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scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and
culture.
-Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov-
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-Benjamin Franklin-
Mark Adams is [in no particular order] a Lawyer, Restauranteur, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Landlord, Singer, Guitarist, Political Scientist, Amateur Historian and Rhetorician with no sense of reverence for anything except the freedom to speak one's mind. To visit Mark's Family Law Website
Just as an exersize, I'm writing this as the Cheney/Edwards debate gets
underway. If you're reading this, I actually got through it
without too many interruptions.
1st question: On Iraq, for Cheney, not enough troops, link
between Saddam and Zarquari? Ennhhhh..Wrong answer, there are no
freaking links.
Broken record time? "Wrong war, wrong place wrong time" twice, $87
Billion four times in first 15 minutes.
Wow, they're both excellent, Cheney twists Edwards' words without
effort, Edwards objects like a Defense attorney smelling hearsay
evidence.
Even today they don't know the "extent" (or even existence) of an
Iraq/al Queda connection, but it was good enough for a war,
unbelievable, we went to war to get Zarquari? Wasn't the military
stopped from getting this guy at his camps before the
invasion......draw that connection because for me it doesn't grok.
"Haliburton", I lost count ho many shots I owed for each time it was
mentioned and have decided just to keep drinking steadily. "No
bid," has me buying a couple rounds. . .
OH NO, Cheney took the bait!! Actually went back to Hali (burp)
ton! The old man couldn't resists, really made no defense but
just used it as a platform for a nasty crack about Johnny being absent
from the senate, then agreed essentially with Edwards on
Israel/Palestine (which was what the question was about. Edwards
came back swinging and just plain nailed Cheney on his congressional
votes: Plastic gins, head start, meals on wheels, MLK and Nelson
Mandella. Nice Job Johnny.
Domestic issues: Cheney non responsive on jobs and poverty, Edwards
points it out slickly and lays our the numbers. Cheney has
numbers too and counters effectively with a zinger about not being able
to take four more years of this kind of experience-- again they're both
good.
Qwen couldn't resist the gay marriage question. Good for
her. Cheney outright deceived on what the Massachusetts Supreme
Court did, but otherwise swallowed the hypocrisy well. Edwards
also misleads on the recognition of marriage from state to state under
the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Tort lawyers, feh! Us
family lawyers don't get rich but we sure help people get on with their
lives. Why Edwards is wrong is because the issue has come up in
the context of "common law" marriages going back to the establishment
of this nation.
Can't speak on Edwards "fix" for malpractice cases. Ohio has been
doing that right along and even adds a step, mandatory
arbitration. Hasn't helped the rise in medical cost or
malpractice premiums.
The personal questions were so revealing in distinguishing the two men,
not in what they said but how they said it. Edwards was charming
and laughing, Cheney hunched over and grumbled.
Flip Flopping: The administration being "Back and forth" was a
nice reference by Edwards, Ack! "$87 Billion" and "Wrong war, Wrong
place, wrong time" again. What else ya got Dick?? Edwards
again has Cleveland numbers on top of national numbers. The boy
(yeah I know he's 50, but look at him) does do his homework.
Cheney gave a broken record of his stump speech on flip flopping, a
soft ball for him which he had a chance to swing for the fences and
bunted instead.
Uniter not a divider, "Biggest disappointment?" says Cheney but we'll
keep working at it, By getting ZELL involved more!!?? WTF.
Gimme a break. Softball for Edwards, who swings well but changes
the subject, goes back to health care, fine, but he didn't run out the
play when he could have at least got a double. Ennhhhh!
Cheney's summation was far better than Edwards' tale of his dad, but
then again while Edwards was in college, Dick was running this nation
or multinational corporations.
Final thoughts, once again, as it was in 2000, the GOP must wish their
ticket were switched. Cheney did fine next to Edwards, who also
did well. Both in glaring contrast to Bush's performance (or lack
thereof) Thursday night.
Why on earth would anyone be sceptical of the Bush administraiton and congressional republicans insistance that there will be no draft should Bush get reelected. Who would ever doubt the word of these guys? Except for the fact that we may not have any choice if we want to finish the job in Iraq right.
What's intriguing about the draft rumor isn't whether it's true or false--though on key points it's clearly false.
What's intriguing is the warmth with which the Republicans deny it and must deny it. The gap in public opinion between support of the draft and support of the war requires such a denial and reveals something else that ought to leave them vexed:
When the question really hits home, not many Americans believe in our mission in Iraq enough to put their lives or family members' lives on the line for it.
