Meaty, Beefy, Big and Pukey

WASHINGTON -- A potential Republican candidate for the Senate seat from Illinois -- where the party's nominee withdrew over sex club allegations -- engaged in "lewd and abusive behavior" while she served as a top official in the White House drug policy office, an internal inquiry found last year.

...

The lewd and abusive behavior finding stemmed from a Dec. 19, 2002, staff gathering. Barthwell made comments about a staff member's sexual orientation after the staff member misspoke in an earlier conversation, the memorandum said.

"Dr. Barthwell made reference to this staff member sitting on men's laps. A kaleidoscope pointed upward was placed on a chair by Dr. Barthwell as the staff member was about to sit down," it said.

"Dr. Barthwell suggested that the staff member would want to cut the cake available for the gathering because the knife was 'long and hard' and he might 'enjoy handling it.' When the cake was cut, Dr. Barthwell referred to the pieces as 'most' [????] or 'beefy' and she said to the staff member, 'I know you like it big and meaty.'

The Platform

For those eagerly anticipating Roger Ailes' 2.4/4 (more or less, depending on what other obligations I have) stay-at-home coverage of the Democratic National Convention, here's the 2004 Platform. (.pdf file.)

Don't worry, there won't be a test.

For the Republican convention, I'll come up with a drinking game or something.

How To Write Like A Moonie

"Neither Mr. Wilson nor the publisher of his book 'The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity,' did not respond to requests for comment yesterday."

It may be a right-wing rag, but you should still take a little pride in your work, Mr. Lakely.

Attack of the Cohen

Richard Cohen starts out his latest column like this:

I have a friend who is always alert to the expropriation of the dead for selfish reasons. Specifically, she has special scorn for people who excuse themselves from attending a funeral by saying that the deceased would have understood.

He then goes on to bash Ron Reagan Not-Jnr. for agreeing to speak at the Democratic convention, and calls Ron a "grave robber."

The column doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but you probably guessed that from the byline.

As far as I can tell, Cohen thinks Ron Not-Jnr. is a selfish grave robber because he is a nobody, and he's just appearing at the convention to bash Bush. Selfish? Does Ron own lots of biotech stocks? Will stem-cell research reanimate Ronnie? The actual facts that (1) Ron's not going to bash Bush in his speech and (2) he will be promoting an idea that will benefit others (and most likely not himself personally) seem not to have registered with Cohen.

Cohen charges Ron with "expropriat[ing] his father's fame and stature for his own purposes," which, Cohen believes, is particularly inappropriate since the Gipper's views on stem-cell research are not known. But Ron is not purporting to speak for his father. He's speaking as someone who saw what a disease did to his father. Would Cohen give his blessing only to advocacy by victims of disease who are already famous, or by already-famous family members of victims? The suffering riff-raff need not apply.

Would Ron Reagan be speaking in Boston if his father wasn't a former President? Most likely not. But so what? In 1992, Elizabeth Glaser was the unknown wife of a formerly famous television actor when she spoke to the Democratic Convention about AIDS. She too could be accused of expropriating her husband's fame and stature, and deemed unqualified to speak on an issue of national importance. In the case of Alzheimer's, it's not possible to have a victim of the disease speak on her or his own behalf. Would Cohen have the Democrats ignore the issue altogether rather than present a speech from an intelligent and articulate advocate, simply because his father, St. Ronnie, was Republican?

Cohen also believes that "a person with Alzheimer's may not be aware of his condition," and thus wonders if Alzheimer's victims actually "suffer." Which illustrates why Cohen should not be allowed to criticize anyone else, ever, on his or her lack of knowledge or expertise.

I'm also not sure Cohen understands what expropriation means.

(Thanks to jdancingkid for the link.)

War Pigs

Neocons who plot destruction/Outsourcing death's construction...

The New York Times attends OzzFest:

In his own band, Mr. Osbourne sings gallows-humor party anthems; in Black Sabbath, he sings of real dread, backed with the fat certainty of Tony Iommi's guitar sound and a slow groove. For 60 minutes at the end of the night, Sabbath played a few of its ultra-refined riff songs from 1969 to 1972, with solos in the exact same places, played more or less the same ways.

