Ken Silverstein
Hillary endorsed by 360 newspapers & mags, Trump by 13. Nah, sure that didn't influence coverage.
I would say there's no pretense of being fair anymore -- forget objective.
Andrea Mitchell, to name just one, has disgraced herself.
I think Iraq was the turning point for the media when it came to trust.
And I don't think things have improved.
We don't have a media concerned with the people, we just have media desperate to serve its masters.
It's really a shame.
The whole thing's disgusting.
I'm going to bed.
Don't wake me when it's over, I'll read the results in the paper tomorrow.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:
Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Chaos and violence continue as the US holds a presidential election.
In the United States today, the presidential election finally takes place.
In 2007, Hillary Clinton mocked Barack Obama as someone running for president since kindergarten and issued a press release calling attention to his essay "I Want To Be President." Eric Zorn (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) observed in real time:
Clinton’s lucky that the late-night TV comics are on hiatus due to the writers’ strike, otherwise this blunder would launch a thousand jokes, each one portraying Clinton as desperate and ruthless as she tries to regain momentum in Iowa from the surging Obama.
And a blunder it certainly was: The point of the news release was to discredit Obama’s “aw shucks” act—the notion he projects that the idea of running for president had hardly even occurred to him until an irresistible swell of encouragement all but ripped the stovepipe hat off his head and threw it into the ring.
Why? Because the reluctant hero who has greatness thrust upon him is more attractive, in political folklore, than the striving, conniving, ever-ambitious seeker of power.
Clinton is stuck with the latter image.
Hillary, of course, has been running for president her entire life.
And this election cycle certainly feels like it's lasted her entire life.
It's been a long road for Hillary.
Being married to a man who repeatedly sleeps around (and possibly rapes).
Realizing that you do not excite him sexually. Realizing that some new woman will always be his preference. Grasping that Virginia was right when she said you were "too mousy" for her son.
Knowing that so many of your "friends" have had sex with your husband.
Entering a room and knowing everyone is forever laughing at you.
It would have buried a lot of women.
Not Hillary.
She was in it for the presidency.
Today, she hopes to be elected.
In 2002, when Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Bob Graham both urged her not to vote for the Iraq War (and Bob begged her to read the intelligence), Hillary only a year in the Senate, waived them both away because she knew best.
Voting for war would ensure that the media would support her and deem her a serious candidate.
If US troops had to die in Iraq, then so be it.
She was on a march to the White House.
If Iraqi women had to see their rights shredded, if Iraq had to be turned into a toxic dump filled with orphans, so be it.
She hadn't put up with all the Monica Lewinsky blow job jokes for nothing.
She was on a march to the White House.
Some puzzled over Hillary accepting the post of Secretary of State after the bitter primary fight she had with Barack Obama.
But this was her chance to prove herself yet again.
It was all about -- and always about -- getting into the White House.
It was never about democracy.
As so many sites -- not just WikiLeaks -- can attest this week: Hillary is not in favor of free speech -- nor does she believe political speech is protected speech.
She is by Hillary, she is for Hillary.
Get on board her train or she will run you down.
Attila The Hun had more charm -- and tact.
Need a reason to vote for Hillary?
Edward Know Nothing Hardy wants to give you one.
Bush won because of 537 people. America went to war in Iraq because of 537 people. A few people can have a big impact. Every vote counts
In the United States today, the presidential election finally takes place.
In 2007, Hillary Clinton mocked Barack Obama as someone running for president since kindergarten and issued a press release calling attention to his essay "I Want To Be President." Eric Zorn (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) observed in real time:
Clinton’s lucky that the late-night TV comics are on hiatus due to the writers’ strike, otherwise this blunder would launch a thousand jokes, each one portraying Clinton as desperate and ruthless as she tries to regain momentum in Iowa from the surging Obama.
And a blunder it certainly was: The point of the news release was to discredit Obama’s “aw shucks” act—the notion he projects that the idea of running for president had hardly even occurred to him until an irresistible swell of encouragement all but ripped the stovepipe hat off his head and threw it into the ring.
