Newsweak Channels Emily Litella: "What? Oh. Nevermind!"

Put a fork in another liberal MSM outlet. They're done. Finished. Doomed. They could save a lot of time and effort by just turning out the lights and locking the door. There is nothing they can do or say that will ever get their reputation out of the sewer, where they have joined CBS News, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times at the absolute bottom of the sludge.

Why have I not blogged about this latest MSM outrage until now? Simple. I would have been nothing more than another small voice in a very large chorus. But I feel the need to put in at least $.02 worth on it, so here it is...

I think I best summed up my thoughts on the matter on a PoliPundit thread in the middle of the night last night in response to a troll trying to defend the (indefensible) magazine:

Just how is this crap “newsworthy"?

It is sensationalistic, pure and simple!

If you know that by publishing a story (that is unverifiable by Newsweek’s own admission, BTW) that you could cause outbreaks of anti-American fervor worldwide among a group of people with a known propensity for violence and killing that take any insult to their religious beliefs as an attack on them personally and an excuse to gin up the masses, do you publish the f***ing story or do you stop and say, “Gee, maybe we ought to at least be absolutely 100% certain of this before we run with it, and even then, perhaps the consequences would be too grave.”

Or do you do like these asshats and just say “Great! A new Abu Ghraib type scandal! A chance to embarrass Bush and the military and sell lots of copy! Print it!”

It’s as simple as that!

(Spelling error corrected.)

If you want the goods on Newsweak's shameless debacle try some of these:

Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit
[Pay particular attention to any comments by the soldier and patriot known as Oak Leaf, he is an inspiration.]

Jayson Javitz at PoliPundit
[Jayson link is the same as the one I quoted myself from above.]

Scared Monkeys

Michelle Malkin

Power Line

Instapundit

Captain's Quarters

Gateway Pundit

Ra^thergate.com:
here; here and here with a round-up here.

The Anchoress has an e-mail with a soldier's perspective (hat-tip Kevin at Ra^thergate.com).

Little Green Footballs tears the MSM apologists a new one with a page from an al-Qaeda handbook (hat-tip Kevin at Ra^thergate.com).

The Moderate Voice offers a fantastic round-up (hat-tip Tom at Scared Monkeys).

And all of that but is a mere grain of sand on the blogosphere beachhead!

Boston Globe Poll Numbers on Gay Marriage Are More Than a Bit Fishy...

Just how DOES the liberal MSM keep coming up with these ridiculous poll numbers???

Try this one on for size: In the wake of an avalanche of backlash against legalized gay marriage all over the country - which includes recent direct voter referenda against said arrangements in no less than 17 states (AR, CA, GA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, ND, OH, OK, OR, UT) where they passed by overwhelming margins ranging from 57-43 (OR) to 86-14 (MS) - some knuckleheaded pollster finds that only "50%" of Americans oppose the idea of gay marriage! Give me a break!

I was going to launch into a rant here after I first heard this on TV this morning, but why bother when the great Jayson Javitz over at PoliPundit does it so much better than I ever could!

...[F]ar-left political organizations, such as the Boston Globe, have sunk way below denial.

They’re in political reality comas. Even basic cognition of the world outside of their cocoons no longer is possible for them.

Also not to be missed, the no less than brilliant Will Franklin breaks down the numbers.

We're talking a 18 point swing away from the traditional position, and a 9 point swing toward the pro-gay marriage position, just on the basis of question wording.

The MSM is going to force their agenda down our throats... or die trying!

Bloglighting - Hog on Ice

Okay, this is too good to keep to myself, so without further adieu, it is time for an impromptu Bloglighting!

If you need a laugh... or two... or three... or a few dozen... Okay, if you want to fall out of your chair laughing so hard you can hardly catch your breath, you need to acquaint yourself with a fellow by the name of Steve H. Graham.

Steve is an attorney from the "Holy City" of Coral Gables, Florida and is the wicked wit behind a blogolicious creation called Hog on Ice, which has quickly risen through the ranks of my daily "must read" addictions. Why? Here is just a small sample of the types of things that can be found on this man's (PG-13) blog:

First of all, there's the recently added "ticker" at the top of the page which, as of my writing this, is flashing such things at me as:

"Behold the HOI Ticker:" (I am the Devil.)
"It Serves no Discernible Purpose." (I am sending messages via Steve's ridiculous ticker.)
"It Refuses to Display Yellow Text." (Worship me, pigs.)
"I Want to Punch it in the Face." (Reality TV was all my idea.)

Next, don't miss the recurring feature, Good Morning, Nigeria!, in which Steve actually dares to correspond with many of those spammers we all detest, promises to send them money and/or the personal information they crave and then gives them the business in ways so funny that they must be read to be believed! He claims he is writing a book based on this stunt, and I for one hope he really is! Here, in a response letter to one of the spammers, is just a sample of the kind of lunacy he engages in with them:

You are very welcome for my email! I enjoyed typing it! A few years back, I hyperextended both thumbs while milking a lactating sloth at the Lomotil Zoological Gardens and Fungus Arboretum. My chiropractor, Dr. Ramaswami Vindaloo, says typing is the only activity that will keep them from seizing up on me. Well, he mentioned one other activity, but it made me feel like slapping him.

And be sure not to miss the celebrity cameos by the likes of Wile E. Coyote, Herman Munster, Barney Rubble and Mrs. Butterworth. By the way, the funniest part of the whole bit has to be the fake passport pictures he has created! When I saw the one for "Stephanie Hopkins", I nearly busted a gut! (Those of you well-versed in Washington politics will get it immediately.)

Do yourself a favor, scroll down to the bottom of the page and read them from bottom to top so as to keep them in proper chronological order. It helps.

Steve also frequently shares recipes and food preparation tales about stuff so rich and fattening, you'll gain 10 pounds just reading about it!

He has been known to occasionally gives us glimpses into the minds of his two pet birds, Marvin & Maynard.

Tell us tales of his wacky ex-girlfriend.

And his politics are definitely right-of-center:

I wonder what liberals will do next to sell their product. Here's an idea: how about printing liberal slogans on rolling papers? Imagine. You're sitting in your mom's basement with your liberal buddies, you pull out a sheet of TOP, and (assuming you can read after being taught by liberals for eighteen years) you see the phrase "NO BLOOD FOR OIL!" or "SELECTED NOT ELECTED" or "KARL MARX IS SEXY."

How about this: pacifiers with handles shaped like the heads of liberal politicians. Get babies used to thinking of the government as a big, juicy, liberal tit they can suck when things don't go their way.

And as if all that weren't enough, Steve's sense of humor is so vast, one blog can't possibly contain it! Enter Huffington's Toast, the blogosphere's latest and greatest parody site that appeared almost in perfect synch with Arianna Huffington's bloated and pompous Huffington Post. (No, Arianna, you may not have a link!) It's all hush, hush as to who is involved in it, but Steve has copped to playing a major roll in setting it up.

The pictures are hilarious (My favorite so far? Harry Reid), the articles are funny as Hell and even better are some of the links on the site's "Blogroll." Want to know what's so funny about the links on the Blogroll? Click a few! [HINT: Pick some of the celebrity (Barbra Streisand, Michael Moore, etc.), lefty (Air America, Daily Kos, etc.), MSM (The New York Times, etc.) or mega-blogger (Hugh Hewitt, etc.) links.]

Run along now and have some fun! Just remember who sent you over there. You can thank me later.

UPDATE: Okay, the jig is up! Steve just fingered the rest of the culprits behind the Huffington's Toast site in the comments section of this post, but since he seems to think some people would rather have fun trying to guess who they are, I won't just simply give away the store here. You'll have to click on the link above or the following links to each of their individual blogs if you want to know. I debated whether to include the following links, but I think these folks deserve credit for their fine work. Bravo, folks! Take a bow! CULPRIT #1, CULPRIT #2, CULPRIT #3, CULPRIT #4 and CULPRIT #5

NOTE: Post corrected due to idiot me getting the man's name wrong! A thousand pardons, good sir, if you happened to see the mistake. If not, what mistake are you talking about? I don't make mistakes! In fact, this correction notice is a figment of your imagination! So there!

Police Trace Wendy's Finger to Source, Say It Points to Woman Who Claimed She Found It in Chili

Is this really any surprise at all? According to this AP News story, the mysterious finger belonged to an associate of suspect Anna Ayala's husband, who lost it in an "industrial accident" back in December.

