Month: September 2010

A reader writes:

In posting that Quote of the Day from Jon Stewart, you showed the optimistic Stewart but missed what I think is the most important quote in the piece:

"Jon has chronicled the death of shame in politics and journalism,” says Brian Williams, the NBC Nightly News anchor who is a frequent Daily Show guest. “Many of us on this side of the journalism tracks often wish we were on Jon’s side. I envy his platform to shout from the mountaintop. He’s a necessary branch of government.”

That's why the country is screwed, on a fundamental level.  A "journalist" (attractive man with nice hair) with one of the biggest platforms to report the truth in the country complaining about how he lacks the platform a cable talk show comedian has.  NBC Nightly News averaged 7.8 million viewers this past week.  The Daily Show averages about 1.8 million.  You have a platform, Brian Williams, you just refuse to actually do anything with your platform, in favor of "Well, the Republicans say that Barack Obama is an evil socialist, fascist menace; the White House disagrees."  I exaggerate, but not by much.

Bingo.

Limbaugh is thrilled that the coup against even Rove is now complete:

Let's assume that Christine O'Donnell is down in the polls, Democrat polls, by the way, by 25 points. Okay, fine. If she's the best option we have to stop what's going on once she gets to Washington, why not try to make up the 25 points? We got socialism, communism, liberalism on the ropes. It's too risky? Let me tell you something. It's worth the risk. We're talking about saving the goddamn country.

(Graphic: David Baker Design.)

A reader writes:

I am happy for Sarah Shourd and her family, and hope that she is able to get her health issues addressed quickly.  I'm sure this has been a terrible ordeal for all involved, including the families of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. However, these three adults showed extremely poor judgment in choosing to hike in Iraq in the first place – during a war no less – and were warned specifically against hiking in the area where they eventually crossed into Iran.  The response of the Iranian government has been excessive, but is anyone surprised at this?  I have a hard time viewing them entirely as victims. 

Another writes:

This story really drives home the arrogance of a lot Americans on the world stage.

Some people feel they have the right to go anywhere they want because they are Americans – and what they want, they get. I think they feel that if they get into trouble, the U.S. government will come to their rescue. However, look at what this has done. It is an international incident with a lot of repercussions. How much influence and political capital was spent just getting this one hiker out of jail? When we travel abroad we should be respectful of other countries and their traditions.

Another:

I wish the American media would call the proverbial spade a spade.  The idea that Shourd was released on "bail" is absurd.  A release on bail conveys that the released prisoner will remain in the jurisdiction and appear for trial.  This wasn't "bail"; it was ransom.

Gary Sick puts her release in greater context:

Ahmadinejad is coming to New York for his annual media circus at the UN General Assembly. He usually pulls off some stunt just before he arrives, thereby giving himself a blaze of media attention and perhaps arming him with a talking point about Iran’s “humane” behavior. That is useful in responding to questions and charges that are sure to arise in the back-to-back “exclusive” interviews that his staff has been arranging for the past several months with every possible media outlet in New York.

Enjoy.

… and not even the Catholics showed up?

Not only did he publish that vile piece of neo-fascist propaganda by D'Souza, here he is showing Obama chatting it up with Lenin. Yes, Lenin. The rot is deep.

[Update: Obama's head is super-imposed by photoshop on Stalin.]

A reader writes:

Penises also seem to grow on bachelorettes' heads after exposure to alcohol.

Exhibit A.

A report from Alaska. Love that phrase.

We should not forget those many Americans who did stand up against the torture of the Bush administration, did have consciences, and did resist. For Alyssa Peterson, the moral conflict of being an American torturing prisoners was too much. Seven years ago today, she killed herself. But she never killed her honor. And she and many others helped preserve what remains of the honor of the United States.

My thesis that the core rationale for the Obama presidency was a post-boomer pragmatism has been assailed lately as unrealistic, and responsible for Obama's apparent woes. I can see how Maureen's critique does indeed make some psychological sense, can appreciate Sam Tanenhaus' reminder of the endurance of the cultural war and I under-estimated the sheer cultural panic and pent-up frustration on the right in the wake of the Obama landslide, with all its implications for America's future. (I did not, however, under-estimate the centrality of Sarah Palin to this environment.)

But isn't it increasingly obvious that Obama's refusal to take the far right bait, to position himself as a problem-solver open to sane Republican ideas, rather than as a tribune of the left, is looking wiser again? He has not focused on attacking the GOP until very recently with Boehner and had hung back from the cable news atmosphere. A whiff of Adlai Stevenson hangs about him for some Democrats. And yet, as the Dish has repeatedly argued, Obama's greatest skill is in letting his opponents destroy themselves and his greatest asset in these heated days of sound and fury is his calm and poise.

He is taking the responsibility of the presidency seriously, and people notice that. Hence his rather resilient polling numbers, given the broader public mood. I have made many criticisms but I remain of the view – very firmly of the view – that we remain extremely lucky to have him. And I think we will see his true mettle if the current GOP wins the House, which in many respects, I hope they will – if the GOP is to grow up, and take some responsibility for fixing the appalling mess they largely made at home and abroad.

Obama is a poultice, bringing these toxins to the surface. But his capacity to be more than that – to realize the possibilities I felt inherent in his candidacy back in 2007 – remains to be seen. What I hope is that he does not take the truly partisan advice and misunderstand the nature of his presidency and the reason he is still the indispensable figure at this point in American history.

(Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty.)