Why? Because the reluctant hero who has greatness thrust upon him is more attractive, in political folklore, than the striving, conniving, ever-ambitious seeker of power.
Clinton is stuck with the latter image.
Hillary, of course, has been running for president her entire life.
And this election cycle certainly feels like it's lasted her entire life.
It's been a long road for Hillary.
Being married to a man who repeatedly sleeps around (and possibly rapes).
Realizing that you do not excite him sexually. Realizing that some new woman will always be his preference. Grasping that Virginia was right when she said you were "too mousy" for her son.
Knowing that so many of your "friends" have had sex with your husband.
Entering a room and knowing everyone is forever laughing at you.
It would have buried a lot of women.
Not Hillary.
She was in it for the presidency.
Today, she hopes to be elected.
In 2002, when Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Bob Graham both urged her not to vote for the Iraq War (and Bob begged her to read the intelligence), Hillary only a year in the Senate, waived them both away because she knew best.
Voting for war would ensure that the media would support her and deem her a serious candidate.
If US troops had to die in Iraq, then so be it.
She was on a march to the White House.
If Iraqi women had to see their rights shredded, if Iraq had to be turned into a toxic dump filled with orphans, so be it.
She hadn't put up with all the Monica Lewinsky blow job jokes for nothing.
She was on a march to the White House.
Some puzzled over Hillary accepting the post of Secretary of State after the bitter primary fight she had with Barack Obama.
But this was her chance to prove herself yet again.
It was all about -- and always about -- getting into the White House.
It was never about democracy.
As so many sites -- not just WikiLeaks -- can attest this week: Hillary is not in favor of free speech -- nor does she believe political speech is protected speech.
She is by Hillary, she is for Hillary.
Get on board her train or she will run you down.
Attila The Hun had more charm -- and tact.
Need a reason to vote for Hillary?
Edward Know Nothing Hardy wants to give you one.
Bush won because of 537 people. America went to war in Iraq because of 537 people. A few people can have a big impact. Every vote counts
No, you stupid idiot.
Bully Boy Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court.
That's because the Democratic Party ran two losers in 2000.
Joe Lieberman went on MEET THE PRESS, after the vote, in the midst of the recounts, and declared that all votes -- all military votes -- should be counted.
That's a not a democracy.
The military follows rules.
And the military votes should be counted -- if they met those rules.
Instead of standing up for the rules of voting, Joe let tons of ineligible votes get counted.
That's (a).
Joe never should have been on the ballot to begin with.
(And in 2006 would declare himself an independent -- that's got to be the most massive party defection of all time -- a vice presidential candidate leaves the party six years later.)
Al Gore couldn't stand up to anyone, let alone Joe Lieberman.
Nor Donna Brazile.
Rev Jesse Jackson rightly wanted to protest the Florida discrimination issues.
Donna Brazile hollered "oh no!"
Gore never should have brought her on his campaign.
Michael Dukakis knew she was trash. (And she's revealed that to everyone this election cycle.)
So there's that.
There's Al Gore's recount which wasn't recount all the votes.
He only wanted the votes recounted in areas where he should have pulled ahead.
It looked pick and choose and allowed some to be hostile for that reason.
He refused to fight repeatedly.
That's why he lost.
He also lost his home state of Tennessee. (If he'd carried Tenn -- even if he'd gone on to lose Florida -- he'd have been named president.)
If stupid Edward followed that much, we can now move on to Iraq.
Lincoln Chafee.
He sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination this go round (he dropped out of that race in October 2015).
Lincoln Chafee voted against the Iraq War in 2002.
He was then a Republican.
Remarkable pressure was brought to bear on Republicans in Congress.
On Republicans.
Not on Democrats.
Senator Ted Kennedy voted against the war, Senator Bob Graham voted against it.
