News & Politics - Political Commentary - Who Do You Read?

Ms Carolyn · 05-10-2006, 10:29 AM

There are some fairly fabulous political commentators out there, and it occurred to me that it could be fun to share some of our favorites. Here's one of mine:

Quote:

Molly Ivins: The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/...ns_whorehouse/

Posted on May 8, 2006

By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas—Of course I am above sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. So serious a servant of the public interest am I, I can fogey with the best: On my better days, I make David Broder look like Page Six.

I don’t care what anyone smoked 20 years ago, I approve of those who boogie till they puke, and I don’t care who anyone in politics is screwing in private, as long as they’re not screwing the public.

On other hand, if you expect me to pass up a scandal involving poker, hookers and the Watergate building with crooked defense contractors and the No. 3 guy at the CIA, named Dusty Foggo (Dusty Foggo?! Be still my heart), you expect too much. Any journalist who claims Hookergate is not a legitimate scandal is dead—has been for some time and needs to be unplugged. In addition to sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, Hookergate is rife with public-interest questions, misfeasance, malfeasance and non-feasance, and many splendid moral points for the children. Recommended for Sunday school use, grades seven and above.

But for starters, let us consider the unenviable record of Porter Goss at the CIA. From the beginning of his tenure, Goss has been criticized for politicizing the agency. He brought a bunch of political hacks with him for staff, one of whom turns out to be the poker player called “Nine Fingers.” And in the end, he was probably fired for not having politicized the agency sufficiently.

What is the point of politicizing an intelligence agency? So the CIA officials would get a report from some agent in Iraq saying, “Looks bad.” The first thing they’d ask was, “Is this agent a Republican or a Democrat?”

Maybe there really are conservatives who believe everything in Iraq is hunky-dory and there’s a giant media conspiracy to hide the joyous tidings. But as you may recall, the ever-nimble minds at Donny Rumsfeld’s shop have already tried paying public relations people to invent good news about Iraq and then plant it in newspapers there—it didn’t work. In fact, it was so stupid it was humiliating. Fortunately, the Pentagon was once again able to investigate itself and determine it had done nothing illegal.

So now they’re turning the CIA over to a general who not only ran the warrantless wiretap program but still can’t figure out that it’s unconstitutional. Why do I get the feeling this is W. and Karl again flipping the finger at some grown-up they don’t like?

Gen. Michael Hayden had mixed reviews as director of the National Security Agency—he’s evidently not a good manager, which makes him a perfect Bushie. But is he straightforward enough to have admitted that some warrantless spying has been done for political reasons? None of the usual Washington insiders seems to have a bead on this. Hayden would theoretically report to John Negroponte, Bush’s supposed intelligence czar. Negroponte is widely considered worthless. His major achievement so far seems to be organizational charts and buying furniture.

You know me, no conspiracy theories here, but the Bush administration, which doesn’t seem to be able to run much, set out to retool the CIA after 9/11 and the Iraq war. Problem is, everything that worked at the CIA—that it warned about 9/11 and said the Iraq war was a bad idea—was on the hit list. The Bushies wanted to eliminate the people who were right and promote those who were wrong. This is no way to shape up an intelligence agency, not to mention the White House spit fit over Joe Wilson’s wife.

Next, we need to contemplate sincere, old-fashioned, non-ideological greed, theft and bribery. In the beginning, there was only Duke Cunningham, the high-living, fun-loving super-patriot congressman from San Diego. His yacht was called The Duke-Stir, and he had nice taste in 19th century French commodes. While we all are happy to see our elected representatives enjoying themselves in Washington, that’s real people’s money. Actually, the yacht and commode were paid for by defense contractor Brent Wilkes (keep an eye on that player). It was people’s money that paid for the defense contracts Wilkes allegedly bribed public officials into landing for his clients.

The former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Clark Kent Ervin—that would be the DHS equivalent of a police department’s internal affairs chief—tried to blow the whistle on shady contracts at DHS and instead was thrown overboard himself. Folks, we’ll never get government straightened out again if we don’t keep the IGs strong and independent.

If the Bush administration continues to fall apart at this clip, I think we’ll be grateful for incompetence as an excuse.

potostfbeyeluvr · 05-20-2006, 05:02 PM

I personally love the satire of the almost-slanderous Ann Coulter. I don't always agree with her, but I find her views refreshing to read.

Dr. Nick · 05-20-2006, 10:04 PM

My family, 86amanda86, Kiss_Me_Kate323, and I read Fusion and the Limbaugh Letter.

Lexis · 05-21-2006, 04:44 AM

Dr Nick, 86amanda86 and Kiss_Me_Kate323 - I think you guys are the first News and Politics family!

I quite like Dominic Lawson (son of a former Tory Chancellor, brother of the chef Nigella Lawson) who writes for the Independent. Also quite fond of Rory Bremnar's column in the New Statesman and Johann Hari who manages to cut the bull and get to the real heart of an issue.

86amanda86 · 05-21-2006, 10:54 PM

What does "firat" mean?

Lexis · 05-22-2006, 03:44 AM

Proofreading kids, its the key to success. : )

First is what I meant Amanda - I think my fingers got away from me!

