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Latest Featured Reports | Sunday, October 6, 2024
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Time Running Out For
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

Party/Reception Thrown for Feeney in 2003 by YEI!
The year after Feeney claims to have ended his ?connection? with the scandal-plagued FL software firm!
By Brad Friedman on 2/28/2005 3:01pm PT  

After an interview with Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL), The New Times Broward-Palm Beach reported:

He ended the professional relationship [with Yang Enterprises, Inc], which had extended through all 12 years of his time in the state House, only after he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2002.

After another interview with Feeney, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC reported:

In short, Feeney says he doesn't remember meeting Mr. Curtis; that his only connection to Yang Enterprises was as an attorney prior to 2002.

Despite the reports above, we've discussed the fact several times that Feeney's Campaign Headquarters is still located in the YEI building, and that the Yangs and their attorney Michael O'Quinn continue to be huge campaign donors to Feeney...

But --- other than that --- no ?connection to Yang Enteprises" since 2002?

Well, that's interesting, because it looks like the truth is --- again --- somewhat different from what Feeney would have folks believe. Look what we seem to have found here (Screencaptured, just in case it disappears from the net like so much else these days.):

There are several more photos of Feeney with Dr. and Mrs. Yang at this YEI-sponsored event in 2003 along with members of ATAYAL on the linked page above.

Feeney's questionable --- and apparently, continuing --- connections with YEI were brought to light in early December when we first reported exclusively on programmer Clint Curtis' sworn affidavit alleging that Feeney had asked him to create a "vote-rigging software prototype" during an October 2000 meeting at YEI in Oviedo, Florida.

The key articles from our series of reports on that matter can be read here.

Our call to Feeney's press spokesperson seeking explanation about the 2003 party thrown for Feeney by YEI has not yet been returned. We have not yet been able to ascertain who actually paid for Feeney's trip to Asia, but, of course, we will continue to look into this story and report any new developments.

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Tom Delay is but one of the Recipients...
To the tune of some $130,000 in cash and prizes!
By Brad Friedman on 2/28/2005 1:30pm PT  

Our understanding was that it was supposed to have been Democrats who liked to "scare old people about Social Security". At least according to Rush, Sean, Fox and Friends.

Turns out it's the Rightwingnuts who have actually turned the practice into both an art form, and a cash cow. The shadowy rightwing group, National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) has been quietly sending scare letters to the nation's elderly for years in which they ask recipients to keep the letter a secret, while they terrify them about their Social Security benefits.

And, again, --- surprise! --- House Majority Leader Tom Delay seems to be one of the biggest beneficiaries thereof! Delay is reported today, in a RAW STORY Exclusive, to have received some $130,000 from the NCPPR who has been paying for "posh" Delay vacations!

From RAW STORY's investigative report:

The group's letters target seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits are in jeopardy and thereby induce them to donate money. The mailings also encourage seniors to keep the mailing secret from others, perhaps even from family members.

"Inside your sealed envelope is information regarding the potential collapse of the Social Security system – and how it can endanger you and the entire United States senior citizen population,” NCPPR president Amy Ridenour writes in one such letter obtained by RAW STORY (Read the letter here). “It is also critical that you share this pertinent information ONLY [sic] with other trustworthy individuals.”

“Should we put most of our time and effort into fighting to prevent liberal big-spenders from draining an estimated $100 billion from the trust fund?” Ridenour asks. “Or should I go head to head against the left-wing's reckless use of $70 billion tax surplus when they promised to put our Social Security first?”

"The liberal monster is primed to rip your Social Security to shreds,” reads another hyperbolic letter reported on by the San Francisco Examiner in 1998.

The group uses at least four different letterheads to solicit money; all of the money is funneled into the same organization.

And just when you thought these guys had scraped the bottom of the "Moral Values” barrel. Think again.

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Plus, Other Open-Thread-Worthy Sunday Notes...
And more Feeney/Yang Shenanigans Coming Monday...
By Brad Friedman on 2/27/2005 10:49pm PT  

We live close enough to the Kodak Theater that the persistent buzz of the Oscars' Goodyear blimp was echoing through our windows all morning. Thankfully, we had a date in Santa Monica at the Election Reform Teach-in sponsored by CitizensAct.org which kept us busy most of the day and night and well out of range of the constant copters, blimps and Joan Rivers.

On the other hand, it also meant that we missed the entire Awards show. Did we actually miss anything? Or did we just not see it? Feel free to blog back in comments and let us know.

