[lbo-talk] Barney Frank at the top of his form

[Jeffrey Fisher]

Right. But isn't the flip side of this the media's obsession with finding
"both sides," even when the "other" side is maintained only by a couple of
people in Idaho with an Internet connection? At a certain point, people
using inflammatory rhetoric (like calling Obama a Nazi) even while they
demand to engage in rational discourse have to be called on it. They can't
have your cake and eat it, too. You can be serious and aggressive without
throwing that kind of language around, and the only reason to do so is to
generate the buzz. Period. If you let them in, you're taking the Nazi thing
seriously. If you exclude them, you are "narrowing the scope of the
discussion." It's a transparently BS rhetorical tactic, and the only
objections I really have to letting them hang themselves with their own BS
are the possibility of legitimizing their views, on the one hand, and
taking up time refuting charges that Obama is a Nazi, on the other. I
don't like a lot about Obama, but Nazi
is just utterly surreal.
Oh, right. LaRouche.

I
guess I don't think everyone should always do what Frank did. But we
need Franks around to do it sometimes. I notice FoxNews jumping to
this woman's
defense, but that is of course sheer
opportunism, because in their view, generally speaking, tasers are
legitimate options in these situations.

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:43 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:


> I think the administration is actually quite pleased with all the sound and
> fury
> about what's essentially a non-issue.  (It's been obvious for a generation
> that
> the US should have a healthcare system like the other industrialized
> nations;
> it's equally obvious why we don't.)
>
> What the health care argument does is crowd out much consideration of the
> administration's frenzied attempt to expand (i.e., win) the war in Afpak.
> Polls
> show a majority of Americans now disapprove of the war, but you wouldn't
> know
> that from the media, where what we hear is puerile boilerplate like what
> Obama
> gave the VFW this week, e.g.,
>
> "Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left
> unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from
> which
> Al Qaida would plot to kill more Americans.  So this is not only a war
> worth
> fighting; this is fundamental to the defense of our people ... No matter
> the
> mission, we must maintain America's military dominance."
>
> "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the
> spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that
> spectrum -- even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That
> gives
> people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time
> the
> presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the
> range of the debate" [Noam Chomsky].  --CGE
>
>
>
> Mr. X wrote:
>
>> Reason falls flat..the right uses emotions while the left still tilts at
>> the
>> windmills of Reason and loses. Barney did the right thing with humor
>>
>> peace,
>>
>> Jim Davis Ozark Bioregion, USA Planet Gaia
>>
>>
>> http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/historical-materialism/7346550
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>>
>>> From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.orgSent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 2:21:01 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Barney
>>> Frank at the top of his form
>>>
>>> Wouldn't it have been better if he'd found out why the woman made the
>>> comparison she did and what the source of her information was, and
>>> refuted
>>> it, if he could?
>>>
>>> This bit of low theater just keeps the argument going -- which may after
>>> all be the point.  --CGE
>>>
>>>
>>> Doug Henwood wrote:
>>>
>>>> The video of Barney Frank's "what planet?" exchange:
>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> He's the most entertaining guy in public life.
>>>> ___________________________________
>>>>
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