Election Thoughts
What makes me angriest: that there is no outcry against election fraud; that the media have become pure political instruments; that our “educational system” has produced an ignorant electorate.
Years and years ago, during Watergate, Barbara and I were living in Rome, and we had lots of journalist friends (I was then a correspondent for The New Republic, so…we saw lots of Italian journalists). They were all openly jealous of America, because they saw American journalism as clearly superior to theirs. American journalists reported, while they, the Italians, were doing politics. “We could bring down our entire Political Class,” they would say, “we all have information so devastating that no politician could survive,” but they didn’t publish it, because they didn’t see an acceptable alternative. We would tell them that their job was not to make political decisions, but to report the news, and let the people decide. But they couldn’t; they were doing politics. And we felt superior, because American journalism, we thought, just reported the news and let the people decide.
Well, that’s over and done with now. Never before has the ignorance of the electorate been so intensely cultivated as in this election. We all know that major publications and broadcasters have simply refused to report news, and what they did report was spun politically. And among the stories they are not reporting, is the massive electoral fraud, from the “where is all that money coming from?” to the “how dare state officials refuse to verify the identity of voters?” one, to the refusal to report, day by day, on Joe Biden’s scandalously inept, incompetent, and often meretricious campaign. Instead, they obsess on every real and imagined misstatement by Sarah Palin, who for me has been the most attractive of the four candidates.
An ignorant electorate is a real threat to good government, and the whole point of the First Amendment is to create a wide-open national debate from which the truth might emerge. The current behavior of the media–now totally politicized–makes it very hard to get to the truth. They censor themselves, just as our Italian friends confessed they were doing to themselves thirty years ago.
Rush today played some clips from a conversation about Obama between Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw. Each said repeatedly “we really don’t know much about him.” Well, duh, whose fault is that, y’all? Yours. You haven’t done your job.
For years now, most thoughtful Americans have known they were being misled by the MSM. But they didn’t know exactly where to go to get the real news. Over time, many of them learned to read blogs, to listen to talk radio, and to read the few good journalists who still believe they should report, and let the people decide. It’s only natural that the Dems should want to shut down these outlets and those reporters, and I think that’s going to be a very big battle in the very near future, whoever wins tomorrow.
It follows from all this that there’s another thing that has my dander flying: the snooty treatment of Palin. It’s as if that old New Yorker cover–the one that shows Manhattan occupying most of the map of the United States, then the Mississippi River and fly-over country in a small strip, then San Francisco and Los Angeles in a larger area–has now become the template for all proper thinkers. I’m sure lots of folks in fly-over country are enraged by this, but many others want to have a seat at the table, want to join the celebrities, want to be thought of as serious thinkers. And so they join the swarm.
American exceptionalism rests upon independent thinking, pride in community and heritage, and disdain for ivory tower intellectuals combined with admiration for self-help and achievement. My greatest fear is that these values are going to be trashed over and over again the next few years, and we will have to fight it very fiercely.
The Ledeen family is now a military family. All three of our children are engaged in the war which to my way of thinking is the single greatest issue for America, but which has virtually vanished from our national debate. There is no escape from this war, there is only victory or defeat. But the Democrats can’t win a national election on that question, and so it has been spiked.
Tough times.
I read a bit from an Obama speech today on kausfiles- “Don’t be hoodwinked, don’t be bamboozled” he says. That’s a paraphrase of a famous Malcolm X speech. I googled it and he’s been saying this in different speeches since January. Maybe the MSM could point out we have a major party candidate who regularly quotes Malcolm X?
I agree that she is the most attractive of the four candidates, but perhaps I’m not reading that as you intended.
I hope that tomorrow the American electorate will once again shock our partisan media by electing a man whose views they disagree with. The stakes are high, and I hope no one has given up yet — it ain’t over till it’s over!
The arrogance of this article is awesome
I could summarise it in one sentence
“The American People are ignorant and stupid because they don’t agree with me personally”
It just looks like a sore losers rant to me
Ignorance is bliss, but when it comes to elections it may turn into a curse. And the worst part of this ignorance is not knowing history. Many of comments I’ve recived on this video about Obama’s worshipping by many of his supporters were along the list of “Why is that bso ad that they all love him so much?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzu_yWZX69Y
The MSM has a vested financial interest in getting Obama elected and the Democrats a super majority. They know the Dems will bring back the Fairness Doctrine. This is the only way to regain their monopoly and stem viewer and financial losses by killing the new media.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
The money Obama gets from credit card fraud and so forth is used for political advertising.
The media that receive the money will not complain about it.
The media are not so politically biased. They mostly just support their advertisers.
“it ain’t over till it’s over!”
yet,,, somewhere I can hear a fat lady warming up her pipes. This may be our last day in a free and democratic America for tomorrow I fear it will have become a socialist America.
“For years now, most thoughtful Americans have known they were being misled by the MSM.”
I refuse to us the term MSM (Main Stream Media) . Instead, I always refer to the more accurate description, MSP (Main Stream Propagandists). The situation has deteriorated to the point that perhaps the majority of journalists can justifiably be compared to the hacks once employed by the German Nazis and Italian fascists. We must therefore do what we can to bankrupt their employers. Please think twice before using their services. Do you really, for instance, need to place an ad in your typical left-wing newspaper? I cannot in good conscience advise someone to severely damage their business. A restaurant or a clothing store owner may have to place their ads in the local rag. But please do so only if you don’t have a viable choice.
“Sarah Palin, who for me has been the most attractive of the four candidates.”
Hmmmm….I don’t think you know what ignorance is.
“Rush today played some clips from a conversation about Obama between Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw.”
You do realize that Rush edited that interview to give the impression he wanted?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200811030015?f=h_latest
I find it difficult to take criticism of the media seriously from someone who uses a propagandist like Limbaugh as evidence. Ignorance indeed.
I prefer the term “deadwoods”.
And it will only get worse Mr. Ledeen. With an Obama victory, we will have the left controlling everything — government, the arts, all levels of education, and the flow of information.
After talk radio is shut down, and Fox News bought by George Soros (or some other rich far-left billionaire), life here will be like the USSR, only we will have cars in our garages – for awhile, at least.
But even the long lines for everything as the old USSR had, will be here, along with the incessant propaganda.
“we really don’t know much about him.” All that we don’t know plus all that we could possibly find out don’t add up to nothing compared to the sum of being half a minority and wholly part of the Ivy League and Lawyerly Left. In other words, a stalwart member of the club: Our rulers.
God bless your military family, Michael.
We may lose this battle today for the America in which you and your family hold such pride and do so much. However, I’ve got a feeling that after two short years, the political pendulum will swing back.
The jig is up for the mainstream media. When the American public realizes they were sold a bill of goods by a compliant press they will financially support other venues of information which allow for a full examination of the candidates.
Countries are like people, if you live long enough you die of cancer. And so it is here in America. In the body cancer kills good cells and in a country self hating lays the seeds of ruin as is happening here.
Today the WSJ published an editorial and its claim is that 911 was a non-event. Sad but true.
The cancer of our self destruction has been building up for years. Bin Laden pushed us into overdrive. Obama and company will finish the job.
Of course Palin is the most appealing candidate.
That’s why they need to tear her down.
Come on, if the ‘mainstream media’ is biased do you really expect people to believe that sites like this and conservative bloggers are not??????
Am I really to believe that radio talk shows are unpoliticised fact reports by hosts without any agenda to push?????
get real, you insult the reader’s intelligence if you expect us to swallow that.
Why shouldn’t the ‘mainstream media’ choose who it wants to support in this election and why shouldn’t it be able to decide what policy stance it’s editorials will take? This is just sour grapes because the conservative media hasn’t been as succesful in getting the public to accept its message.
It never ceases to amaze me that some people are so scathing about the ‘MSM’ and everything it does but happily take on board the polemic of fringe sites as if it were indisputable.
I think that some people just like to think of themselves as ‘above’ the ‘masses’ as if they have secret knowledge which others are too ignorant to see, it makes them feel special.
“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”
Janet Malcolm
The day has finally arrived, alas, whereby the media has fully and completely absolved itself of any committment to the truth.
For it should be noted that a free press only remains so, until the day arrives when it shackles itself to a single point of view. Upon doing so, its relevance withers and dies.
I cannot say I am sad to watch old journalism die from its own necrosis, but I am inconsolable watching it lead liberty by the hand to a place of interment, where each grabs a handful of dirt and awaits a coin toss to see who gets to throw it first upon the other.
No matter the outcome today, what will be remembered is that this was the year we were betrayed by the town crier and the lighthouseman. The former left his post and the latter snuffed out his beacon. We wait in the silence and darkness they imposed, depending upon nothing but chance, that good will awaits us at the dawn.
The US news media will survive. It will, however, be composed of an entirely different group of people.
committment=commitment, of course
Ummm…if the news media had been doing its collective job, not only would Bush have lost the last election in a laugher, he probably would have been impeached before then. And if it had done even a teeny bit of real investigation in the months when Bush and his people were threatening and blaming Hussein for this and that to the point nearly 70% of all Americans thought Hussein was behind 9/11, there likely would have not been an Iraqi invasion in the first place.
And as far as this year goes, if the news media had done its job at all remotely well, McCain would have been down in the polls by 20+ points given his almost undiscussed disturbing associations going on now, and not some random nonsense from way in the past.
So crummy news coverage has been a huge plus to the GOP the past several years, and it was again this year, only that even the most clueless are apparently (fingers crossed) realizing what a bad bunch of people they are. So quit all this stupid whining and take your medicine. It’ll be good for you and the country whether you like the taste of it or not.
“American exceptionalism rests upon independent thinking, pride in community and heritage, and disdain for ivory tower intellectuals combined with admiration for self-help and achievement. My greatest fear is that these values are going to be trashed over and over again the next few years, and we will have to fight it very fiercely.”
1. Exceptionalism is what separates ruling classes from common folk. George Bush is a billionaire, so is Bill O’Reilly, so is Rupert Murdoch. You have a perceived mania about the left; who are equally as elitist as the right.
2. As for independent thinking, I see you are quick to lump media, people, and MSM together; because it serves your moment-to-moment argument. Of course, you would like these herds to move as individuals though, right?
3. Pride in community and heritage? So much for independent thinking. There could be NOTHING more collectivist than that statement. Heritage? What tribalism. If we just continued to honor our ‘heritages’ we should have just sent our ethnic-Germans to fight for their Mutterland.
4. You don’t seem to back McCain directly, but you use his language; ‘ivory-tower intellectuals.’ First, this denotes a formal education as a bad thing. Bush, McCain…pretty much ANYONE on the right has a formal education. Now, if you want to say that college doesn’t make you any smarter, I’ll give you that. Of course, I wonder why the equally intelligent factory workers (the still working ones that is) aren’t running the country, and not your so-called intellectuals? Idiot-savants?
5. By fight, I’m hoping that you mean something like democratic change. If you mean anything else, I’ll report you to the FBI this afternoon.
Better get your stuff straight, your people ARE at war with my people, just so you know. And we hate you all alike; republican, democrat, socialist, communist, neo con, nazi…doesn’t matter. You all look the same to me.
You do know that Limbaugh edited the Rose/Brokaw interview out of order and quoted Brokaw when he was actually quoting what “conservative commentators” had been saying, right?
Ignorance indeed.
So, unless we vote for the candidate you want we are ignorant? Typical, you sure you’re not an elitist, liberal Democrat who works for the MSM as they force their choice of candidates on the people? I read a wide variety of sources, mainly not MSM, and have come to a conclusion that I will not vote for the candidate you choose. Compare me to the person who never reads a mainstream paper, gets all their news from “conservative” sources – mostly the evil that is talk radio and then using a “non-partisan” voters guide released by some “family” organization with yes or no answers to questions written specifically to condemn the other candidate, decides who to vote for. Who is more ignorant? We haven’t forgotten Iraq or Afghanistan or 9/11, the problem for you is that we see better solutions. Quit whining, the people STILL have a vote, and you can’t take it away.
I, too, feel that this War is, by far, the most important issue of our time. It trumps economy and every other made up distraction by the left. If we don’t get serious about Islamofascism and do everything in our power to destroy it we won’t have any economy or freedom to bicker about.
Excellent article. America’s tailspin to third-world status is virtually complete, only awaiting the results of todays elections; elections rigged by fraudulent ACORN registrations, millions in foreign contributions, the sellout of the “news” media and the collective ignorance of America’s people….who will long remember and regret this day.
Folks,
By all accounts, the MSM have failed with major layoffs, circulation and revenue declines. However, they don’t care. When Obama wins, will nationalize them because “we cannot allow them to fail.” The MSM will officially become an instrument of one-party rule.
The propoganda works because the lack of education actually starts in the public schools. Why is there so little focus on the history of this country in ‘social studies’? It is well known that liberal elitists have complete control over most colleges, but they have also gained control of public middle and high schools, as many more principals, teachers, and administrators are phd’s from “schools of education.” Social studies textbooks are also created by the libs – with “multicultural advisory boards” listed in the front cover -but no historians!!!
America’s rot from within will continue, faster under Obama than McCain, but continuing nonetheless.
The entitlement mentality has been eroding American character since the 60′s. It is now bringing America’s golden age to an end. We will be passing a lesser America and its diminished opportunity and freedom to the next generation.
It’s the wholesale erosion of truth, honor, and trust in the public square, and its insidiousness makes it hard to fight. And Job One for the opposition will be to remove the channels of truth, the alternative media such as found on the internet and talk radio. They bypass the family, or what’s left of it, to directly indoctrinate youth in the schools. They use taxpayer funds to systemically corrupt the vote, then give moral equivalence to small GOP infractions. They refuse to enforce the Beck decision, immorally keeping union money on their side. They’re even brazen enough now to remove the secret ballot from union voting, so what’s not on their agenda for the nation?
May God save the republic.
“want to join the celebrities, want to be thought of as serious thinkers.”
Mutually incompatible terms.
Obama is an Usurper. His defeat will mean riots, his victory , civil war. Pull the lever, make your choice.
http://newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin84.htm
“The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of
oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”
- General Ulysses S. Grant
Pravda and the Volkischer Beobachter come to mind whenever I’ve miss-stepped into this cycle’s MSM product. Who ever wins this election I’ve a sense the dead trees won’t be around next time. Neither will the demo for the Networks.
