Croooow Blog
Friday, July 18, 2003:
Hey everyone, go here from now on...
Henry Hanks // 12:57 AM
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Wednesday, July 16, 2003:
Hopefully Keller will take a stand against so-called "news" stories like this apparent whitewash, but we'll see...
Henry Hanks // 1:28 AM
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Once again, the mainstream press tilts left:
The American news media informed the public adequately yesterday.MWO will return tomorrow.
I rest my case.
Henry Hanks // 1:25 AM
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The Blogfather alerts us to the annual Somerby post that actually isn't pro-Democrat spin...
Of course halfway into it, he rehashes something about (surprise!) the Gorebot for no clear reason other than as an attempt to keep the hate mail to a minimum...
Henry Hanks // 1:21 AM
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Sully has the latest on the BBC...
Henry Hanks // 1:19 AM
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Bill & Hill wanted you to foot the bill:
The government will pay only a small portion of the legal fees accumulated by former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the independent counsel investigation of their failed Arkansas land deal, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia authorized a payment of about $85,000 -- a fraction of the $3.5 million the Clintons had sought. The costs stemmed from the Whitewater investigation, which lasted more than seven years and cost the government $70 million.
In making their decision, the three-judge panel rejected the Clintons' argument that they would never have faced such an expensive, lengthy process if not for their positions as president and first lady.
"We harbor no doubt that in the absence of the independent counsel statute the allegations surrounding the Clintons, Madison Guaranty and Whitewater would have been similarly investigated and prosecuted by the Department of Justice," the panel wrote.
The Clintons were never indicted, but the appeals court's 14-page decision notes the independent investigation into Whitewater and other matters ultimately resulted in 24 indictments, at least 16 convictions and the impeachment of the president.
Henry Hanks // 1:12 AM
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Tuesday, July 15, 2003:
Welch links to a new study on the environment...
Henry Hanks // 11:08 PM
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Bevan has a little on Krugman (and a lot more) while "Musil" has a lot on Krugman...
Henry Hanks // 11:06 PM
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Henry Hanks // 11:03 PM
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One messed-up mamma-jamma writes to the SF Chronicle...
Henry Hanks // 10:59 PM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
ABC’s Charles Gibson on Monday morning contended that in Sunday interview show appearances Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld displayed “a parsing of words, something this administration once vowed it would never do."
And more about Tapper:Barely a month after FOB Rick Kaplan re-joined ABC News from CNN as Executive Vice President, ABC has hired Jake Tapper, a liberal pundit and a political reporter for the liberal Salon.com, as a Washington correspondent. In 2001, Tapper penned Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency, a book which publisher Little Brown promoted as delivering an assessment of George W. Bush as “a brilliant schmoozer and deft liar with the intellectual inquisitiveness of the average fern.”
Henry Hanks // 10:51 PM
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The Blogfather nails it on Aaron Brown...
Henry Hanks // 10:46 PM
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Bob Graham can't count... but hey, I hear a new "Bushism" is posted!
Henry Hanks // 10:36 PM
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The Talkmaster:
The most recent Gallup Poll shows that only 9% of Americans rank terrorism as the number one problem facing this country. At this very moment Islamic terrorists are trying to figure out how to murder more American citizens, and only 9% of those potential targets cite that as their top concern. This is either a tremendous vote of confidence for our government, or a further indication of the dumbing-down of the American people.
Also here he is on the non-scandal...
Henry Hanks // 10:33 PM
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You mean to say there was no Jenin massacre? No! Someone alert (Un)FAIR's Steve Rendall...
Henry Hanks // 1:55 AM
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This blog is worth checking out if you haven't already...
Henry Hanks // 1:45 AM
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Keller takes over the NYT...
Henry Hanks // 1:43 AM
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The 20 "lies" debunked...
Henry Hanks // 1:42 AM
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Katie Couric, biased as ever...
