Roger L. Simon has joined the Huffington Post. I’ve de-linked him, of course, but what is he thinking? It’s not like she’s even kissing his ass; she publicly dumps on him for trying to put Newsweek’s yellow journalism in context. I hope he wises up real soon.
Roger L. Simon has joined the Huffington Post. I’ve de-linked him, of course, but what is he thinking? It’s not like she’s even kissing his ass; she publicly dumps on him for trying to put Newsweek’s yellow journalism in context.
I hope he wises up real soon.
Newsweek falsely reported that US interrogators desecrated the Holy Koran, causing fatal riots: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article. Editor Mark Whitaker said the … Continue reading “Al Franken’s (and Newsweek’s) lies of the day”
Newsweek falsely reported that US interrogators desecrated the Holy Koran, causing fatal riots:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from
Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.
On the Al Franken show today, the host made jokes about US desecration of the Koran, the Bible, the sayings of Confucius, and a few other holy books. It’s really funny when people are murdered by angry lynch mobs, isn’t it? (This kind of shit is the reason Franken failed as a comedian.)
Franken also lied about the use of the Senate filibuster against judges. While there are a few historical examples of the filibuster being used against certain judges – Abe Fortas was the last – these were not partisan or systematic uses like the use the Democrats are making of it today. Fortas had foes on both sides of the aisle, he wasn’t one of several judges being filibustered at the same time by the same party, and he was already on the court. Fortas, who later resigned for ethical problems, was a crony of LBJ who was proposed for a promotion to Chief Justice.
Franken was also lying about social security and promoting the “Franken donut”.
See Bill Quick for links on the Newsweek thing, as does Jeff Jarvis and Glenn what’s-his-name.
UPDATE: See this story about the Newsweek apology, especially interesting for those maintaining the story was true.
Newsweek apologized yesterday for an inaccurate report on the treatment of detainees that triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 15 people died.
And see the Newsweek non-apology apology itself, a marvel of cunning yellow journalism:
The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them “not credible.” Our original source later said he couldn’t be certain about reading of the alleged Qur’an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.
“We’re sorry people died but maybe we didn’t lie.”
No, Newsweek, you lied and people died. Don’t publish this kind of crap without fact-checking it.
UPDATE Again: Newsweek finally retracts the story: “Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Quran abuse at Guantanamo Bay,” Whitaker said. Now will the dim-witted Al Franken retract his disgusting jokes?
It’s all very confusing to Joe Gandelman (and the rest of the world as well.)
We’ve all heard that teachers are underpaid. This turns out to be a myth, especially in affluent areas like the Long Island suburbs: One in 12 teachers in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties now earns more than $100,000, and the ranks are growing fast, according to an analysis of state data by The … Continue reading “Poor teachers”
We’ve all heard that teachers are underpaid. This turns out to be a myth, especially in affluent areas like the Long Island suburbs:
One in 12 teachers in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties now earns more than $100,000, and the ranks are growing fast, according to an analysis of state data by The New York Times. On Long Island from 2001 to 2003 (the most recent figures available), the number grew fivefold, to 2,800, including 498 elementary school teachers, 29 physical education teachers and 83 kindergarten teachers.
But don’t expect this myth to go away any sooner than the myth that America’s middle class white women are oppressed. Some myths are too politically valuable to correct.
Are the Democrats in such big trouble (losing 7 of the last 10 presidential elections) because of poor organization or bad policies? Markos Moulitsas Zuniga thinks it’s all just a matter of organizing: Moulitsas, known as the king of the Daily Kos website, sought to dig himself out of a hole today by attacking the … Continue reading “Philistinism and Provincialism”
Are the Democrats in such big trouble (losing 7 of the last 10 presidential elections) because of poor organization or bad policies? Markos Moulitsas Zuniga thinks it’s all just a matter of organizing:
Moulitsas, known as the king of the Daily Kos website, sought to dig himself out of a hole today by attacking the Hill newspaper for misrepresenting his remarks: “I was not ‘dismissive’ of existing progressive think tanks. They have their role and are key components….However, what I said is that all the policy papers in the world won’t do us any good unless we can figure out ways to actually win elections. Republicans have a machinery in place focusing on using technology and other tools to win elections in addition to their policy think tanks, we don’t.”
