May 14, 2007
THE PRESS
The SpouseBUZZ Live went well, in my opinion. You can read the liveblogs of the panels over at
SpouseBUZZ to see what we touched on. The event was really high-class and impressive; Military.com and USAA went all out for us.
After the panels, I was approached to do an interview for a local news affiliate. How bad could it be, right?
When I said at the Milblogs Conference that I had no bad experience with the press, I suppose I spoke too soon. I just didn't have any personal experience to speak of. So far I'd never been in any articles or newscasts.
For some reason, the local affiliate only wanted to talk about this blog. Why did they come to SpouseBUZZ Live and then start asking dumb questions about my personal site? And I was not savvy enough to see where this line of questioning was heading; I thought they'd ask me how I started blogging and then segue into SpouseBUZZ. Instead we segued into what I think about deployments and politics. Ugh. In hindsight, I wish I'd asked to start over or told the man I really only wanted to talk about SpouseBUZZ. But I was inexperienced and thought his questions would get more appropriate as we progressed.
As he shut down his camera, he decided to ask me off-the-record what I think about the war and if I think we're winning. Ugh again. I answered with some vague nonsense I can't even remember, but at some point I mentioned that my husband was learning Farsi. This guy's eyes got an a-ha twinkle as he said, "Waaait, that means Iran, right?" as if the fact that my husband is learning Farsi is some indicator that Bushitler is indeed planning to invade Iran. Thank heavens we weren't still on camera, because I wouldn't be surprised if he'd used the word Farsi as a way to speculate about Ahmadinejad. He acted as if he'd uncovered an Army plot to invade Iran.
Remind me not to do any more interviews in the future.
Posted by: Sarah at
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hopefully your experience with the USAA camera crew was better!
Posted by: mark at May 15, 2007 05:45 AM (EXOhI)
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Ughhhh I am tired of these types of interviews. I cannot tell you how much time I have wasted. WASTED speaking. ONLY to have some sort of "quote" taken entirely out of context. It is painful!
Posted by: armywifetoddlermom at May 15, 2007 11:33 AM (gVHlZ)
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Thus you have to wonder if it's worth it to speak to the press at all... *sigh*
I'm glad spouse buzz went well. yay!!!
Posted by: Teresa at May 15, 2007 06:21 PM (gsbs5)
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March 21, 2007
TIME
The other day we got an offer in the mail for a subscription to
Time magazine. We cancelled that rag years ago, but I was wooed by the free clock/radio/thermometer they were giving away with the subscription. My mental dialog went like this: I really want that radio, and it's only $20, but then that means I'm saddled with
Time. Weighing, weighing. In the end, I decided to do without the radio because I couldn't bear the thought of giving more money to that stupid magazine. Unfortunately, Annika has a free subscription, so she's reduced to tossing her
Time when it gets
unfreakinreadable.
Posted by: Sarah at
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In the past few weeks, Time has mailed me two free issues trying to get me to subscribe. Mind you, I am a volunteer with a soldier support organization, and I subscribe to a whole bunch of magazines that I am not interested in just so I can mail them in my care packages. However, after seeing the covers (the first was something offensive about Iraq, the second insinuated that Cheney was guilty of--something, who knows what), I threw the magazines away. I will NOT send that drivel to deployed troops.
Posted by: Pat in MN at March 21, 2007 10:14 AM (aUYIZ)
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When I got my first apartment, one of the first things I did was subscribe to Time because in my mind, all grown ups had one such subscription.
Now I realize that if I really do need a Time subscription to be a grown up, I guess I don't really need to be a grown up.
Posted by: airforcewife at March 22, 2007 03:20 PM (0dU3f)
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January 19, 2007
LMAO
Confederate Yankee sent an
email to the Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs for the Associated Press about discrepancies in their "Jamil Hussein" reporting. As I read this email, I couldn't help but laugh. I wonder just how deep the MSM's hatred for bloggers runs. Can you imagine if you came to work every morning only to find that some "guy in his pajamas" tore apart your stories and demanded corrections and retractions? And bloggers find problems with many stories, not just the most obvious ones like the National Guard memos or flaming tire piles in Lebanon. I bet the Associated Press and Reuters don't even know what to do now because they keep getting their butts handed to them by nobodies.
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November 27, 2006
LINK
Read Flopping Aces'
Getting the News from the Enemy. He wonders why the media is running stories based on hearsay and rumors. And he's got a lot of info on it.
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November 25, 2006
WTF?
I have no idea what happened or why this groom was
shot at his bachelor party by the police. The only people interviewed in this article are friends of the groom and Al Sharpton. There's no official word out yet, it seems. But what in the hell is up with the last two paragraphs of the article? Let's throw in two other completely unrelated incidents where police shot black people. What does that have to do with anything? And why does the AP do this all the time, tack on unrelated crap at the end of articles? Those two paragraphs have no business being in that article, other than to lead readers to assume that cops repeatedly shoot black people for no reason whatsoever. Shame on you, AP.
MORE:
Since MSNBC changed their link, I had to find the original article elsewhere. I found it here, but I'll copy the end of the article before it disappears again.
