Patterico's Pontifications

3/3/2008

If You’re Going to Write Crap . . .

Filed under: 2008 Election,Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 10:26 pm



The L.A. Times‘s “Top of the Ticket” blog reports that Hillary’s campaign put some reporters up in a restroom:

In an obvious bid for the Ron Paul media conspiracy vote, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign dumped the traveling press corps exactly where many voters believe they belong today — in the men’s room of the Burger Activity Center.

Press corps covering Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign placed in the toilet during an event in Austin Texas March 3 2008 While the New York senator held a town-hall meeting elsewhere in Austin, Texas, pushing hard for every last vote in tomorrow’s crucial state primary/caucus, reporters could watch it on television. Then, the candidate came to the center for a rally nearby in the same building.

The reporters, including The Times’ Louise Roug, were set up in the toilet with tables right next to the urinals.

Make sure to follow the link for a picture.

Filing stories has never been so easy!

One reporter cried out, “Metaphor alert!”

Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing . . . only I don’t think my metaphor was the same as the reporter’s.

Another Memoir is Exposed as a Lie

Filed under: Books — Jack Dunphy @ 10:02 pm



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

In “Love and Consequences” author Margaret B. Jones wrote of her experiences growing up in foster care in South-Central Los Angeles. She joined a gang and ran drugs, she even received a revolver for her 13th birthday. The book received great reviews in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. Jones was scheduled to begin a book tour next week.

She is now free to make other plans.

She made it all up. Jones never lived in South-Central, never sold drugs, never belonged to a gang. The revelation comes a week after another celebrated memoir, “Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years” by Misha Defonseca, was also revealed as a fraud.

The first chapter of Jones’s book is available on the New York Times website, and it’s clear from reading it that the book was never vetted by anyone with a knowledge of gangs in Los Angeles. In the fourth paragraph, Jones describes an “Original Gangster” named Kraziak, who drives a “candy-red 1969 Chevy Chevelle Malibu Super Sport with two black racing stripes up the middle and a red flag (bandana) neatly folded and tied around the rearview mirror.”

One might see a gangster flying his colors like that at a gang funeral or some other setting where he is surrounded by and protected by friends, but no one, least of all someone as savvy as this Kraziak is portrayed as being, would dare drive around South-Central L.A. with his Blood rag tied to his mirror unless he had a death wish.

It’s a sad story. Jones clearly has talent as a writer, and had she submitted the book as a novel she might now be on her way to fame rather than infamy. It was her own sister who tipped off the publisher, raising the question of how she thought she would ever get away with it.

Tennie Pierce’s Bosses Collect $1.6 Million on Claim They Were Scapegoated

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General,Race — Patterico @ 9:02 pm



The L.A. Times reports:

One of the costliest racial harassment cases in the history of the Los Angeles City Fire Department grew more expensive Monday when a jury awarded $1.6 million to two white captains suspended after a black firefighter they supervised had his meal laced with dog food.

Capts. John Tohill and Chris Burton sued the city in October 2006, claiming they were made scapegoats for the misconduct of a Latino firefighter who placed dog food in the spaghetti dinner of firefighter Tennie Pierce four years ago.

Of course, the lesson learned from this depends on your perspective. The author of the article seems to think the lesson is that L.A. Fire Department management is really bad. But the lesson I take from it is slightly different: the city should have taken Tennie Pierce to court. He wouldn’t have won one thin dime.

By blowing the whole thing out of proportion, refusing to tell readers key facts about the case, and putting political pressure on the Fire Department to Do Something, the paper’s editors bear some of the blame.

You don’t see that in today’s story, of course. And you won’t. But you’ll see it here.

Barack Answers the 3 A.M. Call

Filed under: 2008 Election,Humor — Patterico @ 7:45 pm



I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!

The Tide Begins to Turn on Obama

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 7:09 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Today in San Antonio, MSNBC describes a surprisingly contentious Barack Obama news conference that focused on Tony Rezko and the Canadian government:

“Led by the Chicago press corps that has covered Obama for years, the candidate today faced a barrage of questions in what turned out to be a contentious news conference.

Questions centered on why his campaign had denied that a meeting occurred between his chief economic advisor and Canadian officials as well as questions on his relationship with Tony Rezko, a Chicago land developer and fast food magnate, now on trial for corruption charges.”

Obama cut off questions from one Chicago-based NBC reporter, implying her questions were personally motivated (apparently because he did not grant her a one-on-one interview). In response to continued Rezko questions by other reporters, Obama suggested his prior responses should suffice:

“He claimed that his campaign would be happy to provide the details, but when asked why the campaign hadn’t been forthcoming, he said, “What happens is these requests I think can go on forever, and, at some point, we’ve tried to respond to what’s pertinent to the question that’s been raised.”

He added, “There’s no question that he raised money for us, and there’s no dispute that we’ve tried to get rid of that money.”

The Politico noticed the change in atmosphere, too, although its focus was on the controversy involving the Obama campaign and the Canadian government. Obama “continued to deny the substance of the conversation” between the Canadian government and Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, instead blaming the controversy on Clinton’s “kitchen sink” strategy:

“I know the Clinton campaign has been true to its word in employing a kitchen sink strategy. … It doesn’t change the facts.”

Obama left the press conference after delivering what was described as a curt response to his eighth question. The MSNBC report stated and the Politico confirmed that the “press erupted with shouts, but Obama continued to walk out,” suggesting that the days of Obama’s positive press may be numbered.

