A Spork in the Drawer

Always Keeping America Safe

Nelson Mandela is on the Ministry of Homeland Security's terrorist watchlist.

Yes, that Nelson Mandela.

Feel safer now?

.

STUNNING REVELATION!!!!!

The US didn't invade Iraq!

The last six years were all a bad dream I suppose.

.

An Annual Spring Ritual Returns

Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran:

A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

[...]

Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.

If that doesn't produce results, the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off - or else.

You just know that St. John would love a little October Surprise. And with this administration running things...

.

Throw The Dogs A Bone

James Fallows on the McCain-Clinton "gas tax holiday" scheme:

The pandering and ignorance-across-party-lines represented by the John McCain-Hillary Clinton united front for a temporary reduction in the gasoline tax should make Americans hold their heads in their hands and moan. No one who has thought about this issue thinks that it will actually reduce prices or -- more important -- help the the people disproportionately hurt by $100+/barrel oil and $4 gasoline. And to the extent it has any effect on America's long-term approach to energy policy, transportation, oil dependence, and climate change, the effect will be perverse.

I can imagine that John McCain, who boasts about his sketchy command of economics, might consider this a good idea. But the master of policy, Hillary Clinton??

Even Hillary supporter Paul Krugman is scratching his beard:

Is the supply of gasoline really fixed? For this coming summer, it is. Refineries normally run flat out in the summer, the season of peak driving. Any elasticity in the supply comes earlier in the year, when refiners decide how much to put in inventories. The McCain/Clinton gas tax proposal comes too late for that. So it’s Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.

The Clinton twist is that she proposes paying for the revenue loss with an excess profits tax on oil companies. In one pocket, out the other. So it’s pointless, not evil. But it is pointless, and disappointing.

I agree that Hillary is too intelligent and knowledgeable to believe that this is a good idea. St. John, of course, is neither. So the only conclusion is that Hillary is engaging in a standard pander, possibly a double-pander: Fool the rubes with a simplistic "fix" for economic woes and maybe throw a few more subsidized dollars to the oil companies.

And everybody knows they need it.

.

When Presidents Weren't Insane

Ike:

At a Cabinet meeting in mid-August 1958, as the threat of a Chinese blockade of Taiwan was developing, Air Force Gen. Nathan F. Twining, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained "that at the outset American planes would drop 10- to 15-kiloton bombs on selected fields in the vicinity of Amoy," a coastal city on the Taiwan Strait now called Xiamen, according to the documents.

But "the President simply did not accept the contention that nuclear weapons were as conventional as high explosives," according to the now-declassified Air Force history of the Taiwan crisis.

In releasing the official history, William Burr of George Washington University's National Security Archive said Eisenhower's decision forced Air Force leaders to think more seriously about conventional warfare instead of relying on nuclear arms.

[...]

When informed that Eisenhower had insisted that first strikes be made with high explosives, Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, the Pacific Air Forces commander, described "this idea of limited response as disastrous . . . and warned that the United States should either be ready to use its most effective weapons -- in his opinion nuclear bombs -- or stay out of the conflict," according to the history.

George & Dick:

Revelations that the Bush administration is developing new nuclear weapons to target Iraq, North Korea and others have been greeted with alarm as a radical departure from established U.S. policy.

In fairness:

A shift in this direction began in 1990 under Vice President Dick Cheney when he was secretary of defense, and was accelerated after the Persian Gulf War. By the mid-1990s the Pentagon already was working to integrate the possible use of nuclear weapons to respond to biological or chemical attacks.

The difference between the current administration and the previous one is that BushCo™ would probably love to lob a few teeny-tiny nukes.

.

Our Friends On The Right

Right-winger extraordinaire Ben Stein - famous for Ferris Bueller's Day Off and a little-watched basic cable game show - recently made a "documentary" called Expelled (not going to provide link) which is really an extended hysterical screed against evolution. Various "real" scientists were interviewed for it under false pretenses including blog-favorite PZ Myers. Here's what Stein says about PZ:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. [PZ] Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed.

