Glen Greenwald writes a stinging endictment of POLITICO and the corporate media.
This article gets better and better as you go a long. I suggest you follow the link and read the entire article. Below is an exerpt:
SALON Glenn Greenwald Monday May 26, 2008
"The Politico's John Harris admits now what he denied last year"
John Harris, former National Political Editor of The Washington Post and current Editor-in-Chief of The Politico, wrote a column yesterday acknowledging the extremely obvious truths about his "profession" -- that because they are obsessed with attracting traffic-generating links, they focus on empty trivialities at the expense of substantive news:
'The signature defect of modern political journalism is that it has
shredded the ideal of proportionality. Important stories,
sometimes the product of months of serious reporting,
that in an earlier era would have captured the attention of the
entire political-media community and even redirected the
course of a presidential campaign, these days can disappear
with barely a whisper.
Trivial stories -- the kind that are tailor-made for forwarding
to your brother-in-law or college roommate with a wisecracking
note at the top -- can dominate the campaign narrative for days. . . . '
FOR THE ENTIRE GLEN GREENWALD COLUMN:http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/26/harris/index.html?source=newsletter
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Notes I never sent JD: 'Happy dogs'
Hi Folks,
This morning I was rummaging through my little archive looking for a poem to post on my blog. (I try to leaven my political screeching with some non-political stuff).
Anyway, I found the poem below, which I wrote in 2003. It was one of about six or seven in what I refer to as my: 'Achey-Breaky Heart Suite'. At THAT time I was an immature lad of sixty-one and in the throes of an unrequited crush with a woman named Josie (JD).
I hope you like the poem. It is a little embarassing for me, but it still makes me -- and may make you -- smile. :-)
SUGGESTION:
It is intended to be read ALOUD and at a FAST pace.
Regards, jorge999
(Don't you just love Happy Dogs?)
Happy dogs are so charming,
sappy nappy dogs, disarming,
waiting at the door that you walk through!
happy dogs, are leaping, jumping,
happy dogs, with tails a-thumping,
happy dogs, with their hearts pumping,
they just come ALIVE when they see you!
Girl, you don't need cats or kittens,
hamsters peeing on your mittens,
Babe, I'll be a lappy dog for you!
I could spend my whole day (let me!)
Staring at a door (just pet me!)
I will wait all day till you come through!
WARNING:
Male dogs fantasize of biting,
(playfully of course) uniting
love and lust within their canine hearts,
And their play ends up enciting
(Don't be coarse George, in your writing!)
Certain ...'Changes'... in their nether parts.
This morning I was rummaging through my little archive looking for a poem to post on my blog. (I try to leaven my political screeching with some non-political stuff).
Anyway, I found the poem below, which I wrote in 2003. It was one of about six or seven in what I refer to as my: 'Achey-Breaky Heart Suite'. At THAT time I was an immature lad of sixty-one and in the throes of an unrequited crush with a woman named Josie (JD).
I hope you like the poem. It is a little embarassing for me, but it still makes me -- and may make you -- smile. :-)
SUGGESTION:
It is intended to be read ALOUD and at a FAST pace.
Regards, jorge999
(Don't you just love Happy Dogs?)
Happy dogs are so charming,
sappy nappy dogs, disarming,
waiting at the door that you walk through!
happy dogs, are leaping, jumping,
happy dogs, with tails a-thumping,
happy dogs, with their hearts pumping,
they just come ALIVE when they see you!
Girl, you don't need cats or kittens,
hamsters peeing on your mittens,
Babe, I'll be a lappy dog for you!
I could spend my whole day (let me!)
Staring at a door (just pet me!)
I will wait all day till you come through!
WARNING:
Male dogs fantasize of biting,
(playfully of course) uniting
love and lust within their canine hearts,
And their play ends up enciting
(Don't be coarse George, in your writing!)
Certain ...'Changes'... in their nether parts.
'Hillary's Hostage Crisis'
"...Think about it: She's showing that she is willing to ignite a firestorm, amplify the misguided rage of her supporters, and split the party in two if her demands are not met. She no longer expects to get the nomination. She has another list of demands, which might include the vice presidency but definitely involve high-level appointments for herself and/or her supporters. She spent a couple of days showing how good she can be for the party. Now, the purpose of her recent comments has been to show how much damage she can do..."
