The Boston Marathon bombing has brought out our worst – and best – instincts. On the one hand, we have the response from ordinary people – an outpouring not only of support for the people of Boston but impressive online efforts to identify the bomber(s) on 4chan and Reddit. On the other hand, we have the media and assorted axe-grinders (or do I repeat myself), deciding in advance who did it and why, and then “reporting” their largely imaginary version of the “facts.”
The Muslim-bashers immediately latched on to reports that a young Saudi national had been tackled by an onlooker and supposedly detained by police – it turns out, however, that this individual was merely fleeing the scene along with everyone else, and was being treated as a witness rather than a suspect. Now there are reports he’s being deported – and this, along with reports of an alleged unscheduled meeting between President Obama and the Saudi ambassador has the “false flag” crowd in an uproar, along with the Muslim-haters.
Evidence? Facts? People who have already decided what to believe need neither. They just make it up as they go along.
Speaking of making stuff up: a recent story in Politico – “Ron Paul Institute Opens Amid Split With Rand” – is a textbook example. The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is one of the more hopeful signs that things are turning around: dedicated to educating the American people on the dangers of our interventionist foreign policy, it is headed up by the very able Dan McAdams, who served as a foreign policy analyst in Rep. Paul’s office. The Institute will offer a summer school for students, publications, a very nice-looking web site, and – importantly – will grade members of Congress on their foreign policy-related votes. But the Politico reporter who came to the ribbon-cutting press conference showed up with his own agenda and snarkily asked if the Institute was hoping to “abolish war.” That’s Washington for you. There are no new facts to back up the provocative headline: Sen. Rand Paul’s absence from the event denoted nothing but the fact that the Senator was busy that day. At the conference, Institute supporters, including Ron, expressed their horror at the situation in Gitmo, where prisoners who have been cleared of any wrongdoing are on hunger strike. Politico “reports” that Rand had expressed his opposition to closing Gitmo “hours earlier,” but in reality this has been the Kentucky Senator’s position all along: it’s nothing new. From the headline, you’d think Rand and Ron aren’t on speaking terms: when you read the text, however, the truth comes out – which is that Politico has its own agenda.
Speaking of not-so-hidden agendas: the Obama administration is refusing to recognize the validity of Venezuela’s recent election, won by the Chavista candidate, Vice President Nicolas Maduro by a less than 2 percent margin. The opposition is led by Henrique Capriles Radonski, a business leader and governor of the state of Miranda, who positions himself as “center-left.” The opposition is claiming the results are fraudulent, and their complaints are echoed in this piece by Reason‘s Ed Krajewski. According to Capriles, the Maduro camp occupied several voting sites, chasing out the opposition poll watchers, a report that has yet to be confirmed. Capriles also claims outright vote stealing: a credible counter-argument can be found here. Krajewski’s own agenda comes out of the closet when he writes:
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