Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Here's Bush the other day in his "Everythings fine. No need to worry. Just go about your business." speech.
Thank you all. Thank you and good evening. I'm honored to visit the Army War College. Generations of officers have come here to study the strategies and history of warfare.
True. In fact if Bush listened to them instead of Ahmed "you'll be greeted as liberators with with flowers and puppy dogs" Chalabi, maybe he would have heard the Army War College back in February of 2003:
"After the first year, the possibility of a serious uprising may increase should severe disillusionment set in and Iraqis begin to draw parallels between U.S. actions and historical examples of Western imperialism,"
"Any expansion of terrorism or guerrilla activity against U.S. troops in Iraq will undoubtedly require a forceful American response. Such U.S. actions could involve a dramatic escalation in the numbers of arrests, interrogations, and detentions of local Iraqis. While such actions do improve security and force protection, they seldom win friends among the local citizenry. Individuals alienated from the U.S. occupation could well have their hostility deepened and increased by these acts,"
"Without an overwhelming effort to prepare for occupation, the US may find itself in a radically different world over the next few years, a world in which the threat of Saddam Hussein seems like a pale shadow of new problems of America's own making."
I ahve a sneaking suspision that this President isn't very good at his job.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Peggy Noonan is an insane freak.
But shes an insane freak who scribbles down her insanity and gets it published.
Get this. E.L. Doctorow gave a commencement speech where he was critical of the president. Here is a relevant passage:
"One story he told was that the country of Iraq had nuclear and biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction and was intending shortly to use them on us," he said. "That was an exciting story all right, it was designed to send shivers up our spines. But it was not true.
"Another story was that the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was in league with the terrorists of al-Qaida," he said. "And that turned out to be not true. But anyway we went off to war on the basis of these stories."
At this point the crowd started booing and Jeering so loud he had to stop.
Peggys reaction?
She starts of by saying "god bless em forever". God bless em. For booing. For being rude and discourteous (remember that word). Hey whatever flaots your boat you freaky ass dolphin worshiper.
And Peggy quotes relatives and parents (SHe has no quotes from any actual student) with gems such as :
"If this would have happened in Florida, we would have taken him out"
To this lovely veiled threat of violence Peggy has nothing to say. Her outrage is at Doctorow for doing the unthinkably unamerican, and horrific action of critizizing Bush.
Later on she actually does quote someone who actually made sense:
On Sunday night a Hofstra official said that while Mr. Doctorow had the right to his views, he violated the unwritten code that college commencement speeches should inspire and unite a student body. But a Hofstra faculty member came to the fore, defending Mr. Doctorow. "I thought this was a totally appropriate place to talk about politics
because that's the world our students are entering," sociology professor Cynthia Bogard told Newsday. "I only wish their parents had provided them a better role model."
Peggys reaction? Hurl some insults:
What a fool. What a snob.
So now we've gone from the "god blessing" of the boos, to quoting threats of violence against Mr. Doctorow, to herself hurling insults at anyone who dared to say that the booing may have been, well, kinda rude.
But she ain't done yet. Here is the coup de gras. The money shot.
This is how, and I'm not kidding, Peggy Noonan explains why E.L. Doctorow was booed and jeered:
I want to explain to Ed Doctorow why he was booed. It was not, as he no doubt creamily recounted in a storytelling session over drinks that night in Sag Harbor, that those barbarians in Long Island's lesser ZIP codes don't want to hear the truth. It is not that they oppose free speech. It is not that the poor boobs of Long Island have
an unaccountable affection for George W. Bush. It is that they have class.
The poor stupid people of Long Island are courteous, and have respect for the views and feelings of others
You see, they were only being rude because they are courtous, and have class. They booed because they respect the views and feelings of others. I swear to god I'm not making this up.
And EL Doctorow thinks that they are "boobs" and "Barbarians". Don't get bogged down in the details of whether Doctorow ever said they were (he didn't), Peggy just knows thats what he thinks. And Peggy, who spends her time going from elitist wine aprty to elitist wine party in the upper west side, is all of a sudden "one of them" and its Doctorow whos the elitist snob who is creamily (WTF?) recounting the story in Sag Harbor. Peggy Noonan, blue collar regular gal?
To keep in the Noonan spirit, let me share my thoughts.
Peggy, you're an idiot, an elitist snob, A stuck up, preening, hypocritical obnoxious and vapid hag. You are rude, stupid, and a right wing whore without even the barest shred of human decency.
You are also ugly. Very very ugly.
But I only say these things because I am courteous and have class.
Ignoring journalistic ethics seems to be the flavor of the week.
Unofficially, however, according to the DrudgeReport, reporters were debating whether another Kerry comment about the spill should be considered off the record.
Kerry reportedly said, when told the president had fallen off his bike: "Did the training wheels fall off?"
Of course saying Worldnetdaily practivces "Journalism" is a stretch in and of itself.
This is a good preview of how the republican media is going to defend Bush, by abandoning all precepts of journalistic integrity. And the Bush white House is fully complicit. Ethics and morality are not as important as winning to these people.
Don’t believe me? Administration officials often give background briefings to reporters on major issues. These briefings are done off the record. But a few months ago when the decree from the White House was “smear Richard Clarke”, FOX News stepped up to the plate and as usual, did the White Houses bidding. They took their recording of Clarkes off the record briefing, which was done a year before when Clarke was with the administration, and in something Journalists have never done, asked the White House for it to be put on the record.
Why?
Because they felt it made Clarke look like he was giving contradictory statements (he wasn’t). The White House happily complied.
Now that Bush’s approval rating is 41%, expect them to get desperate, expect it to get worse.
The only outlet for true honest news from now on is Ed's Daily Rant.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Lessons in Jornalism part 2
It looks like getting drudge to do the dirty work is working out nicely for the conservative press.
Kerry said as much himself over the weekend when he heard the president fell off his bike. "I hope he's OK.... I didn't know the president rode a bike." (He also reportedly said — thank you, Drudge Report, "Did the training wheels fall off?" But we'll leave that alone. There's quite enough to work with without it.)
Ignoring for now that the artuicle is monumentally stupid (My president can beat up your President!), notice how she not only quotes Kerry directly on an off the record comment, but then even says "But we'll leave that alone" after she repeated it.
Jennifer Graham was overheard in the bathroom of a D.C. bar saying that she likes to suck off strangers for crack, according to a website I saw.
But lets leave that alone shall we?
Lessons in journalism from the Washington Times.
What happens when a Presidential candidate says something off the record that can be used against to try and make him look bad?
For the Super right wing Moonie Washington Times always eager to be Bush's bitch, it presented quite a quandary. They want to smear Kerry, but have to pretend that they are “journalists”. So they pulled what I call a Newt. Back when Newt was a congressman and he wanted to viciously smear someone he did it by having his people leak the vicous smear to the press. The press then reported it, and Newt would hold a press conference to “comment” on what he “read” in the newspaper, I.E. the smear he planted.
SO today instead of reporting on Kerrys off the record joke about Bush, they do a “news report” on how a website posted the off the record comment. Like so:
"Kerry told reporters in front of cameras, 'Did the training wheels fall off?' " Mr. Drudge reported on his Web site, www.drudgereport.com.
This lets them reprint the comment in full, call it an insult, and they can safely pretend they are still “Journalists”.
