"The unraveling of Richard Clarke is proceeding nicely," boasted a winger blogger with whom I sometimes lock horns on group blog known as Freespeech.com. That was in March 2004. At that time, the right-wing blogosphere journalistic community was seeking to destroy the credibility give a fair and objective assessment of Richard Clarke, who was appearing before the committee looking into … Read More
The MSM That the Right Wing is Hyperventilating Over
Courtesy of The Left Coaster comes these words from Chicago Trib’s Jim Warren: The three journalists discussed troubling pressures that affect the ability of news organizations to report the truth. A major one is that with consolidation of news organizations into conglomerates like Time Warner, news outlets have numerous conflicts between their business interests and their reporting. While NBC reports … Read More
A Guy With A Conscience
The guy who started the ball rolling on Eason Jordon is apparently having second thoughts: Mr. Abovitz, who started it all, said he hoped bloggers could develop loftier goals than destroying people’s careers. "If you’re going to do this open-source journalism, it should have a higher purpose," he said. "At times it did seem like an angry mob, and an … Read More
Jeff Gannon: Available for $1,200/weekend and $200/hour?
"Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There’s — nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else." – Jeff Gannon to Wolf Blitzer, CNN, 2/10/05 AmericaBlog calls bullshit. The details … Read More
F-Word Used To Describe The Bush Administration
The F-word in question? "Fascism". And who is saying it? Conservatives. Specifically, The American Conservative magazine. Here is the money paragraph: And yet the very fact that the f-word can be seriously raised in an American context is evidence enough that we have moved into a new period. The invasion of Iraq has put the possibility of the end to … Read More
More Lies and/or Incompetence
Condi Rice to the 9/11 Committee (quote): "I was in a press conference to try and describe the August 6th memo [the one entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike U.S." – KRA], which I’ve talked about here in my opening remarks and which I talked about with you in the private session. And I said, at one point, that this … Read More
Questions About Gannon Put To White House
UPDATE: We are informed here that nobody gets a White House pass, press or otherwise, by using an alias. "Therefore, if Gannon was using an alias, White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." For those who don’t "get" the issue about Gannon (posted here), I think this letter from the Ranking Member of the House Committee … Read More
Rose Colored Glasses Beyond Belief
This is a true exchange. It happened in Omaha last Friday, when Bush was taking his dog-and-pony show on the road: THE PRESIDENT: Good. Okay, Mary, tell us about yourself. MS. MORNIN: Okay, I’m a divorced, single mother with three grown, adult children. I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters. THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. … Read More
The Saga of Jeff Gannon (Abridged)
UPDATE (Chapter Seven): He can’t stand the heat, so he wisely gets out of the kitchen. White House will have to find a new lackey. Chapter One: Who is Jeff Gannon? With all this talk about media bias, nobody can beat Jeff Gannon. He is a member of the White House press pool. This is the kind of question he … Read More
Vote or Starve
Some Iraqis are alleging that they were told . . . well . . . let’s listen to their words: ”Two of the food dealers I know told me personally that our food rations would be withheld if we did not vote,” said Saeed Jodhet, a 21-year-old engineering student who voted in the Hay al-Jihad district of Baghdad. I’m not … Read More
Vietnam Redux?
Does this sound familiar to anyone? U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote: Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2) WASHINGTON, Sept. 3– United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. … Read More
What Iraqis Want
This is one hell of a fractured country. I’m glad they are going through the mostly symbolic, but still important, act of voting. But that is of course only step one in building a country. The hard work hasn’t even begun. Here are some interesting finds from a Zogby poll of Iraqis: (76%) of Sunni Arabs say they definitely will … Read More
Good Question Re: Iraqi Voting
Anyone know the answer to Thomas Schaller’s questions? Of the 234,000 [Iraqis eligible to vote] living in the United States right now, only 90,000 are estimated to be foreign-born (presumably in Iraq); the remaining 140,000 or so were born here. At what point does your foreign voting eligibility cease, may I ask? For instance, if your grandparents were Iraqi refugees, … Read More
Everybody’s Getting Religion
The United Church of Christ gets it. Kudos to them. And Billie Miller, a woman in Ridgecrest, California , lost her religion a couple of weeks ago: I can’t believe the vicious slander of some people who have the nerve to portray or suggest Jesus behaved as a Liberal. Jesus makes his position very clear. The wisdom of an "eye … Read More