This week’s big news was the revelation that “Scooter” Libby testified to the grand jury that he had been given clearance by President Bush via Vice President Cheney to leak classified information about Valerie Plame’s work with the CIA to Judith Miller of the New York Times. I wanted to compare and contrast several different news sources that covered this story. Just how fair and balanced is our national media? I looked around for several different sources and found some different takes on it. Here’s how Editor and Publisher, a site by and for journalists, ran the story: New Court…
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Chicago Tribune | 3 Arrested at Mass. Baby Shower Brawl SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — An argument at a baby shower escalated into a brawl in which one man was shot and the pregnant guest of honor was beaten with a stick, police said. Three people were arrested after the fight, described by police as a “baby shower gone bad.” Authorities said the shooting victim, Aristotle Garcia, got into a fight with a man who is dating his ex-girlfriend. The argument, over whether the woman let their 5-year-old daughter drink beer, escalated and drew in two other people — Jazz Rivas and…
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Chicago Tribune | U.S. Rolls Out Nuclear Plan The Bush administration Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for rebuilding the nation’s decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity. The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation’s massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War. Until now, the nation has depended on carefully maintaining aging bombs produced during the Cold War arms race, some several decades old. The administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022, as…
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I decided to take a photo of something I use every single workday – actually two things. That’s my handmade, wide-bottomed coffee mug, bought when we went on a road trip to Starved Rock State Park. Every weekday morning without fail, I fill the thing with coffee, at least twice. And the green folder underneath it is the hated group hotels file, one of my least favorite tasks. Still, I do it to the best of my abilities, and today I got an award at work – kind of the runner-up award to the big one, which involves travel to…
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Okay, it’s been that kind of week. They screw with things at work, they screw with things on my show. So here it is Wednesday at 7pm, time to watch Amazing Race in its new! Amazing! Timeslot! and see if I can keep up “live,” or if I need a bevvy assist. Tonight’s beverage of choice: Sea Dog Special Brew Blueberry Wheat Beer. Don’t laugh, it’s quite tasty and refreshing, and the doggy on the label is wearing the cutest li’l sou’wester hat. Let us begin where the last episode ended – Segesta, Sicily. The pit stop was a beautifully…
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Chicago Tribune | Intelligence watchdog slow to bite WASHINGTON — When a privacy-rights group requested records to show how many times a secretive presidential oversight board had asked the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of intelligence-gathering laws since 2001, the answer that came back last month was as simple as it was startling. Zero. One possible reason: For more than half of President Bush’s first term, the Intelligence Oversight Board had no members because Bush did not appoint anyone to it. Bush didn’t make appointments to the board until March 17, 2003, well after his administration had begun an…
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DeLay to Resign From Congress Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, said today that he will give up his seat rather than face a “nasty” and expensive reelection fight that was becoming a referendum on his ethical troubles. Now that a major source of rot has stepped down (no doubt to face even more criminal charges, so he’ll need the money for his defense fund), the race for his old seat in Texas just got a lot more interesting. With a viable Independent…
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The 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize for Blooks Bummer, the Whale-Killing Journal didn’t win the fiction prize. Bummer. However, it looks like Gus’s stooge Keith will be coming to Wisconsin on a book tour, making a stop at the Port Washington Pirate Festival the weekend of June 3rd. That could be kind of fun to check out – it’s probably a lot like a Ren Faire, except with pirates. It’s just a little north of Milwaukee. Naaah, that’s David’s birthday weekend,and he’s never shown the least interest in the WKJ…which won’t arrive until mid-April, darn it.
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Via Nevada Thunder, a link to the full text of Paul Krugman’s piece on John McCain and Jerry Falwell, who are making up their old spat so John can get Jerry’s endorsement for all the sheeple in the Christian Right. Nevada Thunder � Blog Archive � John and Jerry. He concludes: But if you choose to make common cause with religious extremists, you are accepting some responsibility for their extremism. By welcoming Mr. Falwell and people like him as members of their party, Republicans are saying that it’s O.K. — not necessarily correct, but O.K. — to declare that 9/11…
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Middle East” href=”http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article355178.ece”>Independent Online Edition > Middle East The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six “enduring” bases in Iraq – raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases. Almost ever since President Bush claimed an end to “major combat operations” in Iraq on 1 May 2003, debate has focused on how quickly troops could be withdrawn. The US and British governments say troops will remain in Iraq “until the…