Tool Time

I was over at Woody's News & Views and ran across a useful idiot (useful to the commies, cretins and creeps, oh, my! in the Mass Media Podpeople's Army, that is) posting in comments... So, I tripped the light fantastic on over to this UI's blog and lo! and behold! Yep. First up is a carefully-worded disingenuous attack on President Bush in the PLame Blame Game. Some folks just never let go of fantasyland. ("It's reality-based! No, really it is! See the castles? See the dungeons? See the pretty dragons and elves and dwarves? Reality-based, I say!") He led with a quote from a Judd Legum Salon article, [T]he media refuses to ask two questions that President Bush could not delay answering until he "finds out the facts": Mr. President, prior to July 14, 2003 (the day Robert Novak's column appeared), were you aware that Valerie Wilson was a CIA agent? And did you discuss her role with any other member of your administration? To which, of course, the President's reply (should such a loaded question be asked—from a Mass Media Podperson? Never! Perish the thought!—should be obvious. The Prez ought to answer simply, "Haven't done your homework, have you bubba/bubbette? Valerie Plame hadn't been a 'covert operative' for over six years at the time of the Novak article, so the whole issue is moot. Rove, Coulter: remove this tool with extreme prejudice. Next." Of course, I was muuuuuch more conciliatory when I commented at UI's blog with... Yeh, Valerie Blame was a "covert operative" (or in your less accurate, helpfully blurring term "agent") about like the King of Spain is... well king of anything. Hadn't been covert for over 6 years, bubba. Hadn't been posted outa the coutry for over, well, six years, either. Five years, covert posting, outcountry: those are the terms of the law. Now, let's ask the question in a less loaded "when did you stop beating your wife" attitude, eh? "Were you aware, Mr. President that Mrs. Wilson, a _formerly_ covert operative who had been a desk jockey for six years at the time of the Novak article, was the person who pushed the loser former-ambassador to Gabon for a tea-sipping junket to Niger? And did you discuss this dipstick with anyone in your administration?" There. I think I've managed to capture a less loaded language than Legum's biased, disingenuous attack question. All I did was make the underlying facts (as opposed to the contrafactual assumptions in the Legum statement-posing-as-a-question) more obvious, hence less disingenuous. BTW, ought not Legum's name to have another "e" in it? Since he's a typical Mass Media Podperson, it would fit, don't you know... BTW, you notice I didn't link to the UI's blog, didn't you? Not handing him one single visit more than the one I just wasted time making. The tool. Update: alla the action's in comments on this one... And R'Cat (who's back and in fighting posting trim and has a great example posted of one-a these useful idiots who finally saw (at least part of) the light. I guess there is hope for the leper to change his spots... heh