Bush camp solicits race of Star staffer
By C.J. Karamargin
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Star refused to provide the information.

Cheney is scheduled to appear at a rally this afternoon at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president.

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Great segment from a special Friday night edition of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart- here the correspondents explore the media's coverage of the Democratic convention.

I^{1 2 3} accept.^{4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 - 93 94}

William Saletan is a tool.

(click here for a little context)

In the last several days we've seen a massive effort to manage the news on both sides of the aisle- the Democrats have had their convention in Boston and projected an unendingly positive, energetic show of unity. Smile ‘till it hurts boys!

Meanwhile, the Republicans have deployed some of the most underhanded, deceitful propaganda attempts in recent memory to smear John Kerry and prop up George W. Bush.

A couple of weeks ago the New Republic published a report that the Pakistani government had been instructed to capture a high-value al Qaeda target during the Democratic convention. Presumably that would knock Kerry off the front page and give Bush a good headline about fighting "terra." Pakistan couldn't find Osama this week, but they did find a bad guy last Sunday and held off releasing the information until hours before John Kerry took the stage for his acceptance speech. Mission accomplished.

On Wednesday word leaked that the budget deficit had ballooned to $420 billion. This report was almost certainly finished, but it’s release is being delayed presumably for today, Friday- the day most Americans have better things to do than watch the national news. Update: The bad news has been dumped as of 12:30 PM- the actual number is $445 Billion. Fiscal conservative my ass.

Just last week the White House successfully dumped the news that the “destroyed” records of George W. Bush’s service (rather, lack of service) in the Air National Guard had materialized. The White House dropped the documents shortly before the national news broadcasts, so even if you did watch the news on Friday it was still unlikely that they covered it.

But here's the good news: All the efforts that went into knocking Kerry off of the front page today failed. The deficit numbers have already been reported widely, diminishing the desperate White House’s attempts at damage control.

Though there are exceptions (A CNN anchor actually holding up a print out of that days Republican talking points during an interview at the convention springs to mind) it’s clear that the mainstream press is no longer playing along with the administration.

What a contrast this is to the fawning press that drooled over the president as he arrived on the USS Lincoln and declared “Mission Accomplished.”

Has the press at long last realized that you can cover the president without also covering for the president?

First off, masterful speech by Kerry. Outta the park, grand slam... etc... you can find much more intelligent and applicable sports analogies elsewhere I'm sure. Bottom line: Great speech.

With that out of the way, here's the deal- for some reason CNN was airing the convention director's feed just after Kerry's speech. Dumb idea. Funny results.

When the balloons didn't fall on cue director Don Mischner bitched out his crew on CNN, and rightly so, in my opinion. It takes years to get certified to drop balloons, and the opportunities to use your skills are few and far between. Mistakes are unforgivable in that line of work.

One more thing- Drudge always gets it wrong- the quote wasn't "WHERE THE FU*K ARE THE BALLOONS" as Drudge is reporting, it's "What the fuck are you guys doing up there?"

See for yourself.

NY TIMES:

WASHINGTON, July 28 - A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.

The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

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The article goes on to say that none of Ms. Edmonds' claims have were disproved in the investigation.

Yikes. A reminder of one of her claims:

Mrs Edmonds, 33, a Turkish-American who had top secret security clearance while working for the FBI, claimed earlier this month that information she had seen while working in the bureau's headquarters in Washington proves senior officials knew of al Qaeda's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

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Capitol Hill Blue really is porn for Democrats.

President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

[...]

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”
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I just realized this blog has never mentioned Barak Obama. We stand corrected.

I'm not talking about blind optimism here-the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it.

That's not what I'm talking [about]. I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope.

In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; a belief in things not seen; a belief that there are better days ahead.

The pictures that leaked out of John Kerry in a clean suit at NASA didn't strike me as really anything to be embarrassed about, so when I saw Democratic spokespeople calling it a Republican smear I was kind of surprised. Well, I watched a little Fox News this afternoon and now I understand what they were talking about.

Every commercial break they showed the NASA pictures and displayed emails from viewers ridiculing Kerry. Then they had a clip of Cheney ridiculing Kerry at a speech today. There's no doubt this was a coordinated smear- they literally made something out of nothing.

Maybe all this is just a weak attempt at payback for the ill-conceived flight-suit debacle Bush moseyed into last year. Still no comparison, by the way- Bush will never live that down.

Whatever the motivation, one thing is very clear- the Republicans have lost their grip on reality. Desperation has forced them into attacking a candidate for taking a tour of NASA- think about that. They don't have any issues they can win, so they attempt to make fun of Kerry on a personal level.

Well, millions of us can play that game, can't we?

Update: Hey, look what comes up when you do an image search for Captain Bunnypants

His Bush impression, that is. Man, I miss him on SNL.

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If you haven't been following Pollack's adventures covering the Democratic convention what have you been doing? (No, seriously- Tom Ridge wants to know. You will be recieving a form.)

Pollack:

I was feeling very horny after the Ron Reagan speech tonight, so I decided to order a prostitute from room service. But the hotel denied my request. Apparently, the DNC is only allowing bloggers to pay for hookers on Sunday, three days after the convention ends. This is an unfortunate development, because I doubt they'll have a lot left in the tank by then. Nonetheless, I must plod on.

more...