A republic is only as sound as its citizens are wise. My intuition tells me that the people are on to the MSM and its blatant bias. When the media is finally revealed for its complicity with fraud, the alternative media will replace it as the only dependable source for news and opinion. Is it any wonder why the MSM is so in the tank for the Democrats this year? To survive it needs a government mandated monoply. Thus do we now hear open talk about the “Fairness Doctrine” and other attempts to stifle the First Amendment. This election will determine whether or not the electorate has the sense to slam the door on tyranny. Let us hope the populace opts for wisdom. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
It makes me angry as well. Anyone who would even think of voting for Obama is *obviously* ignorant or mentally ill. There’s no possible GOOD reason to vote for Obama. Nevermind that people might favor him on policy issues. I prefer to have my financial footing eroded by McCain until the middle class is gone.
And if you want to talk ignorance, I suggest looking in small towns where the majority actually believes the financial disaster “came out of nowhere”. Most of the ignorant people that I know are voting republican.
Someone75
So we Republicans are somehow, stupid, ignorant and sub-human?
Hmmm, where have I heard some Socialists (of the National variety) say that about another group of people, and where did THAT lead?
Someone75: Hope you enjoy all the “free stuff” Obama has promised you. But then again, it’s better than working, isn’t it.
We are seeing an electorate who doesn’t know why Ahmadinejad is such a bad guy, why Putin would invade Georgia, where Georgia is, why world events matter. There’s a rise in Anti-Semitism, in Christian hating. America will survive whomever is elected this day. In what form is the question.
Yep that’s me…ignorant, gun-toting, religion clinger. And to think I wasted all that money on a college education when it obviously did me no good at all!
Since when is higher education supposed to make you want to think for yourself? I missed out on all the indoctrination that I paid for – I would like a refund!
IGNORANCE, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder – you have to consider the source of the opinion before you give it credence. An ugly person griping about pretty people is about as relevant as stupid people giving their opinion about ignorance.
Here I thought it was only Republicans that were supposed to give blanket stereotypes…hmmmmm.
As to the comment regarding “small towns” (#12), I believe the so-called “elites” who govern the way the major liberal universities, MSM and legal professions conduct themselves; that it is they who have moved away from the values that used to govern most of America.
What is deemed to be “ignorant” by the elitists is sophistry taken to a new level.
Having had the opportunity to live in metropolitan areas and small towns, it has been my experience that those in small towns care more about each other than those “intellectuals” of one mind in the larger communities.
It is the intellectuals who perceive themselves as superior to others and use those who embrace “small town” values as their measuring guide to glorify their own perverted sense of knowledge.
This may surprise many elitists, but America was once one nation, under God. The intellectuals decided, however, that God should be taken out of the market place of ideas, and they instead have relied on their own sense of right and wrong.
Instead of looking to a Higher Authority, people of today, by and large, have each decided to go their own way. Because the elitists have given up having core values upon which to guide their lives, they now band together and ridicule the “ignorant” as a way to bolster their own self-esteem.
Will we be better because of it? The arrival of Sarah Palin on the political landscape and her acceptance have proven to me that there is still a large group of “ignorant” Americans who are rejecting the group-think of the elitists. They think they have a loud voice in the making of America in their image, but not everyone is listening. Therefore, those that don’t think as they do are brushed off as merely being “ignorant”.
Long live the Sarah Palins of America!
Michael Ledeen, what a tool. A tool of the right wing propaganda machine that is. Foxnews and Rush have you’re views so warped that you can’t see the forest through the trees. You think the war is the biggest issue, huh? You want victory? great, go back in time to 2003, mission accomplished. Since then we’re just a police force in a foreign country. Please explain what your version of victory means. The rest of the nation has figured this out, why can’t you? We already won the war and removed Saddam from power, it’s now time to GTFO.
Great – another elitist who thinks he is smarter than the electorate. What are you dreaming of the ditatorship of conservative elete? We know who Obama is. Maybe you do not like what you know about him and hide beide that vacuus statement. Sarah Palin might be attractive, but she has not proves herself to be up to the job. Maybe you have been so busy obsessing about Obama, you failed to watch her perfomance. The war has disappeared because Bush made cetain that it was a war waged with little visibility as to the true cost
Michael Ledeen is a warmonger. Sarah Palin is Bush II in a dress. I love his remark about ivory tower intellectiuals. What does that make you Dr. Ledeen?
But I do hope your chldren are safe and wish them the best of luck in the war you helped promote.
I won’t give up hope that an ugly turn for our country will, in the end, be defeated.
As I type this, FOX is now reporting that two Black Panthers blocked a doorway to a polling place (in Philly?). One with a nightstick, tapping it on his hand menacingly, and saying “we don’t want white supremacy any longer.”
This is what the man, whose entrance they tried to block, told FOX and it was confirmed that the police were called and they escorted one – with the nightstick – away.
Intimidation meant to keep us from voting.
It should make all Americans even more determined to get to the polls and vote to defeat a candidacy that has been beyond comprehension.
Fight fiercely, conservatives!
Can you imagine that, in a backward country like Egypt, they won’t let the army conscript only sons, while here whole families can go to war? That should tell you something.
And Sarah Palin. The media gave her a rough ride. And for what? Because she never did anything? Big deal. She’s been Governor of Alaska. She fought for the Bridge to nowhere, then changed her mind. How is that less important than being a talking head in the Senate for 20 years? So she didn’t know where Bhutan was? So what? That’s what maps are for. And who cares if a witch doctor blessed her against evil spirits. It didn’t work, as witness liberal left pundits.
As to Iraq, the bleeding heart liberals would have us attend to the tens of thousands Iraqis killed by us in the last few years. Well, tough. They started the war by offending us, so they deserve what they get. Don’t they?
The Playdo Institute
Handel Glassberg, President
http://www.pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/026686.php
Believer- -you’re not supposed to talk about black supremacy and intimidation- -shhhhh You’ll be labeled a racist!
Trolls – You so obviously did not try to understand the article. The war he addressed was the war of ideologies: Traditional Conservatism versus Socialism.
As for Palin’s qualifications, all she’s done is succeed again and again on her own merits. No one else in the campaign can even measure up to her in track record of achievement. Their education and worldliness can’t stand up to her real-world accomplishments.
This worship of academia is a way for people to look accomplished, but it’s all just so much glitter. In the end, you actually have to accomplish something through hard work.
Someone75 – You knwo better. You’re clearly up on the issues, and you KNOW that Obama is completely unqualified. Paid troll.
Hmmm first comment about Limbaugh and his dishonest editing of the Brokaw/Rose interview was deleted. Second still in a moderation queue. Something you guys don’t want your readers to know?
Michael, I consider this election to be yet another harbinger of way too many people who are so easily outraged by the invoking of what
is objectively true.
For, in all honesty, how long can objective truth be maintained when a person allows only
their efforts to be expended.
At least you and David Klinghoffer show maturity.
Someone75 — you can continue to lie to all of us from now until eternity. The more important question is:
When will you stop lying to yourself?
Robert Hurley – another person that thinks he is smarter than Sarah palin. I just love your comment, “Sarah Palin might be attractive, but she has not proves herself to be up to the job.” What school did you attend Mr. Hurley? Sarah Palin is very pretty and qualified, especially if you consider that Obama is running for PRESIDENT. Obama is a disgrace to our great nation. He would not even qualify to be a body guard to a president of our great nation. He would not even be considered to be a FBI or CIA agent. He has come this far because he is sly, just like the snake in the garden of eve. LORD, I PRAY HAVE MERCY ON US ALL DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICIANS. AMEN
“The Media” includes you. And don’t you think it’s a tad arrogant and dismissive to assume that you’re part of a special few who aren’t ignorant, who aren’t fooled to buying into whatever it is that is duping everyone else?
I’m sure if McCain wins, you’ll be crowing that it was ‘despite the media’.
someone75:
The old joke something like this:
In the 64 election when it was Johnson vs. Goldwater we were told “If you vote for Goldwater there will be a war in Vietnam.” and the joke is I did and there was.
So now I have voted for McCain so I guess I was dumb.
So we’ll see what the punchline will be going forward.
We have to take back our education system. We have to teach liberty to our children or they will grow up with no understanding of what that is. Today is the day we will pay the price for our apathy concerning the way our children are being taught. The children are voting now, and socialism is all they have ever known.
For eight years the old line media has been schooling the American people for this moment with their incessant anti-President Bush drumbeat; and “we the people” bought it hook, line and sinker. Republicans and conservatives, urban and rural, 70% of the people now agree that President Bush is ‘the enemy.’ Why would the media, therefore, not believe that they could, individually and collectively, convince that same 70% that this Obama character is the messiah? “Do not send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” ‘We the people’ empowered the press to do exactly what they are doing. If President Bush were to address the nation today and tell us that Obama is the ‘enemy within’ how many on this blog would believe him?
This piece is no more than the whiny, immature rantings of an adolescent yelling “No fair!” at the referee of his football game simply because his team is losing.
Your candidate’s campaign never had a clear, consistent argument as to why he would be the better choice for president. He appeared aloof and erratic countless times on the economy, which voters have decided is the most important issue of the election. Your candidate chose a running mate who experts on both sides judged as woefully unprepared. Finally, your candidate simply did not do enough to distance himself from the current administration, which most voters believe has been a catastrophic failure.
Don’t blame the media. Blame your candidate.
Jim Baker:
Sad but true.
But we need an incredible calamity to wake up America. Perhaps Obama will be it. Certainly 911 didn’t wake up anybody.
I agree with you but do not know what starts the process.
“But we need an incredible calamity to wake up America.”
Sounds like terrorist talk to me. I hope the FBI monitors this site.
“socialism is all they have ever known.”
Someone who was 10 years old when W was elected is now eligible to vote.
Is is your premise that 8 years of Cheney/Bush was 8 years of socialism?
Heah Hurley:
One evening Winston Churchill was drunk at a party and he was approached by some minor baroness.
“Mr Churchill, you should be ashamed of yourself for being drunk.” Churchill replied: “Madame it is true that I am drunk but you are ugly. We both shall go home to bed tonight and in the morning I will be sober but you will still be ugly.”
Just remember, tomorrow you will wake up and still be nobody but Sarah Palin will wake up and still Governor of Alaska.
I am going to ask you one more time please tell me has Obama done in his life that has prepared him for the Presidency? Don’t tell me hope and change and don’t tell me what he is going to do because he doesn’t know what will face him.
I don’t expect an answer from a mindless astroturfer who can only repeat Daily Kos talking points.
The American media is trying hard to make up for 8 years of TOTAL, ABSOLUTE 1000% IGNORANT of Bush-Cheney misleading this nation to serious war and dangers around the world, which has only helped the military industrial complex to benefit trillions of dollars from this war machine. So how come you don’t criticize the very same media of the lat 8 years?
In every Obama gathering number of people attending such events exceed 50K or 100K or more people, and then you call these people “Ignorant electorate”?!!!!
Fact of the matter is people are totally FED UP with all the BS and propaganda and nonsense IMAGINARY enemy making and then taking actions to benefit the military complex around the world. This is the bottom line.
Bin Laden and alike are so small, so tiny, so worthless, so full of NOTHING to be anything, yet this administration has made them so scary that they end up spending trillions of dollars on military toys.
This is the bottom line. Amazingly, AMAZINGLY, as the time has come for Obama, we are seeing movements in Iran, given the guardian and sole supporter of Ahmadinejad and his clan are losing their biggest supporter in the White House.
It is no wonder that Bin Laden DESPERATELY seeking to have McCain to be the president, so he can continue to live and grow. This administration ON SURFACE is friend of democracy, but IN TRUTH and REALITY they are the H2O and nutrients to Ahmadinejad and alike to stay in power.
American people by making gathering around Obama, town after town, after town after town in 50,000+ number show up and say we are not dumb! They are saying we get it now! We know this government has taken advantage of our fears. That is the REAL NEWS and that is what is happening. Yet this thing is not over, given the manipulative, TRICKY, FRAUDULENT nature of Republicans. People know people on the right will do anything and make deals with Satan and Devil and all bad angels of the hell to get what they want. People now know this.
Someone75: “Most of the ignorant people that I know are voting republican.”
I for one am looking forward to Obama’s presidency – I won’t have to worry about gas and my mortgage payment anymore!
I am voting for McCain but you all need to chill a bit. You’re starting to sound like the “I’m moving to Canada” crowd.
Obama seems to be a decent man even if a lot of his friends don’t deserve the sniff the air in America.
If he leans too far left, the house races in 2010 will correct it. I hope he’ll wind up being a great Prez. Yes we’ll have to deal with left-leaning judges. And worse.
But if it was so bloody important to elect someone other than a left-leaning Dem, blame not the media but the real culprits: Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay, George Bush and all the other aiders and abetters that made me ashamed to be a Republican in the past 8 years.
Dennis Hastert got rich while pork flowed. George Bush couldn’t be bothered to touch down and shake hands during Katrina. Or veto a pork-laden bill. Or phone the FDIC and ask “what in the hell are federally insured banks doing in shit no one understands?”
Hastert felt compelled to defend a congressman with $90,000 in his freezer.
It must have been fun to abuse the public’s trust.
With every layer of the Republican party showing rot and corruption, you wonder why voters don’t want more of the same?
The voters aren’t stupid and the media is only doing what its done for years. The Republicans handed them the guns and ammo. Too bad Dennis Hastert et al., didn’t do what Republicans are elected to do.
This article is really spot on. It is a sad reality that the left is slowly chipping away on the people’s liberty. I am really petrified because I know coming from a country who experienced tyranny what it is like to live in one. Most Americans are so spoiled that they take their freedom for granted. The media is so appalling that there is no words to describe them. What are we going to do without talk radio?
Marc Malone:
Here’s the deal: you and I have completely different ideas of what constitutes qualification.
I favor a candidate of intellect – a candidate that values education and critical thinking – a candidate that displays good judgment.
You seem to favor a candidate that puts himself before his country. “Country First” loses all meaning when you drive your party right off a cliff. McCain and his dirty campaign are ruining the republican brand. Apparently, you also favor a candidate who is as dumb as you are (i.e. Sarah Palin).
