Posts Tagged ‘irony’

Having lived through the 80’s I have a distinctive memory of Ronald Reagan. Although I liked his hard line against communism I wasn’t sure about his domestic issues.

What I did know is what every person in media thought of him. They thought of him as a simpleton, an idiot, a warmonger and an actor playing a role. And that’s just the printable opinions.

When Reagan died nothing shook the media more than the public reaction. The outpouring of affection was staggering and the media adapted their coverage accordingly. From that point they have treated the memory of Reagan with kid gloves but they resented the adulation he was given and the necessity of pretending they shared it. (They resented it even more when no similar reaction was forthcoming for Ted Kennedy. The inverse reaction of the public and the media to these two events illustrates the detachment they media has with the public as a whole.

The media as you might recall worshiped Barack Obama, there has never been a president more popular with them, yet he has suffered a major defeat and was forced to compromise on taxes while he still had a democratic Senate and house to prevent a republican house from getting credit

that just about every person in media is now trying to make an Obama Reagan comparison. Gateway pundit notes the Journolist parallel but the most ridiculous thing is the Time Magazine cover story.

Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s diaries and attended the May dinner, left with a clear impression that Obama had found a role model. “There are policies, and there is persona, and a lot can be told by persona,” he says. “Obama is approaching the job in a Reaganesque fashion.”

That statement is so SO false that it boggles the imagination. American Glob notes something:

If TIME Magazine had a shred of integrity or credibility, they might have featured the keynote speaker of Reagan’s 100th birthday celebration on the cover. Can you guess who it is? I assure you it’s not Obama.

Gee I wonder who it is that IS giving that speech

Former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will give the keynote address in February at the Reagan Ranch Center honoring the 100th anniversary of the former president’s birthday.

And what does the Author of that Obama is Reagan piece think of her? Stacy McCain can tells us.

If there is one thing we can say for sure it is not Reagan that Barack Obama reminds people of, but they were close. On the 9th post that this blog ever had I said this:

You sometimes get a rookie pitcher with a winning season but usually not. I’m hoping for Chester Arthur but I’m expecting Jimmy Carter.

That is Barack Obama as for Sarah Palin, well democrats and liberals don’t know ….um they don’t know….ummm l’m not going to touch …. Um is there any way to put this that doesn’t sound like Charlie Sheen?

Update: Kerry Picket provides details on the civility of Liberals toward Reagan during the 80’s

Radio reports stated that Nobel winner Mohamed El Baradei has returned to Egypt

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who formerly headed the U.N. nuclear regulatory agency, has returned to Egypt in a move expected to increase political pressure on President Hosni Mubarak as a new wave of nationwide protests are called for Friday.

He has promptly been placed under house arrest:

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of Egypt Friday, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas in the most violent and chaotic scenes yet in the challenge to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. One protester was killed and even a Nobel Peace laureate was placed under house arrest after joining demonstrations.

Mubarek has not been informed by his good friend Joe Biden when his state dinner will be held nor has he announced the music.

Good think we have Obama and Biden and not McCain and Palin handling it right?

A history lesson for those preaching civility

Update: The Path to violence explained via Althouse/glenn:

1. Frances Fox Piven advocates left-wing violence by the unemployed against the government.

2. Glenn Beck criticizes her for this, calling such talk dangerous.

3. Then an unstable unemployed left-wing radical engages in violence against the government.

4. Glenn Beck then repeats his criticism of Piven.

5. Finally, the Am. Sociological Assn blames Glenn Beck for his criticism of Piven AND indirectly for the left-wing violence.

Assuming we are not dealing with simple intellectual dishonesty and CYA I’m forced to conclude this is more evidence that to the left their political beliefs have morphed into a religion.

The logic of the Assn escapes me.

It was a few years ago when I first saw Katrina Vanden Heuvel on panel shows. I was shocked. Considering how far left the Nation and Vanden Heuvel I thought was rather disgraceful that they were given attention as if they were a source of anything resembling mainstream thought.

But has time has gone on I’ve seen that the Democratic party has become more and more left it Vanden Heuvel opinions have become more and more typical within the party. Yet to the great public, the true nature of their beliefs were obscured hidden by quiet and reasoned words and the comments of friends in the MSM.

Which brings us to Francis Fox Piven.

Francis Fox Piven has for decades preached a far left and dare we say revolutionary agenda in Vanden Heuvel’s magazine. As a person of the left, she clearly and unabashedly proclaimed a desire to see what has happened in England and Greece happen here, to wit:

Local protests have to accumulate and spread—and become more disruptive—to create serious pressures on national politicians. An effective movement of the unemployed will have to look something like the strikes and riots that have spread across Greece in response to the austerity measures forced on the Greek government by the European Union, or like the student protests that recently spread with lightning speed across England in response to the prospect of greatly increased school fees.

Now the riots in Greece resulted in blood as the Blaze pointed out. The further took the liberty of showing Piven on TV condoning violence. Glenn Beck took the trouble of pointing out Piven philosophy as a Marxist and her willingness to condone violence. The public not caring for this has been outraged, and the NYT being the NYT is angry at the reaction and blames…Beck:

The Center for Constitutional Rights said it took exception to the sheer quantity of negative attention to Ms. Piven.

“We are vigorous defenders of the First Amendment,” the center said in its letter to Fox. “However, there comes a point when constant intentional repetition of provocative, incendiary, emotional misinformation and falsehoods about a person can put that person in actual physical danger of a violent response.” Mr. Beck is at that point, they said.

The irony level here is earth shattering as Powerline notes:

Glenn Beck has pulled back the curtain on this disgraceful specimen by quoting her accurately. No one has identified any statements he has made about Piven that are incorrect, or claims that he has in any way threatened her. Unlike Piven, Beck is a staunch opponent of political violence. But the mis-named Center for Constitutional Rights–another Orwellian touch–thinks there is such a thing as too much free speech. They want Fox News to shut Beck up because of the “sheer quantity” of Beck’s references to Piven.

Just as a lot of American’s projected their beliefs on the president I think the radical left looked at the election and deceived themselves concluding that their time had come with one of their own in the White House to openly advocate what they’ve said all along. This week on ABC and Morning Joe seeing the president’s numbers and the apparent power of the left included these their voices that they

When speaking to and among their own the left do not restrain their true feelings. Anyone paying attention to any ANSWER march or can tell you this. When I covered the Mayday march in Boston the 300 marchers there, when asked directly did not hide the fact that they wanted open borders, supported socialism and opposed capitalism.

Piven and their crowd have no cause to object, they have expressed these opinions for years, the only difference now is that the public at large is now exposed to them and doesn’t like the view.

So in the end I was wrong. Put the Nation and its editor out there. Let her defend every word she publishes. It is a visible and unapologetic left that we need, not hidden in obscure magazines and only excerpted by their friends, but out in the open for all the world to see their true colors melt in daylight.