Molly, I believe that now is the time to push Congress to reinstate the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. This was an FCC rule that forced the “news” programs to only give facts. If they gave opinions then they had to label them as such and give free air time to anyone with a different opinion. Ronald Reagan repealed this doctrine and said that “the content of news programs should be determined by free enterprise.” So, the truth was sold to the highest bidder and shows like Rush Limbaugh and FOX News began forcing propaganda on Americans in the guise of news. Before Reagan repealed this doctrine, Americans were the most well informed citizens in the world. Please contact congress and anyone who will listen and ask them to sponsor a reinstatement of the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE so that our children, and all Americans can once again be exposed to the actual truth instead of the bought and paid for variety.

That is facsism.Why can’t we have conservative talk radio to give their opioions?,You support AIR AMERICAN free speech of opioion?.....well I support the free speech of opioion shows.Your a facsist scumbag ,I bet you have a nazi uniform in your closet.YOU SCUM.No one forces you to listen to conservative talk radio or watch fox.Guess what CNN is liberal communist socliaist rats from hell but no one wants to silence them.

DROP DEAD YOU BUM.

I would like to respond to comment #38504, about 9-11. I agree that many unanswered questions have not even been publicly asked by the “msm”. That is exactly what I’m commmenting on in comment #38692, our media is a wholly ownwed subsidiary of corporate America. If we demand that our govt. reinstate the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE, these corporate powers would no longer control our media content. Just like the “good old days”, before Reagan. Please contact your representatives in congress and demand that the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE be reinstated, it is our only hope for a well informed populace.

Looking for fair and balanced on television?  Forget about it.  My suggestion is to watch less news, and start reading history related books.  I have found it much more illuminating and satisfying.  My perspective now of the little news I watch on tv today is that it feels as if I’m watching the world through a keyhole, no matter what channel I’m on.  Now, at least I know that I’m looking through a keyhole.  Before, much less so.

Additionally, I would like to mention that the dems and repubs are both business parties. Once you understand this, all of the arguments about right wing this and left wing that, that you hear so much about on tv is just plain silly, and is just part of the distraction game. Don’t buy it.  As someone said before, think critically, and believe nothing fully until YOU have done the research.

To paraphase rummy - we went to war with the Cheney, the Rummy and the Dummy we had rather then those we would have wanted in such a situation

RE#38865 and #38542

Please try BBC World, INN, and Democracy Now! for some balanced reporting. The major networks, (Including PBS) regularly call on “Experts” from Right-Wing think tanks to discuss the issues and portray them as agenda neutral experts. Sometimes the way a discussion is framed makes it biased from the start. The news programming mentioned above can be seen on Dish Network and Direct TV via the LINK and Free Speech TV (FSTV) channels. It is a real eye opener to experience Independent News reporting for the first time. Enjoy!

John wrote:
“I have a honest question to ask and I would like a honest answer. I realize this is off topic but none the less…...
I watch Fox News as do many millions.  They proclaim they are “fair and balanced”.  Liberals laugh, hoot, hollar, and scorn that asseration by Fox.  I think they ARE somewhat fair and balanced in that I see them present both sides of most issues but they do support the conservative point of view as do I….that being said….If Fox News is in the liberals opinion NOT FAIR AND BALANCED, which channel should I switch to, to get a fair and balanced view of the news in this country?  CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Air America, NPR…seriously which one of those is MORE fair and balanced that FOX…and how are they more fair and balanced? “

I was going to make a smart@$$ remark but thought better of it—It IS a fair question and deserves a fair answer.

The answer is you must be a critical thinker and don’t assume that ANY of them are getting it right.  You have to identify and challenge their premises, even if only in your own mind, and withhold judgement when something just doesn’t add up.

Fox had a memo discovered JUST last week where Moody sent around a directive to the staff that the Democratic victory was “not the end of the world.”  Now why would ANY “fair and balanced” news agency view the victory by either mainstream party as requiring such a statement? Because he CLEARLY assumes his staff WILL think it’s the end of the world!  THERE is your bias.

