Suspicious Obfuscation of the Passport Breach

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Friday March 21, 2008 · 5:41 PM PDT

2008/03/21 · 17:41

Now the headlines have shifted: not just Obama's, but all three candidates' passport files were breached. This makes it sound less like political dirty tricks, so they say:

Because the unauthorized intrusions involved all three major presidential candidates, and involved employees at more than one contracting company, State Department investigators at this stage believe the incidents are the product of "curiosity" on the part of contractors' employees, rather than some kind of political dirty trick.

That sounds reasonable, and is probably why they released the information about Clinton's and McCain's passport file breaches. If people were looking at all three files, well, then it's not partisan, right? Except....

BlogD

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Wednesday May 16, 2007 · 7:26 PM PDT

2007/05/16 · 19:26

Texas Governor George W. Bush, June 23, 2000, blaming the Clinton administration for high gas prices because they were in office for seven years and gas prices were rising:

There seems to be an effort out of Washington to blame me for rising energy prices. And the American people don't buy that. It's the -- Clinton-Gore administration's been there for seven years, we're more dependent now than ever before on energy from foreign sources. And I am amazed that they're trying to shift the blame away from the people that are holding the office. And I resent that kind of politics, and so will the American people. ... And this is typical of an administration that refuses to accept responsibility. This is amazing. They've been in office for seven years, the price of gasoline has gone up during their period of time.

The price of gas that very week: $1.68 per gallon.

BlogD

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Thursday May 10, 2007 · 7:09 AM PDT

2007/05/10 · 07:09

Truth be told, I'm not a fan of Al Sharpton, and never really was since I fist heard of him in relation to the Tawana Brawley case. I don't dislike the guy that much, but I'm certainly no follower, and have little reason to defend the guy. And if I thought that Sharpton really had said something to the effect that Romney or Mormons in general did not "really believe in God," I would be alongside the people condemning him for the remark. I certainly do not feel that Christians are always respectful of people with differing beliefs, and would have little trouble believing that one mainstream Christian said that about a Mormon. If Sharpton had a history of bigoted statements, towards Mormons or any other religious group, I would also be suspicious of what he said recently.

The thing is, I don't think the claim holds up that Sharpton was talking about Mormons. And it is surprising even to me--a cynic when it comes to the media--that the whole context of the statement is being excluded.

BlogD

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Saturday April 28, 2007 · 3:07 PM PDT

2007/04/28 · 15:07

Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution "loyalty oath." --Source

I think I understand conservatives now. I mean, just look at it. Newt Gingrich attacks Bill Clinton for having an affair while Newt Gingrich is having an affair. Most of the family-values Republicans have had multiple divorces where they committed adultery. Any number of anti-gay religious leaders, like Ted Haggard, have turned out to be gay. Bush condemns Democrats for delaying soldiers' return home, and the next day his administration extends tours of duty from 12 months to 15 months.

Isn't it obvious? When conservatives say something is bad, when they attack someone for doing something they see as wrong, it's because they are doing it. It's guilt talking. When conservatives do something they see as immoral, they feel the need to assign that guilt. Unable to take responsibility for what they see as their own shortcomings, they assign the blame and guilt to others.

BlogD

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Tuesday April 24, 2007 · 9:52 PM PDT

2007/04/24 · 21:52

They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
--Jackson Browne, Lives in the Balance

There is a story out today about how not only the Tillman family is outraged by how the military lied about the death of their son and used it as a propaganda tool, but Jessica Lynch is also indignant about how the leadership of the armed forces lied about her own experiences, making her out to be a "Rambo GI Jane" and using the incident as a media event. I blogged on the Lynch story back in 2003, and on the Tillman story in 2005, so I don't need to recount the facts here. But I wanted to comment on the underlying theme behind these fabrications.

BlogD

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Monday April 02, 2007 · 7:09 AM PDT

2007/04/02 · 07:09

After writing a blog post on McCain's bizarrely ludicrous visit to Baghdad, I was reminded of something I'd read a few months back: a letter from a U.S. Marine to his friends and family back home. In the letter, the Marine wrote down a list of "Most" this-or-thats in his experiences in Iraq. One of them:

Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

And something struck me about McCain's PR visit to Baghdad that should have occurred to everyone but clearly hasn't: that McCain's visit was not only a purely political showcase, but as a result has distracted our troops from their real work and possibly even put them in danger.

BlogD

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Thursday January 25, 2007 · 6:56 PM PST

2007/01/25 · 18:56

Conservatives in Congress, and one imagines the White House as well, continue to fear the Minimum Wage Increase as if it were the Harbinger from Hell.

