I am most certainly not a big fan of Friedman and certainly not Joe Klein's writing - but when I criticize their work I try NOT to resort to hysterical name-calling. Regrettably neither Sirota nor you do the same.Sirota actually says that Beinart wants to "indiscriminately bomb enough dark-skinned people throughout the world."

This is not only absurd, its offensive and completely mischaracterizes Beinart's views. That is exactly the kind of fire from the hip, facts be damned approach that I expect and regularly see from Ann Coulter.

As someone else pointed out, Sirota is acting like nothing more than a bully for the left - if you don't share his views get ready to be slimed with the worst type of invective and personal attacks.

Posted at May 1, 2006 1:50 PM in response to Hostile Takeover: The World Pulled Over Our Eyes to Blind Us From the Truth

I'm not sure what is sadder - this hysterical and overwrought post from Mr. Sirota or the amens from TPMCafe users.

While I respect Mr. Sirota's passion his analysis is long on rhetoric and mean-spiritedness and short on reasoned and rational debate. Frankly, the biggest problem in Washington is individuals like Mr. Sirota who are so single-minded in their perspective that they refuse to even consider the arguments of the other side - and instead of debating them fairly just engage in ad hominem and mean-spirited attacks. I fail to see any difference between the type of post here and the right-wing blather emanating from the Ann Coulters and Sean Hannity's of the world.

It would be impossible to undercut all the silly assertions in his piece, but a few truly jump out:

"Free" trade, we are told, is about creating American jobs, lifting American wages, and bringing prosperity to workers in developing countries. We are told this by both parties even as the hard, undebatable evidence shows exactly the opposite."

There are plenty of strong arguments against free trade policies, but to say that the evidence is undebatable -- how does one argue with something like that? The arguments of those who support free trade are not simply "politicians," but in fact a great many economists - and not all of whom are necessarily beholden to corporate interests. While Sirota may not agree with arguments in support of free trade to blithely dismiss them and define them as nothing more than political rhetoric is not only intellectually dishonest but extraordinarily arrogant.

Arrogance is the word that best defines much of sirota's message. This quote is another favorite: "Two fundamental truths that nobody wants to talk about, but everyone knows: that our "democracy" is really a legalized bribery, and that every outcome in this system of legalized bribery is one that exclusively serves the interests of Big Money."

Really? The arrogance here is breathtaking - Wise, All-Knowing Sirota has come down from his mountaintop perch to tell us all what we should know but are too stupid to recognize on our own. Of course, if we view government as a tool to help all Americans, and not just the amorphous and conveniently undefined "Big Money" we're just deluding ourselves or worse an agent of aforementioned Big Money. I'm sure the many people who read TPM Cafe, and unlike Sirota have actually worked in Washington to make govt more responsive to working class Americans, might disagree with his blanket and unsupported assessment.

Finally, there is this coup de grace: "Those who have deluded themselves into thinking that nothing is really wrong - you can leave right now because this debate and this book won't interest you. But for the rest of you (aka. the vast majority of Americans)"

Wow, how inclusive! Hard to imagine why most Americans seem to think liberals are elitists.

But it's also nice to see that Sirota doesn't limit his hysteria to policies - he feels the need to personally attack and utterly mischaracterize the well-reasoned positions of individuals such as Tom Friedman, Joe Klien and most egregiously Peter Beinart.

It's great that TPM Cafe gives access to a wide variety of points of view. One would hope, however, that these debates could be more than childish, mean-spirited diatribes.

Posted at May 1, 2006 11:59 AM in response to Hostile Takeover: The World Pulled Over Our Eyes to Blind Us From the Truth