Mind you if you want to read some of the draft rumor propaganda from my leftist friends, read this alarming post at Kos. But don't forget to have a "dispassionate" glace at this factcheck Doc provided at no extra charge from Ara
We were changing in this country long before
9/11. Those that had been waging a silent war for the minds of
America merely used the tragedy to accelerate their decades long agenda.
I am an advocate and make no apologies whatsoever for promoting a
particular point of view. You don't have to guess my hidden
agenda, and if you can get past that and actually put some thought into
what I have to say, maybe, just maybe, you'll learn something.
Better yet you might be persuaded that even a liberal can be "right."
Facts may be facts, in other words, but they still have been
selected by a biased mind. The only remedy is to admit that everything
we call journalism is the continuation of opinion by other means.
What's required is that our media stop the hypocrisy of pretending to
inform and wade into the argument with all biases blazing. LA
Times
Some right leaning media outlets have lost all
sense of perspective because they insist that they are somehow above
human nature. Indeed, some of their fellow travelers in Blogtopia
do even more damage to their cause by resurrecting discredited partisan
Swiftboaters to tell their so-called "exclusive" when they couldn't
otherwise get a booking on O'Reilly. You tend to figure that a
"source" is no longer worthy of your time when only Hannity, Limbaugh
and Dean Esmay will give them a free forum. Is it really a
surprise that a vocal member of the Swift Liars, Van O'Dell, has time
for Mr. Esmay in between getting as many free lunches and frequent
flyer miles as possible from a gullible public and assorted
Billionaires for Bush?
If you really must read Mr. Esmay
gush over his chance at the "big time" interview with an man whose
35 year grudge has cost him the ability to separate his conveniently
remembered personal animosity for John Kerry from his distant and
unsubstantiated memories of events so long ago, and so far away;
remember that he has changed his tune several times over the last
several months, and this is but the latest example. No
documentation offered, no rebuttle to the Navy who concluded an
investigation supporting Kerry's version of events and not the
Swifties. No story, just a grudge a determined hack wishes to
resuscitate to further damage a candidate he doesn't like.
But there is a larger context which disturbs me
beyond the personal pleasure I get from watching the "Defender of the
Liberal Tradition" fall further into the abyss of partisan demagoguery
he so vocally loathes. The media, it seems, is out of
control. Everybody has a horse in this race and it's showing in
interesting ways.
That Fox News is showing it's bias in favor of the administration is no
surprise. They have behaved like a wholly owned subsidiary of
Bush, Inc. for years. What is astounding is that there were
boundaries which even Fox thought in
hindsight they had crossed.
Troubling times when an Attorney General is called out of retirement to
head an investigation into the source of a bogus source's info and
documents. Who the hell does that? That never happens,
WTF. Then you have CNN's Crossfire regulars Paul Begala
and James Carville advising the Kerry campaign verbally sparring on a
daily basis the man credited yet not subpoenaed for outing a CIA agent,
Bob "Duke of
Douchebaggery," Novak, or when neither he or Tucker is available,
G. (Fucking, No Way!) Gordon Liddy (Way!) who is still defending
Watergate. (Why is it there are no former felons representing the
liberals like Liddy and Ollie North? -- Oh yeah, the repugnicans put
them in jail and kept them "detained."
At least Rush Limbaugh finally admitted to being an official
consultant for the GOP. Admitting there is a problem is the
first step for curing an addict.
The double standard really is highlighted by the case of Wall Street
Journal reporter, Farnaz Fassihi.
While Carl Cameron is told "down boy" as you would to any good attack
poodle, you still don't want to break his spirit since he's on the
right (far right) side, yet Fassihi will no longer be sharing his
insights from inside Baghdad until after the election.
Fassihi's. e-mail
to friends
seemed at first to be yet another in a long line of tales of woe from
Iraq we've
all but become accustomed to. Thing have gone from bad to worse,
death
and destruction reign, more of the same. Why Farnaz's story
stands out
is that it was not (from my understanding) meant for publication.
Yet
now we find out that even expressing private concerns are subject to
suppression when critical of the administration's efforts. Even
when
true. Falsehood makerss keeping with the "party line," much like
the
pranksters at abu Ghraib, should not be given too much grief.
Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is
like being under virtual house arrest.
* * *
It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning
point' exactly began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell
out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi
declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City,
home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield
for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began
spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most
of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a
disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the
Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a
foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to
come.
