Is on CNN right now, and this is the second week in a row I have watched, and it really is a pretty damned good show.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.
Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!
We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.
Hot air and ill-informed banter
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.
It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.
They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.
Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.
We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.
I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!
Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?
Cole is on a roll !
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
Second rate reporter says what?
In after Baud. Damn.
The lights are all blinking red.
Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.
“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
El Cid
I was impressed. Instead of simply having a panel of Beltway and code phrase blowhards, they actually had participants and those with experience and knowledge (some) on the Israeli / Palestinian / Syrian negotiation situations, and it wasn’t some cartoon rehash of the usual fake narrative.
Dennis - SGMM
Thanks for the tip! Amazing; people who actually know something about the subject under discussion. A moderator who doesn’t talk over his guests. Who the hell does Zakaria think he is?
Nellcote
Amanpor elevates any show she’s on.
El Cid
Minor criticism: the visuals. The electronic backdrop behind each speaker is made to shrink and recede and it looks like the person is zooming toward the camera without changing size, sort of how they used to film car driving scenes by projecting on a screen behind the ‘drivers’.
kdaug
El Cid – Agreed. The set needs some work, or at minimum make the graphics move sideways instead of recede, but it is an impressive show nonetheless. Something I’d expect to see on PBS or CNN International, not the domestic version.
cbear
I loves me some Christianne Amanpour.
ThymeZone
Really. I saw the billboard, and I heard Zakaria say that Henry Kissinger would be a guest.
Click. Sorry, I don’t watch or listen to Henry Kissinger.
I don’t even really accept the idea that I share a species with that piece of shit.
I am open to explanations of how a show that has Kissinger on it can be “pretty damned good.”
Was it the recipes? Or the music?
Mary
I like getting a reasonably diverse selection of guests, especially when they’re not the usual insular American pundits. That doesn’t mean I treat every word out of their mouths as shining pearls of truth, of course.
Yes, the vertigo inducing backdrop has to go.
Justin
Looking evil directly in the eye is never a bad thing. If nothing else, you’ll remember the smell.
1jpb
Well, even with Hamilton out, I’d still rather watch F1, which is the best thing in the world.
By the way, I work construction, so that brings down my elitist score compared to most others who are huge F1 fans, and hate left turn only motor sports (or, rather than motor sports should I say “car racing,” to lower my score even further–I’ll just skip my noon latte to compensate.)
Rick Taylor
For those without tvs, it can be viewed online here.
g-rant
I sorta agree with TZ. Not just because Kissinger is a monster, but Zakaria has a lot to answer for for enabling the whole Iraq war thing. His foreign policy views aren’t that far from the status quo ante Bush. Not a step forward (but welcome post Bush).
Wilfred
Most of the people I hang out with think Zakaria is an asshole who owes his ‘popularity’ to being the token brown skinned Muslim who supports most of Bushco’s idiocy. His “Why do they hate us’ article ensured his place at the trough, mainly because he told his masters exactly what they wanted to hear.
cbear
I do. I watch him like a hawk, in the perpetual hope that one of my fellow human beings will take advantage of their proximity to his foul presence, leap on set and strangle him in his chair. I don’t want to miss that.
mrmobi
Agreed. But he is beneath contempt, a true monster, and a member of the previously worst American administration in our history.
The damage the man has done to our country is legion. Fuck him. Hard.
El Cid
Probably a lot of us judge these things on a relative sliding scale — if I think a CNN program is ‘okay’, that is in a universe of other major network programs, including PBS shows and Fux Nooz, and not against, say, BBC Newsnight or Talking Point or anything else which actually strains to achieve intellectual legitimacy.
Dennis - SGMM
I do, because he’s still influential among the Republicans. I’m not partial to Pacific Diamondback Rattlesnakes but I do watch them when they’re around.
mmc
I don’t know—one of the inaugural guests was Doug Feith. Zakaria said Doug was one of the smartest people he knew which means either he’s carrying water for the far right or he hangs out with a bunch of developmentally challenged baboons when he’s not on camera.
passerby
Rick Taylor Says:
For those without tvs, it can be viewed online here.
krusher
Durn, I wish I could afford more than basic cable.
