This diary is going to be very short for a long winded person. When I read this diary, on the rec list at this time of day, and some of the freeper quotes it was about as good as a shot of fine espresso as a morning adrenaline pick up. After Limbaugh's rather incendiary speech, one would expect that kind of behavior in the depths of the carnivorous base.
Then I went over to the NYT to calm down a little and what did I see plastered over the front page?
Obama Offered Deal to Russia in Secret Letter
First question: If it's so secret, what's it doing on the front page of the NYT?
What's it all about? Here's the lede paragraph:
WASHINGTON — President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.
Here's two worthy goals going forward, quit spending enormous sums of money that we can't afford on a system that's more than a little hinky, and generate some common goals with Russia to re-approach what is a difficult diplomatic situation with Iran. What's wrong with that? Well, it's fine in theory, but might not work so well if some asshole leaks it. Who was that asshole?
The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the United States in a common front against Iran. Russia’s military, diplomatic and commercial ties to Tehran give it some influence there, but it has often resisted Washington’s hard line against Iran.
Oh, our old friend anonymous. Why would he do such a thing? This quote from the Freeper diary gives a clue:
I might add, he (Obama) is willing to sacrifice all Americans on the global altar.
He must be stopped.
If there's anything a red meat neo-con hates worse than Iran, it's Russia. Some leftover from the stone age thought he was doing a good thing while alerting his fellow 'Thuglicans to what is going on diplomacy-wise. The problem is that it really is coming close to treason to leak information of this kind. Who would encourage this kind of behavior? Why, the point man for the Republicans, our old friend Rush:
So where is it - what is so strange about being honest and saying "I want Barack Obama to fail" if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not it's foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?
So someone took Rush at his word, and someone else at the NYT thought it was a good idea to print it. And, if any conclusions can be drawn from this they would be that the Republicans will stop at nothing. Threats of violence, cartoons of chimpanzees, postcards of watermelons, are bad enough but leaking a document of this sort and then publishing it in a major newspaper is unconscionable. It also shows that Daily Kos is still has a job to do and that job is to support Obama when he's attacked and to call out the attackers on their bad behavior. We can't stop the leakers, but we can call out the Times for giving them a voice. Here's a start:
executive-editor@nytimes.com
managing-editor@nytimes.com