Wow.

Just wow.

.

Morning Has Broken

I wonder which Democrat will be forced to denounce somebody today.

Perhaps a picture of some pop tart's bare shoulder will surface and distract everybody!

.

His Petulancy Strikes Again

From this morning's presser:

Q Can I just add to that, a couple weeks ago —

THE PRESIDENT: No, you can’t. This is the second follow-up. You usually get one follow-up, and I was nice enough to give you one. I didn’t give anybody on this side a follow-up, and now you are trying to take a second follow-up.

Q Can I just say —

THE PRESIDENT: They just cut off your mic. You can’t, no.

Q A couple weeks ago you said —

THE PRESIDENT: Now she’s going to go without the mic. This is awesome.

"This is awesome"!?

265 days.

.

And Speaking Mavericky McMaverick...

Kevin Drum makes the point:

Can we stop pretending to be children about this? There's only one reason for a politician to make sure that all his assets are in his wife's name: it's to make sure that no one knows anything about his assets. It's not as if McCain is the first pol to try this, after all.

(Kevin then goes on to ask the stunningly dense rhetorical question, "Is the press really going to let him get away with this?" Duh.)

Anyway, perhaps St. John can come up with an explanation for this whilst flying in luxury on his wife's jet. Perhaps the answer lies in the Beer Baroness' tax returns.

.

They're Terrified

That's the only explanation for the massive freakout by the RNC and Barbecue McMaverick over this perfectly accurate ad by the DNC:

They know that the more people hear about McCain's "100 Years" the more people will turn away in horror. (Then again, Paul "Comblicker" Wolfowitz claimed yesterday yesterday that the US occupation of Iraq ended nearly four years ago so...)

Oh, and how can we miss the delicious richness of the Republican National Committee complaining about 'distortions." When they saw that ad they probably said "rats!".

.

Monday Poll

.

A Bit Of Marc Chagall

La Mariée, 1950

.

Saturday Palate Cleanser

I'm feeling a bit doom-y...Hector Berlioz:

.

Well Heck

RIP:

Joy Page, the stepdaughter of Jack L. Warner, a president of the Warner Brothers studio, who made her film debut as a Bulgarian newlywed in “Casablanca,” died on April 18 in Los Angeles. She was 83.

[...]

Mr. Warner had taken home a draft of the film script. Ms. Page’s acting coach suggested she read for the part of the bride, who faces having to sleep with the corrupt police captain played by Claude Rains to obtain exit visas to escape from Casablanca to America. Bogart, as the owner of Rick’s Café Américain, lets her husband win at roulette so he can buy the visas.

.

Busy Today!

But to not leave you bereft:

Enjoy!

.

Our "News" Media

Athenae:

Ever notice they only ever protest the limits of their power when they're trying to get out of covering something they know they should have covered? Ever notice that? When they're whipping up a frenzy over some bullshit Obama or Hillary controversy, then it's FEEL THE SIZE OF MY MANGIFICENT PRESS MANHOOD but when somebody asks them why they can't be arsed to spend more than ten seconds at a crack on any one issue of interest to, say, a whole swath of the country that's been hurricaned into oblivion, then out come the timid protestations of but we just didn't have the time and it hurts, mommy, stop paddling me. Fuck me blind, the level of self-absorption and responsibility-avoidance in action here is enough to stop a moose in its tracks.

Read the whole thing.

.

The Things You Learn On The Internets

A penguin in a wetsuit:



(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)


No sillier than a penguin on the telly, to be sure.

.

Because There Can Never Be Too Many Blogs Posting A Video Of Tom Friedman Getting Pied

.

An Apology

Yesterday I called Indiana Republican Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle a "Nazi." As someone who attempts to be both fair and accurate I should have waited for his explanation:

When asked if he was a Nazi or sympathized with Nazis or white supremacists, Zirkle replied he didn’t know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.

