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October 26, 2004

Gee, I'm Glad There Are No Liberal Equivalents of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group

CBSNews and 60 Minutes forge ahead with their illegal coordination with the DNC, planning to run the fake "missing explosives" story 24 hours before the election.

But remember, it was very, very bad for the Sinclair group to show 4 minutes of anti-Kerry footage. Because, you know, they didn't have the proper "news judgment" that might have informed them that the media is allowed to be partisan, but only in favor of liberals.

If you don't vote, Dan Rather wins.

Please don't let him win.

UPDATE! Corrected Link! Were These Documents Even Real? Garfield Ridge has his doubts:

A "government source" is quoted in The Corner suggesting that it may be. They call the memo a "false letter."
Now, I'm unsure whether this person is accusing El Baradei of writing a false memo in his IAEA report to the U.N. Security Council, or if the original memo El Baradei allegedly received from the Iraqi Ministry of Science & Technology is false.

Obviously, if the original Iraqi memo is false, so is the story. Then again, we already know the story is false-- but what do the memos say?

How, um, shocked would you be if it were turn out 60 Minutes were relying on cheap forgeries for another Bush-bashing bit of illegal coordination with the DNC?

And... CBS' attempt at illegal coordination with the DNC apparently lost it its scoop.

Which, actually, sort of turns out to work in their favor, since the story was a sham from the start.

posted by Ace at 11:55 AM

Comments

Oct. 25th front page of New York Times:

"HUGE CACHE OF EXPLOSIVES VANISHED FROM SITE IN IRAQ:
U.S. admits the loss of material it was urged to safeguard -- Inquiry is set"

Oct. 26th front page of New York Times:

"IRAQ EXPLOSIVES BECOME ISSUE IN CAMPAIGN
Kerry sees blunder -- Bush aides respond"

No mention of other, shall we say, nuanced developments.

By the way, thanks for all the traffic. I'd reciprocate, but I think most of my 15 readers already read you.

Posted by: ken on October 26, 2004 12:05 PM

I notice that ABC News has expanded the quantity of missing explosives to 400 tons. Hey, whats 40 tons of explosives when you have a hot story?

Perhaps from now on organizations like 60 Minutes should carry an identifying letter like politicians and fun Puritan women. Like so:
CBS News (D)

Posted by: Eric Pobirs on October 26, 2004 12:32 PM

Ace, I know that you're suffering from typing fatigue and are typing faster than you are thinking, but you need to fix a few aggravating typos.

On your left-hand Lede, please insert the word "of";

and in this current post's headline you need to put "there" there instead of their.

Geeze, Ace, you NEVER need a grammar nanny, are you outsorcing your typing? Not to worry, I've got your six.

Wait! I know a bunch of grammar police! Shall I get the Banterist to cite your site and send some web hits your way?

:o)

Posted by: Joan of Argghh! on October 26, 2004 12:53 PM

CBS was planning to air this in the eve of the election. Does this mean it's the "hottest" stuff they have on the President?!? If so, that's just lame.

Posted by: madne0 on October 26, 2004 01:04 PM

Another nail in the coffin for CBS. Anyone mind if I gloat?

Posted by: Elisa on October 26, 2004 01:09 PM

PBS is airing a show called "Rumsfield's WAr" TONIGHT From the PBS Website:

Rumsfeld's War
With the United States Army deployed in a dozen hot spots around the world, on constant alert in Afghanistan, and taking casualties every day in Iraq, some current and former officers now say the army is on the verge of being "broken." They charge that the army is overstretched, demoralized, and may be unable to fight where and when the nation desires. This fall, FRONTLINE and The Washington Post join forces for an in-depth assessment of the state of the American army and the nation's military establishment. The program digs into the aggressive attempts to assert civilian control and remake the military by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his allies."

Where is the outrage? Isn't this the "line" now that the libs are pulling - that the military is "broken"- stretched too thin ... and here comes PBS to put it all in perspective for us.

Posted by: on October 26, 2004 01:25 PM

CBS' collective head on a PIKE!
Draw and Quarter NY Times staff!

"Stay on Target!"

The Deathstar is gonna blow Nov 2nd!

Posted by: Iblis on October 26, 2004 01:58 PM

Just a point about securing Iraq:
I am sick of hearing about how we "protected the Iraqi Oil Ministry but didn't bother to secure high explosives!"

Just to explain or make this point - As I have said many times before - Could it be that the President and the Army knew more about what our real enemy/objective was in Iraq?

The weapons were not in the ammo dump when the army got there!

But the Documents that prove the UN was corrupt and was actually paid to be our enemy in this endeavor were still in the oil ministry! Got that! Without those we wouldn't have proof as to why they blocked us - why they stopped our entry through Turkey, which would have freed up our troops to stay behind and guard an empty ammo dump!

We wouldn't have been able to confront them (which I believe will happen in Bush's second term) and cause a real alliance against terror!

Folks, our real enemies in this matter are spinning this and Kerry and the Main Stream Media is helping them just so they can take over power. But what kind of power will they have at the end of this? We will be lucky to have the "spitballs" Zell Miller discussed at the RNC!
DKK

Posted by: LifeTrek on October 26, 2004 02:08 PM

Ace--

Your link to my site is bad.

I wouldn't normally mention, but I eat site links for fuel.

If my Sitemeter doesn't go up, I could go into a coma.

As Dr. House says, YOU'RE RISKING THE PATIENT'S LIFE!!

Cheers,
Dave

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on October 26, 2004 02:28 PM

Mucho gracias, and Tierra Del Fuego.

Cheers,
Dave

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on October 26, 2004 03:12 PM

I read on Amy Ritenour's site that on 11/01/04, Sundance will air (4) hit piece's on President Bush and his administration starting at 7:00 pm.

The first one's actually a cry piece about the 2000 elections.

The second one is "The Whole Truth About Iraq".

Three is "The War On Our Civil Liberties". Yeah, I really feel oppressed under dictator Bush.

Then they round it out with "Bush's Brain" which is actually about Karl Rove.

After all of that they'll serve up a wise-ass Al Franken as a sort of "cool down" sedative for all of the liberal democratic audience who had become so angry at watching the Bush bash that they'd began foaming at the mouth like a rabid liberal democrat is becoming known for.

Posted by: Gary B. on October 27, 2004 12:23 AM

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What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."

Batman fires The Batman
Batman is disgusted by the Joachim Phoenix version of Joker
Batman tries to fire Superman
Batman is still workshopping his Bat-Voice

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
Or no way at all

Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

Sec. Army recognizes ODU Army ROTC cadets for their bravery and sacrifice in private ceremony
[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

TJM gives you a brief tour of his movie collection.

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine

US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.

Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel Who Probed Trump, Dies

“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”

TJM has thoughts on Superheros and Iconography

Canadian School Designates Cafeteria And Lunchroom As "No Food Zones" For Ramadan
Canada and the UK are neck and neck in the race to become the first western country to fall to Islam [CBD]

Chuck Norris, Action Icon and 'Walker Texas Ranger' Star, Dies at 86

Podcast: Sefton and CBD have a short chat about Iran, the disgusting SAVE Act theater, Mamdani's politicizing of St. Patrick's Day, and more!

Official confirmation from the Joint Chiefs of Staff: the Warthog is now strafing Iranian fast attack boats