today the dean of the press corps, ms helen thomas has lost her front row seat.

The press corps is scheduled to move from temporary facilities back into the spiffed-up, rewired briefing room in May or June. Thomas, who has been questioning presidents and press secretaries for 46 years, plans to be there. But her front-row seat won’t be. Plans call for her to be moved to the second row to make room for a cable news channel..

“I didn’t think I had a monopoly on that seat,” Thomas, 86, said in a telephone interview. “Since my peers have decided that I don’t belong there, I’ll bow to their – I’ll drink the – What did Socrates drink?” Hemlock? “I’ll drink it,” she said. “You have to submit to the will of the people, and apparently this is the will of my peers. It’s OK with me. I’ve had a good run in the front seat.”

this is wrong on so many levels. and everyone knows it.

shame on all of them and those at fault for the heist of this great lady's chair.

"Late word this evening from NBC Chief White House correspondent David Gregory, that President Bush has given new chief of staff, Josh Bolton 'free hands to bring new blood into the West Wing'.

And David tells us among the many changes that Josh Bolton is said to be considering tonight, changing out the press secretary, Scott McClellan and perhaps even the Secretary of Treasury John Snow"

Links up when they become available.. more to come.

(And this is not an April Fool's anything. You know I wouldn't do that..)

Literally, around the world her words are spreading with pictures like the one above, photographed in Crawford by the AP's Scott Applewhite.

Here is the AP version
Here is the Reuters version

From the top story on Yahoo News to the front page of CNN, on to the British + Australian press and (more importantly) to countless small town America daily papers, her voice of reason and mother's passion is being heard.

Every minute, websites are updating and adding her story to their rosters:

Google is keeping count here.

This is a very big development on the media front in bringing the real implications of the Iraq war home to Americans, and reaching them regardless of political party.

Cindy Sheehan has done it. She has planted a seed in a way that no one in this reality based anti-war movement has been able to do:

She made the media take notice, listen and write her a great story.

And there is no turning back now.

after searching through the last 2 years of press briefings with mcclellan, in relation to the CIA investigation into the outing of valerie plame, i believe that this is the first time the word treason has been brought up in the white house press briefing room.

one question is.. will the networks follow the print journalists' lead and start asking questions using the language that this story deserves ? or are they close to the end of their short leashes already ?

No lavish state funerals, no pictures of honor guards awaiting the caskets, no live coverage of the night and day arrivals at Dover on televison. Only the local paper covers their final passage home.

Mr. Rumsfeld cannot hide our war dead forever. Township by township, county by county, small town and big city America are seeing the caskets. They read their names, they see their faces, they feel the grief of another neighbor's child lost.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney cannot pretend anymore that our Country isn't grieving, It is grieving and honoring and worrying and questioning the reasons for 1700 American dead.

hey everybody.. get ready to cover your heads.
bush's approval rating is at an all time low.  
orange alert could come anytime now...

my (little) 3am summary of the new AP poll:

45%  support bush's foreign policy
35%  think the country is going in the right direction
37%  approve of bush's handling of social security
43%  support bush's handing of economy

magic number : bush's happy face rating :) is 41% - a new low

in other words:

55% do not support bush's foreign policy
65% think the country is going in the wrong direction
59% do not approve of bush's handling of social security
57% do not support bush's handling of economy

magic number : bush's sad face rating :( is 59% - a new high

Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Lourey, son of State Senator Becky Lourey, was killed yesterday when his helicopter was shot down in central Iraq. It was his 2nd tour of duty in Iraq, where he flew helicopters with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Via EditorandPublisher.Com and Yahoo top stories:

gannon hits the wire

and

the boston globe's story

just a few good lines :

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
NEW YORK

Who is Jeff Gannon?

..Gannon, the White House correspondent for Talon News, a pro-conservative Web site linked to GOPUSA.com, has drawn attention recently among those who cover the president for what many consider to be an especially partisan approach. He is known for inserting blatantly pro-Bush statements in his inquiries at televised press briefings...

..GOPUSA.com and TalonNews.com both have ties to the Texas Republican Party, according to a report today in The Boston Globe. Gannon "has virtually no journalistic background ... and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website," the Globe charged.  

 Gannon would not reveal his age and was vague about his educational background. He said he had been writing for Talon News for two years.

Tonight, the first senator that President Bush embraced after the State of the Union speech ("hugged and kissed" according to Peter Jennings on ABC) was Senator Joe Lieberman.

More often than not, Sen Lieberman is a Republican. I think he loves it ! Is it just me ? Or is this not a problem ?

And what if anything can we do to get a real Democrat in his seat?

Just one example of late:

Sen. Lieberman this week on Fox news (of course) talking about the Iraqi vote:

 "The point is that we are there and we should all come together." "Classic liberals oughta be thrilled. I wish there was less carping and more unity."

A "Compassionate Conservative" ? "Promoting a culture of life in America ....because every life counts" ?

Very simply, it doesn't seem so urgent when no oil is involved does it? Those people drowning over there just work in our Walmart sweatshops.

Today's White House Press Gaggle by Trent Duffy  

 Q     Besides getting his morning briefing, what else is the President doing?  

 MR. DUFFY:  The President is continuing to think about the Inauguration and the State of the Union speech; he's clearing some brush this morning; I think he has some friends coming in either today or tomorrow that he enjoys hosting; he's doing some biking and exercising as he normally does, taking walks with the First Lady; and thinking about what he wants to accomplish in the second term. White House Gaggle