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singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1

Left Insane? Blame the Right!

The ultimate in blame-flinging

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June 8, 2007 1:56:53 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
TIME Magazine's Joe Klein recently wrote an article decrying the Far Left Blogosphere's attempts to shout him down over another article he'd written.

A strange thing happened to me the day the House of Representatives voted to pass the Iraq-war-funding bill. Congresswoman Jane Harman of California called as the debate was taking place. "Look, I would love to have cast a vote against Bush on this," she told me. "We need a new strategy, and I hope we can force one in September. But I flew into Baghdad [with 150 young soldiers recently]. To vote against this bill was to vote against giving them the equipment... they need. I couldn't do that." I posted what Harman said on Swampland, the political blog at Time.com, along with my opinion that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had changed their positions and voted against the funding for the worst possible reason: presidential politics.

And then Harman changed her position. After we spoke, she voted against the funding. The next day, I was blasted by a number of left-wing bloggers: Klein screwed up! I had quoted Harman in the past tense—common usage for politicians who know their words will appear after a vote takes place. That was sloppy and... suspicious! Proof that you just can't trust the mainstream media.

He was vilified by the Left's piranhas for misquoting Harman and misrepresenting her vote. Reckless? Yes, but understandable. And Klein calls a spade a spade and fights back:

But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable.

But, aye, here's the rub: Klein blames the Left's bilious attack on an overall atmosphere of Lefty intolerance on right-wing pundits!

...the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered... And that is precisely the danger here. Fury begets fury. Poison from the right-wing talk shows seeped into the Republican Party's bloodstream and sent that party off the deep end. Limbaugh's show—where Dick Cheney frequently expatiates—has become the voice of the Republican establishment. The same could happen to the Democrats.

Moonbats and general lefty lunatics are that way... because the Republicans made them that way? Klein gets flamed by the Left for his reportage and he blames the Right? Hilarious, what chutzpah. Nope, couldn't possibly be the lefties who are crazy. It's the righties who are to blame for the level of bilious rhetoric in America. Blame Rush Limbaugh and the current administration for Air America, Daily Kos, and the DU. If those on the right weren't so horrible then there wouldn't have been such a backlash. And that's the climate in which Joe Klein writes...?

Talk about denial.
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singrdave
greywar
Join Date 05/2003
+4
Reply #1 June 8, 2007 2:27:26 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

In his rush to blame the Right for the Left's bile he at least forgot to Blame America First so he will likely suffer further excoriation from the Left for that omission as well.

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singrdave
Jythier
Join Date 02/2003
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Reply #2 June 8, 2007 3:10:38 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
The far of both sides are insane.
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singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #3 June 8, 2007 3:48:32 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
He is a perfect example of a lazy reporter.  He does not research his story, but rather gets his news from blog sites.  While conservative radio is conservative, I have yet to hear or read about any of the talking heads reveling in the death of a liberal, or demanding that a liberal should be killed.
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singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #4 June 10, 2007 5:16:30 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
He refuses to see that each person is responsible for his or her own actions, and that if "the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered" then they do it of their own free will and choice. There is no cause whatsoever for incivility, but the hubris that Klein has to blame the Left's craziness on the Right...

It is a circular argument. Klein, an obvious apologist for the rabid blogs of the Left, has now absolved them of their blame by saying "THEY STARTED IT!"
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singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #5 June 11, 2007 8:28:31 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

It is a circular argument. Klein, an obvious apologist for the rabid blogs of the Left, has now absolved them of their blame by saying "THEY STARTED IT!"

And he cant even say (with any knowledge) what "it" is.

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singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #6 June 12, 2007 1:49:56 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
When you address the political spheres of influence on a large platform like TIME Magazine, you should expect to rankle about half your audience. But then to blame the rankling on the other, non-rankled, half of the audience? Priceless.
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singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #7 June 12, 2007 3:27:31 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Reading this, and thinking in my macabre way, I was struck by the similarity to the only Mickey Moron movie that ever was worth Watching. Canadian Bacon. Now I know where he got the inspiration from.

His loony friends!
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singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #8 June 21, 2007 12:41:55 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Now I know where he got the inspiration from.

Apparently Joe Klein would blame Rush Limbaugh for Michael Moore. Without Rush's powderkeg of hatred, misogyny, and bombast, there would be no Michael Moore to light the fuse.
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singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #9 June 21, 2007 12:52:54 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Apparently Joe Klein would blame Rush Limbaugh for Michael Moore. Without Rush's powderkeg of hatred, misogyny, and bombast, there would be no Michael Moore to light the fuse.

That does not speak very highly of the left and being their own person.

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singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #10 June 22, 2007 6:40:46 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
That does not speak very highly of the left and being their own person.

I think you have culled out the entire point of the article. Each person is responsible for his or her own actions, no matter who they are or what they do.

Let me use a Washington Beltway analogy: Can I slide through a rush hour standstill riding on the shoulder and blame it on the traffic when I get stopped by a cop? It's my choice to resort to certain tactics for an advantage, not anyone else's. And I get the ticket, not the stopped traffic to my left. Ultimately I am responsible for my own actions, whether they be driving etiquette or civil conversation.

It is one thing to make excuses for one's bad behavior, but when you blame opponents for your own bad behavior it is downright irresponsible. Klein here is trying to shove the ultimate culpability for those representing his side of the argument on the other side of the argument. And he fully believes he's right, since a) it's in print and on the public record; and this excuse absolves him and Lefty lunatics in general of all responsibility for their actions. The Left's level of insane rhetoric and Bush Demonization Syndrome has drawn them to the conclusion that they aren't like this normally -- it must be the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
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singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #11 June 22, 2007 8:26:47 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

I think you have culled out the entire point of the article.

Good summation, and I am glad I could give you the lead to make it in the comments.  I would have put it at the end of the article, but then I have been slammed in the past for making editorial comments in my articles (I guess some people do not understand the concept of blogs).

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