Fox News Fisticuffs
On Fox News today Juan Williams took on the Kristol-Hume tag team in what could best be described as verbal fisticuffs, although if you watched the video you wouldn't have been surprised if they had thrown some real punches. Look closely at the picture and you'll see that they have both turned their trembling hands into fists.
It started when little Billy Kristol said, "We'll win the debate if the Democrats and the liberal media want to obsess about seven guys from Cumberland humiliating some Iraqi prisoners." To which Juan replied, "you want to make this into Liberals versus Conservatives."
Billy said, "Absolutely."
But perhaps even more interesting was when Brit Hume got involved. Bills right he said, and Williams interrupted.
... no standards at all. No standards. Do whatever you like. We're Americans, held to a higher standard and we represent something great in the world - we'll then you lose all that Brit. You lose your standing representing anything different from what the terrorists represent.
Brit Hume's response was absolutely amazing:
" ...War is a terrible thing and terrible things happen in wars on all sides. Something terrible happened in this war and it's being addressed and it is not being minimized. "
[ This is so typical of right-wing nutjobs. He's just said its not being minimized and in the following sentence he minimizes it. Unfucking believable]
It was way less terrible than the things that are happening to us in this war. The business at hand, the real business at hand is to get on with this war. To win it, and finish it. And that will eradicate all the rest of this and it won't matter in the end because the Iraqi people will be better off and so will we and so will the world
Juan: They want us out that's what I notice.
This is extremely entertaining:
Here is the video 4.4MB for a slower connection try this mp4 1.9 MB file
Comments
Is the abuse terrible or is it okay? You had Bill Kristol sayng that it's okay and then two seconds later Brit Hume claiming its terrible. The rules of war apply, of course, unless you're at war. The hard right line on this seems to be that the way to win hearts and minds is to continue to tolerate abuse but keep it a secret, so that at least some Iraqis can go on feeling good about the U.S.
I actually heard a Republican friend of mine say something similar--that this election was about whether the American people think that we're at war or not. If they think we're at war, the story goes, they have to vote Bush. It's more of the lame line that the only alternative to Bush is a kind of hands-over-your-ears pacifism. The worse Bush gets, the more you have to distort the alternative.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Kerry gets elected. Rather than continuing to say he's weak on defense (which could prompt him to ask for more money and authority in foreign affairs) the Republicans will probably go back to calling their president an irresponsible, wag-the-dog warmonger, just like they did with Clinton when he was using the military in Bosnia, Iraq and Kosovo.
Did you catch "Meet the Press" yesterday? A press aide abruptly tried to end Russerts interview with Colin Powell by pushing the camera away to show a palm tree when he was asked an uncomfortable question. There was an interesting exchange that included Russert telling him that this was "inappropriate" and Powell -still off camera- testily telling someone named Emily to "get out of the way" and to put the camera back on him. "Meet the Press" aired the whole exchange unedited. Later in the show when Russert asked John McCain if he would consider running on the ticket with Kerry, McCain replied that he wished someone would aim the camera at a palm tree right now. Great stuff!
Billy Kristol said, "We'll win the debate if the Democrats and the liberal media want to obsess about seven guys from Cumberland humiliating some Iraqi prisoners."
I bet any conservative cash money that this extends to more than seven torturers. The reports that I have seen from the Red Cross and Amnesty International suggest that torture of Iraqi's by U.S. Soldiers is much more widespread.
There are at least ten people in one of the pictures! Does Kristol think we're morons like his Fox viewers? Or maybe the abuse that was going on in this picture is the kind which he finds acceptable. They want to act tough and say you have to be hard with people in a war, but they don't want to come out and say what is acceptable and what is not in their view.
Yeah, this is pretty amusing, especially coming from the 'moral clarity' crowd.
The Pentagon's been whitewashing this scandal for months, while the press has been sleeping on it. And here's Bill and Brit trying to sweep it back under the carpet, so the noble Messopotamian adventure can continue, unimpeded.
They sure are getting desperate over there in Fox Land, aren't they?