Another Howell Movement

Little Debbie Howell has high standards for her employer's output: Accuracy is irrelevant, and smear jobs are okay if the editors claim they're not deliberate. And it's all the readers' fault anyway, for misconstruing the meaning of the piece and having unreasonable standards. Stupid, stupid readers. This never would have happened in the old days, when mainstream journalists were worshipped as gods ("This is the new world mainstream journalists live in," Howell opines).

But here's a telling quote:

"This [the wingnut rumors that Obama was a Muslim] was a legitimate subject for journalism explored by one of our most sophisticated political reporters," said Managing Editor Philip Bennett. "We should have been clearer about what it did and didn't say -- in the headline, through the display and in the body of the piece."

Isn't Bennett saying that the article was unclear and shouldn't have been published as written? Why, yes, he is.

A Conrad Black Christmas

An early Christmas card from The Dark Avenger reminded me that the day of reckoning is at hand for Lord Conrad Black. Fans of Lord Jeff Archer's three-volume Prison Diaries are no doubt hoping for Lord Black of Statesville to pen a similar tome of life in chokey:

Lord Black of Crossharbour, the disgraced media baron and former Daily Telegraph proprietor, is facing not only a prison sentence but a renewed legal onslaught by the US authorities that could financially ruin him.

Tomorrow the peer goes back to court in Chicago, where he was found guilty in July of fraud and obstruction of justice. Apart from a jail term, he is likely to have a multimillion-dollar fine imposed on him, but he also faces the resurrection of a civil lawsuit to claw back millions in ill-gotten gains that could leave him with nothing.

As part of the criminal case, prosecutors are already trying to seize the Palm Beach mansion where Black has been holed up with his wife, Barbara Amiel, for the past five months. The judge, Amy St Eve, will decide in the morning whether he should forfeit the property, which the US government alleges was renovated using cash stolen from the peer's stock market-listed company, Hollinger International. Prosecutors also want $8.5m (£4.2m) in proceeds from the sale of his New York apartment. The FBI seized the cheque before it was handed to Black.

Now, financial regulators are planning to come after the peer for more money they say he stole from his Hollinger International newspaper company, putting pressure on a fortune that has already been whittled down by legal fees. The civil lawsuit, filed by the Wall Street watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, was frozen in 2005 when it became clear that the peer would be facing criminal charges.

...

Legal experts say Black is likely to be allowed a final Christmas with his family before being told to report to prison in the new year. Prosecutors will argue he should spend up to 24 years in jail, but a pre-sentence report suggested a term nearer to five years. The peer told Canadian TV this week that "prison would be a bore, but quite endurable".

....

Black will plead with the judge, Amy St Eve, to be allowed to serve his sentence in a minimum-security jail close to the Canadian border, to cushion the blow of swapping his life of luxury for a prison dormitory. While non-Americans are not usually allowed to serve their time in the lowest-security institutions, Black's lawyers say that the disgraced peer is neither planning to abscond nor likely to be a risk to the public.

Rather, he is planning to immerse himself in writing and his continuing legal fight, and a location close to Canada would allow easy visits not just from his family but also from his lawyers. A minimum-security jail would impose fewer restrictions on his movements and, unlike a low-security prison, it would have no armed perimeter patrols and possibly no fence at all.

For the fallen media baron, the change of lifestyle will be harsh. Whatever the security level of the prison, inmates are required to work at tasks such as washing windows or mopping floors.

Lady Amiel will plead with the judge to prohibit all conjugal visits, while David Frum will do the opposite.

Black has got to be disappointed that he was unable to score the celebrity endorsements penned by the Friends of Scooter Libby. Connie apparently was only able to score sentencing letters from such B-listers as a Canadian CEO, one of his domsestic staff, a wingnut priest and his family. Wingnut welfare doesn't buy much loyalty these days.

He Said No

Earlier, I wrote about the very low bar the right-wing media set for Willard Romney's "Come to Jesus" speech. Here are some lolights:

CBN's David Brody, who was at the speech, practically gives a standing [sic] O:

"Mitt Romney didn't just look like a president today. He sounded and behaved like one too . . .

"The line that stood out to me was the following--twenty words to be exact: 'Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it.'

"You see, with that line, Mitt Romney became human. Whether you believe him or not isn't the point. The line comes off like someone who cares more about his principles and what he believes rather than the highest office in the land."

And here's Nooners, giving Willard another O:

He will not disavow his religion. "My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs."

Bracingly: "Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it."