OT, via Rumproast http://tinyurl.com/3houl5
Who’da thunk?
Leo
krusher: That link is awesome. Seriously.
The Moar You Know
Wow, just wow.
El Doh
Can you sink any lower than LGF saying you’re untrustworthy? LGF?!
Jake
Meanwhile, all kinds of stupid over at LittleGreenFootballs.
Jake
Yes, the principled folks over at LGF have been beating up on Obama all day over antisemitic blog posts on his campaign site. None of these are, mind you, posts that the campaign put together. But since everyone and anyone can post there, well, it should come as little surprise that he gets some nuts.
Ben Smith just linked to this, suggesting that it’s a reasonable way to characterize the community of Obama supporters. Ahem. No, it’s not. Think you.
ThePirate
Larry Johnson’s latest post literally says that, although he has not seen the Michelle Obama Death to Whitey video, “I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.”
Great moments in investigative journalism.
ThePirate
Larry Johnson’s latest post literally says that, although he has not seen the Michelle Obama Death to Whitey video, “I have spoken to two of my friends who are friends with those who watched the tape/dvd.”
Great moments in investigative journalism – perhaps the tape is actually in the posession of Kevin Bacon?
El Doh
Sounds perfect.
Make account on Obama site. Post anti-semitic, anti-whatever crap.
Make post on LGF, Free Republic, etc. condemning anti-semitic or anti-whatever post on Obama site, then proclaim that represents views of all Obama supporters.
Guilt by (extremely vague) association is fun!
Of course, that means McCain’s brief association with Hagee makes him uber-anti-semitic too…
rob!
that’s completely ridiculous.
NO WAY does Larry Johnson have two friends.
El Doh
SusanHu and Alegre? :)
lilysmom
Yes Dennis and Thyme Zone.
I think that Kissinger is a bona fide war criminal. There are Amercans dead in the ground because of this man, (spit), all in the name of aquiring power for Republicans. Never, ever forget that.
But, I liked the show.
Offering an alternative to the right wing nut job Israelie, soon to be Netanyahu, position is a good thing. Vote for Bibi. he’s good for Jews. Uh, yeah….not
Pug
Click. Sorry, I don’t watch or listen to Henry Kissinger.
If you had watched him, you would have seen Hank disagree with “my good friend”, John McCain, about negotiating with Iran and Syria. Hank’s for it. Apparently, so are the Israelis because they are negotiation with Syria right now.
Zakaria is one of those guys I watch and think, hey, this guy is smarter than me.
Kevin K.
In other odd news, one of their fellow anti-Obama bomb throwers linfar (of MyDD and HillaryIs44 “fame”) has been actively talking people out of promoting McCain or threatening to vote for him on the alegre-created HillarysVoice mailing list/Yahoo group. Here’s just one example:
If someone like linfar can turn around this quickly, that’s a pretty good sign.
John O
Saw the show this morning for the first time and was transfixed by the smart talk, lack of shouting, and generally intelligent transparently biased perspectives all around.
I’m OK with FZ. He’s been smarter and righter than most, and I don’t agree with anyone all the time about anything. At least he seems thoughtful, and he obviously has a pretty good grip on Middle Eastern affairs.
So, watch now. It’s too smart to stay on long.
calipygian
Its that kind of crack analysis and sourcing from LJ that has made the Bush Administration a credibility free zone.
LJ – not even good enough for government work.
Steve
Must disagree on “GPS”. I saw the first few minutes today and they were discussing Israel/Palestine. The relevant guests were Natan Sharansky, one of the world’s more ardent Zionists, and to provide “balance” Muslim Irshad Manji — who is pro Israel.
