NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Surprise! Turns out the Obama administration isn't all that eager to close Guantanamo. From the New York Times:
“There is a lot of inertia” against closing the prison, “and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that “the odds are that it will still be open” by the next presidential inauguration.
Well, you know, it's summer, the kids are out of school, everyone's so busy, Obama's schedule is a bear -- what did you expect?
I love the headline: "Closing Guantanamo Fades as a Priority." So elegant. It fades. It was a priority. None of that fierce moral urgency anymore. No caterwauling about torture or gulags. Just another item on the list, up there with socializing medicine and figuring out dairy subsidies. Not sure where the article is in the printed edition of the Times, but in the online edition, you click on "U.S. News," scroll down a bit, look under a section called "More U. S. News" and it's the third one down.
Because it isn't really newsworthy anymore. Guantanamo? Yawn.
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Jun '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Who would want to be the new home for Gitmo inmates? Who wants Osama bin Ladan to put that new pin on his map? No thanks.
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Well, the hypocrisy is galling, yes, but look at the bright side: Closing Guantanamo has faded as a priority.
May '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
It mattered more to the President's base when he enjoyed his Inauguration honeymoon. It sounded grand and worldly to the salon crowd then. Now only the most devoted Daily Kos types really care. Whatever it takes to keep the dam from busting during a leftist administration is better than the alternative.
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Agreed. But it's worth needling the left about, every chance we get. Or am I the only bitter, vengeful, small-minded one around here?
May '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
It's fun to needle the this-is-the-moment, coexist hippy-trash-scum, no doubt, but it's also so important that the young, new-to-politics crowd is getting a real-world education in the facts of life. Maybe we need to go through an exercise like this every thirty years or so just to foster a more clear-eyed citizenry.
Also, while Guantanamo in and of itself may have a barely-detectable impact on the base, the cumulative effect of Gitmo, drones, surges, NRA exemptions, foot-dragging on gay issues, no public option, cynicism here, cynicism there, and so on has got to be discouraging (and detectably so) to the more psycho base voters. They were the ones they were waiting for blah, blah, blah, and they're blowing it, and they know it.
Maybe the big picture is still OK. It certainly could have been way worse with a more politically savvy crowd.
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
I guess the challenge, Scott, is how to make the case that this is what happens when you elect someone basically and temperamentally unfit, without getting nasty and turn-off-ish. All of those Clinton bashers years ago helped make him awfully popular. How do you pile on without piling on? Not sure of the answer myself.
May '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
I am still waiting for San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom, to step up and invite all the Guantanamo prisoners to take up residency in his progressive city.
May '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Re how to teach a lesson without appearing nasty and turn-off-ish, I find it's best not to refer to them as this-is-the-moment, coexist hippie-trash-scum. Or at least not to their faces.
Jun '10
Re: NYTimes and the News: When They Bury it on Page 4,765, You Know it's Interesting
Hey, at least they are staying in the can...... Although I agree with Rob about reminding the lefties about Gitmo at every chance we get,,, I know I do....