In the same memo he followed it up with a directive for everyone to HUNT for any sign or video that anyone in the Middle East thought this Democratic victory was a good thing.  Within hours Fox was broadcasting that our enemies in the Middle East welcomed the Democratic victory as a sign of American weakness—he FORCED the “news” to fit Fox ideology.

While I know of many screw-ups due to error and ego in the other members of the MSM, I have NEVER heard of anything THAT outrageous—to plan and craft and bend the news to make it look as if one of the two American political parties was nothing but traitors.

67% of people like you, who get their news from Fox, believe that Saddam Hussein was directly behind the 9/11 attack. Nothing could be further from the truth, he was in no way connected.  So why do 67% of you think this? Because Fox told you so, knowing FULL WELL it was a lie.

Watch others, study, question, be critical, ESPECIALLY when someone you LIKE says something…it may well be wrong.  If you believe Bill O’Reilly when he says “I’m an Independent” it may already be too late.

Molly Ivins is an American treasure, no one does it better.

“...Brother Donald Rumsfeld, who is so full of wisdom he does not seem to be able to apply it.” I imagine that the generals and admirals are planning a big celebration to watch Rummy, Cambone and the other neocons slither out of the Pentagon.

whatever happend to the best of em

STUFF HAPPENS

#38542 John’s post

watch the Jim Lehrer News Hour on public tv.

it is - from my view - the only news program available that is closed to being truly “fair and balanced”

Fox News tends to show bias starting with what stories they choose to pursue - you’d be hard-pressed to find such framing bias the News Hour broadcast

REST IN PEACE !

Molly, if Lil’George reads this column, he’ll no doubt use your list of Rumsfeldian quotes as reason to award Donny a Medal of Freedom.

Yes, at this juncture I know way more than I want to about the Bush family dynamics.  Too bad, to our costly expense,  they’ve played them out on the world stage. -Kevo

You forgot the best (and perhaps the most dangerous)quote: “Stuff Happens”

Molly, I believe that now is the time to push Congress to reinstate the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE. This was an FCC rule that forced the “news” programs to only give facts. If they gave opinions then they had to label them as such and give free air time to anyone with a different opinion. Ronald Reagan repealed this doctrine and said that “the content of news programs should be determined by free enterprise.” So, the truth was sold to the highest bidder and shows like Rush Limbaugh and FOX News began forcing propaganda on Americans in the guise of news. Before Reagan repealed this doctrine, Americans were the most well informed citizens in the world. Please contact congress and anyone who will listen and ask them to sponsor a reinstatement of the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE so that our children, and all Americans can once again be exposed to the actual truth instead of the bought and paid for variety.

The Slaughter of Man is claimed to be ‘politics’
The destruction of the world is said to be ‘wisdom’
And under the guise of goodwill towards mankind,
They wrought havoc; this is competence!

Khalilullah Khalili (1907-1987), poet laureate of Afghanistan until his death

We need to remember that during the administration of Bush 41 Jeb was being groomed. W then hung out with the Rummy’s and Chaney’s and their neocon friends (I think some have referred to them as “the crazies”). Those expecting that Jeb would inherit the mantle had not reckoned with the likes of Lawton Childes who overcame Jeb at the polls. Thus when shrub became the Governor of Texas he became entitled.

As usual you have missed the agenda of the gay Generals in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drain US resources away from the real war in America and the world. The war for family values.

Dan Quail was stupid, but smart enough to know to leave decisions to others. George Bush is stupid enough to let others convince him to make a decision.