If calling me a troll helps you feel better about yourself, by all means, keep it up. I became immune to people like you a long time ago, save for your stupidity – it hurts my large brain.
Someone:
See my post above. It applies to you too. I have never seen you or any other astroturfer who has been able to articulate what in Obama’s past makes him qualified to run the country. I am still waiting. I suspect four years from now I will still be waiting to find out.
To Pat J
That is how the left debates. They call people whom they disagree names. People like you are so bitter and angry that you don’t want to discuss the issues and instead spew all the vitriolic hatred, drinks the kool aid given by the left. Then they sit and mourns over their victimhood status. But notice how vile these people are?
Michael Ledeen:
If you needed a “poster child” as a heading for your article, you have one now in “Alireza”. My question to the aforementioned is: Do you actually believe the gibberish you wrote in #24? If so, we are in for more trouble than even I had previously envisioned.
At least I know you are a coward now.
And to Someone75 regarding post #25:
What jerryofva wrote in post #26 applies to you, also. And I will ask you to provide examples of Obama’s critical thinking and good judgement, particularly the latter.
If they think the enemy is imaginary they deserve the death that enemy will bring to them.
Egypt thought she had no enemy. Then the Hyksos came.
Babylon trusted in her walls. The Medes were no threat. Babylon fell.
Greece was nothing for Persia to fear, and Macedonia was a backwater even to Greece. Then there was Alexander and little Greece toppled mighty Persia.
Who are the Goths and Vandals and Huns that Rome should fear? Rome was without peer save Achemid Persia and India and China far in the east. Rome, too, fell.
The enemy is real. Just because they’re not pounding down the gates today doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare or strike first. When they’re at the gates it will be too late and the sheep that left the gates ubarred will be nothing but mutton.
The media bias we’re seeing today originates, I believe, in the boardrooms of big media — not, as many naively and absurdly claim, in the leftist bent of its employees (reporters). Over the past twenty years, a great deal of mideast oil money has been invested in big media, most of it through front companies designed to obscure its identity. The corruption of the American press is nothing less than stealth jihad. It is designed to demoralize, weaken and subvert American freedom and democracy.
It seems that as usual the twin astroturfers someone and hurley (perhaps the same person?) have disapeared. Their lack of response indicates an inability to articulate why Obama is qualified to be President.
I think their antipathy toward Palin has to do with their rage against women and their concession that at best Obama is no more qualified theh she is.
24. Alireza:
“Bin Laden and alike are so small, so tiny, so worthless, so full of NOTHING to be anything, yet this administration has made them so scary that they end up spending trillions of dollars on military toys.”
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. 911 cannot be forgotten and people like you don’t give a damn. Don’t forget with BO in power you will think twice of being scared or not as the day will repeat itself and it maybe next to you.
37. Steve P.:
No Steve it doesn’t sound like a terrorist. Steve you sound very STUPID..
If the media had not been so biased then the radio talk shows and blogs would not be so popular.
Tell me, will you that hate talk radio and these blogs so much cheer and even help stifle it? Will you work to muffle those you don’t agree with?
I am fully in accord with your observations on the shameful abandonment of the journalistic principles which have been central to the political vitality of our nation. To sell out to a political philosophy which espouses the inhibition of freedom of speech, to become a lackey to a leader who refuses to reveal his personal and public record, who considers truthful criticism as “smears’, is to embrace serfdom.
That the reporters, graduates of schools of journalism which teach that the role of the journalist is to promote a cause rather than to provide the truth so as to enable an enlightened public to make their own choices, should not be surprising. But for the management and ownersip of newspapers and television networks, free enterprises, to fail to demand balanced reporting is inexcusable. But, instead of shame, we see gloating, misrepresentation, fabrication and self-congrtulation. Failure to observe freedom of speech, to prevent important news from reaching or readers, is like bok-burning.
The truly disturbing aspect of what has happened in this election is the degee to which it has occured. There are very few truly independent newspapers. There is only one balanced news channel. So most of the voting public form their opinions from the media that is dedicated to propagandizing them. There are very few major cities which have more than one daily newspaper. Where there are, as in Seattle, they are both mouthpieces for the Democrats in spite of the fact that 45% of their market votes Republican.
So how do you rectify the situation? The only hope I see is that if the Obama presidency continues its arrogance and overtly socialistic agenda, there may revulsion in the more reasoned media.
The whole thing is Orwellian.
more people die from headon INTERSTATE crashes
than AQ ever killed.
I see no clamor to clsoe interstates.
“But we need an incredible calamity to wake up America.”
Sounds like terrorist talk to me. I hope the FBI monitors this site.
Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if The One orders monitoring of all unfriendly websites after his coronation.
Steve, extremists on left-wing sites have been calling for Bush’s assasination for the past 8 years. That apparently did not alarm you. Someone uses the phrase “incredible calamity” on PJM and you wet your pants.
A return to the inglorious late ’70′s is “an incredible calamity” as far as I’m concerned. As I have said, plenty of Americans who are old enough to know better are apparently just hankering to go back to the days of stagflation, negative growth, a prime interest rate of 20% and appeasement. Yes, gimme a big heapin’ helpin’ of that old malaise, Obama!
i just read on facebook that a friend of mine, who voted for obama, is “voting for hope, not fear.”
that is interesting.
my father, an old hippie, was convinced bush & cheney were going to declare an empire – “the republic is in danger!” he would say. then i turned on c-span, and saw many red-faced democrats holding forth about illegal wiretaps and clear evidence that bush would use his executive authority to subvert our civil liberties – for example, through the patriot act, which allegedly allows the government to track which library books you take out. and what about those no-warrant wiretaps on calls where one party is an international caller? obviously an attempt to subvert the republic.
then of course there was ‘no blood for oil.’ bushitler. waging war to make money for a few friends at haliburton. and what about that afghanistan pipeline – is it not possible that the afghan war was really about a frustrated chevron pipeline project? obviously – 9.11 was an inside job.
and obama – the “postparisan” “bringer-together” whose policies have been articulated through a barrage of “george bush is a failure, a fear-monger, a war-monger, a chickenhawk.”
and so on.
the funny thing is, i remember on 9/11 international terrorists attacking the twin towers and the pentagon and actually killing about 3,000 people. had the attack come at 11 am, or had the towers fallen more quickly, it is possible that 50,000 might have died. what if congress had been in session and a plane struck the capitol building dome?
evidently this is all a halucination induced by a president with barely enough eloquence to make a simple point at a public rostrum.
there is something wrong with you lefties and obama-supporters. i wish i knew what it was. it isn’t lack of ntelligence; intelligence, after all, is mere computing power. it’s something else, something much more worrisome. at always, it brings to mind the shakespearean conception of the Fool: not intellectually stupid, but morally stupid. it will be interesting to see what happens when you inherit the country in a few months. i certainly i hope i will be proven wrong about what i *fear* you may do, and will be very glad if i am.
Nick:
Where do you live? I live the DC Area and work in the Pentagon. I knew CAPT Burlingame and a friend of mine’s son-in-law died in the Navy Command Center.
Perhaps you reconsider your analogy if you lived in a target area.
“Alireza”
Don’t worry. After today, I will do you a big favor. I will toss my voter registration card into the shredder and never vote in an election again. In fact, I will retreat into obscurity as a citizen. Heck, I may even renounce it, so you and your ilk will never again be bothered by people like me. After all, this is an America I will no longer know. I might as well prepare for a life of exile from the rest of this nation, and perhaps you all will forgive me with time, or maybe never. Either way, I will no longer be a burden to any of you.
Oh, while you’re at it, let me know when you find the cot in which I will be sleeping. You know, when the “re-education” camps for Republicans and Conservatives open their doors…
cat say: “No Steve it doesn’t sound like a terrorist. Steve you sound very STUPID..”
Well, I’m smart enough to construct sentences that don’t sound like complete nonsensical gibberish, unlike this gem you wrote:
“911 cannot be forgotten and people like you don’t give a damn. Don’t forget with BO in power you will think twice of being scared or not as the day will repeat itself and it maybe next to you.”
Cat, are you from New York City? Were you even here during 9/11? Did you actually lose people? Did you choke on ash or go down to Ground Zero to bring water and blankets to survivors and firefighters? Because I did, and I still think about it every day, and I think that you’re a total fake and a moron.
I agree. We’ve never voted for someone we didn’t know. This is a first in our history, and they will write many books about this.
I voted McCain, but I’ve reconciled an Obama win in my own head. I’m trying to find the bright side to this: I think over the long-haul this will be good for the conservative movement. We’ll be in intellectual exile and will be able to refine what we stand for — and just as importantly what we stand against — and we will be able to point to Obamanomics for what it is: socialistics, foreign, and alien to the American experience.
We’ll get back to our roots, and this far-left shift will force a serious intellectual and philosophical debate… Which I welcome, frankly. I’m thinking Gingrich might be that man in 2012. But it could be someone else.
As for Palin, I’m a McCain-Giuliani-type… I’m uneasy about a candidate whose foreign policy views I don’t know entirely, which is what initially made me hesistant about Palin. But if McCain and her lose tonight, she’s got four years to continue to prove herself and the critics wrong in Alaska, and who knows, maybe she speaks to the right people in Washington and becomes the first American politician to call for aiding the dissidents in Iran.
If she does that, I’ve found my candidate for the future. Palin/Petraeus 2012 has a nice ring to it.
nick g is a moron
Palin is toast
unless white voters show up to stop a black from getting the vote
and we will know in 5 hours
pentagon is great place for retiriees to not do an work
i live out west and was forced to go to NMCC
downstairs
for one week.
what a wasteful place!
my brother is typical of beltway bandit who do nothing productive
his friend sandy and 1 other died in army CC on 9-11
i dont even know how many died in such accidents
bu taht no one quesitoned shows the 3000 dead on 9-11 is a small amount compared to the INNOCENT babies that died due to US actions in IRaq
“You do realize that Rush edited that interview to give the impression he wanted?”
Sort of like what’s her name and Sara?
Meanwhile ignorant is thinking that withdrawing from Iraq will end the war. Gooing there didn’t start it, so how will leaving end it? The moonbats never have an answer for that one.
Meanwhile the wingbuts that think Ohhhhhh…….BAMA! will hold elections in 2010 are just as ignorant as the moonbats. There will be a crisis of some sort ( there always is) and Ohhhhhh……BAAMA! will declare an emergency and assume emergency powers which the Law allows him to do. 90 days later, as required by law, Congress will vote to extend the ‘emergency’. That will be it. Welcome to the United Soviet States of Amerika.
Look it up and see how Hitler became a tyrant.
“All three of our children are engaged in the war which to my way of thinking is the single greatest issue for America”
Michael,
G-D bless and our thanks to your family.
To my way of thinking, America’s greatest existential threat is cultural – the passivity and ignorance inculcated by our educational system.
The pols are still open. Perhaps Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber will yet drag McCain’s marshmallows out of the campfire. Either way, the battle for the minds of the electorate is just begun.
obama supports
1,500 black babies aborted each day
450,000 black babies dead each year
15 million since 1973
INNOCENT babies
Haha, well I’d rather be “moron” than more-off.
Bill Clinton was literally booed off the stage at his primetime DNC address for Dukakis in 1988, because his speech was 50 minutes long and full of empty platitudes. Four years later he was the Dem nominee and became president.
So I don’t think an awkward interview with Katie Couric in 2008 will make Palin “toast” in 2012, especially in 24-hour news cycle where news is old after a day or two.
Palin has far more qualifications to be VP than Senator Hopes and Dreams does to be President (that goes without saying), and has said far fewer dumb things that Mr. Hair Plugs.
Plus, she’s an open foreign policy vessel like Bush in 2000 or Clinton in 1992. If McCain and her lose tonight, hopefully in the next four years she’s a sponge and the right people convince her to support and articulate the right policies in the Middle East.
Who better in the West to talk about Iranian women’s rights than her? I think if she takes up some of these mantles about national security, surrounds herself with strong national security minds, and continues to govern exceptionally in Alaska, there’s no reason she isn’t a serious force in 2012.
With that said, a well-known and strong VP would be required. Like I said, my pick is Gen. Petraeus.
Steve P.
Thank you for volunteering during the 9/11 crisis. You are correct I wasn’t there. But I watched in horror as Islamic Terrorist crashed 2 planes into the Twin Towers. I felt the pain, the anger, etc. Yes, I did lose people, American brothers and sisters. You missed the point the writer made in that people do not think for themsleves, read for themeselves to find out who is the best qualified candidate to run this country. Obviously you are a product of the New York Public school system and have difficulty reading with comprehension. Most people, and it appears I can lump you in with them, rely heavily on the gibberish spewed forth and by the main stream media. the point the writer was making is that we as a nation have become so comfortable/ lazy in that we don’t research the facts ourselves. would you like to buy some ocean front property in Arizona by the way? It’s going cheap. So what you are telling me is is that Barack Obama is the most qualified candidate with 174 days of experience in offcie to run this country. If you believe that I thank you for the land purchase because you, sir, although not fake are either ignorant or an idiot. I can’t decide. Your sentence structure is excellent which leads me to believe you are either educated or lucky. Giving you credit for both that must make you an idiot. If not you are ignorant. Which one is it? I will be happy to send educational materials to you for any subjec in which you are lacking. How’s my sentence structure this time?
Here is my last post for this election night.
To all the trolls who think so highly of themselves. This is who you are voting for:
A man who goes to Wellesely and gives a commencement address and tells the graduating class live simply and work for the poor while lives in a million dollar house.
A man who goes before an audience of Hispanics and decries the lack of billegual skills among Americans and say we should all speak spanish while he doesn’t speak any foriegn languages.
A man who call others selfish while he lets his half-brother, aunt and uncle languish in slums.
Barak Obama thy name is hypocrite.
Barry is just laughing at the trolls who believe the stuff he is selling.
Now I will go eat dinner, take my dog for a log walk and go watch reruns on TV.
Good night and good luck.
jerryofva
Perfect!!!! Funny thing about trolls, they live under bridges, only come out at night and are dumber than goats.
he speaks english and indonesian
you liar who wastes taxpayers dollars at the pon pentagon PORK
i live in a 1.2 M$ house and also tell people to work for poor.
