When politians get into trouble and the attacker is not attackable, best to attack the attack. Issue the Talkin’ Pointz (TM). Attack the message.
Cause, you know, this is big trouble:
Cheney may be target of probe
White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly (Although, I’m in agreement with Talk Left on this one…)
DeLay’s booking, court appearance expected this week
This isn’t too good either.
Nor is this…
And, this one tends to get lost in the shuffle…
When conservative curmedgeon and CNN commentator Jack Cafferty says ol’ Karl might want to get fitted for an orange jump suit… Things can’t be too good.
Current spin: (sadly pathetic as it is…) The investigations underway are the “criminalization of politics”. The implimentation of these Talkin’ Pointz began last week. And, it’s coming on strong now that the propganda arm of the Bush White House has put it into heavy rotation. Pretty funny. Sad clown edtion.
Watch the video from Think Progress. (QuickTime Stream)
Either they are crooks or aren’t. But, the “criminalization of politics” is a done deal. Politics has been criminal since its inception. Just like any other sector of society. The bottom line: Yes, Virginia. Some, obviously not all, politicians are criminals. Welcome to reality.
Whining about it isn’t going to change that fact.
But, if you are a conservative politician being charged with criminal behavior, the best spin tactic currently available is to blame the system and establish an “anti-argument”. Referring to the current spate of legal problems faced by the right as the “criminalization of politics” is just such an anti-argument. It seeks to create a diversion from the actual legal issues and create doubt in the mind by establishing a non sequitar or logical fallacy, in this case, Ignoratio elenchi, a red herring.
The basic construction is: The recent legal problems of so many conservatives is the “criminalization of politics”, meaning the legal problems are tainting poltics, looking for criminal behavior where none exists or is politically motivated. (Or all of the above.)
This is a red herring because the criminalization of politics argument has nothing to do with the actual investigations currently underway. Further, it attempts to lump all of the investigations, which individually may or may not have legal merit, into one group. Put simply, the fallacy is: The investigations are the “criminalization of politics”, thus politically motivated and not true.
Of course, just because an investigation is politically motivated does not necessarily prove that the investigation is without merit. Some investigations are indeed politically motivated and entirely without merit, but others are politically motivated and with merit. It is entirely possible that laws were indeed broken by the politicans being investigated, and this possibility is under investigation and it therefore follows that the investigation has become political in nature because politicians are involved. Well… That’s politics! And, if the investigation proves no laws were broken, that is politics too.
It’s a rather whining, ironic little fallacy really. It’s also tacitly hypocritical considering that conservatives are the ones who broke the unspoken rules of engagement by criminalizing politics with the impeachment of President Clinton for lying under oath about a personal issue of a sexual nature.
I’d say that attempting to impeach a sitting President for perjury about a blow job is the very definition of the criminalization of politics. It doesn’t get any more basic than that.
Except, the current legal problems faced by conservatives aren’t about sex, or even lying about sex to a grand jury.
It’s about treason, money laundering and other good old fashioned conservative values.
Somehow, “I told you so” rings so hollow.
The brain trust over at Little Green Footballs never ceases to gift yours truly with a great and heartly belly laugh on a daily basis. I truly enjoy it.
LGF is a wonder filled sugar coated world where they dramatically cover their eyes and shout “I can’t see you! Can you see me?” and then proceed to prove their non-point by avoiding any pesky facts or physical reality (“I can’t see you, that means I can’t hear you!”), conveniently ignoring facts that contradict their narrow view (“What hands? I can’t see any hands covering my eyes. It’s too dark.”) and generally offering diversionary logical fallacies (“You’re a crazy Moonbat and as such you think that hands covering the eyes means we can’t see you, but we see you with our minds!”) which their dutiful readers swallow whole like starved chicks in a nest perched upon the craggy rocks of reality.
It is at its heart a site run by trolls, for trolls. And, it is rather extraordinary in that regard. It is always humbling visiting LGF and seeing the daily parade of proof that there is apparently no shortage of persons stupendously ignorant enough to willingly fill the ranks, undying in their allegience to ideology before reality.
Rather than deal with facts, they simply obscure the facts, or better, taint the facts with their own special home grown blend of Blame the MSM™.
Which isn’t a bad hobby all in all, media watching. It’s near and dear to my heart as well. Thing is, more often than not, they get it wrong. It’s almost always entirely intentional. I simply can’t bring myself to think they are really entirely that stupid.
Okay. I can.
Case in point…
Let’s let the ever intrepid LGF poster “Havoc” (Everyone shout “Let slip the dogs of war!”) set the scene:
President Bush held a video conference with troops in Iraq today, and the MSM spin, closely matched by lefty blogs, is that it was a staged event: Bush holds video rally for troops in Iraq.
It’s another non-issue, of course; if any “staging” took place, it happened right in front of the reporters who were covering the event. No one hid anything. The main beef seems to be that the producers of the event took questions and comments only from soldiers who supported the Iraq effort. So what? It’s not as if people who want a dose of defeatism have nowhere to turn—they can always read the New York Times or Atrios.
That’s all fine and good, except for a few FACTS.
1) Prior to the teleconference, it was billed by the White House as an “impromptu” or “spontaneous” chat or conversation between the President and the troops in Tikrit. The assembled press pool watched the rehearsal prepping of the troops, which could be seen as proper. Problem was, once the President appeared, his questions were the same as those offered by the rehearsal moderator, and the answers offered by the troops were the same as during the rehearsal as well.
2) When asked if the event was indeed going to be staged, White House Press Secretary and Stooge Scott McClellan said “No.”
In a perfect ice castle world, the entire issue probably would have gone no further than that, the heat would have subsided and the blind faithful like Havoc could consider their castles in the sky unbreechable and safe.
Except for one thing…
You see, for reasons unknown, as reported on CNN (Lou Dobbs), the satellite feed of the rehearsal went out live to the global outlets. That’s not suppossed to happen. So, all the news outlets got the reehearsal and the teleconference lock stock and barrel.
Audio of the rehearsal and video and transcript of the actual teleconference here.
More Video here. (Use Internet Explorer. MSN content.)
A reality so obvious even Drudge can’t ignore the truth.
Yet, the little propaganda soldier trolls at LGF will figure out some apology and excuse for it. You can bet on it. My advice? Seems the Freepers have great success with “Who are you going to beleive? Me or your lying eyes?”
The teleconference is propaganda. Pure and simple. And, the creation of propaganda by a duly elected administration is illegal in the United States of America.
So, who’s going to jail? Stop the propaganda.
Oh the tangeled webs we weave, when first we practice to decieve. (Hat tip: Crooks and Liars)
