alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

December 28, 2005

Today’s Highlights

by AltHippo @ 9:30 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

At firedoglake ReddHedd reports that “Michelle Malkin, still aglow from her recent capital punishment endorphins-and-Aste Spumante moment, is now one of many in the up with savagery crowd calling for the NYT’s James Risen and Eric Lichtblau to be waterboarded until they cough up their NSA wiretap sources. “

ReddHedd notes Malkin’s false equivalence between the Plame leak and the NYT NSA wiretap story, quoting from the decision denying Matt Cooper’s and Judith Miller’s request to quash their Plamegate subpoena:

“The leak of Plame’s apparent employment, moreover, had marginal news value. To be sure, insofar as Plame’s CIA relationship may have helped explain her husband’s selection for the Niger trip, that information could bear on her husband’s credibility, and thus contribute to public debate over the president’s “sixteen words.” Compared to the damage of undermining covert intelligence-gathering, however, this slight news value cannot, in my view, justify privileging the leaker’s identity.”

We look forward to Malkin’s new book: Unhinged II: the Left’s obsession with looking things up. Look, I like bluster as next as the next hippopotamus, but the woman should look into this thing we call… what is it… fact checking.

…………………………

At the Drinking Liberally blog, Stealthbadger walks through the various arguments that the Bush administration is using to defend NSA eavesdropping on citizens, juxtaposing the responsibilities of the 3 branches of government.

Stealthbadger’s conclusion: “In short, the Shrub’s argument rests on the proposition that the law means what the President decides to interpret it to mean. “

Put another way, Bush is maintaining that in a time of crisis the Executive branch trumps the other two branches of government, even if the timeline of that crisis stretches to the ends of western civilization. Which under the Bush doctrine could be any day now. I can’t help but reflect back on that saying from the 1960’s: What if they gave a war and nobody came? I’m pretty sure Bush is saying: “Then it’s all mine.”

………………………..

Meanwhile, in Opposite Land, the planet’s doughiest neocon, that would be Jonah Goldberg, writes that it’s really the blue states that are making this country dumber:

“Much of the truly successful anti-intellectualism in this country comes from blue areas. The low culture typified by the worst products of television and music come from the coasts, from rap music to trashy movies and sitcoms. Moreover there is a self-styled “sophisticated” strain of anti-intellectualism which runs through our premiere institutions of culture as well. The Vagina Monologues may sound brilliant to those inclined to think talking genitalia and bullwhip infused rectums is highbrow stuff, but you’re stealing a base or two if you’re going to call such fare ‘high culture.’ “

Now, it’s not often that someone can use the phrase “talking genitalia” and at the same time come off as pendantic. Wait. Did I say pedantic? No, that’s not the right word, that would imply a level of cognitive effort that doesn’t really come into play here. What I meant to say was “doughy”.

But really, Jonah, “anti-intellectualism in this country comes from blue areas?” No, anti-intellectualism comes from folks like you who get high-paying pundit jobs because their mother cajoled Linda Tripp into wire-tapping Monica Lewinsky.

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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