Chickenhawk Down

BUCHANAN: Dan you aren�t the only guy that went through this experience in one way or another. And not everybody that didn�t come to your conclusion that we ought to sabotage the war was wrong.
ELLSBERG: Pat you didn�t know many people in Vietnam.
BUCHANAN: A lot of my friends from high school were still there.
ELLSBERG: You didn�t manage to make it did you?
BUCHANAN: No, I was in the White House, that�s right.
ELLSBERG: Pardon me.
BUCHANAN: You made it and you turned on the guys over there.
ELLSBERG: It was your bad football knee, if I�m not mistaken.
PRESS: Let�s just say...
ELLSBERG: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) At 30, we�re getting a little personal here. I�ll just mention I�m the man at this table, and I don�t know about you Bill, who exposed himself to communist shot and shell in Vietnam using my former Marine background, my belief in the war, which was not unlike yours at the time, led me to Vietnam to do what I could to win it. My conclusions as to whether we could win it were gained in rice patties in Vietnam, not where you...
BUCHANAN: You helped to lose it.
ELLSBERG: By the way you weren�t in the White House during those years. You were draft age and you didn�t manage to...
BUCHANAN: That�s bull shit.
PRESS: We�ve got to go for some breaking-Daniel Ellsberg.
ELLSBERG: If I�m wrong...
BUCHANAN: You�re wrong.

Lies Of The Moonie Times

People who live in Third World countries might have a better view of the United States if Americans followed Osama bin Laden's example of being "a good neighbor so people there have a different vision of us," said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat.

Helen Thomas Slaps The Talking Penis, And The Press Whores Too

The issue [of Rove's orders to dump Lott] surfaced at a White House briefing yesterday morning, when Fleischer complained to the assembled reporters about "assertions that are not backed up."

"Just because they're not backed up doesn't mean they're not true," cracked CBS's Bill Plante.

"Well, that's a heck of a standard for thorough, probing journalism," Fleischer said.

"Taking your word for it is not a standard either," retorted columnist Helen Thomas.

Segregation Bad, Public Education Worse?

Some of us have put our reputations in jeopardy by supporting programs like the school liberation movement because we want to help people who don't have much and need a break. Or we've put ourselves in jeopardy by opposing racial preferences, or any number of other programs, for the very reason that we believe completely in our hearts and minds that all races are equal and no one should be judged by the color of his skin. And then some guy comes along and speaks the old code of yesteryear and seems to reinforce the idea that those who hold conservative positions are really, at heart, racist. We are indignant, and we have been for a long time.

In the Lott scandal our indignation reached critical mass. A lot of conservatives, many of them 50 and under, decided enough is enough, let's end this, let a new party be born. And by the way, in the particular case of Trent Lott, it didn't start yesterday. Stanley Crouch just surprised me by sending me a column he wrote almost four years ago for the New York Daily News. It was about a Lott appearance before the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white-supremacist group. I said it was springtime and it's time to throw out the garbage, and Mr. Lott should go. Go to the archives of conservative journals and see what they've been writing and thinking for a long time about race. This is a good time to get real conservative thinking out there and known for what it is.

Our job in the "School Liberation Movement" is to restore the conviction that parents must determine and provide for the education of their children. This means infusing into the American soul the belief that we must separate schools from politics. It means infusing this as deeply as we now hold that chattel slavery is wrong.

Norah! Norah! Norah!

Lott Must Go

Personal Responsibility At Its Finest

He's Got The Beat ... Off

From PacMan to "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (recommended if Sean Penn's recent visit to Baghdad got on your nerves) to the Go Go Girls and Flashdance, it's been a warm bath in pop-cultural reminiscence. I'd forgotten that there was once a sitcom, "Small Wonder," where the star was a young girl who was actually a robot. I forgot that pale blue jacket I wore in 1985, how racy "Porky's" was, how cool Chevy Chase used to be, and how some of my first erotic fantasies were built around the "Dukes of Hazzard" (don't ask).

"If I have misspelled or mischaracterized any of the above, please send corrections to eatme@Idontgiveashit.com."

Roger's Remedial Reading Course

pla�gia�rize

v. pla�gia�rized, pla�gia�riz�ing, pla�gia�riz�es
v. tr.

To use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.
To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another).

v. intr.

To put forth as original to oneself the ideas or words of another.

li�bel
n.

A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.
The act of presenting such material to the public.
The written claims presented by a plaintiff in an action at admiralty law or to an ecclesiastical court.

Whaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Full disclosure: This happened to me when I integrated four words from a Jackson Browne song into a piece I posted on my blog. Another blogger accused me of plagiarism, and the unmerited charge spread across the Web at frightening speed.

