Archive for August, 2008

City of Walls

Post-surge Iraq:  A nation on the pathway to peace or A nation divided, desolate?

The traditional media has declared McCain victor of the “surge” debate.  But no Western journalist has provided an honest portrait of what Iraq looks like today.  Take a look at this harrowing video from a young Iraqi journalist.  It’s important that we give a voice to those we supposedly tried to liberate, rather than only listen to  blow-hard Washington politicians, the very people that orchestrated this madness, the very people who are now trying to cover it up with cheap PR.

Who played the race card?

If you’ve been following the mainstream media over the past few days, you’ve certainly learned that Obama played the wrong hand in the ’08 Presidential Poker Tourney — the race card. How dare he flout the color of his skin or insinuate that the Right are fear mongering racists? Obama has got some nerve, right?

One problem. The wingnuts and the McCain campaign played the race card a long time ago. In fact, the comments that produced so much anger and disappointment from the McCain campaign turned out to be Obama’s irrefutable analysis of the Right’s tactics against the senator from Illinois. Obama said that McCain couldn’t win on the issues so had to resort to negative politics of fear. The Right, Obama said, would claim “he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

While surely this alludes to the color of his skin, Obama’s race card only becomes an offense if what he claims is untrue. Here is a McCain campaign ad from June. Note the imagery:

Looks like the McCain camp came up with the idea of Barrack on our currency long before Obama. More significantly, McCain surrogates have been playing the “race card” right in front of the nominee’s eyes, this one from back in May:

And who can forget the Fox News fear campaign, ostensibly the royal flush of race cards:

Sadly, in the past week “journalists” have suffered another bout of amnesia and failed to call the McCain camp and its many surrogates on its BS. As long as mainstream journalists fail to present the truth, McCain benefits.



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