COMMENTS: 103
Fighting the Right Wing Smear Machines
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"Where are the anti-Kerry books?" I asked. "The conspiracy theories? The intimations of murder and drug-running? The maniacal ravings of the unhinged Right we've come to know and love?" Before long, of course, they got their act together, and Kerry never recovered from the blizzard of lies told by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other assorted conservative dirty tricksters.
We all know how early the 2008 presidential campaign has begun. It is nearly a year before the first primary vote will be cast, and the smear machine is already taking aim at the Democratic contenders, hoping to replicate the successes it had in torpedoing the last two Democratic nominees and hamstringing Bill Clinton's presidency.
But it isn't just the candidates that are readying themselves for a campaign that will be longer and more arduous than ever before. And what about the reporters who have so often been the right's gleeful partners? There are reasons for both hope and concern.
In their repugnant book The Way to Win, ABC News political director Mark Halperin and John Harris of The Politico (and formerly of The Washington Post ) explain that, as journalists, "Matt Drudge rules our world."
In other words, when Drudge -- a right-wing operative who closely coordinates his activities with the Republican National Committee -- puts up a sensational story on his website, Halperin, Harris and the rest of their cohorts simply have no choice but to run off and cover it, whether it is true or not.
What's that, you say? Barack Obama once killed a man in a barfight? John Edwards is a pedophile? Hillary Clinton knows where Bin Laden is, but won't say because they're lovers? Run that baby! After all, "questions are being raised."
But amazing though it may seem to observers of the gurgling sewer of deception and distraction that is our modern news media, we may need to update Mark Twain's oft-quoted quip that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. Today a lie can get all the way around the world in the time it takes a liar to click "post." The good news is that the truth will be hot on its tail.
Consider the first of what will no doubt be many false stories spread about the Democratic candidates: the lie that Barack Obama attended a fundamentalist madrassa when he lived in Indonesia as a boy. When insightmag.com, a website owned by the right-wing Washington Times, put out a breathless report trumpeting the fantasy, Fox News immediately jumped on board, as did Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of the talk radio bile spewers. "Why didn't anybody ever mention," asked "Fox & Friends" co-host Steve Doocy, a man who makes Larry King look like Oscar Wilde, "that that man right there was raised -- spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father -- as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa?"
This sentence contained no fewer than five falsehoods: Obama wasn't raised by his father, his father left the family when Obama was two years old, his father wasn't a practicing Muslim, Obama wasn't raised as a Muslim and he didn't go to a madrassa . "Well, he didn't admit it," chimed in co-host Brian Kilmeade. "I mean, that's the issue."
But then, perhaps spurred by their more or less constant feud with Fox, CNN sent a reporter out to -- get this -- check to see if the story was true. ABC and the AP followed suit, and all reported to their audiences that what Obama had attended was nothing more than an ordinary public school. In other words, they did what journalists are supposed to do when confronted with a potentially scandalous story about a candidate: investigate before reporting it, then tell the public the facts. That those news organizations doing the right thing seems so remarkable is a testament to how debased American journalism has become.
Of course, by the end of the day there were probably many people who heard something about Obama and a madrassa , and now not only have the impression that he is a Muslim, but a Manchurian terrorist, as well. (You can read a timeline of the smear's spread.)
But among the politically aware, including journalists themselves, the story now stands as a cautionary tale. When the next Drudge-fueled myth is introduced into the media bloodstream, Democrats can say, "This is the Obama madrassa story all over again," and, if the stars align, perhaps journalists will decide to do their jobs.
After the madrassa story, it was rumored that Obama was now refusing to give interviews to Fox News in response to their appallingly irresponsible behavior.
This kind of hardball is long overdue, not because Fox itself can be shamed into exercising some journalistic responsibility (shamelessness is one of the primary employment requirements at Fox) but because it sends a message to other journalists: We will hold you accountable for your actions. If you spread lies, we'll treat you like a liar, and we don't talk to liars.
It remains to be seen if Obama and the other Democratic candidates are truly willing to hold journalists responsible for their actions. But they already know that the Republican Noise Machine will be taking aim at them. Already John Edwards was the victim of a manufactured controversy over two bloggers he hired, and whether he should have fired them because of things they had written on their blogs in recent years.
