A Media Matters study spanning 1997 to 2005 concludes: “Sunday talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC are dominated by conservative voices, from newsmakers to commentators.” Most frequent guest: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), with 124 appearances.
In the wake of an Iranian newspaper’s cartoon contest to mock the Holocaust, an Israeli cartoonist is asking Jewish artists to draw anti-Semitic cartoons themselves.
We wonder: Is this sort of like African Americans reclaiming the N-word as their own?
An EPA advisory group votes unanimously to recommend that a chemical used in Teflon and other nonstick products be considered a likely cause of cancer.
Truthdig had a report two weeks ago about the greedy politicos who stymied the phaseout of Teflon.
With a company owned by the United Arab Emirates set to take control over six U.S. ports, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is urging the White House to reconsider approval of a sale.
It was news to us at Truthdig that a foreign power could even do such a thing in the first place.
Apparently both he and President Bush have this power, but the VP was mum on details. The disclosure, in his interview with Fox News, could lay the groundwork for a criminal defense of his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby.
Read the full text of his interview here.
Moqtada al-Sadr, who led two deadly uprisings against American troops, now controls enough seats in the Iraqi parliament to be a puppet master. Read the New York Times profile, or check out Truthdig’s Robert Scheer on the ominous implications of Sadr’s ascendancy.
The secretary of state gets a grilling when she requests $75 million from the Senate for democracy-building activities in Iran.
Most of the money would go toward round-the-clock TV programming in Farsi. And while that’s probably not a bad idea, it’s hard to imagine that any amount of TV would meaningfully distract attention from the spectacle of the American occupation of Iraq.
In a Fox News interview, Cheney admits to drinking a beer at lunch before the hunt, which took place a few hours later. (Hat tip: Think Progress.) If he’s low-balling the amount he drank, it wouldn’t be the first time Cheney misled the public. UPDATE: AMERICAblog reports that MSNBC’s website “scrubbed” a reference to Cheney’s drinking.
In a gesture admirable in its sentiment but inexcusable in its belatedness, the vice president tells Fox News that he alone is to blame for the accident. He called it “one of the worst days of my life.” (video or story)
He does not, however, apologize for having a private citizen break the news to the world--almost 24 hours late.
Newly released photos and videos of inhumane conditions at Abu Ghraib have again shone a spotlight on America’s treatment of its prisoners. Read the sworn statements by prisoners at Abu Ghraib, obtained and translated by the Washington Post in 2004 at the height of the prison abuse scandal.
Excerpt:“As soon as we arrived, they put sandbags over our heads and they kept beating us.... And every single night this military guy comes over and beat us and handcuffed us until the end of his shift.”
An all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed an investigation into Bush’s spying program and may eventually kill it.
The White House may have botched Cheney’s response to the hunting incident, but the administration sure hasn’t lost its touch when it comes to leaning on moderate Republicans (and even Democrats) to rally around the president. Call your senators--especially Olympia Snowe of Maine--and urge them not to cave in to political pressure.
Republicans are chastizing the vice president for his slow and unapologetic disclosure of the hunting incident. As well they should. For an administration that orchestrated Bush’s aircraft carrier photo-op, this episode seems particularly bush league.
The Supreme Court justice drives home his misguided belief that changes in society’s mores shouldn’t be reflected in the Constitution. Sure: the Founding Fathers got it all right 200 years ago--including the bit about counting Americans of African descent as three-fifths of a person.
At least two people died in the rampage. Also, the Iraqi city of Basra demands the withdrawal of Denmark’s military contingent from southern Iraq until an apology for the cartoons is proffered.
Will this madness ever end?
“Don’t let your kids go hunting with the vice president. I don’t care what kind of lucrative contracts they’re trying to land or energy regulations they’re trying to get lifted. He’ll shoot them in the face.” | video
Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident, has a birdshot pellet in his heart and had “a minor heart attack” Tuesday morning. He is back in intensive care. | story
The ER chief at the Texas hospital, asked if the birdshot could endanger Whittington’s life, responded: “When birdshot is in your body, there’s always the risk they can move. We’ll watch very closely for any migration.”
The versatile 57-year-old actor will play an Army medic who struggles to resume his normal life in “Home of the Brave.” | story
This is one of the first big-budget films to deal with the ongoing conflict.
Sir Ian McKellen says, “It is very, very, very difficult for an American [gay] actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality.” | story
This is exactly what Truthdig’s Larry Gross was getting at in “Year of the Queer: Hollywood and Homosexuality.”
The maker of the insanely popular online game says it was wrong to threaten a user with expulsion for advertising a gay-friendly team. | story
People take these online universes seriously; Warcraft has apparently seen its share of gay pride marches.
London zookeepers are hoping that CK’s Obsession fragrance will induce two endangered Sumatran felines to get it on. Obsession: trusted by tomcats to make kitties purr.
The News of the World (UK) publishes images and releases a video of a squadron of English soldiers savagely beating a group of rioting Iraqi teenagers in 2004. | story or watch video UPDATE: British authorities have arrested a serving soldier in connection with the incident. | story
The Weekly Standard masterfully fleshes out the story of the floating casino company that Jack Abramoff bought from a Greek developer allegedly murdered by mobsters. |story
The largely ineffectual interim leader is now set to take formal control of the country. He is backed by theocratic Shiites in Iran and the rabidly anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr in Iraq. A theocratic state, virulently hostile to U.S. interests? Right now Ahmad Chalabi is almost starting to look good in comparison. | story
Truthdig says: It strains credulity to suggest, as the White House has, that the vice president couldn’t inform the national media of the incident while also ensuring proper medical care of the guy on the receiving end of his shotgun blast.
Lots of updates on the next page.
The New York Times publishes a 2001 picture of Jack Abramoff in a White House room with the president--along with an Indian tribal leader whom the now-indicted lobbyist was trying to sign up as a client. | story
Chevron in the White House
