O'Hanlon's take on the "Extreme" Bloggers
By John Amato Sunday Aug 05, 2007 1:16pm
FOX News really likes Glenn Greenwald and Logan Murphy of C&L lately. They quoted both of us twice this week. Why would they do that you ask? Because we had the audacity to question such serious men like Pollack and O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute about their new article "A War We Just Might Win."
Here's O'Hanlon's response to us on Wallace's Sunday program:
Download | play Download | play
O'Hanlon: Well, I've had a hard time with some of the bloggers and their take. I think left leaning politicians have been fair. A lot of them haven't liked what we said but they've read it and they've tried to digest it, Bloggers of course to some extent have a business of trying to to make comments more extreme, but I respect the bottom line judgement. but you can look at the facts that Ken and I have reported and I think they are facts. There is military progress...
He respects us, but...since we're in the business of being extremists you can't believe us. We're Dirty F&^king Hippies after all. Greenwald documents that these two fellows are no "war critics" like they're being portrayed by the media circus. And I have a question for this dynamic duo. Why didn't they tell us that the military set up the trip to Iraq for them? Check this out from HH's radio interview with Mike Allen:
MA: The military organized the O'Hanlon-Pollack tour, and I didn't know until I read your interview with Mike O'Hanlon that they'd had an interview with General Petraeus . . . .
HH: Right.
MA: That had not been reported before. That was very fascinating. But I think that shows you that the military's getting better at this.
The military is getting better at propaganda. Wonderful..They are just giving us a very timely good report (something they've been doing since the beginning of the Iraq war) with honest facts is all. Even though the political structure of Iraq is crumbling---the most important part of their trip is to report that troop morale is high. Their NY Times piece ends with this:
But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.
Even though they have doubts, we should keep funding the war..What a shocker from them. We already know what the Petraeus report will say...Improved military strategy...mixed bag with the government...give me another six months. You see---we're mean and nasty bloggers that shouldn't be taken seriously. We aren't on a war supporting payroll of a think tank or a recipient of some wingnut welfare from the NRO. We're not warmongers. If only we were warmongers we could fly to Iraq for a few days and then we also could be trumpeted to the masses. Well, maybe not....
William The Bloody Kristol just got back from Iraq too and essentially said the exact same thing on the All Star Panel to end FNS. He had a pin on his jacket from the troops. What a coincidence you might say. Yes, hehe, who would have guessed that these pundits would come up with the same report at a time that the WH needs it most....Oh wait, there is this one little detail.
In March, 2003, Michael O'Hanlon -- the Joan Baez of our time -- was one of the signatories to a letter on Iraq policy issued by Project for New American Century, Bill Kristol's warmongering group.
Login or Register to post comments.
Frist Extreme!
EXTREEEEME! I'm doing a 720 off my blogging half pipe, right now.
Carl Levin was on w/Wolf Shitzer yesterday. I think he (Levin) nailed it when he said -- and I'll speak in the vernacular here -- the mid-September report due from Petraeus (sp?) is BULLSHIT. There will be NO political progress made between now and then. How could there be with our Congress and the Iraqi Parliament on vacation for the month of August.
The key here is POLITICAL PROGRESS. We may have made some (a modicum) of MILITARY progress with the "splurge", but political progress is what is desperately needed and is not within sight.
O'Hanlon said today that we need to wait another Friedman.
extreme blogging, WHAT will they do next?!
Way to go dirty F^%*in' hippies! Just hope we can get some more educated hippies to analyze these "facts." (Evidently an advanced degree isn't sufficient to criticize a Brookings "scholar.")
If I remember Glenn Greenwald's pieces correctly, his issue was more with the false characterization of O'Hanlon and Pollack as anti-war leftists than with any "facts" they represented.
"These are facts!" Wow, that has familiar ring to it. Like say Colin Powell at the United Nations with "These are facts, not assertions!" so of course I'll have to believe.
