As Atrios said about the Skocpal/TPM post: ”It seems we have Very Serious People on the Left too.” What’s odd is that liberal blogs once existed — one could say they even emerged — in order to combat this mentality. Along with the establishment media, the capitulating, principle-free Democratic establishment (and its Shut-up-you-Unserious-Childish-Purist-Leftists mentality) was long the prime target of the liberal blogospheric critique. Yet now, that mentality is often spewed (rather than opposed) by many liberal blogs, as though what the world needed to be a Better Place was an Amplifying Mechanism for The New Republic, the DNC, and the DLC.
UPDATE II: The Guardian reports that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has “surfaced” in Brussels in order to address a conference of European parliamentarians on the issue of free information, but says that though he does not “fear for his life,” he has been advised by his lawyers to stay away from the U.S. How revealing that Assange apparently feels free to travel the entire Western World — other than the U.S. But we probably should avoid discussing what that does reveal lest we weaken the Democratic Party.
UPDATE III: My response to Jonathan Chait’s reply is here.
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As the Gulf monarchy cracks down on an international aid group, it hires Qorvis for $40,000-per-month P.R. job
By Justin Elliott
A Shiite Bahraini woman gestures as others shout anti-government slogans outside a public forum Saturday, July 23, 2011, outside a religious community center in Sanabis, Bahrain, denouncing the alleged destruction and vandalizing of Shiite mosques, community centers and cemeteries during a government crackdown on a largely Shiite spring uprising. Clerics who spoke during the meeting, blamed Saudi Arabia for targeting religious sites, because they allegedly distrust their own Shia minority and sent forces to help quell the Bahrain uprising. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali) (Credit: AP)
Topics:Washington, D.C., War Room
Bahrain is in the news again, this time for what appears to be the comically evil persecution of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.
So, naturally, the ruling monarchy of the Gulf nation has hired a top Washington public relations firm to burnish (or attempt to salvage) its image, according to a new foreign agent registration filing. Qorvis Communications will be paid $40,000 per month, plus expenses, for the public relations work, according to a contract submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Here is the latest on the events in Bahrain, where the Sunni regime’s crackdown on a Shia protest movement is now focusing on prosecuting or harassing those — including doctors — who came to the aid of protesters back in the spring:
The trouble for the group — which is also known by its English name, Doctors Without Borders — started about a week ago. Activists say a young man who had been protesting in his village was hit in the head at close range by police firing a tear-gas canister.
The protester went to the MSF office in the capital, Manama. Owing to the severity of his injuries, an ambulance was called, and the patient was taken to the hospital. On July 28, the next day, 14 police vehicles pulled up to the MSF office. Authorities raided the building and reportedly took away furniture, medicine and patient files — and arrested the group’s local driver, Saeed Mahdi.
Now, the rented villa that used to house the MSF office is locked up and empty.
Qorvis distributed a statement to American journalists writing about the incident, with the Bahrain Health Ministry claiming that Doctors Without Borders “was operating an unlicensed medical center in a residential apartment building.”
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