* * *
Not exactly the usualy opinion published in WSJ,
nor what the movers and shakers want to read. But Farnaz doesn't
write op/ed's, he's a reporter on a very dangerous beat. Over
there the Iraqi's call the chaos and bloodshed a "situation."
What they mean by situation is this: the
Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are
several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and
injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are
becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines
and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are
assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation,
basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110
people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The
numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was
attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers
-- has now stopped disclosing them.
Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.
The violence struck close to Farnaz, missing friends, close calls with
car bombs, he doesn't go outside, doesn't travel without armor, doesn't
investigate incidents, and is more concerned with his personal security
and that of his stringers than getting any story.
America's last hope for a quick exit? The
Iraqi police and National Guard units we are spending billions of
dollars to train. The cops are being murdered by the dozens every
day-over 700 to date -- and the insurgents are infiltrating their
ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has allocated
$6 million dollars to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained to
get rid of them quietly.
* * *
Forget about democracy, forget about
being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before all
is lost."
One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those
of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing could
salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of terrorism,
chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as a result of
American mistakes and it can't be put back into a bottle.
The full text of the "vacationing" WSJ reporter, Farnaz Fassihi's email
is found at: Poynter Online - Forums
Now wrap your brain around this: Cameron
makes stuff up, a joke at the expense of the Democrats, which is
published on their official web page, and there are no
consequences. Fassihi does not publsh his truthful yet private
e-mail, which somehow gets back to his employer, the WSJ, and is suspended/vacationed
because the truth he reports of the conditions in Iraq will hurt Bush's
reelection efforts. Does he need and deserve a rest?
Absolutely. Will he be giving any interviews? Absolutely
not if he wants to keep his job.
I'm seeing a pattern and I really don't like it. Name the GOP
sympathizer in the media who has been under the gun as much as Howard
Stern or Dan Rather. Geraldo draws a map of troop movements . . .
nothing. Novak, come on, somebody has got to put Novak in front of
a grand jury. Bob Woodward is getting personal White House tours
by Bush instead of getting the goods on Bush. Clear Chanel radio
broadcasts RNC talking points 12 hours a day (or more) and all this if
"fair and balanced."
What the hell happened to the fourth estate? I suspect they
didn't even know the coup occurred until it was too late. Al
Franken saw it as an insurgency and has drawn the line in the sand, so
have I. What we realize and you might someday, unless you think
you're part of the right revolution, is that over the last twenty years
a small yet determined group of ideologues have been working hard to
transform America into something you will not recognize by the time
they are done.
Hat Tip: Hellblazer
UPDATE: You want some llinks to back up what is purely my opinion just so you have more bile to throw at me? Fine, here's some more links.
Main Entry: glob·al Pronunciation: 'glO-b&l Function: adjective 1 : SPHERICAL 2 : of, relating to, or involving the entire world : WORLDWIDE (global warfare) (a global system of communication); also : of or relating to a celestial body (as the moon) 3 : of, relating to, or applying to a whole (as a mathematical function or a computer program) (a global search of a file) - glob·al·ly /'glO-b&-lE/ adverb
Try this instead:
Kerry wanted to say "smell test" or "sniff test," but had a quick flashback of a sweaty Terasa after a "steam," thought it wasn't dignified and in that split second substituted "Global" for "Sniff".
He should have stuck with "Smell Test" to emphasize how Bush stunk things up.
Ah, I see there are some grown-ups at Fox News who, after rival CNN
picked up Cuticle
Carl's idea of a joke, issued this
statement informing the brats who run the place for Mr. Murdoch
that if any more shenanigans happens which embarrasses the network
heads will roll. Like Peter Jennings said, "occasionally
you'll get caught in something like this . . . it's
tough." (At least he didn't say, "It's hard.)
Of course, that was not before the hooligans in the backroom at Fox
issued a bogus
statement that Carl Cameron had been sacked. They also issued
"regrets"
for the "Commies for Kerry" crap. Now I wonder if they'll ever
get around to an accurate account of Kerry's
record
of passed legislation. I'm not holding my breath.
I doubt that anyone at Fox took the reprimand seriously. Nothing
was done to dispell the culture of pure unprofessionalism and bias
there. After all, relatively few people were actually exposed to
the fun and games these numbskulls engaged in. No harm no
foul. They can resume without interruption their quest to
transform this Nation into a bastion of corporate greed and excess
supported on the backs of the ignorant they ridicule.
