Sunday Roundup

This week FARC got Punk'd; More of the Same McCain got even more so by putting a Rove acolyte at the controls of his campaign; and Condi Rice showed how limited her imagination is, saying the Iraq war has been "tougher than any of us dreamed." Actually, Madame Secretary, many people were wide awake before the war and warned that it would be a nightmare. Of course, Rice has displayed her tragic lack of imagination before, claiming no one "could have predicted" terrorists flying airplanes into buildings before 9/11 despite the fact that, in the words of the 9/11 Commission, such a "possibility was imaginable, and imagined" by multiple government and law enforcement agencies. Perhaps upon her return to Stanford, she can enroll in some imagination expansion courses.

Comments

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

You could already see the Rovian puppet masters at work. Obama makes a statement on Iraq, the McBush campaign with the aid of a couple of media surrogates at Politica plants a a story fueling the fire with unknown sources and wallah we have a false media firestorm of controversy over Obama's position on Iraq, by attacking one of Obama's strengths to turn it into a weakness. Meanwhile in reality Obama has never changed the mission to withdraw from Iraq and has always said he will be as careful getting out as we were careless getting into Iraq. Obviously Obama is referring to his imminent trip to Iraq to see with the people on the ground how to proceed in this fashion. The real problem is that the people are eating the Rovian delusional version of reality up like it's ice cream.

[disgusted48]

Dr. Rice is a perfect example of someone with a brilliant mind but with no moral compass or much common sense. These personalities are often courted by nefarious characters to do their dirty work.

[JonW]

Condi is aperfect example of the Peter Principle. Rose completely above her level of competency.
Lieberman isn't much better thanher although hes doing a hell of a job for Israel and the military-industrial
complex. Really pathetic individuals!!!!

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

My wife put it best Condi will be a huge disappointment to historians, but so will Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others that masterminded this horrible war.

I cannot believe that me or any other citizen can go to Wikipedia and see that Colin Powell sent in a massive force with 689,000 American troops during the first Persian Gulf War not even counting many more coalition troops. Then in the second war in Iraq they send in less than 300,000 troops to occupy the country. This is beyond not learning from the mistakes of the past, those idiots did not learn from the success of the past.

[Fremon]

I think Stanford is too good of a school to be associated with Rice. However, the Hoover institute is there and may have a controlling influence. Rice is not a person that Stanford should want an association. Would have liked to see her at Cal-Berkeley and be taken apart each day as she tried to drivel on. She really should be at Falwell's Liberty University where she would have great appeal.

[raw915]

FARC got Punk'd? To the tune of $20 million?

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/04/afx5184293.html

[Swift2]

Forgive me for being a cynic when it comes to the Colombia story. Let's see: the military was able to infiltrate the drug-dealing guerillas and deceive them. Hmm. When's the Colombian election? Is it easier to inflitrate the drug dealers if you're one yourself? Oh, but of course, Plan Colombia has been a success. The drugs to the US have doubled since we started "helping" their military. And the main casualty of the guerilla/drug war has been union leaders. Am I suggesting a little stage management? Well, I'm suspicious.

[raw915]

You should be...

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/04/afx5184293.html

[MyTake]

If Standford does take her back, maybe she should instruct the students in how to victimize a nation using the allied and controlled media.

I hear Fox (Murdock) wants her on the O'Reilly set as professional "clapper" since she did such a nice job clapping up the war mongering Bush/Cheney tandem.

[springsm]

Stanford

[raw915]

Whatever...

[raw915]

That's funny. But I don't think Ann Coulter want's Condi hanging around there, hogging all the attention.

[unionave]

While the MSM is looking for lapel pins for patriotism they advertise things like "imported" "German engineering" "Breta is better" and a host of other references to AMERICAN product inferiority . Well I have news for them : we know poop when we smell it .

[Okieborn]

Arianna,
I was really hoping that Mccain would go with Condi Rice for Vice Prez..
If you want to talk about a Dream Ticket that would be it !! LOL !!!
Condi Rice sold out the citizenry just like Her boss George did !!
Mccain now has the swift boat champion,,Carl Slime Rove at the helm of his campaign !
Now Mccain fits the Bush Image for sure !!!!

[dhinds]

After Powell became uncomfortable with the deception he was replaced with Condoleeza, who was chosen precisely because she failed to comprehend the true motive for the Iraq invasion and could therefore, help provide GW Bush with the smoke screen he needed. She still doesn't get it.