The Hill misrepresented nothing. Actually, “all the policy papers in the world” is exactly what a party in the wilderness needs. If Democrats want to change the country’s direction, they better know where they want to go and why their answers are superior. Kos’s enthusiasm for mechanistic solutions to the Democratic party’s soul-sickness is yet another example of present-day leftist philistinism and provincialism.
This is really sad for the country. The emphasis on mechanism is a reflection of a defensive posture toward the idea gap, which the Dems are clearly losing. Traditional social security and welfare + foreign policy isolationism and gay marriage doesn’t equal 50.1%.
Here’s an excellent gift for voodoo practitioners.
Here’s an excellent gift for voodoo practitioners.
Speaking of California, Dan Walters explains the state’s dilemma in easily-understandable terms: For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Schwarzenegger has overreached and fails, thus persuading him to not seek re-election next year or making him easy pickings for a Democratic challenger, and once again placing the governorship and the Legislature in Democratic hands. … Continue reading “California’s problem”
Speaking of California, Dan Walters explains the state’s dilemma in easily-understandable terms:
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Schwarzenegger has overreached and fails, thus persuading him to not seek re-election next year or making him easy pickings for a Democratic challenger, and once again placing the governorship and the Legislature in Democratic hands.
The scenario raises this question: Could a Democrat – any Democrat – govern successfully with state government constituted as it is now, or would he or she be doomed to failure? The rise and fall of the last Democratic governor, Gray Davis, may be an omen for Democrats who yearn so ardently for Schwarzenegger to disappear from politics.
Davis, it should be noted for those with impaired memories, is the only governor in California history to have been recalled. And while Davis’ own proclivities – especially his reluctance to make decisions – contributed mightily to his downfall, a major, perhaps decisive, factor was simply that he was a Democratic governor dealing with an increasingly liberal Legislature.
About 25 percent of California’s voters describe themselves as liberals, and about 30 percent as conservatives, with the rest being self-portrayed moderates, but the Legislature – thanks largely to the collateral effects of the legislative district gerrymander enacted in 2001 – now effectively reflects only the 25 percent who are liberals.
The Legislature began to drift to the left after the 2000 elections, and the trend accelerated in the two elections that followed due to the gerrymander, with the ranks of moderate Democrats thinning almost to the point of extinction. The same was true of Republican moderates, but because they are the minority party, it didn’t make much difference in what happened.
The gerrymandered legislature is too far to the left, and it actually promotes tribal warfare rather than consensus. Democracy can’t work in the social atmosphere of California, so the most meaningful reform would be redistricting to get rid of “safe” Dem and Rep seats in the legislature. This isn’t business vs. the people, it’s the political parties vs. the people. And Schwarzenegger is backing just such a reform.
HIV dissidents foam at the mouth about the treatment of newborns with anti-retroviral drugs, but this new study shows that it works: The Stanford team found that HIV-infected infants treated with anti-retroviral drugs within two months of birth were less likely to develop AIDS as toddlers than were infants whose treatment was only delayed slightly, … Continue reading “HIV babies stay healthy with early treatment”
HIV dissidents foam at the mouth about the treatment of newborns with anti-retroviral drugs, but this new study shows that it works:
The Stanford team found that HIV-infected infants treated with anti-retroviral drugs within two months of birth were less likely to develop AIDS as toddlers than were infants whose treatment was only delayed slightly, to the age of 3 to 4 months.
Of 10 children who started therapy before they were 2 months old, three (30 percent) got sick before they were 3 years old. In contrast, of 16 children who started therapy later, 11 (68 percent) got sick before the age of 3.
But both groups benefited from the treatment, whether given soon after birth or a little later. Without treatment, as many as 20 to 30 percent of HIV-infected infants will develop AIDS by the age of only 4 months — and almost all will get sick by age 6.
Posting this would cause Google Ads to flood us with AIDS-testing ads, one of the reasons I’ve ditched Google.
