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 NEW MEDIA A Big Hat Tip to the Bloggers [Greg Pollowitz] It was Jennifer Rubin over at Commentary's Contentions blog who asked Sen. McCain the Hamas question (being discussed on the Corner) on a recent blogger conference call. Jim covered it here. 05/08 08:23 PM CHRIS MATTHEWS Matthews and the Colorist [Greg Pollowitz] Chris Matthews has changed his hair color? MSNBC host Chris Matthews took to the airwaves Thursday night with a new 'do. The normally bleach blond Matthews, host of "Hardball," now has noticeably darker hair. It's more of a russet/rusty coloration and is a bit shorter.
05/08 08:20 PM 
Livin' on a Prayer [Mark Hemingway] How bad are things in the newspaper industry? See prayingforpapers.com: Welcome to Praying for Papers This is a troubling time in the newspaper business. Everyday we hear stories from papers who are laying off employees and struggling to stay afloat.
Our idea at Praying for Papers is to encourage anyone who is effecting by this shift in our industry include it each day in their prayer life.
This includes:
* Praying for your brothers and sisters in the business who have lost their jobs or may be in danger of losing their jobs - as well as their families.
* Prayers for the leaders of our business to do the right thing in their decision-making, having them keep in mind what Christ would do.
* Praying for the people in our business who are far from God. Many of us have been troubled by the cynicism of journalism and the heaviness that places on our hearts. Freedom in Christ, no matter job circumstances, can help a lot of people.
Thanks to anyone who visits here. If you have a personal story you would like to share, please leave a comment or send an e-mail.
Thanks.
05/08 02:25 PM
Get the Bombers in the Air [Greg Pollowitz] The U.S. is considering air-dropping food in Burma because the inept leaders of the Junta won't let our planes land. Frustrated by the Myanmar government's refusal to accept help for the growing humanitarian crisis, the head of America's disaster assistance agency hinted the U.S. might ignore the junta and simply air drop food and supplies to desperate survivors. The U.S. made its warning as indications grew that the situation was getting worse in the wake of the weekend cyclone, which left as many as 70,000 dead or missing, according to the Myanmar government. A top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar has said the death toll could top 100,000.
05/08 01:30 PM
GASPing at Straws [Mark Hemingway] Oh boy, here we go again. From the AP: Yawns: new breed of rich and young but frugal SAN FRANCISCO - They drive hybrid cars, if they drive at all, shop at local stores, if they shop at all and pay off their credit cards every month, if they use them at all. They may have disposable income, but whatever they make, they live below their means, in a conscious effort to tread lightly on the earth. They are a new breed of Gen Xers and Ys, Young and Wealthy but Normal, or Yawns. The acronym comes from The Sunday Telegraph of London, which noted that an increasing number of rich young Britons are socially aware, concerned about the environment and given less to consuming than to giving money to charity. Yawns sound dull, but they are the new movers and shakers, their dreams big and bold. They are men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s who want nothing less than to change the world and save the planet.
Boy it's hard to read when you can't stop your eyes from rolling. I was going to say something certifiably witty about how ridiculous this is, but it would be impossible to top this guy: Don't forget the GASPs, the Generational Acronym Stereotype Promoters. Preferring catchy buzzwords and incoherent cliches to actual research, the GASPs are the movers and shakers of the trend-reporting world. They produce a steady stream of articles about the new breed of young, smart, wealthy, advertiser-desirable consumitizens who will, over time, behave exactly like the last batch of young, smart, wealthy, etc, acronyms. A scientist at a major university says that sometimes the past affects peoples' behavior. Some disagree, but many believe that two or three anecdotes, plus a bunch of weasel words, confirms a trend that will soon change every aspect of our lives. 05/08 12:47 PM
Sectarian Violence Erupts in Beirut [Edward John Craig] CNN is running Al-Jazeera video of a gunbattle between armed gangs along the Green Line in Beirut — the border betwen Sunni and Shia sections of the Lebanese capital. Cal Perry is on the phone and rifle fire and RPG explosions can be heard in the background. Notes Perry (roughly), "I was in Baghdad for four years — and in Lebanon for only two days, and I already have my flak jacket on."
File under "Iran News Round-Up." 05/08 11:41 AM TIME Toni Morrison on Her Past Remarks [Greg Pollowitz] Clarification: Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? —Justin Dews, Cambridge, Mass. People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.
05/08 11:29 AM
Ahead of Its Time [Edward John Craig] The OpChaos counterinsurgency continues. 
05/08 11:19 AM
"Like a 9th-Grade Boy Embarrassed to Stand Up" [Greg Pollowitz] Tucker Carlson explains how certain pundits in the MSM feel about Senator Obama. (via Hot Air) 05/08 09:11 AM CBS Rather "Too Hot to Handle" [Greg Pollowitz] Dan Rather has resubmitted his lawsuit against CBS: Dan Rather fired off a new lawsuit against his former network Tuesday, charging that CBS News labeled the anchor "too hot to handle" and prevented him from being hired by other networks after his acrimonious departure. Rather was rebuffed in an earlier suit, when many of his claims were knocked down by a New York state judge. But the judge also allowed Rather to resubmit his claims. In the latest filing, Rather claims that CNN, ABC, NBC and other networks met to talk about possible employment but that all eventually declined for reasons that included, according to the lawsuit, Rather's having had "too much baggage." The claim says he lost other business opportunities as well. He later signed with HDNet. "Mr. Rather's exposure is dramatically limited and, accordingly, his reputation and standing in his trade and profession have not recovered from the damage caused by the defendants' conduct," the lawsuit says. In a statement, CBS said: "Mr. Rather is trying to put forth fraud complaints that the court has already determined to be legally unfounded. We believe he will fail a second time. We will find an appropriate motion to dismiss." CBS was served with the amended complaint Tuesday; it was to be filed in a New York court Wednesday. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Monday (May 5) before the filing, Rather said the reason he is going through the legal proceedings is to find out what happened in the wake of the 2004 "60 Minutes II" report on President Bush's military service during the Vietnam War. "The story was true. What we said in the report was true, despite what others have tried to have you believe about the documents, which were one, and only one, part of the story," Rather said.
