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December 29, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Friday's Links
Activism
Liberal Blog Advertising Network. Ever wanted to advertise on the web? Not sure how to do it? Why not start with the Liberal Blog Advertising Network? Especially if you want your message to reach progressives (say, you're running for office, or you're soliciting for a charity), the LBAN is a fantastic place to start. The rates are very reasonable, and your ad will reach thousands and thousands of progressives. Furthermore, all of the money goes to fund liberal blogs. Sounds like a win for everyone!
News
Iraq Bombing Kills 14 U.S. Marines and Interpreter. 14 Marines, 1 Interpreter and 1 Journalist were killed yesterday in Iraq. For those of you keeping track, that brings the total number of American deaths in Iraq to 1,821, since March 19, 2003. That number includes the 377 Americans that have not been killed in combat. And we still don't know what we're doing over there. Hell, we're still finding evidence of American torture techniques and prisoner deaths. Only now, we're using sleeping bags. Is it the fault of the military servicemen and women for being overzealous, or the fault of the administration, for demanding answers to intelligence questions "by any means necessary." We're inclined to think the latter, particularly given how much the White House is pushing to keep torture techniques alive and well (see Editorial #2).
President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'. This is news? This is what makes it to the front page of the New York Times's politics section? Sure, we talked last week that the White House wanted to change the name of the War to the "global struggle against violent extremism," and now the White House looks like a bunch of idiots. But really, is this important? With all the unanswered questions surrounding the Downing Street Memo, the WMDs and the intelligence that led to them, the insurgency and over 1,800 dead Americans in Iraq, not counting the lack of support we're giving Niger and the Sudan, and this is what the New York Times decides to lead with? Every time we think that the MSM is making steps forward, something ridiculous like this makes us realize that the MSM is still entirely too scared of the Bush administration to really criticize them. Instead, we're stuck with fluff pieces like this.
Minority Retort. Who is Harry Reid? Well, we all know that he's the minority leader of the Senate, and he's been approximately seventeen billion times as effective as Tom Daschle. But what are his stances on the issues? What drives him? Elsa Walsh of the New Yorker provides a long, but well-written piece that gives us some insight into one of the men who is going to be behind the Democratic resurgence. He's not a pushover. In fact, one of his main motivating factors is revenge. That might not be too healthy for his psyche, but it's nice to have some Democratic leadership who's not going to forget the GOP treachery of the past few years.
Editorials
Share the Facts on The War. If you'll recall, there was an important, but somewhat under-the-radar clause put into the most recent defense spending bill that required Rumsfeld to finally give some measure of status report to Congress by July 11th. Well, the report was recently delivered, a bit late, but better late then never, right? Not so fast. The report's public part is only 23 pages long - given that the government routinely issues reports totalling hundreds and hundreds of pages, how can the progress of the Iraq war be adequately described in just 23 pages? Maybe the real "meat" is in the classified part, but somehow we doubt it. Broder describes the pathetic contents of the report: "The Pentagon has not stonewalled the request, but the quality of the information it has given lawmakers and the public is disappointing." Read the article and you'll see that Broder lets Rumsfeld off quite lightly.
Who We Are. You would think that Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham were Democrats, speaking out against torture the way they have. But no, it's something simpler. They are Americans. Any regular Still Fighting readers know the contempt that we have for torture. The idea that we can hold our values and morals close, unless they get in the way of national security, sickens us. So we're pleasantly surprised to see three high-ranking Republican Senators demanding an end to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of U.S. detainees. But, as Bob Herbert writes, what is even more shocking are the comments by one Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator from Alabama. Sessions is in favor of torture, because, after all, the detainees aren't prisoners of war. They are terrorists. McCain shot right back with, "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." Obviously, the White House isn't pleased with these developments. Screw them. This is about what we, as Americans, hold dear; The values that we instill in our children and our culture. If removing these torture techniques makes it harder (which it doesn't by the way - we know that torture isn't effective), then so be it. If we compromise our ideals, we lose our national identity, and that would be the biggest degredation of them all.
