God, this is depressing:
There’s room to criticize the administration’s response to the crisis, most notably DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s idiotic insistence that “the system worked.” But the idea that the president was somehow supposed to stop the underwear bomber based on vague intelligence of an increased terrorism risk over the holidays is unreasonable.
Here is Janet Napolitano’s exact quote:
Once this incident occurred, everything went according to clockwork, not only sharing throughout the air industry, but also sharing with state and local law enforcement. Products were going out on Christmas Day, they went out yesterday, and also to the industry to make sure that the traveling public remains safe. I would leave you with that message. The traveling public is safe. We have instituted some additional screening and security measures, in light of this incident, but, again, everyone reacted as they should. The system, once the incident occurred, the system worked.
Tell me howanything she said there is controversial or wrong or “idiotic.” She isn’t in charge of the CIA. Or the FBI. Or Schiphol airport. Or the NCTC.
Napolitano’s only mistake is giving the GOP an easily repeated lie/talking point, not for saying anything wrong. And for the record, you don’t even need to do anything to let the GOP’s bullshit factory come up with an easily repeated lie or talking point- these are the folks who have managed to turn ACORN into SPECTRE and end of life counseling into death panels.
Yes, I know she walked it back a few days later. But that is a commentary on the effectiveness of the wurlitzer and the GOP puke funnel and the willingness of our village media to ask how high when the Republicans say jump. Not on the accuracy of Napolitano’s original comment.
Cat Lady
He’s got his “facts” and he’s sticking to them by golly. As someone here so insightfully said, the epitaph of this country will be “killed by a narrative arc”.
Jay C.
Amsterdam’s aiport is called “Schiphol”, John — otherwise, amen……
Brian J
More importantly, has Andrew Sullivan resigned from The Atlantic yet? Every day that he’s still there is a big slap in the face to our troops…or something.
donovong
Blaming Napolitano is simply the latest and greatest “shiny new object” for these putzes – and I am lumping Sullivan into that group.
Somehow I am confident that Obama really gives damn what these wankers say, and I take great comfort in that.
Punchy
That’s some serious blockquote FAIL
Brian J
@donovong:
This.
After all, there’s virtually nothing substantial about the criticism these ninnies are throwing out. In a week, it’ll be something new but something as equally ineffective. Why would he get upset over something that has no effect on his presidency?
Alex S.
Heh, I didn’t even know that Napolitano’s “the system worked” included that little qualifier “after the incident”. Lazy me, for not checking the media. And anyway, why do I have to check the media? Isn’t the media supposed to do the checking?
kay
@Alex S.:
I’m getting better. I went right to the transcript. It saves time.
Maude
@Alex S.: They’re too busy checking themselves out in the mirror.
Jim
@Alex S.:
“After the the incident” took up too many characters on twitter, so Jake and Chuck and Dave and Chip would have no way of knowing about it.
demkat620
Because shut up. That’s why.
BC
The media just picks up on what “people are saying.” It’s how the Republicans get their talking points out – they all start saying the same thing, using the same words, and no one fact checks them except during campaigns. At some point the media needs to understand they are being used, but right now they get all defensive when you point out that they just repeat what they’ve been told and don’t take the time to see the context. See: Al Gore said he invented the internet. Etc. Etc.
John Thullen
The GOP and al Qaeda puke into the same funnel.
smiley
Anonymous comment in the local paper today:
To quote John, “…that is a commentary on the effectiveness of the wurlitzer and the GOP puke funnel…”
Incertus
@demkat620:
Also. Too.
Comrade Jake
Have you guys heard that now even several Democrats are calling for her head? I’m just curious.
DonBoy
I always think of a Daily Show report, about 5 years ago so it could have been Colbert or Corddry, about some inoffensive person doing something or other, featuring this line: “If she wasn’t evil, could we quote her this far out of context?”
Comrade Jake
I’m also curious as to when using a word twice in a single sentence qualifies as “insistence”. That bar would appear to be a fairly low bar. See, I insist!
