I don’t know about all of you, but I grew up watching American Bandstand. So…I’m going to be posting some clips from that classic TV show for the next few days. Or until my supply runs out. Enjoy. And, if you’re too young to remember, please know that this was the MTV of today. Laugh, if you will. But, it was Saturday morning "must see" TV.
Tags: American Bandstand, Dick Clark
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I know. It’s late. But, just noticed one more late addition to the blogosphere. A little something from CNN. I watched part of the Situation Room, but didn’t see this segment.
In an interview on CNN today, Wolf Blitzer asked House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) about “the Americans who are killed every month” in Iraq and “how much longer” the “military commitment is going to require?” “The investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here,” [...]
Tags: Wolf Blitzer, John Boehner, Troop Deaths in Iraq
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There is a bit of a bounce, but for the most part, it’s
NBC/WSJ: "According to the poll, just 30 percent approve of Bush’s handling of Iraq, but that’s an eight-point improvement from July. The increase comes primarily from Republicans, men and independents, the NBC/Journal pollsters say." That’s something (slight improvements are conservatives/Republicans coming home, as Tim Russert notes on NBC Nightly News) we’ve made a point of [...]
Tags: NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Poll
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The feisty airline has managed to upset another passenger – another female – by telling her that her outfit is too revealing. There just may be a bit of a pattern here. If enough people boycott SWA, seats will be easier to come by for the rest of us. Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal…I don’t understand why the airline is doing it, but it does seem to be happening.
Jessica Valenti: Am I the only one who finds it interesting that both women that Southwest has harassed are well-endowed in the boobie department? [...]
Tags: Southwest Airlines, Female Passenger
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Dems are already lining up against the probable AG nominee. This should be interesting. Again.
How much opposition would Ted Olson get if nominated? Well, consider the gauntlet thrown down: Senate Democrats will block Ted Olson from succeeding Alberto Gonzales as attorney general if President [...]
Tags: Ted Olson, Attorney General, Harry Reid
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Here’s your juicy bit of political gossip for this late Wednesday evening. Seems there’s a bit of friction between a couple of the top military bosses..
During the Iraq war, the Central Command (CENTCOM) head — who leads U.S. operations in the entire Middle East region — and the Multinational Force Commander (MNF) have regularly testified together about the course of the war in Iraq. Former-MNF Commander Gen. George Casey and his CENTCOM Commander Gen. John Abizaid constantly briefed Congress about the [...]
Tags: CentCom, Fallon, Patraeus, Iraq War
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It’s Wednesday evening and that means the downhill race to the weekend is officially underway. Stay the course. Don’t speed. You know the usual admonitions. From a blogging point of view, we begin on a sad, sad, note tonight. A. J. Rossmiller blogs at AMERICAblog today about a tragedy in Iraq…
Two soldiers who wrote NYT op-ed killed in Iraq
Since their op-ed criticizing the administration’s strategy in Iraq began with the words, "Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment," one has to assume that nearly a month later the seven soldiers who authored the piece were achingly close to returning home. Two of them won’t be coming back alive. Yance Gray and Omar Mora, both of the 82nd Airborne Division, were killed on Monday. Gray leaves behind [...]
Tags: Yance Grey, Omar Mora, New York Times, Iraq War
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Do we need to put General Patraeus in that elite group? Those administration officials who simply can’t be trusted to speak the truth instead of spin?
Flashback: Did Petraeus lie about mobile weapons labs in 2003?
From the “Why should we trust him now department?” Flashback to 2003. Petraeus said: “The suspected mobile biological agent production lab found on 9 May in our area was found by one of our infantry units during operations at the al-Kindi Rocket and Missile Research and Development Center… Our own chemical section looked at the trailer [...]
Tags: Patrraeus, Iraq, Chemical Weapons, WMD
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You really could have seen this one coming. First, the report. Then, the testimony. Then, a chunk of prime TV time for the President. Then, leaked information on what he’s going to say – two days before he says it. It is, after all, part of the playbook..
Bush to Announce Troop Cut… Karry Calls It Too Little, To Late
Say what? The president has listened to the new Iraq progress report and he’s willing to act? Nah… That’s just the propaganda the Bush administration is feeding the media… AP News reports that “President Bush will tell the nation Thursday evening that he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by as many as [...]
Tags: Iraq Progress Report, Troop Cuts, Surge
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Trying to educate the masses. Join in. Do YOUR part. Make sure your friends and family know the truth and are not part of the 1 in 3 noted in this new poll. Again, the truth appears to be hidden by the spin…
Poll Shows 1 in 3 Americans Still Believe Saddam Involved in 9/11
On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, one-third of the American people continue to believe that Saddam Hussein was "personally involved" in the terrorist assault, according to one recent poll. Other surveys show that a larger number [...]
Tags: 9/11, Saddam Hussein, Iraq War
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I cannot, in any way, come even close to understanding the mindset that made this happen.
Unspeakable, Unimaginable, Unacceptable Hatred
If there is any lingering doubt as to the fact that some crimes can indeed be termed hate crimes, well, meet Megan Williams, a twenty-year-old black woman who was the victim of unspeakable violence and cruelty at the hands of her white captors: "The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams said she wanted people to know what her daughter endured. "I don’t understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from [...]
Tags: Hate Crimes, Racial Violence, Megan Williams
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Pointing this out to you, because it just might get lost in the flurry of political stories today.
Hillary: Level With America Mr. Bush
With Obama planning a new address on Iraq today, and with Bush planning to take credit tomorrow for supposedly reducing our troop levels next summer down to pre-surge numbers, Hillary pre-empts both of them with a letter to the White House today. She asks him to not spin tomorrow’s announcement as something special, when in fact he is only un-doing the surge because of deployment constraints. She asks him to level with the American people about our challenges in Iraq, and to use his authority to [...]
