Calling Out Anderson Coopers False Left/Right Equivalency

Originally posted on Dailykos

Wherein I Call Out Anderson Cooper for his Lies and Smears about the Netroots supposed "Engaging in the same tactics as the Right" - and Officially Call for him to correct HIMSELF and Apologize.



Transcript

Cooper : I mean, I don't -- I don't get -- as somebody who is not particularly partisan on the left or the right, I try not to view things through the lens of being liberal or being conservative. I don't get -- it just seems like, whether you're a conservative or whether you're a liberal and you have a blog, it doesn't seem like the truth really matters. It's just, you say whatever you want to say, whether you're on the left or the right, to prove your point, and if you're wrong, no one ever says they're wrong. No one ever seems to apologize.

The first problem with Coopers construction is that it's based on a false premise, that those on the left - writ large - are deliberately engaging in factionalism where truth and facts becoming secondary to ideology and partisan gain.

Anyone whose spent more than 30 seconds on any major progressive site, particularly this one, knows that's not true because We Self edit and Self Correct. We do point out mistakes, we do even Take Down Posts which other members find racially, religiously or otherwise offensive. I understand Cooper's effort to remain "non-partisan" by proclaim "both sides do it" - but the effort to achieve False Neutrality often leads to creating a False Reality.

Cooper has Smeared us as Liars as bad as Brietbart and he deserves a response.

Certainly, anyone can make an honest mistake, anyone can have an intemperate moment and shoot off the cuff, the question is - can you admit and fix that mistake or do you double-down on it because your ego and ideology demand it?

Can you admit it when you're wrong?

Anderson's charge is that both the left and the right equally fail in this test.

i submit He. IS. Wrong. Not everybody does it. Not everybody lies.

Generalizing this broadly as he has, is just as offensive and wrong-headed as a Racial Smear would be. Bring Specifics Anderson or else you must take back the charge.

certainly there are general tendencies between left and right, but lets be honest here. The general stock-in-trade of the right has been in creating and maintaining a pack of falsehoods that support their economic and social agendas, the general path of the Left has been to counter those falsehoods with Facts, even when they don't necessary lead where we might like them to. If there is a fundamental difference between the two ideologies, it's the one (the Right) operates with absolute certainty, and then fills in the gaps later - while the other (the Left) generally operates with constant questioning, correction and testing of our theories to ensure their provability.

The Left argues with each other constantly and openly, which is why we often seem in disarray even in victory - the Right functions in constant Lock Step, without question, without dissent, without allowing truth to spoil their certainty. Trying to get the Left all going the same direction is literal like herding cats, getting the Right to go all the same way simply requires pointing out "where the Liberals are" and they automaticaly go stampeding the other way at FULL Warp.

This is of course a generalization, and there are clearly exceptions in both directions, but I think it generally holds true.

Wanna see what happens when someone goes off the approved reservation in Right-wing World? This...



As of this very moment Markos Moulitsas founder of this site is currently on suspension from MSNBC for an intemperate tweet, not because what he sais was factually wrong, it wasn't - it's because the facts hurt Joe Scarborough's feelings. Meanwhile conservatives such as Liz Cheney can personally insult MSNBC hosts Olbermann and Maddow and still appear on the network (perhaps because neither of them is the great big Crybaby that Scarborough is or perhaps the Truth of what Markos said stings far more than the Lies of Cheney - take your pick.)

If the Left has been criticized, it hasn’t been because of a lack of facts, it’s been for their inflammatory cartoons and the intensity of their editorial language (yes, we will drop an F-BOMB on a dime) – but that’s it.

In this I think it’s illustrative to note how different the reaction to those cartoons/signs has been coming from left and right.

In 2006, Firedoglake published an editorial cartoon of Joe Lieberman in Blackface – did they apologize? Hell, yes – they did.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was genuinely offended by the choice of images accompanying my blog post today on the Huffington Post. It’s also important to note that I do not, nor have I ever worked for Ned Lamont’s campaign. However, at their request, I removed the image earlier today.

Unfortunately, Senator Lieberman’s campaign has used this in attempt to hurt Ned and score political points, mustering their own faux indignation in attempt to further distract from the issues important to the voters of Connecticut.

In 2007 someone on Dailykos posted another inflammatory picture of Joe Lieberman with his hand in George Bush’s pants.

Let me ask you something Anderson – whose career did that destroy? Who was lied about? No one in their right mind thinks Joe Lieberman is gay (and frankly around these parts – we wouldn’t care, he might even get a parade if he was) but the TRUTH in that picture is that after 2006 Joe Lieberman became George Bush’s favorite neo-Democrat lackey. Editorial Cartooning has a long history and sometimes the point being made may not be nice to say, they should still be essential true and this one is true. Yet, who took that event and immediately turned it "Racial" when Lieberman's race and religion had nothing - literally NOTHING - to do with the point of this cartoon?

Bill O’Reilly – that's who.

O'Reilly: This is what the Kos traffic's in. The fact that these democratic candidates would support a website with a picture like that - is hard to believe.

Agree with him or not, Senator Lieberman is a Patriot and a man of conviction. Right now he's opposing the loons in the Senate who don't want to protect American citizens who report possible terrorist activity from lawsuits. Lieberman deserves respect, not hatred.

Because of one picture (which by the way was deleted and highly criticized when it appeared) and some intemperate (and massively HR'd) comments he called us a “Hate Site”, he said we were “Worse than David Duke”.

One picture and a 100,000 people who regularly visit and post here are “Worse then David Duke?” I bring this up because this is the standard that Bill O’Reilly and FOX News Set.

One Picture (even if people on your own side complain about it) equals David Duke. Got it? ONE PICTURE!

Here’s shocker for you Anderson, some of the fact checking done on this site is better than that on CNN. We’ve fact checked (Jeopardy Champion) Wolf Blizter, we’ve fact checked Dr. Sanjay Gupta and found them both severaly wanting. Right now I’m Fact Checking You

The accusation that the Left regularly traffics in LIES in order to unfairly smear the Right is False. It can't be backed up, it can't be proven.

If one or two rude pictures of Joe Lieberman equals "David Duke and the KKK" - what's this equal?



We don’t have to lie about them, all we have to do is accurate quote them and teh crazy is obvious for all (or nearly all) to see. Why don't you ask Eric Boehlert about that, because point out their lies is really all that Media Matters does.

You're wrong Anderson, and to help prove my point - I DARE YOU to prove me wrong. In fact, I Double DOG Dare you back up your bogus claim.

It hasn’t been the Left unfairly smearing the Right, it’s been almost entirely the Opposite for quote some time. That's not a partisan argument, it's simply Factual.



Don't think at least Some Conservatives are Anti-Obama because of Race? Check this out.



Does this mean all of them are motivated by Race? Of course, not. Only Janeane Garofalo has suggested such a thing and here on Dailykos - We Disagreed With Her.

I'm not a big fan of false civility or political correctness. The web is blunt, sometimes bitingly so - but that is a completely different proposition from having facts completely out of wack.

The Tea Party isn't being called out simply for being Racist - it's because all of their underlying arguments are Factually Wrong.

