He brought it to me like a puppy. A troll on Eschatonblog came ranting about Obama's "purgery." Naturally, I wondered what he meant.
Turns out, as usual, it's nothing. You will hear that "Barack Obama's aides have removed criticism of President Bush's increase of troops to Iraq from the campaign Web site."
Ah, so Obama has removed criticism of the surge from his website ... other than this part, I guess:
Since the surge began, more than 1,000 American troops have died, and despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge. ... But the absence of genuine political accommodation in Iraq is a direct result of President Bush’s failure to hold the Iraqi government accountable.
Yep. No critism of the Surge there, right?
Morons.
But that didn't stop the rightwing blogsphere from gnashing its collective tooth about it. And, for two days, no one touched this story except the usual rightwing hacks, trying to create a phony conventional wisdom. Mostly, they were borrowing from the New York Daily News. Yeah, that paper. James Gordon Meek goes out of his way not to quote most of the material so that he can pretend it has changed. Jim Hoft has the screen captures that "prove" Obama purged the site, just so long as you don't, you know, click on them and actually read them. Again: bupkis. It was at this point that the rest of the puke-funnels picked up this non-story, only showing that they hadn't actually read what the big deal was about.
What a bunch of morons. I think my favorite was this idiot from the LA Times, who writes a whole story about Obama's website "purge" ... without quoting the website.
The bogus SURGE PURGE story tells these idiots what they want to believe, which is why they didn't bother to check the facts, which is why they look like a bunch of morons ... again.
Here's the before and after of Obama's website from Sean Braisted:
Before:
The Surge: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.
After:
Since the surge began, more than 1,000 American troops have died, and despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge. Our troops have heroically helped reduce civilian casualties in Iraq to early 2006 levels. This is a testament to our military’s hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics, and enormous sacrifice by our troops and military families. It is also a consequence of the decision of many Sunnis to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, and a lull in Shia militia activity. But the absence of genuine political accommodation in Iraq is a direct result of President Bush’s failure to hold the Iraqi government accountable.
And now, I'll break it down into its constituent elements, so that even a journalist can't fuck it up. Here's the before and after of Obama's criticism of the Surge:
Before:
- The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war.
- even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006.
- Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.
After:
- Since the surge began, more than 1,000 American troops have died, and despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.
- It is also a consequence of the decision of many Sunnis to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, and a lull in Shia militia activity.
- But the absence of genuine political accommodation in Iraq is a direct result of President Bush’s failure to hold the Iraqi government accountable.
See? It's still critical of the Surge, which makes it hard to say that "criticism of the Surge has been removed" ... unless you're a rightwing hack who thinks their audience is stupid.
But I digress. Here's where Obama praises the Surge for what it has accomplished:
Before:
At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq ....
After:
Our troops have heroically helped reduce civilian casualties in Iraq to early 2006 levels. This is a testament to our military’s hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics, and enormous sacrifice by our troops and military families.
So, even the line that Obama has changed his mind about the Surge is bullshit. I'm sure you're as shocked as I am.
OK guys ... where's the "purge"? Hello?
Then, Nedra Pickler picked it up. I should have known.
If there was anywhere in the "respectable" media that a patently false smear was going to get traction, it was with this reliable gargler of GOP talking points, who works at the AP, which now has a revolving-door relationship with the Mooney Times. This is the same idiot who mocked Obama for criticizing McCain's budget-balancing plan because Obama doesn't have one of his own (which is stupid enough, since we don't all have to have the same goals ... in a democracy), but even so, there's no evidence that McCain's nebulous joke of a budget will do that or not.
But the truly sad part of Nedra's latest attack on a Democrat is that she winds up fisking herself. Just when you thought rightwing hacks couldn't get any funnier, they parody themselves. Watch:
Obama Web site removes `surge' from Iraq problem
By NEDRA PICKLER – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's aides have removed criticism of President Bush's increase of troops to Iraq from the campaign Web site, part of an effort to update the Democrat's written war plan to reflect changing conditions.
As I've already shown, this statement is false, which is probably why Nedra is writing it. Obama's website is still critical of the Surge, even if dumbass doesn't know that. But, it turns out that dumbass did know that, and she wrote it anyway:
- two paragraphs later:
Obama argues the troop increase has not achieved its other goal of fostering a political reconciliation among Iraqi factions.
I guess it's a matter of what the meaning of the word "argues" is.
- three paragraphs further on:
By the early part of this year, he was acknowledging that it had improved security and reduced violence, but he has stuck by his opposition to the move.
Here is proof, as if any were needed, that rightwing hacks like Nedra Pickler don't even believe their own bullshit. Their method consists entirely of creating a phony conventional wisdom among low-information voters.
And now for the good news: readers aren't buying it. Check out the comments where Picker's smear job is reprinted in the Des Moines Register. Heh. Even the editors at the Des Moines Register aren't really buying it: they changed the AP headline to "Obama's website has new content". Not exactly the heady stuff of which conspiracy theories are made. Double-heh.
UPDATE: While I was writing this up, I found this story at CNN from Lauren Kornreich. Comments are closed, so we need to find her email address. She writes:
Barack Obama’s campaign revamped the Iraq policy section of its Web site over the weekend, removing a portion highly critical of President Bush’s troop surge policy.
This lede is highly misleading. That content has been replaced with other content that says the same thing. Two paragraphs later, Kornreich shows that she knows this when she says:
On the new page, Obama credits the "military’s hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics, and enormous sacrifice by our troops" for a reduction in violence. The presumptive Democratic nominee does not deny positive effects of the surge in the new version of his Web site, but criticizes the Iraqi government for not stepping up to reach a political solution.
This is also misleading. The full quote shows that Obama is not shifting his criticism onto the Iraqi government. One ... more ... time, here is the goddam quote:
... the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.
And, one ... more ... time, Obama goes on to say:
But the absence of genuine political accommodation in Iraq is a direct result of President Bush’s failure to hold the Iraqi government accountable.
And, once again, you'll notice that a lot of Kornreich's commenters aren't buying it.
But Nedra Pickler's stain is spreading. Let's get a hold of Ms. Kornreich and remind her that lying to the American people isn't her job, no matter how much she wants John McCain to win.
.