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Obama, Iraq War, Bush Administration
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That "cooperation" everybody was talking about? Forget it. The Attorney General spot is gonna be another showdown…
Two short weeks ago, it looked as if the White House wanted to play nice when it came to replacing Alberto Gonzales. The NYT reported that the Bush gang had even gone so far as to ask Dems on the Senate Judiciary Committee for input on the next Attorney General nominee. “In the past,” Chuck [...]
Tags: Attorney General Nomination, Senate Judiciary Committee
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Olbermann had a great segment tonight. I’m pulling from Crooks and Liars again, because they have the time to snag the video. And the ability to do so. It’s good stuff.
On tonight’s special 9/11 edition of Countdown Keith Olbermann, who was reporting from Ground Zero in New York City, slams it out of the park. His opening segment covered President Bush and Rudy Giuliani’s actions today and digs deeper into the hapless and transparent testimony of General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker before the [...]
Tags: Olbermann, 9/11, Giuliami, Patraeus, Crocker
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And, you wonder why I got out of broadcasting. This is heartbreaking. But, typical.
TVNewser has obtained an email sent this afternoon from employees of the ABC News Washington, DC graphics department to executives [...]
Tags: ABC News, Broadcasting
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Again, regular posts begin two down below. But, there’s late stuff that’s worth talking about tonight. Beginning with this..
A visibly emotional Sen. Joe Biden and Chris Matthews discuss the ramifications of Gen. Petraeus’s surprisingly unvarnished answer that he couldn’t say that our presence in Iraq was making us any safer. MATTHEWS: But if the commander over there can’t justify the deaths of these soldiers, because it serves a [...]
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The other one. Not the DC Madam. This is breaking late tonight. Regular posts begin below..
Seems the Senator from Louisiana had quite the active libido according to a former prostitute. Vitter apparently had to end the "relationship" with the prostitute when she told him her real name was "Wendy." That would also be the name of Mrs. Senator David Vitter. You can’t make this stuff up — and the former prostitute passed a lie detector test yesterday. Also, to clarify, as today’s update points out, this "relationship" lasted from [...]
Tags: Vitter
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It’s Tuesday. 9/11. Year 6. And there will be posts below addressing that anniversary. But, we begin tonight with a note of optimism and a strange interview. First, that note of optimism: it actually felt like fall today! The skies cleared after days of rain and humidity and there was an almost-cool breeze. Walking between buildings at work was enjoyable. I don’t know how long it’s been since we had a day like today, but it’s been TOO long. Now, I’m REALLY ready for some football!
And, the interview. I just find Donald Rumsfeld’s answers…well, strange…
From Lisa DePaolo’s interview with Rumsfeld in GQ: You still like [Bush]? "I do." You don’t talk, though, right? "Uhhh…I’m trying to think. No." Was the last time you talked to him the day you resigned? He can’t recall. What [...]
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Everybody is posting about how they heard the news of the 9/11 attacks, six years ago. I was still in TV news at the time, working an afternoon/evening shift. I had just stepped out of the shower to hear the Today show crew begin to describe what was showing up in the first video from the scene. I threw on my clothes, knowing it would be a long and busy day at work, but not knowing how EXTREMELY bad the situation was going to become. On the drive in, the Pentagon was hit. By the time I arrived at work, it seemed all hell had truly broken open. And the next 24 hours became a fog of video feeds, live shots and the reality of becoming part of one of the most horrifying stories of my lifetime. Now, other thoughts from other writers:
On September 11, 2001, six long years ago, like many people I watched my television with horror and disbelief as first passenger planes flew into the World Trade Center, and then the towers collapsed, like giant Jenga puzzles, one after the other. Before that collapse, I saw the flames and smoke spurting from those damaged skyscrapers and the people clinging to the outside of those wounded buildings like tiny ants. I even watched the long slow fall of those who decided death by falling 90 stories was preferable to being [...]
9/11, grief, and the politics of victimhood
Nestled in the New York Times on Labor Day weekend was an extraordinary article asking, "As 9/11 Nears, a Debate Rises: How Much Tribute Is Enough?": "Again it comes, for the sixth time now — 2,191 days after that awful morning — falling for the first time on a Tuesday, the same day of the week. Again there will be the public tributes, the tightly scripted memorial events, the reflex news coverage, the souvenir peddlers. Is all of it necessary, at the same decibel level — still? [...]
America Gathers To Remember 9/11
Relatives of World Trade Center victims bowed their heads in silence at a small park Tuesday to mark the moment exactly six years earlier when the first hijacked plane struck the towers. The dreary, gray skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001. "That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as [...]
A day robbed of its rightful meaning
It’s impossible to appropriately comment on a day like today. One wants to think about this day differently, somehow, despite the fact that its impact and effects confront us endlessly. One wants to be able to think about this date, this anniversary, without partisan overtones and instead [...]
Tags: 9/11, World Trade Center, Pentagon
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I’m swearing off even an occasional few minutes viewing Fox News. Not going there. Anymore. Not after the unconscionable segment with General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker. 16 minutes! This wasn’t an interview. It wasn’t news. It was a commercial for the White House.
I feel like I need to write “I will not be so naive” on a blackboard 100 times to teach myself a lesson. At first, I thought there was no way Gen. David Petraeus would limit himself to just one media interview with Fox News, television’s most partisan news outlet. Why would a respected military [...]
Tags: Fox News, Patraeus, Crocker, Iraq War
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