Obviously, Mr. Zirkle believed he was addressing the B'Nai B'rith:

I hope that Mr. Zirkle accepts my heartfelt apology.

.

St. John Has Problems

Will Jenna Bush vote for St. John? "I don't know."

Ungrateful whelp! After all McCain has done for her father!

.

Neat!

Oil paintings discovered in Afghanistan from centuries before Europeans "discovered" the technique:

Scientists found the murals in a network of caves where monks lived and prayed in the Afghan region of Bamiyan, according to a statement on the Web site of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, where the ancient paintings were analyzed.

Until 2001, two colossal 6th-century statues of Buddhas stood at the mouth of the caves. Then the Taliban, which then ruled Afghanistan, blew up the statues on the grounds that they were un-Islamic. The action drew international condemnation.

[...]

In 12 of 50 caves, the murals were painted using drying oils -- perhaps from walnuts and poppy seeds -- the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility said.

More:

Yoko Taniguchi of the Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation in Tokyo presented the findings at a recent international symposium held there.

The analysis showed the murals were painted using a structured, multilayered technique reminiscent of early European methods.

[...]

Not all of the cave murals contained oil-based paints, though, or used them in the same way.

"Some paintings from other caves were depicted with different materials and techniques," Japanese researcher Taniguchi said.

"This shows how different painting techniques were introduced in Bamian from different regions in different periods of time."

Ars longa, vita brevis, indeed.

.

Pulling My Leg

And thus it begins:

The N.C. Republican Party says it will not back away from a planned TV ad that uses footage of Barack Obama's controversial former minister, despite objections from the expected GOP presidential nominee, John McCain.

The ad, released Wednesday on the Internet, tries to link the minister to two Democratic candidates for governor, both of whom have endorsed Obama.

Republican chairwoman Linda Daves said she would not bow to pressure from the Republican National Committee and others to pull the ad.

Oh yes, I'm sure St. John and the RNC really, really want this ad removed from the airwaves. I'm sure they really, really believe that this sort of guilt-by-association has no place in political campaigns.

Yes, we can expect this all the way to November:

Independent Group: Look at our new smear ad!

McCain: I object! Take the ad down!

Independent Group: No.

McCain: Darn. I tried.

Politics is fun!

.

Things The World Doesn't Need II

Campaign songs.

Written by Orrin Hatch:

Not content to sit on the sidelines, longtime senator and one-time presidential hopeful Orrin Hatch has penned a song for his Senate buddy John McCain in hopes of helping his White House bid.

Really, he did.

Hatch - a Utah Republican who won a platinum award for helping co-write lyrics for a song that sold more than a million records - crafted a tune called "Together Forever" for the presumptive Republican nominee.

"Forever together / America is the land we're fighting for / There's a time in history / for a hero's destiny / together forever more," says Hatch's song, co-written with composer Philip Springer, famous for the Christmas song, "Santa Baby."

This is the part that made me fall over laughing:

"We'll see Barack Obama's Bruce Springsteen endorsement and raise them an Orrin Hatch," a spokesman said.

The Boss has nothing on the mad songwriting skillz of MC Orrin! Check out the reviews:

And, according to Hardball, while Hatch's office says he was aiming for an upbeat song that would appeal to the youth vote, the song doesn't mimic anything found on the Top 40 - or even the next 40.

Jason Mattera, spokesman for the conservative Young America's Foundation, says the lyrics are fine but the beats and tempo are "not appealing to young people.

"Hatch's heart is in the right place, but he has the wrong decade," Mattera says, noting that the message to attract young people is that liberalism oppresses people, stifles freedom and causes "pervasive destitution. I give him credit for trying, though," Mattera adds.

Still, a guy's gotta dream:

Nonetheless, Hatch says the song should get good reviews.

"It has been very enjoyable to write this song, and I think most people will like it."

I'd be interested to hear Hatch's definition of "most people."

