Matt Taibbi Still Does't Get It.

I stand corrected. Matt Taibbi is nowhere near swallowing the red pill of the reality-based world.

I've read his entire article "Obama's Big Sellout" which I linked in my last post, and my conclusion is that he still doesn't get it, or I should say he refuses to get it for one reason or another. (One good reason could be that his career as a widely-read liberal journalist would be in jeopardy.)

There are some curious omissions and unconnected dots in the article.

In discussing the financial reform, Taibbi mentions the Federal Reserve only once. And when he does, it is to say the Federal Reserve is left exposed to future Citi losses, as if the Federal Reserve is one of the victims of Citi. The Federal Reserve has been the enabler of its member banks who took on huge risks with the secure knowledge that the Fed would be there to backstop them anyway. Taibbi completely ignores this aspect of the financial crisis that we have had.

He doesn't even mention the name Ben Bernanke at all, while he names everybody else - Bush, Obama, McCain, Greenspan, Geithner, Paulson, Rubin, Summers, etc. No reference to the architect of the unprecedented rescue of the nation's (and the world's) biggest banks at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers.

He is also completely silent about the Audit the Fed amendment that was attached to the financial reform bill. The amendment's (and the original bill's) author, Ron Paul, is not mentioned at all.

Toward the end of the piece, Taibbi takes a swipe at "Republican teabaggers" he snicker at and disparages, as "idiots". For one, I am not so sure they are all "Republicans" with a capital R. Taibbi despises those who descended on Washington D.C in September to protest against a wide array of Obama's policies - from Af-Pak war and Gitmo, gun control, immigration, health care "reform", to bankster bailout and Chrysler/GM bailout.

But no matter. He chooses to box it as anti-health care reform demonstration. And one of the reason why he thinks these "teabaggers" are stupid is really stupid on its own, showing his complete inability to connect the dots.

He says, "They are here to protest Obama's "socialist" health care bill — you know, the one that even a bloodsucking capitalist interest group like Big Pharma spent $150 million to get passed."

Hey Matt, why do you think the bloodsucking capitalist interest group like Big Pharma spent mega bucks like that? Because they stand to benefit greatly from the passage of this so-called reform! Duh. Haven't you read about a secret White House meeting between the administration and Big Pharma? It was reported on Huffington Post. Or is that another thing you can't admit you've read?

The financial reform bill which just past the House is very likely to have been written by outside interests, and Taibbi seems to admit as much. But so is this government's health care bill, so is the climate bill. And those outside interests are not the U.S. taxpayers, Democrat or Republican, or Independent.

He then describes a chat he had with one of the "teabaggers" who, according to him, knew nothing about financial reform (I'm not so sure about that). But do his fellow Democratic supporters of health care reform by the government know anything about financial reform? Does he himself know about health care reform, by the way? Did he talk to people who carried the placard condemning the government bailout of Wall Street? If he did, he chose not to tell us, because that would negate his whole thesis that "teabaggers" are ignorant and idiotic.

He depicts "teabaggers" as Republicans, middle-aged whites who can't stand a black guy in the White House. Excuse me, Matt, but did you not know, or did you choose to ignore, exactly whose votes were instrumental in electing your idol? It was whites, more likely to be middle-age, middle-class (i.e. taxpayers) and seniors, who thought voting for Obama would redress the past injuries and injustice done to African Americans in the past.

Now who's the idiot here? I don't think it's the "teabaggers".

It gets worse toward the end of the article. Instead of placing the blame squarely on Obama, he, like many left-leaning pundits (like her, but at least she gets the health care "reform" issues right), makes excuse for Obama by saying "Oh it's his advisers who are to blame, and Obama should fire them as soon as possible." Ummm, Obama specifically put "sniveling, low-rent shitheads" (as Taibbi describes them in the article) in their respective positions, because he wants them there. And he keeps them there because he likes the results he's getting. Then, Taibbi comes up with the ultimate blame. He blames "us": "Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different".

Don't blame more than half the country who didn't even vote for your idol, Matt. They are not your "we".

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