Friday, December 01, 2006

Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermman Special Comment - Free speech and the delusion of grandeur










Is the Republican Party, forging their way in the new millennium, planning on sustaining themselves by practicing Constitutional Cannibalism?


First, we have our Court-Appointed President chowing down on Habeas Corpus (after grazing on a steady diet of governing via Signing Statements) and now we have the OKOKS (Original King of K Street), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, looking to sauté Free Speech.

Last night, our anchor-hero, MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann, weighed in with a Special Comment - Free speech and the delusion of grandeur.

Gingrich delivered his comments, ironically, at the Loeb First Amendment Award Dinner in New Hampshire earlier this week. In keeping up with the GOP/RNC theme of fear, talking about terrorism, the OKOKS offered that “we need to "reexamine freedom of speech" in order to "get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade."

(Emphasis added)

To which Olbermann characterized the speech as an “arsonist give the keynote address at a convention of firefighters.”

“We will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find,” Mr. Gingrich continued about terrorists, formerly communists, formerly hippies, formerly Fifth Columnists, formerly anarchists, formerly Redcoats, “to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech.”

Mr. Gingrich, the British “broke up our capacity to use free speech” in the 1770s.

The pro-slavery leaders “broke up our capacity to use free speech” in the 1850s.

The FBI and CIA “broke up our capacity to use free speech” in the 1960s.

It is in those groups where you would have found your kindred spirits, Mr. Gingrich.

He wants to somehow ban the idea.

Even though everyone who has ever protested a movie or a piece of music or a book has learned the same lesson:

Try to suppress it, and you only validate it.

Make it illegal, and you make it the subject of curiosity.

Say it cannot be said, and it will instead be screamed.

In his, once again, ironically, free speech, Gingrich also offered that “I further think, we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism, which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules, that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism …”

To which Olbermann promptly asks “Well, Mr. Gingrich, what is more “massively destructive” than trying to get us to give you our freedom?”

Olbermann also offers a tremendous, devastating movie quote that frames, quite well, the lunacy of OKOKS Gingrich’s ideology.

“Rallying a nation,” you might say, “to hysteria, to sweep us up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy.”

That’s from the original version of the movie “The Manchurian Candidate” — the chilling words of Angela Lansbury’s character, as she first promises to sell her country to the Chinese and Russians, then reveals she’ll double-cross them and keep all the power herself, waving the flag every time she subjugates another freedom.

Links

Read Free speech and the delusion of grandeur; Keith Olbermann responds to Newt Gingrich’s comments about free speech

(There’s links here to the video, as well as previous night’s report on OKOKS Gingrich’s speech, and the discussion with George Washington University law professor and constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley)

From the Manchester Union Leader - Gingrich raises alarm at event honoring those who stand up for freedom of speech

'Beginning of the end of America'; Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things Newt Gingrich Would Like To Reexamine

Scroll down the sidebar to read other Minced Garlic posts

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Editors Note ... Slacking off there, are ya?

Good Evening Garlic Fans

Just a note to explain the low posting this week.

I’ve been attempting to work and function through, what has turned out to be, one ass-kicking sinus infection. Having chronic allergies, I have in the past been held hostage by them, but after septum surgery, and the year of desensitizing shots, life regained color again. Periodically, I get one from time-to-time and this is just one of those times. I thought I could muscle it aside and keep on stride, but, alas, it won the day

I hope to be back on the case tomorrow morning with a few posts and getting back into the groove (I mean, God, there is just so, so much happening that is just so deliciously ripe for riffing)

Many Thanks, once again, for visiting and reading The Garlic

Peace
JTD


Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard While Dick Cheney Was In Saudi Arabia

News Item: Contrary to Previous Reports, Cheney Was ‘Basically Summoned’ By Saudi Crown Prince

10. I think he has the paperwork for one of those CIA Black Hole Prisons, they accepted our RFP

9. With his aide going to trial soon, and that CIA agent suing him, he’s gotta be looking for a country that will take him in and away from extradition

8. That Armstrong woman isn’t with him, so I guess we won’t be doing any hunting while he’s here

7. Watch, I give him less then 15-minutes before he starts in on the King, to back his plan to attack Iran

6. You sure he’s really a conservative? He hasn’t asked yet, for the gay male escort and crystal meth

5. With all the spinning he’s done, he’ll drink a barrel of oil before he calls what’s going on in Iraq a “Civil War”

4. How much you want to bet, before he leaves, he’ll be trying to sell a few cases of that wife of his ... her new book?

3. I don’t care what his Rider Sheet says, we’re not putting Fox News on here ... He can watch Al-Jazeera like everyone else

