How Much Postage for Seven Metric Tons of Nuts?

I’ve gotten several bits of mail within the last few hours, in response to my comments on the Newsweak Koran Flushing idiocy.

Several of them point to the idea that when I’m talking about Newsweak, I’m talking about Michael Isikoff… The guy who more or less broke about half the Linda Tripp/Monica etc story, during the Clinton years. The general feeling seems to be the one that nutbag Keith Olbermann takes up in his column, which I referred to earlier… that the right owes the man something, given his supposed service to the right in terms of getting Clinton impeached.

Well, comments about such people being unable to come up with an original thought aside for the moment, (a few of you were clearly copying directly from a few articles I’ve seen earlier in the day, Olbermann’s among them) I’ve got a real dinger of a news flash for you guys…. We don’t owe Michael Isikoff… or any other reporter, for that matter… a damn thing, when they clearly are not doing their jobs.  It’s clear to my reading that Isikoff n this case was not, and ought to have his head handed him, nonsensical liberal mis-perceptions of his history of ‘service to the right” not withstanding. What we ‘owe’ him, is directly connected to how well he does his job… that is, digging for answers, and telling the truth. Barring evidence that Isikoff was set up by internal politics at NewsWeak, it comes down to this; Isikoff failed in this task and should be branded and handled as such. Either way that falls out, one way or the other either Isikoff should be gone, or his editors and other staffers should.

Isikoff, to me, during the Clinton years, always struck me as someone who’d rather have not been saying what he was…. he simply had no choice in the matter…  With stories on Bush, I detect no such reluctance. Indeed, I have no doubt had Isikoff applied the same journaistic standards to Clinton as he has to Bush, here, that we’d have both Clintons providing us no end of press conferences from a jailcell somewhere.

Update and second thoughts: I am reminded by a reader…(Thanks Chuck from Fargo) that Isikopf’s work on Tripp/Lewinsky would never have been released had Drudge somehow gotten ahold of it. Further, Chuck reminds me that NewsWeak is co-owned by WaPo, which Chuck suggests should explain a great deal.

Quite true, Chuck, and this goes to my point about the right not owing the man a thing.

The man needs to be fired.
Now.

Boortz Notes Newsweak’s claim that journistic standards didn’t get dropped in this “Koran Flushing” nonsnese.

Boortz suggests that if that statement is true, their journalistic standards are best expressed thus:

* The Bush Administration didn’t rely on faulty intelligence in its move to depose Saddam Hussein; instead, Bush “lied.”

* Any story from an anonymous source critical of a Republican president, no matter how thinly based or weakly corroborated, must be initially believed as true and may be reported as such if deadlines are close.

* Any story from an anonymous source critical of a Democratic president must be initially believed as untrue and should only be published out of a fear that some other news organization is going to publish it before you do.

* Torture of Muslims is a widespread and accepted part of the U.S. military culture.

* Virtually all of the detainees being held in Guantanamo are innocent and should be immediately released, perhaps with reparations payments for their incarceration.

* Every action involving the U.S. military under other than a Democratic commander in chief will, within no less than 21 days, become a “quagmire.”

* There is no legitimate reason for the application of U.S. military force overseas under a Republican president until after the nuclear tipped missiles are actually launched.

* There is no reason not to apply U.S. military force overseas under a Democratic president.

* Anti-war activists are prone to tell the truth.  Military officials are prone to lie.

* Reporters never lie, unless they work for The Washington Times or the Fox News Channel.

* America is great because of its government, so long as that government is controlled by Democrats.

* If the United States government is controlled by Republicans, America is not great.

* Freedom has nothing to do with America’s greatness, no matter who is in control of our government.

And, there you go.

As with every other bit of humor… it’s funny because there’s more than a grain of a great truth at the middle of it.

James at Outside The Beltway :

“Newsweek has formally retracted its report that American soldiers flushed a Koran down a toilet to induce prisoners at Guantnamo to talk. In fact, the documentary evidence indicates just the opposite: an almost absurd level of deference given to the Muslim holy book to avoid offense.”

Which still leaves us, of course, with the questions I originally asked a few days ago… Where’s this story come from, and why?

