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TechnoratiBush Critics: Still Evil, Crazy Extremists
Much of this is just standard Klein. He's been "accusing" me for years of being what he calls a "civil liberties extremist" or "monomaniacal on the subject of civil liberties" -- as though that's some type of insult, when I view it as being exactly the opposite. For reasons I recently explained -- in response to to Michael Massing's Chuck-Todd-echoing accusation in The New York Review of Books that I fail to take into account "practical considerations" when advocating various views -- it's impossible to believe in constitutional principles and the rule of law without being "extremist" and even "absolute" because that is the nature of those guarantees.
But the more significant aspect of Klein's outburst is its relationship to the lesson revealed by Marc Ambinder's similar outburst earlier this week, in which Ambinder insisted that those who were right about Bush extremism and criminality nonetheless deserved to be ignored and marginalized because they were such hate-driven extremists (Politico's Mike Allen, on right-wing radio, similarly called such people "left-wing haters"). Paul Krugman aptly summarized the meaning of the Ambinder episode:
It was clear from any serious analysis of that record that the Bush people consistently relied on lies and misinformation to sell their policies, consistently abused power for political gain. . . . [I]t’s really sad that those who missed the obvious, who failed to see what was right in front of their noses, still consider themselves superior to those who got it right.
Just think about this: Joe Klein is someone who went on Meet the Press in February, 2003 and urged that the U.S. invade Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Once the war went bad, he lied and claimed he never supported it. In February, 2002, he bitterly mocked Europeans for complaining about torture at Guantanamo; insisted the U.S. would never do any such thing; and said Gitmo detainees should "be dressed in pink tutus, to give them an appreciation of the freedoms accorded western ballerinas." In 2006, he went on national television and grotesquely said we should consider a first-strike nuclear attack on Iran, and then apologized the next week only because his phraseology was "a technical violation of a long-standing [diplomatic] protocol" for how such ideas should be expressed -- as though rules for how government officials speak bind him as a "journalist." And when George Bush got caught breaking the law by spying on Americans with no warrants, Klein immediately demanded that Democrats do nothing to oppose it and then even infamously proclaimed that he supports the spying program even though he has virtually no idea what the program does.
Yet someone with that record -- the U.S. is not torturing!; put Gitmo detainees in tu-tus; start a pointless war that slaughters hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings; incinerate Iran with nuclear weapons; Bush has the right to break the law -- can and does still parade around, and be treated, as the Serious responsible centrist. Conversely, those who opposed all of that are -- to use Klein's words -- Evil Extremists and Crazy Absolutists. And Klein is hardly unique in that regard. Much of the Beltway political and media establishment supported all of those same things and yet still considers itself the sane, responsible centrists -- as Atrios recently said, nobody lost their job over any of this (other than the war-and-media-criticizing Ashiegh Banfield). The overriding Beltway dogma, still, is that the true irresponsible extremists are the "leftists" who stood in opposition to all of that (as I detail in the post below from earlier today, exactly the same thing is happening now in the health care debate, as the conventional Beltway wisdom has ossified that it is the childish, petulant ideological Left that, as always, is to blame for the intractable health care dispute).
Speaking of Chuck Todd and his "30,000 feet" mentality, the superb journalist Jeremy Scahill was on Bill Maher's HBO show on Friday night -- along with Todd, Jay Leno, and Rep. Jan Schakoswky -- to talk about Blackwater (about which Scahill wrote the definitive book), but Scahill used the opportunity to take Todd to task for, among other things, the comments he made in his interview with me dismissing criminal investigations as pie-in-the-sky Leftist naïveté . The first part of the discussion can be seen here, but the Scahill-Todd exchange begins with this clip [Video clip blocked by You Tube at HBO's request; a snippet of the video can be seen here]:
Todd's condescending responses illustrate the same point as the above episodes with Klein and Ambinder: in the eyes of Beltway mavens, those who warned about and worked against the radicalism and lawbreaking of the Bush administration are the fringe, crazed, out-of-touch radicals. While Todd was fiddling around with pretty colored maps and fun polling games, Scahill was courageously investigating one of the most corrupt, dangerous and lethal private corporations in the world, yet it's Todd who understands and must solemnly explain the hardened realities of politics to Scahill, the confused and silly Leftist.
