Comments on Search and Destroy: THIS WEEK'S SYNDICATED COLUMN: PROPAGANDISTS FIRST...

ar, I took the anecdote as an illustration that r...

2008-05-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

ar, I took the anecdote as an illustration that reporting is not rocket science. Even a silly cartoonist understands that press conferences are not news.

I'm not sure about the idea that Bush was wearing ...

2008-05-21T01:39:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure about the idea that Bush was wearing a medical device, since it seems like he'd be seen wearing it more often. I remember that the hidden transmitter idea was lent credence when during one debate Bush suddenly said "Let me finish" even though no one had interrupted him, or at least no one who could be heard by anyone else.

The funny thing is that Bush would probably be remembered more positively if he had lost the election. He barely won, and immediately afterwards his popularity began to drop like a rock, and it's still dropping today. If he'd lost, his supporters would be able to point to his inflated post-9/11 popularity rating and say he did his best to protect America. Then they could blame all the problems in Iraq directly on President Kerry, and say things would have been different if Bush was still in charge. Of course, no matter how he would've been remembered, it still would've been better to have gotten rid of him in 2004.

I'm bored with all the big words you used. Who re...

2008-05-20T22:39:00.000-04:00

I'm bored with all the big words you used. Who reads the NY Tim's ennywayz.

-American High School Graduate.

The NYT and the rest of the MSM arenothing but mou...

2008-05-20T16:53:00.000-04:00

The NYT and the rest of the MSM are
nothing but mouth-pieces for big
Business/Money corpoate class which select the presidents and congress and the Supreme court judges. They lie and
falsify and conceal some news all
the time and bullshit the public 24/7.
So, what is the big deal about a single episode. Ha. It is like they
are always honest and just slipped
this time. Ha again.

I'm not a frequent commenter, so let me preface th...

2008-05-20T16:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not a frequent commenter, so let me preface the below by saying it's all well-intentioned, and that I'm a long-time fan of your written and drawn output.

I think you're right about the main points, mostly that the Times screwed up big time. However, as to the device/non-device that was/wasn't on Bush's back, I have to doubt whether the opinion of the NASA expert who saw images of the debate is any more persuasive than Bill Frist (MD!) deciding that Terry Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state. Although I love your cartoon version of him, I think Bush can actually control his mouth on his own (except when eating pretzels, apparently).

Also, your anecdote from Afghanistan seems out of place. I understand that the anecdote is about the other journalist, not you, but the fact that journalists go to press conferences, and even expect to learn things there, is not that surprising. Though I imagine it wasn't intended this way, it came off more as an opportunity for you to gloat about your own journalistic integrity.

All of that said, keep up the good work, and I'll keep trying to get my local shitty alternative news weekly to pick you up...

Everything's relative, I guess. To listen to right...

2008-05-20T15:39:00.000-04:00

Everything's relative, I guess. To listen to right-wing radio, you'd think the NYT is owned by Mother Jones. This country is so fucked.

Obama/Webb 2008! (Jim Webb from my home Commonwealth is his best bet, in my latest opinion. Ex-Marine, ex-Reagan employee, gun toter, union guy, and he beat Macaca in VA which is no small feat, where he was an absurdly popular governor. I know, I lived there under him. It was tragicomic to go from Doug Wilder, who I've met and is a solid good guy, to George Allen, who convinced me to leave the state.)

Of course, it's all speculation, you know, the box...

2008-05-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

Of course, it's all speculation, you know, the box in Bush's back and the symptoms of some disease or disorder. What we CAN see, and HAVE seen, the past seven years, is a Big Man on Campus with a huge set of keys to everything on his belt, followed by a gang of wasted-talent carpetbaggers and ideologue sellouts who are intent on destroying the USA for their personal gain. George W. Bush IS the moron we see. He hasn't used the codes to our nuclear arsenal, because it wouldn't be profitable. He and his BASE need to keep wars going. There's no mystery for people who have had their eyes and ears open since the first time Dick Cheney, next to an open mike, called a reporter a "major league asshole." What we see immediately before us today is the cumulative result of seven years-plus of George W. Bush, basically an empty shell with cheerleading experience (a la Ronald Reagan, who had Nancy tell him what political party to belong to), predictably destroying everything in his path, while a spineless Congress and a fatally compromised Supreme Court bring us back to the happiness we experienced during the Vietnam War and, for the Supreme Court, the Dark Ages. We are, indeed, at the tip of that crumbling cliff, lubricated by the mountain of shit that has flowed downhill from the White House since DAY ONE of the George W. Bush hijacking of the Presidency. Don't fight it. The Bush administration isn't yet done humping our collective leg. They will let us know when they have finished, and don't expect a towel, much less a clean one.

woody is a better reporter than most.

2008-05-20T13:38:00.000-04:00

woody is a better reporter than most.

This may sound like crazy talk, but it is as plaus...

2008-05-20T11:16:00.000-04:00

This may sound like crazy talk, but it is as plausible an explaination as I can think of.

George W. Bush possibly is wearing a medical device for "persons at risk of cardiac arrest." It is a LifeVest wearable defibrillator. He started using it sometime after his January 2002 fainting spell, which was attributed to choking. Based on photos showing him wearing the device, one can conclude the fainting was due to atrial fibrillation (AF), which his father also had. His father's AF was caused by Graves' hyperthyroidism, which his mother also has. Bush likely has AF and less likely Graves', based on his family history and symptoms. The AF may have caused a stroke or TIA (mini-stroke), of which physicians watching the debates detected symptoms. Observers have noted psychological symptoms consistent with this and with Wernicke-Korsakoff disease.

Liberated from Miqel.com.

But Ted,I grew up being pounded on a routine basis...

2008-05-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

But Ted,

I grew up being pounded on a routine basis about how liberally bias our news media is...how they always favor democrats and liberals, the same way communists, terrorist and the French do.....not to mention all those darkies in the world.

When I got to college I was told I was being brainwashed by communist professors, and that I was naively misled.

But you say this is not so? *sigh* who am I to believe? You're just one person, 'they' are many!

And Editors wonder why readership is down. Unless ...

2008-05-20T06:42:00.000-04:00

And Editors wonder why readership is down. Unless you subscribe to Faux News (where you get what you want to hear). You can't get the truth from a local or even a national news paper.