Authorities are considering additional charges against Ayala and her husband, Davis said. "We are exploring all other options and avenues available to see that those involved in this charade will be investigated," the police chief said.

Wendy's has offered a $100,000 reward and has said it has lost millions in sales since Ayala made the claim while visiting her family in San Jose. Dozens of employees at the company's Northern California franchises also have been laid off.

Wendy's has not yet given out the award. Company spokesman Bob Bertini said officials need to talk with police to determine who should receive it.

In a statement, the company praised San Jose police and said the latest evidence vindicates its employees.

I guess we can stick a fork in this little get-rich-quick-on-a-frivolous-lawsuit hoax, this lady's goose is now pretty well cooked! Too bad she can't give Wendy's their reputation back, or those laid-off employees their jobs!

I hope she and anyone that was in on this with her end up rotting in jail for a long, long time.

GOP Wants Edgar to Run - Again

WBBM-TV, Ch. 2 in Chicago, the local See-B.S. affiliate here (so factor that in), is reporting that the GOP is pressing popular ex-Governor Jim Edgar to throw his hat in the ring and challenge vulnerable Democrat incumbent Rod Blagojevich for the right to get back in the Governor's chair.

Yes, they do seem to go running to former Gov. Edgar every election cycle only to get shot down, but this may be different.

Republican State Chairman Andy McKenna, Jr. said, “Why wouldn’t people encourage him? And to my knowledge he's not said ‘yes’ and he's not said ‘no,’ and what a wonderful thing for this party if he chose to do that.”

"I'll never say never," Jim Edgar said in a phone interview from his home near Champaign tonight. “But that's still a long way from saying yes."

Edgar has twice declined to run since retiring as Illinois Governor in 1999, but both times he was pleaded with to run for the U.S. Senate. Word has often been that a big part of the reason Edgar kept saying no was that he & his wife, Brenda, did not want to leave Illinois for Washington, D.C.. The Governorship would keep them more-or-less at home and provide a huge boost to the Republican Party's chances to re-energize themselves here.

Since Edgar left office, the Illinois GOP has gone to Hades in a handcart, largely due to the corruption linked to his unpopular successor (in both the Secretary of State's office and later the Governor's mansion), George Ryan. It's no wonder they would be working to recruit him. He would change the entire dynamics of the Governor's race from advantage Democrats to advantage Republicans. The question is, is Edgar willing to do it? Stay tuned...

UPDATE 5/15: The Chicago Tribune had some interesting news on the front page this morning, Governor's ratings tank; grand jury probes hirings

Winds of change may have put Rod Blagojevich in the governor's office, but a steady buffeting of allegations over mismanagement and "pay to play" politics have soured a growing number of Illinois voters on the first-term Democrat, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

Blagojevich has generally enjoyed healthy approval ratings since taking office two years ago, but the survey found more voters now say they disapprove of the way he is doing his job than say they like it.

Perhaps even more troubling for Blagojevich, only one-third of voters say they want to see him re-elected next year while 45 percent say they don't, according to the poll.

The poll's findings came as an investigation by Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine, probing allegations that plum positions on state boards and commissions were traded for campaign donations to Blagojevich, entered the subpoena stage.

Sources close to the investigation said more than 20 grand jury subpoenas, seeking documents involving Blagojevich appointees, had been handed out by prosecutors....

...The job-trading allegations are but one of a steady series of problems that has sent Blagojevich's job approval rating crashing to 35 percent among the 1,200 likely voters surveyed in the Tribune/WGN-TV survey. Another 44 percent said they disapproved of the governor's job performance, while 21 percent had no opinion.

The poll, conducted by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect from May 5-10, has an error margin of 3 percentage points....

The poll has some disastrous internals for Gov. Blogojevich as well! Read the whole article!

Alexander K. McClure of PoliPundit has his eye on this as well.

I wonder what Mr. Edgar is thinking right about now, don't you?

UPDATE 5/16: Welcome Daly Thoughts readers! I would like to take this opportunity to thank the great Gerry Daly for the link!

The Chicago Tribune has more on a possible Edgar run. (Registration required.)

U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ordered NOT to Do Their Jobs!

I don't know what to say here, folks, other than... THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE!

Check out this unbelievable article from the Friday, May 13 edition of the Washington Times, Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona:

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.

More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

"It was clear to everyone here what was being said and why," said one veteran agent. "The apprehensions were not to increase after the Minuteman volunteers left. It was as simple as that."

Like they say, read the whole thing!

Hat-tip: The Drudge Report

Rumor: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi May Be Badly Injured or Dead!

Before we all get too excited about this one, nothing has been confirmed as of yet and, as you likely know, there is no bigger rumor-mill in world history than the Internet, but just in case it turns out to be true...

Several signs are pointing to the demise of Iraq's Most Wanted Terrorbot!

Details are available at Scared Monkeys (Red gets the hat-tip), Gateway Pundit and The Jawa Report.

See-B.S. Does It Again! Ken Starr Quoted Out of Context, Misquote Used by Media, Democrats to Attack GOP on "Nuclear Option"

Not content to have their reputation in mere tatters over the phony Texas Air National Guard Documents they used to try to smear President Bush just before the election last fall, CBS News has apparently picked up another shovel and started digging itself a new grave!

In an interview that was run on the CBS Evening News on Monday and picked up all over the MSM, including this AP news story, CBS purported to show former Federal Appeals Court Judge and Whitewater Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr slamming the Republicans in the U.S. Senate who would back the so-called "nuclear option" to end the Democrats' 4-year filibuster of numerous qualified judges:

Kenneth Starr — an appeals court judge on the D.C. circuit from 1983-1989 — came out against the Republican plan to ban judicial filibusters on Monday. He told CBS Evening News that it is a "radical, radical departure from our history and our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government."

(Emphasis added.)

Score one for the Democrats and their cohorts in the media, right? What a coup! The much hated, much maligned Ken Starr, a conservative and a former judge, calling the "nuclear option" to end the filibusters "radical!"

Not so fast!

Ramesh Ponnuru at NRO's The Corner in an article entitled Ken Starr's Real Views smelled something fishy and went straight to the horse's mouth:

CBS, AP, and other outlets reported earlier this week that Starr had said that getting rid of the judicial filibuster would be a "radical, radical departure from our history and our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government."

This seemed like a very odd thing for Starr to say, so I contacted him.

He forwarded to me an email he had sent to someone else who had asked about this matter:

"In the piece that I have now seen, and which I gather is being lavishly quoted, CBS employed two snippets. The 'radical departure' snippet was specifically addressed -- although this is not evidenced whatever from the clip -- to the practice of invoking judicial philosopy as a grounds for voting against a qualified nominee of integrity and experience. I said in sharp language that that practice was wrong. I contrasted the current practice . . . with what occurred during Ruth Ginsburg's nomination process, as numerous Republicans voted (rightly) to confirm a former ACLU staff lawyer. They disagreed with her positions as a lawyer, but they voted (again, rightly) to confirm her. Why? Because elections, like ideas, have consequences. . . . In the interview, I did indeed suggest, and have suggested elsewhere, that caution and prudence be exercised (Burkean that I am) in shifting/modifying rules (that's the second snippet), but I likewise made clear that the 'filibuster' represents an entirely new use (and misuse) of a venerable tradition. . . .

"[O]ur friends are way off base in assuming that the CBS snippets, as used, represent (a) my views, or (b) what I in fact said."

(Emphasis added.)

Okay folks. Time to let CBS have it with both barrels until they can prove with an unedited tape that they did not quote Mr. Starr out of context in such a way as to completely change the meaning of his words from being against the Democrats' position on judicial filibusters to vehemently opposed to the Republicans' proposed solution. Barring that, they better issue an immediate retraction and apology or prepare for the onslaught. This will NOT be allowed to stand!!!

Spread the word, my fellow bloggers! To arms! To arms!

Hat-tip: Right Pundit

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UPDATE: The blogstorm has begun!

CJ (aka "Rumplemintz") is all over it at VRWC#1 Member:

We must demand that CBS register as a democrat 527 just like moveon.org.