— DRJ

The Path To 9/11 – Disney Continues To Obfuscate

Filed under: Media Bias — Justin Levine @ 3:59 pm



[posted by Justin Levine]

Some important questions for Disney shareholders concerning one of the best television mini-series ever made. [Youtube link]

Blowback On Unconstitutional Restraining Order Continues

Filed under: Blogging Matters,Civil Liberties,Court Decisions — Justin Levine @ 2:34 pm



[posted by Justin Levine]

A federal judge in California continues to get up to speed on the 21st Century learning curve. He didn’t just reconsider the injunction, he also had second thoughts about the jurisdictional question.

The Plaintiff/bank in question has had its reputation trashed far more because of the lawsuit than because of the leak.

In a statement to the court, Matthews went on to take full aim at Julius Baer. “The crowning irony is that Plaintiffs—who purport to be shocked, shocked that Wikileaks has promised anonymity to leakers—are a Swiss bank and its Cayman Islands subsidiary.”

PC World

In his parting shot on a troubled case Judge White was reported as bemoaning the “definite disconnect between the evolution of our constitutional jurisprudence and modern technology.”

“Maybe that’s just the reality of the world that we live in. When this genie gets out of the bottle, that’s it,” he said.

Personally speaking – music to my ears.

My God — What Possible Positions of Importance Might These Two Buffoons Have In A Clinton Admin?

Filed under: 2008 Election,Buffoons,Morons,Politics — WLS @ 11:53 am



[Posted By WLS] 

Here’s what happens when perfectly respectable retired military men decide to get involved in partisan political campaigns where you have to be prepared to say anything even when its demonstrably asinine, thereby jettisoning all credibility they might have enjoyed by virtue of their military careers.  From today’s Corner, courtesy of Byron York, comments by Gen. Wesley Clark and Adm. William Owens about how it is that John McCain is not as qualified to be Commander in Chief as Hillary Clinton is:

On a just-finished conference call in which retired military leaders endorsed Hillary Clinton to be commander in chief, retired General Wesley Clark said John McCain’s military experience is not the right kind of experience to command the nation’s armed forces:

In the national security business, the question is, do you have — when you have served in uniform, do you really have the relevant experience for making the decisions at the top that have to be made? Everybody admires John McCain’s service as a fighter pilot, his courage as a prisoner of war. There’s no issue there. He’s a great man and an honorable man. But having served as a fighter pilot — and I know my experience as a company commander in Vietnam — that doesn’t prepare you to be commander-in-chief in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved. It may give you a feeling for what the troops are going through in the process, but it doesn’t give you the experience first hand of the national strategic issues.

If you look at what Hillary Clinton has done during her time as the First Lady of the United States, her travel to 80 countries, her representing the U.S. abroad, plus her years in the Senate, I think SHE’S THE MOST EXPERIENCED AND CAPABLE PERSON IN THE RACE, not only for representing am abroad, but for dealing with the tough issues of national security.

Speaking just after Clark, retired Admiral William Owens, former vice chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said, “I would just say that I agree with Wes on that.”

Unbeliveable.  This passes for logic on the Dim side:  Hillary, by virtue of 8 years as first lady and 8 years in the Senate, with her 80 trips abroad, is more qualified to be Commander in Chief that McCain, who graduated from the Naval Academy, had a real military career, and has spent 24 years in the Senate, serving a significant period of time as Armed Services Committee Chairman.

Is it fools like these she’ll saddle us with if she pulls the election out of the fire?

Florida Do-Over? I Like It

Filed under: 2008 Election,General — Patterico @ 6:58 am



Florida Governor Charlie Crist is floating the possibility of redoing the Florida primary, as part of a noble effort to try to throw the Democrats’ nomination process into turmoil make sure every vote is counted:

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he’d support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state’s delegates can be counted at the party’s national convention.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he’s open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state’s taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is “very helpful” because money is an issue, Dean said.

We’re here to help, Howard.

Rick Moran on Global Warming

Filed under: Environment,General — Patterico @ 12:12 am



I’d say Rick’s piece sums up my feelings about as well as anything I’ve read in a while.

I’m no scientist. Neither is Nobel Prize winning global warming alarmist and hypocrite Al Gore. Nor are the legions of global warming deniers who are pointing to a stretch of cold weather as “proof” that global warming is a myth.

We are, most of us, not qualified in any way, shape, or form to make any kind of technical or scientific judgment on most of the evidence relating to climate change unless we happen to hold an advanced technical degree and are able to examine that evidence in its totality and not pick and choose headlines that bolster one’s political position on the issue.

The idiocy inherent in the prospect of myself or 95% of internet commenters – right and left – trying to hold a scientific debate on a subject where almost all of us are not scientists and where most of the evidence is couched in the arcane and mysterious language of scientific disciplines for which the overwhelming majority of us barely realize the parameters of study is self evident.

Not that this matters because at bottom, we who are unable to examine the evidence on the same plane as climatologists, meteorologists, atmospheric physicists, environmental scientists, and a hodgepodge of chemists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scientists end up simply believing one side or the other. Like religious fanatics, the two sides argue dogma while rejecting the other’s “beliefs” as apostasy.

Considering the stakes, this is madness.

Indeed.

Read it all, and thanks to voiceofreason2.


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