The Wife of Bath caught this tripe from James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page:
Back in the 1930's a young liberal journalist named Allan Cranston published a translation in English of Mein Kampf, Hitler's manifesto, because he wanted to alert people to the dangers of Nazism. These days when America's enemies speak, young liberal journalists cover their ears and go "la la la la la," they don't want to hear it.
In case anyone was wondering how I go "la la la la la, I don’t want to hear it," it’s by posting an 1,800 word piece on Daily Kos.
Taranto went on:
Why don't they want to hear it? Well, you look at this bin Laden tape which was transcribed and put up on the web, and he sounds like a blogger for the Daily Kos. He sounds like a typical angry left American.
Well, I don’t remember anyone at Daily Kos ever writing, as bin Laden said in his tape released the other day, that "[t]here are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling only 2.5%." But maybe Taranto has a link to show us which piece at Daily Kos included that message.
He expresses his admiration for Noam Chomsky and Michael Scheuer, who are kind of crackpot leftist authors.
Well, it’s interesting that Taranto characterized Scheuer as a "crackpot leftist journalist," which I never realized is a euphemism for the guy who created and headed up the CIA’s bin Laden unit from 1996 through 1999. And apparently Taranto believes one would have to be a crackpot leftist to have wanted to kill bin Laden in 1998 (a plan the 9-11 Commission discovered was overruled by CIA Director George Tenet, whom Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom).
So, I think it makes these liberal journalists very uncomfortable, that he sounds so much like them...He’s trying to divide America by turning left against right, but in fact, all his does is embarrass the left, the people he sees as his allies."
Um, maybe that’s a valid interpretation, if you ignore this, from bin Laden’s tape:
Since [September] 11th, many of America's policies have come under the influence of the Mujahideen, and that is by the grace of Allah, the Most High. And as a result, the people discovered the truth about it, its reputation worsened, its prestige was broken globally and it was bled dry economically, even if our interests overlap with the interests of the major corporations and also with those of the neoconservatives, despite the differing intentions.
By stupidly falling for bin Laden’s ploy, by charging in to the Middle East like a bull charging a cape, Bush played right in to bin Laden’s plan. THAT’s what has separated Americans in to three groups: "those who want to stay the course, those who want out asap and everyone else, roughly in thirds." The "typical angry left American" Taranto is talking about is the two thirds of the country that’s angry about Iraq and wants us to get the hell out.
Taranto claims that the "people whose views bin Laden was echoing are basically saying ‘don’t listen to him, he’s just a madman,’ even though he sounded like them." That's not us here at Daily Kos. So who has been trying to ignore and dismiss bin Laden? George W Bush essentially stopped talking about Osama bin Laden back in 2003. Condoleezza Rice tried to pressure the networks in to not airing his tapes. And just a few days ago the White House's National Security Adviser dismissed this latest tape as the product of someone in a cave who's "virtually impotent." If you're going to point a finger at someone for saying "don't listen to bin Laden," that finger needs to be pointed at the Bush administration.
I’m not uncomfortable because I'm worried that Osama bin Laden sounds like me or "the left" because he doesn’t. But I’ll tell you what makes me more than just uncomfortable, it makes me damn pissed off: Six years after he authorized and helped orchestrate the deaths of over 3,000 Americans in the most spectacular act of terrorism ever seen, what makes me "uncomfortable" is that Osama bin Laden is neither dead nor in custody, and he’s taunting us and threatening to again unleash horrific acts of terrorism against innocent civilians in my country and around the globe. And the war in Iraq isn’t just providing bin Laden more recruits, for five years it’s diverted resources from capturing that homicidal bastard. But none of that seems to bother a jerk on the payroll of the Wall Street Journal, and they don't seem to understand why it would make me, you and most other Americans "uncomfortable."