A bizarre scene has unfolded in Wisconsin over the past week. Just as Democratic legislators left the state for the convention, a top Republican decided she would try to amend the state's Constitution. Democrats, realizing that Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (who is facing a primary challenge from a far-right candidate) was serious, had to scramble home from Boston to fight her proposal, which would cap state spending to the rate of economic growth. A similar measure failed earlier this year.

Here's a great column from John Nichols of the Cap Times in Madison, Wis. about the situation. There are some interesting observations, including the state's lieutenant governor pointing out that the Republicans will eat their own if they show even a glimpse of moderate behavior.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton described herself as "furious" with Panzer. But she reserved some of her most stinging criticism for the Republicans who are attacking Panzer for adopting moderate stances in the past.

"Look what the Republicans are doing to the most prominent woman in the Legislature," Lawton said. "They are attacking their women whenever they step out of line. They are saying that a woman can't go off script or they will punish her."

And this zinger:

State Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, said, "I don't think we would do this during the week of their convention. I think we'd have more decency - and dignity."

Reflecting on the ideological fights within the Republican Party, and on the uncertainty about exactly how a special session would be organized and what exactly legislators would be asked to vote on, Shilling said, "I don't think the right hand knows what the extreme right hand is doing."

USA Today spiked Ann Coulter's coverage of the Democratic National Convention when they discovered, much to their dismay, she's fucking nuts.

So they hired Jonah Goldberg to fill in. Jonah's fairly nuts as well- check this out from his USA Today editorial:

Worse still was [Jimmy] Carter's association with Moore, who — his upcoming stint in these pages notwithstanding — strikes a great many Americans as a left-wing Joe McCarthy who practices the worst and most dishonest forms of guilt-by-association argumentation.

(emphasis mine- all mine!)
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So, wait a minute Jonah- not only does that devious Michael Moore practice guilt-by-association- he hangs around with President Carter too. Gosh, what does that say about Carter!?!?

If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was reading a parody of right-wing shtick.

But I do know better- it's not parody, it's fevered desperation.

Every time a figure in the Watergate scandal dies I wonder if maybe we're about to get a short press release from Bob Woodward.

Fred LaRue, a high ranking official in the Nixon administration has died.

I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Drudge always gets it wrong, but tonight he has some thoughts from Michael Reagan, and I really, really want this to be true, so I'm going to pass it along and correct it when it turns out it's all bull.

Michael charges brother Ron did not attend USS Ronald Reagan homecoming because he is a 'liberal' who does not believe in it and because it is 'weapon of mass destruction', says Nancy approves of Ron's speech at the Dem convention because 'he's her favorite'

Ha. Ron's a damn dirty liberal and mom still likes him better? Now that's hilarious.

MediaMatters.org has Chris Matthews with seven Hillary Clinton power grab questions in a row:

From MSNBC's convention coverage on July 26:

1) MATTHEWS: Do you think she [Senator Clinton] has the patience to try to help John Kerry and John Edwards win the offices they're running for?

LANDRIEU: Absolutely.

2) MATTHEWS: Even if it means she has to wait longer to get the job?

LANDRIEU: Absolutely. She's a team player, and I'd like to say this about Hillary, even though the press always wants to separate her out, she's a team player.

3) MATTHEWS: She's willing to wait her turn?

LANDRIEU: She's willing to do whatever it takes to win, this year.

4) MATTHEWS: This year?

LANDRIEU: This year.

5) MATTHEWS: You think she's really going to go all out for this ticket, even if it means she doesn't get the job?

LANDRIEU: We all are, we're totally united.

STABENOW: Chris, there's too much at stake.

6) MATTHEWS: Senator Cantwell, you've been quiet here. Do you think Hillary Clinton is willing to sacrifice her own immediate political ambitions for the Democrats' success?

CANTWELL: You can never be hurt in politics by being a team player, and she's going to demonstrate that she's one heck of a team player. And no matter what the consequences are, she'll benefit from that.

7) MATTHEWS: When it comes to election night, will she be rooting for Kerry and Edwards even though that means she's got to wait 12 years?

STABENOW: Of course, of course. There's too much at stake.

At least these pundits are consistent. They're always wrong.

"Hillary will be the nominee!" "Hillary will be Kerry's VP pick!" "Hillary will destroy Kerry for not picking her as VP!" "Bill Clinton's book will take all the attention away from the Kerry campaign!" "The Bill Clinton book is an attempt to destroy the Kerry candidacy!" (These are all sentiments expressed by Bob Novak and Tucker Carlson on Crossfire, by the way...)

Being consistently wrong hasn't hurt that hack Drudge so far... so, how wrong to you have to be before people stop paying attention?

There's no denying it- this guy falls down a lot.

When a reporter from a conservative Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, pressed Mrs. Heinz Kerry what she had meant by "un-American" she said repeatedly, "No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that."

She then turned away only to return moments later. "You said something I didn't say, now shove it," she said, pointing her finger at the reporter.

Asked about Mrs. Heinz Kerry's comments, the Kerry campaign said in a statement: "It was a moment of extreme frustration aimed at a right wing rag that has consistently and almost purposefully misrepresented the facts when reporting on Mrs. Heinz Kerry."

