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The good folks at the Future of Freedom Foundation kindly forwarded some of the lively responses they received after sending out my op-ed, “Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?”
I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure all these editors decided not to publish the article.
Here’s a response from Bob Weir, the executive editor of the News Connection (Texas):
Were we right to kill “foreigners” in other wars? Were the Germans, Italians and Japanese not foreigners? Adhering to your definition, the only wars we’d be able to engage in would be civil wars. By the way, do you have anything good to say about the United States? Your support of Iran, a dictatorship that has been proven to be responsible for the deaths of countless American soldiers, tells me all I need to know about your hatred of your own country.
I will never understand people like you who live the American lifestyle with all its bounty, while taking every opportunity to trash it. If you have so much affection for Iran and its ayatollah-style government, why do you stay here? Could it be because you have freedom here? Could it be because if you lived in that tyrannical state and opened your mouth against the government you’d be stoned to death in the public square? You’re like the spoiled brat who has all the comforts of life, yet hates the parents who provide it for him. Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of
raising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.   ****
The Guthrie Center Newspapers sent an indignant one line response to the piece:
It’s not Bush — it’ President Bush, just like President Clinton, President
Bush, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.
Well, maybe that’s why Mr. Editor didn’t like the piece. (That particular email did not include a name). *****
The Addison Eagle News and Reporter in Middlebury, Vermont, replied:
What a stupid, naive premise here. Presidents don’t kill foreigners (unless
they are secret agents although I never heard of one stalking a foreigner
and shooting them.)
The real question you should really care about as an American citizen
is: Should foreigners be entitled to kill Americans? Thankfully we have a
President who doesn’t think so, after 9/11.*****
If George W. is ever indicted for war crimes, he should certainly try to stack the jury with editors from this paper.
Bill Johnston, the editor of the Collinsville News, also successfully resisted the article’s allure:
Didn’t have to read very far in your “op-ed” to know that you obviously
don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about….
“Seems to be the attitude” . . . what a comment. You don’t have a clue what
the attitude of President Bush and his advisors is or ever will be.
Needless to say, your ridiculous effort at some sort of anti-Bush rhetoric
will never see the light of print in this publication and I am hopeful in
very few other newspapers around this country….
By the way, if you’ve got evidence of President Bush breaking the law, file
the proper motion in court….
My hunch is that Bill Johnston has not spent a lot of time reading about the State Secrets doctrine and how the Bush administration continually invokes it to sway judges to throw out court cases involving brazen and proven government wrongdoing…
“You’re like the spoiled brat who has all the comforts of life, yet hates the parents who provide it for him. Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of
raising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.”
Oh for, for crying out loud…Yes, the U.S. gov’t is our Mommy and Daddy providing us with all the comforts in life, isn’t it obvious??? If we really appreciate the good fortune they’ve provided us, we should just shut up and do what Mommy and Daddy tell us to do. Is it really any wonder that Cheney-Bush Corp. International have been so successful at lying this country into war with such brainwashed, bootlicking gooftards manning the news media?
At least we can take solace that the dinosaurs that make up the “MSM” will soon be slowly dying off, to be replaced by the more independent “news media” spontaneously growing on the internet, of which Antiwar.com is but one example.
Unhappily, while the Internet gives us an alternative to the MSM, it’s at least as infected with moron warmongering as any other medium. It’s used by the witless to reinforce their witlessness even more. Truth will always be on the scaffold as long as people use the media not to learn, but merely to reinforce their ignorance.
Dan Alba below makes a point that’s only partly true: the media are indeed liberal but they’re not doves and have never been such. The liberal media have always been in the forefront of cheering for America’s wars, just as Democrats have been responsible for nearly all of those wars until lately.
I surely hope you are right about the future of the media, Sayin It Like It is.
Mr. Bovard,
This is big. Not only does it show the ignorant oblivion that is the typical mind of a statist pig, but also, it empirically demonstrates to your readers the fallacy known as the liberal media.