As any conspiracy theorist knows, falsehoods take on an authority all their own on the Internet. So when bloggers willfully defame those with professional reputations to defend, that is a serious breach for which they should be held accountable.

Blogging is one of the best things that has ever happened to freedom of expression and the press, and we should make every effort to protect its scrupulous practitioners. But freedoms come with responsibilities. Common journalistic standards of accuracy and fair play exist for good reasons, and bloggers, like the rest of us, must abide by them. By drawing attention to libelous Web content, the Australian case may force them to. -- Norah Vincent, the latest self-identified victim of a hate crime

Hate Crimes

My Advice to MSNBC

Like their infamous father, the Dornan kids are class acts. When Bob lost his rematch with Loretta Sanchez in 1998, the entire family shined. On TV, an angry Bob branded Sanchez a "serial adulterer." Daughter Kate and her thug boyfriend made a derogatory remark about Republican Senate candidate Matt Fong and then got into fistfights with tiny, old, Asian Republican onlookers. Although she smelled like booze, we�re sure Kate was her naturally pleasant self when she screamed from the stage, "It�s not over yet, Loretta. We�re coming after you bad. Do you hear me?" Bob�s namesake, Bob Jr., later took a long gulp of his Budweiser and told a Weekly reporter that the Asian Republicans didn�t understand "class" like the Dornan family. Said Junior Dornan, "I told them, �Man, you aren�t nothing but low-class assholes, so shut up.�"

Roger's Mail Sac

CARLSON: Don Opasik (ph) of Pittsburgh writes, "I was devastated by the news that Al Gore has withdrawn from the 2002 (?) presidential race. The Republcian Party has lost a significant contributor to George Bush's reelection. I guess that leaves Al Sharpton." [Para.] You know, it always goes back to Al Sharpton, and I'm glad it does.

Dick of the Week

DORNAN: Chris, there�s a double standard at play here that I accept as a compliment. When Jesse Jackson says �Himey Town�, when any of them do something that should be apologized for, has Clinton really apologized for Monica
Lewinsky? Not really. No matter what they do, they get this-they get a free ride. I accept our double standard. Adultery...

INGRAHAM: Right.

DORNAN: ... counts in the Republican Party, and when one of us says something that can be twisted like this, he�s got to make a clear apology...

Just The Facts, He Lied

Q Were you able to follow-up on the New York Times story that you have a new disinformation campaign going on, or being planned against the allies?

MR. FLEISCHER: I've looked into this, and let me say to you there is widespread recognition throughout the administration that the United States has an important role in the world in better communicating America's message of hope and opportunity. It is important that it is a message that is shared throughout the world, in friendly nations and other places, as well. The President has an expectation that any program that is created in his administration be based on facts, and that's what he would expect to be carried out in any program that is created in any entity of the government.

[later]

Q Ari, what's the President's reaction to former Vice President Gore announcing that he's not going to run?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, this is an internal matter for the Democratic Party, and somebody will emerge from the Democratic field who will ultimately seek to raise taxes on the American people, but that's a decision that the Democrats will make as they select a nominee.

Q He didn't have a personal reaction at all, I mean, when he heard yesterday? What did he say?

MR. FLEISCHER: No, I think the President is rather busy, focused on the job that he was elected to do by the American people.

Loathsome Dunne

Illiteracy, The Silent Shame

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we are going to take you live to the Roosevelt Room at the White House, where every year President George Bush and, of course, the first lady read holiday stories with children at the White House. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Have you ever heard this one? It starts with "'Twas the night before Christmas?"

(CROSSTALK)

G. BUSH: ... night before Christmas, when all through the house -- not even a mouse. Nobody was stirring. Kind of quiet, wasn't it?

You better read that, because I can't see.

Her Invitation Must Have Gotten Lost In The Mail

Mickey Two-Fer Tuesday

MATTHEWS: ... because you�re an analyst of public opinion. We�re going to have a poll in a few moments about what�s going on here. He was asked by Ed Gordon, a very effective, I thought, interviewer tonight on Black Entertainment Television. What problems were you talking about when you said we wouldn�t have them if we�d voted for a segregationist back in �48. What do you believe he thinks those problems are that we�ve avoided or that we�ve incurred because we didn�t vote racist back in �48?

LUNTZ: It has to do with problems that we�ve had over the last eight or nine years. I don�t want to speak...

MATTHEWS: He said we wouldn�t have these problems if we had voted for Strom Thurmond in �48 for president, a segregationist who ran against Harry Truman. What is he talking about there?

LUNTZ: I think that some of the issues that he�s talking about, quite frankly, and I don�t know if he would agree or disagree, but I think some of it has to do with Bill Clinton and the things that happened in the 1990s, the moral decay of the country. The acceptance of certain types of behavior. If...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) come on.