The question yet to be answered: Will Hatch displace John Ashcroft at the top of the charts?

[Via DHinMI at the Great Orange Satan.]

.

Things The World Doesn't Need

Cheerleaders.

During cricket matches.

Brings new meaning to the term "tea and crumpets."

.

Hey, Americans!

Feeling bitter yet?

U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation to reverse a Supreme Court ruling that makes it tougher for workers to sue for pay discrimination.

[...]

The Senate action will likely kill the measure for the year.

None dare call it filibuster and the Republicans will never miss a chance to screw working people.

.

Props For Honesty

Alone among all the polling organizations Public Policy Polling predicted an Obama win in PA yesterday. Whoops. So what's PPP's reaction to the actual results? Shockingly, honesty:

The networks have called it for Hillary and I think after Florida in 2000 they're not going to make that mistake again, so obviously our polls were wrong.

First off, please do not call us or e-mail us and tell us we suck! We are well aware, and it does not feel good.

After an explanation of their methodology:

We will just move on and try to do better in North Carolina.

Would that all organizations - and individuals - show such humility.

[Via Taegan Goddard.]

.

Scary, Indeed

You know those food riots around the planet? They could be coming to a United States near you:

Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase, said Lee Sanders, senior vice president for government relations and public affairs at the American Bakers Association.

"Those that are purchasing it now are having to purchase it from Germany and the Netherlands, and that's very concerning," Sanders said.

[...]

For bakers, rye grain is not the only supply stock that is declining. In the past the market has typically had a three-month surplus of wheat stocks to serve as a cushion against supply interruptions, but now the surplus is down to less than 27 days worth of wheat, Sanders said.

[Via Atrios.]

.

Ya Just Knew...

...if we waited long enough their would be a Republican candidate who was an actual Nazi.

Happy Birfday, Adolph!


(And yes, I know he's a fringe candidate.)

.

Proud To Be An American

Aside from starting wars we have another exemplary talent:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

Once upon a time the US had a prison system admired and studied around the world. Today?

“Far from serving as a model for the world, contemporary America is viewed with horror,” James Q. Whitman, a specialist in comparative law at Yale, wrote last year in Social Research. “Certainly there are no European governments sending delegations to learn from us about how to manage prisons.”

One reason, of course, is that we're a very violent society - violent crimes are quadruple that of Western Europe. But another reason is that we chuck people in prison for even relatively minor offenses:

People who commit nonviolent crimes in the rest of the world are less likely to receive prison time and certainly less likely to receive long sentences. The United States is, for instance, the only advanced country that incarcerates people for minor property crimes like passing bad checks, Mr. Whitman wrote.

And, it should go without saying, we have the War on Drugs™ about which which one critic says, "The U.S. pursues the war on drugs with an ignorant fanaticism."

So what is it that leads to especially punitive and long prison sentences? One idea:

Mr. Whitman, who has studied Tocqueville’s work on American penitentiaries, was asked what accounted for America’s booming prison population.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the answer is democracy — just what Tocqueville was talking about,” he said. “We have a highly politicized criminal justice system.”

Left unsaid is that if judicial punishment is subject to the whims of popular opinion it ceases to be justice and becomes merely revenge - the opposite of justice.

And another point left unsaid: Profit. With the rise of privatized prisons any reduction in inmates necessarily means a reduction in corporate profits. This being the United States we simply can't have that, can we? So it's only good business sense to lock people up.

It's the American Way.

.

Tell Me He's Not Drinking

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas


[Stolen from Attaturk.]

.

Guam Is The New Pennsylvania

The Silly Season rolls on.

.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Canada?

These are all headlines in today's Globe and Mail:

Sperm under siege

The problem with poo

No, I fine. I put pee-pee in toilet

What, is it Bodily Discharge Day in the Great White North?

.

Better Copy Editors Please

Misleading (to say the least):

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

That makes it sound like FDR was an extraordinarily unpopular president. He wasn't. What they mean is that presidential popularity polls began since he was president.