Yesterday a local cable access channel here re-ran a probably 15 year-old talk by Michael Parenti in which he carefully drew the critical distinction between the government (which is at least putatively of by and for “the people”) and the STATE (which was instituted and exists to protect and further the interests of the propertied elite).  So when the ‘major’ media (wholly owned by ‘statists’) calls one of their own kind a “statesman,” you’d better believe they ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie.  Donald Rumsfeld surely fills that bill in all its anti-democratic particulars…..as do all those whose company he has so faithfully kept all these years.          This also explains the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to other servants of the state like Powell, Bremer, and Tenet.  So don’t be surprised when Rumsfeld gets his.  And don’t be surprised, either, when gestapo outrages like the one at the UCLA library yesterday, and a rash of police shootings of unarmed “suicides”(as seen in Portland lately) become more and more commonplace, as the STATE acts to terrorize and punish a people who’ve just expressed (however tentatively) their unease, even alarm, at the actions and operations of the corporatist national security state that has hijacked their government.

Molly, I love your articles. I believe this one says it all. My favorite is the “knowns and unknowns” also. Keep up the good work!

Help make sure Rumsfeld’s war crimes trial goes forward.  Contact the German court via form email at the Center for Constitutional Rights website at http://www.ccr-ny.org

Click on pic of Rumsfeld upper left on homepage and follow directions for contacting the German court.

“...I only wish Ms. Ivins’ sense of humanity were as large as her sense of humor.”

you’re not very bright, are you?

I have a honest question to ask and I would like a honest answer. I realize this is off topic but none the less…...
I watch Fox News as do many millions.  They proclaim they are “fair and balanced”.  Liberals laugh, hoot, hollar, and scorn that asseration by Fox.  I think they ARE somewhat fair and balanced in that I see them present both sides of most issues but they do support the conservative point of view as do I….that being said….If Fox News is in the liberals opinion NOT FAIR AND BALANCED, which channel should I switch to, to get a fair and balanced view of the news in this country?  CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Air America, NPR…seriously which one of those is MORE fair and balanced that FOX…and how are they more fair and balanced?

Molly,

Thanks for great insight in describing the present debacle that is currently substituting for our federal government.  But you forgot one that stands out in my mind.  Remember when he was responding to an infantryman’s question, regarding fighting without proper equipment:

“You don’t get the war you want.” (Even though he was in-charge of starting it.)

“Nuggets of wisdom”

He who tells the biggest lies . . . Wins!

My fellow citizens,
        I challenge all of us to listen to what former Reagan and Bush administration officials, former military brass and fighter pilots, former CIA officials, along with numerous scientists and scholars, are saying about the 9/11 attacks.  There are questions about that day that need to be addressed, and these people I mention are asking them.  Some members of the 9/11 Commission believe that NORAD personnel lied to them.  Why would NORAD lie?  What are they hiding?  Also, there was a spike in put options on American and United Airlines on September 7th, suggesting whomever took them out had some kind of prior knowledge of the attacks.  Why hasn’t the identity of these stock traders been revealed?  Perhaps they were helping to fund Al Qaeda, who knows?  Why didn’t the administration readily admit from the outset that Dick Cheney was at the White House simulating wargames that morning?  Why did they lie to us that night and say they’d had no warnings of such an attack?  Why did Bush stay at Booker Elementary School for nearly an hour, thereby putting himself and those children in danger?  There are many other pertinent questions that have simply been ignored.  Just basic questions.  Let’s answer them rather than mock people who have experience and expertise in these matters.
          It is childish to insist that members of the Reagan and Bush administration, CIA agents, military brass, the victim’s families, Michael Meacher, Daniel Ellsberg, Andreas Von Bulow, Gore Vidal, Paul Craig Roberts, Bob Bowman and countless others are all part of some vast tin foil hat crowd.  Respectfully, I ask each of you to watch Terrorstorm on Google Video, a documentary created by right-wing Christian journalist Alex Jones.  Watch 9/11 Press For Truth, watch 9/11 Mysteries, Part One, watch Loose Change.  What can it hurt to hear alternate points of view?  Again, the sentiments I express are shared by former Reagan and Bush administration officials, former military brass, former fighter pilots, former CIA officials, former Pentagon officials.  Again, this includes Daniel Ellsberg, who, as we know, told the truth about Vietnam.
        Let’s work together to determine the facts.  And if the 9/11 truth movement is so ridiculous, then it should take no time at all to clear the matter up.  But remember it is Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane who contend that representatives from NORAD were hiding something when they testified.  Are Hamilton and Keane tin foil hat people, too?  Is the 9/11 commission now part of this tin foil hat conspiracy?  Are all these former miltary and CIA, former Reagan and Bush officials just trying to make George W Bush look bad?  That doesn’t make sense.  Why would they do that?  They would have nothing to gain and everything to lose by taking such a stand.  Ignoring these issues just adds fuel to speculation of American involvment.
        There are those who seem to be afraid to have an adult conversation about this.  They protest too much, which suggests they realize something is wrong and don’t want to face it.  Most are skeptical until they look at the many documentaries and study the facts. Plainly stated, there is something wrong with the official account of 9/11, and polls consistently show that 80% of Americans agree.  It’s time for a real, courageous, honest investigation into the events of that awful day.  Our future well being depends on it.  Peace and long life.

