Why on earth is the moustache of understanding-- he who has been profoundly wrong about everything from the nature of the free market-- still haunting my tee vee?
Crossposted with more and bigger.
Open thread below...
Thomas Friedman, the consummate Villager, demonstrated this morning on ABC This Week, as part of the roundtable following George Stephanopoulos' interview with Barack Obama, just how readily Republican talking points become Conventional Wisdom in their hands:
Friedman: There are many terrible handoffs the Bush administration, many many, uh, are leaving for President Obama. But there is one overriding large one -- there has been no terrorist act in this country since 9/11. And I think that is a very sobering, weighty handoff for this administration.
Stephanopoulos: The number one priority is to keep the country safe.
Friedman: And I think that's where the debate's gonna have to be. Where I think the administration, the last one, really faulted itself was not consulting Congress. But the fact is, you know, the American people don't want to lose that. And I think that how Obama handles that -- I think that's going to be one of the toughest, toughest challenges going forward.
OK, let's have that debate. But it can't just be on Village terms. Because there are three components of this "weighty handoff" that go unmentioned by Friedman:
1. Bush also laid the groundwork for future terrorist attacks. The 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, after all, warned that the invasion of Iraq and subsequent Bush policies -- including the use of torture -- have in fact made the likelihood of future terrorist attacks exponentially greater.
2. Bush didn't keep us safe before 9/11. The historical record is clear that prior to that event, Bush dismissed counterterror concerns as a "Clinton thing," and he was clearly asleep at the wheel on the day it occurred. Any president who allowed the worst terrorist attack on American soil on his watch has no business subsequently claiming that he kept the country safe. (Also worth noting: The lack of any international terrorist attack in the intervening years is not evidence that Bush's post-9/11 strategy actually prevented anything.)
3. There in fact have been other terrorist attacks since 9/11. The most noteworthy of these was the October-November 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people, and has still gone unsolved. There have also been planned attacks nipped in the bud: a planned cyanide bombing, a man who intended to blow up LA banks, a former Army Ranger who planned to bomb abortion clinics, and the Alabama militiamen who intended to go on an anti-Latino killing rampage. There have been a number of lower-level acts of terrorism that reached fruition as well, ranging from rampaging gunmen in Knoxville, Tenn., and Moscow, Idaho, to a conservative wingnut who was sending out hoax anthrax letters.
All of these cases underscore the fact that domestic terrorism is almost completely off the Bush administration's radar -- except, of course, for those "eco-terrorists." What the "war on terror" we've gotten from Bush has amounted has been little more than a political marketing campaign.
Until we mount a serious campaign against terrorism that recognizes it for the global beast that it is -- one perfectly capable of emanating from our own soil -- we won't be doing anything to effectively halt the forces that actually breed terrorism.
And what George W. Bush's post-9/11 "war on terror" has done has actually harm our ability to do that for many years to come. He may not have suffered any further attacks, but that does not mean he kept us safe, now or in the future.
Think the world is sick of George W. Bush? Look at Tom "Yeah, it's a flat world, but let's give 'em 6 more months in Iraq" Friedman advising both on Sunday's GPS with Fareed Zakaria and in his NY Times column that we throw away precedent and just get Barack Obama in office as quickly as possible...like by Thanksgiving.
It’s a huge moment for America and the global economy. I think we should seriously consider moving up the inauguration day. Because I don’t know that we have two months to have a political vacuum at this moment in this economic crisis. I mean, to Neil’s point, the financial system is the heart, it pumps blood to the industrial muscles of the economy. It’s not working. We’re supposed to sit around for two months and wait for the new administration to get in…because this administration has kind of checked out. They’re not going to do anything big. And so, I don’t think people have fully grasped the fact …I tell you, I go to restaurants now and look around, your point earlier….I wanna come up to people and say, “You shouldn’t be here. You should be home having tuna sandwiches. What are you doing here? Don’t you understand there is a storm coming?” Okay? And it hasn’t hit yet. And I believe the decisions made possibly in these next two months could determine the next four years. This administration could be over before it starts. Over in the sense that it will spend the next four years digging out of a hole that has been created right now that may be deeper and darker than anyone realizes.
Oh, to be on the forefront of media memes! It means never having to be right about anything you say and yet be considered A Very Serious Person. Bob Cesca:
Yes, Mr. Friedman. Good idea! Let's give the next president, you know, four days to hastily assemble his entire cabinet and staff in time to govern the world through the worst financial crisis since whenever... starting Thursday. Smart -- then again, it would certainly help the establishment press to build their "failed Obama presidency" narrative.
Or how about this: Why don't the very serious commentariat demand that our current president do his damn job for a change rather than running out the clock? Naturally, this won't happen because the current narrative is all about Clinton drama. And notice the end of the article -- Friedman closes with a quote about a potential Obama mistake. Very serious!
By the way, notice that Friedman is also channeling our favorite financial diva Suze Orman. Nag people about their spending! [..]
Eight month emergency fund, young people! Eat tuna! No mention whatsoever that the Iraq invasion and occupation, which Friedman vocally supported and endorsed, is helping to bankrupt America. We're still spending $10 billion a month over there, but eat tuna sandwiches, you lazy stupid young people!
The addict-in-chief:
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”...read on
Info from the Youtube link:
Thomas Friedman, the author and NY Times columnist, was invited to Brown University to give a keynote speech on Earth Day, before a packed auditorium. His talk, titled "Green is the new Red White and Blue" was about how corporate environmentalism (based on putting a price on the atmosphere, and investing in biofuels and techno-fixes) can restore America to its "natural place in the global order." Luckily, this outrageous neoliberal capitalist propaganda was interrupted with a suprise visit from the Greenwash Guerrillas.
And further information from the Brown University newspaper.
After the pie hit Friedman and splattered on his face and torso, the two jumped offstage and ran out of the southeast exit of the building, followed closely by a man trying to catch them. A police officer also ran toward the exit but stayed inside.
The thrower was eventually caught by police, who detained her in Salomon's lobby before moving her elsewhere.
"One of the offenders was apprehended, placed in the custody of the Brown Department of Public Safety and identified as a Brown student," University spokesman Michael Chapman said in a statement released Tuesday night. "The University will review this incident through its non-academic disciplinary system to determine the appropriate response."
Update: John Amato: You may remember that Mr. Friedman was one of the main cheerleaders in the media for the US to go into Iraq and kick a little ass because "we could."
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Friedman: What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, “Which part of this sentence don’t you understand?” You don’t think, you know we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we’re just gonna to let it grow? Well, Suck. On. This. That Charlie is what this war is about. We could of hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. Could of hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.
