This new Bin Laden tape has the right wingers acting like idiots. On the one hand, they are thrilled because they feel any reminder of the terrorist “threat” is good for the GOP. That’s nothing new, I know.
But on the other hand, they have to understand that if one thinks about it even a little, it hurts Bush, since he should have got Bin Laden already, so they are stuck trying to figure a way out of that narrative. The best they can come up with is that Bin Laden either sounds like a Democrat or as the NY Times wingnut op-ed columnist David Brooks opines:
Download | Play Download | Play
Brooks: I mean on one hand he’s a malevolent guy who killed three thousand Americans, but you read this thing and it’s like he’s been sitting around reading lefty blogs and one of these childish people posting rants at the bottom of the page (garbled) Noam Chomsky and all this stuff.
That’s right, Bin Laden sounds just like a lefty blogger, or worse, Chomsky. I tell you what, I’ll line up anything I’ve ever written against Wanker Brooks. I promise you, his average of being right is well below the Mendoza line. In fact, let’s look at this January 2005 essay by Chomsky:
Let’s just imagine what the policies might be of an independent Iraq, independent, sovereign Iraq, let’s say more or less democratic, what are the policies likely to be?
Well there’s going to be a Shiite majority, so they’ll have some significant influence over policy. The first thing they’ll do is reestablish relations with Iran. Now they don’t particularly like Iran, but they don’t want to go to war with them so they’ll move toward what was happening already even under Saddam, that is, restoring some sort of friendly relations with Iran.
That’s the last thing the United States wants. It has worked very hard to try to isolate Iran. The next thing that might happen is that a Shiite-controlled, more or less democratic Iraq might stir up feelings in the Shiite areas of Saudi Arabia, which happen to be right nearby and which happen to be where all the oil is. So you might find what in Washington must be the ultimate nightmare-a Shiite region which controls most of the world’s oil and is independent.
Hmmm….does that sound like loony left ravings to you? Contrast that to the fact checking I found for Brook’s January 29, 2005 NYT op-ed from the aptly named “David Brooks is a moron“. ‘Nuff said.
(thanks to Nicole for her help)
One Trackback To “David Brooks: Wanker Elite“
Not another Boogiemanistan thing…..sheesh……(Boogiemanistan courtesy of Dr Matt)
Does anyone believe this is REALLY from bin L?
Excellent points about Chomsky’s “loony left” sayings. On top of that, to say Bin Laden is a “lefty” is silly if not downright hilarious. His desire to mix religion and government falls right in line with our religious right. His desire to see homosexuality stamped out falls right in line with our religious right. And his desire to marginalize (or in his case, kill) atheists and stamp out secularism falls right in line with our religious right.
If he were a Christian, his right-wing rhetoric would be welcomed by the Repug herd.
I still can’t believe how many people still take Brooks seriously anymore.
Steve Benen:
lmao
Brooks, like the Kagan thugs, is just another deceptive, creepy arrogant necon who is just fine to see americans killed for their Mideast goals.
Anyone who would plan and execute 9/11 is obviously a horrible person. I have more respect for amoeba. There are people that I have even less respect for than I do for Bin Laden because they have been attacking the working class in the U.S. ever since 9/11 happened all for personal benefit.
Haven’t seen the new Bin Laden video yet. Is it on pay per view?
Who does Osama sound like?
Digby:
There’s a lot more..
i am tired of the reichwingnut neocon gop’s continued attempts at blaming everything
they do wrong or against the law and/or the U.S. constitution on the democrats. we are about to go into either a high inflation period or a destructive recession. let’s see who took a trillion dollar surplus and turned it into a multi-trillion deficit?
the fucking repugs and the bastards bush and cheney.
BennyP @ 2:
Bin who???……
and yeah, I believe it could be one of them. I also believe they are on the WarPigs payroll.
Who does Osama sound like?
Digby: “Brothers In Weltanschauung”
the bin laden family and the bush family are joined at the hips.
what one does the other condones!!!!!!!!!!!
It looks like Bin Laden must have interpreters on his staff. I wonder if they are gay. If we had interpreters in our service, maybe we wouldn’t be wondering whether it is Bin Laden or not.
My head is going to explode.