UPDATE: Media Research Center has posted a scathing article entitled CBS Twists Starr Rebuke of Democrats Into Blast at GOP on Judges:

Monday's CBS Evening News, Ken Starr has charged, distorted soundbites from him in order to clearly imply that he had denounced the GOP plan to block Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees as "a radical departure from our history and from our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government." Gloria Borger had set up that bite: "Many conservatives consider the fight over judges their political Armageddon. But conservative icon and former federal Judge Ken Starr says it's gotten out of control."...

Borger can't claim she didn't have first-hand knowledge of what Starr said in the interview since the video clips played by CBS showed her sitting in a seat a couple of feet from him....

The article also includes a full transcript of the interview as broadcast!

UPDATE: Look out! John Hinderaker at Power Line, the blogosphere's heavy-lifter on MSM foul-ups and bane of CBS's existence, is on the trail! See his post entitled Where's That Video Tape?:

As we have noted repeatedly, the mainstream media have pulled out all the stops to support the Democrats on the filibuster. This, though, would appear to be over the line. It is also being reported that Starr has asked for a copy of the video of his interview and been turned down by CBS, but I haven't yet seen that in writing anywhere....

Hat-tip to CJ for spotting it first!

UPDATE: Charles Johnson weighs in over at mega-blog and Ra^thergate heavyweight Little Green Footballs.

You have to dig some of the comments on that thread, like this one from Gagdad Bob:

Ken Starr will forever be known as the guy who tangled with a sleazy political operation with no regard for the truth. Oh yes, and the man who investigated the Clintons.

UPDATE: Ouch! Just found this from Andrew over at Confirm Them (should have checked them out much earlier, darn it!), The Fake CBS Interview of Ken Starr:

Rush Limbaugh today read aloud an email from Ken Starr. According to Starr’s email, CBS took his answer from a question about whether judicial nominees should be examined on their judicial philosophy as opposed to their qualifications, and made it seem as though it were an answer to a question about the so-called “nuclear option.” CBS is now refusing to give Judge Starr the entire transcript of the interview.

Refusing to give Starr a copy of the full transcript? That's rich! Gee, I wonder why?

Check out Rush Limbaugh's comments on the whole affair, CBS Lied: Ken Starr Taken Out of Context:

This is serious. This is a specific attempt to malign Ken Starr, to misquote him, to take him out of context, and to use the out-of-context snippet or sound bite as an attempt to rally people against the Republicans and their triggering of the nuclear option....

...From now on whenever CBS does anything under the guise of news, that purports to shift the discussion on an ideological basis they are not to be trusted. There is a reason nobody is watching the CBS Evening News anymore, and it's not who anchors it. It's who's producing this garbage and who's putting this garbage together. Maybe in part the anchors here and there, but the bottom line is: CBS News cannot be trusted, because CBS News is not news. It's CBS commentary and editorializing under the guise of news. They are having to still make things up, take things out of context, basically lie about what people have said, in order to further an agenda, and the agenda in this case is, as usual at CBS, to harm Republicans and conservatives -- and in this case they used Ken Starr to do it....

...I wanted to pass this on to you and get it out there because to me it's huge. It is gigantic. It is. It is beyond irresponsible because it was done purposely. It can't be irresponsible and purposely done at the same time. Irresponsible would mean somebody wasn't paying attention. This is worse than irresponsible. It's dishonest. It's cheating. It's whatever you want to attach to it. But from now on I'm going to promise you anything comes from CBS, screw it. The first impression is going to be just like when I read the New York Times: Gee, what if that's true?

(Emphasis by author.)

Go get 'em, oh Great Maharushie! Read the whole thing! He has the full text of the e-mail from Starr included, as read on the air, as well as more stinging commentary.

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UPDATE 5/13: Welcome PoliPundit, Brainster's Blog and Right Pundit readers! Thanks for the links, folks!

This story is now en fuego! Here are the latest links:

Lorie Byrd swoops in from PoliPundit: Starrgate?

Right Pundit updates: And the Heat Begins

Iron Teakettle was also among the first to blow the whistle: Ken Starr Defends Himself: Says CBS "Cut and Pasted" His Interview to Give Totally Erroneous Impression

Patterico's Pontifications was on it yesterday, too: CBS Distorts Ken Starr Comments About Filibusters of Judicial Nominees

Ace of Spades ante's up: CBS News: Still Fabricating, Still Forging Ahead

Wizbang! pops off: CBS Distorts Quote By Ken Starr To Attack GOP On Filibusters

Wizbang! also points us to the CBS News Video Clip

Captain Ed is on board: Did Ken Starr Bash The Byrd Option?

Lucianne Goldberg has this little nugget: CBS Lied: Ken Starr Taken Out of Context

Steve Foreman at Political Fan has audio: Political Outrage of the Week Podcast

Mickey Kaus dissents, says Rush is all wet: Rush Limbaugh vs. Gloria Borger

Patterico responds to Kaus: Response to Kaus re CBS Distortion of Starr Remarks

One of Those Days!

I am trying to stay calm and not "blog angry" about my wonderful site host, Blogger.com, but I must admit my patience is wearing wafer thin today.

After first waiting out an electrical storm and then dealing with and finally overcoming irritating problems with my ISP continually dropping me after only a couple of minutes each time I tried to connect earlier today, I managed to perform my Wictory Wednesday duties, but, alas, I could not post my latest Bloglighting feature on Brainster's Blog. I never got to the "publishing" page, instead I kept receiving timeout errors from my browser (Safari 1.0.3). After several unsuccessful tries, I figure, what the heck? I'll try to post it using Netscape. Didn't work there either. Okay, how about using Internet Explorer? Nope. Back to Safari. After several more unsuccessful tries, I gave up for awhile. After a timeout, I returned and tried again (having been intelligent enough after past experiences to save the post to a word processing program on my computer). Hey, what do you know? Success!

Wait a minute... now the post appears not once, but twice. Okay, I'll just delete the earlier, now duplicate post, right? So I go into edit, choose to delete the post, and confirm my command. No problem. Except, and here's the fun part, my browser gets hung up on the publishing page after it goes into a never-ending loop at 0%... 0%... 0%... etc.. After about 10 minutes of this, I shut down the browser and then re-log in. I still have two identical posts, but guess what? The second one is not really there, at least not according to blogger's editing program, so I can't delete it. God, I love this hobby somedays!

Anyhow, I am not certain whether the 2nd post will stay or will suddenly vanish on its own, so if you want to comment or link to it, please go with the one nearest the top of the page. Your humble and somewhat frazzled pundit thanks you.

I think I'll call it a day with the posting. I need some fresh air before I damage my poor computer's little keys with my pounding fingers!

UPDATE: Oops! I almost forget to thank Yahoo! Mail for its wonderful contribution to my day, too! When I first logged in this morning, I got a blank screen for an inbox! Refreshing had no effect! Took a change of browsers to beat the bug. Aaaahhh, ain't computers wonderful?

Bloglighting - Brainster's Blog

In the second installment of my new regular feature here at The Right Place, I will focus my attention, and hopefully yours, on yet another of the best blogs that I have found in my frequent travels through the blogosphere.

Today's bloglight shines on yet another blog I deem responsible for helping to get me on the blogosphere map: Brainster's Blog, home of blogger Pat Curley.

Even before I first published the Evaluating Congress posts (Part 1) (Part 2) that gave this blog wings back in late February, Pat had already honored me with a place on his blogroll, giving me life on the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem (where I have proudly been a Flappy Bird for sometime now) and putting the blogging fire back in my belly, which helped me to complete my long-lingering and somewhat tedious Congressional evaluation project. After that project's completion, I simply posted it, figuring a few people might see it and that was that. One of the people that did happen to see it was Pat Curley, and he was sufficiently impressed with my hard work to pass along an e-mail to Lorie Byrd of PoliPundit fame, who posted a link to my project on that mega-blog and before I could say "Holy SiteMeter, Batman!" - instalanche!

Well, Pat, it is obvious I owe you a great debt of gratitude, so consider this feature a bit of payback in some small way - and thanks!

After starting out his blogging life as "Brain Death" in the old Usenet format, Pat later came to fame as one of the gang at the group blog Kerry Haters. He is also a key part of its successor, Lifelike Pundits and recently began to publish another blog dedicated to his passion for old comic books called Silver Age Comics. As if that weren't enough to keep the man busy, he has also dipped his fingers into an anti-Hillary Clinton blog entitled Stop Hill! and an anti-John McCain blog named Stop McCain, both of which seem to be in the very early stages of development at this time. Tell me, Pat, just what do you do in your spare time, anyway?

