Desperate NeoCon Turns to Porn

What else could he do? As former editorial page editor of the Washington Times, a Visiting Senior Fellow in National Security Communications at the Heritage Foundation, Executive Vice President at the Washington Edelman public relations firm, co-host of KCRW's Left, Right & Center, and frequent contributor on MSNBC, it was Tony Blankley's mission to provide talking points against Obama on "the morning after" that glorious speech in Berlin.

So there he was last Friday, on NPR -- where the audience is often more informed than most.

Worse yet, he was on The Diane Rehm Show -- which earned the honor of being the only other public broadcast, along with Now with Bill Moyers, to so threaten the Bush administration that Rove's buddy Kenneth Tomlinson, Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, authorized a secret investigation into their liberal bias.

Sitting next to Blankley was David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief for Mother Jones Magazine, co-author with Michael Isikoff of Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. Worse again, Corn is also the author of the 2003 book daringly titled The Lies of George W. Bush, now and forever more a must-read for those who want to understand what the hell happened.

On Blankley's other side was Jeanne Cummings from Politico, with whom he shares an awkward history. In 1997, she won a National Press Club Award for her groundbreaking coverage in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution of Newt Gingrich, the lobbyists and think tanks that backed him, and the House Ethics Committee investigations that culminated in his downfall. For the seven years leading up to the January 1997 reprimand and $300,000 fine by the Committee, it was Tony Blankley, as Gingrich's Press Secretary, putting the spin on his deeds, until it was clearly time to jump ship.

Blankley was surrounded -- by intelligent, attentive people -- who had already proven they were on to his bull. The only saving grace for him was that at least Diane was out of town, and Susan Page from USA Today, sitting in for her, was far less likely to confront him. Ironically, it was her innocence that pointed out his smut. HA HA HA HA. But I digress. . .

So, what could he possibly get away with saying?

After a brief, unavoidable admission that McCain was fortunate that Obama drew so much media attention and that McCain didn't get more coverage than he did that week, with his golfing with Old Man Bush and overheated rhetoric against Obama, it was time for Blankley to do his duty for the NeoCons.

Lacking legitimate logic, he aimed low, shifting into a slimy salacious suggestion: "On the other hand, I'm not convinced that the fellatic coverage that the media is giving Obama will in the long term. . ."

Susan Page interrupted. "I don't know what that word means."

Uh-oh. How did that happen! Nobody ever says that!! Oh, no! A light was shining on the naughty word!

"Oh, based on the word 'fellacio'. I believe we used to talk about the media giving wet kisses to... media," he stumbled. "It's got worse with Obama."

[NOTE THE PRISSY MISPRONUNCIATION OF THE WORD FELLATIO (WordPerfect/Oxford University Press Dictionary: noun, oral stimulation of a man's penis, from the Latin fellare "to suck") -- so condescending and elitist, from a man who just accused the press of having a whore-ish blowjob relationship with Senator Barack Obama].

David Corn tweaked "Oooh."

Jeanne Cummings stuttered but quickly gained her composure: "I, I, I'm going to stand up for my industry here."

And soon after a caller got through and nailed Blankley for his crude insults, forcing Blankley to apologize.

But those of us who heard, got it. The conservative pundits are stuck when it comes to Obama, and the only thing they know how to do at those times is play dirty.

And when those white male pundits are threatened by an intelligent black man, they apparently fall into to old jealousies and fears, revealing their true impotent selves.

I'm reminded of another black man who had earned a position of leadership in a world usually run by whites: Sheriff Bart (played by Cleavon Little) in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Introducing himself to the townspeople of Rock Ridge, he stands before them and reaches into his pants, "Excuse me while I whip this out" -- And the crowd screams and pretends to look away, as he simply retrieves the documentation showing his new assignment as their Sheriff from his pocket.

Oh, such simple people we are.

