Blogger payola?

Direland reports:

Daily Kos and MyDD, two very popular bloggers, both took $3000 a month from the Howard Dean presidential campaign for four months to promote Dean, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning--citing as one source this post from Zonkette (a.k.a. Zephyr Teachout, former Internet outreach director for the Dean campaign). The WSJ compares this to the Armstrong Williams pay-for-propaganda scandal. I don't believe in bloggers taking payoffs of this kind--so I've removed Daily Kos from my recommended blogs list.

Personally, I don't think a blogger should be held to the standards of a journalist, unless that's what he or she is claiming to be. I don't know whether Kos fits that description, because I don't read his blog. I never had his blog linked on my site, for the same reason I don't link Atrios, even though they are two of the most popular leftist blogs on the internet. The reason is that I think they don't offer anything I can't find in the news, on excellent current event headline collector sites (like Cursor), or on less popular blogs that are often more entertaining and every bit as insightful. Also, many other bloggers read the "big boys", and if there's something I'm not getting elsewhere that is particularly insightful or of interest, somebody else will reference it, and then I'll pick it up.

Also, Atrios tends to spend way too much time on defensive sparring with right-wing bloggers, and I really don't give a crap what they think of each other. He also has a tendency to simply say "look at this", and give "this" a link. You have no idea what he's sending you off to look at. Only that it must be something really important simply because he says it's worth your time. If a blogger wants to take money to promote something, I have no problem with that. But I do have a problem with a blogger who seems to take him/herself to be more important than the material he or she is blogging.

My own standard is that I wouldn't ask for or accept money for blogging news, because I feel very strongly that it should be freely available. The "big boys", however, I think would see what they are doing as getting paid for their opinions. And that's a different story. They have every right to that. Kos being paid to promote Dean is not the same as being paid for his opinion, but he has webspace for advertising, and it's his personal blog. If he's not claiming to be an independent or unbiased journalist, then what's the fuss? He got paid to make campaign promotions.

What I imagine Direland is objecting to is the possibility that by taking big bucks for your opinion, your opinion may not be entirely yours. I don't have a problem with that when we're talking about bloggers, because I'm not looking to a blogger for guidance or truth. Just information. And then it's up to me to verify the accuracy of that information if I'm going to believe it. Maybe I should read Daily Kos and find out what I'm missing. Or at least to remember why I don't read it, because, at a glance, it looks like a decent blog. I have read it in the past, and there must be some reason I don't have it as a recommended blog, or even have it on my long list, but for the life of me, other than what I've already said, I can't recall what that reason is.

I never heard of MyDD until now. Here's that blog's post on the issue. I have to agree with it that this was a right-wing attempt to deflect the Armstrong Williams story. And a pathetic one, at that. But that's politics. An ugly game. If you're going to get into it, you gotta know you're going to get muddy.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Jeb hires a values man

Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday defended hiring a former newspaper editor who left his job in November amid public allegations of plagiarism and sexual harassment.

[...]

Bush was in Washington, D.C., last week when it was reported that his office had hired Brown as a staff writer Dec. 20 at an annual salary of $80,000. In that post, Brown will write speeches, letters to the editor and other material for the governor.
The Ledger article

Although it may not be original.

Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Audrey Gibson said Tuesday that she was "very surprised" that Bush was "relying on someone whose credibility is in question. The foundation is shaky."

Gibson, who is black, said Brown's viewpoints concerned her. In 2000, Times-Union newsroom employees wrote a letter protesting an editorial Brown wrote that called the era of slavery in the United States "merely a small and shrinking part of the human condition." The editorial said the effects of slavery "are not permanent."

The Times-Union published a clarification after national commentators harshly criticized the editorial. Brown later told a reporter, "We did not intend to downplay the terrible aspects of slavery in America."

You just misconstrued the meaning of his words.

[...] Billee Bussard, wrote a lengthy article in Folio Weekly, a Jacksonville weekly newspaper [...]titled "Porn, Hypocrisy, Plagiarism: The Dark Side of Jacksonville's Daily," Bussard claimed Brown viewed Internet pornography in the paper's office beginning in 1995.

In 1998, after Bussard aired her concerns at the paper, Brown signed a letter saying he had sought help with "an outside counselor for his addiction to the Internet and possession of pornography."

