Deepak chopra slaps at spiritual flea, sean hannity

Sean Hannity, (KVI m-f, 12-3p) who needs all the friends he a can get has taken on, of all people, Deepak Chopra, the beloved, pacifistic, bestselling author and medical doctor whose teachings are "new age," but very successfully mainstream.

Chopra is apolitical, non-controversial, and like the pope, after whom Hannity would never go -- predictably pacifistic. But he has a funny foreign but well-known name, hates war, and makes more money than Hannity, and those are things that qualify him as a Hannity target.

Jeez, Sean, who's next? The Dalai Lama? Nelson Mandela?

After several skirmishes of over the last two months, Chopra wrote this letter to Hannity:

Dear Sean,
    I saw a report about last night's show that quotes you as follows:
    "Hannity continued by saying, "We had Deepak Chopra on last night and he's blaming America! ...He was blaming America for the attacks in Mumbai and I challenged him on it and I'm like, 'Wait a minute. You've done so well in America. Why are you blaming us?' We protect 100% of the world's population. We're 4% of it.   
    I am really disappointed in you. Do you not remember your other guest when I was on, former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen? He made the same point I did about America's policy toward the jihadists: "Are we creating more terrorists than killing them?" Ironically, this question is attributed to Donald Rumsfeld.
    It really doesn't matter to me personally whether you agree with me or not. Leaving our debate aside, your habit of taking statements out of context and playing the blaming game is sad. You have a powerful platform that influences many people. Why do you use your influence to monger fear, militancy, divisiveness, and jingoism?
    I was hoping to come back on your show and have a reflective, intelligent dialogue, but perhaps the attack mode is the only way you know to make a living. The best excuse for your dishonest accusations against me is that you don't believe what you're saying. The far right has deflated, so you are there to pump it up with hot air. If you stop blowing, you'll be out of a job. I empathize.
Love,
Deepak

PS: No one expects the right wing to change, but for what it's worth, they have entered an era of reconstruction. They've lost both their power and their credibility. Instead of trying to educate me about being an American, you might want to re-educate yourselves about dirty pool and below-the-belt attacks. Just a thought.

Hannity needs to draw attention to himself and his radio and teevee broadcasting in an era in which his influence is certainly dwindling, and one where his access to power will be almost non-existent.

During the Bush years, he was a "friendly," and could get high level interviews -- even with the president himself -- whenever the administration needed him. That's over now, so Hannity (like O'Reilly)  is picking a fight with a high profile citizen and painting him outre and un-American in order to get media attention

Obama told Fox News suits that Hannity and others cost him 2 or 3 points overall in the election. Doubt there will be any presidential one-on-ones with the fair-and-balanced crowd in the next at least four years. Hannity, as recently as last Sunday on his weekend show, was talking about Reverend Wright.

Chopra would not back down to the famously bullying tactics of Hannity. He said, “Fox and yourself have wholeheartedly cheered on the disastrous war in Iraq so I can understand why you'd continue to mount a rearguard action in defense of the Bush administration.”

“It liberated people,” he told Chopra, who replied, “The conservative estimate is 400,000 Iraqis dead. The other estimate is a million. We don't even include that in our conversation.”

Hannity once resorted to bitchy remarks about Chopra's glasses!

HANNITY: Can I ask you a question? Those glasses, that's like from the Elton John collection?
CHOPRA: I wasn't getting enough attention.
HANNITY: No, no, no. I mean, he used to wear the crazy glasses on stage.
CHOPRA: Actually, yes, but I think Liberace had better taste.

Hannity will survive Obama, we have no doubt; but will it be as a brokered blabbermeister selling coffee mugs and self-published paperbacks? Or an inspirational speaker at red state Lincoln Day Dinners?  We hope so.

Comments

[PugetSound]

Duff and others
Anyone notice how the Clintons have moved in on Obama. And the denutting of Gov Richards is a beautiful thing. Have him quit his secure Governorship and take a second level Cabinet Position. At a time of their choosing the Clinton's will have Obama dismiss Richards and there he goes.

Those Clintons, you just don't mess with them. For some reason many people suspect that in a little lock box in Arkansas an original birth certificate for Obama sits. Along with his nuts.

We can enjoy while the lefties here take the pipe.

[chucks]

I see where another Clinton reprobate is serving on Obama's cabinet. Caror Browner, head of the EPA in the Clinton cabale is now Obama's energy chief.
I was thinking that Clinton has pictures of Obama with little boys, but maybe you are right Putz.
The Clintons may just have something better.
Can we have an inauguration and impeachment on the same day?

[Duffman]

Yes Puts I am impressed with the apparent positions being assumed by the Clinton folks. It obviously pleases me. I've always maintained that one should never underestimate the vast sweeping power of the Clintons'. They are nothing to mess with and the DO have the goods on many (ala: remember the FBI files). This is getting interestinger and interestinger.

[PugetSound]

"The Clintons may just have something better.
Can we have an inauguration and impeachment on the same day?

Posted by: chucks | December 11, 2008 at 10:39 AM"

If so Chucks then I got one word of advice for Joe Biden: Run!!!!!