There you have it. Romney appeared Presidential because he didn't give a speech disavowing his Mormon faith. In the twisted minds of Brody and Nooners, it was conceivable that Willard might have started his speech by declaring that he was born again and ended the speech with a full-immersion baptism performed by Joel Osteen. Thus, by refusing to adopt a moronic strategy which would have cost him every vote save Hugh Hewitt's, Willard showed that he is fully qualified for the highest office in the Nation.

P.S. to Nooners, Pornmumu, Pantload ans the rest wondering why Willard didn't mention atheists: He did, implicitly, in the part of the speech bashing "Old Europe" and its empty cathedrals. He didn't say anything good about them because he's sucking up to the fundies.

Err-O-Smith

In an attempt to avoid further embarrassing revelations, National Review Online has shitcanned serial liar W. Tommy Smith:

Smith, in a statement published by NRO, wrote:

"This is my own decision. No one at NRO has asked me to do this, nor has anyone suggested or even hinted I should. But I believe this to be in the best interest of the publication which I have so much respect for. Both NRO and I have taken far too much heat for something which would never have happened had I been more specific in terms of detailing my sourcing while blogging about Lebanon at 'The Tank'. That is a responsibility I have to accept."

In addition to writing for NRO, Smith, a former Marine, is the director the Counterterrorism Research Center at the Family Security Foundation, and the executive editor of World Defense Review. He co-authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design.

Kathryn Lopez, both the stupidest and most dishonest person alive, claimed that Smith simply was "susceptible to spin" and averred, "I don't think that Smith fabricated or falsified his reporting."

My God. Smith is the Director of Counterterrorism Research at the Family Security Foundation and the Executive Editor of World Defense Review. Surely such an accomplished man in the fields of research and editing could not have been bamboozled by "sources who have incentive to exaggerate." It's inconceivable.

The most likely explanation is that Smith's resume is as a phony as his reporting and that Lopez willingly abdicated her responsibilities as an editor in order to push an anti-Arab party line. That explanation requires no willing suspension of disbelief.

War on Christmas: First Blood

Down in Florida, some of Glenn Reynolds' relatives celebrate the holidays in style:

A Winter Haven man was arrested late Thursday after he allegedly ran over his neighbor's Christmas decorations and then shot the neighbor, the Polk County Sheriff's Office reported.

Matthew P. Lankford, 25, of Country Walk Lane, faces one count of attempted murder in the shooting of Douglas Sheldon.

A Sheriff's Office report said Sheldon was parking his truck in his yard when he got in some type of an argument with Lankford's sister, Audra Lankford.

Audra Lankford was upset and called her brother. On his way home, the report said, Matthew Lankford drove through Sheldon's yard and ran over his Christmas decorations. It is rumored that a snowman was decapitated.

Sheldon then ran to Lankford's home, where an argument ensued between the men and several other people.

Witnesses told deputies Lankford got a 45-caliber handgun and shot Sheldon in the left arm and abdomen.

Robert Spencer and Pamela Oshry are demanding an investigation into whether the beheading was the work of an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell.

(More here, including comments by a pro-Lankford character witness.)

Update: I suspect this happened because Country Walk Lane was a "gun-free" zone.

Al-Qaeda In America

Tammy Bruce undertakes yet another desperate attempt to rescue herself from well-deserved obscurity and irrelevancy:

A series of six black and white prints on display in an unassuming corner of the New York public library have sparked controversy on the airwaves and blogosphere quite out of keeping with the dark, marble-lined corridor in which they are hung.

The prints show the mugshots, in the style of police arrest photographs, of main members of the Bush administration in the first few years of his presidency. There is President Bush himself, scowling into the camera, and a fierce, finger-pointing Dick Cheney.

...


Each of the "suspects" in Line Up, as the display is called, carry placards bearing a date. The artists, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, have chosen the dates to refer to key speeches in which they believe the politicians incriminated themselves in front of the American people.

An audio tape runs beside the prints and plays the speeches as the prints come up in a slide show.

...

"What is disgusting about these doctored photos is the place of prominence the library has given them," one blogger wrote. "I am shocked and angry that a public library would stoop to this level."

Tammy Bruce, a rightwing radio talkshow host, said: "At first I wondered who put al-Qaida in charge of the New York public library, but then of course remembered the American left is doing their bidding for them."

If it wasn't for political speech in public libraries, Bruce's book sales would be zero. (In the stacks, as in real life, Bruce is just wasting space.)

(More on the al-Qaedan artists here.)

Fluff In America

Most pundits set the bar so low that Willard could -- and did -- trip over it, but it's Hugh Hewitt who is most proudly wearing his Mitt Mustache:

Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" speech was simply magnificent, and anyone who denies it is not to be trusted as an analyst. On every level it was a masterpiece. The staging and Romney's delivery, the eclipse of all other candidates it caused, the domination of the news cycle just prior to the start of absentee voting in New Hampshire on Monday --for all these reasons and more it will be long discussed as a masterpiece of political maneuver.

