Letters to the Editor
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Shooter speaks of his liar in chief hero
Bush was strong enough to do what he thought was right no matter what the howling, prancing, filthy, press had to say.--shooter
The "howling, prancing, filthy press" was repeating Bush's lies all along, so I don't WTF you are trying to make up with that hyperbolic bullshit sentence.
Here's one of Bush's favorite lies. I know you must love this one too, shooter.
"We gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in."--George Bush
And George Bush continues to repeat that lie right up until this present time. So I guess shooter is saying that if you lie to yourself long enough and often enough - like Bush and shooter do - you can "honestly" say that you were "strong" enough to do what "you thought" was the "right" thing?
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Salon's stock in trade is doing precisely that
So what are you objecting to? That they're right or that they're pointing it out?
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The WSJ and Peggy Noonan
Ms. Greenwald:
Wonderful and deserved comments. I read the WSJ daily because of the financial content. However, on at least two occasions, I have written letters to the WSJ critizing their editorials with a comment that it is ashamed that they put the Republican Party ahead of America. Their editorial writers, in my opinion, are about the same level that Pravda editorial writers used to be.
In regards to Peggy Noonan, I don't read her regularly, but have read a few of her columns recently. Those columns were related to war and combat. I was in the Vietnam War and know a little about what went on. She totally distorts facts and frankly doesn't tell the truth - all so that she can write a column. She is even a lower lever than the editorial writers.
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If I'm Not Mistaken
The republican hatred of Clinton led to the republican congress threatening to defund Bosnia on a couple of occasions.
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kenjitsushin gasshō
Namaste.
Japanese Buddhists call it gasshō. It has twelve forms, the first of which I learned as a Jodo-shu adherent: called the kenjitsushin gassho - "steadfast-being-gasshō." It is the symbol of the multitude of different things being, at the same time, One.
Respect is the key, and something this group never extends toward its opponents.
And humility, and likewise.
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Anonymous: Litigation
I'm well-aware of, and agree with, all of the factors you described. Those are exactly the considerations which tort reform advocates refuse to extend to others. I wasn't condemning those who commence litigation; I'm in favor of having an open judicial forum and think lawsuits are a vital mechanism for redressing grievances.
I was applying the rationale and tenor of tort reform advocates to Berkowtiz's lawsuit, not my own.
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OT--Quick, name that story!
The snippet below is from an AP story that just ran. My question is, what is the topic of the story? I think that this paragraph is likely to be useful in any number of stories that will run between now and November, 2008.
"They want to get something done before a new administration gets in and so they get the clock ticking on" federal regulatory approval, the official said.
No fair using the Google or looking at the Yahoo news page.
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@Jim White
Something to do with the goings on in Pakistan?
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Textbook example of BDS
Bush was strong enough to do what he thought was right no matter what the howling, prancing, filthy, press had to say.
- Shooter242In the BDS sufferer's mind, objective reality must be twisted to conform to the preconceived notion of his Leader's nobility and infallibility. This results in a delusional worldview where up is down, black is white and evil is good.
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Jim White...
I thought it might be about another "recess" or interim appointment, not for the FDA, but maybe for one protecting consumers?
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Bush like Hillary is playing the sympathy card
Hillary's sympathy card is the gender card: The men are all "piling on" but I can play with the big boys.
Bush is playing the "with me or against me" card again where the "against me" people are haters, and people who hate are not reasonable.
Hatred is a funny thing. F*ck with people long enough. Lie to their faces. Tell them you're invading a country to protect them from nuclear bombs. Scare the shit out of them repeatedly. Torture prinsoners in their name and lie about it. Spend all their money recklessly, their children and grandchildren's money, and give it to your benefactors in "no bid" and maybe they'll start to hate you.
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Shucks
After posting my guess I looked for the answer. I was wrong. ;o(
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@Kitt
Fortunately, it's only a story about a potential merger between United and Delta. But what else is going to be done "before a new administration gets in"? Allowing the re-emergence of monopolies almost sounds like returning to the good old days, doesn't it?
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The press: a gradual transformation from journalism to propaganda
Joan Didion has probably done the best writing I've read on this topic in her book Political Fictions, which draws from essays in The New York Review of Books over the course of the 'eighties and 'nineties.
We haven't "turned a corner" so much as we've progressed along a gradient from the Watergate days to the present point, at which the narrative of the mainstream press is entirely fictitious. I'm not saying that the reporting is "lies" or anything like that. I'm saying that the narrative armature used by all major newspapers and television broadcasts in order to explain what's happening is a complete work of fiction.
This started to become most readily apparent directly after 9/11, when (as Susan Sontag got excoriated for pointing out in The New Yorker), nobody would say what was actually happening in terms of Saudi Arabia, Israel, global market pressures, and overseas animosity towards American actions over the past 10-20 years. Instead, we were told that "they hated our freedoms" and that we had to begin an (entirely fictitious) "war on terror" in order to fight back.
The press has played along with the fictitious narratives of "spreading democracy" and "strong on defense" and "security measures" (violation of civil liberties) all along. Today, it's nearly impossible to say anything important on the national stage because everything must be tailored to the PRAVA-style Orwellian narrative that is presented on television. John Kerry (to his tremendous discredit) tied himself in rhetorical knots trying to talk about Iraq without actually talking about it (e.g. talking about oil); hardy old liberals like Charles Rangel punted when asked straight out by appalled interviewers "why Bush would lie" about WMDs; to this day, no candidate from either side will say anything about what we're really doing in the Middle East and why we won't be leaving any time in the next ten years. They can't, because the press has colluded in making in impossible; it violates the premises of the story Americans are being told, about "national security" and "terrorism."
The republican candidates embody these characteristics to an extreme. As I wrote a few weeks ago, after their recent debate:
The root cause (and arguably the only issue at play here) is Reagan-era FCC changes and control of the airwaves.
This Presidential election, far more than the two that preceded it, is an exercise in completely fictitious narrative on our television screens and in our newspapers. The Republican field of "candidates" are all Kabuki performers in a Rupert Murdoch/ClearChannel pantomime; the direct result is the kind of ridiculous nonsense coming from the mouth of the "front runner" and the fact that he is apparently their front-runner despite the complete lack of any real substance whatsoever to his campaign.
The Republican "debates" and all the ancillary commentary proves this. Grown men and women in business attire appear on television every night and discuss these clown candidates in solemn tones as if their stated "positions" are something more than 100% substance-free sloganeering; as if their posturing and sound bites have anything to do with reality.
Until television and newspapers are forced to abandon their utterly fictitious "coverage" and actually portray the real world (which won't happen without a significant FCC shakeup and an AT&T-style forced breakup of conglomerate ownership), the Giuliani-level nonsense will only get worse.
Television, radio and newspapers will continue pretending that Bush is popular; that "centrism" means Bush capitulation; that "Bush hatred" is a fringe, psychological phenomenon (and not a growing, national and global majority position); that we are "fighting for democracy;" that they "hate our freedoms"; that Al Gore, Ron Paul and Howard Dean are "crazy"; that Edwards is "soft" and Giuliani is "tough"; etc. etc. etc. until reality disappears over the horizon. It's only going to get worse, until we begin regulating the airwaves again.