Too bad, so sad ...

uh oh, roger ailes is mad at the entire faux news network, because apparently they're losing viewers...

You can only piss on people for so long before they figure out it's not raining.

Ned!

"If it talks like George W. Bush and acts like George W. Bush, it's certainly not a Connecticut Democrat."

Ned's new ad.

Thanks: C&L

Utility

Thanks to Mary at Left Coaster, I got this nifty new utility from Congress.org. Under the 'Complaint Department' header in the left sidebar, you'll see a form to help you find your senators and reps contact info easily. There's also an 'issues' menu so you can search that way too. Did I also mention the 'contact the media' feature? Well ... what are you waiting for? Start bitching!!!

"The enemy is bullshit"

Orcinus discusses the relationship between traditional journalists and bloggers in "An open letter to my fellow journalists". A 'must read' IMNSHO.

I understand a little of the resentment. A lot of bloggers seem to want to take short-cuts, touting information without double-checking it first. They want to claim they do what we do, but they don't adhere to basic journalistic rules at times. It feels like they haven't paid their journalistic dues.

Some of it also has to do with the realization, I think, that most bloggers are also our most avid consumers; they're the people who actually read what we write. There are fewer and fewer of them these days, and so we ought to appreciate their input.

But it turns out that our readers aren't the docile recipients of our collected wisdom that we long assumed they were. It turns out that they examine what we write critically, and now are capable of letting us know it; sometimes even rudely so. Who'da thunk?

The "liberal media bias" charge played a fundamental role in transforming American newsrooms, at a time when most were already facing shrinking budgets and tighter newsholes. What was most disappointing, really, was the way that the people running those newsrooms failed to realize that they were being played for fools the whole time.

It was more than apparent to many of us that the charge of "liberal media bias" was being made by people for whom any deviation from their political agenda constituted "liberalism" -- including simple critiques that demonstrated the factual falsity of their claims. Yet pieces like my analysis of the media storyline about Al Gore were generally ignored; writers who undermined the accepted script were treated as though we were the ones with a bias problem.

Conservatives, as their own work has made plain, have no interest in facts if they run counter to their own arguments; their idea of "journalism" is simply right-wing propaganda, pure and simple. Anything else is evidence of "liberal bias." This tendency to ignore and occlude opposing arguments reveals an important trait in the ideological makeup of movement conservatives: they assume that because their own approach to "journalism" is so grotesquely unbalanced that, of course, everyone else must operate the same way too. They can't understand journalistic balance because they're to busy projecting their own ideological bias onto everyone else.

You know, one of those other hoary old journalistic adages I've always tried to adhere to is Lars-Erik Nelson's warning:

"The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bullshit."


At some point, journalists are going to have to come to terms with the reality that the bullshit, in the past 10 years and more, has not been an even-steven thing, where liberals are just as prone to it as conservatives -- though most "fair and balanced" journalists like to pretend that this is so.

No, the reality is that in that time, the levels of unmitigated bullshit flowing from the many founts of, er, wisdom on the right has been ceaseless, programmatic, and deliberately aimed at overwhelming the press. That's not to say that the left doesn't peddle bullshit still, nor that every jot and tittle emanating from the right is a falsehoood. But the proportionate level of bullshit from the right is so overwhelming as to render any quibbles almost negligible.

The press is drowning in it, as Lapdogs demonstrates on every page. And the blogosphere, believe it or not, has the potential to be a lifeline.

Cultivating a working relationship with bloggers, instead of viewing them as adversaries, would be in every journalist's best interests. They can be useful resources as sounding boards, and they can also be helpful in disseminating those news bits that don't quite make it into your stories.

We'll see, over the coming year, whether or not I wind up rejoining your ranks. Even if I don't, I'm still holding out hope that there are still enough of you out there who remember what journalism is supposed to be about. People who have had enough, have seen the credibility of their industry reach record lows, and want to do something about it. People ready to stand up, call bullshit what it is and damn the consequences.

In the end, it's what this work has always been about. Time to get back to it.

I have nothing to add except that I think Mr. Neiwert is right on the money. I hope the traditional journalists read it.

Feingold on Press the Meat

Here's part of the transcript. Video at Crooks and Liars.

MR. RUSSERT: You went further in GQ magazine that's coming out this week, "Problem is, George Bush has committed a more clearly impeachable offense than Clinton or even Nixon ever did." George Bush committed a more impeachable offense than Richard Nixon?

SEN. FEINGOLD: Oh, I think so. I mean, you could debate that if you want. But I think the claim - and although Nixon made some, some similar claims, the extreme claim that under Article 2 of the Constitution the president can make up whatever laws he wants is one of the greatest threats to our system of government. I even heard George Will describe it as monarchical at one point. So I do think it is the greatest threat to our republic.

