Snarkasm – ’snär-"ka-z&m – noun – a disdainful and often cheap shot designed at pointing out painfully obvious and/or stupid stuff.
Today’s target, some headlines and/or bylines in the Washington Post that in my humble opinion, could use some improvement, disclaimers and/or clarifications:
- DeLay’s Felony Charge Is Upheld – I love this. All over the news list night, the general story was ‘some charges dropped.’ But the WaPo, wanting to be more and more like the NYTimes each day, has to accentuate the negative. File under the category of ‘never headline a nice thing about a republican.’
- Looks like ‘objective’ opinion writer Richard Cohen has received the latest talking points from ‘Chucky’ Schumer, et.al. in the rant ‘Let Rumsfeld Go.’ Apparently this meme has been recycled – with consequences that might make lefties think 2x.
- E. J. Dionne Jr. seems to think there IS an abortion litmus test as he accuses conservatives of ‘Dodging Debate On Alito.’ Or what I’d like to byline as ‘please help those of us on the left move this fight to terms favorable to us.‘
- Three times being the charm, the WaPo accuses Condi of offering ‘A Weak Defense‘ as she tried to assuage countries capable of containing their terrorism, like France, that the U.S. does not authorize or condone torture of detainees. This is because she didn’t qualify her definition of torture to include a number of psyop techniques. Perhaps we should coddle the terrorists like say Tookie? Hmmm… better yet, perhaps next time Dr.Rice can lead off with "the U.S. does not authorize or condone the cruel beheading of captives."
- Filed under the category of ‘international espionage is a dirty game,’ it looks like the Italians are mad because a ‘CIA Ruse Is Said to Have Damaged Probe in Milan‘ – anyone who’s watched at least one James Bond movie knows that getting info out of bad buys is a messy business where often the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. What amuses me most about this post is that in setting up the human rights argument against the U.S., the writer unintentionally paints a picture of some internal Italian infighting by some miffed that they’re not as deep in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s inner circle as they once thought.
- ‘U.S. Is Given Failing Grades By 9/11 Panel‘ – apparently the panel also issued two "incompletes" in categories including airline passenger screening and improving first responders’ communication system. I suspect this will remain so long as we continue to pull 70 year old women out of line for screenings and place the entire weight of local contingency planning on the White House.
As always, your mileage will vary. Feel free to add your own contributions.
{ 10 comments }
La Shawn:
I was so proud of Dr Rice when questioned about “torture”.
As you know, I am Sicilian-Hungarian, and my wife is Polish.
We are both proud that abandoned Soviet prisons in Eastern Europe are being used for “enhanced interrogation”. And I hope they are re-employing some Russian interrogators.
Frank, I think you meant to aim your snarkasm at me; btw, you’re a fast learner!
Perhaps you could teach Dr.Rice and the rest the techniques for which you obviously have an extended knowledge.
I mean I realize the terrorist live and die by the sword, but that doesn’t mean we can’t coddle them back into the 21st century like the rest of us!
Mean Dean: Never, ever open the WaPo Op Ed page on Tuesday. Fish refuse to be wrapped in it. Canaries block up if their cages are lined with it. The landfill will not accept it. But, the Volvo and Brie set will fight over it down at the recycling center.
Have you ever seen a reference to something written by E. Jurassic Dionne, Jr. or Richard NoZionHearted Cohen in the objective press? These two liberal whiners don’t even reach the level of “left overs.”
Tom DeLay… I find it very difficult to root for Mr. Delay when I reflect that this is the man who was the foremost strong-arm in the House to implement the President’s nouveau-conservative big-government spending (Dick Armey has said as much), including the disastrous medicare prescription drug plan.
Perhaps Mr. Delay is innocent of the charges against him, perhaps not; but in light of Mr. Delays political actions of the last couple of years, I have to admit that I have no dog in this fight.
Block grants just don’t work. There should have been a list of permitted uses for the 9/11 money, and any deviation from the list should have been a felony.
“but that doesn’t mean we can’t coddle them back into the 21st centuryâ€
Could there be a way that lies somewhere in-between torture and coddling that would be effective against our enemies ? Or are we just limited to these 2 choices ?
We are dealing with a number of groups whose common threads extend back to the eighth century. They still live in the eighth century. the group from which they evolved was formed only for the purpose of raising an army to fight a war. They are still fighting a twelve hundred year old war. They have promised to kill everyone who does not believe as they do. They have attacked The United States on our soil. They have shot. blown up and beheaded our citizens around the world.
They represent no nation, wear no uniform, and target civilians. They have no right to expect to be treated under the Geneva Conventions, nor should they be treated so. How many more Americans , or Israelis or Iraqis must die before we realize that taking away their dessert is not giving us the information we need to defeat them or protect our nation?
So if people cross a certain threshold of evil, laws no longer apply?
So if people cross a certain threshold of evil, laws no longer apply?
These people live in the 8th century so we should use older methods in dealing with them?
Why do phrases like “taking away their dessert “and “coddle them†come up when we talk about not torturing prisoners? No middle ground here? Either pull out their toenails or give them milk and cookies?
Karl – you want to demonstrate instances where the U.S. pulled out toenails?
Because I can give you a milk and cookies example.
Ok fair enough, you got me, I can not name an example of toenail pulling and I’m sure there have been documented milk and cookie instances on a number of occasions. My point was that you don’t have to be in favor of treating prisoners like they where at a holiday resort if you are against torturing them. I am fairly certain that you knew that though.
I lean in the direction of avoiding torture as a means of getting information out of prisoners. I would have to see very persuasive evidence to accept that the U.S. should change its policy on how prisoners are interrogated. If torture is a viable way of getting reliable information should the FBI not be allowed to use it in special cases? It could save lives. Don’t you think this is a very slippery slope to start going down?
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