Rachel Maddow Caught Doctoring Quote From Jefferson in Her Book 'Drift'
Seeing how Rachel Maddow once insisted the Constitution has no preamble -- this from a woman with a doctorate in political science from Oxford -- it hardly comes as a shock when she misquotes Thomas Jefferson to her liking.
In her new book, "Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power," Maddow attributes the following quotation to Jefferson, according the description of the book at Amazon --
"One of my favorite ideas is, never keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department of Homeland Security; its rusting nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its strange fascination with an unproven counterinsurgency doctrine.
Jefferson's quote rings false for good reason -- it's not what he wrote. A sharp-eyed Barry Popik caught this and wrote about it at RedState over the weekend. The actual quotation, in a June 3, 1792 letter from Jefferson to British envoy George Hammond, published in Henry Augustine's "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," reads as follows --
I told him that the idea of having no military posts on either side was new to me: that it had never been mentioned among the members of the executive: that therefore I could only speak for myself and say that, prima facie, it accorded well with two favorite ideas of mine, of leaving commerce free, and never keeping an unnecessary soldier; but when he spoke of having no military posts on either side, there might be difficulty in fixing the distance of the nearest posts.
How about that, Maddow omits the part that just happens to be among her least favorite ideas -- "of leaving commerce free." Moreover, Jefferson cited this idea first, before that of "never keeping an unnecessary soldier."
Popik puts Jefferson's quotation in context by citing what he wrote a few sentences earlier --
To influence the Indians, to keep off a rival nation and the appearance of having a rival nation, to monopolize the fur trade. He said he was not afraid of rivals if the traders would have fair play. He thought it would be better that neither party should have any military posts, but only trading houses. I told him that the idea of having no military posts on either side was new to me: ...
As Popik points out, "The context was trade with Indians (Native Americans). Jefferson was not talking about the defense of the United States against another nation."
"Strictly speaking, nobody wants 'unnecessary' anything," Popik writes. "When I was in New York City, I fought against unnecessary government (the useless office of "Public Advocate" and the powerless offices of the borough presidents). Businesses cut down on unnecessary packaging of their products to save money. We can agree on what's necessary -- there's the rub -- but once something is deemed 'unnecessary,' then who needs it? Jefferson's 'never keeping an unnecessary soldier' was saying something that no one can disagree with. However, he was wary about 'having no military posts on either side.' "
Don't hold your breath waiting for Maddow to acknowledge her dishonest trimming of Jefferson's "favorite ideas." She's too busy slamming Romney for deceit.
- Jack Coleman's blog
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Comments
Just re-writing history, like
Submitted by Pinetree3 on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:36am.
Just re-writing history, like any good lib would do.
And the Neocons too, right?
Submitted by lrgon on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 3:33pm.
Former jail bird Judith Miller, who today works for NewsMax, spun a lie about WND's in Iraq threatening the peace of the Middle East: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_(journalist)
Back between 2002 and 2003, Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter hyped stories of WND's in Iraq that did not exist. Her front-page story quoted unnamed "American officials" and "American intelligence experts" to back her unsubstantiated stories. Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld all appeared on television and pointed to Miller's story as a contributory motive for going to war!''
Miller the current neocon reporter still hung onto her claims of WNDs in Iraq:
"You know what ... I was proved f---ing right." This quotation was originally in relation to another Miller story, wherein she indicated that trailers found in Iraq had been proven to be mobile weapons labs. That too was later shown to be untrue. It was alleged later in Editor and Publisher that, while Miller's reporting "frequently does not meet published Times standards", she was not sanctioned and was given a freer rein than other reporters because she consistently delivered frequent front page scoops for the paper by cultivating top-ranking sources."
The ploy goes like this: Let the woman get the headlines then we'll go after her to correct her inaccurate reports and save the integrity of the NYT!
Editor, Byron Calame, wrote, "Ms. Miller ...known for her role in a series of Times articles in 2002 and 2003 that ...Saddam Hussein already had ...an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction… Many of those articles turned out to be inaccurate."
"You guys over at neocon central need a lying reporter?"
George W.Bush used Miller's hoax to back up his claims for war in Iraq.
The NYT added support to the propaganda and so did a neocon think tank: the Middle East Forum run by CFR member Daniel Pipes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Forum
A brief history
In 1990 July 25th, Saddam Hussein met with April Glaspie, an American ambassador, in Baghdad. According to an Iraqi transcript of that meeting, Glaspie told the Iraqi delegation, "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts." According to Glaspie's own account, she stated in reference to the precise border between Kuwait and Iraq, " that she had served in Kuwait 20 years before. "Then, as now, we took no position on these Arab affairs."
Saddam figured he had the green light after meeting with April Glaspie.
Bush 41's UN "New World Order" war.
Bush actually spoke of the NWO at the UN prior to the First Gulf War. In his typical whinny voice he said "we have a real chance at this new world order."