So now a Bin Laden, who once thanked America for expelling the atheist Soviets from Afghanistan is now a Marxist and telling us to read Chomsky? And just around election time again. Isn’t it also fundamentally against Bin Laden’s interpretation of Islam to cut or dye his facial hair? Well, I guess it really is him because the administration said so, and they’ve never lied to us before.
Manila Ryce @ 15:
He’s a Marxist when he wants everyone else to have “no taxes”, like he says Islam has? (they have a 2.4% religious tax)
He could rally every wingnut in America behind him if he would just focus on the “No Taxes!” message.
crap my 6:17 PM post didn’t post so after waiting a couple minutes refreshing and not seeing it I posted a link to the same thing at 6:24. I hate that sooo much! sorry.
I can think of several others who have made similar comparisons of people on the left/Dems to Osama
Chris Matthews
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....-to-osama/
Joe Scarborough
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....uot-osama/
Tucker Carlson
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....ghts-back/
I think Bin Laden has picked up that a majority of the world opposes the U.S. invasion of Iraq, not just the Democrats here in the US. I think he’s employing a bit of reverse psychology, as the Iraq war has supplied the Muslim extremists with a legitimacy, since we attacked a nation that didn’t attack us. Prior to the Iraq war, the world, including Iran, accepted the U.S. right to invade Afghanistan for example, to go after Bin Laden.
Bin Laden has the best of two worlds here. If we leave Iraq, he can claim victory for driving out the infidels. If we stay, and I think Bin Laden is better off if we stay, that keeps the pressure off of him and his supporters in Afghanistan/Pakistan. The fundamentalist Taliban are the most ideologically aligned and affiliated people with Al Qaeda so reducing action against them by the US remaining bogged down in Iraq is the best thing for Bin Laden.
In the US we’re kind of in our own little world. We make a distinction of what is and isn’t terrorism not accepted by the rest of the world. For example, we call “shock and awe” an endeavor that the rest of the world recognized as “terrorizing” the Iraqis into accepting “liberation” otherwise seen as “occupation”. Shock ‘n Awe = Terrorism. We see bombs from airplanes and guided missiles as not being terrorism, whereas those lacking guided missiles and an air force don’t make that distinction. We don’t immediately brand one a liar who alleges we had been attacked because “they” hate our freedoms. We don’t ask why, for example, if they don’t like freedoms, why don’t they attack the Scandinavian nations. I guess they like attacking the nation that spends over half the world’s expenditures on military because they like a challenge?
Brooks, the neo-cons, and the neocon constituencies are especially in their own, non-reality based world.
Rightwingers aren’t acting like idiots. They are idiots who think that the rest of us are stupid enough to fall for the BS that they promote. They are so filled with self loathing that it spills over into a real inability to recognize when they have been had by the Cheney-Bush cabal, so they continue to spout the assine rantings of their imperial leaders. Come the revolution and they will all be swinging from light poles.
yeah, well brooks sounds like he’s slurped on more than a few peckers in the public stall.
BennyP @ 2:
No, it is not from bin Laden, and if that photo Drudge was showing was supposed to be bin Laden, it was not. As many opine, bin Laden is dead, and that is the reason why BushieBoy cannot capture him.
Anyone else notice that Brooks tied Global Warming with a conspiracy theory? Is this guy even dumber than he looks?
justabill @ 17:
The three amoeba’s
This jumped right out at me when I heard it on Friday, I’m glad you put some focus on it. David Brooks calling Chomsky “childish” was a true moment of just astonishing arrogance, not to mention absurdity.
I don’t know where to start describing how badly the pop-pablum-rightist mumblings of David Brooks would stand up against the actual political analysis by Chomsky. I mean, good god. Say you don’t agree with it, fine, but calling someone like Chomsky childish when you’re the one writing such utter right-wing nonsense– it’s beyond ridiculous.
Anyone remember what Brooks was saying at the start of this war? And how did that work out? Chomsky on the other hand pretty much nailed it, from the start, everything he’s predicted has come to pass.
Simply amazing how these people can be wrong every time they speak, then have the nerve to dismiss those who were right.
naschkatze @ 21:
You can watch the latest OBL video w/ subtitles and read an independent transcript here:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/
(h/t Juan Cole)
Real question is why are we still showing or acknowledging tapes from Bin Laden? Why give him that podium? Why strike up this fear? Why this Emanuel Goldstein? There is no reason other than to strike up more fear among the flock by dragging up his words publicly. Politically speaking, this is a hypnotism stage show. We’re going to be told about what is and isn’t going on- not so that we are informed, but so that it’s at the top of our minds. It’s the power of suggestion.
