Year: 2005

Editor & Publisher published a report that uses White House press conference transcripts to show Press Secretary Scott McClellan is a (surprise!) liar. McClellan claims that he did not say that people died in the riots in Afganistan following the Newsweek article on abuses of the Koran at Guantanamo, Cuba.

He also claimed that he had never said it did, even though a check of transcripts disputes that. On May 16, for example, he said, “people have lost their lives.” On May 17, he said, “People did lose their lives,” and, “People lost their lives” due to the Newsweek report.

Here is part of the transcript from the latest White House press briefing which shows McClellan in full BS mode:

Q: One other question. Karzai was quite definite in saying that he didn’t believe that the violence in Afghanistan was directly tied to the Newsweek article about Koran desecration. Yet, from this podium, you have made that link. So —

McCLELLAN: Actually, I don’t think you’re actually characterizing what was said accurately.

Q: By whom?

McCLELLAN: As I said last week, and as President Karzai said today, and as General Myers had said previously, the protest may well have been pre-staged. The discredited report was damaging. It was used to incite violence. But those who espouse an ideology of hatred and oppression and murder don’t need an excuse to incite violence. But the reports from the region showed how this story was used to incite violence.

Three crosses were burned last night in Durham, N.C., home of Duke University, and one of the bluest cities in the South. KKK fliers were found on the scene. Pam’s House Blend, which is published in Durham, has the story – go there for details, additional links and photos – but here are the highlights:

A police officer and firefighters arrive at the scene of a cross burning Wednesday night on South Roxboro Street, about a quarter mile from Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Mayor Bill Bell can’t recall a cross burning since he moved here in 1968.

Three crosses were burned last night in my progressive hometown, one only a couple of miles away from our house, near a middle-class, suburban subdivision. Some are tying it to the visit of members of the Rotting Cryptkeeper’s church visit to our city to protest the Laramie Project play held at the Durham School of the Arts. The pathetic Phelps family picketed and were overwhelmingly outnumbered by supporters of the play and its performers…

It’s hard to understand what kind of cretins think that they are going to find support for this rat-bastard, cowardly deed — hey you f*ckers, show your faces — but they won’t find it in Durham.

The Hill:

At a time when journalists are under attack for political bias and factual inaccuracy, local celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley isn?t backing down a bit from criticism of her controversial biography of the Bush family, The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.

In the afterword of a just-issued paperback edition of the hardcover edition published last year — which sold some 715,000 copies — Kelley takes on those who accuse her of portraying the Bushes as a spoiled, dysfunctional family… But she’s especially hard on the mainstream media. “I had broken the personal code of poodles on the Potomac,” she writes. “Do not speak ill of the powerful.”

She notes that CNN’s Larry King refused to interview her after admitting he wanted to keep his friendship with the president’s father, who called her “a liar and smear artist.”

She adds that President Bush “has doghoused the White House press corps so that they are almost totally dependent on scraps tossed over the fence by presidential spokesmen,” who, she said, called TV executives to keep her off the air.

Even though Matt Lauer of NBC agreed to interview her, she said made it clear he didn’t like doing so, while a New York Times reporter asked her if she ever had an abortion or did cocaine, charges she levels against members of the Bush family.

“I was sermonized by Lauer, patronized by CNN’s Aaron Brown, and chastised by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews,” she writes.

Kelley said that writing this book was “the most daunting, probably because I was writing about a sitting president and his quite secretive family in the midst of a contentious presidential campaign. The book is political, but it is not meant to be partisan.”

Companies like Wal-Mart have deflected all responsibility for their employees’ health costs. They keep the mix of part-timers very high, which means they don’t have to offer benefits such as health insurance. But part-time pay is so low that these folks can’t afford insurance. When they get sick, the costs of their healthcare is picked up by the taxpayers.

Wait a minute – isn’t that like a tax that Wal-Mart charges the communities it serves?

Effective solutions to social ills almost always require a partnership between the public and private sectors. Based on what we have seen so far, private companies like Wal-Mart have no intention of voluntarily working on way to get insurance coverage for the portion of the 45 million uninsured Americans who are Wal-Mart “associates.” The time has come for government action.

Writing in The Nation, Liza Featherstone looks at how the public sector is dragging private industry into the debate, whether they like it or not:

More and more states are considering similar legislation, thanks to a growing and coordinated national movement. A pending Pennsylvania bill would require firms with fifty or more workers to provide data on how many workers depend on public assistance for health care. Other states and localities debating Wal-Mart-inspired measures similar to Maryland’s–requiring large companies to ensure workers or contribute to Medicaid– include New Jersey, Georgia, New York City, California, Montana and Connecticut. To keep abreast of these developments, and take action, sign up for updates at www.americansforhealthcare.org.

If Wal-Mart find these bills irksome, and still doesn’t want to provide decent health insurance for its workers, the company should lobby for national health insurance. That’s unlikely, of course, but let’s hope the political battle over Wal-Mart’s benefits at least convinces Americans that our health is too important to be left to the whim of greedy employers.