For the full HuffingtonPost article go to:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/hillarys-hostage-crisis_b_103146.html
For the full HuffingtonPost article go to:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/hillarys-hostage-crisis_b_103146.html
Thursday, May 22, 2008
On 8/25/07 Clinton DNC Operatives Voted to Strip Florida of all 210 Delegates
Hillary's breath-taking hypocrisy is documented by dailykos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/22/0226/35614/632/520082
Friday, May 16, 2008
'Idea Man'
Dear friend, if you'll indulge the barm
that rises from a mind fermenting,
it can't do you any harm
and will not cause the least lamenting.
Ideas! ...there is no preventing
brainstorms that are unrelenting,
restive schemes demanding venting,
dropping like the leaves in Autumn,
You want thoughts?
No penny needed -- I got 'em!
You will find illumination,
step inside my rumination,
from some endless inner oceans'
tossing surging swirling motions
unsought thoughts are flowing, flowing,
no matter where your mind is going,
...I've got notions.
-jorge999
that rises from a mind fermenting,
it can't do you any harm
and will not cause the least lamenting.
Ideas! ...there is no preventing
brainstorms that are unrelenting,
restive schemes demanding venting,
dropping like the leaves in Autumn,
You want thoughts?
No penny needed -- I got 'em!
You will find illumination,
step inside my rumination,
from some endless inner oceans'
tossing surging swirling motions
unsought thoughts are flowing, flowing,
no matter where your mind is going,
...I've got notions.
-jorge999
'Decline'
Organs betray me, honey bun,
Malfunctions big and small,
Last year they took away
my only place for storing gall.
I have a uro-doctor now,
(Admired by his peers)
And now I notice -ow!
Hair, growing inside my ears.
Ironically, on top my hair is thinner
And, (to tell you this may be a little crass)
Every evening after eating dinner,
I soak my (upper) denture in a glass.
What's that my dear?
Oh love, the situation's worse than what I paint,
So I must disappoint you now I fear:
My joints are stiff tonight...but some thing ain't.
-jorge999
Malfunctions big and small,
Last year they took away
my only place for storing gall.
I have a uro-doctor now,
(Admired by his peers)
And now I notice -ow!
Hair, growing inside my ears.
Ironically, on top my hair is thinner
And, (to tell you this may be a little crass)
Every evening after eating dinner,
I soak my (upper) denture in a glass.
What's that my dear?
Oh love, the situation's worse than what I paint,
So I must disappoint you now I fear:
My joints are stiff tonight...but some thing ain't.
-jorge999
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
White House Knew of the Pentagon Domestic Propaganda Program'
dailykosWed May 14, 2008
by smintheus
Pentagon documents released by the Defense Department and posted at its website show that White House officials, including Karl Rove, were aware of the domestic propaganda program under which the DoD coached retired military "analysts" to parrot administration views in television and radio appearances on all the major networks. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the federal government from appropriating funds to influence public opinion in the United States. On April 30th George Bush's spokeswoman Dana Perino falsely stated that the WH was unaware of the propaganda program.
The April 20th NYT story on the Pentagon's domestic propaganda by David Barstow has been ignored by nearly all the networks, evidently because they don't care to explain why they gave voice to and employed government propagandists. On April 30th Dana Perino finally was asked whether the WH knew about and approved the Pentagon program. Perino tried to duck the question, but blogger Eric Brewer pressed for an answer: "Did the White House know about the operation?" Perino's response: "I just said: no."
That's false as Glenn Greenwald shows by citing two of the emails the Pentagon was forced to release relating to its program. Both emails were sent by Pentagon official Dallas Lawrence in 2006.http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/13/rove/index.html
The first email (6137) (PDF) refers to a draft proposal to fly several of the "analysts"/propagandists to Iraq and Afghanistan for dog and pony shows (a proposal that was to be sent to Asst. Sec. of Defense for Public Affairs Dorrance Smith). In the May 23, 2006 email, Lawrence asked that Afghanistan be excluded from the final proposal so that, if that leg of the trip falls through, "we (you) wont find yourself having to explain why it didn't happen after he [i.e. Smith] briefed it to karl at the weekly meeting". That appears to be a reference to weekly briefings given to Karl Rove in which Rove was apprised of the Pentagon's plans under the propaganda program.
The second email (6548) (PDF), from March 16 2006, refers to a conference call for "our retired military analysts" that was intended "to get them on message heading into the weekend on Iraqi troop strength, advances, etc." One anonymous DoD official, who said that he/she would instead be attending a speech by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, received this followup email from Lawrence:
Sounds great. I'd love to see if we oculd [sic] get them in with potus as well (I think that was submitted to karl and company from dorrance smith last week).