"War Pigs," the opener, was the best song of the set and the entire day. To double the force of the music, the giant screens next to the stage showed pictures of President Bush juxtaposed with pictures of Hitler.

And it's all brought to you by Clear Channel. (.pdf file)

Shouldn't a bunch of redneck disk jockeys be quitting their jobs in protest right about now?

Shouldn't a bunch of Republicans be giving some money back?

And Now, Meet My New Ambassador to Thailand, Neilsie, Come On Up Here....

The Moonie Times reports:

President Bush yesterday castigated Fidel Castro's regime for contributing to the worldwide problem of human trafficking by becoming a destination for "sex tourism" and vowed to work toward "the rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba."

"Human life is the gift of our creator, and it should never be for sale," Mr. Bush told participants at the first national training conference on "Human Trafficking in the United States" in Tampa, Fla.

The creator says you can lob missles at it indiscriminately, however.

The president, citing a Johns Hopkins University study, said the easing of travel restrictions to the island in the 1990s created "an influx of American and Canadian tourists," who "contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution in Cuba."

Damn that madman Castro for contributing to Human Trafficking In The United States. That's something Americans would never do!

Except in the United States.

Or in Cuba.

You'd almost think Bush's concern for human trafficking was politically motivated.

"We have put a strategy in place to hasten the day when no Cuban child is exploited to finance a failed revolution and every Cuban citizen will live in freedom," said Mr. Bush, who won Florida, and the presidency in 2000, by just 547 votes.

sic.

Meet Your Liberal Media: The Lie That Dare Not Speak The Name Judith Miller Edition

The New York Times regrets misleading the country in support of George Bush's little war.  This editorial isn't the first mea culpa, and shouldn't be the last. But it still refuses to name the names of those responsible within its ranks.  Selected strands from the Times' hairshirt follow:

As we've noted in several editorials since the fall of Baghdad, we were wrong about the weapons. And we should have been more aggressive in helping our readers understand that there was always a possibility that no large stockpiles existed.

...

At the time, we believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding large quantities of chemical and biological weapons because we assumed that he would have behaved differently if he wasn't.

...

But we do fault ourselves for failing to deconstruct the W.M.D. issue with the kind of thoroughness we directed at the question of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or even tax cuts in time of war. We did not listen carefully to the people who disagreed with us. Our certainty flowed from the fact that such an overwhelming majority of government officials, past and present, top intelligence officials and other experts were sure that the weapons were there. We had a groupthink of our own.

...

If we had known that there were probably no unconventional weapons, we would have argued earlier and harder that invading Iraq made no sense.

...

Congress would never have given President Bush a blank check for military action if it had known that there was no real evidence that Iraq was likely to provide aid to terrorists or was capable of inflicting grave damage on our country or our allies. Many politicians who voted to authorize the war still refuse to admit that they made a mistake. But they did. And even though this page came down against the invasion, we regret now that we didn't do more to challenge the president's assumptions.

Challenge them?  Shit, you reported them -- as fact. You weren't misled -- you led the misleading.

If the Times wants its credibility back, it will have to earn it. By actions, not words.

Nobody Reads Roger

Let this be a warning to you. If you don't read Roger, you might find your blog writing checks your ass can't cash at the Check'N'Go. Sully Joe picks up on the growing scandal of how the big bad media hates Georgie:

JOURNALISTS FOR KERRY: Michael Petrelis has done some digging and found which hacks have given to which candidates. Big surprise: "President George Bush didn't receive a single donation from any outlet or reporter in my search." The New Yorker is, in particular, up to its eyeballs in reporter contributions to lefties and Dems.

Well, yes, it is a big surprise.