We're a bit too tired to blog too much more this evening other than a quick report from Santa Monica and one quick tease for a story coming tomorrow...

The event was tremendous, and packed to the gills. Standing room only. The speakers were all Election Reform All-Stars plus yours truly. Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press lit the joint on fire as he opened in lieu of Rep. Maxine Waters who was late coming from the airport. She made it, and followed in fine fettle. As did the Green Party's Blair Bobier (spokesman for David Cobb), Bev Harris of BBV, Kevin Spidel of PDA and other illuminaries too numerous to mention before the orchestra plays us off.

We had a great time talking about some of the adventures here on BRAD BLOG and Velvet Revolution's brand-spanking-new "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign which seemed to make a tremendously good impression. (Have you signed the letter there yet?...No worries, it's so brand-spanking-new we've hardly given it a proper introduction here, but we will).

Thanks to those of you who came out to say hello. It was great to put some faces to some of the user names. Even to those of DU'ers ;-)

It was also a delight to learn we have so many loyal readers who we didn't know (too shy to post in comments?!), but we're happy to have made some swell new friends and a couple of interesting connections to boot. We even picked up some inside Clint Curtis skinny from a few folks who shall remain nameless for the moment...and for their own safety.

And before we drop off from exhaustion, or you do, we'll just tease briefly that ... on Monday ... only on The BRAD BLOG ... our friend Tom Feeney gets caught once again flashing his Yang in public... This time with pictures to help set the scene. More on that tomorrow...

Until then, please consider this thread now open until further notice...

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She's not just obnoxious, she's apparently a racist sleaze as well!
By Brad Friedman on 2/27/2005 10:57am PT  

In re: the Ann Coulter column we mentioned several times as running over at World Net Daily. It turns out the original version of her column was even more appalling than the one which was first edited before being sent out by her syndicator, Universal Press Syndicate (UExpress).

As MoveLeft points out, here is the phrase from the distributed version of her column, as seen at hate publication, World Net Daily (emphasis added):

Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.

And here is the phrase as written in Coulter's original version, still posted on her website (emphasis added):

Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.

"That old Arab"?...What a disgusting, slimy, little bitch. Feel free to send a note of complaint to Coulter's syndicator here.

We've got some business for much of the day, but perhaps later if time allows we'll try to collect a list of Email addresses for all of the "news" outlets that carry the words of this obnoxious, horrible, hate-filled, racist "woman" so you can let them all know what you think of them carrying her column. This woman is begging to be put out of business.

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(They must be doing something right!)
By Brad Friedman on 2/26/2005 10:57pm PT  

At the end of a fun read over at Watching the Watchers on "horrible fiendish cackling harpy" Ann Coulter's latest pile of self-serving venomous horsehit slash apology vis a vis the Gannon/Guckert Scandal, the good (though hard to type) ~A! picks up on a subtle shot that Fox "News" seemed to toss at the Right's favorite new whipping boy, Raw Story.

As ~A! noticed...

Oh, and as an aside, FOX News, is a bunch of assholes again. They wrote a piece about the whole CIA affair, in which they cite RawStory for all their hard work and diligent reporting. They also mentioned Talon ?News', and linked to their site. They did not, however, link to RawStory. Why not, I wonder? Why link to Talon, whose site is actually down while they're on ?hiatus?, and not RawStory, which gave them something to write about in the first place?

Why, ~A!? Because Raw is in the business of reporting news and, of late, they are doing it like no other site on or off the net. You'll note that Fox also took the time to link to faux "news" organization GOPUSA in their article as well. We suppose they'd hate for any of their reader/zombies to start noticing the difference between real news and Fox "News".

While you're watching the Watcher Watchers, you may also want to check out what they've uncovered from Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, whose great offering to history will have been his instructions to his GOP clients to use such words as "Death Tax" instead of "Inheritance/Estate Tax" when hypnotizing their zombies. Well, it worked. And the "Death Tax", along with many other clever turns of lexicographical trickery has made its way into the daily GOP parlance. Yes, language does matter. Especially to zombies.

And as our own aside, by way of reminder, we'll be panelling tomorrow (Sunday) at the Election Reform Teach-in in Santa Monica, with an esteemed group including Congresswoman Maxine Waters and a bunch of other Election Reform All-Stars. If you're local to So-Cal, and the rain has still stopped, come on out and say hey!