Link

This is just a funny little clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live last Thursday showing the delivery of the final 9/11 report to the president. It made me laugh anyway.

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In June, Josh Marshall of the indomitable Talking Points Memo Weblog went on vacation with this note to readers:

A few points before signing off, though. You may have noticed a slight down-tick in the frequency of posts of late. And that’s for a few different reasons. But a principal one is that I and several colleagues have been working on a story that, if and when it comes to fruition --- and I’m confident it shall --- should shuffle the tectonic plates under that capital city where I normally hang my hat. So that’s something to look forward to in the not too distant future. And that’s taken some of my time away from TPM and prevented me from sharing with you some delectable tidbits which otherwise I would have loved to have done.

Well, as far as I know, Josh Marshall has yet to inspire any earthquakes in D.C. That leaves me to wonder if he's still working on this political-landscape-altering story. Here's a more recent tip, again from Marshall, this time about the Sandy Berger mess, that he may be up to something big:

I've spent so much time over the last several months reporting on a project that has to do with classified materials that I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know just what the rules are for taking notes of such classified documents in secure reading rooms.

I realize it's a bit inside the box to report on someone else's reporting, but I believe Marshall has the potential to blow-up a la Drudge and the Clinton affair. The difference, of course, is that Marshall is a bonafide reporter committed to getting the story right, rather than first. If he breaks something, it will be well documented and accurate.

Still, I can't help but wonder. When Marshall went on vacation Atrios readers speculated on the
"big story." Unfortunately, the comments have been deleted from Atrios' archives. A few I remember: Proof that Bush bailed on military service, Bush ordered the torture in Iraq, Cheney leaked Plame's identity, and my personal favorite guess, Howell Raines (former NY Times editor) is CIA.

What's up, Josh? What's the story?

Lessig takes O'Reilly apart:

Mr. O’Reilly,

You have declared a “war” on the New York Times. That’s good for you, good for them, and good for our democracy: Strong opinions deserve strong spokesmen. Your battle will help sharpen a debate about matters important to the Republic.

But in waging this “war,” you are continuing to abuse a man whom you have wronged, and to whom you owe an apology.

continued...

Anybody else following this story? An ebay user got scammed on a laptop, so he's posted everything about it on his site, including the emails between he and the scammer which tell the story in incredible detail. I know it's long, but it's worth reading the entire email page. I hate to spoil the ending, but since it's still ongoing I guess I'm not- Justin, the guy who got scammed, is now in the process of making the scammer sell his Lexis to pay everyone he's scammed back.

The scammer, Sal, is borderline illiterate, which is what gives him away. Half way through the scam Sal suddenly claims that the guy Justin was talking to was Sal Sr, and that his father had been the one who was scamming everyone. So obviously Sal jr. can't be held accountable for what Sal Sr. did, right? But hold on a minute... how many fathers and sons would misspell a common word like "damn" in such a bizarre way?

Sal Sr.: I said forget about that dame check thing that went on

Sal Jr.:I will sell my car to pay everyone back just to clear my name.I guess i have no choice since i cashed them dame checks for him.

Anyway, the scammer's techniques reminded me of some the Bush administration's methods:

• Always be vague
• The more lies the better
  
• Blame the guy who came before you
  
• Delay, delay, delay

This also shows that good, smart, honest people can be tricked- especially when you're the type of person who believes there is good in everyone, as I like to think most of us do. The American people were tricked by our president. As the president said, "fool me... ya can't get fooled again."

Seems like it's all catching up with Sal in the next few days, either he sells his car and pays everyone back or he's going to jail. Unfortunately we're going to have to wait for November (technically January...) to get that scammer in the White House out of there.

I heard O'Reilly threaten Canada again last night with a devastating boycott which would obviously destroy the country. Witness France, where Lance Armstrong at this very minute has to bike his way through the rubble on his way to his sixth "Tour De Freedom Fries" win.

Tragic. Billo- please call off this inhumane boycott!  Think of the beret toting children!

So I saw that that ParisBusinessReview.net has updated with a stunning revelation:

Bush's previously released National Guard records showed that there was an unexplained five month gap.  Today we get a document dump (as usual, on Friday evening- hoping to miss the evening news and praying that this whole nightmare will blow over by Monday)  with more records indicating that indeed he didn't show up.

So the White House spin I've been hearing so far is along the lines of, "There's nothing new here.  Previous documents already showed that.  He was honorably discharged."

Okay- there is something new here- previously the gap in service was blamed on incomplete documentation.  The new documents just show that the gap in service was a gap in service.

Bush didn't show up for at least five months.  Not showing up for more than 30 days is called desertion.

Now what?


Update: The Friday evening document dump worked, at least on ABC World News Tonight where the "newly discovered" documents weren't mentioned.

It'd be nice to finally settle this, whichever way it turns out.

If you've read Annie Jacobsen's breathless account of a Northwest Airlines flight she took a few weeks ago you know that she took a flight with *gasp* Arabs on board! This didn't sit well with her, and she wrote a nice long article cataloging how many times the Arabs went to pee. I have to admit, I never finished reading the article- She lost me when she started quoting Ann Coulter.

Now here comes the other side of the story:

Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, "overreacted," to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.

The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.

Jacobsen, a self-described freelance writer, has published two stories about her experience at womenswallstreet.com, a business advice web site designed for women.