Henry Hanks // 1:39 AM
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Monday, July 14, 2003:
A recent Spinsanity piece linked to this article on JohnFKerry-who-by-the-way-served-in-Vietnam's June statement about being "misled" by Bush... The article states that "Kerry said Bush made his case for war based on at least two pieces of U.S. intelligence that now appear to be wrong - that Iraq sought nuclear material from Africa and that Saddam's regime had aerial weapons capable of attacking the United States with biological material." It claims he also "said it is too early to conclude whether or not war with Iraq was justified." Never mind, of course, that in November, JohnFKerry-who-by-the-way-served-in-Vietnam believed war was justified enough to vote for it. These statements are clearly a way to get out of questions over this vote. However, the claim about Africa he is talking about took place two months later. As for the "aerial weapons" claim, the idea that that has been debunked at all is certainly news to me (if he's talking about the Iraqi claim that they weren't really weapons, he needs to talk to Jim Smith and think twice about taking Iraqi claims at face value), and if so, wouldn't we have heard more about this with the Dems as a whole in full "Bush lied!" hysterics?
Henry Hanks // 10:57 PM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
After the federal income tax withholding schedules were adjusted July 1 to account for part of President Bush's $350 billion tax-relief stimulus package, it took all of a week for Peter Jennings and his ABC News comrade Dean Reynolds to tell viewers just how miserly the tax cuts supposedly would be for the middle class. It was an exercise in agitprop that would have made Soviet apparatchiks proud.
Read on...
Henry Hanks // 10:37 PM
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Is Yahoo! attracting radical Islamists?
Henry Hanks // 10:32 PM
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The Godfather comes to ESPN...
Henry Hanks // 10:28 PM
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France was involved in this Niger thing it turns out... meanwhile the man who wrote the NYT piece that started all this admitted in October that Iraq had a nuclear program still going...
Henry Hanks // 10:20 PM
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Kathleen Parker on blogs...
Henry Hanks // 10:17 PM
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Taranto. Go read.
Henry Hanks // 10:14 PM
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Big Me hypocrisy over taxes...
UPDATE: Billy Jeff's spokesperson tells The Note the story is false... bizarrely, Altie copies and pastes it to his blog with the sole attribution being The Note... I'm sorry, but how can anyone call this a decent blog?
Henry Hanks // 10:11 PM
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The latest on the Hong Kong protests, courtesy on the Blogfather...
Henry Hanks // 10:00 PM
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Carnell has another set of "anti-war" protest pics...
Henry Hanks // 9:53 PM
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Interesting piece on those who resigned over the Baghdad museum here...
Henry Hanks // 12:05 AM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
So much for any notion that the Barbara Walters interview with Hillary Clinton was a news-based interview. Meredith Vieira, a veteran of 60 Minutes, saw it as simply a publicity stunt and she credited Walters for Clinton’s good book sales. On The View, Vieira proposed: “She should thank you Barbara because after you did the interview...with Hillary, first time she was she was speaking out about the book, talking about it, the next day 300,000 copies flew off the shelves of that book. So Barbara, she owes you a big thank you.”
UPDATE:Jake Tapper, the longtime Salon correspondent, is joining ABC News as a Washington correspondent.
We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and see if Tapper can remain unbiased (assuming he's not there as a commentator... I mean, man, with George Will and John Stossel there, they really need to keep adding lefties)...
Henry Hanks // 12:02 AM
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Sunday, July 13, 2003:
Well, this certainly isn't good...
Henry Hanks // 11:59 PM
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More evidence, assuming this is legit, of al Qaeda/Iraq connections... (Thanks to the Blogfather and Cramer.)
UPDATE: More here...
Henry Hanks // 11:41 PM
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More Dem division...
Henry Hanks // 11:39 PM
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Think the NYT's troubles are over? Think again...
Henry Hanks // 11:36 PM
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Blogging from the Television Critics Association press tour here and here...
Henry Hanks // 11:34 PM
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F. Lee Levin points out the hypocrisy of the likes of Carl Levin...
Henry Hanks // 11:32 PM
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Jacob Sullum on the Dixie Chicks, McCain, etc.