There are no Death Panels. Obama was born in Hawaii, not Kenya. He's not a Muslim, he's not a Socialist or Communist or Marxist. The truth is that he's a Centrist/Corporatist with minor Progressive Leanings.

ACORN was not involved in a deliberate massive Voter Fraud Scheme, and they were not Criminally Corrupt - the Brooklyn DA, the California Attorney General and the Congressional Research Service all agree despite what Breibart and his Convict Pal O'Keefe says.

The argument that Joe Lieberman was going out of his way to service the needs of the Republican President and Republican Party is a valid argument, he went so far as to campaign for John McCain - so although the image was rude, IT WAS TRUE in spirit.

But is there ANY TRUTH to any of this...?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Where is the equivalence on the Left to any of this?

But while all this is going on we've also had outbreaks of violence. The Shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a Racist Birther, Gregory Guisti who threatened Nancy Pelosi's Life, White Powder sent to Rep. Anthony Weiner's Offices, the Hutaree Militia and their plan to Murder Cops and Blow-Up their Funeral, the Pittsburgh Cop Killer who didn't want Obama to Take His Guns Away, James Adkisson who shot and killed Liberals at a Knoxville Unitarian Church, the Wingnut from Maine who was trying to build a Radiological Dirty Bomb, James Stack flying his plane into the IRS Building, the Christian Hate Group Terrorizing Amarillo Texas... and this latest attempted attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation in San Francisco.

While the Left has occasionally used some off-color visual and verbal jabs, they haven't deliberately and repeatedly LIED, they haven't issued Death Threats, let alone actual violence on anyone. If anything they've been fighting against the lies and rising tide of Hate and Fact-Free Fear that people like Breitbart, Limbaugh, Malkin, O'Reilly and Beck have repeatedly, incessantly promoted.

Congressman Clyburn and Lewis were called the N-Word - there were witnesses! Just as there was tape from ABC News of Barney Frank being called "Faggot". Pretend they didn't say the N-Word, all you want Andrew - they DID say that - that's the truth.

The problem with the Tea Party isn't so much with the ones who made those statements, those are only a few people, it's with the majority of them including Breitbart who refuse to own up to that minority and take responsibility for their still being in their group.

We kicked the Lieberman picture off the site, they stand their and smile with the "Obama the Witch-Doctor/Money" signs, or else try to blame those people signs on Democrats. Are you seeing the difference? No matter what, they refuse to take responsible action unless forced.

It took One Rude Tweet to get Markos bounced from MSNBC, but even after this....

[R]epeat after me: Islam is a 7th Century Death Cult coughed up by a psychotic pedophile and embraced by defective, tail sprouting, tree swinging, semi-human, bipedal primates with no claim to be treated like human beings or even desirable mammals for that matter.

And this...

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

Mark Williams didn't quietly finally leave the Tea Party Express, until yesterday.

You think what they do and what we do is equivalent?

Not hardly.

Do some damn Due Diligence and correct the record Anderson, or else be considered as just as much of a Joke as Brietbart.

Vyan

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After Independence Day - Who do we Wanna be?

I mean this quite seriously... who and or what is this country going to be?

In 2008 we made a choice, we voted to make a difference - we voted for a Change - but all of these people didn't disappear, they didn't go away, they simply got even more disturbed, even more unstable, and ultimately - Much Louder!



This November there will be yet another choice before us. Most Democrat and Progressives have resigned themselves to the fact of lost seats in Congress, and possibly losing control of the House.

But seriously, have you been listening to people in the House lately?

A House Takeover would make John Boehner the Speaker. John Boehner, who never said the Stimulus wouldn't create "One Job" - except for when both Scott Brown and he said Exactly That.



The Guy who thinks the largest economic meltdown since the Great Depressions was just the size of an Ant.



It would elevate the power of Louie Gohmert who thinks that Hamas is sending their songs and daughter here to make babies that will return and KILL US!



It would give More power to these guys who want to Completely Repeal HealthCare... even though they can't do it.



They would replace the current Senate Majority Leader with This Woman - who thinks having a 6 to 1 ratio of unemployed workers to available jobs is simply a sign of Laziness on the part of Job Seekers.



Speaking of "Lazy People" we better not giving handouts to those damn dirty Homeless Vets that Bill O'Reilly still can't find...



It would give More Power to the guys who think Poor BP Has Suffered Enough...



THIS is who we're battling against, THIS who what we Can. Not. Afford to become again. These people CAN NOT be given even more influence, and power over the lives of Americans than they already abuse.

THAT. CAN'T. HAPPEN.

There are NO DEATH PANELS. There are no FEMA CAMPS.

Dems are far from perfect and are disappointing on many levels, particularly in Afghanistan and keeping BP's Neck off the of the people in the Gulf's... But DAMN!

If these people get Subpoena power you can forget about getting Climate and Energy Legislation passed. You can forget about making sure BP cleans up the Gulf and compensates everyone affected by the Spill. You can forget about seriously tackling out defect, or government inefficiencies, or growing our economy or putting people back into goods with decent benefits.

Just FORGET about it.

Congress will turn into the "What Has Cass Sunstien done today" - Conspiracy Theory Circus that Runs every weekday on Fox around 3pm. They might even invite the Beckinator in as an "expert witness" on the Obama Administrations "Crime Incorporated".

I don't know what it's going to take, I don't know why the plain, sad, obviousness of it all doesn't make every one of us shake with rage - why the clear and present threat that these people present to all of our lives and livelihoods doesn't make us all rise as one and scream "NO!!".

But I still hope and pray that it will make some of us vote for the far less obnoxious, but still far from perfect guys this November.

America has to be something better than this...

Vyan

Mainstream Media's Crocodile Tears over Hastings doing Real Reporting

Everything Lara Logan says here is about protecting her and other reporters access, it's not about telling the truth.  She says "Michael Hasting's have never protected the Country the way that Stan McChrystal has..." - actually, if what he did help end the war more successfully you're DAMN RIGHT he protected the country by reporting the truth of what was going on - and YES, what McChrystal and his staff were doing was insubordination and directly against the Military Rules.  Getting off with being replaced and retired was a gift, he could very easily have been Court Martialed for what he and his staff were doing.

This quote from Geraldo is priceless:

Geraldo: This Hastings was a Rat in an Eagles Nest...

This is coming from Geraldo.... GERALDO!. The guy who was giving away troop positions on the Air during Iraq War and got his ass sent HOME?

A primary obligation of the hundreds of reporters traveling with coalition forces in Iraq is to refrain from disclosing sensitive information about military operations. The veteran correspondent, who was temporarily accompanying the Army's 101st Airborne Division, violated the rule during a live broadcast on Fox television.


"He was with a (U.S.) military unit in the field and the commander felt that he had compromised operational information by reporting the position and movements of troops," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters. After the disclosure, members of the 101st Airborne were in the process of escorting Rivera out of the combat zone, a Pentagon official told CNN.

"He will be dropped at the Kuwaiti border," the official said.

Latino Please.

Do none of these people understand what Rolling Stone does? Haven't they ever seen the John Travolta Movie "Perfect" where he plays an RS reporter, let alone "Almost Famous" about the career of Cameron Crowe with Creem and RS?