Even this "high and mighty, hypocritical, DNC talking point spouting bloviator." knows the limits of proper political discourse. This picture just is too much. I simply cannot support an organization which publishes a picture which clearly exaggerates and distorts the buldge in Senator John Kerry's pants.
Terrible, just terrible
The
Political Wire seems to think that unlike so many other forgettable
Vice-Presidential debates, this one coming up tuesday may be more
important that ususal. While the conventional wisdom holds that
people vote for presidents, not vice presidents. As John Boy
demonstrates over on the side, there is very little separating the
candidates in the polls. This thing is that close. (OK, go ahead
and fill in your own caption. My mind stayed in the gutter too
long to even try after seeing this picture.)
If this one is about style and charm, Edwards toasts Cheney, unlike the
debate between their bosses where Kerry upstaged Bush on all counts --
yes even the "global test" thing you doinks, if you actually care to
take his statement IN context and wrap your brain around the
full concept that foreign policy includes relations and perceptions of
-- foreigners.
Nations that conduct military, economic and ecological action without
regard for international consequences are considered rogue nations by
consensus. We should have achieved all (yes all) of the stated
objectives of our war in Iraq without resorting to war, or if war was
inevitable, with international support not scorn. That is not a permission
slip; that is diplomacy. If you don't have the patience to engage
in meaninful relations with the rest of the world you will soon lose
your position as its leader.
However, if the Cheney/Edwards debate is a technical and detailed
policy discussion, the old man will eat John Boy for dinner.
Edwards will not be up against the bumbling fool who stammared his way
into the Oval Office, but the power behind the thrown, the wizard
himself who took the most inept man he could find and actually made him
president. Cheney is not someone to be trifled with.
I was a bit
harsh on Joe Gandelman at
The Moderate Voice
the other day. The graciousness with which he took my insult and
the
caliber of his writing has humbled me and I wish to offer this mea
culpa. Sorry Joe. You aspire to a very high calling of
fairness and ethical standards which I abandoned as far too difficult
years ago. I'm an advocate, you are a fair judge and asire to
sainthood. But you have to admit that you bear a striking
resemblence to Ghengis Khan . . .
There are two competing conspiracy theories
about both Bush and Kerry cheating in the debates. Talk Left has
the quick and dirty links for the "Bush was listening to an earpiece"
during the debate theory; while Outside the
Beltway goes with Drudge
and Moonbat
Research claiming that Kerry cheated. Guess which
tin-hat-rant is getting more play? Personally I like the idea of
explaining Bush's hunched over stance as an attempt to get a clearer
signal from the microwaves Karl Rove was beaming into his skull, but
that's just me.
In what Matt Stoller calls distractocrap,
he points out that the right has conceded that Kerry won outright,
they're just blaming the lyin' cheatin' Demon-o-crats, who look like
they have been doing a bit of ballot stuffing as it were in FloriDUH
according to this
story:
A field director for one of the many national partisan
organizations trying to drum up votes in Florida admits to routine
efforts to rig the outcome. They include submitting thousands of
invalid voter registration cards, as well as failing to turn in boxes
of cards filled out to register Republicans.
Don't you just love how they describe election fraud in Florida as "routine."
Anyway, Stoller points us to Ameriblog
who analyzes Drudge's video which supposedly catches Kerry cheating and
actually exposes Bush unfolding crib notes.
Oh, but only as Drudge can do, the video Drudge posts as
"proof" on his site bites Bush in the ass. If you zoom the video to
full screen (right click on it while it's running and click "zoom" and
then "full screen") you can see Bush unfolding a piece of paper and
laying it down on his podium! Remember the debate rules say all paper
will already be on the podium, and unless the debate organizers folded
the paper up in a wad before placing it on the podium, Bush is cheating
with his own cheat sheet.
Since none of this crap is very Mac friendly, and the LGF quicktime
movie only zooms in on Kerry, I looked at the C-SPAN
feed for myself and yes! It does indeed look like both
candidates took out something from their pocket. Bush seems to
unfold something and look down at it between 2:12 and 2:15 into the
video. Kerry definitely reaches into his pocket and brings out
something too.
What bugs me is that none of
the clips available on the net are clear enough to show anything with
precision, I was highly disapointed not to find the microwave
transceiver poking out of Bush's ear. Dammit. Maybe it was
Cheney's mystical powers that fed Bush's Brain and made Bush
grow for the cameras as well. Hopefully Cheney won't be able to get away
with his magic act in Cleveland during his debate, but I'm afraid, I'm
very afraid. Edwards should be too. Why is he smiling?
