Tony Snow and White House Reporters Slam The ‘Hateful,’ ‘Polarized’ Blogosphere
Tony Snow and White House Reporters Slam The ‘Hateful,’ ‘Polarized’ Blogosphere
In a press roundtable at the National Press Club tonight, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow led a discussion with White House correspondents about the impact of the internet on their respective jobs. Their conclusion? They don’t like being challenged by blogs.
NBC News’ David Gregory bemoaned how political coverage has “become so polarized in this country…because it’s the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views.” Tony Snow admitted he sometimes reads blogs (”I’ll occasionally punch it up”) only to find “wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out.”
Newsweek’s White House correspondent Richard Wolffe added, “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. … It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender.”
Watch it:
Transcript:
David Gregory, White House correspondent for NBC News:
“I think politics and political coverage has become so polarized in this country…because it’s the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views. And they will clip and digitize portions of these briefings to fit into their particular argument.”
Tony Snow, White House Press Secretary:
“You’ve got this wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out. I think one of the most important takeaways is — it’s the classical line — not only should you not believe your own press, you probably shouldn’t believe your opposition blogs either.”
Richard Wolffe, White House correspondent for Newsweek:
“They want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. … It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender. … It’s not a political exercise, it’s a journalistic exercise. And I think often the blogs are looking for us to be political advocates more than journalistic ones.”
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
Yeah but its only 5 weeks away from the TV “smooch” between Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, c’mon.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:14 pmNewsweek’s White House correspondent Richard Wolffe added, “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information.
And what an abject failure you have been.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:15 pmThey’ve obviously been on stormfront and the free republic based on the description!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:16 pmRothschild spent Billions to control mainstream media, forgot to control the Internet, oops!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:18 pmThey can read the handwriting on the wall…
…THEY owe the people for:
lying for…or ignoring the facts
covering up for
propagandizing for
giving a pass to
carrying water for
…the criminal Bushite junta leading up to the Iraq war…
…NOW they want to cry “WOE is we”…
…FIRST we get the Bushites…
…THEN we (the people) take back our media/airwaves…
February 20th, 2007 at 9:21 pmIf anyone gets the chance, go listen to “The Press Corpse” by Anti-flag [on their site or streamed somewhere on these tubes]; it describes the Beltway Media to a T.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:22 pmThe right wing Bushites are reeling…
…not DEAD…
…we have to STOMP their inbred, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, fascist, TREASONOUS al Crackkker a*ses into the ground…
…show no mercy when we get the chance…
February 20th, 2007 at 9:24 pm“It’s not a political exercise, it’s a journalistic exercise. And I think often the blogs are looking for us to be political advocates more than journalistic ones.â€
If you’d prepare for ten minutes, being aware of the past answers of this administration, you could easily pick up the lies and fabrication, and turn your “political exercise” into a journalistic one…
If you’d stick to the truth, instead of the spin, you would not be crapping on bloggers. FireDogLake just showed you the way to do it, prepare, study, and don’t settle for trite answers.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:24 pmThe elites are getting restless. Good.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:25 pmRothschild owns Isreal too, heh.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pmI can understand their complaints.
People here realize that few “reporters” and none of the roundtable panel know anything at all without being told.
They have no independent minds whatsoever and we point out the obvious!! If everyone catches on, they’re out of business.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pmLooks like cocktail weenies are still in style in some circles.
Make em all go watch “All the President’s Men” for a refresher course in how journalism is supposed to be conducted.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pmI think these idiots either do not realize or they blindly look away from the fact that bloggers and people posting comments at blogs are voters voicing their concerns about thesad state the government is in today.They are also ignoring the impact the grass root efforts of bloggers in the last election, informing the public on the issues that the Corporate owned MSM has ignored.
Our role is to ask questions and get information.– Richard Wolffe
A role you have been failing at, Wolffe. In fact MSM has been deliberately avoiding some issues altogether, not asking the questions and not looking for the right information.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:29 pmWe are not as blind and stupid as you wish to try to keep us.
Actually I usually like Richard Wolffe and David Gregory, but what I find too often is that reporters do NOT ask questions that elicit information. They ask questions without follow up, allow the interviewee to say what he wants, true or not, unchallenged, and leave it to the public to decide what is true. They may or may not have an opposing interviewee at the same session.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:30 pmReporters are stinging because they have been slapped by the bloggers, and they hear that the public is blaming reporters for not doing their jobs.
That a fact - they are not wrong.
If reporters had done real reporting, asked the challenging questions, probed into claims of this and that, exposed the truth, were less intimidated by the White House and its campaign-donating, corporate CEOs, were brave enough to report their findings regardless of whose feathers would be ruffled, and mostly, if they had not smoothed the path on which Bush would rise to his level of complete incompetence, we would not find ourselves where we are today.
Tony Snow is a slick, smooth-tongued propagandist — perfect for Bush&Co. But he comes across as I describe.
The public has been burned by Bush&Co. and they are blaming the media in part for letting it happen. Bloggers have stepped in to fill the void; they provide information, though it may be biased, that the disenfranchised, taken-for-granted general public has been seeking. It has also contributed to the divisiveness we see today.
Well, Tony Snow, if you bring up THINK PROGRESS and look at the comments under you and white house, you’ll see exactly what wonderful, imaginative, hateful stuff comes flying out of my frantically typing fingers to poke your silly mooncalf eyes in and slap your sheepishly grinning sappy mouth over the RIDICULOUS psychobabble gobbledegook NONSENSE you spout at the behest of CHIMPya and Bushland Uber Allies–the HATEFUL JINGOISTIC DEMAGOGUERY comes from your side, NOT MINE–I am just calling you on your lies and propagation of the lies you are told to spout and try to pass off as truth. Tony Snow, YOU would not know the TRUTH if it came up and BIT YOU IN THE ASS!!!!!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:30 pmOh, that’s good: “It’s not our job to do our job.”
February 20th, 2007 at 9:31 pmGod, politics are not polarized ENOUGH! To look at the news, you’d think that there is a magnetic monopole in US policy—all of it is driven to the right. The left only exists as a place to be avoided.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:31 pmya know something? This report and the conference itself is a perfect example of the press capitulation. The threats have been obviously posted and the response is clear. do as I say or else.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:33 pmGregory has become just one more bobblehead.