"I still don't want to believe it," Porter said, "a beautiful day like this, and he was going to have a beautiful wedding, he was going to live forever with his wife and children. And this happened."
In 1999, police killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the Bronx. The four officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges.
And in 2003, Ousmane Zongo, 43, a native of the western African country of Burkina Faso who repaired art and musical instruments in a Manhattan warehouse, was shot to death during a police raid. Zongo was hit four times, twice in the back.
See what I mean? Talk about inflammatory. And completely unrelated.
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Seems like they have already changed the article since you wrote this post.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at November 26, 2006 04:40 AM (deur4)
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Woah, isn't that creepy how they just change the link and the previous article disappears? I'll see if I can find it.
Posted by: Sarah at November 26, 2006 05:20 AM (7Wklx)
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November 18, 2006
LINK
Greyhawk has a lengthy and thorough analysis of the damage the Abu Ghraib scandal did to the war effort. It's posted in two parts:
A Combination of Blurring and Smearing Part 1 and Part 2 (the internal links are busted, but you can figure it out).
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November 16, 2006
RE-SHOW
CNN Headline News is re-showing the program
Exposed: The Extremist Agenda on the Glenn Beck Program on Sunday night at 7:00 and 9:00. Check it out if you missed it last night.
UPDATE:
The show ended up being the second highest rated show in the history of Headline News.
Posted by: Sarah at
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I did miss it - I'll try and catch it on Sunday. I do like Glenn on television - I'm not so wild about his radio show - maybe I've just caught it at bad times. But he does tend to stick to his point much better on TV.
Posted by: Teresa at November 16, 2006 04:17 PM (o4pJS)
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Yeah, Glenn can get a bit squirrelly at times, but overall I like him.
Posted by: Sarah at November 17, 2006 02:30 AM (7Wklx)
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Thanks. I'll be sure to check this out. I've been wondering about Glenn Beck ever since Jon Stewart showed that clip of him calling a muslim congressman "the enemy."
Posted by: Will at November 17, 2006 11:31 AM (QRBGL)
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Jon Stewart on Glenn Beck (and some other current issues.)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/18/the-daily-show-on-troop-levels-and-glenn-beck/
Posted by: Will at November 18, 2006 11:45 AM (QRBGL)
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Yeah, Will, I already know about that. From when Glenn Beck himself played the clip and congratulated Stewart on his zingers.
Posted by: Sarah at November 19, 2006 03:14 AM (7Wklx)
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So, he's a crazy person, eh?
Posted by: Will at November 19, 2006 09:29 AM (QRBGL)
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November 06, 2006
NOW THAT'S JOURNALISM
Via
RWN: Steve Harrigan from Fox News gets
waterboarded. Wow, that's really amazing journalism. Harrigan wanted to see the fact behind this interrogation technique, so he put himself on the line to find out. That's awesome.
Posted by: Sarah at
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I, too, think it's awesome that a Fox News journalist got tortured.
Posted by: Wil at November 06, 2006 11:21 AM (QRBGL)
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October 30, 2006
UGH
I'm sorry, but I don't see any reason it would ever be appropriate to
ask a soldier in an interview "You ever worry one day your number's gonna come up?" What kind of question is that from a journalist? If you want to get to that issue, could you at least ask it in a less crass way? And then to follow up with whether or not they think their wives are screwing around on them. Sweet merciful crap. What is wrong with people?
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I suppose my response would be "why, you want the video or somethin?" then clock him with my kevlar.
Posted by: Deskmerc at October 30, 2006 12:10 PM (Qlh7l)
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My husband said that the appropriate answer to this question is a punch square in the face.
Posted by: Sarah at October 31, 2006 07:24 AM (7Wklx)
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Folks tell me that troops already distrust the press in Iraq. Geez ... could stuff like this be a part of it?
Hey I have news for the reporter ... Jody got your gal & boyfriend too!
Posted by: NOTR at November 01, 2006 11:19 AM (izx0t)
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October 16, 2006
THAT AIN'T MY COUNTRY
They've been beating us over the head with that new Chevy commercial during the postseason, and my husband
hates it too. He flies off the handle every time it's on. He's mad that someone would proudly boil the US down to Hurricane Katrina and Vietnam protesters. I'll have to point out this quote from Slate: "I wonder if they could squeeze in the Rodney King beating and the Abu Ghraib photos, too."
There was a much better commercial on AFN that tried for the same concept. I have been looking online for 15 minutes but can't find any trace of it. Those of you in USAREUR will remember the Navy Reserves commercial that laid out things worth fighting for: hot dogs, Route 66, baseball, etc. This Chevy commercial really misses that mark.
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Yeah, that was no where near the Route 66 commercial (and actually, the Route 66 commercial was probably the only AFN commerical I liked).
Bummer for Chevy.
Posted by: Erin at October 16, 2006 12:37 PM (023Of)
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Didn't the Democrats complain about Bush using 9/11 in is political ads? Bush had relevance since he was directly responsible for how 9/11 was handled. How do the tragedies in the Chevy commercial have relevance to their trucks?
