Tony Blair Stands Firm.

Former British Prime Minister was goaded by Christiane Amanpour to concede that intervening in Iraq was a mistake, and he would have nothing to do with it. Ms. Amanpour's frustration in clearly evident in the video as Mr. Blair strays from "the narrative".

The Circus is in Town!

We Americans can only handle serious issues for brief periods of time. The stretch from February through June was as a geologic timescale for us, filled with Pork Bills, Pirates, North Korea, Iran, Gitmo, Carbon Taxes, Obama Motors, and National(ized) Health Care. So do we now hear calliope music in the air? Yes, indeed, the Circus is back in town, courtesy of the sad passing of Mr. Jackson. The Meatpackers will be consumed by the grisly details of the inquest, rumors, rumors about rumors, indictments, legal fistfighting over the estate, 24-hour televigils, and the massteria of the funeral, burial, tributes, riots, and the associated merchandising. A great time for a backcountry vacation or getting some of that summer reading done. A siren will signal the all clear.

Situational Support for Freedom.

A puzzling phenomena is occurring in Mainstream Meatpacker World: a large-scale insurrection appears to be breaking out in an authoritarian regime, and the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, has shown great reluctance to condemn the regime's theft of a recent national election. The reaction of Meatpacker editorial boards? Exercises in pretzel-logic to support the President's diffidence. Quite remarkable.

The Invisible Tea Parties.

Reports on the attendance to the Tax Day Tea Parties across Michigan are quite impressive, from the several hundreds to the few thousands at several locations across the state. If such enthusiasm is being repeated in other states, this event is remarkable.
But not to the New York Times, who confines their coverage to a derisive blog entry.

Daddy Lashes Back.

NBC's Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, and Squawk Box foe Steve Liesman jumped CNBC's Rick Santelli this morning on this morning's Today for his audacious and treacherous criticism of the White House's Mortgage Plan. Matt Lauer suggested that Obama's plan is the sacrifice the 92% of the non-delinquent public must make for the good of all of the 8% of the mortgage defaulters. Matt: I know plenty of families that could use the potlickings from the generous compensation from your network; just send us the checks and we'll forward them on. We are now taking bets that Rick will be heading to Fox Business Channel within the year. Indeed, it's not clear how much more dissent parent company (MS)NBC will tolerate from their unenlightened Wall Street Brat Pack. Get ready for Squawk Box with Robert Reich and Rachel Maddow...

The Fog Rolls In.

If you haven't formed at least a tentative decision for which presidential candidate to cast your ballot, you may have waited too long. A thick, blinding, anesthetizing fog is now descending on the election, as the political parties take control of the media communications. The gases of partisan half-truths, fibs, and whoppers, belched by an unending procession of party apparatchiks on the Meatpacker Networks, obscure the voter's vision needed to answer the "Core Questions" of the election. These questions are: what are the fundamental philosophies of governance of each candidate, and which candidate has the best record of judgement, leadership, experience, and ethics? It's a short list. The answers to these questions will shape the decision-making all the other nuts-and-bolts issues. Unfortunately, it may now be impossible to discern the answers to the Core Questions.

Keith-O Gets His Comeuppance.

A big bucket of chum on the J.J. Hunsecker (well, one of the Hunseckers) of cable "news":

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically
incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage...

Todd Palin's Snowmobile Adds to Global Warming.

Yet another issue that questions McCain's judgement in his VP pick.

When Did Sarah Palin Stop Beating Her Children?

We know there is no evidence for this accusation, but the fact that we have asked the question must indicate that McCain's vetting process for Palin was inadequate.

The most illuminating performance of the Mainstream Meatpackers since the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping.

Can't Get The Stink Off.

In just the last 36 hours, here are some of the claims and accusations that have been leveled at Ms. Palin:

• she violated Alaskan law by firing a state government employee for family interests
• she's hired legal counsel to defend herself against the above charge
• she wants to force schools to teach creationism in science classes
• well, she doesn't want to force the teaching of creationism, but she believes in it
• she wore a Pat Buchanan button and is therefore an anti-Semite
• she wants to kill polar bears
• her husband was arrested for DUI (more than twenty years ago)
• she is a member of a kooky Alaskan successionist movement
• if she isn't a member of a kooky Alaskan successionist movement, she at least delivered an address to them
• the address was only 90 seconds long, was done by videotape, and was a generic "good luck with your convention" speech, but it's still controversial to do such a thing
• she fished without a license
• she changed her mind to oppose the "Bridge to Nowhere"
• she selfishly works outside the home to the neglect of her children
• she irresponsibly brought a Down's Syndrome child to term
• she was irresponsible in her prenatal care for her infant son (not necessarily incompatible with the previous accusation)
• actually, the infant is her daughter's
• no, the infant is hers, but now her daughter is pregnant, therefore invalidating abstinence advocacy programs for Alaskan kids that the Governor foolishly supports
• Palin is cruel to her daughter by running for VP knowing her daughter is pregnant
• Wasilli, Alaska had a budget of only 12 million dollars
• she likes petroleum
• she didn't command her National Guard when they were deployed to Iraq
• the fact that the Mainstream Meatpackers are gurgling about these "facts" indicate John McCain made a reckless decision in choosing Sarah Palin

Look at this list of crap. It's easy to see what this is all about: it's the textbook definition of mudslinging. You throw as much crap at your opponent as fast as you can to cover them in it before they can wipe it off.

