"Recession, repression, man... It's all the same thing, man,"

-Cheech Marin

Cheech sees things a lot clearer than a lot of people.

Speaking of the fogbound, Kevin Flaherty speaks to the Afghan war scam at Cryptogon:

...Failure? Someone wound up with a whole lot of opium and heroin, and a bunch of corporations made a killing from a gusher of absurd and lucrative contracts.

That sounds more like just another day at the office than failure to me—considering the criminal organizations involved and their blood soaked gravy train.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s shakedown reminds me of a classic bit of black comedy from my IT days, when “consultants” would show up to my festering tumor workplace du jour bearing, “innovate solutions”...

I used to think, “How come these bozos are so happy when this big top is weeks—or even days—away from total failure?”

After watching well groomed people printing out “Standard Operating Procedures” and preparing PowerPoint presentations, it hit me: “I get it. The whole damn show is a scam. We’re all just pretending to be busy until the checks start to bounce. And then it will be time to do it all again somewhere else.”

So, after eight years of failure, McChrystal writes, “While the situation is serious, success is still achievable.”

By Christ on a stick, I damn near choked when I read that. It all came back to me. Doomed IT workers are told nonsense like that on an almost daily basis. Did McChrystal hand out matching branded stress relief balls, pens and mousepads? Were delicious bagels and fresh, hot coffee provided?

...You know what I’d tell bosses, after sitting though something like that, especially if the consulting firm sent a supermodel in a shortish skirt to deliver the pitch, with all the nerd-slobs in the room wondering, “Is her blouse unbuttoned like that on purpose?”

“Hold on to your wallet.”

Then there's the Serious approach.

President Obama continued his alternative media outlet blitz Monday, telling David Letterman that he will be “asking some very hard questions” before deciding whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan...

No kidding, Dave?