First Draft

Weekend Question Thread: What Are You Wearing?

In the summer my wardrobe goes super-casual; anything I can ride my bike to work in, anything that isn't in a ball on the floor, basically. I don't like fuss in the summer, all my heavy vintage suits and dresses and stockings and heels go in the back of the closet and I live in two pairs of shorts and a ratty T-shirt. I think my personal style is "bipolar."

What's yours?

A.

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

Post away.

A.

Today on Athenae's Obsession with the Wonkette Comments

This whole thread is pretty much made of win:

Like Elmo, I also want to meet Michelle Obama while I’m pantsless.

---

I don’t remember that scene from Avenue Q at all.

A.

Quitting Time Booster Shot

Welcome to the QTBS, where we have never, ever, grabbed Wolverine's nut sack...

-  I don’t know anything about the movie “The Hood Chronicles” but I suddenly want to see it.

- Wisconsin’s governor requires all of us at the U to take a furlough of 8 days a year if his budget gets passed. Yes, that includes professors, which makes no sense. I wonder if I can take them all during finals week…

- This was one of the saddest things I’ve read in a while. It’s more proof that if you have a job, hang on to it for dear life. There are no guarantees.

- Conversely, this pisses me off. Anna Quindlen decides that she should gracefully exit because there are all these good, young people out there bursting for jobs and she should step aside. Uh… No… You should gut up and decide you’re going to be ten times better than you are right now and 50 times better than those idiots are and ride the column until you CAN’T do it well any more and they pry it from your cold, dead hands. That’s what good journalists do.

- And here I am worried that the Midget will rat me out for cursing at another driver. Just goes to show, it could always be worse…

- First, ARod, now Manny? What’s next? The Queen’s horse tests positive for doping? Ooops…

- Goodnight, Dom. Sorry you never got your due…

- WANT!

- Three organizations with a vested interest in not helping anyone are fighting against one organization with a vested self-interest in seeing more ethanol integrated into gasoline. Hmm… which group of scummy weasels to believe… Not to sound mean, but doesn’t the federal government own every group and organization that’s involved in decision at this point? Can’t it just do what parents do with kids: “You two, knock it off or I’m coming up there and you won’t like it!”

- From the “Is there such a thing as a ‘love you crime?’” file: The folks in Massachusetts are extending hate-crimes protection to homeless people. Given the state of the economy, it’s likely to have far-reaching implications. Seriously, though, should this even be an issue? At what point can we finally say: “Look, you, the well-paid, quasi-religious, straight, white guys. You can kick the shit out of each other but nobody else.”

- Quick show of hands: When Bush trumpeted hydrogen-powered cars in 2003, how many people saw this coming?

- From the “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss” department: FEMA is still screwing over the state of Louisiana. From the brain trust:

Nonetheless, FEMA wants its trailers back, even though it plans to scrap or sell them for a fraction of what it paid for them.

“All I can say is that this is a temporary program, it was always intended as a temporary program, and at a certain point all temporary programs must end,” said Brent Colburn, the agency’s director of external affairs. He said there would be no extensions.

Stay classy, FEMA. May the trailers not reek like a smelly pirate hooker when you get them back...

- And finally, what would LeBron do? Obviously not what the kid in dunk #4 did. Ouch.

Thanks for letting me share your air. Be back next week.

Doc

In Other Things That The Internet Has Done to Journalism

We're killing the Boston Globe:

Lifetime-job holders in The Boston Globe’s biggest union who get axed would get $33,000 plus severance under a proposed deal - but that’s a drop in the bucket compared with the windfall publisher P. Steven Ainsley would enjoy.

Ainsley stands to pocket a staggering $1.5 million if he gets terminated, according to The New York Times [NYT] Co.’s 2009 proxy statement. That includes $500,000 in severance, $714,070 in non-qualified deferred compensation and $323,357 in retirement benefits.

The publisher of the beleaguered broadsheet would get more than $1.2 million should he resign or retire, and just over $1 million if a new owner takes control, the filing shows.

Ainsley, who came to the Globe in 2006 from the Times Co.’s Regional Media Group, made $1.9 million in 2008.

(I know, I know, Boston Herald hatchet-job, so take it with a grain of salt.)

A while back a couple of commenters asked if there wasn't some financial upside for executives in letting newspapers fail, and I wouldn't go so far as to say this would be a financial upside, but it certainly isn't a downside, either. Whenever I find myself wondering why the powers that be seem to have so little determination to keep a newspaper running, I read something like this and remember that not only do they stand to get huge severances and in some cases bonuses plus "extra" compensation, but once you pass a certain level in a company you'll pretty much never be unemployed.

