Con's Game

Not surprisingly, the Chicago Tribune is all over the sleazy tale of Hollinger International and Conrad Black. Here's two stories from today's Trib: one on Hollinger board member Big Jim Thompson and one on Babbs "Deal" Amiel.

Meanwhile, George Fwill, the Black Hand, is pimping Gregg Easterbrook's new book. I didn't know Gregg had 25 grand to spare. Maybe Fwill can get Easterbook to advise Con and Babbs "on how to redress the imbalance many people feel between their abundance of material things and the scarcity of meaning that they feel in their lives."

Dammit, I Told You To Get A Dictionary

On the washingtonpost.com homepage:

Fox Struggles for Relevence

Mexico's president seeks key policy boost on eve summit of the Americas.

-- Kevin Sullivan

A proofreader would help too.

Update: As of 12:03 a.m. Eastern, they've fixed the typo, but not the missing preposition or the missing capitalization. You don't think they read this blog, do you?

The lists of nominations for the 2003 Sandy Koufax Awards is up at Wampum. Dwight Meredith and Mary Beth deserve lifetime achievement awards and probably also workers' compensation benefits for carpal tunnel for all the work they've put in on the project.

I'd like to thank everyone who nominated me for an award. It's nice to know that people are reading and enjoying this blog.

TNR Endorses Bush

The New Republic's endorsement of Senator Joe Lieberman reads not so much as an endorsement of Lieberman but as the setup for its endorsement of Bush in the fall.

The editorial speaks of "the apparent absence of an ongoing Iraqi nuclear program," as if the editors are still hoping to find nuclear material in the next spider hole. It whines about "the teacher's unions" and "Hollywood," using the Republicans' fraudulent definition of what's wrong the country. And, after charging Governor Dean with helping to "create this mood of self-righteous delusion" in the Democratic Party, how can the magazine endorse Dean if he becomes the nominee?

Since Lieberman doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Florida of earning the party's nomination, I suspect the magazine's real endorsement already has been written. It starts: "We didn't leave the Democratic Party, the party left us."

Survey Says

I haven't written much on the Scott Peterson case because I don't care about it. But this is worth noting:

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) - A survey a judge cited in his decision to move Scott Peterson's capital murder trial out of Modesto contained made-up information, criminal justice students who conducted the survey told a newspaper.

The 10-county survey suggested that more jurors without bias could be found in the San Francisco Bay area or Southern California than in Stanislaus County, which includes Modesto, home town of Peterson's slain wife, Laci.

But several of the California State University, Stanislaus students who compiled the report told The Modesto Bee they used a lot of fake information because it had been too hard to gather all the data properly. The students requested anonymity, the paper said.

"We falsified the info,'' a 20-year-old criminal justice student said. "The stuff we submitted wasn't true.''

...

Not all students said they'd faked their results, which accounted for 20 percent of their grade. But six students - all seniors - told the paper they had made up all of their answers because they had no time and no money for the dozens of lengthy long-distance phone calls that were required.

On the bright side, kids, you all should be able to land jobs at the American Enterprise Institute.

My venue recommendation: Modoc County or, better yet, Nicaragua.

Haloscan has started adding small text ads with links to the bottom of the comments boxes. Needless to say, I'm not making anything off that enterprise and am not endorsing anything linked there. Most likely I will stay with Haloscan unless the ads become more obtrusive.

Junkie Justice

The leaders of the Flordia G.O.P. don't seem to share the view of Whoraldo and Susan Estrich (or should I say the view of Whoraldo's employer) that the crime of doctor shopping involves a bunch of retirees looking for a better doctor.

The Palm Beach Post reports in an editorial that the G.O.P. leadership is pushing for legislation that will track doctor-shopping.

On Wednesday, the very conservative Republican who is Florida's attorney general urged the Legislature to create a computer network that he believes will allow the state to better track abuse of prescription painkillers.

On Wednesday, the very conservative Republican state senator who is sponsoring the bill urged the Legislature to do the same.

On Wednesday, the state's drug czar -- who was appointed by the very conservative Republican governor -- urged the Legislature to do the same.

It's time for Big Pharma to put down the crack pipe, stop making excuses for his crimes, and either turn himself into authorities or, at least, flee the country. I think France would grant him asylum.

(Via Buzzflash again.)

