He defends Rather based on the fact that people treated him as guilty until proven innocent. Well, we know the docs were forged and he was the public face behind them. What do you expect? Whe it turned out some alleged claims about Iraqi WMD weren't apparently true Bush got blamed, despite the fact he obviously didn't sit in the CIA vetting the intel himself. It's a fact of life, if you are in charge, you are responsible. But let's skip past all that because that's not what I want to focus on.

O'Reilly claims "Because of a ruthless and callow media, no citizen, much less one who achieves fame, is given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to allegations or personal attacks." but then goes on to say "Right-wing talk radio in particular pounded Kerry and also bludgeoned Dan Rather for his role in another smear incident - the charges against President Bush about his National Guard service. Again, Rather was found guilty without a fair hearing."

Isn't it odd that a person very much a part of the ruthless and callow media is now being victimized by the ruthless and callow media? Rather is as much responsible for the nature of the bottom feeding media as the next guy. He has the position and clout to take the high road in journalism and could have made many attempts to not be that which supposedly victimized him. (He could also have tried a thing we like to call, objectivity, but that's another story). In short, he was one of the maids that made the bed here, now he's complaining about lseeping in it. He may not have vetted the evidence in the Bush Guard story, but it was the 5th or 6th time it was run and he surely knew it was a hit piece. What he DID do was choose one hit piece (the Bush Guard story) over another (the Swift Vets).

He fell victim when karma brought it right back around at him. He may or may not have been directly responsible for the story. Doesn't matter. He is responsible for the system that turned around and burned him when he made a misstep. Does it make him unfairly smeared? Maybe. Does it mean he's innocent? Hardly.

O'Reilly's article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/257225p-220135c.html

I'm sure other bloggers have commented, but I haven't checked RSS feeds yet so missing hat tips is unintentional.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: DI.fm Vocal Trance

We know the story. Massachussettes "found" a right to gay marriage in their Constitution by apparently using a weegee (yes, it's grossly mispelled but sorry, I don't keep up with pagan practices to know correct spelling, I've never seen it in print to remember) board. The Supreme Court declined to overturn that truly idiotic ruling. I'm not quite sure how to take this. There tends to be a large deal of defference given to state supreme courts where the Supreme Court tends not to even hear, much less overturn, appeals from the state courts. (This leads to the obvious question of why we have the appealate jurisdiction to begin with.) It could be the Gore vs Bush case that still has them shell-shocked about even touching state cases, or (and what I tend to think may be the case) is something more pragmatic. They know the issue is a political hot potato and they also know in 2006 (assuming all goes well) that Massachussettes will be voting on their own amendment which would hopefully nullify the issue. I hope they are just going to stall and let democracy work it out (you know, like they should have done with Roe V Wade).

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Don't Leave Me Now-Pink Floyd-The Wall (Disc 1)

Iran is funding suicide bombers, here and doesn't seem to be that widely reported. In a nutshell, some high up officials in Iran are involved with recruiting, training, and sending suicide bombers into Iraq and Israel. This should be more widely known because if and when we go into there, it ought to be known they started this fight, not us. (Threats of nuking us notwithstanding).

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: so happy-bitstream dream

Backcountry Conservative writes that reporters have reviewed ballots in Florida and found not conspiracy. This directly contradicts these scholars who from their ivory towers in California have claimed vote fraud in Florida.

Nice try guys... do come again.

Hat tip:
Backcountry Conservative

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Peacemaker-Máire Brennan-Whisper to the Wild Water

Speculation is buzzing with Rehnquist not returning to the court while he is recovering at home. The one thing that will be interesting to see is if and when he does retire (and I think he probably will after the inauguration) whether the Dems will fillibuster a replacement. If Rehnquist is replaced with a like-minded judge, the makeup of the court stays the same. On one level, I hope they will because I imagine it will be seen as a last stray and the needed political capital to reform the fillibuster rules to write the Dems out of the process. Think about it, what does a conservative replacement of Rehnquist do? About nothing, so why fight it? Because they can? I'm curious to see what they'll do. It'll be another test to see if they are really going to play the game intelligently, or if they are going to continue the same pattern that leads to them losing elections. At least if they let the Rehnquist replacement slide they can pretend to tell votes they were being cooperative in the end. The question is, are they smart and detached enough to figure it out.

Hat Tip:
Blogs for Bush

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Hey You-Pink Floyd-The Wall (Disc 2)

For new bloggers out there, I refer you to the New Blog Showcase that as the name implies, showcases new bloggers out there and some of their content. If you are new and looking to try to get more widely read... head on over there.

A good read at National Review on Adoption. I particularly like the one about teenagers. :)

Can someone tell me why Fedora's up2date is not smart enough to check for mirrors that are at least on the same continent as you are before starting downloads?

Blah.

I'm sure there is a configuration file somewhere.

I'm just lazy.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: DI.fm Vocal Trance

Blogs for Bush has this on a NYPost article suggesting Congress may cut UN funding to encourage reform in the organization. Well, it's about time guys. How many scandals between Oil-for-Food and rape in the Congo will it take to spur these guys into action?

The UN is accountable to no one, it is no wonder its corrupt. It's time to reform to shed some light into this massive and ineffective bureaucracy.

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: DI.fm Vocal Trance

Rightwingsparkle has this on an ABC news article that talks about evangelical Christians and voting. Specifically it talked to Coral Ridge Ministries, a not small outfit out of Florida, where they are quoted as saying some pretty silly things. I get their e-mails from time to time because I managed to get on their e-mail list albeit, I'm not presbyterian and never have been. Ironically, my father-in-law was at one point and some of my wife's family still is (though I got on this email list long before I met, much less married, my wife).

I'm not precisely convinced that Kennedy said "I couldn't care less. It's true." in the context in which the ABC guy says he did. I've seen this kind of stuff a lot where a reporter will pick on a mainstream religious figure, ask a bunch of questions 30 different ways and manage to extract some soundbite he can use as a bludgeon. I think that's the case here.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: DI.fm Vocal Trance

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fsecurity%2Fnews%2Fmeldung%2F53734&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

Ok, this is technogeek time, and I'm not broken up in the least that this happened to SCO. Apparently being a litigious bastard has consequences afterall.

Diplomad has this article, Mine Furor, on the ongoing controversy about the US not signing on to the Landmine treaty. It expands on what I've always thought and said, that the US isn't a problem in this regard and that we shouldn't sign treaties just because they are pretty. Diplomad takes this analysis much farther stating that we give large sums of money to mine removal efforts and don't spend out time eporting large amount of mines like such other stalwarts of human rights do (like China).

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: DI.fm Vocal Trance