You know, when the founders wrote the words "high crimes and misdemeanors," they weren't particularly interested in, in break-ins at the Watergate Plaza or, or, or presidential personal misconduct. What they wanted was a different system of government than they had, had under King George III. And that's what this is all about. The president is asserting claims that have, frankly, I don't think ever been made in the history of this country.

Timmeh tried like the dickens to undermine Senator Feingold. Feingold stayed calm, cool, and collected and didn't rise to the bait.

Senator Feingold is a good man, and while I don't think he has a chance at the presidential nomination, we need him, and more like him, to carry the fight for the very soul of our nation out from under the Republican rock into the light where reg'lar folks can see the truth and help make the Repubs shrivel up and die.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM GOES OPERATIONAL
Should an enemy launch a dummy warhead whose tracking data has already been programmed into our computers, we might be able to shoot it down, depending on the weather.

Bush Compares Iraq War to Hungary Uprising in 1956
Compares coalition forces to, er, Soviet troops.

Reader's Digest Reports New York Most Polite, Courteous City in World
New Yorkers add if you don't agree with report, you know where you can stick it.

Gonzales: Terror Plot Foiled in "Earliest Stages"
Just before conception.

Bush Creates World's Largest Marine Sanctuary in Pacific
Apparently, check from bottom trawling fleets arrived too late.

Many more. I highly recommend going to see the picture of what Brazil came out on top of at the World Cup. Wow.

Born in the U.S.A.

Crooks and Liars has video of Bruce Springsteen on Conan O'Brien's show singing "Bring 'Em Home" from his new album "We Shall Overcome:The Seeger Sessions". Written during the Vietnam War, it applies to today's Iraq clusterfuck as well. It's about as straightforward an occupation protest song as it can get. I'm ordering it up.

Fiddles and banjos? Springsteen? That don't hurt neither!

Git some, Boss!

Update:

According to "The songs of the Seeger sessions" site, "Bring 'Em Home" is on his "Seeger Sessions Tour" (NYT review) but not the CD. I'm a fan of all the Seegers as well as The Boss, so I'm getting it anyway.

Democracy in chains

Greg Palast in The Guardian

Don't kid yourself: the Republican party's decision yesterday to "delay" the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican's white sheets caucus.

Complaints by a couple of good ol' boys to legislation have never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.

This is a strategic stall that is meant to decriminalise the Republican party's new game of challenging voters of colour by the hundreds of thousands.

In the 2004 presidential race, the GOP ran a massive, multi-state, multimillion-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters. The methods used breached the Voting Rights Act, and while the Bush administration's civil rights division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers began circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the act before the 2008 race.

So Republicans have promised to no longer break the law - not by going legit but by eliminating the law.

The act was passed in 1965 after the Ku Klux Klan and other upright citizens found they could use procedural tricks - "literacy tests", poll taxes and more - to block citizens of colour from casting ballots.

The Republicans target black folk not because they don't like the colour of their skin; they don't like the colour of their vote: Democrat. For that reason, the GOP included on its hit list Jewish retirement homes in Florida. Apparently, the GOP was also gunning for the Elderly of Zion.

These so-called "fraudulent" voters, in fact, were not fraudulent at all. Page after page, as we have previously reported, are black soldiers sent overseas. The Bush campaign used their absence from their US homes to accuse them of voting from false addresses.

Republicans argue that the racial voting games and the threats of the white-hooded Klansmen that kept African-Americans from the ballot box before the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act no longer threaten black voters.

That's true. When I look over the "caging lists" and the "scrub sheets", it's clear to me that the GOP has traded in white sheets for spreadsheets.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the '60s and the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King, desegregation of schools, the elimination of Jim Crow laws, the Voting Rights Act, and the resistance of white Southerners (and, to be fair, many others) to doing the Right Thing (moral values) , from police oppression to murder, are absolutely appalled at the "delay" in renewing this act.

A lot of pain and sacrifice on the part of many correct-thinking, fair-minded, truly moral Americans is about to go up in smoke at the hands of the Republican criminal elite.

Palast is right: racism is still with us, but it's no longer strictly about color. Now it's about retaining power at all costs. The Republicans need all the help they can get. They know every dirty trick in the book and are in a position at this time to use them with impunity.

This is just another in a long list of reasons to throw 'em out in the street come November.

Please read the rest of the article.

Third Party?

[Read this in light of the two posts directly below.]

My friend Bulldog:

...

My point to all of this is that bloggers are a very politically aware group; even those who do nothing more than read the blogs. A healthy distrust of the spoon-fed news we see on TV is good. Blogs tend to serve as alternate media sources with varying degrees of readership and knowledge on the issues. Personally, I don't think there is anything stopping us bloggers transitioning from talking about the issues and policies to deciding the issues and policies.