The identity of those responsible for the Edwards blogger controversy may have been clear, but they were no more credible for their names being known than the anonymous "sources" credited for insightmag.com's Obama madrassa smear.
In this case, it was conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, one of the most repellent actors on the current political scene, and William Donohue of the Catholic League, an anti-gay bigot who regularly flirts with anti-Semitism. (Among Donohue's bon mots : "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity ... Hollywood likes anal sex.")
Donohue runs an ongoing medicine show of disingenuous outrage, charging that any criticism of the Catholic Church -- if it comes from progressives or Democrats -- is "anti-Catholic bigotry," while defending all manner of bigotry so long as it comes from conservatives.
Again and again, all it has entailed is a call from Bill Donohue -- whom Mark Silk, the director of the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, described as "a thug" -- to set reporters' fingers tapping on their keyboards, another "controversy" made to order.
Despite there being some factual element buried deep within the story -- the two bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, were, in fact, working for John Edwards, and they had previously written strong, even intemperate words criticizing the Catholic Church -- this controversy was at its heart no different from the madrassa fiction.
Both were attempts by right-wing operatives to create a scandal out of nothing in an attempt to damage a Democratic presidential candidate; in both cases these right-wing operatives sought to enlist the help of the media to do their dirty work.
And in both cases, the liberal blogs fought back (albeit for slightly different reasons; it wasn't Edwards they were defending, but two of their own). They spread the facts, they put pressure on the media to report them accurately and they generally made the kind of ruckus the right wing has been much more effective at creating. In the end, Edwards did the right thing and refused to fire Marcotte and McEwan. Still, Donohue got the scalp he wanted: Marcotte quit the Edwards campaign this week. (You can read her explanation.)
The 2008 election will be a test of whether blogs have the power to enforce some standard of truth and shame on those news organizations that buy into made-up tales like the Obama madrassa story.
During the 2004 campaign blogs were still a novelty, an emerging information source and organizing tool with mostly unrealized potential. Four years later they have become a major player, and journalists -- terribly threatened though they may be by the idea that ordinary, uncredentialed people might be checking their work and calling them on their mistakes -- have finally realized that blogs can't be ignored. And if there's one thing bloggers don't hesitate to do, it is calling journalists to account when they have sinned.
As many a blogger has argued, they are much more accountable than traditional journalists -- write something inaccurate on your blog, and within minutes others will fact-check you and demand a correction (which on blogs is put right with the original post, not buried deeply somewhere in the publication a week later). So we can hope that that spirit of accountability will extend to the reporters currently booking hotel rooms in Des Moines and Manchester.
You don't have to let the right-wing smear machine lead you around by the nose. You can exercise your own judgment about what's true and what's a lie. You can give the public something better than what they've gotten in the last few campaigns. You can be true to your profession's noble ideals and the demands of democracy.
We'll be watching.
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Comments are closed-
Posted by: freedomhawk on Feb 15, 2007 3:40 AM
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I do agree that the smear campaigns need to end. I have already seen several commercials by the liberal candidates attempting to smear Senator McCain specifically, but Democrats have already started smearing each other as well. Keep the posts honest and remember that in the last election in 2006, the smear campaigns got out of control on both sides.
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» RE: Pay attention to your own words, Troll!
Posted by: Plexius
» Proof
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: What Is Fascism?
Posted by: bjerko
» Fact?
Posted by: Guy
» RE: Pay attention to your own words, Troll!
Posted by: billfaster
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: David V
» conservative and liberal media
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: are you for real?
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: babs
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: babs
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: tweedster
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: mewhins24
» And
Posted by: WhatNow?
» RE: And
Posted by: babs
» doesn't matter
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: doesn't matter
Posted by: tweedster
» Don't be fair - be smart
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» You should be proud...
Posted by: KeepsonTickn
» The Liberal Media?
Posted by: CatDad
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: opeluboy
» whose afraid now?
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: whose afraid now? for freedomhawk-
Posted by: BriMan
» Criticism accepted
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: Criticism accepted
Posted by: BriMan
» Not a smear.
Posted by: buh
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Tom Degan on Feb 15, 2007 5:33 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact that Matt Drudge is even taken seriously is just one of the many mysteries of our age. When will the so-called "respectable" just learn how to ignore him? The guy is the journalistic equivalent of a village idiot; standing on town square babbling nonesense. He doesn't even matter.