Russel: to RS Reporter William I'm opening up to the one guy, I shouldn't be talking to... the Enemy.

This is why we can't get real news about practically anything from these Lapdogs.

Wherein Foxers Cried: Leave BP Alone!!!

Leave BP Alone!

Media Matters has identified at least 62 recent instances of media conservatives defending BP, 38 of which occurred on the Fox News Channel, Fox Business, the Fox Nation, or the talk shows of Fox News hosts. There were at least 21 criticisms of BP's escrow account as an Obama "shakedown" or "slush fund," 10 attacks on President Obama for supposedly "demonizing" BP, 15 examples of conservatives deriding investigations of the company, 12 claims that environmental regulations are responsible for the spill, and five absurd conspiracy theories about the spill.

And it's not like it's a winning argument for the vast majority of the nation.

According to the latest CNN poll, a huge, huge, huge majority of Americans supports the $20 billion escrow fund that BP agreed to create in order to help pay for the Gulf of Mexico cleanup. 

But that hasn't stopped Fox, oh no sirree.

GOP Memo: Beware of Bloggers with Cellphone Cameras

The NRSC (National Republican Senate Committee) has released a memo warning their candidates not to get into "Physical Confrontations" with Bloggers with Cameras.



Dylan has a bad habit of trying to put words in people's mouths, but I do agree with Cenk that so rarely do anyone in the media actually ask a real and serious question of anyone - while we have the kind of answers like those from Sharon Angle (R-AZ) - who now will only talk to Fox News or Conservative Radio - after she get's asked questions about positions statements on her own website regarding Social Security and "Second Amendment Remedies" by a Local CBS News Reporter.



Or Rand Paul (R-KY) when he gets asked on MSNBC to clarify his position about the Sanctity of Private Ownership (in relation to Civil Rights, or Liability) that he'd already been asked by a local newspaper.



And of course none of will ever forget Former Senator George Allen's infamous- Maccaca Moment.



Either way, the Citizen Media has the guys running scared - and with good reason.

Vyan

Obama White House is Dead Right to Go After Fox

All week long we've been hearing from the Punditocracy questioning the White Houses "Motives" for attacking Fox News.

"What do they hope to gain?"

"Why do they feel the need to "Punch Down"?"

"Don't they realize Fox has unlimited Time to Fight Back?"

"Don't they know it's going to Back Fire?"

Well here's the thing - It's Not! What they've done is shine big bright spotlight on Fox, and now the Cockroaches are starting to scramble for cover.



It's doesn't matter that their is NO REAL DIFFERENCE between Fox's Opinion Commentators and the So-Called "News" reporters as Media Matters has thoroughly documented.

The question we should be considering is how many decades did the Right Wing Decry "Media Bias"? How long did they make it the Mantra? When did it ever "Back-fire" on them?

We've even had studies of so-called Media Bias from UCLA that conclude that the Media has an inherent Left-Wing Bias.

While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.

These are just a few of the surprising findings from a UCLA-led study, which is believed to be the first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co‑author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar.

Of course any report that says the Drudge Report Leans Left has to be seriously questioned, but the point isn't whether such charges are true - it's that they've become so common they are often assumed to be true and therefore those with a right-ward persuasion are justified in feeling aggrieved and disenfranchised.

Then comes Fox News.

They claim to be "Fair" in that they won't dismiss Right-Wing Ideas so hair-brained that the Mainstream Media wouldn't touch it while wearing a Level 5 Hazmat suit. They claim to be "Balanced" in that they hire multiple sets of Conservative Republicans like Former Congressman John Kascich (who led the Gingrich Budget Fight Against Bill Clinton in the 90's) and Former Governor Mike Huckabee to Host their own shows, but have yet to do the same for a single solitary Former Democratic Politician?

"Fair"? I think not.

They even gave convicted congressional liar Oliver North his own show!

Shouldn't we be expecting the William Jefferson/Blaggo Variety Hour from them next?

MSNBC is supposedly "Biased" to the left but the largest block of programming they have everyday is hosted by Former Gingrich-Era Republican Congressman Joe (Oops, I just found a dead intern in my office) Scarborough. And each and everyday - sometimes multiple times a day - we get pithy commentary on MSNBC by former Nixon henchman and devout Right-wing Nutball/Neo-Racist Pat Buchannan! If anything MSNBC is pretty darn "Balanced" when *those two* are what you have to cantilever against for contrast.

The point is that no media outlet is perfectly balanced - and it's easy to admit that if you look at the things with as skewed a world-view as Sarah (Death Panel) Palin, Michelle (Anti-American Test) Bachmann, James (Global Warming is a Hoax) Inhofe or John (JUST NUKE 'EM) Bolton of course you think CNN or the New York Times is "Biased" when they refuse to agree with and validate some of your Fracking Crazy, Wacked-Out Ideas - however some of them on their actual News pages, if not their opinion sections, are at least Trying to do their reporting accurately and responsibly. Conversely Fox News not only isn't trying to be balanced on their News Coverage, their deliberately spinning it like a top as was shown when direct orders from Fox VP John Moody were given to his NEWS people to try and look for the "Happy Insurgents"....



The point is that bashing the so-called "Liberal Media" really didn't hurt the Conservatives - they RAN WITH IT like a runaway horse whose tail was on fire. So pointing out the FOX NEWS IS BIASED doesn't really have a downside, what are they going to do Make up even Bigger Lies about Obama?

Besides delegitimizing Fox as a reliable source for News and Facts - this tactic has the additional benefit of actually being true, and ultimately Truth is an Absolute Defense.

Vyan

Fox News Contributor Bernie Goldberg Calls Out Fox for Lying

Crossposted from Dailykos.

Yes, believe it or not - in this segment from last nights O'Reilly Factor, Fox News Consultant Bernie Goldberg actually calls out other Fox Shows/Hosts - although he doesn't name names - for spreading "False Information" and for "Cheerleading at Rallies and Tea Parties".



You think maybe John Moody forgot include an Goldberg's cc on his daily memo to Fox Contributors to Ixny on the Ruth-thay!?

The gist of this is pretty simple, Goldberg doesn't think it's appropriate for a News Organization to have people becoming part of the story and advocating for a particular side of an argument, because THAT's NOT JOURNALISM.

He's been on Fox all these years and he's just now noticing this?

He also points out that much of the advocacy coming from these programs is based on completely False Information. Kinda like this stuff.



(In the above section John Stewart Points out how ridiculous the ACORN ATROCITY has become and contrasts it with the latest "Obama is Indoctrinator our Kids like the Khmer Rouge" Kerffule - only to show that Bush Did It Too with a group of kids singing about Hurricane Katrina and FEMA)

Yeah, there's a whole lot of False Information Out there.

O'Reilly's counter argument is that many of these people are Commentators who are simply providing Editorials which advocate for a point in the same way that the Editorial Page of the New York Times or Los Angeles Times might. In doing so he ignores the large number of Conservatives from Jonah Goldberg to Bill Kristol who have worked on the Editorial Pages of those papers - and fails to point out ANY Legitimate or Credible Liberal Voices on Fox - ones that real Libersls actually respect unlike the Token Porch Pseudo-Liberals they currently sport like Juan Williams.