Posted by: Amy at October 16, 2006 01:18 PM (DWNNI)
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Check out www.youtube.com
I can't remember the commercial you are looking for, but when I did a search for AFN and it brought back quite a few options.
Posted by: Vonn at October 16, 2006 05:37 PM (/VoEr)
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Thank you. You are the first person to mention how just wrong this commercial is. It really rubs me the wrong way. Right at the outset, the first time I saw it, I questioned using Mellencamp (not sure what name variation he goes by these days), but thought I'd give it a shot. It is awful. It is so far off the mark of what I thought Chevy stood for, or should stand for.
Posted by: Jim at October 17, 2006 05:21 PM (IHxDy)
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I bitched about this commercial to my girlfriend, she just took it in stride.
Glad I'm not the only one who wondered what happened between 1969 and 2006.
Posted by: John at October 18, 2006 06:59 AM (5/yJm)
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October 03, 2006
FOOD NETWORK RULES
Is it just me, or is TV going a bit too far with snarky social commentary? I was watching
Cold Case the other day, and one of the suspects was a former crackhead who'd turned his life around. So Scotty snidely quips, "Yeah, you overcame drugs and had a stint in the Guard; you could be president." Hardy har har. Shut up and solve the damn mystery. It's no wonder I find myself spending more and more time on the Food Network.
Speaking of which, look who I nearly had a heart attack to meet today...
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Posted by: Kathleen A. at October 03, 2006 04:38 PM (7qm8p)
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Super cool . . . love his show and mom too . . . that good ol' southern draw is the best . . . where were you when you met?
Posted by: Heidi at October 03, 2006 04:41 PM (TnFz3)
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Okay Sarah,I'll bite,who is it? (I don't have
or want cable)
Plus,we need a pupdate,please.
Posted by: MaryIndiana at October 03, 2006 07:30 PM (YwdKL)
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It's Jamie Deen, Paula Deen's son from Paula's Home Cooking on the Food Network. My mom and I went to Savannah yesterday and he was in the restaurant!
Posted by: Sarah at October 04, 2006 02:09 AM (7Wklx)
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I just love this family
Posted by: Armywifetoddlermom at October 04, 2006 05:22 AM (DeTeU)
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That rocks! Love him and them!!
Posted by: LMT at October 04, 2006 01:57 PM (DhMbx)
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So cool! Did you invite yourself over for Christmas dinner? I can't even imagine the kinds of foods that family eats over the holidays.
Posted by: Erin at October 04, 2006 06:15 PM (023Of)
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September 18, 2006
I'M SORRY
More about
apologies...
I remember my grammar professor talking about an interesting facet of the English language. We have two meanings behind the words "I'm sorry": one is in the sense of "this was my fault" and the other is "I am sympathetic that this happened to you." That is how your friend can tell you his house burned down and you say "I'm sorry" while obviously not being guilty. It is my understanding -- based on my limited experience with foreign languages -- that this distinction is more clear in other languages, usually with two different phrases to express the different meanings. For example, in Swedish you can say "Förlåt mig", which means "forgive me" when it's your fault, but you'd say something more like "Det är trakigt" for sympathy, which loosely can translate as "that sucks". I used to try to say "Jag är ledsen" for "I'm sorry", but my friend said I was always using it wrong because it never carried quite the meaning I was striving for when I tried to use it for sympathy. (Maybe Amritas can shed more light on the topic, especially if I'm misinformed.)
Anyway, as my professor explained to us, this is how we can apologize without apologizing. The Pope can say he's sorry (that Muslims are reacting in such a violent way) without saying he's sorry (that he quoted Manuel II Paleologos in a long speech about rationality in religion).
There are two "I'm sorry"s in English, and apparently the Muslims know the difference. Because they're still ticked, which is why they say things like
We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen.
Goddamit, maybe it's time they apologize to us. To the Pope. And for the nun they shot in the back. And the churches they burned down.
I am so f-ing sick of the Muslim world.
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This post says exactly what I have been thinking.
Posted by: Tammi at September 18, 2006 12:23 PM (Mwghf)
Posted by: Will at September 18, 2006 12:38 PM (H4u2c)
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APOLOGY LIES
I was finishing up some laundry when I heard a news segment on the TV about Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb. Apparently he wrote some article in 1979 called "Women Can't Fight", in which he said that he'd never met a woman who could lead men in combat and that they shouldn't be admitted to the Naval Academy. So now that he's running for office, this stuff is surfacing and reporters are wondering why he doesn't apologize for writing this article. Got that?
Reporters want him to apologize. (Well, so do women in the Navy, but that's beside the point for this blog post.) Apparently after his debate, they
pressed him to offer a blanket apology for his remarks.
I don't know Webb from shinola, but I think this whole thing is weird. He wrote something in 1979 that might not have been that shocking given our military norms at the time. Since then, he has grown with the times and altered his position a little. Apparently he's since apologized for any difficulties women might've faced at the Naval Academy in light of his words. He also is apparently "'completely comfortable' with women's roles in today's military." So the short story is that his view of women has changed a bit since 1979. Pardon me if I don't think we should stop the presses.
