The End of The NY Times Continues: Tommy Friedman is SHIT

[frank frankly]

I've tried to think ofother ways to say how I feel about Tommy Friedman...but SHIT covers it.

Yes, he is a neocon. Yes, he is the great pseudo-intellectual of our time. But first and foremost, he is a terrible writer. Not quite as frighteningly bad as Davey Brooks, but in his own self-centered globalized way, he is worse.

Only read this is you want to feel rage and/or nausea.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/opinion/29FRIE.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Jumping Out of Sick Bay
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

TOKYO

So I come to Tokyo to get away from it all, and what do I discover but more bad news for the John Kerry campaign. Not only does the U.S. economy appear to be headed for at least a burst of recovery around election time, but so does the world's second-largest economy, Japan, which should also help buoy the U.S. recovery. It's more evidence, to me, that Mr. Kerry may have to run in the most difficult of all environments, and exactly the opposite of the one Democrats had hoped for: an environment where the U.S. economy is rebounding, and Iraq is reeling.

As I lie awake in my Tokyo hotel, jet-lagged out of my mind and having my Bill Murray "Lost in Translation" moment, I am clicking back and forth between CNBC and CNN on the television. All the news on CNBC seems to be about how Asia's economies are now on fire, and all the news on CNN seems to be about how America's Humvees in Iraq are now on fire.

Maybe that will change in the months ahead, and maybe American voters will develop a different reaction to those contrasting images, should they continue. But for the moment, judging from many polls, it seems that Mr. Bush is being rewarded for the economy's tentative recovery more than he is being punished for Iraq's troubling slide. I'm sure the Kerry camp was hoping for the opposite — a stable Iraq and a slumping economy that would start to recover only after November — because it would play much more to Mr. Kerry's strength with voters. But, for a lot of reasons, that doesn't seem to be what's happening, and the Kerry folks had better start positioning their candidate for the world we're in.

[David Dunham]

1. Times are not good in Michigan and Ohio.

[Jim Sagle]

7. And I'll bet the Times isn't highly regarded there either.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Tom Friedman is the idol for some of the people that post in I/P forum

He is no idol of mine!

[frank frankly]

3. sorry to hear that

Tommy Friedman is a tiny, tiny, tiny man.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. I feel rage and nausea

everytime I read or listen to Tommy, except when he becomes so ridiculous that I can't help laughing.

If you really want to get nauseated, there is an NPR interview with him from several months ago,(maybe TOTN) that you should listen to. You kind of have to hear it to believe it, but he demonstrates exactly why he is the pundit that I hate the most out of all of them.

[frank frankly]

6. yes, he may be THE WORST

i hate him

[Crunchy Frog]

10. One of the worst things about him

is that he tries to pretend to be a liberal, and often can sound deceptively reasonable, while really being an asshole neocon of the worst kind.

The other ones who I hate are at least honest about who they really are and what they stand for.

On that NPR program he came right out and said that WMD had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq and that we simply did it because we wanted to and we could.

Pure belief that might makes right.:grr:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

5. i dont have my NYT password right now

but from what I can read, you are right he is a shitty writer.

And delusional. Part of me hopes all the RW'ers are telling themselves that everything's A-O.K. like this guy is.

this part is particularly strange:
"I'm sure the Kerry camp was hoping for the opposite — a stable Iraq and a slumping economy that would start to recover only after November — because it would play much more to Mr. Kerry's strength with voters."

aren't we all supposed to be hoping for a stable Iraq? Is the implication that Bush supporters were hoping for the current situation (read: hellhole quagmire)? I don't get it.

[frank frankly]

8. it doesn't make any sense, but he does tell us a lot about Tommy Friedman

YAY! JAPAN GETS WAL-MART!!!

?Does Tommy Friedman own Wal Mart stock?

here's more (continuing from the above garbage):

<snip>

wish I had some smart advice. Alas, all I have is information. Even through my jet lag, I can see that the sick man of Asia, otherwise known as the Japanese economy, just jumped out of bed and is now running laps around the hospital. Everyone in the neighborhood is watching, wondering whether the sick man has really gotten healthy or just an injection of Chinese steroids and will soon stumble again — as happened before, in the 1990's. No one in the neighborhood is quite sure, even the sick man himself, but everyone is enjoying the show, especially the sick man.

There is evidence to suggest that, maybe, this Japanese recovery is real, is not just based on government spending and will last longer than previous wind sprints. I went to a briefing that Wal-Mart put on with its Japanese partner, Seiyu, a local store chain, about opening the first Wal-Mart-like big-box stores in Japan. No one ever believed that Japan's rigid, small-shop economy would tolerate a discount big-box approach like Wal-Mart's, where wholesalers get squeezed and everything from employees' pens to paper gets rationed.

But Japanese consumers, many so spooked by their faltering banks that they stuffed money in their mattresses, seem to be suddenly spending again — their confidence bolstered by recent bank restructurings and better leadership from the Japanese central bank. The Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 47 percent in the fiscal year that ended on March 31.

[charlie]

13. Jumped 47 percent from what?

It's 10-year low in the face of war jitters last year? Friedman knows that the 12000 range is the ceiling Japan has visited many times, and been frustrated in attempting to sustain for years. It's a bellwether moment just because he had the "authentic experience" of noting it from a hotel room in Japan? He's an fucking idiot.