So really, what the fuck do they care? They'll find something. It won't be their kids having to drop out of college because they can't make tuition anymore, or them selling the house because they can't afford the payments. They'll walk away with millions. What possible motivation is that to make it work? If you told me I had a $1.5 million severance waiting for me I'd get myself fired so fast your head would spin. And if you told me you had a $1.5 million severance waiting for you while I had to take a 10 percent pay cut? Well, you can imagine what I'd say to that:

Schmuck.

Via Romenesko.

A.

Thanks, Mom.

I don’t remember the first thing Mom taught me. Maybe that’s the best thing I can say about her: every moment with her is a constant learning experience in which I am enriched beyond my wildest hopes. This isn’t meant to beatify her (although tolerating me as a child and through my transition to adulthood without killing me is likely to count as her first miracle), but to take a moment out to reflect on all moms and mom-type folk who helped get us where we are today.

My mom was a teacher, both in the professional sense and in the practical sense. She’s still teaching junior high kids about World War II and about the American Revolution and about when to say “who” and when to say “whom.” She’s still teaching me, as every time I have a moment with the Midget and I’m not quite sure how to handle it, I tend to ask the old “Did I ever do…” question. She of course laughs because not only did I probably do it, but because she probably asked her mom how to handle it.

Mom taught me the little things like how to tie my shoes and how to keep my room clean. (She still marvels at the fact that when we once cleaned my room, we threw out six trash bags of stuff and only one toy. Apparently the Midget comes by here squirrel-like tendencies to horde pinecones, rocks and sticks honestly.) She taught me the big things like the nerds of today are the Ferrarri owners of tomorrow and that the bigger kids pick on you because they’re jealous.

She taught me patience and forgiveness through example. I’m sure she wanted to leave me outside to be raised by raccoons after I accidentally dumped India ink on her antique dining room chair. However, she took it in the basement and cleaned it with a toothbrush, letting me know she was displeased but eventually forgiving me.

She taught me age is a state of mind, not a state of being. She would constantly tease me about being an old man with a cranky attitude and conservative notions at the age of 13. She, on the other hand, drove a Corvette, a Firebird and a Cadillac Escalade. She wore wild tights, coached track and drank Cosmos at fun restaurants. She also outworked teachers half her age, something that the older she got, the more she relished. I eventually learned to loosen up to the point where now I’m teasing the farm kids I teach that they’re too old and cranky for their own good at the age of 20.

She taught me that sexism was not a cool personality trait to display. Women are just as good as you are, she said, when I found myself feeling my oats during my pubic transformation to “manhood.” I learned that “woman’s work” is whatever a woman wants it to be and that cleaning and ironing is a chore that anyone can do. To this day, I’m the “laundry bitch” (as the Missus notes) and I iron everything in the house, including our pillowcases.

In our house, Mom did the ironing and I loved being there when she did. We’d sit in the kitchen and talk for hours about life, choices, the news and anything else that popped up. It was during these moments, I learned the most, simply by sharing what I was thinking and hearing what she had to say. I also learned the value of a good Rowenta iron and of using distilled water, to hell with what the directions said.

Each year for Mother’s Day, we’d all get together at a nice restaurant and celebrate our moms. For years, it was Dad’s mom, Mom’s mom, her husband, Mom, Dad and me. The last one that had all of us together was the year I got engaged when my folks took everyone (the mothers and grandmothers from both sides, along with the folks, me and the Missus) out for a meal. Moms connected with moms and stories flowed freely as we talked away the night. It was a great time and full of memories. That year, both Mom’s mom and Dad’s mom died. Shortly after, the Missus lost her grandmother and the in-laws moved away.

I always remember that event because it was something helped me see how much our family valued motherhood.

It also helped me remember all the things we’d each learned in life thanks to our moms.

New Orleans Beer for Fargo via Wisconsin

Heh, what's not to like?

New Orleans brewer chips in for Fargo post-flood party
May 7, 2009

It's AP so here is the gist of the story...The mayor of Fargo had said when the flood fight was over he'd buy everyone a beer.  Dixie Brewing Co of New Orleans heard about this and has donated 1000 cases of beer.  The company was severely damaged by Katrina/Flood and are rebuilding but for now they have been temporarily brewing its beer in Wisconsin.

Friday Ferretblogging

I brought a box of those biodegradable packing peanuts home the other day. Dingo madness ensued:



A.

