For something other than talk about Edwards. How ’bout the revelation that the FBI is rifling through reporters’ phone records?
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by John Cole| 35 Comments
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rachel
Naw…
Do you know Dokdo?
[dok-do]
Dokdo belongs to Korea.
:)
Mr. Tactful
I wanna talk about cars some more.
Cars, cars cars car car-ry car car. Car car mileage car? LOL car…
Original Lee
Or how about McCain’s ads during the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Talk about tacky.
Original Lee
I should probably add that I’m not against political ads during the Olympics (although I’d prefer not to see them), but I think the opening and closing ceremonies should be a time when no political ads are allowed. Just a pet peeve of mine.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Ours had the added bonus of the occasional ad by the payday loans lobby trying to gin up support against government regulation.
[Not an Ohio farmer, but he plays one on TV] “I can go to the loan shop and get $100 to fix mah truck!”
[Me, shouting at TV] “Where the hell are these payday loan shops out in Bumfuck, Ohio!?”
jbarntt
From the NYT article:
The inspector general’s findings have prompted outrage in Congress
“Outrage” seems to be a very popular word these days. I guess congress will give up their vacation and come back to Washington post haste and hang the bastards responsible.
Or perhaps there is no outrage in Congress and life will go on as usual. Paging Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi… Uhh, busy signal I guess.
Looks to me like the Times is reporting their political preferences, not what the Democratic congress is actually doing.
barkleyg
FISA at it’s worst. And you still wonder why true(those who believe in the constitution) Americans are pissed as Hell?
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Also, if someone invents a way that’ll allow a viewer to mute Bob Costas and Matt Lauer while leaving the background sound on, they’ll make millions.
Martin
A political ad during the ceremony wouldn’t have been bad, except it was an attack ad during the world’s ‘lets all get along’ moment.
What a jackass.
That said, the Chinese put on one hell of an opening ceremony. Just incredible. Good on them.
El Cid
Note that Mueller disclosed that one of the New York Times reporters targeted for FBI’s phone record tracing was Ray Bonner.
That was the same Ray Bonner targeted by the Reagan administration freaks via the embassy in El Salvador, when Bonner reported for a major U.S. publication the U.S.-allied Salvadoran army’s massacre at El Mozote.
The embassy orchestrated a campaign, along with its friends at the Wall Street Journal, and the NYT once again gave in to the screaming, authoritarian, near-fascist right, and removed Bonner from Central America.
About 10 years later as the forensic anthropologists were digging up the bodies from the massacre, the NYT apologized to Bonner and disclosed the debate for its readers.
Once again these Reaganite freaks go after a reporter who is likely to report on what they are likely to do.
You don’t think Bonner sees a pattern here? You think a reporter like that just accepts ‘Sorry, whoops, guess we got a little carried away’ twice?
ThymeZone
I once had the feds opening my mail. They did notify me at one point that they were doing it. I’m not giving the details in the interest of anonymity. But let’s just say, I was pretty ticked off about it. It was purely an intimidation thing.
Oh, it was 40 years ago.
The idea that people are just now discovering that the government can and will invade privacy strikes me as completely absurd at this point. The ship sailed a long, long time ago.
oh really
Better still how about this:
John McCain is the Anti-Christ
If the MSM decided to obsess over this gem, it would be all over for “Saint” John.
Lavocat
I thought the capitalist commies were going to stage a mock execution with lotsa blood for, ya know, shits and giggles.
I guess they thought it was too over-the-top. Woulda fit right in, though, with King George watching.
Ninerdave
NBC is already shitting all over the Olympic coverage. More sports less talk assholes.
Ninerdave
Oh yeah, and highlights are not an acceptable replacement for the actual game.
Ninerdave
Sorry to three post on the same subject, but I’m really pissed at how the Olympics are covered.
I remember looking forward to the olympics as a kick and watching with my family enthralled. Then NBC got involved the the coverage moved from the games to bios on the althetes. Last Olympics there was more bios and commercials than the actual sports. And the bios weren’t just here’s dude’s story, they all had to have a story arc like Behind the Music with an Oprah redemption moment at the end. Not to sound like a dick, but I don’t care. You’re an Olympic athlete, I want to see you compete.
So yeah, thanks NBC for fucking up the Olympics, and come to think of it, that abortion of a Countdown rip off you call Football Night in America.
Ninerdave
Kid…not kick.
Cole if you ever revamp this website, an edit button would be nice. :)
distributorcap
having to have to watch political ads AND see the idiot-in-chief sitting in the stands during the opening ceremony was enough to make me turn to the cartoon network
Jake
Were that about Obama, you can almost count on one of the debate moderators asking him to defend the charge that he’s the Anti-Christ. After all, lots of people on the internet are talking about it.
