September 26, 2005

9/26: Where The Streets Aren't So Tame

This weekend's anti-war rally in DC is much-discussed among conservative and liberal bloggers, and both sides showed up to report on the event. Many who couldn't attend live-blogged it via C-SPAN. Needless to say, there's a wide range of opinion about whether the protest was successful. The size of the crowd was a matter of contention, as it always is with such events, but even some liberals were upset that the message was not more focused. And of course, both have problems with how the MSM covered it.

Meanwhile, a possible emerging Iraq scandal involves an overseas-based message board site that appears to show U.S. soldiers posing with dead and mutilated Iraqis and Afghans, apparently uploaded by GIs themselves. Plus, the story over Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist's stock sale continues to develop; liberal blogs have been critical since the story broke, but now many conservative bloggers are pointedly declining to defend him. Also in this edition: Hurricane Rita, "Meet the Press," Pat Tillman, more debate re: the war on terrorism, and the '06 midterms.

DC PROTEST: One Size Doesn't Fit All

Liberal 2 Political Junkies: "C-SPAN covered some of the speeches today. Unfortunately, they were not covering the massive amount of people on the street. While it was nice that they broadcast the speeches, that was not where the bulk of people were and it made the event look deceptively small." The Mahablog's Barbara O'Brien dismisses his post as unrepresentative of the rally she attended: "The righties are going to lie and try to spin a myth that only a few thousand people showed up. Don't you believe it. It was a massive turnout. Tens of thousands, easily." Conservative Gateway Pundit blogs the event as seen on C-SPAN, noting speeches by activists unrelated to the war, plus an appearance by ex-AG/ex-Saddam atty Ramsey Clark. Liberal Demagogue: "This is how the Left works, unfortunately. Organizers are so damned afraid of appearing "insensitive" that an anti-Iraq war platform ends up being diverted or hijacked, for example, to speak of "indigenous peoples," slam the World Bank and attack Israel. This is strange timing for a volley of anti-Israeli messages. Didn't Sharon just complete a pullout from Gaza and forcibly remove Israeli settlers who had been living there?" Headline at conservative GayPatriot: "If Iraq is like Vietnam, how come the rallies keep getting smaller?" Right-leaning Uncorrelated notes the difference between the Vietnam-era protests and the professionalism of the "current anti-war constituency": "This isn't a bunch of scruffy hippies with a Gestetner machine printing up crude fliers and delivering them hand to hand. This is big money, big media astroturf and yet this is the best they could do. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it?"

Looking at news photos of the event from Yahoo and Getty Images, Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs strongly doubts there were even 100K. Liberal PSoTD calls the coverage "subdued," adding: "Not a surprise. Maybe the way it will always be." AMERICAblog mocks the apparently smaller-than-expected FreeRepublic-led counter-protest.

Getting a good deal of attention from conservative bloggers is a pre-rally list of Do's and Don'ts published as a diary at Daily Kos. Suggestions include "Do have citizen journalists on site" and "Don't have a hippy drum circle." Instapundit, whose link brings it to attention doesn't think the rally met some of those do's and don'ts, and also finds some bad reviews of the protest at Daily Kos. Afterward, Mudville Gazette goes down the list, comparing it with post-protest reports, reaching the same conclusion; indeed there was something like a drum circle. The list is also the subject of the 9/26 "Day by Day" cartoon, available at Daily Pundit and many other conservative blogs.

Stop the Bleating googles the name of a protester quoted by the Washington Post, Patrice Cuddy, and concludes the Post was had: "To hear the WaPo tell it, Patrice is a mild-mannered, middle-aged former schoolteacher from Olathe, Kansas, and will be a 'novice protestor' in the upcoming rallies. ... But it turns out that Patrice Cuddy is also known as J. Patrice Cuddy-Lamoree (see here and here), and has been helping organize antiwar protests from the beginning." As she "says openly" on a DFA blog, "'I have been in the streets since the beginning of this war...'" Protein Wisdom criticizes the AP's Jennifer Kerr for treating a pro-Bush, anti-war GOPer as representative of the "varied" political beliefs, and for not pointing out that ANSWER is "a hard-left group that supports the insurgency."