So what do you think? Do you think a Bloggers Party is in order? [my em]

So, what do you think? Do we really need the Dems (I'm thinking long-term here, not the '06 - '08 elections)? After all, we, painting with a broad brush, are probably more progressive than anybody but Dean and Feingold. Why not a Blogger Party? At least, an American Progressive Party? Should we say 'fuck the Dems' and create a party that's 'more lefter', where competency, integrity, and ethics, as well as the betterment of all Americans are the major planks of the party platform?

I'd seriously like to explore this and I hope some of you who know the nuts and bolts of going about creating a political party (or at least running one) will comment. If you're gonna tell me it can't be done, I want to know why. Email me if you're going to write a Master's thesis. - Fixer

The gloves come off ...

Or, 'rolling stones and moss'. Stolen fully and completely from my pal Lambert:

I have the feeling that the pebble that started the avalanche that will be 2006-2008 went down the mountainside sometime in the last six months, and that alia iacta est - Though we don't know what the outcome is, yet, the forces that will bring it about already have huge momentum, and all of us are riding the rocks down the mountain.

It's going to be a very interesting couple of years, not least because we're going to have to gut the press to win. As the ginned up controversy on Kos indicates.

WTF?

What in Hell is wrong with leading Democrats? I'm especially surprised at Dick Durbin, whom I like. I caught him on Little George yesterday before the World Cup games started. C&L has the skinny:

...

Durbin: I'm going to support Joe Lieberman and I hope he wins the Democratic primary and I'm going to support him in every way that I can even though we disagree on the war. We have a much different point of view, but I know Joe Lieberman and I've worked with him for a number of years and I think he's a good member of our caucus and should be re-elected.

Stephanopoulos: So if he loses the primary and runs as an Independent you'll still support him?

Durbin: I'm going to support Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary and I'm confident, I hope that the voters...

Stephanopoulos: ...but that's not what I asked...

Durbin: I know it isn't...I'm not going to accept your premise because I think he's going to end up with the Democratic nomination.

...

I tell ya what. You Dems who aren't up for reelection in Fall can afford to run off at the mouth but remember this, I, and probably most of Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!), will not forget. If Holy Joe loses the primary to Ned Lamont, you guys better be prepared to back Ned or we'll find a Ned Lamont in your state or district to support. Don't think this is an aberration. We've had it with Republican-lite. Warn your buddy Schumer too. The crap he's been spouting lately ain't gonna fly for long.

Funnies

And with the World Cup going on and getting the Mrs. from LaGuardia yesterday, I completely forgot about directing you to the weekend funnies.

Bob Geiger, as usual.

And the Burned Over District, a bonus.

Swiftboating Murtha 2

Bob Geiger:

You're going to be hearing a lot in the coming days and weeks about the ramped-up attacks on Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) for his vocal opposition to the Bush administration's actions with the Iraq war.

...

Now meet Amanda Doss. She's one of those people and is about to put up a web site called Murthalied.com which, based on her known alliances with the kings of the bottom feeders, the Swift Boat Liars, will attempt to smear a fine man like John Murtha -- and other Veterans, like me, as well -- with new and improved levels of low-rent attacks.

...

Indeed. It's time to Swiftboat 'em right back.

Update:

More Murtha. Article* about his speech at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus.

*Link via memeorandum.

Pet Expo '06

Click to embiggen. Mrs. G hopes you won't!

Picture shows Mrs. G making Bridget, the older of our two dirt dogs, presentable enough to meet other dogs. I think she does this by trading the dirt back and forth between them until it evaporates. I'll find out. I'm next.

Yesterday was the 4th annual Pet Expo put on by the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe. They are dedicated to rescuing and adopting dogs and cats. Cats? Oh, well, they're God's little critters too, I guess...the "cat people" had a trailer and some adoptable cats there as well. The theme was "Get Happy!" Happy is an adoptable Aussie Shepherd mix that has lived his whole life so far in HSTT's kennel. Breaking news on Happy!

They had way too many adoptable dogs there. I hope some of 'em found a home. Remember: "Until there are none, adopt one."

We went for the fourth straight year. The event was held at Truckee River Regional Park, which is three blocks from our house. Every Wednesday(free) and occasional other nights(pay through the nose), we can hear the concerts loud and clear from our deck, but I digress...

It's not a huge event, but for a small town like this it was just fine. We checked out all the vendors, actually joined HSTT which we've supported in various ways for years, loaded up on doggie swag, and generally enjoyed watching our pups interact with dozens of other dogs and quite a few kids. We saw some old friends and met some new ones. Sandra of Ace K-9 Academy, our little Tami's personal trainer, had a booth, as well as Laurie from Gateway Pets, our preferred pet emporium.

We took the pups down to the Truckee River, which borders the park, so they could get wet and cool off. It was hot for around here, about 82F. They liked it.