El Cid
Look, they really, really want to pee their pants, they really want to be able to blame Obama for it, and they don’t care how lazy or stupid they have to be to do it, either.
jeffreyw
The republicans don’t have to ask, let one stroll to a mic stand and the folks at home are thinking by accident they tuned into an ESPN joke reel featuring clips from a one legged ass kicking contest.
JD Rhoades
@smiley:
You know, every year, the WH solicits Christmas tree ornaments from citizens and every time there’s a Democratic President, someone finds some objectionable ornament–sent in by someone out there in America.
Would it be irresponsible to speculate about a conspiracy?
HRA
I questioned JN’s comment of the “system worked” in another thread here. I did not see the full context of her backtrack on the comment. I am hoping it is a lesson learned. We all learn from our mistakes.
The story now is the president knew about a possible attack during the holidays on December 22. This is the one that really gets my bp up. As far as I can see from the news, he did not know who, what, where, or when. This is news? Counting down to when they start wailing about needing those color alerts.
Chat Noir
@Jim: And Chuckles reported last night on the NBC Nightly News that the whole national security issue is going to hinder passing healthcare reform in January since the White House can’t multi-task.
SteveinSC
I would like to see a picture, or at least a block diagram of this
It must be a marvel to behold, kind of like a reverse entropy machine. In this factory, objects fall upwards against gravity, glasses of water spontaneously get hotter, the more you use a battery, the more charge it gets, cut taxes and revenue increases, torture people and you get reliable intel. Reality goes in and bullshit comes out.
MikeJ
I think Obama should nominate DeMint for head of the TSA. No need for anybody to vote to confirm him though.
Zach
I suppose you can say the “everything worked like clockwork” bit sounds bad. Ridge effectively said the same thing after the shoebombing attack and during the anthrax attack, but didn’t put it so clumsily.
The really stupid attack against Napolitano is criticizing her for saying this didn’t appear to be part of a larger plot. Idiots at NR are decrying her for not recognizing the scope of Al Qaeda’s existential threat or something. Her point was that people should keep flying because there wasn’t any evidence of additional underwear bombers in the near future, not that it wasn’t a bonafide attack by a broader terror network.
jwb
@Chat Noir: “And Chuckles reported last night on the NBC Nightly News that the whole national security issue is going to hinder passing healthcare reform in January since the
White Housemedia can’t multi-task.”Fixed.
smiley
What do you know, right on cue (also from today’s newspaper):
Nigeria is in the Middle East now.
Alex S.
@kay:
Yes, good idea. There is a business model somewhere in there.
@Maude:
@Jim:
So true…..
jwb
@Zach: Does anyone really believe that it matters at all what Napolitano said? The goopers were bound and determined to exploit this and if she hadn’t made “the system worked” comment, they would have just found some other part of her statement (or some other statement) to exploit. That’s how the goopers work.
donovong
@Zach:
The really stupid attack against Napolitano is criticizing her for saying this didn’t appear to be part of a larger plot. Idiots at NR are decrying her for not WETTING HER PANTS, CRYING FOR HER MOMMY AND STARTING A WAR AGAINST YEMEN.
Fixed.
The Grand Panjandrum
I’m just glad the 9/11 hijackers didn’t castrate themselves simultaneously or we would have REALLY, really been in a world of shit. Lieberman would have called for martial law and his buddy Dick would have obliged.
MikeJ
Even worse, if she had said, the system *didn’t* work they would have been all over her, pointing out that nobody was killed, saying she was slandering the brave men and women of our armed forces and she hates america.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@donovong:
At times like this I am deeply grateful that we live in a Republic with a representative form of indirect democracy, rather than a direct democracy. Off course I didn’t feel that way 4-6 years ago, so that street goes both ways.
fraught
“PUKE FUNNEL” Ah, something to muse on as I listen to the opera this afternoon.
The Dangerman
I’m about to the point that there should be some regulation in the public interest.
