Friday, January 07, 2005
Iokiyar
In his NYT editorial today, Paul Krugman mentions a coinage that is popular among liberals these days: IOKIYAR: it's O.K. if you're a Republican.
It is mindboggling what this administration is getting away with compared the multiple (albeit deadend) investigations of the Clinton administration. For instance, can you imagine if a President Gore or President Kerry
1) vacationed for months before 9-11 and ignored a daily briefing that said bin Laden was determined to strike within the U.S. issued just a month before the attack?
2) sat in an elementary school and read a children's book for 7 long minutes after learning of the attack on 9-11?
3) led us into a pre-emptive war based on the existence of WMDs that turned out not to exist?
4) failed to secure a true coalition and U.N. support, resulting in Americans footing all of the bill in Iraq?
5) presided over an administration where a senior official (still to be named) committed the treasonous act of "outing" a CIA operative--just as political payback for someone exposing the lies about potential nuclear weapons in Iraq?
6) nominated a director of Homeland security (Bernard Kerik) who was implicated in financial scandals, had known mob connections, and was charged with stalking an ex-girlfriend?
7) rehired a secretary of defense who has done nothing but bungle the war in Iraq (with no post-war plan) and has insulted soldiers by ignoring their requests for body armor and needed troops and supplies?
8) ran up the largest debt in U.S. history and is now looking for ways to dismantle social security?
9) nominated an attorney general who has endorsed ignoring international law and engaging in torture, thus putting our own soldiers at grave risk?
10) paid a journalist (Armstrong Williams) $240,000 to plug the No Child Left Behind, thus violating ethics rules?
What's scary is, this list could go on and on. And we're not hearing a thing from the corporate-owned media (because, frankly, corporations are doing extremely well under Bush, who is turning back pesky environmental laws and giving them generous tax breaks). Sadly, the only thing to rely on is the critical thinking of the American people and, well, we saw how that turned out in the election.
Like Krugman said, IOKIYAR means "that the basic rules of ethics don't apply to people aligned with the ruling party. And reality will continue to be worse than any fiction."
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Worse Than Fiction
It is mindboggling what this administration is getting away with compared the multiple (albeit deadend) investigations of the Clinton administration. For instance, can you imagine if a President Gore or President Kerry
1) vacationed for months before 9-11 and ignored a daily briefing that said bin Laden was determined to strike within the U.S. issued just a month before the attack?
2) sat in an elementary school and read a children's book for 7 long minutes after learning of the attack on 9-11?
3) led us into a pre-emptive war based on the existence of WMDs that turned out not to exist?
4) failed to secure a true coalition and U.N. support, resulting in Americans footing all of the bill in Iraq?
5) presided over an administration where a senior official (still to be named) committed the treasonous act of "outing" a CIA operative--just as political payback for someone exposing the lies about potential nuclear weapons in Iraq?
6) nominated a director of Homeland security (Bernard Kerik) who was implicated in financial scandals, had known mob connections, and was charged with stalking an ex-girlfriend?
7) rehired a secretary of defense who has done nothing but bungle the war in Iraq (with no post-war plan) and has insulted soldiers by ignoring their requests for body armor and needed troops and supplies?
8) ran up the largest debt in U.S. history and is now looking for ways to dismantle social security?
9) nominated an attorney general who has endorsed ignoring international law and engaging in torture, thus putting our own soldiers at grave risk?
10) paid a journalist (Armstrong Williams) $240,000 to plug the No Child Left Behind, thus violating ethics rules?
What's scary is, this list could go on and on. And we're not hearing a thing from the corporate-owned media (because, frankly, corporations are doing extremely well under Bush, who is turning back pesky environmental laws and giving them generous tax breaks). Sadly, the only thing to rely on is the critical thinking of the American people and, well, we saw how that turned out in the election.
Like Krugman said, IOKIYAR means "that the basic rules of ethics don't apply to people aligned with the ruling party. And reality will continue to be worse than any fiction."
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Worse Than Fiction
