BuzzFlash has picked it's GOP Hypocrite of the Week and community members won't want to miss it. Why? The Elite Fluff Patrol squad leader has finally earned her due! Yes, Elisabeth Bumiller has finally been given an award she so richly deserves.
Also from BuzzFlash, Becky e-mails to note Barbara's Daily BuzzFlash Minute:
George Bush “thinks” about Iraq every single day, so he says, and while he’s “thinking” the sons and daughters of America are DYING! If Bush believes thinking will absolve his responsibility for over 1700+ dead American soldiers and countless thousands of innocent Iraqis, he’s WRONG! Whenever I did something and attempted to make excuses, my grandmother used to say, “Too bad you didn’t think about it before you did it.” Today I would say, it’s an outrage George Bush didn’t do that thinking BEFORE he acted in Iraq!
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One has to wonder, was it really necessary to bring in the “Angel of Death?” Did Donald Rumsfeld feel the United States had to act in the spirit of Dr. Josef Mengele? Where else has Rumsfeld employed such methods of interrogation? Where else can American citizens expect them to be used? Are the Geneva Conventions wrong and outdated, as implied by the Bush administration? Does it really help to “fix the law” to fit the torture and abuse?
The above is an excerpt. Check out the link.
Nelson e-mails to note Media Matters' "Penguin declares Klein biased, sticks author with onus for accuracy:"
In a statement posted June 22 on its website, Penguin Group (USA), which owns the imprint Sentinel, publisher of Edward Klein's The Truth About Hillary, attempted to wash its hands of the controversy surrounding the book. The statement claimed that "the opinions and viewpoints" in the book do not reflect those of Penguin or its parent company, Pearson plc.
In a passage impugning its own author's sense of journalistic fairness, Penguin declared that "factual accuracy does not mean unopinionated or unbiased. Mr. Klein's interpretation of what he reports is unabashedly his opinion. Neither he nor Sentinel pretend otherwise."
Not only did Penguin impugn Klein's fairness, it refused to stand by the accuracy of his book, stating that "it is the long-established and legally recognized practice in book publishing that it is the author's responsibility to assure factual accuracy."
Also from Media Matters, Brenda e-mailed to note "The lies of Ken Tomlinson:"
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), faces growing criticism from supporters of public radio and public television who argue that his leadership has compromised CPB's charter to protect public broadcasting against political interference. Sixteen U.S. senators have called on President Bush to remove Tomlinson as head of CPB, charging that Tomlinson "seriously undermines the credibility and mission of public television." In the wake of a May 2 New York Times article detailing the controversy surrounding Tomlinson, he has repeatedly defended himself against allegations that he has exerted political pressure on CPB. But new documents, along with increased scrutiny of his actions, have proved several of Tomlinson's prior statements false.
Tomlinson said CPB president approved, signed contract to monitor Moyers show
The Times reported that, in a May 24 letter to Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND), Tomlinson stated he saw no need to consult the CPB board of directors about hiring an outside consultant to monitor bias on PBS' NOW with Bill Moyers, because, he wrote, the contract was "approved and signed by then CPB President, Kathleen Cox."
But the Times reported on June 22 that a copy of the contract obtained by the paper shows that Tomlinson signed it on February 3, 2004 -- five months before Cox became CPB president. Tomlinson declined to comment to the Times on the apparent discrepancy.
CPB paid the consultant, Fred Mann, $14,170 to monitor bias on NOW. Mann worked for 20 years at the National Journalism Center, an organization founded by the American Conservative Union and M. Stanton Evans, a conservative columnist, that counts among the alumni of its training programs Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter.
In a June 20 speech on the Senate floor, Dorgan said that he had received the "raw data" Mann provided Tomlinson and was "struck and disappointed" by the methods he used in conducting the study. For example, Mann labeled certain segments of the show "anti-Bush," "anti-DeLay" and "anticorporation." In addition, Mann classified all the guests appearing on NOW as either "conservative" or "liberal," labeling Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) as "liberal." Dorgan inferred that Hagel had "apparently said something that wasn't completely in sync with the White House" and concluded: "That is not the prism through which someone should evaluate whether something makes sense."
The above is an excerpt. (Please, you know the lies of Kenneth Tomlinson would never be a brief entry.) Use the link to read more.
For those wondering about the theme for Third Estate Sunday Review this Sunday, Jim just phoned to say there is a theme, it will be the "summer issue."
I'll also say thank you to Maria who's done another selection of Democracy Now! Headlines in Spanish and in English. That will go up right after this. After which, I'll be transferring all entries from today over to the mirror site and then doing the interview with Beth. Depending upon how long that lasts, there may or may not be additional posts tonight. Beth will be editing down the interview and when she's ready with that, it will be posted here. That may be tonight or it may be tomorrow.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
