Yelling at my radio...
...this morning as I drove to work, listening to the President's press conference. I could criticize his glib manner as he seemed to smirk at me through the radio. I could criticize the delusionally self-satisfied sound-bites he offered about how the deficit has been cut in half and the tax cuts are working. I could criticize the many non-answers he gave to reasonable, straightforward questions.
What I find myself most frustrated by is the fundamentally deceptive way in which the President frames the policy positions of the Democratic party versus the Republican party.
One questioner this morning, whom the President called "NPR," attempted to ask the President if he thought the way he portrayed Democratic positions was fair. The President said yes, I don't think there's anything wrong with using their votes and what they say to characterize their positions. "The votes are clear," he said, or something to that effect.
Yet time after time, the President consciously, blatantly mischaracterizes the issues. For instance, he says that Democrats didn't want the CIA to be able to interrogate high-value prisoners. Not so! The opponents of the legislation in question opposed it on many grounds - that it would allow for interrogation techniques that are widely regarded as torture banned by the Geneva Convention's Article 3; that it would allow for the indefinite detainment of suspects with no recourse to a courtroom to determine the validity of their detainment; that it created an extremely broad definition under which persons (foreign or American) could be detained.
The President has said that Democrats "don't want us to be able to listen to al Qaeda's telephone calls." Again, this argument is simply specious. Democrats (and others) oppose the use of wiretaps without warrants, as specifically called for under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In effect, opponents were saying, "obey the law." (And if you find the law unworkable, don't unilaterally and secretly violate the law, try to change it.) The bill in question was designed to retroactively legalize the wiretapping already underway, which was a clear violation of US law already on the books.
The President and the GOP constantly engage in this kind of deception. The Press Corps is frequently complicit, either because it simply repeats the GOP talking points uncritically, or it engages in "on one hand"-ism, giving equal weight to each argument without regard for the objective facts in question.
When will Dems finally realize they must take issue with this state of affairs if they want to win elections?
What I find myself most frustrated by is the fundamentally deceptive way in which the President frames the policy positions of the Democratic party versus the Republican party.
One questioner this morning, whom the President called "NPR," attempted to ask the President if he thought the way he portrayed Democratic positions was fair. The President said yes, I don't think there's anything wrong with using their votes and what they say to characterize their positions. "The votes are clear," he said, or something to that effect.
Yet time after time, the President consciously, blatantly mischaracterizes the issues. For instance, he says that Democrats didn't want the CIA to be able to interrogate high-value prisoners. Not so! The opponents of the legislation in question opposed it on many grounds - that it would allow for interrogation techniques that are widely regarded as torture banned by the Geneva Convention's Article 3; that it would allow for the indefinite detainment of suspects with no recourse to a courtroom to determine the validity of their detainment; that it created an extremely broad definition under which persons (foreign or American) could be detained.
The President has said that Democrats "don't want us to be able to listen to al Qaeda's telephone calls." Again, this argument is simply specious. Democrats (and others) oppose the use of wiretaps without warrants, as specifically called for under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In effect, opponents were saying, "obey the law." (And if you find the law unworkable, don't unilaterally and secretly violate the law, try to change it.) The bill in question was designed to retroactively legalize the wiretapping already underway, which was a clear violation of US law already on the books.
The President and the GOP constantly engage in this kind of deception. The Press Corps is frequently complicit, either because it simply repeats the GOP talking points uncritically, or it engages in "on one hand"-ism, giving equal weight to each argument without regard for the objective facts in question.
When will Dems finally realize they must take issue with this state of affairs if they want to win elections?
posted by Ish at 8:55 AM
4 Comments:
Did you see Olbermann's fantastic statement on this issue last week?
Here's a link to the video and transcript. The video is powerful -- worth watching:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/05/olbermanns-special-comment-it-is-not-the-democrats-whose-inaction-in-the-face-of-the-enemy-you-fear/
Yes. I have a crush on Keith Olbermann now.
Me too.
i cannot stand listening to bush on the radio anymore. i switched over to some dumb morning show.
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