"The lady was overreacting," said the source. "A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane."

The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians traveling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.

link via via

As if there was any doubt left... Of course, some of us knew that before we invaded.

Link

On Monday Bill O'Reilly had a gay activist on his show who runs a web site that outs gay public officials. Bill (rightly, in my opinion) criticized this practice, but then proceeded to work in his claim that a female judge on the Massachusetts Supreme Court is a lesbian.

John Cook from the Chicago Tribune has the story:

On shows in November, last week, and again on Monday, O'Reilly has referred to "the lesbian judge on the Supreme Court who dissented" in the court's landmark ruling in favor of gay marriage.

O'Reilly has never named the judge, but of the three dissenting justices in that case, only one--Justice Martha B. Sosman--is a woman.

"Justice Sosman is not a lesbian," said court spokeswoman Joan Kenney. "We don't know where Bill O'Reilly got that information, but it is not correct."

Sosman declined an interview request.

A Fox spokesman said O'Reilly stands by his claim, which is based on "more than one independent source."

The spokesman declined to identify those sources, citing confidentiality.

Here's a short clip of the segment in question.

O'Reilly kind of flails around in the clip and blames his "outing" of the judge on unnamed guests, but I saw some of these shows- he brought this up last week and repeated the claim over and over.  Once he actually taunted a guest for not knowing about this "lesbian judge," ridiculing him for not knowing enough about the case.

In Monday's segment, O'Reilly never really said why his outing of a public official (who it turns out is straight) is justified while his guest's web site is objectionable.

That Bill O'Reilly- He's wacky.

Large tax cuts for millionaires are not in danger- I repeat, Millionaires: your tax cuts are still in effect. Tough luck, middle class.

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Atrios offers this indictment of the NY Times:

Nagourney

I can never decide who is worse at the New York Times - Nagourney or Wilgoren. Wilgoren's more viscerally nasty, but Nagourney is more likely to just kind of make stuff up. Sam Seder was talking about this on the air a little awhile ago. Quoth the Nagourney:

In Iraq, the transfer of sovereignty has led to some reduction in American casualties.

There were more casualties during the month of July thus far than there were in June.

The New York Times - where making shit up is good enough for the editors.
-Atrios 9:32 PM

They really aren't trying any more. Wonkette supplies this pool report from the "paper of record":

Pool Report #3
July 20, 2004
St. Louis to Andrews

There was no news aboard Air Force One,
After it left the tarmac at six-fourty-one.

No news, I say, save for the President's sweat,
Which soaked his shirt, hoo-boy was he wet.

No official, tall or small, came back to spin,
'Til McClellan drifted by with this little thing.

Turns out that when the 9/11 commissioners visit 1600 on the 'morrow,
They will meet no C-in-C, to their sorrow

"Just Judge Gonzales and Condi,'' said Scott,
Though the next day they return for the POTUS photo-op.

With that guidance we went into descent,
Our stories filed, our color sent.

The big plane landed at nine-twenty-two,
And disgorged its tired, cranky little crew

Yet as we wandered into that good night,
One hundred and four days remained to re-witness the fight.

David E. Sanger
NY Times

BoingBoing joins in the Bill O'Reilly is a God-damned-hypocrite fun.

Link

Looks like a Clear Channel station is picking up Al Franken's show.  Normally I wouldn't bother posting something like this, but the NewsMax.com article is pretty funny- they apparently think Al's name is O'Franken:

But now Clear Channel is signing on to the new liberal radio network Air America, which airs Al O'Franken's program, among others.

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Bush:

"You see, if you can't raise enough by taxing the rich, guess who gets to pay next? Yes, the not-rich. (Laughter.) That's all of us."

Bush's net worth is currently between $7.7 and $18.9 million.

I think this is kind of a breakthrough- he's under the impression that "poor" means millionaire. This explains a lot... though it doesn't explain why non-millionaires would ever vote for this guy.

Another flip-flop from W.

After launching two wars you don't get to be the peace president. Sorry W.


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Sandy Berger removed secret documents from the archives last October. It's been under investigation for months. Why is the Justice Department leaking this now?

Berger has to answer for what he did, but the timing is incredibly suspicious, and in a way this political hatchet job will detract from the original allegation.

Well timed leaks are already a trademark of John Ashcroft's rule in the Justice Department. If there's a leak rest assured there's a much bigger story going on behind the scenes that they are trying to distract you from.

Say, when is that 9/11 report due anyway?

The good news, if you can call it that, is that the documents he took were duplicates and notes. (That's according to the talking heads on CNN tonight.) It turns out the documents in question are positive reports about the success of the Clinton administration's battle against terrorist plots, not embarrassing stuff that would feed the theory that he attempting some sort of cover-up.

So far Berger has offered no real explanation other than he basically screwed up- I don't think that's going to satisfy anybody- but I'm also able to recognize that this guy is under investigation by the FBI and he'd be a moron to say anything beyond what he said. The FBI investigation, one would hope, will get us a more definitive answer. Until then it's just another attempt at distraction by an increasingly desperate White House.