I'm actually holding my middle finger UP in the AIR as I TYPE this, and I'm TYPING with my MIDDLE FINGER!!!
I'm extreme. To the max. For shizzle, yo.
I am convinced that the War on Iraq has given the pea-brains of the beltway (and elsewhere) a forum which they otherwise would never have had. These people have no legitimacy other than the politically incestuous system they have set up for themselves, a self-perpetuating mutual admiration society. If they think the left preaches to the choir, they should just listen to themselves for once.
The Dallas Morning Nudes today fingered General David Petraeus in losing 190,000 arms in Iraq during 2005-2006 with improper accounting controls on weapons issued to the Iraqi army we're trying to build. They may now be in insurgents's hands.
Does that mean booscho will have to declare war on America next?
To the XXXXTREME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's a fact that this war has been waged exactly the way this administration and the Globalist Elite wanted it to be waged.
There have been no mistakes made, no incompetence has been included in this adventure. Everything is going according to plan.
Iraq was always meant to be divided into three areas, and the USofA was always meant to be involved in a protracted war with no end. At the same time, the destruction of our economic system was always a part of the plan, as well.
Yep - things are going quite nicely for the agenda of the Globalist Elite. They're partying like it's 1929.
"and I think they are facts"
That pretty much says it all for me.
And what's up with this - "the Joan Baez of our time"? The guy is an anti-war pro-union/labor organizing world renowned muscian? I don't think so!
How's this for extreme: I bet Michael O'Hanlon has a small penis.
By the way, Glenn Greenwald rocks - "the Joan Baez of our time..." That's some funny shit.
Do y'all have some secret blogs that I'm not able to access? I visit Unclaimed Territory, DailyKos and C&L on a daily basis, and I can't find these extreme hate-filled blogs that all Wingnuttia is having the vapours over.
Oh, I read some angry, profanity-laced comments to the blog posts, many of them undoubtedly coming from trolls, but that's due to the open and democratic format of the blogosphere.
But mostly it's well reasoned, cogent arguments for or against various issues, or reporting on current events, including accurate presentations (often via YouTube) of the words and deeds of elected officials and/or the pompous pundits of the press.
So where are y'all hiding the juicy radical stuff? Do ya have to buy a premium membership to access it?
There's a YouTube of Kucunich grilling Field Marshall von Rumsfeldt on the Herndon Group's PR contracts to "sell" the war to the people. He tried to get TheDon to admit Herndon hyped Tillman's image. And he ran out of time to finish the job on Rummie. Dang! They just get up a good head of steam - leastways, they can see "orgasm" is almost within reach...and the clock is stopped.
Maybe Kucinich should waterboard Rumsfeld...off the clock, of course.
Michael O’Hanlon — the Joan Baez of our time
Is he having an affair with Bob Dylan?
extreme blogging [ɪkˈstrim blŏg ing]
-verb
1. While your keyboard is doused in gasoline and set afire, writing entries in, adding material to, or maintaining a weblog
2. Hammering penny nails into your hands while writing entries in, adding material to, or maintaining a weblog
3. Snorting wasabi and simultaneously writing entries in, adding material to, or maintaining a weblog
Professor Farnsworth @ 5:
Blog naked!
miss_kitty @ 17:
Is his rendition of 'Farewell Angelina', up on YouTube yet?
Weaseldog @ 19:
Is there really any other way?
Let's do a little research on that "liberal" label for the Brookings Institute...Google Brookings Institute...the wiki pops up...I see a reference that the "liberal" label is challenged in an article in FAIR...
Goodness, what have we here?? It seems that the Institute's "reputation" for being liberal may be complete bullshit:
http://fair.org/index.php?page=1436
Total time for research: 5 minutes.
According to the article By Sam Husseini:
Maybe Mike Wallace can explain to us how a think tank is "liberal" and "non-partisan" when it's headed up by a bunch of Nixon and Reagan Republican staffers.
