Letters to the Editor
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Really Glad Mack Mentioned Paxman
Paxman "interviews" Blair. This is hilarious and powerful on so many levels. I cannot imagine any American journalist doing this to buhs or Cheney the undead. We'd find them down in the copse of trees with a slit wrist and and half-empty packets of the drug Coproxamol at his side, that very night, the victim of yet another "wet disposal", or mokrie dela as our friends at the KGB say.
"You have no idea, do you Prime Minister?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgrMtwhHsD0
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We need the laugh!
GG
a well-known journalist emailed me out of the blue, unsolicited, with very petulant, whiny objections to what I had written.
-snip-
They weren't instructive or relevant to anything. The only effect would have been to laugh at the person.
Glenn, I think you should post the email. The "well-known journalist " essentially posted a comment concerning your writing and I see nothing wrong with placing his comment where it belongs, in public view.
We should all laugh at these "journalists", heap ridicule and scorn upon them, and pierce their paper skin with the lance of condemnation.
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(This is Off The Record)
OFF THE RECORD/EYES ONLY
This is the best article Greenwald has written in my several months of reading Salon. Finally, a columnist interpretes an event (Carlson's) in manner totally contrary to, and unquie from, any other widely circulated journalist.
This symbiotic but throroughly power-unbalanced relationship is perhaps most obvious in the realms of entertainment and sports "journalism," if such even exists. There, any pretense of the hard-nosed reporter searching for the truth from his famous, immensely wealthy and powerful interviewees isn't even proclaimed. Fawning is the chief guideline followed by these "reporters."
But the underlying subjects of entertainment/sports are of no real import. So who cares?
If the People magazine model extends into subject matter vital to the public--politics, business/economics, conduct of government officials and so on)--which Carlson not only confirms, but is rather proud and self-righteous about it...if that's how Big News Media operates, it's no wonder we are facing the possibilty of a 28-year run of being governed by 2 out of the 100,000,000 or so families who are US citizens.
This is very good work, IMHO, Mr. Greenwald---keep it up, and thanks.
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The Criminality of Bush/Cheney/et.al.
Glenn, I realize this is not directly related to today's story about Tucker Carlson and others of his ilk, but have you thought about beginning to look in earnest at what criminal charges will be/can be leveled at the thoroughly corrupt Bush presidency?
Are there litigational movements afoot to bring Bush/Cheney to justice before the American people? Or will the two of them just walk?
Are there any pending litigation worldwide that will charge these two and others with war crimes? Or, because they are American, allowed to do what they did, and continue to do, in Iraq with impunity?
It would really make your job even more onerous than it already is, but I really think you would be doing all of us a service, above and beyond the tremendous amount of light you have already shed on this most despicable and degenerate twosome to ever hold the mantle of president/vice-president in American history.
If America is ever to be taken seriously again as a beacon of hope and promoter of justice in the world, those two scofflaws must be brought to justice: both in America and the world. If nothing happens to these two, as I fear, then America is complicit in all the evil these two have done in their country's name.
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Samantha Power had to go
She wanted to invade Israel...
What we don’t need is some kind of early warning mechanism there, what we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation. Putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import; it may more crucially mean sacrificing—or investing, I think, more than sacrificing—billions of dollars, not in servicing Israel’s military, but actually investing in the new state of Palestine, in investing the billions of dollars it would probably take, also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence. Because it seems to me at this stage (and this is true of actual genocides as well, and not just major human rights abuses, which were seen there), you have to go in as if you’re serious, you have to put something on the line.
http://sandbox.blog-city.com/speaking_truth_to_power.htm
She also tried to disavow this utterance. Power was very close to Jesus, sorry Obama, and almost certainly would have been in his cabinet.
If the Scotsman hadn't taken her down, Mossad would have.
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Pedinska. Hi!
No go off with Poor MackK @ 12:14.
Nature is to be explored, but be careful. sacred.
Explore your inner nature by your own-yourself.
Who cares if that means getting a little bit dirty?
Pedinsksa. Wash your partners, or dear friends, 'scruffy' bare ,back?
And who cares if you are scrubbing flesh and snow, and not so delicately?
Just rub-a-tub-tub. Scrub a belly button and the outer tummy too. Examine a inner belly button if they have one or maybe two?
If you have been quiet because you fell outta bed and bit your tongue, clean out the outer and inner belly-psyche... Tell Rick you want to get the thread-lint outta his belly button with your healed, implored, Oh, and so soft a pink tongue.
Salon does miss you.
You have a nice belly?
You are a good plumber gal.
Be careful if you fix Kitt's sink. Faucets drip.
And by the way ~ the world needs to implore,
a thousand sweet tongues, or more like yours.
You and Rick are never "hurtful" and receive guest.
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Irish interview on update II no longer available on YouTube
I find it interesting that all of a sudden the Irish interview written about in Update II is no longer available.
When did YouTube start censoring this stuff?
This seems like Russia in the 50's and 60's.
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a word on British vs. American journalism
While certainly a tremendous amount of the blame centers on America's largely subservient media, I think that some of the problem also has its root in its vastly different political culture. Note, for instance, the far greater apparent willingness of high-ranking British political figures (including the Prime Minister himself) to subject themselves to what they know will be tough questioning.
By and large, the only time we ever see that happening in the U.S. is when the political figure is taken by surprise, not expecting the questions to be tough. This difference in fundamental political culture is, I think, most strikingly shown by the existence in the U.K. - and absence from the U.S. - of a thing of beauty called the "Prime Minister's Questions."
Owing perhaps entirely to the comparative vulnerability of the Prime Minister to the British Parliament, the U.K. has a regularly scheduled, open confrontation between the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament, often resulting in highly informative (and often entertaining) exchanges in which the Prime Minister is forced to account for his or her policies and statements.
Contrast that with the U.S., where not only is the current President actually permitted to refuse to allow some of his advisers and high officials to testify before Congress at all, but the President himself - in his only public conversation with Congress once a year (the State of the Union Address) - merely talks at the Congress, with absolutely no interlocution or challenge of any kind, in which the members of the other branch are allowed only to express their approval or disapproval in the form of clapping, standing, or neither, or, when feeling particularly brash perhaps emitting isolated noises of disapproval.
Just take a moment to contemplate not only this difference, but the historical context behind it. The country founded on rebellion against the autocratic, politically immune nature of its former government now has a leader that is institutionally and culturally more immune from criticism and counterweight than the leader of the government from which it originally rebelled.
Just another instance of how unbelievably upside-down our world has become.