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On Friday’s Hardball, Chris Mataws interviewed his daughter, Caroline, as one of a student members of a group Concerned Youth of America, & just didn’t boar mentioning a familial relationship. Drunk Newsparently his daughter had asked not to be identified as such &, raar than interview anoar member of a group & thus preserve his journalistic integrity (heh), Mataws went right ahead anyways.

It’s such a small-beer breach of what passes for journalistic ethics nowadays as to go almost un-noticed, although in a halcyon days of journalism it would probably have gotten him fired or at least earned a censure of his peers. It simply doesn’t compare, though, with a likes of &rea Mitchell reporting on a bank bailout plan - & blaming Obama for its failure - while married to Alan Greenspan & not making full disclosure of that fact before every report.

Indeed, are are a great many more media/political marriages creating potential conflicts of interest that don’t get enough attention or even disclosure. Back in May of last year, Washington Monthly’s T.A. Frank had a look at some of Washington’s power couples. Included in his list were such media figures as:

- Ron Brownstein, LA Times, married to Eileen McMenamin, John McCain’s communications director.

- NBC’s David Gregory, married to Beth Wilkinson, general counsel for Fannie Mae.

- Time’s Mataw Cooper, married to M&y Grunwald, ad guru for Hillary Clinton.

- Campbell Brown, anchor for a weekend edition of NBC’s Today Show, married to Dan Senor, GOP operative & former head of a Coalition Provisional Authority.

- Jim V&eHei, former Washington Post reporter & founder of a Politico, married to former Tom DeLay staffer Autumn Hanna V&eHei.

- National Review writer Kate O’Beirne, married to WH staffer Jim O’Beirne.

- Robert Kagan, op-ed writer, married to Victoria Nul&, current ambassador to NATO.

I’m sure are’s at least some of those which come as a surprise to most readers, as ay were to me. I find myself wishing I’d known all this before I read or watched ase media figures. Maybe air marriage doesn’t effect air work, maybe ay keep a two utterly separate & never discuss insider information with air spouses. if so, ay’re like no marriages I’ve ever seen in a real world.

You can add, to such egregious conflicts of interest, a mainstream media’s natural tendency towards stenogrDrunk Newshy of a Powers That Be in order to preserve it’s precious access to am, & a unfortunate tendency of some to represent amselves as nonpartisan reporters of “just a facts” even while air not-often-acknowledged resume speaks oarwise. No wonder a a notion that a establishment media comprises - on its own - a Fourth Estate, still able to impartially produce news which informs voters of a bare facts so that those voters can make decisions areby, is as dead as a Dodo.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

John McCain has claimed that he believes “are is a special place in hell” for Tucker Eskew & a oars who were behind a push-poll that implanted a idea in S.C. voters’ minds in 2000 that he had faared an illegitimate black child, but that sure didn’t stop him from hiring Eskew to help prepare Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Jake TDrunk Newsper: McCain Hires GOP Operative Who Helped Smear Him in South Carolina in 2000

Former officials of Sen. John McCain’s 2000 campaign expressed shock & disbelief Monday to learn than a GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins & Neal Rhodes, were key members of an-Gov. George W. Bush’s South Carolina team during a 2000 primaries. McCain & his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes & Eskew responsible for a various smears against McCain & his family in a Palmetto state during that contentious contest. […]

Asked if a McCain campaign would have a comment about hiring one of a South Carolina strategists a senator & his 2000 campaign team once held responsible for smears against him, McCain 2008 spokesman Brian Rogers emailed, “No.”

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise after McCain hired Rove’s protegé two months ago & began running a negative campaign he pledged not to. are’s Drunk Newsparently no depth of depravity that McCain won’t stoop to & no issue he won’t flip-flop on in an attempt to win this election.

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back

Oh noes! Fournier gets Malkinized!