05/08 08:00 AM
Rev. Al Back in Jail [Edward John Craig] So Rev. Al has had his big day of civil disobedience, with a few hundred protestors blocking traffic on the Manhattan-side entrances to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Queens Midtown Tunnel, the Queensborough Bridge, the Triboro offramp at 125th and 2nd, and the Brooklyn-side entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. Sharpton wants federal charges against the three racist cops (yeah, uh, two of them are black) that shot Sean Bell, and federal oversight of the NYPD. As the race hustlers' "real enemy" — the indispensable Heather Mac Donald — has already shown, justice has been served in the Sean Bell case. The risk posed to New Yorkers by the police is negligible compared to the risk posed by criminals — and NYPD officers work their hearts out every day to try to protect law-abiding residents from crime.
If Al Sharpton and Charles Barron really cared as much about law-abiding minorities as they say they do, they would join the police in that mission — they'd stigmatize criminals, not the cops. They'd protest outside the jail cells of rapists and robbers who terrorize the elderly and frail; they'd call on crime witnesses to cooperate with investigators.
The sad fact is, had Sean Bell been killed by a fellow club-goer, Al Sharpton and Charles Barron wouldn't have taken the slightest interest in him. The world knows about him only because he was killed by police officers.
Need proof? A week after Bell's death, another groom-to-be was fatally gunned down by some robbers in Brooklyn who had just pistol-whipped three other victims.
His name was Earl Williams — and no one ever protested his death. But New York's police force worked to find his killer — and continue today to risk their own lives to safeguard ours.
05/07 05:11 PM
You Know it's Bad for Baba WaWa When... [Greg Pollowitz] Star Jones is calling you a liar: Former "View" co-host Star Jones has weighed in on Barbara Walters' claim that she "lied" for Jones about her much publicized weight loss. Jones, who recently filed for divorce from her husband Al Reynolds, told Usmagazine.com that it was Walters who asked Jones to lie about her gastric-bypass surgery. "It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book," Jones told Us. "It speaks to her true character."
05/07 04:32 PM CBS "McCain Sings Same Old GOP Song On Justices" [Greg Pollowitz] Bashing "Anlaysis" of John McCain by CBS contributor Andrew Cohen.
Maybe CBS will let one of the "Bench Memos" folks write about Obama on the judiciary, and put that on the front page of their website, too. 05/07 04:28 PM 2008 All Over but the Beheadings [Denis Boyles] Newt Gingrich may be right: Republicans are in trouble everywhere. Although I couldn't find the item in today's Seoul Times, it must be there someplace, since Le Monde's evening email update noted it. According to a poll reported in the South Korean paper, Afghanistan's breaking big for Obama. According to pollsters, 69 percent of Afghans think Barack's the candidate most likely to "restore the peace." And what a peace that was, ladies and gentlemen! Why, Kabul was so quiet at night, you could hear a head drop. Meanwhile, over in Somalia, Hillary's slightly ahead with 47 percent in a three-way battle, because, Le Monde reported, "she's better placed to make peace with the Muslim world." McCain? Five percent in Afghanistan, nine in greater Mogadishu. Neither Le Monde nor the Seoul Times revealed whether those polled were likely voters. 05/07 02:41 PM
Tim Russert, "Objective Democrat"? [Tim Graham] Drudge focused the World Wide Web on Tim Russert's arrogant "Arise, Sir Loin of Beef" declaration that the Democratic race is over and "no one's gonna dispute it." The first words out of Russert's mouth this morning on NBC were "I cannot find an objective Democrat who does not think this race is over." Tim Russert is a Democrat, but not an "objective" one. This declaration is spin, not reality, especially when we know the Clinton Chutzpah Express can avoid the "reality" obstacles that cause every other political family to call it quits. I don't recall Russert telling the country that the Clinton presidency was "over" in 1998, and that only the Clintons didn't realize it, that "no one's gonna dispute it." Regardless of where political reality lands, what people should see in that Drudge clip and the NBC clip this morning is Tim Russert asserting himself as President of the News. People should see that this is an intensely political press that calculates every word it says and every story it covers and every poll it commissions. Russert and his colleagues don't want to just observe. They want to run the country. They want to have the power to make and break presidents. They want to tell the people to follow their robotic orders and deeply drink of the "conventional wisdom" they manufacture. "Objective" is not an adjective to them; it is a noun. Their objective today is to clear the path and get the Democrats back in the White House.
05/07 11:46 AM
Operation Chaos [Edward John Craig] First the Obama campaign, then Die Welt, and now CBS news confirms that Rush’s Operation Chaos was a factor in Indiana and North Carolina. Republicans
If independents demonstrate divisions among the Democratic candidates' supporters, Republicans demonstrate yawning chasms. Few of the self-described Republicans who turned out to vote in the Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana seem to actually support the candidate for whom they voted. Perhaps most intriguingly, however, is an apparent effort by Republicans to promote Clinton's candidacy when they feel Obama is the better nominee.
In each state Clinton carried the vote of Republican voters — 52 to 44 percent for Obama in Indiana, and 61 to 32 percent in North Carolina. Republicans made up only 5 percent in North Carolina's Democratic primary electorate, but made up 11 percent of the vote in the Indiana Democratic primary, enough to provide Clinton's expected margin of victory.
While taking the time to turn out and vote in the Democratic primaries, Republican voters in both states have plans to vote for McCain in November. In North Carolina, 74 percent and 76 percent of Republicans said they would vote for McCain if Clinton or Obama, respectively, were the nominee. In Indiana, 66 percent would vote for McCain against Clinton, and 61 percent would vote McCain if Obama's the nominee.
The exit polls reveal striking evidence of strategic voting by Republicans in both primaries, voting for the candidate they find least likely to win. Even though a majority of Republicans in each state voted for Clinton, they give Obama the better chance in November. In Indiana where 52 percent of Republicans supported Clinton, only 37 percent think she is more likely than Obama to win in November. In North Carolina the results were similar — while 61 percent of Republicans voted for Clinton, only 48 percent think she is the better general election candidate.
05/07 07:46 AM
Mistress Semantics [Greg Pollowitz] Telling: One highlight appears below, where Barbara and Oprah congratulate themselves for, while both of them have at points in their lives been the "other woman," neither of them was a mistress (which they define as a woman who is "taken care of" by the married man she is sleeping with).
