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Open thread October 23, 2015

Dan Crawford | October 23, 2015 3:24 pm

Tags: open thread Comments (5) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
5 Comments
  • Bruce Webb says:
    October 23, 2015 at 5:51 pm

    Clinton and 9/11 and treating Bin Laden as a “criminal investigation”. And so REALLY responsible. Unlike Bush.

    CNN 1998 U.S. missiles pound targets in Afghanistan, Sudan
    Clinton: ‘Our target was terror’

    American cruise missiles pounded sites in Afghanistan and Sudan Thursday in retaliation for the deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7.

    “Let our actions today send this message loud and clear — there are no expendable American targets,” U.S. President Clinton said in a televised address to the American people Thursday evening. “There will be no sanctuary for terrorists. We will defend our people, our interests and our values.”

    U.S. officials say the six sites attacked in Afghanistan were part of a network of terrorist compounds near the Pakistani border that housed supporters of millionaire Osama bin Laden.

    Later reports showed that the cruise missiles missed Osama by a matter of hours, he was in fact at one of the attack sites. Did Clinton get credit from his opponents in this bold attempt to nip Al-Qaeda and its plans and financing in the bud? Was there a huge rally around the flag moment? Hell no, instead there was loud and constant mockery over ‘Aspirin factories’ and ‘Wag the Dog’ and claims that this was all just a distraction. http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/cyberalert-08211998-wag-dog#2

    President Clinton’s decision to launch a bombing strike at terrorists consumed the entirety of CNN’s 8pm ET news show and nearly all of the ABC, CBS, FNC and NBC newscasts Thursday night, thus nearly eliminating Monica Lewinsky news. CNN skipped Lewinsky’s second appearance before the grand jury while the other networks managed to squeeze in a story near the end of their shows. For more on Lewinsky coverage, see item #3.

    Every network went through the details of what happened before getting to suggestions Clinton may have been motivated by trying to distract attention from his Lewinsky troubles, but every network did raise the “Wag the Dog” scenario. ABC gave it a few sentences in a larger story while the other networks allocated an entire story to the theme. Every network but ABC featured a soundbite from Senator Dan Coats, who most enthusiastically jumped on Clinton. CBS questioned the lack of “bipartisan patriotism” and CNN recalled how a similar charge about diversion was made against Reagan after the Grenada invasion.

    That is “even the liberal mainstream media” ran with Wag the Dog. Meanwhile the wingnut blogosphere was frothing. The idea that Clinton ignored Bin Laden was and is ridiculous. The idea that his opponents prioritized it in a way that would have had them cheering a military strike on Al-Qaeda is more ridiculous. And if there had been a rally around the flag and president moment and an all out push to terminate Bin Laden and al-Qaeda it might have prevented 9/11. But traitorous Republicans were more focused on using a blow-job to take down an elected President. (Now maybe if he had launched some missiles at Saddam he might have caught a break – for about 10 seconds).

  • Marko says:
    October 23, 2015 at 9:05 pm

    A good reminder , thanks.

    I’ll be sure to bring this up during Thanksgiving argume… , er , discussions.

  • Marko says:
    October 24, 2015 at 12:22 am

    Trend ? :

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSA3e0UXAAAM6bL.png

  • Denis Drew says:
    October 24, 2015 at 10:24 am

    http://washingtonspectator.org/bernie-sanders-populist-movement/

    Slow Burn: Bernie Sanders Ignites a Populist Movement
    Conservatives drawn to a socialist senator
    By Rick Perlstein

    Thinks Sanders has much populist appeal to core Republican voters

  • Denis Drew says:
    October 24, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/scam-they-am/?_r=1&mtrref=undefined&assetType=opinion

    ” Eric Lipton and Jennifer Steinhauer, in an impressive piece of investigative reporting, find that the various PACs encouraging what Greg Sargent calls the Freedom Fraud caucus are basically in it for the money *; the bulk of what they raise ends up as consultants’ fees and the like, paid to the same people organizing the drives. ”
    * http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/24/us/politics/conservative-pacs-turn-attack-on-gop-leaders-into-fund-raising-tool.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

    http://www.vox.com/2015/10/23/9603028/conservative-marketing-scam
    A shocking amount of conservative politics is a multilevel marketing scam
    by Matthew Yglesias

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