The beef seems to be that minimum wage hikes hurt small business, cause bankruptcies, lose jobs, and probably cause high cholesterol. But the whole objection is disingenuous, because it only looks at an immediate snapshot and ignores the long passage of time between wage hikes when businesses reap a huge dividend.

BlogD

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Wednesday January 10, 2007 · 6:09 PM PST

2007/01/10 · 18:09

One of the problems in dealing with public perception of the Iraq War is not so much the distance time puts between people and past events, but more the constant stream of disinformation and spin from supporters of the war, most notably from within the administration--the constant drumbeat of false hope of victory, and the savage attacks against protesters, characterizing them as cut-and-run cowards who will "lose" the war. With the razzle-dazzle of White House PR, it's easy to lose sight of what is really going on and what really matters.

But perhaps more than anything else, the inability to internalize what is happening keeps people from seeing the obviously correct path. War casualties are just statistics which pale in the shadow of buzzwords and hype; responsibility for past errors and the knowledge that they will likely happen again fade quickly in the noise of current events. Since it is hard to keep all of what has happened in focus and perspective, I thought it would be helpful to create a situational analogy for what has happened, what is happening, and what will probably happen.

BlogD

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Friday September 08, 2006 · 5:23 PM PDT

2006/09/08 · 17:23

It just occurred to me: there might be one unique source of pressure to make Disney decide to yank "Path to 9/11" from TV: Apple.

Consider: Steve Jobs recently joined Disney's board, as a powerful new force. Jobs has never been outwardly political, to my knowledge at least, and seems to be more focused on business. But on September 12, just one day after the controversial movie is supposed to be broadcast, Apple is expected to make a very important announcement about a new movie download service--and it is expected that Disney will be their primary, if not their only, initial source of media.

This could be a huge turning point for Apple, a very important event, and for their major partner to be disgraced in a media scandal the day before the unveiling--well, Jobs might very well want to avoid that. And that could very well lead to pressure on Iger to do the right thing--or at least the right thing for good business.

Moralities

BlogD

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Friday August 11, 2006 · 2:22 AM PDT

2006/08/11 · 02:22

Watching the most recent installment of 30 Days, in which an atheist lives in a religious family and community for the requisite amount of time, I heard statements from Christians that I've heard many times before: if not the Bible or the Ten Commandments, what is the basis of your morality? To many Christians, there can be no other basis; without the morality given by God, a person can believe they have morality, but it is only an illusion. For example:

"It is true that some people who are irreligious can live seemingly decent lives, but when they do, they merely borrow from Christian ethics."

I am not a Christian. I am agnostic, sometimes with leanings toward a personal spiritualism resembling Deism. But I most certainly did not derive my morality from Christianity. Am I fooling myself? Am I really an immoral person? I don't think so. What, then, is my basis for morality?
Read More

The Coulter Tome, Edited for Realism

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Saturday July 08, 2006 · 9:36 PM PDT

2006/07/08 · 21:36

I cooked this up in PhotoShop this morning, just for fun. If you display it elsewhere, please DO NOT HOTLINK to the image. Download it and host the image yourself if you must, or link to this post or the one on my blog; please cite the source (lest you be guilty of great irony).

I had to figure that someone would do this mock-up at some point. It is, after all, pretty much self-evident. Oh, and by the way, I have a habit of switching out images on hotlinkers! He who hosts the image, controls the image. Fair warning.

Malkin Has Never Read the Travel Section, Apparently

BlogD

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Tuesday July 04, 2006 · 5:58 AM PDT

2006/07/04 · 05:58

Michelle Malkin now 'allows' that there was no threat from the NYT printing the story. But she persists in seeing a threat. Her reasoning: what other possible reason could there have been to run the story? In her words:

Why? What news value and journalistic end was served by publishing the Cheney/Rumsfeld vacation home piece and the accompanying photo? "Because Rumsfeld gave permission" may cut it with the moonbats and fairweather privocrats. Not with me.

Has this woman never read a newspaper in her life? More likely, she knows that newspapers sometimes print pieces in the Travel section that highlight the homes of famous people. It happens all the time. But Malkin refuses to acknowledge the possibility, instead seeing a ruthless scheme to terrify and intimidate people like Rumsfeld and Cheney... Read More

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Suspicious Obfuscation of the Passport Breach

Bush: Seven Years in Office = Blame for High Gas Prices

Sharpton and Context

Now I Get It

Democracy in the Balance

The McCain Hassle

Minimum Wage: The Whole Picture

Iraq on Fire

Jobs, Apple, Disney, and "Path to 9/11"

Moralities

The Coulter Tome, Edited for Realism

Malkin Has Never Read the Travel Section, Apparently