William Grieder, from The Nation:

Not to risk blasphemy, but shouldn't a special commission look into whether God provided the warrior President with faulty intelligence? Recall that George W. Bush has confided to Bob Woodward that in shaping his plans for invading Iraq he relied on advice from a "higher father," not on Poppy Bush in Texas, the former President. Now we learn from advance news leaks that the 9/11 Commission has concluded from its investigation that it was Iran, not Iraq, that collaborated with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorists before their attack on America. Oops. Have we gone to war against the wrong country? One assumes it was not the Almighty who confused the two nations. Maybe Bush suffered from a fuzzy connection in his prayer circuitry. So close to God, yet so distant from the truth.

What's scary about Bush's recent claims that Iran, not Iraq, may have been linked to 9/11 is that he gave us the blueprint for his perpetual war in his "Axis of Evil" speech -- Iraq, Iran, North Korea. (Notably lacking are countries like Sudan, where a few people could use our help.) Does anyone actually believe Bush is seeking peace? His plans seem more like The Onion T-shirt: "End racism. Kill everyone." If you believe you're going to heaven, why not?

A few months ago, Bill O'Reilly cited a study in the non-existent Paris Business Review which stated that France was losing billions of dollars thanks to O'Reilly's boycott.

Thanks to the Fark.com's forum, I just learned that there are not one, but two Paris Business Review web sites in operation- ParisBusinessReview.com (buy a mug!) details the devastation wreaked by Bill O'Reilly's boycott:

The other, ParisBusinessReview.net appears to have gone meta- it claims to be the legitimate web presence of the non-existent business magazine. Despite it's attempt at minimalist legitimacy, the site's sole purpose seems to be to portray Bill O'Reilly as a clueless moron.

One last thing- both domains were registered after Bill O'Reilly invented the publication. This wasn't an April fools joke that O'Reilly fell for, this is a source that O'Reilly made up out of whole cloth, a fabrication, to give his France boycott legitimacy. I just find it hilarious.

If you haven't already read Media Matters coverage of this, what are you waiting for?

Holy crap- what was he doing?

(AP) President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation after removing highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned.

Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after he voluntarily returned documents to the National Archives. However, some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al Qaeda terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing.

Link

If the FCC fines CBS for Janet Jackson's boob, CBS says it will take them to court.

Finally someone is going to test the FCC's authority- all these years the fines have amounted to bribes to the government. Payoffs. That's all the Howard Stern fines were. 

"We will vigorously defend our right to produce such content as some may deem too controversial," Moonves said. "We believe the viewing and listening public will not tolerate government censorship, and we're going to take a very strong stand on that ... We still encourage our producers to walk the edge and tell edgy stories.

Damn straight.

Here's a clip from the 7/15 episode of The Daily Show where Jon explores the genesis of conventional wisdom.

Al Queda is already on the record wanting Bush to be re-elected.
 
It seems, much like Drudge himself, accuracy never gets in the way of a good headline.  Shouldn't this count against his accuracy rate?  ABC's "The Note" pegged him at 37% - I think they were joking, but still- that seems high.

O'Reilly only has 75 days left to sue Al Franken for libel in England before the statute of limitations is up.
 
Hurry!

Just a quick bit from yesterday's Daily Show- the tail end of the coverage of the gay marriage debate.

(Daily Show graphic)

I've been looking into Laurie Mylroie lately, she's the author of "Bush vs. the Beltway : How the CIA and the State Department Tried to Stop the War on Terror," a book which lauds the noble and just Bush administration for invading Iraq despite attempts by the evil CIA and ignorant-to-the-imminent-danger State Department.

From the book description on Amazon:

Combining important new research with an insider's grasp of Beltway politics, Mylroie describes how the CIA and the State Department have systematically discredited critical intelligence about Saddam's regime, including indisputable evidence of its possession of weapons of mass destruction. She reveals how major elements of the case against Iraq -- including information about possible links to al Qaeda and evidence of potential Iraqi involvement in the fall 2001 anthrax attacks -- were prematurely dismissed by these agencies for cynical reasons.

Mylroie is now in an incredibly awkward position- to hear her tell it, Bush and Bush alone was responsible for brow-beating the intelligence services into agreeing to invade Iraq- and he's a hero for doing it. Now, all these months (and deaths) later, clearly that's not what the Bush administration wants the American people to hear.

Mylroie's strident defense of our president against these nay-saying agencies (they're always saying, "nay!") should be remembered- this book was published in July of 2003- two months after "Mission Accomplished." At that time, this was a war right-wingers wanted to take credit for. No longer. Now it's a shameful embarrassment that is being blamed on a corrupt CIA.

I call bullshit.

Now that a majority of the American people are finally waking up and realizing that the Iraq war was a mistake, it's important to remember the type of propaganda that was being pushed on us in the lead up to the war and in the aftermath of "Mission Accomplished." As the White House continues to blame the CIA for the Iraq war, this is important evidence that it was in fact the Bush administration forcing the CIA's hand.

More on Mylroie soon...

I read this on Drudge last night, not realizing it was verbatim from the coming story.

WASHINGTON, July 14 - In the annals of Washington conspiracy theories, the latest one, about Vice President Dick Cheney's future on the Republican ticket, is as ingenious as it is far-fetched. But that has not stopped it from racing through Republican and Democratic circles like the latest low-carb diet.