Blogger Commentary
Lame Bob Novak. We're tired of Robert Novak. Tired of his lies. Tired of his righetous indignation. Tired of his concern for his "integrity." Tired of the fact that Judith Miller sits is a jail cell while Novak is free to write his worthless columns and appear on CNN. So is Larry Johnson, who, like us, read Novak's most recent column and got angry. Novak is not the victim here. He won't talk about his testimony. He won't talk about what he wrote. In short, Novak is a coward, and is being protected by government officials and his employers, and it makes us sick to our collective stomachs. (Additional note: Novak actually was just suspended, but not for the reason he should have been. Leave it to CNN to take the easy way out.)
At the Cross-Roves. Stirling Newberry takes a larger look at Rovegate. Why will Bush not get away with this one? Even though this commentary was written two weeks ago, Newberry outlines exactly what the Democrats have been doing right. Even the press won't cooperate with Bush on this one (well, the non-Fox News press). The new Democratic message is "Abuse of Power," which will ring true come 2006. How many examples have we seen in the last week alone? Rove, Bolton, Flory, Intelligent Design, the Energy Bill and Stem Cell Research. And that's not even mentioning atrocities like the Iraq War. Rovegate has brought Bush's lies to a place they haven't really been before: On the front page. The average American is sick of being lied to, sick of partisan politics, sick of Republicans doing what they want, and screwing the rest of the country. We're done sending messages. In 2006, we need to start to take our government back.
|
December 29, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Friday's Links
Activism
Liberal Blog Advertising Network. Ever wanted to advertise on the web? Not sure how to do it? Why not start with the Liberal Blog Advertising Network? Especially if you want your message to reach progressives (say, you're running for office, or you're soliciting for a charity), the LBAN is a fantastic place to start. The rates are very reasonable, and your ad will reach thousands and thousands of progressives. Furthermore, all of the money goes to fund liberal blogs. Sounds like a win for everyone!
News
Iraq Bombing Kills 14 U.S. Marines and Interpreter. 14 Marines, 1 Interpreter and 1 Journalist were killed yesterday in Iraq. For those of you keeping track, that brings the total number of American deaths in Iraq to 1,821, since March 19, 2003. That number includes the 377 Americans that have not been killed in combat. And we still don't know what we're doing over there. Hell, we're still finding evidence of American torture techniques and prisoner deaths. Only now, we're using sleeping bags. Is it the fault of the military servicemen and women for being overzealous, or the fault of the administration, for demanding answers to intelligence questions "by any means necessary." We're inclined to think the latter, particularly given how much the White House is pushing to keep torture techniques alive and well (see Editorial #2).
President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'. This is news? This is what makes it to the front page of the New York Times's politics section? Sure, we talked last week that the White House wanted to change the name of the War to the "global struggle against violent extremism," and now the White House looks like a bunch of idiots. But really, is this important? With all the unanswered questions surrounding the Downing Street Memo, the WMDs and the intelligence that led to them, the insurgency and over 1,800 dead Americans in Iraq, not counting the lack of support we're giving Niger and the Sudan, and this is what the New York Times decides to lead with? Every time we think that the MSM is making steps forward, something ridiculous like this makes us realize that the MSM is still entirely too scared of the Bush administration to really criticize them. Instead, we're stuck with fluff pieces like this.
Minority Retort. Who is Harry Reid? Well, we all know that he's the minority leader of the Senate, and he's been approximately seventeen billion times as effective as Tom Daschle. But what are his stances on the issues? What drives him? Elsa Walsh of the New Yorker provides a long, but well-written piece that gives us some insight into one of the men who is going to be behind the Democratic resurgence. He's not a pushover. In fact, one of his main motivating factors is revenge. That might not be too healthy for his psyche, but it's nice to have some Democratic leadership who's not going to forget the GOP treachery of the past few years.
