May 2008 archive

Glenn Greenwald

10 am 5 Who needs Dana Perino when you have the NYT’s Michael Gordon?

Glenn Greenwald @ Salon.com

Monday May 5, 2008 07:23 EDT

Like clockwork, the administration’s most stalwart surge supporter/journalist — the New York Times’ Michael Gordon — has a lengthy article today bolstering the administration’s war-justifying accusations against Iran. It claims in the lead sentence that “militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran,” and that “the training, the Americans say, is carried out at several camps near Tehran that are overseen by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command, and the instruction is carried out by militants from Hezbollah, which has long been supported by the Quds Force.”

As usual with Gordon’s articles, nothing is done here other than uncritically repeating Bush administration claims under the cover of anonymity. Virtually every paragraph in this article is nothing more a mindless recitation of uncorroborated assertions which he copies from Bush officials and then weaves into a news narrative, with the phrase “American officials say” tacked on at the end or the phrase “according to officials” unobtrusively interspersed in the middle…

…

The administration’s war-threatening rhetoric against Iran has plainly reached new heights in the last several weeks. Whether they really intend to follow through on those threats before Bush leaves office is unclear, though some commentators with a history of insight and prescience — such as Scott Ritter — are convinced they will. But what is clear is that the administration has no better ally in disseminating its war-provoking accusations than Michael Gordon and his NYT Editors, for whom “reporting” consists of repeating whatever Bush officials say — no matter how significant or dubious — and to do so without challenge and while baselessly granting them anonymity to do make their provocative accusations without accountability.

 I hate Yahoo.

Let’s get that straight.

And, before I go any further, PLEASE don’t tell me stories of this or that “very nice and knowledgeable ‘Customer Service'” rep you once spoke to.  I find this blog phenomenon happening repeatedly:  someone writes something critical of this or that company, then someone else sweeps-in to tell a “happy-talk” story, thinking that that nullifies the original premise — which, of course, it doesn’t.  

It’s as if someone blows the whistle on a bad cop who sexually assaults motorists he pulls over, then someone else comes to the bad cop’s rescue saying, “Be that as it may, he volunteers at Habitat every 3rd weekend!” — as if that has anything to do with the original premise/problem.  So, please, defenders of Yahoo, spare us non-sequitur defenses of this jack-leg company that seems so quick to confuse being on the front-end of the search engine business model to actually being managed by competents.  In other words, just because VHS beat-out Betamax doesn’t mean VHS was better than Beta.  Similarly, Yahoo seems to confuse good market positioning, PR and a healthy does of dumb luck with actual “worth while product/service.”

Oh, and by the way:  Yahoo Shares Tumble.  Heh.

More below the fold.

cross posted to Docudharma, Dailykos, Turn Maine Blue and VetVoice from Military Spouse Press, http://www.milspousepress.com/

I began writing a response to NamGuardianAngel’s article below this one, http://www.milspousepress.com/… and it became a MEGA comment.

I also realized that the information was too important to you as a military spouse to contribute as just a comment. I had to ensure it was read by the maximum number by making it a stand alone Editorial Page contribution.

Hopefully, what is discussed will never affect you personally but statistics, studies and history prove beyond any doubt that they will affect a high percentage of military spouses.

PLEASE do not wait. Take action. If not for your soldier, yourself, your family, then for the other military spouses who will be affected by this.

Docudharma’s picks:

and ucc edges me out by picking the correct number of games for the stars/fins series….good job, ucc!!

Conference Championship Matchups:

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh (2) vs. Philadelphia (6) (series begins Friday)

Western Conference

Detroit (1) vs. Dallas (5)  (series begins Thursday)

“this dream never ends” you said

“this feeling never goes

the time will never come to slip away”

“this wave never breaks” you said

“this sun never sets again

Monday’s Headlines: Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in U.S. Custody: Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early: Thais sued by Tesco deny that firm contacted them: Sinking without trace: Australia’s climate change victims: Curry houses test Europe’s eastern promise: Zimbabwe run-off vote may face year delay: AfDB adds $1 bln in loans for Africa food crisis: US-backed plan sees shiny future for Green Zone in Iraq: The Best of Buddies, Amid Dust and Danger: Bolivian province votes for autonomy

Aid effort for cyclone-hit Burma

Some aid is beginning to reach victims of the cyclone that hit Burma on Saturday, killing hundreds of people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

Both Burmese officials and international agencies are working to assess the scale of the disaster, with five regions declared disaster zones.

More than 350 people were killed and thousands of buildings destroyed by the storm, state media said.

But a referendum on a new constitution will still go ahead on 10 May, it said.

“The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting,” the government said in a statement carried by state media.

Burma’s leaders say the referendum will pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010, but critics say the charter is aimed primarily at further entrenching military rule.

CAMPAIGN OUTSIDER

Democrats do have a nominee

By Muhammad Cohen

HONG KONG – Hundreds of thousands of Democrats will vote in the United States presidential elections in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday, and those results won’t matter. But the reason the final tally won’t matter is different from the reason the vote didn’t matter in Pennsylvania two weeks ago.

Senator Hillary Clinton’s win in the Pennsylvania primary didn’t change the calculus in fashion back then: Senator Barack Obama still led in pledged delegates, overall delegates, popular vote, and

states won, and thus remained the prohibitive favorite for the nomination.

The All-White Elephant in the Room

By FRANK RICH, The New York Times

Published: May 4, 2008

BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.

What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

…

Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church.

That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive “holy war” with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton. Mr. McCain instead told George Stephanopoulos two Sundays ago that while he condemns any “anti-anything” remarks by Mr. Hagee, he is still “glad to have his endorsement.”

…

There is not just a double standard for black and white politicians at play in too much of the news media and political establishment, but there is also a glaring double standard for our political parties. The Clintons and Mr. Obama are always held accountable for their racial stands, as they should be, but the elephant in the room of our politics is rarely acknowledged: In the 21st century, the so-called party of Lincoln does not have a single African-American among its collective 247 senators and representatives in Washington. Yes, there are appointees like Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice, but, as we learned during the Mark Foley scandal, even gay men may hold more G.O.P. positions of power than blacks.