Henry Hanks // 11:27 PM
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Announcement: Day by Day will be offline for 30 days, but don't worry, it shall return...
Henry Hanks // 11:26 PM
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Friday, July 11, 2003:
See BS has apparently hired the headline writers from Media Horseshit Online... or the NYT. Is there much difference anyway? Here's Hawkins' take...
UPDATE: Volokh has more on this here and even more on See BS here... "What liberal media," right?
Henry Hanks // 12:28 AM
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Thursday, July 10, 2003:
Den Beste finds a new low for Chirac...
Henry Hanks // 10:55 PM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
As if the average African or even African leader were peppering President Bush with questions about his evidence for going to war with Iraq, ABC’s Peter Jennings opened his Wednesday broadcast by trumpeting how “the Bush administration is obliged again to defend its case for war in Iraq -- from Africa to Capitol Hill.” In fact, it was a U.S. reporter who brought up the subject in Pretoria. ABC also showcased what CBS and NBC ignored, a mere thousand protesters. ABC displayed a poster with Bush sporting a Hitler mustache, before running a soundbite from a protester who proclaimed: “We believe that George Bush is a threat to humanity and the planet.”
Plus:ABC’s Peter Jennings belittled the tax cut on Tuesday night, asking: “Will three extra dollars stimulate the national economy?” Dean Reynolds talked to a couple who appreciated their $15 more a week and a woman who dismissed as “nothing” the $3 more she will now be able to keep every two weeks. Dean quoted experts on both sides of the argument about whether the tax cut will boost the economy, but he ended his piece by ridiculing the amount of the tax cut. Referring to the husband in the couple getting $15 per week, Reynolds snidely observed: “He may use some of his windfall to restore that '57 Chevy in his garage. And at 15 bucks a week, he figures the job would be done in about 20 years.”
Henry Hanks // 10:53 PM
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Grayout has now invited his opponents to kick him out of office:
A spokesman for Governor Davis said he was prepared to wage a fierce campaign to keep his job."His attitude is, bring them on," said Steve Maviglio, the governor's press secretary.
How outrageous and irresponsible! (Thanks to Taranto.)
Henry Hanks // 10:51 PM
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It's not just Aaron Brown:
Two months after the President's address to Congress, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and went further than the president in alleging Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program. "He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons," Cheney said.
The author? Wolf Blitzer. The Cheney quote, of course, is out of context...
Henry Hanks // 10:48 PM
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An interesting comparison of King Richard quotes...
Henry Hanks // 10:06 PM
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James S. Robbins and the Blogfather comment on "uranium-gate"...
UPDATE: Knapp, Clifford D. May and Byron York have more...
Henry Hanks // 9:40 PM
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Salam Pax's big payday... (Thanks to Welch @ Hit & Run.)
Henry Hanks // 9:35 PM
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ALTERMAN WATCH: Cathy Young demolishes What Liberal Media?...
Henry Hanks // 9:23 PM
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If you look past the headlines, progress is being made in Iraq...
Henry Hanks // 9:21 PM
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Man, I hate when that happens...
Henry Hanks // 9:19 PM
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I guess he's one hell of a communications director...
Henry Hanks // 9:18 PM
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The only bright side to this is this idiot only teaches at a junior college...
Henry Hanks // 9:13 PM
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A good roundup on Iran, courtesy the Blogfather...
Meanwhile, other countries have protests as well (can you believe it?)...
Henry Hanks // 9:10 PM
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Buzzflash reveals quite a lot about their worldview, such as their respect (or lack thereof) for the founding of this country... (Thanks to Quick.)
Henry Hanks // 9:06 PM
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You expect a lot of things from Pat Robertson, but I don't think supporting murderous dictators is one of them... At least with the Good "Reverend," that's another story...
Henry Hanks // 9:02 PM
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More caught in Iraq...