Here's what I don't get, why I'm bothering to blog this. I wish I had recorded the reporter's exact wording of this story, but he said something to the effect that people were pressing Webb to retract his 1979 statement. They want him to publicly state that he doesn't believe what he wrote then. And it seems to me that he's doing just enough to hedge his statements so that it would appear that he still holds the same view to a certain extent but doesn't want to seem anti-woman or even anti-women in the military. He thinks they're fine in certain leadership positions but not leading men in combat. (I hope I'm not putting words in his mouth here, but this is just what I'm surmising by reading between the lines.)
So reporters are clamoring for him to retract his previous beliefs, even though they seem to still be his beliefs. That is to say, they want him to lie. They want him to come out and say that he doesn't believe all that malarky he thought back in the 70s, heavens no, women are fabulous. Why do they want him to say this? Why do they want him to lie?
Let's leave aside the fact that they're the Media and he's a Democrat, OK?
Don't we want politicians who tell the truth? I know every politician will gloss over things and sugarcoat stuff and hand us rose-colored glasses to look through. We all know this. But we don't want them to flat out lie and say that they believe in something when they truly don't. If Webb holds a belief that's unpopular or not P.C., the voters have a right to make a choice based on what the man believes. The media shouldn't hound him to apologize for something he's not actually sorry about just to make himself look better.
Why do we want all these people to apologize all the time? This comes while I'm still festering over the hubbub the Pope has caused. The Pope doesn't need to apologize for quoting some medieval text that's actually right on the money. As one Turkish columnist said, "You would think that the Pope had spent his whole speech attacking Islam. The Pope is the Pope. We didnÂ’t expect him to praise Islam." So he can apologize for hurting people's feelings -- as Webb did -- but why this rush to get him to retract, to take it all back, to act like he never actually believed the thing he said? He's the freaking Pope! He's the head of a completely different religion; why on earth should he be expected to be nicey-nice with a religion that's *not true* according to the beliefs of his religion? Lord knows the imams say far worse things about Jews and Christians every single day.
But you know what? If you don't like what the Pope said, or what Webb said, then talk about it on your blog or in your Bible study or at your dinner party. But would it really make us feel better for them to lie to us and say they never meant to say these things? That's ridiculous.
You can't take it back and you shouldn't have to. Don't say something controversial and then just cave when people call you on it. It doesn't really help; just ask Lawrence Summers. And the media, or American society, or whomever we want to blame this on needs to lay off and stop calling for people to freaking apologize. We need for more people to tell the truth and say it like it is in this ridiculous world of ours, not be afraid that they might bring the house down with their words. We need to stop stifling people from saying what they really believe!
You don't like what Webb said? Don't vote for him. It's that simple.
(Actually, just don't vote for him: he's a Democrat. Heh.)
MORE TO GROK:
More on apologies here.
Posted by: Sarah at
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I get to vote for either Webb or Allen in November. I live in Virginia. I'm itchin' to cast my vote...
Posted by: Andi at September 18, 2006 11:46 AM (OzAse)
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"We need for more people to tell the truth..."
I have to agree with you, look how people all over the country looked up to John Wayne, whether they agreed with his views or not!
Posted by: Brad at September 19, 2006 04:48 PM (9ADYb)
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August 30, 2006
WOAH
Wow. Did anyone just see Keith Olbermann ten minutes ago? He was completely off his rocker. I am taping the repeat at midnight because I missed the beginning of his diatribe, but apparently
Donald Rumsfeld's speech got him all in a tizzy. I think he's just ticked because Rumsfeld went after journalism.
Anyway, somehow Olbermann managed to twist history so far into itself that he said Rumsfeld is the new Chamberlain and we're waiting for the new Churchill to step up. Oooh, I know, can Murtha be Churchill? Because that would complete the wacked out reverse analogy. Rumsfeld is Chamberlain? In what universe?
Olbermann made some pretty outlandish claims. While Rumsfeld said:
I recount that history because once again we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism. Today -- another enemy, a different kind of enemy -- has made clear its intentions with attacks in places like New York and Washington, D.C., Bali, London, Madrid, Moscow and so many other places. But some seem not to have learned history's lessons.
Olbermann sarcastically said, "This country faces a new type of facism indeed." Referring to the Bush administration. Olbermann actually had the gall to say that the United States is a democracy, "sometimes just barely."
Sometimes.
Just.
Barely.
Is he joking or insane? Just barely. Keith, if this were a fascist state and barely a democracy, you wouldn't have made it to the end of that rant. And you wouldn't make it to work tomorrow. For all your ridiculous talk about the Bush administration being omnipotent and fascist, I bet you still have your job tomorrow.
Lord, this diatribe was too good to be true. But you know, Fox is the biased one and the other networks are bastions of middleoftheroadhood. Blogging fun like this doesn't come along every day.
Rumsfeld is Chamberlain. Just wow.
I'll be checking OlbermannWatch tomorrow for their response.
MORE TO GROK:
I hit refresh one more time after I posted this, and the OlbermannWatch for today is up! Better commentary than mine here.
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Rumsfeld will be right about something sooner or later. It's the law of averages. He'll be right about something, if only by accident. Maybe this is that thing!