So, what would you call yourself when you're just sleeping with another woman's husband? An unkept woman? 05/07 07:00 AM FAR LEFT Huffington's McCain Claim [Greg Pollowitz] I wonder how much Huffington's out-of-left-field claim that John McCain did not vote for George Bush has anything to do with her book sales? Here are some Amazon rankings... Andy McCarthy: 81 Jonah Goldberg: 198 Arianna Huffington: 458 Technorati lists The Huffington Post as the number one blog in the U.S. It says something that she can't turn traffic into book sales. 05/06 05:01 PM MSNBC NBC and Penguins [Greg Pollowitz] Newsbusters caught MSNBC using file footage of penguins on the story of a girl who hiked to the North Pole. Penguins, of course, do not live in the Northern Hemisphere. This is not the first time they've made this mistake. Brian Williams aired footage of the North Pole penguins, too: A mea culpa and a thank you to the sharp-eyed Newsviners who wrote us (along with others) to tell us we had used file tape of penguins in a piece on the North Pole! There are no penguins on the North Pole. I must admit I was watching from home, and muted the sound to talk to a family member. Something registered, and I'd like to think I'm smart enough to have noticed. It was the visual equivalent of a kangaroo bouncing through Central Park.
Memo to NBC News: Chilly Willy is not a documentary: 05/06 03:09 PM CHRIS MATTHEWS It Depends on How One Defines Blasphemy [Greg Pollowitz] Rush offends the gods of liberalism: MATTHEWS: I wonder, Cynthia, not to put too fine a point on it, or to be too angelic about it, but isn‘t urging somebody to vote against their beliefs kind of a sacrilege of the American democracy, to them abuse — seriously, have them vote against what they believe, just to screw around with the system. Isn‘t there something faintly blasphemous about this? CYNTHIA TUCKER, “ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION”: Rush‘s blasphemous on many occasions. You may remember, he‘s the one who said he would rather see a Democrat win than ever vote for John McCain. He started, toward the end of the Republican primary, when it became clear that McCain would be the nominee — He was regularly blasphemous toward the Republican nominee. Rush is a conservative. I‘m like Mike. I doubt if Rush is having much of an effect here. He needs to inflate his own importance so he wants to claim credit. But the rooster crows every morning and the sun comes up. That doesn‘t mean the rooster made the sun come up though.
05/06 01:45 PM
Patriotism? Washington Post Fans Scowl [Tim Graham] The online chats with reporters at Washingtonpost.com offer an interesting forum to see liberals unfurl their views, especially as they groan and moan over patriotism as a campaign issue. Reporters letting loose is most interesting, but the questioners can be loose-lipped (or is it loose-typed?) It's striking to see how they associate love of country with blindness, fear-mongering, and saluting the neocon war machine. Wrote one questioner to Post political reporter Peter Baker yesterday on flag pins: I don't think Barack is using it as a convenient crutch to get elected. He stopped wearing the lapel because of the Sept. 11 fearmongering attached to it. He's in the unusual — and possibly untenable — position of being something other than a rich white man running for president. He is going to see the country as something far more flawed than members of the demographic America favors most. Saying this a white woman who supports Hillary, Obama articulates very reasonable thoughts on why he's not a blind-faith cheerleader for patriotic optimism. His views may be much closer to the truth of our country, but the truth might also be political suicide.
How can you love this country when it's full of dunderheads who can't handle the truth? This Baker questioner was also instructive: Do most politicians wear flag pins? I thought they were sort of a partisan thing on the Hill — a friend used to call them right-wing fraternity pins.
05/06 01:29 PM
Two Preachers: Pastor and Pupil [Edward John Craig] On RealClearPolitics today, former New York City mayor Ed Koch wonders whether voters might believe as he does — and as Byron York has argued: . . . that Obama cut his ties with Wright because of Wright’s attack on Senator Obama in which he made clear that Senator Obama, in his opinion, was like every other politician, a hypocrite who is willing to say whatever will get him elected? Wright said at the National Press Club on April 28th, “We both know that, if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever’s doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors.”
The interview with Tim Russert, regrettably, did not touch that area of their disagreement.
How else to make sense of Obama’s complaint on May 4 that Wright “didn’t have much regard for the moment that we’re in right now here in the United States where we can’t be distracted or engaged in this divisive, hateful language.” What moment is that, Senator?
Doubtless he would answer: the fragile moment of possibility for the historic transformation of American life that his campaign embodies — the now nearly acheivable moment of the Kingdom Come on Earth — the Rapture that will be the Obama presidency.
How does this self-conscious messianism of the Obama campaign sit with his ostensibly Christian pastor of 20 years? He might be inclined to remind people that Obama is simply a politician.
Tom Sowell argues that the Obama-Wright fight is a battle between two demagogues, one upscale and one downscale. Another way to look at it is a battle between two preachers. Rev. Wright preaches a Jesus who is a black militant. Obama preaches a Jesus who has come again, through him.
05/06 12:40 PM
NYT: End Corn Ethanol Subsidies [Edward John Craig] The Grey Lady can be counted on to get something right five, maybe six, times a year.
In today's "Food Emergency" editorial, the Times writes: The developing world needs to develop its own ability to feed itself. For that to happen, American farmers will have to be weaned from American food aid. There is more that Washington must do. Especially with corn and oil prices as high as they are, the time has come to put an end to subsidies to transform corn into ethanol.
05/06 08:49 AM U.S. NEWS Sharpton Vows to Shut Down City [Greg Pollowitz] For those of you who live in New York City or have plans to visit on tomorrow, late last week WNBC NY reported the following : NEW YORK — Dozens of people gathered at a meeting meant to firm up plans to shut down New York City in protest of the Sean Bell verdict in downtown Brooklyn Thursday night. Rev. Al Sharpton said people will gather simultaneously at 4 p.m. on May 7 at five high profile locations throughout the city. Sharpton said the protests will begin a series of acts of disobedience that will be repeated once a week thereafter. Demonstrators are prepared to go to jail, he said. Sharpton said the demonstrations will be non-violent.
05/06 08:30 AM FAR LEFT Who Did McCain Vote for in 2000? [Greg Pollowitz] This is making some waves tonight. Arianna Huffington claims that John and Cindy McCain told her that they didn't vote for George Bush in 2000. She claims Cindy wrote in John's name, but there's no mention of who Senator McCain actually voted for. She writes: The fact that this man was so angry at what George Bush had done to him, and at what Bush represented for their party, that he did not even vote for him in 2000 shows just how far he has fallen since then in his hunger for the presidency. By abandoning his core principles and embracing Bush — both literally and metaphorically — he has morphed into an older and crankier version of the man he couldn't stomach voting for in 2000.