I’ve already suggested this was anti-US anti-Bush bias. Is releasing such nonsense an orginised effort on the part of the press?

No. I doubt it, though it’s looking more an dmore likely that this info was planeted in a timely fashion by someone else… and the press simply byassed journalistic standards.

It’s rather like gravity. I said at Q&O the other day:

This is not a matter of any official policy, or an overt intent, for the most part. However, When standards go by the way, people tend to fall to their own devices, and beliefs….which in the case of the press is well known.

This is sloppy journalism in the sense that journalistic standards got dropped. and yes, before the nut gallary gets warmed up..such offenses occur on both sides… right and left, in terms of dropping journalistic standards.

However…When standards go by the way, people tend to fall to their own devices, and beliefs. I submit that veering right or left from the mythical objectivity, is a direct result of the devices, and beliefs of the people in question… in this case press people. And press people are overwhelmingly leftist, by their own numbers… to the tune of 85-90%. Which way will things fall among such a group, when those journalistic standards get bypassed? Which way is objectivity more likely to fail?

This bit with NewsWeak is merely one more example in decdes of such bias.

Added thoughts: In looking at the speed of the response among the rioters, one wonders if there wasn’t some pre-planning involved, here. How’d they get the info about hte NewsWeak article so quickly in a country that’s just discovered modern tools like the candle, and gunpowder? we’re dealing with a far more sophisticated comms network than we were aware of, or we were witness to a pre-planned event.

And I’m not sure which possibility concerns me more.

Update again:

The Lovely Michelle says, in part, in speaking of NewsWeak:

“The magazine still doesn’t seem to understand that such self-aggrandizing hype is simply more fuel on the Islamists’ fire.”

Oh, they know, Michelle…. they know.

Austin Bay adds:

I am personally sympathetic with Isikoff et al, but they’re going to have to show me the same grit I see in the service when a mistake gets made. Look at the depth and breadth of the “Sgrena Incident” Route Irish shooting investigation. Okay, disagree with the conclusion, but the investigation lays out details and questions judgments. Will Newsweek produce the equivalent? I believe the magazine need to do just that. Dan Rather has yet to find “Lucy Ramirez.” Eason Jordan’s tape has yet to be released. Newsweek could avoid the Rather-Jordan quagmire with an investigation as thorough as the “Sgrena Incident” investigation conducted by the US and Italian militaries. Some people will never believe them. But if a New York Army National Guard sergeant has the guts to tell investigators what he saw and how he felt standing at a check point on Route Irish, the suits and ties at Newsweek can submit to the same tough routine of sworn questioning. Let’s find out who the anonymous source was.

Austin notes that….

” I see some commenters are already spinning a conspiracy theory that this whole incident is a Bush administration “distraction” (ie, some kind of calculated Rovian press manipulation). “

Well, Yeah…. You just knew the moonbats were coming out on this one. After all, the left has been desperate to find a story they could hang the Bush administration by… and if true this would have qualified. Thing was, it wasn’t… which now even Newsweak had to admit. the result of being leftist being denied their prize once again is unhinged leftists. Take All-around moonbat Keith Olbermann, for example. (Yes, as far away as possible) The Ankle Biter reports the following quote from Obly:

The way Craig Crawford reconstructed it, this one went similarly to the way the Killian Memos story evolved at the White House. The news organization turns to the administration for a denial. The administration says nothing. The news organization runs the story. The administration jumps on the necks of the news organization with both feet – or has its proxies do it for them. That’s beyond shameful. It’s treasonous.

There’s more at Olbermannwatch, too.

Of course the one key element in all these scenarios old Keith forgets to mention, is that the press simply jumps all over a story that makes the US look bad without bothering to actually investigate them.

So, now we hear cries of “It’s all the VRWC’s fault.”
“It’s all Rove.”

One wonders what the beep these idiots have been smoking.

And I’ve still got “libertarians” telling me that they simply screwed up… this is not bias… no political motivation motivation there. Please, spare me the spin, guys. I give that nonsense the same kind of credit I give the knee-jerk lefties blaming the whole thing on Rove.