After all, when I get on a plane, I know the pilot is certified.
When I go into a McDonald’s, I know the establishment has been inspected.
When I read anything from the 4th Estate, I’d welcome knowing who is and who is not a bullshit artist. How about we call it a BJ Seal of Approval?
jwb
@MikeJ: “Even worse, if she had said, the system didn’t work they would have been all over her, pointing out that nobody was killed, saying she was slandering the brave men and women of our armed forces and she hates america.”
I’m sure you are right. The goopers love to find situations and turn them into binaries where they can attack it from either direction. It’s their favorite trick and I’m surprised that people haven’t generally caught on to it.
FlipYrWhig
I heard that Janet Napolitano said she “invented” the internet.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Alex S.:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
We’re having to relearn this one the hard way. Either that, or its “Romanes eunt domus” for us.
jwb
@FlipYrWhig: Why does JN hate america?
Comrade Darkness
In all future press conferences, every sentence by Napolitano should be preceded by: “AND I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO MISQUOTE ME, but . . . ” Double down on the Wurlitzer to at least get the satisfaction of grinding it out into the nerves of the stenographers.
Brian J
@MikeJ:
On a semi-serious note, why doesn’t Obama start doing something like this? If someone like Joe Wilson is going to piss and moan that stimulus money is being wasted, why doesn’t Obama create some sort of task force and nominate him as the head to make sure the money is being used in non-fraudulent ways? If he accepts, he either has to take the work seriously, or he can be fired. And if he doesn’t accept, he’ll be revealed as little more than a complainer. Back motherfuckers like him right into a corner, I say.
FlipYrWhig
@HRA:
Every time you see a quote that might be upsetting, try to find the fuller statement. (I got a lot of practice with this whenever I heard someone say that Obama had disparaged the public option.)
At some point “taken out of context” became a punchline, and at that same point it became justifiable for jackasses to take things out of context, because fighting about what you said vs. what you meant just makes you look inept, _even when you’re right_.
Mike Kay
1. serious question, who’s james joyner?
II. I’m actually waiting for loony Arianna and Jane Hamsher to call for JNap’s resignation.
Chuck Butcher
First clue you’re being lied to: a Republican said it
cmorenc
@John Cole
Yes, but it’s COLOSSAL DUMB to needlessly create a perfect sound-byte to be so easily, pejoratively, and convincingly misused out of context. EVEN IF the sound-byte is, taken in proper original context, an inarguably true and constructively useful statement (when considered by folks actually interested in objective understanding and analysis of the incident).
YES the GOP wingnut noise machine will manufacture complete bullshit, without any sense of shame, integrity, or responsibility. LET’S DON’T MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM TO MAKE UP CONVINCING LIES.
Yutsano
@Brian J: Obama tried this once with Judd Gregg. It totally blew up in his face. Personally I think he’s going to walk on past the Republicans as much as possible until they figure out how a real opposition is supposed to act. And if they can’t, well, nature abhors a vacuum.
Chuck Butcher
@cmorenc:
Hmmm, there we go – STFU
Don’t say anything, ever.
Comrade Jake
@Brian J:
I see that Yutsano beat me to it. I’d just like to add that Judd Gregg is a douchebag. Moving along now…
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Comrade Darkness:
Here’s what worries me the most about this BS from our right wing press:
Not that voters will start taking them seriously, or that their memes will bite. Rather, that over time they will get under the skins of people in the WH who are sick of dealing with this crap day after day. Nixon was famously paranoid about people in “the liberal press” being out to get him, but as the old saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. With benefit of hindsight I imagine there were people in the press looking to stick a shiv in old Tricky Dick by fairs means or foul. But you can’t let that get under your skin in the pressure cooker of the WH – that way lies madness.
Obama and his people have been extraordinarily patient while under a press siege of mendacity and stupidity and water carrying for the GOP from the very start of his administration. I just hope they can keep going year after year without turning against the press, despite it all. But it must take the patience of Job to do that.
