THIS MODERN WORLD

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, John McCain is a phony. Of course, getting the public to see through McCain’s carefully-constructed persona is difficult when the media is so complicit in enforcing the view that he’s a no-nonsense, straight-talking tough guy who’s willing to reach across the aisle to do the right thing. Or as the “journalists” at CNN like to put it….

John King :

“McCain’s maverick streak doesn’t sit well with many colleagues.”

Bill Hemmer :

“The story of his life is a profile in courage, both political and personal. Before John McCain was a maverick senator, he was a Vietnam prisoner of war for six years in Hanoi.”

John King :

” Senator McCain known as a maverick, known as someone to challenge his party…he is now going back to the United States Senate, where he won the maverick label, the maverick reputation because his own party’s leadership back in the Senate is very much opposed to the very things John McCain stands for.

Kate Snow :
“Senator McCain known as a maverick here on Capitol Hill.”

Larry King :

“Tonight, personal revelations from a congressional maverick and an American hero. Senator McCain”

Candy Crowley :
“John McCain, the scrappy maverick who has defied his party and the odds”

Joe Johns :
“John McCain, the maverick conservative who has no problem crossing his party and his president when he thinks he’s right. ”

Anderson Cooper :

“John McCain, the Senator from Arizona, is a maverick, but a maverick with a following.”

Jeff Greenfield :

“John McCain is not a moderate, he’s a maverick.”
Candy Crowley :

“John McCain, a conservative, but a maverick conservative”

Carlos Watson :

“[O]n issues like homeland security you may see people like John McCain, the maverick senator from Arizona, be kind of a big champion”

Anderson Cooper :

“He, of course, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, also known for being a maverick within his own party. ”

Stephen Frazier :

“Interesting, now, how significant he will become, since he is a moderate and a maverick Republican.”

Suzanne Malveaux :

“Now, a familiar face that you’re also going to see on the trail is senator — this is Senator John McCain. He, of course, the maverick Republican trying to generate a lot of support there.”

Chris Black :

“Then there is the X factor, the maverick Republican John McCain determined to change the rules on political money as soon as next Monday in defiance of his own leaders.”

Kelly Wallace :

“A well-known getting the most votes within the Kerry campaign is Republican Senator John McCain. The Arizona maverick would generate tremendous excitement and help attract Republican and independent voters”

Wolf Blitzer :

“McCain is not campaigning there. For the maverick senator, the real challenge…”

Bill Schneider :

“John McCain managed to have it both ways — a principled maverick who remained Bush-friendly and kept lines open to conservatives.”

Lou Waters :

“In Washington, fellow Senate maverick John McCain angrily warned the Republican Party to, in his words, ‘grow up and learn to disagree without resorting to personal threats.'”

Wolf Blitzer :

“Eyebrows have been raised by a planned weekend meeting at the Arizona ranch of maverick Republican Senator John McCain.”

Suzanne Malveaux :

“It’s one of the main reasons why they picked Senator McCain to be a part of it, because you know he’s a critic, he’s a maverick, he’ll say what he wants to say.”

Joe Johns :

“Now, McCain, John McCain of Arizona, a key Republican here on Capitol
Hill, obviously a maverick Republican as well…”

Judy Woodruff :

“Senator John McCain is blasting what he calls crony capitalism. Up next: excerpts from McCain’s latest campaign against the system. Is he trying to sound like Teddy Roosevelt? Another political maverick is back in the spotlight…”

…and my favorite :

Howard Kurtz :

“Did the press pump up the story that the Arizona senator might — might — leave the GOP? Were journalists blatantly used by McCain advisers or can they simply not resist writing about their favorite maverick senator?”

Even when they’re questioning McCain, they can’t help but point out how tough he is. Of course, if McCain was an actual “maverick” he wouldn’t have waited until after an election year to talk tough on torture. I guess in media-land, “maverick” is defined as the first Republican to jump on a Democratic bandwagon. Nevermind what liberals say, the media likes to save their praise until McCain’s pollsters tells him to “reach across the aisle”. Blech.

It’s nice to see that Harry Whittington knows who the real victims are here (via DKos)

Whittington was hit in the face, neck and chest with birdshot Saturday during the hunting trip. After a shotgun pellet traveled to his heart, he had suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday while being treated at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.
. . .
Whittington, his voice raspy but strong, said the past weekend encompassed ”a cloud of misfortune and sadness.”

”My family and I are deeply sorry for everything Vice President Cheney and his family have had to deal with,” he said.

Apologizing to the man who almost killed you? Sounds like somebody’s been taking advice from Harry Reid.

As you may know, a new Turkish movie called The Valley of the Wolves—Iraq is setting box office records there. Apparently it portrays America in Iraq as monstrous, massacring civilians and removing prisoners’ organs for patients in the U.S., Israel and England.

Dispiriting. But what really caught my eye was this section of a recent Knight-Ridder story (via):

Yusuf Kanli, the editor in chief of the Turkish Daily News, said the film is grounded in a real event known as the “bag incident,” which cemented the movie’s popularity in Turkey.

“Abu Ghraib is a deep wound, but it’s war, and war is never clean,” Kanli said. “But what happened in July 2003 can never be forgotten by any Turk.”

In that incident, U.S. troops arrested 11 Turkish special-forces officers in northern Iraq and walked them from their headquarters with bags over their heads. It was considered a bitter betrayal by a trusted ally. Turkish newspapers dubbed it the “Rambo Crisis.” Recent opinion polls rank it as the most humiliating moment in Turkish history.

What interests me about this is not only did I have no opinion about the “bag incident,” I had NEVER EVEN HEARD OF IT.

In other words, it’s possible for America to do things to other countries that they consider “the most humiliating moment” in their history…and even anti-American America-haters like myself can’t be bothered simply to know it happened.

This is one of the true perks of power: being able to get away with complete ignorance about other people. Generally speaking, for countries as well as individuals, the more power you have the stupider you are. If you have gigantic amounts of power, you can get away with knowing nothing whatsoever. George Bush George Bush George Bush.

I’m curious to know if others knew more or less than me about the bag incident. (Well, more or the same; you couldn’t really have known less.) If you care to, you can comment on my site here.

UPDATE: It turns out it’s not just me. Few other people commenting had heard of this, and even those who had mostly didn’t know its significance.

CNN is reporting that Australian TV is broadcasting previously unreleased Abu Ghraib photos.

… and here they are. Warning: some pretty stomach-churning stuff.

Oh, those wacky fraternity-style hijinx that, um, leave large pools of blood splattered on the floor.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The response of government at all levels to Hurricane Katrina was “dismal,” poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that more than four years after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, “America is still not ready for prime time,” a House report concludes.

“It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted,” the committee said in the report. “If 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership.”

Story.