Lead and Gold

Steyn on the climate change scams

2009-11-28T11:51:00.001-05:00

Cooking the books on climate

The more frantically two prominent global-warming alarmists talked up "peer review" as the only legitimate basis for scientific criticism, the more assiduously they turned the process into the Chicago machine politics of international science.

Anatomy of a smear

2009-11-25T16:44:00.003-05:00

R. S. McCain is still on the Clay County beat:

Shame and Blame in Kentucky

Thanks to an anonymous source in an Associated Press story and a flurry of speculation by bloggers, however, this quiet community was imagined to be a seething cauldron of hatred stoked by Fox News, talk radio and Republican politicians. Clay County's state Sen. Robert Stivers told the Lexington Herald-Leader that "many in the media owe the county an apology." As Morgan Bowling said Tuesday afternoon, at times it seemed as if pundits were trying to turn Bill Sparkman into a "sacrificial lamb for ObamaCare."

Well, well, well

2009-11-24T16:25:00.005-05:00

Looks like the good people of Clay County, Kentucky are not a bunch of blood-thirsty Beckazoids.

The Kentucky State Police Post 11 in London, with the assistance of the FBI, the U.S. Forest Service, the State Medical Examiner's Office and the Clay County Coroner's Office, has concluded the investigation into the death of William E. Sparkman, Jr.

The investigation, based upon evidence and witness testimony, has concluded that Mr. Sparkman died during an intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide.

Early reactions:

R. S. McCain really deserves some credit for doing the reporting that the MSM just would not do in the early days of the story.

Other reactions:

Calling For Sparkman Apologies

When will the Left retract the Kentucky census worker case smear?

Confederate Yankee

Gateway Pundit

Census Worker Killed Himself and the Credibility of Leftwing Bloggers

Weekly Standard has a great round-up of the rush to judgement when this death was first reported.

Follow it on memeorandum All eyes on Excitable Andy.

Worrisome

2009-11-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

Politically correct officials put in charge of official Fort Hood investigation

(HT: Hot Air)

Someone worth remembering

2009-11-24T11:34:00.002-05:00

1930s journalist Gareth Jones to have story retold

Correspondent who exposed Soviet Ukraine's manmade famine to be focus of new documentary

In death he has become known as "the man who knew too much" – a fearless young British reporter who walked from one desperate, godforsaken village to another exposing the true horror of a famine that was killing millions.

Gareth Jones's accounts of what was happening in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-33 were different from other western accounts. Not only did he reveal the true extent of starvation, he reported on the Stalin regime's failure to deliver aid while exporting grain to the west. The tragedy is now known as the Holodomar and regarded by Ukrainians as genocide.

Jones had the story of a lifetime and tried to tell it. The "best minds" in journalism did their best to help preserve Stalin's cover-up. Some of them even won prizes for the effort.

This never happened when Cronkite was around

2009-11-24T08:27:00.003-05:00

Best reaction is Jim Treacher's:

Katie Got Back

Others comment on the Perky one:

Ace of Spades

Ed Driscoll

Weasel Zippers

It even has its own thread on memeorandum

The global warming emails

2009-11-23T12:03:00.002-05:00

Nice round-up by Ed Driscoll:

All The News That’s Fit To Bury

Good stuff here

2009-11-23T06:50:00.000-05:00

Palinphobes hate first, ask questions later

This story is too good to miss:

Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus’ Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor’s writing chops, excerpting the following sentence from her book:

“The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle.”

Other readers pounced like wolf-sized Dobermans on an intruder. One guffawed, “That sentence by Sarah Palin could be entered into the annual Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. It could have a chance at winning a (sic) honorable mention, at any rate.”

But soon, the original contributor confessed: “I probably should have mentioned that the sentence quoted above was not written by Sarah Palin. It’s taken from the first paragraph of ‘Dreams From My Father,’ written by Barack Obama.”

On not living up to one's reputation

2009-11-22T10:34:00.001-05:00

According to the MSM

Elizabeth Drew has been one of the country's most knowledgeable and keen-eyed observers of the American political scene in the 40 years that she has written from the nation's capital.

Yet Neo-neocon looks at her most recent article and pronounces it "curiously naive".

Unfortunately, Neo has the facts to back up that verdict.

