Old man continues to sell his soul

BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

USED UP AND EMPTY NUT SACK BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, COMING OFF HIS LATEST FAILED ALBUM, WILL NOW WHORE WHATEVER'S LEFT OF HIS NAME BY PROPPING UP FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O AT A STEVEN SPIELBERG EVENT FOR 'HUMANITY.'

REACHED FOR COMMENT, THE TOADY SPRINGSTEEN EXPLAINED, "NO ONE BOUGHT MY ALBUM HIGH HOPES -- FOUR MONTHS LATER, IT STILL HASN'T GONE GOLD.  I USED TO SELL MILLIONS IN A SINGLE MONTH.  I WON'T BE 65 UNTIL SEPTEMBER SO UNTIL SOCIAL SECURITY KICKS IN, I NEED TO MAKE SOME BREAD.  SO I SPREAD.  AND SAY, 'HEY POLITICIANS, WANT TO BOSS THE BOSS AROUND?  I'LL TAKE IT UP THE ASS FROM ANY DEMOCRAT.  I USED TO HAVE STANDARDS AND BE OUTSIDE THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM BUT THESE DAYS I SPREAD LIKE JIFFY."



FROM THE TCI WIRE:

Sarah Jessica Parker waited too long to have her chin wart removed, it had already killed any shot at a big screen career by the '00s.  The wart was repugnant on the big screen but she was attached to it.  Maybe it contained her brain?

What else could explain her garbage today guest hosting The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC?   There she described the former propagandist for the New York Times, Dexter Filkins, as "one of the best war correspondents of his generation."

Dexter Filkins -- Falluja Filkins -- won an award for his awful piece of 'reporting' on the US attack on Falluja -- eye witness 'reporting' that missed the use of White Phosphorus and other weapons in a story published November 21, 2004 -- a story of events on November 15, 2004 that is published November 21, 2004.  Was Dexy using The Pony Express to get his copy to the paper?

No.

But the US military vets copy very slowly.  And Dexy doesn't do anything the commanders didn't approve of.

After all, as Molly Bingham publicly revealed, when Dexy was bragging about an interview he'd set up with a resistance leader in Iraq, he got a unpleasant look from a US military officer and that was that.  From her "Home from Iraq" (Courier-Journal):

The intimidation to not work on this story was evident. Dexter Filkins, who writes for The New York Times, related a conversation he had in Iraq with an American military commander just before we left. Dexter and the commander had gotten quite friendly, meeting up sporadically for a beer and a chat. Towards the end of one of their conversations, Dexter declined an invitation for the next day by explaining that he'd lined up a meeting with a "resistance guy." The commander's face went stony cold and he said, "We have a position on that." For Dexter the message was clear. He cancelled the appointment. And, again, this is not meant as any criticism of the military; they have a war to win, and dominating the "message," or the news is an integral part of that war. The military has a name for it, "information operations," and the aim is to achieve information superiority in the same way they would seek to achieve air superiority. If you look closely, you will notice there is very little, maybe even no direct reporting on the resistance in Iraq. We do, however, as journalists report what the Americans say about the resistance. Is this really anything more than stenography?


Dexy was in Falluja during the assault and never reported the US military used White Phosphorous.  November 2005, Robert Burns (AP) would report, "Pentagon officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny an Italian television news report that it was used against civilians."  The BBC noted, "The US had earlier said the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - had been used only for illumination.  BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial is a public relations disaster for the US."  But Sarah Jessica Parker didn't ask about that.  Mainly because she's too stupid and too busy giggling about "David" (Dexter boss) and what he told her to talk about.


Dexter's a reporter worth praising?

To Sarah Jessica Parker it is.  As she stumbled and fumbled for words on live radio today, it was obvious she should sticky to her tacky ready-to-wear line.  "To-to-to"?

She offered one air-head question after another, making it clear (a) she'd done no research and (b) that, for Sarah Jess, the latest issue of Vogue is 'heavy' reading.

Typical 'question' from Sarah Jess, "And do you think that-that this is a disposition that you sort of st-stumbled upon in some way, that this-this character that is . . . needed and-and maybe even this photographer that you met up with, is this something that's-that's-that is in some ways the criteria for-for-for a person who does your work or do you -- can you acquire -- is it like learning to like . . ."  She's nowhere near the end of that question but we'll cut her off there.

Falluja Dexy didn't just cover up for a massacre ("It's fun," he said at one point in the interview), he also lacked any professionalism or ethics as he slept with everything he could in Baghdad -- everything -- and destroyed his marriage and then tried to attack a female colleague for calling out the toxic work environment he had created.

