Krugman: "So the long nightmare won't really be over until journalists ...

[understandinglife]

... ask themselves: what did we know, when did we know it, and why didn't we tell the public?

So the Bush administration has lost the myths that sustained its mojo, and with them much of its power to do harm. But the nightmare won't be fully over until two things happen.

First, politicians will have to admit that they were misled. Second, the news media will have to face up to their role in allowing incompetents to pose as leaders and political apparatchiks to pose as patriots.

It's a sad commentary on the timidity of most Democrats that even now, with Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, telling us how policy was "hijacked" by the Cheney-Rumsfeld "cabal," it's hard to get leading figures to admit that they were misled into supporting the Iraq war. Kudos to John Kerry for finally saying just that last week.

And as for the media: these days, there is much harsh, justified criticism of the failure of major news organizations, this one included, to exert due diligence on rationales for the war. But the failures that made the long nightmare possible began much earlier, during the weeks after 9/11, when the media eagerly helped our political leaders build up a completely false picture of who they were.

<clip>

From Ending The Fraudulence by Paul Krugman on October 31, 2005

Link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/opinion/31krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Now, that's the truth.


Peace.

[Spazito]

1. Krugman is always dead on!

Thanks for posting this.

[Blackthorn]

2. Word n/t

[Eric J in MN]

3. I wish he'd be a weekly guest on "The Al Franken Show" again.

Please email them asking for Krugman to be a regular guest, again:

http://shows.airamericaradio.com/alfrankenshow/feedback

[fearnobush]

4. Democrats, We were misled in to war.

Kudos to John Kerry for finally saying just that last week.

[understandinglife]

8. "The country and the Congress were misled into war. I regret that we were

... not given the truth; as I said more than a year ago, knowing what we know now, I would not have gone to war in Iraq. And knowing now the full measure of the Bush Administration’s duplicity and incompetence, I doubt there are many members of Congress who would give them the authority they abused so badly. I know I would not. The truth is, if the Bush Administration had come to the United States Senate and acknowledged there was no “slam dunk case” that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, acknowledged that Iraq was not connected to 9/11, there never would have even been a vote to authorize the use of force -- just as there’s no vote today to invade North Korea, Iran, Cuba, or a host of regimes we rightfully despise.

I understand that as much as we might wish it, we can’t rewind the tape of history. There is, as Robert Kennedy once said, ‘enough blame to go around,’ and I accept my share of the responsibility. But the mistakes of the past, no matter who made them, are no justification for marching ahead into a future of miscalculations and misjudgments and the loss of American lives with no end in sight. We each have a responsibility, to our country and our conscience, to be honest about where we should go from here. It is time for those of us who believe in a better course to say so plainly and unequivocally.

Link to Kerry's speech:

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2005_10_26.html

I do not detect any spin or ambiguity in Senator Kerry's statements.

Moreover, the ENTIRE NATION, irrespective of partisan affiliation, was "misled into war," as Senator Kerry explicitly states.

Bush & Cheney are incapable of holding themselves similarly accountable and, much worse they continue to propagate their crimes against our National Security and humanity.


Peace.

[fearnobush]

12. Krugman's Point is that our Dem leaders need to sing this over and over

again as the media continuously repeats: "Dems can't justify there war criticism because they all voted for it" Krugman is saying our leaders need to blast to the media the fact that they were misled in to voting for the war due to a pack of elaborate lies. And they need to say it yesterday.

[TankLV]

28. They have and they do.

But if a tree falls in the woods, and nobody is around to witness it, does it make a sound?

I have in recent months discovered that democrats are INDEED making speeches and giving opinions, but the whore media is doing their usual job if IGNORING us.

Don't blame the democrats.

Blame the repuke media whores/whore media.

[flyarm]

29. Gephardt has also come out and said it was a mistake for him to

have supported this war...i remember being so angry at Gephardt when he stood in the rose garden with * and agreeing with this war...i was so mad i wanted to spit wooden nickles...i thought why are these senators and congress people on the dem side agreeing with this bullshit..don't they read or do investigating anything...

then i was a delegate to the dem convention...and i sat next to a fla congresswoman on the floor and then in the restaurant in the hotel after the last night of the convention..and i began talking to her about pnac...she looked at me like a deer in headlights..she had no clue what i was talking about..and i was not only puzzled that she had no clue..but then i got angry...and i asked her..how can you not know about pnac and rebuilding americas defences...she laughed ( got me madder i will tell you)..and she said ..we the people only assume they know all these "issues"..she said..i said its not a damn issue..its the blue prints for this and many wars to come by this * cabal...i said it is the blue prints for an imperial government, a fascist imperial government... i said if she read rebuilding americas defences she would be as concerned as i was for my co-workers who were killed on 9/11..and the complicity of this current government!

she asked me to send it to her...i told her get it herself..she works for me, not the other way around!..needless to say i was furious...and i said how the hell can you people say you represent us and vote for a war..and you are totally clueless to what the hell you are voting for??

i will never vote or give money again to anyone unless they know the whats going on..period!! i dont care what letter they have after their name...
and we ought to all be asking these congress people hard questions..and demanding answers...

i now go to any political meeting with congress and senators..and i carry papers in my pockets of bills before them and i force myself to the front and i demand to know how they are voting the issues..and you would be surprised how many have no idea what they are going to be voting for!!

so i shove the paper in their hands and demand they pay attention and read the bills...

at least i know when they get home they have to take that paper out of their pocket and read it again...they don't dare throw it out in front of you or others..so they always put it in their pockets!!

i go prepared...and i demand answers...

i used to be shy about that stuff but no longer!!

i get in their faces!!

we all must and hold them accountable!!

fly

[Zen Democrat]

5. I wish I could read the whole thing. I love Krugman.

[Eric J in MN]

6. They should let us watch an ad to read the op-ed

if we're not subscribers.