One puzzling question remains, why Bush went after Saddam instead of Osama who is responsible for 9/11 and is still at large? I would like to see a hearing on this issue. The bloody Rumsfeld was instructed to go after Saddamn but didn’t say why.

“Replied Rummy: “Vietnam? You think you have to tell me about Vietnam? Of course it won’t be Vietnam. We are going to go in, overthrow Saddam, get out. That’s it.”

Just on the tail of Rummy’s being run out of town comes Peter Lance’s new book, “Triple Cross,” the most recent of the many books, interviews and accusations now streaming through the corporate media on the utter “incompetence” and “denial” of the “fiasco.” Close analysis of these limited hangouts reveals the struggle now ensuing amongst the oligarchs over the direction, the timing, perhaps even the concept of the War of Civilizations, implemented in full force after the 9/11 putsch.

Lance writes that the FBI allowed the chief spy for al Qaeda to operate right under their noses. The notion that al Queda inserted moles into the FBI and CIA is preposterous. The alphabet spooks (including MI-6) have run al Queda right from its emergence from the Mujahidin and the War of Terror, its tragic horror notwithstanding, has been a stunning intelligence success, not an “intelligence failure” as Woodward writes.

As for Rummy, clearly he is himself the virtual knowing, unkown known, a mole in his own right, as it were;  protecting the useful fool, the perfect patsy, little ‘ol Dubya, fall guy for the lot of them. The only real question left: Who gets indicted for treason first?

The NeoCons got what they wanted. The Iraq quagmire is the result of it not being necessary to their aims to really care about the positive or negative outcome of the thing. In a sense, it was done on purpose.  Even with the overall short-term losses, Bush’s humiliation, and the mid-term election losses, it is more reasonable, makes more sense, albiet cynical sense, when considered that way, with long-term goals in mind. And long-term goals are precisely what think-tanks like the ones behind key members of the Bush administration strategize towards. What’s a two year set-back to a thirty year plan? Are we to imagine that they did not consider failure? Not merely in a blanket sense but, the ramifications of the details of failure as well?        What stands to reason? That a president’s administration, and an immense defense department full of intelligent, capable, war-college trained people steeped in history, just plain choked? Or that key members of that structure numbering in the dozens, beholden to the narrow path of groups like P.N.A.C. and the ‘institutes,’ put in place by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al, steered things their way toward their aims? Rumsfeld bucked good advice. Lots of it. And good, effective, proven advice personified; Colin Powell, used to sell their plan, was dumped? Their plan was not what Powell would have done? It was entirely possible. That was crazy or, there was something to it. Why was there a “cabal” at all for any reason if not nefarious reasons? The expertise and knowlege to ‘win’ Iraq was out in the light, available, in fact, it was necessary to get it out of the way, to thwart it, in order to do the thing in a different way.                “Look to the essence of a thing…” As a long-term strategy towards NeoCon aims it all works wonders: Necessary Defense spending galore for decades reclaims the Peace Dividend. An ever-ready amorphous enemy that will always threaten us (especially if we torture them and bomb their homes) and therefore permanently shifts our national psyche, thinking, dialog, and politics to the political right. A major reason for the U.S. to be in the Middle East for a long time.              Who would dream, scheme, and tout Long War when they could do anything to avoid it? One whose plans included it, or the possibility. They haven’t created a Middle East democratic Eden but, was it necessary? To what end? Look at the considerations of the Realist Administration under H W Bush 41 who would not take on the burden of Iraq and the effort looks to be not a dream unachieved, or even a failed pipe-dream but, a good NeoCon plan. A victory would have been wonderful but, they plainly didn’t work hard for it and indeed thwarted many who tried to do the proper things, or advise them. Either way, win or lose, they got what they wanted.

