Posting will be more erratic while traveling over a long Thanksgiving Weekend. I should be on line intermittently to at least add some links to stories of interest.
Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought
Dana Perino Has Forgotten About 9/11
November 25, 2009 — Ron ChusidBush apologists typically deny the degree to which George Bush undermined our national security and placed us a far greater risk of terrorist attacks. Now’s here is the ultimate revision of history (via Political Wire):
“We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”
— Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, in an interview on Fox News.
E&P On The Media Coverage of Acorn
November 25, 2009 — Ron ChusidThe right wing noise machine has fabricated a mythology around Acorn which has little to do with the actual organization. Editor and Publisher has reviewed both the truth about the stories about Acorn and how the news was covered. The report points out how the distorted news began in the conservative media and how, as so frequently happens, the mainstream media began repeating their claims:
We found that conservative “opinion entrepreneurs” – primarily business and conservative groups and individuals – set the story in motion, the conservative media (e.g., Fox News, conservative talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and his many local counterparts, conservative magazines like the National Review, the Washington Times, the Washington Enquirer, and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal) heighten the sense of urgency with an unwarranted amount of coverage, and the mainstream media report the same allegations with largely the same conservative frames, usually without investigating their veracity.
From Hospital to Bankruptcy Court
November 25, 2009 — Ron ChusidThe New York Times looks at the increasingly common path of going from hospital to bankruptcy court:
The legislation moving through Congress would attack the problem in numerous ways.
Bills in both houses would expand eligibility for Medicaid and provide health insurance subsidies for those making up to four times the federal poverty level. Insurers would be prohibited from denying coverage to those with pre-existing health conditions. Out-of-pocket medical costs would be capped annually.
How many personal bankruptcies might be avoided is unpredictable, as it is not clear how often medical debt plays a back-breaking role. There were 1.1 million personal bankruptcy filings in 2008, including 12,500 in Nashville, and more are expected this year.
Last summer, Harvard researchers published a headline-grabbing paper that concluded that illness or medical bills contributed to 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007, up from about half in 2001. More than three-fourths of those with medical debt had health insurance.
But the researchers’ methodology has been criticized as defining medical bankruptcy too broadly and for the ideological leanings of its authors, some of whom are outspoken advocates for nationalized health care.
At the bankruptcy court in Nashville, lawyers provided a spectrum of estimates for the share of cases in Middle Tennessee where medical debt was decisive, from 15 percent to 50 percent. But many said they felt the number had been growing, and might be higher than was obvious because medical bills are often disguised as credit card debt.
Documentary Planned On Questions Surrounding Bush’s Military Service
November 24, 2009 — Ron ChusidThe New York Observer reports that Meghan O’Hara, who has worked with Michael Moore on previous documentaries, is working on a documentary about the controversy over George Bush’s military service:
The former president was originally admitted into the Texas Air National Guard more than 40 years ago, in 1968, with the American military already deeply engaged in the war in Vietnam. In 1973, Mr. Bush officially departed the Guard, without having seen any combat, to attend Harvard Business School. What, exactly, transpired in between has since become the subject of much heated debate.
Questions about Mr. Bush’s service in the Guard—did his family use its political connections to help him avoid combat in Vietnam? Did he eventually skirt the requirements of his service?—first began to surface during his successful 1994 run for the governorship in Texas.
Several years later, in the fall of 2004, with Mr. Bush locked in a heated presidential reelection campaign against U.S. Senator John Kerry, the topic exploded into a four-alarm national controversy, thanks to a flawed story on the subject by CBS News’ 60 Minutes II. The story, produced by Mary Mapes and reported by Dan Rather, featured the first on-camera interview with Ben Barnes, the former Texas lieutenant governor, explaining his role in helping Mr. Bush leapfrog a long waiting list to land a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard. The story also featured a number of documents ostensibly detailing Mr. Bush’s failure to live up to the requirements of his military duty.