Isn't it sad? In a space of thirty years we've gone from the sage commentary of Eric Severeid to the vile ramblings of Rush, Matt, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. Somewhere, Edward R. Murrow is doing summersaults in his grave.
Pray for peace.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan
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» "Isn't it sad?", YES! It is.
Posted by: WhatNow?
» RE: "Isn't it sad?", YES! It is.
Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: USH LIMBAUGH IS A KNOWN PEDOPHILE
Posted by: av8rdave
» RE: USH LIMBAUGH IS A KNOWN PEDOPHILE
Posted by: dangerouslysane
Comments are closed-
Posted by: lizharper on Feb 15, 2007 6:25 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
1. with his grades he did not qualify for the National Guard.
2. His name was moved up over other qualified people
3. On his NG form he said he would NOT be willing to go to Vietnam
4. He was disciplined for failure to take his physical
5. He was grounded for that
6. He requested leave so he could go work on a political campaign
7. It was denied.
8. He left anyway
9. Definition of Desertion is leaving without the intent to return
10. He did not come back after the politcal campaign
11. The Commander says he never reported for dut. NO ONE
at his new base remembers ever seeing him.
12. Bush claimed he showed up but his pay records for the military contradict that
13. After all that time AND just before he ran for office, he showed up to complete the time missed.
14. For that reason it is technically incorrect to call him a deserter because he can say he always meant to serve out his time but only at his convenience.
15. The guy who provided the General's letter to CBS had been trying to get peoples attention about Bush for years.
16. CBS documented that the sentiments in the letter were exactly what the General had expressed to his secretary and people around him.
17. AFTER CBS went with the General's letter, Barrett or Barnett, whatever the guy's name was, refused to tell CBS where he got the letter and how he could further document its authenticity.
18. The General's secretary went on record saying that, WHILE THOSE WERE THE GENERAL'S EXACT FEELINGS, she could not remember a time when the General typed his own letter.
19. On that basis, CBS buckled and called ina commission to investigate how they handled the story.
20. The commissions said they could NOT prove the letter was a phony and they could NOT prove it was real.
21. CBS story was NOT debunked.
22. CBS caved in as Democrats and the media are wont to do in the face of the smear machines.
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» Thanks for this. It was rather informative. nm
Posted by: PirateJesus
» RE: Yikes! More Lies about CBS & Bush's Military Service
Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: Yikes! More Lies about CBS & Bush's Military Service
Posted by: Mal'ak
» So what about the other chickenhawks??
Posted by: mirimac
Comments are closed-
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Feb 15, 2007 6:34 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: IT'S EASY TO FOOL ALOT OF THE PEOPLE ALOT OF THE TIME
Posted by: dover23
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Posted by: DougScott on Feb 15, 2007 6:53 AM
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After he won the New Hampshire primary, Senator McCain, a highly decorated ex-Navy fighter pilot, was targeted for dirty tricks reportedly orchestrated by Karl Rove -- Lee Atwater prodigy, college dropout and Vietnam War draft dodger.
Nasty whispers spread by Bush/Rove operatives against McCain included:
1. He had been brainwashed while a prisoner of war in Hanoi.
2. The senator's adopted Bangladesh daughter was his love child.
3. He had infected his wife with VD.
4. He had turned her into a drug addict.
5. He was connected to the Mafia.
The rumors were never taken seriously by most Republican voters. Nevertheless, not once did George W. repudiate the outlandish lies. Nor did he ever apologize to Senator McCain for their use. Instead, Governor Bush countered with a whining "poor me" response that he, too, was being attacked by political enemies -- in his case, the Sierra Club, which had opposed his anti-conservation, pro-business philosophy.
One tool in the 2000 Bush/Rove dirty tricks kit was a falsified biography Dub-ya authorized to cover up his missing (AWOL) service in the Texas Air National Guard.
Created to make him competitive with McCain, the bogus bio claimed Bush had flown ANG F102 interceptors almost six years when the actual time was just 27 months. Not coincidentally, the inflated flying duty covered the same time period McCain spent as a POW in North Vietnam, from 1968 through 1973.
