You Don’t Say
…the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere.
Joe Klein (leftist), who works for Time magazine (left), examines the intolerance of the left in his most recent article. Really…no kidding…what rock have you been sleeping under….
But…wait for it…wait for it…
Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered.
Ah yes…there it is…whatever lunacy the left has, they’re only trying to mimic the behavior that has worked for the right. Yes, Rush has shown distain, and ridiculed the left…but I think there’s a fine line between Rush’s sense of humor, and the leftist bloggers that I visit regularly who cheer it up at each health issue Cheney or Snow face.
As I write this now…Hot Air just pops up with a related article on my RSS feeder…curse his eyes! Anywho….reading…reading…nugget:
It’s the fact that he seems to care so much what the nutroots thinks of him in the first place that’s whiny and embarrassing. Of course they’re unfair and fanatic in enforcing ideological discipline; to borrow a phrase from Ellensburg himself, that’s who they are and that’s what they do. If you’re going to feed the trolls, don’t be surprised when they follow you home and you end up in a moronic running feud like this one.
There are certainly a lot of running feuds in the blogs…look at basically the whole right wing blogosphere vs. Greenwald vs. Sullivan. Throw the current Lindsey Graham sentiments into the fray somewhere and you got yourself a regular hootenanny.
In eloquent summation…I believe the leading right-leaning blogs are far more civil than the leading left-leaning blogs, just as a matter of observation. I think it’s probably because as a general rule (I’m making sure I’m very clear with my emphasis here so no one throws a hissy fit with the “but but but”) Conservatives address issues and idea, Liberals attack people…example: “Stop the immigration bill” vs. “I hope Cheney’s heart explodes…oil….profiteering…Halliburton….rabble rabble rabble”
2funny battle for the high ground…
Fight the battle lose the effin war and pay no attention to the pink elephant behind the curtain.
BAAAAA, BAAAAAA!!!
GoingThere
Stout, are you a fan of Joe Klein? Did you have an opinion of him before he wrote this article? If so, what was it?
If you don’t care for the fella, it must be because he says things you don’t agree with. If he finally says something you do agree with, do you think he’s abandoning his editorial pattern, or do you think there’s more than meets the eye in his latest article on leftist bloggers?
Ah but maybe that’s neither here or there. Maybe you’ve always dug the dude!
I’m impartial to Joe Klein…his articles cover a large spectrum of issues usually political…he covers both sides of the political aisle, but he’s a liberal, and he’s up front about it, so I have no issues. He’s an editorialist…sometimes funny, sometimes not (he’s no Dave Barry). Basically the resident blogger of Time magazine (I don’t read the print…only the online, so I don’t know if his article makes the magazine)…I would be dishonest if I said I didn’t notice it because another site called it out…but I still read his stuff. You probably would like Andrew Sullivan as well.
I just think it’s funny that he noticed just now how vitriolic left sites are…then blamed the right, for the behavior of the left. It’s funny. He said something that the left thought was wrong, and instantly name calling, threat, hatred, etc…but he acts like it’s a new discovery. Shit man, the right’s been comments on how uncivil the left is for years. Michelle Malkin wrote an entire book on it (a good read) called “Unhinged”.
What I feel about Klein is not important. His logic, however, is. I have serious reservations about a man who cannot distinguish between satire and rancorous hatred. Does he really think that Rush (apparently the font of all evil for liberals) wishes death on his ideological foes, like the left often does? Seriously, to conflate the two is a false comparison; in fact it is false on purpose so that Klein can deflect blame from the people who are engaging in the activity. Given his position, he should know better. I’m willing to bet that he does this on purpose to gin up sympathy and/or once again, trash the right. His logic is non-logic, and his actions are stereotypical. I have little tolerance for either.
His logic is non-logic? Are his opinions non-opinions? Is his wife a non-wife? Did he go to college at a non-college?
InRussetShadows, I have little tolerance for senseless killings and senseless prose. However, I don’t know what to do about my intolerance here because I’m not sure there’s any gosh darn thing I can do about it.
