Dana Milbank can kiss my brown ass..

I get Consortiumnews’ daily email. The one tonight really chapped my hide. Robert Parry has a piece up entitled: WPost Calls Out ‘Uppity’ Obama. Parry’s article addresses Dana Milbanks column today in WaPo.

First, let me say I am not a fan nor a supporter of Barack Obama. I feel, no I know, he is just another politician who will pretty much do or say whatever is needed in order to get our votes. I am not calling him a liar, a charlatan or a carpetbagger, I am just saying he will pander to whomever he thinks will possibly vote for him in the general election come November. Obama seems to be playing it straight, or at least straighter than the idiot the Republicans have running for the Office of President of the United States. He knew he would take heat for his FISA vote, his change of heart on NAFTA and his slightly different tune on when and how we will be getting our soldiers out of Iraq just to name a few things that have jerked some of our collective chains on the left lately.

Dana Milbank was someone that I would listen to when he appeared almost nightly on MSNBC’s Countdown. Notice the past tense “was” in the previous sentence. After reading the following bullshit and bravado in his column linked above I will not be wasting my time listening to him run his yap any longer. Seems Dana doesn’t have a problem taking hearsay and making a column out of it, as witnessed by the following excerpt:

The 5:20 TBA turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls — just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door — just as they do for the actual president.

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”(emphasis mine)

Now, Robert Parry’s article at Consortium News has the following regarding the ‘quote’ Milbank used today:

However, other people who attended the caucus complained that Milbank had yanked the words out of context to support his “presumptuous” thesis, not to reflect what Obama actually was saying.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, said Obama’s comment was “in response to what one of the [House] members prefaced the question by,” a reference to the crowd of 200,000 that turned out to hear Obama speak last week in Berlin.

According to Clyburn, Obama “said, ‘I wish I could take credit for that, but I can’t. Because it’s not about me. It’s about America. It’s about the people of Germany and the people of Europe looking for a new hope, new relationships, as we go forward in the world.’ So, he expressly said that it’s not about me.”

A House Democratic aide sent an e-mail to Fox News saying, “Lots of people are reading the quote about Obama being a symbol and getting it wrong. His entire point of that riff was that the campaign IS NOT about him.

“The Post left out the important first half of the sentence, which was something along the lines of: ‘It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol …’”

I realize that a ‘column’ is a far different animal than a news story. It is opinion mixed with fact..or at least it’s supposed to be. As Parry points out, and if you read Milbanks column it should be quite evident, that the purpose of Milbanks column was to knock Obama down a peg or two and paint him as an arrogant..or as one of his co-workers called Obama, an “uppity” black man. It should be noted that the writer who called Obama uppidity is also an African American and he said this on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”.

Milbank comes off, in my opinion, as a whiny, petty, white man with a little bit of jealousy tossed in for good measure. His entire column is a nasty, negative ass-whipping of the Democrats presumptive nominee and the United States first African American Presidential Candidate that actually has a chance of winning in November. Dana seems to be doing his best WWF smackdown imitation with phrases like the following:

As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama’s biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris.

Some say the supremely confident Obama — nearly 100 days from the election, he pronounces that “the odds of us winning are very good” — has become a president-in-waiting. But in truth, he doesn’t need to wait: He has already amassed the trappings of the office, without those pesky decisions.

With polls daily, going wildly back and forth between Obama being in the lead and McCain closing in fast and leading in some key states..how exactly does ol Dana come to the conclusion that the election is ‘in the bag’ for Obama? If he has some inside info we don’t…it would be nice if the asshole would share it.

Robert Parry has a few choice words for Milbank and his co-workers at the Washington Post:

One has to wonder: Doesn’t Dana Milbank have any idea of the physical danger that surrounds the first African-American to have a serious chance to be elected President of the United States? Does Milbank really want to heighten the political pressure on Obama to take more chances with his personal safety than he already does?

Do Milbank and the Washington Post want to feed the irrational hatred that already swirls around Obama by portraying him as an “uppity” black man with the obvious subliminal message that might send to some angry white guy, like the fellow who went on a shooting rampage because he hated “liberals”?

Presumably, Milbank and the Post don’t want to add to the danger that Obama faces. It’s more likely that they simply couldn’t resist their reflexive disdain for people whom they consider challengers to the Washington Establishment.

In a nutshell, I think the last sentence tells us why Milbank has his panties in a wad: Obama challenges the Washington Establishment aka the Status Quo. This, to me, is a great thing to behold. Although I do consider Obama a politician at heart, he is far from being a Washington Establishment-kinda guy…at least not yet.

