Thursday, October 27, 2011

The suspended, the fallen, the wounded and the predator

Jim Mannion (AFP) reports that the US State Dept has suspended Peter Van Buren who was "escorted out of the State Department on Monday over his writing which includes the new book We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project) -- a book that really doesn't fit the spin theWhite House is currently attempting to put on Iraq.

Message discipline is priority to the White House. Possibly how the military failed to announce the death on Friday when they White House was so desperate to present a big happy face on Iraq. Pfc Steven Shapiro died serving in Iraq last Friday. Glenda Anderson (Press Democrat) speaks to his wife Adela Shapiro who explains her husband grew up in a foster home, she met in at City College of San Francisco in 2003, they married in 2009 and she says of their son Micah, born 27 days ago, "He looks exactly like my husband."

Tuesday night, Barack Obama was happy to pretend to address veterans issues and Jay Leno was happy to play along. It was all embarrassing blather. (And the press joined in playing stupid when they should have run with the Miami VA Medical Center.) If you doubted it, Lisa Chedekel (New Haven Independent) notes, "The number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans receiving mental health care from the VA has quadrupled since 2006, with PTSD and depression the most common diagnoses, a new report by the federal Government Accountability Office shows." But apparently a serious topic might have interfered with chit-chat and that's now the gold standard for the presidency, chit-chat.

AP notes that Scott Ritter received his prison sentence yesterday. Yes, we noted it in the snapshot but we have to note it repeatedly because so few will bother to report on the pedophile. Scott Ritter was a Bushy who turned on his master and began barking and snarling. He really didn't have a great deal to offer to the Iraq War despite having been a weapons inspector in the 90s. He published several books, most unreadable. He ranted and raved when given time and came off unhinged. When news first broke of a bust for attempting to have a sexual encounter with an underage female, Pig Ritter refused to answer questions about it on air (on CNN). Ritter was quickly kicked to the curb because pedophiles generally are. But instead of addressing that reality, Amy Goodman and a host of others insisted repeatedly that he was the victim. They put out Pig Ritter's spin that he was being punished for seaking out. That arrest, it would turn out, was his second for that crime. A detail that would get left out.

And while they were all so happy to have Scott Ritter on their programs as a guest, they weren't willing to inform their audiences of his 2009 arrest for the same crime, his trial or his sentencing yesterday. Their sudden reticence was surprising considering how they loved to have him as their guest -- Amy Goodman, Rachel Maddow (on Air America Radio), Laura Flanders, Scott Horton, etc. Seymour Hersh went around the country with him on a tour and to show support as if to say 'Scott Ritter didn't try to sexually exploit me so he's innocent.' But, of course, Pig Ritter was accused and convicted of targeting young girls, not elderly men.

That men dismissed the charges was sad but not surprising. That so many women were willing to play along was shocking at the time. But, as 2008 served to demonstrate over and over, some women will go out of their way to utilize sexism in order to fit in. We saw it again last year as Naomi Wolf led a charge to trash two women in order to prop up a man. She repeated lies about the women and refused to correct them even when she was informed of her errors.

Pig Ritter had little of value to the Iraq War discussion, especially after the war started, but so many were so eager to prop him up and to ignore his predator behavior. He was busted in 2009 while Barack Obama was president which should have ended the lies that 'it's all a plot by George W. Bush to destroy Scott!' Not only did that not stop the denials, many programs continued to feature Pig Ritter as a guest. Even after his conviction. Now the sexual predator and registered sexual offender will be in prison. And all his enablers fall silent and, for the first time in years, aren't interested in talking Pig Ritter.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.























Posted by at