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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / The Smoking Gun

The Smoking Gun

by Betty Cracker|  March 12, 20125:57 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Media, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity

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This was the headline at The Drudge Report all morning — all weekend, for all I know:

If you happened on the Drudge site by accident, knowing that it drives mainstream media coverage without also knowing that it is a wingnut propaganda outfit run by an inveterate liar and fraud, it would be easy to conclude from that screaming headline that Tel Aviv had been reduced to rubble. The misleading headline is more disingenuous — even by subterranean Drudge standards — if you bother to click through.

The link leads to a Lesley Stahl interview with a former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, who is speaking out publicly against the drumbeat of preemptive war with Iran. Perhaps the Drudge intern in charge of neo-con propaganda failed to read the whole piece, or at least this part:

Lesley Stahl: You have said publicly that bombing Iran now is the stupidest idea you’ve ever heard. That’s a direct quote.

Dagan: An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it.

Republican candidates and pundits are calling President Obama a naive appeaser for not jumping on the Bomb Iran bandwagon, and the same people who promoted hysteria during the run-up to the disastrous war with Iraq are shouting from the rooftops that we must bomb early and often. It’s interesting that the dude who was charged with degrading Iran’s nuclear program for eight years takes a more nuanced view.

The right’s capacity for lies, recklessness and stupidity should surprise exactly no one who remembers the George W. Bush administration. Still, I’m occasionally caught off guard by just how brazen the bastards are. And it’s disheartening to realize that no matter which saber-rattling idiot eventually gets the GOP nomination, north of 50 million people will vote for the lying prick, no matter how eager he is to jump into another Middle Eastern war. The rest of the planet must think we’re as dumb as dirt. They would be about half right.

[X-posted at Rumproast]
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Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    March 12, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    I don’t compare wingnuts to dirt. I compare them to the contents of manure lagoons as found in industrial pig farms.

    But maybe that’s just me.

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    March 12, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    Right wing media is making conservatives stupider. This has consequences.

    Heard today that Texas cut $4 billion from education for this year.

    Draw your own conclusions.

  3. 3.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 12, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    …no matter which saber-rattling idiot eventually gets the GOP nomination, north of 50 million people will vote for the lying prick, no matter how eager he is to jump into another Middle Eastern war.

    Smells like team spirit.

  4. 4.

    redshirt

    March 12, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    Small Government with Empire.

    Makes sense.

  5. 5.

    Zifnab

    March 12, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Heard today that Texas cut $4 billion from education for this year.

    All part of the drum beat towards privatizing education. I mean, we already privatized war, back in ’02. Gotta hit all our bases.

  6. 6.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 12, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    @redshirt: The federal government is already basically an insurance company with a military, so if you’re a Republican, shutting down the former to pay for the latter makes perfect sense.

  7. 7.

    Schlemizel

    March 12, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    How long before ol frothy add this attack to his campaign facts right after the dutch murder old people for fun and profit?

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    March 12, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    @Zifnab: Less educated population with a bigger military.

    What could possibly go wrong.

  9. 9.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    Yep. Send the troops in! Now! Oh shit. Now what? OMG. Islamicists everywhere! Send the troops in. Now! Oh shit. Now what? OMG! They hate us. Send the troops in. Now!

  10. 10.

    Chris

    March 12, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Right wing media is making conservatives stupider. This has consequences.

    Self-reinforcing mechanism.

  11. 11.

    peggy

    March 12, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    @Suffern ACE:
    misspellings
    Yep. SAnd the troops in! Now! Oh shit. Now what? OMG. Islamicists everywhere! SAnd the troops in. Now! Oh shit. Now what? OMG! They hate us. SAnd the troops in. Now!

  12. 12.

    Martin

    March 12, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    @BGinCHI: I don’t think that leads to the conclusion you’re looking for. Even after cutting $4B, they’ll still be funding more per-pupil than CA – and CA has been trending ever more blue each year.

  13. 13.

    makewi

    March 12, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    Bombing the crap out of Libya is fine though.

  14. 14.

    slim's tuna provider

    March 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    shorter dagan: the iranian hardliners are taunting you and you are playing right into their hands, you insufferable morons. you do not know the region, and you are gonna screw up.