[Fremon]

She is not the brightest bulb.

[rem]

How many oil tankers does one need named after oneself before one can "comprehend the true motive?"

[sagopalm]

She belongs in prison with the rest of this disgraceful administration.

They are pitiful excuses for human beings.

[springsm]

She needs a reprimand from somebody, but she was just a gofer in this administration. GW's good friend ego. I know she has been compliant but she has not been creative, so i doubt she is one that truly belongs in jail. I think she is extremely out of her league politically. She needed to stick to education and research. I am sorry she ended up like this. Empty.

[NTO08]

I agree with you on Condi, Arianna...what a miserable piece of work she is...her alleged brilliance is certainly not in evidence if she allowed herself to be a shill for the most corrupt Administration's war policy. I assume you will claim Obama as being wide awake to the perils of Iraq before the war, yet, as has been clear this week, he is abandoning his pre-nomination rhetoric for a more nuanced and more equivocal stand on troop withdrawal...although it flies in the face of the core principles he professed to his naive followers, Obama is apparently well aware that his old views are in need of serious revisions, and things have changed in Iraq...not acknowledging that and plowing ahead with a foolish strategy would make him look ridiculous in the final stretches of the campaign. If things were to continue to improve in Iraq, the issue will be on the back burner, and he will not be able to use it against McCain.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

The most important part setting the mission to leave Iraq has not changed. He always said how that will be done is a matter he will examine with the utmost consideration.

[watchingthings]

Nobody could possibly have predicted that as Secretary of State Condi would have been so ineffective and so utterly stupid.

[raw915]

Cheney could have. Condi did exactly as told.

[SouthPrairie]

"Imagin all the people living for today....you might say I'm just a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you may join us, and the world will be as one."

[wmbear]

HERE IS THE BASIC PROBLEM...

Republicans have stayed up nights for the past two decades figuring out (successfully) how to "game the media". Democrats haven't -- in fact, they seem pretty clueless in general concerning the whole idea. "Gaming the media" simply means know the kinds of hyperbolic "hooks" that the media instantly glom onto to headline stories with, irrespective of the actual facts of the matter.

Take, for example, the recent brouhaha over Wesley Clark's remarks concerning John McCain's military service. I think we're all agreed that Clark did not impugn that service itself, merely pointed out that it was not a necessary (or even good) qualification for being President. But by gaming the media, McCain's handler's managed to get most of the MSM to accept their spin on Clark's remarks, which was that he WAS questioning McCain's military service. Since McCain has mainly built his candidacy on his real record as a naval aviator and POW during the Viet Nam War, this kind of gaming of the media worked very well.

All gaming the media required (as Republicans practice it) is misinterpretation and exaggeration: 1) They misinterpret something a Democrat does or says, and then 2) they grossly exaggerate the importance of that misinterpreted action or speech.

C'mon. It's not rocket science, O my fellow Dems....

[druidlady42]

SOOOO-- RIGHT!

[Fremon]

I wish you were on the media side of the campaign. Great comment.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Great comment too many sheeple do not see through the smoke and mirrors that is the Republican game.

The worse part is the left in the media and the population form a circular firing squad when their candidate is trying to fight the attacks of the right wing by tacking to the center.

[wmbear]

MANY THANKS...

I'VE been staying up nights trying to figure it out. The problem with the Democrats is that, since they keep failing to see how the real "game" is being played (by the Republicans), they always try to play it straight, get all defensive, etc., etc. -- all tactics that simply don't WORK in this kind of game. They have their PR types too, I don't know why they can't get people who understand how this thing works....

[phughez]

Thanks, wmbear. Our political culture churns out symbolic, grandiose, illusory messages on a highly abstract level, that is, it cranks out falsehood and rumor, gossip and innuendo, by the day, and the weak, outer-directed media causes these shadows of things to be the prevailing wind in society. Wesley Clark made a good point-- a war hero a president does not necessarily make. The media went with that sappy appeal to patriotic sentiment, helped by a prevailing wind: the office of the presidency of late has been dedicated to assigning primacy to its war-making capabilities. The media picks up only that military and decorated men are still very much in vogue, but misses the more serious matter of our nation's economic undoing, a matter that McCain may indeed be unqualified to address...