2. First time they’ve ever used him to deliver the monthly Halliburton kickback

1. No, no your Highness, trust me, the President and myself are not in our final throes


Bag Man or In-The-Bag - You Decide

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things Newt Gingrich Would Like To Reexamine

News Item: Step Away From The Constitution, Mr. Gingrich, And Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them

10. Make note to call Santorum, offer to coach him ... It’s too bad he burned out there

9. Why did Junior pick that gadfly Baker to run the Iraq Study Group, when I, with my superior mind, could have done it?

8. Probably should have titled my book “Owning The Future”, instead of “Winning The Future” ... Owning it has a better ring to it

7. Maybe I should return Cheney’s call, see what he’s up to with his Iran Study Group... If Baker’s not running that one, I’ll take it

6. I should have come out with the “appeasers” and “Hitler” stuff... I had been thinking that for months

5. Hmmm... I’ve had massages before, but not while doing crystal meth, with a gay male escort... Might have to look into that

4. I probably should have been more supportive of Rummy... It’s going to come back and bite me in the ass when I run for President

3. Make a note to talk to someone ... For all I did, they should rename K Street, to Newt Street

2. I sold that Contract For American bullshit, why isn’t anyone listening to me when I say were fighting World War III now?

1. What’s wrong with the Speaker of the House having an extra-marital affair with a congressional employee?


All Points Bulletin: Don't let this man get his hands on the First Amendment

Monday, November 27, 2006

Developing Story - No Slogans or Spin For Bush With New Labeling of Iraq

White House In Quandary Over Calling War On Terror A “Civil War”

WHIG, Lincoln Group Empty; “President Loses All His Slogans, Rhetoric ... Not Enough Time To Ramp Up”

A bitter battle has erupted inside the White House, as major news organizations have begun calling the war in Iraq a “Civil War”, sending President Bush and his aides into a panicked quandary.

Sources tell The Garlic that neither the White House Iraq Group, or the paid public relations firm, the Lincoln Group, are prepared with material, data or slogans for a “civil war”, leaving President Bush stuck with his “Hello, I Must Be Going Policy” - simply denying the policy of “Stay The Course”.

So dark is the mood, one West Wing aide bemoaned that “We can’t use DHS’s Terror Alert System if it’s a civil war ... We completely lose our edge ...”, a reference to the coincidence of terror alerts and bad news related to the Bush Administration.

Within the past few days, news organizations, such as the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek have referred to the Iraq situation as “Civil War”. This morning, on NBC’s Today Program, host Matt Laurer made an announcement on the “change in terminology”

“If the White House were to call it a civil war, they lose the “Either you’re with us, or against us,” said Hildy Johnson, editor of the monthly newsletter “What Did He Say Now?” that tracks and reviews President Bush’s speeches and interviews. “You can’t have the President, now, suddenly shift to saying “You’re with them, or against them” ... Or some such slogan ... It just wouldn’t roll off his tongue the right way.”

There’s also the matter of President Bush, and his administration branding Iraq as “the central front on the war on terror” and that doesn’t mesh with Iraq being ensnared in a violent civil war.”

“They lose the whole ball of wax,” says Holly Martins, Publisher of Axis of Evil Illustrated, a quarterly publication, that is rumored to be a house magazine for the Project for The New American Century.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who is heavily invested in the spinning of the Iraq War, is all but ignoring the civil war flare, concentrating on the Iran Study Group he launched recently.

According to Martins, another issue for the President in labeling Iraq being in a civil war is that the White House Iraq Group, and the Lincoln Group don’t have anything in the way of rhetoric and slogans for a civil war.

“WHIG just can’t do it,” laments Martin. “They can’t stop all the hype they’ve been putting out, turn on a dime and ramp up the President to start spouting out some new garbage that goes against everything they have been saying to date ... And the Lincoln Group ... If this is what we get in Iraq after all their positive, pro-USA stories they’ve been planting ...”

Possibly the Iraq Study Group will give the White House the platform to shift gears.

As The Garlic reported, a leaked report on their first draft calls for a “re-do” in Iraq, with reinstalling Saddam Hussein and reinvading the country. Conceivably, in doing it over, the Bush team could avoid the pitfalls that will lead to civil war the second time around.

“Jimmy Baker is nobody’s fool,” added Martins. “If he sees this as a civil war, it’s ”Goodbye Junior and good luck with your legacy... He’s not going down the tubes with this one...”