Marry Me, Walter Pincus

We'll live happily ever after:

Beginning in the 1960s, papers large and small started being bought for large sums, first by newspaper chains, which in turn became controlled by outside financial interests. A few papers remained privately owned, but eventually almost all sold stock to the public. With that financial change came monopoly ownership, one newspaper per city or town, and the notion that the newspaper that survived should be neutral, presenting all points of view in each controversial story. As I said, the fairness doctrine has been transferred from radio and television to the newspaper. How ironic is it today, then, that there are dozens of competing electronic voices in almost every city, most of which now have only one newspaper.

[snip]

Family-owned newspapers were the foundation of American journalism in the 1960s. Like the Post, most were started by businessmen who wanted a voice in their communities. Few were begun as the way to make a fortune. That began to change with the arrival of radio, and then television. The electronic media involved government licenses, which carried with them the requirement for delivery of public-affairs programming, starting with news. Newspapers became the obvious applicants, and many publishers suddenly became owners of local broadcast stations who stood to make a lot of money as network affiliates.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when newspapers made single-digit profits, radio and television affiliates could make up from 40 to 50 percent. Newspapers large and small started being swallowed by publicly owned corporations. With that trend came monopoly ownership. Gannett became the biggest. In 1977, as its purchasing of family papers moved into high gear, Gannett stock was around $8 a share. By 1990, it was at $75, and in 2004, it hit $90. At its height, Gannett produced earnings of more than 22 percent on its gross income, and set a standard that other newspaper corporations tried to emulate. When Knight-Ridder showed only a 14 percent profit, its major investors demanded it be sold.

It's about the money. And it can't be said often enough or loud enough: For years most newspapers made a fuckton of money. Tons of it. Millions and even billions of dollars. Some of them are still pulling down a fuckton of money, while those that are bankrupt are so not because their business model is dying but because they're being smothered by greed. It's good to see people recognizing this.

Still, I wonder how much influence Pincus's piece will have on the general thinking (Summary: FUCK IPHONES I HATE YOU KIDS DIE CRAIGSLIST YOU STOLE MY CONTENT) in journalism today. People ignored him just fine about the war, which he's too classy to come right out and say:

Consider the worst of recent examples. I believe the Bush administration sold the March 2003 invasion of Iraq to the American people beginning with a public-relations campaign that started in August 2002. Vice President Dick Cheney kicked it off with a series of speeches on the growing threat from Saddam Hussein, and it continued almost daily, with key members of the administration giving speeches, statements, or press conferences. The result was that the threat from Saddam Hussein—his alleged nuclear weapons, the idea that he would give chemical or biological weapons to terrorists—dominated news coverage right up to the time the first missiles hit Baghdad on March 19, 2003.

Hat tip to Scout who e-mailed this over. I'd just gotten done reading this when it arrived:

Over the next few days I visited nearly every gas station, corner store and magazine rack nestled in pharmacies around Lakeview and low and behold…no Time Outs. Little stickers on the front of shops claiming that “Time Out IS SOLD HERE” misled me.

It was not until I wandered into a shop on Sheffield where I got my lede. The shop　owner told me that Time Out was no longer delivering to smaller stores. Instead, only big bookstores like Borders would be carrying copies.

What do you think I did next? Of course I bought a subscription online…five weeks ago. Has it come yet? Nope.

Somehow this, too, is the Internet's fault.

A.

Straight Black Marriage Will Make You White and Gay

Or something.

It is no secret that resistance to homosexuality is highest among the black population (though probably other ethnic minorities are close contenders). I fear that it will be harder than usual to persuade black men of the obligation to marry the mother of their children if the inevitable media saturation coverage associates marriage with homosexuals. Is the availability of homosexual marriage a valid reason to shun the institution? No, but that doesn’t make the reaction any less likely.

What are the chances that gay marriage would further doom marriage among blacks? I don’t know. Again, if someone can persuade me that the chances are zero, then I would be much more sanguine. But anything more than zero, I am reluctant to risk.

My favorite comment:

I've figured it out.

These people have 12 sided dice. They roll three of them to come up with these ridiculous stories.

"Okay, I got minority issues, personal responsibility, and gays! How do I tie this all together?"

It's like a new failboat party game.

A.

Dick Sticks Up For "The Little Guys"

Because he's such a man of the people.

This Isn't A Competition

Sigh. Far be it from me to argue with Dana, but it's hard to avoid the defensiveness and bitchery in this piece:

"The future of quality journalism is not dependent on the future of newspapers," announced Huffington, whose Web site relies on free newspaper reporting. She scolded newspapers for having the nerve to want to charge money for their products.