There's little question that when people look back at this period in American history, it will be difficult to comprehend what happened in the Bush era -- and especially how we blithely started a devastating war over complete fiction, while simultaneously instituting a criminal torture regime and breaking whatever laws we wanted. But far more remarkable still will be the fact that, other than a handful of low-level sacrificial lambs, those responsible -- both in politics and the establishment media -- not only suffered no consequences, but continued to wield exactly the same power, with exactly the same level of pompous self-regard, as they did before all of that happened. Looking back several decades or more from now, who will possibly be able to understand how that happened: the almost perfect inverse relationship between one's culpability and the price they paid for what they unleashed?
UPDATE: According to Scahill (via email), Todd approached him after the Maher show and the following occurred:
Right as we walked off stage, he said to me "that was a cheap shot." I said "what are you talking about?" and he said "you know it." I then said that I monitor msm coverage very closely and asked him what was not true that I said on the show. He then replied: "that's not the point. You sullied my reputation on TV."
Media stars are so unaccustomed to being held accountable for the impact of their behavior -- especially when they're on television -- that they consider it a grievous assault on their entitlement when it happens.
UPDATE II: An HBO complaint apparently caused YouTube to remove the clip posted above (several minutes of video of a political argument involving NBC's White House Correspondent is not fair use?), but a fairly representative snippet of the Scahill-Todd exchange can be seen here.
30 Comments so far
Show AllHarry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 43 Presidents. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.
The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and other than their years in the
White House, they lived their entire lives there.
When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year..
After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There were no Secret Service following them.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.
Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (sic. Illinois)
Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!
I say dig him up and clone him!!
"Rendition of Terror Suspects Will Continue Under Obama"
EVERY tool of U.S. geopolitical strategy, from spying, torture and not-so-extraordinary rendition to political subversion and wars of aggression, will continue under EVERY political facade of USA Incorporated, regardless of nominal party affiliations. It's simply the essential nature of the beast and will NEVER be changed under or within the system established by those same "U.S. interests" to perpetuate their "full spectrum dominance" both globally and domestically.
Many Americans will fight and die for the promotion and defence of those corporate interests in foreign lands without even realising that most of their designated foreign "enemies" are actually opposing the same powers that oppress them. But Americans will NEVER find either the courage or the cohesion or the means required to defeat their real enemy's total and complete mastery of all the fundamentals of power at home -- not even as it leads inexorably to their own self-destruction.
End of story. Good bye.
When it comes to the grand daughter of I F Stone and this Klein dawg, I know I have to be on the side of Stone's grand daughter.
AD
Labeling those who question authority "extremists" and "radicals" reminds one that Woodstock was not the end of persecution by the right wing media controlled by powerful corporations (the Hearst corporation for example). This nation has never favored those who seek positive social change, since it might cut into the GNP. It seems like a joke except it's real and the joke's on working folks. Holding mainstream media accountable on LIVE television works for me.
What about those of us who are critics of Obama? We're mistaken as "Republican" and just as well persecuted. Please tell the women and children in Afghanistan that Obama will be their "savior" if you can. Please tell the average Joe and Jane left homeless and/or unemployed that Obama is their "savior". Please tell the young men and women who have less luck in the job market that they'll be "flying high" by signing up for the military.
You can criticize Dubya out in the real world but point out Obama's copying Dubya on any of his policies and you're automatically labelled a "Republican". Both Obama and Dubya are doing everything wrong and neither one of them earns my respect.
Very truthful observation jennifer. I think part of the problem of putting Obama in the same box as bush is that Obama is difficult to dislike based on personality. But then, we as a nation have a history of electing personalities as opposed to listening to what the actual policies are. This is a classic behavior of a people in denial. Make sure the appearance of our lives look to be in order , but the interior is rotten to the core due to the neglect of entertaining denial. With this collective denial as the prime mover of our society we will continue to elect those leaders that won't expose the nasty truth and keep us safe from looking the fool.
Sirios333, I know many out there will mistake me as personally hating Obama. I don't but his actions can be so frustrating to watch. I have been to other blogs also beyond the liberal/progressive type and have been working on seeing things as independently as possible. Quist of Alternet once told me that blindly worshipping or hating Obama doesn't help the soul and I think he's right. Speaking of internal rot, I still can't forget that time my car broke down an nearly exploded all due to internal defects. One scary thing about life is when one is faced with a system with internal defects that can cause collapse unexpectedly.