If there is ever to be a free country and a country willing to stand up for the tenets upon which this country was formed.
if there ever was a constitutional crisis, this is it.
Watching this play out is going to be one hell of a ride.
Good thing nobody really watches C-Span. I mean, I think its a good channel(s) and all, but who watches it?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:33 pmSounds like we’ve lost any hope of a free press, at least at the MSM level. And now they are trying to destroy the non-traditional free press. We are in deep shit, here, people. We’ve been on the verge of a totalitarian government for some time now, but I’ve think we’ve just tipped over the edge. I suspect it’s time to go underground, but how do we do that?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:35 pmYes the blogs are looking for political advocates Wolffe, I’ll give you that. And some comments are hateful. I can give you that.
Tony, shut up.
How dare the internests quote the White House Press Secretary. The truth may be uncovered.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:36 pmWhat happened to the days of the President being grilled by a journalist?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:37 pmTony Snow wouldn’t recognize a fact if it were dissolved in water, soaked into the straw lying on the ground and crammed back into his useless scarecrow head!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:37 pmThey want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information.
Well, when will you start playing that role?
Assuming you agree your role is to get meaningful information that can used by the American public to make informed decisions.
On the other hand, if you think your role is to get whatever information the White House wants to convey -and, given your track record, I suspect that is what you have in mind- then your role is largely that of a stenographer.
It’s not a political exercise, it’s a journalistic exercise.
And when the president says “we’ve never been ’stay the course’ ” and journaliss don’t challenge him, it’s no exercise at all. It’s more of a joke. A bad one, at that.
Why else would you cozzy up to the White House during a “Round Table”, if not to gain favors from the politically powerful?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:38 pm“It’s not our job to do our job.â€
Comment by Avedon #16
…Perfect…
February 20th, 2007 at 9:39 pmOf course bloggers review the media. They’re so corrupted by corporations and the RNC, Americans need a guide to the news coverage.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:41 pm#
Good thing nobody really watches C-Span. I mean, I think its a good channel(s) and all, but who watches it?
Comment by ForTruth — February 20, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I watch it whenever I can. But most people I know find it ” boring.” Attention span and a denial of reality and the pain it brings in KNOWING…even my own sister…a Democrat and fellow traveler can’t stand to be plugged in long to “REAL” news of any kind, and escapes to stupid programs on TV as soon as she can. SAD, SAD. Breaks my heart…and it will destroy our country.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:42 pmPardon us lowly peasants, Lords Gregory and Snow, for going around the poodle-press at the White House …
thank God for the blogosphere so these pampered and primpy fools can’t control “the narrative”
February 20th, 2007 at 9:42 pmWait you mean their job is not to repeat what they are told without discernment for 24/7? !!
February 20th, 2007 at 9:42 pmIt is shocking …. they really don’t get it, do they? The blogs wouldn’t have come into prominence if the press DID their job the past 6 years. The only reason the truth is getting out now is b/c blogs have held the press accountable and forced issues. The fact the press is actually smoking and joking with the WH press sec. today tells me all I need to know about how they view their responsibilities.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:45 pmbreaking news!! ’spineless media wont report truth’ and blogs were born…..
February 20th, 2007 at 9:47 pmCowards
February 20th, 2007 at 9:48 pm“It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender.â€
Why not?
These parrots cannot stand feedback of any sort. Suddenly they are challenged immediately and directly and they do not have the intelligence to deal with the confrontation. Until the blogosphere they just spewed their sycophantic BS and expected to be awarded a Pulitzer because of seniority. It don’t work that way any more. It is hell when you have to earn your keep isn’t it fools?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:50 pmLove how Snow quickly brushes off the 1st Amenedment comment. Damn commies.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:50 pma confederacy of dunces if there ever was one … but they belied their own rhetoric by not including bloggers on the panel
February 20th, 2007 at 9:50 pmIt’s uncomfortable to hear from the unwashed masses, i.e. the taxpayers.
They were supposed to support empire, but they want their schools fixed instead.
The People are so annoying and difficult when they ask for the impossible, and our sponsors, like GE say war must go on.
The people are stupid. Why do I have to listen to them?
Pass the brie.
Thanks Tony.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:51 pmGood thing nobody really watches C-Span
Comment by ForTruth #19
I watch it whenever I can.
Comment by impeachcheneythenbush #27
I do too impeach (every morning I get the chance)…
…it’s like taking the nation’s pulse…
…I find C-Span to be really objective…
…it catches hell from BOTH left and right viewers…
(I even complain about them from time to time)
…for being “partisan”…
…and that let’s you know it’s truly…
…”non-partisan”…
February 20th, 2007 at 9:51 pmIt’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them
Would someone, anyone, explain to these circus monkeys the role of the gaddarn FOURTH ESTATE???!!!~~~
February 20th, 2007 at 9:52 pmWhat planet are these people from?
February 20th, 2007 at 9:54 pmThey’re running scared and they’re clueless.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:55 pmHey buttholes,
In response to this, I have the following to say:
The last 6 years under the Bush and all his friends, they have created the most polarizing political climate by suspending habeas corpus and launching wars over fabricated lies!
It’s not like we’re happy with all the problems facing us, and personally I wish none of them existed and we lived in a perfect world.
But ignoring problems won’t make them go away, and is detrimental to our way of life.
To quote the historian Howard Zinn, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.”
February 20th, 2007 at 9:59 pmRichard Wolffe, what you’re really saying is it isn’t your job to call the government on valid issues & keep doing it tell they fess up? really?? then why do you even exist? to pass on the propaganda to a cognitively dead republic??
February 20th, 2007 at 9:59 pmIt is so inconvenient when bloggers point out the lies.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:00 pmBlogs = free speech = the people = governments problem
They are trying to put down blogs (us) once again. It won’t work. “Polarized” is a word that this present cabal/goverment OWNS. They (this government!) polarizied this country by design…..divide and conquer. They sowed the seeds of discontent ON PURPOSE to weaken the American public. They are evil.
The Blogs are duking it out..yes…but much of it is the American people trying to come together again after this government’s attempts to turn libs against cons.