Afterward, reporters and bloggers challenged the veracity of the documents, and CBS News was unable to fully verify the origin or legitimacy of the documents in question, resulting in the so-called Memo-gate scandal and the eventual dismissal of several top CBS News producers, including Ms. Mapes.
Since then, questions about Mr. Bush’s military service have largely dropped out of the national conversation. That said, intense interest in the topic continues to smolder in certain corners of American military and journalistic life.
In 2005, Ms. Mapes wrote a book about Mr. Bush’s military service and the controversy surrounding her reporting on it, called Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.
Unfortunately this is a little late. With George Bush out of office and not likely to run for any other office, the political significance of this (and potential audience of such a documentary) is considerably reduced. It does remain of some historical interest to clarify these issues. Unfortunately the story died during the 2004 campaign when questions were raised regarding the documents given to Rather by one source but the case against Bush did not rely on the questionable memos. The story should have been pursued in 2004 based upon the evidence beyond the questionable documents.
Bush Discussed Invasion of Iraq With British Officials Two Years Before War
November 24, 2009 — Ron ChusidGeorge Bush took advantage of the 9/11 attack to invade Iraq even though there was no connection. There has already been considerable evidence that Bush and other neoconservatives had wanted to invade Iraq long before the 9/11 attack and ceased upon this as an excuse. The Times of London reports on an enquiry which as found that American officials were secretly discussing an invasion of Iraq with British officials two years before it occurred:
British and American officials secretly discussed overthrowing Saddam Hussein two years before the invasion of Iraq, the public inquiry into the war was told today.
Foreign Office officials said they feared that United Nations sanctions against Iraq were losing support amid growing concern about weapons of mass destruction in 2001.
Sir Peter Ricketts, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told the opening day of the inquiry that he was aware of a “background noise” of discussion in the United States about overthrowing the Iraqi regime after the election of President George W. Bush.
He said a review of the Iraq policy was already under way in Whitehall in anticipation of the arrival of the new Bush Administration.
Media Matters Debunks Glenn Beck Conspiracy About Global Warming Theory Based Upon Stolen E-Mail
November 24, 2009 — Ron ChusidA few days ago I noted how conservative bloggers were distorting material in stolen emails to support their conspiracy theory that global warming is a hoax. If there is a conspiracy theory going around in the right wing, Glenn Beck is bound to pick it up. Media Matters has reported on the distortions being spread by Beck.
Update: More on the issue from Climate Progress.
Sarah Palin Avoiding CBS
November 23, 2009 — Ron Chusid
Hotline reports that Sarah Palin sure hold a grudge, even if not deserved, against CBS. You would think that someone trying to sell a book (and potentially pick up future votes) would be interested in as much media coverage as possible, but Palin is snubbing CBS. It’s not as if she actually has a day job any more. Hotline reports:
Anyone pining for a second meeting between Sarah Palin and Katie Couric is going to be sorely disappointed.
Sources tell Hotline OnCall that Couric’s producer sent two requests to Palin’s publisher for interviews during the “Going Rogue” book tour, and so far, Couric has been denied.
It’s not surprising — Palin has not agreed to sit down with more than a small handful of mainstream media interviewers — but the move looks to be part of a larger Palin blackout from CBS News and Entertainment.
Palin has two reasons to hate CBS and, unlike most conservatives, neither is named Dan Rather. In her case her objections to CBS come from Katie Couric and David Letterman. Palin has been avoiding CBS ever since her embarassing performance in her interview with Couric. Is it Katie Couric’s fault that Sarah Palin was ignorant on the issues and unable to answer her questions?
Palin is also staying away from CBS following the smear campaign from the right wing which twisted a joke made by Letterman. If Palin objects to jokes being told about her family, which is understandable, her concentration on avoiding Letterman is mistaken. Palin’s family was the target of all the late night comedians. Letterman made less jokes about her family than the other comedians and his actual joke about Bristol was far less objectionable than many of the other jokes told by comedians on other networks.