We'll be talking, amongst other things, about VR's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign the creation of which is just one of the too-many reasons we've had less time than usual to blog of late. We've quietly launched the VR DV4D campaign this morning and plan to plan to make quite a bit of noise about it this coming week.

But you, dear BRAD BLOGGERS, have heard about it before just about anybody else! So check it out, and send the bad guys a letter while you're there! You'll be glad you did!

More...as ever...later.

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1972 = 2005
By Brad Friedman on 2/26/2005 2:38pm PT  

We caught the excellent new documentary, Inside Deep Throat, yesterday afternoon while on “gf bday duty" and found it to be simply fascinating on innumerable levels.

The most notable of which, at least for BRAD BLOG readers, will be the remarkable parallels pointed up --- no accident, we'd think --- between the oppressive political atmosphere of 1972 and that of 2005.

The film covers the emergence and subsequent legacy of hairdress-cum-director Gerard Damiano ‘s Deep Throat in the early 70's as it rose out of the back alleys to become "Porno Chic" after it was described as such by a New York Times article.

Then, as now, one NY Times article officially declares something as "newsworthy", and then, as now, we had a politically damaged President who managed to get himself re-elected and then, as now, felt himself the holder of a mandate to be the personal guardian of all that is moral for the American people.

As Harry Reems, the male star of Throat was told at the time when he was chosen to be made an example of and put on trial under newly created obsenity laws --- specifically brought about by agents of the Nixon Administration in a futile attempt to stuff the genie back into the exploding bottle --- "If the Republicans win the next election, you're going to jail. If the Democrats win, you'll walk.”

Why is it that Republicans, for decades, have always claimed (with a straight face, mind you) that they want to get the Federal Government off the backs of American citizens, yet whenever they manage to come to power they are invariably the most intrusive with their use of that Government which they claim to hate?

Anway, there was much more to discuss about the film which kept us yackin' and ponderin' all throughout dinner afters. It's an incredibly thought-provoking and timely film, filled with a host of fascinating and often hilarious characters! It's well-worth your time should be lucky enough to live in a town with a theater willing to exhibit NC-17 films. Even one created by mainstream Universal Pictures.

Sadly, we have a feeling there are not many towns like that left in "the land of the free", so we have a feeling most of you out there in “Bush Country” may just have to wait for it to show up on HBO or at your local DVD store. (That is, if even they are willing to help spread the "liberty" that Dubya acts as if he's so interested in.)

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By Brad Friedman on 2/25/2005 2:55pm PT  

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us." -George W. Bush, Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University Oct 11, 2000

Welcome to Russia, Mr. Bush...

(Hat tip to regular BRAD BLOG linking commenter, Cheryl!)

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A BRAD BLOG 'Conversation' With 'Oviedo Voice' Owner Chuck Noles
An astonishing look inside the American Media Braintrust...
By Brad Friedman on 2/25/2005 2:42pm PT  

Our previous Toon of the Moment item, recalled a “conversation" we had in BRAD BLOG comments a week or two ago with Chuck Noles, owner of The Oviedo Voice, a small weekly paper in Tom Feeney's (R-FL) U.S. Congressional district down in Florida. The Voice had pretended they were going to investigate and give --- as they said --- "balanced coverage" to the Tom Feeney/Clint Curtis/Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) Vote-Rigging Scandal, but then went on for several weeks to give the Feeney/YEI side of the story almost exclusively.

His paper even went so far one week as to print YEI's official web statement in full in their paper --- without comment, weeks after it had been published and subsequently debunked --- even though we had been in touch with Noles long before and had given him our complete reply to that statement which had included a point-by-point rebuttal demonstrating that they were lying in several areas.

Nonetheless, Noles chose to run YEI's press release as is. Choosing to repeat rather than to report. (And, indeed, one of YEI's statements about convicted Chinese spy and illegal alien, Hai Lin "Henry" Nee, never having worked for them, has since been proven wrong yet again. This time, by Federal agents and the Florida's own Inspector General's office. We don't believe that The Voice has covered that recently published fact in their pages either. We don't suspect they will.)

The following week they ran the YEI statement yet again, but this time, with a comment by Curtis after each point. Fair enough? Apparently not. They followed each statement by Curtis with a closing rebuttal --- each time --- by YEI attorney (and longtime friend, law-partner and contributor to Feeney), Michael O'Quinn. We suppose that counts for the "balanced coverage" that they, in a previous front page item, had faulted cross-town rival The Seminole Chronicle for not offering. They insinuated the Chronicle (or we?) had featured "supermarket tabloid" journalism.

