“Our current system, with costs running into the hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected, together with a willingness to become putty in the hands of a seemingly infinite number of marketers, image specialists, handlers, analysts and all the like, doesn't look like it can really put our presidency into the hands of someone who isn't at least corrupt, and at worst has precisely the personality highlights you mentioned. What you are advocating, therefore, is a huge restructuring of our political (campaign) if not our economic system (lobbying) to accommodate honest presidents.”

“My biggest question is if Cheney thinks the military are cowards for insisting on plans, the CIA lack the necessary guts to break the law, the Congress is irrelevant, the public lacks the will to survive, the courts should not interfere with interpreting the law, the president can't govern without the vice, the press should take dictation better, the constitution is outdated and the Geneva conventions are quaint, and the other countries in the world should just back off, submit, or accept destruction as part of the ritual flogging of small countries to maintain the brand, why doesn't that sound like the resume of a full-blown traitor to more people?”

Ondelette, your statements and questions are outstanding and I hope that most posters are paying attention. While it is important to pay attention to the details and facts in Glenn’s important articles and most responses, it is also important to keep in mind the big picture. While Glenn’s disturbing mirror on the MSM is having its effects, we have to focus on what we can do to learn from our mistakes and make needed changes. If not, we will lose hope.

I listened last night to a CBC broadcast of a 2006 speech at St. Thomas University by journalist and columnist Roy McGregor. He said that the politicians and media in Ottawa had not realized that the rest of Canada was ahead of them and that the capitol media were left with doing news or mischief. When you have far too many media within the Beltway striving to find and truthfully reveal real news and beat the competition, then the remainder of media find their route to fame through mischief. By mischief, MCGregor means the kind of cabal coverage that you find with Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame and Alberto Gonzales where Greenwood desired journalism ethics are flooded over by horrible mischief by both the politicians and media.

The problem is driven more by an out of control system than out of control people. We complain about the MSM and papers like the Times and have not set up any system, than the Internet, to call faulty journalism to account. As Ondelette has pointed out, we complain vociferously about the people we elect and refuse to change an election system that is doomed to fail. We have to pay more attention to systems and less to blaming people, otherwise change will not happen.

“So you see, Sunny, 3rd Party candidates are great when your dude/dudette can win with 35% of the popular vote (as Gov. Ventura did), but this pesky Electoral College sorta puts the kibosh on them at the national level.”

Another excellent example of an outdated system that is hampering our chances to elect the most qualified candidate and to enhance the chance of keeping our present political maladies intact and then keep blaming the maladjusted we elect and those who report on them.

“I knew Iraq was screwed when the US failed to secure the nation's most valuable assets. Not its oil. Its culture and its citizens. Iraq is a treasure to the world. Its early history is the early history of civilization itself. And the occupying forces failed completely to safeguard that heritage. The day I knew Iraq was screwed was the day I learned that the Iraqi National Museum had been looted. It was equivalent to looting the Louvre.”

Winning the hearts and minds of the people you want on your side is not a new or novel concept, as you well know. What’s sad is how it took our so called military and civilian leaders four years to recognize that we needed to win a political war more than a military war and that was long after Abu Ghraib and even longer after the heritage sacking. Some are liars, some are manipulators, some are idiots, and as many as possible need to be purged from our system before we can start the repair.

Brian Katulis from the Center for American progress really gave it to O'Hanlon on Hardball today and used the word propaganda more than once. I think he really startled O'Hanlon looking at facial gestures, because O'Hanlon seemed unaccustomed to such accurate and strong challenges to his so called liberal and journalistic qualifications.

Rcastanon

“The ride is over, they cannot try to fool the country by manufacturing support for the war. That battle is lost. Let's hope they will understand that the biggest mistake they can make is NOT facing reality and get the hell out of Iraq.”

It should be clear by now that the neocons and RWAs never make mistakes. You can count on the mantra changing to, we did all we could, but the generals found the winning tactics too late, the Iraqis couldn’t agree and fulfill their promises and the Dems gave the enemy too much courage by admitting defeat. Assigning any normal, humble character qualities to these arrogant sycophants is a futile exercise.