A planet where apes evolved from MAN?!?

The Plot Thickens

over at Air America

Head over to Michelle Malkin's, then to Brian Maloney's, for the latest.

It seems that, counter to his prior assertions, Al Franken was not an ignorant AAR employee who was ignorant of the goings on between Cohen, Sorenson and Piquant.  He was there, and he was part of the settlement, as was a signing party, back in November of 2004.

I wonder what this will do for his Senate campaign up in MN?  Or for his book tour this year?

Since it is almost a lock that Al will stop in Philadelphia as part of that tour, I wonder if it would be worth it to show up, buy a book, and then slip a copy of his settlement agreement between the cover and title page.  Then ask him to sign it and snap a picture of his face when he sees it.  Would he freak out, like he did at the RNC media row?  Or, if there is a Q&A, just show up with a list of AAR/Gloria Wise questions...  this could be fun.

Now, if I was willing to stoop to the level of DU inmates or KosKidz, I'd splat him with a pie or salad dressing.  But since I think that is assault, not free speech, I think I will pass.

Air America doing better than planned?

Per Kurtz, liberal talk radio is doing better than projected... (HT: Michelle Malkin)

Let's be honest, this is really a case of when expectations are low, they will almost always be met and likely be exceeded.  Much of my early academic career was based on this phenom.

This quote, from comedian turned talker Stephanie Miller, shows that somebody over at AA is developing a clue

Liberal radio is still a relative blip, but the turning point, says Miller, is that stations stopped putting on ex-politicians such as Mario Cuomo and turned to professional broadcasters. "The minute we think it's a political movement, we're dead," she says. "You've got to get ratings. It's about money."

And then there is this...

Much of that attention has been lavished on Air America, which says it is running ahead of projections, with an average of 222,000 people listening at any one time (compared to the roughly 4.4 million that Limbaugh averages at any one time on 600 stations). Franken, who spent part of his award acceptance speech ripping O'Reilly, says the industry is no longer laughing at liberal radio. Hannity's liberal co-host, Alan Colmes (who joked at the conference that there are some liberals at Fox -- on the janitorial staff) is now heard on 70 stations.

So, their avowed enemy, the Eeevil Rush Limbaugh, does twenty times better business than they are.  Granted, he has a decade + head start, but as Miller noted as a formula for success, he puts entertainment first, politics second.  With the possible exception of Savage and O'Reilly (and I think O'Reilly is mostly a limelight hog, for the record), I think the same thing applies to the other leading right-talkers.  Beck, whether you find him funny or not, is an entertainer, not a policy wonk.  Bennett puts dialog with a touch of whimsy first (and more than a little honesty about republican/Conservative flaws).  And so on.
But when you look at AA, as Miller and Kurtz note, you get a bunch of people that are committed to ideology at all costs.  Some of the hosts are funny people, who made their livings being funny... but put them in front of the AA microphones, and you just get a ranting screed laced with bile and invective.   And unless you wake up angry and you're looking for someone to validate your rage, it doesn't make good radio.  Kind of like the protests that are so dear to the lefts' heart... they play well to the faithful, but do more to turn off/turn away the neutral than entice them to join in the cause.

Also, does Alan Colmes mean to say that most janitors and other laborers are all democrats?  How does that tie into Howard Dean's belief that most hotel workers are black?  Now if this gets your drawers in a knott, breathe deeply, spread your legs out, and pull them out.  I know Colmes is joking (and think it's funny), but I also recognize the hubbub his partner in crime Hannity would have been subjected to for making the same comment. ;)

Now, Kurtz and AA compare their rating to Rush Limbaugh, which I think is a little unfair.  As I said above, Limbaugh has a big lead on them in building an audience, as well as a big lead in experience (he had a career in broadcasting and promotions before become a talk show host, IIRC).  I think Bill Bennett is a better comparison, since his show started in the same time frame as AA.  Granted, he began on an established radio network (Salem?), where AA had to build one.  However, Bennett didn't have the boatload of free fawning publicity that Franken and company received.  If you live in a market that carries Salem programing, you probably heard Bennett was on the air, or coming.  But you could live anywhere in North America and know that Air America was out there, even if your market didn't have an affiliate.  Not because there was a clamoring for liberal radio (yes, maybe in NYC and San Francisco, not that you can tell from WLIB's ratings), but because the media establishment loved the notion of progressive/liberal talk to counteract the very successful and (to them) threatening conservative talk hosts.

Still, it will be interesting to see what happens with AA in the future.  Maybe Howling Howie will get a show when he leaves the DNC chairmanship.  Or the DNC leaves him.

Sanity in the Pentagon

Marine taped by Kevin Sites won't face court martial (hat tip, LGF)

Well, considering the kid gloves that deserters like Pablo Parede's have been handled with (Lt. Smash has the best coverage, btw, of patético  pablo) and the recent mistrial of Lynndie England, this is pleasant news.
I was concerned for this young man.  And this is the main fear I had about embedded journalists.  Some will be not be all that friendly to our soldiers, and just might be more interested in finding or creating an embarrasing situation to exploit than in honest reporting.
So, it is good to see that it was decided that this marine was doing his job, and not out slaughtering the defenseless for kicks.  Lets leave the war crimes to the professionals, like John Kerry.

Next up: getting Lt Pantano his day of redemption.

Jordan and CNN

First, go over to LaShawn's.  She has the biggest Jordan round up out there.

Now, getting ready to grab lunch, this is what I'm seeing, and I'm thinking it is a good thing that it isn't very likely that Mr. Jordan could face jail time for this.  Because in the blogosphere, and to a lesser extent, the WaPost, he's getting a preview of involuntary prison sex.