The newest theory - advanced privately by prominent Democrats, including members of Congress - holds that Mr. Cheney recently dismissed his personal doctor so that he could see a new one, who will conveniently tell him in August that his heart problems make him unfit to run with Mr. Bush. The dismissed physician, Dr. Gary Malakoff, who four years ago declared that Mr. Cheney was "up to the task of the most sensitive public office" despite a history of heart disease, was dropped from Mr. Cheney's medical team because of an addiction to prescription drugs.

From a hack Internet journalist, fine, but from the so-called most respectable news source in the country? I love how they cloak the news value of this by reporting on the rumors -- it's very Fox News chic. The job of the media is provide a foundation of fact, not to perpetuate lies and wishes. I hate Cheney and I don't doubt he's capable of this sort of thing, but the mindset of this story is identical to Judith Miller's still-exclusive-to-this-day report about the WMDs in Iraq. They throw out a story to make a splash and worry about its validity later.

Watch Condi make an ass of herself. Again.

Link

I mean, seriously Condi, why lie about this stuff?

Drudge was wrong as usual. Ditka wasn't making an announcement today.

I think this whole Ditka for Senate movement is hilarious. If he's up to all the crap that goes along with running for public office, go for it man. I'm betting he'll balk at public disclosure of his finances...

One more thought: Being in the Senate beats hawking boner pills any day of the week. Just ask Bob Dole.

Wonkette has the Fox News Memos

Quotes worth noting:
"[Bush's] political courage and tactical cunning are worth noting in our reporting through the day."

"Please offer a prayer of thanks for their safety to whatever God you revere (and let the ACLU stick it where the sun don't shine)."

"The so-called 9/11 commission has already been meeting."

"today is likely to be the apex of the so-called 9/11 commission hearings."

"As is often the case, the real news is Iraq is being obscured by temporary tragedy."

"It won't be long before some people start to decry the use of "excessive force." We won't be among that group."

"Air America, featuring Al Franken and other liberals, got on the air last week, but at what cost? Well, in New York, it took the place of an ethnic show. In LA, it knocked off a Korean program. And in CHicago,a spanish language broadcast was replaced. None of these people are happy."

"Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there?"

""Fierce" is a good word, but let's find a few synonyms."

"It should be obvious that we are working hard on the oil for food scandal story at the UN. Please be disposed to use stories on this topic, rather than not."

"This is one of the few times we've gotten a count of enemy dead. Let's use that to make the point what happens when terrorists take on the coalition."

"Also, let's refer to the US marines we see in the foreground as "sharpshooters" not snipers, which carries a negative connotation."

"Do not ignore the Oil for Food story, please."

more...

What a tool. Can't wait for that debate.

(Announcement is scheduled for this morning)

...and even if we were going to delay them we wouldn't tell the likes of the American people.

Seems like it dawned on them that there's no plan for canceling the national election because you don't fucking cancel national elections.

Local areas have delayed elections in emergencies, and that's fine- but there is no logical reason for a nation-wide delay.

Washington Post Correction:

A Washington Post story on a new Senate report on intelligence failures said that former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV told his contacts at the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from the African nation of Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that was interested in making that purchase, but no contract was signed, according to the report.

Link

Josh Marshall called them on it Saturday.
Thanks d.

When Dick Cheney says Kerry and Edwards, "[R]eviewed the same reports on Iraq that were given to President Bush and supported the decision to go to war" he fails to mention that the reports were fabricated by Bush's team in the Pentagon's Office of Special Projects.

/pickler

I mentioned James Bamford's new book "A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies" in passing in a previous post. This is a hell of a book, and I want to make a point of highly recommending it.

Bamford is already well known for covering the intelligence community. Specifically he's published two highly regarded books about the National Security Agency, the first of which was published back when NSA still stood for "No Such Agency."

In "A Pretext for War" Bamford puts together an incredibly detailed account of the events related to 9/11, Afghanistan and the Iraq war. Bamford comes up with some amazing specifics about the origins of the Iraq war plan- it turns out the original war plan was conceived many years before 9/11 as a strategy to make Israel safer. In the mid-90's, while working for a pro-Israel group and advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Richard Perle and Doug Feith proposed that Israel should find a way to get the United States to invade Iraq and install a Israel-friendly government. Netanyahu rejected the idea. The idea was repackaged slightly by Perle and Feith when Bush took office, and 9/11 was the perfect opportunity to enact it.

Bamford explores details of the Continuity of Government plan, or COG. COG has existed since the Eisenhower Administration- it's a shadow government which is in place in case the leaders of the country are killed. In this shadow government, the Congress is eliminated. (Yes, it's pretty obvious which branch came up with this plan...)

Should all the officials in the line of succession be killed ordinary citizens from all over the country chosen in advance as a part of COG are set to rise up and take control.

At this point I have to reiterate- this isn't tin-foil hat stuff- this is an actual plan drawn up in the '50s and it's still alive today.

Also covered in the book: Curveball, Chalabi, Judith Miller's moronic reporting, Wilson's debunking of the Niger yellowcake story, which, despite recent headlines, remains debunked- it's all here.

There are a few minor issues with the book- a few repeated paragraphs, which are possibly an indication of how quickly this book was published.

None the less, there is a lot of new information, and I really would encourage everyone to check this one out.

Michael Moore has posted his sources for Fahrenheit 9/11.