Kiss_Me_Kate323 · 05-22-2006, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexis

Dr Nick, 86amanda86 and Kiss_Me_Kate323 - I think you guys are the first News and Politics family!

Hehe, blame our parents.

Speaking of parents, my mom used to constantly listen to Michael Savage, and I really can't stand him. If you agree with him, you are a mindless idiot, if you disagree with him, you are just an idiot, there's just no reasoning with that man. Since he was cancelled, she listens to Glen Beck, and he is much better, I can listen to my mom's kind of radio without wanting to punch it in....

Lexis · 05-23-2006, 01:08 AM

Was Glenn Beck the guy who just got a show on CNN? I remember reading about him calling Katrina refugees scum and saying he was sick of 9/11 families.

Ms Carolyn · 05-23-2006, 07:53 AM

And they gave him a show on CNN? Not Fox News?

Well, that's discouraging.

Kiss_Me_Kate323 · 05-23-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexis

Was Glenn Beck the guy who just got a show on CNN? I remember reading about him calling Katrina refugees scum and saying he was sick of 9/11 families.

No, I don't think that was him. He's usually talking about how he hates people who hate the refugees and victims of 9/11, but it might have been. If it was, he just lost my respect.

Lexis · 05-24-2006, 03:21 AM

Quote:

From the September 9 broadcast of The Glenn Beck Program:

But the second thought I had when I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims. These guys -- you know it's really sad. We're not hearing anything about Mississippi. We're not hearing anything about Alabama. We're hearing about the victims in New Orleans. This is a 90,000-square-mile disaster site, New Orleans is 181 square miles. A hundred and -- 0.2 percent of the disaster area is New Orleans! And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we're seeing on television are the scumbags -- and again, it's not all the people in New Orleans. Most of the people in New Orleans got out! It's just a small percentage of those who were left in New Orleans, or who decided to stay in New Orleans, and they're getting all the attention. It's exactly like the 9-11 victims' families. There's about 10 of them that are spoiling it for everybody.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509090003

It does seem to be CNN guy - although for the life of me, why would any respectable organisation hire someone who has zero compassion?

I'm sorry, after seeing the Katrina pictures of people literally dying in the streets and reading the stories of families who literally had their children slip out of their arms... this man is a disgrace.

86amanda86 · 05-24-2006, 04:09 AM

That is taken completely out of context. He's not saying he hates the people, the actual victims. He's saying he hates that a small percentage get focused on instead of everyone who is affected. That sounds really bad when you see it like that, but that's not what Beck is about. I've been listening to him for a while. He's not compassionless or hateful at all.

There, he was talking about how annoyed he gets with people who milk the disaster for money, if you read the whole thing you see this. He doesn't hate the victims or think they are scumbags, he hates that a few of them use the tragedy to get attention and money. If you read the whole segment, he was talking about specific people who were saying specific things, not the victims in general.

Obviously it souds really bad if you don't know where he was coming from or what he meant, but Glen Beck is actually really smart, funny, and compassionate. He's not your typical right wing talk radio host, he started to jump ship on Bush a long time ago. CNN hired him because he has a lot of good things to say (if you take them how they were meant) and because people will listen to him.

ETA- I just checked that media matters site and everything they have about Beck is taken out of context and presented in a negative light.

86amanda86 · 05-24-2006, 04:41 AM

For instance...

This from Glenn's site...

Scared Skinny
If you’ve tried every diet ever created without success, you might finally be in luck. The Glenn Beck Program has created “Scared Skinny” a revolutionary diet that relies on the one fear we all share: complete and total public humiliation.

With Scared Skinny there are no rules, no points to count, no mandatory exercise. You simply take a few photos of yourself wearing “revealing” outfits, send them to us, and then meet your goal weight or risk having your photos exposed to hundreds of thousands of people.

Here’s how it works:

Fill out the form below. It asks for your current weight, your target weight and your deadline.
Take at least two photos of yourself in something akin to a bikini or Speedo. The photos MUST be embarrassing and awkward or else they will be rejected.
Attach the photos and submit the form.
Lose ALL the weight by the time you specify or find the first flight to Australia.

________________

He also just did a story about 3 teenage girls with terminal cancer who got to go be models for a day. I mean, he really is a cool guy, once you get past how he just says stuff and then has to rephrase it again and again until he has it how he wants it. He thinks out loud....I do too.

86amanda86 · 05-24-2006, 06:07 AM

Oops, edit.

Lexis · 05-24-2006, 06:37 AM

I just fail to see how any 9/11 family could be "spoiling" anything for anyone. I mean, you lost a family member in the towers - what could you possibly be doing that would make someone hate you? Getting compensation? I think (especially when the person who died was the breadwinner) is totally correct. Appearing in the media talking about what happenned? Again, I just don't get how it can be bad to remember what happenned. Is there any specific person he was talking about? The only case I can remember is that guy who said his son had died in the WTC but had just made the whole thing up.

As for the New Orleans comments - I can see the point he was trying to make, about attention being paid disproportionatly to New Orleans. But to call those who he saw on the news "scumbags" - I fail to see how that's an appropriate response to the tragedy of Katrina.


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