Office of Special Plans, Shwing Vote

At Salon, a former lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Air Force describes in withering detail what it was like to be inside the Pentagon during the year leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Five pages of tales on the “Office of Special Plans,” the neoconservatives who run it, their continuous bungling, and most significantly, their willful and calculated manipulation of reality to build a case for war on Iraq from the flimsiest premises. A frightening read.

Also at Salon — and this comes as a total surprise to me — traditionally apolitical shock jock Howard Stern has come out “shwinging” at Bush, and has suddenly become a rare bastion of hardcore liberal speech on mainstream media. I’ve never been a Stern fan, but now I’m curious.

It’s that relative absence of political discussion on Stern’s show in the past that might make the current anti-Bush barrage more influential. “The fact that his audience does not tune in to him to hear about politics means that he is not just preaching to a choir, in the way that most of the conservative talk-show hosts are doing” …

Music: Charles Mingus :: Love Chant

4 Replies to “Office of Special Plans, Shwing Vote”

  1. Stern has always been frustrating, to me, in that he’s intelligent and charismatic and hilarious, but he spends so much time on his shows talking about naked women and farting. At one time I listened to him fairly regularly in the morning, but sometime after 9/11 he said some incredibly irresponsible things and I stopped listening entirely. More recently, though, since this FCC stuff has come up, I’ve tuned in again, and am very happy to hear him talking about Bush. I think he stands to do a lot of good for the get-Bush-outta-here campaign.

    Of course his complaints have a lot to do with him not being able to do the show he wants to do, and as soon as he tries to get back to his traditional material I switch him off again.

  2. i
    that’s the way it should be. if you don’t like or are offended by something on tv and radio just shut it off. i am tired of listening to parents complain about their children seeing something they shouldn’t or being influenced by something on tv/radio. just shut it off! give your kids a book!

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