Behind the NYT Select firewall

Today's New York Times Op-Ed lineup features Nicholas Kristof, Frank Rich, and David Brooks. In brief: Kristof calls for Dick Cheney's resignation, Rich charts the Cheney-Bush Administration's far-reaching deception and manipulation of the American public, and David Brooks calls us lefties a bunch of paranoid wackos. It's a beautiful Sunday morning here on America's northwest coast, and I can think of nothing better to do but read the NY Times online, drink my coffee, and try not to move too much. Blogging is always an excellent excuse to not move too much. My back isn't kvetching too loudly, but the day is still young. Rich's column is the must-read of the three. (Note: I haven't found full text of Brooks's column, but the snips I've read are worthwhile only for amusement value.) From Rich's column (One Step Closer to the Big Enchilada, reprinted in full by Nevada Thunder): There are many other mysteries to be cracked, from the catastrophic, almost willful failure of the Pentagon to plan for the occupation of Iraq to the utter ineptitude of the huge and costly Department of Homeland Security that was revealed in all its bankruptcy by Katrina. There are countless riddles, large and small. Why have the official reports on detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo spared all but a single officer in the chain of command? Why does Halliburton continue to receive lucrative government contracts even after it’s been the focus of multiple federal inquiries into accusations of bid-rigging, overcharging and fraud? Why did it take five weeks for Pat Tillman’s parents to be told that their son had been killed by friendly fire, and who ordered up the fake story of his death that was sold relentlessly on TV before then? These questions are just a representative sampling. It won’t be easy to get honest answers because this administration, like Nixon’s, practices obsessive secrecy even as it erects an alternative reality built on spin and outright lies. Rich then goes on to detail just how pervasive that alternate reality has become. My favorite line: with regard to Cheney's three-time denial that he'd ever said (on TV, no less) that the link between Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence had been "pretty well confirmed", When a man thinks he can get away with denying his own words even though there are millions of witnesses and a video record, he clearly believes he can get away with murder. Meanwhile, Nicholas Kristof (Time for the Vice President to Explain Himself, reprinted in full by Peking Duck) calls for Dick Cheney to fess up on the Scooter Libby fiasco. If Mr. Cheney can't address the questions about his conduct, if he can't be forthcoming about the activities in his office that gave rise to the investigation, then he should resign. And if he won't resign, Mr. Bush should demand his resignation. Yeah, right. Instead, we'll get more "we won't comment, since this is an ongoing investigation" crap. The truth will be pulled from this Administration like a rotten tooth. Meanwhile, For the Record thinks the call for Cheney's resignation doesn't go far enough. Instead, Bush and Cheney need a one-way ticket to the Hague to be tried as war criminals. Hoo-rah! Wingnut David Brooks weighs in (that would be featherweight) with The Prosecutor's Diagnosis: No Cancer Found, quoted at length over at Strictly Speaking. What hypocrisy -- Brooks accuses Democrats of either inflaming the public's paranoia, or exercising their own. Sound familiar? Yet the current left wing "paranoia" has, as its goal, the desire to see justice prevail. The Cheney-Bush Administration's paranoia has resulted in the death of over 2000 US soldiers and the maiming or death of countless Iraqi women, children, and, yes, adult men -- I mean, really, are they all insurgents? Lloydtown also nails the wingnuts for their hypocrisy. No Cancer Found. Give me a break. First the wingnuts work themselves into a tizzy by claiming that Fitzgerald will overstep his original charge; then, when he proves a responsible public servant, Brooks exults in the lack of a smoking gun. Wake up, Mr. Brooks. The investigation hasn't stopped. If anything, with Scooter Libby's indictment, it just received a huge boost in momentum.

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Ah. That's much better. By the way, I must be doing something right. Someone slammed me on the "hot or not" rating button (right sidebar), so I've managed to tweak at least one person's button. D. Technorati tags: Kristof, Nicholas Kristof, Frank Rich, David Brooks, Cheney, Bush, Scooter Libby.