Friday, May 30, 2008

Coldplay - Violet Hill



I like this video...A LOT. It reminds me of the old videos from the Police like "Don't Stand so Close to Me" and "Message in a Bottle." I suppose it's sorta Beatlesish as well. Anyways, enjoy!

The White House, the Press, and Iraq



The headlines have been dominated recently by Scott McClellan's revelations about the Bush administration's and the media's behavior in the run up to the Iraq war. McClellan states in his book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception that Bush had essentially decided to invade Iraq in November of 2001. McClellan also charges the Washington Press Corp with "dropping the ball" during the months preceeding the invasion and being "far too deferential" to the White House. Now, as is evident in the Times article I linked to above, the White House is "oh snap!" about McClellan's book and coward-in-chief Karl Rove, ditz queen Dana Perino, and Dan Bartlett are out in force defending themselves and attacking McClellan. Not surprisingly, they seem to be using the same talking points as the words "puzzled" and "sad" seemed to come up a lot. Also, we hear a lot about how "this doesn't sound like Scott!" The standard response on the left has been "why did he wait so long to provide us with this information?" That's a good question, indeed. Certianly, while it's nice that McClellan is telling us all this now, and saying nice things about Barack Obama, he was complicit in helping to deceive the American public during his time as the White House Press Secretary. However, we should be grateful that this information is even coming out at all. This administration is unprecedented in its secrecy and loyalty, so McClellan should be commended for having the courage to essentially squander many a friendship, and destroy any future he might have had in the Republican Party.

That being said, Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay, two journalists that did not "drop the ball" in the run up to the Iraq War, have an absolutely superb post up at their blog with the lovely and talented Nancy Youseff: Nukes & Spooks. Strobel and Landay lay out what really happened in the weeks and months preceeding the invasion. This is one of the best blog posts I've read in sometime and it should really be read by any patriotic American seeking to understand what exactly happened during the march to war.

Also, for a superb interview of Scott McClellan by Keith Olbermann go here, here, here, and here.

P.S. Please read Nukes & Spooks. Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay, and Nancy Youssef are three of the most gifted journalists still writing today. These three actually deserve the moniker of "journalist." All those that seek honest, critical reporting, should make their blog and McClatchy a go to source for coverage that doesn't toe the Republican Party line.