The Political Chase

Last Throes

Howard, cry me a river. Okay? Geez. And by the way, where did you get the title of your piece today? Dick Cheney?

Poor Howard Kurtz, at The Washington Post, is whining and crying about the impact bloggers are having on MSM. He’s deeply worried about all the advertisements going to “online portals” and not on the ink-smudged paper delivered to his house. The paper that may not be delivered until 18 to 24 hours after a significant news event happened, virtually everybody knows about it except Howard, and more than 50% of the pundits have published their analysis (online).

Poor fellow, doesn’t think anybody loves him any more. Well Howard, as long as the content of your column follows the line it did today, you’re not going to be loved or read anymore. Get off your dinosaur and get in the game.

If you’ll wipe the tears from your eyes allowing you to see a bit, you may have sufficient vision to realize how MSM and bloggers can create a synergy rather than write your obituary. How many more readers do you have now because of the Internet and bloggers referencing articles and columns in the Post?

MSM is vital to the survival of bloggers and if you haven’t already picked up your toys and gone home, you may realize that bloggers will evolve to be vital to MSM’s survival. If you and your editorial staff will do some insightful thinking and planning, you can stay on top. But as long as you’re whining and crying, you’re not writing or researching.

Think about it Howard - you’re Wal-Mart and the vast majority of us are the small local store that just opened the door for business. Where do you think we go to shop? And, how are we going to deliver the same product at the price you do - remember you have volume purchasing power.

So Howard, use a little of that volume purchasing power and get yourself a big box of Kleenex, go to your computer and cry while you write a column about something that is worth reading.

Technorati Tags : Communications, Washington+Post, News, Blog

DOJ Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal

Justice Department lawyers unanimously declared in a December 12, 2003, memo that the Texas redistricting plan, lead by Rep.Tom DeLay (R-TX), violated the Voting Rights Act.Imagine that.

Tom DeLay’s Involvement

In what appears to be a politically motivated decision, senior Justice Department officials overruled the lawyers unanimous opinion and approved the redistricting plan. DeLay’s involvement in the matter included contacting:

• Three Federal Aviation Administration offices (Oklahoma City, OK, Fort Worth, TX, and Washington, DC)
• Four FBI offices (Dallas, TX, Corpus Christi, TX, Austin, TX and Ardmore, OK)
• Two US Marshall offices in San Antonio, TX
• The US Attorney’s office in San Antonio, TX
• The Office of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Justice
• The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (Riverside, CA)

DeLay’s Response

A former Justice Department lawyer and currently a professor of law at American University, found it to be highly unusual (based on history) that the DOJ overruled the unanimous findings. Paean composer John Ashcroft was Attorney General at the time.

In keeping with statements made about the various criminal charges against or investigations of DeLay, his spokesman called the professor’s opinion and memo revelation, “nonsensical political babble.” Sounds familiar. In response to his current indictment, DeLay accused the Travis County, TX prosecutor of “partisan zealotry, prosecutorial abuse” and described the action as “an abomination of justice.”*

DeLay’s Trail

Congress previously reviewed Delay’s activity in the redistricting effort and based on information available at the time, the House Ethics Committee unanimously admonished DeLay for his actions.

DeLay is also being investigated by the DOJ for activities and gifts associated with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who faces multiple criminal charges including bank fraud in Florida, a federal grand jury investigation for bribery, money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and possibly other offenses. Abramoff is also under investigation for illegal activity in Guam.

According to sources, the Department of Justice is closely reviewing quid pro quo activities between DeLay and K Street lobbyist(s) and their clients.

Congressman DeLay was the House Majority Leader until forced to resign in late September this year, due to the current Travis County, TX indictments against him. DeLay was indicted for money laundering and conspiracy to violate election law.

Although DeLay was no longer House Majority Leader, DeLay maintained he held the position of Majority Leader on his US government Web site until it was publicly disclosed here at TPC. DeLay has since changed his Web site and no longer publicizes himself on the Internet as House Majority Leader.

Reality

When Tom “Hot Tub Tom” “The Hammer” DeLay or his spokesperson says “nonsensical political babble” you can believe it. He has the record to prove it.

* “DeLay Is Indicted on Two New Charges”, The Washington Post, A01, October 4, 2005

Technorati Tags : Tom+DeLay, Politics, Congress, Jack+Abramoff

Peace Agreement

Peace agreements can be made — just insure Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Bush are not involved.

After a sixteen year hiatus and considerable heckling from Dave Letterman, Oprah Winfrey appeared on Letterman’s show Thursday night.

Technorati Tags : Entertainment, Oprah+Winfrey, Dave+Letterman

BellSouth Wants to Stick It to Bloggers

William L. Smith from BellSouth is absolutely nuts. His proposal to prioritize Internet access by volume of user is no different than saying Wal-Mart’s trucks have priority over my car on I-95. Moreover, my telephone call to my neighbor has a lower priority than an ExxonMobile employee at work. No way!

Does Daily Kos think they can compete with ExxonMobile?

From The Washington Post:

A senior telecommunications executive said yesterday that Internet service providers should be allowed to strike deals to give certain Web sites or services priority in reaching computer users, a controversial system that would significantly change how the Internet operates.

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

Tags : Internet, Communications, Telecommunications, Blog, Blogging, BellSouth

Iraqi Propaganda Paid on Commission Basis

U.S. officials in Washington said the payments were made through the Baghdad Press Club, an organization they said was created more than a year ago by U.S. Army officers. They are part of an extensive American military-run information campaign - including psychological-warfare experts - intended to build popular support for U.S.-led stabilization efforts and erode support for Sunni Muslim insurgents.

 

Members of the Press Club are paid as much as $200 a month, depending on how many positive pieces they produce, according to the U.S. officials.

In addition to the Army’s secret payments to Iraqi newspaper, radio and television journalists for positive stories, U.S. psychological-warfare officers have been involved in writing news releases and drafting media strategies for top commanders, two defense officials said.

In Iraq, the public-affairs staff at the American-run multinational headquarters in Baghdad has been combined with information-operations experts in an organization known as the Information Operations Task Force.

 

The unit’s public-affairs officers are subservient to the operations experts, military and defense officials said.

 

The result is a "fuzzing up" of what’s supposed to be a strict division between public affairs, which provides factual information about U.S. military operations, and information operations, which can use propaganda and doctored or false information to influence enemy actions, perceptions and behavior, U.S. officials said.

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Rummy Speak with Forked Tongue

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