Sullivan seems particularly distressed by the revelation that the New Yorker is "up to its eyeballs in reporter contributions to lefties and Dems," by which he means that editor/contributors Hendrik Hertzberg and Roger Angell, film critic David Denby and an attorney for the magazine gave money to John Kerry. I hear the talking dogs in the cartoons are members of PETA, too.

Update: Petrelis Files has posted a correction. Will the hairless hack twins follow suit?

Who Do You Trustee?

The slimy old lizard in charge of National Review passed over the long-suffering Kitty-Jo Lopez and Jo-Jo the Dogface's Boy to name this twit as a trustee of the magazine. Maybe Bill was hyp-mo-tized by the shiny monkey suit. It's a particularly galling -- but deserved -- slap at the differently-abled benchwarmers in the Corner. Perhaps Bill can let the Cornerites babysit his illegitimate grandson as a consolation prize.

Letter From A Westport, CT Jail

"There are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela."

Kaus Bias B.S.

Midget Mickey Kaus posts an expose of those nasty lib'rul journalists throwing money at the Democrats.

Kaus says: "the Petrelis Files has an interesting list of journalists who've contributed to political candidates. ..."

Toward the end, Kaus sprouts mini-wood as he claims: "Rupert Murdoch maxed out ... for Kerry. That must be how he got that big Gephardt scoop!... " And he quotes Petrelis as saying: "President George Bush didn't receive a single donation from any outlet or reporter in my search."

Scandalous! Damn that liberal media!

At the Petrelis Files, the author describes the "search results of my informal survey" with respect to Murdoch as follows:

MURDOCH, RUPERT12/17/2001 $1,000.00NEW YORK, NY 10036NEWS CORPORATION -[Contribution]KERRY COMMITTEE

MURDOCH, RUPERT3/29/2001 $1,000.00NEW YORK, NY 10036NEWS CORPORATION -[Contribution]KERRY COMMITTEE

MURDOCH, K RUPERT12/1/1999 $1,000.00BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210NEWS CORP./FOX INC -[Contribution]KENNEDY FOR SENATE 2000

But if you search "Murdoch" at the site Petrelis uses, the following results also turn up:

MURDOCH, K. R MR.12/30/2003 $5,000.00New York, NY 10036News Corporation/Chairman & C.e.o. -[Contribution]NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

Murdoch, K. Rupert12/4/2003 $5,000.00New York, NY 10036News Corporation/Chairman & CEO -[Contribution]NEWS AMERICA HOLDINGS INC-FOX POL ACTION COMMITTEE (AKA NEWS AMERICA-FOX POL ACTION CMTE

MURDOCH, K.R.5/29/2003 $2,000.00WASHINGTON, DC 20001NEWS CORPORATION/EXECUTIVE -[Contribution]BILL THOMAS CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

Murdoch, Keith Rupert Mr.6/27/2003 $2,000.00New York, NY 10036News Corporation/Chairman & C.E.O. -[Contribution]BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC

Murdoch, Lachlan Mr.6/27/2003 $2,000.00New York, NY 10036News Corporation/Executive -[Contribution]BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC

MURDOCH, RUPERT2/25/2004 $2,000.00LOS ANGELES, CA 90035NEWS CORP -[Contribution]JACK RYAN FOR US SENATE

MURDOCH, RUPERT2/24/2004 $2,000.00LOS ANGELES, CA 90035NEWS CORPORATION -[Contribution]BILL JONES FOR U S SENATE

MURDOCH, RUPERT12/15/2003 $2,000.00NEW YORK, NY 10036NEWS AMERICA -[Contribution]CITIZENS FOR ARLEN SPECTER

MURDOCH, RUPERT3/18/2003 $2,000.00NEW YORK, NY 10036NEWS CORP -[Contribution]MCCAIN FOR SENATE '04

Murdoch, Rupert Mr.4/21/2004 $25,000.00New York, NY 10036Fox Entertainment Group Inc./Chairm -[Contribution]REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE

MURDOCH, WENDI2/25/2004 $2,000.00LOS ANGELES, CA 90035HOMEMAKER -[Contribution]JACK RYAN FOR US SENATE

MURDOCH, WENDI2/24/2004 $2,000.00LOS ANGELES, CA 90035HOMEMAKER -[Contribution]BILL JONES FOR U S SENATE

MURDOCH, WENDI5/29/2003 $2,000.00WASHINGTON, DC 20001NEWS CORPORATION/EXECUTIVE -[Contribution]BILL THOMAS CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

Murdoch, Wendi Mrs.6/27/2003 $2,000.00New York, NY 10036Homemaker -[Contribution]BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC

Oh, I'm so confused. What can it mean?