That is how salon.com does it.

[understandinglife]

7. Check the comments in this DU thread for helpful hints:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5220490


Peace.

[Nite Owl]

10. Try this link

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/default


put in nypl for the user and the password
click on NYT
put in Paul Krugman or whomever

Articles are not there right away but in a day or so. It's the NY public library so it isn't 'hacking' into the site, maybe your library has it too.

[Kolesar]

17. Thanks! I am reading last week's commentary right now

Sunday's Krugman is not up there yet (as you had mentioned).

[missouri dem 2]

9. And why didn't they know it?

We knew it was a load of crap from the start.

[Peace Patriot]

11. "...the fraudulence...". So right Krugman is! Fraudulent 2000 election

(Bush installed by the Supreme Court), fraudulent platform (compassionate conservatism), fraudulent vice president (on Halliburton's payroll), fraudulent energy meetings (about Iraq), fraudulent campaign donors (starting with Enron), fraudulent election reform to 'fix' the hanging chads (Diebold, ES&S, "trade secret,"proprietary vote tabulation), fraudulent 'dingbat' commander in chief ("Osama bin laden determined to strike in the United States"), fraudulent 9/11 investigation (why was our nation's capital undefended?), fraudulent Afghanistan war (innocents die, 'perps' got away), fraudulent intelligence (cooked by Rumsfeld, Cheney), fraudulent Niger forgeries (CIA smashed for having the courage to expose them), fraudulent news organizations (fronting for the war profiteers), fraudulent Iraq war (tens of thousands die, no WMDs), fraudulent occupation (Rumsfeld: freedom = the freedom to loot), fraudulent 'reconstruction' (billions of dollars disappeared into the pockets of Bush cronies), fraudulent patriotism, fraudulent budgets, fraudulent 'Christianity,' fraudulent 2004 election, more fraudulent 'reconstruction,' fraudulent Attorney General (thinks torture is cool), fraudulent Secretary of State ('now let's get Iran--heh, heh'), fraudulent 'Homeland Security," fraudulent FEMA, fraudulent 'pod people' Congress ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), fraudulent 'talking points,' fraudulent talking heads...

Oops! Did I say "fraudulent 2004 election"? That one has to be wrong. Even His Fraudulency can't have a unbroken record of fraudulence, can he? Naw! And surely the Democrats would have said something about Bushwhacko corporations 'counting' the votes with secret, proprietary programming code, if they thought there was something funny about that. Naw, naw! And all those American 'sheeple' voters--what dummies! It is the one exception. An unbroken record of lies, cooked intelligence, dirty tricks, murder and theft, and, having set up the capability of switching millions of votes without leaving a trace, the junta decided to do the honorable thing, and not use it.

So, please, if you like the Fraudulence List, and decide to pass it along to others, please strike that item out ("fraudulent 2004 election"), okay? 'Innocent until proven guilty,' and all that.

[snowbear]

13. Gotta love him !!!

[Misskittycat]

14. Krugman is always amazing. n/t

[autorank]

15. I love this guy! He's like Puck! always a surprise that delights!

Thanks UL

[cassiepriam]

16. Must have free press and elections, or nothing changes

Even if Bush goes, a new crew of con artists will come in.

[Gasping4Truth]

18. Free link here

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fifty-plus.friends/msg/2a4eab11f2e75a70

[leftchick]

20. Ha Ha! "Midases in Reverse"!

Thank you for the link! :)

Paul is the best!

<snip>

So is the nightmare finally coming to an end? Yes, I think so. I have no idea whether Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, will bring more indictments in the Plame affair. In any case, I don't share fantasies that Dick Cheney will be forced to resign; even Karl Rove may keep his post. One way or another, the Bush administration will stagger on for three more years. But its essential fraudulence stands exposed, and it's hard to see how that exposure can be undone.


What do I mean by essential fraudulence? Basically, I mean the way an administration with an almost unbroken record of policy failure has nonetheless achieved political dominance through a carefully cultivated set of myths.


The record of policy failure is truly remarkable. It sometimes seems as if President Bush and Mr. Cheney are Midases in reverse: everything they touch - from Iraq reconstruction to hurricane relief, from prescription drug coverage to the pursuit of Osama - turns to crud. Even the few apparent successes turn out to contain failures at their core: for example, real G.D.P. may be up, but real wages are down.


The point is that this administration's political triumphs have never been based on its real-world achievements, which are few and far between. The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administrations patriotic while its critics are not. Take away those myths, and the administration has nothing left.

[Window]

19. Amen.

Krugman nails it again.



Peace

[dalloway]

21. Bravo to Krugman again!

[DemReadingDU]

22. Recommended - Krugman is excellent

[Hissyspit]

23. kick

[hvn_nbr_2]

24. What did the journalists know and when did they know it and...

why didn't they tell us what they knew? I love it.

[spanone]

25. Free Press is a misnomer in America.Corporate owned press is more like it

Don't expect the 'press' to investigate itself anytime soon.

[Daphne08]

27. Agreed! n/t

[rucky]

30. yet here we are reading Krug's NYT column.

just sayin'

:shrug:

[understandinglife]

26. TruthOut Link to Krugman Op-Ed:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105O.shtml


Peace.

[Gloria]

31. I was rereading the Introduction to "The Great Unraveling" today

as I waited while my car was serviced...

That 20 pages explains everything about Buchco--that they don't believe in the American system, that they are revolutionaries who want to destroy the system, that they don't care about anything except getting what they want, and that they won't stop at anything.

Read the introduction, it will blow you away.