Posted by: jimdennis at August 30, 2006 06:21 PM (dIlny)
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Yesterday Instapundit had a link to a QandO post wherein the AP story about the speech was compared with the speech itself:
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=4496
Makes for some interesting reading. Enjoy!
Posted by: Teresa at August 31, 2006 07:19 PM (o4pJS)
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Yes obviuosly if we see a trend towards fascism in this country we should all realize that we cannot say anything until such time that we are not allowed to-- then we can. Of course it will be too late. Is it not obvious that one means we are nearing a fascist state when one compares the recent trends to fascism. I just heard reactionary arguments made that the democratic party is Stalinist because the primary voters went for Lamont. If this was Stalinist no one would be able to call it Stalinist. Why are you not pointing that out as well. If someone sees the trend towards totalitarianism it should be brought up while it still can be and not held back until it is too late.
Posted by: john henry at September 01, 2006 10:27 AM (hxDMK)
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No john, you can still say things. Just don't whine when people point out how completely and utterly wrong you are... all without you disappearing.
Posted by: Patrick Chester at September 01, 2006 12:17 PM (MKaa5)
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That reminds me of that Harry Taylor fellow who at a toen hall meeting ranted about how much the sucks...TO THE PRESIDENT. There's a website www.thankyouharrytaylor.org where all the libs go congratulating him on how awesome he was to speak his mind and what not. The irony is that no one seems to understand that being able to call the leader of your country a loser to his face is a freedom few people have. I don't know what my point is, I guess just what you said about all those people having their jobs in the morning not to mention their lives. Yeah I'd call that democracy more than just barely
Posted by: gigi at September 05, 2006 12:10 PM (RnNeC)
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August 23, 2006
JUST NASTY
Did you know that Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig were kidnapped in Gaza? Maybe not, since all we hear about on TV these days is John Mark Karr. But according to some TV critic guy named Bob Lawrence, this may be
more than just an oversight:
Fox has deliberately set itself apart from other news media. Starting at the top with Roger Ailes, the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of ‘fair and accurate’ news reporting. As a result, there’s not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest of the news media. You can’t keep insulting people and then expect friendship when you need it.
TheyÂ’ve made it a policy to keep a distance between themselves and the rest of the media, far beyond the usual competitive spirit, so thatÂ’s where they are: at a distance.
So you mean I was right to make the snide comment a week ago that no one would care because the journalist was from Fox? I thought I was being overly snarky, but I guess life is stranger than parody.
I'm with Cold Fury:
So howzabout we make a little deal: since you and your liberal-media playmates find yourselves unable to muster enough patriotic spirit — or, for that matter, simple human decency — to bother concerning yourselves about the fate of a couple of fellow American journalists because their politics may not mesh with your own, from here on out, American soldiers (the overwhelming majority of whom violently disagree with your politics, which I think we can safely infer from your snide and heartless comment) will no longer be expected to go out and rescue your sorry, worthless asses when the terrorists you’re so busy propagandizing for get tired of putting up with your ass-kissing sycophancy and decide you’d be more useful as hostages instead.
In other words, if partisan politics means that much to you liberal-media jackholes, and youÂ’re that closed-minded that you canÂ’t even rise above your own petty liberal dogma to scrape up a plugged nickelÂ’s worth of fellow-feeling for your American colleagues no matter who they work (or voted) for, then you have no right to expect any when you find yourself caught in a steel-jawed Islamist trap of your own devising.
If the North Kosanese getcha, don't expect any help from your "countrymen"...
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The death of common decency.... It's a very sad thing to witness. Very sad.
Posted by: Andi at August 23, 2006 03:37 PM (g1Or8)
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Soldiers shouldn't protect liberals eh? Nice one Mussolini. Here's the truth though - other media outlets snub Fox News because it's not a real news program. It's propaganda. The guy who got kidnapped isn't a reporter - he's a propagandist. So yeah, maybe we shouldn't care as much.
Posted by: Will at August 23, 2006 05:37 PM (TfuSc)
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Will is a boil that should be lanced.
Posted by: Oda Mae at August 23, 2006 08:40 PM (BDfvU)
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Will is mistaken. Just because he works for FOX news shouldn't mean anything compared to the larger picture which is an American citizen is being held hostage by a bunch of terrorists. Hopefully he'll be safely re-united with his family. That is the most important thing right now at the moment. It's been awhile since I've posted just want to say I enjoy your blog........dislike your politics. That's all folks.
Posted by: tommy in nyc at August 24, 2006 06:15 AM (NMK3S)
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I don't know... Fox News is bad for people so Steve Centanni is bad for people so I can't work up much sympathy.
I can say these things now because we're only three monthes away from taking back the congress and senate, so fuck you.
Posted by: Will at August 24, 2006 09:10 AM (TfuSc)
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Will, Will, Will,
What am I going to do with you? I was hoping you would start debating and disagreeing without being so mean-spirited. I don't give up on people easily; just ask my daughter! I'm still counting on you. You're never too old to change for the better. I'm still trying myself, and I'm almost sixty. Hang in there!
