Edgewise

Billmon explains the swiftboating of Kos

I know the seven or eight readers of this site are not blog junkies and may not have been following the recent campaign against Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and his “minions” for… well, it’s confusing, but for an excellent summary slash analysis see Billmon’s The Swiftboating of Kos in his venerable Whiskey Bar.

(Note: Even Atrios seems to miss the Python-tribute humor in the first few paragraphs.)

(Note Note: Disclaimer: I worked briefly for Kos and Jerome’s now-defunct political consulting firm Armstrong Zúniga back in the traumatic election year of ought-four.)

Alternate Reality #666

Pertaining to nothing, ran into an article talking about the use of “666” in the marketing for The Omen remake, and it featured the following quote:

“Normally, a marketer is going to be very, very wary about using the devil,” said Robert Thompson, professor of television at Syracuse University in New York state. “But 666 has really emerged in the popular culture as a funny thing you bring up when you’re talking about a kid misbehaving on the playground, you say ‘I bet this one has a 666 on his scalp’,” he said.

And I’ll grant that 666 is a very funny funny thing to bring up, in almost any situation. But that scalp comment — is that really a thing people say?

Adult 1: “Let me part that kid’s hair — I gotta check. He’s a 666-on-his-scalp kind of a kid. Yes, his head-skin almost certainly bears the mark of satan!”

Adult 2: “Ha ha ha! You are so right. About his scalp and its devil-mark!”

Adult 1: “Let’s go burn a goat!”

I dunno.

Mebbe it’s an east coast thing.

Rolling Stone Rolls W.

Was the whole reason George Sr. and company wanted George Jr. to become president just to make Sr.’s adminstration look competent by comparison? Well, on that score at least, mission accomplished. Now Rolling Stone (credit where due, I first saw this mentioned on our beloved dailykos) weighs in on the possibility that W. may be judged by historians as our worst. president. ever.

Michael Jackson Bailout

Michael Jackson Bailout Said to Be Close - New York Times

Whose Eyebrows?

Drudge is linking to a story on wcbstv.com and echoing their subhead, which reads: "Clinton's Use Of Word 'Plantation' Raises Eyebrows." I don't know about you (I mean, really, I don't) but when I read that headline over on Drudge I thought, 'Holy cow, Hillary went and said something racially insenitive on MLK Day. What sort of maroon is running that campaign anyways?' Is that just me? Or did you think something like that too?

Imagine my surprise when I clicked through and read the details. Here's Hillary's quote, which comes from a speech she made at an event sponsored by Rev. Al Sharpton's Action Network:

"When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation and you know what I'm talking about..."

And the eyebrows she raised? They belong to Representative Peter King (unrelated to Martin Luther King, jr.), a white Republican NY congressman who said:

"It's always wrong to play the race card for political gain by using a loaded word like plantation. But it is particularly wrong to do so on Martin Luther King Day".

I'm not here to argue that point. I'm just saying, taken in some context, it's a different sort of story altogether. Is all I'm saying.

Desperate times

OK, so horrific earthquake in Kashmir. Delay, Miers, Libby, Rove, all that. Wilma's kinda fierce. Deficit's growing. Continued Katrina fallout. Inflation mebbe. Gas prices. You know what I'm talking about here, right? I'm talking about news. There's lotsa news. Like, big stories. Everywhere.

And what are the good folks over at Fox focused on? Well the 24/7 section over on foxnews.com features the top stories from their top programs. And that's right, on October 21st, John Gibson is waaaaaay out on the front line, fighting the good fight against.....

The War on Christmas.

That's right, it's the war on the war on Christmas. Beating back all the Christmas haters out there. And they are legion. He's on (his phrase) "Christmas Patrol." In October. In October. And that's "The Big Story."

And I get that he's got a book he's selling here. But still. All I can think of to say is:

Oh come on now.

Is that really news?

Didn't read the article. (Couldn't be bothered.) But the headline made me chuckle: "Announcement of Supreme Court Nominee May Be Soon"

Classic Freudian Slip by Fox's David Asman

And the truth shall set ye free.

Mistah Kurtz, he dead

The Poor Man takes the piss out of Stanley Kurtz (Stanley Kurtz Wins the Wankathalon) in such excruciating detail that I'm afraid the feeble old wanker may never recover.

Taking David Brooks to the woodshed

A pointer from Politics from Left to Right led me to Kirsten Powers' Progressive Pundette blog, where I greatly enjoyed her giving David Brooks what for (David Brooks -- Ultimate White Boy).

Sometimes I can't tell if Brooks is a deluded tool or an insidious creep.

