Day: February 1, 2008

Hartmann: It’s an ‘Occupation’ Not a ‘War’

Jon Ponder

Wars end in victory or surrender. Occupations end with withdrawals. Thom Hartmann made the point on his radio show this week that as long as the Republicans — and the media and even the Democratic candidates — continue to frame the Iraq occupation as a “war,” John McCain and other proponents of endless occupation will continue to falsely claim that leaving Iraq would be “surrendering to al Qaeda.”

Looking back on Bush’s adventure, it is increasingly clear that, even though it was called a war from the beginning, it has all the contours of an invasion and occupation. Our forces went in, routed the government, arrested and killed its leaders and installed a puppet regime, albeit by popular election. Except for the brief ground war after the invasion, there was nothing remotely like a traditional ground war.

Next month, we’ll mark the fifth year of the occupation. Unlike wars, Hartman pointed out, occupations are supposed to end. He may be right that the first small step toward withdrawing from this one may be reframing the debate.

Audience for Democratic Debate More Than Doubled GOP’s

Jon Ponder

Seats in the Kodak Theatre for the Democratic debate in Hollywood last night were said to be harder to come by than tickets to the Kodak for the Oscars later this month.

Like the Oscars, however, folks at home got to watch it for free. And watch it they did:

An estimated 8.3 million television viewers watched Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debate Thursday night in California, more than double the audience for Republican candidates the night before.

The CNN audience for Clinton and Obama’s debate, the first one-on-one contest for Democrats now that John Edwards has dropped out, was second only to the 9.4 million people who watched the Democrats on ABC Jan. 5, according to Nielsen Media Research.

CNN also televised a Republican debate Wednesday night, highlighted by contentious exchanges between John McCain and Mitt Romney, that was watched by 4 million viewers, Nielsen said.

The Democratic debate eclipsed, by far, any other political debate ever shown just on cable television. The previous high was the Democratic debate in South Carolina on Jan. 21, seen by 4.9 million people.

Montel Williams Plunges Fox Panel into Shock with Iraq Remarks

Trish

Montel Williams is my new hero.

In a segment about the death of Heath Ledger where everyone was supposed to cluck their tongues and look sad while also insinuating he was a drug addict and wild partier, Williams, the former Marine, approached it another way.

My favorite part of this video is the single Fox technician who keeps trying to applaud. I feel you, bro!

Daily Kos said it isn’t known if Montel’s show was canceled as a result of this appearance, or if he already knew he was canned and felt freer to let it fly. Either way, he is right, right, dead straight right on correct. He also didn’t return after the break.

Fox should make this the first of a new series: “People Who Don’t Give a Shit About the So-Called Stars.” Next episode: People who don’t give a shit about Britney. Can I be on it?