Bush’s phony Guard history is familiar to me because I found it while researching the Internet in February 2004. Of all places, the bogus bio had been published on a State Department website for the whole world to see. Everyone except the sleepwalking press, that is.
To validate my discovery, I called the Boston Globe. Impressed, it ran the story the next morning, on 02/28/04, and gave me credit as the source. To read the Globe article and learn more about the most corrupt White House in U.S. history, visit my investigative website: www.King-George.biz.
Hugh E. Scott, Vietnam veteran, ex-USAF pilot, lifelong registered Republican, Goldwater conservative, Ronald Reagan fan and the author of "George Dub-ya Bush, THE PHONY FIGHTER PILOT."
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» RE: The dirtiest GOP smear campaign ever
Posted by: dover23
» Then why has McCain sucked up to these guys?
Posted by: Ellie1
» RE: Then why has McCain sucked up to these guys?
Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: The dirtiest GOP smear campaign ever
Posted by: ALANHESTER
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Chickensh*tEagle on Feb 15, 2007 6:59 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's the planets that align or don't align. The stars are fixed.
How can we give any credence to someone who so distorts the basic facts of astrology?
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» RE: Gotcha!!!
Posted by: deeannef
» So which are you gonna believe?
Posted by: Chickensh*tEagle
» RE: So which are you gonna believe?
Posted by: dangerouslysane
Comments are closed-
Posted by: xenacat on Feb 15, 2007 7:15 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: thinkingisfun on Feb 15, 2007 7:30 AM
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» RE: Whatever happened to libel?
Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: Whatever happened to libel?
Posted by: Mal'ak
Comments are closed-
Posted by: dover23 on Feb 15, 2007 7:53 AM
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There's another funeral in my town today, how about yours?
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» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: dover23
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
Comments are closed-
Posted by: gerdhansel on Feb 15, 2007 8:16 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What happened to Obama with the madrassa story is an obvious outrage. What happened to Edwards is a bit murkier.
I’ve been reading the posts on this site about Edwards and the two bloggers he hired, and I can sum up the criticism of Michelle Malkin and that Donohue idiot in two words: You’re a bigot too! YOU TOO! YOU TOO! Like some kid on a playground.
I’ve seen some of the blogs these two women wrote before they went to work for Edwards, and I don’t think the author’s description of them as “intemperate” does them justice. These anti-Catholic posts were incendiary and insulting to people of faith, period.
I’d be the first to point out that Americans are free to express themselves online any way they please. If these women want to post obscene comments about the Pope and the Virgin Mary, well they have a perfect right to do so.
But for a Southern Baptist Presidential candidate from the Bible Belt like John Edwards, hiring these sorts of “free thinkers” is political suicide. Edwards’ only hope in hell of winning the nomination is in states like South Carolina and Georgia, where his accent and his good looks scream, “Hey bubba, I’m one of you!” ala Bill Clinton.
The good-old-boy bubba thing is Edwards’ ace in the hole, the one thing he’s got that Hillary and Obama don’t have. His campaign can’t afford the kind of baggage that these two bloggers dragged in with them.
So what if it was Donohue and Malkin who outed these two women? If Edwards doesn’t have the sense to cut his losses and fire these two anti-Catholic bigots, why shoot the messenger?
I bet if the Boston Globe broke this story Edwards would’ve fired those women in a heartbeat. Edwards made the mistake of digging in his heels just because he was pissed at Malkin and Donohue, and that was a huge political mistake.
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» I am an anti-Catholic "bigot" also
Posted by: Ellie1
» It's all about politics and perception
Posted by: gerdhansel
» RE: It's all about politics and perception
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: Obama got smeared, but Edwards did not
Posted by: aonghus36
» try media matters for starters
Posted by: gerdhansel
» RE: try media matters for starters
Posted by: Timba
» their sites are very easy to find
Posted by: gerdhansel
» something else about the bloggers
Posted by: MartianBachelor
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Linette on Feb 15, 2007 10:34 AM
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The Republican Nemesis
This article says it all.
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Posted by: ericksonml@sbcglobal.net on Feb 15, 2007 10:38 AM
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Expose the Johns and the whores!!!
