Barnett Rubin

http://icga.blogspot.com/2008/07/rubin-dilemma-of-anti-extremist.html

(or click on signature)

Quote 1:

"The U.S Government's General Accountability Office (which, unaccountably, has continued to operate through the current administration) has issued a report entitled "Combating Terrorism: The United States Lacks Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas." Unlike, say, the "Patriot Act" or the "Protect America Act," in this case the title provides an accurate summary of the contents."

Quote 2:

"Khattak is in fact the provincial head of the Pashtun nationalist party that now governs the Northwest Frontier Province. The government of NWFP has recently appointed him "Pashtun Peace Envoy" for the province, FATA, and Afghanistan, and he is negotiating with the presidency and governor of NWFP (indirectly with the military) over his involvement in policy toward the tribal areas, over which the civilian political leaders have so far had no authority. According to Khattak, one part of the "government of Pakistan" is at war with groups created by another part of the "government of Pakistan." A policy toward "Pakistan" cannot address this problem."

Whatever it may be that Mara Liasson believes, what she's saying is not the truth.

"Saying untruths" or "making false statements" may be more accurate than "lying" but I don't think most people will see the distinction.

FISA Bill:

Please call Senator Reid right now and demand he pull the FISA "compromise" bill. As Senate Majority Leader, it is within his power to do this.

Washington DC Office: 202-224-3542

Reno Office: 775-686-5750

Vegas Office: 702-388-5020

I just called. I had to wait on hold for about five minutes, but I got through.

Even though I live in Texas and my Senators are wastes of flesh, I called them as well.

I have heard that each call received is taken as representing the views of 13,000 constituents.

So please take the time.

Tomorrow is the vote.

Of course ML is lying. Obama's base is not left-wing. Sorry, no way. If you make a statement like that as part some other point you are making, it is all BS. What could be more obvious?

I don't know what the deal is with Liasson and Juan Willimas on Fox. But I know that group dynamics often cause people to say things in ways that they might not otherwise. Perhaps it is because Liasson and Juan Williams are always outnumbered by Right Wing Wackos on Fox that they tend to couch their arguments in ways that validate right wing narratives. (I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here, but maybe it's those fat Fox paychecks which alter their thinking.)

I remember how Juan Williams (who in another incarnation wrote the excellent companion book to the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize) got furious about oil price gouging during the Gulf War while working at CNN: "Replacement costs, my ass!" he fumed.

I read somewhere that Fox pays Williams over half a million dollars a year. Hell, I might say anything for that kind of money.

Maybe Bush and the telecoms will sue Glenn (and GoodCelery!) for slander, libel, and defamation of character?

Naaaah...

I see that we are going to be subjected to the tired myth that all we have to fear are right wing authoritarian personalities. Utter bloody tripe. Humans have worshiped other people, rocks, myths, leaders, animals, aliens, rock stars, sex, and all manner of things since the first cave man said, "you got that right"!

We need fear all cults of personality; the Mao cult did more damage to China than I would care to see done here. Same with Pol Pot, or Stalin, or that idiot who runs North Korea. We have some Obama drones here that are pretty scary; and I may even vote for him --- Obama that is. (or perhaps I'll take up drinking that day and stay home to keep the roads safer)

It does no good at all to point out the horrible trait of right-wing fools of following leaders as if the leader was the second coming unless you point out that all others across the American political spectrum are equally foolish and sheep-like. Or is it that they are like lemmings? I'll have to think that one over.

Anyway, Americans worship winning. They worship power. They have no morality. The far left will come to power again and they will be looking for revenge -- just like the damn Newt-drones were looking for revenge 1/4 century ago when they got the big stick.

All I can recommend is: "Duck!"

Are there ever any real winners in a war?

In Iraq: Haliburton. Bechtel. Blackwater. Kellogg Brown and Root. Lockheed. Boeing. Northrop Grumman. Raytheon. Carlyle Group. GE. Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron. And many, many more.

I certainly missed seeing any confessions, perhaps you could point that out in a cite?
— shooter242

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/17/bush.nsa/index.html

Do try to pay attention and keep up. It looks bad for your alleged intelligence to be two and a half years behind.

And the president's saying "I'm the president and I can do anything I want" doesn't remove the stigma of having admitted to having committed multiple felonies. We'll see on January 19, 2009 whether the president can pardon himself or not.

Oh, and just in case you missed that too, Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Touche!

This is what Abraham Lincoln had to say about liars:

It is an established maxim and moral that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.

Abraham Lincoln, chiding the editor of a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, quoted from Antony Flew, How to Think Straight, p. 17 (h/t Positive Atheism)

As a journalist, Liasson not only has the resources available to verify her assertions, it's her job to do so. To assert something as true that is so easily verified as false is indeed a lie.