And No, I didn't say that because Juan is Black, I'm Black too - he, Colmes and Kirsten Powers are political tokens - red-headed step children ready for their daily beating - who're only on the station to give cover to Fox's overt and over-the-top bias.

But then again, Media Bias is apparently perfectly fine with O'Reilly Now - as long as is properly marked as such, y'know - like SPAM.

But that's the other thing that O'Reilly Fails on, which is the fact that in papers such as the NYT or LAT there is a clear bright line between the News Journalists and Reports and the Editorialists. Is there really that big a difference between Chris Wallace and Sean Hannity? I mean really? They've both done Presidential Interviews of Bush, Cheney and Clinton. In exactly what ways did the approach those interviews differently?

What's the big difference between Fox News Commentators and Republicans in Congress? Glenn Beck talks crazy about ACORN and the next thing you know the issue is on the floor of Congress.

The last thing though, before we start a I (Heart) Bernie Goldberg Fan Club is to realize that these guys are just as likely to completely renounced everything they've both said here in the next 24 Hours and to take their mutual sign-off in this segment "It Shouldn't Get Personal" with a couple Tanker Trucks of Sea Salt.

You have of course the incredibly rude treatment that O'Reilly gave Joan Walsh of Salon over her opposition to the Shooting of Dr. George Tiller.



Bernard Goldberg is the same person who wrote "100 People who are Screwing Up America" who were nearly all Liberals or Conservatives who weren't Conservative Enough! That book served as a direct inspiration for the Knoxville Tennessee Church Shooter.

"This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me.

One could argue that assigning blame to Goldberg for this would be like blaming Catcher in the Rye for the shooting of John Lennon or Jody Foster for the Shooting of President Reagan.

Except for this commentary from Goldberg when O'Reilly was criticized by papers such as the NYT in a way that they both currently claim is "Perfectly Acceptable" - Yeah, right.

Bernard Goldberg: If NY Times attacked me like it attacks O'Reilly, "I probably would have gotten a baseball bat and gone down to the New York Times with it and found the person that wrote the editorial, but that's me."

Yeah, so much for not getting "Personal" Bernie - I wonder if "Somebody Should Take Baseball Bat" to the Times for the things they've said, what do you really think should be done to those who've "Cheerled the Tea Partiers with False Information?" Would a Blow Torch be a little over the top - y'know considering we're now making these two things equivelent within the Fox Uni-mind?

Still all-in-all despite their past comments, this new perspective - if it lasts more than a nano-second - is an improvement. Maybe they've turned a corner, maybe not. Baby Steps.

Vyan

McConnell helps spread attacks on 12-year-old Graeme Frost

In a moment very reminicent of the infamous Schiavo Memos where Republican staffers discussed how they could take political advantage of the horrific conflict and suffering of the Schiavo family - Thinkprogress has obtained a text message from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell's communications director Don Stewart which was apparently sent to reporters.

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. Bloggers have done a little digging and turned up that the Dad owns his own business (and the building it’s in), seems to have some commercial rental income and Graeme and a sister go to a private school that, according to its website, costs about $20k a year ‹for each kid‹ despite the news profiles reporting a family income of only $45k for the Frosts.

Could they get any lower?

Yes, they could, and did.

So apparently the people in McConnell's office don't think the idea of attacking an injured and vulnerable child and their family is even a little bit - icky - (shades of Shawn Horbeck?) - they think this is a perfect time to do the one thing they seem competant at accomplishing.

Pardon my Rumsfledian self interview but...

Would that be running the Country?

Uh, No.

Governing anything?

No.

Fighting terrorism?

No. (We've - the world that is - has had more terrorist attacks over the last 6 years than ever before)

Winning wars?

No. (We're even losing in Afghanistan under their "leadership")

Fighting Crime?

No. (After declining for over a decade and a half, crime rates are now rising)

Handling our tax money responsibly?

(Snort) Hell No.

Ok, What is it?

The obvious of course - Attacking Democrats.

This is how Stewart completed his email.

Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?

Thankfully no self-respecting News agency would take such fetid, rotted bait. No actual professional journalist would look at this poor 12-year-old who went through months of hospitalization and additional physical therapy after a car crash and presume that his family could be so calculated as to use him in such a cold heartless manner without first - y'know - a little Fact Checking?.

If that's what you thought, think again.

Ladies and Dems I give you CNN's John Roberts.

Roberts: Some of the accusations [against the Frosts] may be exaggerated or false. But did the Democrats make a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child?

CNN Analyst: I think in this instance what happened was the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done on this young man, his situation, his family. [...]

Limbaugh: The dirty little secret is this : the Democrats put lies into the Frost's kids hands - a 12-year-old kid being used - to advance distortion and a lie.

Roberts: The Frosts refuse to show their tax returns to a local reporter.

Analyst: More and more, Congress is acting less like a deliberative legislative body, and more like a political campaign. We’ve been seeing the politicization of every aspect of government.

Roberts: And we should point out as well the Frost's parents Halsey and Bonnie Frost still do not have health insurance.

They still don't have health insurance - as if that was a "choice" on their part? It's not like they were turned down three times recently by private insurance because of their so-called "pre-existing conditions". No.

Although this report - in passing - notes that the accusations made by FreeRepublic and repeated by Malkin and Limbaugh simply aren't true it does so in condescending terms. They re-broadcast Limbaugh's statments that "Dems put lies in the hands of a 12-year-old" but they don't bother to either point out what those alleged lies are or give anyone - ANYONE - a single second on-air to rebut Limbaugh!! No, instead the report that the Frosts only claim to be receiving scholarships to pay for their childrens tuition to these "hoity toity" schools. It's not like anyone at CNN knows how to like, ask the schools or maybe ask the state who happens to be supplying those scholarship or anything.

No, it's just a "claim" - nothing to take seriously. Move along, nothing to see here.

Yet, since the Frosts refused to turn over their TAX RETURNS TO THE PRESS, the same type of press - ok, well not exactly the "same" - that printed their home address on a site populated by not exactly the nicest and most stable persons in the country, naturally we should assume they must have something to hide!!!

Quick Side trip to Conservo-Land, Home of the Politically Sociopathic!

How could the Democrats be so stupid as to use a child to talk about a program for - um - children?

Who does that? (Not counting President Bush who used "Snowflake Babies" on his first Stem Cell Veto and an actual Stem-Cell recipient named Kaitlyne McNamara on his second Veto)

The Dems should have known that asking the Frost's to go public and saying that "S-Chip helped me when I needed it" would be an explosive political statement that would mean the opening of their entire lives to public scrutiny and vetting.

(Anyone check the Medical records on the McNamara girl and see if she really did get bona-fide Stem-Cell treatments? Y'never know right?)

I mean, doesn't this happen to every non-politician whose ever given the Democratic response?

Ok, now that we've completed our tour of crazy-town U.S.A... we return to our regularly scheduled reality, still in progress...