The mainstream media is not left, right or balanced ANYWHERE, it is asexual. People make fun of Michael Moore, and they hated him when he made that film after 9/11, but it ended up being true. Robert Greenwald is a GOOD MAN. Do I think he is a little left? yes. But at least he GIVES A SHIT. He gives a shit about this country in a way that our own government bipartisanly does not. I mean, when King of Moveon.org is asked to testify along side Jeremy Scahill in congress, and what they say is news to half the panel …
Those idiot Republicans just blocked Gonzalez from being impeached. Wait until you see why those attys were fired. Those poor Republicans did not even know they were caging our votes to win. They will innocently go down like Scooter Libby did for it too. Defeatocrats…
The BEST news is on LinkTv on Dish Network. They have news from all over the world. Stout, I see you have a lot of conservative talk show hosts on your blog, where is Michael Savage?? He is the best in the business!!!
A man went to the psychologist dressed in nothing but saran wrap. The doctor told looked up, paused a moment and said, “I can clearly see your nuts.”
A conservative buddy of mine is all about the war because he heard information somewhere that the first WTC bomber spoke with Timothy McVeigh. He has tried to find more info and write letters to the paper and to Congress but no one will talk about it with him. I was watching a documentary on Link TV called 9/11 Press for truth and I found Paul Thompson. This left wing liberal is the only person to ever bring up what he heard.
Hey, you want Goebbels Hannity propaganda, the nut jokes on you Stout, sorry about that. I listen to everyone. Even Fox News. You give this administration EXACTLY what they want by not even listening to all sides. EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT…
In case that didn’t make sense…Michael Savage is good on print, and when he’s talking about his dog, but he’s gone loony. He makes some great points on some subjects, but he’s really of the reservation on other. I own his books, all of them…but he’s starting spinning the conspiracy wheels a bit. Things aren’t a giant conspiracy, and if they are, then let me tell you, the Bush administration may be the most intelligent, Machiavellian, brilliant deceivers in the history of modern politics.
To establish my stance. I don’t believe everything is about oil. I think Libby probably shouldn’t be in prison. Gonzales should be out, not because of anything he did, but because his perception of effectiveness is gone, so essentially, he’s no longer effective.
What concerns me Erin, is you seem to believe whole heartedly that you have all of the answers, that your sources are infallible, and that you know “what’s up”, if that’s a concise way of putting it.
While you think some of the people you listed love America…I disagree, they love an idea of what they want to see America as, and it’s not what America is…driven by ones own want and ability to succeed. Yes, all men a created equal, and then some go out and try to make the best of it…the rest sit on the sidelines, and expect to be taken care of by everyone else simply because they “exist”.
Anywho…Erin, we’re on a crazy rambling tangent again.
Erin, you just violated Godwin’s Law. Can’t do that…
The nuts joke was on Savage.
Very presumptuous on your part to assume you know exactly where I get my news…
they love an idea of what they want to see America as, and it’s not what America is
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT AMERICA IS. “An experiment in government.” If I thought I had every answer, I would not be here right now. I get this reaction from Republicans a lot. Most Dems run on all emotion and no fact. When one comes along that runs on both, it freaks Republicans out because they dont know what to do from there. Just like Defeatocrats.
I actually like savage’s radio show more than his books. DONT PICK ON TEDDY!!! (the Dog)
“Things aren’t a giant conspiracy”
This time it is my freind. And every time you deny it, you enable appease and harbor terrorists…
I don’t believe everything is about oil.
Me either. Not at all when it comes to Gonzalez. It is all about power. More than money, more than oil, more than anything. Our constitution says WE are supposed to have all the power, not them. The patriots were HUGE BAD ASSES. You think the pansies in DC right now have ever been in a fist fight? yet – they want people to think they are tough. They have NO STREET SMARTS!! The Patriots did. You can only learn it hands on, and it is an even worse disaster when you try to pretend you have them. Case in point… Bush…
He just said about Gonzalez. It’s all political… No one can tell me who I can have in MY governement. It isnt YOUR government ASSHOLE! He said this in Europe too. No wonder they hate us!
Erin, you just violated Godwin’s Law. Can’t do that
I only compare this admin to Nazis when it comes to the press. If you compare the press today to Nazi Germany, it is an exact match. So I did not break any law. Besides, I thought Republicans didnt believe in scientific evidence anyway???
I urge you to google the forefathers. Especially Jefferson. I stand by them. That is why I am behind the second amendment also. Not because I care if I can have a gun, but they explain in detail why that right should not be taken away.
It’s a representative Democray, not a direct one, so in fact we give them the power for a limited period of time. We don’t directly have it, we only have power by proxy through our representatives. If we don’t like what they’re doing…we recall (a la Gray Davis).
P.S. I love Teddy…I wish he would talk more about Teddy, his sailboat, and where he eats…his political ramblings are like a verbal jackhammer.
