Books Offer Escape From Worries About George and How He's Screwing Up At least that's what First Mother Barbara Bush told attendees at the Texas Book Festival:
Or a worse time to HAVE George as president. But if some brilliant but feckless scientist invented a time machine and swapped George for Abe in an effort to solve the current situation, I think we'd find that Abe would handle things much better, but that The United States of America had ended in 1863 when George tried to deal with the imminent threat posed by the secession of the Southern States by declaring war on the Mormons. 11:00:36 PM  |
Yes, THAT could be the title of Ann's next book, or signature perfume ("Ann Coulter's Notoriety--ah, the smell of it!")
Young Brad Jones will get 75 Young American Foundation points for arranging for Ms. Coulter's presence on his campus, entitling him to a whole crateful of conservative books from Richard Mellon Scaife's U-Store-It, plus a chance to spend a weekend with other bright, college Republicans building a new garage for Sean Hannity. And yes, diversity is what Ann Coulter is all about. Therefore, paying $20,000 for her kind of perspective is indeed a bargain (per Brad, Ann gave them the student discount). Afterall, hiring the Disney folks to construct an animatronic Goebbels to address the college would cost much, much more than that, probably. However, the president of the CU Democrats said that Ann was a waste of money; he said that last month they got Howard Dean to speak to the campus, and he agreed to do it for free. Of course, Dean doesn't have Ann's kind of notoriety, which explains the, um, diversity in pricing. 10:31:48 PM |
Oliver North: Too Stupid to Pundit Under special assignment from the Department of Homeland Security, this blog continues to investigate pundits suspected of causing damage to our nation's defenses by bringing down the average IQ level. We are also tasking with making recommendations as to which of the self-important opiners should be stripped of their punditing permits (we always suggest those who are apparently unable to read, think, or do basic research). Our latest report concerns Oliver North, who while writing about "Memogate," said the following:
Yes, if Bush were to be revealed as having politicized intelligence and overstated (or misstated) the causes for going to war, I guess that would tend to divide him from the troops, in that they would be really mad that they had been sent to Iraq, many to die or be maimed, under false pretenses. And yes, if the American people learned about Bush's hypothetical bad leadership and/or fraud, then a large number of them probably wouldn't vote for him in 2004 and he could well be "unseated." But the fact that a "staff member" outlined a "political plan" does NOT "make it crystal clear that Democrats in the U.S. Senate have declared war against the president of the United States." At least, not here in Non-Loony Land. But that's not why we are recommending that North's pundit license be revoked. Heck, if we outlawed punditing by everybody who broke the bombastic rhetoric limit, we wouldn't have anybody left to write for the Right. No, we're reporting him to the authorities because of THIS passage, which not only shows that North is unafraid to pontificate when he doesn't know what he's talking about, but that when he realizes nobody else is mentioning something, instead of doing some research to find out why, he just assumes that it means that he is the only one smart enough to have uncovered the link between a sinister Senate staffer and the shocking secret behind the Plame affair (I think the late Robert Ludlum would have called the novelization of this plot THE TRASH CAN MEMORANDUM):
Ollie, the reason no investigative reporters have taken note of the Vice Chairmen's request for an FBI investigation regarding the Niger matter is that they are part of the insidious conspiracy -- in fact, everyone in the country is. We're all working feverishly to keep you in ignorance about everything. But hey, I am going to break silence and clue you in:
So, Ollie, I think you can see why you are deemed incapable of meeting even the basic punditing standards of NewsMax, much less those of TownHall, and so will no longer be allowed to write opinion pieces. But you will still be allowed to write those very long, preachy, political thrillers that you do so well. You could use this piece as the basis of your next one, assuming that Robert Ludlum doesn't beat you to it. 5:52:31 AM |
A consumer's guide to news media leaks Christopher Hanson, a journalism teacher at the University of Maryland, College Park, wrote an interesting piece about how leakers are not, despite what the movies show you, always noble individuals who are bravely putting their careers (and possibly more) on the line to tell get the truth before the people. No, more often than not, they're motivated by personal or political gain, and frequently deal in half truths. And reporters are often so eager for scoops that they let themselves be used by the leakers. Hanson says that the motives of the leaker effect how much credence you should place in their information -- except that "ordinary folk don't hear much about leaks, the strategy behind them and the impact they have on news." So, he proposes that "a set of standard warning symbols to accompany any news story based on leaks."
I like this proposal, and hope that we see it adopted by all the major papers. To Hanson's list of symbols I would just add a "trash can" icon, symbolizing that this information was sneakily obtained by going through the garbage cans of the leaker's political foes. (This icon, along with the knife one, would be used on all stories about "Memogate," and Sean Hannity would be required to say the symbols before discussing this story on TV or the radio.) 2:35:48 AM |
Clinton Appointee Linked to Bombshell Anti-Bush Intel Memo! Claims Newsmax Headline Well, when you read the article, it turns out that the "bombshell" memo is just the one outlining how the Democratic party could possibly use SSCI-gathered intelligence to hurt Bush's chances for re-election. And the "Clinton Appointee" (Christopher Mellon, who served as "deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence" under Clinton) is only "linked" to the memo in that he works for SSCI as a staffer for the Democratic senators -- as do 10 or so other people. And Newsmax is just quoting a Wall Street Journal editorian which says that Mellon's "head should roll" because Hillary Clinton has been critical of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq, and Mellon presumably has met Hillary, maybe. But all of this doesn't stop Newsmax from calling the memo:
You know, if I were a defense attorney for Ahmad I. al Halabi, the Air Force translator being court-martialed for espionage, I think I'd use this quote as the foundation of my case. Because if a memo by some Senate committee staffers showing how how they THOUGHT about using information for political advantage for their party is the most serious breach of national security since dual-use technology was allowed to be sold to China in 1988, then al Halabi did LESS than nothing to breach national security. 1:53:27 AM |
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