So, Mr. Blankley, let us put it this way -- in the context you have chosen -- the language you understand:

Senator Barack Obama IS bigger, stronger, firmer, more long-lasting, and yes, a lot more fun, and even worth bragging about.

Oh, and I'm simply talking about his policies. . .

So, move over. There are a lot of us -- both here in the U.S. and, yes, across the world -- who are quite ready for this kind of good time for all.

May Day Revisited

Five years ago, while we were dumbfounded and distracted by Mr. Bush putting on a costume and posing and bragging on a floating stage, Seymour Hersh put before us what was perhaps the most important story the American people have ever missed: that the intelligence that brought the United States into Iraq had been supplied via consciously duplicitous machinations within the new Office of Special Plans, under Paul Wolfowitz and Abram Shulsky, both former students at the University of Chicago of the political philosopher Leo Strauss, the Father of Neoconservatism.

In his New Yorker article "Selective Intelligence", posted online that first week in May 2003, Hersh revealed to us that many of the political appointees within the Defense Department were guided by Strauss’s underlying principle that "deception is the norm in political life":

"Robert Pippin, the chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at Chicago and a critic of Strauss, told me, 'Strauss believed that good statesmen have powers of judgment and must rely on an inner circle. The person who whispers in the ear of the King is more important than the King. If you have that talent, what you do or say in public cannot be held accountable in the same way.' Another Strauss critic, Stephen Holmes, a law professor at New York University, put the Straussians’ position this way: 'They believe that your enemy is deceiving you, and you have to pretend to agree, but secretly you follow your own views.' Holmes added, 'The whole story is complicated by Strauss’s idea—actually Plato’s—that philosophers need to tell noble lies not only to the people at large but also to powerful politicians.'"

Did you catch that? "NOBLE LIES".

Because we can't handle the truth -- or they can't handle us knowing the truth.

Strauss, uncomfortable with people, believed it was necessary for the elite group of statesmen to maintain their leadership and control the masses.

And he taught that the greatest tool for control is FEAR. He also taught a simple, specific structure for that Fear.

First, there must be an Enemy - an Enemy that's big, and Enemy that's getting bigger and more dangerous -- in fact, the best is an Enemy that presents a build up to the great battle between Good and Evil.

Then, the people must be guided into structures that provide identity and rules of behavior, as well as insure obedience and loyalty: RELIGION and PATRIOTISM.

With those tools, the people are too busy wallowing in paranoia, self-righteousness, and the bipolar condition of outer arrogance and inner doubt, to ever see clearly what is actually happening in their world.

When there is also a media working with the same influences, owned by fewer and fewer entities, all fighting for greater audience share, ownership and power, then the leaders can proceed to further entrench their long-term dominance, both at home and abroad.

Which leads full-circle back to May Day 2003, when Americans took the bait, and celebrated the "Mission Accomplished". We just didn’t understand at the time that the Mission that was accomplished was not ending the threatening power of Saddam Hussein. It was getting us to swallow that bait: that we were the very good guys going after the very bad guys and saving the world -- in the name of God and Country.

When in fact, we were just the foolish puppets of arrogant and greedy liars.

Now, in 2008, we bear the consequences -- with polluted imports, wasteful contractors, impossible debt, lost jobs and homes, shameful dishonor, and a future of yet more kharma to come.

While the written word, carefully explaining in depth the truth that should have made us rise up and stop these Masters of Greed and Destruction, remains quietly shelved in Archives.

Now what?

Now that you know, we know, I know, we have a responsibility to pay attention.

We must study recent history, acknowledge mistakes, demand accountability, and respond strongly to the newest Ignoble lies - that Iran is a threat, that the primaries are going smoothly and our votes are counted, and that we will soon be rid of Mr. Bush and his ilk--

Listen, read, and talk about it – with any and every one, every day. Because it matters.

Then we May live to celebrate a better May Day.

***

Cartoon by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, 05/03/07.