Drudge's video is from Fox, which makes it suspect. I still have
heard no retraction or apology for their running with the propaganda
from "Communists for Kerry." What they did do is change their
story:
And then there were the pranksters in the audience . . .
the Communists for Kerry (who, in fact, are rooting for Bush) and the
Billionaires for Bush (who, of course, are Kerry supporters).
"Pranksters!?!" That's not what they called them
originally, nor was there any mention of Billionares for Bush.
Fox News: The First Draft of Revisionist History. But the fairest
treatment I've seen on the subject so far was from Joe
Gandelman, hence the foregoing apology. Mind you the Yuppy from Miami U.
couldn't resist his slams on me and when you read
the comments, you'll see he tries to take the middle ground for
himself (nice try), and elevates CBS's standards to the stratusphere
while excusing Fox because they are, well, simply simpltons who can't
be expected to reach to the levels of a truly professional news
organization like, for instance, CBS. Casey actually made my
point while disagreeing with me. Amazing.
Someone must have got to conspire.com because they took down the
Fox-O-Shopped debate photo showing Bush magically growing 5 inches,
hence the broken link below. If anyone actually d/l'd it let me
know.
Look, Fox is an arm of the GOP communications department, so is Clear
Channel, I expect this from them and really feel no outrage. WingNuttistan is replete with
those who insist they are free thinkers with some sense of
proportionality and actual fairness. Yet here they go again
lowering the bar, after
pronouncements of utter outrage against CBS and demanding Rather's head
-- dismissing Fox's actions as shenanigans is
reminicent of Rush Limbaugh calling abu Ghraib prisoner abuse mere
fraternity pranks.
I don't care what
Fox did or did not do in the wake of their clearly
irresponsible actions. Their insta-retraction does nothing to
dispel the culture of an obviously biased media outlet pretending to be
a credible news agency. The fact that they put Cameron's
stuff
out there is merely symptomatic of their culture and the story about
the so-called "Communists for Kerry" without a similar swift
retraction, just an edit without explaination
is indicative of their willful inability engage in serious
jounalism.
They are what they are, the media wing of the GOP. To compare
them with legitimate news organizatioins is insulting. I don't
hold FOX to the same standards I do for CBS for that
reason, Is that it Casey? How can so many FReepers
feel this way, sincerely, yet perfer to get their information from this
propaganda outlet knowing how biased and hypocritical it is.
But if we bloggers, as pioneers in a new form of media are to have any
credibility, there must be consistency -- and peer review should not be
dismissed out of hand. Gandleman's stand that both are equally
guilty may be a start. My admitted partisanship does not help my
disagreement with either the equivalent stance nor holding CBS to the
higher standard. The mens rea of Fox is exremely
culpable while I believe there was some attempt at honest yet inept
journalism at CBS. There was no pretense at honesty Fox.
Yet it is the CBS incident
which has calls by congressmen for hearings, former Attorney General's
leading blue ribbon investigations, demands for resignations, protests
and now Hal
discovers a possible liable suit is in the works against the jerkoffs who can't identify Shinola
-- even when I drew them a picture, all stemming from the allegedly
forged documents which merely supported established truth, that our
president is a sniveling coward.
What will be the fallout for Fox? Not a goddamn thing, not even a
hit to their ratings. They will skate and continue with no change
whatsoever, while the damage to Dan Rather and CBS will
continue for the rest of the decade. Outrage? No, merely
disgust towards anyone who seriously watches them on a regular basis
and actually buys the "Fair and Balanced" Bullshit.
UPDATE: Seeing the Forest notes that although a disclaimer has now been posted by Faux News regarding the "Communists for Kerry" story in "what passes for "good journalistic practice" at FOX News."
You know, I wouldn't be so damn pissy about all this if it weren't for the fact that those hypcrits at Fox, who lie and spout GOP talking points as if they were gospel, didn't hammer, and continue to hammer CBS for fucking up.
However, if the Cheney/Edwards debate is a technical and detailed
policy discussion, the old man will eat John Boy for dinner.
Edwards will not be up against the bumbling fool who stammared his way
into the Oval Office, but the power behind the thrown, the wizard
himself who took the most inept man he could find and actually made him
president. Cheney is not someone to be trifled with.
There are two competing conspiracy theories
about both Bush and Kerry cheating in the debates. 
Yet it is the CBS incident
which has calls by congressmen for hearings, former Attorney General's
leading blue ribbon investigations, demands for resignations, protests
and now 