Really? The statement above is, let's just say, slightly better than Hillary dodging sniper fire in Bosnia. McCain's public embrace of Bush happened much earlier than she claims. As a matter of fact, McCain gave Bush a big old bear hug of an embrace with Arianna standing not inches away. Like Hillary, I guess she is misremembering... Right before the 2000 GOP convention in Philly, Arianna Huffington had a "Shadow Convention" and McCain was one of the guest speakers. An excerpt from his speech: That's why I remained a Republican despite temptations to use other unconventional political means to satisfy my own ambitions. I understand that you didn't come here for the purpose of entertaining overt political appeals by representatives of Republican or Democrat parties. I believe that you believe it is necessary to seek long overdue changes to politics and governance outside the two-party system. But I believe still, despite our imperfections, that Republicans are the party of reform, and it would be dishonesty by omission if I failed to state my belief clearly to you. Likewise, I am obliged not by party loyalty, but by sincere conviction to urge all Americans to support my party's nominee, Governor George Bush of Texas. I think it's quite clear... (APPLAUSE) (BOOING) I think it's quite clear that he's the candidate who offers change and that the vice president is the candidate of the status quo. And as most people know, I don't care much for the status quo. Governor Bush and I were in a tough contest, and as everyone knows, we don't agree on every issue, including of course the issue of a complete ban on soft money. But we do agree on many more issues than we disagree on. We agree on important reforms, reform of public education, entitlement programs, the military, government spending and many others, and we agree completely that the way the public's business has been conducted in recent years, consumed by an almost mindless partisanship, is shameful and offensive to Americans who expect more from their elected leaders. (APPLAUSE) I am impressed by Governor Bush's approach to repairing an educational system that is currently failing too many of our children, a system afflicted by what he accurately denounces as the bigotry of low expectations. I believe and support his promise to reform Social Security and allow people the freedom to create personal wealth with part of their payroll taxes rather than simply drain a nearly bankrupt system. I fully endorse his support for faith-based institutions as the best means to help those Americans who have yet to share fully in the promise of freedom and to help them secure that most precious of all treasures, the hope that our children will lead better lives than have we.
I guess it all depends on what the definition of "embrace" is.
05/05 10:30 PM
The Chain Gang [Stephen Spruiell] I don't get it. What is so objectionable about this New York Times review of chain restaurants that has a certain brat pack of bloggers scolding the Times for snobbery? Sure, the reviews are overwritten. But most Times food reviews are. Could these bloggers be projecting a bit? Listen to the way the city-dwelling foodie bloggers start their critiques:
Ezra Klein: I'm pretty much your consummate coastal elite (I biked back from the farmer's market today with a baguette and artisan cheese fastened to my rack) ... Matthew Yglesias: I was actually born and raised in Manhattan by fancy-pants parents who wouldn't dream of darkening the door of an Outback Steakhouse... Megan McArdle: I was raised on the Upper West side by a woman who made her own croissants...
These bloggers apparently want us to know that while they are not of the suburbs, they have come to understand and appreciate your reasonably priced basket of jalepeno poppers, and how dare the New York Times make a mockery of your favorite restaurant by reviewing it in the same space as Le Bernardin? Heaven knows there's no comparison! I thought the Times reviews were pretty accurate. But what do I know? I grew up in the suburbs waiting tables at restaurants like these and eating croissants made by Poppin Fresh. 05/05 04:34 PM MSNBC MSNBC and Reverend Wright [Greg Pollowitz] Good Morning America may have moved on, but MSNBC's Dan Abrams devoted his entire one-hour show on Friday to Reverend Wright. I have no idea how many times it was re-run over the weekend, but I did catch it at least once while flipping around. Wonder what Olbermann and Maddow think of this? 05/05 04:26 PM NEW YORK TIMES, MSNBC Looking to Dominate the Critical 2 p.m. Time Slot [Greg Pollowitz] Oh, goody: MSNBC (Check your local listings)
Today at 2:00 p.m. The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new NYT/MSNBC political program hosted by John Harwood debuts today at 2 p.m. Guests include Adam Nagourney, Pat Healy, Jeff Zeleny, Gail Collins and other Times reporters This is the first in a series of special programs featuring Times journalists which MSNBC hopes to broadcast throughout the rest of the political season. Segments will also run on NYTimes.com.
05/05 04:07 PM
Obama Loves Hoffa? [Tim Graham] Since Greg was mentioning the front page of the Wall Street Journal and imagining Al Gore eating worms, I'd like to congratulate ABC's Good Morning America today for breaking from the pack and not soft-pedalling their questions to Barack Obama today, developing a substantive question from another front-page Journal article: Is Obama the Alleged Idealist making back-room deals and going soft on union corruption? SAWYER: Want to turn to the news of the day. In the front page of Wall Street Journal today, it says that before you won the endorsement of the Teamsters, that you indicated to them that you would support ending strict federal oversight of the union, which was imposed back in the early '90s to deal with corruption. Was that commitment made to them? OBAMA: You know, I wouldn't make any blanket commitments. What I' ve said is we should take a look at what's been happening over the Teamsters and at all unions to make sure that, in fact, you know, organized labor is able to represent its membership and engage in collective bargaining in accordance to what we've always believed. SAWYER: But if they heard you to be saying that you did support, you did support lifting this strict federal oversight, are they wrong? OBAMA: No. What I've said is that I would examine what is going on in terms of the federal oversight that's been taking place, but it's been in place for many years. The union has done a terrific job cleaning house, and the question is whether they're going to be able to get treated just like every other union, whether that time has come and that's something that I'll absolutely examine when I'm president of the United States.
ABC didn't ask a Reverend Wright question today — a useful reminder to Obamaniacs that there are more tough questions coming, on a variety of topics.
