Posted on 08/30/2006 7:29:46 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
August 30, 2006 - 22:14
Looking back, it all seems so predictable. The relentless criticism, the countless sneering jabs from Keith Olbermann directed at the Bush administration were building to an inevitable climax. It came tonight. Olbermann flatly accused the Bush administration of representing "a new type of fascism."
Though the denouement was inexorable, the proximate cause of Olbermann's tirade was Donald Rumsfeld's speech to the American Legion on Tuesday in which he suggested that opponents of the war in Iraq have adopted the same attitude that slowed a military response to Hitler. Rumsfeld asserted that radical Islam represents "a new type of fascism."
Olbermann's oration came in a 'Special Comment' segment ending this evening's show. He spoke in melodramatic tones and an aura of exceeding gravitas that he undermined when in a preceding segment he alluded to Rumsfeld's speech as "baby poop." Annotated excerpts:
"Mr. Rumsfeld made an apt historical analogy except that he has the battery plugged in backwards. His government, absolute and exclusive in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one that stood up to the Nazis. It is the modern version of the government [dramatic pause] of Neville Chamberlain."
The government that routed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, that deposed Saddam Hussein, that stood by Israel in its fight against Hezbollah is the modern-day equivalent of Chamberlain's appeasement? People are entitled to their opinions on Iraq. But to describe the Bush administration's record as one of appeasement is simply nonsense. Surely Olbermann must acknowledge that his fundamental criticism of Bush has been his alleged excess of militarism, not the appeasing absence thereof.
"This is a democracy. Still. And sometimes just barely."
That Olbermann obviously feels free to go on the air and accuse the sitting President of the United States of fascism is the best counter-evidence of this melodramatic accusation.
"From Iraq, to Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire fog of fear which continues to envelope our nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and their cronies have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefitted both personally and politically."
"Fog of fear"? See discussion above regarding our "barely" clinging to democracy. Americans fearlessly go about their lives every day. But the fact is that there exists a worldwide Islamo-fascist enterprise whose goal is to kill us and destroy Western civilization.
"With what country has he confused the United States of America? The confusion we as its citizens must now address is stark and forbidding. The variations of it have faced our forfathers when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis Lemay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note, with hope in your heart, that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light and we can too. The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense and this administration are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek, the destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City so valiantly fought."
Olbermann then moved to his peroration: "And about Mr. Rumsfeld's other main assertion of what this country faces - 'a new type of fascism' as he was correct to remind us that a government that knew everything could get everything wrong. So too was he right when he said that. Though probably not in the way he thought he meant, this country faces a new type of fascism indeed."
Olbermann's wrongheadedness is not merely sad nor simply angering. When America and the West are engaged in a fight for their survival, for Olbermann and his ilk to see as the fascist enemy our government, rather than those who indeed seek to destroy our civilization, is nothing less than dangerous.
MSNB-Olbermann/NewsBusters important-read ping to Today show list.
Olbermann- an old time media hitman.
The Village Idiot of cable TV speaks.
Funny Keith, Bush overthrew a man in Iraq that international political scientists say was one of two remaining fascist tyrannts left on the planet, the other being Syria's Assad. Yet YOU and the rest of the clown car media, not to mention your lock step brothers in the Democratic party, opposed the overthrow of said fascist and said he should have been left in peace, that he was harmless. Hmmm, seems to me it is YOU and your DEMOCRATIC ZOMBIE MASTERS that are the fascists if you're defending a real one, not Bush.
I agree. This loon is the definition of unhinged.
Come the next Islamofascist attack on America can we start a real war against the real enemy?
I NEVER watch Olbermann....
I did see a second of it tonight before I turned the channel..and saw Keith and his guest totally belittling Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard for "still believing there was a link between Saddam and al-queda"...and laughing like 2 school girls at Hayes' supposed lies and foolishness.
THEY are the fools.
1,000 DUmmies a night.
It's really kind of scary to see the decoupling of liberal dogma from reality. This is the kind of thinking that starves millions and sends millions more to the gulags in the name of communal utopia.
"This is a democracy. Still. And sometimes just barely."
Nope. Its a Republic. That distinction is becoming VERY important lately and as such under constant attack by the Olbermann's of the world and the MSM.
Olbermann is a crapless feckweasel....no lessfeck weaselcrap.......no feckless crapweasel...that's it. He is stoned or something and is nothing but a useful idiot of the enemies of our nation.
Olberman: the same old type of moron.
BUMP!
Big talk, coming from aguy named Ubermann.
He wasn't good enough for Sportscenter, so naturally he moved over to PMSNBC.
Since he is obviously targeting the moonbat demographic, I think it might help his ratings if he started foaming at the mouth during the show.
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