The next week we were out of town. But we were told that The Voice ran an interview exclusively with Curtis. However, as The Voice doesn't post their paper on their website, and Noles did not email the interview to us, as he had the previous articles, we have only his word to go on.

For a bit more background, Noles is in friendly close contact with Feeney himself and his nearby office in Florida. Despite his protestations in the following "conversation", Chuck answers all email sent to Editor@TheOviedoVoice.com. He also seemed like a nice enough fellow, despite his strong rightward political leanings, when we first got to know him prior to his string of hit pieces on Curtis. He even went so far as to call us at 11:15pm (ET) on New Year's Eve from his Yacht Club, apparently to wish us a Happy New Year...and to find out how we'd be spending it.

The paper was started by his father Randy who began it years ago and still apparently serves as Chief Editor. From our one phone conversation with Randy, we found him to be first-rate, a delight, and a long-time avowed Democrat. The apple, however, doesn't fall as close to the tree as the saying goes. At least when it comes to politics and intellectual honesty.

Since the "conversation" between Chuck and ourselves took place in the comments section of an item that ran a while ago, you may have missed it. The item upon which Chuck was commenting was on the The New Times Broward-Palm Beach's article on the Feeney/Curtis/Yang affair, in which Feeney had claimed that he hadn't been in contact with YEI and the Yangs since he ceased being their corporate counsel and registered lobbyist upon leaving his job as Florida Speaker of the House to go to the U.S. Congress in 2002. That, despite the fact that Feeney's own website --- to this day --- shows that his 2004 headquarters (for a campaign during which he ran unopposed, and received thousands of dollars from the Yangs and their attorney, O'Quinn) remains in the YEI Building in Oviedo. Our article showed photographs from the YEI and Feeney websites showing they both had the same address. As they still do today.

Chuck seemed concerned throughout the exchange that he would be banned for his comments or would have them deleted or, at best, that they would never be read by most of you. So, as it's our girlfriend's birthday, and it's our duty to spend most of the day and night with her, we thought today we'd do Chuck the courtesy of reposting that thread here in its entirety so that Chuck's insightful thoughts would not be overlooked by BRAD BLOG readers. He is, of course, more than welcome to comment again in this thread on any of the above...or anything else he wishes. Chuck's comments are always fun, most welcome and enlightening (especially, as we say, in light of our previous Toon of the Moment) as you'll soon read.

The “conservation" between us is reposted here, completely unedited, included typos and misspelings by both of us. Enjoy...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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By Brad Friedman on 2/24/2005 8:29pm PT  

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An Ohio Catfight!
By Brad Friedman on 2/24/2005 6:12pm PT  

"Ohio's provisional balloting was not a model for the nation to follow," understated Michael Vu, the Democratic election head of Cuyahoga County, Ohio's biggest, to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in their first hearing since the brilliantly run 2004 election.

"I didn't think it should have been the forum for Mr. Vu to vent his frustration," snipped Keith Cunningham, the Republican election board head of Allen County, and also the head of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials.

"We've had tremendous success with provisional votes in Ohio and we did with this election," said J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Sec. of State (and Co-Chair of the Committee to Re-Elect Bush) clearing up the confusion once and for all.

Wow, it seems there's some sort of disagreement. But we had read in all the papers that the 2004 elections went off with nary a hitch! How odd.

AP has the nearly useless coverage of the mostly useless spat at the hearings of the completely useless U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.

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PLUS: A Quick Gannon/Guckert Round-up
By Brad Friedman on 2/24/2005 12:30pm PT  

As mentioned in yesterday's only post, there are a number of items that are keeping me from blogging here as usual. The good news is, I'm making good progress, so hope to be back on the blog job soon. The bad news is, I'm still up against it for the moment, so blogging may continue to be slow-ish here for a bit longer.

So feel free to consider this another open thread...but I'll toss in a few of the latest notable Gannon/Guckert items:

  • WorldNetDaily's CEO and Managing Editor, Joseph Farah, who the previous day had smashed up folks covering the story as "the homosexual press" (over and over again) on his hate-mongering website, seemed to be whistling a different tune yesterday. What's his game? I smell a rat. Trying to make Talon News and "Gannon" himself the story, rather than the possible cover-up that made it all possible? You decide.