05/05 03:55 PM 2008 Horse-Killer Hillary [Greg Pollowitz] So says PETA: "Dear Senator Clinton: "As a high profile political figure with the esteem of many women, I regret to say that your public support of horseracing — and specifically betting on Eight Belles — makes you culpable in her destruction. I ask you now to publicly condemn races like the Kentucky Derby. Eight Belles ran for her life and was fiercely whipped as she came down that final stretch when she was no doubt in a great deal of pain. We cannot call ourselves a civilized nation if we allow any living being to endure such abuse. "Races like this are the equivalent of child sweatshops. These are not even seasoned horses: They are young fillies and colts whose joints are not formed enough to endure such a grueling race. Despite this, they are pushed beyond their limits. The Triple Crown and other major horse races have become the graveyards of too many horses who were called champions. For example, Go For Wand, who went down in the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff and then stumbled up and tried to keep running with her broken leg dangling; Union City, who fractured a leg in the 1993 Preakness and was destroyed; Prairie Bayou, who that same year suffered a compound fracture in the Belmont Stakes and had to be destroyed; George Washington, who was euthanized after breaking his leg while running the Preakness last year; and of course Barbaro, the 'poster horse' of the racing industry's failures and excesses, who despite efforts could not be saved from the injuries sustained during the 2006 Preakness. Barbaro's injuries were terrible — fractures of his canon bone, sesamoids, and long pastern as well as the dislocation of the fetlock joint. These are just a few of the horses we hear about — they are the winners, the horses who run the big races. Hundreds of horses meet the same painful, deadly fate every year in the horseracing industry. A race track is not a place for a fun day out, and we are writing to Chelsea on that score. Attending the Derby is as despicable as attending a dogfight. For most — not a few — of the horses you see will not end up put out to pasture on a beautiful ranch but will be sent overseas to be slaughtered for someone's dinner plate. At some point, all horses stop winning. PETA takes no position on whether you win or lose the race you are in, but we call on you to publicly reject betting on such hideous spectacles of domination over wonderful animals who deserve more than pain and death for human profit and amusement. Very truly yours, Ingrid E. Newkirk
President
05/05 03:33 PM
Bashing Bush [Edward John Craig] Ya gotta love K-Lo's column today on the press reaction to the president's Rose Garden press conference on April 29th.
The next day, WaPo's Dana Milbank ridiculed the president for pointing out how little Congress is getting done — while failing to talk about the U.S. recession, "which everybody seems to be acknowledging but Bush." To which one can only respond, "Um, what recession?" Apparently, there is no lame-duck session for blaming Bush.
Milbank concluded his piece with, "His is a slow and torturous disappearing act." One could say the same about Bush bashing.
05/05 03:23 PM WALL STREET JOURNAL If a Scientist Is Quoted, It Must Be a Good Idea [Greg Pollowitz] There's a front page story in today's WSJ on rice farming in the Philippines and how the tripling of rice prices is encouraging more rice farming. The article focuses on one area of the Philippines where the high price of rice is finally making it cost effective for the villagers to battle gigantic earth worms that have devastated the rice paddies in the past. The villagers have tried many way to deal with the worms, but it seems the only way to control them is costly manual labor to shore up the paddies. The WSJ, however, quotes unnamed scientists who have their own solution to the problem: Scientists from Manila have urged the Ifugao to try eating the worms to control their population. No way, the Ifugao said. That would be taboo.
Hopefully these same scientists find that eating worms stops global warming and then Al Gore can finally put his mouth where his mouth is. 05/05 02:13 PM
Huitards [Edward John Craig] While Denis Boyles commemorates the 40th anniversary of the May ’68 Paris uprising on the homepage today, the old gang at City Journal have brought together a group of former radicals (some not so radical, like Kay Hymowitz, and some not so former, like Hitch) to reflect on that tumultuous year. The estimable Guy Sorman’s contribution is particularly interesting — and wry: Some historical precedents haunted us. We remembered that the French Revolution was the work of 20-year-old boys. So, too, were the Romanticism of the 1820s and the surrealist revolution of the 1920s. History does repeat itself. After long periods of confinement under tight social, economic, and military strictures, a new generation gets up and says: “Enough! No more!” Just as in 1789 and 1830, the young in 1968 didn’t want the same life that their parents had. For one thing, we wanted to work less.
Other contributors include former Time editor Steve Kanfer, former Ramparts editor Sol Stern, and Denis Boyles’ Brouzils Seminar colleague, Harry Stein — with illustrations by Arnold Roth.
05/05 11:40 AM
Chest Chooses Who Should Die First [Greg Pollowitz] So, the U.S. is hit with a major pandemic. Medical resources are stretched to their limits. Who gets treatment and who is left to die? Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, has put together a handy list: * People older than 85. * Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings. * Severely burned patients older than 60. * Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease. * Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.
The AP at least devotes a few sentences to the potential problems with such a list: Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield." The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force. If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."
05/05 10:22 AM
A Shoe-in for the 2008 Year in Pictures [Edward John Craig] Check out this shot of the night-time eruption of the Llaima volcano in southern Chile.
The Telegraph has a shot of the ash plume. 05/05 08:39 AM AL-JAZEERA Al-Jazeera Discriminates Against Non-Muslims? [Tom Gross] From the (London) Daily Telegraph: Al-Jazeera chief “fired for being white Christian” A television executive has demanded more than £1 million ($2m.) in compensation from the Arabic station al-Jazeera claiming that she was fired because she was not a Muslim. Jo Burgin, 49, the former head of planning for the English language service of the news channel . . . claimed that she was dismissed in April 2007 because she was a “white, Christian, British woman.” . . . Mrs. Burgin, from Derbyshire, was based at the channel’s offices in Doha, Qatar but is suing it for sex, race and religious discrimination at Central London Employment Tribunal. As she launched her claim, it was revealed that she is seeking more than £1 million in damages — mainly for loss of earnings. . . . Al-Jazeera denies all Mrs. Burgin’s allegations and is vigorously contesting her case.
05/05 08:00 AM 2008 Judgment [Greg Pollowitz] Turns out Oprah Winfrey has better judgment than Barack Obama: But something began bothering Winfrey. By the . . . late 1980s, she was an infrequent attendee at Trinity's services and by the early 1990s she had stopped going altogether. According to a revealing article, headlined "Something Wasn't Wright," in the new Newsweek by Allison Samuels, a major reason was Winfrey's concern with Wright's inflammatory sermons, her association with them through church membership and the potential impact on her widespread popularity. Samuels' quotes unnamed sources as saying that, Winfrey, now a multi-billionaire, knew her audience was mainstream and while Wright's anger-filled rants may have been familiar to lifelong black churchgoers, they would be nothing close to mainstream in the minds of Winfrey's millions of fans.