Mayer, who oversees Google News, explained how "Google is doing its part" to preserve journalism -- by keeping the lion's share of ad revenue before directing readers to newspaper sites. "Google News and Google search provide a valuable service to online newspapers specifically by sending interested readers to their sites," she said.

Oh? Let's plug in "Senate Commerce Committee 'Future of Journalism' hearing" into Google News and see what comes up. After a link to a wire story, the second headline is "Google's Mayer to Dispense Advice to Newspapers At Senate Hearing."

In the real world, Google and the Huffington Post are triumphing over traditional news-gathering organizations.

Um, not really. It's not like it's a fair fight, first of all. I don't unequivocally love Ariana's operation or Google, but you can't pretend that the newspaper industry has been putting as much effort and attention into its online operations -- particularly into the money-making side of its online operations -- as HuffPo and Google have. Other people coming up with an idea first is not them being out to get you. Them buying your building and shutting off your electricity and having your taxes audited and mounting a hostile takeover of your board of directors is them being out to get you.

Google and the Huffington Post are not triumphing over anything but their own expectations for their businesses. Or is there a long list of former Washington Post advertisers (department stores, for example, or furniture sellers) who have told Washington Post advertising salespeople that they're shacking up with Ariana this weekend instead of placing a full page in the paper? If so, that kind of information would inform readers better than assertions not supported by any subsequent evidence. Gimme the list and their phone numbers and while you're at it, that doesn't mean Google and the Huffington Post are triumphing, it just means your sales guys suck.

"High-end journalism is dying in America," testified David Simon, creator of HBO's "The Wire," who wore an open-collar black sport shirt for the somber occasion.

It's being murdered. And you of all people should know that. You wrote a fucking show about it.

But it was Simon, once a Baltimore Sun reporter, who struck the strongest blow for newspapers. Though scolding publishers for their "martyrology" and mismanagement, he spoke of how "aggregating Web sites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth" and added: "The parasite is slowly killing the host."

It fucking staggers me how people who used to be reporters can just go out there and say stuff like this without backing it up in any way at all. Talk to me about the NUMBERS, goddammit. As a news consumer, as a news junkie, I'm desperate to know why this is happening, but to do that I have to go on my own and find numbers about profitability -- I'll keep yelling it until somebody recognizes it signifies something, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE MADE A 16.7 PERCENT PROFIT THIS YEAR -- and debt loads and the actual amount of effort put into selling online instead of just kicking back and waiting for online money to roll in. Newspapers are closing that have 200,000 subscribers. Do you know what this site would do with 200,000 subscribers? We'd buy Barbados and have a big party every year for the entire world to attend.

"The day I run into a Huffington Post reporter at a Baltimore zoning board hearing," added the casually clad Simon, "is the day that I will be confident that we have actually reached some sort of balance."

Can I just mention how much I hate that HuffPo has become shorthand for all the Internet in the world, apparently? You want to run into an online reporter at a zoning board meeting? Try looking around for the Beachwood/Chicago Talks guys next time you blow through Chicago, David. Chances are they'll be there. That story they did, by the way, hasn't been picked up by any of your beloved big-city papers nor anyone else, because apparently the zoning board's gone out of fashion with the traditional media, but why let the facts get in the way of a good line?

I didn't watch this hearing yesterday because despite my love for John Kerry and despite my love for David Simon (even if he is descending into tooliness here) and despite my love for newspapers I had a feeling it would be about as related to journalism as baking banana bread so I did that instead. At least now I have a loaf of banana bread, and banana bread never made anybody dumber.

I was following various people Twittering it, and agree with Markos and with Oliver that if newspapers want to be nonprofits they should just go do it. They don't need Cardin or Kerry or anyone else to set themselves up as 501c3's and operate sensibly and within budget constraints that won't bankrupt them. All they need is the will to make the decision not to be greedy assholes anymore.

Call me when that happens. I'll likely be out tripping over people at the zoning board.

A.

George Will: Lizard of All He Surveys

Good God, I'd forgotten how pretentious he is:

At the Academy of Obama, professors and others devise plans for extracting a new and improved automobile industry from a semi-sort-of-bankruptcy arrangement that -- if it survives judicial scrutiny; that is not certain -- will give the United Auto Workers 39 percent of General Motors, with the government owning 50 percent. During future contract negotiations, will the union's adversary be an administration that the union helped to put in power?

Well, if the UAW is doing its job right, and I'm sure reasonable people can argue, then the union's adversary will be anybody trying to fuck with its workers, because that's how this is supposed to work. But I'd hate to interrupt a good wank just when George is reaching for the tube sock, so let's continue.

