In a fit of calculated pique Donald Rumsfeld canceled his decades long subscription to the New York Times denouncing the paper's views.
Donald Rumsfeld Finally Cancels His New York Times Subscription
Today, Rumsfeld finally had enough: his office tweeted: "After reading Krugman’s repugnant piece on 9/11, I cancelled my subscription to the New York Times this AM."
While Rumsfeld doesn't name the exact piece, it appears to be a blog post by Krugman on Sunday entitled "The Years of Shame"...
Here's the portion of Krugman's blog that so enraged Rumsfeld.
"The Years of Shame"
The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
Of course being Donald Rumsfeld he didn't feel any shame or humiliation. No Rumsfeld was enraged that his culpability was implicit in Krugman's message that 9/11 has also come to symbolize the catastrophic event that marked the start of a jingoistic headlong rush into a catastrophic decade of war.
Looking back, I was right, Rumsfeld says of Bush-era wars
In a Sept. 11 interview, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that the Iraq war was worthwhile, despite the absence of Baghdad’s involvement with al-Qaeda and its alleged arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. “I think the world is certainly a better place with Saddam Hussein gone,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Mr. Rumsfeld warned Mr. Obama’s plan to cut defence spending and pull out of Afghanistan was dangerous repeat of previous weakness.
This echos exactly what Rumsfeld's Deputy at the Pentagon Paul Wolfowitz said on Fox News Sunday as I posted yesterday: Paul Wolfowitz calls for US troops to stay in Iraq & Afghanistan
And of course Rumsfeld was publicly shamed a couple of weeks ago when Military widow Ashley Joppa-Hagemann confronted Rumsfeld at a book signing at a Fort Lewis Washington.
Military Widow confronts Donald Rumsfeld at Tacoma book signing
Ashley Joppa-Hagemann's husband Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann an Army Ranger, who as HIS NINTH DEPLOYMENT approached, committed suicide rather go back. Ashly with a companion confronted Donald Rumsfeld at a book signing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, just south of Tacoma.
We all know Donald Rumsfeld has no shame for the things he did and continues to do, but why on earth would he want to call more attention to his being humiliated by Paul Krugman? To get the NeoCons who are the target market for his book all stirred up and incensed at the evil New York Times. Rumsfeld is trying to use their seething contempt for the New York Times to market his book.
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UPDATE: The Krugman blog post yesterday about 9/11 has evoked a furious reaction from the Far Right. Michelle Malkin makes a savage attack on Krugman.
A few more words about Koward Krugman
Koward Krugman’s problem is that he’s a lazy intellectual slob who hurriedly hits the “publish” button before the sand in his little kitchen egg timer empties. He hurls Molotov cocktails at his political enemies, while hiding behind his hallowed desk at the Fishwrap of Record.
Shame on him. Shame on the New York Times.
Then Glenn Greenwald chimed in with tweets:
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
Michael Moore & The Dixie Chicks were just as right back then as Krugman is today - but today the taboos (& their enforcers) are much weaker
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
Where's Don Rumsfeld's loyalty to the paper which played such a vital role in helping sell his revolting war to the American public?
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
Paul Krugman doesn't exactly seem bothered by the right-wing shrieking or Rumsfeld's hilarious outburst:
Paul Krugman Responded to his critics with a blistering blog post that should take some of the bark off of Malkin.
More About the 9/11 Anniversary
The fact is that the two years or so after 9/11 were a terrible time in America – a time of political exploitation and intimidation, culminating in the deliberate misleading of the nation into the invasion of Iraq. It’s probably worth pointing out that I’m not saying anything now that I wasn’t saying in real time back then, when Bush had a sky-high approval rating and any criticism was denounced as treason. And there’s nothing I’ve done in my life of which I’m more proud.
It was a time when tough talk was confused with real heroism, when people who made speeches, then feathered their own political or financial nests, were exalted along with – and sometimes above – those who put their lives on the line, both on the evil day and after.