This is a classic case of a successful Republican false-flag operation. Like the Blue Dog Democrat movement. It's an infestation.
Shame on these apologists who never seem to be able to apologize! They're drenched in other people's blood.
Do you suppose they'd be willing to bet thir own lives and limbs on the crapshoot of "we just might"? Come on fellas... wanna lose the three piece suits, strap on some body armor and issue that next study from Bagdhad???
No, I didn't think so...
Maybe extreme blogging involves munching on candied jalepenos while drinking Shiner Bock?
Weaseldog @ 24:
Pop rocks and Buzz cola?
Dr. Matt @ 21:
Don't ask what I used to type with on my keyboard.
Dr. Matt @ 18:
4. Blogging while simultaneously driving on a Los Angeles freeway.
BTW, anyone who thinks it is impossible to multi-task while commuting in LA has never seen a girl applying eye make-up while driving 75 MPH in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Fox. Kettle. Black. *PLONK*
blogenfreude @ 4:
Drop some Napalm.
GREAT now we "extreme". [Deleted. Blogwhoring]
ysbaddaden @ 26:
Stank finger?
Fox News has made a point of calling these guys "liberals" every time they bring them up. It's pretty hilarious/sad/hilarious again.
Looks like this guy could take a stern talking to from this man:
http://www.pmpnetwork.com/photos7/AlanThicke.jpg
Dr. Matt @ 31:
You make it sound past tense.
So that's my problem. I'm not extreme and I don't blog naked. Hell, I can make that change and quick. There, better? ;)
From DB Schell's Mr. Drinkwater Cartoons Website:
Here's the REAL Reason That Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the Reich Wing hates The Daily KOS and the blogosphere in general....
He's frightened to death of The Daily KOS, and all sites like it, that's why.
You don't go on the offensive against something that presents no danger to you.
~Nyc
ysbaddaden @ 26:
I've had my suspicions, ysbaddaden. You've confirmed them now.
ysbaddaden @ 34:
"Stank finger" is slang for present tense.
miss_kitty @ 37:
Nice to see you having warm thoughts of me.
pissed off patricia @ 35:
Post some pictures.
Lotta strange mental images in my head right now due to some of the comments here. I wouldn't call the images "extreme" but maybe troubling to some degree. Hey wait. They aren't troubling, they're hilarious.
ys, I'm not gonna go that extreme.
pissed off patricia @ 42:
That shows you're not an xxxtreme blogger than.
If civility and politeness gets us a FISA bill that destroys our privacy, a war and permanent occupation in Iraq, torture, and obstruction of justice, then I'll take the extreme label and wear it with honor.
Democrats pledge civility and bipartisanship in conduct of the work here," she said, calling for "partnerships … not partisanship." -Nancy Pelosi, quoted in the L.A. Times, November 2006.
Oh, yeah. That's workin' real well, Nancy.
So tiresome. We're in so much trouble and Tom Thumb the unbright rich boy gets airtime.
Common as dirt and just as interesting.
Isnt that something John.
Michael O’Hanlon — was one of the signatories to a letter on Iraq policy issued by Project for the New American Century
Isnt it something what a few Saudi zealots were able to do with box cutters on 9/11.
The Congressional Budget Office has now estimated that the Iraq war will ultimately cost the American People --> at least one trillion dollars.
I wonder shat Caroline Arnold who served 12 years on the staff of U.S. Senator John Glenn has to say about all of this...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/06/3001/
Are there some signs that the "surge" is working? More than likely yes, depending on how you choose to define "working." Even if there has been drop in the level of violence where the troops are stationed, so what?
Send 20,000 cops into any high-crime (i.e. low-income) neighborhood in this country and you'll see a drop in the crime rate in that neigborhood.
If we sent a million troops (which we don't have) over to Iraq, you would see an even bigger reduction in violence, at least in the areas where the troops were stationed. The insurgents would either move, or simply lay low until we left.