“It’s a representative Democray, not a direct one, so in fact we give them the power for a limited period of time.”
YES YES YES!!! Then tell me why Republicans were poltically threatened if they voted for the no cofidence on Gonzalez???? The dream team of seven Republicans with ANY BALLS AT ALL did it anyway. The rest of them said they had no right to get rid of a pres cab member. BULL SHIT YOU CHICKEN SHITS. You are our LEGISLATIVE BRANCH AND YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW THE EFFEN (love that!) LAW????
Article II, Section 4 of the constitution says, “The President, Vice-President AND ALL CIVIL OFFICERS of the United States shall be removed from Office on impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Here is what I sent him personally yesterday:
“I have Karl Rove’s emails”
Published May 10th, 2007 in Articles
Read the Interview with Palast from the Dollars & Sense magazine spring issue about to hit the streets …
Dollars & Sense: In the new edition of your book, ARMED MADHOUSE, you report on the theft of the 2008 election. How do know what they’re doing? Any way to stop them?
Palast: I know because I have Karl Rove’s emails. No kidding. He and his team aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses — and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box. Who says this job ain’t fun?
Dollars & Sense: Bush fired eight prosecutors. You were behind the scenes on that story long before it broke in the US. What are they still withholding from us?
Palast: Look, it’s all about VOTES. You’ll see that the prosecutor that Karl Rove insisted in putting in place is a slithery character named Tim Griffin. He’s the guy I busted as the spider-mind behind the “caging lists” which purged thousands of Black voters. The prosecutors fired, as you’ll see in Armed Madhouse, include those, like David Iglesias in New Mexico, who refused to bring phony cases of fraud against legitimate voters. It’s a matter of economics: the Republican party is systematically knocking out lower-income voters; that makes their purges racially biased — but my data show that’s just the effect of hunting down and attacking the ballot power of working class and poor voters. Disenfranchisement is class war by other means.
Dollars & Sense: Why the hell hasn’t the U.S. press covered the story of Bush’s vultures, election’s theft, Iraq’s oil or any of the other stories you’ve put on the front pages in Europe?
Palast: Robert Kennedy Jr. just complained to the head of ABC News about the blackout on my stories. (ABC has the right to take my stuff from BBC for free.) I’m not holding my breath for an answer. I call it, The Silence of the Media Lambs. We’ve got loads of terrific investigative reporters in America, but gutless editors. So the suck-ups to power get the choice posts in metropolitan dailies and on the networks.
Think of the punishment inflicted for the crime of investigative reporting. Seymour Hersh told me he was forced out of the New York Times and Bob Parry, the guy who busted open the Iran-Contra story, was pushed out of the Associated Press. On the other hand, Bob Woodward, who had his journalistic tongue up George Bush’s rectum, who went from writing ‘All the President’s Men’ to being one of the President’s men, is doing just fine.
Dollars & Sense: Many progressives are focused on privatization of the Iraqi economy, including its oil industry, as Bush’s real goal for the invasion. But you write about two radically different plans within the administration, the neo-cons’ versus Big Oil’s—and Big Oil’s plan was the one opposed to privatization. What’s going on here? Plus: any update on how privatization and the whole neo-liberal reshaping of the Iraqi economy are going?
Palast: A lot of intelligent folk believe Bush had a secret plan to grab the oil fields of Iraq before the tanks rolled. That’s wrong. He had TWO plans. In Armed Madhouse, I show you both — the result of two years undercover for BBC. The plans conflict. There’s the neo-con plan: Privatize — that is, sell off — everything, “especially the oil” industry. That’s a quote from the 101-page document which I learned was written by the neo-cons. That didn’t happen — because a Jim Baker team — he’s the lawyer for both Exxon and Saudi Arabia — secretly wrote a 323-page plan that called for CONTROLLING the oil flow, not owning it. The purpose was to LIMIT the supply of oil from Iraq and keep prices high. This would, “enhance [Iraq’s] relationship with OPEC” — the oil cartel. That’s a quote from the document you’re not supposed to see.
So here it is: the invasion was about LIMITING the flow of oil from Iraq, keeping prices high, not grabbing the oil to bring prices down for your SUV. The secret Baker plan is now the law in Iraq and prices are over $50 a barrel. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Dollars & Sense: We’ve covered some of the less-told stories of Venezuela under Chavez—for example, how he’s dramatically expanding the co-operative sector of the economy. Some progressives worry though: is he a populist demagogue, maybe in the Juan Peron mold, or is he really committed to worker autonomy, democracy, and all that good stuff? You’ve talked with Hugo Chavez. What’s your take?