The cabal does not want us, Americans, to work out our differences in the blogs. They want to demonize the blogs by saying we are “polarized.” They are a smelly crafty bunch..Snow and Co.
Some day soon the blogs are going to start sending a clearer and more united message as the fruit of all this discussion. The message? “Get out of Washington and to hell with you….BushCo.”
February 20th, 2007 at 10:02 pmGet a clue guys..If you’d ask the questions and do your job, then we wouldn’t have to be out here being nags and getting angry…
By the way, as the fourth estate, you are supposed to be the opposition to the lies that the corrupt people in the gov’t tell you. Not shills for the other side…and yeah we noticed how important Clinton’s lie was to this crowd, how come things like being lied into war and the Downing Street memo and Libby and Rove, etc. aren’t investigated more you lazy so and so’s …
Maybe if you were less concerned with getting invited to the White House for dinner than you are in doing some real investigative journalism, then we could talk… as it is, you are all a bunch of well paid fat cats that have no intention of biting the hand that feeds you.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:02 pm#36 - bob,
February 20th, 2007 at 10:02 pmNot to criticize you, but I showered tday. ;D.
The basic question is why the current administration is out of touch with the entire human race. Can anyone deliver an answer?
I think somebody should invent a bobblehead chip for the TV.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:03 pmGood God Richard, Do you really think that doing your job as a journalist means that you can not agressively seek an answer to important questions? That you must stop asking the questions when the admininstration tells you “enough”?
That certainly explains why journalist were unable to expose the lies the administration told the nation in the lead up to the Iraq war. You never pressed for any answers, you didn’t ask the right questions, so it should not surprise you that people are now seeking alternate news sources.
In the blogesphere, there are brilliant writers with inquisitive minds, that actually care about getting their questions answers - as much as their readers care about learning what those answers are. These folks are gaining respect, while those journalists in the beltway are losing respect and readership.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:03 pmBlogging is the new model for the dissemination of information, and yes, journalists who do not do their jobs, do have something to fear.
waaaaaaaaaaah!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pmIT IS THIS GOVERNMENT THAT IS HATEFUL. IT IS THIS GOVERNMENT THAT AIMS TO CONTROL IT’S CITIZENS BY LABELING AMERICAN DISSENT AND DEMOCRACY IN ACTION AS HATEFUL.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NOT FALL FOR THIS ANYMORE.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pmTHIS HATEFUL GOVERNMENT MUST FALL.
We aren’t killing people or squandering the health, wealth and security of the nation. Bush is and Tony Snow has lost his moral compass - not that he had any (I just don’t know).
February 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pmIf only George Bush had gotten a blow job from an intern.
Then people like David Gregory would at long last have an incentive to do their jobs.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:06 pmGuess I’ve had it “up to here” tonight. The time is past when I want to rant and denounce this government and it’s mouth pieces such as Mr. T. Snow. I want them in prison.
Why? Justice. They are criminals and it’s time the American people realized it in full force. I want them tried and judged. I want my country back and I want the thugs to be punished. Tony Snow is not just a “snow job” or “smooth operator.” He is a traitor.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:08 pmFu*king right wing media whores.
Comment by Spudge_Boy #42
You’re right on Spudge…
…So we the people…
…have to be…
…better PIMPS!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:09 pmExcellent comments on this thread!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:09 pmThank God for blogs like Little Green Footballs which put the press’ lies up to scrunity and exposes them.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:13 pmCan anyone deliver an answer?
Comment by WaltTheMan
I will try: Cuz they dont care about human race.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:14 pmTony Snow had no compunction about popping up regularly — even occasionally hosting — on Limbaugh’s program when Snow was with Fox News. Does he think the bellicosity on Radio is less? Does this guy have a double standard or what?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:17 pmFunny how Dana Priest was busy while these blowhards were whining…
Thanks Dana
February 20th, 2007 at 10:21 pmI know that at times I can be flippant…
…and realize that the White(man’s) House press corp…
…has to maintain a certain decorum in order to maintain privileges…
…like being allowed BACK into “the People’s house”…
…especially when fascist megalomaniacs occupy it…
…But, Helen Thomas has proven that one doesn’t have to be an hombre…
…to have cajones…
February 20th, 2007 at 10:21 pm“Hateful and polarized” Is Tony sure he wasn’t referring to the Right Supremacist government he vouches for? I guess all that BS about there being a constitution is false then, huh?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:21 pmBlogosphere-wild eyed and hateful
The Limbaughsphere-a great forum for angry Americans who have had enough.
What a pack of as*wipes.
-GSD
February 20th, 2007 at 10:22 pmDon’t be naive and continue to criticize this government in moderate and measured tones. The government is a group of criminals. When will that register with people? It’s time folks. It’s time to bring it on home. We need them out, tried, and decent people leading our country. TONY SNOW is a whore. Not “like” a whore. Not “almost” like a whore. HE IS A WHORE. He is an ego maniac. He is a child that has been bought and sold by a bunch of VERY VERY VERY bad people.
I have NOTHING but contempt for Tony Snow. Can ya tell?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:23 pm#57 you’re getting Media Matters mixed up with the RW blogs.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:25 pmMSM needs to stop kissing asses and do the job they are supposed to do.
If they don’t we will.
Maybe I am wrong they aren’t kissing asses. They are too busy get and giving Blow Jobs.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:26 pmY’know, these vapid twerps really are mis-cast as reporters covering the most important events facing our nation.
They’re much better equipped to be Sports Information Directors in the athletic departments of major universities. In that role, they’re expected to be relentless, happy cheerleaders for the football team, be able to sing the fight song on demand, and ask softball questions of the head basketball coach after a tough loss to the instate rival. Their toughest decision would be whether to have the corned beef or turkey reuben at the press box before the big game.
Go, Team, Fight!!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:26 pmIt seems the greed-soaked minds and piss soaked pants syndrome has infested the media.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:27 pmThe White House Press Corps needs to take a look at their brethern across the Atlantic who do not hesitate in the least to hold Tony Blair’s feet to the fire. The British press corps actually takes its job seriously by challenging the Blair administration. Richard Wolffe would do well to remember the actions of his former British colleagues instead of making excuses for the way he and others ask their softball questions of Tony Snow.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:27 pmSo Wolffe says he is a stenographer not a journalist?