And all the while that CNN and the press are all a-twitter over how the Democrats could be so clumsy - never mind the, what do you call them? oh yeah, Facts - it turns out that they been lead by the nose to this conclusion by - ta da - the Republican Minority Leader who is gearing up to trying and sustain the President's S-CHIP Veto.

Think my little trip to unreality world was unfair? Ok, here's a return passage through it's dark dangerous lands via the Malkinator herself.

Snort-worthy conspiracy theory of the day...The tinfoil hatters at ThinkProgress actually believes conservative bloggers were in cahoots with Mitch McConnell, whom I lambasted below. The unreality-based community really does live in a different galaxy.

Right-Wing jack-booted Neo-Fascist Bint says wha?

Mitch McConnel wasn't involved in twisting this story for political gain to the direct detriment of children whom the President WILL throw off the program? Do tell.

Let's just keep in mind what is at stake hear - Health Care for 4 Million Children and what Mitch McConnel is really trying to do is undermine Republican Chuck Grassley's efforts to implement a Veto Override. From Olbermann last week.

Let's not lose sight of what's really going on here, let's not let the strum, drang, smoke and mirrors of political machinations distract us all from the simple fact that we are literally arguing over letting injured children suffer and sometimes die or else force their families into destitution.

This is not America. We can't let it be. This Can. Not. Stand.

Tell Senator Grassley to keep up the good fight, the Right Fight for all our kids if and when they should need it.

Sen. Chuck Grassley
135 Hart Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC
20510-1501
202.224.3744

And tell him Dkos sent cha.

Vyan

Chris Matthews Clowned on Daily Show

Stewart: I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life.

Vyan

Leave Bill O'Reilly Alone!!

Ah, yes the great ability of YouTube to allow Freepers to rant and rave.

Ladies and Gentlemen we have just had our "Leave Bill O'Reilly Alooonnneeee!" moment.

Today I want to talk about Keith Olberman, I hardly watch the guy but when I do I get sick to my stomach. That guy is a just a lying peice of shit. And what's wrong with him? Why is he mentally ill? Why is he so obsessed with Bill O'Reilly. MSNBC should fire this asshole, or they should put him into therapy

Y'see Bill O'Reilly is the victim here. His comments have been distorted by the Olbermann and the press. Billy is just trying to help black America by showing that their are alternatives to Gangsta Rap like Snoop Dogg.

Yeah, ok - that's like a newsflash isn't it?

As I've written in detail here, O'Reilly's core arguement is that the real problem with Black America is their missing fathers, it's not racism, it's not discrimination, it's not the ongoing legacy of racial profiling that keeps able bodied black men from finding keeping jobs and from being railroaded into our jails the way that the Jena 6 have been, the No Child Left Behind Act which has shoved thousands of minority kids out of school, or abstinence only programs which don't work. - y'know as Jesse Jackson pointed out on The Factor last night.

Jackson: 70 percent of all drug users in Illinois are white and 13 percent are black. But prison is 66 percent black and less than 10 percent white.

O'REILLY: 'Cause it's easier to catch them. They don't have lawyers. They -- you know. You know that poverty drives this and if you don't have enough money to pay a lawyer, you're going to get convicted. You know all of that.

JACKSON: Well, I guess, but most Americans don't know. They've assumed those in jailed are the most guilty, and those who are out are the most innocent.

...

O'REILLY: Reverend, let's get down to this, all right? Let's stop all this stuff. Here's what's driving the expulsion, the crime, and the poverty in the black community. You want to know what's driving it? No fathers in the home. Seventy percent of black babies are born out of wedlock in this country -- 70 percent, as opposed to 25 percent for whites. That's what's behind it, Reverend. That's what's behind all of these problems. And that's what has to be addressed.

No, Jesse. Y'see the big problem with Black people is that their addicted to playing the "Victim Card" according to O'Reilly and his buddy Juan Williams. This he says while crying and whining that the news media has - wait for it - made him a Victim!!

O'REILLY: Many white Americans fear blacks. That's the truth. And that's why things don't get done faster than they should get done -- because many whites won't say what they feel to blacks, won't ask blacks questions, won't try to understand blacks because they're afraid to be demonized --

JACKSON: But, Bill --

O'REILLY: -- if they say something wrong.

JACKSON: But, Bill, blacks have more reason to fear whites than the other way around.

O'REILLY: Maybe so, but we are all Americans.

JACKSON: Yeah, because --

O'REILLY: We are all Americans.

JACKSON: -- whites have never been enslaved by blacks. Whites have never been locked out in Jim Crow laws. So, this is an unfounded fear of blacks.

O'REILLY: I agree. It's unfounded. And then I tried --

JACKSON: But -- but --

O'REILLY: I tried to allay that fear, and I got smashed unfairly for doing it. I'm on your side. I want the white Americans to understand that the mainstream black American is no different than they are.

Geez, now you know how we Black Folk feel Bill - how's it taste? What's the matter, kind of bitter?

Suck it up, punk ass. That's what you say black people should do, right?

But here's America's real dirty little secret. The innocent (and the poor) got to prison, while the guilty (and the rich) go free. We use our prisons as a form of human traffiking where the prohibitions against slave labor do not apply. Slavery didn't end, it just gained a judicial stamp of approval. Just look at the 208 people who've been exonerated via the Innocence Project. Over 200 juries thought they were all guilty too, but they weren't. If we had DNA evidence for all 2 Million people in our prisons - thousands of them would go free. Call me crazy, but I think this tends to kind of Fuck up the Family. I'm just saying.

But No - no, it's not any of that stuff. It's all gotta be Black peoples own fault, and no one else has any responsibility it. None. See, now Rich White Conservative people whose families have all benefited from the legacy of sweat and pain of black people's work for over 400 years are now absolved of all guilt and the need to lift a finger to help out. Poof. Problem solved.

Yeah, sure - that makes sense.

Doesn't it just make you want to laugh until you cry?

Vyan

CBS Investigators finding confirm Rather's Killian Story

Writing in Salon today, Sydney Blumenthal reports that according to the documentation in the $70 Million lawsuit filed by Dan Rather against CBS news for his treatment prior to his (forced) retirement, CBS had hired an independent investigator on the infamous "Killian Memo" story who had found confirmation of claims made by Rather and producer Mary Mapes.

After allegations of forgery in the memo's by Col. Killian which proclaimed:

"I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended not just for failing to take a physical ... but for failing to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards. The officer [then Lt. Bush] has made no attempt to meet his training certification or flight physical"

Rather and Mapes were placed before a CBS review panel.

Rather believed that the panel would conduct a fair-minded inquiry. But he
learned that neither he nor Mapes would be allowed to cross-examine witnesses. They heard from some researchers on the "60 Minutes II" staff that
before they had been questioned, a CBS executive had told them that they should feel free to pin all blame on Rather and Mapes.

But in his suit Rather alleges that, besides scapegoating himself and Mapes finding the truth was far from the panel's purpose.