Pat is a kind soul who often highlights smaller blogs (like mine) and offers tips to inexperienced bloggers. He is also a very gifted writer in his own right and well worth a regular read! So don't just sit there, go check him out!

Afterwards, why not check out some of the individual blogs from some of his worthy colleagues from Lifelike Pundits: Kitty at Kitty Litter, Pam Meister at Blogmeister USA or Prof. Shade at ProfShade. Lest I forget, I wanted to be sure to mention the other fine Lifelike Pundits, Aaron (formerly of Something to Cry About) and Dodo David, who are dedicated to that wonderful site to the exclusion of any current outside projects of which I am aware. Keep up the great work, folks!

Wictory Wednesday: May 11, 2005

Today, the Wictory Wednesday bloggers are banding together to help out an old friend: Senator John Forbes Kerry (Jackass-MA).

You see, poor Senator Heinz Kerry seems to be unable to find a copy of form SF-180, the form he promised 101 days ago, on national television no less, to sign. Signing said form would publicly release Senator Kerry's military records and clear up any issues over such trivial things as the Swift Vets' "lies" about him or the medical treatments he received for the injuries that led to his 3 Band-Aids Purple Hearts or whether he was originally given a discharge that was anything less than Honorable or whether his records were sanitized during the Carter Administration... little things like that.

If you would like to help Senator Kerry fulfill his promise, you can do so by faxing him a copy of form SF-180, available here.

The Senator's fax numbers are as follows:

Washington D.C. - (202) 224-8525
Boston, MA - (617) 248-3870
Springfield, MA - (413) 736-1049
Fall River, MA - (508) 677-0275

On behalf a certain-to-be-grateful Senator Kerry, I thank you!

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Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

Father Arrested in Stabbing Deaths of Two Little Girls

Updating my post from yesterday, I figured anyone who hasn't yet heard might want to know: Police think they have their man... and it is none other than the father of one of the girls!

Given this guy's history, I'm not all that surprised the cops zeroed in on him so quickly.

If he's found guilty, I hope they fry the creep! 'Nuff said.

Happy Anniversary, Weasel!

John F. Kerry (Jackass-MA) has now gone 100 days since promising, on national television, to sign form SF-180 and release his military records... and he still has not lived up to his promise.

What's the matter, Johnny? Can't find a pen?

In honor of this auspicious occassion, I will reprint my list of things John Kerry must accomplish before he gets around to signing form SF-180, which I originally posted in the comments section on PoliPundit on March 27th.

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From the Home Office in Crawford, Texas:

The Top Ten Things John Kerry Must Accomplish Before He Will Get Around to Signing Form SF-180:

10. Reverse the rotation of the earth so that the sun rises in the west.

9. Raise Christopher Reeve from the dead, and make him walk!

8. Spin straw into gold.

7. Actually show up for work once in a while.

6. Play a round of golf on Mars.

5. Help O.J. find the “real killers.”

4. Walk on water.

3. Solve Pi to the very last digit.

2. Travel back in time, win Ohio and become President.

and the number one thing John Kerry must accomplish before signing form SF-180:

Arm wrestle with God… and win!

******************************

Meanwhile, the Kerry SF-180 Clock on the right side of this blog just keeps on ticking along...

A Slip of the Tongue That Really Says It All!

It seems that Sen. Carl Levin (Jackass-MI) let the cat out of the proverbial bag on This Week with George Snuffleupagus (Jackass-MSM) according to Mark Kilmer at Red State.

Levin declared that "we should not give up on the principle" of the right to filibuster judges, including Supreme Court nominees. He said that it was "important to have the power of minority rule." He quickly corrected, "Not minority rule." He added that "we should not throw out the rule book."

(Emphasis added.)

Minority rule??? The unmitigated gall! Someone ought to throw the damned rule book at his thick head!

We need to so totally pound the Democrats out of existence, they could hold a party caucus in a D.C. phone booth!

Hat-tip: Andrew at Confirm Them.

Life Imitates Cartoons!

Fans of the Simpsons may get a kick out of this little news item I just stumbled across. Gee, Unky Herb would be so proud!

Attention Firefox Users!

If you are running the Mozilla Firefox browser, you need to be aware of this!

Just thought you should know.

Now That's Using Your Noodle!

Check out this series of photographs from a college graduation ceremony where Gov. Christine Gregoire (Jackass Fraud-WA) was the commencement speaker. Seems some enterprising graduates found a very clever way to make their feelings about their state's Thief Executive known! Bravo, folks! Bravo!

Hat-tip: Ace of Spades.

Go Get 'Em, Boys!

Coalition and Iraqi forces are once again on the offensive, apparently acting on some fresh intel related to the capture of one of Zarqawi's top lieutenants. Keep the pressure on the bad guys and good luck! Let's hope they get that slimy jackal Zarqawi himself soon.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, our forces press on with the fight against the Taliban.

As horrible as any losses are for the good guys, one can't help but notice the disparity in the numbers of casualties in the latest fighting. But sssshhhhhh, someone might begin to suspect we are winning if word of this gets out!

To our troops and their families: Thank you for your service and your sacrifice and God bless you all.

Why???

I have been watching the local TV news here in the Chicagoland area and just saw a news conference about this story.

Two beautiful little girls, 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, 2nd grade classmates, are dead, murdered by an unknown assailant in a wooded area near a bike path in a north suburban park in the city of Zion near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. The coroner said that the initial examination of the bodies yielded no evidence of sexual assault. They were both stabbed multiple times. The police currently have no leads. If you have any information, call police at 847-872-8000.

This kind of thing has to make any normal person sick. Stories like this are becoming all too common. Please pray for the families and friends of these two little girls. And to whoever did this, may you soon face justice.

Blogging for (MSM) Dummies

I just read an excellent article on blogging by Superhawk over at Rightwing Nuthouse, which "Fisks" a clueless NYT piece by Adam Cohen (NYT registration required). Even the comments Superhawk elicits are intriguing.

Hat-tip: Pat Curley of Brainster's Blog.

Here's One Sure to Get Your Blood Boiling!

If you haven't read this article from Tony Snow yet, you really need to click on the link and do so!

Senators Byron Dorgan, John Kerry and Richard Durbin pulled a fast one last week on their congressional colleagues. They tried to bury forever documents alleging that senior government officials tried to transform portions of the IRS and the Justice Department into a goon squad for attacking political enemies and aiding political friends.

Naturally, they didn't declare their intentions openly. Instead, Sen. Dorgan attached an innocent looking amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill that will fund government operations after September 30...

Who could these three Senate Jackasses be trying to protect, pray tell?

...Former FBI Director Louis Freeh insisted on the appointment of an Independent Counsel in 1995 after learning that then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros shuttled payments to his mistress without reporting them to the IRS. Once the news went public, Cisneros resigned from office, his previously promising political career in tatters. He later admitted to a misdemeanor and paid a fine of $10,000. President Clinton pardoned him in 2001.

Dorgan's bill would shut down the 10-year probe conducted by Independent Counsel David Barrett's investigation, but it would add something unprecedented in the case of special or independent counsels: it would prevent the publication of the counsel's report on the case. A decade's worth of investigations — sworn testimony, documentation of alleged abuses, grand-jury proceedings, etc. — would vanish without a trace.

In this instance, that would mean burying charges that key officials in the Justice Department and the IRS abused their power by going easy on Cisneros and targeting political opponents of Bill Clinton. Those charges — not the Cisneros case — have served as the focal point of Barrett's investigation for the last several years.

This story is dynamite! Read the whole thing! Then act to make certain this cover-up is never allowed to stand! Tony Snow provides contact information for the key Senators and House Members involved.

Hat-tip: My Dad! (Again.) Thanks!

More News You've Probably Never Heard...

BLOGGER X: Have you been following the big Hillary Clinton fundraising scandal?

JOE AVERAGE: The what???

BLOGGER X: The Hillary Clinton fundraising scandal. There's a trial about to get under way on Tuesday in Los Angeles related to it. You mean to tell me you haven't heard anything about this?