Never forget, even though we have won every single battle we have fought in Iraq, we also won every single battle we fought in Viet Nam.
You don't think our military would "cherry pick" the information they showed these 2 "liberals", do you?
ysbaddaden @ 11:
Dr. Matt @ 31:
Inquiring minds want to know
Finally, Joe Lieberman has some competitition for the FoxNews Award for "Liberal of The Year."
The Stockholm Syndrome lives on.
If you want to know the temperature of Iraq, just read Juan Cole's blog (Informed Comment) each day. If things are improving in Iraq, the number of dead found every day doesn't show it.
EXXTREEEEEEEME!
ok, thats enough.
ysbaddaden @ 26:
Gives a whole new meaning to hunt and peck.
But there is enough good happening on the battlefields. Is the "good" offsetting the "bad"? Ever hear the saying about throwing good money after bad?
"We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms." So the only good seen is in military terms. And it's really convenient that it was the military that organized their tour.
"Today, morale is high." See the opposite in Sean Smith's Inside the 'surge' videos. Guess I'm not supposed to believe my lying eyes.
Just because O’Hanlon or anybody "thinks" something is a fact doesn't make it so. Labeling anybody who questions them "extreme" makes me even less likely to believe them to be true.
P.S. ys' comments brought this to mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB0WlnigFYo
As for myself, I have a joystick, not a mouse.
It's not a war. We cannot "win" it. It is an OCCUPATION. Occupations cannot be won, they can only be ended. If this were a war, we would have to have a goal or objective, and an adversary. We have neither of these things. This is an occupation, and if the progressives could get and stay on message we would never refer to it as anything BUT an occupation. Everytime you call this a war, you bolster the conservative framework, and lend this crime a kind of moral legitimacy that it does not deserve.
Y'all don't wanna know what it means when I say I'm a movie buff either.
Thing Fish @ 55:
Those guys are penists?
StirFry @ 53:
Ah, that ain't nothing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w
Albatross @ 57:
If the violence in Iraq stopped today, how much longer would we have to stay there?
And if it started up again as soon as we left, then what?
LOL Strawberry @ 54. Since we're tending toward the crass side of late, here's an oldie updated:
Many bloggers can type fast, but the rest are hunt 'n' peckers.
The problem is the same as it ever was. They can't force everyone to drink the koolaid. Those who disagree go into the "loony" column. Problem solved.
Reich wingers, no brain required.
strawberry @ 54:
I don't have to hunt for mine.
Of course that brings a new meaning to a quick peck.
ysbaddaden @ 60:
Wait-this is more of my blogging style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYIKfEU8yl8
Speaking of which:
http://www.nndb.com/people/774/000023705/peck2.jpg
But there is something to the surge having had some effect. There could even be more effect if we had enough military to cover Iraq wall-to-wall. The only question remaining then would be: How would we know when to roll up the carpet.
We're winning the war on truth! Hooray!
Among all the reports about the conditions in Iraq, there is one that appears somewhaat positive. That is the one neocons hold up as if it were the bible of terrorist warfare.
Why doesn't Fox have that other famed "Leftie", Joe Lieberman on to comment on the virtues of O'Handjob's article along with the evils of the "Far Left" bloggers.
Of course the weapons are in insurgent hands -- we are arming the insurgents in Anbar as I type this. Hey, if we give them what they want then they stop shooting at us. For now.
Al Maliki is furious about this arming of anti-government insurgents, and is about to ask us to remove David Betrayus.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0729iraq-hottempers0729.html
Oh yeah, things are going well: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/58943/
John Amato:
"The military is getting better at propaganda. Wonderful. They are just giving us a very timely good report (something they’ve been doing since the beginning of the Iraq war) with honest facts is all. Even though the political structure of Iraq is crumbling—the most important part of their trip is to report that troop morale is high."
Hell yeah, and not only in the USA.
