George W. Kreskin

It's long been known among those of us on the left that Gee Dumbass' invitation-only propaganda stops are just window dressing. In the rare instances he appears before a non-military crowd, the audiences are carefully screened and the event is more tightly arranged than a Michael Jackson visit to Boys' Town. And let's be honest; the earpiece is one of the worst-kept secrets in politics.

But every now and then something goes awry and we get to view the Emperor's bare ass in all its glory. His January 11 show, part of the Pillaging Social Security tour, was a classic:

MS. STONE: That's what I'm saying. And I would just add that, as a mom, I know what it's like to lay awake at night and worry about the future of your children. And I know one thing about moms, they know how to make tough choices; we make them every day, on everything from health care to education to which bill to pay next. And I think we understand that whenever you're faced with a difficult problem, the sooner you start and the more honest you are about the nature of the problem, the greater chance you have of success. So I'm very hopeful that we would get started.

THE PRESIDENT: Good, thanks. Well done. (Applause.) Now what about your -- introduce your mom.

MS. STONE: I would like to introduce my mom. This is my mother, Rhoda Stone. And she is grandmother of three, and originally from Helsinki, Finland, and has been here over 40 years.

THE PRESIDENT: Fantastic. Same age as my mother.

MS. STONE: Just turned 80.

Neat trick, huh?

Grabbing Our Ankles

Short of Divine Intervention, it looks like next Thursday will see Gee Dumbass and his merry band of zealots installed for another four years. For those of us who have a morbid sense of curiosity and an appreciation of gallows humor, the possibilities of twisted enjoyment are limitless. For the rest of you... well... I'd recommend weed. Lots and lots of weed.

Secretary of State Incompetenzza Rice.

Attorney General Alberto "I Torture" Gonzales.

Director of Central Intelligence Porter "Help Wanted" Goss

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael "Be Vewwy Quiet- I'm Hunting Clintons" Chertoff.

And then there's Rummy. Ahhh, Rummy. Can't wait to see what zany foreign policy imbroglios he drags us into during the next term!

And let's not forget Chief Justice of the United States Antonin Scalia.

Dismantling saving Social Security, more faith-based Government, reinstatement of the draft (oh yes, children, there will be a draft), No Child's Behind Left In School, tort reform (read: eliminating legal liability for corporations), the continued erosion of Constitutional rights, skyrocketing energy costs as the Middle East sinks further into chaos.... Oh, what fun we'll have!

If you've visited this blog before, you're already aware that the Christofascists are already on the march. (for the record, there's a huuuuuuge difference between Christians and Christofascists) They're soooooo excited to have One Of Their Own sitting in the Big Chair. Have you heard their latest brainfart? They wanted to line Gee Dumbass' Inauguration parade route with crosses, but were told No by the Secret Service. And boy are they pissed! Of course, they'll undoubtedly reach a compromise - palm fronds, maybe.

Personally, I think the crosses are a good idea. Thirteen hundred fifty-seven of them. Each with the name of a US servicemember who has died in Iraq.

But fear not; there is a bright side.

The search for Iraqi WMDs has ended.

The popularity of Progressive radio is on the upswing.

SCOTUS has shown signs of good sense lately in actually upholding the Constitution. Dunno how long it'll last but, for now, it's still good news.

And, as I mentioned above, the Christofascists are pissed off. That always cheers me up.

CBS & The Bush - TANG Documents

Well, the jury has come back in and it looks like the appropriate spankings have been, or will be, administered.

In a nutshell:

After the brouhaha over the Bush National Guard memos cited in a CBS 60 Minutes episode in September, CBS News asked former Bush I Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former AP President Louis Boccardi to look into the forgery allegations and determine exactly what led to the airing of dubious material.

Upon the release of the findings, a 234-page report, CBS canned four employees (excluding Rather, who had already announced plans to step down later this year). The employees are Mary Mapes (no surprise there), the producer of the segment; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy; Senior Vice President Betsy West, who oversaw CBS News primetime programs.

The findings make several recommendations regarding improvments in protocols future newsgathering:

• CBS News should establish a protocol for stories that require authentication of any materials, including documents, videotapes, recordings, and photographs. Such a protocol could identify experts, vetted in advance, who might be called on to assist with authentication.

• The same standards for accuracy and fairness prescribed by CBS News’ Standards Manual for its news stories should be applied to its press releases and public statements. That did not consistently occur here, as our Report on the Aftermath illustrates. CBS News management and the CBS Communications Group should coordinate their efforts and develop a protocol that accomplishes this objective.

• Where chain of custody is an issue, the Executive Producer, Senior Broadcast Producer and Standards Executive must be provided evidence that the chain of custody is established before the material is aired or, at a minimum, viewers must be told that the chain of custody has not been or could not be confirmed.

• CBS News personnel should be reminded regularly to check with the CBS News Archives group, particularly on investigative stories, to determine whether information about sources or other relevant background information might be available.

Couple points:

The report makes it clear that they were unable to determine whether the Killian documents were forgeries or were legit. The majority of the questions they raised had to do with the format and/or language in various parts of the Killian memos "varying from standard" formatting and/or wording in use at the time. I, personally, think that the docs probably are bogus - but, as this episode should have taught us, there's a world of difference between "think" and "know."

The panel also concluded that a) evidence clearly indicated that the report was not the result of a political bias, b) the editing process was performed to add "balance" to the story and c) the segment addressed some items pertaining to Bush’s TANG service record that were not previously known and thus could be considered newsworthy.

This leads to the most important point of all, and one which has been completely lost in the noise over the Killian memos: Regardless of the origin of the documents, the facts and circumstances were accurate. If you're interested and have the time to kill, here's an excellent reference guide to the whole Guard timeline, complete with details of what's missing, what's accurate, and what was hidden but has subsequently come to light.

Yeah, CBS News got sloppy on this story - and I hate sloppy in a news organization.

Yeah, heads should have rolled - perhaps especially Mary Mapes'.

But paraphrasing Marion Knox, Col. Killian's former secretary, the docs may have been bogus but the facts in 'em were not. And that's a fact.

The only real question which remains unanswered is, who is Lucy Ramirez... and what's her relationship, if any, to this Administration?