Editorials
Share the Facts on The War. If you'll recall, there was an important, but somewhat under-the-radar clause put into the most recent defense spending bill that required Rumsfeld to finally give some measure of status report to Congress by July 11th. Well, the report was recently delivered, a bit late, but better late then never, right? Not so fast. The report's public part is only 23 pages long - given that the government routinely issues reports totalling hundreds and hundreds of pages, how can the progress of the Iraq war be adequately described in just 23 pages? Maybe the real "meat" is in the classified part, but somehow we doubt it. Broder describes the pathetic contents of the report: "The Pentagon has not stonewalled the request, but the quality of the information it has given lawmakers and the public is disappointing." Read the article and you'll see that Broder lets Rumsfeld off quite lightly.
Who We Are. You would think that Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham were Democrats, speaking out against torture the way they have. But no, it's something simpler. They are Americans. Any regular Still Fighting readers know the contempt that we have for torture. The idea that we can hold our values and morals close, unless they get in the way of national security, sickens us. So we're pleasantly surprised to see three high-ranking Republican Senators demanding an end to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of U.S. detainees. But, as Bob Herbert writes, what is even more shocking are the comments by one Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator from Alabama. Sessions is in favor of torture, because, after all, the detainees aren't prisoners of war. They are terrorists. McCain shot right back with, "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." Obviously, the White House isn't pleased with these developments. Screw them. This is about what we, as Americans, hold dear; The values that we instill in our children and our culture. If removing these torture techniques makes it harder (which it doesn't by the way - we know that torture isn't effective), then so be it. If we compromise our ideals, we lose our national identity, and that would be the biggest degredation of them all.
Blogger Commentary
Lame Bob Novak. We're tired of Robert Novak. Tired of his lies. Tired of his righetous indignation. Tired of his concern for his "integrity." Tired of the fact that Judith Miller sits is a jail cell while Novak is free to write his worthless columns and appear on CNN. So is Larry Johnson, who, like us, read Novak's most recent column and got angry. Novak is not the victim here. He won't talk about his testimony. He won't talk about what he wrote. In short, Novak is a coward, and is being protected by government officials and his employers, and it makes us sick to our collective stomachs. (Additional note: Novak actually was just suspended, but not for the reason he should have been. Leave it to CNN to take the easy way out.)
At the Cross-Roves. Stirling Newberry takes a larger look at Rovegate. Why will Bush not get away with this one? Even though this commentary was written two weeks ago, Newberry outlines exactly what the Democrats have been doing right. Even the press won't cooperate with Bush on this one (well, the non-Fox News press). The new Democratic message is "Abuse of Power," which will ring true come 2006. How many examples have we seen in the last week alone? Rove, Bolton, Flory, Intelligent Design, the Energy Bill and Stem Cell Research. And that's not even mentioning atrocities like the Iraq War. Rovegate has brought Bush's lies to a place they haven't really been before: On the front page. The average American is sick of being lied to, sick of partisan politics, sick of Republicans doing what they want, and screwing the rest of the country. We're done sending messages. In 2006, we need to start to take our government back.
|
December 29, 2005
Liberal Blog Advertising Network. Ever wanted to advertise on the web? Not sure how to do it? Why not start with the Liberal Blog Advertising Network? Especially if you want your message to reach progressives (say, you're running for office, or you're soliciting for a charity), the LBAN is a fantastic place to start. The rates are very reasonable, and your ad will reach thousands and thousands of progressives. Furthermore, all of the money goes to fund liberal blogs. Sounds like a win for everyone!
News
Iraq Bombing Kills 14 U.S. Marines and Interpreter. 14 Marines, 1 Interpreter and 1 Journalist were killed yesterday in Iraq. For those of you keeping track, that brings the total number of American deaths in Iraq to 1,821, since March 19, 2003. That number includes the 377 Americans that have not been killed in combat. And we still don't know what we're doing over there. Hell, we're still finding evidence of American torture techniques and prisoner deaths. Only now, we're using sleeping bags. Is it the fault of the military servicemen and women for being overzealous, or the fault of the administration, for demanding answers to intelligence questions "by any means necessary." We're inclined to think the latter, particularly given how much the White House is pushing to keep torture techniques alive and well (see Editorial #2).
