THE CONTRACTORS HIRED TO CREATE THE OBAMACARE WEBSITE REFUSE TO FALL ON THE SWORDS AND PRETEND THE PROBLEMS ARE THEIR FAULT AND DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS STATE IT'S TIME FOR BARRY O TO "MAN UP."
GIRL DOWN!
THAT'S WHAT IT IS AT THE WHITE HOUSE WHERE PRINCESS BARRY O INSISTS HE WILL FIND A WAY TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE.
"IF I WORK REAL HARD," HE TOLD THESE REPORTERS AT THE WHITE HOUSE THIS MORNING, "I'M SURE I CAN FIND A WAY TO PIN THIS ON HILLARY."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
The crazy never ends because it's fed all over the world. As an American, I should point the finger first at my own. That means MSNBC and Zach Roth. Roth made his bad (minor) name at CJR where he proved he could play partistan but demonstrated skills for little else. He's at MSNBC now - -and are we surprised. He suddenly 'cares' about Iraq. Why? So he can bash Bush again.
Bully Boy Bush is a War Criminal. He will probably never be punished. Henry Kissinger still walks free. At some point, you let go and you focus on what matters or else you're the crazy pushing a cart down the street and ranting to yourself. Zach's doing his version of Ross Geller (Friends) screaming, "We were on a break!" At this point, life has gone on, why can't you go with it?
Peter Baker's published a book that's not going to break sales records. It's about the Bush administration. So, on the left, some of us will use it for source material and inspiration and some of us will read those articles. But most people won't buy the book. Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House. I have nothing against Baker, who is a strong journalist, and we'll gladly give his book a mention and link.
But not only do I have limited interest in reading it (I'm thrilled Bully Boy Bush is out of the White House, why would I want to relive those days?), I don't have the time. Because Iraq's on fire. Some people complain about the snapshots of late -- where are veterans (good question, I'm trying to work them in this week), where's Syria, where's the war press, where's The Drone War.
The snapshots of late really have just focused on Iraq because so much is going on there.
Zach Roth's nonsense isn't helping the Iraqi people. The Iraq War did not end -- rising death tolls make that very clear as did Tim Arango's September 2012 reporting for the New York Times noting (in the middle of the report) that Barack had sent more US troops into Iraq ("At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.") The only thing that ended in Iraq was American media interest.
Zach Roth makes that clear yet again with another story about America. It's funny that on the left, we repeatedly -- and rightly -- complain about American journalists writing books about Iraq that ignore Iraqis. How is that any different Roth's unnecessary and useless article that doesn't note the Iraqi people?
Let's all hope that at the end, as Roth typed one handed and used the other to grind his tiny gherkin, he reached climax because, truth be told, his bad article doesn't do a damn thing for anyone else, especially not the Iraqi people who continue to suffer all these years after Bully Boy Bush left the White House.
Zach's offered us a useless piece that demonstrates bad writers shouldn't fancy themselves George Lucas and falsely think that they can handle the epilogue of American Graffiti. Zach can't. Even at his embarrassing and limited task, he fails. Because sexist trash eventually fails. He included Dan Senor. Why? Is Dan Senor an architect of the Iraq War? No. Is he even the early public voice -- spokesperson division -- for the illegal war? No, that would be Victoria (aka "Tori") Clarke who was the Pentagon spokesperson in the lead up to the war and after. We get it, empty sack Zach, your piece wasn't journalism. It was chance to attack Republicans. And Senor worked on Mitt Romney's campaign. So you plug him in and you ignore Clarke. But, as Danny Schechter observed years ago, "Pentagon publicist Victoria Clarke, around the time the war began, said that journalists who went out on their own were 'putting themselves at risk'." Here's SourceWatch on Victoria Clarke:
In early 2002, as "detailed planning for a possible Iraq invasion" began, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke launched an effort to recruit "key influentials" to help sell a wary public on the war, reported the New York Times's David Barstow in April 2008. Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger, eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns. The Pentagon referred to the military analysts as "message force multipliers" or "surrogates," and held weekly meetings with them, which continued at least until the time of the April 2008 Times report. [4]
The Defense Department also paid for some analysts to travel to Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, encouraging them to counter negative press with Pentagon talking points. Former NBC military analyst Kenneth Allard called the effort "psyops on steroids." Many of the analysts were also lobbyists for defense contractors, and boasted of their Pentagon access to potential clients. This financial conflict discouraged the analysts from questioning or criticizing the Pentagon's claims. The Pentagon also tracked what the analysts said, via a six-figure contract with Omnitec Solutions, as William V. Cowan learned. He was fired from the Pentagon analysts group after saying on Fox News that the United States was "not on a good glide path right now" in Iraq. [4]
In April 2003, a month after the Iraq War started, Democracy Now! did a piece on Victoria Clarke. From the intro:
In many ways Victoria
Clarke has become the voice of the Pentagon. As the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Public Affairs, Clarke oversees daily press briefings.