Senator Daniel Akaka, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Barbar Mikulski, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Robert Byrd, Senator Paul Sarbanes, Senator Dan Inouye, Senator Jon Corzine, Senator Kent Conrad, Senator Mark Dayton, Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Paul Wellstone, Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Byron Dorgan, Senator Patty Murray . . .
In all, 21 Democratic US senators voted against the Iraq War.
Independent Senator Jim Jeffords voting against the war -- he did -- and if all Democrats had voted against it -- even if Jeffords had abstained, the measure wouldn't have passed, the vote would have been 50 against and 49 for -- with Jeffords it would have been 51 against and 49 for.
But while 21 senators in the Democratic Party voted against it, 29 voted for it.
Hillary and Joe Lieberman among them.
Bully Boy Bush being put in the White House by the Supreme Court did not give us the Iraq War.
Craven members of Congress gave it to us.
If Donald Trump wins the election today, he still has to face a Congress.
Bully Boy Bush did as well.
But with Bully Boy Bush, they rolled over repeatedly.
They backed the war, they backed the PATRIOT Act, they backed everything.
They sold out the American people.
And Hillary was part of that.
Over and over she was part of that.
So to claim that a President Hillary is the answer is a really stupid claim to make.
It's also damn idiotic to pretend that the Iraq War started because the Supreme Court put Bully Boy Bush into the White House.
Congress could have stopped him.
They were spineless.
In 2006, we the American people put the Democrats in charge of both houses of Congress because they promised to end the war in Iraq.
They didn't.
And the war continues.
Today, the US Defense Dept announced:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter, remotely piloted and rotary-wing aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 10 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail, a generator and a bulldozer.
-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged five ISIL tactical units and a staging area; destroyed six fighting positions, six mortar systems, four vehicle bombs, two vehicles, two rocket systems, two ISIL-held buildings and a command and control node; suppressed a heavy machine gun, a sniper position and a rocket system; damaged an ISIL vehicle; and degraded three tunnels.
-- Near Rawah, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL-held building.
-- Near Sinjar, a strike engaged an ISIL weapons production facility.
-- Near Taji, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIL vehicle bomb factory.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.
Pay attention to this Edward The Know Nothing:
My friend @BrianKolfage lost both legs & an arm in Iraq. Hillary voted for the war, I'm voting Trump on #ElectionDay
#MAGA #ImWithHer (Not)
You may not agree with Jeff's decision but he backs it up with logic.
Unlike Know Nothing Edward who thinks he can rewrite history.
22 days after the Mosul operation started, it still continues.
Fortunately, only the members of ISIS were killed in that air strike.
See, the bombs, they can tell if you're ISIS or a civilian.
They're "smart bombs."
And they never, ever kill civilians.
Pinky promise.
Yes, they do kill civilians -- all the time -- but let's not wake the Know Nothing Edwards from their slumber.
Please shield the Know Nothing Edwards from this reality:
#IRAQ شمرية العراق Urgent
Muthana Khalid Iraqi Sunni civilian He
Footballer
Killed by Iraqi army air strikes on
#Mosul #IRAQ #warcrimes
Yes, civilians die all the time in these coalition airstrikes.
Oh, look, here's another idiot -- no doubt he's sleeping curled up next to Edward.
#WhyIMustVote Because unless you remember nothing from 2000, every vote matters. 600 votes could have stopped the Iraq War
No, stupid, Ely, we already went over this.
If 29 Democrats in the Senate had voted against the Iraq War, we could have stopped it.
29 votes, not 600 votes, you stupid idiot and you cheap liar.
Here's a Shi'ite in Iraq's take on today's election:
Haidar Sumeri Good luck America. Your own hubris, stupidity and ignorance brought you here. #Election2016
While the Mosul Operation hasn't finished, it has created a lot of refugees:
UNHCR Iraq 
#UNHCR Latest Flash Update for Iraq Situation 7 November
And so do the War Crimes.
Now
Iraqi Sunni child Five years old killed by Shia Militias backed by Iraqi Gov. in
#Mosul
#warcrimes
#IRAQ
iraq