Violet
I wish one of the networks would do real journalism instead of just being stenographers. The Daily Show does it – it’s not like it’s impossible to do. It might take a little while for the network to get an audience, but once people saw they weren’t letting political types lie to them or just get away with soundbites, or even letting pundits rattle on about whatever, it might even become popular.
FlipYrWhig
@Alex S.:
A somewhat fair criticism would be to say that the fact that the system worked after the incident is hardly reassuring, given that the system failed before the incident, and that’s what people want to be outraged about. That’s the bit that can read as obfuscation on her part, because it has a touch of “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?” But that’s bureaucracy. You can’t say, yes, it’s time to panic, because we have no idea when the next fuck-up is going to happen, and it might happen TO YOU!
cmorenc
@BrianJ
I like the idea, but this would be subject to the risk that Joe Wilson’s idea of what is “wasted” money differs substantially from non-wingnut’s ideas of what is “wasted”. Now this could present a further constructive opportunity for Wilson to inadvertently demonstrate that his ideas are badly out of step with most people’s (at least in areas outside South Carolina)…it also presents Wilson with a more prominent platform for misrepresenting many useful expenditure items as “wasteful”. Not only that, but to him probably more money spent on “abstinance sex education” would be constructive, money spent on contraceptives unconstructive, and so on.
Yutsano
@Comrade Jake: One of the things I’ve learned on this blog is mindmelds happen and just sit back and enjoy the long strange trip. :)
burnspbesq
A lovely way to start the new year.
A Somali Muslim armed with an axe broke into the house of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who penned the infamous Mohammed cartoons. Westergaard was not hurt, and the cops shot the intruder.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8437652.stm
pablo
Wing nuts are treating this like they treat the 2nd amendment.
A well regulated militia = Once the incident occurred.
Nothing to see here!
eemom
hey, how about some good news for a change?
Booman’s a daddy! http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/1/2/0317/79290
sweetest durn pic I ever saw.
Mike E
@Chuck Butcher:
Crunch crunch — I hear the Message Police walking on eggshells again!
Sanka
Major fail.
Shorter John Cole: “Yes, she made a presumptuous comment, but cut her some slack. She’s the head of a Cabinet-level department in a Democratic administration. And besides, Republicans suck, so therefore Napolitano is brilliant.”
If the “system” is called the “Cross your fingers on a flight with a radical Islamic terrorist who wants to blow it up in mid-air and hope that there is a fellow passenger like Jasper Schuringa to beat him down” federal aviation counter-terrorism program, then yeah, the “system” did work, and Napolitano wouldn’t have had to walk back her statement.
But there isn’t and she did.
Epic fail.
Comrade Jake
Oh goody, lookee here, another not particularly skilled BJ troll.
Mike E
@Violet:
The beauty of shows like Colbert and The Daily Show is their restricted production schedules — by the time they hit our eyeballs the story is a good 24hrs old. This kind of patience doesn’t exist at CNN or MSNBC, nor does any requisite perspective.
This is why Full Freak-Out is such a thing to behold on Comedy Central — real pros have had enough time to execute it to perfection.
Darryl
I don’t know…Coast Guard?
dmsilev
Sigh. I wish that with the New Year, we could have had a new set of trolls, and preferably an upgrade from last year’s batch.
Ah, twas not to be, I guess.
-dms
Yutsano
@Sanka:
Admittance is the first step. Now next time try putting together a cogent thought BEFORE you type. Otherwise sit down before you hurt yourself.
Notorious P.A.T.
Can we please fucking spell words correctly?!?!? Jesus Christ. You want people to think we’re drooling idiots?
donovong
@Sanka:
Sanka. Not only is it a shitty, disgusting, and horrible substitute for coffee, but also a shitty, disgusting, and horrible substitute for a troll.
jwb
@donovong: But give Sanka the troll credit for truth in advertising.
sloan
This reminds me of when John Kerry mocked Bush for getting us stuck in Iraq by saying “Education – if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” Kerry was obviously mocking Bush, but wingnuts pretended to believe that John Kerry, a military veteran, was mocking his fellow war veterans. They did this because a) They are cowards who routinely use our military as human shields in political debates and b) They were incapable of defending Bush’s Iraq policy.
