compelling presentational style with which Ashton Kutcher hosts Punk'd.

The result is just as hilarious as you expect:

I especially like how he thinks health care is a "remote topic" that doesn't "presently affect our lives," but what really gets our hackles raised is the government telling us what music we can buy. (For that matter: he thinks we buy music.) Ladies and gentlemen, the conservative leaders of tomorrow: in touch with YOUR needs!

(h/t TBogg)

Flashback

Gavin at Sadly, No! pointed out yesterday that the archives of Right Wing News are "the greatest forgotten trove of comedy since they found all those lost Honeymooners episodes". Curious to test out his hypothesis, I donned my protective facemask and went digging in the conservative catacombs. The time: September 2002. After reading about fifteen posts on "the Saddam-loving left" and almost losing my nerve, suddenly a glimmering hint of stupid caught my eye... I had found this jewel:

As we get closer to hitting Iraq expect Turkey, France, & Russia among others to also publicly favor a strike on Iraq. (!!!!! -ed.)

Now a lot of people may not understand why these nations are going to back the US after spending the last few months so publicly disagreeing with us. The truth is that the leaders of these nations would prefer that we NOT hit Iraq. But on the other hand, they know that if we decide to invade Iraq, we're going to succeed.

Do these nations really want to be on the sidelines when Hussein goes down and his people are cheering their liberation in the streets? A lot of these countries have strong financial ties to the current Iraqi regime. Those ties could easily be broken if they're perceived as backing the wrong side in the war. For example, Hussein owes Russia billions of dollars. If Russia doesn't support the war and Hussein is overthrown, you could expect to see the new Iraqi regime declare those debts "invalid" with the behind the scenes support of the United States. But if Russia plays ball, the United States would insist that Russia be paid.

Amazing. We forget sometimes -- the sheer scale of the delusion this country suffered under. This particular writer even pawed at an analysis of complex international finance issues; yet that understanding, which in normal circumstances would suggest maybe we shouldn't bomb a country much of the world is invested in, was nevertheless subsumed by total war-euphoria. We automatically win and everything flows from there. Get thee behind me, logic! The extent of the unreality is best summarized this way:

I cannot imagine how anyone who has spent more than five minutes studying the situation in Iraq could possible (sic) believe Saddam doesn't have WMD.

Yeah, how could anyone believe that? What a silly thought!

It's instructive to see this stuff directly, so I encourage you to go over to Right Wing News or any of the older conservative blogs -- plus some of the liberal ones, for that matter -- to get an idea of how deeply fucked up everyone's thought processes were back then. And after you have a sense of the size of the thing, ponder this question:

What are we deluded about right now?

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UNRELATED: Make sure to read Rami Sarafa and Deena Shakir's guest post at Cambridge Common, on the humanitarian cost of the Iraq war. Being so focused on the American political side, it's an angle we often don't think to consider.

Crimson editorial cartoon takes aim at Clinton

Content notwithstanding, this editorial cartoon from the Crimson isn't particularly funny:

...although it is well drawn. But as far as the content goes, it quite uncritically swallows whole the Republican misinformation campaign, best typified by the very bogus ABC/Disney "Path to 9/11". Clinton did a great job going on the offensive on this, and I think it's fair to say that the campaign has been thoroughly derailed by recent revelations. So in sum, the cartoon is late, lame, and laughable (or it would be if it didn't deal with such a serious subject)--but not very funny.

I'll give Bill Clinton the last word: