And, yes, I DO take it personally: The fundamentally dishonest right is now trying to censure MoveOn

robert parry chronicles the false outrage of conservatives...

One would think that from the cries of (feigned) indignation and calls for repentance arising from conservatives regarding Move-On.org's ad in the N.Y. Times that the liberal-leaning group had not simply questioned the insights and intentions of a public servant, promoting, in a public forum, the policy of an illegal and immoral occupation of a sovereign nation; rather, the folks of Move-On.org had committed blasphemy against the holy name of some revered saint -- General Mary Petraeus, Mother of God.

The false outrage of perpetually offended conservatives serves as cover for the true outrages of our era, including: truncated civil liberties, rising levels of social and economic inequality and injustice, and foreign wars of aggression waged by an insular and secretive executive branch and fought by a permanent underclass.

The outrages keep arriving, because the collective imagination of the citizen/consumers of the US, arbitrated by a careerist media elite, has been, for decades, in the thrall of false narratives that serve the interests of the elite of the corporate/militarist classes.

Concurrently, a sense of unease and despair, due to a sense of personal and collective powerlessness before exploitive power, has created the tone and tenor of the times, and begot the phenomenon of supine liberalism and Viagra conservatism. (In this way, liberals stand fecklessly by, as the public is, time and time again, screwed by the decrepit schemes of the right.)

In this way, liberal paternalism is insufferable; worse, it is dangerous.

This has been the right's craftiest accomplishment: inducing "reasonable" liberals and "sensible" centrists to enable their crimes, from stolen elections to their present preparation for a massive bombing campaign of Iran, by intimidating them with the fear that any protest on their part will cast them among the ranks of America-hating, lefty moonbats, who wish to see the terrorist win, dumpsters piled high with discarded fetuses and metro-sexuality made the official state religion.

all of which has led to this, a TRUE outrage...

Dear MoveOn member,

This morning the Senate is expected to vote on a resolution condemning MoveOn.org. Can you call [your] Senators ... and ask them to vote no?

This is the same Senate that has done nothing to change President Bush's policy on Iraq. Yesterday, they couldn't even pass a bill to give soldiers enough leave with their families before redeploying. But they have plenty of time to crack down on folks who criticize the war. It's ridiculous, it's un-American, and it's wrong.

Call [your Senators]: Tell them this is a right-wing intimidation campaign aimed at all of us who've spoken out on the war—and every honorable Senator should stand up against it.

[...]

Republicans have been on the attack since we ran an ad last week accusing General Petraeus of betraying the public trust by "cooking the books" and presenting politicized facts to Congress.

Why? They're flailing. Last week's Bush Administration PR blitz completely failed—the percentage of Americans favoring withdrawal from Iraq actually increased. Meanwhile, vulnerable Republicans are sinking lower and lower in the polls (or announcing their retirement). Bashing our ad is a way to distract the public—and intimidate war critics.

Sixteen brave Americans died in Iraq in the last week. The whole country is looking to Congress to stand up to Bush and get our troops out of Iraq—and instead, they're spending time on a newspaper ad!

Maybe you liked the ad. Maybe you thought we should have worded it differently.

But at its heart was a painful truth—President Bush is using General Petraeus to mislead the public about how things are going in Iraq, just like he used Colin Powell in 2003. And Republicans are trying to make sure we pay a heavy price for saying so. As strategist George Lakoff says:

MoveOn hit a nerve. In the face of truth, the right-wing has been forced to change the subject—away from the administration's betrayal of trust and the escalating tragedy of the occupation to of all things, an ad! To take the focus off maiming and death and the breaking of our military, they talk about etiquette. The truth has reduced them to whining: MoveOn was impolite. Rather than face the truth, they use character assassination against an organization whose three million members stand for the highest patriotic principles of this country, the first of which is a commitment to truth.

They're trying to use the full force of the U.S. Senate to shut us all up. To send a message that if you speak unpleasant truths about this war, you'll pay.This is what we expect from right-wing bullies like Fox, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity. But the Senate should know better.

Call [your Senators] today: Tell them that in a democracy, we revere the truth—before generals, before presidents.