Friday, February 20, 2004

Great link. One more conspiracy to the mix. Just because there's more than doesn't mean there aren't any. Why am I not calling for a boycott of these folks? Simple. George Steinbrenner is a private citizen. He has no obligation to be impartial, and every right to lobby and spin for who so ever he chooses. Diane Sawyer is a member of the press, and operates under color of journalistic ethics, which require approximate impartiality if a message is presented under the heading of "News", rather than "Opinion". She violated her obligations and ethics by spin-doctoring where she is explicitly prohibited by the ethics of her profession from doing so. George Steinbrenner didn't. Jones and Gephardt, however, clearly violated the election laws, and should be fined. Really, willful violation of election laws should be a major criminal offense. They wouldn't have dared do this if the penalty were major jail time, instead of trivial fines. 4:27:52 PM    comment []

correction As Theo Levine pointed out, I had momentarily confused Diane Sawyer with Donna Hanover vis-a-vis her relationship to Rudolph Giuliani. All the other points I made remain valid. Thanks, Theo. 3:51:49 PM    comment []

Just to ad to my point concerning so-called impartiality, here is Diane Sawyer's Official Bio page. Note here political origins near the bottom of the page. BTW, if it looks like a conspiracy, talks like a conspiracy, and and smells like a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy. Conspiracy Con*spir"a*cy, n.; pl. Conspiracies. [See Conspiration.] 1. A combination of men for an evil purpose; an agreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, as treason; a plot. When shapen was all his conspiracy From point to point. --Chaucer. They made a conspiracy against [Amaziah]. --2 Kings xiv. 19. I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates. --Shak. 2. A concurence or general tendency, as of circumstances, to one event, as if by agreement. A conspiracy in all heavenly and earthly things. --Sir P. Sidney. 3. (Law) An agreement, manifesting itself in words or deeds, by which two or more persons confederate to do an unlawful act, or to use unlawful to do an act which is lawful; confederacy. Syn: Combination; plot; cabal. ----------------- From WordNet (r) 2.0: conspiracy n 1: a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act [syn: confederacy] 2: a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot) [syn: cabal] 3: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose [syn: confederacy] 3:37:54 PM    comment []

A quick one in response to some valid comments: Howard Dean was declared "unelectable" by Time and Newsweek in the summer of 2003---6 months before the election, when he was also declared the front runner on the basis of his combined polling in iowa and new hampshire (#1 in both) and fundraising (something like 14 million already at that time.) that sounds very electable. he was declared "McGovern" (read as: unelectable) over and over and over again all autumn for absolutely no reason I can discren---none of his policies bore even the faintest resembelance to any of mcgoverns policies at all, he has never declared himslef a pacifist, and as such an unlikely pundit as arianna huffington pointed out (believe me, I'm as shocked as anyone to find myself on the same side of the table as huffington) he resembled no other candidate as closely as he did Bobby Kennedy, who was also strongly anti war, and who also was decried by his enemies as too angry. Perhaps we would also like to tell the world that RFK would have lost to Nixon had he lived? I think not, but making the legitimate comparison to the candidate he actually bore a policy (and class background) resemblance to would have helped his campaign. I'll ask you this: did any of you recall hearing any mainstream columnist make the comparison to Kennedy? Any of them? Even one? It's no-braiiner, an obvious one. Compared to avowed pacifist and so mellow he smelled bad McGovern, Dean was practically an insider if for no reason other than his blue-blood upbringing. He supported the Afghanistan war and Gulf War 1, and was all for pursuing an agressive war on terrorism. This all by itself would have made him a conservative by the standards of McGovern's time, but puts him squarely in the same camp as RFK, Teddy Roosevelt, and Truman. How many times did you hear that comparison? NOT ONCE! That kind of spinmeistering on the part of supposed-to-be impartial press is why I am starting this Jihad! I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK, AND I WANT A FREE AND IMPARTIAL PRESS AND YES I KNOW I'M SHOUTING! YEAARRRRGGGHH!!!!!!! If you're not angry enough to scream there's something wrong with YOU!!! See y0ou monday with the sponsors list, and tonight with the rest of my responses. YEAAARRRGGHH!!!! ;-) 3:21:59 PM    comment []

To everyone who's been writing: I am thrilled at the response, both positive and negative, and I want to discuss this all with everyone. today was a really busy and crazy day and I had a bunch of obligations this evening so I barely had a chance to glance at the correspondence. I'll get caught up with everyone tomorrow. I promise. Keep posting, I really am glad people are arguing disagreeing. I think it'll help refine the focus on this concept. Talk to everyone tomorrow. 1:52:49 AM    comment []