    NOTE TO MR. FARAH: Your story today on Sen. Durbin's letter was based on one by Raw Story, that "homosexual publication" you mentioned two days before. Why don't you give them credit for that breaking story since your story yesterday criticized Talon News for not being upfront about its coverage?!...And while we're at it, your piece yesterday was called "No Substitute for Real Journalism", but then you ran a column by the repugnant Ann Coulter which ends with the demonstrably fallacious statement, "Gannon didn't write about gays. No 'hypocrisy' is being exposed. Liberals' hateful, frothing-at-the-mouth campaign against Gannon consists solely of their claim that he is gay." Do you stand behind what you re-print on your site? Mr. Farah can be reached via email right here.

  • It must be actual news now, because Fox "News" Channel is reporting the story. At least on their website.
  • They're a "real" news organization they say, but after one "reporter" has resigned, the entire thing has gone dark.
  • Today's BlogCall with John Aravosis (as mentioned in yesterday's post) on all of the above went very well, I believe. The call will be broadcast "live" in its entirety on RadioLeft.com at 6pm ET. It will be archived for posterity thereafter by the good folks of WhiteRoseSociety.org. See BlogCall.org for more info and details on the upcoming call with yours truly and Clint Curtis. (UPDATE: The calls are now archived at The White Rose Society on this page where you can now listen to Thursday's call in .MP3 format.
  • AND FINALLY...WRITE YOUR SENATORS! As Raw Story reported yesterday, Sen. Durbin is circulating a letter calling for an investigation of the Gannon/Guckert matter. Let your Senator know that you'd like them to sign on to his call for an investigation! Especially if your Senator happens to be Joe Biden who, on Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher said there needs to be an investigation, but now he won't sign on to the letter! And he was amongst the few Dem Senators I still liked! Oh, well...
  • Over. Out. And hopefully back soon...Oh, good luck to Dr. and Mrs. Yang who are being deposed today and tomorrow down in Florida! Anyone wanna go listen in and report back with notes? It's open to the public! Mrs. Yang is on at 9am tomorrow (Friday) morning!

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    ...And other sorry excuses for slow blogging...
    By Brad Friedman on 2/23/2005 2:18pm PT  

    Once again, I beg your indulgence as I find myself at the epicenter of a number of important actions and responsibilities which all seem to be coming due, to a certain extent, this week!

    To give you a brief idea of just some of those items...

  • We are about to announce a major initiative over at Velvet Revolution. This has been in the works for some time, has been rather complicated to get all of the pieces in shape, and for the time being I am responsible for a fair deal of getting that effort launched. It has distracted me from more vigorous reporting here at BRAD BLOG over the last several weeks, but I believe it will all be well worth it. So I continue to beg your indulgence in that regard. More on that very soon now...
  • I have also been working with a group of bloggers and other interested parties helping to organize an initiative that we hope will bring bloggers and mainstream media folks together to some extent, while helping to amplify the message and work of bloggers who are doing extraordinary work on various exposés which are not receiving the wide coverage they deserve. The core of that effort will be weekly conference calls (press conferences of a sort) with a presentation from a guest blogger, and questions/participation from other progressive bloggers and members of the media.

    Our first "pilot" call will be tomorrow with AmericaBLOG's John Aravosis on the Gannon/Guckert scandal. In the next week or so, I will be the featured guest to discuss developments in the Clint Curtis matter.

    Space on these calls is limited, so if you have a progressive blog or are a member of the media who may not have received my note on the above via my Media Alert mailing list, please contact me via email if you'd like to participate and I will forward your information to the credentials committee. (Representatives from Talon News will receive automatic credentialling).

  • There are several other items in play keeping me from blogging as much as I'd like. Amongst them, I am working on a number of Clint Curtis-related stories in the background, which are being held up --- surprise! --- by some folks who seem less than interested in some of this news getting out. But the work continues, and when the stories are verified and ready to roll here, they shall.
  • Lastly...I'll be making a presentation LIVE this coming Sunday in Santa Monica as a guest on a panel discussion as part of an exciting event being put together by CitizensAct.org (and co-sponsored by VR and PDA).

    The two-day event is called "Who Got Glitched and How to Fix it?: An Election Reform Teach-In".

    I'll be appearing on Sunday, along with keynote speaker Rep. Maxine Waters, and other illuminaries familiar to Election Reformers such as Bob Fitrakis (Columbus Free Press), Bev Harris (Black Box Voting), Butch Wing (Rainbow Push), Kevin Spidel (PDA), Blair Bobier (Green party Cobb/LaMarche) and many more.