IG-gate

2009-11-22T09:55:00.001-05:00

The truth seeps out:

A congressional investigation of the volunteer organization AmeriCorps contains charges that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled "damage control" after allegations of sexual misconduct against her now fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent ally of President Obama, The Washington Examiner has learned.

The charges are contained in a report prepared by Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

UPDATE: The plot thickens:

Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave the lawmakers a trove of new, previously-withheld documents on the affair. It was a twist on the now-familiar White House late-Friday release of bad news; this time, the new evidence was put out not only at the start of a weekend but also hours too late for inclusion in the report.

The new documents support the Republican investigators' conclusion that the White House's explanation for Walpin's dismissal -- that it came after the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, unanimously decided that Walpin must go -- was in fact a public story cobbled together after Walpin was fired, not before.

Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?

2009-11-21T11:34:00.003-05:00

Edward Jay Epstein:

The Warren Commission concluded– rightly I now believe– that Oswald fired all the shots that killed the President. But conspiracies do not necessarily require multiple rifleman to accomplish their purpose. And what the Warren Commission could not absolutely rule out, as two of its members pointed out to me, was the possibility that Oswald had acted at the behest of others. After all, he had advertised his willingness to undertake a high-profile assassination by circulating photographs connecting himself to the shooting of General Walker. Any party who was monitoring his activities in Dallas, New Orleans or Mexico City could have discerned from them that he was a potential assassin awaiting a mission. With his mind set on such violent actions as hijacking a plane, blowing up the FBI office, or killing "any American," not much would be required to prod him to violence. He had sought liaisons in dangerous quarters and someone could have provided him with an inducement.

Buckle your seatbelts

2009-11-21T10:53:00.002-05:00

It going to be a bumpy read.

The McCainosphere catches rogue fever

'Free Medicine, Juanita,' Reid Announced

Thanks to the round-up, i found this priceless gem:

What I find especially amusing is Sullivan’s notion that he is in a position to demand an accounting from Sarah Palin on anything, particularly given his bizarre, embarrassing and highly vocal fascination with Trig Palin’s parentage. I believe he still styles himself a Catholic and a kind of “generalissimo” of “true” conservatism, but the last thing we need – and certainly, a thing we need never pay any serious attention to – is Francisco Franco in a pink uniform.

That just cries out for a Photoshop wizard to pick up the torch.

Stunned

2009-11-21T09:28:00.001-05:00

That's the only way to react to something like this:

The Obama Justice Department is having problems prosecuting terrorist cases because top department attorneys have conflicts of interest.

According to documents obtained exclusively by The Washington Times, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, No. 3 official in the Justice Department, had to recuse himself on at least 13 active detainee cases and at least 26 cases listed as either closed or mooted.

Michelle Malkin has also followed this issue and now tell us:

This is not the end of the story. It’s just the beginning.

"You guys make a pretty good photo op,"

2009-11-20T07:34:00.003-05:00

Wow.

And David Brooks thinks Sarah Palin is the joke?

Excitable Andy, boy detective

2009-11-19T04:38:00.001-05:00

Funny stuff over at Iowahawk

Dial 'M' For Maternity
Excerpts from the new Mike Loads gyno-mystery by Andrew Sullivan

This explains a lot

2009-11-18T13:39:00.000-05:00

Philip Klein

AARP, which has given its full-throated support to Democratic health care legislation even though seniors remain largely opposed, received an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs, according to the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website.

A point that cannot be made often enough

2009-11-18T13:24:00.003-05:00

From Tom Maquire:

And it is clearly not a big deal in itself. However, it is symptomatic of some larger points. We know very little about the true biography of a President who was elected on the basis of his biography, and, perhaps because the gloss is so pretty and so historic, the press has not shown much inclination to seek the truth.

At the root, i suspect that many so-called birthers do not really care where Barak Obama was born. But they do understand the truth of Maguire's point. So, like a good transgressive performance artist they look for a way to shock and mock. Birtherism is a way to tweak journalists for their sloth and liberals for their gullibility.

Why Congress must investigate Ft. Hood

2009-11-18T11:12:00.005-05:00

Under normal circumstances, congressional investigations produce more partisan heat than unbiased light. In this case that is a risk worth taking because such hearings are the least bad alternative and offer the best chance to uncover the truth.

This great article by Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn provides a great starting point for an enterprising legislator or staffer. Maj. Nidal should have set off more than a few alarm bells. Why did no one in authority listen?