DiPietre said last week that the letter Brown signed addressed pornographic material "only in the context of inappropriate, unsolicited e-mails he had gotten and deleted."

But got addicted to before he deleted them, I guess.

Last week, Bush fired Terry White, the head of the Department of Elder Affairs, for unspecified allegations of sexual harassment.

And replaced him with a porno addict who's also accused of sexual harassment.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Why the WH is careful about wording the new torture memo

They want to leave room for the CIA to continue its tactics.

Habib, a 48-year-old Australian citizen who grew up in Egypt, was about to disappear for six months into an Egyptian prison. There, he says, his Egyptian captors shocked him with high-voltage wires, hung him from metal hooks on the wall, nearly drowned him and mercilessly beat and kicked him.

The former coffee shop owner soon confessed to a litany of terrorism-related crimes, including teaching martial arts to several of the Sept. 11 hijackers and planning a hijacking himself. Habib later insisted that his confessions were false and given under "duress and torture."

Habib's more than three years of incarceration came into sharp focus this week, when the Bush administration agreed not to charge him with any crime and to repatriate him to Australia. Once home, he will be free, Australian officials said Wednesday.

[...]

Habib's vivid account of his secret delivery by U.S. forces to an Egyptian prison and his torture before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in May 2002 is the most detailed to surface of a CIA-run operation that has played a growing role in the war on terrorism. The operation, the controversial "extraordinary renditions" program, is run by a secret unit in the CIA's counter-terrorism center.

[...]

News accounts, congressional testimony and independent investigations suggest the spy agency has covertly delivered at least 18 terrorism suspects since 1998 to Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations where, according to State Department reports, torture has been widely used on prisoners.

The actual number of CIA-run renditions, especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is believed to be far higher. Officials say the CIA's role has varied widely, from providing electronic and other covert surveillance before raids to flying blindfolded terrorism suspects from one country to another on a Gulfstream jet the agency uses.

[...]

The agency transferred many of the suspects to Egypt, which is annually cited for torture of prisoners and other human rights abuses by the U.S. State Department.

[...]

The first foreign renditions took place during the Reagan administration, officials said, as joint CIA-FBI teams in about 1987 began capturing alleged terrorists, drug traffickers and other high-profile suspects and bringing them to the United States for prosecution.

[...]

"It's a growth industry," said a recently retired CIA clandestine officer who worked on several "renditions" in the Arab world. "We rendered a lot of people to Egypt, Jordan and the Saudis in particular…. Ultimately, the agency just wants these people to disappear forever."

[...]

A former senior U.S. intelligence official said the CIA had soured on relying on Egypt, at least when the goal was useful intelligence.

"The information the Egyptians were providing was not that reliable," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Egyptians, they'll just cut off finger by finger. They get a lot of confessions. But people will say anything then."
article

Which leaves me wondering what other tortures that are imposed in more favored countries don't produce worthless confessions.

"What has been happening is too much, too much," said Habib's father, reached in Alexandria on Wednesday. "I'm so sick about what happened to my son that I hate living."

Understood. Living is a hateful thing in this kind of world.

Misconstrued - Part 2

Following up on the asswipe's comments to reporters, he's even less willing to concede mistake in an interview with Barbara Walters.

"I watch what I say. … I said some things in the first term that were probably a little blunt. 'Bring it on' was a little blunt. I was really speaking to our troops, but it came out and had a different connotation, different meanings for others," he told Walters.
ABC article

You just misunderstood him.

A little blunt. About the same dullness as his sensitivities, I'd say.

"I'll be more disciplined in how I say things," the president, adding, "I have to be cautious about conveying thoughts in a way that doesn't send wrong impressions about our country."

I think the impressions are already made, jerkwad.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Helliburton shenanigans in the news again

This is a good one.

A subsidiary of Halliburton, the company Vice President Cheney ran between 1995 and 2000, won a contract this week to develop a much sought-after oil and gas field in Iran, a country accused by the White House in recent months of covertly developing nuclear weapons.

[...]

The Halliburton unit, headquartered in Dubai, is reportedly the target of a grand jury investigation regarding possible violations of an executive order barring American companies from substantial investment in Iran’s energy sector.

Daily Sun article

Why not? They did business in Iraq while it was under sanctions.