BFD
i dont give my half sister shit
and wont until she apologizes for her crap
a creationist with 520 sat scores wont understand SQUAT
Nick:
By your foul language it’s safe to say that you either have Turette’s Syndrome or no manners.
Second that. For someone who shares such a great name (means “victory of the people” in Greek), he sure sounds like a tool.
As for Palin, all I have to say to her critics is just continue to try to discredit her. It doesn’t work. I have no idea what her future will entail, but I think it involves success not failure.
Gee, nick, (posts 87-90) with your obvious intellect I can see why you choose to condemn Sarah Palin. She obviously could not measure up to your standards.
So far I’ve seen nothing but a plethora of ignorant comments proving that the department of education is a monetary black hole.
I am rather amused that The Economist has come for Obama. No doubt they have been overrun by an anonymous horde of closet Socialists as well.
As far as Palin is concerned, the less said the better. On the other hand, you might be interested to see what The Economist had to say about that.
live in a 1.2 M$ house and also tell people to work for poor.
Nicky, boy, you fool nobody. We all know that you live in the basement of your parents house and that, whatever happens tonight, you’ll still be a complete loser. There. I’ve paid you more attention than you deserve.
dan wrote:
my father, an old hippie, was convinced bush & cheney were going to declare an empire – “the republic is in danger!” he would say
Bear in mind that for 8 years now we’ve been hearing about how evil Bushhitler would completely destroy our civil liberties. And yet, I note that an election took place today and it looks as though Bush’s ideological opponent will win. Boy, they just don’t make fascist dictators like they used to.
(I also note that the NYT has just discovered that *gasp* there are bad characters in Gitmo. And some of them have been released into this country! Why, you don’t say!)
I’m having fun watching Republican losers whine and squeal. Losers are funny to watch. What’s it feel like to be a loser today? What’s it feel like to face another 4 years of your worst nightmare, living through 4 years of loserdom. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! You’re so frickin cute when you whine, Republican losers!!!
Well, the Presidency has gone, the best the GOP can now hope for seems to be limiting losses in the Senate.
Tonight is the GREATEST night for me. Seeing a man with a middle name like Hussein is able to go through so many narrow minded people like some on this board to become the president of the greatest country on earth. His win is the real truth and GREATNESS of this country, while having people like in it too.
U.S. is proving its greatness and its positive image around the world that is so willing, caring and loving to vote for a man half from Kenya and half from U.S. ONLY in America this could happen.
And for those right-wingers PRETENDING to love and worry about Israel, many of you know well that over 70% of American Jews are voting for Obama. And you also know this as a scientific fact that Jews are no retard. So stop PRETENDING and worrying about Israel. OK?!
Stop nonsense stuff about Bin Laden, and other nonsense things about this cave man. Tonight, while still few hours left, and still Republican can manipulate truth, is my GREATEST night to know Obama is becoming our President. After such a long time I now feel America is coming back to be the America once I felt was the REAL AMERICA.
So you people on the right, chill out, join the party and enjoy 8 years of high intellectual management of this great nation. Something that all of us felt missing in the last 8 years.
U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
This radio show is about what is truly at stake in this election, and what we are TRULY voting for. This election can change the mindset of the entire country and could have an effect for years to come. Most people don’t think of it in this way. It’s very surprising. And either way you decide, you will at least be aware and understand the unspoken implications. If you like what you hear, please pass the link on to others who you may think might like it.
http://tinyurl.com/5znubc
Hmm…what’s worse? Dismissing people as “bitter” or “ignorant?”
The fact of the matter is, the country as a whole is now at least center-left, if not outright left. Those on the right are in decline. To deny this is to delude yourself. That’s just the way it is…
What makes you think American Jews necessarily care about Israel? It’s the most natural conclusion that they would, but many couldn’t care less about Israel.
BTW, Obama has zero chance of being a two term President. Assuming he does hold on to win tonight, he loses in a landslide ala 1980 to Mike Huckabee four years from now.
American journalists reported, while they, the Italians, were doing politics. “We could bring down our entire Political Class,” they would say, “we all have information so devastating that no politician could survive,”…And we felt superior, because American journalism, we thought, just reported the news and let the people decide.
Yeah, our media could have done the same thing to JFK, only they didn’t want to. They preferred to spew their Camelot nonsense, wait a few years and then go to town on someone they didn’t like, namely Dick Nixon.
Our media is no different then theirs in that respect.
And, the media now isn’t any different than the media in 1960. Biased as hell, in the tank for the Dems, and phony as a three dollar bill.
myth buster,
Telling yourself bedtime fairytales that Obama can’t win in 2012 may help you sleep, but remember this: REALITY. And REALITY says that Obama just KICKED LOSER REPUBLICAN ASS. Yeah, it sucks being you. Hahahahaha
Josh: Unlike you, I am an adult, and accept that sometimes you lose an election. I’ll get up and go to work tomorrow like always.
Let’s see what happens 2 and 4 years down the road. I hope, for the sake of our country, that Obama doesn’t make a hash of things, but I suspect he will.
And it’s rather a relief to not have to play defense anymore. I will give Obama all the support and charity that Dems have given to Bush during the past 8 years.
P.S. A friend who owns a small business just emailed me – he expects to have to lay off 5 employees within the next few weeks. He won’t be able to afford them any more. He’s cutting by seniority but it so happens that all 5 employees were Obama supporters.
So laugh, fools. Many of you have just voted yourself out of jobs.
Donna V., you’re not an adult, you’re a LOSER. And I’m enjoying watching you try to pretend that you’re “above the fray” on this. I can read the squealing and squirming, and believe me, I’m enjoying it.
Donna V.,
Your friend can’t afford to keep 5 employees because your friend is a LOSER. Sounds like he runs the business the same way Republicans ran the country–like total complete losers. You’re failures, you can’t even win a war in a monkey Arab country, you can’t win an election, and you can’t run a simple small business, because you’re LOSERS.
It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. I think the press will eventually have to turn on Obama. Who else is left for them to beat up? There are no more Republicans in a position to exert any influence at all. Obama is a very arrogant and unlikable person when things go against him. He is nothing like Bush in that regard. Obama will make a misstep and then all of the things that the press has been covering for will suddenly seem relevant.
There is no hope that Obama’s policies will be anything other than an unmitigated disaster and there is no one else to blame the results upon. Let’s see if the left has the courage of their convictions or if they tack to the center.
BTW to Donna V., we made the decision at my business to shut down part of our operations in the event of Obama winning. My partner and I have worked too hard for too long to have what we have built snatched away. Everyone is racing to liquidate before the tax rates go up. The small business community is as demoralized as they have ever been.
But don’t worry. Obama is going to see that these people are well taken care of… forever.
“P.S. A friend who owns a small business just emailed me – he expects to have to lay off 5 employees within the next few weeks. He won’t be able to afford them any more. He’s cutting by seniority but it so happens that all 5 employees were Obama supporters.
So laugh, fools. Many of you have just voted yourself out of jobs.”
Er, Obama isn’t even in power yet. The economic circumstances that are forcing your friend to fire the employees whose politics he doesn’t like have occured on GWB’s watch.
Nah, Josh, my friend will purposely cut his own pay and ride out the storm comfortably, although he would have preferred to expand his business. He’s got plenty stashed away in tax-free bonds.
It’s his loser, Obama-voting employees who will pay. Continue to congratulate yourselves while you stand in the unemployment line, losers.
I’m an RN, I’ll always have a job.
“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill
This election, and its attendant “conversation,” the posts you read from any Left blog or the trolls on this one, have proven Sir Winston supremely right…once again.
Donna V.,
Winners expand their businesses. Losers whine like you do, or cut employees like your loser friend, and then go crying to the government for a bailout. You had your chance to run the economy–and you failed. You Repubs are so pathetic, seriously, if you can just win one war against a monkey 3rd world country, then I’ll take you seriously. It’s now time for the adults to take over. Keep whining, Donna. Can you keep whining and being a loser? Yes you can! Can you lose an election? Yes you can! Can you lose 2 wars to sand monkeys? Yes you can! Ahahahahha!
“quod erat demonstrandum”
So the One won. So What. I survived Clinton, Carter, and even Johnson, though some of my friends didn’t. You can find their names on a wall.
Barry doesn’t have to worry about the right, but he better keep a close watch on his friends. We all know what happens to Messiahs that don’t live up to the expectations of their flocks. And losers like you, Josh, will be at the head of the crowd with hammer and nails in hand. As for me, I’ll be kicking back with a good Scoth and listening to some good music, LOUD, drowning out the pitiful wails from all you wealth-sharers, secure in my paid off house and 21 years seniority in my non-tranferable to India job. Kinda hard to drive a truck sitting in Calcutta. So, did I win life’s lottery? NO, i fricking worked hard all my life for it, and I’m going to enjoy it and there aint a G–damned thing you or Barack can do about it. The Counter-revolution starts Now.
The fact that you quoted a dead foreigner and a Latin saying makes me feel reeeeeally reeeeeeally insecure, in an intullekchual sorta way. Yowzee, you Republicans really must be much smarter than we knew. You’re like Koko the talking gorilla. You’re almost–and this may sound crazy but yes, I’ll go out on a limb and say that you’re almost human. Who taught you to repeat the Latin proverb? Were you fed a banana for each one you learned?
Josh, did you finish your Algebra 1 homework? It’s getting late.
Hey look, Koko made a flame! There there Koko, another banana for you.
wow, Josh. “Losers” and “Repubs are pathetic”? Would you truly say that to my face? Or do you save your nice manners for real life? Either you are a coward or a jerk. I actually have friends, which is another way of saying I’d rather be a pathetic loser whose candidate just lost than an immature, self-absorbed creep who wastes his time writing screed and gloating that he voted for the winner this time. For Pete’s sake, grow up and say something of *substance*.
“Can you lose 2 wars to sand monkeys?”
“Sand monkeys?” Why, Josh, you racist pig! For shame!
The war in Iraq is won, but have no fear, Obama will soon unwin it. Because that’s what losers do.
P.S. Winners don’t expand businesses if they’re going to be penalized and called “greedy” for it.
If they’re big companies, they might relocate to India or China.
If they’re small, they simply cut a few employees and try to hang on. Of course, the losers don’t recognize that – because losers don’t understand basic economics.
America is about to get a lesson in basic economics.
I would urge you three family members in the military to leave as soon as legally possible. Obama and the democrats will kill a lot more of them than Bush. (Think of Black Hawk down writ large.) He will betray our troops, just as most democrats do every single day.
As for me, I’ll be reducing my income to below what ever level Obama deems is worthy of a tax refund. I aint gonna work hard if it is for another’s benefit.
Obama doesn’t, his (very) well paid wife doesn’t, and the 96% of blacks who voted for him don’t work for the benefit of others, either.
Obama will kill this country’s economy.
Alireza,
I hope that you are around in four years, so I can watch you eat your words.
The world’s despots are going to run rings around Obama.. I only hope that you pay a price for the Obama catastropy that is equal to your current joy at his election.
Obama will be responsible for the deaths of millions.
Just a quip… Republicans here thinking that in 4 years there will be another election may be mistaken. It may be called an election, but it will be an acclamation. Don’t expect any election for 10 years or more.
To the lefties… Obama himself may not last long. I suspect he is but a front man and the people behind him would discard him once his usefulness has been milked for what it is worth. After all, they will need someone to blame for all the ruin that is about to transpire in the next 4 years. Republicans and conservatives may find themselves in re-educational camps, because at least they can work or be productive, but you, the malcontents and non-conformist and protesters, you will not have any such cozy arrangement. You will be disposed off like insects.
I’ve already seen it an experienced it once, and I know the symptoms, and events are on the same track again. I don’t live in US, so somewhat removed from that fray… albeit there is no doubt in my mind that events in US will have deep repercussions throughout the world. People that are deluded by the thought that they are preventing a war are actually leaving the door fully open for it to enter. A big, big war.
Those that don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.
I wish you all well and hope that the next decade won’t be overly painful and with an unbearable price tag.
Josh- you ignorant slut.
Obviously government school educated? because they sure as hell didn’t teach you any manners there.
@ 135. Jack
“Obama will be responsible for the deaths of millions.”
I think he is a puppet, but yes, he will be blamed.
Ayers and his palls when they formulated their scenario of revolution, estimated about 25 million for elimination. That was when US population was a tad smaller than now. So I suspect the number would be 30+ million today.
Of course, at that time, they were a bunch of loonies without power. But that suddenly changed as of now. Don’t doubt for a moment that in these new circumstances, they will find any impediments to act upon their original precepts.
excellent article. I went to government schools in the 60′s – 70′s. When I was in 8th grade, my very liberal (first time I had ever met one of those) social studies teacher tried to tell us not to eat hot dogs, because they were the evil of the earth. We looked at him like he was crazy. Now, I can’t believe the garbage the government educated people believe. My husband took a job out of state (we’re from Texas – this state is up north – as far liberal as can be), and we were talking to a guy in a ‘pub’, and he thought his grandparents were going to lose their house because of the mortgage crisis. He explained the facts, and the guy thanked him – because he said all he knew was what he heard on tv.
1. A Civil National Security Force will be built in 2 years. As Obama stated, it will be as strong and powerful as US military.
Themain purpose would be to deal with domestic enemies de jour. If you envision something like East German Stasi, that is what I am talking about.
The force has to be as strong as military to prevent military from interfering. It is quite likely that there would be many early retirements within US military ranks, the elite members of the CNSF would start filling the vacant, mostly key position, to paralyze any potential threat to the new order.
A joyful picture, isn’t it?
The actual details may vary due to circumstances, but I have no doubts that Obama was not just pulling a leg. He was vague on many thhings, except this particular aspect of the new order.
Oh, and the smell of show trial in the morning!
Soon, kids, soon. And surprisingly, it would be some of the top people on the left. (Not surprising to me, power, especially absolute power yearns to be consolidated).
Just so you have some respite from the dark thoughts, here is some relevant levity:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081105
Viva Obama!!!
Your article is right on. Real news is no longer reported in the MSM. We are viewed as pawns by the media elite and, sadly, many of us are easily led to the “popular” or “right” candidate. At least MSNBC is overt in its bias but the real danger lurks on CNN and the news outlets that use a source such as the AP. CNN recently had a promo for their election coverage and when they said, “…will voters base their choice on fear or inspiration?” they showed a picture of McCain for fear and Obama for inspiration. Insidious.
