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2/2/2006; 1:34:05
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| NYT Endorses Kerry for President: |
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"There is no denying that this race is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure. Nearly four years ago, after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency, Mr. Bush came into office amid popular expectation that he would acknowledge his lack of a mandate by sticking close to the center. Instead, he turned the government over to the radical right."
"We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better." -- New York Times 17 Oct, 2004
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| Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences: |
'This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list.'
-U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, Feb. 12, 2003
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| On the road to losing the peace : |
'It was bad enough for the U.S. to have endured the intelligence failures that led to Sept. 11; it's another thing to know that 18 months, billions of dollars and untold numbers of bombs later that Osama bin Laden and most of his top advisers remain on the loose. This failure ought to be thrown daily in Mr. Bush's face, but he has diverted attention to Iraq, where the United States is about to make a mistake of historic proportions.'
-Jeffrey Simpson in The Globe and Mail, 18 Feb 2003
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 Monday, 15 April 2002
 < 7:10:39 PM>.
Media O.D.. Todd Gitlin talks about media overload, the cluelessness of the TV networks, the Washington Post's love for Ken Starr and why conservative viewpoints thrive on TV and radio. [Salon.com] 'I've been realizing that during the year 1998, when bin Laden walked into national life by organizing the massacre at the two embassies in Africa, obviously that was a news story, but it pretty much came and went, while of course, the big story was Monica and Bill.'
Lots of good stuff in here. A friend and I were talking about this recently. I feel like I'm out of touch with this. I don't watch much tv other than specialty channels with arts programming and films or CB news. I get a lot of my news from online sources, including weblogs. And because I can push back, think out loud, via my weblog, I forget that many people just absorb their media.
Why is that a problem? There are many reasons, of course. Here's one: 'This is a message from a Fox News senior vice president to staff, dated November 28, 2001:
"Let's not get sidetracked worrying about the plight of Afghans this winter, or how many children are undernourished. We can help that country as soon as they cough up the guys who killed 5,000 Americans. When in doubt, take a look at the WTC collapsing." '
< 12:44:29 AM>.
Cultural Salvage in Wake of Afghan War. An effort to preserve what is left of Afghanistan's ravaged cultural heritage has begun, slowly and tentatively. By Celestine Bohlen. [New York Times: Arts]
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