Taking time out from its busy schedule of not providing leave or relief for overtaxed troops, not cutting funding for the Iraq war, not providing health insurance for children, not addressing the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and so forth, etc., etc. the Senate took some time yesterday to address the most burning and important issue of our day: condemning Moveon.Org. The 72-25 vote meant that around half the Democrats joined in the ritual jumping-on-board-with-Bush-and-Cheney’s-talking-points. (To use “feckless” to describe these “Democratic” senators, some of whom owe their jobs to MoveOn’s help, would be a disservice to feckless people; but I digress… Obama apparently missed the vote– to his credit.)
It seems obvious that MoveOn’s “General Petraeus or Betray Us” ad was intended as part of the… dare I say it… “rough and tumble of a hotly contested political debate”. And, though arguably unfair, it is, nonetheless, heavily rooted in fact: to put it politely, Gen. Petraeus is trying to “accentuate the positive” amidst a sea of rather alarming negative coming out of Iraq. To be fair to him, that sort of thing is arguably his job (even if no less than Petraeus’s direct superior, CENTCOM chief Adm. Fallon, regards Petraeus as an “ass kissing little chicken shit” [and Adm. Fallon hates people like that]).
Oops. Now those hard working senators will have to take time from their busy schedule to condemn Adm. Fallon… and me. Mybad…
I really thought this was an interesting interview… and it emphasized my belief that terrorism is not our biggest threat… on a day to day basis… that being said I have to point out that Larsen’s statement that “I often listen to both NPR and Rush Limbaugh” as though they were opposite sides of the coin is naive. NPR after years of public financing from a republican congress and administration is no longer (if it ever was) on the opposite side of the rightwing like Limbaugh. NPR has centered itself right of center, Limbaugh is on the far right. If Larsen wants to view the left wing for a different perspective I would suggest “air america”… that being said I also want to point out that air america is intelligent radio… something the likes of Limbaugh can never achieve.