G.H.W. Bush repeated bogus accounts of babies being thrown on hospital floors by iraqi soldiers.The source of the hoax came from the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton. $11Million dollars paid for by the Kuwait government. The daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US hired the firm to make up gory tales. US congressmen were convinced to support a war to protect the territorial integrity of dictatorship based on a hoax! US troops were sent to the Middle East while our territorial integrity was being left wide open for terrorists to enter!
The neo's pot has soot on it too.
Irgon, really
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 6:41pm.
Continually using "neo-con" makes you look dumber than you usually look.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
~Didn't know that was possible
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 6:57pm.
I guess you really do learn something every day....
Maddow would tell you that
Submitted by celator on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:54am.
Maddow would tell you that Jefferson, a dead white male, should have consulted her before making such a comment, So, she's helping Jefferson say what he should have said, you see. She's a Rhodes Scholar (she says), so there.
Picking and choosing history
Submitted by c5then on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:02pm.
That's what Sooooo many liberals do. In her next book, she will use "quotes from Geo. Washington" to show that he was in favore of socialist ideas. She will do this by using every 4th or 6th word (whatever works) from various letters and addresses.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
"Rusting" nucler weapons?
Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:06pm.
"its rusting nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle;"
What, do you think they're just sitting around in some open-air bunker or something? This isn't the 1700's, lady. Those weapons are the best maintained weapons in the American arsenal! We spend billions of dollars each year insuring that they work the first time, every time. For you don't get another chance with nuclear weapons! You can't just reload them.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
How can someone as "smart" as Rachel...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:13pm.
...say and do things that are so dumb?
Logically, one would conclude that she really isn't dumb, because she is very well educated, one would believe a Rhodes Scholar to be.
Which then begs the question, if she isn't dumb, then what the heck is it with her to get so many facts flat-out wrong?
Logically, the answer is obvious.
She is KNOWINGLY LYING, with purpose, to fulfill some kind of an objective.
One can only speculate what that objective would be.... (not)
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
EXACTLY..
Submitted by c5then on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 2:35pm.
The meme that these leftist/liberals/progressive are dumb and stupid to believe and say what they do is exactly the response that they hope the rightist/conservatives/libertarians have and maintian.
They are intelligent and know EXACTLY what they are doing and they are executing a plan. If some people want to call them stupid, that's OK with them, because society does not get upset and try to counter what "some idiot" says. But as they keep saying this stuff, more and more of the regular citizenry starts to believe it because they hear it so often.
"tell a lie and tell it often and eventually people begin to think it's true."
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Intelligence and education
Submitted by poco424 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 4:16am.
Actually, there is no correlation between intelligence and education. That fact is proven daily at your local university by both students and faculty. Maddow herself has proven that over and over.
Caught doctoring?
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:30pm.
I'd be more interested in a headline of Madcow that says "caught telling the truth."
Now that'd be a shocker. Seriously!
-Jon
Randy Madcow Is Still Angry About...
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:42pm.
Well, everything.
She's a self-loathing man-wannabe. Mommy didn't love her. Daddy wished she was a boy, so he didn't love her. None of the boys in high school thought her flannel shirts and army jackets were very attractive. She was so very alone. She wanted to be Keith Olberman but he beat her to it.
And, as if that wasn't enough?
She later became a Rhodes "Scholar" except she wasn't given this credential for her intelligence. The only reason she was awarded this diploma was because they needed at least one transgendered/LGBT lifestyle to meet their quota.
And now you understand why she can't seem to keep her facts straight.
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
Leftist Honest Dishonesty
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 12:53pm.
How does one Leftist know if another Leftist is lying to them? The other Leftist is telling the truth.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
AreYouSerious
Submitted by Lamdog on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 3:12pm.
She holds a doctorate? Talk about not being worth the paper it printed on.
NO WAY
Submitted by jackl92 on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 4:11pm.
The Madcow is wrong, no way.
jackl92
Ph.D. in taking words out of
Submitted by HelloDare on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 4:46pm.
Ph.D. in taking words out of context.
MadCow is udderly wrong on this.......
Submitted by Qtaug on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 4:51pm.
she is just "milking" the quote! No doubt she is a "cunning linguist"!
This was a
Submitted by rhondacoleridge on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 2:23pm.
cunning stunt on her part.
Jack Coleman and in turn Barry Popik embarrass themselves
Submitted by hsdfg6509nb on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:11pm.
Jack Coleman and in turn Barry Popik make fools out of themselves.
fROM THE "The Jeffersonian cyclopedia: a comprehensive collection of the views of "
'548. ARMY, An unnecessary. One of
my favorite ideas is, never to keep an un
necessary soldier. THE ANAS, ix, 431. FORD
ED., i, 198. (1792.)
'
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/tj-randolph/the-jeffersonian-cyclo...