As for Baby Hughie, even the right is embarrassed by him: "[T]he the one person who cannot be trusted as an analyst these days is Hugh himself, who has taken his Romney boosting to surreal heights by posting press releases from the Romney campaign verbatim on his blog, constantly slagging every one of Romney's opponents, suggesting criticism of Romney on the right is rooted in anti-Mormon bigotry, declaring victory in every debate, and just generally being so in the tank for the guy that it's hard to take him seriously at all any more." Your problem, Beavis, was that you ever took Hugh seriously.

Re: Puke

Dan Bartlett, bushlemic, on right-wing blogs:

That's what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It's a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we've cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.

Special Ed Morrissey, Assrocket, Huge Fuckwitt, Instacracker and Michelle Merkin: the Administration's porcelain gods.

I'm proud to say that this blog has never regurigitated anyone's talking points. Not that anyone would bother sending me their talking points, but I owe my readers better than that.

(Link via Talking Points Memo.)

Right Wing Ho, Jeeves

The Daily Express has found its equivalent of Joe Klein, in the form of a tosser named Paul Jeeves. Jeeves writes:

OVERWORKED nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients' beds so they face towards Mecca.

The lengthy procedure, which also includes providing fresh bathing water, is creating turmoil among overstretched staff on bustling NHS wards.

But despite the havoc, Mid- Yorkshire NHS Trust says the rule must be instigated whenever possible to ensure Muslim patients have "a more comfortable stay in hospital."

As if you couldn't guess, it turns out the story is nothing more than shite from a gobshite, designed to inflame religious bigotry in the dullwitted:

A number of media have today ran an entirely inaccurate story claiming that we have ordered staff to move Muslim patients' beds to face towards Mecca. This has stemmed from the above press release. We wanted to make sure that you understand the correct position and this story is completely untrue.

Tracey McErlain-Burns, our chief nurse and director of patient experience, said: "Our statement has been wrongly interpreted. The Muslim Moulana at Dewsbury and District Hospital is holding internal workshops for nurses to help develop their cultural understanding. Nurses are not being removed from their duties to move patients' beds towards Mecca. Moving patients' beds for prayer five times a day has not been suggested as part of this workshop and staff have not been ordered to do this."

Another load of crap certain to circulate among the wingnut bloggers who believe anything they're told.

"He Felt ... Dirty"

Bob Somerby has a great Howler about the contents of Howie Kurtz's book and the Putz's fluffing fan boy treatment of talking wigstand Brian Williams.

And don't miss James Wolcott's book review about book reviewing. I've taken copious notes in preparation for my in-depth analysis of Jonah Goldberg's January release, The Lucianne Monologues.

A Migrant On The Salmon House Lawn

Huge Fuckwitt is seeing his dream of being Willard Romney's own Abu Gonzales go up in smoke.

Here's the news:

At last week's Republican debate in St. Petersburg, Fla., Romney was quick to attack Rudy Giuliani for safeguarding illegal immigrants in New York City.

Yet early the next morning after the debate, illegal immigrants from Central America were in plain view on the lawn in front of Romney's salmon-colored mansion in Belmont. Chatting in Spanish, they hustled to rake massive clumps of leaves, dump them in barrels, and clear debris from his tennis court.

Their boss, Ricardo Saenz of Chelsea, was the same man who for a decade brought illegal immigrants and others to work for Romney, whom he had met through their shared Mormon faith. A year ago, a Globe article revealed that illegal immigrants landscaped Romney's 2.5-acre property.

In the past two months, The Globe observed Saenz and his crew at Romney's estate once a week, except during the week of Thanksgiving. The lawn work at Romney's usually took place around noon, then the crew drove a few houses down the street to the home owned by Taggart Romney, one of Mitt Romney's sons, where they worked for about an hour. The work was sandwiched in between other jobs elsewhere, on workdays that sometimes lasted 10 to 12 hours.

And here's Baby Hughie, blubbering like an infant whose favorite Presidential candidate is about to go down in flames:

Romney has done the right thing, and it will not impact his campaign at all, especially in this week of "The Speech." (See Geraghty The Indispensable's commentary on the timing of "The Speech.")

But I should point out again, as I did when the first story broke, that the Boston Globe hates Romney and has gone to extraordinary lengths to hurt him, including staking out his house for the past three months to get this story.