Journalists and frontline editors usually — according to surveys, and often, admittedly — are centrist-to-liberal in their political views; the managing editors, executive producers, et al., however, are unabashed in their state-worship. So, while most journalists may side with dissenters, those amongst media who control the tweak of the flow tend to support every unconstitutional war and big government venture.
The current blog entry is excellent evidence to that effect.
Was your piece published by the managing editors? Nope. Are there journalists and content editors who’d have published it? Sure. One of them obviously thought enough of it to forward to you the above
confessionaleditor comments.Thank you for this empirical exposition of said dichotomy and utter destruction of the myth that media are controlled by doves and dissidents.
I wouldn’t let any of this worry you, Bovard, you can always censor their posts at your blog.
John Lowell
This is interesting. I always thought that the media knew the real deal and just chose not to report it. But judging from these reponses, I guess they really are clueless.
Bill Johnston, the editor of the Collinsville News, indignantly belched, “By the way, if you’ve got evidence of President Bush breaking the law, file the proper motion in court…”
Mr. Johnston would also be among the first to argue that the “unitary executive” answers to no one.
So is “unitary executive” a politically correct term for “Absolute Monarch”? The latter is above the law and has the right to create the law at will. I see …
Bob Weir, executive editor of the News Connection (Texas), spun around like Wonder Woman and vomited:
“You’re like the spoiled brat who has all the comforts of life, yet hates the parents who provide it for him. Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of raising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.”
Mr. Weir sounds like someone who suffered a set-back in potty training and decided for the purose of avenging the humiliation that he would impose his infantile Weltanschauung upon all whom he would disdain.
Let me see if I have got this straight - This editor, Bob Weir, is saying things like “spoiled brat” and “child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune” in DEFENSE of George Bush!
Yes, apparently I wasn’t aware that the Federal Government is responsible for the “bounty” we all enjoy. Bob Weir is quite the “man”. Daddy DC takes goood care of him- gives him food and a home- and porridge too. And keeps him safe from the mean Moooslims who want to make his fat wife wear a burka.
Geesus- can someone pinpoint for me just when “conservatives” in this country became sickening DC government worshipping lickspittle weaklings afraid of their own shadows? Just when did it become “conservative” to give praise, thanks, and credit for all that is right with this country?
These people are pathetic serfs. These are the people who hate freedom and liberty. Not the “terrorists”.
Call Nancy Pelosi @ 1-202-225-0100 say IMPEACH. (YOU’LL be glad you did, Bill Johnston won’t)
Say, “IMPEACH BUSH & CHENEY!”
In times long gone, I heard a lot of such comments. Aimed on people like Andrei Sakharov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn et al. I hope there are people on this blog who can recognize tha names. And guess what was the name of a ruling power? Connect the dots.
Very pathetic. Very tragic. Very dangerous.
USA is USSR today - only meaner
I also assumed that the people who ran the smaller papers were somewhat enlightened if overly conservative. This shows they are as small minded, fearful and in need of a big daddy to show them the way as much as any of the other 25% supporting Bush.
These are actual, employed editors? These are people who read, write, and think for a living? Good lord.
It’s no wonder why some newspapers are losing ground with shallow “love it or leave it” types at the helm. Furthermore, their belief in the modern myth that government is the wellspring of all good is deeply disturbing but, unfortunately, held by a large number of people.
Should have titled it “Are Presidents Entitled To Commit Genocide?”
Anyone notice that Bush has just modified his line: now Iranians cannot be permitted the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. What do you do with those who already have it- the knowledge- but not the materiel, or the intention? Doesn’t sound like any Iranian who has taken first year physics is a very good insurance risk. I wonder- given a sufficiently large bang, can you bomb them into amnesia?
I have a horrible feeling some of these editors are having a little private competition, having discussed the matter in a quick conference call - “let’s spend ten minutes each writing the most moronic stereotype replies we can, drive the guy to drink maybe.”
“You’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people .” P. T. Barnum
I’m amazed and disappointed. It’s like the word “innocent” was over their heads.
