PoliPundit links to Byron York’s description of Terry McAuliffe’s “Farewell Tribute” last Thursday night.
Byron says, “How do you pay tribute to a man whose main legacy was losing elections?”
It reads like a parody but it’s true.
Almost, almost feel sorry for the man. Can’t wait to see what the new guy will do.
A comparison of the “scandals” being pursued by blogs from the left and blogs from the right reveals a lot about their respective roles vis-a- vis the mainstream media. If you read the lefty blogs, they are every bit as convinced about the Gannon issue being a big story, as conservative bloggers are about the Eason Jordan issue. However, by any objective measure the Gannon story is nowhere near as significant. On one hand you have the head of one of the most powerful news organizations on the planet making public statements that U.S. troops are murdering journalists, and on the other is an unknown blogger who was given a press pass.
Why the focus by the lefty bloggers on such ridiculously small issues? Simple, that’s all they have. Not because there aren’t news stories that tend to favor their liberal causes, but because those stories are already being reported by the MSM. It is precisely because the MSM has such a left leaning bias that conservative blogs gain their strength. They are filling a monstrous void left open by the MSM. If this story were reversed and, say an administration official, and not Eason Jordan made the same statements, the lefty blogs wouldn’t be scrambling to get the story out. It would be plastered all over every paper in the country, and being covered by CNN et al on a constant 24 hour news cycle. That’s why liberal blogs are so extreme. There is no void for them to fill. Only small cracks.
Jeff
(cross posted at PoliPundit)
Last night I watched CNN’s Aaron Brown do a very solemn piece about Lynne Stewart, the lawyer who was convicted of assisting her client conduct terrorist activities. The solemnity did not appear to be based on the alarming fact that a US attorney would threaten her fellow citizens this way, but on the punishment that Stewart faced for her crimes. CNN’s piece made particular mention of the fact that she faced many years in prison and further noted that Stewart had children. It is completely revolting (though not surprising) that CNN would focus on her loss, given the hundreds of children in recent years who have learned of their parents’ death at the hands of terrorists, perhaps the very terrorists Stewart assisted. What was further revolting was the “thought provoking” discussion CNN attempted to raise about how Stewart was prosecuted using video taped evidence of her meetings with her client.
CNN showed Stewart, apparently a victim herself, giving a tearful and impassioned speech to the press about the evils of government denying its citizens the right to counsel, without in any way scrutinizing what Stewart was saying. The problem is there is no thought provoking issue here. Solicitor and client privilege does not extend to communications in the furtherance of a criminal activity. This isn’t cutting edge, ground breaking jurisprudence either, but a longstanding rule of law. The foundations of this rule are not simply based on the policy that a lawyer must not be shielded from his or her own criminal activity, but are based on protecting the sanctity of the solicitor and client privilege itself. If the privilege is allowed to become a tool for committing wrongs its very existence is threatened. Lawyers who abuse the privilege do so with the knowledge that they are jeopardizing others’ right to effective legal assistance in the future.
That Lynne Stewart would continue to tearfully proclaim the sanctity of the very privilege she was threatening, like the terrorist hiding behind civilians in the battlefield, shows just how much she has become like her clients.
That CNN would, to any degree, portray her as a victim of the justice system shows just how far CNN’s leanings have become like those of Stewart and her clients.
Fox News reports that North Korea is now claiming that they have nuclear weapons and will not return to six party talks anytime soon.
The North Korean Government claim that they need them for self defense against ” what it considers an increasingly hostile United States.”
There has been no independent verification of North Korea’s claims.
hat tip: Command Post
Prince Charles is going to marry Camilla-Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle on April 8th.
The Fox News story points out that:
Last year, a poll indicated that more Britons support Prince Charles marrying Parker Bowles than oppose it.
Thirty-two percent of respondents to the Populus poll said they would support Charles if he remarried, while 29 percent were opposed. Thirty-eight percent said they didn’t care and 2 percent had no opinion.
President Bush was just on Fox News. I asked my four year old who that was on TV. He said, “That’s George Bush”. I asked him what was George Bush’s job. He answered, “Guarding the country!”.
That’s pretty good for a four year old! I wasn’t quite sure if he said “guarding” or “guiding”. Each is correct. I’m just not sure if he knows what guiding means.
Yesterday the Chicago Tribune didn’t print the Prickly City comic. This is a comic with a conservative viewpoint. The paper published Bizzaro in its place with the following notice:
The Prickly City comic from yesterday can be viewed here.
You decide.
Update: The Chicago Tribune prints Doonesbury every day. (I meant to put this in when I first posted this)
Being a service-connected disable veteran I am very interested in the VA portion of the budget. The Washington Times yesterday had an article on the budget. I excerpt the VA portion here:
VETERANS AFFAIRS
Spending: $33.4 billion, up 2.7 percent
The president’s plan would raise medical care spending from $21.6 billion to $22.4 billion, as well as upping funding by $240 million on inpatient care for veterans with problems related to mental illness, including alcohol and drug use.After four years of increases in the agency’s budget, Mr. Bush wants veterans to start picking up more of the tab. He asks veterans who have the highest incomes among those seeking VA health care and who do not have service-connected illnesses or injuries to pay a $250 annual fee. Mr. Bush also wants to increase prescription drug co-payments for such veterans from $7 to $15 for a 30-day drug supply. More than 2 million veterans could be affected.
The fees make up much of the increase in medical care spending.
Mr. Bush has made similar requests in previous budgets, only to be soundly rejected by members of Congress. But the environment is different this year with new House and Senate veterans affairs committee chairmen, at least one of whom has been supportive of the president’s efforts to focus resources on certain veterans.
This seems very reasonable to me. Of course, as a service-connected disabled veteran, I wouldn’t have to pay the $250 annual fee. I don’t have co-pays for meds relating to my disability, but I do have the copay for meds that aren’t related such as Flonase. The above points out that more than 2 million veterans could be affected. That’s could be affected. I would believe that most of the wealthier vets, or those without a service-connected illness or disability don’t use the VA system for health care anyway.
Captain Ed has more on this here.
It is with heavy heart that I remove Diplomad from my blogroll. They are leaving… (via Powerline).
Powerline says:
The Diplomad debuted in August 2004 and made an immediate impact. It sounded too good to be true: “A Blog by career US Foreign Service officers. They are Republican (most of the time) in an institution (State Department) in which being a Republican can be bad for your career — even with a Republican President.”
Republicans in the State Department? I would have thought that it was easier to find a unicorn. Yet in post after post, The Diplomad provided a proudly pro-American insider’s perspective on breaking events around the world.
The Diplomad says:
The Chief Diplomad urges all of you to read the very well written brother sites at Daily Demarche and New Sisyphus (maybe they’ll let us put up an occasional posting.) We’ve heard that our Republican cousins over at USAID might be starting a blog, too, so keep an out eye for it.
The Diplomad says good bye and thanks.
Goodbye and God Bless you Diplomad, we’ll miss you…
It’s February 2nd again. It’s a lovely, sunny day here just like in Punxsutawney, PA where Punxsutawney Phil has run back into his house signaling six more weeks of winter.
Let’s look at this:
hmmm… Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter…
there are 6.57 more weeks of winter…
Who’da thunk it???