Sarah Jess didn't ask about that.  Doesn't know about it.  But she'll be subbing tomorrow as well so heads up on that and you can turn it into a drinking game by doing a shot every time she says "Wow."  Warning, if it's anything like today, you'll need several bottles of tequila.  "Wow."

Here the Propagandist and the Hacktress 'discuss' Falluja:

Dexter Filkins:  And I can say when I was embedded with the Marines before they went into Falluja which was --  turned out to be the biggest battle of the Iraq War, uhm, yeah, I knew that was coming [going into Falluja], uh, uhm, I guess a day before hand they gave us the briefing and said, 'Here's what we're going to do, we're going in tomorrow night.'  Uh-uhm, I- you know, if we were to write that, then that was -- that would basically tip off 

Sarah Jess: Right.

Dexter Filkins: -- the-the bad guys and-and then get a lot of people killed.  And so  that's not something -- that's something that you're going to say  Okay, look, we're making a judgment here that we're not in the business of getting people killed so, uhm, we'll withhold something.  But it's rare.

For the record, the killed in Falluja?  That tended to be Iraqis and, yes, Dexter Filkins is in the business of getting people killed.

Judith Miller's bad reporting, at worst, helped get the US military into Iraq.  Dexy Filkins propaganda kept the US military there for years and years.  And he'd lie in print, then come back to the US, do a campus speaking tour and tell people about how badly things were actually going, then go back to Iraq, file some more lies, and then come back offer some more Pianissimo-voiced confessions. At least Judith Miller believed the crap she wrote.

Falluja Filthy Filkins did other audio at the end of March.  March 31st, Sasha Weiss hosted the discussion between Dexy and War Hawk George Packer about "fiction, poetry, and memoir writing about the Iraq war by the veterans of that conflict."  Somehow that translated to Packer wanting to talk "Iraqi humor" which he characterized as "a lot of them had to do with dismemberment -- the sexual dismemberment -- of hated figures in the old regime."

They do make time to enjoy Phil Klay's writing which turns war into sex -- something that says a great about Klay and about the two pigs Packer and Dexy but it's something that Weiss doesn't wish to explore or follow up on.


19 minutes into the 24 minute podcast, Sasha Weiss states, "Let's talk about women for a minute.  It hasn't really come up."

Sasha wasn't lying.  They spend about a minute on the topic. One minute and nine seconds.

The bulk of that minute is used by George Packer as he offers insulting statements about women that I'm not going to transcribe.  He was born a pig, he'll die a pig and, when that day comes, few will miss him.

He does manage to note one woman, after blathering on about women and combat, Kayla Williams [Kayla Williams has authored Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army  and her just released Plenty of Time When We Get Home: Love and Recovery in the Aftermath of War] "but basically this is a male genre."

Sexist men to love to say that.

It's their excuse for not noting women.

Just off the top of my head, I'd note Jessica Goodell's Shade It Black: Death and After in Iraq, that women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan share their stories in Laura Browder and Sascha Pfaefing's When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans, Lisa Bowden and Shannon Cain edited Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq, there's veteran Miyoko Hikiji's All I Could Be: The Story of a Woman Warrior in Iraq, Heidi Squier Kraft's Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital, Shoshna Johnson's I'm Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen -- My Journey Home, Jane Blair's Hesitation Kills: A Female Marine Officer's Combat Experience in Iraq, retired Colonel Kimberly Olson's Iraq and Back: Inside the War to Win the Peace, Melia Meichelbock's In the Company of Soldiers, and Janis Karpinski's One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story.

Now since they made time to discuss a book that hadn't even been published by someone who wasn't in the military and that they don't believe was in Iraq during the Iraq War, it's fascinating that they only had one minute and nine seconds to discuss women veterans sharing their stories and that the entire discussion was about how Packer didn't believe women in Iraq saw combat and ended with a brief mention of Kayla Williams and the declaration that "this is a male genre."

Packer's a pig, Dexy's a pig.  Both pigs were enabled by women.  At least Sasha didn't repeat "Wow!" over and over or giggle repeatedly the way 49-year-old would-be-but-failed-sex-kitten Sarah Jess did.

Along with being pigs, Packer and Dexy are both War Hawks which is why their supposed discussion of books by veterans ignored Camilo Mejia's Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Sergeant Camilo Mejia, Joshua Key's The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq, Aiden Delgado's The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector in Iraq, and Kevin Benderman's Letters from Fort Lewis Brig: A Matter of Conscience.




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