Could you please make sure to add to every one of your articles, “As dictated by…” just so your readers understand you didn’t use any CRITICAL THINKING in your writings?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:29 pmHere is what I say. Blog like you have never blogged before. Speak like never before. Because if we don’t blog, we will lose our freedom. Period. It is serious now. Hateful blogs? How dare those swine. Who is going to win here? The swine or the people who “blog”….who “speak?”
We will. Our minds create our world. If we want a world that is decent, we must blog and we must prevail over the likes of BushCo and Tony Snow. These slick bastards are far worse then they seem, and the seem bad enough. They cause children’s deaths by the thousands as they chuckle and lie and distract. I better stop now.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:29 pmIf these guys were up on their history, they would know that each age has its new form of media that crashes through traditional norms, and bring greater power to the people. If they understood this and embraced it rather than resisting the new and unknown, then they would clearly be able to continue to be relevant rather than temporarily putting off the inevitable.
Having said that, I do have respect for Gregory especially since it is established that he is individually more sympathetic towards bush, but compared to much of the rest of the press corp, pushes questions that need to be asked. I’m not giving him a total free pass, but he is less of a parrot than most.
Also, I think the reason they are upset over how the blogs want them to ask more partisan questions is more a problem of the position they are stuck in. If they want to get the good contacts, the interviews and the information, then they cannot be openly hostile toward administration officials who refuse to engage the opposing side. Even if they personally believe this administration is totally incompetent, as a reporter who is trying to get the story from the inside they cannot push that or they will lose all access.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:31 pmIs there anything more pathetic than 3 middle aged Newsmen Squalling how much they are victimized by the world?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:33 pmThe MSM has no credibility with me any more. I remember days when Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper asked tougher questions than the fluff that comes from the White House Press Corps these days. However, they will get their shark teeth out when a Democrat becomes President in 2008.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:34 pmNow all of you here tonight, aren’t you just ashamed of yourselves for being so hateful and “polarized”!!
February 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pmOh look, a story about you guys:
Principles? Well, don’t ask the liberal left
The Age (Melbourne) ^ | 20th February 2007 | Julie Szego
http://www.theage.com.au/ news/ opinion/ principles-well-dont-ask-the-liberal-left/ 2007/ 02/ 19/ 1171733680371.html
I remember going to a friend’s for lunch in the lead-up to the post September 11 invasion of Afghanistan. Conversation drifted to the war ahead and the inevitable criticisms of US foreign policy. One woman’s rage was particularly striking. “George Bush and his warmongering and there’s (then opposition leader) Kim Beazley right there beside him, it’s a disgrace,” she fulminated.
She’s a highly educated feminist, with a keen social conscience. So I waited for her to acknowledge, however grudgingly, that while she distrusted Dubya’s motives, the prospect of the Taliban’s imminent demise was a good one.
This Islamist regime butchered citizens who strayed from its fanatical edicts, massacred ethnic minorities, enslaved women - no proper health care, no education - and reduced the Buddhas of Bamiyan to rubble. Who from the so-called liberal left wasn’t yearning to oust these thugs?
A great many, as it happened, including this woman. The grudging aside never came. The US was on the march and this outrage blinded her to any other.
Why revisit the debate over Afghanistan? Simply because in the muddle that is now Iraq it’s easy to forget how much of the liberal left also opposed this earlier campaign against an enemy so starkly the antithesis of everything they stand for. Even more the antithesis, you could argue, than the Butcher of Baghdad with his half-baked secularism and pseudo-Soviet nationalism. And so, this opposition illustrates how counterintuitive leftist politics has become.
This is hardly an original critique. But in Britain, apostate journalist Nick Cohen has reignited the debate with his book, What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way. Cohen, a leftist seemingly from birth, was among those who opposed Afghanistan (a stance he now disavows). But Iraq brought an epiphany and now he sees the world as “upside down”.
“Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam, which stands for everything the liberal left is against, come from the liberal left?” he asks. “Overwhelmingly and everywhere, liberals and leftists are far more likely than conservatives to excuse fascistic governments and movements, with the exception of their native far-right parties.”
He describes the worldwide protests on February 15, 2003, when millions took to the streets, “to oppose the overthrow of a fascist regime”. Italians, Spaniards, Greeks and Germans turned out despite their own relatively recent and painful memories of fascist rule. Former revolutionaries, such as the African National Congress and Sinn Fein, led marches.
Some war opponents, like South American writer Ariel Dorfman, who feared the consequences of an invasion, agonised about how he might explain his position to an Iraqi longing for freedom. The vast majority of marchers did not support the Baathist regime - nor did they bother to denounce it. They marched with conviction, their mood almost festive.
But the liberal left truly disgraced itself after Saddam’s fall, Cohen says. They abandoned Iraqis who glimpsed a brighter future but needed help to defeat an insurgency that only a fantasist could see as a resistance movement. Iraqi unionists and democracy activists pleaded for help. The war’s opponents could have fortified the moral high ground had they committed to saving Iraqis from the mess of America’s making.
Instead, they washed their hands of the problem.
Writes Cohen: “The best of the old left in the trade unions and parliamentary Labour Party supported an anti-fascist struggle, regardless of whether they were for or against the war, and American Democrats went to fight in Iraq and returned to fight the Republicans. But . . . no one who looked at the liberal left from the outside could pretend that such principled stands were commonplace.”
Whether post-Saddam Iraq might have evolved differently had liberals engaged with the cause, we will never know.
Cohen’s thesis has been attacked by some as simplistic and a stubborn denial about the Iraq misadventure.
And yet, the wisdom of hindsight doesn’t end this conversation. It doesn’t answer why almost no one marched for the women oppressed by the Taliban, but plenty marched against a war that promised to liberate them. It doesn’t answer why the streets weren’t choked with protesters when Saddam gassed Kurds. It doesn’t answer why they aren’t choked now with protesters demanding an end to genocide in Sudan’s Darfur.
Sometimes I struggle to hear the steely rage against Islamist terror, amid all the hand-wringing about how the West might be encouraging it.
