You know, this particular horse is not only dead, scavengers have scattered the bones. The formula is really quite simple, and Greg Sargent at The Horses Mouth gets it exactly right - we do not like you, Mr. Klein-you-are, because you keep attacking the people with whom you should be agreeing, and not attacking those with whom you hold substantively differing views. You dismiss the lefties as shallow potty mouths but fail to point out the real shallow potty mouths are the ones who demand we destroy the Bill of Rights, kill all the Muslims in the world, and lock up or execute those who disagree with the first two propositions. Those who hold the latter positions prop up an incompetently criminal regime with way too much innocent blood on its hands, and you get mad because some on the left point out the United States is doing some really stupid things, and has done so in the past?
God, you're awful. You are shallow. You are, in fact, hollow, who makes a mockery of your profession. Your defense? "I get nervous when I write." Oh. Dear. Sweet. Loving. Jesus. I doubt whether anyone out here cares one iota for your blood-pressure levels as you face a blinking cursor and blank screen. What we do care about is your monumental pandering to power, your obstinate silence in the face of a huge power-grab on the part of the Bush Administration, and your refusal to acknowledge that those you disparage as shallow, vulgar, and insincere are and have been and will continue to be on into the future - right about just about everything, whereas you have been, are and continue to be wrong. Period, end of sentence, end of indictment.
As I was going back and checking links for this post, I came across this piece that Klein typed as a response to all the enquiries from all those potty-mouthed lefties. His list of the characteristics of left-wing extremists range from the cartoonish (they're vulgar, they don't like religious people) to the demonstrably - and demonstratedly - true, yet consistently denied by those in the mainstream (American activity in the Middle East, best described as imperialistic, is the major source for and instigator of Islamic extremism and terrorism). So, Klein is really back at square one, haveing proven that he is, in in Duncan's words a wanker.
UPDATE: I just perused again the post in which Klein lists left-wing extremist traits. I also took a peak at the comments section (still brave of him to keep those in place, I must note). They all boil down to two things that I believe Klein will resolutely refuse to answer. First, since he will not get into a "pissing contest" (language, Mr. Klein, language!) and name names, that tells most readers he can't. I would tend to agree. While I have read occasional rants on various web sites that skirt one or two of these mindlessly stereotyped qualities, none of the major sites, and even few of the minor, Z-level sites, echo even one or two of them on anything like a regular basis. Indeed, Dinesh D'Souza and Jerry Falwell have castigated America more than any lefty of whom I am aware. Second, the list itself shows how out of touch with our present reality Klein actually is; many of the things he claims are hallmarks of leftwing extremism are, in fact, the opinions of, if not a majority, certainly a plurality of Americans. On the most important issue of our day, Iraq, I will say again, what Klein takes as a one-time stupid blunder is actually the end-result of many stupid policy decisions Washington-based types, not the least of whom are journalists, have touted as remarkably successful, included among the list would be the Grenada invasion, the Lebanon occupation, the Libya bombing, Vietnam, tax cuts for the rich, tax increases for the working class, gutting veteran's benefits, supporting terrorist regimes in El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia . . . In other words, this isn't one case of dumbness among a host of successes, but one more, perhaps the topper, in a long list of dismal policy failures and horrors, some of which have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of human beings. This isn't left-wing extremism, it is simply the truth. Klein's moral blindness to this one fact alone makes him an unserious person, bereft of any moral standing upon which to criticize others. He is more than a wanker. He is a buffoon, parading around as a serious person; he is the court jester to King George, and he doesn't even realize it.
UPDATE II: Upon further reflection of Klein's list, I am astounded that it reads less like something a serious-minded, "liberal" journalist might write, and more like something concocted by the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, or any other right-wing nut-job one could name. This alone should tell Klein something, if he were self-aware enough, and self-critical enough, to consider the possibility that he might have just made an ass of himself in front of the entire world.
UPDATE III: What will Klein say about Ann Coulter's remarks, indeed presence, at the CPAC conference? Will his post read like Glenn Greenwald's, where Greenwald highlights several salient points, not the least of which is Coulter's continuined acceptance and acceptability among the congniscenti of the right, even as she calls fro the destruction of the NY Times building, the assassination of Presidents and Supreme Court Justices, and calls Muslims "ragheads"? I would urge Klein to read Greenwald as a refustation of just about everything he attempted to write here, and is based, not on preconceived ideas of what is and is not acceptable discourse among proper politicos, but upon the reality with which we are all faced. As I wait for Klein's reaction, the crickets get louder . . . and louder . . .
Virtual Tin Cup