• Video of some of the speeches at is available at Brad Blog, including Jesse Jackson, Cindy Sheehan, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Scottish MP George Galloway.
• Michelle Malkin posts photos of protesters, with snarky captions.
• At Daily Kos, RenaRF posts her pictures.
• There's another couple of personal accounts at BooMan Tribune.

This a.m., Malkin updates: "What a lot of folks don't know is that the moonbats haven't left yet. Today, they plan on lobbying Capitol Hill and then sapping local police resources the entire day with what they're calling 'nonviolent direct action.' The event's main co-sponsor, the far left-wing group United for Peace and Justice, has organized a bunch of 'affinity groups' who will try and get themselves arrested. ... After last year's presidential inaugural, the peace-lovers went on a rampage in DC that resulted in thousands of dollars of damages to private businesses. I would expect more of the same today from the likes of these black-masked 'pacifists.'"

FRIST: Wouldn't It Be Ironic If Frist Steps Down And DeLay Survives?

Never a favorite of GOP-leaning bloggers, Frist has yet fewer defenders following the latest reports from the AP and Washington Post that he was "updated" on his portfolio even as he claimed he wasn't, bring criticism from the right as well as left. Lefty Atrios: "Bill Frist can and should now be referred to in the press as 'Senator Bill Frist, documented liar.'" Liberal Bad Attitudes: "You won't find me piling on Bill Frist. I want him to be the GOP nominee in 2008. Why would anyone who wants to stop the pathological Republican-led weakening of America get in the way of the one major GOP candidate who we can be 100 percent sure cannot win a general election?" Jon Henke at right-leaning QandO writes, "depending on what information he had prior to the sale," what Frist did "may be illegal" but is "certainly unethical. I suspect both Republicans and Democrats are going to spend the upcoming months considering the fate of former Speaker of the House Jim Wright. And if it turns out Frist did engage in insider trading, I hope we'll all consider the fate" of ex-Rep. James Traficant. Conservative Tom Maguire offers the "obvious defense": a bipartisan Senate bill changing Medicare reimbursements to hospitals "created a huge conflict of interest for Frist, so he did the responsible thing and sold his shares. ... However -- if this bill created a new and problematic conflict of interest for the Senate Majority Leader on May 11, why did he wait until June 13 to order the sale of his stock?"

UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge: "If some SEC enforcement lawyer in fact were to start looking into this, the first question will be whether Frist had material nonpublic information about HCA at the time he ordered the sale. If he had the common sense God gave gravel, the answer to that will be a resounding no." However, Frist may be held accountable to "Rule 10b-5" -- a hypothetical Bainbridge explores but cannot conclusively judge. Power Line: "Absent evidence that Frist had material non-public knowledge about his corporation, I see no reason why Frist should resign or even step aside temporarily pending any investigation." RedState's Leon H, writing for himself: "The situation is clear. Bill Frist cannot at this current time act effectively [as Maj. Leader] and should step aside from his position immediately." Some commenters defend Frist half-heartedly; most say they wouldn't miss him and many are keen on the prospect of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Maj. Leader.

PENTAGON: A DIY Abu Ghraib? Is The MSM Doing The U.S. A Favor By Not Covering This?

Header at liberal AMERICAblog: "US soldiers allegedly trading pictures of dead Iraqis & Afghanis for porn." The story had already been reported by alt-paper East Bay Express, which noted that the media was "strangely silent." AMERICAblog's John Aravosis says the follow-up reporting he's done, which he explains, suggests the story is legit: "The death photos are hosted on a Web site hosted in Holland, called NowThatsF---edUp.com. The site is an amateur porn site where people can post their own nude photos and browse the photos of other visitors." But it "isn't just about the usual porn. It's also about military death porn." He posts multiple pictures of what appear to be U.S. soldiers posing with dead bodies (or body parts).The graphic bits are obscured on the front page, but Aravosis provides links to the much-more gruesome unedited images. He writes: "I'm publishing the photos and helping to spread the word about this site, because we need answers from our government as to why more photos of US soldiers with dead people are floating around the Internet."