Not On The Bush Blog

CBS News reports:

[Ron] Suskind says [former Treasury Secretary Paul] O'Neill and other White House insiders he interviewed gave him documents that show that in the first three months of 2001, the administration was looking at military options for removing Saddam Hussein from power and planning for the aftermath of Saddam's downfall -- including post-war contingencies like peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals and the future of Iraq's oil.

"There are memos," Suskind tells Stahl, "One of them marked 'secret' says 'Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq.'"

A Pentagon document, says Suskind, titled "Foreign Suitors For Iraqi Oilfield Contracts," outlines areas of oil exploration. "It talks about contractors around the world from...30, 40 countries and which ones have what intentions on oil in Iraq," Suskind says.
...

O'Neill, who was asked to resign because of his opposition to the tax cut, says he doesn't think his tell-all account in this book will be attacked by his former employers as sour grapes. "I will be really disappointed if [the White House] reacts that way," he tells Stahl. "I can't imagine that I am going to be attacked for telling the truth."

...

CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller reported Saturday that, as the White House sees it, O'Neill's remarks are those of a disgruntled former official, and it should not have come as a surprise to O'Neill that the U.S. advocated Saddam's ouster.

In fact, a senior administration official tells CBS News it would have been irresponsible not to plan for Saddam's eventual removal.

As for the charge that there were early plans to invade Iraq, Knoller says the official calls that "laughable." Suggesting that O'Neill doesn't know what he's talking about on this matter, the official told CBS News O'Neill had enough problems in his own area of expertise.

Another senior administraiton [sic] official told CBS News Saturday, "No one ever listened to the crazy things he said before, why should we start now?"

(Link via Buzzflash.)

Reading The Bush Blog

We read that Bush has the radical feminist vote locked up. Squeezed in between the weekly announcement of Ken Mehlman's appearance on the Hugh Hewitt radio program and an ever-informative "Did you know?" feature, the Bush Blog links to Crazy Davy's Frontpage e-rag. The link is to an article by Phyllis Chesler, a "radical feminist" according to the Bush Blog, and an author, who I don't know a whole lot about.

In her article, Chesler throws her support to Bush because:

"....I still possess enough common sense to understand that life is better for women in (far-from-perfect) America than it was for women under the Taliban."

The long and short of the article is that Chesler believes Bush "is a man of both faith and action who has committed our country's money and troops to a vision of democracy and women's rights in the Islamic world." Oh, so that's what Bush is doing in Afghanistan.

Chesler also uses a Crazy Davy favorite, smearing "the left" without citing any evidence for the smear:

My colleagues on the progressive and feminist Left lead relatively safe and privileged lives in the West. Perhaps this is why they are romanticizing and glorifying illiterate, suicidal killers, new Noble Savages; they want "action," they are incapable of fomenting any, (although their ideas of revolution have actually fomented quite a lot of death in the past). Do they think to expiate a false, liberal guilt in this way? Yes, I say. Is this a form of contempt, masked as compassion for the wretched of the earth? Yes, again.

Having criticized their own country and civilization almost to death, do such ideologues now want that civilization to literally die? I fear they do. I hope I am wrong. Does human imperfection--and human resistance to ideological perfection--so offend them that they wish to see it all blown up, cleansed? Yes, again.

That's right -- progressive, leftist feminists want civilization to die and all human imperfection blown up. (Or they want America all blown up, or civilization or something. Chesler could use an editor.) I fear that the dimwits running the Bush Blog take this kind of drivel seriously.

Roger's Mail Sack

I've been pretty lax in responding to my e-mail recently (meaning since at least November), but I resolve to try harder this year.

As long as you don't send me crap like this, that is:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International Programm held on the 20th of October, 2003. Your e- mail address attached to ticket number 27522465896-6453 with serial number 3772-554 drew lucky numbers 7-14-18-31-45 which consequently won in the second category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of 500,000 Euros (Five Hundred Thousand Euros) Only.

CONGRATULATIONS! Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program
by some participants. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every three years. This lottery was promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like Mr. Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei, we hope with part of your winnings you will take part in our next years 50 million Euros international lottery.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agents: Mr. Inze King (Jnr) of GLOBAL FUNDS MANAGEMENT, U.K. Telephone number: +44-709-2030655, Fax Line: +44-709-2031452, Email: globalfunds_management@yahoo.co.uk . Remember, all winnings must be claimed not later than 30th of December, 2003. ...