[sandnsea]

9. Japan has manufacturing jobs

We don't. Get a clue Tommy!

[charlie]

11. Y'know

I don't know how many times my underwhelming appreciation for Friedman has been slogged off because he's "subtle" and "nuanced", his refinement is beyond my ken.

Pfft. He's as callow as his Pulitzer-mate Dowd. His musings are as every bit as reactive, and (I suspect) done more with an eye toward bolstering his rep than sussing out the true causes of what he's witnessing.

Yeah, I agree that the US economy is showing some signs of turning the corner. Sooner or later (and three fucking years is a long time), I expected it to rebound in spite of Dubya's repressive measures and cockups. But what's this horseshit about Democrats being surprised about Iraq reeling? We're the only folks who were willing to entertain the notion that it could be an energy and money sump.

Fuck Friedman. Send me around the world, and I can draw sweeping conclusions from my encounters with bellhops, clerks, and cab drivers just as readily. And you just might garner a Pulitzer for your trophy case for less than half the price.

[frank frankly]

12. the Iraq "point" of his was so fucked up it hurt to read

he is INSANE.

and STUPID.

TOMMY FRIEDMAN IS AN INSANE STUPID TINY, TINY, TINY MAN.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Why is the New York Times publishing a political blog?

I thought the paper had higher aspirations than the random musings of someone who leads his piece with a supposition totally unconnected to the rest of it.

He claims that a Japanese recovery will help America (and that will hurt Kerry; it seems he has to get an attack in on Kerry in each piece). The rest of the article is about Japan's improvements in efficiency, concentrating on the relationship with China. No explanation what that has to do with the USA.

Most people stop writing 'what I did on my vacation' essays when they're eleven or so. Did this guy really win a Pulitzer? Has he got early-onset Alzheimer's since then?

[Pepperbelly]

15. where is the economy good?

I haven't found it in any of the states where I am in contact with the business communities.

[Loonman]

16. I hope the NYT starts to publish in roll form

So I can wipe my ass with it.


Shitty rag....

[molok555]

17. Wal-Mart will not succeed

in Japan like it has elsewhere. Japan, believe it or not, already has plenty of discount retailers. Why would a Japanese family go to Wal-Mart and get crap when they can buy decent stuff at places like Uni-Qlo, Muji or one of the thousands of 100 yen shops? Also, Wal-Mart better start lobbying to get zoning laws changed there.

[Nlighten1]

18. NPR hosts were glowingly quoting Tom Friedman yesterday.

On the Diane Rehm Show.

[frank frankly]

19. kick for Tommy Talentless

a truly awful writer and a truly despicable human

[oc2002]

20. If this is a great economy according to Tommy...

..I would hate to see a disasterous one.

For politicans, the only good news in this economy is that it is not getting much worse...there are still millions of unemployed people fighting to find a job that pays half as much as the one they lost in the Bush economy.

[Sparkly]

21. How long have they been saying it's "rebounding?"

The big recovery has been right around the corner for two years at least!

And why do these people think a Democrat can only win if the economy is in the tank? The debt has ballooned, we've lost all international credibility, we've got major concerns about the environment, reproductive freedom, education, the Patriot Act, energy and dependence on oil, etc. etc...

[frank frankly]

22. kick

make your own Tommy Friedman column!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1497614

[KittyWampus]

23. Hey, Clinton Said That Was His Favorite Op Ed Writer

:puke:

[frank frankly]

24. oh dear

:puke:

[mhr]

25. Republicans Worst Nightmare - People Like Myself

Unemployed 4 years!

Two College Degrees: BSEE, MBA

Special Training: FAA Certified Commercial Pilot

Military Service: Officer United States Navy

Professional Work Experience: Long and Varied

Slowly becoming impoverished!

Can't get low income jobs - too much experience, too many illegal aliens
Can't find middle class white collar jobs - outsourced or already filled

Republicans say I and others did not work hard enough, or play by the rules well enough, or stay off drugs, or a whole host of other excuses used to dismiss the misfortune of others?

The argument does not hold water and myself and others are living proof of the lie!

Recovering economy? What recovering economy?

[Mountainman]

26. All this from last weeks polls showing Bush ahead by a few points

You will not here him talk about today's poll numbers. In all the resent elections there have been these stories that are supposed to make us give up, not unite etc. "Why bother to vote, Bush will win, Kerry has nothing to run on."

Bush is the one with nothing to run on. This good economy is not good for the working families without health care. Bush isn't going to do anything for them.

[BabsSong]

27. Two things:

Stock market the last two days...reason given by the experts were "troubling signs in the global economy" and inflation here at home. GDP was not what they expected. Employers are having to pay much more for their employees because of increased benefit costs, etc. Ohhh, and the way shit is going in Iraq (these are the things they listed as spooking investors). Secondly, he didn't see the first of the new polls where those initial boosts to Bush as Iraq errupted have gone south. Now the people don't think it was worth it; don't think Bush has a plan; dropped in favorable ratings, etc. And Kerry is ahead of him and like a point behind him if you factor in the repukes "paid boy" Ralphie. One should do more than flip around to those stations, Tom.....you have to know they are propaganda bullshit--just like you.