05/05 07:44 AM REUTERS Thank God for China [Greg Pollowitz] Runner up for Reuters headline of the day: China May Be KFC's Salvation as U.S. Faces Recession
05/04 08:41 PM REUTERS Ya Think? [Greg Pollowitz] Rueters headline of the day: Israel's Advent Altered Outlook For Middle East Jews
05/04 08:38 PM TALK RADIO Rush Laughs Last [Greg Pollowitz] Media Blog readers might remember this post on Ohio Democrat Attorney General Marc Dann and some comments his office released on Rush Limbaugh and "Operation Chaos." Dann's spokesman called Rush, "stupid." Well, Dann is in the news again. Ooops: (COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio's attorney general admitted an extramarital affair with an employee Friday, soon after three of his aides were fired or forced out after an investigation found evidence of sexual harassment and other misconduct. Leader of both parties were critical of Attorney General Marc Dann, one of several Democrats swept into office in 2006 after a scandal over state investments sullied Republicans. He apologized to his wife and supporters but promised not to step down. "I'm embarrassed. I have taken responsibility for what I've done," he told reporters. Dann had lived with two of the aides at an apartment during much of his first year in office and some of the alleged harassment by one of the aides occurred there. "I did not create an atmosphere in my public and personal life that is consistent with the important mission of the Office of Attorney General ...," Dann said. "I am heartbroken by my failure to recognize the problems being created and by my failure to stop them." Ohio GOP deputy chairman Kevin DeWine called for Dann's resignation. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland said the investigation showed a "double standard" with Dann staying while some employees were let go. Dann, 46, said the affair was consensual and refused to disclose the name of the employee. He said the relationship came during a difficult time in his marriage, but that it "was wrong and I deeply regret it." Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, with whom he had a close relationship in which they often used profanity, nicknames and teasing when e-mailing each other, resigned voluntarily, said Tom Winters, first assistant attorney general. He did not give a reason.
05/04 05:29 PM
And now some very important news from Reuters [Tom Gross] You might want to avoid taking a vacation to the Congo for a while, if this report by Reuters is to be believed. This advice especially applies to men. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital KINSHASA (Reuters) – Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur. Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings. Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure. “You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We’ve had a number of attempted lynchings... You see them covered in marks after being beaten,” Kinshasa’s police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday. Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released. “I’m tempted to say it’s one huge joke,” Oleko said. “But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it’s become tiny or that they’ve become impotent. To that I tell them, ‘How do you know if you haven’t gone home and tried it’,” he said. Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members. “It’s real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny,” said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.
05/04 12:47 PM
What kind of cartoon is this? [Tom Gross] It’s just amazing that London’s chattering classes regard the Guardian as Britain’s most serious, reliable newspaper. Below is today’s main cartoon in the Guardian by the paper’s award-winning cartoonist. No wonder that Melanie Phillips, a former Guardian journalist, called the paper a “sewer” earlier this week. Guardian readers are also today mourning the fact that their hero, “Red” Ken Livingstone, has been voted out of office as London’s mayor by a decisive margin by the charismatic conservative Boris Johnson. 
05/03 07:32 AM
Blogger Gives Franken Fits [Kevin D. Williamson] This is a beautiful story: A Minnesota blogger has beat the professional media to the punch on Al Franken's tax problems. Mr. Franken, the unfunny funnyman who wants to make an even bigger joke of the Senate, seems to owe some state tax. In 17 states. And it's not just taxes: Brodkorb wouldn't reveal how he first got the notion to check up on Franken's business dealings in New York and California, but said simple searches on government Web sites delivered the goods: New York had levied a $25,000 judgment against Franken's private corporation for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance, and the corporation was in forfeiture in California.
Imagine, if you will, that Trent Lott had been fined for failing to carry workers' comp insurance or that John McCain had a private corporation in forfeiture. New York Times and Washington Post, above-the-fold, is where you'd see that. 05/02 03:54 PM
PBS Ombud: Moyers Too Soft on Wright [Tim Graham] In his typically tentative tones, PBS ombudsman Michael Getler agrees with the majority of the mail he received that the Bill Moyers interview with Jeremiah Wright was too gentle, more "a conversation of theologians" than a probing interview. (That's high praise for two bitter leftists with a knowledge of Scripture.) He was pleased that Moyers went beyond the soundbites and provided more of that context the Obama fans always complain is missing, but he had to admit Moyers was so reserved it grew embarrassing: While I don't endorse the language or the broader criticisms below, I do feel that there were not enough questions asked and some that were asked came across as too reserved and too soft, considering the volatility of the charges. For example, after replaying at length a Wright sermon delivered the first Sunday after 9/11— in which Wright invoked America's role in slavery, taking the country from the Indians, bombing Grenada, Panama, Libyan leader Gaddafi's house, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Iraq, plus state terrorism against Palestinians and black South Africans to conclude that the 9/11 attacks were "America's chickens are coming home to roost" — Moyers asked: "When people saw the sound bites from it this year, they were upset because you seemed to be blaming America. Did you somehow fail to communicate?" As Howard Kurtz wrote in The Washington Post afterwards: "Thought he was blaming America? Where did anyone get that idea?" It would be hard to formulate a more delicate way to put a question to Wright about that sermon without challenging any of its content. Moyers did seek to draw Wright out about his "God damn America" statement, and he called Wright to task, still rather gently, about Louis Farrakhan. But others of those inflammatory, and inaccurate, statements that Moyers himself laid out at the top of the program went largely unchallenged and those that did come up didn't really get addressed until well into the hour-long program. Some comments, such as the HIV accusation, didn't get addressed at all, nor were other questions asked about whether, for example, the U.S. should have invaded mainland Japan at the cost of countless lives, American and Japanese, rather than dropping two atomic weapons.
Getler didn't want to endorse the letter-writers below since some were very anti-Wright. But I loved this letter writer: "This episode was so obviously a forum for Wright even the unconscious would notice." 05/02 03:31 PM
Oddly Appropriate Meeting [Greg Pollowitz] John Edwards meets Hannah Montana: On Thursday, Cyrus and her brother Braison rode the rides at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. While in line for the Test Track ride, Cyrus ran into Edwards and his three children. (The senator's youngest two children, Emma Claire and Jack, are Hannah Montana fans who were super eager to meet the star.)
"She chatted with them about all the rides and attractions they saw at Walt Disney World," a source close to the singer tells PEOPLE. "It was a sweet moment."
05/02 02:55 PM
Geraldo on Baba Wawa [Greg Pollowitz] Geraldo Rivera stays classy. 05/02 02:34 PM
Wright vs. Integration [Robert VerBruggen] Last night on the Fox News All-Star Panel, Charles Krauthammer made the interesting point that Wright, in addressing the NAACP, actually undermined the organization's historic Brown v. Board triumph — and was cheered for it: 05/02 01:41 PM FOX NEWS "How's that campaign working out for Senator Edwards?" [Greg Pollowitz] Video of Chris Wallace talking about the end of the Democratic Fox News Blockade here. An excerpt: Wallace and the F&F anchors discussed the, "heartburn among the left wing base of the democratic party," after the Democratic presidential candidates appeared on FNC recently. "You mean like John Edwards who's now at home in his mansion?" asked co-anchor Brian Kilmeade, "Who started this whole thing, by saying 'I won't go on there' after publicizing his book on every Fox show under the sun?" "And how's that campaign working out for Senator Edwards?" responded Wallace.
