At NRO's Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez is impressed by the endorphin surge President Bush displayed during his press conference today.
"I only saw parts of it so I'm not going to be particularly helpful in relaying specifics--but, wow was he in a good mood. You almost get the impression he enjoys doing these now.
Posted at 11:14 AM"
Scroll down a bit and you'll see two earlier entries from the gal they call K'Lo.
"31 DIE [KJL]
in a Marine helicopter crash in Iraq.
Posted at 09:43 AM
"FYI [KJL]
W is holding a press conference at 10 a.m.
Posted at 09:39 AM"
Q -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?
Is this one of the guys from the many Town Hall meetings? Did he fill out a Presidential support card before he entered this briefing? I'm trying to find out what reporter asked this question, but haven't been able to so far. If anyone has any info please pass it on.
Agreement reached on Intelligence reform!
In a press conference this afternoon, Duncan Hunter, Jim Saxton, and John Warner now support the Intel reform Bill!
Josh Marshall's right, Sinclair is beginning to crack. But, as he notes, their new plan to force a "news show" that juxtaposes parts of "Stolen Honor" with the shameful lib'ral media's behavior in this matter just ain't gonna cut it. Luckily, Sinclair has a way out.
I was on a conference call this morning with Deborah Rappaport, a California-based philanthropist who is offering Sinclair quite the face-saver. She's bought rights to the excellent, accurate and extremely well-reviewed documentary Going Upriver, which follows John Kerry through his war heroism and anti-war activism, and is offering an edited version (42 minutes long, exactly the timespan of Sinclair's proposed program) for broadcast before the election. Not only is she offering it, she's willing to pay $1 million dollar sabove the ad revenue the time slot would normally generate and cover all the fines and fees incurred from preempting stations. So long as Sinclair shows the documentary before the election, in a time slot with comparable viewership to Stolen Honor's, and with a similar amount of advance work (publicizing it, running ads, etc), the offer is valid. This would allow them to show both sides of the controversy and demonstrate the balance they feel is lacking from other media outlets. The offer was delivered this morning and Sinclair has been asked to respond within 24 hours. This is as good as it's gonna get for them, and it's the final test of whether or not they're a business who simply wants to show both side or an arm of BC04 that's wasting shareholder dollars.
For more on "Going Upriver", check out Kevin Drum's review here.
[Update ll: Despite the assertions made in "Stolen Honors,"NBC'sDavid Shusterreports that "dozens" of former Vietnam War POW's say that John Kerry's name was never even mentioned once by their Vietnamese captors
is out pimping for the White House with another press conference today. At the time of the briefing, Ridge said he will not raise the terror alert levels. Do we need to have a press conference about that? He makes repeated statements about how well the administration is protecting us from Osama, but we might raise the idiot color code, if it suits us.
Seymour Hersh spent a great deal of time on C-SPAN (at an academic conference on Thursday) explaining how this war was already lost, and there are no good choices available to either candidate. While we chase down control of the countryside, we don't even control Baghdad.
The Foreign Office was thrown into turmoil last week after the British ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, described President George Bush as "the best recruiting sergeant ever for al-Qaida".
His comment, made at a closed conference of about 100 British and Italian diplomats, politicians and journalists in Tuscany, was leaked to an Italian newspaper, provoking embarrassment in London.
According to one of those present, Sir Ivor had been taking part in a discussion on which candidate Europeans would back if they had a vote in the US election. The ambassador said they would vote for Mr Kerry but some people would want Mr Bush, not least al-Qaida.
"If anyone is ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it's al-Qaida. Whereas it is clear that the Palestinians hope that a Kerry victory will unblock the situation," he said.
"It's not John Kerry (news - web sites)'s fault that he looks French," Smith told reporters on the conference call arranged by the Bush campaign.
Sen. Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ore.) accused Kerry of advocating socialism within the United States and appeasement overseas.
"It's not John Kerry (news - web sites)'s fault that he looks French," Smith told reporters on the conference call arranged by the Bush campaign.
"But it is his fault that he wants to pursue policies that have us act like the French. He advocates all kinds of additional socialism at home, appeasement abroad, and what that means is weakness for the future."
Some Republicans have referred jokingly to Kerry's ability to speak French and his physical appearance, but rarely has the reference found its way onto the campaign trail.
Why is Alan Greenspan on my TV? He not only predicted everything wrong about the economy but drove the country over an economic cliff because of it -- so I guess he deserves prime-time coverage. Republicans can do no wrong.
During our Blogger Meeting with the President, we asked him about the Deficit Commission and protecting American workers by not raising the retirement age. Obama said raising the retirement age on our Social Security benefits is not in his plans.
Q Will you rule out raising the retirement age to 70?
THE PRESIDENT: We are awaiting a report from the deficit commission, or deficit reduction commission, so I have been adamant about not prejudging their work until we get it. But I think you can look at the statements that I’ve made in the past, including when I was campaigning for the presidency, that Social Security is something that can be fixed with some modest modifications that don’t impose hardships on beneficiaries who are counting on it.
And so the example that I used during the campaign was an increase in the payroll tax, not an increase -- let me scratch that. Not an increase in the payroll tax but an increase in the income level at which it is excluded. And so what I’ve been clear about is, is that I’ve got a set of preferences, but I want the commission to go ahead and do its work. When it issues its report, I’m not automatically going to assume that it’s the right way to do things. I’ll study it and examine it and see what makes sense.
But I’ve said in the past, I’ll say here now, it doesn’t strike me that a steep hike in the retirement age is in fact the best way to fix Social Security.
The President does parse his words a bit, but it seems clear that he understands how the base feels about this issue. All Democratic politicians must not waver at all.
I've had it, by the way.
Everyone agrees -- except, naturally, for the Beltway Village and the Pete Petersons of the right and left -- that raising the age of retirement would impose a huge hardship on all beneficiaries ... except, of course, the very rich who won't need social security and medicare to live on. Why are they so eager to be the ones trying to ram these hardships down the throats of the people who most need help?
Anyone who is part of the left and believes that we should cut Social Security benefits should not be taken seriously. EVER! Those same people are probably pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The Dems might compromise on the tax issue, but there can never be a compromise on Social Security when it comes to benefits. It has been the greatest accomplishment of the New Deal and it a cornerstone of the modern American consumer society.
Daily Kos has a petition up that is a pledge you can make now. I will never support cutting Social Security
I think we all feel this way, but sometimes we need to start from the ground up to reinforce the structure.
It's vital to call out the Village media for this ignorance. They are the enablers here by promoting nonsensical Conventional Wisdom without any current or historical context, based purely on the "common sense" notion that just because a bunch of Very Serious People (with axes to grind) are saying something. It's brainwashing the people into believing that the economy is in trouble because greedy geezers are getting too much money and it just ain't true. We're down the rabbit hole. Again.
UPI: "U.S. forces are obliged to stop inhumane treatment wherever they see it in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday. This was news to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who told reporters "the United States does not have a responsibility" to prevent abuse of prisoners or civilians at the hands of the Iraqi military or police forces they are training.
"It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it," he said.
"But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it," said Rumsfeld, turning to Pace.
"If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," Pace said.
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Abbott: All right, what do you want to know? Costello: Now who's playing third base? Abbott: Why do you insist on putting Who on third base? Costello: What am I putting on third. Abbott: No. What is on second. Costello: You don't want who on second? Abbott: Who is on first. Costello: I don't know. Abbott & Costello Together:Third base!...read on"
