Chickenhawk profiteers

There's nothing more obscene, more despicable than the promoters of war who wear their patriotism on their sleeves, constantly talk about supporting the troops, opposing terrorism and "Islamic extremists,"while sacrificing absolutely nothing for the cause.

That list begins at the top with Bush and Cheney but trickles down in a murky stream of effluent past blathering sphincters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and locally Jim Vicevich who have exploited the war, exploited the bravery of the troops, exploited the patriotic feelings of their listeners, exploited bloodlust and fear, exploited terrorism and who have exploited death and destruction for their own ratings, their own book sales, their own punditry fees, their own profit. Though they would deny it, no less than Halliburton or Sikorsky, they have made money at the cost of others lives.

Over at firedoglake, attaturk pins war enabler Michael O'Hanlon.

It says here

So rumors have it that Rupert Murdoch has his sites set on the New York Times. I encourage you to listen to Billy Bragg's "It Says Here," a song he wrote in the eighties about Murdoch's media monopoly in Britain. It has spread here in a way that's as devastating as mad cow disease.

So, perhaps the Great Gray Lady, will be tarted up with some rouge and new shoes. Pimp my paper, Rupert.

But the Lady has already stooped to conquer during the Bush administration, with Judith Miller's pandering stories about WMD's, and a tendency, until recently, to accept White House press releases as if they contained even a grain of truth.

So when, a few weeks back, I read a Sunday Op-Ed by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack that suggested the United States could actually "win" the war in Iraq, I had a moment of pause. Soon enough, the lefty blogs began to discredit O'Hanlon and Pollack's claims, but not before the mainstream media began to extol the wonderous progress being made in Iraq, as proclaimed by the Op-Ed. All of this was further driven, inexpicably given his lace of credibility, by claims from Dick Cheney that even the Times saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, when Glenn Greenwald finally had the opportunity to interview O'Hanlon and Pollack, and dissemble their ludicrous argument, it's almost a relief. Except that The Times had fallen for the public relations ploy once again.

Can they fend off Murdoch? You won't read about it in The Times.