Plain Dealer: In the tank for McCain? and the LTTE in response!

[HughBeaumont]

Yesterday, I posted an article from the Plain Dealer which more or less gives Jerome Corsi unopposed publicity for his shitheap book.

Today, the PD strikes again by posting this fearmongering piece of garbage from defenddemocracy.org, a right-wing "elect Dems, expect terrorist attacks" lunatic-forum headed by the likes of Newt Gingrich, Steve Forbes and Bill Kristol.

http://www.defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=700604&attrib_id=7374


Aaaaaand my LTTE:

Two recent articles from the August 16th and 17th Plain Dealers really have me questioning who the paper is in the tank for this coming presidential election.
Even though there is a Cleveland connection, I'm curious as to why you would give unquestioned legitimacy to a bottom-feeding and widely discredited liar like Jerome Corsi, who's odious "Swiftboating" of former candidate John Kerry has reared it's ugly head once again in the form of "Obama Nation". This smear job is already being debunked by the Obama campaign and others extensively.
Also, why would you give legitimacy to an article from a fearmongering right-wing website like defenddemocracy.org? First of all, their assertion that "Barack Obama would cut ALL missile defense funding" is an outright falsehood. In truth, he only said he would cut investments for UNPROVEN missile defense systems and wouldn't weaponize space to work towards a world without nuclear weapons. It's the same "Elect a Democrat - expect a terrorist attack" scare tactic Dick Cheney used and they're STILL using it.
I'm not sure when the idea and goal of peace became unrealistic and silly, but to the war-happy lunatics who run that think tank, I guess it just did. America cannot afford to provoke more wars or attacks.
Do you think your staff could possibly fact check your subjects before giving them credibility they may not deserve?

Let's see if they print it.

[Hobarticus]

1. Good work....I gave up LTTEs long ago

They called me once after submission, insisting that I give sources for the facts that I was using in my letters. I'd just had a series of (what I thought) were very reasonable and well thought-out LTTEs printed, that got me a lot of favorable comments from friends and neighbors.

No problem , I said, but tell me this: in your paper, I'm reading that Democrats are evil, that Democrats are really responsible for the massive deficit and crappy economy, that people who are pro-choice want to force your daughters into premarital sex.....do you also fact-check those? Or can I just excrete nonsense with the best of the local Fetus People and Right-Wing Loons and get printed without a second look? Do you want reasoned educated debate or just wild-eyed howling at the moon on your opinion page?

Lots of stammering on the line, and I just laughed and told them to forget it. Hence, why I dropped my local paper years ago.

[iamjoy]

2. The Assertions Are Nonsense Anyway

Let's dissect how much of a threat Iran is for launching (directly or through surrogates) an EMP attack.

I don't know about their capabilities - the article makes it sound pretty scary. But then, I remember being told almost the same thing about Iraq, and it turned out to be lies. You know the saying, fool me once...

As for intent, the quote from Iran's Ahmadinejad is curiously fractured and I wonder what key points they left out of it. When he talks about annihilation of the US is he being literal or figurative? The Soviet Union is no more, it has been destroyed. Yet the people are alive and fewer died in its break up than in the "liberation" of Iraq (debatable if you include events of the past decade in Chechnya and recently in Georgia). So, it is possible Iran's president is speaking of a symbolic death of the US, much as Krushchev states his "we will bury you" quote was meant. It is not pleasant to contemplate our declining influence and power in the world, but such forecasts have been made by knowledge experts friendly to the US, both in our country and abroad.

As for intent, the author of this piece forgets that Ahmadinejad is no suicide bomber. Suicide bombers are tools manipulated by people like Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president has a sense of self-preservation, both for his physical body and his seat of power. Ahmadinejad wouldn't dare use suicide bombers for a nuclear or EMP attack. He knows the United States is willing to go to war before we have all the evidence. We've already been beating the drums for war with Iran, one sophisticated attack on the US and it'll be bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.

As for a missile defense system, well I just sort of scratch my head. For every other federal program, conservatives want evidence that it is working before they provide more funding. They point to evidence of bureaucratic waste. However, when it comes to anything to do with our military, they are all to willing to write a blank check and refuse to hear any word of corruption, fraud or waste.