James Joyner joined in the fun back then too, and the whole thing went so far as to have a few soldiers in Iraq repeating the GOP talking points.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Permanent Republican Majority. The voting public ignored the bullshit because they knew what Kerry meant and they agreed with him. The same thing is happening now – we have the media repeating GOP talking points 24/7 but the public is just blocking it out. Support for the President has slightly increased since the failed terrorist attack and the failed Republican attack that followed.
jeffreyw
OT: Mrs J came back from her shelter gig today with this in her camera.
Looks like such a sweetie. They were still picking cockleburs when she left.
Yutsano
@jeffreyw: OMG that looks just like my big gray furball!
valdivia
@HRA: but this story is NOT true. The newsweek article that this is based on is pure bullshit. He got a briefing like he always does but it had NO warning of an imminent attack. stop buying what the Village is busy selling.
Violet
@jeffreyw:
Oh, she’s adorable. Hope she finds a good home.
@Mike E:
True enough. The 24 hour delay does help with picking out the silliest and stupidest of the freak outs. But still, it’s not that hard to fact-check talking points on a daily basis. They send them out first thing in the morning. Fact check ’em and then if any pundit tries to push them, have the factual rebuttals ready to go. It’s just not that hard.
Fact it, they don’t want to do it. They’d rather waste hours on non-stories like balloon boy than do any actual journalism. And it’s much easier to quote press releases from each side and call it bipartisan than study the press releases and see if they’re based in fact or pure spin.
It just doesn’t seem that hard to do. Sure, they’d have to get those journalism synapses firing again. But they could do it.
Zach
@cmorenc:
So true. Catch one of John McCain’s John-Stossel-esque (‘gimme a break!’) rants on the Senate floor sometime in which he lists wasteful spending that, if you have any education whatsoever, is almost entirely worthwhile.
On a related note, volcano monitoring has been quite useful the past few weeks in the Philipines, Alaska, and Russia.
SIA
Sorry if this has already been mentioned. From Steve Benen, amazingly, referencing article by Mike Allen.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_01/021731.php
kay
@valdivia:
Even Politico is calling foul on that one, valdivia, so it must be complete bullshit.
It is disheartening, though.
SIA
@jeffreyw: What a beauty!
HRA
@valdivia:
@HRA: but this story is NOT true. The newsweek article that this is based on is pure bullshit. He got a briefing like he always does but it had NO warning of an imminent attack. stop buying what the Village is busy selling.”
I am not buying it or anything else on sale in the Village. That is why I continued with this:
“This is the one that really gets my bp up. As far as I can see from the news, he did not know who, what, where, or when. This is news? Counting down to when they start wailing about needing those color alerts.”
Anne Laurie
@Chuck Butcher:
As my late father used to say, “If a Republican walks into the room sopping wet and tells you it’s raining outside… check a window before you offer him a towel.”
The Grand Panjandrum
Why isn’t Barack Obama our John Smeaton? Would the bedwetters be satisfied? Probably not, but it would make a good movie.
Zuzu's Petals
Looks like Joyner has his own response up:
Paul L.
Here is a “on topic” post for you.
@Zuzu’s Petals:
He points out that John’s quote was from on ABC’s “This Week.” not CNN’s “State of the Union.”
I await the screams of Jackalope to defend John C engaging in Media Matters level dishonesty.
Heck of a job Janet/John
Zuzu's Petals
@Paul L.:
Well yeah, Paulie, except that Joyner didn’t say he was quoting from one show but not the other in his original post, and in fact didn’t put the quote in any context at all.
And of course even the quote YOU cut and pasted was about the response to the incident. As in, “So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.”
You do seem to know a bit about dishonesty, it seems.