Flit Flit Flit
Oh, the fickle, flitting attention span of the blogosphere. Yesterday it was WMDs. Today, it's about 6 things at once, and everyone's talking about all of them. How do you people get any work done, or pay any attention to the Spain-Saudi Arabia match that we haven't been able to watch?
By the way, things do seem to happen faster in the blogosphere, as Day 3 of Kos/Armstrong-gate brings with it significantly less attention than days 1 and 2. If only Monica Lewinsky could have been a blogger. Yeesh. On second though, scratch that.
TERRORISM I: An Easy Cell
Last night's report that at least seven people are in custody for allegedly plotting to attack targets in Chicago and Miami got the blogosphere fired up. Riehl World View has updates, links to relevant news items and a satellite photograph of the warehouse where the suspects allegedly met. Lawhawk rounds up blogosphere reaction, after critiquing some MSM reporting. So does Hugh Hewitt, Little Green Footballs
Scared Monkeys: "The best defense sometimes is a great offense." And PSoTD thinks the arrests -- and the way law enforcement handled them -- sows positive seeds for the future: "Spreading doubt in a decentralized process just creates more dissuasion in getting involved in that process. Doubt does not stimulate development. This could reduce the number of potential domestic terrorists." 
Others see the news as a worrying foreshadow. Donklephant: "These suspected terrorists are Americans with seemingly no ties to Al Qaeda. However, it also appears that they are Muslim-wannabe-Al Qaeda? I shudder the thought of that." From the left comes Bark Bark Woof Woof: "These guys don't sound especially swift. Parading around in military-style clothing kind of stands out in Liberty City, which is not what you want to do if you're going to be covert. But then again, a certain terrorist who is six-feet-five and on dialysis has been eluding capture in Afghanistan or Pakistan or wherever for five years, so, who knows." Patterico's Pontifications: "I question the timing. Why would this happen now, just when: evidence is coming to light that WMD (or perhaps former WMD) have been found in Iraq; Karl Rove is not being indicted; a report has found no evidence of a deliberate cover-up at Haditha; and Zarqawi has been killed?" DailyK's va dare: [FBI Dir. Robert] "Mueller will be on Larry King tonight. Is this all just a stunt to build an audience?" Protein Wisdom, tounge firmly in cheek: "So long as FISA warrants were obtained and all the proper paperwork was completed in triplicate. Otherwise, we're no better than those we claim to fight. Except, of course, for the plotting to blow up buildings part. But that's really just incidental." Ninth State agrees with the sentiment: "The FBI has a thankless job and seems to get nothing but grief from many who seek to tie agents' hands in the name of civil liberties. I hope that nothing of that sort enters into this case and allows the seven plotters to get off scott-free. Dometic terrorism hits home, folks. Think twice next time you want to hamstring our intelligence agencies." Confederate Yankee: "I guess that NSA 'domestic spying' program works pretty good, doesn't it?" More tongue in cheek-ness, this from Sundries Shack: "Just MoveOn, folks. Terrorism is no big deal. ... And apparently there were all Islamic radicals, too. Huh. Can't be true. I keep hearing that these Islamic folks are about the 'religion of peace' thing."
Some, particularly on the right, see the incident through the larger lens of Islam's relationship with the West. Liberty and Justice: "This is the latest and future challenge in the war against terrorism: people who have been born and raised in the West, turn against it. ... The main problem for the West, regarding fundamentalist Muslims, is how to 'force' immigrant Muslims and later their children to assimilate to Western culture. Because, if we refuse to demand this of them, more and more homegrown terror cells will emerge." Occidentality header: "The religion of peace goes peacefully." Freedom Watch notes this isn't the first time home-grown terror cells have been rounded up. Debbie Schlussel, meanwhile, thinks life imitates art, and that the Miami arrestees were watching HBO's "Sleeper Cell."
Race creeps around the edges of the story. While it was first reported that most of the suspects were African American, with at least one being of Caribbean descent, several MSM sites removed that fact from their stories. Gates of Vienna takes a look at the MSM timeline. Ace of Spades takes on DailyKos's claim that news networks acted in a racist manner over the story. Daily Pundit, meanwhile, makes some assumptions about those involved.
