Letters to the Editor
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"We never really know what effect we're having."
During the run-up to the war, the demonstrations really didn't get much media coverage, and what they did get was pretty slanted.
Of course, that was before Bill Moyers' documentary on how the M$M let us down every step of the way. I didn't know then about KnightRidder's/McClatchy's contributions because those stories weren't getting published in my east coast urban area.
So, we had some large demonstrations on the coasts and in urban areas, but the news coverage was actually more truthful in the Heartland. Perhaps we want to make sure in the future that McClatchy gets the press releases.
In the meantime, every post that Glenn writes, as well as those by FDL, Digby, Jeffrey Feldman, etc., will nudge the M$M a bit further along the road to credibility.
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a clarification, but not a retraction-regarding the replacement AG
1.Kitt selectively quotes me, thus:
@Mr. Versen
Why?
"Senate Democrats must commit themselves to blocking any and all nominees until Bush nominates someone whose independence and integrity are beyond reproach."-GG
Really? Why?
You are usually a perceptive writer, Mr Greenwald, but I'm afraid you've been sipping the koolaid in this instance.
-- Jonathan Versen
I'm getting the impression that some commenters think it would be impressive - just for the sake of of being impressive - to disagree or call out Glenn Greenwald.
Mr. Versen's post is meaningless. There is nothing to reply to in it.
2. There is "nothing to reply to" because of your removing the middle of my comment:
"Really? Why? They rolled over for 2 SCOTUS appointments, they rolled over for defunding the war, then they rolled over for vastly increased executive snooping powers. If the democrats then choose to fight over Gonzales' replacement, what will that prove besides their hypocrisy?
Are you advocating that the dems behave like a loudmouthed impotent drunk who only starts screaming "let me at him" once he has two friends are holding him back?"
2B. Either you did this innocently, or you meant to misrepresent what I wrote. Given the lack of elipses,I'm inclined to believe the latter.
2C. Sometimes I look at things I've written and regret having been excessively wordy, and it's possible that in the previous comment I erred in the other direction. Also, I think I should've written
"...but I'm afraid you missed the mark in this instance."
instead of the koolaid remark. Sorry about that, G.
2D. and I should've fixed a minor typo.
3.To clarify: another reason I think Dems shouldn't necessarily come out swinging with respect to the unknown AG nominee, aside from it serving to make them look foolish and disingenuous insofar as they've otherwise been buckling left and right on weightier matters, is because they're likely to get Harriet Miered again, to coin an inelegant phrase.
Miers was clearly set forth as a deliberately underqualified sacrificial lamb for the SCOTUS nom in October of 2005. This I accurately predicted at HZ, as did Salon commenter Sue Voelkel, that the democrats might take her down, then fear looking unduly bitchy in objecting to her replacement, and get rolled again.
As I recall, Miers withdrew her nomination on a Thursday evening and her replacement was announced the following Monday morning.
Get ready for the same play, even if the guy with the playbook went home.
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Deja vu
Since returning from a two hour stint registering voters this morning -- how pedestrian is that? -- I've followed this debate with mixed emotions. As Eliot wrote:
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.I won't bore you again with all the old geezer stories of Viet Nam and Watergate, but believe me, both Glenn and Ché are essential figures in any politics worthy of the name. Years ago, just as today, both sides of this tactical argument arose together. Before I ever joined the cast of thousands in the streets, or participated in a sit-in, or dodged a single tear gas canister, I listened to people you may never have heard of -- Staughton Lynd, Carl Oglesby and A.J. Muste -- and people you surely have heard of, like Herbert Marcuse and Martin Luther King. I spoke myself at meetings, and even at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast (no, that didn't go so well.) I also participated in I don't know how many arguments that sounded just like this one. Dozens, certainly -- possibly even hundreds.
When I hear them again today, I have to say that I don't feel at all jaded, or disappointed, not even for an instant.... I feel like jumping up and down, and shouting for sheer joy. My heartfelt thanks to both Glenn and Ché, and to all the other commenters who've weighed in with them. Honestly, this is what genuine democracy sounds like, and if anyone thinks I'm a sentimental old fool for saying so, so be it. It won't bother me at all. (Eliot, by the way, was wrong. Time and redemption are entangled. Neither can exist without the other.)
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No Republican as new AG
The Democrats should demand that because of Gonzales' disgraceful conduct and shameless lack of ethics while AG, the next AG must be a pure legal scholar with no party affiliation. No more unqualified party hacks or crazed ideologues.
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I also understand the frustration
It borders on rage at times and despair at others. Especially when I read something like this:
Upheaval in the Middle East and Islamic civilization could cause another world war, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying in an Austrian newspaper interview published on Monday.
Zalmay Khalilzad told the daily Die Presse the Middle East was now so disordered that it had the potential to inflame the world as Europe did during the first half of the 20th century.
"The (Middle East) is going through a very difficult transformation phase. That has strengthened extremism and creates a breeding ground for terrorism," he said in remarks translated by Reuters into English from the published German.
"Europe was just as dysfunctional for a while. And some of its wars became world wars. Now the problems of the Middle East and Islamic civilization have the same potential to engulf the world," he was quoted as saying.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070827/pl_nm/mideast_khalilzad_dc_1
The U.S. did this. It is on our head. No one in the U.S. gets a free pass on this one. Not Democrats. Not well-meaning Republicans. Not the "not interested" or "cannot be bothered" or "just leave me alone." No one.