Sorry Mharilou.
I wouldn’t call Ledeen a warmonger if I didn’t do some research first. Calling person names is one thing. Backing it up with facts is another.
lol, millions will die…. the stasi… cnservatives in re-education camps…
you guys get funnier and funnier, is there any limit to the paranoia???
“I can’t believe the garbage the government educated people believe. My husband took a job out of state (we’re from Texas – this state is up north – as far liberal as can be), and we were talking to a guy in a ‘pub’, and he thought his grandparents were going to lose their house because of the mortgage crisis. He explained the facts, and the guy thanked him – because he said all he knew was what he heard on tv.”
Yeah, I bet you gave him a good re-educating with some ‘facts’ that blamed the democrats for every possible thing that could go wrong.
PS, you never know what’s in a hot dog, your teacher was probably right, I try to steer clear and go for traceable sausages with quality ingredients not industrial ones.
By the way. One could say Ledeen was callng people names in the title of this article.
In response to #87, Clement Atlee was elected Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1945. 6 years later Winston Churchill was returned to Downing Street as Prime Minister. It wasn’t until 1964 that the Labour Party won an election in Great Britain.
Something to keep in mind.
Mr. Ledeen,
Thanks for your “Election Thoughts” piece on November 3. I agree that coverage of this election has been unfairly balanced, but I can see why. The media is a business, so a TV station, newspaper, website, or magazine has to maximize reach to generate as much advertising revenue as possible. Most media could have the motto “we don’t report the news, we report what people want to hear.” With the exception of PBS, or NPR most media outlets are driven by circulation rates, ratings or online hits. So I can see why the media chooses to highlight the Democratic news because, simply put, the story has been much more thrilling on the Democratic side. This became clear in the primaries. A bunch of middle-aged and old white men vying for the Republican nomination is not nearly as exciting as a black man and white woman battling for the Democratic nomination.
After the candidates were nominated Obama still was the much more appealing story. Even without the race factor, Obama’s youth, energy and eloquence during his campaign appearances provided better sound bytes at the end of the day. A war hero and senate maverick is an intriguing election figure, but as the campaign dragged on, McCain’s age began to show and he seemed like a tired and erratic old man. The only old guy truly capable of capturing headlines with age is Hugh Hefner.
I do agree that the media has focused unfairly on Sarah Palin. In the fallout from the announcement of Mrs. Palin’s fashion expenses there was much ink devoted to assessing her clothes and makeup. But I have also read articles that assess the hairstyles she has had throughout the years. Admittedly, I was scratching my head asking, “what does that have to do with her ability to step in as president, if needed?” I see two reasons for the unbalanced focus on Palin. First, she is a young, attractive woman—the closest ever to the Vice Presidency. Second, Palin provided more opportunity for headlines because she is more of a character. I think the biggest critics of Palin were not Kathleen Parker and Colin Powell but rather Saturday Night Live and basically every other late night comedy show. By comparison, Joe Biden is rather bland. He may be gaff-prone, but his blunders aren’t as easy to spin into jokes.
But just because there has been a mainstream media bias, does not mean that the United States electorate is ignorant as you claim in the article. I think voting Americans should be offended by that comment. During this election campaign I found that the best coverage came from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation. Canada and Britain are close allies of the US and have a vested interested in the election results, but both countries are removed enough from America to present unbiased election coverage. Most Americans may not get CBC or BBC coverage on TV, but both of those news outlets have excellent websites that had very thorough election coverage. In 2008, the prevalence of online news—factual and fabricated—has meant that there is no excuse for ignorance. I presume that you don’t see eye to eye with Arianna Huffington, but she wrote on November 3 that the “winner in the 2008 race” was the Internet. I think that is so true. Every minute detail of this election was covered in blogs, websites, social networking sites, emails and YouTube. In fact if it wasn’t for the latter, no one would have seen Jeremiah Wright’s fiery tirades against America. The American electorate had mountains of information a click away that anyone with a library card could access. In the end, I think that people voted for Obama despite the mainstream media bias, not because of it.
I would just say that Ledeen puts the “L” in “Loser.”
@147. jonesy55
Paranoia? No.
Just a simple extrapolation of signposts I see. I’ve seen it before, I’ve seen how it works. I understand that it is hard to contemplate it if it is not in your experiential reality.
As I said, I don’t live in US, so it does not affect me to the degree it would affect you.
But…mkay. Lets talk in 4 years as see if I am still paranoid, in your view and how much lols you can muster by then.
Mr Ledeen, you’re bound to get ignorant voters when you’ve got a media filled with Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Reilly’s, Glenn Beck, John Stossel, Brit Hume, Bill Kristol, etc.
Oh, and Michael Ledeens.
Can we please, once and for all, stop listening to media people complaining about the media. THEY ARE THE MEDIA.
Well, that’s over and done with now. Never before has the ignorance of the electorate been so intensely cultivated as in this election…An ignorant electorate is a real threat to good government, and the whole point of the First Amendment is to create a wide-open national debate from which the truth might emerge.
The ground of ignorance has been laid for decades at all levels of public education, long preceding the media’s overt turn to journalism as a agenda driven cudgel.
Yesterday’s vote demonstrated that the sands have shifted sufficiently that the ignorant can claim a majority.
…and the whole point of the First Amendment is to create a wide-open national debate from which the truth might emerge.
With so many Democrats favoring the return of the (anti) Fairness Doctrine, (most vocally, so far, Rep. Pelosi, Senators Schumer & Bingaman) if they have their way with the place, the First Amendment should expect to take a major hit as well.
PopeRatzo
Just for the record, here (video in below link) is ignorance. I doubt that the individual on this video has ever heard of the pundits you mention, individuals who might serve as counterpoint to the pervasive worldview and brute force of the network/MSM/legacy “media”.
And who’s gonna pay YOUR bills ?
You know what ignorance is? It’s being the world’s biggest loser like all of you Republican whiners, and not being able to face up to that reality. You’re ignorant of your own failure. But we’re not–we’re reading you and watching you and we’re LAUGHING OUR ASSES OFF. By “we” I mean “Winner America” the ones who won the election, not “Loser America” who lost. What’s it feel like? Losing, I mean. I wouldn’t know, because I won, but I’m just curious. Does it hurt?
Only thing you’ve ever “won”, Josh ?
You sound more hysterical than happy.
Don’t worry, your euphoria won’t last long, since your side seems to prefer a state of perpetual misery and anger.
A lotta people are going to be calling in chits on Obama, the Reverend JWright announced his intention long ago and other assorted partisans (see todays NYTimes). I think Prime Minister Pelosi (aka “she who wields The Power”) already thinks of Obama as her titular President
You’re all gonna be disappointed when Obama doesn’t toe all the various lines. Like the young woman in the video will be when she finds out Barack won’t be making her mortgage and house payments.
tanstaafl,
“Okay, since I can’t deal with the pain and agony of being a loser, what I’m going to tell the winners is that in some imagined fairytale future, they will suffer just as I’m suffering now in the real non-imaginary present-tense. Yeah, that’ll show ‘em! That’ll make ‘em hurt, and make me feel better. Lying to myself–it’s worked for Republicans before, it can work for us again!”
…her mortgage and house payments.
Car payments.
Anyway, it didn’t take Biden’s 6 months for Putin’s hand puppet, Dmitri Medvedev, to issue a challenge.
President Dmitri Medvedev orders missiles deployed in Europe as world hails Obama
No pain, Josh. Some sadness at the level of ignorance in America today, since even some of Obama’s most enthusiastic and ardent supporters don’t know what the man stands for.
That’s because Barack Obama isn’t sure what he, himself, stands for, beyond using the machinery of the federal government to accomplish the goals that he failed at as a community organizer in Chicago. And because he has been all over the map as a function of what the immediate audience might want to hear.
The vapidity of “change” and “hope” (chope) as a mantra struck a real chord in the brains of the easily led and poorly educated.
Lenin would be thrilled.
(adios for the nonce)
OK guys repeat after me: Keep your voice up while repeating:
Barak H U S S E I N Obama! I know lots of you feel like drinking poison acid, but you better learn it. He is the President for the next 4 years. One more time: H U S S E I N …. H U S S E I N …good… repeat after me: Barak H U S S E I N Obama!
Or as Iranians say: OO Ba Ma (He is with us!).
Better yet just repeat this: “LOSERS! REPUBLICANS ARE L O S E R S!”
Wow, I know y’all are bitter, but you are making yourselves look like total behinds….. GET OVER IT OBAMA WON!
And if I may use an oft uttered phrase from 2004:
“If you don’t like it you are free to move to a different country”
Josh, yes. Republicans lost this election. Does not mean that they are losers. 49% is 2
% short of a majority.
But Democrats lost too. They just don’t know it yet (some do). They’ve been taken over by radical leftist. Not by starry-eyed idealists, which you as well may be. By totalitarian leftists. I’ve had the unwanted privilege to see them up close almost for 30 years of my life, and I recognize them when I see them.
You, my friend, lost too. You just don’t see it yet. But don’t worry, you won’t have to wait for long, just a few short years. I will have no pleasure in seeing you eating a crow (perhaps even a literal one).
HA HA HA HA HA H!!!!!!!!!!! Are you serious?? You think Obama is a radical leftist????
Dud you need to seriously study world history…..
Here’s some advice. “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”…
he he he, radical leftist…..
Or as Iranians say: OO Ba Ma (He is with us!).
Here’s another Iranian Ali.
(maybe it’s you)
You guys are rocket scientists over there, eh wot ?
Hence, the first real step of the president-elect of the United States ought to be for a forceful demand for immediate resignation of the sitting president and his vice president. The president-elect ought to enlist the media and the electorate in this call for early resignation.
Demand Bush and Cheney’s Resignation
To: Pez,
You can’t be that stupid. The article doesn’t say or even imply what you are saying. Stupidity is knowing something won’t work and doing it anyway. Ignorance is not knowing at all what something is. In the case of 2008 elections, Americans have been ignorant of all the details by the media. The authors constant mention of ‘journalists’ should have been a clue as to who he was talking about. It was there in the article. You chose to ignore it. That makes YOU stupid.
Correction to post 166: Americans have been kept ignorant of all the details by the media.
twobyfour,
As always with you loser Republicans, you live in a fantasy world of events which haven’t yet taken place but which inevitably will (in that you always sound like Marxists, oddly enough). I’m talking about what IS. I know that what IS hurts you because in the real world, Republicans lost the elections, lost 2 wars, and lost the booming economy that Bush inherited. You can’t do anything right! Can you wipe your asses at least? Will you need a government ass-wipe bailout to help you wipe your asses, or can we at least trust you losers to do that?
Josh, I told you I don’t live in US. Hence I can’t be a Republican. I may be probably fitting more into a libertarian column, but what I do know is that I am anti-socialist and anti-communist. You’d be too if you lived for 30 years in that crap.
But I’ll bait. Which 2 wars Repulicans lost? I suppose you mean Iraq — but that is not a war, just one of its theaters. No, the theater was almost won, but watch Obamarx lose it real fast!
And, please grow up. I understand that you are enamored by the narrow victory, but your crowing may be rather short lived. Just consider that possibility and that people that lived longer than you may have some insights because of their life long experience.
JOSH
Oo, that link to the drawing really hurt. You’re a cruel one, tanstaafl. Seriously, it’ll take years to get over that. 8 years to be exact. How long will it take for you to get over the fact that WE WON? And you are IN THE TRASH HEAP OF HISTORY.
Pretty decent analysis of Obamarx acceptance speach at eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com:
There will be setbacks and false starts.
[I am going to so mess things up, and not just once, but many, many times.]
There are many who wont agree with every decision or policy I make as President,
[Most of the decisions I'm going to make will be extremely unpopular with the vast majority of Americans - like raising taxes, including for those earning far less than $250K a year, skyrocketing electricity prices, bankrupting the coal industry, no offshore drilling, socializing medical care which is failing everywhere else in the world, reinstitution of the fairness doctrine, you name it.]
and we know that government cant solve every problem.
[Our big government is inept, but I am going to significantly increase it anyway because I know this is the answer to most if not all problems.]
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.
[Honesty is my strongest virtue. I will be as honest with you as I have been throughout the election campaign about my views, standings and associations.]
I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way its been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
[Fasten your seat belts, folks. Whether you like it or not, I'm taking you for a very rough 4-year ride, and by the time it's over, you'll be begging for "8 more years of Bush".]
And now some levity:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive
Ah, 2×4, such insight !
I think The Onion’s parody might be very close to the truth.
These “obama supporters” will be made miserable without their obsession.
Josh, what mean ye by calling yourself a winner? YOU didn’t win the election, your candidate did!
I voted for McCain, but I wouldn’t consider Dems “losers”. I didn’t want anyone to be a “loser”! I wanted us all to be winners. Winners by having the better leader, the more qualified candidate win the election. Now you are saying that I’m a pathetic loser because the majority of voters disagreed with me and a whiner if I express disappointment.
You remind me of my two year old. Only she doesn’t have a potty mouth like you.
Would ignorance lead to the largest turnout in 80 years, Mikey?
If so, then maybe you ought to get out of the way of the lemmings, but somehow, SOMEHOW, I think an informed and educated electorate decided they’d had enough of conservative bullshit about taxes.
Just a thought.
I just want to know what month do we stop paying house payments????
actor212,
True, impressive turn out despite a large contingent of PUMAs. Obamarx was so exciting that a large number of dead arose and cartoon character got animated and pets acquired a temporary ability of reasoning (within limits, of course–they voted for Obamarx after all). I know quite a few people that were told at the booth that they already voted, yet they did not.
Your ACORN buddies made a hash of the whole election process. Way to go Dems!
actor 212, no. but ignorance would call it the largest turnout in 80 years. actual numbers show at least 3 million less than 2004, probably even fewer minus dead people, cartoon animals and democrat’s imaginary friends.
josh, some career help for when you gow up. learn this phrase “you want fries wit that?” Let me know if you need it in spanish, to help you compete with all the illegals that will be after your job.
just remember, messiahs don’t have a good success rate.
p.s. twobyfour, my cats were smart enough not to vote for the One, so lets not slander all animals
they didn’t fall for that “spread the mice around” bs.