Seems ol' K-Rupe isn't quite the flaming liberal Kaus thinks he is.

And if you search 2000, you'll see Rupe spending his Presidential dollars on McCain and Whorin' Hatch, and more dollars on Lazio, Robb, Santorum, Snowe and the RNC (as well as Kennedy and Bill Bradley).

Not quite the big bedwetting scoop that Kaus hoped for.

Hack.

The Bloody Mike

Served only to the first string with vodka and a
full roster of goodies: pickles, onion, shrimp,
olives with three stuffings,pepper, cherry tomato
and a beer chaser ..................$9.00

Update: Timing is everything.

My Family

Late last evening, standing in front of a display card extolling the societal benefits of marriage, Rick Santorum told the Senate he was supporting a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage "for my family."

Anyone who knows me, Santorum said, "knows that nothing is more important to me than my family."

That's super, Rick. When does my family get its own Senate seat?

Let me tell you about another family, Rick. The parents have been married over forty years. They're Republicans. They taught their children to respect others, and the kids turned out okay. They've lived through 40 years of Republican fornicators, adulterers, serial monogamists, porn aficionados, johns, exhibitionists, sex club patrons, spousal abusers and pedophiles, and it hasn't hurt their family one bit.

If you think gay marriage will hurt your family, Ricky, maybe it's because you're just not a very good father.

Meet Your Liberal Media: King of Crap Edition

Larry King asked for an interview with Michael Moore, but then never followed through. This article "asks" whether King was pressured by the Bush administration to keep Moore off, but doesn't quote anyone, even Moore, who suggests that is the case. But that's not the point here.

The article illustrates what CNN considers news these days:

Recent hour-long guests on "Larry King Live" have included Gene Hackman, the parents of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and psychic Char Margolis.

Yes, Larry King is the biggest freak show on cable "news." Last week he interviewed some former Playboy model who lost custody of her kids, conceieved during an affair with a married man, to their biological father. That's important. Last night, an actress who was stabbed a stalker (in the 1980s, I believe). And then there's the biggest freak in the sideshow, Nancy Grace.

No wonder The Daily Show is the main source of television news for many. It actually mentions the news.

Community College Yokel Offended By Convention Snub

That bloggers get front seats bothers Tom McPhail, a journalism professor at the University of Missouri.

"They're certainly not committed to being objective. They thrive on rumor and innuendo," McPhail says. Bloggers "should be put in a different category, like 'pretend' journalists."

Those who can't do, whine.

McPhail's a little light on the credentials, actual reporting-wise, and it looks like he last published anything worth mentioning in 1987. But he does have a second job with the phone company.

(Via USA TOADY. The article also mentions TalkLeft.)

This Just In

Bush Administration Drafts Plan To Delay Presidential Election If Scott Peterson Is Acquitted

"There's got to be others," one senior Administration official told Susan Schmidt, "C'mon, do you have any ideas?"

Howie Kurtz, Faux Waterboy

From ROBERT BOYNTON: The Washington Post sidebar article about my giving Fox only twenty-four hours is misleadingly titled. I gave Fox 72 hours to respond and have the emails to back that up. I forwarded them all to Kurtz, who acknowledged that I was correct, but only glancingly refers to them in the piece. I gave Fox every opportunity to respond and honestly wanted to know their policy about the "fair use" of their footage in a documentary which was critical of them. Their decision not to get back to me was a result of either bureaucratic incompetence or pr calculation.

Did Howie change the hed? Maybe he can explain in his little chit-chat today.

