Fool On The Hill

Has the Cockburn family all gone nutso?



We've been wondering that for some time. You have Laura Flanders refusing to call out Barack Obama's use of homophobia in South Carolina which really doesn't strike us as what an out lesbian does: fall silent on the use of homophobia. Then Patrick Cockburn filed a report for The Independent of London about an Iraqi boy (Shi'ite) raping a female classmate (Sunni) and he did so with no reference to the attacks on women that are widespread in Iraq. It was, according to Cockburn, solely the product of it being telegraphed that it was okay to go after Sunnis. For anyone paying attention to the work of MADRE, the message throughout the illegal war has been "OPEN SEASON ON WOMEN." So writing about a rape in Iraq really requires noting that reality.



Alexander Cockburn (uncle to Laura) has engaged in some real slime and we've mainly looked the other way and thought he'd get a clue at some point. Cockburn is one of the "not a dime's worth of a difference" crowd. Or he was. He's gotten on board the Bambi bus and, having arrived later than many, feels the need to push and crowd and make a general spectacle of himself.



In "The Race Card" (March 1/2, 2008), his latest, he suspends reality and what most value most: facts. For example:



True to the Willie Horton model, on February 25 someone in the Clinton campaign sent the Drudge website a photo of Obama in Kenya a couple of years ago, wearing a turban and what looks like a bedsheet pretending to be a nurse's white uniform, though apparently it is Somali ceremonial rig. Obama's team cried Foul. Maggie Williams, now running Clinton's campaign, said Obama shouldn't be a wuss.



That's not factual. That's not reality and it's not true. Druge ran the photo, Drudge said the photo was from an unnamed person in the Clinton campaign. Matt Drudge as trusted voice? Really? That's what we've come to accept? No. And the photo appeared, prior to being posted by Drudge, on the Free Republic website. Maggie Williams denied that the campaign had leaked the photo -- something Cockburn leaves out and makes it appear that Williams is saying, "Yes, we did, stop being a wuss!" Willimas said they didn't leak it, Williams didn't call Bambi a wuss.



Alex is being 'creative.' He's creative throughout. Such as in this passage: "Late last week the Clinton campaign was leaking stories about support for Obama from the former Weather Undergound couple, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both of whom became respectable fixtures in mainstream liberal Chicago years ago. "



Poor outdate Alex. Outdated and isolated. Cockburn, two things first. We realize your family is from England and those of you in this country are late arriving transplants, but that's the second time you've mispelled Dohrn's name. It is Bernardine. Not "Bernadine." The Song of Bernadine was not the life story of Dohrn. Those participating in writing who know her say they imagine her experiencing an "ouch" over your use of the word "respectable" since that is the last thing she has ever sought to this day. Don't project your desires onto her.



Last week the Barack Obama and Bill Ayers connection was news? February 15th Bloomberg News was reporting on it. February 16th The Times of London was reporting on it. The Daily Mail was reporting it on February 2nd. We could go and on. How out of it is Alexander Cockburn?



We addressed it two weeks ago (Feb. 17th) in a roundtable because of Larry Johnson (No Quarter) posting on it Feburary 15th. Johnson -- not a part of the Clinton campaign -- is offended by the association. But he did detail the facts as he understood them. That's something Elaine and C.I. did in the roundtable (they have a different perspective than Johnson on that issue). Where's Alex addressing the facts?



That isn't unimportant.



Vietnam became a "dirty word" that the bulk of the left (and 'left') began shying away from in the late 70s and then ran like crazy from in the 80s. That retreat allowed the revisionary history to take hold. And we're wondering now how much that had to do with political campaigns? Do we throw out truth for candidates? We've certainly seen that with regards to Obama.



What is Cockburn's opinions of Ayers, Dohrn and Weather Underground's actions?



We can state our opinion very clearly: A criminal and violent government was destroying lives and the Weather Underground's actions were in kind. They attempted to kill no one and no one died in a planned bombing. The government was not listening, was not responsive, was using violence and committing crimes at home and abroad and the Weather Underground was one response from the left to that. We have never condemned the Weather Underground, we have never mocked their members. We think their response was a natural response in that environment and think no one is served by not addressing it. When The Nation magazine (last summer) attempted to slime the Weather Underground, we offered "Chrissy Explains It All (finally)." If our position is still unclear, the Weather Underground were revolutionaries and we don't shy from that word or associate it as something bad or wrong.



Were they doing the same actions in Israel today, we think many of the tut-tutters on the left would be applauding them and, were they doing the same actions in today's Venezuela, we assume they'd be invited to the White House and treated to glossy profiles on Fox "News" -- maybe paired up with Ollie North as co-hosts of a program entitled Freedom Fighters.



Larry Johnson has a different opinion and it's his right to have a different take on it. He explains where he's coming from on the issue in his post and explains what the Weather Underground did.



Cockburn wants to run into the room and holler "Sh! Don't talk about it."



Why the hell not?



Let's talk about it. Let's get serious about our recent history and quit playing games of "It might not be good for a campaign."



Ourselves, we'd endorse Bernardine for any cabinet post in the US government. We can talk at length about why. Johnson wouldn't and we'll assume (based on the fact that he's already talked about the issue) that he could talk at length about it.



So why the hell can't Alexander Cockburn? Isn't he our supposed "firebrand"? Isn't he the s**t-stirrer who shies away from nothing?



Like his niece, he's a transplant to this country from across the Atlantic so maybe he doesn't know what went down. (That would explain the fact that he's repeatedly spelled Bernardine's name wrong.)



A lot can't be talked about -- according to some -- for the good of Bambi's campaign. We're not in the service of any campaign and we say, "Talk about it all."



Talk about everything.



Imagine you're a child in the US named Hussein. What message is being sent to you currently by Bambi and his groupies acting as if his middle name is something to be ashamed of? Elaine's already noted the damage being done to Muslims in efforts to promote Bambi.



He is one person. If you're truth begins and ends with one person, you are very pathetic.



Cockburn can't get his facts right and wants to name check Weather Underground -- a group from three decades ago -- without explaining to readers who they were or what they did. Apparently, doing that might make Bambi look bad.



So we're now editing history for Bambi as well? We've already seen that campaign toss women, the LGBT community, bi- and multi-racial persons, Muslims and others under the bus so maybe all that's left to rip apart is history?



That's rather pathetic. And it's rather pathetic that Cockburn can't get his facts straight. Again, we're beginning to wonder if it's some disease that runs in the family.