Author: jp

So, you’re hankering for more news articles about President Bush, and you enter some Google News search terms that you suppose will bring up likely hits. You know, all the current and past administration/media buzzwords such as “National Guard” and “terrorism” and “Al-Qaeda” and “Washington”…
Only, you get the following instead. Damned imperfect technology.

U.S. soldier arrested in Washington state for allegedly aiding al-Qaida
SEATTLE (AP) – A U.S. National Guardsman stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash. was arrested Thursday and charged by the army with trying to provide information to the al-Qaida terrorist network, a federal law-enforcement official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Spc. Ryan Anderson was charged with “aiding the enemy by wrongfully attempting to communicate and give intelligence to the al-Qaida terrorist network.”
It was not immediately known what information Anderson allegedly provided.

Next time, I guess “Iraq” or “economy” or “Wasn’t James Yee acquitted after his career was ruined?” will narrow the field a bit more.

Editorial, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 11, 2004:

Meanwhile, the White House released pay records this week which also document the dates on which Bush was paid for National Guard duty. They provide further evidence that Bush did not shirk his obligations to the Guard between May 1972 and May 1973.
Of course, there are some die-hard Bush detractors who are unwilling to accept that the president did not go AWOL, that he was not a deserter. But the fair-minded can lay the controversy to rest once and for all.

Editorial, The Daily Iowan, February 11, 2004:

Amid accusations of being AWOL in the National Guard and lying to the American public about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush remained as confusing and contradictory as always during the “Meet the Press” segment Sunday on NBC.
On Tuesday, White House officials released payroll records demonstrating that Bush in fact did get paid for his service in the Guard. However, spokesman Scott McClellan admitted that the records do not specifically show that the president reported for duty. Bush’s response to reports of his first-lieutenant evaluation showing that the future leader had not been seen during 1972 is a simple, “They’re just wrong.”

“I wish I could take my children out into the rain, shrink them back to babies and start over. I loved being a mother.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), mother of NBC News producer Alexandra Pelosi, revealing in the March issue of Glamour magazine one of the “Five Things You Don’t Know About Me.”

“Next time you hear the BBC bragging about how much superior the Brits are delivering the news rather than Americans who wear flags in their lapels, remember it was the Beeb caught lying.”
Click here to view this wholly entertaining editorial snippet from a recent FOX News broadcast, featuring news host John Gibson waxing rhapsodic on last week’s resignation by the BBC’s director general Greg Dyke in the wake of Lord Hutton’s report on editorial misconduct in the network’s coverage of aspects of the British buildup to Iraq and, specifically, the network’s usage of the now infamous “sexed up” terminology.
While editorials certainly occur with some restrained degree of frequency on a number of local news outlets across the country, and usually only in events of great compelling interest, can anyone recall having seen such an editorial stance having been adopted by news hosts on other national cable news networks, e.g. CNN and NWI? The one minute of airtime devoted to the BBC matter comes off as especially ironic, given the fact that the Hutton inquiry was largely a distinctly non-American issue; it’s almost as though Gibson is gloating when he says above, “…remember it was the Beeb caught lying.”
The operative word, of course, being “caught.”
One thing’s for sure; ITV and BSkyB would never have behaved in such a crass fashion.
(Previous–and very relevant–reflections on FOX News.)

Turn that frown upside down, Mr. Vice-President! You’re 63 years young today!
When you’re done with the cake, please pick up your gifts from David Kay, Paul O’Neill, and the Republican party at the White House gates.
(Thanks, Janelle.)

When Howard Dean appeared on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” last night alongside his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, it seemed as though Matthews might very well have had Saturday Night Live’s Darrell Hammond serving as guest-host, judging by the frenetic tenor of the segment’s questions. There’s no way that questions this shallow could otherwise be accepted as having been asked on a so-called legitimate news program (For what it’s worth, neither Bill O’Reilly nor Larry King host legitimate news shows, at least by the time-tested standards of lobbying softballs to sympathetic guests. This is, after all, “Hardball”).
While it may be argued that when one interviews a presidential candidate alongside a potential future First Lady–a la Diane Sawyer’s similar session with Mr. and Mrs. Dean the other night on ABC–the questions should be more lighthearted and whimsical, this hasn’t been the practice (again, check out the transcripts of the Deans’ appearance on “PrimeTime Live”).
Some highlights of the appearance, in the “so absurd, this borders on Hammond-esque hilarity” category:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, MSNBC’S “HARDBALL”: Are you a maverick?
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE HOWARD DEAN: I don’t know. I say what I think, is that a maverick? I guess I am.
MATTHEWS: (to Judith Steinberg Dean) What’s it like being married to a maverick? Because he is one.

Her response is rendered irrelevant, because you can already picture Matthews’ piercing visage seeking out her answer. After her demurring response, Matthews keeps up the absurdly base line of questions. You’d almost think he were interviewing George and Laura Bush with lines like these:

MATTHEWS: Do you ever say to him, “Why are you so gutsy? Why don’t you just go with the crowd on some of these things?”
STEINBERG DEAN: Absolutely not. He is who he is, he’s really really honest, you call it gutsy, I call it honest. I just think he says what he thinks.
MATTHEWS: Do you ever feel like your husband is being treated like a transfer student by the establishment? Like when you go to a new high school and everyone says “who’s this kid?”
STEINBERG DEAN: I think he is a bit of an outsider, but I think he’s very smart and people will hear what he has to say.
MATTHEWS: Do you ever say to him when you go to bed at night, “You should really cool it on that one?”
STEINBERG DEAN: (laughs)
DEAN: She’s being modest, the answer is yes.

Governor Dean does get in one gentle swipe at the First-Lady-as-delicate-wallflower image, however:

MATTHEWS: The President runs the West Wing, which is the business of government, and the First Spouse runs the state dinners, travel with foreign dignitaries… a lot of business, the First Lady has a big staff. Are you open to playing that role? Are you happy about it?
DEAN STEINBERG: We haven’t really spoken specifically about what role I’d play, but I’d certainly have to do some of the ceremonial duties and I think I’d probably get a lot of help with the business.
MATTHEWS: You have to decide things like whether they have dinner outside with a bigger tent, or in the East room…
DEAN: No, she doesn’t have to decide that stuff. She has to show up, but she’s going to be practicing medicine most of the time. She is going to do some state dinners, but there are people you pay to do that stuff. You know, social hostesses and all that.

Here’s hoping this “invisible wife” motif works as a nice, centrist compromise between the past models of Hillary “vast, right-wing conspiracy” Clinton and Laura “I have no right brain, nor left brain” Bush.