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Tha Army also acknowledges that it is losing the infowar in Afghanistan and needs to put more resources into shaping perceptions there, winning hearts and minds, etc.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/reboot-afghan-info-war-top-commander-says/

The American counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan isn’t just short on troops, strategy, and a credible government in Kabul, according to a new assessment by the top commander there. The U.S. military and its allies are also losing the “important battle of perception” in Afghanistan to the Taliban. To turn things around, they’ll need more that just hire a few new spinmeisters. They’ll need to bolster Afghanistan’s retro “communications infrastructure,” move quicker to counter Taliban propaganda, get smarter about “new/social media” — and “demonstrably change behavior and actions on the ground.”

[Global War On Terror]
hmmmm
I thought we stopped using that term

@redmanlaw: Spend the money putting in water and power, concrete things, instead of trying to convince them we’re helping when we’re not.

@blogenfreude: Oh, I thought you were talking about working on the house instead of caring for my new dependent, the Dodge Ram. US America would rather build studios and communications infrastructure to tell people their lives are getting better instead of digging a well or putting in some irrigation head gates.

TJ: Bobby Byrd death watch

@SanFranLefty: (A) Cats should fucking resign before hitting the age of 250; or (B) voters need to elect people those who did not attend grade school with Ramses.

@redmanlaw:
You mean that “winning hearts and minds by grabbing them by the balls” isn’t working?

Didn’t work so well in the Philippines, Wild West, Mexican Wars, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Korea, Vietnam… well, you get the idea.

@redmanlaw: This is the sad part. This kind of engagement and the approach you cite was well known in the war colleges of the 1960s and actually used successfully, most recently with southern islands in the Philipines where Islamic insurgents were gaining footholds. How far ahead would we be if everything government touched wasn’t considered complete theatre.

@SanFranLefty: What’s the handicapping on who will succeed him?

Hey, I heard that your Mayor Goodhair’s wife had a baby. I’m sure that had nothing to do with his run for Gov.

@FlyingChainSaw: Sack of cement = $8. Well drilling, cost per foot – varies, about $35/ft in suburban US America. Communications tower, maintenance, security, power, programming, talent, receivers = zillion$$$ to MNC, subs, local power structure and hangers on.

@SanFranLefty:
Bobby Byrd’s afterlife options:
Heaven–The Heavenly Gavel and perpetual earmarks for West Virginia;
Purgatory–An endless filibuster;
Hell–Freshman backseater in the House of Representatives minority party

@redmanlaw:
Plus no $$$$ for snazzy “pacification” weaponry like GPS guided cluster bombs, stealth fighters, artillery and sharks equipped with lasers on their heads.

@ManchuCandidate: That’s “frickin'” lasers . . .

TJ: Hi, everyone. I haven’t drownded. Though the city of Atlanta is now officially shitting into the Chattahoochee River. FEMA internment camps have not yet been set up, and the people in the red counties whining about socialized medicine are demanding socialized disaster assistance.

@rptrcub:
“God” seems to have answered Sonny’s prayers a year late. Might be time to tell him to stop praying.

That’s not socialism unless a black man gives them help. Then it’s “socialism.”

ETA: glad you’re okay.

@redmanlaw:

Once they get the goats wired for internet we’ll have the Taliban licked.

@rptrcub:

Honey, I’ll say it once again: Come be gay in West Hollywood. No floods, and if you see a redneck it’s usually because he’s parking your car.

@Dodgerblue: Yeah, you missed that last week. Dumbass was live-Twittering the birth. Named the kid Montana instead of California, so I guess she’s not a complete campaign prop b/c if he were in full pander mode that child would not be named for the Big Sky State and instead the Golden State.

@Tommmcatt is hunkered down in the trenches: Grad school should be over… like in 2011.

@ManchuCandidate: Jesus obviously does not like the Teabaggers.

@SanFranLefty: “Montana” is for appeal to second home owners, like “Kalispell”, “Tesuque” or “Corrales” would be.

@SanFranLefty:

You know there’s trouble when they start naming kids after SUVs.

@Original Andrew: All together now: “Why have they named her after a car?”
“Portia!”

@SanFranLefty: “Montana” is the name of every woman ever depicted in a Nagel poster.

@Benedick says Keep on Fucking that Chicken: LOVE.THAT.MOVIE!!!!!!!!!

@SanFranLefty: Maybe he’s looking ahead to a presidential bid and wants to lock up Montana’s 3 electoral votes. Or he’s married to a teeny-bopper who’s into Hannah Montana.

@Mistress Cynica: No, it’s worse than either theory. Montana is where he married wife #2, the blonde trustafarian slash actress (wife #1 Kimberly Guifoyle the ex-lingerie model rocketed to infamy as one of the DAs in the San Francisco dog mauling murder case in 2001 and parlayed her appearances on teevee into a career as a Court TV/Faux News talking head, moved to NYC and dumped him), as it’s where one of her rich daddy’s homes are per RML’s theory, and “Montana just means so much to us.”

/vomit

@SanFranLefty: @Benedick says Keep on Fucking that Chicken:

“Otto West: Don’t call me stupid.

Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I’ve known sheep that could outwit you. I’ve worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you’re an intellectual, don’t you, ape?

Otto West: Apes don’t read philosophy.

Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it. Now let me correct you on a couple of things, OK? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not “Every man for himself.” And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

@Mistress Cynica:

i recently had lunch with a bunch of women who were flabbergasted that i had never heard of hannah montana. what am i missing?

@baked: Absolutely nothing. Really.

@blogenfreude:
/raises hand/

um, I’ll go!?

/sits down/

@baked: Again, how much do I love that f-ing movie? It’s above Blazing Saddles frankly, and rivals Spinal Tap.

Is 8:45 to late to queue up A Fish Called Wanda if I have to wake up at 5:45 am?