Headline Change at Thrush’s Politico Pity Party: From ‘Obama: Hey guys, I’m Still Here’ to ‘Obama: Hey Guys, I’m Still Relevant’
The email announcing the supposedly momentous occasion of another column by the Politico's Glenn Thrush arrived in my mailbox with the following headline and subhead: "Obama: Hey guys, I'm still here -- The president's press conference brimmed with frustration and was filled with tantalizing promise."
On clickthrough, I learned that the online website's massagers-in-chief changed those items (but not the underlying URL, which reflects the email) to the following in the published article: "President Obama: I’m still relevant -- Obama finds himself hemmed in by the familiar constraints of partisanship and world events." Thrush's text identifed another problem supposedly hemming Obama in, complete with a slavery analogy: "the shackles of his own commitments." Poor guy; he has to deal with the world as it is, not how he'd like it to be, and those darned things he promised to do to get elected and reelected. Gosh, life is just so unfair, isn't it? Excerpts following Thrush's theme follow the jump (bolds and numbered tags are mine):
New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd, ‘Fabricating’ Hypocrite
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "fabricating" hypocrite. Her Sunday column about the lack of veracity in the current crop of award-nominated movies, "The Oscar for Best Fabrication," has some interesting revelations on the true history behind the stories of "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Lincoln."
But Dowd is the last person to credibly comment on the subject, given her own history (item #3) of fabricating quotes, in the form of leaving out vital words from her May 14, 2003 column on President Bush's pursuit of the Taliban – a tale broken on Times Watch. Dowd wrote on Sunday:
NBC Panel Scolds Prince Harry: ‘Why Do You Need to Antagonize the Taliban?’
During a panel discussion on Wednesday's NBC Today, attorney Star Jones and the network's chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman hyperventilated over Britain's Prince Harry revealing in interviews that he killed Taliban fighters during combat in Afghanistan. Jones fretted: "Why do you need to antagonize the Taliban?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Former NYTimes Reporter: Secretive Drone Strikes ‘Would Get Much More Scrutiny’ Under GOP
New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan's Sunday column on drone strikes featured an interesting comment about (media?) bias against Republicans from David Rohde, a reporter kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008.
First, Sullivan criticized the Obama administration from the left:
Where Is Maureen Dowd’s ‘Absolute Moral Authority’ Column For Karen Vaughn?
Joel Gehrke at the Washington Examiner (HT Meredith Jessup at the Blaze) reports that Karen Vaughn, mother of Aaron Vaughn, a member of Navy SEAL Team 6 and one of 30 American servicemen, including 21 other SEAL Team 6 members, killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan three months after the May 1, 2011 execution of Osama bin Laden, says in a video released yesterday by Veterans for a Strong America that the Obama administration "put a target on my son’s back and even on my back" by revealing the SEAL Team unit's identity after the Bin Laden raid.
Actually, as seen here in a September 10 Fox News story, Mrs. Vaughn has been saying this for almost a month, which makes me wonder where Maureen Dowd at the New York Times has been. But first, the specifics from the Vaughns (bolds are mine throughout this post):
YouTube Blocks ‘Anti-Mohammed’ Video, Not Taliban Terror Videos
“Those who came here insulting Islam and the Koran, I will take revenge on them,” said a Taliban suicide bomber with a chilling smile. Moments later he drove a truck loaded with 10,000 kg of explosives into U.S. Forward-Operating Base Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, killing two U.S. soldiers.
It was all captured on a Taliban propaganda video narrated by an Al Jazeera reporter. (Video below.) It’s currently available for anyone to see on YouTube. More shocking, the Taliban have their own YouTube channel, though it is mostly dormant.
Islam’s Media Apologists Keep Excusing, Ignoring Violence
On Sept. 11, 2012, riots erupted in Egypt, Libya and now Yemen, ostensibly over what the media call an anti-Muslim Youtube video made in America. In Benghazi, militants murdered the United States ambassador to Libya and three U.S. diplomats.
American blood was shed and mobs of Muslims continue to burn American flags and chant “Death to America!” around multiple U.S. consulates. It’s a scene that’s played out on almost a regular basis. A media story (about flushing Korans or other slights to Islam real or imagined) provides some pretext and the “Arab Street” explodes with raging mobs. The ambassador’s death is what sets the current situation apart.
Martin Short Hits ‘Crazy Catholic’ Santorum, ‘Taliban’-like Bachmann, and Other Republicans
Appearing as a guest on Monday's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC, actor and comedian Martin Short lambasted several of the GOP presidential candidates, as he called Rick Santorum a "crazy Catholic," compared Michele Bachmann to the Taliban while questioning her intelligence, and suggested that Mitt Romney has sent jobs to other countries.
He also referred back to the 2008 presidential election and labeled Sarah Palin as a running mate "who had never met a black man."
#From the Monday, June 4, The Tonight Show on NBC:
"I mean, 2008 was the most exciting. I mean, the Democrats had a, first time, a black man at the top of the ticket, and the Republicans had a vice presidential choice, a woman who had never met a black man."
"Canadians don't really like him (Romney) so much because he hasn't shipped that many jobs to our country like he has to others."
"I find it fascinating, though, for a party that seems to fear gays as much as they do, that now the Republicans have fallen head over heels for a big stiff one. ... I mean, this guy, he's white. You know, Charlie Sheen tried to snort him."
"You know, I'm Catholic - well, Hollywood Catholic. You know, we're looking for a God-type. But Rick Santorum is a crazy Catholic. Even Mel Gibson's father thinks he's nuts. Every time he won a primary, a puff of white smoke would go up. It's just insane."
"I always feel that the only difference between Michele Bachmann and the Taliban is the Taliban don't marry their beards. ... And she was not bright enough to be President, don't you agree? She thinks 'soy milk' is Spanish for 'I am milk.' This is not someone who should be, she's just not, hey, I did some writin' for this show."