    Use the link above for more info, to purchase tickets ($10, but hopefully nobody will be turned away), and download a flyer to distribute if you're in the CA area. If you are, please come on by and say hello afterwards. We're told that we'll all get out in time to catch the most important event in the world (in this town), the Oscars, which are on Sunday night.

  • That's some explanation of all the balls I'm attempting to juggle at once. So while I'm doing that, please feel free to consider this an Open Thread with, as always, much more to come as soon as time allows...

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    (And it doesn't even have to make any sense!)
    The Right's One-Size-Fits-All Answer to Anti-Emperorism...
    By Brad Friedman on 2/22/2005 2:58pm PT  

    We believe a BRAD BLOG commenter first brought it to our attention (apologies that we can't remember who), but DailyKos now has picked this up as well...

    ...It's an ad, reported to be from the Swiftees (experts that they are in all things political, not just John Kerry! Who knew?!) that was running on the wingnut American Spectator site and about which Kos said, "Funny thing is, you click on the ad, and it just goes to the USA Next homepage. No effort to even argue the case that the AARP is anti-troop and pro-gay marriage."

    Are you offended by that sort of ad, Mr. Joseph Farah of the hate publication, World Net Daily? We await for your next indignant op/ed.

    If this so-called "conservativism" gets any more so-called "compassionate" we may have to go into so-called hiding.

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    PLUS: Same Journalist Touches on some Clint Curtis News!
    By Brad Friedman on 2/22/2005 1:54pm PT  

    It looks like the Baltimore Chronicle also picked up our original CNN "Dupe Nuke 'em" story a few days ago and we just caught it.

    Their piece on the matter was one item in an article from their "Media Criticism" section discussing a number of troubling concerns of-late at the once-great cable news channel.

    Our original story on CNN's use of photos of the same purported nuclear site described as being both in Iran and North Korea is right here. With a follow-up on the U.S. government funded ?news? site who did the same thing, with the same nuke site a year ago, but used it for Iraq as well as the N. Korea and Iran, here, and finally a follow-up to that piece here.

    For the record, it's officially been over week since the CNN press rep said she'd get back to us with an answer to our queries on the matter. We've made follow-up calls nearly every day since then. They've not been returned. If CNN is hoping to feed more speculation that they have something to cover up, they are doing a swell job of it.

    Speaking of cover-ups, the Chronicle article mentioned above was written by Margie Burns, who also put together some Clint Curtis follow-up on her own blog in mid-January. We were out of town when we discovered her piece on that, so didn't get the opportunity to properly link up at the time. She discusses a few of the Raymond Lemme-related issues (on which we also hope to have more ourselves, as previously promised, in the coming week or two!)

    We're happy to see there are still a few folks out there with access to good old fashioned print papers who are actually paying attention and getting some work done! Well, one anyway! Thanks, Margie!

    ...CONTACT...
    Margie Burns

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    By Brad Friedman on 2/21/2005 10:23pm PT  

    Dead-on op/ed about the Gannon story in The Oregonian once again debunking the myth of the "liberal" media...

    Try to imagine this scenario: John Kerry wins the presidency and appoints a press secretary who grants a White House press pass to a fake reporter with a fake name representing a fake news outlet. And what if this "Jeff Gannon," whose real name is James Guckert, gets called upon daily to lob softball questions at White House briefings?

    And what if it turns up that Gannon/Guckert has an eyebrow-raising connection to the investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame?

    And what if Gannon/Guckert was involved in setting up Web sites promoting homosexual prostitution? And what if racy nude photos of him start flooding the Internet?

    The only thing imaginary about this scenario was the part about Kerry being president. Had it been Kerry whose aide allowed Gannon/Guckert such access to the president, just think of the furor. Conservative Web jockeys, in tandem with talk-radio shouters, would have created a frenzy thrusting the sordid story onto front pages across the land. At the very least, President Kerry's press secretary would be out of a job.

    Our only quibble, the unbylined author's line: "Bloggers on the left are no less bullies than those on the right." On that issue, the writer couldn't be more incorrect. Otherwise, a good, short, to-the-point read worthy of encouraging us all to make even more noise until those bastards pay attention.

    Have we mentioned lately that we have an "Email it to someone!" button at the bottom of every article?

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