Gateway Pundit, Terrorism Unveiled, TalkLeft, Security Watchtower, Brainster, Hot Air, Blogs of War, Partisan Times, Sugiero, California Conservative, Prairie Pundit and Captain Ed add thoughts.
TERRORISM II: Take It To The Bank
Once again, New York Times' Lichtblau and Risen scoop the world and report on some Bush admin tactics for tracking terrorists' financial transactions around the world.
The right reacted to the old grey lady's latest with the same outrage that greeted the two reporters' 12/05 piece disclosing NSA wiretap programs. Ankle Biting Pundits header: "New York Times Once Again Does Its Best To Thwart War On Terror." Blue Crab Boulevard: "The New York Times has done it again! severely damaged or outright crippled the ability of the US government to fight terrorism." PoliPundit: "Here we go again!" Michelle Malkin: "Dammit. These people don't know when to stop." Iowa Voice: " Damn it! Will someone PLEASE find the person responsible for these leaks to the press and have them arrested for violating national security???" Stephen Spruiell: "According to the NYT's own reporting, the program is legal. The program is helping us catch terrorists. The administration has briefed the appropriate members of Congress. The program has built-in safeguards to prevent abuse. And yet, with nothing more than a vague appeal to the "public interest" (which apparently is not outweighed in this case by the public's interest in apprehending terrorists), the NYT disregards all that and publishes intimate, classified details about the program." Don Surber: "The Times would rather have Mo Dowd in a burka than allow this president to do the job he was elected to do: Defend the nation and promote the general welfare." Prairie Pundit: "another attempt by the Times to act as al Qaeda's useful idiot, revealing methods and sources and pointing a finger at the people trying to keep al Qaeda from chopping off the head of every employee of the NY Times whether they deserve it or not. I don't think a newspaper that wanted the US to win would be revealing this information." CP: "I'm sure, of course, that their 'sources' requested 'anonymity' because of the 'sensitivity of the information'. That should read -- 'traitors' requested 'protection' because disclosing the information might constitute giving 'aid to the enemy' and because it is 'illegal to disclose classified intelligence sources and methods'." Other irritated righties: Hot Air, Security Watchtower, Hugh Hewitt, Freedom Watch, Protein Wisdom, Squiggler and Cold Fury, who connects the case to the Miami terror cell. Power Line keeps up with responses from other blogo and MSM sources. War and Peace delves deeper into the program. Defense Tech called it.
From the left comes outrage not at the NYT, but at the admin for once again (in many's views) overstepping their bounds. TalkLeft header: "Bush Administration Obtained Bank Data Without Court Subpoenas or Warrants." Brilliant At Breakfast: "Do YOU believe this Administration when they say they are ONLY monitoring bank records of suspected terrorists, especially after we find out that AT&T is running secret surveillance rooms for them? I don't." Bark Bark Woof Woof: "In theory, this is probably a logical and necessary step in ensuring national security, and like wiretapping, no one in their right mind could be against it as long as it is done within the law. Ay, there's the rub. The revelations that the Bush administration has routinely skirted the laws on the books and taken it upon themselves to decide just how the laws they do observe apply -- or don't apply -- to them make this kind of story that used to be the stuff of the nightmares of the TFH brigade who saw silent black helicopters hovering over the World Trade Center, or the militiamen who romp around in their Elmer Fudd hats and cammie-jammies in the northern Idaho woods muttering about the 'Zion Occupation Government' in Washington." Kevin Hayden takes on Malkin (we'll let you read that part): "The public has a clear interest in knowing what law its illegal government is breaking now." Oliver Willis comments on why we don't have a king. Hullabaloo and TPMuckraker chip in too.
BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: Got Your Back ... Or Punch It.
Maybe 6/22's frission of anger dissipated tension. The liberal blogosphere seems to have calmed down just a bit in terms of the volume of posts on Kos/Armstrong (or, if you prefer, Suellentrop/Libelman).
