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| Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty |
It's website warfare over WikiLeaks | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
"Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, questioning the reliability of leaked U.S. cables referring to his nation as undemocratic and corrupt, said the fact that Assange is in custody shows that the West has its own problems with democracy.
"Why was Mr. Assange hidden in prison?" Putin said. "Is this democracy?"
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later today.
Last week, we reported on Roger Ailes' awful rant against NPR, calling them “Nazis” for firing Juan Williams. He later apologized to Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, for his hateful running-of-the mouth–but then said a better word choice would have been “nasty, inflexible bigot,” so that wasn't all that successful. For its part, NPR ran a considered, thoughtful piece on Fox News' anti-Semitic rhetoric, citing Glenn Beck's prolific spewing along with Ailes' comment. Even Major Garrett, former Fox News Chief White House correspondent, was taken aback by Ailes' comments, telling NPR, "I don't even know — I don't even know where that comes from. It's um. Wow."
So we all know about Beck, who constantly gets a pass from Fox for his statements. But what if Ailes is going beyond merely creating a culture of anti-Semitism and insanity on the Fox premises. What if, as Gawker suggested recently, Roger Ailes is, in fact, actually batshit crazy?
We fear that Roger Ailes' own paranoia has got the best of him. This is a man who's already acquired a permit for carrying a concealed handgun and who told the New York Times "I've got a bad leg, I'm a little overweight, so I can't run fast, but I will fight" in case of terrorist attack at his place of employment, and who is shadowed by private bodyguards at all times, and who bought the newspaper in the small town where he lives in order to buffer himself from criticism. He has become so insulated from the normal human experience of life that he has become untethered from reality. It's actually sad to see.
Like the DSM-IV analysis leveled by the excellent documentary The Corporation, Gawker proceeds to apply the qualifications of Paranoid Personality Disorder to Ailes, to a pretty accurate, alarming conclusion. So while he leveled accusations at Jon Stewart for being quote-unquote crazy (which Olbermann quickly skewered), perhaps Ailes should be worrying less about NPR and progressive media, and more about himself. Read more at Gawker.
| Author: | Micah Zenko, Fellow for Conflict Prevention |
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When NATO leaders gather in Lisbon this weekend to endorse the alliance's new Strategic Concept, the most contentious component will be the role assigned to U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.The Obama administration (incorrectly) claims that America's nuclear umbrella over NATO requires tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, and (justly) asserts that reductions in U.S. bombs in Europe must be matched by limitations of Russia's vastly larger tactical nuclear arsenal.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 11:35 AM 
Anti-Semitism, like all ideologies, tells a story about the world. It’s a story about almost occult Jewish power, about cabals that manipulate world events for their own gain. In classic anti-Semitic narratives, Jews control both the elites and the masses; they’re responsible for the communist revolution and the speculative excesses of capitalism. Their goal is to undermine society so that they can take over.
15 November 2010
George Soros, the billionaire financier who was an energetic Democratic donor in the last several election cycles but is sitting this one out, is not feeling optimistic about Democratic prospects.
“I made an exception getting involved in 2004,” Mr. Soros, 80, said in a brief interview Friday at a forum sponsored by the Bretton Woods Committee, which promotes understanding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“And since I didn’t succeed in 2004, I remained engaged in 2006 and 2008. But I’m basically not a party man. I’d just been forced into that situation by what I considered the excesses of the Bush administration.”
Mr. Soros, a champion of liberal causes, has been directing his money to groups that work on health care and the environment, rather than electoral politics. Asked if the prospect of Republican control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, he said: “It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I’m not in a position to stop it. I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”
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