05/02 01:08 PM
Protecting Free Speech [Kevin D. Williamson] New York's move to protect authors living in the state from frequently spurious libel actions abroad is good news for free speech. Congress should follow suit. "Libel tourism," the practicing of filing libel suits against books one wishes to suppress, is a lamentably common practice, and is especially prevalent among the friends of Saudi despots, who file their suits in British courts, where the libel laws disadvantage publishers and controversial ideas. This sorry episode, reported by Roger Kimball, should be kept in mind: Last summer, Cambridge University Press announced that it would pulp all unsold copies of its 2006 book Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World by Robert O. Collins, a professor emeritus of history at the University of California, and J. Millard Burr, a retired employee of the State Department. Why? Becuase Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker, filed a libel claim to quash the book. According to a story in The Chronicle for Higher Education , Cambridge instantly capitulated, paid “substantial damages” to Mr. Mahfouz, and even went so far as to contact university libraries worldwide to ask them to remove the book from their shelves. They seem to have been successful in their request: I have searched high and low for the book in academic libraries and public libraries and have found that, although it is listed as “not checked out,” it is nowhere to be found. Suppressing books he doesn’t like seems to be a hobby of Mr. Mahfouz’s. His web site lists successful actions against three other books Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan, Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden and Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed–and How to Stop It. As Robert Spencer explained in The Washington Times, one notable feature of Mr. Mahfouz’s legal actions is that he has sued various American authors in Britain, where libel laws favor the plaintiff.
Now, if we could get New Hampshire to enact a similar law protecting writers from meritless prosecutions by phony "human rights" commissions abroad. 05/02 12:30 PM NEW YORK TIMES In defense of three-legged goats [Denis Boyles] Just catching up with The New York Times, where I see a story on a three-legged goat has captured the heart of ag-minded New Yorkers. They are both amputees: She lost part of her right leg to bone cancer at the age of 10, and he lost part of his left leg four months ago because of an injury he most likely suffered at a Brooklyn slaughterhouse. Her name is Jenny Brown, and she is a 36-year-old television producer turned animal rights advocate. His name is Albie, and he is a goat of unknown age and breed.
More animals are killed or injured in slaughterhouses than anywhere else, I bet. Apparently, Albie (full name: Albert Schweitzer) got his leg bound, causing tissue damage which Ms. Brown tried to treat homeopathically. That didn't work. So we discover that it cost $5,000 to do the amputation on the goat. His prosthetic? Who knows, but maybe another twenty grand. The goat is a victim of George W. Bush's mean-spirited social policies, of course, but he is not without support: Albie does not have health insurance, but among his benefactors are Martin Rowe, a book publisher who lives in Carroll Gardens and ran the New York Marathon last fall on Albie’s behalf.
As it happens, I have some experience to bring to this story, which Times readers have understandably made one of their favorites. When we lived in Pennsylvania, we owned a pony who got involved with some fencing. The vet came and suggested operating ballistically, but my fashion-illustrator wife intervened and, using some really smelly salves, lots of leg-baths with Dreft, and massive doses of anti-biotic delivered to the pony in frankly bizarre ways, she had the animal back on her feet in a summer. Plus, I also used to own a three-legged goat. His name was Skippy and he was great company for Jack, the blind donkey whose life oddly paralleled my own. He didn't have a busy schedule, but he got around just fine. Now, I'm not trying to make Ms. Brown out to be a bleu-state goof. But according to Save the Children, the amount she and the jogging book publisher want to invest in the goat is enough to support an African kid from age zero to age 60. Two Albert Schweitzers, two different stories. So naturally this story led to another Times piece — an end-of-the-world item by Thomas Friedman called "Dumb as we wanna be," which, coincidentally, is also a kind of answer to a question from Nicholas Kristof, one that all Times readers need to ask themselves: "Can we be as smart as bats?" Bats, definitely. 05/02 09:01 AM MSNBC Joe Scarborough on Hillary's O'Reilly Appearance [Greg Pollowitz] Joe Scarbrough, at around 7:10 this a.m. was discussing Hillary Clinton's O'Reilly appearance with Pat Buchanan. The consensus was that she did great. This line jumped out while praising the back and forth between O'Reilly and Clinton on immigration: ...so different from the garbage that we have to watch at every one of these debates.
You mean like the Keith Olbermann, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and Brian Williams moderated debates? That garbage? 05/02 07:13 AM 2008 Quote of the Day [Greg Pollowitz] Ahmadinejad weighs in on our election: “Do you think a black candidate would be allowed to be president in the U.S.?” he asked, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported. “We don’t think Mr. Obama will be allowed to become the U.S. president.” Referring to Mrs. Clinton, he said, “Presidency of a woman in a country that boasts its gunmanship is unlikely.”
05/02 07:08 AM 2008 Anger Management [Greg Pollowitz] Turns out the guy at McCain's Iowa town meeting who asked if McCain had used an obscene word to describe his wife was trying to make Senator McCain angry, because he's worried about his temperament. His name is Marty Parrish, a Baptist minister and former campaign worker for Senator Biden. Gateway Pundit has a nice photo up of Parrish with Biden along with a screenshot of his web page supporting Obama. Hat Tip to The Huffington Post for the above link. Which brings me to my next point, from the Iowa Politics link in the first paragraph above, there's this on how "Mr. Sneaky Pants Minster with a foul mouth" got into the event: Parrish signed in as a Huffington Post contributor and was taking pictures at the town hall meeting.
The Huffington Post neither confirms nor denies that this guy was on assignment for them. Maybe it's a secret blog-CIA thing? 05/02 06:42 AM
Dems Do Fox, Left Rages [Kevin D. Williamson] This just keeps getting better. John McCain is lucky in that the Left thinks it's running against Rupert Murdoch in 2008, at least when it doesn't think it's running against George W. Bush. 05/01 11:14 PM
Drudge Hearts Obama? [Guy Benson] On April 17, I posted an observation that Matt Drudge ( www.drudgereport.com) seems to be favoring Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton based on the stories and polls he chooses to highlight. For example, we saw no red-texted "shock poll" headlines or flashing police lights today when a new survey came out showing Clinton narrowly leading in North Carolina after trailing by wide margins there for many weeks. Michael Crowley at The New Republic's website apparently agrees with me. He's posted an item making a similar argument, with a very similar headline. Perhaps Drudge will post a new banner headline: World Exclusive — NRO and TNR Agree: I Heart Obama. 05/01 11:09 PM FOX NEWS Greg Gutfeld on the 50 Most Important Pundits [Greg Pollowitz] Guess which one he calls a "giant thumb with sad eyes." 05/01 09:17 PM
Barbara Walters In a Whole New Light [Greg Pollowitz] As the other woman: NEW YORK (AP) — After three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, whom she remembers as "exciting" and "brilliant." Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press. A moderate Republican from Massachusetts who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says. At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC's "Today" show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. Her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978.