Sincerely yours,

Carla Johnson(Co-ordinator)
ELGORDO SWEEPSTAKES LOTTERY/INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS.

Unfortunately, Carla didn't send me this until January 7, so FAT LOT OF GOOD YOU DID ME CARLA!

Perhaps that's why you're not the sole ordinator, Carla.

(Edited because no one wants to read all this shit anyway.)

I've got to agree with Ezra Klein, MoDo is a waste of space, whether on the page or in three dimensions. Here's her pithy analysis of the newest national craze, lesbianism:

Long regarded as the least glamorous of all minority groups, lesbians are now cover girls.

Evidently, I missed all the national surveys ranking the relative glamorousness of minority groups.

Wait! Didn't I just read that neoconservatives were the least glamorous of all minority groups?

Meet Your Liberal Media

So, I'm listening to Marketplace on public radio and on comes a commentary by Jonah Goldberg. Goldberg shouts the whole damn commentary. And his deep thought? Immigrants who come to America and work hard: good; Immigrants who come to America and receive public assistance: bad. Very informative.

Think I'm exaggerating? Don't say I didn't warn you.

P.S. To The Washington Post: Buy A Dictionary, And Use It!

Dumbasses.

A Rhetorical Question

So Colin Powell says there's no concrete evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and terrorists.

And 400 WMD hunters are coming home from Iraq empty-handed.

So remind me: why Howard Dean is crazy to say that Americans aren't any safer than they were before Saddam's capture?

Revenge Of The Duck

Howie Fineman's pissed that he got nailed misrepresenting Dean's internet supporters, and is now lashing back. Take that, you 'net losers, I'm Howie and I'm not going to put up with any of your backtalk!

"I get the sense sometimes that the Deanies live in their own world -- call it Dean World -- and that if it is OK with the Blog, then they think they are fine. It's true that no single "gaffe" hurt Dean much, and, for the most part, their importance was dismissed by the chatterers on his various Web sites. But there is a larger universe out there, not just in the Democratic Party, but in the country, and it's clear that the small cuts have added up to some loss of blood. The campaign was born on the Blog, but it can't sustain itself there. Trippi knows that, which is why he is so nervous."

Nice ending there, with the Duck reading Joe Trippi's mind. But which is he, Howie, oblivious or panicked?

Howie's showing his status as a true whore -- contradicting himself in a single paragraph.

At this point, Pumpkinhead has to be most concerned about complacency and the "inevitability backlash". He may have peaked prematurely. I'd advise him to work on securing some big-name endorsements, including past winners Howie Fineman and Bob Woodward. He doesn't have this one sewn up by any means, even if he goes another full hour with Cheney.

Who's Lying: The Vatican Or Nooners?

It seems we've got a situation on our hands here: Either the Pope's spokesman is lying or Peg Noonan is.

Here's Nooners on Mel Gibson's cruci-flix, The Passion:

John Paul II, who even with the challenges of his current illness has more good sense than many of his cardinals, knew of the controversy surrounding Mr. Gibson's film, and wanted to see it. Producer Steve McEveety, who had flown to Rome uninvited to show the film to as many Vatican officials as he could, gave the DVD to Msgr. Dziwisz on Friday, Dec. 5. The monsignor and the pope watched it together. Where did they watch it? I asked Mr. McEveety in a telephone interview this week. "At the pope's pad," he laughed. In the papal apartments. "He had to watch it late in the evening," Mr. McEveety said of John Paul. "He's pretty well booked. But he really wanted to see it."

Afterwards, Msgr. Dziwisz gave Mr. McEveety the pope's reaction. The pope found it very powerful, and approved of it. Mr. McEveety was delighted. Msgr. Dziwisz added that the pope said to him, as the film neared its end, five words that he wished to pass on: "It is as it was." The film, the Holy Father felt, tells the story the way the story happened. A week later Mr. McEveety was marveling at what he felt was the oracular quality of the statement. "Five words. Eleven letters." (I asked the pope's veteran press spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valles [sic], if he knew if the pope had said anything beyond "It is as it was." He e-mailed back that he did not know of any further comments.)

....

I'm glad the Holy Father chose to see it; I'm glad he has spoken; I'm glad his judgment was, "It is as it was." If this ends the controversy, or quells it, and I believe it should, that would be a beautiful gift to everyone this holiday season. (Emphasis added.)

