Letters to the Editor
had_enough
Published Letters: 814 Editor's Choice: 48
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uh, so the right-wing lies...there's a newsflash
[Read the article: Right-wing noise machine: Plame not covert]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You know...most of your blog keeps reminding me of something I read years ago..just after Bush was appointed to office by the SCOTUS.
It was probably in Harper's Magazine, but I cannot recall now.
What I *do* recall is that a clearly stated intent inside the new Administration was to destroy the credibility of all news organizations. The Administration knew almost immediately that a free, honest, skeptical press was their greatest enemy, and the Administration--and the GOP--set about the task of making it appear as if all news-media were unreliable.
This was merely a continuation of unstated GOP policy begun many years earlier, to corrupt MSM to its own ends.
It was an insidious and utterly un-american act, and it has, on the evidence, succeeded far beyond the wildest dreams of its progenitors.
So, now we have a situation where large numbers of Americans get their news from obviously mendacious sources, and where any kind of objective journalism is simply dismissed by those same Americans.
This was not any accident, a side-effect of GOP politics. This was the result of deliberate action, started long before Bush took office. It's fair to argue that the corruption of MSM was central in Bush's coup d'etat. Without that corruption, Gore would likely have won handily, even with GOP cheating.
It's great that you do what you do, Glenn, but it's not enough. Until the great old media regain their basic principles, if they ever do, I can't help but think that propaganda will rule our news indefinitely.
It is a sad, and dangerous, state of affairs.
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one question
[Read the article: One picture, one thousand words]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]how does that guy look himself in the mirror in the morning? How?
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ol' Joe
[Read the article: Could Joe Biden please shut up again?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joe Biden may not even make it to the first primary, at this rate. But, then, he's never had much of a chance. He's too eccentric in his rhetoric and geeky in his mein to achieve any kind of mass-popularity. He's just trying to get a little play. Sad.
I've been tweeked over on Greenwald's blog for suggesting that the Dems passed the war funding bill because they're afraid Bussh will actually deprive the troops of resources and then blame it on the Democrats.
I wish the Dems were spreading THAT meme, rather than the GOP version that Congress will somehow "not support the troops." The Dems inablity to get out of their own way rhetorically has always been utterly bewildering to me. It's not hard. If they just talked very directly and bluntly about what's going on, it might cut through. But they're too chickenshit to do that, apparently. At this rate, Fred Thompson will mop the floor with them in 2008.
I believe Bush could deliberate deprive the troops. And I believe he would do it. And I think the Dems are too disorganized politically and philosophically to counterpunch effectively. A plurality of Americans would drink more GOP Kool-Aid and end up believing "surrender in Iraq" is all the Dems fault.
I think a lot of voters are a bit confused about just who is responsible for the utter failure of our quixotic adventure in Iraq. They know who started it: Saddam. They're not sure exactly who is to blame for messing things up afterwards. Polls notwithstanding, I suspect a lot of voters--too many--would be more than ready to blame the Dems for everything. Especially swing voters who voted for Bush and don't want to have to face the fact that they were stupid.
I can hardly blame the Dems here...but I can be disappointed in them. And I am. Just like you, and just like Greenwald, I don't think they should have shrunk back because of mercenary political calculations, but that's exactly what they did. They want to win in 2008, and win big, and they don't want to give Bush and the GOP the smallest chance to hang Iraq around their collective necks.
But it's ugly. I agree. It's ugly. And wrong. Immoral.
Those are our politics today, however.