I honestly do not know why I engage in these comment wars at various neo-liberal blogs. Just now I have been enraged concerning the treatment of Jane Hamsher and David House. Not so much their treatment per se, but rather the simple out of control use of power by the military and by the government in denying a visitor to David Manning and thereby continuing and intensifying his torture by his jailers.
Interestingly, the guy who "runs" or at least started Balloon Juice is, himself enraged. Angry Black Lady, a poster and the majority of the commentators on his site, want to blame Hamsher and House. (There are also a not insignificant minority of commentators who have already convicted Manning, but that is for another post[or not].)
The problem seems to be that Jane came out opposing Obama Care and called out Obama on his lies concerning his promises. Now she can do no right.
Another problem is that these people have so invested themselves in Obama and the democratic party that they cannot even begin to seriously criticize them.
For the record she and House were stopped because, according to the marines, her license plates were out of date and she did not have proof of insurance. Given the fact that apparently she drives House to visit Manning regularly, and they have accepted her proof of insurance before that is a bogus claim by the marines. If her plates were indeed out of date, they would only have been by a couple of days and it should not have entailed holding House past the visiting time. Further, there is no one arguing that the cops didn't tell them that their orders were coming from on high.
Yet, even raising these points multiple times simply doesn't matter it is just that Jane Hamsher is so......you know. Kind of icky and not in the in crowd. There were a few who did start eventually insist that they just attack Jane because she is so not cool, and that she isn't you know, you know? Well one thing I do know is that she is braver than any of the commentators, myself included. It is clear at this point that the government is determined to destroy anyone who is connected with Manning and WikiLeaks and will violate all sorts of treaties, laws, and rights to do so. Yet, for so many of the people writing about it, the important thing seems to be that Jane Hamsher is a bitch and is self aggrandizing (interestingly enough the second complaint was made and probably still is made about Jesse Jackson).
Oh yeah, mandatory Greenwald link, who the commentators and posters at Balloon Juice make fun of because he uses too many words.