There’s a passage in the constitution that seems to baffle all these people. Article one, section 8, “The Congress shall have Power…To declare War…”. The president does not have that power. If the president doesn’t get a declaration of war from Congress, he does not have the authority to wage war. And, last I checked, killing people in a foreign country is an act of war.
Is it a war crime? I think so, if it is done criminally. And, without proper authorization from a declaration of war, any act of war by the president is criminal. Indeed, is treason.
Well, Congress has been derelict in their duty. They have not issued a formal declaration of war since Dec. of 1941. But in 2002, the Congress DID in fact give President Bush authority to wage war in Iraq. And Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and most of the Democrats who now are screaming and yelling all voted in favor of it.
Personally i think the reaction you got was pretty funny.. “They” reacted as expected… after all you scared them AGAIN.
Truth be told Bush should be delt with like any other war crimnial.. he is no better than those he comndems as being one.
Well, I’m not surprised. Every day I’m reminded that America is a country filled with morons. Some of them are very rich, too. I am stunned that people in this country think it’s the “right” of the US to tell everyone else in the world how to live. I guess it’s because we do such a great job of it ourselves! (See the behemouths in shorts and tattoos wandering the malls of America). I can understand the followers of the neocons — you know them as listeners of limbaugh, hannity, ingraham, et al. Y’all should listen to these people sometime. Their ignorance is breathtaking. Talk about “conspiracy theories”! These people are so wacky they should be in rubber rooms. When was the last time the MSM mentioned the Iraq Hydro Carbon Law. Don’t hold your breath waiting on that establishment dumbass, Tom Friedman, to write an indepth piece on it. Mr. “Next Six Months” is too busy chastising Arabs for not wanting to live their lives as the Israelis tell them to.
Jim Davidson, even if congress DID approve the war on Iraq, it’s still an illegal war of aggression against a country that was no threat to us whatsoever.
And the criminals who lied us into it belong in the Hague answering for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Arguably, those in the Senate and House who have approved funding for this massive war crime belong in the the Hague right along with them.
Yes, it seems Americans have completely lost the notion of agressive war vs. defensive.
Simply speaking, if military forces of another country attack targets located INSIDE the US territories, then - and only then - the war should be declared. For example - Perl Harbor qualifies. 9/11 does not - since no country has announced that it stands behind the act.
Now, if some allied country has a Govt. that asks for military support… it’s better to say NO - another simple rule - don’t take part in other countries civil wars.
Otherwise we’re jolly moving towards global nuclar exchange.
9/11 does not qualify as a defensive war because no country claimed responsibility? Have you been smoking something funny? You have to be joking right? The taliban in Afghanistan harbored and supported Bin Laden did they not? 15 of the 19 hijakcers were Saudi Arabian. But yet we can’t say any country was behind it? Give me a break! How many more times to these Islamic Nazis have to hit us before people like you say we can defend ourselves? How many more Americans have to die before people like you say we can defend ourselves? People like you really make me irate. How can you be so foolish?
And you know what the funny thing is? If the Islamic Nazis ever succeed in their desire to create a world wide Islamic State, you liberals will be the first to go. The gays, the people who stand up for gay rights, for women’s rights for religious tolerance, you will all be the first to go. You guys don’t like conservatives right? Well, the Islamic Nazi movement is just about as conservative as you can get. Radically conservative in religious extremism. But you have more anger for our own government than you do for the Islamic Nazi killers.
It is interesting that any & all naysayers of the Bush Administration are branded with the “America hating” spoiled brat label by these neocon advocates.
These myopic fools would rather lead us all over the cliff than admit & correct the numerous attrocities they have perpetuated in our name.
And they wonder why their circulation figures have hit rock bottom and are beginning to tunnel…
Sadly, even though fewer and fewer Amoricons read mainstream news publications (or anything at all, for that matter), the attitudes displayed by these “editors” in response to Jim’s op-ed piece still reflect what seems to be the prevailing attitude among the lemmings that are the majority of population of this country. That would be: “We LOVE Big Brother and you had better love him too!”