to the barricades

"Palestinians and internationals living in the Bethlehem region have started a weblog. They want to tell the world what it is like to be living in occupied territory, under an economic siege, encircled by a wall and military checkpoints. For them the new site, Bethlehem bloggers, found at www.bethlehemghetto.blogspot.com, is a portal to communicate to the outside world and tell the stories of their lives in Bethlehem and what it is like to live in a Palestinian Ghetto."

The Center for Public Integrity

The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm that employs numerous former high-ranking government officials with ties to both political parties, was the ninth largest Pentagon contractor between 1998 and 2003, an ongoing Center for Public Integrity investigation into Department of Defense contracts found.

A dozen companies in which Carlyle had a controlling interest netted more than $9.3 billion in contracts.

Overall, six private investment firms, including Carlyle, received nearly $14 billion in Pentagon deals between 1998 and 2003. (See related report, "The Sincerest Form of Flattery.")

Mystery Pollster

Another day, another polling controversy. The latest involves a survey released last Monday by ABC News that shows 63 to 28 percent support for removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube. The survey drew intense interest in Washington and immediate allegations of biased question wording from the blogosphere's right wing. Captain's Quarters called it a "push poll for euthanasia." Wizbang adds another adjective, calling it a "bogus push poll for euthanasia." 

Do they have a point?  The quick answer:  The evidence of bias or deliberate untruth in the ABC poll is scant, though the issue raises some interesting questions about the appropriateness of "informed" questions.

Now here's the long version: updates and ...More

Investing in War         The Center for Public Integrity

The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm that employs numerous former high-ranking government officials with ties to both political parties, was the ninth largest Pentagon contractor between 1998 and 2003, an ongoing Center for Public Integrity investigation into Department of Defense contracts found.

A dozen companies in which Carlyle had a controlling interest netted more than $9.3 billion in contracts.

Overall, six private investment firms, including Carlyle, received nearly $14 billion in Pentagon deals between 1998 and 2003. (See related report, "The Sincerest Form of Flattery.")

Hey Father Death    adds another adjective, calling it a "bogus push poll for euthanasia."

Do they have a point? The quick answer: The evidence of bias or deliberate untruth in the ABC poll is scant, though the issue raises some interesting questions about the appropriateness of "informed" questions.

Now here's the long version: updates and ...More

Foxblocker.com - Shut The FOX Up!

Purchasing a FOX Blocker and telling the advertisers at FOX News why you did it will encourage advertisers spending their money somewhere else.

If we band together and tell the advertisers to shut the FOX up, we can help limit the scope, or at least the profitability of FOX News.

FOXBlocker is an innovative new product that filters out the FOX News network. Simply screw the filter into the back of your TV and never be exposed to right wing propaganda again (at least through FOX News). Using a proprietary technology, the FOXBlocker works to filter out FOX News from your cable lineup.

Protect yourself and your family, or send one to a misguided right wing friend.

Schiavo "Push Poll?"  Mystery Pollster

Another day, another polling controversy.  The latest involves a survey released last Monday by ABC News that shows 63 to 28 percent support for removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube.  The survey drew intense interest in Washington and immediate allegations of biased question wording from the blogosphere's right wing.  Captain's Quarters called it a "push poll for euthanasia." Wizbang

Purchasing a FOX Blocker and telling the advertisers at FOX News why you did it will encourage advertisers spending their money somewhere else.

If we band together and tell the advertisers to shut the FOX up, we can help limit the scope, or at least the profitability of FOX News.

FOXBlocker is an innovative new product that filters out the FOX News network. Simply screw the filter into the back of your TV and never be exposed to right wing propaganda again (at least through FOX News). Using a proprietary technology, the FOXBlocker works to filter out FOX News from your cable lineup.

Protect yourself and your family, or send one to a misguided right wing friend.

The Flawed Report on Dan Rather

By James C. Goodale

(Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School, is the former Vice Chairman and General Counsel of The New York Times and represented the newspaper in the Pentagon Papers case. He is Host/Producer of the TV program The Digital Age. An earlier version of the article in this issue appeared in the New York Law Journal. (April 2005)
Report of the Independent Review Panel on the September 8, 2004 60 Minutes Wednesday Segment "For the Record" Concerning President Bush's Texas Air National Guard Service...read on

BUSH AND SCHIAVO

via Kevin Drum

From Sunday Morning Talk:

As Dubya starts to see his numbers slide, This Week reported that the Bush administration are starting to distance themselves from Republicans on Capitol Hill, leaking that Bush didn't even want to return to Washington to sign the Schiavo bill last Sunday.

Download | play -QT

Did anyone see the show? How well sourced was this leak?

If it's true, it's about as galactically craven and poll driven a rowback as I've ever heard. Did one of Bush's minions really say something this cowardly and gutless?

What's creepy about it is that George Will agrees with this assertion, and thinks it was a mistake by President Bush. He says there is a crack in the republican party because of this.

(Update)-Sunday Morning Talk thinks this is all a red herrimg.:

However, before you all get too excited and think Bush really didn't want to fly back and sign the bill, stop and think. It's likely a red herring. This sounds more like the Rove spin machine, kicking in to high gear and distancing themselves from Capitol Hill Republicans as they see Bush's numbers slide and public sentiment turn against the Republican political workings of last weekend.

Robert Shaw from the LA Times asks the question: Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?

He writes: "When I or virtually any other mainstream journalist writes something, it goes through several filters before the reader sees it. At least four experienced Times editors will have examined this column, for example. They will have checked it for accuracy, fairness, grammar, taste and libel, among other things."...

I must admit that our editors "Sam" and "Babe" are a little lacking in their spell checking abiliies, as I am repeatedly made aware of all the typo's. So please when you have a problem with something that shows up on the blog, address it to my editors.

Digby writes: "LA Times Media critic David Shaw claims in today's paper that bloggers don't deserve the reporter's privilege because they are lazy, careless and inaccurate. In the process of explaining why, he makes a couple of whopping mistakes that one can only assume he makes because he is lazy and careless."

Atrios writes: I'm happy for people to make serious criticisms of the blugosphere, though when they do they should stop comparing bluggers to something which is only a very tiny part of what modern day "journalism" is. And, while they're at it, they could focus some more attention on something they've been ignoring for years -- talk radio....

Bloggers really have these guys rattled.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

via Washington Post

Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."

Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago....read on

"It is absolutely incredible that the very same players who made those statements then are making completely the opposite ones now," said Joseph Cirincione, a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Do they remember that they said this? Because the Iranians sure remember that they said it," said Cirincione, who just returned from a nuclear conference in Tehran -- a rare trip for U.S. citizens now.

Night Light

"I have to infer from that (statement) that you would be happier if Saddam Hussein were still in power."    - Paul Wolfowitz