That's the sort of thing a competent editor catches.

Now for the good bit:

President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

[...]

The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Furthermore, ARG pegs George's approval rating at 22%.

272 days.

.

Not Helpful

Hillary:

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

We've had 7+ years of the bellicose talk...couldn't we just dial it back a bit? For a little while, at least?

.

God Works In Mysterious Ways

Called home:

A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing today off the southern coast of Brazil.

Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats were searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found.

Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute.

[...]

"He knew what he was doing and was fully prepared for any kind of mishap."

Video of Rev. de Carli's ascent to Heaven at link.

[Via PZ.]

.

It's A Rupert World

Ad we're forced to live in it:

Tribune Co has reached agreement in principle to sell Newsday to News Corp (NYSE:NWS) for about $580 million in what would be a joint venture, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Under the terms of a deal, Newsday would be part of a joint venture with News Corp's New York Post and other News Corp assets, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. News Corp would own most of the company and Tribune would keep a stake of less than 5 percent.

Australia was colonized because Great Britain needed an empty* place to dump its criminals. Now those criminals our colonizing our "news" media.

Funny how the world works.

*Aborigines? What Aborigines?

.

Our Long Statewide Nightmare Is Over

To the candidates: You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!*

*With apologies to Oliver Cromwell.

.

Natural Born Killers

Future fun:

The Army and Marine Corps are allowing convicted felons to serve in increasing numbers, newly released Department of Defense statistics show.

Recruits were allowed to enlist after having been convicted of crimes including assault, burglary, drug possession and making terrorist threats.

And just think a few years down the road when some of these fellas, newly taught in the ways of war, try to reenter civilian life.

He said the Army never issues waivers for some types of offenses, including sexual violence, alcoholism and drug trafficking.

That's good to know.

And if the pool of "qualified" criminals isn't big enough there's always an old favorite:

The Army has accelerated its policy of involuntary extensions of duty to bolster its troop levels, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' order last year to limit it, Pentagon records show.

Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) is unhappy about this and proposes a solution:

Shays said the nation needs a bigger Army. In the meantime, he urges the Pentagon to press more personnel from the Air Force and Navy into Army jobs.

When that doesn't produce a satisfactory result no doubt Shays will call for the deployment of the Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, and Cub Scouts.

Or perhaps he could get behind some plan to extricate the troops as quickly and as orderly as possible.

Nah.

.

Still Not Liberal

CNN/Time-Warner:

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning today, it was announced by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.

Get ready to laugh:

"In the White House, Tony brought a remarkably human touch to the discussion of public policy, which he will continue to do as part of the Best Political Team on Television," Klein said. "He will contribute a unique breadth of political and journalistic expertise to what is already the most provocative and wide-ranging political analysis on the air."

If by "remarkably human touch" Klein means "unrepentant lying" then, yes.

And just think of how much this makes CNN/Time-Warner's campaign coverage "fair and balanced"!

.

Monday Poll

.

A Bit Of David Byrne

Tio Guillermo, 1998


More at Byrne's site.

.

Undereducated

In a story about HBO's John Adams we get this bit:

George Washington (David Morse) so quickly tired of the infighting among his Cabinet and vagaries of public opinion that he stepped down from the presidency after a single term.

And Washington chopped down a cherry tree whilst tossing a silver dollar across the Potomac River.

[Via Attaturk.]

.

More Fairness

In response to Roy Edroso's The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide to the Right-Wing Blogosphere: A confederacy of dunces the always brilliant Thers gives us The Official FDL Election Season Guide to the Left-Wing Traitorsphere.

(My personal favorite: The entry for Amanda Marcotte.)

.

Irony Of The Day

Submitted without comment:

Taliban insurgents urged the international community and right groups to stop Afghan President Hamid Karzai approving the execution of about 100 prisoners whose death sentences were approved by the supreme court.

