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From The Hill’s Pundits Blog: CIA Skeletons, The Mortal Sins of Dick Cheney, The Nobility Of Al Gore
Brent Budowsky
Soon, CIA Director Michael Hayden will release documents that describe major misdeeds of the CIA in darker days, after General Antonio Taguba went public in The New Yorker with charges of an Abu Ghraib cover-up.
A great and noble debate will begin in America. Revelations about past and current misdeeds will bring into focus what went wrong in the Iraq war, and why opponents of these policies are voices of American patriotism.
In a recent show Tucker Carlson and a “pundit” ridiculed and demeaned Al Gore. Rather than discussing the profound points he was making in his new book The Assault on Reason, they engaged in cheap ad hominem attacks on Gore as “over the top” and “rage-filled.”…
Gore is not the voice of rage; he is the voice of hope, and the leading conviction politician in America whose playing field far transcends conventional politics. Gore leads the fight against global warming and institutions of power, led by big oil, and the corruptions that perpetuate that power…
Within days, the CIA’s dirty laundry from the darker days will become public, and Americans will connect what happened then with today.
From the beginning, Dick Cheney has rejected the standards initiated by General Washington, accepted today by commanders throughout every branch of the military services. He rejects the common belief of all of the great religions, except the spiritual advisers to terrorists, that certain acts of barbarism and torture are simply wrong…
Those of us who oppose these practices speak for the overwhelming majority of our people, speak for the historic traditions of our military, reflect the private views of our commanders, and stand with the traditions of the great religions. Yet the mass media regularly repeat the litany of lies, insults and propaganda against those who speak truth with patriotism.
In my June 20 op-ed in The Hill titled “New politics, new media, new majority,” I suggested, as Al Gore does, that integral to our democratic society are the means of communication that reflect the diversity of our democracy…
This phenomenon of insulting and demeaning majority constituencies will be overpowered by a new phenomenon equal to the impact of the FDR revolution that paralleled the rise of radio, and the Kennedy years that paralleled the rise of network television. The driving power of the Internet, coupled with progressive radio, will further empower each other and lead to dramatic changes in television.
Stay tuned for more next week.
For now, check out the new news sources that will be essential to this transformation, which include Mark Karlin and buzzflash.com; Rob Kall and opednews.com, Bob Parry and consortiumnews.com, Carolyn Kay and makethemaccountable.com, Jeff Tiedrich and smirkingchimp.com, and progressive publicists such as Ilene Proctor, who is a force you want on your side.
Add these powers to mydd, Daily Kos, moveon, digby and other conviction-politics centers and the power of the movement comes into focus.
There is no cable news show on earth that has the power to build an audience as large as these forces, when they converge.
These sources are as essential as Matt Drudge for those who want to know what will be in the news tomorrow, what will happen in 2008.
Predictions: Stephanie Miller will be the next cable star combining progressive Internet with talk radio. Ed Schultz will surpass Rush in every major market. Air America will stage a major comeback. Rupert Murdoch will have to make the biggest decision of his political television career (that’s my teaser for next week).
If you doubt this, look at the ratings for Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert and Keith Olbermann. Or ask George Allen and Rick Santorum.
Stay tuned.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and to Bill Alexander, then-chief deputy whip of the House. He is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net. Click the title, above, to read more and to post a comment that may be read by your congressman and senators!Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com The excerpt above is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible. |
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