@ JenniferBedingfield August 24th, 2009 9:35 pm, I understand your frustration with Obama, as I've felt some of that myself, and, as you might recall, I have supported him regularly in these CD threads. But I'm willing to wait to see what shakes out in the next few years before I dismiss his presidency entirely; this recent gambit by AG Eric Holder to only investigate a limited number of torture cases may be a roundabout way to slowly lead up to those who ordered the torture -- Cheney, Addington, Bush, et al. Jane Mayer alluded to this on Countdown last night. Certainly the special prosecutor cannot hold only lower-level torturers responsible as it's been reported those CIA operatives were careful to receive clearance from above for everything they did. It's agonizing, but this is the way prosecutors build cases, against the Mafia or big business -- start at the bottom and move up the ladder, gaining witnesses along the way.
BTW, I have no problem with criticizing Obama, as long as it's truthful and fair. To distort or presume his motives is exactly what the right-wingers do.
Here, here...exactly right.
"it will be difficult to comprehend what happened in the Bush era"
No it won't, once it's clear that the media and politicians are bought. The media creates the picture of reality that most people have in their heads.
Good piece, except for:
"Looking back several decades or more from now, who will possibly be able to understand how that happened: the almost perfect inverse relationship between one's culpability and the price they paid for what they unleashed?"
Remember, Mr. Greenwald, the "winners," or maybe more accurately those left standing, write the history. The fascists will write the history and interpret it for succeeding generations. "Journalists" like Todd and Klein will be portrayed as the best of the profession. Oh, there may be a handful of progressives, critics, and cynics who will beg to differ, but there always are, aren't there?
Really I don't have much sympathy for people like Krugman who "speak out" against one corrupt leader and their policies but then will passionately support other corrupt leaders and policies like the Fed or the bank bailouts. That's not "speaking out", that's picking one scumbag team over the other. If you want to speak out you would speak out against all corruption and abuse of power whether Obama, Bush, the Fed, the Treasury, the military etc... etc... This isn't speaking out, it is being convinced your sleazy corrupt team is the "right" side and the good guys and trash talking the other corrupt team. And both sides do it, Krugman or Fox News, Dems or Repubs, liberals or conservatives, all rotten to the core and convinced of their own righteousness. Krugman's quote is perfect because it could just as well be applied to his support of the Fed-created housing bubble and the bank bailouts. Here it is applied to him.
"It’s really sad that Keynesian economists and the Fed who missed the obvious, who failed to see what was right in front of their noses, still consider themselves superior to those who got it right."
See it works just as well...
"It's really sad that people like ATLAW who want to criticise Keynesian economics and Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman, do not even know what they are talking about".
It's really sad that some people seem to have come to the conclusion that all economists espouse Friedman style economics.
@ ATLAW August 24th, 2009 4:15 pm: But there is still such a thing as fact, which Glenn Greenwald has pointed out. It doesn't work just as well for either side, it works for the side that has the facts, or the intelligence to 'connect the dots' and figure out what the likely result would be from an action. In that process, the Republican right-wing has been nearly infallibly wrong.
"See it works just as well..." It certainly does.
That is so FUNNY what Chuckie said to Jeremy backstage! LOL
For the merest handful of years, from the late 1960s (and only reluctantly & inconsistently then) through the late '89s ^ BushOne, did the media as a whole attempt to live up to obligations to work for the public good.
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, I tried not to cry and throw-up at the same time that I read this. The MSM are now devouring each other as we watch. The Saturday night ramblings of any main street American town are still a little less dangerous to watch because, the completely insane results of a gang-bang in Sacramento only kill each other. This, ha, ha, ha, ha will be the death of us all.
it's starting to emerge that
USA stands for such things as:
"UNITED STATES of AMERICA"
"united in the practice of hatred"...
united in foolishness
united in delusions
united in fear
united in insecurity
united in debt
united social disunity
united in incoherence
united in bombing fears away
"ONE NATION.......under the fascist god"
United.
"...not only suffered no consequences, but continued to wield exactly the same power..." And 'earn' millions, too!
It's like "The King of Comedy" on f@#king steroids...
You know, it's true, they did "create their own reality," ("We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality...") and, with the help of their Big Media partners, managed to convince too many that their 'reality' is 'ours.'
