The Bad Faith Reality

Ron Suskind, 10-17-04:

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Ancient and Hermetic Order Of The Shrill FAQ, 9-16-04:

We are those who were once sane, fair, and balanced, and who have been driven into shrill unholy madness by the mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, or simple disconnection from reality of the George W. Bush administration.

You can't hide your liaison eyes.

Against the will of Sistani, guess who may be back on the ballot, waiting in the wings...

From The New Republic's Spencer Ackerman's IRAQ'd blog:

To use the shorthand "six major parties" is deeply misleading. There are four political parties included here that can fairly be called "major": The Kurdistan Democratic Party; the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI); and the Da'wa Party. The final two parties would be considered marginal were it not for the longtime patronage of the United States: Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord and Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. (Yes, them again--apparently you can mislead the U.S. on intelligence about Iraq and then pass sensitive U.S. information to your longtime Iranian "liaison" and still not lose the support of the Pentagon and Vice President.)

As the Times notes, this is essentially calling the old Governing Council out of retirement to reprise their greatest hits--like "Hey! (Why Don't You Trust Me)" and the follow-up single, "Exiled (From Your Heart)." It's a curious arrangement. If the stated purpose is to curb Iranian influence, bringing Chalabi back into the mix is counterproductive.