While all this was going on, I had an actual moment of brilliant thought: we humans, as a race, would be a lot humbler and much wiser if we had to undergo the doggie greeting ritual. Seems like it'd be hard to be uppity after you've had your nose up someone's ass literally and not just figuratively. We'd be more careful who we hung around with, that's fer sure!

All in all, a fine Saturday morning.

VA Barred From Publicizing Offer to Vets

LATimes

A federal judge temporarily has barred the government from publicizing its free credit monitoring offer to veterans whose personal data was stolen and wants to see if they might get a better federal offer.

Lawyers who have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 26.5 million veterans and active-duty troops affected contend that accepting the government's offer could jeopardize their chance of winning more money in the privacy suit.

The suit seeks free monitoring and other credit protection for an indefinite period as well as $1,000 in damages for each person -- or up to $26.5 billion total -- in what has become one of the nation's largest information security breaches.

Last week, the department announced its plan to offer free monitoring for a year to millions of veterans and nearly all active-duty military troops whose names, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen May 3 from a VA data analyst's home in suburban Maryland.

But in court papers, lawyers for veterans said the VA's deal was "incomplete and misleading." The VA must make clear whether veterans who take the government deal will have to give up their rights in court to a potentially larger payout, lawyer Marc Mezibov wrote.

A spokesman for the VA did not have an immediate comment Sunday.

For veterans suspecting identity theft: http://www.firstgov.gov or 1-800-FED-INFO

I don't know quite what to make of this, but my first impression, cynical as always, is that the VA is taking the lead in trying to clean up after their idiot employee and a bunch of lawyers are looking out for their own profit by trying to stop them from doing it. I could be wrong, of course.

Nobody's yet told me not to publicize it.

Opinions?

I finally took the time to do some long-overdue maintenance on our step-child blog Fixer & Gordon. I'm soliciting opinions and comments regarding normal folks being able to read it. Leave comments there please.

Who's going?

I know I got my A-ticket to Hell punched years ago. It's just a matter of depth at this point.

Old Wong's

It was a place just outside of Osan, South Korea, not far from the DMZ. Only the locals, and some of the GIs who 'consorted' with the locals [mainly us Air Force weenies with some recon Marines and Army 7th Cav.], patronized Old Wong. When I saw this at the Old White Lady's place, it immediately brought me back there.

TWA*

Our pal Scout Prime brings us this quote:

...

"In my personal opinion, I think you should have done much, much faster. It should be much better than what I have seen today," said Samsook Boonyabancha.

...

Who is this person and what are they talking about? You'd be surprised ... maybe.

*Third World America

Discourse

Okay, I'm tired of all the blather about the 'discourse' from the 'crazy Left'. "It's full of invective." "No one participates in 'reasoned discourse'." I got one word for ya.

Horseshit.

The time for reasoned, polite discourse was over when Bush and Cheney began their crusade to become Dictator and Regent. You want intelligent discourse? Save it for when this government is functioning properly again. Save it for the policy meetings that happen when true lawmakers, not rubber stamps, are running the Congress and occupy the White House.

Another thing people point to is the 'disarray' on the Left. Fuck them too. The Left is the realm of progressivity and that means many ideas swirl around constantly. That's what happens when there is a true Big Tent. I would not belong to a group who toed the 'party line' unflinchingly like a bunch of automatons. That is the great thing about our side, the wide and varied opinions about the path our nation should follow.

The discourse directed at the Republicans, and Democrats who give them cover, should be harsh. This group of people have done more to set this country back over the last fifteen years, let alone the last five, and should be called out. There is a reason the Left, and everyone else, should be angry. These people have returned us to the 19th Century, when railroad barons and industrialists ran this country to exploit the underclasses and enrich themselves.

Bush haters? You bet. In fact, I'll go farther and say I'm proud to be a Republican hater. I'm not going to be touchy-feely and 'reasoned' when I see what they've done to the nation I, and several million others over the past 230 years, put my ass on the line for. I sure as Hell am not going to be 'reasoned' when I see my brothers and sisters under arms being used as cannon fodder to continue an occupation while Republican campaign contributors get rich on the spoils and my tax dollars.

I'm fucking tired of this horseshit. I want them all out. The Repukes, Dems like Joe Lieberman, all of 'em and the time for politeness and niceties is long gone. I'm tired of the propaganda being shoveled at me like the high tide returning to the Bay of Fundy, and I'm tired of the puppets in the press enabling it. Yes, I'm going to call them all out, loudly, harshly, and my discourse will be full of invective because these people have perpetrated crimes against the American people and most of you out there have let it happen. Maybe I might get your attention before November.

Update:

How can you reason with this?

And just an aside, neither Kos and Atrios, nor the Townhouse email group (yes, I'm a member), nor anyone else, tells me what to say. I'd tell 'em all to suck my ass if they tried.

[Links updated]