Left-trending conservative Cunning Realist highlights a San Francisco Chronicle report showing that military investigators looking at the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman "allowed witnesses to change key details in their sworn statements so his finding that certain soldiers committed 'gross negligence' could be softened." Writes the Realist: "The extent of the disgrace defies belief: the initial coverup of the way Tillman died, the harvesting of that death for political expedience as the Abu Ghraib story broke, the predictable promotions of those arguably responsible for what happened on the ground that day, the changing of crucial testimony, the destruction of physical evidence, and the willful, flat-out lies our political and military leadership told to Tillman's family and the American public. In the context of Tillman's strong and openly-stated opinions about Bush and the war in Iraq, it's all more than a bit interesting." Center-right Andrew Sullivan, on the same Chronicle story: "Did you know that one of Pat Tillman's favorite authors was Noam Chomsky and that he opposed the Iraq war? I didn't. It makes his patriotism and service more admirable, in my view. And the obvious lies and obfuscation and contradictions from the military all the more reprehensible."

WAR ON TERRORISM: The Good, The Bad And The Fugly

UK's Guardian newspaper reports that an "extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600." Newshog mocks pro-war bloggers: "Insta-skinflint, Powerlame, Little Green Mothballs, Captains Sixteenths, QandBigO, Charging RI-NoMoney, My Vast Right Wing Bankruptcy.... I could go on but I'm laughing too hard. The chickenhawks are as unwilling to put their money where their mouths are as they are to put their necks on the line. Figures."

Belmont Club compares Iraq casualty accounts for '04 with '05. KIA numbers are almost even, but in '05 non-fatal injuries are down substantially. Writes Wretchard: "Yet the mood conveyed in the press is that things are sliding into the abyss. That may be true for other reasons, but with US casualties at a quarter to a seventh of their historical values in a month full of offensives and important dates, the honest analyst must at least ask himself if something is changing on the battlefield."

Lefty Middle East scholar Juan Cole, in a lengthy post: "The protesters are right that we have to get US ground troops out of Iraq. The issue is not the rights and wrongs of the war. ... The first reason to get the ground troops out now is that they are being fatally brutalized by their own treatment of Iraqi prisoners. ... The second reason is that the ground troops are not accomplishing the mission given them, and are making things worse rather than better." Pro-war Belgravia Dispatch asks, "what happened to Juan Cole's much ballyhooed 10 point Iraq exit plan? It's, like, history," a month later. More: "How can a knowledgeable regional expert like Cole not more seriously reckon with the impact such a hugely precipitous withdrawal would have in terms of destabilizing the region? Just a month ago, he was at least pretending to reckon with that reality. But no more..." Whiskey Bar's Billmon writes, he has "largely kept silent on the issue" of withdrawal, "in part because I've been so conflicted about it, and in part because (I'm trying to be honest here) I've been reluctant to buck the overwhelming anti-war, pro-withdrawal sentiment on my side of the political fence, or give even the slightest aid and comfort to the war hawks on the other side." But now he's changed his mind. He writes: "We have to get out -- not because withdrawal will head off civil war in Iraq or keep the country from falling under Iran's control (it won't) but because the only way we can stop those things from happening is by killing people on a massive scale, probably even more massive than the tragedy we supposedly would be trying to prevent."

Power Line's John Hinderaker posts translated text of a story from Iraqi newspaper Iraq Al-Ghad reporting 70% voter registration in Fallujah: "Seventy percent voter registration compares favorably, I believe, with many American cities. And this is Fallujah, hotbed of the 'insurgency'! Good news indeed."