JOE AVERAGE: No.

BLOGGER X: Guess you get your news from the network newscasts or CNN then, huh?

JOE AVERAGE: Yeah. And I read several major newspapers, too! Well, not the whole papers, but the top headlines. I also listen to NPR. I thought I was keeping myself well-informed! I know all about how George W. Bush is the worst President in world history, that Tom DeLay is a crook and John Bolton is the meanest man alive, about how badly we are losing the War in Iraq, how the Republicans want to destroy the Constitution to steamroll extremist right-wing judges onto the bench so they can force their ultra-reactionary Religious Doctrine on unsuspecting Americans, all about how terrible this depressionesque economy really is and how Bush wants to destroy Social Security, but I haven't heard a thing about this. Are you sure it's real???

BLOGGER X: Figures!

******************************

Yes, folks, it is real. And it is about to blow up in Hillary's face, in spite of what the mainstream press does or does not do with this story.

I just love this particular quote from the AP story linked to above:

"David I don't think deserves to go to jail," co-organizer Aaron Tonken said in a recent interview from prison, where he is serving 63 months for unrelated charges of defrauding charities of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nothing like a great character witness ready to go to bat on your behalf, huh?

Hat-tip: My Dad! Thanks.

Happy Mother's Day!

A very happy Mother's Day wish goes out to all of the Moms out there and to all of those that love them!

May God bless you, one and all!

Name That Hypocrite!

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) just won a premium spot on my list of favorite Senators with this ongoing feature on his official Senate website!

Hat-Tip: Will Franklin.

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

It seems Senate Inferiority Leader Harry Reid (Jackass-NV), called President Bush a "loser" in front of an audience of high schoolers.

How quaint.

The equally infantile responses seem to flow into one's mind, don't they?

"I know you are, but what am I?"
"It takes one to know one!"
"Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle!"

But I like this one the best:

Want to see a real loser, Senator Reid? Just find the nearest mirror!

Hat-Tip: Betsy Newmark via Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit

Bloglighting - PoliPundit

In the first of a new and soon-to-be regular feature here at The Right Place, I will focus my attention, and hopefully yours, on the best blogs that I have found in my frequent travels through the blogosphere.

There can be no choice to kick off this new feature other than PoliPundit, the site to whom I owe my very existence as a blogger.

PoliPundit is easily one of the premiere political weblogs on all of the world wide web and helped me and many other conservatives get through the often bitter 2004 election season. I began reading PoliPundit when I stumbled across it while searching for more details on the Ra^thergate scandal (a term coined by a PoliPundit reader, no less) early last September, but it wasn't until late October that I first posted a comment on a PoliPundit thread under the pseudonym "Mr. Right" (which I couldn't believe no one had taken on before me). This led to a bubbling desire on my part to get more involved in the effort to get out the Conservative vote and to keep the light of truth shining on the Liberally biased mass media and the Democrats, which, in turn, led me to start my own blog. So, in a very real sense, I owe an awful lot to all of the folks at PoliPundit, bloggers and fellow regular commenters alike. Thank you!

PoliPundit is a group blog made up of 5 incredibly talented bloggers, starting, naturally, with PoliPundit, a self-described "non-white recent legal immigrant" residing in the State of Washington. Beyond that, however, not much is known of the mysterious "Poli" including his or her gender! But two things are certain, Poli knows how to blog and Poli knows how to spot blogging talent in others! PoliPundit also is responsible for starting Wictory Wednesdays, in which this blogger is a proud participant!

Lorie Byrd is from North Carolina and is a stay-at-home mother to 4-year-old and 8-year-old girls. She is also the wife of a former marine who served in the Gulf War, which gives her a unique perspective on defense and national security matters. Lorie's contributions to the blogosphere often include a wide mix of pop culture and politics and she is very gracious about linking to other bloggers, like myself. In fact, she is one of the folks whom I deem responsible for putting me on the map - thanks, Lorie! Lorie also has her own blog, Byrd Droppings, which I highly recommend.

D.J. Drummond hails from Houston, Texas and is a gifted writer with a knack for contributing detailed analyses of a variety of news-related events. He is also quite the history buff, which helps to hone his perspective. D.J.'s own blog, Stolen Thunder, is another blog well-worth a regular read.

Jayson Javitz is an attorney and investment manager from Sacramento, California, and a personal favorite of mine. He is often somewhat abrasive and loaded with sarcasm, much like myself. On top of it all, Jayson, who is nothing if not prolific, somehow manages to regularly update his own fabulous blog, Political Vice Squad, which is another daily must read!

UPDATE 5/5: Terrible news - If you want to check out Jayson's own blog, Political Vice Squad, you better hurry! The good news is, he is staying put at PoliPundit (thank God)!

Alexander K. McClure lives in Pennsylvania and is the poll-watcher and political race junkie of the group. Alex is in all his glory when election season heats up, but still pops in from time to time to whet our appetites with the latest polls and news of who is or isn't running for what office come the next round.

PoliPundit is a daily must read for me. If I can get on the Internet, it is usually my first stop. If you, like me, are a Conservative political junkie, I cannot recommend it highly enough! So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

More bloglighting to come...

War on Terror Update: Don't Tell Anyone, But We're Winning!

The mainstream media and their good friends in the Democrat Party must be on the verge of tears today, as America received not one, but two items of great news in the War on Terror!

First, there is this story about the apparent poor state of morale of the Iraqi Terrorists, oops, I mean "insurgents." Who, by the way, are still beating us no matter what you read, damn it!

Then, there is this gem about the capture of another key al-Qaeda figure in Pakistan. Note the reference to the "deeply conservative" Pakistani province in the fifth paragraph. A not-so-subtle attempt to link American political conservatives to al-Qaeda militants, maybe? Cute, huh?

Woe is the media. But don't cry for them, they can still bury it somewhere near the obits or the cookie recipes. That way no one will notice we're winning! Ssssshhhh!

BTW: What's the over/under on any of the "Big 3" network newscasts leading with either one of these stories tonight? I'd put my money on Lynndie England as lead if I were a betting man!

Wictory Wednesday: April 27, 2005

Today, instead of money, the Wictory Wednesday bloggers are asking for your time and effort in lobbying the Senate to help end these ridiculous, unprecedented judicial filibusters holding our Federal Appellate Courts hostage to the whims of the minority party and their absurd far-left financiers!

You can find the necessary contact information for your Senators as well as any other Senators you feel it may be worthwhile to contact here.

Just remember, please, to be polite and courteous. It makes all of us, especially you, look a whole lot better and tends to elicit a more desirable response.

You may want to concentrate your effort on those GOP Senators who may be on the fence on this issue and need to be reminded by their constituents, election volunteers and donors what it is we expect in return for our money, our efforts on their behalf and our votes! (And that is, of course, representation for our views and loyalty to our party and our President on key issues such as this.)

Among the GOP Senators who could use your encouragement the most (BE NICE):

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, RI
Sen. Susan Collins, ME
Sen. Mike DeWine, OH
Sen. Chuck Hagel, NE
Sen. Gordon Smith, OR
Sen Olympia Snowe, ME
Sen. Arlen Specter, PA
Sen. John Sununu, NH
Sen. George Voinovich, OH
Sen. John Warner, VA

Please note that AZ Sen. John McCain is likely a lost cause on this issue, but you may still want to contact him with your opinion, particularly if you reside in Arizona!

It may also be worth your while to signal your support for John Bolton to be confirmed as U.N. Ambassador to Sen. Voinovich, Sen. Hagel & Sen. Chafee at the same time.

Contacting a reasonable Democrat or two or those Democrats representing red states may not hurt either:

Sen. Max Baucus, MT
Sen. Evan Bayh, IN
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, NM
Sen. Thomas Carper, DE
Sen. Kent Conrad, ND
Sen. Byron Dorgan, ND
Sen. Tim Johnson, SD
Sen. Mary Landrieu, LA
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, CT
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, AR
Sen. Ben Nelson, NE
Sen. Bill Nelson, FL
Sen. Mark Pryor, AR
Sen. Ken Salazar, CO

You can find all the latest on the confirmation battlefront at ConfirmThem.com.

***********************************************

Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

Wictory Wednesday: April 13, 2005

Today we are proudly blogging in support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC!