Today Al Franken is broadcasting from Sacramento, before an audience of noisy loons with the coffee-shop weekly grasp of politics. He made the mistake of interviewing Dan Walters, the dean of Sacramento journalists on the state of politics in California. Franken showed his igorance and desire to deceive several times: 1. Called Walters a conservative … Continue reading “Al Franken’s lies of the day”
Today Al Franken is broadcasting from Sacramento, before an audience of noisy loons with the coffee-shop weekly grasp of politics. He made the mistake of interviewing Dan Walters, the dean of Sacramento journalists on the state of politics in California. Franken showed his igorance and desire to deceive several times:
1. Called Walters a conservative when he’s clearly a centrist.
2. Blamed California’s education problems on Prop 13 exclusively.
3. Equated Schwarzenegger’s fundraising for inititiatives to Gray Davis’ personal fundraising.
4. Reduced the California ballot wars to a business vs. the People war.
5. Claimed Schwarzenegger tried to take pensions away from widows and orphans.
People don’t take Franken seriously because he’s an alleged comedian, but a comprehensive scorecard would probably show that he’s the most deceptive host in talk radio, with the possible exception of Janeane Garofalo or Randi Rhodes.
John Cole observes moonbats on the Huffy-puffy blog: And there you have the far left in a nutshell: smug, condescending, deceitful, paranoid, self-congratulating, in denial and divorced from reality, and wholly uncredible. Some choice the American system has- John Conyers or Pat Robertson. Isn’t there any way to marginalize stupid? Listening to Al Franken broadcasting … Continue reading “Marginalizing stupid”
John Cole observes moonbats on the Huffy-puffy blog:
And there you have the far left in a nutshell: smug, condescending, deceitful, paranoid, self-congratulating, in denial and divorced from reality, and wholly uncredible. Some choice the American system has- John Conyers or Pat Robertson. Isn’t there any way to marginalize stupid?
Listening to Al Franken broadcasting from Portland this morning I observed the same thing. He told lie after lie to a screaming, cheering, applauding audience as willing to be deceived as the Scientology membership or the voters in Nazi Germany.
Did you know that Franken invented left-wing radio? That’s what he claimed, despite the fact that Pacifica, NPR, and stations like KGO were with us long before Air America got Clear Channel into that game. He must have invented the Internet too. And did you know that there’s no legitimate constitutional question about the Social Security Act, which was only approved by the Supreme Court by a 5-4 margin after court-packing? That’s what he said. Or that we wouldn’t have minimum wage laws without it? Even in a state with its own minimum wage set higher than the federal standard the audience ate this up.
The political dialog that matters in this country – the one that engages the largest number of voters – is almost wholly divorced from the facts. That’s a problem.
Incidentally, somebody could do a whole blog just covering the lies Al Franken, the failed comedian, tells every morning to his retarded audience but I don’t get paid enough to do it myself. Maybe a tag-team approach would work.
Formaldehyde really sucks. It’s carcinogenic, and breathing it causes headaches and runny mucous right away. But it’s an essential part of the glues that make plywood, particle board, and fiberboard possible, without which we wouldn’t have much in the way of homes and furniture. But all that’s about to change thanks to he lowly mussel, … Continue reading “Sticking it to the wood”
Formaldehyde really sucks. It’s carcinogenic, and breathing it causes headaches and runny mucous right away. But it’s an essential part of the glues that make plywood, particle board, and fiberboard possible, without which we wouldn’t have much in the way of homes and furniture. But all that’s about to change thanks to he lowly mussel, the groovy little mollusc that attaches itself to rocks with a sticky foot.
CORVALLIS — A weekend trip to the Oregon coast gave Kaichang Li an idea that is revolutionizing the wood manufacturing industry and will mean cleaner air indoors and out.
It’s a new adhesive that’s a safe replacement for chemical glues in plywood, particleboard and other manufactured wood that leak noxious formaldehyde fumes into homes. It’s so simple and inexpensive that Li, an assistant professor at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, can whip it up from soy flour in a kitchen mixer on his laboratory counter.
The tenacious foothold of mussels in the ocean surf inspired the new glue, and its commercial potential could extend to almost every new home and building. OSU patented the adhesive in the United States and other countries, and is licensing it to companies.
The OSU professor figured out how to make a soy-based glue with essential amino acids from the mussel and outperforms formaldehyde and doesn’t make you sick. Hungry maybe, but that’s about it.
This kinda stuff is cool, but it makes me wonder why my smaller Giant Clam won’t stick herself to a rock like she’s supposed to.