Connecting the Dots

This is especially relevant:

Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and wounded more than 40. Three hours later, while the base was still in lockdown, an FBI spokesman dismissed suggestions that the attack was terrorism and said that a link between Hasan and terrorist organizations "is not being discussed."

On the day of the shooting all the cable news channels kept repeating this FBI statement. I wondered at the time, "how could they be so sure so fast?"

Now we know that they were fast but wrong. We deserve to know why. In addition, we deserve to know why dismissing a terrorist motive was such a high priority when an investigation had not even begun.

Most importantly, we must know if the FBI was telling the truth. Did they immediately dismiss the possibility of terrorism? Or was that just PR to calm the public's nerves? The latter might be (might) justifiable, but the former is outrageous. Surely after Beslan and Mumbai, the possibility of terrorism is something the FBI should consider.

This article in the Dallas Morning News raises questions about the Army's initial response:

Fort Hood captain: Hasan wanted patients to face war crimes charges

Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan sought to have some of his patients prosecuted for war crimes based on statements they made during psychiatric sessions with him, a captain who served on the base said Monday.

Other psychiatrists complained to superiors that Hasan's actions violated doctor-patient confidentiality, Capt. Shannon Meehan told The Dallas Morning News.

One day after the Nov. 5 attack that killed 13 and wounded 29, a Fort Hood official said she had never received complaints about Hasan's job performance. Col. Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at the base's Darnall Army Medical Center, also said he was a "hardworking, dedicated young man who gave great care to his patients."

So, did Col. Kesling receive complaints or not? If she did, why did she lie for a man had just perpetrated an atrocity?

A gift for any true populist

2009-11-18T08:31:00.004-05:00

Peter W. Galbraith is a gift that just keeps on giving.

David Warsh does a great job tracing his career and the scandal over his oil deal in Kurdistan.

Galbraith also helped push corruption in Afghanistan into the headlines in this country. Thus, he helped create the current impasse on Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's recommendations.

Inside the beltway, the deciders might want to downplay the issue because what's a little corruption among the right kind of people. (Hey, he's John Kenneth Galbraith's son, not some hick like Sarah Palin).

Warsh, though, shows why these peccadilloes have big consequences:

Galbraith’s enthusiasm for Kurdish independence always undermined Bash administration war aims in Iraq – there’s nothing new about that. But the the disclosure of his financial involvement in Kurdish affairs muddies the issue because it impairs American credibility in Iraq. Faisal Amin al-Istrabadi, one of the architects of the law that governed Iraq after the US ceded control in 2004, told the Times reporters, “The idea that an oil company was participating in the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution leaves me speechless.”

Of course, the same thing happened with Russia during the 1990s (Warsh discussed that in his article). American interests took a hit while insiders tried to get rich.

Worst of all, the press largely ignored the story. (Lawrence Summers is one of the righteous DC elect you see). How bad is Washington's memory?

Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers provided some measure of cover for his old friend Shleifer when the Harvard scandal broke in 1997. After becoming president of Harvard University, in 2001, he again shielded Shleifer from the consequences of an ultimately successful Justice Department law suit. And as chief economic strategist for the Obama administration, he enlisted Nancy Zimmerman, Shleifer’s wife and a successful hedge fund operator, in a “kitchen cabinet” of informal advisers, according to a Times dispatch earlier this year. The story of Harvard’s Russia scandal is barely known outside a limited circle of specialists in foreign aid.

Yes, by all means. Let's have more stories about Carrie Prejean and her sex tapes. Let's set 11 journalists to work "fact checking" a book by a former VP candidate. Clearly there are no real stories to cover in Washington.

TV News: Biased is the new objective

2009-11-18T04:49:00.003-05:00

Robert Lichter

Fox News: Fair And Balanced?

In fact, Obama received the most favorable coverage CMPA has ever recorded for any presidential candidate since we began tracking election news coverage in 1988. The totals were very similar--within a few percentage points--at all three networks. (These figures exclude comments on the candidates' prospects in the campaign horse race, which obviously favored Obama.)

Meanwhile, Fox's Special Report was dramatically tougher on Obama, with only 36% favorable vs. 64% unfavorable evaluations during the same time period. But McCain didn't fare much better, garnering only 40% favorable comments vs. 60% negative ones. So the broadcast networks gave good marks to one candidate and bad marks to another, while Fox was tough on both--and most balanced overall.