In Australia, there’s a peculiarly adolescent framework to these discussions because the question of whether or not we’re “independent” of Big Daddy US tends to be debated more furiously than the merits of US policy itself. Forging a new internationalism, one that takes human rights seriously, would be a sign of growing up.
Despite the turmoil in Afghanistan, a new generation of girls in Kabul can now go to school. I call that hope, of sorts.
Many will respond that hypocrisy is hardly the preserve of the left and they are correct. But the left ought to relinquish any illusions of superiority or ideological coherence. A moral cancer took root some time ago, and to stop it from becoming terminal requires major surgery.
Julie Szego is a staff writer.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pmTo ALL of you right wing Bushite TRAITORS and MSM co-conspirators…
…a seminal event took place today in Baghdad…
…that garnered the usual “Another Baghdad bombing” coverage…
…A tanker truck containing liquid chlorine and explosives was detonated in baghdad today…
…the death toll was minimal, but the signal unmistakable…
…the “insurgents”/ terrorists are rehearsing…
…and Bushiva and L’il Dick have furnished the “stage”…
February 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pmThis is information every blogger should read and know. It may keep your rights from being violated if you know the contained information at the supplied link.
I encourage everyone to visit this site also. They are fighting for yours and my rights to blog.
They deserve our support for keeping Bush and his cronies from “doing away with” blogging altogether.
http://www.eff.org/
EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers
Updated April 20, 2006
Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.
The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.
To be clear, this guide isn’t a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you’re being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
Please note that this guide applies to people living in the US. We don’t have the expertise or resources to speak to other countries’ legal traditions, but we’d like to work with those who do. If you know of a similar guide for your own jurisdiction or feel inspired to research and write one, please let us know. We can link to it here.
Table of Contents
or, see an index of all the questions » http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/questions.php
Blogger Legal Liability Issues
The Overview of Legal Liability Issues FAQ briefly addresses some common legal issues that affect you as a publisher, especially situations where you may face legal claims or threats based on the information you published on your blog.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Intellectual Property addresses issues that arise when you publish material created by others on your blog.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Online Defamation Law provides an overview of defamation (libel) law, including a discussion of the constitutional and statutory privileges that may protect you.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Section 230 Protections discusses a powerful federal law that gives you, as a web host, protection against legal claims arising from hosting information written by third parties.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Privacy addresses the legal issues surrounding the privacy rights of people you blog about.
Bloggers As Journalists
The Bloggers’ FAQ on the Reporter’s Privilege is useful to bloggers who report news gathered from confidential sources.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Media Access can help bloggers who need to get access to public records and government meetings, as well as secure press passes to help with newsgathering.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on the Freedom of Information Act can help bloggers use open government laws to get information from the government.
Other Legal Issues for Bloggers
The Student Bloggers’ Legal FAQ addresses legal issues arising from student blogging. It focuses on blogging by high school (and middle school) students, but also contains information for college students.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Election Law addresses the legal issues you may face blogging about political campaigns.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Labor Law addresses legal issues with workplace blogging, including union organizing, protections for political blogging away from the workplace, and whistle blowing.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Adult Material addresses the legal issues arising from publishing risque adult-oriented content, including obscenity law, community standards on the Internet, and the new 2257 regulations.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:36 pmThis is information every blogger should read and know. It may keep your rights from being violated if you know the contained information at the supplied link.
I encourage everyone to visit this site also. They are fighting for yours and my rights to blog.
They deserve our support for keeping Bush and his cronies from “doing away with” blogging altogether.
http://www.eff.org/
EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers
Updated April 20, 2006
Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.
The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.
To be clear, this guide isn’t a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you’re being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
Please note that this guide applies to people living in the US. We don’t have the expertise or resources to speak to other countries’ legal traditions, but we’d like to work with those who do. If you know of a similar guide for your own jurisdiction or feel inspired to research and write one, please let us know. We can link to it here.
Table of Contents
or, see an index of all the questions » http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/questions.php
Blogger Legal Liability Issues
The Overview of Legal Liability Issues FAQ briefly addresses some common legal issues that affect you as a publisher, especially situations where you may face legal claims or threats based on the information you published on your blog.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Intellectual Property addresses issues that arise when you publish material created by others on your blog.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Online Defamation Law provides an overview of defamation (libel) law, including a discussion of the constitutional and statutory privileges that may protect you.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Section 230 Protections discusses a powerful federal law that gives you, as a web host, protection against legal claims arising from hosting information written by third parties.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Privacy addresses the legal issues surrounding the privacy rights of people you blog about.
Bloggers As Journalists
The Bloggers’ FAQ on the Reporter’s Privilege is useful to bloggers who report news gathered from confidential sources.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Media Access can help bloggers who need to get access to public records and government meetings, as well as secure press passes to help with newsgathering.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on the Freedom of Information Act can help bloggers use open government laws to get information from the government.
Other Legal Issues for Bloggers
The Student Bloggers’ Legal FAQ addresses legal issues arising from student blogging. It focuses on blogging by high school (and middle school) students, but also contains information for college students.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Election Law addresses the legal issues you may face blogging about political campaigns.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Labor Law addresses legal issues with workplace blogging, including union organizing, protections for political blogging away from the workplace, and whistle blowing.
The Bloggers’ FAQ on Adult Material addresses the legal issues arising from publishing risque adult-oriented content, including obscenity law, community standards on the Internet, and the new 2257 regulations.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:38 pmDavid Gregory & Richard Wolffe, I don’t expect you to be polite — I expect you to do your job. Ask the f*cking questions, get the answer (even if you have to ask more than once), do your report, and then I’ll decide for myself.
Just do your f*cking job.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:39 pmThese slick bastards are far worse then they seem, and the seem bad enough.
Comment by s #71
s,
I was always taught that it’s those closest to you…
…who pose the greatest possible threat…
…because you trust them…
February 20th, 2007 at 10:40 pmCan you imagine Woodward and Bernstein whining like this in the glory days of the 1970s when the press actually bothered investigating stories, real stories?