It is Demagoguery 101 to identify an unpopular minority to blame for problems. The president has chosen to blame "speculators" -- a.k.a. investors; anyone who buys a share of a company's stock is speculating about the company's future -- for Chrysler's bankruptcy and the dubious legality of his proposal. Yet he simultaneously says he hopes that private investors will begin supplanting government as a source of capital for the companies. Breathes there an investor/speculator with such a stunted sense of risk that he or she would go into business with this capricious government?

Breathes there an editor with the testicular fortitudinousness to stymy this relentless twaddle?

Oh, and while we're demagoguing, Georgie Porgie, you seem to have no problem demonizing unions. When was the last time anybody who worked on the assembly line came to your dinner table?

Obama overflows with advice for Americans who he thinks need admonitions such as "wash your hands when you shake hands" and "cover your mouth when you cough."

Well, George W. told us to pray about the war, so I'm not going to get too upset about hand sanitizer.

Twit.

A.

Your Old Road is Rapidly Aging

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, Mr. President:

Jake Tapper: Does the President or the White House have a reaction to the Governor of Maine signing a same-sex marriage bill?

Robert Gibbs: No, I think the President's position on same-sex marriages has been talked about and discussed.

Tapper: He opposes same-sex marriage.

Gibbs: He supports civil unions.

Tapper: Does that mean that he's going to say or do anything against what the citizens of Maine --

Gibbs: Not that I'm aware of. I think the President believes this is an issue that's best addressed by the states.

Look. I'm sure there are plenty of nervous people in the White House who don't want Obama to invite the gay marrieds to his parties but I also think it's about freaking time they got told to shut up and sit down. In case nobody's noticed the religious right and the Republicans have lost this culture war, and it's over, and even if that wasn't the case being publicly in favor of civil rights for all is kind of, you know, the right thing to do. So drop this nonsense and just get on with it, so that you don't have to spend the rest of your life making up excuses and mouthing crap about political expediency and justifying your chickenassitude to everyone.

A.

Maine becomes fifth state to allow gay marriage

UPDATED: New Hampshire's Legislature also passed a gay marriage bill today, which now goes to Gov. John Lynch for final approval.

"I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage." 

So said Governor John Baldacci today, after signing the gay marriage bill passed a few hours before by the Maine Legislature. The state senate voted 21-13 in favor of the measure and the House of Representatives approved it 89-57 on Tuesday.

9

HBO commits to Treme series and orders 9 episodes

Happy Obama & Clinton Photo

On World Press Freedom Day:

"It is a day in which we celebrate the indispensable role played by journalists in exposing abuses of power, while we sound the alarm about the growing number of journalists silenced by death or jail as they attempt to bring daily news," reads the statement by President Obama. Citing CPJ statistics from our CPJ's journalist killed database, the statement goes on: "Since this day was first celebrated some sixteen years ago, 692 journalists have been killed. Only a third of those deaths were linked to the dangers of covering war; the majority of victims were local reporters covering topics such as crime, corruption, and national security in their home countries."

A.

Becoming animated

 Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III  answers these allegations after the jump:

Civic Order

Can someone please introduce David Brooks to the concept of code language?

Today, if Republicans had learned the right lessons from the Westerns, or at least John Ford Westerns, they would not be the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice. They would once again be the party of community and civic order.

They would begin every day by reminding themselves of the concrete ways people build orderly neighborhoods, and how those neighborhoods bind a nation. They would ask: What threatens Americans’ efforts to build orderly places to raise their kids? The answers would produce an agenda: the disruption caused by a boom and bust economy; the fragility of the American family; the explosion of public and private debt; the wild swings in energy costs; the fraying of the health care system; the segmentation of society and the way the ladders of social mobility seem to be dissolving.

A.

Sky Rockets In Flight

Here I am with your Tuesday Afternoon Delight.  Today I'm talking about higher education and the Republican party.  Here in Colorado, our local version of Wingnut Welfare includes parking Republicans in higher ed leadership--chancellors, presidents, boards of trustees, etc.  It's a revolving door.  To give one example, we had Hank Brown go from Senator to the private sector to President of the University of Northern Colorado (where he wielded a budgetary ax like Conan the Barbarian, only without the rippling muscles and Grace Jones (D-Badass) as a sidekick) to President of the University of Colorado.  It shouldn't surprise you that the Wall Street Journal called him the "best college president you've never heard of."  Being called best of anything by the WSJ is, imho, a dubious achievement. (Like being named best Catholic by the Spanish Inquisition...)