Sorry, it’s just another talking head show where the range of acceptable opinions runs the gamut from A to B.
mclaren
Fareed Zakaria is an ignorant incompetent fool who needs to be stripped naked, have his head shaved, have the words MURDERED ONE MILLION IRAQIS FOR NO REASON tattooed on his body, and then get run naked through the streets while all the parents of the 4,000 dead marines and the 20,000 hopelessly brain-damaged and mutilated and hideously burned American soldiers hurl garbage at him.
The Fareed Zakaria should be tarred, feathred, and not just run out of Washington on a rail, but stripped of his citizenship and deported…to Iraq, where he can explain why “The Iraq war is necessary. We cannot afford to lose.”
This ignorant sociopathic asshole assured us for 5 long years that the Iraq war was a wonder-working miracle of democracy-creation, that Iraq would soon flower with civil society and politesse, that the Iraqis were “in favor of the occupation” that the violence would soon end, that America was “doing the right thing” by burning Iraqi women and children alive with white phosophorus munitions, that the Iraqis adored us for blasting “collateral damage” civilians with depleted uranium munitions when we took out insurgents, that the razing of Fallujah as “a step forward,” that we were forever “about to turn the corner” to a brighter and more wonderful Iraq.
Listen up, folks. After WW II, we tried and hung people who were responsible for the murder of a million innocent civilians. Fareed Zakariah, along with his ignorant incompetent billionaire sociopath buddy Tom “The Next Six Months Is the Critical Period” Friedman, is responsible for the deaths of a million innocent civilians in Iraq.
If there were justice in the world, Fareed Zakaria would be tried by The Hague for aiding and abetting mass murder and instigating crimes against humanity, and he’d be hung by the neck until dead.
The Other Steve
I’m really surprised by the negativity here. I’m impressed with Zakaria and thought that he shows a certain level of thought beyond most of the other pundits. He certainly does not appear to be a right-wing lapdog.
bago
Doctor Henry Killinger.
mclaren
Fareed Zakaria, like his piece-of-shit buddy Tom “Wal Mart Is Wonderful Even Though They Just Sued One of Their Brain-Damaged Employees To Recover Her Court-Ordered Health Care Judgment” Friedman, is a piece of human garbage. Zakaria “does not appear to be a right-wing lapdog” because he’s done a superb job of covering up and backing away from his foursquare support of the insane Iraq war of aggression.
Assholes like Michael Ledeen and Fareed Zakaria and Tom Friedman now either say outright “I was never in favor of the invasion” (it’s a god damned lie), or these dishonest douchebags conveniently drop the subject entirely, giving us all the false impression that they never had anything to do with instigating and promoting and supporting the Iraq War of aggression.
Don’t believe me?
Here are the facts about Fareed Zakaria ardent support of the Iraq war of aggression.
Not enough for you?
More details about Zakaria’s fanatical boosterism for the illegal and genocidal Iraq war of aggression, dating all the way back to 2001.
“In State of Denial, Bob Woodward delivers this sparkling scoop: Fareed Zakaria attended a secret gathering convened by Paul Wolfowitz in late 2001. The task at hand, according to a fellow participant, was to draft “a forceful summary of the best pro-war arguments” which became a blueprint for the Bush Administration’s PR campaign. Although he was a columnist at Newsweek and was editor of the magazine’s international edition, Zakaria didn’t attend in a journalistic capacity—in fact, he signed a non-disclosure agreement beforehand.”
Gee. Mr. “urbane voice of reason” Fareed Zakaria didn’t tell you about that one on his wonderfully erudite TV show, did he? Gosh, I wonder why.
Maybe because Fareed Zakaria is a scumbag who has gotten rich by being not just insanely savagely maniacally wrong about the Iraq war, but one of the architects of the entire Iraq invasion policy, along with Perle and Wolfowitz.
I don’t usually use language like this, but this point has to be made forcefully enough to wake everyone up. Fareed Zakaria is not just an ignorant incompetent asshole, he’s one those piece-of-shit motherfuckers who systematically planned and instigated and boosted and proselytized and agitated for the Iraq invasion back in 2001, long before anyone dreamed up any fantasies about WMDs or yellowcake uranium.