(Via Romenesko Letters)

The best one I got recently was Ronald + Reagan's + obituary + herpes.

Can't vouch for Ronnie, but I'm clean.

A fitting tribute to Ronald Reagan.

Nice. Very nice.

(Link via Pandagon.)

The Marriage of Bigotry and Electoral Politics

From Bush's Saturday radio address:

A great deal is at stake in this matter. The union of a man and woman in marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, and the law can teach respect or disrespect for that institution. If our laws teach that marriage is the sacred commitment of a man and a woman, the basis of an orderly society, and the defining promise of a life, that strengthens the institution of marriage. If courts create their own arbitrary definition of marriage as a mere legal contract, and cut marriage off from its cultural, religious and natural roots, then the meaning of marriage is lost, and the institution is weakened. The Massachusetts court, for example, has called marriage "an evolving paradigm." That sends a message to the next generation that marriage has no enduring meaning, and that ages of moral teaching and human experience have nothing to teach us about this institution.

However, Outfoxed does not mention other memos its researchers obtained from Fox News staffers.

Those memos, shown to USA TODAY, remind correspondents to give equal emphasis to speeches by President Bush and his opponent, Sen. John Kerry.

Another memo says, "Let's not overdo the appearances by Kerry swift boat mate John O'Neill," a man who raised questions about the senator's wartime record. "He represents one side of the 30-year recollections of what Kerry did, or didn't do, in uniform. Other people have different recollections," the memo says.

Collateral Damage

From the New York Times Magazine:

The most stinging blow that "Outfoxed" delivers to Fox's "fair and balanced" claim comes in a segment of the film on the daily memos apparently sent to the entire Fox news operation by John Moody, Fox News's senior vice president for news and editorial. The memos, which Greenwald says were provided by two unnamed employees at the network, set the agenda for how events will be covered. One memo, thought to have been circulated at Fox in April, instructs employees how to report on the increasing number of American fatalities in Iraq: "Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of U.S. lives," it reads.

Here's the Outfoxed.org website.

In comments, Talk Left asked what I would have focused on had I applied for blogging credentials for the Democratic Convention in Boston, and gotten them.

Since this blog focuses on the media, most likely I would have focused on press coverage of the convention vs. the reality of the convention. That would have been primarily newspaper coverage, since it would be almost impossible to observe the cable coverage and the convention itself simultaneously. (I suppose it also depends on how close to the action the credentials would get me.)

I'd keep a beady eye out for the usual suspects in the media, hoping to spot them in embarassing situations (like on the cell phone with the no-chin twins, Gillespie and Mehlman; or demanding royal treatment from the Party).

And I probably would have asked in advance whether any readers were attending the convention, so I could interview them if they were interested. (Anyone who is attending and would like to share their experiences for publication, feel free to e-mail me.)

And just giving everyone a sense of what the scene was like. (For my own sake, too, since I've never been to a political event of that magnitude.)

Oh, and looking for stuff I could sell on eBay.

That's pretty close to what I'll be doing from home, flipping back and forth between C-SPAN and the cable news coverage, and blogging what I see.

And rummaging around my closets for stuff to sell on eBay.

A glance at News paper terms

News paper - A form of advertising on paper, often accompanied by brief items on current events used to fill space between advertisements.

As a verb, news paper means to line the bottom of a birdcage or other waste receptacle with advertising on paper.

News paper journalist - A person who fabricates events, quotes and often people. See Jack Kelley.

Pressosphere - The incestuous community of corporate enterprises which sell advertising on paper, and which pander to advertisers in an effort to increase revenue.

Neuharth - Someone who no longer has his own news paper and doesn't have anything to say, but says it anyway.

Squitieri - Form of news paper journalism focusing on disinformation and right-wing propaganda.

McPaper - A form of advertising on paper which is especially greasy, tasteless and fact-free.

Giveaway - Advertising on paper so worthless it has to be forced upon hotel patrons while they sleep.

Source: rogerailes.blogspot.com