The Washington Post, today, in a lead editorial laments the sharp rightward turn the Supreme Court has taken this term. This, after the Washington Post endorsed the confirmations of both Sameul Alito and John Roberts. The Post now says that the court's "nudge to the right" is "unsurprising and disappointing." Hmmm. If it's unsurprising, then it means the Post expected this from Alito and Roberts. And if they expected this, endorsed the two men anyway, and now are lamenting that Alito and Roberts did exactly what the Post expected, then they're either hypocrites or fools. And the Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, is no fool.
Which brings us to George Bush, the Republicans and the American people.
The American people are upset that George Bush has bankrupted the country and gotten us stuck in the quagmire that is Iraq. But 51% of the country (or so) voted for Bush, two times. If the first time they didn't know what they were getting, or the election was stolen, they certainly knew the second time. People surely have the right to be disappointed, but surprised by what Bush has done to America? What has he done in his second term that wasn't consistent with his first? And consider Bush's first election - what part of "tax cuts for the rich = massive budget deficit" didn't the Bush-voters understand from past experience with Ronald Reagan's bleeding-red rein in the 1980s? Bush and the Republicans said they were going to cut taxes, and they did. The Democrats said that the deficit would again soar, and it did. Disappointed? Sure. But surprised?
The Republicans definitely stand for something - the same thing they've stood for for decades, regardless of the changing world around them: lower taxes (soaring deficits); strong defense (lots of failed wars); and family values (bashing gays, women, Latinos, blacks, Muslims, and abortion). Now that the GOP has again busted the budget, gotten us into two failed wars with a third on the way, and handed social policy over to bigots like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the men at the Concerned Women for America, the Washington Post and 51% of America have the right - the duty, I'd argue - to be not just disappointed, but mad as hell. And they should direct that anger at the people who got us into this mess in the first place: the Washington Post and 51% of the American people.
A rather odd editorial in today's Washington Post criticizing Russian President Putin. Yes, Putin has been rather belligerent of late, but the Post editorial reads like it was penned by an adolescent who was just told he had to be home by midnight. The editorial - clearly written by Post neo-con Fred Hiatt - isn't a criticism of Russia's lurch back towards dictatorship, rather, it's a criticism of Russia saying mean things about democracy. And democracy, fair lady that she is, apparently can't hold up to criticism.
Per the Post:
IN THE PAST few days, the anti-Western rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which had been rising in pitch for several months, has reached Soviet levels of shrillness. He accused the United States of "imperialism" and "diktat" and threatened to target Europe with new Russian weapons. In an interview with foreign journalists, he cynically mocked Western democracy, saying that U.S. "torture, homelessness, [and] Guantanamo" and Europe's "harsh treatment of demonstrators" have left him as the only "absolute and pure democrat" in the world.
Talk about shrill.
Yeah, okay, the threat against Europe was a bit over the top, but it's not as if we haven't issued our own military challenge to Russia in their own backyard (Eastern European missile shield, anyone?). As for the rest of the what Putin said, save his comment about being a "democrat" (meaning, pro-democracy), what exactly did Putin get wrong? That our foreign policy under Bush and the Republicans isn't a tad imperialistic? That we don't expect the world to shut up and do what we say? (Hell, that's the way Bush and the GOP treat domestic dissent as well.) That torture, homelessness and the ongoing abuse that is Gitmo isn't a mockery of our very democracy? Sure is, and it doesn't take a former communist spy leader to see it.
Yes, what bothers Fred Hiatt about Putin's comments aren't the actual substance of the comments, it's the very fact that Putin would dare to say anything at all critical of the good 'ole U S of A. Putin dared to "mock Western democracy," you see. And everyone knows that the first rule of a democracy is "please don't speak your mind," and its corollary, don't ever ever ever criticize the government.
So it's no longer okay in civilized, democratic societies to mock our own government, our politicians, even our system of governance? Then what exactly are our soldiers dying for in Iraq anyway, Mr. Hiatt, if not the very freedoms that you and the Bush administration seem to have such increasing contempt for? (Let alone the irony of a newspaperman criticizing someone's opinion not on the basis of that opinion, but on the very fact that they had the audacity to issue an opinion at all.)
Democracy is more than a bumper sticker, Mr. Hiatt. At some point, you and the other neo-cons running the Republican party need to come to terms with your obvious dissatisfaction at being forced to live in in a country whose founding principles so offend you.
Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt has done it again. He continues to publish editorials that directly contradict articles in his own paper. Well, let me be more clear - he continues to publish editorials that are patently false as shown by articles in his own paper.
He did it again yesterday in his attack on Nancy Pelosi. You see, Hiatt is a big Bush-lover. He loves the war. Can't get enough of it. And no one had better dare stand in Bush's, or Hiatt's way. So he publishes editorial after editorial outright lying about what's going on in foreign policy in an effort to trick the American people into supporting George Bush.
It's yellow journalism at its finest. Don't rely on my word for it. Just read the rest of the Washington Post. This isn't the first time Hiatt has been contradicted by his own newspaper on the SAME DAY he's published one of his erroneous, partisan editorials. It's not even the second time. This is what this guy does. He just makes stuff up.