Lefty Jerome Armstrong notes the Islamic coalition led by mujahedeen leader Younus Qanooni was victorious in the latest round of Afghan elections: "Qanooni says that Afghanistan remains the world's biggest opium producer, and he's gonna stop it. Is this what the LGF keyboarders [anti-anti-semitism community blog Little Green Footballs] are fighting for? Is electing an Islamic fundamentalist government really something that Republicans agree on that is 'positive news for the world.'"

Counterterrorism Blog: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his Al-Qaida acolytes may be facing the most serious political and operational challenges" since the insurgency began, as he has been officially rebuked by an influential Sunni group.

BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Like Most Sequels, Reviews Are Mixed

Jefferson Parish pres. Aaron Broussard caused a stir with his 9/4 "Meet the Press" appearance. Broussard had claimed an elderly woman drowned because of the slow fed'l response, but later reports (pushed by conservative blogs) showed his timeline was incorrect. MSNBC.com has the transcript; Political Teen has video. On 9/25 he was back on the show to discuss Rita and his previous appearance. Liberal Crooks and Liars (which also hosts the video) vigorously defends him against NBC's Tim Russert, who "went on the attack today to please the right wing apologists [i.e. MSNBC and NBC News] who had the nerve to fact check his impassioned outburst on MTP during the nightmare of Katrina. ... When you don't like what you hear -- attack the messenger. Yes, you uncovered a distorted time line of events. A man who had experienced the pain of his friend's mother's death muddied the facts. Who did it hurt? All levels of government including the President and you can't have that." Arianna Huffington: "If you're a local official with very little power or resources, you're on notice: Tim is comin' after you." The Moderate Voice: "Russert's questioning indeed made it sound as if he was trying to compensate for his earlier broadcast by suggesting that the federal government did get a bum rap." Centrist Jeff Jarvis: "Tim Russert lost sight of the story because he was embarrassed that bloggers caught a guest on his show with facts that were wrong. Russert's proper response should have been to fix those facts quickly and clear but still pursue the real story. Instead, he chose to shoot the messenger who embarrassed him with the bloggers." Right-leaning Pundit Guy thought it was justified: "I was glad to hear Broussard state again and again that he believes all branches of government were to blame for the tragedy in New Orleans and that they should be held accountable. I think he needed to do that, and for me his statement to that end closed the book on the subject." LA-based Bayou Buzz's Steve Sabludowsky writes, "it was not just looking foolish again on national television that makes one wonder if this very talented and politically astute man [Broussard] has what it takes to meet the media nationally. As he cried weeks ago on the same show, 'shut up,' after reading his interview from today, perhaps he might take some of his same advice -- shut up!" Conservative Lorie Byrd: "Can anyone answer this question: are there any Democrats that have emerged from Katrina looking better than they did before she arrived? I know that Mayor Nagin, Aaron Broussard and Gov. Blanco certainly have not."

Kausfiles, still relentlessly mocking the TimesSelect program, notices how the same edition of "Meet" featured Maureen Dowd, David Brooks and Tom Friedman, all 3 of them New York Times columnists: "The joint Meet appearance by three NYT columnists seemed like a marketing gimmick. (Next they're going to be given away to audience members on Oprah!) But it may also have been a desperate plea for attention on their part..."

MIDTERMS '06: Will Hackett's Announcement Come First As A Blog Entry?

At Grow Ohio, sponsored by Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tim Tagaris writes: "A number of campaigns and organizations have contacted me about finding bloggers inside Ohio to write for campaigns and issue advocacy during the 2006 election cycle. If this is something that interests you, please send me an email ... These are paying positions and will be full-time jobs. ... Of the two positions I know of right now, one is in Southwest Ohio and the other in Central Ohio." Cleveland-based Democracy Guy -- noting that Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Elizabeth Auster wrote on 9/25 that ex-House candidate Paul Hackett "has all but decided to take on" Sen. Mike DeWine (R) -- writes: "Southwest Ohio? Hmmmmmmm... wonder who's down there..."