You can also find references to the quote here
http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2005_Q1%2FuvaBook%2Ftei%2Fb00...
You know all that it takes to find this out is simply use Google and the quote.
That is all it took but apparently Colemann and Popik didn't even have the
basic intelligence to use google to find this information out.
Or maybe Coleman and popik knew this information and decided not ignore it
out of deceit(knowing most of their sheep readers would belive them on faith)
and the great pursuit of trying to marginalize someone who is orders of magnitude more intelligent and honorable than they are. Even more pathetic is
to see the typical cheapshots directed at Maddow (all of course all without merit)
For the record, Maddow has on numerous occasions corrected herself when she
has encountered an error. Will Colenman and Popik admit they are wrong?
Will they even allow this post to go through correcting them?
Adios!
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:15pm.
Hope you enjoyed your stay here!
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
~Ahhhhh, better
Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:21pm.
.
hsdgf6509nb???
Submitted by Trix Rabbit on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:26pm.
What the hell is that? A Jr. High School library account?
Care to demonstrate how madcow is more intelligent and honorable? I'll give you a small hint. madcow is employed by Microcephalic Socialists: Nothing But Crap. You know, the same propaganda outfit that employs sharpton.
I will say, however, in madcow's defense that she is one of those miracles of natural selection that keeps Neanderthal genes in circulation.
For the MSM: In your pomp and all your glory, you're a poorer man than me. As you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
Ian Anderson "Wind up"
Stand down, Wabbi Wabbit
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:27pm.
Issy doomboo.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Hey Blonde*
Submitted by cajun2 on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:40pm.
The Official Cajun Geneology and Heritage Association has officially accepted Blonde as an adoptee to the Cajun Archives.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=212599235508131&set=a.111864185581637.12129.100002741671631&type=1&theater
I AGREE (my hands are up over my head!!!)
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:40pm.
That is hilarious!
I am jSOOOOOOOOOO going to steal that for later use, Ms. Caj.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Caj,
Submitted by Trix Rabbit on Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:51pm.
Are scoundrelly wicked wabbits allowed in the Archives, too?
For the MSM: In your pomp and all your glory, you're a poorer man than me. As you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
Ian Anderson "Wind up"
Of course Wabbit*
Submitted by cajun2 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 12:01am.
Gotta be tough and wicked just to live in south La. But first, you must be conservative...Join us cher Put in your application with a list of troll butts you have fed to the gators.
No, you are incorrect. The Jefferson quote is not accurate.
Submitted by Barry Popik on Mon, 11/26/2012 - 5:05pm.
Sorry for the delay, but I was Googling over Thanksgiving weekend and just found this.
I cited Thomas Jefferson's words. Maddow didn't cite those words correctly and she also provided no context for those words.
The Jefferson Cyclopedia has the correct citation that will lead you to the words. What was written here is similar to a legal headnote. That's not what the Supreme Court wrote (using this "legal headnote" example); it's a brief note written by a West Law reporter. No lawyer anywhere cites a headnote as the words of the court. Likewise, for any historian to do something similar is malpractice.
The book placed much emphasis on this Jefferson quote and it's not what Thomas Jefferson wrote.
>>For the record, Maddow has on numerous occasions corrected herself when she
has encountered an error.<<
There are plenty of other factual errors that Maddow has made. I've emailed them to her and there has been no reply and no correction.
The written word has long
Submitted by RR GOP on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 12:52am.
The written word has long been controlled by the Left. You can't trust so-called history books and "reputable" historians-there really is no such thing-you have to read between the lines and do your own thinking and investigating. The problem is that when you do that, you're forced to read the writings of what even many Conservatives believe to be the fringe or tinfoil hat types. They have their errors and agendas as well, but if you can ferret out Marxist trash, you should be able to do the same with others and determine an approximation of the truth somewhere between the two.
"Under Capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism it's just the opposite."
"All that Communism needs to make it successful is for someone to feed and clothe it."
A significant factor in Jefferson's enduring appeal
Submitted by Jer on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 2:30am.
rests on the fact that adherents of dramatically disparate ideologies can find a comforting nexus between some stated principle of Jeffersonian philosophy and their own contemporary belief systems.
The accusation of doctoring the quote may be technically true, but the actual infraction is minimal at worst. Perhaps if Maddow were writing a book about the benefits of a regulated economy, the charge would be far more relevant and the offense would be woodshed-worthy. But she wasn't. Thus the indignation seems a bit over the top.
[By the way, even Jefferson addressed the necessity of regulating commerce in the subject territories, albeit to promote his theoretical preference for free competition--essentially the aim of the Sherman Antitrust legislation one hundred years later.]
Jer
Madcow, she is a real pip!!!!!
Submitted by djwolf12 on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 7:01pm.
Next she will be telling us how much she needs $3,000 worth of Free (payed for by the taxpayer) Government issued birth control in order to survive her existence.