That clever fellow Sean Hannity has invented irony-proof armor
This afternoon at the gym I witnessed him doing an hour-long special report on his show, Hannity’s America, in which he examined “The Iranian Hostage Crisis” (by which he meant a dozen soldiers being held there for questioning, though they’d been released two days ago) from the perspective of “What would Ronald Reagan do?” Oliver North was there to join him in all the important smug-looking and tough-talking. For twenty straight minutes they played Reagan’s speeches about the original Iranian Hostage Crisis in ‘79 through ‘81. (Hannity often plays Reagan speeches in their entirety)
The ironic part is that we know exactly what Reagan would do in a case like this, because we know what he did. He traded arms for hostages under cover of the flag in which he had wrapped himself, and then blamed it on his subordinates. (So much for “the buck stops here”) It was a reprehensible thing to do, and if I were a hostage, I’d rather he drop a cruise missile on the building where I was being held than give weapons to the criminals holding me there.
It does appear the sailors were roughly interrogated, though. Well I’m glad we’d never do anything like that. And I’m open to suggestions as to how any certainty can be had over whether the sailors were in Iranian or Iraqi waters.
It is remotely possible that there is satellite imagery that would show where the interception took place. But if so, one side or the other could claim that it was fabricated.
The thing is, there was an incident several years ago in which an American electronic surveillance plane was damaged and forced to land in China. They kept our people for a while.
It was a big deal then, but you hardly hear about it now. It only led to a brief worsening in diplomatic relations. Now we get along with CHina better than before the incident.
Good Ol’ Repubs… do something completely morally reprehensible and then shroud yourself in the US flag or religion.
It’s tempting to identify one party with hypocrisy, and the Republican party does seem to have their dues paid up in that club. But it’s an open club with members from all over. It’s almost impossible for a sitting congresscritter to lose an election, and unfortunately they’ve realized this is the case.
The country is long overdue for a “throw the bums out” round of surprise election results. The 2 voting blocks need to be broken up.
I sure hope Web05 is not going to trot out Mr. Clintons moral high standards as an example. I don’t expect anything better from his wife. As for proof, I am sure J-Stars had them pinpointed but that area has been disputed for a thousand years.
Yes, that’s one of the triumphs of the Right over the last century; the near-exact equivalency of morality with sex. Clinton cheated on his wife, so he is not a moral person. Newt cheated on his wife, too – probably on all three of his wives, but he just published a new book, “Rediscovering God in America”, so for some reason he gets a pass. Reagan’s arms sales to our sworn enemies, and his support for an illegal war in El Salvador, well, he never cheated on his wife. That we know of.
One thing the current president could learn from Clinton is to veto a spending bill now and then. Clinton did it 36 times to Bush’s 1. What’s the morality in sending massive debts to our grandchildren? But hey, at least Bush never cheated on his wife. That we know of.
Since the topic was specifically on Bush why would I? Does it make me a hypocrite to point out that many republican “leaders” commit morally reprehensible acts while shrouding themselves in US flags and relgiion?
While my comment was strictly on repubs, I will point out and scoff at dem leaders that do the same (and I have on this site I believe) because I don’t care what their party affiliation is. But that said, as of in the last 20 years I think repubs have proved themselves time and again. If you need a list of names let me know and I can whip up a pretty sizable one in no time.
As to Clinton. I think the prez should deserve a BJ every once in awhile. He has a pretty stressful job. Now did he have to do it in the oval office? Well that was a little extreme and I think it is wrong.
But if it’s an impeachable offense why aren’t we going after Bush for what he has done? Oh that’s right because we weren’t going after Clinton for actually doing something wrong. Instead it was a political witch hunt to demonize the dems and allow the repubs to take complete control over the government.
I really don’t care if Clinton had sex in the oval office what I do care about is the fact that he looked the United States dead in the eye and lied about it. We can trot out a few other democrats that did the same thing, the whole Kennedy Clan is a shining example of selfless service to the country as long as its on its knees. How about a democrat with a freezer full of money who drags the National Guard off life saving missions to check his property. Both parties have the serious problems but the one thing I can say about Bush,he believes he is doing the best for his country, Clinton was only doing the best for Bill, and I can give you a few hundred examples of that. Give the man a little bit of credit, he is trying to clean up what Carter and Clinton wanted to ignore.
You couldn’t be more right here. That is exactly why Bush is one of the worst presidents ever!!! If he believes he is doing the right thing he can never be wrong. Which also explains why he doesn’t listen to dissenting opinions and why he has stacked the government with yes men.
AS a prez this is the worst thing you can do. Because if everyone says you are doing the right thing and you believe you are doing the right thing you can never do anything wrong. Even if you lie about going to war, even if you hire a horse show attorney for a disaster relief position, even if you get approval for going to war, even if you veto stem cell research, even if you pass a bill that destroys the bill of rights, … and on and on.
Dissenting opinion and believing you might make a mistake every once in awhile, is crucial in positions of leadership.
And how is that an impeachable offense? But more importantly why do you care about that? DOF has had plenty of posts about how politicians lie and you never say a word about, except maybe a passerby comment. If you ask me all you’ve shown is that what matters more is the fact he is a dem than anything else.
There are plenty of reasons for you to be pissed off at Bush but yet it is a Clinton lie that pushes your buttons?
Please explain to my young feeble brain what mess Bush was cleaning up after Clinton. Bush took a surplus and squandered it. He took a powerful military built up by Clinton and spread it thin. Bush took a well developed VA program and cut back funding for veteran families and veterans as well. Bush took a strong economy and weakened it. Bush, had an opportunity to go after Osama Bin Laden and instead took over 100 days of vacation in his first 8 months of office. More than any president has taken in a 4 year term. What am I missing here?
But at least Bush has strengthened relations with our allies after Clinton got them all hating us so badly. Oh, wait… Well he fixed FEMA, rooting out those annoying professionals chosen without regard to party affiliation to put in dependable Republicans. No, that isn’t it… Well damn it, he brought our long national nightmare to an end!!!
I find it fascinating that folks like Sean Hannity make a very good living lying to people who want to be lied to. It sometimes astonishes me how far he can go and still have loyal followers.
Hannity is one of the yelling heads on TV/radio who has so degraded the national debate. Another example is Rosie O’Donnell spouting the lamest conspiracy theories about 9/11, but I didn’t mention her because she’s such an embarassment to tree-hugging peacenik liberals like me.
Main difference is, more people hear about O’Donnell on Hannity’s show than would ever hear about Hannity on O’Donnel’s show. Conservative yelling heads are currently getting much better ratings than liberal yelling heads.
But wrong as this stuff is, it’s not new and it comes in cycles. They said Gutenberg’s curious invention would never find widespread use because only a tiny fraction of people could read. In no time flat literacy was everywhere (to the authorities’ horror) and along with the spread of information came a flood of disinformation. There are many fascinating/sad examples since.
It does seem to me rather odd that we place our village idiots on a media pedestal and reward them for spouting their nonsense far and wide. But wasn’t it Luther who said, “Lies have ample wages, but the Truth goes begging”?