CBS had told Rather to cease investigating the story and had even hired a
private investigator of its own, Erik Rigler. Rather and Mapes
discovered that Rigler's investigation had uncovered corroboration for their story. Rather's complaint states that "after following all the
leads given to him by Ms. Mapes, he [Rigler] was of the opinion that the Killian
Documents were most likely authentic, and that the underlying story was
certainly accurate." But rather than probing Rigler on his findings, the
panel, to the extent its lawyers questioned him in a single telephone call,
"appeared more interested whether Mr. Rigler had uncovered derogatory
information concerning Mr. Rather or Ms. Mapes, as to which he had no
information," according to the Rather complaint. Rigler's report was suppressed,
never presented to the panel, and remains suppressed by CBS. Nor did the
panel fully question James Pierce, the handwriting expert consulted by "60 Minutes" who insisted that the signature on the documents was surely Killian's.

Not withstanding the facts, including the interview with Killian's secretary who confirmed everything in the allegedly false memo was true - CBS surged forward with their plan throw Rather and Mapes from the train.

When it came to the merits of the facts the panel elided them. It never
addressed the facts at all. Instead it criticized the "60 Minutes" team for
failing to "obtain clear authentication" of the Killian documents, among other
"errors," though it admitted it could not prove one way or another whether they
were inauthentic. Mapes and three other producers were dismissed. "60 Minutes
II" was abolished. And on the day after Bush's reelection, Rather was
unceremoniously fired. His contract had called for him to continue as anchor for
an additional year and then to serve as a correspondent for "60 Minutes" and "60
Minutes II," but that promise was not honored. CBS believed that by severing its link with Rather it could put the whole incident behind it and begin a new happy relationship with the ascendant Republicans.

Vyan

Fox News Bashes Couric for the Unforgivable Crime of Telling the Truth

Last week speaking at the National Press Club (hey who invited her anyway, isn't that for "Journalists?") CBS News Katie Couric announced that the Iraq War was a "Mistake?"

Really now? Y'think? (Video)

Now the right-wing via Fux News is punching back, and not every swing is above the belt!

Via Thinkprogress

"Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war," said Couric, adding that it is "pretty much accepted" that the war in Iraq was a mistake.

"I’ve never understood why [invading Iraq] was so high on the administration’s agenda when terrorism was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that [Iraq] had no true connection with al Qaeda." [...]

Couric [criticized] "the feeling that we’d be welcomed as liberators and didn’t need to focus as much on security." She added, "I’d feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, if required, on television."

It's interesting that when she had a chance to make all these points to David Petreaus while intervieing him in Iraq just recently, she didn't even bother. She was so nice to Ole' Betreaus that the right-wing has dubbed her their Sweatheart.

Maybe not so much after this.

Particularly not from from Hannity & Colmes who ironically found it inappropriate for a network anchor to mix News and Commentary even though her comments were not made on a News cast.

Now what's really amazing here, besides the fact that they decided to talk with conservative media shill Brent Bozell about Couric, is that the ultimate conclusions drawn are that a) The fact that we we're "Mislead" into this war is just and "Opinion" b) Somehow the Clinton Administration has as much to do with this War as Bush c) The Surge is Working and Couric was right to say so and d) her comments at the Press Club were an attempt to "Genuflect at the Altar of those George Soros Funded Crazies Media Matters - just look what their doing to "poor Bill O'Reilly".

Except that we really were Misled into this War, the Clinton Administration ended long before we invaded Iraq, The Surge isn't working and George Soros has nothing to do with Media Matters and even if he did - So-F-ing-What!?

Truly stunning no?

Vyan

MSNBC's Tucker Carlson Attacks Troops (82nd Airborne Op-ed)

In an exchange with an MSNBC Military Analyst Tfucker Carlson proceeded to toss a bucket-full of salt onto the tale of 7 members of the 82nd Airborne who published an Op-ed in the New York Times this week that completely eviscerated the claims of dog and pony pundits such as Micheal O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack.

Watch Video

Showing just how much he respects the troops opinion on how well the surge is working and how most Iraqis feel about it, Tfucker claimed - "How the hell would (they) know?"

Before I get into the meat of this particular story, I just want to remind my gentle readers of why I call Carlson - Tfucker. Besides the fact that it's funny, Carlson happens to be the son of one of the managers of the Scooter Libby defense fund and has stated - from his highly neutral position - that "the Plame Controversy is Bullshit".

MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, whose father, Richard Carlson, is on the advisory committee of Scooter Libby’s legal defense fund, spoke to Salon today about Valerie Plame’s covert status: “CIA clearly didn’t really give a sh*t about keeping her identity secret if she’s going to work at f*cking Langley.” Carlson then added “I call bullsh*t on that, I don’t care what they say,”

So it doesn't matter that Gen Hayden said she was covert, and that Patrick Fitzgerald said she was covert - and that Valerie herself testified under oath that she was covert. Carlson simply doesn't believe it. It's right there in front of his eyes - but he simply refuses to see it.

Yeah, so we now know how much we can trust his judgment and how much he respects the statements of those who have dedicated themselves to serving our country.

And of course, Tucker is now very concerned - like many of right-wing have suddenly become - that our military is becoming "politicized.

Tfucker: I'm uncomfortable with it since there has been this separation between active duty military and politics. That the service members kind of act out the policy of the U.S. Government - right or wrong - but they don't comment on it because you want civilian control of the military and that has always been our tradition and 2: I wonder if weighing in on a political question such as this doesn't squander the awesome moral authority that these guys already have.

When Sgt Aguina came to Yearlykos in full dress uniform and attempted to make statements that "The Surge is Working" - the right-wing was all in his corner.

Rick Moran on The Factor: He's a very earnest, very honest young man who takes the idea that "the surge is working" seriously.

Pajamas Media : He didn't say anything political.

So Aguina says the surge is working and he's not being political - but when 7 others point of the fact that it's not (which most of us who realized that Baghdad isn't in Al-Anbar province already knew) - they've crossed the line into politics?

Yeah, right - sure they did. Flip-Flop much?

Naturally Col Jacobs offered some "balance" to Carlson's statements.

Col. Jack Jacobs: I do think there is some detriment to the moral authority you're talking about. I think that these soldiers thought were performing a public service by making the public aware of what they see is happening at the lowest possible levels, but of course we only see a broad brush of the strategy, we don't see what happens tactically. So I think they thought they were performing a public service - and in a certain respect they are - don't forget now, that we're in an environment that you can get information in a wide variety of ways. No longer do you have to watch the news, or to you and me. (THANK GOD!) There are soldiers all the time, sending back dispatches from the forward edge of the battle area - on the net. Now it's difficult to police.

Jacob's doesn't make a ton of sense here unless you feel that those who gripe from the front-lines don't have valid points and even if they did, and they did, that it's a good thing censor them because it might "hurt morale" if people kinda like - knew the facts and stuff.

But actually, the military has been cracking down on military blogs for quite some time under the pretext that it has put operational security at risk even though an audit by the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell between January 2006 and January 2007 “suggests that official Defense Department websites post material far more potentially harmful than anything found on a individual’s blog.”

Jacobs: The attitudes that we see in this op-ed piece may have been the same kinds of attitudes we might have had 40 years ago in Vietnam.

Ya think?

But you didn't hear about them 40-years ago, you're hearing them today because of the new methods of disseminating information.