Nancy
Posted by: Nancy at August 25, 2006 06:58 PM (pquEL)
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P.S.
I don't mean change your politics, your beliefs, etc., just try to present your case without so much aggression. You do keep this blog lively, that's for sure!
Nancy
Posted by: Nancy at August 25, 2006 07:00 PM (pquEL)
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You are too nice, as always, Nancy. I doubt Will can change - he enjoys being an autocratic, smug wanker a bit too much to give it up - even if a miracle occurs and his dream of a Congress made up of short sighted ostriches actually comes true.
Posted by: Oda Mae at August 26, 2006 03:03 AM (k3v1s)
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Look at what the Freepers were saying about liberal whore anti-American Jill Caroll. Just look.
Posted by: herb at August 26, 2006 08:09 PM (8NVD0)
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She was the one telling the stories conservatives claim that they want to be told, but when she was captured, Limbaugh exclaimed that "Something inside me likes this, my friends liberals being show reality"
Posted by: Herb at August 26, 2006 08:17 PM (8NVD0)
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August 17, 2006
INTERNET
The joys and headaches of the internet. From
Robert McHenry:
[What we have here is] the dissolution of categories, the collapse of hierarchy, that used to help us navigate information in a way that Google cannot. Time was, we understood that what is written in a scholarly monograph is different from what is written in a reference book, which is different from what is written in an informal essay, which is different from what is written in a news bulletin, which is different from what is offhandedly jotted down, which is different from what is scribbled on the bathroom wall. Different in intent, different in style, different in reliability. And not only did we understand that they were different, we could tell which was what, usually at a glance.
When the world wide web took off, I was finishing high school and starting college. We were told we could not use internet sites for research papers because they were unreliable: any old guy could write any old thing on the web. But now I think we've come full circle; I trust Charles Johnson infinitely more than I trust Dan Rather. News reports are full of lies and fake photos. Academic papers insist that Neil Prakash is a dentist. How can any high schooler or college student wade through this mass of bias and nonsense to write a paper for school? And how can any teacher decide which sources fly these days?
Thank goodness I'm done with school.
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August 07, 2006
RUBBISH
The internet is ablaze trying to find Adnan Hajj fake photos, and everyone wants to be the next Charles Johnson busting the media's chops. I too am shocked at some of the photos that have been taken at face value, but the one howler to rule them all, in my opinion, has to be the photo of the burning Koran.
Ace busts some chops too:
Well! I guess a foreign Muslim photographer just got lucky again to find the inciting, dramatic picture of a burning Koran after an Israeli air strike, huh? It's the perfect visual metaphor for the Islamist cause -- the Jews destroying the Koran itself -- and I just suppose he happened to luck upon a bomb site where one was conveniently still aflame. I would imagine a book would either stop burning, or be completely burned (and hence not burning) 99% of the time you visited a scene two hours after an attack, but this phographer just got lucky once again, right?
Seriously, do people in newsrooms even think anymore? Someone runs to them with a National Guard memo or a photo of a burning Koran and they're so eager to run the presses that they don't even stop to think. Why is a book still on fire in a pile of burned building? The book burned slower than the wood and metal? Please. And a wedding dress would stay white in the midst of bombing too...oh wait, that also supposedly happened.
When the same man and woman keep popping up in photos all over Lebanon, maybe it's time to question these photographers' motives.
P.S. The comment that made me laugh out loud at Ace's post:
That mannequin has clearly been manipulated to look like Rachel Corrie.
Posted by: Kat R. Pillar on August 6, 2006 10:07 PM
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August 06, 2006
UTTER GARBAGE
When Kevin Spacey was on
The Daily Show, he went on and on about how much better the news situation was in London than in the US. I couldn't help but remember that segment when I read
Stressed out and anxious in Beirut. (I found this link in another article called
Israeli war deaths go largely unnoticed.) It really is a piece of work: the journalist is sitting with the people of Beriut, musing over where Israel will bomb next and trying to explain his understanding of Israel's motives to the Lebanese people. Hey, newsguy, you wanna understand Israel? How 'bout, you know, going to Israel and talking to them instead of reporting your speculations as news. What a bunch of baloney, which is what passes for "articles" these days:
People keep saying to me, "We are not Hezbollah - why are they bombing our homes?"
The Israelis say that these renewed attacks on Beirut are justified because they are targeting Hezbollah. But for the hundreds of thousands of people in this city who don't support Hezbollah it feels like collective punishment.
Hezbollah's primitive, unguided Katyusha rockets hit civilians too - although far fewer have died in Israel than have been killed in Lebanon by the massive Israeli munitions.
Many Lebanese readily agree that Hezbollah gravely miscalculated when they captured those two Israeli soldiers on 12 July - but now they go on to say: "We were never Hezbollah. But we are all Hezbollah now. The Israeli response is completely unjustified."
I have met some who curse Hezbollah, and who say the Israeli bombardment is understandable. Some, but not many.
And I don't think "But we are all Hezbollah now" is just talk. The more Israel destroys, the more supporters Hezbollah will be able to recruit.
