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Liberal Lunatic of the Day - (Naomi Klein in The Nation)
LIBERAL LUNACY.NET ^ | MARCH 13, 2005 | Staff

Posted on 03/13/2005 9:39:03 PM PST by CHARLITE

Naomi Klein, writing in The Nation magazine asks the question, "Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?"

Klein writes, “It started off as a joke and has now become vaguely serious: the idea that Bono might be named president of the World Bank.” Bono talks to Republicans as they like to see themselves: not as administrators of a diminishing public sphere they despise but as CEOs of a powerful private corporation called America. "Brand USA is in trouble...it's a problem for business." The solution is "to re-describe ourselves to a world that is unsure of our values."

Klein continues, “The Bush Administration wholeheartedly agrees, as evidenced by the orgy of re-description that now passes for American foreign policy. Faced with an Arab world enraged by its occupation of Iraq and its blind support for Israel, the US solution is not to change these brutal policies; it is, in the pseudo-academic language of corporate branding, to "change the story."”

"Brand USA's latest story was launched on January 30, … and retold by the White House's unofficial brand manager, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. "Iraq has been reframed from a story about Iraqi 'insurgents' trying to liberate their country from American occupiers and their Iraqi 'stooges' to a story of the overwhelming Iraqi majority trying to build a democracy, with U.S. help, against the wishes of Iraqi Baathist-fascists and jihadists." This new story is so contagious, we are told, that it has set off a domino effect akin to the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of Communism. (Although in the "Arabian Spring," the only wall in sight--Israel's apartheid wall--pointedly stays up.)"

Referencing the canard about oil, Klein writes, "Kurdish Iraqis have a legitimate claim to independence, as well as understandable fears of being ethnically targeted. But the US-Kurdish alliance has handed Washington a backdoor veto over Iraq's democracy. And with Kirkuk as part of Iraqi Kurdistan, if Iraq does break apart Washington will still end up with a dependent, oil-rich regime--even if it's somewhat smaller than the one originally envisioned."

Klien identifies her core politics in the following, “The only idea that has ever stood up to kings, tyrants and mullahs in the Middle East is the promise of economic justice, brought about through nationalist and socialist policies of agrarian reform and state control over oil. But there is no room for such ideas in the Bush narrative, in which free people are only free to choose so-called free trade.”

Klien concludes with, “Allowing the Bush Administration to fold the liberation struggles of Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine into its own "story" is a gift to authoritarians and fundamentalists. Freedom and democracy need to be liberated from Bush's deadly embrace and returned to the movements of the Middle East that have been struggling for these goals for decades. They have a story of their own to finish.”

Klein sees the conflict in the Middle East as a business problem. George Bush and the Republicans see the War on Terror for what it is, an ideological and economic struggle.

The president sees the conflict in the Middle East as an opportunity to spread freedom and democracy, while Naomi and her fellow-lefties see Bush as evil, the United States as an ogre and the war only about oil.

People who are depressed, "tend to see the world in the opposite of rose-colored glasses," says Dr. Stuart Copans, a psychiatrist from Brattleboro, Vermont. Naomi Klein and her fellow travelers appear to fit Dr. Copans diagnosis perfectly. Losing the last three elections has caused the left to progressively become more depressed and more openly hostile to those with whom they disagree. The left does not engage openly in the marketplace of ideas, but has resorted only to vile personal attacks on all with whom they disagree.

This entire work of fiction is depressing. Worse, it reads like it was written by a Berkeley Poly-Sci student.

Klein’s statement, “… promise of economic justice, brought about through nationalist and socialist policies of agrarian reform and state control over oil” sounds like it was written by that old-style leftist, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, who recently offered his support for Iran's nuclear development plans. Then again, that statement could be right from the lips of the great agrarian reformer himself, Fidel Castro.

Klein’s essay is littered with a litany of anti-American platitudes, such as, “occupation of Iraq”; “American occupiers”; “Iraqi 'stooges'”; “end up with a dependent, oil-rich regime”; "authoritarians and fundamentalists". She also betrays her personal self-loathing and anti-Semitism with the observation, “the only wall in sight--Israel's apartheid wall--pointedly stays up.”

Where does the left get these notions? The more I read about and by these people, the more I am convinced that liberalism is a progressive brain disease.

link: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050328&s=klein


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: america; antisemitism; baathist; bono; brandusa; ceos; corporation; fascists; iraq; magazine; naomiklein; nytimes; president; selfloathing; thenation; thomasfriedman; worldbank
"Freedom and democracy need to be liberated from Bush's deadly embrace and returned to the movements of the Middle East that have been struggling for these goals for decades. They have a story of their own to finish.”

and........"“the only wall in sight--Israel's apartheid wall--pointedly stays up.”

How blind can liberals actually become? This passes for analytical journalism? The writer says it quite well in this quip.

"This entire work of fiction is depressing. Worse, it reads like it was written by a Berkley Poly-Sci student."

1 posted on 03/13/2005 9:39:06 PM PST by CHARLITE
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To: nothingnew; ThreePuttinDude; jan in Colorado; Ghost of Philip Marlowe; Congressman Billybob
Link to The Nation article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050328&s=klein
2 posted on 03/13/2005 9:41:05 PM PST by CHARLITE (Women are powerful; freedom is beautiful.........and STUPID IS FOREVER!)
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To: CHARLITE

'The Nation'.
LMAO!!!


3 posted on 03/13/2005 9:43:20 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: CHARLITE

The only reason Klein gets print space is b/c she's boffing Katrina Von Whatshername.


4 posted on 03/14/2005 1:08:23 AM PST by Fenris6 (3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud)
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To: CHARLITE
"Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?"

I embrace my GrandKids, my wife and other family members.
When the hell did the LIBS start to EMBRACE every damn thing.

5 posted on 03/14/2005 4:27:10 PM PST by ThreePuttinDude (You cant wait to implement policy by crisis)
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