Reactions to story from The Reality-Based Community

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  Ignorance is Strength

  http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/igno...
  5 days ago in Matthew Yglesias · Authority: 2,449

  Ignorance is Strength 11 May 2008 10:22 am What Mark Kleiman said. But to recap, Glenn Reynolds said Barack Obama's economic policy views were socialism. I pointed out that they were not, in fact, socialism. Reynolds, rather than conceded that he was
• 

  "Socialist"

  http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05...
  4 days ago in The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan · Authority: 4,878

  A primer. Sticks and stones ...
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  http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/global-test-ii-by-dda...
  2 days ago in Hullabaloo · Authority: 1,625

  Global Test II by dday Four years ago, Bush defenders got a lot of mileage out of a comment that John Kerry made in the third Presidential debate. No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons. Bush defenders immediately pounced on this by deliberately using a different definition of the word "global" that Kerry intended, and claiming that Kerry wanted to subject American national security to a vote by the United Nations. Four years later, Barack Obama sat down for an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg and asked him a leading question about Israel which Obama handled fairly well. JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas? BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically. So off of that, the Republican leader in the House John Boehner has decided that Obama called Israel a constant wound and a constant sore, instead of what he actually said, that the conflict is a wound, and conflict resolution is preferable. It's important to recognize that a core part of Republican strategy in 2008, in addition to disenfranchising Democratic voters, is simply lying about their opponent. And the lies will vary from this variety of misinterpretation, to asserting that Obama's policies are socialist despite the fact that, you know, they're far from it, or making up wild stories that Obama favors some kind of $777 trillion dollar reparations fund. There's no real slickness to the strategy, or forethought put into it. Birds are gonna fly, fish are gonna swim, and Republicans are gonna lie about the Democrat. Goldberg, a conservative, managed to display some intellectual honesty and point out that Boehner is, in fact, lying. The question is whether or not the rest of the media will follow his lead when some lie like this becomes front and center in the election. Oh, in case you're wondering, the answer is "no, they won't, they'll give Republicans ample opportunity to lie and won't step in to correct the record." .
• 

  Global Test II

  http://d-day.blogspot.com/2008/05/global-test-ii.html
  2 days ago in D-Day · Authority: 175

  Four years ago, Bush defenders got a lot of mileage out of a comment that John Kerry made in the third Presidential debate. No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons. Bush defenders immediately pounced on this by deliberately using a different definition of the word "global" that Kerry intended, and claiming that Kerry wanted to subject American national security to a vote by the United Nations. Four years later, Barack Obama sat down for an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg and asked him a leading question about Israel which Obama handled fairly well. JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas? BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically. So off of that, the Republican leader in the House John Boehner has decided that Obama called Israel a constant wound and a constant sore, instead of what he actually said, that the conflict is a wound, and conflict resolution is preferable. It's important to recognize that a core part of Republican strategy in 2008, in addition to disenfranchising Democratic voters, is simply lying about their opponent. And the lies will vary from this variety of misinterpretation, to asserting that Obama's policies are socialist despite the fact that, you know, they're far from it, or making up wild stories that Obama favors some kind of $777 trillion dollar reparations fund. There's no real slickness to the strategy, or forethought put into it. Birds are gonna fly, fish are gonna swim, and Republicans are gonna lie about the Democrat. Goldberg, a conservative, managed to display some intellectual honesty and point out that Boehner is, in fact, lying. The question is whether or not the rest of the media will follow his lead when some lie like this becomes front and center in the election. Oh, in case you're wondering, the answer is "no, they won't, they'll give Republicans ample opportunity to lie and won't step in to correct the record."
• 

  "Socialist"

  http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05...
  4 days ago in The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan · Authority: 294

  A primer. Sticks and stones ...
• 

  Kleinman and Yglesias smack Glenn Reynolds around.

  http://instaputz.blogspot.com/2008/05/kleinman-and-yglesias-...
  4 days ago in INSTAPUTZ · Authority: 152

  Ouch. Glenn Reynolds still doesn't know what the word "socialism" means. And he's proud of it. You learn something new every day: I thought it was only sleazy politicians who treasured their ignorance. Of course, if you're a state employee who holds that state employees are lazy and incompetent, you have to walk the walk. But someone should tell Reynolds that a state-owned law school is a lot closer to "socialism" than are fuel-efficiency standards. Reynolds, who's prone to respond to criticism by suggesting that his critics are mentally ill, also thinks that Barack Obama is "too thin-skinned to be President" because he resents being falsely labeled a friend of foreign terrorists. Isn't it fun to watch the right wing decompensate in the face of the Obama tidal wave that's about to wash over them? Yes. See also here.
• 

  Take your pick, their both stupid.

  http://jackietam.blogspot.com/2008/05/take-your-picture-thei...
  5 days ago in jackietam.blogspot.com · Authority: 6

  I don't know what's worst: The Republican Party throwing out terms like socialism without know what exactly it means, or that the American people are actually falling for the Republican's shtick on how the Democratic Party will be bring socialism on to our fair republic.

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