Hardball hit a new low last nite

[Armstead]

The final panel on Hardball last night was a new low in the insensitivity of Chris Matthews and most of the otehr Beltway pundits.

Discussing Bush's UN speech, they asked why he mentioned Burma in his speech.

Now let's set Bush aside for the moment. Whether his motives were sincere or cynical, Burma is and has long been a very serious issue, in terms of human rights. Their military dictatorship ranks right up there in the atrocity department, with slave labor, widespread murder, surpression of political dissent, etc. They have been for years.

Given the background there is NO EXCUSE for what Matthews and his panel did to this subject. They turned it into a yukfest. Har,har,har. Made jokes about it, and were totally dismissive of it as a valid subject of discussion.

It showed them to be callous, uninformed and smugly ensconsed in their little cocoons of trendy cynicism and compete lack of sensitivity to the world.

[Taverner]

1. You do know why Bush mentioned Myanmar, right?

It's all the rage in Fundie circles these days, since they expelled Christian Missionaries.

[Armstead]

5. That's beside the point

It is a horrible tragedy what is going on over there. If it takes the expulsion of missionaries to shine the spotlight on it, that's fine with me.

My problem with the panel was that they made such light of it.

[Taverner]

7. Yes it is a tragedy

I'm just pointing out a side note for this discussion

[Dollface]

2. I noticed they seemed unusually condescending in the Ahmadenajhad segment.

I recall thinking that I wouldn't waste my time listening to this bunch of arrogant assholes anymore. Nothing they talked about contributed to the public discourse.

Do you think they went drinking before the show?

[ellenfl]

3. who was on the panel? eom

[Armstead]

4. Roger Simon was one...

[TornadoTN]

6. They mention Burma because they know they will never do anything about it

They don't have to - just keep it out there as the boogeyman and pretend to be working on diplomacy.

All at the same time they bomb the hell out of whatever Middle Eastern country they wish so they can gobble up the oil and rake in the war profits.

[Virginia Dare]

9. True, it's a way of pretending to care about human rights for them..

and it's safe because it's something the fundies can get behind, and there's no oil or big money involved.

[TornadoTN]

10. "See, we aren't just about the oil!"

This is their cover and it'll be spouted from coast to coast whenever you hear someone try to defend Iraq/Iran.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Glad I missed it,

but then I do most of the time these days anyway. Tweety is 99% of the time dismissive and condescending.

BTW, Bush's concern for Burma comes mainly from the fact that this is one of Laura's pet concerns. It's her little lap dog of humanitarian crises.

Nonetheless, you are correct that this is a very serious human rights issue, and we should all be paying attention and concerned about what's going on there.