PaulW
All I have is my anger about how f-cked up this nation is. The ignorant people have won, because no one is fighting back.
jake
Oh sure John, like the continued erosion of our rights is more important than penises.
“But nothing! Pervert terrorism in the worst kind!”
“Perv – Oo! Why, you…”
“Stay in view please.”
The Grand Panjandrum
I quite enjoyed the opening ceremonies. My favorite part was when I pressed the mute button and let the picture play in the background. The only thing I know about Bob Costas is that I can take about 5-10 minutes of him.
Jim Henley
I don’t think it’s a big deal that the FBI was obtaining reporters phone records, because the FBI has a long history of using heavy-handed investigative techniques and the complaisance of the press to ruin people’s lives, even the lives of innocent people.
Hm. During comment preview, the above sentence looks grammatically correct, but I can’t escape the nagging feeling there’s something wrong with it . . .
Montysano
From Kos: did closing the Enron loophole cause oil prices to fall?
Geez, that asshole Phil Gramm sure did a lot of damage, although it’s unclear whether the mortgage/credit swaps debacle was due to greed or just incompetence/unintended consequences. From the Mother Jones article:
Yet just this morning, there’s a wingnut Letter to the Editor in our local paper, moaning about govt regulation and wanting to get govt “out of our lives” by re-electing Rethugs. Fucking hopeless.
nightjar
Who will be the first wingnut to praise the FBI for finally checking into America’s enemies?
Scott H
The “war” on this and that has always been popular in this country. Maybe it is time for a War for Civil Liberties. And maybe it is time for more of the audible voices on the interwebs, certain popular bloggers other than just Radley Balko and Meteor Blades at the GOS. to speak more strongly and consistently, less the ambiguity or fatalism of snark, for the cause.
bootlegger
I’m fascinated that they want to equate “our lives” with “corporation”. The transformation is nearly complete, corporations claim the same rights as individuals but none of the accountability. Can you believe Andrew Jackson ran on a platform blasting this very thing as it was born, and that was nearly two centuries ago!!
Montysano
A friend of mine watched the movie “The Corporation”. He knows me well, and advised me against watching it, fearing that I’d fling myself off a roof somewhere.
One other transformation is nearly complete: 50 years ago, most people in the middle and lower economic strata knew that Republicans were not their friends. Today, through a remarkable marketing/disinformation campaign, it’s the reverse.
Scott H
A 106 mpg ‘air car’ would still cost me more in gas than riding the Monongalia County transit bus into town and back. Not to mention the cost of the car, the maintenance, and keeping the tires properly inflated.
cain
A combination of social issues and the waning influence of unions I would imagine and finally democratic fuckups which we know is always a factor. Better politicians please. Seriously, I want to note the performance of Act blue/Move On sponsoored candidates to see if they are any good so that we can kick out these old timers and put in some people with some proper smarts.
cain
jake
Is it me, or are ads from Camp McStr8Talk (that actually feature the McMaverprick) careful to show him in profile?
Not that I’m suggesting his own team worries Americans won’t vote for a guy who looks like Pumpkinhead.
Montysano
And the makeup. Don’t forget the makeup. Wrinkly White-Haired Dude (thanks, Paris…. really) slathers it on like a trollop.
Brachiator
Weren’t the opening ceremonies pretty much a political ad for China?
Human Rights Abuses, now new and improved with Extra Pageantry!
I don’t wonder at all. Most people who are pissed about FISA are much like Pelosi and other Democrats. Their outrage is neatly balanced by their impotence.
The sad thing is that NBC simply doesn’t care. The suits, the marketing people, and the bean counters have convinced themselves that this is how the Olympics should be covered in order to be successful.
They truly believe that viewers need a narrative in order to enjoy the games, and preferably one which focuses on an American or, failing that, an athlete who had to overcome a struggle.
But it’s not just nostalgia for me, but I always appreciated how ABC could do a little of this, but made the games exciting by focusing on the essentials. Their commentators would explain an obscure sport to you, tell you what would constitute superior performance, and identify the top athletes and how they got to the competition.
At rock bottom, NBC will slavishly follow an American athlete who doesn’t have a chance at a medal, and then not even bother to show you more than a brief shot of the eventual winner on the podium accepting the gold.
Andrew Lazarus
The FBI tapping reporters is genuine good news. Next time they won’t be in such a hurry to slant their FISA stories, making the Bush Fascists sound like nice policemen.
Krista
I think I remember seeing a sketch in MAD magazine about that when I was a kid, showing the difference between the U.S.’s coverage of the Olympics and everybody else’s coverage. And it did have that general idea, that they were hyper-focused on the U.S. athletes, to the point of almost ignoring any other countries’ wins.