Link

Bush was asked on Friday if he were to write a memoir after leaving office what it would be called- Dan Froomkin has the painful ramble of an answer (last item)- turns out it he would call it "A Charge To Keep."

Bush apparently forgot that he already wrote an autobiography called "A Charge To Keep."



Maybe if he had actually written a word of it would have stuck more prominently in his memory.

Drudge linked to what he says is one of the Hitler ads submitted to MoveOn.org's commercial contest- first of all- oooh!! Scandal!!! Clearly since the file exists on their server inferences can be made! Shock! Horror!

Whatever.

What MoveOn should do is replace the file with one of their commercials- do it quick- there are probably dozens of people clicking on that link, why not make use of it?

Update: Too late, they locked the directory. Drudge hasn't noticed yet, so there's still time... but it would have been best to slip the ad in there undetected- could have lasted all afternoon.

Right-wing media company Clear Channel, which owns most of the radio stations in your town is refusing to run an anti-war ad in Times Square.

Here's the ad:


The group responsible for the ad changed the bomb to a dove but the ad was still rejected- Clear Channel suggested the copy be changed to take out the anti-war language.

My contacts in the Washington Post newsroom aren't as talky as Drudge's, so here's what his guy says:

ENRON DOCUMENTS SHOW TOM DELAY'S REDISTRICTING EFFORTS... MORE... WASH POST PLANNING ENTIRE ABOVE-FOLD FRONT PAGE SPLASH, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE. 3,200-WORD STORY... // DeLay requested donation come from 'combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives,' with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas," said the e-mail to Ken Lay... The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of ENRON, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by POST that show DeLay and his associates directed funds from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers... MORE...

Update: Here's the Post article, posted not five minutes ago. Wow do I need a hobby.

I'm not shocked. If the election continues to go the way it's going, Bush's lawyers will find a way to cut us out of the process.

Maybe they'll move it up two days without telling anyone...

Update: Silly me- of course the electoral collage already has taken us out of the process, it's just that I anticipate that the illusion of the popular vote will be taken away by these guys if at all possible.

My NY Times this morning has this paragraph:

The Senate Intelligence Committee report, which otherwise harshly criticized the C.I.A. for overstating the threat posed by Iraq before last year's invasion, praised the way the C.I.A. analysts had studied — and largely discounted — theories about close working ties between Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

The online version of the article, by Philip Shenon, corrects:

The Senate Intelligence Committee report, which otherwise harshly criticized the C.I.A. for overstating the threat posed by Iraq before last year's invasion, praised the way the C.I.A. analysts had studied — and largely discounted — theories about close working ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

Reporters fight after Tom Ridge's press conference- Jay Leno has the tape.



What little coverage this has gotten reports that the shorter guy was angry at the big guy for blocking his shot during the press conference.

I don't watch Jay Leno if I can help it. I'm a Letterman guy. In fact, if I'm watching the news and Leno comes on, I'll change the channel. Last night, before I had a chance to change the channel Leno rolled this incredible tape then proceeded to make an insanely lame joke about it. Something along the lines of "It's the Senate press room!!! I mean, there's a fight in the Senate!!!"

I'm sorry, but WOW does Leno suck.

Update: According to this article the shorter guy (who started the fight) is a photographer for CBS News and the taller guy (who finished it) is a reporter for the NY Post.

Last night on The Daily Show Jon covered Tom Ridge's press conference- link.

Later in the show, Jon made an important point about the recall of retired soldiers- link.

The documents that likely prove Bush didn't show up for National Guard duty have been destroyed.

It really is helpful to have a CIA director in your family.

Larry King: Have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?
John Kerry: No, I haven't, I haven't, uh-
Larry King: Plan to?
John Kerry: I don't plan to right now, no, no I don't plan to.
Larry King: Don't plan to? Wouldn't you be curious to wanna see it?
John Kerry: I've seen it, I've watched it for the last four years. [smiles]

Ridge held another in a series of the administration's "scare conferences" in which the American people are told "terrorists are out to get you, but we can't (or won't) tell you where or when. So, be scared, and vote Bush."

This stuff is straight out of 1984. Keep the public scared, but don't give them any information. There was nothing new, and in fact all Tom Ridge confirmed is that if the terrorists are working on an evil plot we don't know about it.

The threat level remains yellow- though I think the threat scale is just another device to manipulate the American people, it's telling that they never bother increasing the threat level.

Great article on Media Matters For America today responding to a Bill O'Reilly letter to the editor in which he repeats three lies that Jack Matthews and Media Matters called him out on.

While O'Reilly appears to be defending his April 27 claim that "[T]hey've lost billions of dollars in France according to 'The Paris Business Review,'" he is actually replacing it with a much weaker claim. Media Matters for America and Mathews questioned the existence of 'The Paris Business Review'; O'Reilly did not answer that charge. Instead, he cited unnamed "U.S. government figures" in support of a much more modest dollar amount of $138 million -- a far cry from the original "billions."

That figure is also incorrect.
link

O'Reilly appears incapable of responding to these charges with anything but more lies.

More details on a story briefly covered earlier-

[Specialist Sean Baker] was to wear an orange prison jumpsuit while he played the role of an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise. A five-man response team of MPs came into the cell to subdue him, not realizing that he was a U.S. soldier. They were told only that he had been pepper-sprayed after having attacked a sergeant.