Could DeMuth quickly put together a skilled group to produce a report for the president, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice and Tenet?
…
DeMuth recruited a dozen people. He later said they agreed to serve only “if I promised it would all be kept secret.”
Included in the group were Bernard Lewis, a Cheney favorite and a scholar of Islam who had written extensively on Middle Eastern tensions with the West; Mark Palmer a former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary who specialized in dictatorships; Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International; Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at SAIS; James Q. Wilson, a professor and specialist in human morality and crime; and Ruel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Middle East expert. Rumsfeld assigned his consultant and general fix-it man Steve Herbits, to participate. Herbits, who had devised the original idea and encouraged Wolfowitz to push it, called the group “Bletchley II.”
…
“The general analysis was that Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers came from, were the key, but the problems there are intractable…”
…
“Saddam Hussein was different, weaker, more vulnerable. DeMuth said they had concluded that “Baathism is an Arab form of fascism transplanted to Iraq.”
…
“We concluded that a confrontation with Saddam was inevitable. He was a gathering threat – the most menacing, active, and unavoidable threat. We agreed that Saddam would have to leave the scene before the problem would be addressed.” That was the only way to transform the region.
Copies of the memo, straight from the Neoconservative Playbook, were hand-delivered to the war cabinet members. In some cases, it was given a SECRET classification. Cheney was pleased with the memo, and it had a strong impact on President Bush, causing him to focus on the “malignancy” of the Middle East. Rice found it “very, very persuasive.”
[From State Of Denial by Bob Woodward]
Fareed Zakaria wasn’t just some reporter who happened to like the Iraq invasion after it got started.
Fareed Zakaria was one of the assholes in the room with Wolfowitz and Perle — Zakaria was one of the assholes who helped create the idea of invading Iraq, and who vigorously and forcefully helped foment the policy of invading Iraq from inside the West Wing, back in 2001.
“Because the United States cannot afford to lose the war on terror, it must stay in Iraq.” — Fareed Zakaria, 2005.
Notice that this ignorant asshole, an editor at Newsweek and a supposed “expert” on international affairs, is so god-damned stupid and uninformed that he equates “staying in Iraq” with “the war on terror”…even though Iraqis had nothing to do with 9/11! There wasn’t a single Iraqi among the 19 hijackers on 9/11. Not one. They were Saudis, not Iraqis.
But this ignorant piece-of-shit dumb fuck Zakaria tells us we have to stay in Iraq — because “we cannot afford to lose the war on terror.” What terror? All those Iraqi terrorists who attacked us on 9/11? THERE WERE NO IRAQI TERRORISTS AMONG THE 9/11 HIJACKERS. 15 of the 19 hijackers responsible for 9/11 were Saudis. So why didn’t we invade Saudi Arabia?
Fareed Zakaria is a hopelessly ignorant and dismally incompetent fool. Don’t believe me, believe the real experts — believe Richard Clarke, the former head of counterterrorism for the U.S. government:
“Someone should have to pay in some way for the decisions that they made to mislead the American people,” said Clarke. He suggested that “some sort of truth and reconciliation commission” might be appropriate because, he said, we can’t “let these people back into polite society”:
CLARKE: Well, there may be some other kind of remedy. There may be some sort of truth and reconciliation commission process that’s been tried in other countries, South Africa, Salvador and what not, where if you come forward and admit that you were in error or admit that you lied, admit that you did something, then you’re forgiven. Otherwise, you are censured in some way.
Now, I just don’t think we can let these people back into polite society and give them jobs on university boards and corporate boards and just let them pretend that nothing ever happened when there are 4,000 Americans dead and 25,000 Americans grievously wounded, and they’ll carry those wounds and suffer all the rest of their lives.
And who is Clarke talking about?
