One that not only gets longer daily, but more obvious. It's a huge stable of Media Whores.
Last week the BBC aired an interview with then-foreign advisor to Barack Obama, Samantha Power:
Stephen Sackur: You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?
Samantha Power: You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can't even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator.
No, it's not a commitment but check out the Media All Whores and attempt to discover that news.
So determined to not only avoid the reality but also smear Hillary Clinton, Air Berman (The Nation) spent Friday digging through Meet The Press transcripts. The allegedly anti-war Nation magazine has yet to tell their online readers of the revelations broadcast on BBC.
Truthout, so quick to editorialize that Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race, has no story up about the revelation. BuzzFlash is working overtime to smear Hillary Clinton but has nothing to say about Bambi's Iraq realities. Common Dreams is avoiding the subject as is The Progressive, CounterPunch, Truthdig, go down the list. All have time to smear Hillary, none have time to tell the truth about Bambi's 'pledge.' Where is Tom Hayden!
Remember when Americans Against the Escalation (or whatever the name of that faux grassroots 'movement') imploded? There was Tommy, mere second later, writing about it online at The Nation. A call to the magazine got the story pulled but it resurfaced a day later, on Sunday, in a slightly different form with an additional note tacked on. Certainly Bambi's non-pledge is as important as the implosion of a non-peace group.
Like Bambi's use of homophobia in South Carolina to scare up voters, The All Whores of Panhandle Media appear to be operating on the belief that if they don't discuss it, no one will ever know it took place.
That really is what's going on, that is how the 'movement' around Bambi was built. A lot of silence. When he does wrong. It also takes a lot lies, a lot of astro-turf, a lot of echo chamber and a whole lot of Media Whores to create a candidate out of nothing.
It also takes attempting to enforce a new system of rules. Did you know that it was off limits to note Robert Dole or Al Gore, or John McCain or Michael Dukakis' middle name? You didn't? That's because the rule didn't exit then. Your name was your name. But as Joan Vennochi's
"A Delicate Line for Michelle Obama" (Boston Globe via Comon Dreams) informed, "Last week, she said that when rivals use her husband's full name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- they are throwing 'the obvious, ultimate fear bomb. . . . When all else fails, be afraid of his name'." "She" is Michelle Obama. We hope that wasn't a "fear bomb" -- either "Michelle" or "Obama." What a stupid, stupid fool.
But side-boob's far from alone and the Bambi campaign's pulled that crap all along. On March 4th's Charlie Rose Show last week, Professional Liar (and Obama campaigner though she rarely bothers to disclose that in her media appearances) Melissa Harris-Lacewell declared, "If anything the notion that there's been greater scrutiny of Barack Obama as a candidate strikes me as odd. I there's been a great deal of questioning of Barack Obama as a human being and odd questions about his identity, about his positioning as a true American patriot, those questions."
What's odd is that Princeton is reportedly only tabulating Harris-Lacewell's misconduct at this point and not yet calling her to the carpet (it's an ethical violation of Princeton's guidelines for Harris-Lacewell to not make clear in media apperances that she's working for the Obama campaign). What's odd is that questions about his relationship with his political mentor Antoin "Tony" Rezko (now on trial for a federal indictment) are seen as questions about Bambi "as a human being". What's odd is that his being confronted by the press last Monday about lying (his campaign was in touch with the Canadian government to advise them that Bambi was just offering pretty words on NAFTA in the Austin debate and didn't really mean them) don't go to his qualifications to be president in the 'academic' mind of Harris-Lacewell.
Question Bambi and you're called out. You're throwing "fear bombs" just for mentioning his middle name. They've played that over and over with the media and most of the media (Real Media, not Panhandle Media) is pretty damn tired of it and realizes they were taken for a ride. Bambi storming out of a Monday evening press conference (on his plane) only confirmed their judgement that he really is not up to the task of being president.
But Panhandle Media created him.
Now they're faced with a choice. Confronted with the reality that Bambi's tossing pretty words at the American people on Iraq in order to trick them into voting for him (confirmed by Sammy Power before she stepped down as foreign policy advisor), what are The Whores of Indymedia going to do?
Do they really think they can get away with playing silent? Do they really think this is going to go away?
Sammy Power confirmed what Elaine and C.I. have been saying for years now, Bambi's not about ending the illegal war. Power's remarks weren't shocking to them because he told them face-to-face, in the midst of his US Senate run, that he wasn't for withdrawal of troops. At the time, he was leading the public to think otherwise. At a fundraiser for big donors, he spoke more honestly. Now he's running for another office and promising America he will pull combat troops out within 16 months of assuming office. In fact, in Houston, Texas, he shortened the time further, he said it would happen within a year of his taking office. Tommy Hayden was so giddy by that one sentence, he wrote a whole column about it.
What's a matter, Tommy, too depressed to tell the people truth about what Sammy Power said?
Well which of you little panhandlers is going to step up to the plate and call him out now? Didn't Laura Flanders and Tom Hayden (after they endorsed him) both say that his feet needed to be held to the fire? Well come on, kiddos, you can't work the red-light district forever, hold his feet to the damn fire.
Let's be really clear here, anyone who claims to be against the illegal war and doesn't seriously probe what was said is not against the illegal war.
Furthermore, offering excuses such as "realisitically . . ." won't cut it. Bambi's not asking voters to be realistic about his 'pledge' -- he's telling them he will do it. He's lying to them. He's lying to them and he got caught. That's called news on any subject. When the topic is the Iraq War, anyone refusing to cover it is prolonging the illegal war and stating they are okay with it. Choose your side.
-----
Illustration is Isaiah's "Pinocchio Obama" (thank you, Isaiah) and we're adding "MEMO: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words" (HillaryClinton.com):
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: March 8, 2008
RE: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words
Once again, it looks like Senator Obama is telling voters one thing while his campaign says those words should not to be mistaken for serious action.
After months of speeches from Senator Obama promising a hard end date to the Iraq war, his top foreign policy adviser that counseled his campaign during that period is on the record saying that Senator Obama will "not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator."
Voters already have serious questions about whether Senator Obama is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Now there are questions about whether he's serious about the Iraq plan he's discussed for the last year on the campaign trail.
Senator Obama has made hard end dates about Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign and has repeatedly attacked Senator Clinton for not being clear about her intentions with regard to troop withdrawal.
It turns out those attacks and speeches were just words. And if you can't trust Senator Obama's words, what's left?
This latest incident is part of a larger pattern where Senator Obama doesn't deliver on the promises he makes on the campaign trail -- whether it's his 2004 Senate race or his 2008 White House campaign.
In 2003, Senator Obama said he was for a single payer health system, but now opposes plans that cover every American. He promised to repeal the Patriot Act, but then voted to extend it. He promised to normalize relations with Cuba, but flip-flopped when he started running for president.
In 2008, Senator Obama rails against NAFTA in Ohio while his top economic advisor assures the Canadians his rhetoric is just "political positioning." He promises to opt in to public financing if the GOP nominee does, but then breaks that pledge in real time. He promises to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months, and now his top foreign policy adviser says that he's not relying on the plan.
With a short record to run on, Senator Obama's entire campaign is based on the speeches he makes on the campaign trail. So when he and his advisers dismiss the plans he touts on the stump, it undermines his entire candidacy.
Americans have heard plenty of speeches. It's time they got serious solutions and that's what Hillary is going to deliver when she is President.