GOP-leaning Pensieri heard TN SEN candidate/ex-GOV candidate Van Hilleary "say no less than thrice that he would 'not be a wobbly-knee Republican' if he was elected to the US Senate." Pensieri writes: "Tennessee voters don't buy that [fellow GOP candidate/ex-Rep.] Ed Bryant is the "wobbly-knee" Republican to whom Mr. Hilleary is referring; thus, we must assume he is speaking of [fellow GOP candidate/ex-Tallahassee Mayor Bob] Corker. How effective can such a strategy be when there is no separation between Mr. Hilleary's message and that of his long-time friend and colleague Mr. Bryant?"

In a post titled "Why Musgrave is Endangered," liberal Colorado Luis writes that Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's (R-CO) 4th CD "is very rapidly transforming away from being a rural, conservative district into something different and new" -- it has the "fastest-growing city in America" and many residents are upset about oil and gas companies "trampling" their property rights. Luis: "When even real estate developers are angry at the oil and gas industry's behavior in the heart of Musgrave's district, conditions are ripe for" state Rep. Angie Paccione "to pull support from some surprising quarters in her bid" win CO 04 for the Dems.

RITA: Witnessing Houston

Houston-based BeldarBlog, who evacuated in anticipation of Rita, writes of his return: "I just returned from a long, looping walk through my neighborhood. I took along the digital camera, but saw nothing more exciting than a shrub and its 3-1/2-foot clay pot overturned. ... Dusk traffic on Southwest Freeway and its access roads looked typical for a Sunday evening in both directions. I did pass by three or four gas stations, a couple of which were open to sell sundries, but none of which had gas to pump. But otherwise things seemed remarkably normal." Upon return to Galveston, Liberty's Blog "found very little damage."

Banner headline at Drudge Report late 9/25 through early 9/26: "STREISAND DECLARES 'GLOBAL WARMING EMERGENCY'" Entertainer Barbra Streisand, from a Streisand interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer: "We are in a global warming emergency state, and these storms are going to become more frequent, more intense." Editor Matt Drudge then lists a number of Cat 5 hurricanes that occurred during Streisand's early lifetime. Right-leaning EU Rota and Classical Values have a good laugh at her expense, but liberal Why Are We Back In Iraq? defends her, arguing that the Cat 5s are more frequent now.

SPENDING: Know Your Audience

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) posts an item to conservative group blog RedState reiterating her 9/21 "Operation Offset" proposal to reduce domestic spending in the wake of Katrina. But the post draws a few tepid replies, and as National Journal's Beltway Blogroll points out, the "blog entry mostly reiterated the information already available in the Operation Offset report."

Hugh Hewitt, on a Washington Post report that LA wants $40B in Army Corps projects: "Whatever the final cost, Senate GOPers "should insist that as part of the package, reforms in the federal Endangered Species Act -- similar to this that are poised to pass the House -- be included in the appropriation so that the notoriously expense-increasing and private property rights destroying ESA not delay or increase the costs of these projects or other Corps projects across the country."

ABRAMOFF: Corporate Buy-In?

Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall revisits the case of Dep. AG nominee Timothy Flanigan, Flanigan's former employer Tyco, and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff: "If Flanigan was so plugged in at the White House -- enough to know how tight Abramoff was with the president's key advisors -- why exactly did he need to hire Jack Abramoff? Didn't he already have enough access to handle the issue on his own? Good question. But there's a pretty straightforward answer once you get a clear view of what sort of operation Abramoff was running." He goes through the twists and turns of Abramoff's shady dealings and passing money from bilked clients along to GOP institutions, concluding: "If Tyco wanted help, they had to pay in. That's what the $2 million [lobbying fee] was. Of course it got passed on to some other GOP outfit with Abramoff connections. That was the point!"

WHITE HOUSE '08: The Challenging Movies Always Do Come Out In The Fall

Sister Toldjah, guest-blogging at Right Wing News, on the upcoming, apparently unflattering documentary about John Kerry: "I can understand why those 'Kerry loyalists' aren't too keen on people seeing it. If I ran against a guy my supporters called things like Dumbya, Chimpy, Pretender in Chief, pResident, Rove puppet, and still lost, I'd be pretty embarrassed for people to get an inside look on how it all fell apart, too."