“Halliburton’s business is clearly permissible under applicable U.S. laws and regulations,” Ms. Hall said.“These entities and activities are staffed and managed by non-U.S. personnel. If Congress decides to change the laws and provisions, Halliburton will, of course, comply.”

All in the details, eh? Screw intent, what are we legally allowed to do? Alberto would approve.

....hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

War Hero: Jimmy Massey

Recently, I've created a few posts about Sgt. Kevin Benderman. I need to remember to post more about the real heroes of this war.

[...] self-described "good old boy" born in Texas, Massey was honorably discharged from the Corps in December 2003 after 12 years of active duty. Diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, he came home to live in Waynesville, North Carolina.

He describes the U.S. invading force invading Iraq like "a bunch of pit bulls loose on a cage full of rabbits" right from the very beginning, and that is what turned the Iraqi people against the U.S. occupiers, the killing of innocent civilians. For example he tells of receiving orders from higher command to open fire on a non-violent demonstration of Iraqis with M-16s and 50-cal. machine guns.

When he went to his superiors about his changing feelings regarding the war, he was offered a desk job away from combat, he responded to this offer by saying “Thank you sergeant major, I don’t want your money anymore. I don’t want your benefits. You killed some civilians, and you’re gonna have to live with it partner, and I’m gonna tell the truth.” Massey hired a good lawyer which meant that he was discharged rather than court-martialed. Since his discharge, he has been telling the truth.

His conviction is this: "I’m not going to kill innocent civilians for no government. ... I was taught and raised by parents and relatives that there are certain things you don’t do, and killing innocent civilians is one of them."
Tom Joad article

A "Wall of Honor" stands on my War Page to pay tribute to men like Jimmy Massey. If you encounter others, send Nell a note, so they can be recognized there.

Homosexuality trumps terror as a national threat

[Servicemembers Legal Defense Network]contends the records show that the military - at a time when it and U.S. intelligence agencies don't have enough Arabic speakers - is putting its anti-gay stance ahead of national security.

Between 1998 and 2004, the military discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi speakers, according to Department of Defense data obtained by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military under a Freedom of Information Act request.

[...]

"The military is placing homophobia well ahead of national security," said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the [SLDN], a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of gay military members. "It's rather appalling that in the weeks leading up to 9/11 messages were coming in, waiting to be translated ... and at the same time they were firing people who could've done that job."

But others, like Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative advocacy group that opposes gays serving in the military, said the discharged linguists never should have been accepted at the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey in the first place.

Galveston Co. Daily News article

Boy, I guess! How could anyone possibly imagine that homosexuality doesn't affect your ability to translate?

Experts have identified the shortage of Arabic linguists as contributing to the government's failure to thwart the Sept. 11 attacks. The independent Sept. 11 commission made similar conclusions.

But you can't accept just anybody. Incompetents and probable spies, yes. Gays, no.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

NIC hates America

LANGLEY, Va.—And now, a look into the future: Al Qaeda, out; murky and scattered new terror cells, in. Hollywood, out; India's "Bollywood" in. America as sole superpower, out; China and India as world players, in.

[...]

The unclassified forecasts offer a range of scenarios about the world 15 years on. Officials caution they are not meant to be predictions certain to come true but rather long-term outlooks designed to stimulate debate.

Al Qaeda was never more than a scare word for U.S. warhawks. Murky and scattered terror cells was all it ever was. But they're sure right about the loss of superpowerdom. China, I think will get its turn.

The council predicts an emergence of new global players — almost certainly China and India — but whether these new players fit into the world co-operatively or competitively remains an important uncertainty for the U.S.

[National Intelligence Council] vice-chairman David Gordon said the changes ahead could be "a very bumpy ride."

I'd say there's a real good possibility for that.

And I'd also say that the new players are competitive. All players are competitive. But the biggest non-cooperator is not China or India, but the U.S. In all the global treaties and talks, the U.S. often stands alone defiantly throwing her weight around.

Before you get too worried about what the council has come up with, however, consider its further analysis:

It predicts democratic progress in key Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, which may be an example for Muslim and Arab states still ruled by repressive regimes.

If by progress they mean wholesale destruction, then maybe. And I'm sure other "repressive regimes" have not failed to take note of the "example" being set in those two countries.