“For years now, most thoughtful Americans have known they were being misled by the MSM.”
Mr. Ledeen:
Let’s look at one of your articles that appeared in the MSM a while back. (1) In that article, you say that an Iranian Majlis member, Mr. Shirzad, “revealed that the regime had constructed a vast underground laboratory in Isfahan.” Shirzad’s speech was covered by at least 16 articles from around the world, including reformist news organizations from Iran. (2) Not one of these 16 news stories said a word about Shirzad mentioning a military site in Isfahan in his speech. Is this a case of the rest of the MSM misleading the world by not mentioning the Isfahan story? Why was your story the only one in the world to mention this? Do you have a mole in the Majlis?
You talked about the “lengthy speech” given by Ahmad Shirzad in Iran’s Parliament. In fact, the speech was at most 12 minutes long. (3)
As you know, quotes from speeches in Iran that are not witnessed by the Western media come from Iranian sources. These sources are translated and reported on by BBC Monitoring, and then copied by the Western press. For instance, the Iran Daily newspaper quoted Shirzad as saying the following in his speech:
“We have always claimed that we are the world’s spiritual leader and all deprived peoples of the world have counted on the Islamic Republic as their saviour. But now the world views the Islamic Republic as a violent, suppressive, unpopular and militarized regime, which does not put up with any criticisms and its red lines are expanding day by day.” (4)
Agence France Presse reported this quote as well, changing it somewhat but staying within the same boundaries:
“[Shirzad] accused conservatives of giving Tehran’s opponents ‘the arguments for presenting Iran as an oppressive regime, that violates human rights, opposes freedom of speech and is anti-democratic.’” (5)
When you reported your version of this quote, you spiced it up a bit by claiming that Shirzad said Iran’s image had changed from…
“a popular, peace-seeking, egalitarian society based on justice, into a hub for totalitarianism, disdain for human rights, violence, support for international terrorism in search of weapons of mass destruction and alienated from its own people.” (see note 1)
Why is your version of Shirzad’s quote so different from the original, and from other sources?
In your article, you then say that Shirzad was “instantly silenced.” (note 1)
If your claims are true and Shirzad revealed Iran’s secret nuclear program to the world, including locations of specific sites, I would not be surprised if Iran acted harshly. I would think any country would. However, it seems that Iran did a very poor job of silencing Shirzad. The month after your article and two months after his Parliament speech, Shirzad said this about the conservatives: “If they succeed to form a mock parliament as they wish, the next scenario of the monopolists is to sponsor an impeachment motion against President Mohammad Khatami and weaken his cabinet to bring their conservative comrades to the cabinet.” (6) Later in 2004 he continued his criticisms, saying that “this whole issue has turned into a point of weakness for the country, and the foreign powers are using it to exert pressure on us. In other words, instead of generating power and strength for Iran, the nuclear issue has only weakened it.” (7) After Ahmadinejad won the presidential election in 2005, Shirzad was one of only a few reformists that continued their criticisms:
“Lack of unity among reformists is not something you need special insight to detect. While most reformists talk about the strategy of silence as a rational policy to pass through the present stage, figures such as Mohsen Armin, Hamid Reza Jala’ipur, Ahmad Shirzad, and Mostafa Tajzadeh have already broken this silence and harshly criticized the government. They began with the decisions of Mahmud Ahmadinezhad on his cabinet members.” (8)
Not only is the Iranian government unable to “silence” Shirzad, they even let him publish articles in newspapers that criticize the government! They really have a hard time “silencing” this guy! The following is from an article in the newspaper E’temad written by Shirzad in 2006:
“To safeguard our major interests, we ought to choose a realistic course, act pragmatically, and avoid sloganeering. Sadly though, we sometimes see that the rhetoric announced from the tribune of, say, Friday prayer, or similar other medium, is also echoed from an official diplomatic tribune within the international community [as published], or repeated in a formal press interview for the general public to hear and form their opinion. If we say, and repeat relentlessly, that America is bad and evil, oppresses the weak, bullies other countries, etc,.. would anything be changed or improved?” (9)
A few months later Shirzad criticized Ali Larijani, one of Khamenei’s representatives on the Supreme National Security Council: “What is this ‘precious pearl’ that Larijani refers to? This is not the right way to defend Iran’s right to access nuclear technology. It is naive to think that it would be enough to just talk about freedom and human rights.” (10)
He then turned his criticisms to Ahmadinejad: ”It is clear that the government did not study its consequences, like what Mr. Ahmadinejad said about the Holocaust…it made many wonder if he said it and then thought about it, or thought about it before saying it.” (11) He then criticized the Holocaust conference that Ahmadinejad held: “I raise two questions about this conference…First, how much does this solve the problems our people are faced with? And secondly, which one of our goals were realized? It looks like he wants to make news and do provocative things.” (12)
I can think of three ways to reconcile your statement that Shirzad was “instantly silenced” with the fact that he has continually criticized the Iranian government for the four years since his Parliament speech. First; maybe the Iranian government is the most pathetic example of an oppressive government on the planet. Second, maybe Shirzad is very wily, and the Iranian government cannot find him. Third, maybe you go out of your way to try and demonize Iran, thereby “misleading” the public.
You also also said that after giving his speech, Shirzad was “now awaiting the inevitable charges from the regime’s Islamic tribunals.” (note 1) He certainly had a long wait, because before charging him, the Islamic tribunals decided to first let him publicly criticize the government for the next four years. That’s a strange tactic for a despotic, “axis of evil” government. I guess they finally got around to it, because in September of 2007, AFP quoted ISNA as saying: “Tehran’s penal court sentenced Ahmad Shirzad, a member of the sixth parliament, to jail and a fine. The accusations were spreading lies, disturbing people’s minds and libel.” ISNA said that “there was no information on what length of jail sentence he could be given.” (13)
I’m sure the “Islamic tribunal” must have given Shirzad a life sentence for revealing state secrets about Iran’s nuclear program, including locations of specific secret sites. It turns out that we don’t have to guess, because the following month it was reported that “Penal Court 76 of Tehran Province sentenced Ahmad Shirzad to four months’ imprisonment and payment of a 50,000-tuman (approximately 25 pounds) fine for a speech he made in November 2003.” (14)
Four months and a 50 dollar fine for revealing Iran’s nuclear program! Israel gave Vanunu 18 years! (After first considering an extrajudicial execution – Israel’s trademark (15)). That “Islamic tribunal” is pretty wimpy! What kind of dictatorship are they running!!
The reports of jail time (both were from Iranian reformist sources) are also suspect. In December, 2007, two months after the sentencing, Shirzad (refusing to be silenced), gave a speech in Yazd where he criticized Iran’s nuclear program so effectively that Israel’s foreign office characterized it as “brave.” (16) Shirzad then wrote a reply to the newspaper that printed the Shirzad/Israel story. (17) (Even after getting applauded by Israel, Shirzad’s reply was not “silenced”, but was printed.) Three months after the sentencing, he then entered his name on the ballot for the next election (18). Four months after the sentencing, he was complaining in the paper about being disqualified from the election. Although he was disqualified, he made sure to complain about it, without being “silenced.” (19)
I don’t think all this activity by Shirzad since his supposed sentencing has happened from a jail cell.
You said that Shirzad is “destined to join the ranks of thousands of brave critics of the regime who have one glorious moment of protest and are then consigned to the regime’s torture chambers.” (note 1) It is now well over 4 years later, and what Shirzad has actually done is to complain endlessly about the Iranian government, including within Iranian newspapers, without seeing the inside of a jail cell, much less being tortured. Interestingly, Human Rights Watch has stated that according to the UN Human Rights Commission, Israel keeping Vanunu in solitary confinement for 11 years did constitute torture. (20) Your comment applies to Israel, not Iran. Shirzad was not “destined” to be tortured, nor even jailed.
The reality is that Shirzad said nothing about Isfahan in his speech.
1) “The Meaning of Iranian Inspections,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 19, 2003. Copy here:
aei.org/publications/pubID.19645,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
2) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, “Reformist MP blames Iran’s Islamic system for ‘notorious’ image,” Nov. 24, 2003
Agence France Presse, “War of words erupts in Iran over UN rights rebuke,” Nov. 24, 2003, by Siavosh Ghazi
BBC Monitoring, “Iran: Majlis MP defends controversial pre-agenda speech,” quoting ISNA, Nov. 24, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian reformist MP’s pre-agenda speech causes uproar,” quoting Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1, Nov. 24, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian Reformist MP’s Pre-Agenda Speech Causes Uproar,” quoting Central News Bureau, Nov. 24, 2003
United Press International, “Analysis: U.N. rebuke opens debate in Iran,” Nov. 25, 2003, by Modher Amin, available here:
highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110542148.html
BBC Monitoring, “Iran: MP says world views Islamic Republic as ‘violent’, ‘militarized’,” quoting Iran Daily newspaper, Nov. 25, 2003
Associated Press Worldstream, “Iranian protesters pelt reformist lawmaker’s office with stones for criticizing hard-liners,” Nov.26, 2003, available here:
highbeam.com/doc/1P1-87789011.html
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian MP’s nuclear energy remarks ‘relatively biting’ – deputy Speaker,” quoting Iran newspaper, Nov. 26, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian daily criticizes nuclear protocol opponent,” quoting Aftab-e Yazd newspaper, Dec 1, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian columnist views “intense reaction” to MP’s controversial remarks,” quoting Kayhan newspaper, Dec. 1, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iranian editorial rebuts criticism of MP’s remarks,” quoting Mardom Salari newspaper, Dec. 2, 2003
BBC Monitoring, “Iran: Jurist amends Noble prize winner’s statement on Majlis incident,” quoting Aftab-e Yazd newspaper, Dec. 4, 2003
Agence France Presse, “Iranian radicals beat up reformist member of parliament,” Dec. 6, 2003, copy here:
hcs.harvard.edu/gop/khatami/afp2.html
BBC Monitoring, “Iran: Reformist MP says attack leading to his injury election related,” quoting ISNA, Dec. 6, 2003
United Press International, “Analysis: Iran attacks fuel tensions,” Dec. 11, 2003, available here:
highbeam.com/doc/1P1-88361214.html
3) BBC Monitoring Reports, “Iran: Jurist Amends Nobel Prize Winner’s Statement on Majlis Incident,” Dec. 4, 2003, quoting an editorial by Zahra Ansar titled “A Word with My Colleague Ms Ebadi!” which appeared in the Iranian newspaper Aftab-e Yazd on the same day, which said: “During the parliamentary session on Monday 3/9/82 (24 November 2003) not only did Dr Shirzad complete his 10-minute speech but as is usual, took up an extra one or two minutes beyond his permitted time slot.”
4) BBC Monitoring, “Iran: MP says world views Islamic Republic as ‘violent’, ‘militarized’,” quoting Iran Daily newspaper, Nov. 25, 2003
5) Agence France Presse, “Iranian radicals beat up reformist member of parliament,” Dec. 6, 2003, copy here:
hcs.harvard.edu/gop/khatami/afp2.html
6) BBC Monitoring, “Iran: Reformist MP says ‘monopolists’ plan to impeach Khatami,” quoting IRNA, Jan. 27, 2004
7) BBC Monitoring, “Iran: Paper analyses stance of key political forces on nuclear crisis,” quoting Shargh, Sept. 22, 2004
8) BBC Monitoring, “Iran press: Writer comments on reformists’ reported ‘silence’,” quoting E’temad newspaper, August 22, 2005
9)BBC Monitoring, “Iran Press Criticizes Government’s Use of ‘Threats’ in Foreign Policy,” quoting article by Ahmad Shirzad in E’temad newspaper, Jan. 4, 2006
10) BBC Monitoring, “Iranian MP Criticizes Nuclear Chief’s Diplomacy,” quoting ILNA, March 3, 2006
11) International Herald Tribune, “Ban on daylight savings leaves Iranians irritable,” April 10, 2006, by Nazila Fathi. Copy here:
iht.com/articles/2006/04/10/news/iran.php
12) International Herald Tribune, “News Analysis: Iran’s So-Called Holocaust Conference,” Dec. 13, 2006, by Michael Slackman. Copy here:
iht.com/articles/2006/12/13/news/iran.php
13) Agence France Presse, Iran ex-MP sentenced to Jail for ‘Spreading Lies’: Report,” Sept. 3, 2007
14) Saeed Barzin of BBC Monitoring, “Analysis Iranian Politicians Struggle with Nuclear Policy,” Oct. 15, 2007, quoting rahne.net
15) The Times (London), “Spy boss reveals Mossad considered killing Vanunu,” Feb 8, 2004 by Peter Hounam. Copy here:
timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1014344.ece
16) BBC Monitoring, “Israel thanked Iran politician over nuclear remarks – paper,” quoting Keyhan newspaper, Dec. 2, 2007
17) BBC Monitoring, “Iran Paper Defends Report on Reformist Politician,” quoting Keyhan newspaper, Dec. 5, 2007
18) BBC Monitoring, “Iran Paper Gives Detailed Report on Poll Preparations,” quoting Javan, Jan. 14, 2008: “Some of the main candidates from the 2 Khordad Front included the following names: Aref, Alireza Mahjub, … Ahmad Shirzad…”
19) BBC Monitoring, “Iran Press Menu 3 Feb 08,” quoting ISNA, Feb. 3, 2008: “Ahmad Shirzad, a member of the Participation Party’s central Council, criticized the disqualification of candidates and said that the ruling faction will be responsible for the future events in the country.”
20) Human Rights Watch, World Report 1999, Middle East and North Africa Section/Human Rights Developments. Available here:
hrw.org/worldreport99/mideast/index.html
ML: If anyone is interested, for a different account of the Shirzad speech, have a look at: http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Nov-2003/shirzad_majles_speech_241103.htm
Mr Ledeen:
I did not see the IPS story. It is interesting that material from a private news organization, IPS, which is basically a blog, ends up in the Wall Street Journal, especially when no other news outlet in the world reported that information. It’s also interesting that Safa Haeri, who also writes for the Independent, was not allowed to write his information in that paper. His information, then, appears in two places, a blog and in the Wall Street Journal.