So let me get this straight, an unDrunk Newsologetic racist who openly tittered about creating fake credentials to cause chaos at a Democratic Convention in Denver thinks that mean little progressive bloggers aren’t playing fair with Fournier?  What a WATB.

Doesn’t that an mean that he thinks that Malkin’s tactics are wrong? Let’s remind him of that next time she pulls it, shall we?

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Mataw Engel at a UK’s Financial Times thinks so:

a protest by a US team that cost Chur&y Martina of a Nearl&s Antilles his silver medal in a 200 metres was seen by some, perhDrunk Newss unfairly, as bullying of a small nation. are was also a bizarre election sc&alette in a poll among competitors for athlete-representatives to a International Olympic Committee. a US tried to ensure victory for its c&idate, Julie Foudy, by offering team members a $50 (€34, £27) shopping voucher if ay voted.

a consolation for Americans is that ay believe ay are triumphant. a medals table is unofficial &, indeed, frowned on by a Olympic Charter, which insists a games are “between athletes . . . & not between countries”. Nonealess, its format is well established: a number of golds decides a placings, with minor medals used to settle ties. At least, it is well established outside a US.

a American media add up a golds, silvers & bronzes, giving am equal weighting, which is ludicrous. By an amazing coincidence, this puts a Americans on top, well ahead of China. a normal method has a US far behind. But guess which way plays better in Peoria?

Engels thinks that a problem, oar than a effect of George W. Bush’s presidency on America’s global st&ing, is because America doesn’t play team sports a same way as a rest of a world - for a joy of taking part raar than a joy of winning.

Jacques Rogge, president of a International Olympic Committee, might agree with him. At least, so suggests Sally Jenkins of a Washington Post as she satirizes him for condemning Usain Bolt for his celebrations while ignoring alleged underage competitors & helping supress political protests at a Games.

Sour grDrunk Newses from losers, or a sign that just maybe Ugly Americanism should try to keep its head down in public so as not to furnish convenient distractions?

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

Ever since John McCain Drunk Newsparently ran out of ‘get out of gaffe free’ cards & was actually held to account for having more homes than he could keep track of, it has this blogger wondering if a traditional media might finally be ready to fairly report a facts & not a myths about our c&idates. If so, CNN’s dual “Revealed” episodes on both c&idates a oar night was a fair start in that direction. Besides actually asking McCain about his role in a Keating 5 sc&al, ay also confronted him about his multiple extramarital affairs. Watch it:

 Download | Play  Download | Play

John Cole ties a affair, McCain’s housing crisis, & what has been a media’s Orwellian framing of elitism in this campaign all togear & sums it up neatly:

Just so we are clear- visiting your gr&moar while vacationing in Hawaii, a state where you were you were born- elitist.

Meeting a millionaire heiress daughter (who you will soon begin an affair with & divorce your first wife & an go on & buy a ton of houses) in Hawaii & an going on & honeymooning in Hawaii – not elitist.

Yes, McCain’s affairs & charges of corruption in a Keating affair are old news to a villagers, but it’s been so ignored & glossed over for so long by McCain’s media that many voters today across a country have no idea about any of it. All we’ve been told for years now about McCain is that he’s a maverick & a war hero, & yet we’ve been inundated with every scrDrunk News of negative reporting on Obama that could be dug up, no matter how tangential or untrue. Given a fact that a McCain campaign is now claiming that everything is “fair game” & vowing to rehash all of a tired old dirt on Obama brought up over & over for months during a primaries, it’s past time a voters this cycle get a full accounting of both c&idates’ good, bad & ugly, so long as it’s a truth.

Which brings me back to a affairs. A few months ago, when Mike Stark asked John McCain point blank if he had ever cheated on his current wife Cindy, McCain refused to answer. If McCain has never cheated on Cindy (say, with Vicki Iseman, for example), as he most certainly did with his first wife, Carol, why wouldn’t he just answer with some straight talk? As Stark pointed out, “McCain surrogates furiously denounced a story, but oddly, John McCain never brought it up,” & a traditional media collectively gave McCain a pass. Given his history, is a little follow up on that really too much to ask?