February 20th, 2007 at 10:41 pmRe: #79
Comment by rachel rj kinnardi — February 20, 2007 @ 10:38
This is an attempt at the “chilling effect” I don’t know who rachel rj kinnardi is…but I don’t trust her/him/ it.
To hell with your “legal” CRAP kinnardi. Put it where the sun don’t shine.
People, just speak your minds and ignore the swill of post 79. I swear it’s the government….:) and if not, it might as well be.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:43 pmNewsweek’s White House correspondent Richard Wolffe added, “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information.
****Poster # 2 hit it out the park.And they,wolffe and Co have failed.No challenging questions from the main stream media to the WH.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:46 pmPerhaps the person who comes close to challenging the WH is Victoria Jones apart from Helen Thomas.I think of talk radio news.Can be heard on Thom Hartman’s radio show.
right big papa. I agree…..come to think of it though, our present government is very close to us indeed, especially due to the fact that the spy the shit out of us every day. They are a grave threat indeed. And wonder what your take on all the legalize and “blogger rules” that rachel has provided us with. I smell a huge rat there….BIG TIME
February 20th, 2007 at 10:47 pm#80 Zooey
I know it is frustrating, but they are doing their job the best they can, as I came to conclude in post #72 … I know it seems self serving for them, but they are doing what they can. If they started asking the questions we think they should ask, then they wouldn’t even be able to get the few answers they do get, the few stories and insider information they do get, they would be ignored and someone else, maybe more of an administration parrot, would have the access that they now enjoy.
I hate saying this, but even from the little Gregory and Wolfe have been able to do, they deserve some credit. Dealing with this administration must be like talking to a wall. And it must be frustrating that they want to do the right thing, which we advocate, but cannot and then get criticized for it.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:47 pmComment by Lev #82
Yeah Lev,
…Nixon would STILL be president…
February 20th, 2007 at 10:47 pmNBC News’ David Gregory bemoaned how political coverage has “become so polarized in this country…Newsweek’s White House correspondent Richard Wolffe added, “[Bloggers] want us to play a role that isn’t really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. … It’s not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender.â€
David and Richard, the problem is that this administration has been so aggressive at lying and covering up. There has never been such a secretive presidency in this country. There has never been a presidency that so adamantly refused to be held accountable. If it hadn’t been for a few reporters getting a little bit aggressive with the White House themselves in asking questions, and if it hadn’t been for the Democratic party having won big in the ‘06 election, our Constitution would continue to be trampled upon until it completely disappears.
There are a hell of a lot of stories that had been in the blogosphere for weeks or even months before the mainstream media thought it was worthwhile to report on them. The Downing Street Memos, for one. The story that Greg Palast did on the 2000 election and the purging of tens of thousands of felons, who weren’t really felons, from the Florida voter rolls was a story that was widely published in the foreign press and was shunned here. What purpose does it serve, when you have an administration that is so bold in its lying and lawbreaking, to treat it with kid gloves and to shrug off follow-up questions because they might make the White House uncomfortable?
All you need to do is look at how the news media covered the Clinton White House and compare that with the way they cover this one. Clinton did not get reporters to stop asking questions he didn’t like by being arrogant and indignant, snapping at reporters and making faces. But, that’s all it usually takes for Bush to get reporters to back off.
Bottom line, David and Richard, is that the White House has made you choose between gaining access and telling the whole story. What good does it do to have access if you’re not reporting what people need to know about their government when they need to know it? Maybe you guys in the White House briefing room should draw straws each day and have one of you be the designated pit bull. If everyone does it at least once, they can’t shut all of you out.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:52 pmThis is information every blogger should read and know. It may keep your rights from being violated if you know the contained information at the supplied link.
I encourage everyone to visit this site also. They are fighting for yours and my rights to blog.
They deserve our support for keeping Bush and his cronies from “doing away with†blogging altogether.
http://www.eff.org/
It may keep your rights from being violated if you know the contained information at the supplied link.
—————————————————-
And I don’t know who or what the hell you are either and I could give a fu*ck less. Capiche?
Read this:
“It may keep your rights from being violated if you know the contained information at the supplied link.”
So, fu*ck you too.
Pleased to make your abrasive acquaintence.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:56 pmPuhlease… whitewashing the Clinton’s scandal-ridden administration is not going to work. Every where there was a new scandal… from the White House Travel Office phoney charges, to the hundreds of FBI records, to Hillary’s secretitive socialism hearings, to the campaign money scandals of 96, Chinese spying, faking being in mourning at Ron Brown’s funeral, being a sex predator, being a perjurer, being a liar, being impeached.
I can’t think of any systemic corruption in this White House. Dont start with your Bush lied to get in Iraq BS because faulty analysis of intellegence is not lying. This has been a remarkably clean administration and that’s such a relief over the circus the Clintons made it. May that swine never set foot in that building again.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:57 pmI most certainly do not look at the current crop of (so called) journalists as corrupt, but I do most certainly think they have been inept many times…perhaps that should read MOST times. There have been many journalists that have stood on their own and been able to tell truth to power such as our most recent example, Dana Preist. she not only won the Pulitzer for the rendition issue, but she has singlehandedly informed the nation that the current administration has been even less “ept” than we ever imagined.
We NEED good journalists, the problem here is more of an issue of a FREE PRESS. Most corporations that own our media outlets are predisposed to a Republican view of things than the left…so what do we expect?
The issue (I think) we need to address is monopolies and corporate ownership of the news outlets. These SHOULD be left alone, but knowing power and how it needs to control, even these outlets are very suspectable to monitoring.
I say let’s make all elections pubically financed and get a new group in control of the govenrnment to make certain that the masses have a bit more of a say .
Perhaps I am still overyly naive…I wouldn’t argue with that, but I would like to think that if we got together and argued more with the powers that be, that perhaps we MIGHT have a different outcome.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pmAnd it must be frustrating that they want to do the right thing, which we advocate, but cannot and then get criticized for it.
Comment by AshenShard
I understand what you’re saying, AshenShard. I just get SO frustrated! Gregory and Wolffe are two that I have respect for, and to hear them talking like that just pisses me off.