Know Your NeoCon Attack Dogs

“His presence here has never contributed to Turkish-American relations, and it never will. If we want to address the reasons for anti-Americanism, Edelman must be issue one. As long as Edelman stays in Turkey, the chill wind disturbing bilateral relations will last.”

In his March 17, 2005 column, Turkish journalist Ibrahim Karagul also called U.S. Ambassador Eric S. Edelman “the least-liked and trusted American ambassador in Turkish history” and a man who “acts more like a colonial governor than an ambassador.”

It is this same Eric S. Edelman who recently took it upon himself to overstep Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and reply personally to Senator Clinton’s letter to Gates requesting information on contingency plans for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq with such an attack that she felt it necessary to take his reply to the press.

Back in 2003, Edelman, who had spent the previous two years in Vice President Cheney’s office as Principal Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs, developing the reasoning for invading Iraq, was sent to Turkey, arriving shortly after Turkey had decided to not allow the U.S. to attack Iraq from the North through Turkey.

Turkey had spent decades in battle with Kurdish rebels, a party called the PKK that demanded Kurdish independence, with close to 40,000 dead. But their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, had been captured and tried in 1999, and had undergone a change of heart, apologizing for the violence and calling for peaceful solutions. Turkey did not want to be a part of the U.S. war.

With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and its support of the Kurds, Turkey soon found itself again in battle with the PKK, whose members suddenly were re-armed with weapons made available by the U.S.

Today Turkey has 140,000 troops at the border of Northern Iraq and has the United States’ commitment to help fight the PKK, backed up by Lockheed Martin contracts for more weaponry for Turkey.

And Edelman and the other Neocons state these wars will not end soon. It is just as they want it. After all, Edelman, like Scooter Libby, was one of the very special group of Neocons who were commissioned in 1992 by then Defense Secretary Cheney to write the infamous Defense Planning Guidance with Paul Wolfowitz and (now U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations) Zalmay Khalilzad. This document proclaimed a change in U.S. foreign policy, moving away from containment and towards preemptive strike of potential rivals for world power.

It was a response to Bush 1's retreat from regime change in Iraq, and while Clinton was President, the group of intellectual warriors reappeared as the Project for the New American Century in 1997, complete with a periodical, The Weekly Standard, edited by William Kristol, and think tanks, The American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest manufacturer of weapons, provides sizeable incomes for its investors and friends, whose political theories conveniently require wars without end, rearming and rearming. And so there are men like Edelman who thrive by stirring things up.

Bush Commutes Libby (And Hopes Someone Will Do the Same for Him)

Well, so much for "Rule of Law."

Scooter Libby deserves prison. He is no scapegoat.

Though it's clear that Libby didn't act alone with the Plame leak and in thwarting its investigation, he is no innocent who made the mistake of following orders rather than listening to his better nature.

Those "years of excellent public service" were spent plotting and acting on undemocratic, world-domineering policies.

Is there no one is Washington with any historical perspective?

I. Scooter Libby has always been at the forefront of aggressive neoconservative policy.

In 1992, Libby, along with former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and the current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, wrote a “Defense Planning Guidance” report, commissioned by then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

This DPG called for the U.S. to claim its authority as the world superpower, to intimidate rivals for power, to bypass the United Nations as needed, to build more weapons to ensure global military dominance, and to strike pre-emptively against those who threaten U.S. interests anywhere in the world.

It was shockingly unethical, bullying and began the end of Americans-as-good-guys. It was supposedly shelved after its embarrassingly heartless approach to the world was leaked.

But in 1997 it resurfaced, only slightly edited, as the Statement of Principles of the Project for a New American Century, signed by Libby, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, Elliot Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad and more.

Though PNAC officially closed in 2006, its personnel and policies are still at work, though less visible, through such organizations as the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, the Weekly Standard and, yes, throughout the Bush/Cheney White House and Cabinet agencies.

P.S. From David Corn's response: "The foundation of a democratic judicial system is that the sentence fits the crime. In this instance, the commutation fits the administration."