There are reports that President Bush becomes "enraged" whenever someone refers to the War In Iraq as a "Civil War", lunging at them and even swinging away with some punches, before Secret Service agents wrestle the person the President attacked to ground and arresting them

Top Ten Cloves: Things About The New CIA Personality Test

News Item: CIA Launches Personality Quiz To Recruit New Employees...

10. FBI spreading rumor that CIA On-Line Quiz and recruitment is a ruse to sniff out that Elvis is alive

9. Q. - Discovering that Osama bin Laden was dating Paris Hilton, would that make you more likely or less likely to buy her CD?

8. Some candidates that don’t meet CIA specs are sent over to Homeland Security, to possibly fill their Cyber Security Post

7. That Michael Richards looks to be a promising candidate ... Would be easily trainable to hate and rant against Arabs and Muslims

6. Q. - Do you have a knack for finding missing items? If yes, have you ever found Weapons of Mass Destruction?

5. Operation TomKat running smoothly and, so far, undetected

4. Push to recruit is due to looming deadline, to staff new batch of CIA Black Hole Prisons

3. Agency desperate, under pressure to the code of Karl Rove’s “The Math”

2. Q. - Have you or anyone in your family ever written an Op-Ed essay criticizing President Bush?

1. Q. - President Bush buttons you in a meeting and wants to hear good news. You -

A) Advise the President that is not an area you work in

B) Report that the intelligence gathered doesn’t support his position

C) Say your confused, explaining that Vice President Cheney already has handled it

D) Smile and confidently shout out “Slam Dunk, Mr. President”


The CIA Wants You! - Take The Test

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves 26 November 2006












In attempting to spin the horrible news coming out of Iraq, the White House today downplayed the escalating violence and announced a spike in the Iraq economy, with Used Car sales fueling the growth















At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vietnam last week, President Bush suffered another setback, as Mr. Bush only placed as 5th Runner-up in the fashion show component of the event



















While in Vietnam, the President quietly approved arms and cocaine sales, to a still-to-be-determined country, with the profits held in escrow until Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega officially takes office, and an opposition group can be launched to overthrow the new President, using the funds from the arms sales to aid in their efforts
















Black Friday shoppers got a special surprise if they were in the hunt to buy new tires. Firestone, and soon followed by all major tire makers, offered a new baby, on a First-Come, First-Served-basis (as long as the supply lasted), with the purchase of every pair sold













In yet another program to quell the rising level of violence in Iraq, U.S. and Coalition forces began installing “Kryptonite” fences in key areas. The green-glowing barriers will be accompanied by a major media campaign, warning insurgents that they may be “vulnerable”, with the fences zapping away their strength.

The Pentagon would neither confirm nor deny that the new Kryptonite fences were part of the deal with Disney and will be part of the DisneyBaghdad program currently being built

More Eggnog, Mr. President? ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

Heading into the Thanksgiving Day Holiday, probably the person most disappointed in the cancellation of the O.J. Simpson-Fox Television Special and book deal was President Bush. For a few fleeting days, The Juice was running ahead of The Decider as the most hated and scorned person in America (despite a late, running entry from Michael ‘Kramer” Richards)

But our Court-Appointed-President wasn’t relinquishing the title without a fight

"We'll succeed unless we quit,” he said, making the profound analogy between the lessons of Vietnam and his Iraq quagmire

Let’s try that one on for size, especially if the King of Jordan’s prophecy of three civil wars firing up in the Middle East in 2007 comes about (and with his Vice President sulking, in the background, that he can’t start a fourth one in Iran)

More work for the Lincoln Group, sure, but, geesh, having to do all those nasty press conferences ... all the spinning of progress being made...

No doubt, at the cost of an extra AA meeting, or two, the eggnog at the White House was heavily spiked this holiday

The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll November 19 - November 25, 2006

President Bush’s biggest worries, returning from Vietnam, and heading into the Thanksgiving Holiday break are ...

1. Fearing he’ll be labeled as “soft of terror”, has had strong feeling not to pardon the Official White House Turkey this year Tally 42%

2. Someone from the White House staff stood in-line for hours to snag him one of the Sony PlayStation 3 units Tally 23%

3. That he got in-and-out of Vietnam without anyone opening up the investigation into his National Guard service Tally 20%

4. Only has about six-weeks with the Lame Duck Majority Congress to push through his War Act against Iran Tally 14%

This week’s Poll - With the War in Iraq now longer than World War II, President Bush will likely...

Scroll up to the top right corner to place your vote