She has also been credited with forming the idea of embedded
journalists.
Her ability to spin the news should come as
little surprise. Clarke came to the Pentagon after a successful career
at PR giant Hill and Knowlton.
You may recall Hill and Knowlton and its role before the first Gulf War. A decade ago, Hill & Knowlton crafted a PR campaign that purposely mislead Congress to help justify the bombing of Iraq.
At a Congressional hearing, Hill and Knowlton represented a woman who testified she saw Iraqi soldiers throw Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. But what Hill and Knowlton didn’t say was that the 15-year-old girl identified as Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador and that what she said wasn’t true. She had left Kuwaiti long before the Iraqi soldiers arrived.
The White House has also tapped another PR pro, Margaret Tutwiler, to serve as spokesperson to the Pentagon’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq.
You may recall Hill and Knowlton and its role before the first Gulf War. A decade ago, Hill & Knowlton crafted a PR campaign that purposely mislead Congress to help justify the bombing of Iraq.
At a Congressional hearing, Hill and Knowlton represented a woman who testified she saw Iraqi soldiers throw Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators. But what Hill and Knowlton didn’t say was that the 15-year-old girl identified as Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador and that what she said wasn’t true. She had left Kuwaiti long before the Iraqi soldiers arrived.
The White House has also tapped another PR pro, Margaret Tutwiler, to serve as spokesperson to the Pentagon’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq.
The segment featured John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's magazine, who had just 'debated' (they weren't live, as he pointed out, they were "adjacent") Victoria Clarke on 60 Minutes.
John R. MacArthur: You'll recall that before the war a lot of people assumed, or the administration wanted us to assume, that the Iraqi people would rise up and help overthrow Saddam Hussein. And, of course, we were rudely surprised and were not welcomed. In fact, at this time, it seems like the welcome has already worn thin -- even among the people who are glad that Saddam is gone. So instead of addressing that, she says-says -- and this, again, speaks to the brilliance of their p.r. campaign -- she says, 'You'll recall that before the war, a lot of anti-war people said that Arab countries would rise up in rage -- that the street, the Arab street would rise up in rage against the United States if we invaded Iraq or entered Iraq. And that hasn't happened.' You see, so she completely changes the subject. Instead of addressing the fact that we weren't welcomed, that there was not an uprising welcoming us, she says, 'You see, the leftists, the anti-war people were wrong about the Arab street rising up and overthrowing other Arab governments.
Even at bad journalism, Zach Roth fails and it's probably past time that outlets started examining whether or not their 'reporters' are working biases or reporting.
Zach's crazy helped no one -- barring his own nutting at the end. Again, Zach, let's hope you reached climax, you'd be the only one in the room but that's probably true of most time times you climax.
FYI, Lucas' American Graffiti is now 40 years old. One of the first events observing the anniversary is Candy Clarke's Friday and Saturday appearances in Fort Worth, Texas:
Friday and Saturday, Clark will return to her Tech stomping grounds as part of a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Graffiti. At 9 a.m. Friday, the school will present “A Conversation With Candy Clark” in the school auditorium as part of its Green B. Trimble Distinguished Lecturer Series.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, the school will present the Central City Fall Festival & Classic Car Show, a tribute to Graffiti, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Director George Lucas’ movie recalled his youth in Modesto, Calif., by telling the stories of several young people on the cusp of adulthood during one eventful night on the streets of a small Northern California town.
Candy Clark played Debbie Dunham in American Graffiti and in the sequel More American Graffiti. For the first film, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. Also in the cast of the 1973 classic were Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Suzanne Somers, Mackenzie Phillips, Paul Le Mat, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Kathleen Quinlan, Manuel Padilla Jr., Bo Hopkins, Kay Lenz, Debralee Scott and Susan Richardson, among others. And for those who don't get the connection between the film classic and Zach's bad 'reporting,' American Graffiti follows events on a fall 1962 night and, at the end, features a where-are-they-now epilogue to explain what happened to the characters. George Lucas can pull that off. Zach Roth can't pull of his attempted imitation. Or even note he's ripping off the film as American Graffiti celebrates its 40th anniversary.
And if you want to talk about the Iraq War and the US, if you want that conversation to take place, maybe you show the guts Bruce A. Dixon (Black Agenda Report) does and address Jeh Johnson?
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