He was quickly knocked down, choked and pounded into the ground. Despite giving the code word and desperately telling the MPs, “I’m a U.S. soldier! I’m a U.S. soldier!” he was not able to stop the beating.

The physical assault halted only when the prison jumpsuit was accidentally pulled down during the scuffle, revealing Baker’s military uniform.

An investigation in February 2003 determined that a criminal inquiry was not warranted. None of the soldiers involved have been disciplined. Military spokespeople said that while the injuries Baker received were “unfortunate,” they were necessary since the United States likes its soldiers to undergo training that is “as realistic as possible.”

link

I'm thinking I'll never fully understand how something like this can happen.

I wonder how much of Bush's energy policy Ken Lay wrote...

With all this talk of Edwards not being Kerry's first choice it's worth noting, as Dan Froomkin points out today, McCain was approached by Bush in 2000 before he settled for Cheney.

McCain: "George Bush asked me in 2000 if I was interested in being vice president. I said no. I wasn't interested then and I'm not interested now."

On last Friday's Crossfire- Paul Begala called Novak out on his accusation that President Clinton was involved with people's deaths over Whitewater. In this clip I included Novak's original comments on Meet The Press which he now denies making.


Bonus: If you watch closely you also get to see Colin Powell performing "YMCA" in a hard hat as an enraged Novak snarls, "That was over the line, Mr. Begala!"

Link

...who happens to be President.

First line from a NY Times article today:

WASHINGTON, July 5 — The Central Intelligence Agency was told by relatives of Iraqi scientists before the war that Baghdad's programs to develop unconventional weapons had been abandoned, but the C.I.A. failed to give that information to President Bush, even as he publicly warned of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's illicit weapons, according to government officials.

The fact is the CIA was tasked by the White House with finding a reason to go to war with Iraq. Is it really a surprise that intelligence that would have stemmed the rush to war was ignored? Are we really still in surprise mode with this shit?

James Bamford spoke to CIA analysts who were told by their supervisors to find a reason to go to war with Iraq- specifically they were directed to find something nuclear. Days later Cheney made the rounds within the CIA, slapping folks on the back, encouraging them to come up with something the administration could use. Bamford describes the analysts' shocked reactions to these directives- after all, the CIA's mission is to provide cold, hard, unbiased intelligence, not manufacture intelligence to fit a President's agenda. Unfortunately under the direction of George Tenet, the CIA became the president's personal propaganda machine.

The White House claiming victimhood is the ultimate irony- The C.I.A. isn't innocent in all this, but there's no denying that these directives came straight from the White House.

Normally when you go to The New York Post's web site they give you the front and back cover of the newspaper- not today:

The headline was originally: "Kerry's Choice - Dem Picks Gephardt As VP Candidate"

Funniest part is the big bold "EXCLUSIVE" at the top of the article. Ha.

Here's a fascinating look at how O'Reilly molds (some would say spins) the facts to conform to his view- and when the facts don't fit, he tosses them.

Prof. COLE: Well, so I'm impressed because he's playing a balanced soundbite. Maybe all the things Al Franken said about him were not true. But suddenly he interrupts; he says, `We can't use that. We've got to redo this.' Two minutes of silence, he comes back re-records the whole segment verbatim, except when he gets to Kean, he doesn't use the soundbite but instead paraphrases it to say that Kean had said that the 9-11 Commission has definitely found a connection between al-Qaeda...

more

Here's a couple of clips from Jimmy Kimmel Live-the first one has Jimmy showing a retired Colonel being interviewed on everyone's favorite right wing morning show, Fox & Friends- The Colonel gets a little angry and makes fun of the host's hair piece. Ouch.

The other video is Condi Rice trying to stay awake as Tony Blair speaks. I haven't seen this video elsewhere, thought it was worth sharing.

Seems to me all the consulting firm jobs are safe from outsourcing. Convenient.
link

The lovely and talented Bob Odenkirk from Mr. Show (among other things) has an excerpt from a forthcoming book written by the president:

Link
(I think Bob's hilarious, but for my money the best part of the article is the book cover...)

The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives.

Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an accelerating effort to mobilize President Bush's base of religious supporters. They said the suggested activities are intended to help churchgoers rally support for Bush without violating tax rules that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity.
link

Wonder how many church goers would vote for the guy who lost them their tax exempt status...

...or something.

In an exercise code-named Operation Summer Pulse 04, it is expected to arrange for an unprecedented seven aircraft carrier strike groups (CSGs) to rendezvous in waters a safe distance away from the Chinese coastline -- but still within striking distance -- after mid-July.

This will be the first time in US naval history that it sends seven of its 12 CSGs to just one region.
What the numbers mean:

ONE aircraft carrier is sent to a trouble spot as a reminder of US presence. This was done several times in the past, when tension was high in the Taiwan Strait.

TWO carriers show serious concern, as was the case when China test-fired missiles over the strait in 1996.

THREE OR FOUR are sent in combat situations -- as in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the recent Iraqi war.

Sending SEVEN carriers in peace time to the same region is unprecedented. The US plan to do this after mid-July, in the Pacific Ocean near China, is a message to Beijing for its threat to use force to stop Taiwanese independence.