I wish they’d all get together and pick one to ask the tough questions each day. When that one is no longer called on, the next one steps up, and so on. Then when the entire WH press corps has no access they can go public saying exactly what is going on.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pmI smell a huge rat there….BIG TIME
Comment by s #85
Remember s,
…”the demon” is a liar…
…FEAR is a right wing cottage industry…
…but be wise with your words all the same…
February 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pmThe only credible threat to Free Speech in this country comes from the left.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:00 pmThe truth would be nice for a change. Snowjob can’t even lie right. He’s all over the map with his lies for the boss. We now how the White House used the media and Journalist to spread lies. That lead to thousands of soldiers being killed and more each day. Judy Miller printed the lies and still says who cares. All this talk about national security yet Judy has a clearance for classified information while Bush says he’ll sue the paper if they tell the truth about torturing prisoners. Journalist need to know who they work for and what oath they took in their careers. Yes Snowjob is paid to lie he’s not doing a good job. We know the names of the lying Journalist so the Internet is our only truth.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm89-
S,
89 is for you.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pmThis is so embarassing. The function of journalism in our society is political, by it’s very definition. It’s not just “asking questions and getting information,” because that would have no point in and of itself. If the government could be trusted to give us all the information we need, we wouldn’t need a press at all. The government could simply control the media and tell us what we need to know. The relationship between press and the government is supposed to be adversarial.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm#94-
That makes absolutely no sense. Please rephrase, this time more coherently.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:04 pmAnd 91 is for S
February 20th, 2007 at 11:05 pmThe only credible threat to Free Speech in this country comes from the left.
Comment by Vince P
Blah, blah, blah, Muslims!, blah, blah, blah, I’m scared!, blah, blah
February 20th, 2007 at 11:06 pm#92 Zooey
I think this is just something they said rather than truly believe. They have to show they are playing the administrations game, otherwise they are locked out with nothing.
I’m actually surprised Wolffe still has access since he is on Countdown almost nightly. His job security must be positioned on the edge of a knife. Then again, he may be saved by the fact that much of the top ranks of the administration watch nothing but Faux News.
We would all like them to be the hero, the whistle blower, but they cannot be that unless they have something concrete, and they have absolutely no chance of getting something concrete unless they have access.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:07 pmLeftists promote the chilling of speech.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:08 pm#96….wondered when you’d get that straight. You better pay better attention Rachel Marlarki…….oh, and bite it while you’re at it ……:)
February 20th, 2007 at 11:11 pmRe: 102 Leftists promote the chilling of speech.
Comment by Vince P — February 20, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
Keep tryin there old Vince. Nobody is paying attention so you had to say the same line again eh? Maybe it’s cause of the ridiculous factor? Maybe you could lengthen the sentence and repeat it again. ???? :)
February 20th, 2007 at 11:14 pmRichard Wolffe is Tony Snow’s bitch.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:15 pmWho are the groups of people that institute speech codes at universities… throw pies at speakers, take all the newspapers from paper bins, shout down or physically intimidate public speakers?
The Left, The Left, The Left, The Left , The Left
February 20th, 2007 at 11:18 pmCry some more Vincy. Why are you such a pussy?
February 20th, 2007 at 11:20 pmWe Liberal/Progressives need a strategy…
…on how to get our posts on right wing sites…
…I just can’t bring myself to PLAY the roll of…
…TROLL…
February 20th, 2007 at 11:21 pmWe would all like them to be the hero, the whistle blower, but they cannot be that unless they have something concrete, and they have absolutely no chance of getting something concrete unless they have access.
Comment by AshenShard
MADDENING!
February 20th, 2007 at 11:22 pmThat’s Rich coming from Snow, considering he used to be a poster at FreeRepublic. Lying hypocrite….no wonder he’s in charge of PR for this administration.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:23 pmTony Snow, White House Press Secretary:
“You’ve got this wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out.”
I think Tony is paying progressives a compliment! “Wonderful, imaginative…yep, that sounds like a compliment to me. “Hateful” does not sound inaccurate - I’ve yet to read on this blog a progressive say, “I disagree with this President’s policies but I respect his opinion. He is defending the country the best way he knows.” Yes, there’s definite h-a-t-e in the left-wing blogsphere.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:23 pmThe Left, The Left, The Left, The Left , The Left
Comment by Vince P
Who are the ones wiretapping us…dismantling habeas corpus…taking us into a war for oil….treating our veterans like shit?
Oh yeah — The Right.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:24 pmVince P, you have not been watching the right wing’s behavior over the last six years, OR you are dishonest, OR you are one blind dude. Or maybe you just need help.
You did write a few more sentences though, good for you
February 20th, 2007 at 11:25 pm#107 - You can go to Seixon’s site - he doesn’t filter left-wing stupidity.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:25 pm“I disagree with this President’s policies but I respect his opinion. He is defending the country the best way he knows.â€
Oh my god, you are such a moron.
Yes, there’s definite h-a-t-e in the left-wing blogsphere.
Comment by valiant venus
Then leave. Don’t let us bother your beautiful mind any further.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:27 pmYou are misery personified.
Dear Vince - Of course when the lunatic Left intimidates’ and assaults speakers, muzzles free speech, etc. they can plead temporary insanity as liberalism is a mental disease.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:28 pm#110 valiant venus
I’ve yet to read on this blog a progressive say, “I disagree with this President’s policies but I respect his opinion. He is defending the country the best way he knows.â€
Why would anyone here say that? That would be silly. He’s not defending the country, his motives for everything are purely political.
I respect his opinion about as much as he respects the opinions of the majority of the people in this country. Not a whole lot.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:30 pmvaliant venus. No decent progressive with ANY intelligence will ever say that respect this president’s opinion. Why? We don’t respect his opinion! Get it? His time was up a long time ago. He is a drunk, a liar, stupid, and incompetent. And he could care less about anyone that doesn’t directly impact his personal well being or the well being of those who feed him. Why would any person with any brains respect his opinion? He has also run this country into the ground, lost a war that he lied us into, and and and and……you have all night? He’s responsible for many many unnecessary deaths …………think about that.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:30 pmYou can go to Seixon’s site - he doesn’t filter left-wing stupidity.
Comment by valiant venus #113
I’m afraid of cyber viruses…
February 20th, 2007 at 11:31 pm#108 Zooey
I know … requires a lot of patience towards the press corp … meanwhile, I’ve found scotch numbs away any of the frustration from this.
