Shameless

Via Talking Points Memo: Halliburton will help its combat-zone employees get the honors and recognition they deserve — if they promise not to sue the company.

I agree that in consideration for the application for a Defense of Freedom Medal on my behalf that. . . I hereby release, aquit and discharge KBR, all KBR employees, the military, and any of their representatives. . . with respect to and from any and all claims and any and all causes of action, of any kind or character, whether now known or unknown, I may have against any of them which exist as of the date of this authorization. . . .

Trouble ahead

The Washington Post reports that conditions are ripe for a Florida 2000-type debacle in November, now that 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third
of all precincts are using the technology for the first time.

See here for the particulars on the Diebold AccuVote-TS, and here for a video on how some Princeton researchers hacked it to expose its vulnerability.

“We seem to wallow in fear.”

I can’t say I felt overwhelmingly manipulated by the five-year commemoration of 9/11, but that’s probably because I don’t watch television. This guy was sick of it, and he’s Greenwich mean time. Then again, on the occasion, it was probably too much to ask anyone within our shores to express this version of reality.

The causes remain the same: separatism, and religious nationalism dressed up as holy war.

What has changed, grotesquely, is the aftershock. Terrorism is 10% bang and 90% an echo effect composed of media hysteria, political overkill and kneejerk executive action, usually retribution against some wider group treated as collectively responsible. This response has become 24-hour, seven-day-a-week amplification by the new politico-media complex, especially shrill where the dead are white people.

See your dealer for more information.

For what it’s worth….

Voters are expressing strong and consistent anti-Republican attitudes. The GOP lags well behind the Democratic Party on nearly all major issues, including the economy, Iraq, education, health care, the environment and the budget deficit. And the Republicans have lost ground in recent years even on such traditional strengths as terrorism and improving the nation’s morality.

A valuable service

I hope more is to come….

Slate

ABC’s 9/11 Movie

I haven’t had time to follow all the back and forth about ABC’s two part miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” which purports to document the events leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Others have, though, and it won’t surprise you that it’s being blasted by the left as biased and inaccurate and fawned over by the right as validation of their view that it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault.

Perhaps all you need to know is that Bush digs it: ABC announced plans Friday night to cover what is expected to be a 20-minute speech before resuming the film.

The director: Before The Path to 9/11 entered the production stage, Disney/ABC contracted David Cunningham as the film’s director. Cunningham is no ordinary Hollywood journeyman. He is in fact the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of the right-wing evangelical group Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The young Cunningham helped found an auxiliary of his father’s group called The Film Institute (TFI), which, according to its mission statement, is “dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Television industry.”

The critic: There is no question that the film spreads some blame around . There is also no question that it is heavily weighted against the Clinton administration. One of the biggest problem is that the, there are as they say, composite scenes. But there are really no composite characters.

The rebuttal: By ABC’s own standard, ABC has gotten it terribly wrong. The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely. It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known.

The hypocrisy: When CBS announced in November, 2003 that it would broadcast a mini-series it produced about Ronald and Nancy Reagan called “The Reagans,” Matt Drudge obtained excerpts from the script and published them. That led to right-wing bloggers, organizations and pundits, along with the RNC itself, demanding that CBS cancel the broadcast, which it did….

You don’t say…

New York Times: WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 — The CIA last fall repudiated the claim that there were prewar ties between Saddam Hussein’s government and an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to a report issued Friday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

I wonder how many people might shrug this Times story off, as written, because of the words “last fall” in the lead. This lead by McClatchey Newspapers gives us the news in better context and, as such, is “right on target, so direct,” to quote a Dylan song that’s running around my brain this morning.

WASHINGTON – Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein rejected pleas for assistance from Osama Bin Laden and tried to capture terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi when he was in Iraq, a Senate Intelligence Committee report release Friday found, casting further doubt on the Bush Administration’s rationale for invading Iraq.

McLatchy also says unequivocably what the Times pussy-foots around: The 150-page report said the administration’s claims were untrue.

Good one…

I lifted this Mr. Fish cartoon from Harpers.org.

Olbermann channels Murrow

This is a gutsy piece of commentary. I don’t know how many people watch Keith Olbermann’s show on MSNBC. He’s a smart and occasionally very funny man. It’s also clear he’s very angry. After hearing what he has to say, are you?

PBS chief misused office

New York Times: Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who ran the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries, used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and put a
friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.