Here's the Catholic News Service:

Although Pope John Paul II watched at least part of Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ," he made no comment about the film, said a senior Vatican official close to the pope.

"The Holy Father saw it, but he made no comment. He watched in silence," the official told Catholic News Service Dec. 24.

"The Holy Father does not comment, does not give judgments on art," the official said. "I repeat: There was no declaration, no judgment from the pope."


The official was replying to a request for clarification after numerous newspapers reported that the pope had watched the film and said, "It is as it was."

...

Another well-informed Vatican official, responding Dec. 24 to an e-mailed request for information, said, "The Holy Father saw this film, but did not express any opinion about it."

The pope's spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has refused to confirm the supposed papal quote, which was relayed to reporters by the film's co-producer, Steve McEveety. (Emphasis added.)

One word, three letters.

It's a sin to tell a lie.

(Story via Pandagon.)

You Can't Make This Shit Up

Eric Alterman points us to a column in the online Wall Street Journal which contains this quote:

"Today, the very fact that the Jewish-ish contenders have chosen the Democratic Party within which to realize their ambitions-- a party where anti-Semitism is troublingly common and includes pandering to anti-Jewish Arab-American groups -- is telling.

The author? Julia Gorin. The Journal says: "Ms. Gorin is a contributing editor of Jewish World Review and a comedian starring in the monthly show 'Republican Riot.'"

Click on the link.

Now read the caption in the browser frame.

"Jewish World Review: Cal Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Kathleen Parker, Dr. Laura, Walter Williams..."

Yes, this Cal Thomas.

(Doctor Laura's a big fan of the Jews too, you'll recall.)

Now that's comedy.

Roger Ailes, Kingmaker

I'd like to take credit for boosting Kevin Phillips' book American Dynasty from 112 to 12 in the amazon.com sales rankings in less than 24 hours. (And it's 17 at bn.com.)

I'd be full of shite if I did, though, since the book has been promoted during that time in many more prestigious and well-trafficked locations, including on C-SPAN and at Buzzflash and Eschaton. I'm sure Phillips has been doing his part too.

So instead, I'll take credit for liberating Iraq. You're welcome.

Update: Now number 10 at amazon; 12 at Barnes & Noble. Tremble before me (and C-SPAN, Atrios et al.), puny earthlings!

I Hear And Obey, Oh Master

The Horse is reporting (scroll down to the last story) that weaselly NPR ombudsman, Jeffrey Dorkin, is accusing folks who've e-mailed in criticism of Wan Juilliams and M'hora Liasson of taking orders from Atrios.

I don't want to brag, but I've been reading Eschaton for well over a year and I've never even thought of buying that damn Buffy DVD. Now that's willpower!

I do have over 20 "Preznit Giv Me Turkee" beer steins, but I really wanted to buy those.

Update (1/7): Here's part of Dorkin's self-described mandate: "The Ombudsman is the public's representative to National Public Radio, empowered to respond to significant queries, comments and criticisms regarding NPR programming." So it's part of Dorkin's mandate to insult NPR's critics! (And here's his latest report to NPR managment, which suggests that his job duties are limited to counting e-mails.)

What's interesting is that Dorkin unprofessionally insulted Professor Little for raising a issue -- NPR reporters who moonlight as pundits -- which he wrote on at length less than two months earlier. On October 23, 2003, Dorkin wrote:

There is a danger whenever NPR reporters appear in other media that do not have the same standards of journalism. NPR risks its own reputation by lending its own legitimacy to any media that may practice a different standard of journalism....

NPR journalists should be speaking, as well as writing and appearing, in other media. It is good for NPR and for its journalists, but when they do it, they should maintain NPR standards.

Some inside NPR might construe this as restricting their ability to engage in outside work. NPR may need to reinforce with its journalists that they have a choice between outside punditry or inside reporting.

Of course, Dorkin was writing about supposedly liberal reporter Nina Totenberg at the time, and was responding, in servile fashion, to a "Media Alert" from Brent Bozell's group. (I haven't heard of any MRC e-mailers who were repeatedly abused by Dorkin.)

So why is the Dork so defensive and unwilling to listen when it comes to NPR employees whoring for Faux? Does he believe that Faux "practice[s] the [same] standard of journalism" as NPR? His e-mail responses certainly reflect the same standard of professionalism as Faux's.