“Crazy Frog Axel F,” a cell phone ringtone, is set to top the British singles pop charts by this Sunday, knocking off Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound,” the band’s first single in two years. Retail-sales tracker HMV said Crazy Frog would be the first hit ringtone to cross over into the singles charts. According to HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo:

“Music purists might not be too happy at the prospect of the Crazy Frog outselling Coldplay. But it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise when you consider its huge novelty appeal and the massive amount of exposure it’s currently getting.

“Kids obviously find it cute and cool, but students and even office workers seem to be drawn to its rather kitsch, ironic appeal. The only real issue is whether the record label can press enough copies to keep up with the huge demand that we’re seeing right now.”

In the aftermath of the fillibuster finagle, the most common theme seems to be to say one side or the other “blinked.” Here’s one of the more twisted analyses so far, excerpted from an e-blast from that paragon of hyperconservative hyperbole, Richard Viguerie:

There is no question that, over the last 40 years, the federal courts have been the greatest threat to conservative values. And last night, the Republicans cancelled a vote to reign in the liberal judiciary.

The vote in the US Senate to abolish the filibuster for judicial appointments if successful, would have been the closest America has ever come to having a vote on the direction for one third of our federal government.

The so-called “compromise” on judicial nominations is nothing more than the liberal Democrats getting most everything they wanted, namely the right to filibuster conservative judges with impunity.

For the better part of a year, the Republicans talked and talked, promised and promised, threatened and threatened, and then in the final minutes of the battle blinked and called off the vote, allowing liberals to live and fight again.

This “deal” proves the weakness of the Republican leadership and a lack of respect for the grassroots conservatives and the “values voters” that put Republicans in power. For decades, conservatives have carried the water in the Republican Party while that same party ignores our issues. Its conservative issues, work, and money that elect Republicans.

But conservatives also must remember that we also live and will fight again – and that there is a political solution available to remedy Republicans failure to get control of the judiciary – GOP primary challenges and the November 2006 congressional elections.

What has become an annual controversy over gay pride took a new twist this year in my adopted hometown of St. Augustine, Florida. First, a little background.

The Bridge of Lions, so named for the giant marble statues at its base, flies flags from lightposts across the two-lane structure, which carries people to and from Anastasia Island. The flags – sometimes American, sometimes with the city crest, sometimes a custom design – commemorate such events as federal holidays and our city’s founding in 1565.

In recent years, flags have been flown for less historic and patriotic reasons, such as to make things look nice for Bike Week visitors from nearby Daytona, or the annual big-bucks kingfishing tournament.

For the past couple of years, gay pride organizers have petitioned the city to post rainbow flags on the bridge during June. This request triggered a long-overdue discussion of a policy for the theme of flags, determining what would or wouldn’t “fly.”

St. Augustine Record:

After two years of rejections, the gay rights activists of St. Augustine Pride thought this was their year.

Their request to fly rainbow gay pride flags on the Bridge of Lions during their pride event in June had been turned down the last two years because the city requires that “the message on the banners or flags shall relate directly to a not-for-profit event that is in direct correlation to a historical landmark or event in the City and has historical significance associated with the City.”

You want history, the group asked? We’ll give you history.

This year, their argument was based on what they call the first American hate crime, committed more than 400 years ago in this area. They contend that in 1566 a Spanish governor secretly ordered the murder of a gay French interpreter of the Guale Native language.

They attached this and several other stories of historical gay citizens and presented them with this year’s application.

Commissioners and the city’s special events coordinator, who is in charge of flags on the bridge, listened to the group’s arguments and gave the old thumbs-down yet again.

“I sincerely hope we don’t have to keep meeting like this,” said Rev. Ruth Jensen, pastor at First Coast Metropolitan Community Church, addressing the commissioners and the mayor. She was one of 11 citizens who addressed the commission on behalf of the organization.

“This is historically significant,” said Jensen. “It can not be more so.”

I know many of the participants and don’t believe homophobia is the prime motivator. Even the Super Bowl, held in nearby Jacksonville this year, was not allowed to put up its Roman numeral flags. And yes, a gay pride festival is licensed in the city’s municipal exhibit areas.

Paul Williamson, director of public affairs, said the issue is more about the rules than rights. He turned downed an application from the Super Bowl Host Committee, citing the policy that was enacted in October of 2002.

“It has to be associated with an event that has historical significance,” said Williamson. “We’re denying their flags, not the festival. I hope they’ll continue to do it because it’s a good event.”

Still, it’s hard to parse out the fine distinction here, flag-wise.

The city has approved the flying of flags on the bridge celebrating Flagler College, the Lighthouse Festival and the civil rights movement.

“They were talking about civil rights, and we, in essence, are talking about the same thing,” said Jensen.

The lawyer who handled my divorce, who is one of the city commissioners, made me proud.

Vice Mayor Susan Burk said she would like to see the decision come from citizen support, a system similar to how license plates are chosen.

“I want to change the code to allow a group like this to fly their flag,” she said…

It isn’t over yet, though.

After the decision, Jensen spoke to those who had come to support St. Augustine Pride. She promised they would still be walking flags over the bridge during the event. Their next move will be legal action, said Rev. Jensen.

“We really didn’t expect anything to be different than it had been in the last two years,” said Jensen… “We were very pleased with the diversity of our supporters and with support we’re getting from all over the country. We’re going to keep trying.”