I just found this article at German SPIEGEL online. A SPIEGEL reporter and a photographer were travelling Iraq for 3 weeks with the US military. The full report is published in the print version of DER SPIEGEL (I´m certainly not going to buy it). The headline reads "Pictures of the secret peace". There is a picture gallery included and guess what: There are almost no Iraqis in Iraq, on most of the photos you´ll just see American soldiers including Gen. Patraeus.
The article is only available in German but I´ll post the link nevertheless:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,498087,00.html
Don´t miss to click the "Fotostrecke" (picture gallery) I´m sure it looks quite familiar to Americans.
George @ 71:
How do you expect us to fight them over there if they don't have anything to shoot with?
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the fools say to push on.
Thing Fish @ 75:
No, that's just you. I suggest you change britches.
Do rappers from the Garment District in New York brag about their britches and hose?
the left wing, anti-war bloggers. yeah, we're the bad guys all right. if we were in control, would the country be in such bad shape?
Are we allowed to talk about the non-neutral comments about C&L? That seems a little hard to do. That would mean we'd have to take a position.
That's scary.
myiq2xu @ 15:
I was thinking the same. Frankly, to describe Glenn Greenwald as "extreme" takes much heavier cojones or audacity than describing G.W. Bush as a "self-made man". It is dishonest to the extreme.
DUDE! On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is not so extreme and a 10 is extremely extreme. That shit was like a 7. *farts.
Fox "News" is feeling the sting of moderate Americans who have had just about enough of the blatant partisan propaganda Fox "News" spews.
Now Fox "News" has chosen to engage us with their Rupert "*the pornagrapher" Murdoch's bought and paid for bully microphone.
The idiots at Fox "News" don't realize it's way too late in the game for them to do a damned thing to hurt the huge grass roots net meetings, otherwise known as blogs. The only thing Fox "News" is doing is promoting us all. The more people that read our blogs the better it is for us, because we are on the side of telling the truth, while Fox "News" is a propaganda outlet house of cards which is in the midst of geeting blown over.
[Deleted. Off topic]
If I say that boosh can't walk on water, would that qualify as hateful blogspeech?
Nycholas W. Alberts @ 36:
Unless they have something you want... like voters.
That is why this shill is suckling on the teat of the beast whose bowels they reside in...
I mean he is a Hillary supporter... but hey who needs real valid change anyway??
Chris Wallace is lame
Turk Meister @ 8:
I've asked a lot of people about Colin Powells hype and no one remembers this.
I guess there are some people out there with some brains and a memory
That's because the blogosphere isn't doing it right.
They need to be defining their bloc of the blogosphere as "THE INFORMED BLOGOSPHERE," full of people who keep up with what the government is doing.
The reason Hillary doesn't sell in front of this group is not because they are left-wing nuts, as the media like to say.
It's because THEY KNOW ALL ABOUT HER.
The reason Obama being black and Clinton being a woman and a Clinton doesn't matter as much to the people at YearlyKos is because THEY KNOW ALL ABOUT THEM.
They are informed, and are not as impressed by hyperbole as most of the country is.
This is how it needs to be framed.
O’Hanlon says 70 some percent of Americans who want the war ended are extreme.
Fact of the matter ever the top General are not making assessment but we are to believe that O'Hanlon can after one week trip.
Congratulations, Logan! You're famous! And congratulations to C&L. C&L now is an acknowledged fly in Fox News' ointment.
O'Hanlon, you're still a putz for thinking you know it all after a few weeks being led on a dog and pony show by the army. I don't know that you're not a nice guy, but you're still a putz.
And why am I not surprised Hillary is your choice?
"but you can look at the facts that Ken and I have reported and I think they are facts."
When you "think" something is a fact it's because your not sure if it is one not.
Thinking something is a fact doesn't make it so.
Facts are facts. They are known.
These guys don't know if the things they are calling "facts" really are.
Otay @ 88:
I'd rather put horseradish in their KY Jelly.
Login or Register to post comments.