Now I admit, I have a particular animosity for Brown because one of the things he axed at UNC was my alma mater, the lab school, in a bait-and-switch over making it a charter school (supposedly to stabilize its finances, after which UNC pulled its support entirely.  Surprise!).  My high school locker has been sitting in an empty building for seven years now.  Brown also did his best to kill our local NPR station.  So, yeah, he balanced UNC's budget, but at what cost?

But my point is, Republicans running our higher education system seems like a very bad idea, especially if said Republicans are getting these jobs as stepping stones to higher office, or cushy thanks for services rendered while in office.  So I was delighted when I saw on Colorado Pols that there's a bill in the Colorado legislature to require state colleges and universities to be more transparent in their hiring processes when dealing with the higher level hires.  The details aren't that onerous--interview at least three candidates, publicize the finalists, then have public presentations by the finalists before the final decision is made.  (Those are things our college has done every time we've had a presidential search anyway, so this isn't changing anything for us...)

It also shouldn't surprise you that a number of Colorado Republicans are vehemently opposed to this idea, because it would give people like me and you a chance to say, "Hey!  This emperor is buck nekkid!  What makes him/her even remotely qualified to run our college?"  Chances are, even with this bill in place, the nekkid emperor would still be hired, but at least we'd have had our say.  These Republicans are freaking out because they think this might deter some people from applying for these jobs.  (And that's bad exactly...how?  Seriously, if somebody were to be deterred from applying for a college presidency because they might have to give a public presentation, do you really want them as your president?)

Lack of transparency is...everybody say it with me now!...okay if you're a Republican.

So, what's the version of Wingnut Welfare in your neck of the woods?  And do you have any thoughts about how to get some of those welfare queens off the public dole and out doing real work?

(Please note:  I am not suggesting that all college presidents or officials are by definition boobs.  I happen to respect my college president tremendously.  It's just that this seems to be one arena where Republicans have used their influence on occasion, sometimes to the detriment of good state colleges.  I'd feel the same way if the influence being used inappropriately were from Democrats, which is why I like the bill.)

The Definition of Friendship

Keeping those queers away from your kids.

A.

Short People

Dear MSM:

You know I love you.  I do--you give me information I can't get anywhere else.  You give me interviews with Susan Boyle.  You show me videos of sneezing baby pandas.  You even occasionally ask major public figures tough and interesting questions.

Which is why it pains me to point out that there are other people, non-reporter people, asking much better questions than you do.

Very short non-reporter people.

Yes, I know this has been blogged to death.  But I think there's something else we can take from this.  Not all MSM reporters are stupid, but I think it's safe to infer that at least some reporters are stupid, and I have one in mind in particular--I'm looking at you, David Gregory.  (Remember this little gem?)  How many times did you or your predecessors at Meet The Press have a shot at Condi Rice on camera?  Did any of you ask that question?  Hmmmmm?

So my question is this:  Would it be wrong to assume from this sequence of facts that reportorial acumen is inversely proportional to height and/or hat size?

If so, I should be moderating Meet The Press.

BREAKING: Crazy People's Crazy Ignored!!!!

Did the Pulitzer committee consider that Donald Rumsfeld thinks the sun shines out of Donald Rumsfeld's ass?

At issue is an April 2008 story by David Barstow that was headlined "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand." The Pulitzer Prize citation says Barstow's story "revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended."

 Well, no, says the inspector general's office that issued the 85-page rebuttal, subsequently dismissed as "highly flawed" by the Times's public editor. The IG said that the program under Rumsfeld was the same kind run in past years and that the results were mixed; some of those briefed still dissed the war. And the IG found no evidence that those with ties to contractors used what they learned for a competitive edge.

Which raises this question: Did the Pulitzer committee consider the Pentagon rebuttal?

In other news, four out of the five people who live in my clothes think I am fucking awesome. Seriously, this is the stupidest story. If the Pulitzer committee considered the puling of every public official whose corruption was exposed by newspapers to be grounds for withholding an award, there would be no Pulitzers, because shockingly enough those in power aren't fond of people discovering and then publishing that they're ginormous douchebags. I mean, imagine that.

Idiocy via Romenesko.

A.

Rope, Tree, Journalist

This should make Michelle Malkin's day:

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian appeals court will hear the case of an American journalist convicted of spying for the United States next week, the judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

Roxana Saberi, whose father says she has been on a hunger strike for two weeks, was convicted last month of passing intelligence to the U.S. and sentenced to eight years in prison after a closed, one-day trial.