This story was released because NewsWeak bypassed jouranlistic standards… THe rule for the last number of years has been, if it makes Bush and the US look bad, it MUST be true… so don’t bother checking it for truth. Eason, Rather, et al, all followed the same pattern.

Scott Fybush over at NorthEast Radio Watch gives us an update on Cranston RI mayor Steve Laffey. According to Scott, Laffey is….

….now suing the state Board of Elections over the ruling that Laffey’s (now cancelled) Friday talk show on WPRO (630 Providence) constituted an improper campaign contribution by WPRO’s owner, Citadel. Laffey argues that there’s no FCC prohibition on sitting officeholders hosting shows if there’s not an election underway, and he says his right to free speech is being violated by the ruling. (Steve Kass has expanded his 9-11:45 AM show back to five days a week in the meantime.)

I wonder if the BOE would rule that Michial Moore’s movies being run at the local theatre, would be considered an improper campaign contribution , were HE running for mayor?

Somehow, I tend to doubt it.

Tom Alday notes that

Seattle congressman Jim McDermott, first class loon, idiot and terrorist sympathizer, will be the first House member to face the Ethics Committee, not the “embattled” Tom Delay.

Follow the link for the details.

Funny thing, how the press doesn’t mention this one.

From Outside The Beltway comes word that the NYT is moving it’s Columnists to “Subscriber Only” status.

Which, I think, will certainly sheild the NYT from the outrage of Joe and Jane Everyone. Who, but leftists… and far out wacko leftists at that…. will pay fifty bucks a year to read Dowd, and Krugman?

From Deutsche Welle comes words of a stork in Krogaspe, more or less 120 kilometers north of Hamburg, wherein there’s a would-be momma and poppa stork, trying to hatch out a pile of golf balls, on a driving range.

Must drive ’em crazy to see those “eggs” being batted around like that.

So says CBS:

After a three-year hunt involving investigators across the U.S. and Canada, a young girl who was featured on the Internet in a series of sexually explicit photographs has been found and is safe, police say.

The girl is nearly a teenager now and lives with a foster family, police add.

Her adoptive father, who apparently took the pictures, is in prison for trading pornography online, according to police.

Hmmm.
How to ID such a person, I wonder?

McQ at Q&)::

“Riots in Afghanistan and inquiry by Saudi Arabia are the result of a Newsweek story about an alleged incident of flushing the Koran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

The alleged incident was perpetrated, according to this story, by interrogators at the confinement facility located there.

However, the Washington Times reports, no corroboartion of that allegation has been forthcoming in an investigation now being conducted there. However, there is an alleged incident which has been uncovered, in which a prisoner is accused of flushing pages of a Koran down the toilet in an attempt to clog it”

Not hard to see what happened, here.
So eager was NewsWeak, to generate a story that showed the US and, ultimately, the President, in a bad light, that they couldn’t be bothered to check the story.

It’s as I have been saying now for five years; If the story makes President Bush, and with him the US in Iraq look bad, it doesn’t NEED to be verified… it simply must be true. That has been the way things have been since Bush started running for the office, and the rule went into full force when he won the election.

Certainly, making the actions of our troups, currently involved in a war the left doesn’t approve of, is one way to bring Bush’s good name into question.

As you will see in the comments over at Q&O, I have some disagreements with McQ on the genesis of this story.

Update:

I see Tim Graham agrees with my call:

The first thing to be said about this Newsweek scandal is that just as in the Dan Rather case, the allegation of Koran-flushing seemed “too good to check.”

My mailbox today is loaded to the gills with people forwarding me this disturbing link from Der Spiegel:

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?

Update: I see Jonah Goldberg being hit with this as well.
Given I got hit with over 100 of these, (And based on his comments, Jonah did, as well) I have to wonder…

OK, I didn’t do much with the blog over the weekend.

Here’s one reason.

Thomas, doing his thing.

This weekend turned out to be kid-centered. I’ll be posting some thoughts about the weekend’s events in Bit’s Bits. Watch here for the announcement… sometime before Monday night, I hope.

And no, this is not a trick shot, and yes those are real, full-sized rail cars, and those are real people.

