Go with the Frenchman, honey
How can such a nice lady be married to such an idiot? Tell me it's not the poetry. And according to this salon.com story, "the French favor long-term affairs -- and French women over 50 have a lot more sex." I'll have to keep that thought in my own 5-10-year plans.

8:47:58 PM      trackback [] 

8:14:47 PM      trackback [] 

The Man Behind the Curtain
The cover story in the latest U.S. News says Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president in history, and asks the rhetorical question "Is that good?" At least they're beginning to ask the right questions.

7:59:22 PM      trackback [] 

BoggerCon webcast update
The webcast seems to be coming in better now - click here to launch it. Just catching the end of Christopher Lydon and Cluetrain 2003. The Weblogs in Presidential Politics segment starts at 3:30pm (eastern).

There are rumors that the webcast will be available to listen to later. I hope that's true because it sounds like I missed some good stuff.

3:12:22 PM      trackback [] 

"Washington's Sour Sales Pitch"
Following up on my post about Arab/Muslim' negative attitudes towards the US and whether PR is a viable solution... There's an interesting article in the NY Times today with a litany of our failed, offensive and expensive PR efforts. The author concludes with a few suggestions.

12:48:06 PM      trackback [] 

Media culpability: lessons from Watergate

More on the role of the media in why so many Americans were misinformed about Iraq – and how they could do a better job… (See also this discussion at Eschaton.) I just read an article in the Washington Monthly that looks at the behavior of the Washington press core through a review of two recent books on Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein aside:

“Most of the high-profile Washington correspondents reverted to pack journalism during Watergate's climactic months… Even during its heyday, then, the press corps showed itself capable of--if not structurally hard-wired for--the kind of collective prosecutorial mentality that frequently substitutes for tough-minded investigation.”

And this:

“Esteemed veterans--and certified Nixon critics--including Joseph Kraft, Peter Lisagor, John Osborne, Harry Reasoner, and Daniel Schorr recoiled at how reporters who had missed the story in 1972 overcompensated in 1973. Osborne, The New Republic's revered correspondent, likened his peers to 'dogs who have scented blood and are running the fox right down to his death.'"

I see some parallels here in the media not doing its job before the war in scrutinizing the Bush administration’s case for war, in not drawing enough distinction between 9/11 and Iraq, the “swarm” mentality in the hype up to and during the war, and now the pack turning perhaps en masse against the administration.

Watergate players chime in

Salon.com has two articles featuring Watergate-era figures weighing in on the current Plame/CIA scandal. John Dean exhorts Wilson and Plame to file a civil suit, giving them power to subpoena and get sworn testimony, which he says is “one of the hidden keys to Watergate.” And there’s a very interesting interview with Daniel Ellsberg, who sees parallels in the coverup:

“[White House spokesman Scott] McClellan says the president knows that Rove has no involvement. That statement is going to be declared inoperative. At the very least, Rove was clearly involved in calling people up and saying Valerie Plame is fair game... One leak, even of an undercover agent, is not going to look like an impeachable offense, but the lies and obstruction of justice going on now, that stuff is going to come out, and that stuff is going to look impeachable.”

John Dean says the Bush administration is more vicious than Nixon’s. Ellsberg’s take:

“In terms of the administration, this gang is really different in degree. All administrations lie and others have gotten us into wrongful wars. They haven't invented that stuff. But in terms of their antipathy to democracy, they're unusual.”

12:11:57 PM      trackback [] 

BloggerCon webcast a bust for me
I don't know if anyone else was able to connect to the BloggerCon webcast.  I could sorta view it and sorta hear some of it when the audio wasn't scrambled...  Could be my setup, although I updated my RealOne Player this morning and it seemed to be working fine.  Or network traffic caused the trouble, or maybe they had tech problems at the conference - I noticed they didn't even get it set up for a good 45 minutes after the conference started.  I'm not sure the technology is all there yet or more of us would be watching TV from our desktops -- looks like there were similar problems trying to webcast the Victoria's Secret fashion show in February.  Although somehow I doubt BloggerCon had quite so many people trying to tune in!

9:53:01 AM      trackback []