There were signs that Iran was making an effort to conduct the appeal more openly than the trial itself, which was only revealed days after the fact, took place behind closed doors and, according to the journalist's father, lasted only about 15 minutes.

In announcing the appeal hearing, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi, told a news conference that Iran would open the proceedings to experts from the country's bar association.

"Her case has been referred to an appeals court where it is being studied. A date has been set for next week," Jamshidi said, without specifying the exact date.

Maybe the wingnuts can organize a celebratory Cheeto feast and liveblog it.

A.

My Marriage is Over

These people have ruined it forever.

I remember covering the marriage equality demonstrations in Chicago in 2004, and interviewing a young woman who had been on the phone with her partner. She was pacing up and down in front of City Hall fretting. "She's late. She's late for our wedding. Late on our wedding day." And for some reason (maybe because I was late to my own wedding, something Mr. A has yet to let me live down), that was what got to me.

Not that I'd ever been anti-gay-marriage, but being a straight girl the reality hadn't been something I'd ever had to consider. That woman, though, made me consider it. She was a bride, nervous about the arrival of her love, just as I'd been. And the look on her face when her fiancée finally came running up the walk — apologizing profusely for her tardiness, carrying flowers — reminded me of the look on my husband's when I walked up the aisle.

The couple I talked to wasn't married that day, though they stood in the hallway of the County Clerk's office, quietly insisting, "Marry us, or marry no one." No one was married that day; the protest ended when the office closed. They will be married one day, though, they and many others across this country. People were so nervous in 2004, that seeing all those weddings in San Francisco would set the cause of equality back decades, and it seemed, in the aftermath of the 2004 elections and again in the aftermath of Proposition 8, that maybe America would never get on board with what was right. But that's not the way it's going to stay. Look at those faces from Iowa.

Joy is infectious. Love is contagious. Faced with love, faced with the reality of love, it's no wonder the tide of public opinion in this country has changed, so that even people who HAD been uncomfortable with the idea of full civil equality changed their minds. When you are happy, you want happiness for everyone. When you are safe, you want safety for all. This is how we grow, how we expand the circle of those we call our own, by admitting everybody. There is no other way this happens. There is no other choice. We take one another's hands, toss the bouquet, and step out into the world together.

A.

It's About Time

There's some fight in them in Boston:

The Boston Globe's largest union last night called on The New York Times Co. to extend today's deadline for reaching agreement on millions of dollars in concessions after revealing that an accounting mistake by management has suddenly removed $4.5 million in possible givebacks from the table.

The error, which leaders of the Boston Newspaper Guild said was revealed to them late Wednesday night, complicates already difficult negotiations aimed at saving the Globe, which is projected to lose some $85 million this year.

The paper's owner, The New York Times Co. has set today as the deadline for reaching agreement on $20 million in concessions from the paper's unions, including $10 million from the Guild, which represents more than 600 editorial, advertising, and business office workers.

The Times Co. has threatened to shutter the Globe unless it gains the union concessions.

Management had originally given the Guild a menu of possible cuts that totaled about $14 million from which the Guild could choose $10 million, according to union officials. But in making those calculations, the company mistakenly included the salaries and benefits of 80 Guild employees who have left the paper since Jan. 1 through buyouts, layoffs, and resigna tions, union officials said.

They're not having it:

"[Globe publisher Steve] Ainsley lost the newsroom last night," this staffer says. "People are furious.... Overnight, people have been emailing like crazy about this. Management has done the impossible: they've reunited the Boston Newspaper Guild."

"Now several hundred reporters are questioning the Times Co.'s math on everything--on whether $85 million dollars [the amount the Globe will allegedly lose this year] is the real number," the staffer adds. "It's outrageous. I don't think we now have the basis of trust that it requires to make an agreement. You don't discover genuine accounting errors at 11 p.m. on Wednesday night."

About goddamn time. The Newspaper Guild has been rolling over for this sort of fearmongering nonsense for years. It was hard for me to support unionizing my old paper, a subject which came up every year or so, because I saw very little to convince me the union would actually be able to protect journalism and jobs when newspaper owners were able to wave the threat of closure in their faces and get whatever they wanted anyway.

It's about time the Guild started fighting back. They're quite possibly the only organization with enough members and enough pull to make the bullshit money management the issue of the day for newspapers, and Boston's a good place to start that conversation. Enough of this "just one more round of cuts and that will make us magically profitable" crapola. Enough. Talk about this honestly or shut the hell up.

A.