ROBERTS: He Sure Is Dreamy

BeldarBlog's William Dyer quotes from an "irredeemably silly" Eleanor Clift column which relates the notion that Roberts will one day become POTUS -- it came to a colleague in a dream. Dyer comments: "I suppose the reference to NBC's Sid Davis as having come up with this nonsense was intended to make Ms. Clift look less silly than if she'd originated it." Considering Roberts' ease before the Senate Jud Cmte, he adds: "I suppose it ought not be a surprise, then, when they engage in fabulous and implausible speculation that John Roberts might therefore similarly slay any type of opposition he might meet for any governmental position."

THE MARCH OF BLOGS: Does This Mean He Has Ebola?

Yahoo has announced that starting 10/05, they will begin publishing war correspondence from indie journalist Kevin Sites -- in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in other "hot zones" around the world. Appropriately enough, the presumably blog-like site will be called The Hot Zone. Sites had previously reported for MSNBC and maintained a blog. That blog had not been updated since early '05, but was recently updated to include an explanation of his new employment.

Liberal Internet TV show/network Evolve TV posts its first episode, with Markos Moulitsas interviewing prof Juan Cole. Moulitsas gives his take on it at Daily Kos. Cole posts his at Informed Comment.

Liberal Allison Hantschel, aka Athenae from First Draft has edited and released what Rising Hegemon calls "a fine book on the lies and machinations" of ex-Pentagon Undersec. Doug Feith. It's titled "Special Plans: The Blogs on Douglas Feith & the Faulty Intelligence that Led to War" and includes contributions from Daily Kos, Orcinus, AMERICAblog, Talking Points Memo, TAPPED, Whiskey Bar and others.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Hey, Wait A Minute ...

Last Friday's "Thought" concerned Universal's blog-based preview campaign for the sci-fi movie "Serenity"; now the backlash: Liberal Kevin Drum at Political Animal admits that it's gotten him to write about it, even without a ticket, and admits some more: "I'll confess to a certain amount of curiosity about whether the extensive blog marketing campaign for Serenity actually works ... However, what I'm really struck by is the fact that bloggers can apparently be bought so cheaply. I mean, a free movie ticket? That's what, ten bucks? Sheesh." Conservative Hei Lun at Begging To Differ signed up for the screening, but balked upon receiving an e-mail specifying how one should write about the movie, not to mention finding out that admittance isn't guaranteed: "In other words, if you become a complete shill for them, they just might let you see their movie. Or they might not -- sure, they have only 150 seats in the theater, but if they can get 200 bloggers to get down on their hands and knees and beg them for a ticket, who cares if 50 of them can't get in? Mighty tempting (well, not really), but no thanks."

LEST WE FORGET: Lost

WuzzaDem imagines and photo-illustrates an episode of "Scarborough Country" focusing on a missing-persons story perhaps not so different from the one usually seen on MSNBC. The opening is excerpted below:

SCARBOROUGH: "Welcome to Scarborough, I'm Joe Scarborough, and tonight we have a Scarborough Country exclusive report. Let's go to our own Rita Cosby, live in Galveston, Texas. Rita, what's happening?"
COSBY: "Joe, I'm here in Galveston, and I can report to you that at this moment there are hundreds, if not thousands of people missing from their homes..."
SCARBOROUGH: "Hold on here, Rita, did you say hundreds of people are missing?"
COSBY: "That's right, Joe. Our investigation has found that scores of houses in this town are completely empty, most of them still furnished, many with cars still in the garages, but the occupants are nowhere to be found."
SCARBOROUGH: "This is absolutely astonishing, Rita. What are the local authorities doing to track these people down?"
COSBY: "Joe, you won't believe this, but when I tried to ask local police what kind of investigation they have underway, they basically blew me off, saying they were too busy dealing with water damage and downed power lines to stop and talk to me."

Posted by at September 26, 2005 01:03 PM