I also find it interesting how information shifts from one place to the next. In your WSJ article, you say that the story about the underground facility in Isfahan is “consistent with other information about covert Iranian weapons projects; there is another large underground facility near the city of Parchin.” You seem to attribute the story about an underground facility at Parchin with another, unknown, source, and not from Shirzad. When Global Security reports on your article, however, it says that your article “reported that in a public session of the Iranian Parliament on 24 November 2003, Ahmad Shirzad, a deputy from the city of Isfahan, stated that there was a large nuclear-related underground facility near the city of Parchin.”
That’s weird, because your article doesn’t seem to say that Shirzad said anything about an underground facility at Parchin.
Anyway, I don’t think news outlets such as the WSJ should be relying on information from blogs, especially when that information does not appear in any other real news outlet in the rest of the world.
Dave742, excellent and well researched posts. Some people really need to learn that the ‘mainstream media’ isn’t the only source of news around that is happy to falsify, mistranslate, exaggerate and generally misrepresent events to further their own agenda.
So called “alternative” sites such as this do exactly the same but with much less regulation and scrutiny.
After talk radio is shut down, and Fox News bought by George Soros (or some other rich far-left billionaire), life here will be like the USSR, only we will have cars in our garages – for awhile, at least.
It’s this kind of idiocy (and the people who really believe it) that is holding the Republican Party back.
jonesy55:
“So called ‘alternative’ sites such as this do exactly the same but with much less regulation and scrutiny.”
One of the main reasons the alternative media exists is to start false news stories which can then be picked up by the MSM, and if the MSM is asked about where they got their information, they have something to point to. This is what happened with the IPS to WSJ transition above.
I explained another good example of how this is done here:
jihadwatch.org/archives/022932.php
(Starting at “Here is the story of another fabricated quote…”)
Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying “We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.” This quote ended up in the Washington Times, was quoted on the floor of the Senate by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, and even ended up in a bill introduced in Congress. It turns out that this quote was fabricated by a website called Iran Focus, which is run by a member of the MEK, a terrorist group.
You get a website to post whatever you want, then have the MSM pick it up. It’s quite a scam. This happens repeatedly in the right wing media.
Maybe I’ll start a website called “dave742 press service,” then make up stories and have the “leftists media” copy it.
ML:
By all means start your own blog. You are exploiting this one and implying that I, and other bloggers, are engaged in deliberate disinformation. Not nice. This post was not about Iran. In the future pls try to stay on-topic, and do be good enough not to accuse me, or for that matter other people who post here, of being lying propagandists. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. It’s easy. Thanks.
Mr. Ledeen:
I know the thread was not about Iran, but I brought up the subject in relation to the media and what it reports, which you did bring up. I thought I was on topic by writing about the media and where they get their stories.
I did not accuse you of lying, I accused you of misleading, which is the same accusation you made towards the MSM. Many on this thread accuse the MSM of being propagandists. I guess I thought I had the same freedom that you and others on this thread had as far as accusations go, but you’re in charge here.
Mr. Ledeen has a track record of engaging in deliberate disinformation. Anyoyne care for a slie of yellowcake?
“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”–Winston Churchill
Sir Winston was too conservative. 60 seconds is usually more than enough.
The author of this article epitomizes the very problem with which the Republican Party must contend; a contempt for thoughtfulness, introspection, and plain intelligence. The Republicans have finally hit bottom, reaching to the lowest common denominator of the electorate, alienating those who are proud of their ability to think and who value education (higher education, I might add). What would William F. Buckley have thought of this campaign, not to mention McCain’s choice of running mate? Sarah Palin is mediocrity and ineptitude incarnate. If she is the future of the Reublican Party, that party has no future.
ML: I’m am not a problem for a Party to which i do not belong. On education, that’s worth many blogs, and I’ll try to get to it.
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. — Carl Sagan
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
There are only two categories of liberals: The Power Seekers and the Dupes. The Power Seekers understand perfectly well what they are doing, undermining and dividing America, and they do it for their narrow goal of short term gains of power. Almost all liberal leaders, whether elected officials, union leaders, civil rights gurus, professional feminist, some political columnist or college professors etc., are in this category. The Dupes are a little different. They are the true believers, who believe in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that liberalism improves peoples lives. They can be divided into two sub-categories, the Ignorant and the Whackos (radicals). It appears to me that the liberals on this thread are all dupes.
TO: All
RE: As Expressed….
As an old colonel once told this, then young, captain….
There are two ways to exercise power.
The first is to make decisions for people who would be better off making them for themselves. The second is to withhold information from people that would allow them to make better decisions for themselves.
I would suggest a third way: to provide people with false information with which they make decisions.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. Looks like the Fourth Estate succeeded this time.
But I put the REAL blame on the vaunted American public education ‘system’…..
When after months and months of non-criticism of BO/POTUS, we will have to choose between perspectives: that the press has misplaced its critical edge–the one that made Lewinski a household name–or that we are witnessing the coming of the faultless President. So, if we face a major setback, how can 170/40 odd Congressman wield such nefarious powers? Maybe the right wing conspiracy is as powerful as we were reminded, daily.
Let’s clear away some underbrush. We can start right here:
“A review of prosecutors’ statements and documents filed by Republicans in the most serious new cases alleging voter fraud shows that none offer an example in which a fraudulently registered person managed to cast a valid vote. While several cases argue that such frauds are possible, none sketched a scenario for how massive numbers of people could fake registrations and then vote.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/15155.html
There is no evidence that anyone anywhere cast a fraudulent vote.
Period.
“Voting fraud” is purely a conservative fantasy.
Period.
If you want to assert that this is not true, give us the name, address, state, and polling place where any such fraudulent vote was cast.
You can’t do it. And since you can’t do it, I would suggest you go back to wherever you left your common sense and plug it back into your commentary.
Not just to please me, but to start doing some genuine reality testing about why your candidate lost this election, Because if you don’t start doing this your point of view will remain marginalized indefinitely.
Since you are living in LaLa land watching armies of fraudulent voters marching on the polls, all the new administration has to do is to not make any serious mistakes, and they will continue to win majorities.
I am always willing to follow the assumption that the Pajamas Media view of the Mainstream Media is largely correct, and I will do so here. It is certainly correct that we largely didn’t hear about Joe Biden’s campaign, and I am willing to make the provisional assumption that this was due to political bias.
But here is sum total of what you have had to say in PJM about the Biden campaign:
Got home to the news that it’s groovy Joe Biden for Obama’s veep nominee. I love that, I think they’re a perfect match. Two men totally infatuated with their own voices. I can just hear each of them thinking, “God, I love that voice. Such a voice. What a pleasure that it’s MY voice. And I’m going to make sure everyone listens to it all the time, no matter what it says, the important thing is to keep it flowing, keep it coming, it’s so beautiful, so hypnotic, so…so eloquent, it’s eloquent no matter what the words, it’s just fantastic, and it’s MINE.”
I have long said that Senator Biden is one of the dimmest bulbs in that great overdone chandelier known as the U.S. Senate, and his performance in this campaign has certainly added dimness to his luster….Biden simply invents his world every day. I guess if he doesn’t have a text to plagiarize, he just can’t get it straight.
Suddenly, everyone paid attention to an offhand remark he made to friends at a fund raiser. And for once, I think he got it right, warning that if Obama were elected, he’d be severely “tested” quite early in his presidency.
“Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.
“And he’s going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially; it’s not going to be apparent that we’re right.”
Of course, it may mean nothing. Lots of Bidengaffes are simply the result of an inability to stop talking, and words just come pouring out. But it may mean what McCain is suggesting it means: that Biden knows that Obama has no sense of what the world is really like, and it’s likely that Obama’s initial reactions will be misguided. The inference would then be: so until I, Biden, get him straightened out, he’s probably gonna look bad.
I presume this is the sum total of your knowledge about his campaign. Of this there is only a single specific incident of something Biden actually did or said. The rest is a fantasia of your personal opinions about the man.
So how on earth do you know about: Joe Biden’s scandalously inept, incompetent, and often meretricious campaign.? You don’t appear to have witnessed it, and the MSM didn’t cover it, so how do you know what kind of campaign he ran at all?
Now, once again, you don’t have to justify that to me–I’m a Democratic partisan. But I would point out that one of the key reasons your candidate lost was his inability to persuade undecided and/or persuadable voters.
I can see no reason why an undecided or persuadable voter would believe your remark about Joe Biden’s campaign, based on what you appear to really know about it.
Not that it isn’t true. It might be. I don’t know either. But if conservatives are going to do any more than preach to the choir, they had better start bringing evidence to the table to support their assertions, whether of voting fraud or Democratic incompetence.
But, unfortunately, the real agenda is about continuing to preach to the choir:
It follows from all this that there’s another thing that has my dander flying: the snooty treatment of Palin….I’m sure lots of folks in fly-over country are enraged by this….American exceptionalism rests upon independent thinking, pride in community and heritage, and disdain for ivory tower intellectuals combined with admiration for self-help and achievement.
In other words, as Sarah Palin put it so sussinctly, “real Americans” with everyone else excluded in the name of “exceptionalism”.
Now the practice has developed for conservative candidates to put this “exceptionalism” into practice by holding closed rallies. So when we look at the crowds cheering Sarah Palin, we have a pretty good snapshot of American exceptionalism.
As you pointed out, they are largely from fly over country, they have true contempt and disdain for “ivory tower intellectuals”. And they are more rural rather than urban, suburban, or exurban.
They are also overwhelmingly white folks–no Hispanics, no African Americans, no Asian Americans, no Native Americans, and so on.
Why is this a problem? Well, it’s no problem at all for Democrats and liberals–and that’s why its a real problem for you. Frankly it is not a matter of anyone trashing the values of American exceptionalism. But, rather, the fact that “real Americans” are rapidly becoming far less significant to the political process as a whole.
In perhaps as little as 10-15 years, all those types of people that you don’t see cheering Sarah Palin are going to be the voting majority in America.
The reason you need to stop just preaching to the choir is that your choir is getting steadily smaller.
There is a tremendously intersting interactive graphic in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/05/us/politics/20081104_ELECTION_RECAP.html
It shows, by county, whether the election increased Democratic voting or increased Republican voting. So it can give us a clear snapshot of where the values of American exceptionalism are truly dominant. This is where the popularity of your brand is growing rather than shrinking.
This heartland of “real America” is now a narrow swath stretching from southern Oklahoma, all of Arkansas, all of Tennessee, the Kentucky mountain country, and southwestern West Virginia. The popularity of your brand is shrinking everywhere else.
Even more extraordinary are the increases in Democratic voting in states that still went solidly for McCain, particularly in the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West. And this was the case even in such strongholds as Utah.
So that is where your choir is now concentrating, not only in flyover country, but in a specific and far narrower band of flyover country.
There is really no need to fight with anyone over the values of American exceptionalism. For even a Democrat and ivory tower intellectual like me will freely acknowledge that those values are becoming more exceptional with every passing day.
ML: Kinda long, but thanks for taking the time. Voter fraud: well, just to take one easy example–and it can be repeated all over the country–there’s the guy in Philly who told a local tv station that he’d voted twice. And there are many other anecdotes. Let’s wait a while, everyone will calm down and there may be some substantial evidence. I hope you agree, in any case, that public officials should do what they can to ensure that only properly registered voters get to cast ballots.
Mind you, I don’t think that Obama “stole” the election; I just hate it when the electoral process is corrupted. It’s not a partisan thing, I hated it in New York when I was a kid, I hated it in Illinois with Kennedy’s election when I was in college (and I was a big Kennedy partisan), and I still hate it.
Biden: well, let’s see. He said that the US and France drove Hizbollah out of Lebanon. He said that Roosevelt went on tv when the Great Depression hit. He talked about a restaurant in his own city, only it closed a decade before. I could go on at great length. Don’t be so defensive, unlike the next VP, I really don’t invent things. I do get things wrong, of course, and I’m always happy to be corrected. But I have the feeling that Biden just babbles on, and some things come out randomly.
If Palin had done any of the three things listed above, it would have been on the cover of Newsweek.
wow, you people are scary. seriously, the shit that you’ve swallowed and the weirdo things you spew- i think maybe we should just let alaska secede and y’all can go up there and make yourselves a nice little country of your own, complete with shooting ranges with president-elect obama’s face on the targets and big orphanages for all those unplanned pregnancy babies you’re hellbent on saving.
Michael: I would have to agree with you. The fundamental problem is that the Republicans have not yet caught on that the Dems are waging an information war against them. After all, this is the Information Age. Most Republicans are still living in the last century. The Democrats are much more savvy about such things and have no compunction about using technology against us.
Also, they are taking advantage of the political naivete of voters who have been taught by the leftist academy over the last 30 years. It’s a classic case of causing the body to rot from the inside–a trojan horse. The only reason hard leftism is now acceptable to half the population is that it had been gradually indoctrinated into them by their schooling and by the subtle influence of the all-pervasive media. Gramsci would be so proud.
ML: Indeed. Even the WaPo’s overseer says the same thing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110702895.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
All I want to know is “how do I get mine?”
How does one go about filing for food stamps, free gasoline and government payment of my rent?
I think it’s fantastic that right wing lunatics who profess so much love for democracy and freedom, and then go and spend so much time trying to take away peoples right to vote.
I can hardly wait for the hearings…Rummy, Gonzo, Chaney, Rove, all frog-marched into the Congress with subpoenaes enforced by a strong new attorney general.
Sigh, good times.
Blessed Be, BabooKyra
Wow, who let the dogs out?
It seems not so long ago that American adventurism expanded the territories to include Texas, a purely political ploy that was aided and abetted by most of the larger newspapers of the day. I am not so old that I remember exactly the kinds of political reporting that stimulated high minded discussion about slavery or states rights or even “Honest Abe’s” anti intellectualism, nor am I so blessed as be able to recall first hand the “yellow journalism” that launched an attack on Spain.
I am sufficiently versed in history enough to realize that neither “honest abes’ supporters nor Woodrow Wilson’s elite book toting and ivory tower clinging savants have all the answers, and no matter how much I think a position is full of gas, only time and experience will determine whether you or I get to say I told you so.