Henry Hanks // 8:56 PM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
President Bush may have overreached when he cited how Iraq had received uranium from Niger, but in reporting Tuesday night on the White House's admission that the charge was based on forged documents, ABC's Peter Jennings and NBC's Tom Brokaw also overreached in delivering broad generalities about how the concession undermined a premise for the war. Jennings charged: "The Bush administration admits that a vital argument for going to war against Iraq was not true." Brokaw asserted: "There are new questions about his justification for war with Iraq." But as CBS's David Martin pointed out: "Both [Colin] Powell and the CIA believed then and believe now there is plenty of other evidence to show Saddam was still pursuing a nuclear weapon." Jennings also rued how Bush is too popular for the admission to hurt him.
But that's not all:ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, who on the Late Show last September admitted that his mother "was pretty anti-American" and that growing up in Canada he was "raised with anti-Americanism in my blood, or in my mother's milk at least," on May 30 was sworn in as a U.S. citizen, though he maintains dual citizenship with Canada.
More:Add a third ABC News program and anchor to the list of ABC reporters appalled by President Bush's "bring 'em on" comment from last week. On Monday's Nightline Chris Bury insisted it "sounds pretty macho, almost a taunt," after he prodded his guest to denounce it. Retired General William Nash decreed: "I'm not sure that that's a useful comment to make in the public."
Henry Hanks // 2:08 AM
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The LAT's Tim Rutten takes Daschle's talk radio/terrorist comparison and runs with it...
Henry Hanks // 2:05 AM
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Byron York has an extensive report on the Halliburton non-scandal...
Henry Hanks // 2:04 AM
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Looks like the recall effort will force a new vote... how exactly putting something to a vote more than once every four years is "undemocratic" is beyond me...
Henry Hanks // 1:56 AM
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The runner-up for the left's Savage, Neil "Kiss a N----- in the Morning" Rogers, does it again:
Miami's top-rated talk show host told its listeners Tuesday that Rep. Katherine Harris had died in a plane crash on Monday. WQAM 560 AM host Neil Rogers apparently saw a posting online that said Harris had died in a plane crash Monday, while in a secret meeting with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in Canada.
"Katherine Harris is dead!" reported Rogers on the air, "I've got the news story right here, it's on the Internet. A plane crash! Yes!!"
However, while Rogers was reporting on Harris' death, she was appearing live -- and alive -- on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington. Her appearance was carried live on C-SPAN.
Now we don't have the audio (yet, anyway), but that "Yes!!" is disturbing...
Henry Hanks // 1:50 AM
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The Chicago Cubs manager pulls a Jimmy the Greek...
Henry Hanks // 1:44 AM
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ALTERMAN WATCH: The least-convincing pundit on bias strikes again:
A little background: This alleged meeting, which was based on the claim of a single uncorroborated informant to Czech intelligence, was bartered about repeatedly in the media, with war supporters like William Safire calling it “an “undisputed fact,” and Vice President Cheney terming it “pretty well confirmed," even after Czech President Havel informed President Bush that the meeting had almost certainly not taken place.
Except he didn't... Now, perhaps Altie is unaware of this (and this), but this sentence says that Cheney called it "pretty well confirmed" after the allegation that Havel had called Bush. That allegation was made in the NYT in October 2002 (the original report said Havel sent the "message" to them earlier that year). Cheney's quote was from December 2001. Safire's quote? From this column a month earlier. Altie goes on to give the claims of Zubaydah all the merit in the world, just as he did the Abbas claims. By the way, how's the correction coming on that one, Altie? It's starting to get difficult to keep track of them...
Henry Hanks // 1:30 AM
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If Billy Jeff were to testify about Sept. 11th (and by all means, let him testify along with Bush), here are some questions worth asking...
Henry Hanks // 1:13 AM
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"Musil" on Queen Hill's unfortunate photo and more...
Henry Hanks // 1:11 AM
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Caruso explains the Dixie Chicks situation one more time for those who didn't follow...