How fair and balanced. Kevin Spacey must be so proud. The article ends with:
Smoking hubble-bubble at a cafe one evening, I heard the sound of a fighter-bomber overhead.
A young man at the next table leaned over to me, gestured in the direction of the menacing rumble, and said: "This - this also is terrorism!"
What a gross misstatement of the definition of terrorism. Provided as the final punch in this craptastic article. Looks like someone at the BBC has been studying his "New Rules" For Mideast Reporting.
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1
I was watchign SkyNews here yesterday and there was an interview with some British minister...I believe his last name was Crispin...and he also managed to trash America in his interview about the situation, and talk about how America has already soiled its reputation in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was so ticked off.
However, the day before I had been walking around with a friend, and they have some English language newspapers here, and one called the Cyprus weekly I believe had the headline along the lines: Hezbollah rockets kill 8 Israelis. And I took a photo. Usually it would be something about how many Lebanese were killed, and then somewhere in the text would come the mention of Israeli deaths, or anything Hezbollah had done to warrant any Israeli wrath.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at August 06, 2006 06:19 AM (1usxf)
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Problem is, to Hezbullah, Hamas, Syria, Iran, et al, every Jew is a soldier, regardles of his or her age. Eight-day-old boy? Yep, he's a soldier, and therefore a legitimate target. And of course, Europe won't disagree with that, will it? Thus it follows that "Eight Israelis Die..." means a Katyusha rocket hit eight "soldiers"--little matter their ages.
Posted by: Jim Shawley at August 06, 2006 11:02 AM (1Zagd)
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July 27, 2006
SAD
The husband and I have been watching some old Ali G shows on TV lately. We're always amazed at the utter garbage that he can get people to say; I can't believe that the guests don't smell a rat. My husband also constantly wonders about
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report, how they can trick their guests into sounding so stupid. I guess I know part of the reason now:
Wexler falls into a comedic interviewer's trap -- and he's not laughing. I feel sorry for the people who do these shows because they come off looking like complete idiots. Ali G isn't even fun to watch, because who really wants to see someone make Buzz Aldrin look like a fool?
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Okay - fuck politics Sarah. Let's talk TV:
Neither Ali G, the Daily show NOR The Colbert Report "trick" their guests into sounding stupid. These shows invite guests/politicians on, which the guests/politicians accept because they want the exposure and think it's only a comedy, and then these shows merely throw the guests/politicians off by asking real questions.
Remember when Colbert asked that Republican Senator (the one who was wanting the ten commandments displayed in court rooms) to actually NAME the ten commandments. THE GUY DIDN'T KNOW THEM! That's not tricking somebody into sounding stupid - that's letting somebody who sounds stupid anyway just speak.
They don't "smell" Ali G because he doesn't "smell." And certainly, if he did, it wouldn't be like a rat. It would probabaly be a British cologne of some sort.
Ali G merely brings out the obvious about his guests. And guess what? If you're smart, you LOOK SMART. I've seen it a million times on his show. If you actually are well grounded and know what you're talking about, that's how it looks. If you're an idiot- if you're a bunch of rednecks at a country bar - then Ali G will simply reflect how stupid you are. Did you catch the episode where he plays music at a country bar in Utah (I think) with a guitar rendition of "Throw the Jew Down the Well so my Country can be Free" ? The crowd sings along and loves it. They're unknowing rednecks.
Also, that latest Colbert thing. NEWSFLASH: Wexler is actually smart and has a good sense of humour. This is exactly what the segment looks like to rational people. Only the knee-jerk idiots think Wexler performed badly. Colbert made him look GOOD.
Sad?? Don't be sad Sarah. Everyone else is laughing.
Posted by: Will at July 27, 2006 02:28 PM (eIQfa)
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Will,
You have such a nasty, cynical, belligerent attitude. I enjoy good old-fashioned debate and differences of opinion, but you just get downright ornery. Wish you'd tone it down a bit. There's no need to be so angry-sounding.
Sarah's Mom
Posted by: Nancy at July 27, 2006 07:32 PM (SHVUj)
Posted by: Will at July 27, 2006 08:39 PM (eIQfa)
4
One of the biggest assets a personal website can have is the faithful readership and participation of the author's mom.
It works for me, anyway. =)
Sig
Posted by: Sig at July 28, 2006 04:45 AM (fretz)
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June 19, 2006
GRR
The NY Post reports that Jerome Armstrong went on stock trading chat sites and hyped up stocks without mentioning that he was paid by the company. That's so dishonest I can't even believe it. I found the link via
LGF and then followed it to
Daily Kos to see what they had to say about the article. Several people seemed troubled by Armstrong's past, but many commenters flat out said that they were skeptical of the information because it came from the NY Post.
Frankly, I'm tired of that crap. Fox News is usually on the receiving end of that kind of nonsense: how many times have I heard someone sneeringly say something like, "Where'd you hear that, Fox News?" Fox may come off as pro-American, but people like to act like Fox is making up news stories. That's complete crap.
Armstrong was charged by the SEC in 2003; there's a civil suit on record. The NY Post didn't just make that up out of thin air. It disgusts me that people find it so easy to dismiss news just because they don't like where they heard it.
