[Dead Dog]

Iraq was not a mistake, f'n idiot got the rest right, but to say Iraq was a mistake is to claim ignorance of the last 3 decades. Idiot.

[Christian4Bush]

BTTT

[pgkdan]

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn't done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is (and I mean ENDLESSLY) and how he's just a vestigial organ on the body politic right now.

That's avery concise description of what's going on. They can't touch him physically ao they're doing everything they can to make him irrelevent. I hope somebody on our side sees this for what it is and starts fighting back.

[thinkthenpost]

"True, we are mired in a war without end, costing us far too may great young and old Americans and too many limbs and wrecked families and vastly too much money. But we all know we're getting out soon. It was a huge mistake, but I'd like to see a President who did not make immense mistakes. Compared with the mistakes of Truman and FDR and Kennedy, Iraq is a mistake, but not worse than theirs.

True, we have virtually no federal oversight of corporate looting and executive suite misconduct, but we didn't have any under Clinton either. The rich get away with murder. That's what happens in the real world. Bush is to blame, but all politicians cater to the rich, and Hillary will and Barack Obama will, too. It's nauseating and I fight it constantly, but that's life."

Here I go Rant On:
I take great umbrage with Mr. Stein for both of these comments:
The first this "war" was foisted upon this country and while I will argue ROE's and the hassles our Soldiers and Marines have had to deal with have greatly lengthen the Iraq campaign the invasion of Iraq has had an enormous affect on the War on Terror and anyone who thinks Iraq is a distraction or sidebar to the terror war (Jim Webb) is NOT paying attention. I do not know whether it was intended or not but the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent insurgency has drawn Al-Qaeda and many other outside terrorist, or at least Islamist minded folks to Iraq to fight the Infidels (us) and I strongly believe this a big part of why the US mainland has not been struck again. As much as people try to make Iraq another Vietnam for the United States those opposing us in Iraq have made this their line in the sand. I say come to Iraq and die, our forces in theater ought to be on the hunt and the enemy ought to be dying, terrorists ought to be dying as they are trying to plant IEDs, our soldiers ought not to be dying when they go off, If I have a complaint it has been the execution of the war after Saddam's armies were defeated.

The second, his comment about a wealth disparity well given time he may not have to worry about it. Oxley Sarbanes and the measures to comply with it has nearly killed IPOs in this country, I believe for 2006 5 of the 6 largest IPOs of the year were done in London. The Amex is in the midst of buying the London Stock Exchange and I believe many companies will be listing overseas. I have read that New York City, and New York stat stand to lose some 30-40 billion in taxes as theses companies bail, someone needs to remind the SEC and Congress about the law of unintended consequences. I also believe the Clinton tax increases which limited the reimbursement executives could receive gave rise to the wider spread use of stock options as executive compensation and eventually led to Enron, WorldCom and which corporate balance sheet scandal you want to bring up, and also led to SOX. Oh, by the way thanks Spitzer your hands are in this also.
Ahh I'm rambling and ranting now, sorry anyway Mr. Stein I disagree.
Rant Off:

[BuffaloJack]

Is there anything the muzzies are for?
Chairman Mao once said "Religion is poison." He must have been referring to muzzies.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[AmericanMade1776]

Time is the only test of honest men, but you can recognize a leftist propaganda machine immediately.

[Penner]

The truth is that we are in a huge economic boom.

This neocon POS needs to summon his illegal alien chauffeur and have him drive north a few hours to the home of FR where he can witness his "huge economic boom" firsthand.

[Hendrix]

Ben Stein is correct in his article about the media trying to bash Bush into low approval ratings. The media Bush bashing played a large part in the last elections, sending many Republicans out of office as a consequence.

However, Mr. Stein sounds like a liberal democrat with his class warfare rhetoric. In fact, he even sounds like Senator Webb on that point. There is no inequality in our economy (That is a bunch of Leftist B.S. straight from their old Marxist rhetoric.). Our free market economy should be the only distributor of income and wealth, and our government should not interfere or try to reallocate what our free market economy has allocated. Mr. Stein calls himself an economist, but he is not much of one if he does not understand that point.

[khnyny]

Bump. Excellent editorial.

[Jim Verdolini]

The media is already suffering puchback, they are losing viewers and readers in vast numbers. They will bias their way into irrelevence. A decade ago they were semi trusted. Today no one pays any attention to the dolts at all.

[Polybius]

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush.

Congratulations, Ben Stein! You have just discovered America. And gravity too!

The liberal news media has been doing such things to Republicans and to Republican war efforts ever since Dwight Eisenhower left the White House.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"In the studios and newsrooms, there is a lynch mob at work. Let's see it for what it is."

Ben's opinions carry a lot of weight. I think this is one of the strongest cases (outside of the one Rush makes daily) as to what's REALLY going on and why the reality of each of our lives is so different from the one portrayed each day in the MSM.

[WashingtonSource]

I do not think it was a mistake to go into Iraq. Ben is wrong there. But right to point out the attempted coup of the DBM.

[lowbridge]

bump

[x]

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn't done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is (and I mean ENDLESSLY) and how he's just a vestigial organ on the body politic right now.

The media is doing what it can to basically oust Mr. Bush while still leaving him alive and well in the White House. It's a sort of neutron bomb of media that seeks to kill him while leaving the White House standing (for their favorite unknown, Barack Obama, to occupy).

If you really love President Bush you'll think -- and even more strongly, feel -- that way. My father felt that way about Nixon and Watergate, and I certainly felt the same way about Reagan and Iran-contra. I can understand why many would see things as Ben Stein does.

But I really can't myself. Bush and Cheney are big enough. They've given as well as they've gotten. They've had enough good luck to go along with the bad. They haven't been hobbled or crippled by criticism. It's all politics and media as usual. So it's hard for me to see them as victims.

What's changed? One thing is that the mainstream media doesn't have the power and credibility it once did. When Ben Stein was working for Nixon it really mattered what CBS or NBC, Time or the New York Times thought about the President. The established media had power. They had no competition. And they could pretend to speak with a fair, unbiased voice.

Today, everyone knows that the big networks and major newspapers represent one point of view. And they have plenty of competition from the new media. So one can ignore what the Washington Post or the Boston Globe or CNN or ABC thinks about President Bush. The other side of the coin, though, is that one can't complain as much about what they say, since it doesn't carry the weight it once did.

[carton253]

I almost agree with Ben Stein. Iraq was not a mistake. It was necessary for winning the war on terror.

It may not be the "in" thing to do on Free Republic lately... but I will admit freely that I admire this President and I support him.

[montag813]

If Bush showed some balls, the media couldn't touch him. But he doesn't. And his pussy father shamed his family when he went ahead with a Bush Award for Public Service to Ted Kennedy TWO DAYS after Kennedy called his son--the President--a "liar" on the Senate floor. HE gave him the medal anyway! What absolute fools the Bushes are. They love their enemies and their enemies shit all over them. All they seem to care about is having people like them. Reagan couldn't give two shits about what the media and elites thought about him. All he cared about was the PEOPLE. Bush has made a huge error kowtowing to the evil elites for 5 years. He just seems weak, and Americans don't respect weakness, and the media viper feed on it like piranhas.

[Tunehead54]

Reminder bump - way past time to fix media's wagon. ;-)

[prairiebreeze]

But we all know we're getting out soon.

We are?

It was a huge mistake,

Really Mr. Stein? Have you consulted the ordinary Iraqi about that? Have you asked any Kurds?