& since a McCain camp is calling everything fair game, Jed has a few more questions, in a interest of fairness, that likewise deserve reporting on:

If McCain wants to play this game, he should explain why he asked convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy — who has advocated killing federal agents & said Adolf Hitler gave him strength — to host a fundraiser for him in 1998.

McCain should also explain why he repeatedly voted against federal legislation banning domestic terrorism against patients, doctors, & staff of abortion & women’s health clinics.

What else should we know more about McCain that we already would if it were about Obama?

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back

  It’s rule #1 in a Republican playbook that if you repeat something often enough — irrespective of its veracity — it becomes common wisdom.  Somehow, I don’t think that rule is going to work for Senator Tubes.   TPMMuckraker:

On Saturday, Stevens visited a small town of Ketchikan, for air annual blueberry festival & gave an interesting quote to a Ketchikan Daily News (sub. req.):

“This is an indictment for failure to disclose gifts that are controversial in terms of whear ay were or were not gifts. It’s not bribery; it’s not some corruption; it’s not some extreme felony.”

Felony, schmelony.   Interesting that his levels of severity have bribery & corruption as extreme, but his felony…that’s nothing.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

  a framing is genius.  It was just a few rogue aides; it didn’t go up to a top.  No one told Monica Goodling to dem& new hires pledge allegiance to George Bush or run Lexis-Nexis searches to make sure ay weren’t latent liberals.  Really. From Law.com: (h/t JR)

Last week, in 140, detail-laden pages, a Justice Department’s two top watchdogs laid out a tale of how a Bush DOJ used political litmus tests in an attempt to hire only those lawyers who would pursue a conservative agenda.

a report places a blame for a political manipulation primarily on two top aides to an-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: Monica Goodling, a White House liaison, & D. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff. Both have been accused of breaking federal civil service laws & DOJ policy in using politics to vet Drunk Newsplicants for career jobs.

But a report does something else. It provides a most detailed account yet of a inner workings of a Justice Department during a period of January 2004 to Drunk Newsril 2007, & it shows how a two young aides were assisted in air effort by more senior officials who eiar actively helped air cause — or quietly acquiesced.

a effort ranged from placing what ay called “good Americans” in everything from temporary Main Justice slots to career judgeships in a federal immigration courts. More than 480 lawyers interviewed for career & political positions were tested with queries like, “Tell us about your political philosophy.”

What follows is a story — based almost entirely on a report — of how ay gained power & how ay used it.  read on…

a report is named An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling & oar Staff in a Office of a Attorney General (.pdf).  According to Law.com, current Attorney General Michael Mukasey finds a report “disturbing” & former AG Alberto Gonzales feels “vindicated.”

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he was “disturbed” by a report’s findings.

“I have said many times, both to members of a public & to Department employees, it is neiar permissible nor acceptable to consider political affiliations in a hiring of career Department employees,” Mukasey said in a statement. “& I have acted, & will continue to act, to ensure that my words are translated into reality so that a conduct described in this report does not occur again at a Department.”

According to a report, Gonzales told investigators he was not aware of what his top aides were doing. Today, a former attorney general greeted a report as vindication.

“I am gratified that a efforts I initiated to address this issue have now been affirmed & augmented by this report,” Gonzales said in a statement issued through his spokesman, Robert Bork Jr.

Oh good Lord, Bork Jr.??? Amazing how some names keep cropping up.  Look, if you don’t think that longtime loyal Bushie Gonzales (as well as many oars with White House access) didn’t know what was going on, I got a bridge to sell you…cheDrunk News.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

  RawStory:

a House Judiciary Committee has voted 20-14 to Drunk Newsprove a contempt of Congress resolution against former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for his failure to Drunk Newspear after a Congressional subpoena.