First, Hugh Hewitt makes a great point... CNN's attempt to be "The Most Trusted Name in Journalism" is a farce.

Boyd of the NY Sun ties him down on the bunk.

Chris Muir bends CNN over in the shower, and then again after lockdown.

And not to be out done, Kaus makes Kurtz his prag

And of course, Odub and DailyKos are silent... too busy cheering on Juan Cole in his hair pulling girl fight with Jonah Goldberg.

More on that kidnapped GI

I'm sure you've all seen this:

Well, now that the news has been out for a few hours, a few of the lefty elite have weighed in.
But I lost the quotes!  So, join me, if you will, in filling in the dialogue.

I'll take the best sound bubbles for each toy, and post a collage with sound bubbles etc over the weekend.

Continue to see the contenders

FOXNews.com - Politics - Sen. Clinton Collapses During Speech

Link: FOXNews.com - Politics - Sen. Clinton Collapses During Speech.

Clinton, the first lady elected to the Senate, won her seat in 2000. She replaced Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan (search). She has said she plans to run for re-election in 2006 and many political pundits are betting that she will run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and could easily win it.

Abu Ghraib and media spin

Michelle Malkin points out this morning that two reporters from two news agencies manage to cover the same testimony, but with nearly opposite coverage.

This should not be too surprising.  Any two people will see the same event differently.  But this is, to me, still a case of bias/agenda on the part of the Post.

In the past, the AP has given us some doozies as well, but to be honest, I've always seen that as the individual contributors.  That is, I have seen reports on the AP that contains all kinds of bias, and many different levels of quality in the journalism.  The AP is, after all, a collection of stringers.  They don't have an editorial board that sets the tone for the organization (though they do have editors), they don't endorse candidates or any of the other things a local or national newspaper does.

But the Post... the Post.  To run the new catch phrase into the ground, has long been possessed of a certain myopic zeal. 

There really is so much to criticize about this article.  Not just the order in which they place the facts, but in the conclusions they would lead you to.  A prisoner is really a good witness to reveal where the orders came from?  Yeah, he might have a great accounting of how he was abused, but anything he has to say about the orders the guards were under or the chain of command are questionable at best.

This is another reason I am glad we have the Internet.  Back in the day, when I was in college and only sysadmins and the like had access to the net, and it was really just universities and the govt, I was already a news addict.  But it meant spending an hour or so each day in the library scanning the periodicals.  Even then, it was easy to see that where you got your news was a good indicator of what you might think of any given current event.  But now, it is much easier to get to information like this, so long as you are on the net.

Unrelated to the post as a whole, let me say this from my soap box: any family that can afford a computer and an Internet connection, and does not, is doing their children a terrible disservice.  I cannot, at this moment at least, think of any analogy that compares.  Except maybe reading.
Computers and the Internet are the new literacy...
I'll have to blog on that (though I know others already have).  I feel strongly about this, and I can definitely see how it has affected my own life.  But that is for another day.

You must read this

OK.  Read this.  Then read my stuff.  Or just read this.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20050111.shtml

This is another reason why the MSM isn't trusted.  And betrays their agenda and bias.  This young man, to me, represents so much that is good and beautiful about the American experience and dream.  And you will never see or hear about him, and the many young men and women in uniform like him, if you only get your news from the networks.  Including FOX.

Luckily, we have the internet now, and the blogoshpere.  All opinions, all news stories, have a chance to be heard on a national and even world stage.  And they will live and spread, or stagnate and die, on their own merits.  Not the politics of an editor or publisher.  We can all be Benjamin Franklin, if we choose to be.

Even Chris Matthews gets it

Driving home from work today, I caught the Dom Giordano program on WPHT.  He had Matthews on to discuss Rathergate.  Matthews outright said it, though this is not verbatim quote, that it is impossible to believe that Dan Rather's history of bias and butting heads with republican presidents and the Bush family in particular, can be ignored.  That is, that Dan's politics and personal dislike of Bush 43 were a large portion of his support of the fake TANG documents story. And how a credible journalist could base a story on Bill Burkett was inexcusable.  Matthews cited the fact that Rather and Mapes avoided all mention of Burkett until show time (to the CBS honchos, and to the audience Burkett was not sold as the primary source).  Why?  Burkett was a known moonbat with an axe to grind against Bush, and his stories of seeing documents in the trash and overhearing random "we're going to cover Dubya" conversations while walking around an airbase are hard to swallow.  Things don't play out that easily in real life.  Matthews compared it to a children's Easter Egg hunt, where all the eggs are left out in plain sight and are brightly painted...

However, he did show the Matthews class, and unbidden, took a pot shot at Michelle Malkin.  He said she accuses Kerry of pointing a grenade launcher at himself in order to inflict a wound, which Matthews called ludicrous.  And it would be, if she had ever said that.  I saw that episode of Hardball, and that is not what she said.  That one of his purple hearts came from a grenade Kerry himself fired, and not in combat, is reported and is a subject for discussion.  But in Matthews world, it was Malkin smearing Kerry, and it quickly went down hill from there.
Let me stress this point however: the subject of the SwiftVets had been brought up, and their treatment by the MSM, but the host (Dom) had not mentioned Michelle Malkin, and IMO, Matthews outburst was nearly out of the ether.
He did not allow Dom to question or rebut this outburst, and he did not stick around for callers.  A shame.... but considering Matthews penchant for screaming people down (even the host of the show he was on tonight), I don't know how that would have played out.

UPDATE:  Michelle treats us to her hate mail.  And George Soros's lap dog joins Matthews in misrepresenting what she has to say.  Tolerance and intellectualism are truly the halmarks of the left.

Weeks, not months, eh?

Link: CBS News | CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story | January 10, 2005?10:25:53.

Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Betsy West. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated.