One of the few TV news programs I can stand to watch is "This Week" with George Shephanopolous. Right now, the roundtable of George Will, Fareed Zakaria, and Katrina vanden Heuvel is discussing immigration legislation.
I remember that in early 2005, Republican bloggers were crowing about how they were going to bury the Democrats over immigration. I think the plan was to link illegal immigration to the terrorism boogeyman. This struck me as a dumb strategy at the time. And now we see the GOP captive to its "Build a wall and deport them all" wing. As George Will points out, that's not going to happen whether anyone wants it or not. Zakaria chimes in with an excellent point that attitudes toward illegal immigration send messages about attitudes towards legal immigration. Zakaria is really an under-used public voice.
I look forward to seeing the GOP rip itself apart over immigration.
Andrea Mitchell, Republican Alan Greenspan's Republican wife and Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for NBC news has a column up online entitled, "Debate rages over media’s role in Iraq war."
Now let's be clear: The raging debate is between movement conservatives desperate for an excuse on one side, and reality on the other. Mitchell quotes paragons of truth and virtue Rush Limbaugh and Laura "just as noxious though not as smart as Rush" Ingraham for their perspectives.
“And they go out and find video of a burning, smoldering vehicle blown up by an IED and that's the news of the day,” Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Tuesday.
Radio host Laura Ingraham was on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning with NBC’s David Gregory.
“David, to do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military, to go out with the Iraqi military, to actually have a conversation with the people,” Ingraham said, “Instead of reporting from hotel balconies about the latest IEDs going off."
Like the cycles of grief, losing wars maintain their own rhythms and currents. What we're seeing now, to borrow a phrase, is "the last throes" of conservative victimhood and refusal to take responsibility. Hopefully, this disease will kill Limbaugh and Ingraham, but probably not. Instead, we'll see increasing blame for "liberals", "fifth-columnists", "terrorist allies" etc. There will be no shortage of boogeymen and scapgoats for their miserable war and miserable movement.
You see a lot more of this technique these days, but it's an old gimmick. Here's Lawyers Guns and Money on the subject:
"This is a line of attack that has been in preparation since 2002, and that we have expected for nearly as long. If this war went south, everyone knew that the damn dirty liberal hippies would be to blame, just like they were in Vietnam. That the conservative account of Vietnam bears no resemblance to the actual history of that conflict is irrelevant; blaming the critics of a war for its failure has been a remarkably successful political strategy for the right wing, and not just in the United States."
Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hannity and the rest are what the real traitors look like - people who were always more interested in fighting their domestic political enemies than in fighting any sort of foreign threat. For that, I hope these people meet miserable ends.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11947276/
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2006/03/bit-more-on-stabbing-in-back.html
The Independent: "Middle Eastern anger over the decision by the US to block a Dubai company from buying five of its ports hit the dollar yesterday as a number of central banks said they were considering switching reserves into euros. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the US move as 'discrimination'. Separately, Syria responded to US sanctions against two of its banks by confirming plans to use euros instead of dollars for its external transactions."
Way to go on that port deal Hillary Clinton, Peter King, Chuck Schumer, Maureen Dowd, Bill Frist, and last but not least, the US public. There will be consequences worse than this.
-The best song went to "It's a hard out here for a pimp," proving once again that people will vote for anything if they think it will be funny.
-Jennifer Garner's boobs are huge. They are.
-Jon Stewart's Itzhak Perelman jokes are very good.
-George Clooney is gracious and eloquent.
-The "In Memorium" sequence is always one of my favorite parts of the award show, and not in some weird, morbid way.
-That David Straithairn guy is quite an actor, isn't he?
-What is William Hurt doing with a nominiation for best supporting actor? I mean, Hurt is a good actor, and I liked "A History of Violence" just fine, but Hurt's in it for like 6 minutes, in a weird, quasi-inconsequential role.
-Converesly, I'm glad for Clooney, but I'm disappointed Paul Giamatti was not recognized for his outstanding work in "Cinderella Man." And though he was not nominated, Craig Bierko rocked the hell out of that movie.
-Will Smith? Strangely unfunny. Also, I haven't seen any of these foreign films. I am a cultural philistine.
-That guy accepting for "Tsotsi," whoever he was, gave a very good speech.
-Stewart, don't hate on Scorcese.
-I just learned that Reese Witherspoon was paid 15 million dollars for acting in "Legally Blonde 2." 15. million. dollars. Oh, and she won an Oscar, I guess.
-Dustin Hoffman. C'mon, dude. A little more energy, please.
-Larry McMurtry. Man, I know you're a cowboy and grizzled and all that shit. And I know you don't give a shit what anybody thinks. And I know you're a famous writer. BUT PLEASE DON'T WEAR FUCKING BLUEJEANS TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS! PLEASE! Also, "Brokeback Mountain" was a story in a magazine, not a book.
-Uma Thurman = Not A Movie Star. Seriously. What the fuck has she been in? Quentin Tarantino movies? And?
-Oh god. Are we really having Jack Nicholson present best picture? Hey, way to not fuck up reading the teleprompter, Jack.
-Crash?