Repentant Bubblehead

Yeah. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

President Bush says he now sees that tough talk can have an "unintended consequence."

article

It takes a man 60 years to figure that out? Not a good sign.

During a round-table interview with reporters from 14 newspapers, the president, who not long ago declined to identify any mistakes he'd made during his first term, expressed misgivings for two of his most famous expressions: "Bring 'em on," in reference to Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, and his vow to get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."

"Sometimes, words have consequences you don't intend them to mean," Bush said Thursday.

To have, for most people who speak English, Bubblehead. But, beyond the garbled speech, what the hell consquences did you intend "bring 'em on" to have?

"'Bring 'em on' is the classic example, when I was really trying to rally the troops and make it clear to them that I fully understood, you know, what a great job they were doing."

If I recall correctly, and I believe I do, you were not addressing the troops when you uttered that boner.

"And those words had an unintended consequence. It kind of, some interpreted it to be defiance in the face of danger. That certainly wasn't the case."

What a silly interpretation! Certainly that wasn't it.

"Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice," Bush said. "There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."

U.S. forces, he added, are "plenty tough" to deal with any security threats.

The president made his comments as he spoke to reporters at the White House, following an announcement about his program to combat AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. -- source

"I don't know if you'd call it a regret, but it certainly is a lesson that a president must be mindful of, that the words that you sometimes say. … I speak plainly sometimes, but you've got to be mindful of the consequences of the words. So put that down. I don't know if you'd call that a confession, a regret, something."

I'd call it a sign that somebody's reining your ass in. Spent all that political capital already have you? Mandate getting a little shaky? Iraq going south?

Real sincere, jackass.

What a jerk.


Update 12:12pm

Don't ask me, I just blog here

So I thought that I had this sucker figured out. I don't. Expect randomness.

If I have comments enabled, it takes forever and a day to publish the blog (for those of you who don't blog - the whole blog has to be re-published each time a post is created). Therefore, I'm trying to turn off comments. Sorry, but most people didn't comment all that often anyway - you can still write to Nell (in the sidebar), but unless your comments seem to warrant another post, no one will see them but me. That may be moot, as at the moment, blogger seems to be ignoring my request to turn them off.

Maru gets around this by posting once a day, with headings for each topic. I'd do that, but then I can't link to each topic individually in future references, something that I do quite frequently. And I can't link to an individual topic on my website news page, which I also do some times.

It also means that making corrections takes a whole lot longer, so errors and typos may stand a while.

Therefore, I'm stuck with a painfully slow processs. tblog didn't have that problem. So I don't know how long I'll be able to stand it back here at blogger. Such a quandary. It may mean that I'll just post less. It may mean that I'll just become more of a crank.

Anyway, none of that is your problem. So....

On with the stuff you come here for....

Oh god, this is going to be hell

It's so frigging slow.

But I did find out how to turn the comments on.

They come crawling back

Now I have to remember how to use this blog program.

If you came here from the tblog address, I wasn't really evicted, like I posted there. Locked out would be more correct. Apparently all tbloggers are experiencing the same disaster. Actually, it's not as bad for me as for some, since I don't really say anything worth saving. For those who have personal blogs there and write things that are worth saving, I feel badly for them if they didn't have their stuff backed up. (I thought about backing mine up when tblog's archives quit functioning properly just so I could refer to previous posts, but hey...that would have been extra work.)

As this site is free, and I don't have the funds to buy a well-cared-for blog hosting service, I'll just have to put up with the slowness and the jitters blogger gets from time to time. tblog was going great for a while, but the administrator over there seems to have gone missing. First, archives were lost, and now it seems the whole kit and caboodle has crashed. It was free, too. (And easier to use.) I guess you get what you pay for, huh?

So sorry to all readers for the inconvenience of crashed sites and jumping back and forth to different addresses. The best I can offer is that I'll post here as long as I can, and keep the tblog site for a back-up.

If you're still with me....thanks. So good to have you here. You make life worth living.

Honest.

Sorry you can't comment here. But you didn't have much to say at the other site where you could. Actually, that may be possible, but I forget how. And there was something about it that made it inconvenient or undesirable - or something - I forget. It's late. Go to bed.

...or do what you want...you will anyway.