On the same show Todd turned into an apologist for those carrying guns at Obama's events saying that because these incidents took place in the "live free or die" state (NH) and in the "ok corral" state (AZ), they should not be seen as a worrisome trend at the national level.
The problem with people like Todd is that they believe in American exceptionalism and thus, for them, the U.S. can do no wrong. Someone on the show, should have reminded Todd that Timothy McVeigh was not only an American, but also a terrorist.
They exhibit the same dim mediocrity as Chris Matthews who, when Ronald Reagan's son pointed out that the Left was right yet again when it came to hyping terror alerts, Matthews snorted contemptiously.
Gossip mongers and celebrity watchers with dreams of being stars or at least sucking-up for the hope of walking among them.
@ Vern August 24th, 2009 1:08 pm: Matthews is a contemptible shill, as was his colleague at NBC, the late Tim Russert. Both started out as liberals, but then former GE/NBC head Jack Welch bought them off and bragged about it. Read these excerpts from an article by David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, "Democracy, General Electric Style":
"In private, Welch was proud to have personally cultivated Tim Russert from a "lefty" to a responsible representative of GE interests. Welch sincerely believed that all liberals were phonies. He took great pleasure in "buying their leftist souls", watching in satisfaction as former Democrats like Russert and MSNBC's Chris Matthews eagerly discarded the baggage of their former progressive beliefs in exchange for cold hard GE cash. Russert was now an especially obedient and model employee in whom the company could take pride." [...]
"[Welch]... quietly began to dramatically change the way that things were done at NBC News. A link was established between the producers of the Sunday morning program Meet The Press and the opposition research team of the Republican Party. Delighted G.O.P. operatives were soon boasting that Tim Russert would go on the air just minutes after receiving their allegations of wrongdoing by Al Gore, and would repeat their charges verbatim. Russert was not functioning as a journalist; he had crossed the Rubicon and was acting as a mouthpiece for General Electric's favorite political party."
The URL for the rest of the piece: http://www.makethemaccountable.com/coverup/Part_04.htm
Matthews gushed embarrassingly over Bush's codpiece in Rove's Mission Accomplished marketing stunt -- "Americans just love this guy!" -- and even let Ann Coulter get away with saying Junior would have been a fighter-pilot hero in Vietnam if the damn hate-America liberal Democrats hadn't ended the war. (!) Tweety was also four-square behind the Iraq invasion, until things went sour, Katrina drowned NOLA, and Bush's approval ratings went south. Then he did a 180 and pretended to be 'Mr. Reporter,' asking a tough question of a Republican now and then, all the while not letting on that he was an early and avid cheerleader for all of the Bush crapola that anyone with an I.Q. higher than a teabagger already knew was the worst form of political slag. (Matthews was also an eager assistant in the Swift Boat sliming of John Kerry in 2004.)
Both of these hucksters would make Goebbels proud.
Oh, and, what a coincidence -- Chuck Todd works for GE/NBC.
"You sullied my reputation on TV."
Hey, Charles . . . excuse me . . . Chuck . . . hey, Chuck, you and the entire MSM ought to be pushing up daisies. You can't sully the reputation of those already dead . . . brain dead, soul dead, dead dead.
Suck it hard, Chuck Todd.
Kudos to him for calling out Glenn Beck, but the MSM is hardly better.
Joe Klein wouldn't know a civil liberty if it covertly gathered all his communications, slapped him in cuffs, renditioned him to outer Fascistan and held him in indefinite detention without legal representation.
Quoting Glenn Greenwald; “Time's Joe Klein was at a beach party last weekend and was confronted about his recent, vague statement that "there are Democrats who are so solicitous of civil liberties that they would undermine legitimate covert intelligence collection."
During the Bush administration there was a pattern of deliberately destroying intelligence gathering capabilities so bogus intelligence could be used to advance the political agenda of the neocons.
Most notable was the outing of Valerie Plame to discredit Joseph Wilson.
The Plame outing also compromised Brewster Jennings and Associates, a covert organization gathering information on countries attempting to build weapons of mass destruction. No specific details have been released on the impact of destroying the covert cover operation but informed sources suggest that a very large and important intelligence gathering organization was destroyed and deaths of covert operatives or their contacts ensued in the aftermath of Robert Novak’s public disclosure.
