Click here for WMP

Dana Milbank appeared on Keith Olbermann last night and pointed out most of the problems that the bloggers have had with Jeff (whatever his name is) Gannon having access to the White House. He gives a hat tip to World O' Crap as a source of information. Listening to Milbank talking about the much more serious issue of Jeff "G" as a shill for the White House after hearing Howard Kurtz completely glaze over the story on Blitzer, shows you the difference in reporting that can go on between "columnists from the same paper.

Milbank: As of Monday I saw whatever-his name-is waiting outside there at the White House, in fact he would probably be allowed to continue doing this as of now if their weren't some website called of all things "World O' Crap" that had gotten into all those personal allegations. It was Jeff's decision or whatever his name's decision to uhh step down. He wasn't kicked out of the White House at all. That's really where all the scandal lies in this whole thing.

The NY Daily News gets into the story and names John Aravosis of AMericaBlog as a source:

"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story."

What do you think. Does it fit?

'Most powerful man' gets more powerful

It was a remarkable game, with vicious hits, long passes, bruising runs, Joe Montana being crushed by Leonard Marshall, and a last second field goal by Matt Bahr to win the game for the Giants in Candle Stick park with no time left on the clock 15-13. What was even more chilling was seeing Dan Rather come on the air and begin to describe night footage of two patriot missles shooting down two Scud missles over Saudi Arabia. The Gulf War was raging and people in the stands held minature American flags in their hands. Fifteen years have gone by and some things have really changed, and sadly some things have remained the same.

via Olliver Willis

New 9/11 Report Shows Warnings About Hijackings

The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if "the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable."
The report takes the F.A.A. to task for failing to pursue domestic security measures that could conceivably have altered the events of Sept. 11, 2001, like toughening airport screening procedures for weapons or expanding the use of on-flight air marshals. The report, completed last August, said officials appeared more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays, and easing airlines' financial woes than deterring a terrorist attack.

The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system. The administration provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago and, even with heavy redactions in some areas, the declassified version provides the firmest evidence to date about the warnings that aviation officials received concerning the threat of an attack on airliners and the failure to take steps to deter it.

What did Dear Leader say last May?

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people."

LIAR.

Social Security Problems Not a Crisis, Most Say

Washington Post: Most Americans are certain Social Security will go bankrupt but are not ready to embrace changes that would shore up the system's finances, according to two surveys by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.

Seven in 10 Americans agree with President Bush that Social Security eventually will go bankrupt if Congress fails to act, though most predict that the system will not do so for at least two decades. Yet while Bush has warned of a crisis in Social Security, barely one in four Americans believes that a crisis exists.

It seems the American people at this point haven't been flim-flammed into thinking there is a REAL crisis.

Anybody care to guess?

I wonder if it's not some part of the 9/11 commision's report that hasn't been released yet.

Recount Delays Iraq Final Election Results

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.

Wait till Chalabi somehow wins a seat in the government.

Congress Woman Louise Slaughter appeared on Anderson Cooper's 360 today and talked about the Jeff Gannon/White House briefing room scandal. The White House and Talon News both declined to appear on the show.

Video

Slaughter talks much more about the behavior of the White House's manipulation of the press corp. rather than focus in on the reporter.

Check out her letter to the White House here

Howard Kurtz appeared on Wolf Blitzer today and talked about the Jeff Gannon story.

Doesn't Kurtz read anything except his own columns?

Video

Kurtz: ...Should some of his liberal critics, these liberal bloggers have started investigating his personal life in an effort to discredit him.

They investigated him because of your next question Howard.

Kurts: a lot of people were questioning well why does this guy have White House press credentials because he doesn't write for a newspaper or a magazine...

Is Talon a real news organization?

Media Matters has the lowdown on Talon News here

More on the real Jeff Gannon here

How easy is it to get press credentials?

Kurtz: He doesn't have a permanent, or what's called a hard pass. He just gets cleared into the White House on a day to day basis which is a priviledge that's pretty much open to any journalist.

So since we have a website can I get into the White House Press briefing?

(sorry, I can't post much more on it because of illness)

However Fablog does it for me. It's too funny.

The Art of Whoring