Reply #20: Irrational criticism hits the nail on the head [View All]

[HamdenRice]

There are certainly valid criticisms but there are several head scratchingly irrational criticisms that are often repeated here.

For example:

Obama is continuing wireless wiretapping! Somehow a story about the Justice Department trying to shut down and investigate a remnant warrantless wiretapping program from the Bush administration morphed into a blogosphere rumor that Obama was continuing it even more aggressively than Bush!

Obama is continuing extraordinary rendition! Somehow a news item about a contractor/criminal defendant being arrested pursuant to a federal warrant in Iraq, and brought to federal district court in New York morphed into Obama continuing extraordinary rendition.

Obama bailed out the banks with trillions of dollars! Somehow, people have trouble with calendars. The bailouts occurred during the end of the Bush administration and Geithner's various TARP 2 proposals never got off the ground.

Obama is escalating the war in Iraq! As my post in GD-P today shows, the US is carrying out the biggest withdrawal of troops and materiel since the Vietnam war.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8701234#8701419

I honestly don't get it. Do people WANT or NEED to believe things that aren't true in order to criticize the administration for things they actually aren't doing?