Welcome to Washington, Ms. Palin. Hang in there.

With Success, Silence.

It is quite astounding how the TV press coverage of Iraq has dropped off; it's almost as if the war does not exist. Kudos to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their continued extensive coverage of Iraq. From a recent report from the Times as General Petraeus prepares to leave Iraq:

The arrival of the 30,000 extra soldiers, deployed to Baghdad’s neighborhoods around the clock, allowed the Americans to exploit a series of momentous events that had begun to unfold at roughly the same time: the splintering of Moktada al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army; the growing competence of the Iraqi Army; and most important, the about-face by leaders of the country’s Sunni minority, who suddenly stopped opposing the Americans and joined with them against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other local extremist groups.

The surge, clearly, has worked, at least for now: violence, measured in the number of attacks against Americans and Iraqis each week, has dropped by 80 percent in the country since early 2007, according to figures the general provided. Civilian deaths, which peaked at more than 100 a day in late 2006, have also plunged. Car and suicide bombings, which stoked sectarian violence, have fallen from a total of 130 in March 2007 to fewer than 40 last month. In July, fewer Americans were killed in Iraq — 13 — than in any month since the war began.

The result, now visible in the streets, is a calm unlike any the country has seen since the American invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003. The signs — Iraqi families flooding into parks at sundown, merchants throwing open long-shuttered shops — are stunning to anyone who witnessed the country’s implosion in 2005 and 2006.

However, TV is the manner by which most Americans get their news, and relative silence on Iraq by the MSM networks when the violence has dropped so dramatically will produce a dated and skewed view of Iraq in advance of the November election.

The Typesetter Gets the Final Word.

Michiko Kakutani produced a scathing review of Martin Amis' "The Second Plane", a collection of essays about "the global confrontation with the dependent mind" - Islamofascist terror. However, the typesetter for the Ann Arbor News (or perhaps the person at the Times that emailed the review off to subscribing papers) seems to have had the final word about Kakutani's abilities in reviewing Amis' essays, for the Kakutani's byline in this morning's paper reads "New York Times incompetent".

Perhaps Amis' book is worth a look?

Suffering Fools.

Video and transcript of Mac's exchange with a self-entitled Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller*. Note the "why are you so angry?" cheap shot she makes. You'd think she'd be smart enough to understand that Mac's antibodies might be up against Times reporters, and just shut up and let the grown ups ask the questions.

A day after the assassination of JFK, a reporter asked Harry Truman to disclose the details of a private conversation between Truman and Lyndon Johnson that had just transpired. Truman served up a generous serving of condescension that the dimwitted reporter deserved. Mac dealt with Bumiller in a manner that she had earned.

*Bumiller posed the question, "Two and a half years later, do you (President Bush) feel any sense of personal responsibility for September 11th?" Sheez - talk about third rater.

ABC 's Operation "Stain McCain".

ABC News' "The Blotter" blog has its own hit piece on John McCain, concerning the indictments of two volunteer officials of McCain state campaign committees. It even includes the snarky* comment,"Together, [the indictees] Renzi and Allen appear to put McCain in the lead of White House contenders with support from federally indicted officials." No substance, of course, but it might help Msrs. Ross and Surowicz, the Blotter's scribblers, to finally get on the A-list for cocktails parties.

*"snarky", snide and sarcastic; see any written material by Maureen Dowd.

Mac vs. Meatpackers.

Much ink has been spilled about this morning's New York Times article suggesting that John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist and that his decisions were influenced as chairman of a Senate committee on telecommunications. We can offer no comments that have not been said before. It's an article that is long on innuendo and short on evidence, and uses old and discredited history to indicate a pattern of behavioron the part of the senator. The authors appeared to leave out a great deal of evidence that contradicts their thesis, and failed to acknowledge that McCain did respond to many written questions submitted by the reporters during the prepartion of this article. Is it time for hard-hitting investigative reporting on investigative reporting?

Update: is the story a retread?

Lambasting CNN's "God's Warriors".

MSNBC's Dan Abrams scolds CNN's Christine Amanpour for advocacy journalism.

Lack of Context.

Michael Ledeen of National Review Online reminds us of an incident in 2006 in which Iranian troops attempted a smash and grab of American troops, at the Iraq-Iran border. The Yanks just shot their way out of it. Any word of this in Mainstream Meatpacker World? It provides valuable context for an ongoing strategy of Iranian kidnapping as diplomatic tool.

Hell Hath No Fury Like the Media Scorned.

John McCain walked the streets of Bagdhad yesterday, and suggested that the Mainstream Meatpackers were not reporting the whole story there (not that it's a picnic). The MSM are now crowding in to get their licks in on McCain: delusional, sellout, naive, blah-blah-blah. Their darling is now their dog. McCain and Lieberman acknowledge the mismanagment of the Iraq War, but nevertheless understand the stakes in victory or defeat, while the MSM wants the simple to digest story of Iraq = Vietnam. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi flies to Damascus acting as the Alternate POTUS, getting the Meatpacker Seal of Approval.