Dan Quayle seems like Albert Einstein after six years of George W. Bush.

Ms. Ivins, the following Rumsfeld quote is one of the more costlier, I’m sorry to say.

“It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

Thanks for doing what you do.

G, I dunno; do you?

And then there’s the infamous - the WMD bit - “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” He must have said somewhere along the line, “just because it didn’t rain today, doesn’t mean that it won’t rain tomorrow.”

One is left dumbfounded by the wisdom of Donald Rumsfeld.

Molly,

One of your best opening lines ever!

God love ya.

Thank you for getting me through this bush league administration.

You rock!

Molly Ivins ends her article by describing as “excellent” the plan to invade Iraq, overthrow the dictator, and then leave. I wonder if her choice of the word “excellent” was intended to be ironic. Was it “excellent” to invade a country that was no threat to the United States and had already suffered appalling degradation under the UN/U.S. embargo? Was it “excellent” to cause the deaths of thousands, if not tens of thousands of innocent civilians during the invasion? Was it “excellent” to ignore the UN Charter and all other relevant international law in order to prosecute a war of aggression? I only wish Ms. Ivins’ sense of humanity were as large as her sense of humor.

It’s truly frightening to think that NOW our country is being run, at the very top, by the Carlyle Group, which means by the Saudis.

But what dwarfs THAT nugget is that compared to Chimpy McFlightsuit, AKA, Mad King George, this is a GOOD THING!!!!

Rummy’s quotes are very similar to some of Dubya’s, for instance “I don’t do nuance”. It would appear that this administration is of one mind. Notice that the right-wing attack machine is cranking up again? In recent days it has become apparent that Democrats are being denigrated with renewed ferocity by the neo-cons. Dems need to “fight fire with fire” to maintain a position of authority in government.

As usual Ms. Ivins, you had me laughing.  Losing Rumsfeld will take some of the humor out of political commentary, but it certainly is a somewhat hopeful sign.  I’m incredulous, however.

I’m particularly skeptical of having someone from a CIA background running the Defense Department.  Can that be good?  Gates is no neocon, though, and that might bode well for not getting cherry-picked intelligence on Iran.  But Gates does have a reputation for cooking intelligence.

Iraq war plan; Ill conceived, poorly planned,and badly implemented.

Of course Bush is going back to Bush Sr.  Running Texas as Governor was a nothing, after all who knows what goes on in Texas, this state is contolled by the good ole boys, just like the good ole boys in Fla. and La. and Miss.  People should know that as soon as Bush became governor, he was allready on his way to run for President of the U.S.  That is why Fla. was going to go his way, and Fla. is still going his way, the paperless voting is done for a reason to keep some people from voting, our government is suppose to want people to vote, but the State of Fla. does not everyone to vote, only those who represent the present state of affairs, keep it Republician. 

Marge from Vancouver, Washington

But, Molly, Rummy didn’t mention the Unknown Knowns, and we (in the know) know why: it describes the administration perfectly.

To non-quote Rummy:

“There are the unknown knowns. Things we should know, but don’t.”