The Idiot Bracket

winning hearts and minds

The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

prepare for some horrific images.

Is there a way to use a “sarcasm” font?

@Capt Howdy:
Winning hearts and minds by killing them didn’t work well in the last major counter insurgency war US America fought.

Maybe Bill Ayers should have given The Onion an exclusive. That would have made their teabagging heads explode.

Anyone who has actually met B.A. (and yes, I have) knows after about 5 minutes that there is NO WAY he would write something and not take credit for it. Or read something and not take credit for it. Or be in the same room as something and not take credit for it. Point is, this man is no ghostwriter, or ghost anything. He’s got, shall we say, a pretty healthy ego.

@SpongeBobtheBuilder: Amen sister/brother, sez someone who has been in a room with him.

And not to mention his wife. Oy fucking vey, talk about someone who sucks the oxygen out of a room.

Really, I just wanted to give that woman some hair conditioner and a gift certificate for Nine West shoes.

/Wow, I feel sort of guilty for how bitchy that remark sounds. But can any of our Chicago Stinquers give me an Amen?

A very good read on its own merits, but especially for the chapter featuring the Dohrn/Ayers couple, is A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind. A great story about a kid from inner-city Washington DC who ends up at Brown University (and a good friend of the oldest Ayers/Dohrn child).

@SpongeBobtheBuilder: OMFG, I remember when that book came out, I lived in DC at the time. What happened to Cedric?

Haven’t met B.A. Nor did I know the Nice Eugene Mom who was revealed to be a Weather (or something) bomber in 1970 or so.

@SanFranLefty: I tried to find the nice Washington Post Profile from 2008 (or so) but there’s something up with their search engine. Short version: He’s a social worker, still goes to the same church, gives book talks all over the country (sometimes with Suskind, sometimes without). There are some lovely photos of him and his mom if you google. I hope someday to meet him.

@SanFranLefty: @SpongeBobtheBuilder: Apparently he’s working for the new mayor now (one of the few non-crony hires, it seems):

Meanwhile, Cedric Jennings, whose struggle from Ballou Senior High School to Brown University was chronicled in the best-selling book “A Hope in the Unseen,” will oversee the mayor’s Youth Advisory Council after previously running the council’s Office of Youth Programs. Jennings, who also holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Michigan, has also been a social worker with the Child and Family Services Agency.

@mellbell: Aww! Good for him! Really, it is a fabulous book–you all should read it.