Tfucker: Yeah, I'm not sure what to think - you see - like most Americans I instinctively respect those who are currently serving in a war zone, absolutely,

The way you've "respected" those working undercover on our national security? Yeah, ok.

Tfucker: and I'm not sure whether the surge is working or not. I honestly don't know and I'm not taking a position on that, I don't have the information,

Let me point out the when Tfucker had Kenneth Pollack on his program to discuss How well the surge is working he spent most of the program defending him from "all those hysterical bloggers" who had viciously attacked Pollack for being - well - full of shit. Particularly some crazy guy by the name of Glenn Greenwald, who writes for that rag - y'know - Salon.com!

Being as sharp as a dull tack, O'Hanlon stated today that he thinks the 82nd Airborne Soldiers might have been taking a slight poke at him".

Hmm... like I said before - Ya think?

Personally I think it's more like a sharp stick in the eye, particular when O'Hanlon continues to claim that Iraqi civilian casualties are down - except that they're like - Not.

Oh, and how's that political reconciliation - which is just the reason we're staging the surge in the first place - coming along?

But I digress - back to Tfuckerhead.

I instinctively distrust sentences like this - and this is from the Op-ed.

A vast majority of Iraqi's feel insecure and view us as an occupation force.

When the President uses phrases like that - "the vast majority of Iraqis (want this or don't want that)" - my first question is How the hell does he know, and that's my first thought here. These guys may be fighting the war but they don't have access to the "vast majority" of anybody in Iraq.

Jacobs: That's absolutely correct, they see the world through a straw - they see only what they see. You raise an important point, to what extent are we supposed to listen to anybodies estimate of what's going on?

Tfucker: Right

"They only see what they see" - as opposed to those who only see what they want, eh?

When the President says just about anything - most of us are wondering "How the Hell Does HE Know?" too. But when it comes to our troops on the ground, those like these 7 who've just spent 15 months in Iraq - fighting the insurgents, fighting the Shia, fighting the Sunni, occasionally fighting a lone al-Qaeda straggler - who've worked side-by-side by side with Iraqi forces, and face-to-face with the Iraqi people day in and day out - call me crazy - but I tend to trust their judgment just a tad more than I'd trust Tfucker's - or the Presidents.

What these 7 soldiers have done has been to catapult the propaganda and possibly give a little more perspective on the Patreaus President's upcoming report puff piece on the Surge, which is supposed to be delivered to Congress on September 11th No Less.

These people truly have no shame. None. AT. ALL.

Vyan

Jon Stewart : Time to end the "Traitor" Talk

The other night on The Daily Show, our next to last, best American Journalist - Jon Stewart - directly confronted Cheney Biographer Stephen Haynes on the tendency of the Administration and it's supporters to cast aspersions on the patriotism of those who are critical of the War in Iraq.

To the loud groans in the audience, Hayes denied that any such accusations of unpatriotism have been made. Unfortunately, he's very wrong.

Just as a quick refresher we've had the following types of statement made by Bush Officials and his supporters.

• Ann Coulter : Barack Obama's Lead in the Polls is "Good for Al-Qeada"
• Townhall : Liberals hate fellow Americans more than terrorists.
• Fox News: Let's find the Happy Insurgents now that Democrats have taken over Congress.
• Bill Kristol : Obama's anti-war stance shows that he would have been pro-slavery.
• Right-Wing Radio Pundit Buzz Patterson : "Democrat politicians, big media, academia, popular culture, and nongovernmental organizations" of forming "a Fifth Column" that is "facilitating defeat against Islamo-fascism" and that Most Liberals are Traitors.
• Radio Host Mike Gallagher on Fox News: the U.S. government should "round up" actor Matt Damon, "The View" host Joy Behar, and MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann and "put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they’re a bunch of traitors."
• Fox News Host : Wall Street Won’t Let A ‘Puny Little Traitor (who leaked the NSA Story)...Take Down Our Market’
• Bill O'Reilly on Cindy Sheehan : I think Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this [publicity] and also for the responsibility for the other American families who lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.
• Tom Delay : Pelosi and Reid are getting "very, very close to treason" by opposing the Iraq war.
• Donald Rumsfeld : War Critics are like Hitler Appeasers
• Neil Cavuto : "Did Americans who took Hugo Chavez’s oil today commit treason?"
• Melanie Morgan : New York Times editor Bill Keller is guilty of treason and that "Keller and his associates" should be thrown "in prison for 20 years.
• Michael Reagan : Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason."
• Coulter : It is simply a fact that Democrats like Murtha are encouraging the Iraqi insurgents when they say the war is going badly and it’s time to bring the troops home... They fill the airwaves with treason...These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors.
• Dennis Hastert : liberals want to take "the 130 most treacherous people, probably in the world...and release them out in the public eventually."
• CNN host Chuck Roberts: Ned Lamont is the Al Qeada Candidate.
• Cal Thomas : The Taliban wing of the Democratic Party cannot countenance any "heretics" who do not toe their line.
• South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson : "Which one of the Democrat [sic] contenders are going to take [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] to task about giving aid and comfort to the enemies by claiming the global war on terror is lost?"
• Dean Esmay on New York Times reporters: "Exposing such a secret program is not whistle-blowing -- it is high treason. When I say 'treason' I don't mean it in an insulting or hyperbolic way. I mean in a literal way: we need to find these 21st century Julius Rosenbergs, these modern day reincarnations of Alger Hiss, put them on trial before a jury of their peers, with defense counsel. When they are found guilty, we should then hang them by the neck until the [sic] are dead, dead, dead."
• Michael Savage : former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "should be tried for treason, and when she is found guilty, she should be hung."
• Coulter on the Hamdan Decision : [Y]ou just expect Democrats to side with Al Qaeda." Coulter also stated that she couldn't "imagine that this country could have won World War II if this is the way one of the parties was behaving."
• Rush Limbaugh : "Did (Joe) Wilson lie about Niger? Did Wilson commit treason?"

So it's not like all this treason talk is a pattern of behavior or anything.

Stewarts comments to Stephen had been prompted by this Video from 1994 where Dick Cheney explains why it would have been wrong to "Go to Baghdad" to take Saddam out of power.

In 1994, Dick Cheney felt that it was the correct assessment that "Saddam wasn't worth another American life." Hayes argued in Cheney's defense that everything changed after 9-11" - but according to the documents from the Project for the New American Century publish in 1998 which urged President Clinton to invade Iraq and depose Saddam - that simply isn't true.

We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.

Nevertheless - Hayes soldiered on.

STEWART: I think that they've gone -- they, they've seemingly gone out of their way to belittle people. You know, he's actually literally come out and said, "If you don't elect us, we might get hit again." That to me, I -- I can't jibe the portrait you paint of the steadfast leader with the fear-mongering, not-bright guy that I've seen.

HAYES: Yeah, but I mean, no, really -- I mean isn't it that case that, I mean, that's essentially what this debate has been about, the political debate has been about since 2001?

STEAWART: No. They keep saying we don't understand the nature of this war. And critics keep saying, we understand the nature of it. You've been doing it wrong.

HAYES: Right, so why is that -- what's the, what's the quality of difference there?