The 2006 mid-term elections present the GOP with a unique opportunity to gain an even stronger majority in the U.S. Senate, closing in on a filibuster-proof majority that will remove the last vestiges of power from a thoroughly unworthy version of the Democratic Party that has become a sad and sorry lapdog for the angry and coarse factions of the far-left, devoid of meaningful ideas and dedicated to nothing more than reflexive negativism and obstructionist tactics.

The seats that are up in this next election cycle are as follows:

Republicans (15):

AZ - Jon Kyl
IN - Richard Lugar
ME - Olympia Snowe
MS - Trent Lott
MO - James Talent
MT - Conrad Burns
NV - John Ensign
OH - Mike DeWine [May be vulnerable]
PA - Rick Santorum [Targeted by Democrats]
RI - Lincoln Chafee
TN - Bill Frist [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
TX - Kay Bailey Hutchinson [May run for Governor]
UT - Orrin Hatch
VA - George Allen
WY - Craig Thomas

Democrats (17):

CA - Dianne Feinstein
CT - Joseph Lieberman
DE - Thomas Carper
FL - Bill Nelson [May be vulnerable]
HI - Daniel Akaka [Turns 82 in 2006]
MD - Paul Sarbanes [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
MA - Ted Kennedy
MI - Debbie Stabenow [May be vulnerable]
MN - Mark Dayton [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
NE - Ben Nelson [May be vulnerable]
NJ - Jon Corzine [Running for Governor]
NM - Jeff Bingaman
NY - Hillary Clinton
ND - Kent Conrad [May be vulnerable]
WA - Maria Cantwell [May be vulnerable]
WV - Robert Byrd [Turns 89 in 2006]
WI - Herb Kohl

"Independent" [Caucuses with the Democrats] (1):

VT - Jim Jeffords

As you can see, Republicans have fewer seats to defend again this time around and tend to do better in mid-term elections than Democrats. The Democrats also have more Senators who would tend to be looked upon as vulnerable this cycle. We MUST take advantage of this unique opportunity to put an end to their stonewalling once and for all!

You can help by donating to the NRSC. Your contribution will benefit the GOP's efforts to take stronger control of the U.S. Senate and help put it to work for the American people, rather than leave it vulnerable to continued partisan bickering and unconstitutional filibustering of highly qualified judges who fail to pass the far-left's litmus tests!

And, as always, remember to vote - you CAN make a difference! In light of what we have seen in recent years, we must remember that the only good Senate Democrat is a FORMER Senate Democrat!

***********************************************

Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: Source Identified, GOP Senator Embarrassed, Implicated Staffer Resigns!

In case you have been living under a rock somewhere, let me begin with the main development of the past 24 hours: The "memo," it seems, was written by Brian Darling, a now former (thank God!) legal counsel to freshman Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez.

Before I go any further, I wish to take this opportunity to say several things on this matter:

First of all, I did not update this blog earlier because I simply have not had any time! I was not "hiding" from anyone or anything! Some of us have to work for a living, and not all of us have cushy jobs with free access to our blogs from work! I did not get home last night until around 10pm (CDT) after working a 9+ hour day. I usually hit the internet at night, but could not follow my routine because I had to be back at work by 9am, so I took a shower and went to bed early. I did not even find out about the update on the memo's true source until this morning as I hurried out the door to work after oversleeping and caught a discussion about it taking place on Laura Ingraham's radio show while commuting. I was due to get off at 5pm, but did not get out until after 7:30, nor home til sometime after 8pm and had not eaten since breakfast, so guess where my priorities were? Please forgive me for not blogging on this sooner, but my schedule simply did not permit otherwise! I have a life outside of the internet! You will notice, please, that I did not get to discuss the developments that occurred regarding this article in the Washington Times or any blogger comments about it in the interim, either. This post could probably say much more, but I keep getting interrupted and have to get to bed before too much longer as I work again at 9am. Real life, go figure!

Before I go any further, I would like to state, for the record, that the use of the word "fake" to describe the "memo" was incorrect. I wish to note, however, that this document was, as it is being described, in no way shape or form an official "GOP talking points memo" or any other sort of official communique! Still, any statements or implications previously printed by me alluding to the memo as a "fake" or a possible Democrat dirty trick, I now hereby retract in light of the recent facts in evidence. I apologize for any errors in judgment on my part and any distress that may have resulted from such errors. (There, was that so hard my little MSM friends?)

Next, Sen. Martinez ought to embarrassed and ashamed! Even if his claim that he did not read the memo is true, and, absent any evidence to the contrary, I will take his word for it that he did not, it remains that he should NEVER have handed any papers to anyone from the opposition party without full knowledge of the contents! To do so was foolish, reckless and borderline incompetent!

And furthermore, while some apologies are due, the revelations that have come to light STILL DO NOT EXONERATE THE WASHINGTON POST OR ABC NEWS ON A NUMBER OF ISSUES RELATED TO THIS MATTER!

But first, let's get up to date on the latest, shall we...

From the Mike Allen article in Thursday's Washington Post:

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue.

Martinez... said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

...In a statement issued last night, Martinez said that Harkin asked him for background information on the bill and that he gave him what he thought was a routine one-page staff memo on the legislation. "Unbeknownst to me, instead of my one page on the bill, I had given him a copy of the now infamous memo that at some point along the way came into my possession," the statement said.

...Martinez said Harkin called him about 5 p.m. yesterday and told him that the memo had come from his office. Martinez said he then called in his senior staff and said, "Something is wrong here." He said that Darling later confessed to John Little, Martinez's chief of staff, and that he said he did not think he had ever printed the memo.

"It was intended to be a working draft," Martinez said. "He doesn't really know how I got it."

Reached by telephone last night, Darling said it would not be appropriate for him to discuss the matter at this time.

Okay, that answers some of the questions raised, but not all!

Next stop Powerline, where both John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker and Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson have plenty to say on the matter. Scroll down to "Mystery Solved" where Hindrocket nails it:

Mike Allen, the Post's reporter, has previously said that the memo came from a Democratic Senator who said he got it from a Republican Senator. That is consistent with the current AP account. But the story that Allen wrote with a Post colleague on March 19 is not consistent with the current version of the facts. On March 19, Allen wrote:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

In fact, if the current AP account is correct, the amazingly inept "talking points memo," which got the number of the Senate bill wrong, misspelled Terri Schiavo's name, and contained a number of other typographical errors, did not come from "Republican officials" or "party leaders," but rather from an anonymous, unknown staffer. Senator Martinez himself--forget about members of his staff--is a freshman senator, in office for three months, not a "party leader" or "Republican officials." (The plural in the Post's original article is interesting.) Also, the reporting by ABC and the Post suggested that the memo was widely or universally distributed among Republican senators, while a survey reported by the Washington Tmes indicated that none of the 55 Republican senators had seen it. So, if the current AP story is correct, it confirms that ABC and the Post misreported the story--in the Post's case, in an article that was picked up by dozens of other newspapers off the paper's wire service.

The latest story also confirms how absurd it was for ABC, the Post, and other news outlets to label the anonymous memo a "GOP talking points memo." We have no idea who the unidentified Martinez staffer is, but he apparently was not authorized to speak for his boss, and most certainly was not empowered to speak for the leadership of the Republican party. We'll try to track him down and get his story, but in the meantime, this story serves as an object lesson in how the mainstream media can take a dopey, one-page memo by an unknown staffer and use it to discredit the entire Republican party.

(Emphasis added.)

In "Speaking For Me" Big Trunk points to a fine article by Mickey Kaus in Slate, entitled Non-fake but Inaccurate!:

WaPo's Mike Allen reports that the now-famous Schiavo "talking points" memo came from freshman GOP senator Mel Martinez's office. So that mystery is cleared up. The memo wasn't a fake... But Allen doesn't come off looking too good in this latest account. a) The memo was apparently not "distributed to Republican Senators by party leaders," as Allen's initial story, sent out through the Post news service to other papers, reported. It was--at least judging from today's account--handed to one Democratic senator, Tom Harkin, by one freshman Republican senator (who isn't in the party leadership); b) Allen doesn't explain why he told Howie Kurtz he "did not call them talking points or a Republican memo" when he had in fact done just that in the news service draft; c) Even the later, more "carefully worded" account Allen published in the Post itself was apparently wrong. Allen wrote

In a memo distributed only to Republican senators, the Schiavo case was characterized as "a great political issue" ...