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"Fox News is usually on the receiving end of that kind of nonsense."
All media are on the receiving end these days. Yes, Leftists dismiss news from FOX, but Rightists dismiss news from the "MSM" (apart from FOX in most cases, I assume), and some people dismiss news from blogs because they think traditional media are more trustworthy.
Why do people dismiss the news? Not all sources are reliable. Who *wouldn't* dismiss news from the
Weekly World News? Sources other than one's favorites are regarded as "biased" because they don't tell people exactly what they want to hear - which is their usual gauge of "reliability" and "objectivity."
Posted by: Amritas at June 19, 2006 07:48 AM (+nV09)
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Amritas makes exactly the right point about conservatives dissing well-respected news sources. I just want to quibble with the claim that Fox comes off as "pro-American." This was a tendentious way to put your point---as if everyone who disagrees with Fox's take on events is ANTI-American. How about saying that Fox comes off as pro-Republican or pro-conservative? Not to beat a dead horse, but you can disagree with a conservative vision for America and still love the country.
Posted by: Pericles at June 19, 2006 10:32 AM (eKf5G)
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Damn. I just spent 15 min replying and I lost the comment when I tried to post it. God I don't feel like saying all that again.
OK.
I wasn't trying to hem and haw by using "pro-American", and I didn't mean it as the opposite of anti-American. I am not a Fox News Person. I hate their anchors and coverage just as much as I hate everyone else's. 24-hr news is all annoying filler. You will disagree with me, but I honestly don't think Fox is such a big cheerleader for the Right. Granted, they have more conservative voices on their talk shows, but it's not their fault that other networks don't hire conservatives. Pericles, stop accusing me of saying things I don't say or mean!
As for what Amritas said, I disagree that the situation is equal. In my experience, right bloggers think the MSM only presents one side of the story or goes over the top trying to be PC or trying to be too harsh against the President, but I cannot recall a single time they've accused the MSM of lying or making something up (except for Rathergate and the peeing on the Koran stuff, which of course was justified). But I hear the Fox Lies crap all the time. A few months ago we were watching TV and saw there was an explosion in downtown St Louis. The person we were watching with honestly said, "Well, it is Fox News, so who knows what really happened." Are you kidding me? NO ONE in the right blogosphere thinks that regular anchors at CNN are making up stories, but people say crap like that about Fox. Pericles, you used the word "diss", which people on the right certainly do for the MSM, but I have never heard them say that we shouldn't believe something because CNN/MSNBC/etc put it out. Correct me if you can find an example...
(That didn't come out the same as it did the first time, but I'm irritated that I had to do it all over again.)
Posted by: Sarah at June 19, 2006 01:02 PM (YL5y0)
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Sarah,
I can look around for some instances of people on the right accusing the mainstream media of outright lying. The problem is that this is the sort of thing that you'll only see a lot of on blogs where some whackos hang out, and I don't spend much time on those whether they are "right wing" or "left wing." You probably spend more time on Kos than I do. There is another forum where I post where I think that I might be able to find such things... but I'm not anonymous there, so I won't be posting any links to it.
I do notice that an outfit called "allrightgear" sells a variety of "CNN LIES!" t-shirts through Cafepress.
If you don't think that Fox is pro-right wing, by the way, then you just haven't been watching enough. It isn't that Fox has more conservative commentators; it is that besides Alan Colmes, who may be a smart guuy but who just doesn't have the personality to stand up to Sean Hannity, they don't have any liberal ones. CNN has Jack Caferty in their morning show, who is the only omember of the show who I've ever seen make political comments, and Lou Dobbs has a show of his own. Fox's morning show has three lightweight conservative anchors, and no way does a liberal get a show a show of his or her own there, at least not one that includes political commentary.
Think about all of the conservatives who had spots on CNN's Crossfire.
As far as putting words in your mouth goes... I'm sorry if I did. In the few months that I've been hanging around this place, though, I bet that I've seen you complain about people doing that to you four or five times. If you get misunderstood enough, maybe you've got to start thinking that there is a lack of clarity on your part. I'm not saying that this is a big shortcoming; it is very hard to be clear in this medium. But when someone gets your point wrong, or sees an implication in your words that you didn't intend, then maybe you should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were really doing their level best to understand you, rather than acting like they were twisting your words on purpose.
Posted by: Pericles at June 20, 2006 02:50 AM (eKf5G)
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Pericles,
I don't think a lack of clarity on Sarah's part is to blame for your lack of understanding in this post (or any other).
You may notice that the people that generally disagree with Sarah on politics are the ones who "misunderstand" her. It has nothing to do with how well she writes or how she puts her posts together.
However, people that generally agree with her on politics don't seem to misunderstand her.
It's funny, because I read Sarah's description of Fox News as "pro-American," I knew someone on the left was going to have a tantrum - but I also understood that she wasn't necessarily being tendentious - maybe that's because I share a lot of the same views as she.
The thing is Pericles - debates are one thing, but constant condescension is another. You seriously need to chill out, dude.
Posted by: Erin at June 20, 2006 10:50 PM (Liogi)
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