The administration is extremely effective at stonewalling … likely the only thing they are good at when it comes to ‘running’ the country.
While I have stated how difficult it is for these reporters to do anything, I hope I haven’t come across as advocating that the blogosphere should not complain about it. For I think such should continue so they are reminded what they are there for, but rather than just being completely critical of them, we should also show support for what they have been able to accomplish so far and that we expect them to accomplish more because we know they are capable of it.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:31 pm#107 - You can go to Seixon’s site - he doesn’t filter left-wing stupidity. Comment by valiant venus — February 20, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
Yes, please go there - and stay where you belong. In a blog populated by CONs as stupid and divorced from reality as you are.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:32 pm#101 Vince P.
Leftists promote the chilling of speech.
And yet, we let you blather on.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:32 pm#113 Ok, Seixon, I will pass. I don’t think I want to give you a hit.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:32 pmUm, what happens if the “information” provided in response to the “questions” are LIES?
Then what, media whores?
Then what?
February 20th, 2007 at 11:32 pmDear Vince - Of course when the lunatic Left intimidates’ and assaults speakers, muzzles free speech, etc. they can plead temporary insanity as liberalism is a mental disease. Comment by valiant venus — February 20, 2007 @ 11:28 pm
Really? Is that why religious extremism is a symptom of several mental illnesses? You have the opinion of your fellow crackpots that say liberalism is a mental illness. We have the entire profession that treats mental illnesses that say wack jobs like you and vince are insane. I’ll trust my sources, you trust yours Mizz Anorexia.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:34 pmThey are out of touch. That’s very sad.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:34 pmAnd yet, we let you blather on.
Comment by chimpeach — February 20, 2007 @ 11:32 pm
The Anorexic 23 year old bimbo thinks hate speech is free speech. This wouldn’t be nearly so funny, if virtually every right wing blog weren’t ground zero for censorship of posts!
February 20th, 2007 at 11:35 pmLeftists promote the chilling of speech.
Comment by Vince P — February 20, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
Leftists promote the chilling of hate speech, racism and bigotry. Right wingers like you call your opponents terrorists that should be killed. I’ll stick with the leftist you extremist wacko.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:36 pmthere is no reason to respect this president or his policies … he is an imbecile…. C student in college, drunk frat boy, cheerleader, failed businessman … this man was a freaking failure before 2000, and he was till able to win election … the only reason he gets anywhere in life is because his daddy has money and connections. If he had been born into the family of an average American, he wouldn’t be president, he would be a homeless drunk sleeping in the gutter.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:36 pm#126 This post makes no sense.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:37 pmAnd what are you talking about “23 year old bimbos?” Are you being sexist here? Are you referring to this person being a woman? Too young? Hmmm. Your comments are ridiculous
>Who are the ones wiretapping us…
Are you talking to a Jihadi overseas? Interesting
>dismantling habeas corpus
Were you detained in battle on the side of the Jihad? Interesting
>…taking us into a war for oil
Are you still stuck in 1968? Interesting
>….treating our veterans like shit?
Are you still looking in the mirror?
BTW:
None of those had to do with Freedom of Speech. Way to go. Avoid the argument try #46249690246790468.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:38 pms: your many examples were so enlightening.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:38 pmHey Tony,
February 20th, 2007 at 11:39 pmPlease stop mumbling- if ya took W’s cock out of your mouth, we could understand you. Is that nasty enough to qualify?
*
whoa… i missed all these comments…
just wanted to note that PBS is running a 4 part series about the PRESS and this administration… part 2 was tonight…
very, very interesting… i’d guess you can watch it online also…
i’d say it’s a must see…
but i heard one of the newspaper editors (and thom hartmann) explain that “the founders” knew what they were doing by stipulating a FREE PRESS in the CONSTITUTION… that FOURTH RAIL… to keep the government in check…
that’s what it’s all about…
February 20th, 2007 at 11:40 pmBeing a Regressive means everlasting fidelity to Karl Marx. They would never say a thing in defense of the United States. Hell they’re practically dhimmis now, watch them contort themselves to see who can get their tongue up Mohemmeds ass the furthest.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:41 pmI’ve found scotch numbs away any of the frustration from this.
Comment by AshenShard
Heh. Having come from a long line of drunks, I think I’ll just continue to bang my head on my desk. Much safer….
The blogs just need to keep on keeping on, and the WH press corps can continue tip toeing around so they keep their access.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:41 pm#47 - “The basic question is why the current administration is out of touch with the entire human race. Can anyone deliver an answer?”
Comment by WaltTheMan
Of course, your gross generalization of the “entire human race” is wholly inaccurate. Supposing you are discussing Euro socialists and other progressives citizens, the majority of whom disagree with the Bush administration, here is the answer. Most people want something for nothing. They fall for lure of cie la vie and la vie en rose. Seeing how the majority of Europe has turned into a quivering bowl of jell-o, one might wonder if the sacrifice of our grandfathers in WWII was worth it - considering the diplomatic hoops they jumped through to placate and finally capitulate to Adolph Hitler. But knowing some Euros appreciated the sacrifice, the effort was worth it.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:41 pmI think Tony is paying progressives a compliment! “Wonderful, imaginative…yep, that sounds like a compliment to me. “Hateful†does not sound inaccurate - I’ve yet to read on this blog a progressive say, “I disagree with this President’s policies but I respect his opinion. Comment by valiant venus — February 20, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
We respect his right to have an opinion, we don’t respect his opinion. But as is typical of you and the rest of your right wing hatefest, you don’t respect the opinion of liberals - you attempt to belittle it. Foolish little twiggy.
He is defending the country the best way he knows.†Yes, there’s definite h-a-t-e in the left-wing blogsphere. Comment by valiant venus — February 20, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
Well you and Vince do post here, so technically when you’re around there’s always hate in the left wing blogosphere.
You CONs always post the truth about yourself in the most unsuspecting ways (well you don’t expect to tell the truth).
Do us a favor, and eat something twiggy. You make Ann Coulter look like a fat chick in your myspace page. You look like a seriously derange