I’ll tell you who he’s talking about. Richard Clarke is talking about the liars and sociopaths in that room plotting to foment an invasion of Iraq back in 2001, the thugs who “should have to pay in some way for the decisions that they made to mislead the American people” — Richard Clarke is talking about Fareed Zakaria.
That’s who was in that room back in 2001 helping dream up the Iraq invasion and figuring out ways to mislead the American people into supporting the whole insane project of invading Iraq — Fareed Zakaria was one of the guys in that room with Perle and Wolfowitz back in 2001.
Fareed Zakaria was one of the loudest voices among the chickenhawks who screamed and beat the table for an invasion of Iraq right after 9/11…even though there was NO connection whatsoever between Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers.
Are you still “impressed with Zakaria”?
Still think “he shows a certain level of thought beyond most of the other pundits”?
Yeah, sure he does — “Because the United States cannot afford to lose the war on terror, it must stay in Iraq.” — Fareed Zakaria, 2005. Amazing level of thought, isn’t it? What deep insight. This Zakaria guy’s a real mastermind of realpolitik, isn’t he? Saudi terrorists attack us, so we have to invade Iraq — that’s “a certain level of thought beyond most of the other pundits,” isn’t it?
Still think Zakaria “certainly does not appear to be a right-wing lapdog”?
Zakaria wasn’t just a right-wing lapdog, he was a rabid right-wing pit bull pounding the table for war with Iraq in the same room where Perle and Wolfowitz were plotting the goddamn Iraq invasion in 2001..
You know…I’m not angry at you, and I’m not angry at people like you. I’m enraged by how well Zakaria and guys like him have lied their way out of responsibility for the Iraq war. Because you’ve been duped, buddy. You’ve been scammed. Fareed Zakaria has scammed you good. He vehemently agitated for the Iraq invasion back in 2001, he boosted it with fanatical ardour right up 2006, when it became obvious it was so completely lost there was no way he could regain his hopelessly tarnished reputation… So now, Fareed Zakaria has decided to reinvent himself. He’s not talking about the fact that he was one of the guys in the room helping agitate for the Iraq invasion back in 2001. Zakaria isn’t talking about how he beat his fist on the table time and time again and howled for continuing the war from 2003, 2004, 2005 all the way up to 2006. Zakaria has magically whisked all his warmongering under the table and now, guess what?
Fareed Zakaria has remade himself as a wonderful peacenik “multipolar world peak oil” guy.
Well, you’ve been conned. And John Cole has been conned.
Zakaria has run a game on both of you.
You are looking at this urbane well-spoken guy and you’re seeing a cultured reasonable person…not Heinrich Himmler hiding out in Paraguay.
But guess what?
This asshole Fareed Zakaria pushed for an invasion of Iraq back in 2001 in the room where Perle and Wolfowitz and all the other assholes were plotting that war, and Zakaria pushed for an Iraq invasion hard.
The he lied and lied and lied and lied and lied supporting the war for 5 long years, telling his gullible “Newsweek readers that the war was going great, and we were winning, and victory was just around the corner, and “America cannot afford to lose” and all the rest of that horseshit.
You know what?
I agree with Richard Clarke.
I think ignorant incompetent assholes like Fareed Zakaria should not be allowed back into polite society.
“I just don’t think we can let these people back into polite society and give them jobs on university boards and corporate boards and just let them pretend that nothing ever happened when there are 4,000 Americans dead and 25,000 Americans grieviously wounded, and they’ll carry those wounds and suffer all the rest of their lives.” — Richard Clarke, 2008
“These people” — what people?
I can tell you what people.
People like Fareed Zakaria who fomented the entire delusion that Iraq was behind 9/11, the people like Fareed Zakaria who agitated for this insane war back in 2001, the people like Fareed Zakaria who lied us into this goddamn mess, and the people like Fareed Zakaria who lied to keep us in that quagmire for 5 long grim meathook years.
Kevin K.
So, ummm, how do you really feel?