.

Fair's Fair

Since this morning's This Week will feature only one guest - St. John (what a shock!) - Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain, offers up 12 questions that Snuffleupagus should ask but won't. An example:

3. Doesn’t your confusion regarding basic facts about the war in Iraq, including repeatedly citing a nonexistent Al Qaeda-Iran alliance, make you unfit for command?

On four occasions in one month, you confused friend and foe in Iraq by describing Sunni Al Qaeda as being backed by Shiite Iran. Then you showed a misunderstanding of the U.S. chain of command when you claimed you would not back shifting forces from Iraq to Afghanistan “unless Gen. [David] Petraeus said that he felt that the situation called for that,” a decision which Petraeus himself told you and your Senate colleagues only the week before rests not with him but with his superiors. Doesn’t your lack of understanding and judgment when it comes to basic facts of America’s national security disqualify you as commander-in-chief?

If video is more your thing Robert Greenwald offers up a fantasy version of the interview.

---

ADDED: Now St. John is whinging about being quoted accurately.

.

Catapulting The Propaganda

Yes, it's 11 pages long but this will be - at least should be - the major news story for the next week.

It's a bit more important the flag lapel pins.

.

Saturday Palate Cleanser

L7 and Joan Jett perform Jett's "Cherry Bomb"

.

Stupider And Stupider

Fingergate.

I'm not usually a fan of Meghan Daum but I think she gets it right today:

What's more, a lot of people who harbor an intolerance for complexity see it not as a character flaw but a cognitive virtue. That's because they've fallen into the trap of believing that complicated ideas ("complicated" now constituting anything that requires reading, watching or listening to in its entirety) are the purview of the "elite."

I've run across people who not only openly admit that they don't know jack about whatever but are proud of their ignorance. It never ceases to boggle.

.

Alternative History

1858:

DOUGLAS: When I was 11, my grandpappy and I chopped wood and shot bears.

LINCOLN: Ahem, I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect slavery will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you love America this much (extending fingers), this much (extending hands slightly), or thiiiiiis much (extending hands broadly)?

LINCOLN: I think we covered this…

GIBSON: If I may interrupt…

LINCOLN: Please.

GIBSON: I noticed, Mr. Lincoln, that your American flag pin was upside down…

LINCOLN: Yes, the wind caught it. Now, as I was saying...

[Via C&L.]

.

Piling On ABC/Disney

An open letter:

For 53 minutes, we heard no question about public policy from either moderator. ABC seemed less interested in provoking serious discussion than in trying to generate cheap shot sound-bites for later rebroadcast. The questions asked by Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mr. Gibson were a disgrace, and the subsequent attempts to justify them by claiming that they reflect citizens' interest are an insult to the intelligence of those citizens and ABC's viewers. Many thousands of those viewers have already written to ABC to express their outrage.

Matt Stoller:

The ABC debate was part of a trainwreck of a network. Remember 'Path to 9/11', a movie designed to pin 9/11 on the treasonous and cowardly Bill Clinton and his administrative cronies who obviously hate America? It's not as if ABC/Disney has changed its business practices, but the public has moved. Organically, thousands of people angrily emailed ABC last night after the shameful debate.

I really don't see how the media industry changes of its own volition at this point. There is nothing, not torture, not the theft of hundreds of billions and the blood of hundreds of thousands, not a thousand stories of petty corruption or deceit, none of that can impact the coddled world of these wealthy spoiled brats or the CEOs who keep them well swaddled in tiny luxuries and a tuxedoed social world.

Be sure to click the links.

And by way of attaturk, Mike Luckovich's take:

.

Yet More

Tony Norman on ABC/Disney and the media in general:

Barack Obama's problem is that he still has a lingering belief in an orderly universe where rational first principles have more sway over the news cycle than the primitive, reptile-brained instincts of the media establishment.