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» RE: erick
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: willymack on Feb 15, 2007 10:39 AM
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» Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: BriMan
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: shhazam4
» Iran-Contra Affair
Posted by: freedomhawk
Comments are closed-
Posted by: redbrownandblueparty on Feb 15, 2007 10:42 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Internet, alternet, outernet and innernet is the new consciousnet. The game is being played on many levels. The big players are the movers and shakerspeares who set the terms of the debate.
We're starting a new government called The Lover Government and its political arm, the Red Brown and Blue Party to take the game to another level. At this point, we're just getting the board ready.
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» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: MartianBachelor
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: redbrownandblueparty
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: redbrownandblueparty
Comments are closed-
Posted by: babs on Feb 15, 2007 2:02 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
- Dick Cheney and his lovely wife are charter members of the swinger lifestyle. Dick likes threesomes with two other men.
- Condi Rice is a man hating lesbian and a dominatrix in her off hours. Diapering is her specialty and W is a repeat customer.
- Karl Rove is rumored to have been a senior member of the American communist party and is Castro's penpal.
- George Bush Jr. prefers golden showers and has been featured in many German hard core porn videos.
- Rush Limbaugh is a woman and a liberal.
- Bill O'Reilly has/is a sphincter problem and wears Depends on air, under his lace garter belt.
- Ann Coulter uses abortions as birth control - she's had one termination per month since 1990 - paid by Medicare!
- Sean Hannity is an undercover agent working for the Baath party, OR he's 8 years old - pick one
- ABC/Disney have controlling financial interest in a chain of Thai whorehouses specializing in prepubescent boys.
- Fox Broadcasting is owned by Hugo Chavez.
- Israel is run secretly by Sasha Baron Cohen.
So how hard is that? Salacious crap is more newsworthy than regular crap so have at it! Truthiness is good enough for me and the MSM.
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» RE: Let's have a go at this
Posted by: zipper696
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Posted by: mindcryme on Feb 15, 2007 4:34 PM
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How exciting. The only problem is you are ringside at an irrelevent fight.
Try to keep up, man.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."
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» AMEN
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: mindcryme on Feb 15, 2007 5:07 PM
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Paul, why don't you report on dem apples instead of reinforcing the frames the power elite has handed you?
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» You've got it! By George I think you've got it!
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: radbear on Feb 15, 2007 5:38 PM
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» A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: lessbread
» RE: A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: radbear
» RE: A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: lessbread
» RE: Circular Firing Squads
Posted by: iRikk
» RE: Circular Firing Squads
Posted by: radbear
Comments are closed-
Posted by: shhazam4 on Feb 16, 2007 1:58 PM
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Works of GOP smearers or DEM smearers.
Lesson learned.... don't smear unless you want to be considered desperate, shameless and dishonorable.
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» RE: Smearing is usually the acts of the desperate
Posted by: radbear
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Posted by: tap17x on Feb 16, 2007 6:55 PM
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Posted by: John Q on Feb 17, 2007 9:37 PM
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CBS did not "forge" the letter. CBS was careless in checking its provenance, and it is still not clear (though likely) that it is a forgery. But the secretary of the deceased officer under whose name the letter was written did confirm that it accurately reflected his views at the time. The right wingers were able to deflect attention away from the story to the side issue of one letter - the genuineness of which did not alter the accuracy of the story one whit.
Freedomhawk has either been taken in by the right wing lying slime machine, or is part of it
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Posted by: freedomhawk on Feb 15, 2007 3:40 AM
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I do agree that the smear campaigns need to end. I have already seen several commercials by the liberal candidates attempting to smear Senator McCain specifically, but Democrats have already started smearing each other as well. Keep the posts honest and remember that in the last election in 2006, the smear campaigns got out of control on both sides.
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» RE: Pay attention to your own words, Troll!
Posted by: Plexius
» Proof
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: What Is Fascism?
Posted by: bjerko
» Fact?
Posted by: Guy
» RE: Pay attention to your own words, Troll!
Posted by: billfaster
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: David V
» conservative and liberal media
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: are you for real?
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: babs
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: babs
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: conservative and liberal media
Posted by: tweedster
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: mewhins24
» And
Posted by: WhatNow?
» RE: And
Posted by: babs
» doesn't matter
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: doesn't matter
Posted by: tweedster
» Don't be fair - be smart
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» You should be proud...
