Tag: media

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Hold Bush Accountable for Admitted Criminal Acts

Bush Spies on Americans By: Pat Bagley Salt Lake Tribune
NYTimes editor Bill Keller offers up a most pathetic statement “excusing” the publication for the Bush/NSA story. Hannity, O’Reilly, et al would be pleased.As Matt Stoller proclaims in MyDD:

This spy scandal is a very important development. One of the problems with the blogosphere and the media landscape in general is that it feels like the outrage-meter is always turned up to maximum hot setting. You’re hearing a lot of chatter on the blogs, and I would suggest that this time, you pay special attention to it. This story cuts across all the themes of modern Republicanism – national security, 9/11, abuses of power, political opportunism, media manipulation, violation of civil rights, attacks on privacy, and the evisceration of checks and balances in the American system. Rarely is there such a narrative that ties so many threads together.

See AmericaBlog’s call for action.

Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) even got in on the qaction during a heated debate with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) on CNN Friday:

Barr is far from a usual suspect in raging against the president, as Shakespeare’s Sister illustrates:

Barr is no left-winger, he?s a fire-breathing conservative who tried the case against Clinton, strongly supports the Second Amendment, drafted the Defense of Marriage Act, staunchly apposes abortion, and has been a speaker before the Council of Conservative Citizens, which has been noted as becoming increasingly ?radical and racist? by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who classifies the CCC as a hate group.

I previously posted in disgust and dismay that the Times published this “groundbreaking” story a year after they had it, and even apologized within the text of the front page indictment. David Sirota assails the media in general and NYT in particular for sheer deference to the “powers” of government and profit in a must-read post:

..[T]he Times tells us Bush “secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans.” The paper also refers to “the powers granted the N.S.A. by President Bush.” “Authorized” and “granted.” The word “authorize” is defined as “to grant power or authority to,” and the word “grant” is the act of giving something one has. The media’s use of these terms, then, is the media trying to make the public assume as fact that Bush actually had the power or authority to grant in the first place.

Its more than just the NSA and Bush. Matt Rothschild of the Progressive points to MSNBC recent detailing of Rumsfeld’s DoD sending out teams to track even the most “innocuous and lawful” protests.

The Pengaton?s partial file on the spying is available here (.pdf).

As the president proclaimed at a recent Oval Office meeting (h/t Capitol Hill Blue):

I don?t give a goddamn,? Bush retorted. ?I?m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.?

?Mr. President,? one aide in the meeting said. ?There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.?

?Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,? Bush screamed back. ?It?s just a goddamned piece of paper!?

For more on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, click here.

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NYT features posts from Iraqi bloggers

In a brilliant move, the Sunday New York Times Opinion pages feature posts from four Iraqi bloggers in a piece titled: “Blogging the Iraqi Vote.”

If there was any consensus from the bloggers (A Star From Mosul, Baghdad Burning, Eject, and An Average Iraqi) it seemed to be that the 70 percent figure of eligible voters who made it to the poll is a consequence of an increasingly intolerable occupation.

I wonder if 70 percent of American voters would ever show up in a display of dissatisfaction with teh current regime at home?

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NYT Apologetically “breaks” old news of domestic spying illegalities

The New York Times fronted on Friday with the big splash story of the week — breaking details of Bush-authorized illegal domestic intelligence gathering by the National Security Agency.

Strangely, as if the publishing of illicit affairs within the administration may lead to blacklisting, or much worse, dinner with Scooter Libby, the Times devotes an entire graf to apologizing for granting anonymity “because of the classified nature of the program,” then concedes:

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny.

The Bush Administration is breaking the law… so what else is new?!?

Considering the article relates to a presidential order signed in 2002, and covers issues supported by the Patriot Act (.pdf) and related legislation that should have made for dozens of front page stories over the past few years.

Not only does the Times appear to apply their own limits press freedom with such a statement, it reads as if it could be some distorted subliminal message.

In a move reminiscent of the media’s response to Dana Priest’s CIA secret prisons story last month in the Post, in which, the story was merely repeated without being followed up on, the Washington Post practically lifts the gist of James Risen and Eric Lichtblau’s NY Times story (which they admit in context of having finished for publication over a year ago) and fronts it as well.

That painful day in December 2001 when John Ashcroft laid down the law on the Patriot Act (and prohibiting press among other freedoms at Guantanamo) at a lengthy hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn’t seem that long ago, although apparently the MSM is just picking up on the fallout. (resources available here, here, and here, y aqui tambien.

Or could it be, as a simple Amazon search reveals, that James Risen’s Book, “State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration” is due for a January 2006 release.

Malkin and her peers are all over that, and this time, they should be.

My understanding of the motivations and trustworthiness of the MSM has been so utterly clouded by the deceit and misplaced loyalty that has played out over the past months – I don’t know what to think.

There is good news today, with the Senate unable to vote down a threatened filibuster leading to the apparent demise of the Patriot Act Re-authorization Bill (which, of course, as we all know is an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” RB). (full story on today’s vote)

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Iran: Top Ministers Implicated in Serious Abuses

While the world’s attention remains on the pathetic, yet not surprising remarks by Iranian President Ahmadinejad denouncing the Holocaust, Human Rights Watch has just released:

The briefing paper, Ministers of Murder: Iran?s New Security Cabinet, details credible allegations that Minister of Interior Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi and Minister of Information Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei were involved in extremely serious and systematic human rights violations over the past two decades.

The debunking-the-Holocaust thing is nothing new, and does not even deserve press. Perhaps Ahmadinejad keeps repeating this to overshadow today’s HRW release – just as all of the apparently bogus reports of Iran tampering with Iraqi elections could be fluff for Iran’s far nastier undertakings. Pundit Guy has documented ths history of Holocaust-doubters.

Ahmadinejad may be that bad but it looks like the real problems run much deeper in his cabinet.

The Human Rights Watch report, to be officially released tomorrow, calls for the immediate removal of Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi and Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei from the president’s cabinet:

Iran?s cabinet is now dominated by former security and intelligence officials, Human Rights Watch said, raising fears that President Ahmadinejad?s government will readily resort to violence to suppress dissidents and punish critics.