There they go again

Now that CBS has scaped a few goats to appease the Republicans, it's worth dusting off the most appropriate summary of what 60 Minutes did to George Bush on the National Guard AWOL story:

They framed a guilty man.

F-Bomb-a-rama

As part of our ongoing War on Terror, is it too much to ask that we ban use of the phrase F-Bomb by so-called major media? Seriously, folks. Lame is lame. And that phrase is. Lame.

A Wily Adversary

Reuters:

"Hundreds of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and bomb-making equipment have been uncovered inside couches, behind hidden walls and even on top of the city water tower, Marine officers said."

--Glass? Last thing you'd suspect!

Press more embedded than they realize?

In PressThink: Not Up to It, Jay Rosen predicts a sea change in the journalism's ability to explain itself.

Is Wolcott on a roll or what?

Wow. James Wolcott nails the hypocrisy of upper-class journalists trying to fit in with the jes' folks phonies:

Howling Wolf: "Democrats like Gore and Kerry have to weigh and calibrate their every move because one ill-chosen word or phrase or gesture will be tattooed across their fore[head] by the media's trained monkeys. I mean, Kerry will have to be very careful how he introduces Christopher Reeve's name into the stem-cell argument because the press will be waiting to pounce on any sign of emotional opportunism on his part. Whereas Bush can continue to talk slop and get a free pass, just as Reagan did whenever he tipped his head to the side and sawdust leaked out of his ear. I was naive enough to think that Bush's tantrum the other night at the townhall debate would get at least half of the coverage and mockery that Howard Dean's infamous scream received, which was foolish of me. Our great editors and pundits have apparently decided to avert their eyes from a rageaholic president with presenile dementia who needs to have answers fed to him from a boxy receiver because - well, at least he's not conceited."

Could you just roll that back a little, please?

I love the abrupt juxtaposition of styles in this AFP article, where the gray grit of war slides suddenly into comfy corporate pastel.
I leave it to you to decide where the transition seems to occur. This is an unbroken quote from the article.

"Four Turkish nationals have been executed at the hands of hostage-takers in the war-torn country.
"Several other Turks have been kidnapped and then released, mostly after their employers agreed to pull out.
"Dozens of other foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq by insurgents seeking to force their governments or employers to leave the country.
"PWC Logistics provides comprehensive supply chain solutions to companies throughout the Middle East."

Matt Drudge: Liar

I've been extra-super-special repulsed by Drudge's coverage this week (with apologies, I just can't stand to throw a link to this guy). There's been a different piece of tear-them-down news for every cycle, all timed so evenly you have to figure it was all drawn out well ahead of the convention in color-coded crayon -- a conscious, straight-ahead tactic to distract the media, to distract the public. And that bugs me. A lot. But I can live with it. What's really been getting under my skin -- and I know, it's kind of naive of me to still be bothered by this but... -- are all those Drudge headlines that flat-out lie. The latest example: a new book has come out, timed with the convention, called "Unfit for Combat." The lead on Drudge right now is basically a big ad for this book. And that's gross, but fine, whatever. The part that really kills me is the headline: "KERRY WAR COMRADES PREPARE BATTLE -- AGAINST KERRY." Which gives the sort of shocking misimpression that folks who actually served side-by-side with Kerry have written this book and are out to get him. A fact that runs counter to what we've heard from the Kerry campaign for the last six months or so. I mean, that would be a big scoop, right? Only it's not true. The book isn't by one of the soldiers who actually served with Kerry. By one of his "comrades." It's by John E. O'Neill, the same guy who Nixon and friends put forward as Kerry's nemesis thirty odd years ago. A fella who's devoted a decent chunk of his life, heart, and soul to convincing America that John Kerry is a scoundrel.

Implying that a book written by John O'Neil represents Kerry's war "comrades" isn't just writing a catchy headline to drive traffic. It's an attempt to intentionally mislead folks who don't know the full story. It's lying to his audience. And it's despicable.

All that said, here's my attempt at a positive, uplifting spin: what with the steady flow of exceptionally misleading Drudge, it's starting to look like the media has finally figured out they can just ignore 99% of his "scoops." The breaking point for all this may have been the non-story he was pushing months back about Kerry's supposed mistress -- most major media bit and, when no story surfaced, they got burned. Very few of the Drudge scoops this week have scored more than an inch or two of traction. So perhaps the man has overused his machine and snapped a rudder in the process, and I'm wasting my time and energy getting all worked up.

How 'bout that?

Slate Open About Being Duped

Slate is being very sporting in the way that it's reporting its own gullibility in this article. It seems that they promoted a poster in their "fray" discussion are to the Diary role and did not percieve that he was playing fast and loose about his identity and his professional affiliations.