Today on Tommy T's Obsession With The Freeperati - "Kill 'em all" edition

Good Monday morning, everyone!  The hysteria continues to mount over at Free Republic.
Most of the moderates have been shouted down or booted off, and they're boiling the reduction down to a simmering sauce of hysteria, recrimination, and self-loathing.

In short - business as usual, except that instead of looking for interesting threads, I can just pretty much throw a dart and hit teh crazy.

First up - "this sends a message".

NCO gets life for slaying Iraqi (Al Qaeda) detainees
Stars & Stripes ^ | 17 Apr 09 | Seth Robson
Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 9:41:22 AM by xzins
VILSECK, Germany — "I ain’t no angel," admitted a 172nd Infantry Brigade noncommissioned officer shortly before a military jury sentenced him Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the execution-style murders of four Iraqi detainees in 2007.
Master Sgt. John Hatley, 40, also was reduced to the rank of private and dishonorably discharged less than six months short of 20 years of service.
In an unsworn statement, Hatley told the court that he was "… just an ordinary NCO who was afforded the opportunity to be in the company of heroes, to defend our great country and to defend the innocent people in a place where we stood between those who would harm us and those we were ordered to protect from genocide."
At the time when the detainees were killed, Hatley’s unit, Company A, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, was dealing with 50 killings of Iraqis by other Iraqis each month, he said.
"Within four months of being there we reduced attacks on coalition forces and civilians by 40 percent," he said.
On Wednesday, the jury convicted Hatley of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. Hatley was acquitted of an obstruction of justice charge and an unrelated premeditated murder charge. Hatley pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
The jury recommended that the court-martial’s convening authority, Joint Multinational Training Command chief Brig. Gen. David R. Hogg, exercise clemency and allow Hatley’s wages to continue to be paid to his family for six months.
Capt. John Riesenberg, assistant government trial counsel, told the jury that their sentence should be aimed at stopping other first sergeants and soldiers from doing what the Company A soldiers did.
"Send a message to the world that this is an army that recognizes that it is different, that American soldiers just don’t do this. They don’t execute detainees in the middle of the night by shooting them in the back of the head when they are bound and blindfolded and dump their bodies in a canal," he said.
The killings occurred in March or April of 2007.
It was Hatley’s idea to kill the detainees, Riesenberg said.
"A first sergeant in the U.S. Army came up with the idea to commit a brutal execution-style murder of detainees and he did it with his own men. He failed them, the Army, the Iraqi people and the American war effort," Riesenberg said.
Hatley had a duty to treat detainees humanely in a country where he was supposed to be helping establish the rule of law, he said.

Message received by Freepers?

To: xzins

this sends a message to our guys to NOT take prisoners.
and thank goodness for that.

4 posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 9:58:07 AM by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)

"Thank goodness" for executing unarmed prisoners?
Interesting concept of "goodness".
I suppose that "righteousness" would consist of having sex with the corpses.

Well, in any case, the Freeperati are obviously concerned about the situation and intend to investigate the root cause immediately:

To: xzins

I wonder who turned him in?

5 posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 10:23:22 AM by Peter Libra

Must have been one of those communists in "A" Company, but we know how to fix that:

To: xzins

Agreed, xzins and there should have been no prosecution because the story should have never gotten out.

7 posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 11:00:00 AM by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)

And Sgt. Hatley?
You may think you're no angel, but maybe you could pass for one in New Jersey.

Whups. The air scrubbers bogged down a bit from that blast of putrid Freeperosity, but Buggy got 'em going again. Let's jump and see what other offal offerings we have in store....

Sunday Night Music

A.

Torture

What Diane said.

A.

Short Term Gains

From the NYT obit of Jack Kemp:

Mr. Kemp’s other great cause, in his 18 years in the House and for three decades thereafter, was to get his party to seek more support from blacks and other minorities.

“The party of Lincoln,” he wrote after the 2008 election, “needs to rethink and revisit its historic roots as a party of emancipation, liberation, civil rights and equality of opportunity for all.”

He was absolutely right, so why didn't they listen?

The Republican Party is not a long-term party. They don't think about what's going to happen five years, ten years, fifty years down the road. They want to win elections now, amass money now, live it up now, and blow it up now. They don't think about rebuilding it afterward, whether it's the party or Iraq. The reason only 21 percent of Americans identify as Republican anymore is that on average you can get about a quarter of any group to accept "set it on fire and start again" as a strategy for everything from economics to race relations.

Republicans have been running on fear and anger for 40 years. We have to keep in mind 2008 was just about the only time it didn't work.

A.