"If an autocratic despot is the manacle that chains its society to the wall, our current establishment media dysfunction is the gangrene that slowly robs us of our ability to stand and walk"

Which reminded me of a question I asked a couple of years ago in regard to there being no consequence for lying to the public anymore (at least if you're not lying about a sexual affair)

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2006/04/broken-democracy-watch.html

Think about what the purpose of this lie is. Its purpose is to fabricate a reality that will allow officials to institute policy that suits the ideological interests of this administration, while hiding the consequences of that policy from the public, who might not agree to it if they were aware of what the truth of the situtation was. If you consider that for a moment, you can see the germ of every thing that is wrong with this adminstration.

Yet there will be no consequence for this action. No one will be held accountable. Indeed, the public will likely never know, or care to know. But that's the absurdity of it. In a democratic society, shouldn't lies like this be simply intolerable? Shouldn't any individual in government who is caught engaging in such a blatant deceit be shamed into contrition or resignation?

If we tolerate lies that we catch, what kind of incentive does that give people in power to tell the truth? In a previous post about gov't secrecy I quoted Walter Lippman writing in 1919 that "there can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies." Well, how much liberty can there be for a society which doesn't care about being lied to in the first place?

Inspired by the release of Glenn's book, and tired of the endless stream of phony outrages by the biggest hypocrites in America which non-movement conservatives are expected to answer for, I've been posting examples along the lines of this post for the last week or so. Here are my last few:

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/ann-coulter-is-left-wing-democrat.html

That one is pointing out how phony Gingrich and Hannity are when they try and act like they care about the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan.

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/townhallcom-bastion-of-internet-virtue.html

Bill O'Reilly says Arianna Huffington is "no different" than Nazis because sometimes hateful comments appear on her website. Townhall - the site he holds up in contrast - publishes stuff like a guy saying that Jews are waging war on Christmas.

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/radicalism-is-totally-unacceptable-that.html

My favorite, and the link most relevant to this post. It's about how phony this Ayers "controversy" is considering that left-wing Stalinist turned right-wing Stalinist David Horowitz holds a place of honor in the conservative movement.

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/radicalism-is-totally-unacceptable-that.html

Also, Grover Norquist, who according to Jon Chait calls himself a "Market-Leninist", and who when first coming to Washington D.C. compared it to Nazi Germany and who has said that the principle underlying the estate tax is what caused the Holocaust - http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/hypocrisy-watch.html - during the 80s was working with or to promote South African apartheid backed guerilla armies (as well as with the Nicaraguan contras.)

http://dailydoubt.blogspot.com/2008/04/hypocrisy-watch.html

That's the link for the Norquist post.

"[It is] the Jewish element of the ACLU which is trying to drive Christianity out of the public place ... because the ACLU is made up of a tremendous amount of Jewish attorneys." - Ralph Reed

Of course, we know how outraged Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich were by the GOPs association with Reed.

Alan Dershowitz attributed that quote to Reed, but I'm getting conflicting hits on a google search. Regardless, its someone from the Christian Coalition.

Life long Machiavellian Republican political operative Karl Rove is doing exactly the same thing he's done his entire adult life for the Republican Party, except now when he appears on Fox News and in the Wall Street Journal or Time or wherever its under the pretense of being journalism. Its so insidious yet so blatantly transparent.

Tony Snow is now doing the same thing for CNN. Its so ridiculous that the person paid to lie to the press for the current administration would just step out of that job and then go to work for the people that are supposed to be holding his former boss accountable.

Maybe Dick Cheney can get a weekly edititorial for the Washington Post once he ceases to be the VP?

Ok, I'll bite.

When I think of Henry Ford I get misty eyed thinking about all the millions of people who were horrifically slaughtered by the Nazi regime which awarded him the highest award it bestowed upon civilians for his work in disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda.

Do they give Pulitzer's for stupid?

Henry Ford wanted the US to join forces with Nazi Germany is WWII and opposed US efforts to enter to the war and to provide aid to the Allies before that.

The Ford factories in Germany helped build the Nazi war machine with slave labor, and I'm fairly certain if I recall correctly that the one(s) in France did the same.

I bet if you do the Nexis search thing you can find articles from Noonan in '04 and especially in '00 saying the same sort of stuff about Kerry and Gore. It would really make the point giving examples of the 2000 Gore bashing since she has magically declared that Bush fooled her once it became apparent his presidency was a sinking ship.