Palast: Chavez recommends that everyone read my book, so obviously I think he’s the greatest statesman since Lincoln. But seriously, folks, what makes the guy an astonishing threat to the Bush World Order is that he insists on keeping the cash from the sale of Venezuela’s oil — shock of shocks! — in Venezuela! With some lent to the rest of Latin America. Up until now, Venezuela sold us oil then immediately shifted the funds back to the US Federal Reserve. Chavez withdrew the funds from the Fed and, Heaven help us, spent it on building his own nation’s economy. Is he a “demogogue”? The word means, spokesman for the people. That he is. Fun trivia: RFK Jr. reminded me that Chavez picked up the line, “Whiff of sulfur” in speaking of Bush from my last book which he had just read.
Dollars & Sense: You write about how, depending on the price of oil over time, Venezuela’s oil could turn out to be a pivot point of huge geopolitical change. Can you explain?
Palast: Internal US Department of Energy analysis (I got my hands on it for BBC; it’s in the book) shows that Venezuela, not Saudi Arabia, has the largest reserve of crude. That’s a geo-political earthquake.
Dollars & Sense: Are you really convinced that a big devaluation of the Chinese currency would be meaningless in terms of saving U.S. manufacturing jobs by making Chinese exports more expensive? Then why are U.S. policymakers across the political spectrum so obsessed with getting China to devalue its currency?
Palast: You’re really asking, Why do politicians feed us bullshit? That’s a whole book right there. Both parties are winking and nodding and giggling behind your back that the way to save jobs is to change the value of China’s money. It’s a brilliant cover for the bi-partisan banging the American worker received with the one-two punch of NAFTA and ‘Most Favored Nation’ trade status for China. There are 700 Wal-Mart plants in China — zero in the USA. Hillary Clinton was on the board of Wal-Mart when that shift went into full swing. No wonder she’s joining George Bush in talking about baloney like “exchange rates.”
Greg Palast is author of ARMED MADHOUSE: From Baghdad to New Orleans — Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild, by Greg Palast, newly released in an updated, expanded edition; now in paperback. For more info go to http://www.GregPalast.com
Catch Palast, Randi Rhodes and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – live from New York at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6C0F65AB2719BDF5
The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom
10 Comments Published May 24th, 2007 in Articles
Special to the BRADBLOG by Greg Palast
This Monica revealed something hotter — much hotter — than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the Committee members didn’t even know it.
Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in 2004.
Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???
The perplexed committee members hadn’t a clue — and asked no substantive questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found “the keys to the kingdom,” they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front of their perplexed faces.
The keys: the missing emails — and missing link — that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.
Kingdom enough for ya?
But what’s ‘caging’ and why is it such a dreadful secret that lawyer Sampson put his license to practice and his freedom on the line to cover Tim Griffin’s involvement in it? Because it’s a felony. And a big one.
Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet – except the USA – only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.
Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves you’ll understand it all in no time.
The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.
Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation — and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.
How do I know? I have the caging lists…
I have them because they are attached to the emails Rove insists can’t be found. I have the emails. 500 of them — sent to our team at BBC after the Rove-bots accidentally sent them to a web domain owned by our friend John Wooden.
Here’s what you need to know — and the Committee would have discovered, if only they’d asked:
1. ‘Caging’ voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.
2. Griffin wasn’t “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove’s right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It’s in the email I got. Thanks. And it’s posted below.
3. On December 7, 2006, the ragin’, cagin’ Griffin was named, on Rove’s personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.
The committee was perplexed about Monica’s panicked admission and accusations about the caging list because the US press never covered it. That’s because, as Griffin wrote to Goodling in yet another email (dated February 6 of this year, and also posted below), their caging operation only made the news on BBC London: busted open, Griffin bitched, by that “British reporter,” Greg Palast.
There’s no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet — except the USA — only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.
And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling’s confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US attorneys. It’s not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it’s about replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those prepared to burgle it again in 2008.
Now that they have the keys, let’s see if they can put them in the right door. The clock is ticking ladies and gents…
***************
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: from Baghdad to New Orleans – Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone WILD. For more info, or to hear Brad Friedman, Ed Asner and other troublemakers read from Armed Madhouse, go to http://www.GregPalast.com