This is almost the reverse of what Allen now reports. We know the memo was distributed to at least one Democratic senator. We don't know whether it was distributed to any Republican senator other then the senator whose staffer wrote it (although it's hard to believe it wasn't given to at least some other GOP lawmakers). Allen's story left the now-unsupported impression that Republican senators were conspiratorially reading the memo amongst themselves; d) The whole "memo" fuss, as played up by WaPo and ABC's Linda Douglass, was wildly overdone even if the memo was a GOP leadership document... But certainly whatever legitimate valence Allen's 'memo' story had depended almost entirely on the impression that the memo revealed and represented the strategy of the GOP leaders who pushed the Schiavo bill. If all that was involved was a staff memo Martinez gave to Harkin, Allen's story was way out of whack. The memo wasn't close to being worth the play it got in WaPo or in Douglass' report. (It's not worth the current Senate investigation either. What's the crime--politicians considering politics?)

(Emphasis by author.)

Lorie Byrd from PoliPundit has posted updates here and here.

Notice, please the infantile nature of many of the trolls on the second thread in particular. But they are mild compared to the foul garbage that beset Michelle Malkin! (Foul language alert!) As usual, she responds with class and dignity. More proof that many of the goons and loons on the left have absolutely ZERO CLASS! Are they entitled to a little gloating here? Why, yes, quite frankly, they are! Are they entitled to act like potty-mouthed pre-teens? Absolutely not! Keep it clean and civil, folks, otherwise you risk looking like the soreheads, cranks and nutjobs too many of you apparently are!

From Michelle Malkin's first Thursday post on the relevant subject, The Schiavo Memo and the Search for Answers, there is this:

For me, the salient questions always centered on what exactly ABC News and the Washington Post knew or didn't know before they hyped the GOP politicization angle in the midst of the wrenching Schiavo debate.

A related issue was ABC News' and the Post's mischaracterizations of their own reporting. ABC News insisted it never said the memo was distributed by Senate Republicans even though Kate Snow said just that. Allen repeatedly denied that he reported the memo was distributed by GOP "party leaders" even though a widely-published article carrying his byline said just that . After this blog and others pointed out the discrepancy, Allen himself requested that his initial claim be retracted .Post editors, however, concluded that a retraction was not warranted.

Well, now we know the truth. Thanks to the Associated Press, with the Washington Post bringing up the rear. And, gee, it only took 18 days to nail down a story that differs in key respects from what Snow and Allen reported on March 19 without adequate substantiation.

(Emphasis added.)

Ah, the pesky truth! The left just wants to gloat that many of us were convinced the memo was some sort of Democrat dirty trick, and got it wrong, while ignoring the fact that what we were really chasing all along was, in fact, accountability on the part of the mainstream press! Don't believe me? Go back and read, and don't just see what it is you want to see, read it all!

Michelle Malkin also has a second related Thursday post, The Schiavo Memo: GOP Cover-Ups? in which she asks tough questions about the false leads given to In the Agora's Joshua Claybourn about 2 weeks ago. But, I guess the left still thinks we're being unfair and are all strictly on a VRWC witch hunt here!

From Jim Geraghty at NRO/TKS:

To the credit of the Washington Post’s Mike Allen and the mainstream media reporters who insisted it was a GOP memo, the author was a Republican, Brian Darling, legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida. Darling has since resigned, according to the Washington Post. It does not appear to have been a Democratic dirty trick, as many bloggers speculated.

To the credit of the skeptical bloggers, to say that this memo was authored by ‘party leaders’ is stretching the term beyond recognition. And stating that it was distributed to all GOP senators sounds just wrong, it appears it was just given by Darling to Martinez.

In this blogging world, sometimes you’re going to find a superscript ‘th’. And sometimes you’re going to find a muddier situation, in which a foolish GOP staffer tried to play Karl Rove to the whole party without using spellcheck or checking bill numbers. But I think the bloggers did their job well in this one.

MORE:

Mick Wright at Fishkite: See here, here, here and here.

Joshua Claybourn at In the Agora: See here and here. (That last one is an apology to ABC News!)

RightPundit: See here, here and here.

Will Franklin at WILLisms.com: See here.

LaShawn Barber: See here.

Ankle Biting Pundits: See here.

ALSO:

The Washington Times: Martinez says his staffer produced Schiavo memo

There also appears to be a TON of great material at Ra^thergate.com, but I have already stayed up most of the night to write this update, so I bid you adieu! I must get at least SOME sleep and get back to the pain in the butt reality that is my life!

I may update this further later on if I can find the time...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: WaPo Admits Errors, Refuses to Print Correction!

Howard Kurtz's column in today's edition of the Washington Post, after fawning on and on over the retiring Ted Koppel, features this three paragraph update on the Schiavo Memo Scandal:

The flap about a Washington Post report on an unsigned strategy memo in the Terri Schiavo case, which the paper said was "distributed to Republican senators," isn't going away.

It turns out that The Post's news service put out an early version of the March 20 story -- published by numerous other papers -- that said the talking points, which touted the Schiavo case as a political opportunity, were "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." GOP congressional leaders say they never saw the document, whose author remains unknown. Post reporter Mike Allen, who was unaware the news service had distributed the earlier version, said last week that the paper was careful not to say it was "a Republican memo."

Kate Carlisle, the news service's managing editor, says Allen's report was sent out at 9:07 the night before and "we weren't notified that changes had been made to the story after we got it." Despite criticism from bloggers, and Allen's request for a correction, Carlisle said no correction was warranted. Late Friday, the news service sent out an "advisory" saying: "The version of the article published by the paper did not specify the authorship and noted that the memo was unsigned. The authorship remains unknown." The advisory did not retract the assertion that "party leaders" had given out the memo.

(Emphasis added.)

Yes, you read that correctly! The Washington Post is now admitting that it put out a poorly worded and misleading story that was picked up all over the country by countless publications, broadcasters and other news services and was used repeatedly by Democrats and their allies to bash Republicans... but its own news service's Managing Editor is refusing to print a correction, despite the fact that a reporter whose name is attached to it as a co-author has requested that they do so! Un-be-liev-a-ble!!!

Kurtz also appeared on his weekly online Q&A session earlier today, and, unlike last week (when he dodged the issue entirely), actually took one whole question regarding the matter. He did not, however, say very much:

Ft. Belvior, Va.: Please address the discrepancy between the memo story that appeared in the print edition of the Post, and the version distributed through various wire services with the byline "The Washington Post" instead of a specific reporter. The wire service reports specifically claim the memo was distributed by Republican leaders, which differs significantly from what the Post printed. Thank you.

Howard Kurtz: I address this in my column today. The Washington Post's news service, which sent out an early version of the story, has now moved an advisory correcting some, but not all, of the Post reporters' story that appeared in a number of other newspapers but not in The Washington Post.

Later in the session, there is this interesting little exchange:

Washington, D.C.: I've heard the suggestion from some people that we ought to watch the newspapers very closely this week, as elected officials may try to release stories that they'd like to have buried by coverage of the Pope's death and the appoitment (sic) of a new pope.

How cynical is this? How likely?

Howard Kurtz: Hey, if I were about to plead guilty to something, I'd do it now.

Hmmmmmm......

Let us take you around the blogosphere for reaction.

First stop, Michelle Malkin, who has two posts on the subject so far today. In the first, she notes that at least one of the papers that ran with the WaPo's discredited version of the story, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had already printed a correction this morning:

A Washington Post article about congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo case published March 19 in the Post-Dispatch included a description of a memo asserting that the action could benefit Republicans politically. The article said the memo was "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." A later version of the story did not specify the authorship. The authorship remains unknown.

In the second post, Malkin shares the Kurtz Post column and then opens up her blog for a short time to comments, a rare event (and one can certainly see why with plenty of off-topic meanderings by trolls quite evident throughout the thread).

Next, we check in at Power Line, where John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker writes in a post headlined The Post Explains, Sort of:

So what we and Michelle Malkin wrote last week has now been confirmed. But Ms. Carlisle's position makes no sense at all. How can a correction not be in order? The Post sent out a story that said, in part: "Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue"... The Post now admits that "the authorship [of the memo] remains unknown." So the original story was wrong, and a correction is necessary--not only by the Post, but by every newspaper that ran the incorrect story, and by the many columnists that picked up on the fake story and used it to beat up on the Senate Republicans.