05/01 06:47 PM
Hillary Honors Chilean Socialist in TIME [Tim Graham] The new TIME 100 list (of most influential people) is out. It's a very incestuous list, where the leaders and "heroes" honored are usually toasted by their pals. This year, John McCain is profiled by Joe Lieberman, Barack Obama by Deval Patrick, and Hillary Clinton by Rob Reiner. (Michelle Obama bows deeply to Oprah.) But Hillary's byline graces a tribute to the socialist president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet: When we met in January 2005 during her campaign, she spoke with deep passion and even deeper expertise on the challenges facing her nation, from modernizing the military to modernizing the health-care system. I had been very eager to finally speak with her in person. Being a woman in politics can be tough business, and Bachelet made it look effortless. In our meeting, I learned why: because Bachelet, 56, speaks and leads from her heart. She won, of course.
This is reason enough to read between the lines for socialist ideology when Hillary explains the need to "modernize" America's military and health care system. 05/01 03:48 PM NEW YORK TIMES If at first you don't succeed... [Greg Pollowitz] ...correct, and correct again. NY Times: An article on Tuesday about Chinese students in the United States who have to deal with negative images of their home country misspelled the family name of a doctoral student at the University of Southern California who said the Western news media were biased against China. And a correction in this space on Wednesday gave another incorrect spelling. He is Chao Wu — not Chou Wu or Chau Wu. (Go to Article)
05/01 02:51 PM NEW MEDIA Huff Po vs. Obama, the Sequel [Greg Pollowitz] The HuffPo's Mayhill Fowler, the blogger who broke Obama's "bitter" statement, has a new doozie today. Obama has no idea where he is: Did Senator Obama know to whom he was speaking? Likely not. That's been his problem lately on the campaign trail—not knowing exactly where he was. He even made a joke about it in Hickory when he tried to recall where he had just met someone whose story he wanted to tell. "We were down in—where were we?" Quickly he came up with Winston-Salem, and everybody laughed. Monday in Wilmington, however, not only did he seem not to know Wilmington but the date and time, saying that it was "March" and "nine months to November." The fact that his audiences are largely composed of die-hard fervent loyalists usually masks this underlying dis-connection. But it's worth noting that Senator Clinton always knows exactly where she is and to whom she is speaking. On Sunday in Wilmington, for example, her opening remarks touched in quick succession on several important things about the town: the glorious setting on the Cape Fear River, its connection to the military, the upcoming commissioning of the new submarine North Carolina there next weekend, and the fact that "this country has been very good to me and to many of you," for people who are lucky enough to live in Wilmington are lucky indeed.
Keep up the great work, guys! 05/01 02:29 PM
The Wright Rant: Good for Obama? [Robert VerBruggen] On the Fox News All-Star Panel yesterday, Nina Easton made the odd point that the recent Wright developments have been good for Obama, a Sister Souljah moment: Her rationale is that Wright's bizarre appearances forced Obama to break with the pastor, and that's good. True enough. But weigh that against the bad: Before this, it was possible for Obama to say he had no idea Wright was like that — Obama never heard Wright say stuff quite that bad, and the comments are out of context. But when Wright proudly declares those same "soundbite" beliefs, and gives no indication he's changed his mind lately, Obama runs headlong into the question, "How did you choose this pastor, and why did you stay for 20 years?" That's the Wright-Souljah difference; Clinton denounced someone he didn't have extensive, documented ties to. Also, I think Easton overestimates Obama's sincerity. Yes, the candidate appeared angry — angry that Wright had come forward to damage the campaign by sharing his true feelings, not angry that Wright's attitudes had shifted 180 degrees overnight (they hadn't). 05/01 12:36 PM 2008 Why Reverend Wright Matters [Greg Pollowitz] As the Left continues to insist that Reverend Wright isn't an issue, or is an issue, but a closed issue, or any other iteration, let's keep in mind that it was Barack Obama who made his faith one of pillars of his campaign. Remember back in 2006 when Senator Obama shared the pulpit with evangelical pastor Rick Warren and Senator Sam Brownback to talk about AIDS? Here's an exchange from that day, as reported in Salon: Dec. 2, 2006 | LAKE FOREST, Calif. — As he opened his remarks Friday at a World AIDS Day summit at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback said he was feeling a little more "comfortable" than he did the last time he shared a stage with Barack Obama. "We were both addressing the NAACP," Brownback explained. "They were very polite to me � [but] I think they kind of wondered, 'Who's this guy from Kansas?' And then Barack Obama follows, and they're going, 'OK, now we've got Elvis.'" Figuring their joint appearance at an Orange County evangelical church finally put the shoe on the other foot, Brownback turned to Obama and said, "Welcome to my house." The audience of evangelicals howled with laughter. But when Obama had the chance to speak a few minutes later, he returned to what Brownback had said: "There is one thing I've got to say, Sam: This is my house, too. This is God's house."
I remember seeing that on the news back then and thought what a great line it was. I also thought that Obama, with this ability to speak to a segment of the GOP base like this, would make a great VP candidate one day. Salon continued: Everyone laughed again — neither Brownback's opening nor Obama's comeback were offered with the rancor that a cold retelling of them probably suggests — but the point had been made anyway. In Obama's eyes, at least, the Republican Party can no longer claim ownership of all things evangelical. The bad news for the GOP: Rick Warren apparently agrees.
Here's more from the piece: But watching the two men make their way through the day, there was no way to forget their appearances came in the early days of a presidential race, in which they both may be contenders. Exit polls taken in conjunction with last month's midterm elections show Democrats closing the "God Gap." Maybe it's just a temporary thing — conservative Christians can be upset as anybody about an unending war, slow economy and government corruption — but Democrats have spent much of the last two years talking about how they need to do a better job of talking about faith, and, in Obama, they could have a presidential
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