Parry also reminds us that Milbank has a knack for bitch-slapping any politician that is outside the “Washington Establishment”. Milbanks column last Saturday was devoted to demonizing Dennis Kucinich and the House Judiciary Committee hearing on George W. Bush’s abuses of presidential power which have been obvious to anyone that pays attention. From Parry’s article:

To read the column, you would never know that there actually is a strong case for believing that President Bush violated a significant number of international and domestic laws, the U.S. Constitution, and honorable American traditions, like George Washington’s prohibition against torture.

Instead, it was time to laugh at the peaceniks. Milbank opened by agreeing with a put-down from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, calling the session “an anger management class.” Milbank wrote: “House Democrats had called the session … to allow the left wing to vent its collective spleen.”

Milbank then insulted Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has introduced impeachment resolutions against Bush, by calling the Ohio Democrat “diminutive” and noting that Kucinich’s wife is “much taller” than he is.

What Kucinich’s height had to do with an issue as serious as abuses of presidential power was never made clear. What Milbank did make clear, through his ridicule and insults, was that the Washington Establishment takes none of Bush’s crimes and abuses seriously.

Milbank is a mean-spirited insider that evidently thinks BushCo hasn’t really done anything wrong in the last seven plus years. As someone that listened to him and paid attention I am now of the mindset that this mutha fucka is part of the general problem in DC and the MSM in particular. He wants the status quo to continue and Obama, if nothing else, signals that the status quo will come to a screeching halt if he is elected.

And I hope to hell Milbank as a seat in the front row when it all tumbles down around him and his fellow ‘insiders’ come January 21, 2009. I hope Obama is sincere in his ‘populist’ message. I hope to hell he plans on making sweeping changes in how business is conducted in DC. That will surely give Milbank and his ilk a lot to write about..or rather, whine about over the next four years.

And I for one…can’t fucking wait to see how it all plays out.

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lies, cover ups and secret prisons

investigative journalism by the mainstream, corporate controlled press is dead. but, do not despair- there are a few brave journalists with the good old fashioned desire to dig out the truth. unfortunately, they are the victims of smear campaigns and attempts at discrediting. larisa alexandrovna is one of those journalists. she digs and she reports- and this is what she gets in return:

“In response, Miller and his intelligence chief made 24/7 TV appearances slandering me.

Well, today, the NYT reports (but as usual does not credit) that KSM was tortured in Poland, but they don’t have the integrity to identify the facility by name:

“WASHINGTON — In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed“

The facility, this “makeshift prison in the north of Poland” is Stare Kiejkuty. The small airport right near it was used to bring in the detainees.”

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reality bites

i have been on a hiatus until recently- life has a way of getting its own way- and consequently, have been out of the loop. and, i have been a bit tired of late and not always on the top of my game- but even i honed in on this one:

associated press demands bloggers cease using excerpts

bush and brown dine with rupert murdoch

rupert murdoch appointed to ap board

if that doesn’t spell out where freedom of the press went, i really don’t know what does.

father’s day was this past weekend- and i want to go on record as saying i hate all holidays. no, i am not a killjoy- but every single holiday comes with a gift attached. it isn’t about celebrating- it’s about spending. i am beyond angry with my inlaws right now because they made a point to tell my sister-in-law that they didn’t think my husband was going to call for father’s day. why? why would he be such a horrible son? i have no idea but i think it’s because their card is late. i say tough sh**. my husband calls them for every single occasion and event and we send them something for every occasion and event. he goes and visits them once a year and they come here once a year. he talks to them weekly. beyond moving to florida, there isn’t much else he can do to share and be there. because it all boils down to an american holiday that morphed into yet another profit making venture.

meanwhile, i suppose it never occurred to my inlaws that there are thousands of dead fathers killed by american bombs and bullets. i am sure it never occurred to them that there are thousands of fathers- many innocent men locked away in the various secret prisons that are paid for by american tax dollars. i am positive they never gave it a thought that probably thousands of fathers are being tortured on a daily basis in the middle east at the directive of american orders. they were pretty lucky to have an over all healthy son who had some birth defects that were fixed when he was young. there are fathers who have buried children or have had to watch their children suffer the aftereffects of dirty bombs- used by american forces.

so, i am a bit angry that these typical, middle class americans spent the day canoing with their other child and her family after having ruined my husband’s day- all because of a capitalistic society who ruined what was supposed to be a day to honor the nation’s fathers. like many americans, they are content to not think too deeply or pay attention too closely- so as not to mar their fantasy of what life is supposed to be like. i don’t have that luxury. someone has to pay attention and think deeply. i look out into my new back yard with the wildflowers blowing in the breeze and the birds chirping like mad while a big fat bunny hops into the windbreak- and i have the luxury of peace. those millions of displaced fathers and mothers and families- those millions dead or maimed for life- they don’t have that luxury. and i don’t take it for granted. but millions in this country, like my inlaws,- do.

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