ThirdGorchBro
bago, where is your Magic Murder Bag?
mrmobi
Great rant, McLaren. But next time, can you put some more emotion into it?
Seriously though, thanks, I didn’t know most of that about Zakaria.
HyperIon
Zakaria IS smart. but he is also part of the problem as McLaren details (over and over…please, get an editor.)
but as Zakaria is brown, his opinion could be deemed worthy back in 2001 only because he said things BushCo liked. he DOES understand how clueless most americans are regarding foreign affairs but his ideological bent is too conservative for me.
this “failure to disclose” is becoming a BIG problem in many areas these days. transparency is one of those things everyone says they are in favor of until it comes time to disclose previous and current affiliations…
has Zakaria ever addressed his participation in wolfie’s meetings?
Fledermaus
I will defer on the smartness or no of FZ – I haven’t seen it, he’s a young guy who got good grades at international relations school or whatever where he learned to spout all the appropriate opinions required to be considered serious. For the last 40 years there has been no significant difference in foreign policy positions of dems and the GOP. Remember Kerry ran in 04 on running the Iraq war smarter, not ending the occupation.
Things have changed in the last couple of years but that’s only because the GOP has gone fully around the bend.
mclaren
Hyperion asked a cogent question: “has Zakaria ever addressed his participation in wolfie’s meetings?”
Yes. Zakaria has addressed his participation in the crucial planning sessions presided over by Wolfowitz in 2001, which laid the groundwork for the Iraq invasion.
Zakaria has (predictably) lied about his participation in Wolfowitz’s Bletchely II meethings.
Zakaria now claims that he had no idea that these meetings would result in an invasion of Iraq. Zakaria now claims that he thought the 2001 Bletchley II meetings were “just brainstorming sessions.”
“Zakaria today makes the unlikely claim that he didn’t understand the purpose of Wolfowitz’s intimate gathering. He says he mistook it for a `brainstorming session.’ Robert Kaplan, the only other day-job journalist present, was asked by the Times if that contention was credible. `No,’ he replied, `that’s not possible.'”
I leave it to the discerning observer to decide whether the Ivy-League-educated Fareed Zakaria:
(a) was so stupid that he had no idea of the purpose of Wolfwotiz’s 2001 meeting; or…
(b) Zakaria is lying out his ass.
Betowess
I am glad to find this exchange of information. I for one, was disgusted by Zakaria’s writings in Newsweek advocating the Iraq war. He is no journalist, but followed the most convenient political wind… which was delusional and somewhat responsible for the carnage. Sad that so many fell for his misinformation. It was a bit like Vietnam as Margaret Tuchman wrote, when cmpetent military advisers said no way, but a few bellicose advisers carried the day with their delusions of "easy" grandeur.
Interestingly, many folks don’t know that Ho Chi Mein had a high regard of the U.S before the war because he had trained with US Rangers during the World War II.
And to me Zakaria is an Iraq copy of those incompetent "know it alls" who counciled that Vietnam would be a cake walk.
medotv
Fuck You Fareed Zakaria! and Fuck your misleading GPS
Fuck Fareed Zakaria..and fuck his screwed-up GPS that tells us that Gamal Mubarak, son of- the American made dictator- Mubarak will be our next President.
and FUCK YOU Fareed Zakaria if you think you had your own shot by promoting a thieve who is steeling on a daily basis from the egyptian people their bread and freedom!
Fuck you Fareed Zakaria when you have never asked him: "How long you punch of thugs will stay in power?"
Fuck you Gamal Mubarak if you come here to the white house trying to promote yourself as the new Egyptian leader.
Fuck all the hypocrites in Obama administration who gave this opportunity to the son of the oldest dictator in the middle east (80+ year old), after all this rhetoric about a new era of Democracy and freedom.
Fuck anyone who saw Gamal Mubarak walking our American streets without spitting in his ugly face, crying out loud "you are not welcome here, son of Mubarak".
and Fuck me if I listen to this clown Fareed Zakaria again!