These Dems don't realize that you can't shake the Clintons. Once they get in they don't leave unless they want to leave. They don't seem to be so inclined at this point.

For the rest of us, it's time to get the popcorn and watch. And for once you won't have to hear too much blame thrown on W.

[PugetSound]

Wow, looks like the Clintons may have more to work with...

"A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted felon Tony Rezko’s wife and later sold to the couple’s next-door neighbor, Sen. Barack Obama.

The real estate specialist, Kenneth J. Conner, said bank officials replaced an appraisal review he prepared on the property and FBI agents were investigating in late 2007 whether the Rezko-Obama deal was proper.

“Agents and I talked about payoff, bribe, kickback for a long time, though it took them only a short number of minutes of talking with me while looking at the appraisal to acknowledge what they already seemed to know: The Rezko lot was grossly overvalued,” Mr. Conner told The Washington Times Monday.

“Rezko paid the asking price on the same day Obama paid $300,000 less than the asking price to the same seller for his adjacent mansion,” he said. “This begs the question of payoff, bribe, kickback.”

[The Other Kevin]

As an Obama voter, the above revelations deeply concern and trouble me. Bribemaster Barack's interest in "business as usual" is a sore letdown for those of us who had a shred of hope for change and now have been crapped on.

[The Other Kevin]

So - turns out Michelle Obama is the "specifically named individual" in the criminal complaint. And there's a burgeoning revelation of a pay for play deal to get her appointed to the Board of Directors of Treehouse Foods.

Are we witnessing the ascension of one of the most freewheeling, scandal-plagued, corrupt politicians in history?

Change we can believe in? More like change we can BANK on.

[PugetSound]

oh now Kevin...say it ain't so!

i find this hard to believe. Corrupt Democrats?

Thankfully we got the tried and true Clintons ready in the wings... I still recall Bill Clinton terming Obama as a 'typical chicago thug politician.'

Sparky, ph(J)oanie, Coils, et al... can it be true?
And poor Jesse Jackson Jr. How unfair. And to happen so close to the Fitzmas Season.

Ted Stevens was a piker...

[PugetSound]

Wow, if only our resident Twig Truthers are whatever they call themselves had the intellectual honesty to ask why:

":Obama Was Silent About Illinois Corruption

John Fund notes that the media spent a whole lot more time checking out Palin’s political past in Wasilla than they did checking out Obama’s background in Chicago politics.

What remains to be seen is whether this episode will put an end to what Chicago Tribune political columnist John Kass calls the national media’s “almost willful” fantasy that Mr. Obama and Chicago’s political culture have little to do with each other. Mr. Kass notes that the media devoted a lot more time and energy to investigating the inner workings of Sarah Palin’s Wasilla, Alaska, than it has looking at Mr. Obama’s Chicago connections.

To date, Mr. Obama’s approach to Illinois corruption has been to congratulate himself for dodging association with it. “I think I have done a good job in rising politically in this environment without being entangled in some of the traditional problems of Chicago politics,” he told the Chicago Tribune last spring. At the time, Mr. Obama was being grilled over news that he bought his house through a land deal involving Tony Rezko, a political fixer who was later convicted on 16 corruption counts. Rezko is mentioned dozens of times in the 76-page criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich.

Mr. Obama has an ambiguous reputation among those trying to clean up Illinois politics. “We have a sick political culture, and that’s the environment Barack Obama came from,” Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago Better Government Association, told ABC News months ago. Though Mr. Obama did support ethics reforms as a state senator, Mr. Stewart noted that he’s “been noticeably silent on the issue of corruption here in his home state including, at this point, mostly Democratic politicians.”

Hope ‘n change."
Or maybe Bill Clinton was right? Yikes...

[KS]

(on a related note)
Interesting article by Alexander Haig, who said; "We should get rid of all of the Neo-cons" (i.e. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and many others in the current administration) - they have been shown to be the Republi-con men. Seems like Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin like to back up the neo-cons - disturbing and that's why I don't listen and pay much attention to what they say any more.

They have decimated the Republican party and the perception is that the religious right and the neo-cons are melding together toward a theocracy. Kevin Phillips has written about this and it seems to have legs these days.

[KS]

Puts - I'd give Obama the benefit of a doubt here, not to completely excuse it - don't see him condoning Gov. Blago's actions. Face it, Chicago is a sewer of corruption and makes King County look like grade school. I'd acknowledge that he has made some good picks for cabinet positions. I think his pick for Sec'y of Energy (Energy Czar) Dr. Stephen Chu is a probably another good one.

Seems like Rahm Emanuel may be deeper in the Gov's corruption than first suspected and could be damaged goods and clearly Jesse Jackson Jr. has been damaged as should be the case.

[KS]

"I see where another Clinton reprobate is serving on Obama's cabinet. Caror Browner, head of the EPA in the Clinton cabale is now Obama's energy chief."

Wrong ! He nominated Stephen Chu PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Better than Browner - she was a hack.

Obama's Dept. of Education nominee might as well have been a Clinton appointee. Who will he put up for Surgeon General ? Another Jocelyn Elders ? Even money that it will be.