President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'. This is news? This is what makes it to the front page of the New York Times's politics section? Sure, we talked last week that the White House wanted to change the name of the War to the "global struggle against violent extremism," and now the White House looks like a bunch of idiots. But really, is this important? With all the unanswered questions surrounding the Downing Street Memo, the WMDs and the intelligence that led to them, the insurgency and over 1,800 dead Americans in Iraq, not counting the lack of support we're giving Niger and the Sudan, and this is what the New York Times decides to lead with? Every time we think that the MSM is making steps forward, something ridiculous like this makes us realize that the MSM is still entirely too scared of the Bush administration to really criticize them. Instead, we're stuck with fluff pieces like this.
Minority Retort. Who is Harry Reid? Well, we all know that he's the minority leader of the Senate, and he's been approximately seventeen billion times as effective as Tom Daschle. But what are his stances on the issues? What drives him? Elsa Walsh of the New Yorker provides a long, but well-written piece that gives us some insight into one of the men who is going to be behind the Democratic resurgence. He's not a pushover. In fact, one of his main motivating factors is revenge. That might not be too healthy for his psyche, but it's nice to have some Democratic leadership who's not going to forget the GOP treachery of the past few years.
Editorials
Share the Facts on The War. If you'll recall, there was an important, but somewhat under-the-radar clause put into the most recent defense spending bill that required Rumsfeld to finally give some measure of status report to Congress by July 11th. Well, the report was recently delivered, a bit late, but better late then never, right? Not so fast. The report's public part is only 23 pages long - given that the government routinely issues reports totalling hundreds and hundreds of pages, how can the progress of the Iraq war be adequately described in just 23 pages? Maybe the real "meat" is in the classified part, but somehow we doubt it. Broder describes the pathetic contents of the report: "The Pentagon has not stonewalled the request, but the quality of the information it has given lawmakers and the public is disappointing." Read the article and you'll see that Broder lets Rumsfeld off quite lightly.
Who We Are. You would think that Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham were Democrats, speaking out against torture the way they have. But no, it's something simpler. They are Americans. Any regular Still Fighting readers know the contempt that we have for torture. The idea that we can hold our values and morals close, unless they get in the way of national security, sickens us. So we're pleasantly surprised to see three high-ranking Republican Senators demanding an end to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of U.S. detainees. But, as Bob Herbert writes, what is even more shocking are the comments by one Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator from Alabama. Sessions is in favor of torture, because, after all, the detainees aren't prisoners of war. They are terrorists. McCain shot right back with, "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." Obviously, the White House isn't pleased with these developments. Screw them. This is about what we, as Americans, hold dear; The values that we instill in our children and our culture. If removing these torture techniques makes it harder (which it doesn't by the way - we know that torture isn't effective), then so be it. If we compromise our ideals, we lose our national identity, and that would be the biggest degredation of them all.
Blogger Commentary
Lame Bob Novak. We're tired of Robert Novak. Tired of his lies. Tired of his righetous indignation. Tired of his concern for his "integrity." Tired of the fact that Judith Miller sits is a jail cell while Novak is free to write his worthless columns and appear on CNN. So is Larry Johnson, who, like us, read Novak's most recent column and got angry. Novak is not the victim here. He won't talk about his testimony. He won't talk about what he wrote. In short, Novak is a coward, and is being protected by government officials and his employers, and it makes us sick to our collective stomachs. (Additional note: Novak actually was just suspended, but not for the reason he should have been. Leave it to CNN to take the easy way out.)
At the Cross-Roves. Stirling Newberry takes a larger look at Rovegate. Why will Bush not get away with this one? Even though this commentary was written two weeks ago, Newberry outlines exactly what the Democrats have been doing right. Even the press won't cooperate with Bush on this one (well, the non-Fox News press). The new Democratic message is "Abuse of Power," which will ring true come 2006. How many examples have we seen in the last week alone? Rove, Bolton, Flory, Intelligent Design, the Energy Bill and Stem Cell Research. And that's not even mentioning atrocities like the Iraq War. Rovegate has brought Bush's lies to a place they haven't really been before: On the front page. The average American is sick of being lied to, sick of partisan politics, sick of Republicans doing what they want, and screwing the rest of the country. We're done sending messages. In 2006, we need to start to take our government back.