Posted by: KeepsonTickn
» The Liberal Media?
Posted by: CatDad
» RE: Be Fair!!!
Posted by: opeluboy
» whose afraid now?
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: whose afraid now? for freedomhawk-
Posted by: BriMan
» Criticism accepted
Posted by: freedomhawk
» RE: Criticism accepted
Posted by: BriMan
» Not a smear.
Posted by: buh
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Tom Degan on Feb 15, 2007 5:33 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact that Matt Drudge is even taken seriously is just one of the many mysteries of our age. When will the so-called "respectable" just learn how to ignore him? The guy is the journalistic equivalent of a village idiot; standing on town square babbling nonesense. He doesn't even matter.
Isn't it sad? In a space of thirty years we've gone from the sage commentary of Eric Severeid to the vile ramblings of Rush, Matt, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. Somewhere, Edward R. Murrow is doing summersaults in his grave.
Pray for peace.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan
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» "Isn't it sad?", YES! It is.
Posted by: WhatNow?
» RE: "Isn't it sad?", YES! It is.
Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: USH LIMBAUGH IS A KNOWN PEDOPHILE
Posted by: av8rdave
» RE: USH LIMBAUGH IS A KNOWN PEDOPHILE
Posted by: dangerouslysane
Comments are closed-
Posted by: lizharper on Feb 15, 2007 6:25 AM
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1. with his grades he did not qualify for the National Guard.
2. His name was moved up over other qualified people
3. On his NG form he said he would NOT be willing to go to Vietnam
4. He was disciplined for failure to take his physical
5. He was grounded for that
6. He requested leave so he could go work on a political campaign
7. It was denied.
8. He left anyway
9. Definition of Desertion is leaving without the intent to return
10. He did not come back after the politcal campaign
11. The Commander says he never reported for dut. NO ONE
at his new base remembers ever seeing him.
12. Bush claimed he showed up but his pay records for the military contradict that
13. After all that time AND just before he ran for office, he showed up to complete the time missed.
14. For that reason it is technically incorrect to call him a deserter because he can say he always meant to serve out his time but only at his convenience.
15. The guy who provided the General's letter to CBS had been trying to get peoples attention about Bush for years.
16. CBS documented that the sentiments in the letter were exactly what the General had expressed to his secretary and people around him.
17. AFTER CBS went with the General's letter, Barrett or Barnett, whatever the guy's name was, refused to tell CBS where he got the letter and how he could further document its authenticity.
18. The General's secretary went on record saying that, WHILE THOSE WERE THE GENERAL'S EXACT FEELINGS, she could not remember a time when the General typed his own letter.
19. On that basis, CBS buckled and called ina commission to investigate how they handled the story.
20. The commissions said they could NOT prove the letter was a phony and they could NOT prove it was real.
21. CBS story was NOT debunked.
22. CBS caved in as Democrats and the media are wont to do in the face of the smear machines.
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» Thanks for this. It was rather informative. nm
Posted by: PirateJesus
» RE: Yikes! More Lies about CBS & Bush's Military Service
Posted by: ALANHESTER
» RE: Yikes! More Lies about CBS & Bush's Military Service
Posted by: Mal'ak
» So what about the other chickenhawks??
Posted by: mirimac
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Posted by: VZEQICVA on Feb 15, 2007 6:34 AM
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» RE: IT'S EASY TO FOOL ALOT OF THE PEOPLE ALOT OF THE TIME
Posted by: dover23
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Posted by: DougScott on Feb 15, 2007 6:53 AM
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After he won the New Hampshire primary, Senator McCain, a highly decorated ex-Navy fighter pilot, was targeted for dirty tricks reportedly orchestrated by Karl Rove -- Lee Atwater prodigy, college dropout and Vietnam War draft dodger.
Nasty whispers spread by Bush/Rove operatives against McCain included:
1. He had been brainwashed while a prisoner of war in Hanoi.
2. The senator's adopted Bangladesh daughter was his love child.
3. He had infected his wife with VD.
4. He had turned her into a drug addict.
5. He was connected to the Mafia.
The rumors were never taken seriously by most Republican voters. Nevertheless, not once did George W. repudiate the outlandish lies. Nor did he ever apologize to Senator McCain for their use. Instead, Governor Bush countered with a whining "poor me" response that he, too, was being attacked by political enemies -- in his case, the Sierra Club, which had opposed his anti-conservation, pro-business philosophy.
