And, of course, the entire media is talking about how this is bad for the Democrats and how the Republicans are winning the national security debate.

How can we take our media back?

And, of course, the entire media is talking about how this is bad for the Democrats and how the Republicans are winning the national security debate.

How can we take our media back?
Posted by: JohnN on May 24, 2009 at 12:11 PM | PERMALINK*****************************************************

Obama must be pressured to close the loopholes and exemptions to media consolidation.

I saw the segment and had similar thoughts. But I got over them pretty quickly. Rational arguments have zero effect on the wingnuts. Those that most need the info are the least likely to pay attention.

I also just saw Powell on Face the Nation. I used to admire the man. He is articulate and intelligent. He is a statesman. He is my kind of Republican. It was his speech to the United Nations ALONE that caused me to consider that perhaps Iraq had WMD (although I have considered Shrub a lying sack of shit since he first came on my radar in his campaign against governor Anne Richards in Texas) and I have despised Powell ever since for making that speech. I made a point to watch Face the Nation today to see what he had learned. I was fine with his speech right up until he started justifying torture (water-boarding was mentioned explicitly) and claiming he doesn’t know to this day if the techniques were even used. My disrespect for him continues unabated.

http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2009/05/15/11/252-05152009Babin.slideshow_main.prod_affiliate.91.jpg

Of course he's right. So what? The same point was obvious to the comedy writers on the Daily Show. The democrats caved as soon as they heard an ad with Carmina Burana.

The even BETTER soundbite was Admiral Mike Mullen's response to videotape of Cheney saying:

"This 'recruitment tool' theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It's another version of that same old refrain from the Left, 'we brought it on ourselves'."

The CJCS responded:

"It's my judgment that it HAS had an impact and it's time to move on."

SMACKDOWN !!!

It seems, if the situations were reversed, and Democratic lawmakers were on the opposite side of the Commander in Chief, the Republican Defense Secretary, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs -- in the midst of two wars -- we might hear a little more talk about why Dems were at odds with the U.S. military.

Except that, idiot Dem congress critters are also on the Rethug side whenever the Prez is a Dem, even if they have to go against the military brass to do it (and so your point is moot!).

Why does the White House, the Pentagon, and the brass hate America?

If the media pays no attention to the words of military leaders, did they actually speak?

Everything can be explained if you just remember that republicans are evil assholes bent on destroying all that is good in the world.

Sissification

Benen: Except, in this case, it's the entire Republican Party fighting the White House, the Pentagon, and the brass.

True. But worse is their attempt to cower the American public and turn us all into sissies.
Let me know when someone in front of a camera makes that point.

[Roll the cricket tape...]

Per example: A la Chuck Norris

TV Reporter: Chuck hey Chuck, a quick word please...

Norris: Go. But be quick pilgrim...

TV Reporter: Chuck you aren't a sissy. So tell us why should Americans be afraid to have terrorists held in supermax prisons?

[Roll the cricket tape...]

I spent the day writing to my Senator about the Congressional Dems having no strong sense of mission out of which to create a strategy that delivers a powerful message of substance expected of a majority party. They do not have the forward driving energy to match that of the President. Too busy having press conferences of rebellion.

The NYTimes reported today, "in July 2007, Mr. McConnell forced a vote in which even the fiercest Senate critics sided with (majority) Republicans in a 94-to-3 vote to declare that detainees should not be “transferred stateside into facilities in American communities and neighborhoods.� In 2009, Senate Majority Leader,Harry Reid, following a 95-6 vote in the Senate denying the request of the President for funding to close Guantanamo, repeated the same Republican talking point. It makes no sense. President Obama has been telling everyone for two years he would close Gitmo. The Republicans began their changing the message campaign before the inauguration. One loaded -with- fear phrase, NIMB. That the Dems suddenly realized they didn't have a plan from the Whitehouse
is lame. Poor planning.

The majority Congressional Democrats have a record of being unable to intervene in the "rhetorical manipulation" of issues critical to progress of the country. So why are the Dems at odds with the U.S. Military? Why do they let minority Republicans seriously move toward changing the message and the agenda which the media can't wait to lap up with no intervention?

Yes. Let's have a little more talk.

Republican Chickenshits

The bedwetting fraidycat Republicans are insulting America. They're so scared of terrorists that they think our country, our legal system, and values can't handle them. They lie about our capabilities to score political points. America (that's us) is the most prison-happy country on Earth; that's something we know how to do. We have terrorists, foreign and domestic, in prison already. We have people a lot badder than terrorists safely and permanently locked up. In fact, the foreign terrorists should be afraid of our home-grown patriotic badasses. Life will be hell for them in our Big House.

The Republicans use gullible Americans to score feeble political points rather than restore American Values and our integrity to the World. That's disgusting. Why should anyone listen to that treasonous lying Cheney? When was he ever right about anything? The whole posse; cheney, bush, rice, rumsfeld, and ilk, NEVER got anything right. They were the perfect storm of willful ignorance, stupidity, bravado, and certainty, that nearly spelled our doom.

Kept us safe since 9/11 – what a sad laugh. They have made more terrorists than they ever killed or captured. If we get attacked ten years from now it will be because of them.

Bush and Cheney pitch Guantanamo detainees as having supernatural powers, as if they they can't be contained by ordinary prisons, and so on as an ALIBI for September 11. Bush/Cheney would have us believe they couldn't possibly have prevented 9/11 because the terrorists are MAGICALLY enabled and now after the tragedy only special neocon knowledge can combat and contain them. Except of course on September 11, 2001. Bush took an oath to defend America and didn't do it.

During the Bush/Cheney years, it was common to hear GOP officials insist that politicians should honor the national security decisions reached by military leaders.

Not really.