STEWART: Well, no the, the difference there is, we're not calling them traitors.

HAYES: I don't -- yeah, but I don't think that the administration has called anyone a traitor. When has it happened? I mean, I'm serious. When has that happened? When has that happened?

STEWART: Let me say this. I -- I think that there's a real feeling in this country that your patriotism has been questioned by, by people in, in very high-level positions. Not fringe people. You know, I myself had some idiot from Fox playing the tape of me after September 11th -- very upset. And them calling me a phony --

HAYES: Right.

STEWART: -- because, apparently, my grief didn't mean acquiescence.

At a certain point these false accusations of treason and appeasement have to be called out for the bullcrap that they are. Those who are simply pointing out the truth that Saddam was not a threat, that he wasn't in league with Al Qeada, that he did not have stockpiles or active programs for WMD's, that the insurgency could have been forseen, that the surge isn't working - do not deserve to be belittled and ignored.

Time and time again they are been right, while Bush has been wrong.

Vyan

Most Examples (Courtesy Dkos)

• George Bush : "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."
• Dick Cheney : "It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again,"
• George Bush : "I asked Congress to give me the flexibility necessary to be able to deal with the true threats of the 21st century by being able to move the right people to the right place at the right time so we can better assure America we're doing everything possible. The House responded, but the Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the American people." [Bush remarks in Trenton, New Jersey, 9/23/02, emphasis added]
• John Ashcroft : "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists - for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends." [Washington Post, 12/7/01;]
• Karl Rove : "Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Conservatives, he said, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."

Melanie Morgan is a Complete Moran!

As highlighted tonight as Keith Olbermann's latest "Worst Person in the World" KSFO host Melanie Morgan has attacked Votevets head John Soltz for violating a completely made up Military Rule.

Click Play to listen to this audio clip

Morgan was responding in support of criticizm that Solz received on Hardball from .

Watch it:

As noted by Media Matters:

Melanie Morgan called VoteVets.org chairman Jon Soltz "a hypocrite and a liar" for criticizing Army Sgt. David Aguina's appearance in uniform at a YearlyKos convention panel but using a picture of himself in uniform on the VoteVets.org website and engaging in political activism while serving in the Army Reserve, which Morgan called "a violation of the U.S. Military's Uniform Code of Military Justice."

Actually to be fair here, Media Matters actually corrects Morgan's mistake. It would have been a least slightly more correct to criticizm Soltz for violating the "Uniform Code of Military Justice" but Morgan didn't do that - she said this.

RODGERS: Now, Mel can put it into context. This happened on, what, that Chris Matthews scream-fest, is that it?

MORGAN: Yeah, it happened last night. The producers of Hardball invited Jon Soltz on. Jon Soltz is this individual who says that he -- tells everybody he has the absolute moral authority to denounce the war in Iraq because he's an Iraqi war veteran. He's actually a reservist, and he has no business -- well, he's in violation of the United States Marine Corps Code of Justice by making these kinds of outrageous political and partisan statements.

Hello, Melanie - the there is no United States Marine Corps "Code of Justice"!

Point number two - Jon Soltz isn't a Marine, he's a Captain in the U.S. Army.

Jon Soltz is a leader of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans community and is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From May to September 2003, Soltz served as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division. During 2005, Soltz was mobilized for 365 days at Fort Dix New Jersey, training soldiers for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served his country with distinction in the Kosovo Campaign as a Tank Platoon Leader between June and December 2000. Soltz is a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College with dual degree in Political Science and History. He has completed graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Ok, that's two strikes - and for number three the core point Melanie was trying to make is that Soltz is a hypocrite for critizing Sgt Aguina when he himself is shown on the VoteVets website in uniform.

Well, he is - but...

Although there is a rule that states that members of the U.S. Military are prohibited from engaging in political activity while in uniform - that rule is part of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice), but that rule does not apply to photographs.

j. Wearing Army uniforms is prohibited in the following situations:

(1) In connection with the furtherance of any political or commercial interests, or when engaged in off-duty civilian employment.

(2) When participating in public speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies, or public demonstrations, except as authorized by competent authority.

(3) When attending any meeting or event that is a function of, or is sponsored by, an extremist organization.

(4) When wearing the uniform would bring discredit upon the Army.

(5) When specifically prohibited by Army regulations.

The above is exactly what Soltz was trying to tell Sgt Aguina when the latter attempted to make a statement at the YearlyKos convention while in Uniform. This wasn't simply an attempt by Soltz to stop Aguina from speaking - he did speak and was able to argue vehemently that the "Surge is Working", even though it's like - NOT - it was a warning that the Sgt was putting himself in jeopardy simply by being at the convention in uniform and that any political statments - whether pro or con the proceedings - might get Sarge in extreme hot water, just as it had previously happened to two marines who attended an anti-war protest.

<>Two of the members of IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War), Adam Kokesh and Liam Madden are facing hearings by the Marine Corps for their protest attire. But if you read David Montgomery’s article, Antiwar to the Corps, in the Washington Post, you would think that the Marines were attempting to silence an anti-war voice. Not only did Montgomery miss the entire reason for the hearings, but he overlooked a few facts in his reporting.

Montgomery gave the background of the case...

In a case that raises questions about free speech, the Marines have launched investigations of three inactive reservists for wearing their uniforms during antiwar protests and allegedly making statements characterized as "disrespectful" or "disloyal."

Ultimately Kokesh had his honable discharge downgraded for his participation in the rally.

As far as being able to participate in politics while being a reservist, without being in uniform, if Soltz can't do it neither can several members of Congress.

In fact, military law does not prohibit reservists from engaging in political activities. Indeed, several members of Congress are members of the U.S. military reserve, including Rep. Stephen Buyer (R-IN), a colonel in the Army Reserve; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a colonel in the Air Force Reserve; and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), a Naval Reserve intelligence officer.

Rep Buyer even has a pictures of himself in uniform on his Congressional website. Aguina in his own counter attack on Soltz in Pajamas Media claimed of Soltz that ...

he’s in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 88 which says no commissioned officer can criticize a government official.

Except that that rule only applies to officers who are "on duty" which Soltz isn't right now even as a reservist. He also claimed that Soltz violated..

Article 91," he said, forbids a commissioned officer from criticizing a non commissioned officer, and behaving in the "condescending" manner in which he was treated.

Except that that rule only applies to subordinant non-coms, not to officers criticizig a Sergeant.

I know right-wingers have problems with y'know - the truth - but this is a clear-cut case of standard wing-nut socio-pathological delusion, only seeing what they want to see, not the facts.

"Liberals are Bad, mm'kay?!"

According the Moran's like Morgan, "they're bad when their in uniform, they're bad when their out of uniform - they don't even have to actually be liberal, they're bad simply for disagreeing with us and "hurting the troops" - particularly when THEY ARE THE TROOPS!

Fact is, the only person who violated the UCMJ in the dustup between Soltz and Aguina - was Aguina. And the more right-wingers keep opening their yaps about Yearlykos and Dailkykos - especially without knowing what the frack their talking about - the more important and powerful they make both of them.

Vyan