One of Hinderaker's Power Line cohorts, Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson, has a column out today in The Weekly Standard regarding both The Post's and ABC's handling of the memo flap (prior to today's events) that is well-worth reading.

Kevin P. Craver at Ra^thergate.com has two posts of his own today. The first, published before he had seen the latest Kurtz column, has this juicy little tidbit:

People are not making as big a deal over media errors post-Memogate because mistakes, bias and arrogance are exactly what they expect from the mainstream press. Getting it wrong and insisting repeatedly that it’s true fits the average American’s perception of the press like a glove.

(Emphasis by author.)

The second, which came after Kurtz's update, features this morsel of wisdom:

So it appears that pride trumps accuracy at the Post. We’re not asking for a full-page, front-page retraction. Is it really too much to ask for a tiny correction totaling two paragraphs to be nestled in small type in the paper’s corrections section?

Newspapers to this day wonder why people don’t call in anymore to point out errors. The staff of The New York Times wonders who no one bothered to call the newspaper regarding Jayson Blair’s many fabrications. The answer is simple, and now even louder and clearer thanks to Kurtz: What good does it do?

(Emphasis by author.)

Right Pundit checks in pre-Kurtz and post-Kurtz.

Fishkite's latest post is here.

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My earlier posts on this subject are located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Dam Bursts!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Washington Post Gets Snared in a (World-Wide) Web of Lies!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Washington Post Gets Snared in a (World-Wide) Web of Lies!

NOTE: As of 4/4, new updates can now be found HERE.

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GOTCHA!

Michelle Malkin and John Hinderaker are on top of it again, as they and some other blogging sharpshooters catch the Washington Post red-handed in an apparent lie!

On Thursday, in a post labeled "Is the Post Ducking Responsibility?" (scroll down), Power Line's Hinderaker (aka Hindrocket) points out:

... Allen, like ABC News, took the position that it was all a misunderstanding: the Post had never meant to suggest that Republicans authored or distributed the memo, but only that some Republicans had received it. Allen told Kurtz:

"We simply reported that the sheet of paper was distributed to Republican senators and told our readers explicitly that the document was unsigned, making clear it was unofficial. We stuck to what we knew to be true and did not call them talking points or a Republican memo."

A-ha! Not so fast there, my slippery little MSM eel:

Earlier today, we noted that Michelle Malkin has identified a number of newspapers that ran the Washington Post's story on the memo, but in a version that (unlike the one that appeared in the Post itself) explicitly attributed the document to the party's leadership. The key line from these stories was, "The one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, called the debate over Schiavo legislation 'a great political issue' that would appeal to the party's base..."

Hmmm... Where could all those other newspapers have gotten that impression, pray-tell?

Michelle concluded that in all likelihood, the Post had published this version of the story on its wire service, but then revised the story to eliminate the claim that the memo was distributed by Republican leaders before the story ran in the Post the next morning (March 20).

Oh, and where is your proof, Ms. Malkin and Mr. Hinderaker?

This hypothesis seems pretty obviously correct. And it was apparently comfirmed when blogger Jack Risko found this archived version of the Post's article by Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia, dated 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. It includes the discredited language: "A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters."

And, in an update later on in the post:

A reader points out that the Post's original story on the fake memo, which went out, apparently, on March 19, also included this paragraph:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

OUCH! Does the defense have anything to say before the blogosphere pronounces judgment? Maybe, maybe not, just don't expect an apology:

Both the Post and ABC now claim that they never meant to accuse the Republicans of authoring or distributing the notorious memo. But neither has printed a retraction, clarification or correction. The Post has done nothing to correct or retract the version of its story that apparently went out on the evening of March 19. And to our knowledge, not a single one of the dozens of newspapers and other news outlets that printed the false claim that the memo was circulated by the Republican leadership has retracted or corrected that defamatory claim.

[NOTE: Hinderaker also announced he was scheduled to appear Sunday on CNN's "Reliable Sources" with WaPo's Howard Kurtz to discuss the memo flap. Unfortunately, he later posted that he had been cancelled due to the network's anticipated wall-to-wall coverage of the impending death of Pope John Paul II]

Michelle Malkin has already posted two follow-ups to the article linked to above. In the first, entitled Will The Washington Post Please Respond? there is this:

I spoke with the Seattle Times' chief copy editor, Jim Mallery, yesterday. He confirmed that this article was excerpted directly from a Washington Post article distributed by the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service. The statement that the memo was "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders" was in the Post's story. It was not added by a Seattle Times copy editor...

...It's possible that a Post editor or someone at the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service added the phrase "by party leaders" after reporters Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia handed in their story. It's also possible that the phrase was included in the original copy submitted by Allen and Roig-Franzia. So far, Allen has not responded to an e-mail asking him to explain the discrepancy.

Michelle continues:

I suspect that no one at the Post or ABC News still believes the amateurish, unsigned, misspelled memo was circulated by Republican Party leaders. We may never know whether the memo was the handywork of a Republican staffer or a Democrat dirty trickster or an outside interloper, but clearly there is absolutely no evidence that this was a Karl Rove plot.

Nonetheless, the damage has been done. The memo has been cited hundreds of times to support the argument that Republicans' decision to intervene in the Schiavo case was politically motivated. And neither ABC News nor the Post has admitted any wrongdoing.

The Post can continue to mischaracterize its coverage. It can stonewall, perhaps hoping that its critics will get bored and give up. Or it can own up to its errors.

In her second follow-up, The Washington Post Screws Up Again, Michelle catches another Post big-shot, Chief Political Correspondent Terry Neal, fudging the facts in an online Q&A session!

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus, a rare voice of sanity at the decidedly left-tilted Slate, comments on the matter (scroll down to "Who Is 'Mike Allen'?") [via Michelle Malkin]

So does TKS/NRO's Jim Geraghty.

Ra^thergate.com's Kevin P. Craver publishes an open letter to the Washington Post that begins:

Dear Mr. Allen, Mr. Getler and Mr. Kurtz:

For the record, I do not think that The Washington Post had the intentional goal of bamboozling the public with its coverage of the "talking points memo" that appears to be a fraud. Regardless, the Post is guilty of two cardinal journalistic sins, namely printing wrong information and not promptly correcting it. Both need to be addressed immediately.

It also includes this passage:

As a journalist and a blogger, I know that the media's job is to present the facts without fear or favor. The GOP has wrongly taken a public relations black eye for something that was not their doing, and the fault lies squarely with the Post and ABC News, which also has done nothing to retract GOP authorship of the memo.

And concludes with this warning:

If no correction is to be run, the blogosphere will do it for you, and the fragile credibility of the mainstream media will show yet another crack.

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4/2 UPDATE:

Ra^thergate.com checks in regarding the Terry Neal Q&A. An excerpt:

"If there is proof that the Republican leadership did NOT distribute this memo, then yes, Reuters should issue a correction. And yes, washingtonpost.com, I would think, would note in the corrections area that Reuters incorrectly reported that fact. But I still don’t think there’s proof that some in the GOP leadership did not pass the memo around." [Terry Neal]

Didn’t we hear this crap during Memogate? This kind of attitude makes good journalists throw up. So it’s up to the GOP to prove that they DIDN’T write and distribute this memo? So it’s up to anyone wronged by an MSM error to prove themselves innocent? In short, it’s up to the public to do for free what Washington Post journalists are paid to do?

Boy, I’d like to punch my old editors in the teeth right now. All these years, they had me do all this extra work to be able to back up my stories, when checking my facts was in reality the responsibility of the people and government officials I was writing about.

Meanwhile, both Michelle Malkin and Ra^thergate.com suggest we send along some more questions about the memo scandal for Howard Kurtz, for his next online Q&A, seeing as how he ducked them last week. Any bets as to whether or not he will take a few of them this time around?

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My earlier posts on this subject are located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Dam Bursts!

In Memorium...

Let us pause for a moment to remember a great man, Pope John Paul II, who is, by all accounts, at death's door, and, of course, Terri Schiavo, who passed away on Thursday.

May God grant you peace in the next life and comfort all who mourn your loss in this world. Amen.

What a sad week this has been.