That clearly is a reference to Karl Rove. Notice that Lawrence not only believes that Dorrance Smith was coordinating the domestic propaganda program with the White House through Rove, but he appears to think there is nothing implausible or unusual about it.
Congress ought to consider whether the White House's complicity in criminal activity has been exposed with these documents.It's not as if this were a domestic propaganda program on a trivial scale or directed toward insignificant issues. By means of the Nexis database, Media Matters has shown that since Jan. 1, 2002 the "analysts"/propagandists named in Barstow's article...
...collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR in segments covering the Iraq war both before and after the invasion, as well as numerous other national security or government policy issues.
They sold the invasion and occupation of Iraq to the American public like so much soap. No amount of silence from the news networks, no lies from the Bush administration, can wash away that stain.
http://www.dailykos.com/
by smintheus
Pentagon documents released by the Defense Department and posted at its website show that White House officials, including Karl Rove, were aware of the domestic propaganda program under which the DoD coached retired military "analysts" to parrot administration views in television and radio appearances on all the major networks. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the federal government from appropriating funds to influence public opinion in the United States. On April 30th George Bush's spokeswoman Dana Perino falsely stated that the WH was unaware of the propaganda program.
The April 20th NYT story on the Pentagon's domestic propaganda by David Barstow has been ignored by nearly all the networks, evidently because they don't care to explain why they gave voice to and employed government propagandists. On April 30th Dana Perino finally was asked whether the WH knew about and approved the Pentagon program. Perino tried to duck the question, but blogger Eric Brewer pressed for an answer: "Did the White House know about the operation?" Perino's response: "I just said: no."
That's false as Glenn Greenwald shows by citing two of the emails the Pentagon was forced to release relating to its program. Both emails were sent by Pentagon official Dallas Lawrence in 2006.http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/13/rove/index.html
The first email (6137) (PDF) refers to a draft proposal to fly several of the "analysts"/propagandists to Iraq and Afghanistan for dog and pony shows (a proposal that was to be sent to Asst. Sec. of Defense for Public Affairs Dorrance Smith). In the May 23, 2006 email, Lawrence asked that Afghanistan be excluded from the final proposal so that, if that leg of the trip falls through, "we (you) wont find yourself having to explain why it didn't happen after he [i.e. Smith] briefed it to karl at the weekly meeting". That appears to be a reference to weekly briefings given to Karl Rove in which Rove was apprised of the Pentagon's plans under the propaganda program.
The second email (6548) (PDF), from March 16 2006, refers to a conference call for "our retired military analysts" that was intended "to get them on message heading into the weekend on Iraqi troop strength, advances, etc." One anonymous DoD official, who said that he/she would instead be attending a speech by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, received this followup email from Lawrence:
Sounds great. I'd love to see if we oculd [sic] get them in with potus as well (I think that was submitted to karl and company from dorrance smith last week).
That clearly is a reference to Karl Rove. Notice that Lawrence not only believes that Dorrance Smith was coordinating the domestic propaganda program with the White House through Rove, but he appears to think there is nothing implausible or unusual about it.
Congress ought to consider whether the White House's complicity in criminal activity has been exposed with these documents.It's not as if this were a domestic propaganda program on a trivial scale or directed toward insignificant issues. By means of the Nexis database, Media Matters has shown that since Jan. 1, 2002 the "analysts"/propagandists named in Barstow's article...
...collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR in segments covering the Iraq war both before and after the invasion, as well as numerous other national security or government policy issues.
They sold the invasion and occupation of Iraq to the American public like so much soap. No amount of silence from the news networks, no lies from the Bush administration, can wash away that stain.
http://www.dailykos.com/
Laughter Without Joy
Maureen Dowd as political analyst is a joke.
I have long been struck by the absence of any passion or principle in her writing.
If Lincoln or Washington were to somehow return, she would undoubtedly be devilishly 'clever', but her attention would be on matters such as the former's awkwardness and the latter's wooden dentures. Dowd's only real interest seems to be generating bon mots, usually in the process of ridiculing someone. Recently her game seems to be 'feminizing' Barack Obama.
Her latest needle:
"...Obama is acting the diffident debutante, pretending not to care that he was given a raspberry by a state he will need in the fall...."
Maureen Dowd strikes me as spiritually empty, -- one who nourishes an empoverished spirit on the thin and bitter gruel of sarcasm and cruelty.
--jorge999
I have long been struck by the absence of any passion or principle in her writing.