Henry Hanks // 1:06 AM
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Not so fast, folks:
Mr Blair said: "This is terribly important, because this has again been elevated into something that really is not warranted by the actual facts. There was an historic link between Niger and Iraq. In the 1980s Iraq purchased somewhere in the region of 200 tons of uranium from Niger. The evidence that we had that the Iraqi government had gone back to try to purchase further amounts of uranium from Niger did not come from these so-called forged documents. They came from separate intelligence. In so far as our intelligence services are concerned, they stand by that."
Thus far, I have been unable to find an American mainstream press outlet to report the above quote.Meanwhile, there's this via the Blogfather...
UPDATE: Well, for the most part, they're still not reporting on the Blair quote but the aforementioned false Capitol Hill Blue story was certainly reported...
UPDATE II: More from Brent Baker...
UPDATE III: Still more...
Henry Hanks // 12:50 AM
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LotL:
BOOK RACE (**NIELSEN'S BOOKSCAN, SOLD COPIES AT BORDERS, B&N;, AMAZON, COSTCO, TARGET, OTHERS...):1. HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER - Rowling - 527,126 (YTD: 6,444,120)
2. EAST OF EDEN - Steinbeck - 74,267 (YTD: 335,745)
3. LIVING HISTORY - Clinton - 65,473 (YTD: 780,534)
4. DA VINCI CODE - Brown -- 54,797 (YTD: 673,058)
5. JOHNNY ANGEL - Steel - 48,309 (YTD: 49,309)
6. TREASON LIBERAL TREACHERY - Coulter - 46,057 (YTD: 115,633)
N/A. CLINTON WARS - Blumenthal - 2,527 (YTD: 39,891)
FYI East of Eden is a 50-year old book...
Henry Hanks // 12:30 AM
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Wednesday, July 09, 2003:
Don't forget Hitch...
Henry Hanks // 2:39 AM
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Taranto's always good to read, so go read already...
Henry Hanks // 2:32 AM
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This probably won't make Mark Mammott very popular among his colleagues...
Henry Hanks // 2:18 AM
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Sully is following everything Iran, so go read...
Henry Hanks // 2:12 AM
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The truth sets another one (this time, the Sacramento Bee's ombudsman) free:
Before I continue, a quick comment: In my first column, I promised full disclosure, so I'll tell you that I've been a registered Democrat all my life. I disagree with many conservative views, but that doesn't mean I don't think conservatives raise some valid concerns about The Bee.
Henry Hanks // 2:04 AM
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Buried deep in this AP story:
Federal agencies have disclosed 39,000 pages of internal documents related to the work of Cheney's energy task force, material which so far has yielded nothing.
Is it me, or does this not make it come across (whether it actually is or not) as a witch hunt?
Henry Hanks // 1:55 AM
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ABC BIAS WATCH:
President Bush’s “bring 'em on” comment from last week continues to appall national news figures as they channel the spin of liberal Democrats. Peter Jennings on Monday night decided that Diane Sawyer asking General Tommy Franks about it was the only newsworthy part of her interview and so highlighted her asking him about it earlier in the day on Good Morning America. When he affirmed that he “absolutely” agreed with Bush’s statement, a clearly astounded Sawyer retorted, “You do!?!?”
Henry Hanks // 1:49 AM
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The madness finally ends... Well, that particular madness anyway:
As Gov. Mitt Romney basked yesterday in newfound hero status over his role in rescuing a family whose boat sank in Lake Winnipesaukee, irked Democrats tried to torpedo his big splash with partisan politics.After the Herald reported the GOP governor's rescue effort, Romney found himself in a media frenzy, including national TV headlines.
But some Democrats complained that Romney was vacationing while lawmakers debate vetoes he imposed cutting dozens of human service programs.
"There are lots of people drowning in the commonwealth right now who would certainly welcome a rescue," said Rep. Jay R. Kaufman (D-Lexington).
Words fail me. (Thanks to Cole.)
Henry Hanks // 1:39 AM
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ALTERMAN WATCH: Altie caught in a falsehood by West (more from West here)...
Henry Hanks // 1:28 AM
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Spinsanity comments on the recent rash of dubious quotes...
Henry Hanks // 1:22 AM
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