Posted on 01/04/2010 9:47:56 AM PST by presidio9
The new year begins even worse than the last one ended. Only this time it isn't a debate about health care showing how lousy and mean partisan politics have become in America, it is the debate over the war on terrorism.
As usual it starts with a has-been like Dick Cheney acting as if that war is some party issue, as if the country is somehow more vulnerable to fanatics because Democrats have the White House and the Congress, as if all those who hate America and want to kill Americans see this tremendous opening to do that because Barack Obama is in charge now.
The idea is dumber than that television show about the Jersey Shore.
Still there was Cheney - who once was able to hide almost as well as Osama Bin Laden - out in front after a failed attempt to blow up a Northwest airplane on its way into Detroit on Christmas Day, like he wanted to be the first Obama hater to take his swings.
Only Cheney looks at a near tragedy on Christmas and sees opportunity. When he does, he doesn't just sound like some old crank in the park. He sounds like a bum.
But then partisan attacks like this are the real national pastime now in American politics, why we seem unable to get out of our own way even on the big things, why the constant war of words between the left and the right can somehow trivialize the most crucial issues of a world that becomes less safe by the day.
It is why politics in this country are as low as they have been since the Civil War. Why this has become an Un-Civil War America, wasting too much time being at war with itself.
So somehow Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his mosh pit of a brain are supposed to be Obama's fault. We are supposed to believe that the country really is at greater risk because a Democrat is in charge. Right. Cheney probably believes that if Al Gore had been President in September 2001, the terrorists would have taken down the Empire State Building, too.
This war isn't a party issue. It is an American issue, about our character as much as any politician's. Cheney gives an interview to Politico and worries about the "social transformation" he says Obama is trying to fashion. "Reclamation" is a better word, a reclamation of the values and ideals trampled by the previous administration.
Here is Cheney on Abdulmutallab's failure to set off his homemade explosive device on Northwest Flight 253:
"As I've watched the events of the last few days, it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think that if he has a low-key response to blow up an airliner ...we won't be at war."
Cheney used to be a much better liar than this. But that was back when he was selling this country a bill of goods on Niger and uranium and weapons of mass destruction. He must believe if he can sell all that, wholesale, he can rewrite his place in history, the mess he and George W. Bush left to this President.
He acts now as if the last administration were some kind of triumph, as if the economy collapsed on somebody else's watch the way the towers of the World Trade Center did. Maybe that is the most amazing lie of current American life, people actually expected to believe that Bush and Cheney's eight years in office are the good old days.
Now everything is supposed to be their way against Obama's, Republicans versus Democrats, liberals versus conservatives, the apparent goal to get the whole country shouting at one another as if it's nighttime cable TV, and every debate is supposed to sound like life-and-death.
Only the war on terrorism really is life-and-death.
And the security lines are longer than ever; we saw them again on Saturday afternoon as we flew back to the United States, everybody patted down at the boarding gate, every carry-on bag checked, item by item. It was the first flights after Sept. 11 all over again.
Maybe it isn't some breakdown in security in Nigeria, where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's flight originated, that makes Cheney sound more like an old fool than ever. Or that Abdulmutallab came as close as he did to exploding that bomb.
Maybe it is this: That the America Obama inherited is hated more now than it was pre-Bush. It isn't just the President who needs to be stronger than ever. It is all of us.
This big dope poked his head out from the ground again, fyi.
Lupica is a libtard dwarf
I know Lupica is an idiot, and I’ll take your word on the show!
Obama will never be able to clean Dick Cheney's shoes and neither will Mike Lupica. I would rather be a 'has been' than a NEVER BEEN!
BTW, Dick, is that the best you can do by trying to trash Cheney, AGAIN?!
Lupica first started writing sports for the Daily News in the early to mid 80’s. It was never a great fit, as he grew up in New Hampshire and makes no secret of the fact that he hates the Yankees. He has never wanted to be there, and has tried unsuccessfully to leave any number of times. He first left to become a parter in The Nation (I think it was called), a sports-only newspaper in the late 80’s. When the paper failed, the Daily News took him back. He then left to host a talk radio show on WFAN NY. This, too, failed and they took him back. At some point after this he got a recurring gig on ESPN’s “Sports Reporters.” He parlayed this into a TV talk show on ESPN. Rather than taking another risk, he restructured his comittment to the Daily News while keeping his same contract. This turned out to be a good idea, because (of course) the TV program failed. It also freed him up to write more political pieces for the Daily News, which is all he seems to do these days: Attack the Yankees, attack Steinbrenner, attack Sarah Palin, attack George W. Bush, attack Dick Cheney, attack the Dolans (ok, maybe they deserve it), attack Roger Clemens, and attack Mark McGuire.
Whitlock labeled Mike Lupica “an insecure, mean-spirited busybody”, and referred to Robert “Scoop” Jackson as a “clown”, saying that “the publishing of [Jackson’s] fake ghetto posturing is an insult to black intelligence.” Jackson, like Whitlock, is African-American.
Minor correction. Lupica has become more and more insufferable (and irrelevant) in recent past. I expect he should be showing up as Olber-turkey's sidekick/replacement over on PMS/NBC any day now...
I grew up around Guidos, and never had a problem with them, even though I was the geeky Jew with good grades. I always admired their confidence.
Saudis Strike Yemeni Rebels Along Border
NYTimes
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: November 5, 2009
Yumpin’ Yemeni
ROFLMAO!
Nice “flag” pin on his lapel. < /sarc >
As Obama continues to fail, the libs who hailed him as the second coming are getting their panties in a twist.
Lupica should stick to sniffing jockstraps...
Spare us the hysteric hypocrisy about “politicizing the war” Leftist media.
Lupica, the typical Lib sportswriter who is as dumb as a stump about politics, like Overbite.
The silliest thing about all this PC hand-wringing is ever since the term "guido" first evolved in the 80's there have always been Jewish guidos and Irish guidos. From day one. Now, there are tons of Russian and Eastern European guidos, and even some Asian guidos. "Guido" has always been more of a fashion and lifestyle orientation than an ethnicity.
Thanks. Now I know for certain.
wow. Mike Lupica calling somebody a “has been”? Holy projections, batman!
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