Cheeto Dust

Shorter Treason-Wankee: “I have wasted a shitload of time.”

I truly fail to understand Right Blogistan’s obsession with Jamil Hussein, but I suppose if it can be proven for certain that he doesn’t exist, then everything else will arc toward a resolution — the non-existent WMD will suddently unearth themselves; the abattoir outside the Green Zone will de-escalate; the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled the country last year will return and bring forth a new generation of virtuous citizens; the death squads being run by the government we ushered into power will put down their guns and drills; the execution of Saddam Hussein will be shown to be a model of due process and sobriety; the insurgency will evaporate like the morning dew; and Iraq’s infrastructure will bloom like wild prairie flowers.

. . . in the comments, Bird Dog asks me to “think harder” about stuff and observes that “[a]ccurate and honest reporting should be a bipartisan issue.”

This, I’m sure, explains why conservatives are abandoning Fox News in swarms.

The more serious response to this is “no shit.” I have no trouble heaping scorn on any institution that — speaking hypothetically here — invents or massages or otherwise manipulates evidence to suit unwholesome purposes. It goes without saying that a major organization like the AP should be held to account for errors and ethical lapses in its work. The quest to discover the identity of Jamil Hussein, however, derives not from an earnest interest in “accurate and honest reporting,” but is instead being driven by people who have nothing but raw contempt for journalists who are actually covering this war. The fact that Michelle Malkin — whose book on the Japanese internment is a pig’s breakfast of errors, deliberate or otherwise — is actually traveling to Iraq to search for Jamil Hussein only underscores the mediocrity of this cause. The fact that Bob Owens spent his New Year’s weekend trying to corroborate scores of AP stories from his living room . . . well, that’s just fucking pathetic.