Robert McNamara accomplished many things in his long life, from revitalizing Ford Motor Co. with a new line of safe compact cars to decades of work to alleviate global poverty and reduce the risk of nuclear war. But he dies today as the “architect of the Vietnam War,” and it seemed the whole rest of his life was a good faith attempt to make up for that awful karma. MORE »

• ROBERT McNAMARA IS DEAD: Jesus, anybody else feel like dying in the next week or two? Because now is clearly the time to do it! Robert McNamara prosecuted America’s hopeless adventure in Vietnam on behalf of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson; he also did many other things, which nobody remembers on account of the war. [Washington Post]

Ever since LBJ came to Washington, political elites and indeed all of America have been subjected to the endless dunderheaded clowning of Texans. We have been told that Shiner Bock, a homegrown version of generic piss-beer, is “awesome,” and that it looks cool to wear a tuxedo with cowboy boots and a massive belt buckle that draws attention to the wearer’s comparatively puny genitals. Finally the tyranny of Texas will come to an end because George W. Bush will soon fuck off back to Dallas or wherever he can find that won’t extradite him for War Crimes, and the rest of America will fondly look back on Texas as that place they have to fly over to get to California. [Politico]

• BOB NOVAK RETIRES: Because of the cancer. He’s been writing his column since 1963, the year Lyndon Johnson became president. [Chicago Sun-Times]

This is the famous “Daisy” ad from Lyndon Johnson’s successful 1964 campaign, which depicts a young Hillary Clinton getting nuked from space by a dead J.F.K., which mutilated her from a Goldwater lozer into a Enfranchiser. The guy who made this Controversial ad, Tony Schwartz, died today at 84, instantly, after finally realizing how fucking insane his ad was. [YouTube, Newsday]

Beloved Watergate criminal E. Howard Hunt finally died this week at the rotten old age of 88 — just a week after he publicly blamed Lyndon Johnson for ordering the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As Hunt himself has long been suspected of being one of the CIA black-ops artists behind JFK’s murder in Dallas, that was a pretty weird revelation.

As he begins his eternal torture in Hell, let’s look back at the curiously rich and varied life of a man who maybe didn’t start off 100% crooked … after the jump.

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When we last checked in on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s ad, it was to note that, “The DCCC is so committed to the environment they’re recycling stock photos and a Bill Clinton quote for America’s ‘new direction.’” Since then, the National Republican Congressional Committee has branded the unmemorable piece of filmmaking “despicable” and is spamming inboxes around the country with daily updated lists of Dems who have and have not “repudiated DCCC fundraising ad that dishonored fallen heroes.” MORE »