THE BREACHES OF INTELLIGENCE GATHERING SOURCES;
Breach # 1; In December of 2001 the Bush administration released a video tape of Osama bin Laden talking with a crippled Saudi Sheik about the attacks of 9/11/2001. The stated purpose of the release of the tape was to prove to the Islamic world that bin Laden was indeed responsible for the attacks. The tape had been filmed by a Saudi Arabian agent that was attempting to set up an operation to take out bin Laden. By releasing the tape the Bush administration tipped bin Laden of the Saudi operation causing bin Laden to change security methods. this prevented bringing bin Laden to justice.
Breach #2; The Plame outing.
Breach # 3; To justify a bogus amber terror alert* a few weeks before the 2004 elections National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice disclosed information on an arrest in Pakistan that lead to the disclosure in the press of the identity of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a Pakistani computer expert and communications agent for the highest levels of al Qaeda. After Khan’s arrest the Pakistanis had turned Khan into becoming a double agent, giving them a direct window into the inner workings of al Qaeda. Imagine had this source been allowed to come to fruition bin Laden’s location might well have been determined and the plans of al Qaeda could have been disrupted. Just this week former Homeland Czar Tom Ridge admitted this alert was probably politically motivated. *(The alert on financial centers in New Jersey and New York was based on information that was over two years old found on one of Khan’s captured computers.)
Breach #4: A drunken member of the Bush administration told NeoCon darling Ahmed Chalabi that the NSA had broken the Iranian diplomatic code and the code breakers at the NSA were reading the diplomatic dispatches to their embassies around the world. Chalabi, who sat with Laura Bush during the 2003 State of the Union address, promptly told the Iranians who then stopped using the system we’d compromised. I have little doubt that the combination of hardware, software and human input in cracking the Iranian diplomatic code cost the American taxpayers many BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Chalabi, aside from being Iraq’s Oil Minister also promoted President Bush’s Baghdad surge.
There is also no doubt that when news of the Iranian diplomatic code intercepts broke into the news every other nation on the planet also reviewed their communication and encryption systems.
Like in the Valerie Plame, Brewster Jennings breach, not one person has been disciplined for the breaches in the Khan case, the Chalabi case, or the bin Laden tape case. All of these breaches of national security advance the cause of Bush’s endless Global War on Terrorism, and all of these breaches have reduced America’s abilities to gather accurate and timely intelligence on America’s adversaries.
Advancing the NeoCon foreign policy agenda of regime change required faulty intelligence that another nation presented a dire threat to America’s security. The Bush administration pattern of compromising America’s intelligence gathering capabilities to advance their un-American NeoCon agenda crossed the threshold of treason.
Gun brandishing Reich Wingers, corrupt politicians, and corporate media are just the ones to define the rest of us as extremists. The choice is clear. You either support a violent empire or you are an extremist or even worse, a terrorist.
There is the reason why those who advocate truth, justice, peace, and freedom are called anti-American.
More on Reich Wing Americans and "Who's a Nazi" at davedubya.com
Bring America Back !!!!............!...UPDATE====There is a very strong new movement alive and well in NYC known as
NYCCAN.org They have over 50, 000 signatures to petition placing on the voters ballot a referendum to open a new 9/11 investigation. Mayor Bloomsberg, the NYC city council, and a election clerk are opposing the referendum, being the NeoCons that they are !!
****Please alert all your friends in NYC to seek out and sign the Petitions of NYC CAN. They are much more than certain, if it gets on the ballot==NY voters will overwhelmingly pass it.
****So, while we can lament, with Sir Greenwald, being called tinfoil hatters, crazies, nut cases, and leftyloonies, here is a Reality Byte we can join to get it done. These NYC activists intend to show USA what a conspiracy really is !!!!!
It all started at Ground Zero folks, We Will Never Forget
9/11 .........
Chuck Todd and his whiny reaction to being challenged directly by Jeremy Scahill is indicative of the cossetted corporate douche bags whom make up the Washington D.C. pundit corps. It also indicates that Scahill's taking Todd to task is the way to go (though the majority of the fire should be reserved for the really bad corporate actors; the news models of Fox Noise Channel). It also indicates that progressive grievances / questions are on the mark...as they make media figures like Todd quite uncomfortable.