LUNTZ: ... you-if you...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: He said it in the context-this is why the man is in deep trouble and probably...

FINEMAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: ... will lose his leadership job. He said we wouldn�t have had all the problems over the years. That�s a long-term statement about the direction of American social life and racial existence, all the way back to 1948 because of that vote.

LUNTZ: But he was making-it wasn�t the issue of the problems. It was the issue of a compliment. He was trying to say something nice to a 100-year-old man. Chris, this is Washington. You know how tough Washington is. Washington isn�t hardball. They are-the meanness and the partisanship and the negativity in this town, you know, is damn rough...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: And you believe he�s clean on the charge of racialism?

LUNTZ: Without a doubt...

MATTHEWS: OK.

LUNTZ: One hundred percent.

"Some of the sanctimony is now beginning to bug me.... And the blithe assumption of moral superiority is equally galling."

Meet Your Liberal Media

A Hot TP

A CRIME reporter for the New York Sun has been arrested for setting two rolls of toilet paper on fire in a Greenwich Village bar. According to a criminal complaint, cops said a witness saw William Mauldin run out of a bathroom after the fire was set at Caf� Creole on MacDougal Street near Minetta Lane at around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Mauldin was charged with attempted arson and reckless endangerment.

The Confederacy, under the leadership of Jefferson Davis, schemed to destroy the Union. It openly solicited the military support of foreign powers in order to do so. It attempted to assassinate a Republican president and may eventually have succeeded. It issued arrogant and disgusting orders for the execution of prisoners of war, without discrimination as to shade or color. It instated censorship, and it instated mandatory (if sectarian) religion. There isn't a "white" person in the country who should not spit upon its treasonous and hateful memory. There would be no such place as "America" if the bloody stars and bars had carried the day.

Spit It Out, Frank, And Move On With Your Life

Basically, [Pollster Frank] Luntz said that the "problems" Lott was talking about, which voting for Strom Thurmond would have avoided, were Bill Clinton's moral and sexual lapses. If ever there was a statement so ridiculous that the speaker deserved to be laughed out of three dimensional space, buddy, this is it.

Meet Your Liberal Press

Conservatives Led the Way in Criticizing Lott's Remarks

Meanwhile�yes, we quoted Debra Saunders accurately in last Friday�s HOWLER. The San Francisco Chronicle subsequently changed the on-line version of her column without noting that a correction had been made. Many readers went to the link and thought that we had doctored her quote. Sorry�that�s the sort of thing Saunders does.

The second result was political. Then-Sen. Al Gore, and later an independent campaign supportive of then-Vice President George Bush, ran TV spots on Horton during the 1988 presidential election. Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis lost.

The second result was political. Then-Sen. Al Gore used the furlough program against Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race. Later an independent campaign supportive of then-Vice President George Bush ran spots on Horton. Dukakis lost the presidential race.

Grand Old Police Blotter, Pee Wee Thurmond Edition

The state Senate is not considering any action to remove Sen. Jerry Thomas, R-Franklinton, arrested this week during a raid on an adult video and book store in New Orleans, Senate President John Hainkel said Thursday.
...

Thomas was arrested Tuesday and charged with lewd conduct, which can include exposure of genitals, intercourse, masturbation, urination or defecation in a public place or where the act is likely to be seen by another person, according to the municipal code.
...

[Lousiana] Gov. Foster said Thursday that Thomas "is a good man who was in the wrong place. It is totally out of character. He's a decent person as far as I stand."

Slander

It wasn't until Lott apologized last Monday night that such newspapers as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today took note of the matter. In the meantime, Lott was pummeled by a number of online Weblogs -- particularly by conservatives who agree with him on many issues -- in a way that helped force the story into public view.
...

By Monday, with the mainstream press still largely snoozing, Web writers were leading the charge. Andrew Sullivan: "Either they get rid of Lott as majority leader or they should come out formally as a party that regrets desegregation and civil rights for African-Americans." Joshua Micah Marshall: "The real question is why this incident is still being treated as no more than a minor embarrassment or a simple gaffe." National Review Online's David Frum: "What came out of his mouth was the most emphatic repudiation of desegregation to be heard from a national political figure since George Wallace's first presidential campaign."

Says Glenn Reynolds, the Tennessee law professor who jumped on the story in his InstaPundit column: "The guy's majority leader. Reporters, as opposed to bloggers, depend on him for access. The hinterlands are full of bloggers who don't care whether Trent Lott is nice to them or not. That makes them different from the Washington press."

On The Cutting Room Floor

rejected material that could be interpreted as disrespectful to former president Bill Clinton. He also dismissed a joke about Mr. Bush and cocaine as "unfair."

Gore Will Not Run in 2004; Press Scrambles To Manufacture Lies About Other Democrats

Meet Your Liberal Press

The Early Reviews