TNR/Plank's Jason Zengerle, who made trouble here, responds to a day's worth of charges against his original post. He quotes from three e-mails to the semi-private Townhouse list that demonstrate "a good amount of concern among liberal bloggers about the Armstrong SEC story and the allegations of "pay for play" against Kos and Armstrong." Some of those bloggers "wanted to address these issues forthrightly. And, yet, after Kos subsequently wrote the e-mail quoted in my original post asking the bloggers to "ignore" the story in order to "starve of it oxygen," there was virtual silence in the liberal blogosphere about it. That, to me at least, suggests that Kos does indeed have a good deal of influence over what other liberal bloggers write." Zengerle then writes that, contrary to the assertion of some, the manager of the Advertising Liberally BlogAds network -- Chris Bowers and an advisory board -- "has absolute control over setting standards for the network and deciding who is in and who is not." Zengerle then addresses the TNR/Lieberman/Centrist/Haters allegations. "Lastly, let me address the issue of Kos's anger. His response to my original posts is basically a long and blustery attack against TNR. His restatement that he is not a consultant still does not answer the serious questions that have been raised about his relationship with Armstrong and whether there is some arrangement by which politicians who hire Armstrong as a consultant then receive Kos's support. And yet, because I continue to ask these questions, Kos contends that "TNR's defection to the Right is now complete." How asking legitimate questions of and about two individuals can be construed as an attack on liberalism as a whole is beyond me. Kos evidently believes that, as The Democratic Daily put it, 'the left c'est moi.'" TNR culture critic/big thinker Lee Siegel uses a lot of words and meta-thoughts (and leaves us a bit confused) but clearly loves the "expose" of Kos. Seigel: "It's a bizarre phenomenon, the blogosphere. It radiates democracy's dream of full participation but practices democracy's nightmare of populist crudity, character-assassination, and emotional stupefaction. It's hard fascism with a Microsoft face." Tapped's Greg Sargent calls it the "the blogospheric equivalent of daytime TV at its worst" and links to colleague Ezra Klein's dissection of the case. Stirling Newberry still hates TNR.
Taylor Marsh says TNR is angry that the liberal blogs are speaking truth to power. "The bottom line on this whole story stems from one thing and one thing only: the progressive blogs have become very powerful, but not because of just Markos, Jane, Christy, John Amato and the rest, but because of you. That's what TNR and others peddling Joe-Nertia don't understand. Alone we can do nothing. It's the MILLIONS of readers who have HAD ENOUGH and have joined the cause that we lead that give us our power." Well, died-in-the-wool DLCer Ed Kilgore writes that Markos "picked an especially bad day to label TNR a self-conscious organ of the Right Wing Conspiracy." After all, TNR "just posted an article by its editor-in-chief, Martin Peretz, endorsing Al Gore for president in 2008. As regular readers of Daily Kos know, Gore has become the runaway favorite for 2008 among Kossacks. Inconvenient but true, eh?"
MyDD's Chris Bowers is feeling koombayaish. "We are all in this new movement together folks. I may be only 32, but I waited my whole life for a real progressive movement to come along in this country. Now we have it, and we are making some real waves. We will win and lose together. I have your backs because you have mine, and because I've seen energy in the netroots that I know will lead to the changes in America we all desire. We can do this. We just have to stay together."
ABRAMOFF: You Win Some, You Get Named In Some
Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) Indian Affairs Cmte released a report 6/22 detailing links between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and several members of Congress, as well as GA LG candidate Ralph Reed. Lefty blogs haven't picked up on this one yet, but some are catching on. AMERICAblog writes Reed was the "poster boy for GOP moral values" and a "kingmaker" who was put in the GOP "pipeline to leadership" starting in GA. "Ralph Reed really is the face of the GOP." Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) involvement in the scandal was disputed by the report after he said he was unfamiliar with an Indian tribe represented by Abramoff. TPM Muckracker'sPaul Kiel : "You lie to Senate investigators, it's a felony -- regardless of whether you're under oath or not. Ney might want to ask David Safavian about that -- he was just convicted of doing the very same thing."
CT SEN: Expect The Expected
Fairly predictable reaction to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D-CT) decision to vote against either Dem troop drawdown proposal in the Senate. Ctblogger asks "What do you want me to say about Joe Lieberman opening the debate for the Republicans against both Democratic proposals on how to proceed in Iraq?" Influence Peddler's Nanman writes that "If Lieberman ultimately runs as an Independent, defeats Lamont, and tries to return to DC as an Independent who supports the Democrats, will he ever be able to go into a local Democratic club again? It sure looks like the Kos/MoveOn crowd intends to make it unbearable for him. They are livid that Lieberman won't rule out an Independent bid, and the level of bile is rising every day. Will Lieberman want to bury the hatchet with that group, when he runs into them on a daily basis in Connecticut?"