I find it funny that even the pretense of debate, MS ( tv and what’s left of print) M v talk radio, is seen not as the proper forum for an exchange of ideas. But it is, and it appears it is the only way it can work, as charges by one side cause the other to respond, defend, to counter charge. If we assume, as we ought to, that all pols are the lying self serving gashats they need to be to appear to serve honorably, then there is no other nor better means of determining who smells worse skunk a or skunk b.
Despite all pretensions to objectivity, unbiased reporting of fact is, in fact, a myth. Blatant lying and deceit is something else entirely.
I look forward to independent analysis of the voting situations, whether or not fraud involving illegals, the unrepentant dead and triplets bearing the same name, same history but different home addresses, will describe a pattern of theft. I lean toward believing that it will, I want to be assured that it is not the case that so many questions were answered by a fraudulent few. The closeness of the elections in many locals means this could be a possibility.
Frankly, with the shrouding of so much, I don’t trust the MSM or the newly victorious officials-elect to say. I just wish they would stop calling me uneducated and anti intellectual or uninformed. That is about the most ignorant charge ever made by a product of universal education.
Oh, and good luck and god speed to the President elect.
“the guy in Philly who told a local tv station that he’d voted twice”
Oh now, come on! This is what I mean by abandoning common sense. We still don’t know who, we still don’t know where, we still don’t know when, and we still don’t know whether it even actually happened or not. And out of thin gruel like this you and your fellow conservatives spin a tale of gigantic conspiracies of agencies like ACORN to poison the election process with thousands of fraudulent voters!
This is not “evidence”, it is hearsay. In any other context [a guy in Hackensack called in to say he bought some crack cocaine last week] it is obvious that no sensible police force or prosecutor would waste time, effort, and money to track the guy down and interview him about it. If so, why should the newspapers or the TV news?
The Republican worthies who have submitted all those legal briefs about registration irregularities haven’t the face to include anything like this with them. And for good reason. If they did they’d be laughed out of court.
Now, as to Biden, maybe he said all these goofy things. But since the MSM didn’t bother to cover it, I never heard about most of them. And, in the absence of coverage, I still don’t know how you did.
As to Palin being on the cover of Newsweek, why do you think the McCain campaign chose her on the spur of the moment less than a day before the announcement was scheduled? I don’t believe for a moment that they had a sudden and blinding revelation of her overwhelming superiority to someone like Mitt Romney. Do you?
They wanted to make news.
They wanted more than, “John McCain announced Mitt Romney as his vice-presidential choice today.” [Yawn.]
So they did. They made the choice to manipulate the MSM into more detailed and intensive coverage of the McCain campaign. Of course, that’s how you always interact with the media if you want their attention. You give them real news to cover. As the old saying has it, you give them man bites dog.
They wanted her on the cover of Newsweek. They wanted an alternative to the “swift rise to national prominence” narrative that had made Obama interesting news from the get/go. And they wanted to counter the exceptional skill with which the Obama campaign kept making real news for the media to cover. They wanted to finally have the headline Obama Makes Major Speech In Berlin and not McCain Visits German Restaurant In Columbus.
I’m not exaggerating, by the way. I read both headlines on the AP wire on the day of Obama’s Tiergarten speech.
If you solicit such intensive coverage, then you have no right to complain that every one of your actions will come under intense media scrutiny. If you make a fool of yourself in a television interview, it will be an overnight sensation. If you spend a six figure sum on new clothes charged to the RNC, it will be a week long and more hullaballoo.
It comes with the territory. You asked for the attention. And the only thing really significant about it is how boneheaded the McCain campaign was in letting these things occur–because they clearly could have been forseen and addressed them as train wrecks waiting to happen.
So here we have five people: John McCain, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and Sarah Palin. The first three are bores, standard politicians from Central Casting making their dreary stump speeches from Decatur to Des Moines.
McCain constantly confuses Iraq with Iran and says things like his vice-president will have to help him out on the economy. Joe Biden has FDR on TV and opines he might have to help Obama out in a foreign policy crisis. Mitt Romney [whom I suspect is the brightest of the three] doesn’t even get to say anything at all.
None of this is news. Most of it shows up on the wires when it occurs, dutifully headlined like McCain, his bratwurst, and his wheat beer. And so what?
Obama and Palin make news. What they do is interesting. There are only two differences between them: Obama was ready for prime time and Palin was not, and Obama had a smart and serious campaign behind him to make sure that the news he made was flattering.
As I said, I’m perfectly willing to assume bias and proceed from there. Probably there is bias in the tone and treatment of Obama contrasted with Palin. But the contrast between Palin and Biden, or McCain and Obama is largely a matter of newsworthiness, whatever the biases.
Don’t believe me? Well PJM has certainly not been flacking for Obama. But all you have to do is skim through the headlines in the PJM archives from the announcement of Palin forward and this is what you find: Obama’s name appears by far the most, Palin is a respectable second, McCain is a distant third, and Biden hardly appears at all.
Newsworthiness is newsworthiness, no matter who is doing the reporting or how biased the coverage is.
How sad that the writer of this dribble can call himself a journalist. He’s a gossipy old sore loser!
He reminds me of a self-confessed, alcoholic woman who was posting in a Yahoo group several years ago. She was so excited when she wrote a letter to an editor and it was published. From that day forward she has called herself a journalist & has inundated editors everywhere with her letters. I don’t know that this writer has done that but his whining is so familiar.
He complains about the way Palin was/is being treated but look whose doing the attacking on Ms. Palin. It’s Republicans!
John McCain or his handlers picked a pretty woman with the gift of gab, dressed her like a high paid prostitute & then they discovered that she had a mind of her own. That was forbidden. She was expected to bow down to the old war lord and repeat prepared sound bytes.
Yeah, she made an ass of herself by exposing how lacking she was in that “executive” experience and just about everything else. She blabbed instead of keeping her mind focused on those memorized sound bytes. That angered the mighty ones so they set out to destroy any hopes that she might have for a future in politics.
So Mr. Leeden, your cohorts are the ones you should be talking to if you have so much sympathy for Palin.
Perhaps you should go back to writing about how one can defeat a word (terror).
ML: It’s hard to take you seriously, since a) you can’t even spell my name, and b) it is not an argument against what I am saying to write “but you’re attacking your own cohorts.” As if I did not know that.
I don’t understand how you can be afraid of an ignorant electorate and skewer them, but the most ignorant candidate is the most attractive to you. Or were you being funny with your use of attractive?
i’ve thought long and hard about this. you’re right. the majority of people who voted for obama are stupid. did you see the clip with john stossel asking college students various civics questions? the clip showed students who didn’t know how many senators there were in the senate. and they were able to vote??? we’ve got folks like that voting?
i know we can’t take the vote away (although i wish we could) from young, stupid people over 18, but for cryin’ out loud… do they know how damaging their blind, ignorant vote was?
ML: I don’t think they are stupid, I think they are poorly educated and uninformed. That’s why I think that the educational system and the media are such big problems for us.
Are you advising us to be bamboozled and hoodwinked? Seriously? You take issue with this idea? Did you enjoy the Republican administration’s lies about weapons of mass destruction, the cost in human lives and the devastating effect of the War in Iraq on our economy?
If the President Elect were repeating hate speech, that would be one thing, but he isn’t. So he’s read Malcolm X – so what? Sure Malcolm X was a violent and angry man not to be emulated, but he was also a famous man, and any educated person would have read at least something by or about him in college. Note that after this reading, Obama is neither violent nor angry. Most of the angry violent speech I hear these days is actually from the far right, people who talk about gathering ammunition and practicing their shooting. Some people need to take a good long look at themselves and ask whether they are contributing to the future happiness of our country by saying such things.
ML: I knew Malcolm, liked him personally and greatly admired the work he did in Harlem. I think he was one of the smartest of that great generation of black leaders. “His” neighborhoods were clean, safe, and friendly, and I always thought that some of the more crazy blacknationalists had him killed because they feared he was the real wave of the future.
“Obama and Palin make news. What they do is interesting. There are only two differences between them: Obama was ready for prime time and Palin was not, and Obama had a smart and serious campaign behind him to make sure that the news he made was flattering.”
Oh, spare me. The difference is is that most people in the media love Obama to the point of insanity and they loathe Palin.
They’re so biased that they are flatly incapable of objectivity. The MSM has never told the truth and they never will.
Hell, the media admits their own bias…
“The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.”–Deborah Howell, WaPo
Gee, really, Deb? I never would have noticed!
“The post-election unity was on full display Friday evening when MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell told syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan that the Republican Party celebrates ignorance.”–Newsbusters
Bias? Us? Never!
“My Job Is To Help Make Obama’s Presidency a Success”–Chris Matthews
They’re not news reporters. They’re cheerleaders and propagandists for the liberal Dems. Always have been.
The whining on this comment page is enough to make any reasonable person sick. The conservatives have Obama derangement syndrome and the liberals have Palin derangement syndrome. Neither Obama nor Palin is as bad as either of their detractors thinks.
Its time for all you jerks to grow up. There is too much work to do.
The real tragedy is that it may be too late to beat the bums. Our government schools are indoctrination centers for the socialists to trash the Constitution, capitalism and evil corporations. Now, voter fraud is widespread, aided and abetted by State Attorneys General who are sponsored (as in Minnesota) by ACORN and the Communist Party of the U.S. Coleman doesn’t have a prayer. If the ACORN Ayers-Obama folks get entrenched, we will lose what is left of our freedom. The “news” media have become a sick, very sick, joke. I fear for the Republic.
Oh, spare me. The difference is is that most people in the media love Obama to the point of insanity and they loathe Palin.
Palin made a blathering fool of herself on national televison in front of thousands of people by exposing the Grand Canyon depth and the Long Island Sound width of her ignorance about public affairs.
There are those who refuse to confront this fact, but most of them would have made as big of fools of themselves as Palin, and for the same reasons. So they recognize her as one of their own.
Everybody else recognizes her as that, too.
Everything else about her ascent to, and perch upon, the pinnacle of publicity, has been mere permutations of that first disaster.
Speaking personally, it is my fond hope that Palin is the reagent that finally precipitates out the intelligent and knowledgeable component of Conservatism from its dilution into the ignorant anti-intellectualism of “real America”.
Because the cynical cultivation of this “American exclusiveness” by the Republican Party professionals, at the expense of coherent and responsible Conservative thought, the practical politics of Republican government has degenerated into mere cynical and unprincipled opportunism. And the nomination of Sarah Palin was the final [and fittingly disastrous] spasm of Republican government.
Forty years ago I grew to maturity reading the National Review as an intelligent and reasoned counterpoint to my own views that was always worthy of respect. It would be nice to have something like this to read again.
The fact that for decades now such reasoned counterpoint has been drowned out by the shallow and strident voices of “American exclusiveness” is one of the saddest facts of contmeporary life.
I don’t expect reasoned and thoughtful counterpoint from Sarah Palin anytime soon.
ML: “American exceptionalism” is the subject of many scholarly books, from Tocqueville to Lipset. It is not some new thought from Wasilla, Alaska. Spare ME.
@ Sanity:
“Are you advising us to be bamboozled and hoodwinked? Seriously? You take issue with this idea? Did you enjoy the Republican administration’s lies about weapons of mass destruction, the cost in human lives and the devastating effect of the War in Iraq on our economy?” Why do you continue to be confounded by the lie about a lie that wasn’t a lie. Your complete refusal to accept that honest efforts to obtain the truth were twisted and even when clarified, ignored by the press and the left. I tired long ago of pointing out the complete and total hypocrisy of statements like this. Yet you would have us agree that the right followed a lie either knowingly or blindly depending (on the hour)and of course the current clash of tyrany v. the people is not having any affect on the choices of the Mullahs or Kings. Today when faced with declaration of “Off with their heads?” the question is only who will handle the chopping? Common folks like you or Al Qaeda. Please read this carefully and do not jump to false accusations of what is here stated lest you be prone to lying about a lie that is not a lie.
“If the President Elect were repeating hate speech, that would be one thing, but he isn’t. So he’s read Malcolm X – so what? Sure Malcolm X was a violent and angry man not to be emulated, but he was also a famous man, and any educated person would have read at least something by or about him in college. Note that after this reading, Obama is neither violent nor angry. Most of the angry violent speech I hear these days is actually from the far right, people who talk about gathering ammunition and practicing their shooting. Some people need to take a good long look at themselves and ask whether they are contributing to the future happiness of our country by saying such things.
ML: I knew Malcolm, liked him personally and greatly admired the work he did in Harlem. I think he was one of the smartest of that great generation of black leaders. “His” neighborhoods were clean, safe, and friendly, and I always thought that some of the more crazy black nationalists had him killed because they feared he was the real wave of the future.
Ask yourself why it was that Malcolm’s neighborhoods were clean, safe and friendly, then tell me again what you have against Americans expressing their second amendment rights to own and bear arms or what you find threatening about the current stocking up of ammunition and weapons. It seems to me to be a clear message to the new administration, “don’t try to make our worst fears real.” If those fears are not rational those guns will find no use.
There is little trust of or understanding of President-elect Obama’s aims and intentions by many on the right. Much nonsense was raised in an attempt to fill the void of knowledge about the Democratic Candidate, whose own esoteric explanations sated the book toting and ivory towered rhetorical clinger’s but did not quench the curiosity of the rest of America. We will see how President elect Obama now handles this perceived information gap. Please, not another autobiography.
Clarification: The above statement about Malcolm’s neighborhoods was directed to Sanity not to Michael Ledeen.
IMPORTANT ELECTION REFLECTIONS
These are the results of this election that need to be noted and remembered:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/interesting-ele ction-reflections.html
HOLY DEJA-VU!
“What makes me angriest: that there is no outcry against election fraud; that the media have become pure political instruments; that our “educational system” has produced an ignorant electorate.”
What a gem of a statement. That’s exactly what I said in 2000 & 2004! Glad to see you are finally catching on & I hope the next 8 years are as much fun for all of you as the last 8 were for me. Have fun sucking eggs and watching Fox news or have they betrayed you too? Oh Yes. Yes they did. LOL
Big deal -
Our corporate masters discarded the Jesus freaks and Ayn-Rand-reading aluminum siding hustlers they’ve been using as electoral fodder for the past 20 years and shacked up with the hippies, the homos, and the urban Bohemians.
Business as usual, except for the discarded. Enjoy your unemployment.