If Lincoln or Washington were to somehow return, she would undoubtedly be devilishly 'clever', but her attention would be on matters such as the former's awkwardness and the latter's wooden dentures. Dowd's only real interest seems to be generating bon mots, usually in the process of ridiculing someone. Recently her game seems to be 'feminizing' Barack Obama.
Her latest needle:
"...Obama is acting the diffident debutante, pretending not to care that he was given a raspberry by a state he will need in the fall...."
Maureen Dowd strikes me as spiritually empty, -- one who nourishes an empoverished spirit on the thin and bitter gruel of sarcasm and cruelty.
--jorge999
Sunday, May 11, 2008
'Different Side Of Clinton Seen By One Tennessean'
From Memphis Daily News 5-09-08:
...The year was 1993, and the focus was on comprehensive health care reform. The Clinton administration was mounting a full-court press in persuading congressional leaders to sign on to a health care bill championed by the White House.
Cooper (U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper,D-Tenn.) had a health care bill of his own.
"They turned up their nose at my bill, and that's fine. But then they constructed this secret 500-person task force to draft a whole new bill - and I knew it would go nowhere," Cooper said. "So I went privately to the White House to warn (Hillary Clinton). No publicity. No nothing.
"She brought in a camera to record the meeting. And she has not released the memos on this meeting. She immediately declared war on me. I warned her we didn't even have the votes (for her bill) in our subcommittee. She said, 'We're going to (politically) cut your legs off.' I've never gotten such a cold reception as I got from her."
Cooper said the first lady set up a war room to undercut Cooper, who was gearing up for a run at the U.S. Senate in 1994. And a former television news reporter from Nashville was tasked with leading that war room, he said.
"...Bill Clinton couldn't have been nicer to me during this period," said Cooper, who still keeps an old photograph of himself that was taken during a visit to the first lady's West Wing office in the White House during the 1990s. "I went running with him. I played golf with him. I was asked to hang out in the White House with him......"
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=37041
...The year was 1993, and the focus was on comprehensive health care reform. The Clinton administration was mounting a full-court press in persuading congressional leaders to sign on to a health care bill championed by the White House.
Cooper (U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper,D-Tenn.) had a health care bill of his own.
"They turned up their nose at my bill, and that's fine. But then they constructed this secret 500-person task force to draft a whole new bill - and I knew it would go nowhere," Cooper said. "So I went privately to the White House to warn (Hillary Clinton). No publicity. No nothing.
"She brought in a camera to record the meeting. And she has not released the memos on this meeting. She immediately declared war on me. I warned her we didn't even have the votes (for her bill) in our subcommittee. She said, 'We're going to (politically) cut your legs off.' I've never gotten such a cold reception as I got from her."
Cooper said the first lady set up a war room to undercut Cooper, who was gearing up for a run at the U.S. Senate in 1994. And a former television news reporter from Nashville was tasked with leading that war room, he said.
"...Bill Clinton couldn't have been nicer to me during this period," said Cooper, who still keeps an old photograph of himself that was taken during a visit to the first lady's West Wing office in the White House during the 1990s. "I went running with him. I played golf with him. I was asked to hang out in the White House with him......"
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=37041
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Obama V.P. Suggestion
Obama should consider former Senator Sam Nunn as a running mate.
Nunn is a 70 year old moderate to conservative Georgia Democrat who has endorsed Obama.
In the past Nunn had aspirations to run for the presidency himself. He has exceptionally strong national security credentials, and has been very involved in the anti-nuclear proliferation area. He was a senator for 24 years (1973-97) including service as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is still very respected in the Senate and would be a potential asset to Obama in dealing with that body. He could potentially attract republican, independent and moderate democratic voters. He is also a southerner who could help win southern and border states. Nunn also has potential drawbacks including a history of opposing gays in the military in 1993 and service on numerous corporate boards --eg. Chevron.
Check him out: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Nunn is a 70 year old moderate to conservative Georgia Democrat who has endorsed Obama.
In the past Nunn had aspirations to run for the presidency himself. He has exceptionally strong national security credentials, and has been very involved in the anti-nuclear proliferation area. He was a senator for 24 years (1973-97) including service as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is still very respected in the Senate and would be a potential asset to Obama in dealing with that body. He could potentially attract republican, independent and moderate democratic voters. He is also a southerner who could help win southern and border states. Nunn also has potential drawbacks including a history of opposing gays in the military in 1993 and service on numerous corporate boards --eg. Chevron.
Check him out: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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