These Guys Are Getting Worse By The Day

June 23 Editorial

Today is one of those days where you have to wonder just how bad this paper can get. Have we reached the bottom, or is there worse things to come? No question reading things like Today's piece "Iran, North Korea putting Obama’s strategy to test" is one of those editorials where you really just wonder about these people. I certainly worry that my Mother reads this crap, it makes me sick knowing she's is exposed to this disgraceful garbage, it really just makes me sick.

The writer's state "The president’s defenders said criticizing Iran’s regime or even reaffirming democratic principles, such as the rights to self-determination and public assembly, would worsen things for the people in the streets. Besides, Iranians already know where America stands, they said." and fail to mention who the defenders are. It would not be good for them to mention some of them, people like Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Lugar, George Will , Peggy Noonan, Pat Buchanan, the list goes on and on and on.

There can be little doubt The Oklahoman Editorial writers do not join these list of supporters for simple hard-core partisan reasons. And these are the games of children. In a barbaric fashion, they write "...Video of a young woman bleeding to death after being shot, allegedly by state authorities, is circulating on the Internet — graphically and intimately assigning a face to the uprising and deepening Obama’s dilemma..." pretending that this is his fault. This is the same editorial staff that never mentioned, amongst a countless number of things, that 14 year old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi was never brutally raped and set ablaze, along with her family by Pfc. Steven D. Green and friends. Mentioning such a thing might suggest that their hero George W. Bush and his crazed war in Iraq which played a hand in bringing about mahmoud ahmadinejad was something less than spectacular.

I will have more on The Oklahoman's sick coverage of the Iran issue in a couple of days....

You Can't Just Make This Stuff Up, Guys!

June 5 Editorial

In Today's editorial, "Obama opens the dialogue; Muslim world must answer" the typical "We hate this guy, and wouldn't mind if someone knocked him off..." (kind of like this guy I saw at the Tea Party at the Oklahoma State Capitol)

...attitude is presented. However, the writers do establish that Obama's speech (which they mentioned of course in yesterday's editorial "...was formatted for his teleprompter weeks ago". Important to note the teleprompter! Big points from the dear leaders on the far right that want you to reiterate that as often as possible!) was not really all that terrible.

One thing though that they point out was quite wrong for him to say was that "...Obama touted democracy but added 'no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other' — a straw-man argument since that was never U.S. policy."

Are you kidding me?

Whoever wrote this either does not know their history, or is giving us straight propaganda to try and make it appear if Obama is some kind of rotten liar. And there are countless examples out there of The U.S intervening in other countries, in numerous ways to try and impose systems of governance.

A recent example would no doubt be Iraq. Why did we force them to re-write their perfectly servicable constitution, especially at a time of war (We weren't even able to get ours out for ten years after we declared our independance)?

Naomi Klein points out on this issue:

The Hague regulations state that an occupying power must respect "unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country". The coalition provisional authority has shredded that simple rule with gleeful defiance. Iraq’s constitution outlaws the privatization of key state assets, and it bars foreigners from owning Iraqi firms. No plausible argument can be made that the CPA was "absolutely prevented" from respecting those laws, and yet two months ago, the CPA overturned them unilaterally.

On September 19, Bremer enacted the now infamous Order 39. It announced that 200 Iraqi state companies would be privatized ; decreed that foreign firms can retain 100% ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories ; and allowed these firms to move 100% of their profits out of Iraq. The Economist declared the new rules a "capitalist dream".

There are countless other examples (Russia, Chile', Iran etc...), and a good place to look to understand these things would be her excellent book "The Shock Doctrine". I don't expect the writers at The Oklahoman to look into the facts on this issue, but I think people who read this paper should.