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The Democrats can stop the war. This does not require overriding a veto. This does not require shutting down the government. All it requires is that they pass a measure funding the war that includes a requirement that the troops be brought home. If Bush vetoes the bill, then he'll have no money to continue the war. And the troops will have to come home.
This simple fact has been consistently elided by both the Democrats and by the corporate media. We at Left Out noticed this a long time ago, but just recently there was this media advisory from FAIR: Media Misrepresent Dems' Options on Iraq War. To illustrate, here's a clip of Tim Russert talking to Keith Olbermann after Bush's speech on September 13th. His comment that the Democrats only option is to "shut down the government" makes no sense. If the Republicans want to filibuster the bill to prevent its passage, then it's THEM who are shutting down the government, not the Democrats. And the end result will still be that the war has to end. (Ted Rall has added this insightful analysis of the phoney inability of the Democrats to stop the war.)
One can be cynical and postulate that the Democrats are going along with this because (1) the war is immensly unpopular and (2) it will be to their tremendous advantage in '08 if the war and the US casualties are dragging on throughout the year.
John Edwards' very courageous 2 minute commercial, which aired during the same broadcast, is in stark contrast to this. He demands that congress end the war.
We on Left Out have been saying for years that "the media picks the nominees". For example, Howard Dean was eliminated in '04 by 1000 media cuts culminating in the bogus "scream" incident. Well, surprise-surprise. It's happening again. Here's a clip from a Rachel Maddow commentary about a recent Democratic Debate. And, as if on queue for our program, the always-inane David Shribman obliged by writing this editorial entitied: My point: Suddenly, a frontrunner, where he talks about how Hillary has become the frontrunner: "It's not a mainstream media conspiracy, either. It's just a discernible adjustment in the political climate." Well, let's not get into the c-word, but in fact it is the corporate media who are doing this --- with the help of good old David Shribman, who picked up the clues and passed them along to his readers.
The Columbia Journalism review comments on the treatment of John Edwards by the press, questioning whether we're just seeing a repetition of how Gore, Dean, and Kerry were treated.
And in another stupid article in the P-G on Sunday we have this: Thompson looks right to GOP's base voters by Jerome Sherman. Recently Thompson has made two horrendous gaffs. These are very important in assessing the seriousness of Thompson as a candidate. Yet neither was mentioned in Sherman's article. An excerpt from here:
Last week, Fred Thompson looked pretty foolish when he argued that Social Security reform is one of the top issues on his policy agenda, but then said he couldn't remember what Bush's position was on Social Security two years ago. In July, he looked nearly as bad when he said he couldn't remember lobbying for an abortion-rights group. Thompson's memory failed him again. GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said he doesn't remember much about the Terri Schiavo case that commanded the nation's attention in 2005 - though he appeared in a "Law Order" episode ripped from those headlines.
Either he's completely senile, or he just has no interest at all in policy and politics. In either case, anybody who knows about this knows that he should (must) not be considered as a serious candidate for the office of President.
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