Because NTodd demands it.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Ad Nags Whores Anonymous
There are reasons for anonymous sources. This is certainly not one of them.
Administration officials pushing the official administration line should never be allowed to maintain anonymity. Why a lowly online magazine publisher needs to point this out is beyond me...
A senior White House official, who insisted on anonymity in discussing the early phases of the nomination, echoed Mr. Sessions and other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, saying, "There has been a long-term standard that the appropriateness of questioning does not include asking judges to take specific sides or positions regarding cases they may hear one day."
Administration officials pushing the official administration line should never be allowed to maintain anonymity. Why a lowly online magazine publisher needs to point this out is beyond me...
Wolfowitz Reloaded
Billmon discovers that Wolfowitz did not actually say what I claimed he said here, though he said something substantially similar. I *did* hunt this one down a lot, trying to distinguish between the original Times paraphrase and the actual quote, and found many sources claiming that he did say exactly what I wrote, but apparently it is not so.
Pink Floyd Blogging Online Magazine Publishing
Roger Ailes informs us that one of the Reverend Moon's minions thinks the greatest album ever made, The Final Cut, was "dismal," and The Division Bell (which was admittedly better than the awful Momentary Lapse of Taste) was "excellent."
Life Goes On
The truth is, it wouldn't surprise me if the right wing radio hosts (see below) come back undeterred from their belief that life in Iraq is much better than the media portrays. As I wrote (holy crap!) 19 months ago, I think for some people it's hard to imagine anything inbetween "normal life" and "crouching under your bed in fear." Even when things are shit, life goes on, and unless a couple of IEDs go off near them, they'll decide Iraq isn't 24/7 Hell On Earth and that it's therefore Peachy.
Onward to Iraq
Hey, if these people spend more than the time it takes them to get to and from the airport outside of the green zone, then more power to them. However, I expect they're going to visit "Iraq" which is being built on a back lot in Hollywood somewhere.
Later in the article they claim they're not going to be doing what they deride as "hotel journalism." Good for them if true.
And, assuming they are actually going, they're braver than Peter "fighting age" Beinart.
WASHINGTON — A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.
The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.
"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.
Morgan said the media is "imposing a Vietnam template on this war."
"This is not Vietnam," she said. "War is war, and it's dangerous, and the killing is taking place all of the time. At the same time, where there is danger, there is success and there is a mainstream media that is determined to shut out that success."
She said the group is going to Iraq to support American troops, who see a disconnection with what they experience and what's being reported in the United States. She said the incongruence is leading to "morale problems."
Later in the article they claim they're not going to be doing what they deride as "hotel journalism." Good for them if true.
And, assuming they are actually going, they're braver than Peter "fighting age" Beinart.
"This is the most pathetic thing I've heard in a long time. They should be ashamed of themselves," Peter Beinart, editor of left-leaning The New Republic magazine, said.
"They have no idea what journalism is, and to pretend they are journalists is laughable," Beinart said. "You do not achieve victory by not facing reality. I think these are the kinds of people that will lead us to lose there."
Remembering the Wolfowitz
When historians look back at this time period they'll wonder how on Earth we let ourselves get into this war when one of its chief architects said this:
Lordy.
[[[post update, correction, here]]
There is no history of ethnic strife in Iraq.
Lordy.
[[[post update, correction, here]]
More Rove
O'Donnell gently suggests that Rove's lawyer is pretty much a liar, something the WaPo water carriers couldn't be bothered to figure out.
A Little More Skepticism Please
It's quite possible that Rove's lawyer is telling the truth, but it's also quite possible that he's lying. More importantly, he couldn't say anything else - if he knows his client was lying to the grand jury then he can't sit on that. The tone of this WaPo story makes it sound as if the definitive truth.
This *may* be true, but the journalist needs throw in a layer of skepticism. I understand that there's no "other side" here, as Fitzgerald isn't talking, but it's a bit ridiculous to write a story like this without providing, somehow, a bit more balance. Just a water carrying story.
As for the Queen of All Iraq, I do think Swopa is on to something regarding her role in all this. Perhaps Cooper's notes won't say "Rove told me that Wilson's wife is a CIA operative." Instead, they'll say "Rove told me to talk to Judith Miller."
Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, spoke with Time magazine's Matthew Cooper during a critical week in July 2003 when Cooper was reporting on a public critic of the Bush administration who was also the husband of a CIA operative, his lawyer confirmed yesterday.
Rove is identified in Cooper's notes from that time period, which Time turned over Friday to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald -- under court order. Fitzgerald is investigating whether senior administration officials leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to reporters in July 2003 as retaliation after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify a war with Iraq.
Rove's lawyer said Rove never identified Plame to Cooper in those conversations. More significantly, Robert Luskin said, Fitzgerald assured him in October and again last week that Rove is not a target of his investigation.
This *may* be true, but the journalist needs throw in a layer of skepticism. I understand that there's no "other side" here, as Fitzgerald isn't talking, but it's a bit ridiculous to write a story like this without providing, somehow, a bit more balance. Just a water carrying story.
As for the Queen of All Iraq, I do think Swopa is on to something regarding her role in all this. Perhaps Cooper's notes won't say "Rove told me that Wilson's wife is a CIA operative." Instead, they'll say "Rove told me to talk to Judith Miller."
Still Here
It's nice to know that the Live 8 crowd didn't burn down the city after the show.
But, yeah, man the TV coverage set a new low for covering a live event.
But, yeah, man the TV coverage set a new low for covering a live event.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
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