Meanwhile, the debate about whether Dems are doing the right (and strong) thing continues. Actually, it's not a debate. It's an assertion-off. Both sides simply assert, assuming that their readers need to no evidence to believe them. Wouldn't it be fun if that prudent part of Matthew Yglesias's brain were injected into the brains of every blogger? Lots of conservatives simply gloated. Dailypundit calls the Dems (and the NYT, for using a Vietnam reference) "losers."
Dick Cheney's interview with John King provoked Cheney-esque sneers from Angry Bear, Shakespreare's Sister and Georgia10 at Daily Kos, who notes that 10 U.S. soldiers died yesterday.
ENVIRONMENT: Why Is This Funny? Because 2 Of 4 Mention 'Inconvenient Truth'
In a report released 6/22, the Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research concluded that last year's hurricane season was made substantially greater by global warming. Coincidentally yesterday, the Nat'l Research Council released a similar study. Firedoglake kicks off the lefty commenting: "On this day in 1633, Galileo Galilei was forced by the Catholic Church to recant his endorsement of Nicolaus Copernicus' claim that the earth revolves around the sun. He was threatened with torture and sentenced to life in prison, finally ending up with a life sentence of house arrest after promising never to mention his ideas ever again. How far we have come. Today, nobody gets tortured and the people in power embrace science ... just not in America." Judd: The NCAR "factored in the natural variations in temperature -- volcanic activity, solar radiation etc. -- and concluded that these can't explain the warming trend. What does explain it is increased carbon dioxide emissions from human activity." Justin Gardner and Hit and Run also chip in.
WH '08: Not The Blogosphere Splash Edwards Was Hoping For?
Ex-Sen. John Edwards' (D-NC) "Working Society" speech isn't lighting the left-wing blogosphere on fire, but it recieved praise as one of Dems' long-sought "big ideas." Kos wonders whether "focusing on the 'poor' rather than, say, the middle class a political winner? I don't know. But I like ambitious plans and goals. I like a plan to move America forward rather than just treading water (or worse)." More Kos: "I do know that the Change To Win unions (SEIU, UNITE-HERE, Teamsters) are really gearing up to back Edwards with all they've got making Edwards a major player in the 2008 sweepstakes."
Democrats & Liberals is "sure" poverty can be eliminated in 30 yeras with Edwards' plan and whether the ex-senator is the Dem nom or not, Dems "should advertise to the world" that they are for the "Working Society." Righty blog Catallarchy'sSean Lynch : "Someone should give Edwards a dictionary" for the obvious nod to LBJ's "Great Society." "At least it's not a war on something."
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Daily Dampening Effect
Under the headline "Jon Stewart, Enemy of Democracy?," the Washington Post's Richard Morinwrites up a study by two pol. scientists who've found that viewers of "The Daily Show" "develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting." Morin calls that "dismaying." The researchers -- Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris of East Carolina University, showed clips from The Daily Show to one group of high school students and clips from the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather to another.
Morin: "the results showed that the participants rated both candidates more negatively after watching Stewart's program. Participants also expressed less trust in the electoral system and more cynical views of the news media." Huh. Count us cynical. We'd like to test the priming effect on such studies before making pronouncements. And besides, who normally watches "The Daily Show" in a research lab? And are the effects different closer to the election?
LEST WE FORGET: Heaven Forfend, A Non-Fan Of The Blogosphere!
The Blogometer was sitting around a bar last night when one of his less-reputable friends suggested that the blogosphere wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. Reading and enjoying you all so much every day, the Blogometer was forced to respond with a stinging critique of said friend's intelligence, personal hygiene and fashion sense, as well as a hearty and well-thought-out defense of said blogosphere.
The friend, who shall remain nameless, retreated from his earlier position and instead directed the Blogometer to The Best Page In The Universe, which, while not very nice to those of us in the blogosphere, is nonetheless pretty amusing for anyone able to laugh at themselves. Enjoy.