  15. 15.

    scav

    March 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    All’s apparently fair in this heedless determination to win the primary, then election. Perry with Turkey, Cain with Uzbeki-beki-beck-stan, Santorum with the Dutch and practically the whole loose deck over Syria or just about anywhere in the Middle East. Jon Steward doesn’t have enough cameras to cope and even Obama had to bring it up at his presser. It’s as though reality has no sharp edges for them.

  16. 16.

    BGinCHI

    March 12, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    @Martin: That’s demographics as much as it is education, no? I’m just saying that people with less education are more vulnerable to being fooled and lied to.

  17. 17.

    Ash Can

    March 12, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    @makewi: Yeah! Because just like in Libya, Iran is in the grips of a civil war and there’s a clear-cut, organized Iranian counterinsurgency that has the entire religious council on the ropes, and would oust all of the mullahs once and for all if the West would just step in and tip the balance.

    Oh, wait…

  18. 18.

    AlladinsLamp

    March 12, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    OT – Alabama Rep Forum Live Feed (only Gnoot and Ricky attending)
    http://www.myfoxal.com/story/17138796/live-coverage-from-alabama-gop-presidential-forum

  19. 19.

    Greg

    March 12, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    @makewi:

    Bombing the crap out of Libya is fine though.

    Size of Libya’s military in 2011: 76,000 people (even disregarding that parts of it were in revolt at the time).
    Size of Iran’s military in 2012: 523,000 people.

    The difference in size in these numbers is only one small reason why one situation shouldn’t be directly compared to the other.

    * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_troops

  20. 20.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 12, 2012 at 6:37 pm

    Perhaps, just perhaps, we can squeek by without attacking Iran. Dunno. The Prez seems determined to try a bunch of other things first. Also, North Korea’s recent display of a cooperative spirit should give the entire Administration, including the Clintons, hope.

    Now it is a fact that I haven’t led a good enough life for any divine power to give me peace with Iran. But it sure would be nice.

  21. 21.

    TenguPhule

    March 12, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Heard today that Texas cut $4 billion from education for this year

    Wait, Texas actually spends money on education?

  22. 22.

    Chris

    March 12, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:

    All I can say is thank God it’s Obama who’s in charge at the moment. It’s good to know that no matter how many people as screaming for war, the one in charge at least doesn’t want one. I couldn’t have said the same of McCain or any Republican.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    March 12, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    …no matter which saber-rattling idiot eventually gets the GOP nomination, north of 50 million people will vote for the lying prick, no matter how eager he is to jump into another Middle Eastern war.

    Honestly, voting booths need to be rigged like suicide booths and everyone that pulls an R gets incinerated.

  24. 24.

    feebog

    March 12, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    @ Martin:

    I don’t think that leads to the conclusion you’re looking for. Even after cutting $4B, they’ll still be funding more per-pupil than CA – and CA has been trending ever more blue each year

    Not so sure that is true. Current stats I quickly googled, were Texas $8908, California $8323 per pupil. Slash another 4 billion and I think Texas may drop below California. Not that, as a Californian I am proud of that, just sayin…

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    March 12, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    @Martin:

    Even after cutting $4B, they’ll still be funding more per-pupil than CA – and CA has been trending ever more blue each year.

    Unfortunately, though, we’re not blue enough to overcome Republican obstructionism. An substantial, intransigent Republican minority combined with a 2/3 supermajority requirement to raise taxes (or, until 2011, to pass a budget) is not an effective route to liberal governance.

  26. 26.

    Chyron HR

    March 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    @makewi:

    Sluts who use birth control should have to film themselves having sex so I can watch.

    You must be one of those “small government conservatives” I’m always hearing about.

  27. 27.

    BGinCHI

    March 12, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    @Chyron HR: I wish Makewi would leave his wife out of this.

  28. 28.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2012 at 7:10 pm

    OK. Lets say I’m open to intervention in Syria. We say Fuck you to Turkey, Iraq, China, Russia and ignore that noted humanitarians Sarkozy and Cameron aren’t out there strutting their dangerous peacock feathers over this one. What “intervention” in Syria do they have in mind. Not the moral case or the strategic case…what do they want? It seems a little vague.