Why they hate Palin

2009-11-17T07:07:00.005-05:00

R. S. McCain is on to something here:

What is it about Palin that sticks in the craw of liberal journalists? Perhaps the same thing that has always annoyed them about Rush Limbaugh: Sarah Palin doesn't need their help, and all their efforts to harm her appear impotent.

David Warsh describes the importance of dispensing favors to traditional journalists:

It is a commonplace among news reporters that they operate in an informal economy of favors. Participation in newsgathering, for example, is usually based almost entirely on the (usually shrewdly) calculated rate of gain. Government officials in particular are experts at deciding which phone calls to return and which to ignore.

A name in the paper, a theory floated, a pet project boosted, a rival quietly gored, a scrap of gossip, even a fistful of clippings from the newspaper’s “morgue” (of greatly diminished value now that the files have long since become digital databases!) — these are some of the favors that newspaper reporters are free to dispense, or attempt to dispense, as they go about their business.

The anti-Palin reaction is not the first time we've seen journalists fall victim to rage fueled by impotence. I discussed an attack on the Powerline guys back in 2004:

All of this helps to explain the vicious columns Jim Boyd of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. wrote in response to the op-ed piece by the guys at Powerline.

From Boyd's perspective, it is bad enough that blogging barbarians compete against him in "explanation space." Once, bloggers were easy to dismiss because their readership is small. The situation became worse when the collective weight of blogger opinion and reporting forced the MSM to cover the questions about Kerry, Cambodia, and his war record. That was a sign that his side was losing its ability to determine what was newsworthy.

Hindrocket and The Big Trunk went further. Their op-ed column usurped the journalist's 'rightful role" and appeared on the pages of Boyd's own paper. The barbarians had breached the walls and were roaming free inside the city. Boyd reacted like an Edwardian butler who discovered a group of Welsh miners gathered in the grand dining hall. It is not what they did; it is that they were there at all.

More foolishness from David Brooks

2009-11-16T07:42:00.002-05:00

Obama is "the most talented political figure of the age."

Expertly dealt with by R.S. McCain and Ryan Cole.

David Brooks and the Obama man-crush

Brooks Again

This reminds me of all the pundits who raved about Bill Clinton as a politician ("the greatest of his time", "the best since FDR", yadda yadda yadda). This still gets repeated even though Clinton was way below average by the measures that count. (See here and here).

One of the biggest problems in Washington and in the MSM, is that pundits and political operators substitute consensus for analysis. Most of them just repeat conventional wisdom instead of thinking things through on their own or digging into the data.

The dangers of symbolic diplomacy

2009-11-16T07:10:00.003-05:00

Three worthwhile posts about the presidential bow:

Macsmind:

After all I've lived with Korean/Japanese wife for 26 years, and lived for many years in the orient, and I'm not only familiar the custom of bowing, I actually do it from time to time. A bow can mean many things to the oriental way. However Obama's bow was "to the earth" with his eyes looking downward.

My wife gasped when she saw it, "It's a signal of defeat" she continued.

Flooding The Memory Hole

Fresh from their triumphant non-coverage of Obama's inappropriate "shout-out" to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow before addressing the nation about the Fort Hood shooting, the MSM (and especially the NY Times) can now not-cover Obama's comical, culturally insensitive bowing handshake to the Japanese emperor.

Neo-neocon

Behind Obama’s bow: making up to Hirohito for past humiliations

The last is a little speculative but interesting nonetheless.

The MSM has no time for such trivia, of course. The have to get to the serious issues like the fact that mean Sarah Palin accused Steve Schmidt of being fat.

Curses

2009-11-16T07:02:00.001-05:00

Days like this i hate that i love football so much.

Swept by the Bengals. The only silver lining is that we still have a chance to beat the Ravens.

Good idea.

2009-11-15T08:25:00.003-05:00

Too bad they are so obsessed with Sarah Palin's book and Carrie Prejean's sex tapes.

From Winds of Change:

At some point it would be nice if there was a decent amount of transparency around what Soros is doing; if he genuinely believes in open societies, he ought to lead it, but since he doesn't - perhaps a decent journalistic project would be to connect the dots and create a map of his involvement in US and foreign affairs.

My hackles go up not only because of the notion that a reclusive, ideological billionaire has decided to reshape the American polity, but because that billionaire makes his billions in part by investing based on changes in international markets - which are in turn effected by national and international politics.