Patterico's Pontifications

7/21/2010

DOJ Closes Criminal File on U.S. Attorney Firings

Filed under: Law,Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 9:09 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Via Hot Air, the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice has determined there will be no criminal charges filed in connection with the U.S. Attorney firings during the Bush Administration. The report was delivered to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI). This was his response:

“Conyers said in a statement that it was clear that Dannehy’s decision not to bring criminal charges “is not an exoneration of Bush officials in the U.S. Attorney matter as there is no dispute that these firings were totally improper and that misleading testimony was given to Congress in an effort to cover them up.”

He also pointed out that the probe “did not conclude that administration officials testified truthfully to Congress,” only that there was insufficient evidence to show they knowingly made false statement.

“I appreciate Attorney General Holder’s commitment to ensure that such conduct will not happen again,” Conyers said. “I am proud of the committee’s effort to bring the facts of this controversy to light, so that the American people themselves can judge the how Bush Justice Department abused our trust.”

— DRJ

Capping the BP Well

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 8:42 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Christian Science Monitor identifies another Joe the Plumber, this one from Kansas, who apparently contributed to the design that led to BP capping the well. It’s a nice all-American story.

— DRJ

Obama vs Any Republican

Filed under: 2012 Election,Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 7:16 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

I doubted a pollster would do it but Quinnipiac has polled President Barack Obama vs Any Republican opponent, and it’s bad news for Obama:

“A year after President Barack Obama’s political honeymoon ended, his job approval rating has dropped to a negative 44 – 48 percent, his worst net score ever, and American voters say by a narrow 39 – 36 percent margin that they would vote for an unnamed Republican rather than President Obama in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.”

It’s a long time until 2012 so this isn’t meaningful, except for what it says about at least one pollster’s willingness to risk making Obama look bad.

H/T Drudge Report.

— DRJ

The Truth About Bias and the News, Revised Edition

Filed under: Media Bias — DRJ @ 6:39 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Via the Instapundit, can media hypocrisy get any better than this?

“MORE FROM JOURNOLIST: Obama wins! And Journolisters rejoice. They seem to be planning for “epistemic closure.”
***
And Eric Alterman adds his own incisive analysis: “Fucking Nascar retards…”

Didn’t the “best and the brightest” used to be, I dunno, better and brighter?

UPDATE: Reader Elliott Davis emails: “The best part about Eric Alterman’s participation in Journolist is his authorship of What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News.”

Heh. Indeed. You gotta love this. Thanks again, Ezra!”

And it’s only Day 2 of the Journolist story.

— DRJ

White House Apologizes to Sherrod

Filed under: Obama,Race — DRJ @ 1:00 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The White House has apologized for calling for Shirley Sherrod’s ouster

“White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the dismissal of Shirley Sherrod an injustice and a mistake and said he was apologizing for the “entire administration.” He said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was trying to reach her to extend an apology.”

Sounds like the White House admits it acted stupidly.

— DRJ

Blagojevich Trial: Defense Rests

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 12:19 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The defense has rested and former Governor Rod Blagojevich did not testify in his corruption trial, arguing the prosecution failed to prove its case. Blagojevich said the prosecution proved he talked too much but not that he was corrupt.

— DRJ

Is Cabalist the New Journolist?

Filed under: Media Bias — DRJ @ 11:41 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, claims Cabalist is the new Journolist:

“Shortly after the Weigel scandal, Klein, the Washington Post’s left-wing policy blogger, shut down Journolist, which was meant to be off-the-record, though why anyone thought a listserv with 400 members, many of whom were professional scribblers, would stay off the record is beyond me. But the idea behind Journolist — a forum in which like-minded opinion-makers could share information and ideas (much of the content of Journolist that I have seen consisted of eye-glazing wonkery) but also, on occasion, plot campaigns against Journolist’s ideological foes — would not die. Hence, the birth of the heretofore secret Cabalist, which unlike Journolist, has only 173 members, rather than 400, but which in other ways resembles Journolist (such as in the propensity of Cabalist members to leak ostensibly private information to non-Cabalist members, including to yours truly).”

Goldberg sees irony in the Cabalist non-response to recent Journolist revelations and while he says he wasn’t a member of either group, he agrees with Andrew Sullivan, who called the Journolist revelations depressing and corrupt.

— DRJ

Crime that Aims to Hurt

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 11:21 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Floridian Mark Carlton Wilcox has been sentenced to home detention, probation, and psychiatric counseling after being convicted of mail fraud that targeted a man (and his wife) who had fired him in 1992. However, instead of seeking money, Wilcox signed up the couple’s deceased daughter for junk mail and magazine subscriptions:

“Sharon Harper and her husband still receive junk mail and magazine subscriptions in their daughter’s name 22 years after she died in a car accident in 1988. Angela Harper was 12 years old and never lived at her parents’ current address.

The worst part, Harper said, is the type of mail being sent.

She was regularly receiving stacks of bridal magazines, working mother publications, college inquiries, vacation guides, information on fertility clinics and credit card applications. Harper said it was a cruel, daily reminder of their loss.”

Even the defendant’s public defender “acknowledged the deplorable nature of his actions and suggested he be disgraced,” although he also argued Wilcox was “not violent and posed no risk of further aggravating the Harpers.” I wonder if that’s true.

— DRJ

New JournoList Leak: NPR Producer Wishes Death for Limbaugh

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:40 am



Your media betters at work:

If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond? As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would.

But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio, that isn’t what you’d do at all.

In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”

To be fair to Spitz, Limbaugh does articulate conservative positions. That’s enough to justify wishing for his death … isn’t it?

It’s all at the Daily Caller.


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