  29. 29.

    bnmng

    March 12, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    On the other hand, if Obama did attack Iran, the Republicans would say it was a bad idea and deny they ever called for it.

  30. 30.

    Matt Love

    March 12, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    ” Bombing the crap out of Libya is fine though.”

    “Size of Libya’s military in 2011: 76,000 people (even disregarding that parts of it were in revolt at the time).
    Size of Iran’s military in 2012: 523,000 people.

    The difference in size in these numbers is only one small reason why one situation shouldn’t be directly compared to the other”

    Yes, that’s right, being liberal in the United States means – you only perform criminal acts if you can get away with them. If they are weak enough that they can’t mount a reasonable resistance, have your way with them, by all means. Don’t let the law or morality stop you, the only constraints on the exercise of power should be – “can we get away with it?”

  31. 31.

    Bob2

    March 12, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    This is probably where Breitbart did the real damage. Not with his later websites, but working with Drudge, knowing that after Lewinsky, every fucking media source would check Drudge for tabloid style headlines every morning first thing.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 12, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    @Matt Love: No, part of military planning involves an analysis of the situation on the ground. Part of foreign policy planning involves performing a cost/benefit analysis of alternative actions. Competent professionals do these things; it helps avoid debacles like Iraq.

  33. 33.

    danielx

    March 12, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    Republican candidates and pundits are calling President Obama a naive appeaser for not jumping on the Bomb Iran bandwagon, and the same people who promoted hysteria during the run-up to the disastrous war with Iraq are shouting from the rooftops that we must bomb early and often.

    Right. Because they were absolutely correct about Afghanistan and Iraq (Smoking gun equals mushroom cloud? Weapons of mass destruction? Anybody?). And because their advice worked out so well last time. Sure could use some of that four trillion along about now…

  34. 34.

    redshirt

    March 12, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Honestly, voting booths need to be rigged like suicide booths and everyone that pulls an R gets incinerated

    So, in 2016, when Frothy get elected God Emperor of United States of Jesusland and promptly nukes the world, post apocalyptic Broders will look back on the well known blog “Balloon Juice” and read this comment, thereby proving “Both sides do it.”

    Destroy the world, that is, of course.

  35. 35.

    wobbly

    March 12, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    This is why I still watch CBS.

  36. 36.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    March 12, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    I saw the interview on 60 minutes. I was left with the feeling that Dagan was revenging against the fact he was fired after Mossad was caught red handed in Abu Dubai (or somewhere) assassinating people – all the Mossads were on security tape. He’s pissed at Benny for firing him, Benny wants to bomb Iran, ergo Dagan is against bombing Iran. The Reich Wing can’t think beyond their own personal interests. Ever.

  37. 37.

    muddy

    March 12, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    @Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937: I don’t know if that is the real behind the scenes reason, but Stahl was certainly pushing it hard, as the exciting scandal portion of the festivities.

    I mean, if we believe him, we won’t want to bomb! That’s no fun for the media.

  38. 38.

    Suffern ACE

    March 12, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    On the plus side, at least they’re being honest about their warlike intentions this time. Unlike Bush who pretended to be a victim of circumstance who really didn’t want to do that nation building.

  39. 39.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    March 13, 2012 at 12:34 am

    The rest of the planet must think we’re SOME OF US ARE as dumb as dirt.

    Srsly… don’t lump me, and a lot of other folks here, in w/ THOSE hapless d*uche bags…

  40. 40.

    cermet

    March 13, 2012 at 8:48 am

    @Matt Love: You are either a extremely stupid non-thinking person or so mis-informed you live in a cave (so why post here?) Both the UN and Arab league authorized force to protect the civilian populations that were being murdered in mass by the Libyan government. NATO, using mostly European fighters fought that conflict (after the first two days, we only gave support.) By all international law our support and NATO’s intervention was neither illegal or immoral. Try reading for once and learn facts before posting and making yourself look so stupid.

  41. 41.

    Nathanael

    March 14, 2012 at 1:57 am

    @BGinCHI: Absolutely.

    I think the reason Republicans still get votes in rural areas is that those areas don’t have high-speed Internet, so they have no access to real news, only to Clear Channel and FAUX.

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