Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Are You Up To The Challenge
See if you have what it takes to simply read the news, and figure out what’s really going on. And no, I’m not talking about “why don’t you go fishing with Michael Corleone’s bodyguard” means something else, or anything like that. I’m talking about simply reading the news, and figuring out what the stated truth is.
Item:
Interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean insisted there is no connection, whatsoever, between scandal catalyst Jack Abramoff and any Democrat, whatsoever. “There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff…not one. Not one single Democrat. … There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money and we’ve looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that’s true.” BradBlog has video.
Item:
Clarence Page, writing for the Washington Times, does his homework and figures out Howard Dean is absolutely correct.
Unless you’ve been on the moon for a while, you probably have heard that Abramoff is a formerly well-connected Republican who has pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to his lobbying operations. Right-wing bloggers and others pounced on Dean and flailed away, since a number of Democratic senators and congressmen already have given Abramoff-associated money to charity. How, then, could Dean say otherwise? Right? But, I checked it out and, guess what? Dean was right.
Item:
Gateway Pundit reports, citing an article from PowerLine, which links back to the Republican National Senatorial Committee, that 40 of 45 Democratic senators took Abramoff money. (All these links are just bookmarking for posterity; if you somehow miss them, it really shouldn’t take much to hit a search engine and verify all of this.)
Item:
For issuing a 27-page government funded report called “Republican Abuse of Power,” and actually singling out 33 GOP senators, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid issues a written apology.
“The document released by my office yesterday went too far and I want to convey to you my personal regrets,” Reid said in a letter. “I am writing to apologize for the tone of this document and the decision to single out individual senators for criticism in it.” Reid came under attack Wednesday over the report, which was issued by his staff on Senate letterhead, even as he and fellow Democrats released ethics overhaul proposals. “Researching, compiling and distributing what amounts to nothing more than a campaign ad on the taxpayers� dime raises serious ethical questions,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of the lawmakers named.
COMMENT:
It has become awfully trendy lately to cast a jaundiced eye toward government. That is a good thing — or to state it more precisely, it would be a very bad thing to purge ourselves of this healthy cynicism. But if any particular agent must be present in one place to keep bad stuff from happening, that agent must be present in other places to keep bad stuff from happening too, no?
Have you exercised your healthy suspicion of people who actually bring you the news lately?
I’ve got four links up there. Two of them make Republicans look bad and two of them make Democrats look bad. Which ones do I endorse? None of them. They’re all lying by omission.
Your assignment, dear reader, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out which hairs are being split, and how. Who, if anyone, is guilty of technically lying, and who is committing the far more egregious violation of lying in spirit while carefully adhering to a meaningless truth word-for-word.
You could choose to pass this up, but be advised that there really is no other reason to vote for Democrats this fall — that’s not just my opinion, that party has steadfastly refused to trot out any other national agenda (“I hate Bush” doesn’t count). Therefore, in nine months we’re going to be arguing about “Abramoff is a Republican scandal!” “No it’s not!” “Yes it is!” “No it’s not!”
You’ll run into it at work. At the hardware store. At the Friday night block parties. At Thursday night bowling. You won’t hear it all the time, but it’ll be a little bit difficult to get away from it. So it pays to be informed.
Kind of an easy call.
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