Quick, as I have noted before, find the story on the illegal aliens working at one of the five Kerry homes from the 2004 campaign. It isn't there of course. The Globe didn't stake out even one of Kerry's homes. The paper didn't even press him to release his military records.

To be fair, Baby Hughie, the paper didn't press Willard to release his military records. Or you yours.

Most Unreliable Lebanon Correspondent Since The Human League

Several (that is to say, two) corporate media outlets have now mentioned the fraudulent reporting of W. Tommy Smith in the online pages of National Review. Amazingly, they have not seen fit to mention the magazine's racist defense of their correspondent, spewed by Kathryn J. Lopez:

As one of our sources put it: "The Arab tendency to lie and exaggerate about enemies is alive and well among pro-American Lebanese Christians as much as it is with the likes of Hamas."

Dog bites man, I guess.

But when did Marty Peretz become a source for National Review?

Science!

Here's a story I'm posting just because it's a cool story:

Girls won top honors for the first time in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the nation's most coveted student science awards, which were announced yesterday at New York University.

Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, both 17 and seniors at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School on Long Island, split the first prize — a $100,000 scholarship — in the team category for creating a molecule that helps block the reproduction of drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria.

Isha Himani Jain, 16, a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., placed first in the individual category for her studies of bone growth in zebra fish, whose tail fins grow in spurts, similar to the way children's bones do. She will get a $100,000 scholarship.

...

Alicia Darnell, 17, a senior at Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, N.Y., won second place and a $50,000 scholarship in the individual category for research that identified genetic defects that could play a role in the development of Lou Gehrig's disease.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Craig's List

Just raise your hand if you haven't had sex with Larry Craig.

That's alright, Mrs. Craig, we've already counted you.

Facts vs. Hacks

True enough. But the Putz also plays defense.

Take Howie's crapulent spin on Giuliani's potentially illegal use of public funds as an aphrodisiac.

The story started out with Giuliani taking a police detail with him when he went to the Hamptons to meet Judith Nathan. But it's grown into much more. For example:

Six years later, presidential candidate Giuliani is facing questions about that security. A source involved with the mayor's operations at the time tells CBS 2 HD that Nathan took flagrant advantage of that police car and driver.

The source says Nathan forced police to chauffeur her friends and family around the city -- even when she wasn't in the car.

That set off alarms with ethics watchdogs.

"The rules are clear, you can't use city resources for private reasons," said Gene Russianoff of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "And if you're using a city car, a police driven car to chauffeur around relatives, unless they're explicitly protected and their deemed to be the subject of potential security threats, it's just wrong."

Nathan's detail was approved by the NYPD after a stranger made an unspecified threat to her. The commissioner at the time was Bernard Kerik, who was recently indicted on tax fraud charges in an unrelated matter.

"It wasn't about her being the mayor's girlfriend," Kerik said. "The person spoke to her by name and made comments to her."

Oh, really? And every victim of a verbal threat in the Big Apple got a police chauffeur for his or her family? There weren't enough cops in Rudy's police state for that. And what did the ones threatened by members of the NYPD get, private bodyguards?

But here's how the Putz weaves the tale:

Ahead in the second half of RELIABLE SOURCES, Rudy hits the roof over a report about police overtime related to his affair with Judith Nathan. Does he have a case?

...

KURTZ: When you come right down to it, Rudy Giuliani is running on one thing -- his record as mayor of New York. This week the Web site Politico revealed a small, hidden part of that record that some police security costs for his honor were charged to obscure city agencies like the Loft Board, and that the overtime included visits to the Hamptons to visit Judith Nathan, who was then his mistress and is now his third wife.

CNN's Anderson Cooper asked about the charges at that night's presidential debate, and Giuliani defended his handling of it. New York tabloids jumped on what one called his tryst fund, and in an interview with Katie Couric, Rudy cried foul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This story is five years old. It came out two hours before a debate. It is a typical political hit job with only half the story told. Not that second part told, that every single penny was reimbursed, that all of this was public, all of this was discoverable.

It was not done in a way that nobody could see it. But it was a typical -- this particular case, it was sort of a debate day dirty trick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to talk about Giuliani's latest slam against the media and some other campaign controversies, in New York, Kelli Goff ....

Kelli Goff, is it a political hit job when a newspaper obtains city records showing police over time being charged to places like the Loft Board, and when it happens, when the mayor happens to be carrying on an extra marital affair?

Kurtz spins the matter to minimize the damage to Giuliani. It's Rudy fighting back against the media, a favorite wingnut narrative. And it's all about the need for Giuliani to have a police escort for security reasons, rather than about Rudy using his bag man, Bernie, to give out perks unavailable to the millions of men and women who aren't banging Rudy.

Greenwald is correct, as usual.