From the other side, Chomsky has probably written a good portion of any of our educations at this point, he’s the kind of person we should heed the words of; not some wanker columnist for the NYT.
naschkatze @ 21:
Actually, they have to look for him to be able to find him. Sometimes when we we were kids playing hide and seek, I would just go home and leave everybody out there hiding waiting to be found and race back to point.
You’re not playing by traditional rules of engagement Ron.
That’s not fair.
One more thing. Anyone else notice how perfectly timed this video is, timed to coincide with the Petraeus Report?
Yes sooooo timely is Binny’s appearance just popping out a video “conveniently” just before General Petraeus’s Bush-spun ghost written report.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Almost as if Binny got a call from Bush and cashed in a favor don’t you think?
Did you know that BIN LADEN’S LATEST TAPE OFFERS SUPER BOWL PREDICTIONS
Used his “Get out of Tora Bora Free” card, eh?
don davis @ 31:
Wow and I got the winning lotto number from him too.
Curtilingus @ 28:
Other times when the person was counting to 100 all of us would just go home. Especially if they weren’t good counters like Bush.
Oh my god! Terrorism! Would a republican please hold me (but not f*ck me up the ass)!
Right. bin Laden’s visage is a trademark of GOP failure.
Yes VegasRage, its sweeps week for the BushCo.
Theoretically, this is the kind of thing I shouldn’t say, but I’m going to say it anyway: When I hear someone like David Brooks take this Bin Laden tape and draw all sorts of disingenuous comparisons to “lefty bloggers” it makes me want to put him in a headlock and wrap his fucking ankles around his neck.
That’s fairly uncivilized of me, I know, but I start to feel very uncivilized when I’m compared to a terrorist who’s purportedly ordered the deaths of thousand of innocents, based on my rational and self-interested political opposition to a set of political policies I find destructive.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had on Plastic a number of years back, right after Bush’s War started to really fall apart. A conservative poster had gotten a little tear in his eye after several of us liberals were really hurtful to him and he opened himself up totally and complained that we were speaking unkindly. I put him over my knee and spanked him unrelentingly as I reminded him that for the crime of speaking in opposition to this unwise and unwarranted war (which he’d just admitted was not going well) I had been called a traitor and a surrender-monkey and any number of other unspeakably rude things.
Of course it’s been ever since then that conservatives have been whining about “foul-mouthed lefty bloggers.” But what the fuck do they expect after spending the first half of the decade lording their faux patriotism over us?
Ron @ 34:
I would have so beat somebody up if they did that to me.
To me, Brooks moves and talks like a man with a fierce coke habit. Hope his dealer rats him out soon.
I find it dubious that Bin Laden releases a tap that the Bush Administration and Right Wing can immediately latch on to for their own propaganda and talking points. This reeks of CIA.
How convenient that just as the Patreaus non-report is set to land with a thud we get this tape with Bin Laden telling the U.S. to leave Iraq. This does nothing but give Bush cover. Bush’s newest talking point is “we can’t leave cause Bin Laden wants us to…so we’re going to stay to show him a thing or two!”
Not to mention this whole conflation of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda-In-Iraq. The media and BushCo love to say we’re fighten’ terrists in Iraq. We’re not. We’re fighting Iraqis. Think Progress reported on an exchange between ret. Gen. James Jones and Sen. Evan Bayh where the General admits that only about 2% of the insurgents in Iraq are forieng Jihadis.
But the media still runs with the talking point that “we’re fighting terrorists in Iraq” as if it’s true.
justabill @ 37:
You have to find me first.
lol
Brooks is fast approaching Kristol territory for being wrong about everything!
That settles it for me. It is not bin Laden on the tape. Much like the supposed confession video. What fools these neocons be…and evil…
Oh, puh-leeeeze! Totally fake tape. Totally deliberately timed to deflect attention from the ghost-written Petraeus report. The Corporate Megalomaniacs are TOTALLY STUPID if they think they are fooling us with this crap!