Letters to the Editor
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useless Joe Klein
What else is there to say? His advice is entirely self-interested (i.e., he is paid to say these things) and should be shunned by anybody in the Democratic party who wants the party to succeed.
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Joe Klein & Capitulation
Why should Joe Klein worry about being exposed as factually challenged? All he has to do is simply go on, saying whatever he wants, knowing that a totally apathetic public won't ever hold him accountable.
So screw Joe Klein. What I'd like to hear is more about chubby Scottie, and his absolutely astonishing, breathtaking, unexpected and totally mind-numbing revelation that he passed on LIES to the American People from none other than the President of the United States!
And after I hear the details, I'll go back to my espresso doppio con latte caldo and just wait for a totally apathetic public to do what it does best. Absolutely fucking nothing.
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national security
Glenn,
Good job on nailing that lying Klein.
"... Yet the liberal punditocracy and Democratic consulting class drone on with the only theme they know: Democrats are being "foolishly partisan" by opposing Bush's national security demands and must capitulate still further if they know what's good for them."
The main problem as I see it, is that the Democrats and the Party "leadership" are also totally committed to a foreign policy of interventionism. They agree with the Republicans; we have the "right" and "duty" to treat others as our vassal servants; or slaves.
Perhaps you will use a post in the future to outline what the national foreign policy should be. From a moral standpoint, invading other counties seems wrong to me. From a legal standpoint; we claimed at Nuremberg that the High Command of Germany was guilty of war crimes for invading Poland.
The accused faced four charges of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity:
1. Crimes against peace by waging aggressive war against other nations and violating international treaties.
2. War crimes by being responsible for murder, ill-treatment and other crimes against prisoners of war and enemy belligerents.
3. Crimes against humanity by participating or ordering the murder, torture, deportation, hostage-taking, etc. of civilians in occupied countries.
4. Participating and organizing the formulations and execution of a common plan and conspiracy to commit aforementioned crimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Command_Trial
Will we in the USA ever consider the moral and legal limits to our actions?
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Useful Idiot
You aren't too smart. I like that in a man.-- Kathleen Turner as Matty, Body Heat (1981)
Joe Klein in a nutshell.
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Who believes what?
I think we also have to consider the possibility that a fair number of 'liberal' pols and pundits actually view the world in pretty much the same way as their Republican counterparts.
The reason they don't see their actions as betrayal of principle is that they don't believe in the principles they're betraying.
Many Democrats, we might surmise, pretend to be 'liberal' just as many Republicans pretend to be e.g. 'values conservatives'. Under this hypothesis, it is the charade of opposition that is hypocritical, not the inevitable subsequent capitulation -- which reflects their core beliefs.
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@John
You'll be waiting a long time, if you plan to wait for the public to act. That's what leaders are for.
Publics respond to threats to their way of life---they don't respond to lesser threats.
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winners
are perceived to be everything by the media, hence the football like attention to polls and fundraising(who is ahead, can he/she come up with the 'big play")ad nauseum. and actually, when the clinton administration adopted the repugs stand on security they too failed (see WTC '93, uss cole and embassy bombings) on their watch.
much better to lose an election and show some spine regarding one's own convictions, than to win by selling out.
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I Don't Know
H.L. Mencken consistently wrote about the stupidity and thickheadedness of the American electorate. He refered to it as the mob. It still holds true. And you have to take it into account in political strategies.
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comment~.~none no time. make hay. too~.~spied on. I read, and then leave. no read comment. boohoo...
.in~.~out.
.~.~~.~~.
no~.~chores ~ever~.~done
if here to~.~day. no way.
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Through a lens stupidly
This is really a little petri dish of what happened to this country over the past number of years. The particular trick that's visible is Klein's "I'm not saying it, but THEY will say it" twist, which was repeated by many of these supposdely Democratic and even so-called Liberal writers.
The whole idea that anyone who the government wants to wiretap is de facto already a "terrorist", be the person American or otherwise, is the most infuriatingly pernicious in this argument.
Klein's response to this idea is basically "No, you see I'm not saying that, but Rush Limbuagh will say it".
This means, effectively, that policy is given over to Rush Limbaugh, and his kind, to decide. That's what this line of argument amounts to.
And guess what, that's pretty much what happened.
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One power; two parties
If you are part of the ruling elite and you supports the US capability to take control over global resources (with force if necessary), then how would you engage in a political system that is privately funded?
You could back one party (the GOP) and hope Democrats don't win. Or you could buy your way into both with campaign donations and media manipulation and win either way. Since it is cheap to buy political campaigns (a few hundred thousand dollars can buy billions in profit through government policy), the latter strategy is a no brainer.
Such an approach leaves liberals with the feeling that they have representation and makes them less likely to take the streets, but the elites get all the benefits of single-party rule. The few real differences are meaningless to the elite; their kids can get abortions no matter who wins, or enjoy a full relationship with their same-sex partner whoever wins.
Think about it: without the Democratic Party as it currently exists, the elites that favor imperialism and detest democracy could not accomplish what they have been able to accomplish. Republicans move them three steps ahead and Democrats move them two steps ahead while rhetorically bashing the third step. We are left the suckers.