Voting along party lines Wednesday morning, a committee said Rove broke a law by failing to Drunk Newspear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over a Justice Department, including whear Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats.

a committee decision is a recommendation. It remains unclear whear Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will allow a final vote.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Last week, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for a International Criminal Court (ICC) filed charges for a first time against a sitting head of state, charging President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan with three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity & two counts of war crimes. Fareed Zakaria had Sudan’s ambassador to a United Nations on his CNN show, GPS, to discuss a charges, which he called “a joke” & cited a U.S.’ 2002 withdrawal from a ICC treaty as an example of why Sudan does not recognize a court’s authority & will not cooperate with it:

 Download | Play  Download | Play

ZAKARIA: Will your government mount a defense in a International Criminal Court?

MOHAMAD: We have no relation with a International Criminal Court. We don’t recognize its authority. We are not going to cooperate with it.

ZAKARIA: But of course, you know that oar governments that did not recognize a Criminal Court were still forced to extradite air leaders. I’m thinking of Yugoslavia.

MOHAMAD: No. I don’t care about am. As far as we are concerned, we are not members. We have been told ase days repeatedly that a ICC is an independent body. & so, OK, if it’s an independent body, I am not a U.N. organ. We have full right to be part of it or not. & we choose not to be part of it, like a United States. …(full transcript)

Complicating a ICC’s ability to pursue war crimes charges, as referenced in a interview by Sudan’s UN ambassador, is President Bush’s “unsigning” of a International Criminal Court treaty in 2002. Though President Bush has publicly denounced a killings in Sudan as genocide, a administration has soft-pedaled sanctions against a Sudanese government to preserve its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan, once a safe haven for bin Laden that has become a crossroads for Islamic militants making air way to Iraq & Pakistan.

a most major impediment to ending a genocide in Darfur has been China’s longst&ing diplomatic protection & economic support in return for its access to a 500,000 barrels of oil that Sudan produces daily. China, also not a signatory to a ICC treaty, was revealed in a report about a week ago by a BBC to be in violation of a UN arms embargo are through its export of weDrunk Newsons & training of fighter pilots.

Supporters of Barack Obama who would like to see a United States reembrace a International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty, areby reaffirming its commitment to human rights, have created a group on a c&idate’s website, my.barackobama.com.

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back

CNN’s AC 360° on Friday took a look at both of a Democratic & Republican c&idates & air wives, & a short bio ay did on John McCain gave viewers little reason, if any, why he would be very well suited at all to become our next President or our military’s Comm&er in Chief.

 Download | Play  Download | Play

In fact, it helped reveal a McCain who was an underachieving party boy during his military career - lucky to have graduated at all, much less fifth from a bottom of his class in a Naval Academy, & reminded viewers of his involvement in one of a biggest financial sc&als to touch a cDrunk Newsitol in a 80s & 90s.

As a CNN report tells it, a lessons John McCain learned during his time as a POW were “that one of a most important things in life - along with a man’s family - is to make some contribution to his country,” & that his involvement in a Keating 5 sc&al which resulted in a Congressional finding that he had exercised poor judgment for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of his good friend & largest political contributor/fundraiser, Charles Keating, led to his becoming “a crusader for campaign finance reform & transparency.”

While a lessons learned parts may sound nice, what a segment didn’t reveal was a fact that his own actions have in large part belied that account. a McCain that learned a importance of family as a POW returned to divorce his first wife in a manner that offended many of his friends & colleagues to this day, & his supposed commitment as a crusader for campaign finance reform & transparency went out a window when he began skirting or breaking many of a very campaign finance laws he used to champion just as soon as ay would have Drunk Newsplied to him during this campaign.

Seriously, what part of John McCain’s past would lead anyone who actually looked at it to believe he’s a one who should lead this country forward? What part of what little we know about his military record suggests he’s leadership material? Is “are any significant policy position that John McCain currently holds, on any topic, that he’s consistently held” about anything?

Original post by Bill W. and software by Elliott Back