To explain yesterday, I need to take you back a four years. My younger boy found himself wrapped in Thomas the Tank Engine. Over the previous years, we had obtained, either used or new, perhaps every tape that the Britt Alsop people were turning out… and had a fairly large collection of the wooden trains and track, along with a kid-sized table to play with them on. Some… indeed a good portion of these were originally purchased for my older boy who had since given them up. My hind brain objected to the money involved… which was substantial… But it was the first thing he’d really shown a particular interest in.

So when we heard there was a touring company that was making an appearance the next Saturday about two hours out of Rochester, in Owego, NY, we resolved to go as soon as we got some business that had been pre-scheduled here in Rochester, tied up.

Well Saturday came, and the business in Rochester took longer than we’d planned. We hit the highway like a gale… but we got there just in time to see the last train of the day pulling out. My older boy even managed to get this shot out the driver’s side rear window of the van, as it pulled off.

Thomas, doing his thing.

No, this isn’t a trick shot. No, I didn’t add Thomas in, and no, this is not a vid cap. The rail cars are real, full-sized and so are the people.

Anyway, my younger boy as you can imagine was disappointed. Frankly, so was I, after the effort of getting down there in a huge haul-ass hurry. We shrugged our shoulders, took the boys to their favorite restaurant and then did some railfanning along the Southernteir line before coming back home. Things were back to normal, more or less by the time we got home, and the trip at least wasn’t a total loss.

When we got home, a look at the Thomas website revealed that the touring company was playing at The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad which is a pretty little tourist line just south of Cleveland, Ohio. (Where, in looking just now, I note they’re playing this coming weekend, too.)

We drove down the following weekend, making an entire weekend out of the affair. The trip and the visit with Thomas went fine, though a little pricey. We managed to get in a few photo sessions with the CSX mainlines along I-90 in the area, too, which was really nice. And, call me crazy, but there’s something about northeastern Ohio I just LIKE… for reasons I can’t really explain, here.

OK, all that was a couple years ago. About a week ago, my Mom called and said she wanted to take Alex (and the rest of us) on a day out with Thomas which was being held in nearby Medina, NY, at the Falls Road Railroad, and the Medina Railroad Museum. It’s about halfway between Rochester Niagara Falls on SR31. “Great”, said we, and set about getting things together for the day out. Once we got there, of course, the day of the event, the tickets had been sold out.

Well, OK… I guess…. Alex was a bit disappointed, but wellll… there’s lots of other stuff to hold his attention.

We went in and checked out the huge HO scale model layout. And I do mean this thing is BIG. The freight house that the Medina Chapter of the National Railway Historical society has taken over in Medina is the largest freight house ever built by the New York Central, (over 300 feet long!) and the layout of the model currently takes upwards of about 200 feet of it.
One train they had running during the show on this complex layout was 97 cars long… and was pulled by an A-B-B-A set of what looked like F3’s. The cars were all period correct to the F’s, too… Add the caboose… also period and line correct, and you have 408 axles on an old-style merchandiser. (ouch!)

The place also has one of the largest collections of largest collection of artifacts and memorabilia known to exist under one roof.

The building is 100 years old come this August. I suggest checking their site for party info.

An amazing day… one Alex wasn’t interested in leaving as soon as we did. We didn’t get there in time to beat the crowd to the tickets.  Ah, whatever; we’ll be back.. Not to worry.

If you’re in Northeastern Ohio you may want to check out the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad site… they’ve got a Thomas event this weekend. Last I knew, they’d planned real steam power for the weekend. Get your tickets early, though. They go fast.

Watcher of Weasels notes the bit with the plane in DC’s airspace yesterday, and suggests this may be a fairly solid case against the use of the wet dream of the 1963 world’s fair…. flying cars.

Chuck at YOU BIG MOUTH YOU passes along information about a Girl Scout troop delivering cookes to Sailors on station in Singapore, aboard the USS SAFEGUARD.

A great story.

WSB in Atlanta has the base closure story up, with the list.

I’d like a bit of time to study it before I comment at length… but off the top, the only two I have major complaints about are the New London sub base and Portsmouth Naval yard. I have serious issues with losing the ship-building capacity.