One tool in the 2000 Bush/Rove dirty tricks kit was a falsified biography Dub-ya authorized to cover up his missing (AWOL) service in the Texas Air National Guard.
Created to make him competitive with McCain, the bogus bio claimed Bush had flown ANG F102 interceptors almost six years when the actual time was just 27 months. Not coincidentally, the inflated flying duty covered the same time period McCain spent as a POW in North Vietnam, from 1968 through 1973.
Bush’s phony Guard history is familiar to me because I found it while researching the Internet in February 2004. Of all places, the bogus bio had been published on a State Department website for the whole world to see. Everyone except the sleepwalking press, that is.
To validate my discovery, I called the Boston Globe. Impressed, it ran the story the next morning, on 02/28/04, and gave me credit as the source. To read the Globe article and learn more about the most corrupt White House in U.S. history, visit my investigative website: www.King-George.biz.
Hugh E. Scott, Vietnam veteran, ex-USAF pilot, lifelong registered Republican, Goldwater conservative, Ronald Reagan fan and the author of "George Dub-ya Bush, THE PHONY FIGHTER PILOT."
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» RE: The dirtiest GOP smear campaign ever
Posted by: dover23
» Then why has McCain sucked up to these guys?
Posted by: Ellie1
» RE: Then why has McCain sucked up to these guys?
Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: The dirtiest GOP smear campaign ever
Posted by: ALANHESTER
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Chickensh*tEagle on Feb 15, 2007 6:59 AM
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It's the planets that align or don't align. The stars are fixed.
How can we give any credence to someone who so distorts the basic facts of astrology?
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» RE: Gotcha!!!
Posted by: deeannef
» So which are you gonna believe?
Posted by: Chickensh*tEagle
» RE: So which are you gonna believe?
Posted by: dangerouslysane
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Posted by: xenacat on Feb 15, 2007 7:15 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: thinkingisfun on Feb 15, 2007 7:30 AM
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» RE: Whatever happened to libel?
Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: Whatever happened to libel?
Posted by: Mal'ak
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Posted by: dover23 on Feb 15, 2007 7:53 AM
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There's another funeral in my town today, how about yours?
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» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Where was your
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: dover23
» RE: A message to Democrats?
Posted by: Lincoln fan
Comments are closed-
Posted by: gerdhansel on Feb 15, 2007 8:16 AM
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What happened to Obama with the madrassa story is an obvious outrage. What happened to Edwards is a bit murkier.
I’ve been reading the posts on this site about Edwards and the two bloggers he hired, and I can sum up the criticism of Michelle Malkin and that Donohue idiot in two words: You’re a bigot too! YOU TOO! YOU TOO! Like some kid on a playground.
I’ve seen some of the blogs these two women wrote before they went to work for Edwards, and I don’t think the author’s description of them as “intemperate” does them justice. These anti-Catholic posts were incendiary and insulting to people of faith, period.
I’d be the first to point out that Americans are free to express themselves online any way they please. If these women want to post obscene comments about the Pope and the Virgin Mary, well they have a perfect right to do so.
But for a Southern Baptist Presidential candidate from the Bible Belt like John Edwards, hiring these sorts of “free thinkers” is political suicide. Edwards’ only hope in hell of winning the nomination is in states like South Carolina and Georgia, where his accent and his good looks scream, “Hey bubba, I’m one of you!” ala Bill Clinton.
The good-old-boy bubba thing is Edwards’ ace in the hole, the one thing he’s got that Hillary and Obama don’t have. His campaign can’t afford the kind of baggage that these two bloggers dragged in with them.
So what if it was Donohue and Malkin who outed these two women? If Edwards doesn’t have the sense to cut his losses and fire these two anti-Catholic bigots, why shoot the messenger?
I bet if the Boston Globe broke this story Edwards would’ve fired those women in a heartbeat. Edwards made the mistake of digging in his heels just because he was pissed at Malkin and Donohue, and that was a huge political mistake.
