If indeed Jonah "looks bad", it's not because Glenn somehow sucker-punched him or took a gratuitous cheap shot. Goldberg looks bad because he is bad.-Little Brother

Yet, this is the same argument one hears about the torture photos: Because they make US look bad, they should not be published…that we actually ARE bad is beside the point, really.

Those interested in helping [Jane Hamsher] stop the war spending bill and foreign bank bailout should read her post here.-- Glenn Greenwald

True, they didn't get McCain into the WH, but for them Ahmadenijad [sorry about the spelling] is the best war incitement tool and they really didn't want to give that up. It may even be that they helped this election along and the "solidarity" is all a disinformation campaign to cover it up.

The demonstrations might make dehumanizing the people more difficult, but dehumanizing Ahmadenijad will prove to be sufficient. Don't we have to free these oppressed freedom loving people from their brutal dictator? It's worked before.

And what could be better than blaming the resulting fiasco on the Democrats and the first black president of the US in perpetuity?

[...] In the afternoon he signed two executive orders and three presidential memoranda, tightening ethics rules for his staff, strengthening the Freedom of Information Act and giving the public greater access to presidential records. "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," he said as he signed the documents.[...]"

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/01/21/new_day/index.html

What occurred in that video is nauseating.

We are creating monsters.

I thought for a split second it was an appellation...sort of like: "Obama, the Just" or "Obama, the Great".

"No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up!"-Lily Tomlin

Q [John Dean]: Is this characteristic of authoritarians, to open themselves up to being easily discredited by what they say? Or something pathological about DeLay?

A [Bob Altemeyer] : I try hard not to call people pathological. Why has he let himself be so easily discredited in this and the other cases? I think it's because he knows his audience, which will be mainly authoritarian followers, who would never doubt what he says, nor check his stories against other accounts. Studies show that authoritarian leaders can say almost anything, and their followers will believe them.

Evidence of Tom DeLay's Authoritarianism:

A Question-and-Answer Session between John Dean and Dr. Bob Altemeyer About DeLay's New Autobiography

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070406.html

A Tale of Two Meetings:

July 23, 2002-“Downing Street Memo” (minutes of a meeting between Blair and senior British officials) written. Head of MI6 reports on his recent talks in Washington.”…the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the evidence…little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.” Jack Straw: “The case was thin.” (The Sunday Times of London, May 1, 2005) “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”- Sir Richard Dearlove, [the head of British intelligence] Dearlove believed the Bush administration had already decided to go to war and that “military action was now seen as inevitable.” (L) Sunday Times of London publishes Downing Street Memo on May 1, 2005.

January 31, 2003-Bush and Blair meet in Oval Office. Bush says war was inevitable and had been “penciled in for 10 March”. Acknowledging that inspectors had not yet found WMDs, Bush suggests three ways war might be provoked should the US case prove insufficient: flying a U-2 spy plane, painted in UN colors, over Iraq to draw fire, thereby making SH in breach of Resolution 1441; producing an Iraqi defector to give a public presentation on WMDs; and assassinating Hussein. While discussing post war Iraq, Bush expresses doubt there will be internecine warfare. Rice says a “planning cell” in DOD had been preparing for postwar Iraq, “a great deal of work was now in hand.” (As reported in a memo by David Manning, then chief foreign policy advisor to Blair, published in Lawless World, by Philippe Sand (February 2006), and first revealed on BBC Channel Four News on February 2, 2006. (L)

(L) What the White House Knew and When It Knew It: Time Lines of the Selling of the War http://frankrich.com/timeline.htm

See also:

“Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House”, 1/2/09

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902?printable=true&currentPage=all