Alas, very few within that elite circle of hell believe in the rationality of the voters. If they did, they wouldn't harp on questions about flag pins, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, patriotism, Louis Farrakhan, "guns and God" or even Mrs. Clinton's sniper debacle at the expense of more substantive issues mere days before a crucial primary.

It was an infuriating spectacle executed with an unconscionable air of smugness by two media professionals who should have known better.

And ABC/Disney's take? Guess:

For its part, ABC News was proud of its effort.

"We thought the debate was excellent, substantive, probing and interesting and I have no doubt that there are people who have strong opinions on both sides," said Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News. "We see our job to ask probing, tough questions and that's exactly what we did."

The comments thread over at ABCNews.com now has 19764 mostly negative responses.

.

The Earliest Known Photographic Image?

(Welcome First Drafters!)

Possibly from the late 18th/early 19th century:

In the weeks since Dr. Schaaf’s surprising pronouncement was made public, “The Leaf,” originally thought to have been made around 1839 or later, has become the talk of the photo-historical world. The speculation about its origins became so intense that Sotheby’s and the print’s owners decided earlier this month to postpone its auction, so that researchers could begin delving into whether the image may be, in fact, one of the oldest photographic images in existence, dating to the 1790s.

[...]

Dr. Schaaf, who said he was not paid by Sotheby’s or by the owner of “The Leaf” print, said that he had been aware of the images — also known as photograms, cameraless prints made by placing objects on photosensitive paper exposed to light — for many years. He had seen five of the six prints that were once compiled in an album by Henry Bright, a Briton whose family was part of a group of scientists and tinkerers active around Bristol in the late 18th century.

A correction for the NYT: While it's true that William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre were responsible for inventing relatively simple photographic methods the acknowledged first camera-derived photograph was by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1827.

.

No Escape

NBC/General Electric decides that there just isn't enough advertising in the world:

A newly formed NBC Universal production unit is teaming up with an advertising agency to create programs around sponsors' products, the company said.

NBC Universal Digital Studio will work with a division of Omnicom Group Inc. to create programs that help advertisers sell their products, the entertainment giant announced in a statement Thursday. The programming will be broadcast on NBC Universal's digital properties, such as Web sites.

Here's the part that will make Paddy Chayefsky spin in his grave:

The collaboration between NBC and Omnicom offers "a unique way of giving brands a seat at the table with writers and producers in developing episodic programming that ties directly to brand needs," Omnicom Media Group Digital chief executive Matt Spiegel said.

Does the line, "This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because of lousy ratings" sound so far-fetched anymore?

.

Ringer

Any doubt that ABC/Disney has a political agenda is now erased. Josh:

Remember that woman from the debate last night who the moderators showed videotape of asking whether Barack Obama "believes in the flag"? Her name is Nash McCabe.

[...]

Now, it does seem like McCabe is not a fan of Sen. Obama's. And I think we can assume that it's not a coincidence that McCabe managed to show up featured in the Times and also as the sole outside questioner in the ABC debate. Presumably, a researcher for ABC or Gibson saw the piece in the Times, figured, hey, this lady hates Obama and is seriously ginned up about the lapel issue. Let's send a camera crew Obama and film her slamming Obama to his face. It'll be great in the debate.

So this was hardly the voice of a random citizen; ABC/Disney sought out someone with full knowledge that she'd go after Obama. Ethical? Does it matter anymore? (Josh also wonders about another "citizen" questioner who was a "former" supporter of Hillary.)

Turning to the NYT story Josh mentions we find this:

Ask whom she might vote for in the coming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she has been collecting in her head.

It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?” Mrs. McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, small city in western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Obama has said patriotism is about ideas, not flag pins.

“I watch him on TV,” Mrs. McCabe said. “I keep looking for that lapel pin.”

This illustrates quite nicely our descent into collective madness. The election could hinge on a flag pin.

A flag pin.

Let's face it: Too many Americans are as dumb as dirt.

McClatchy has background on McCabe here.

.