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» I am an anti-Catholic "bigot" also
Posted by: Ellie1
» It's all about politics and perception
Posted by: gerdhansel
» RE: It's all about politics and perception
Posted by: dangerouslysane
» RE: Obama got smeared, but Edwards did not
Posted by: aonghus36
» try media matters for starters
Posted by: gerdhansel
» RE: try media matters for starters
Posted by: Timba
» their sites are very easy to find
Posted by: gerdhansel
» something else about the bloggers
Posted by: MartianBachelor
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Posted by: Linette on Feb 15, 2007 10:34 AM
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The Republican Nemesis
This article says it all.
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Posted by: ericksonml@sbcglobal.net on Feb 15, 2007 10:38 AM
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Expose the Johns and the whores!!!
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» RE: erick
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: willymack on Feb 15, 2007 10:39 AM
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» Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: BriMan
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: Mal'ak
» RE: Iraq
Posted by: shhazam4
» Iran-Contra Affair
Posted by: freedomhawk
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Posted by: redbrownandblueparty on Feb 15, 2007 10:42 AM
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Internet, alternet, outernet and innernet is the new consciousnet. The game is being played on many levels. The big players are the movers and shakerspeares who set the terms of the debate.
We're starting a new government called The Lover Government and its political arm, the Red Brown and Blue Party to take the game to another level. At this point, we're just getting the board ready.
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» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: MartianBachelor
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: redbrownandblueparty
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: dover23
» RE: Setting the terms of the debate
Posted by: redbrownandblueparty
Comments are closed-
Posted by: babs on Feb 15, 2007 2:02 PM
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- Dick Cheney and his lovely wife are charter members of the swinger lifestyle. Dick likes threesomes with two other men.
- Condi Rice is a man hating lesbian and a dominatrix in her off hours. Diapering is her specialty and W is a repeat customer.
- Karl Rove is rumored to have been a senior member of the American communist party and is Castro's penpal.
- George Bush Jr. prefers golden showers and has been featured in many German hard core porn videos.
- Rush Limbaugh is a woman and a liberal.
- Bill O'Reilly has/is a sphincter problem and wears Depends on air, under his lace garter belt.
- Ann Coulter uses abortions as birth control - she's had one termination per month since 1990 - paid by Medicare!
- Sean Hannity is an undercover agent working for the Baath party, OR he's 8 years old - pick one
- ABC/Disney have controlling financial interest in a chain of Thai whorehouses specializing in prepubescent boys.
- Fox Broadcasting is owned by Hugo Chavez.
- Israel is run secretly by Sasha Baron Cohen.
So how hard is that? Salacious crap is more newsworthy than regular crap so have at it! Truthiness is good enough for me and the MSM.
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» RE: Let's have a go at this
Posted by: zipper696
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Posted by: mindcryme on Feb 15, 2007 4:34 PM
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How exciting. The only problem is you are ringside at an irrelevent fight.
Try to keep up, man.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."
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» AMEN
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: mindcryme on Feb 15, 2007 5:07 PM
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Paul, why don't you report on dem apples instead of reinforcing the frames the power elite has handed you?
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» You've got it! By George I think you've got it!
Posted by: Lincoln fan
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Posted by: radbear on Feb 15, 2007 5:38 PM
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» A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: lessbread
» RE: A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: radbear
» RE: A bidding proccess didn't occur to him?
Posted by: lessbread
» RE: Circular Firing Squads
Posted by: iRikk
» RE: Circular Firing Squads
Posted by: radbear
Comments are closed-
Posted by: shhazam4 on Feb 16, 2007 1:58 PM
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Works of GOP smearers or DEM smearers.
Lesson learned.... don't smear unless you want to be considered desperate, shameless and dishonorable.
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» RE: Smearing is usually the acts of the desperate
Posted by: radbear
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Posted by: tap17x on Feb 16, 2007 6:55 PM
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Posted by: John Q on Feb 17, 2007 9:37 PM
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CBS did not "forge" the letter. CBS was careless in checking its provenance, and it is still not clear (though likely) that it is a forgery. But the secretary of the deceased officer under whose name the letter was written did confirm that it accurately reflected his views at the time. The right wingers were able to deflect attention away from the story to the side issue of one letter - the genuineness of which did not alter the accuracy of the story one whit.
Freedomhawk has either been taken in by the right wing lying slime machine, or is part of it
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