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.
