Sheesh, have I been waiting on this story! John Kerry today came forward with a ridiculous explanation for Christmas in Cambodia. It's almost as if he's daring people to check the record, which will prove him wrong.
Kitty Myers and I scooped the world a little over two years ago that John Kerry had not only claimed to be in Cambodia during Christmas Eve 1968 but that his biographer, Douglas Brinkley had refused to include the story in his otherwise glowing account of John F. Kerry's life.
We got tremendous recognition out of that moment, and as a result I continued to follow the Christmas in Cambodia story with a passion. And I think it's paid off today.
Kerry's lying, and it's ridiculously obvious:
John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: "Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia."
He moves on to the photographs: his boat leaving the base at Ha Tien, Vietnam; the harbor; the mountains fading frame by frame as the boat heads north; the special operations team the boat was ferrying across the border; the men reading maps and setting off flares.
"They gave me a hat," Mr. Kerry says. "I have the hat to this day," he declares, rising to pull it from his briefcase. "I have the hat."
Three decades after the Vietnam War and nearly two years after Mr. Kerry's failed presidential bid, most Americans have probably forgotten why it ever mattered whether he went to Cambodia or that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accused him of making it all up, saying he was dishonest and lacked patriotism.
Why is it obvous Kerry is lying? Because there was a very easy way Kerry could have proven all this in 2004. Mike Medeiros, a crewmember on Kerry's second Swift Boat crew (Jan-Mar 1969), is given credit in Douglas Brinkley's hagiography of Le Fraude, as having a complete record of every mission he ever went on. If this was available in 2004, why didn't they use it then?
Update: Confederate Yankee looks at a map and discovers Kerry couldn't get to Cambodia from where he was.
Anton van Haperen, a wetlands expert with the Dutch national forestry service, is blunt. Since 1960, Zeeland has lost two thirds of its wetlands, he said. "Farmland has less value, ecologically." Yet he has no doubt that, without EU laws, politicians would not dare to flood farmers' fields.
The de Feijters will be given compensation, worth £2 million. They talk of buying a new farm and starting again, though they are in their 60s.
They do not rail against the EU, instead blaming "environmental extremists". Arguably, their foes are the shoppers of Holland and Belgium, with their appetite for cheap goods from the Far East.
In order to allow ever bigger container ships into Antwerp harbour, a deeper channel is to be dredged that will speed up erosion of the banks.
It is that loss of habitat that must be compensated for.
Jesse MacBeth's Last Address Before Entering the Service
Just about every other aspect of the Jesse MacBeth story appears to have been laid to rest, but I noticed an oddity in the DD-214 McQ over at Q & O came up with that I thought I'd comment on. Click on the first "Show Excerpt" button.
The part that caught my eye was his "Home of Record At Time of Enlistment". The address is 1244 E. McDowell, Phoenix Arizona. I live in Phoenix, and the area around 12th Street & McDowell is very commercial, with a focus on medical facilities. Good Samaritan Hospital is at 11th Street & McDowell.
So I Googled the address and quickly found out that he staying at a place called Home Base Youth Services.
Program: Shelter, childcare center, free laundry, 3 meals a day, can stay up to 2 yrs. Transitional living program for youth age 18-21,learning center Fees: Free Age: 18-21 Areas Served: Phoenix, Tempe Eligibility: Homeless or runaway, by referrals only.
He was certainly eligible under those guidelines. I point this out not to pile on, but to add an additional detail. I can't feel angry at poor Jesse; he's a troubled young man being used by people who don't care for him except as a weapon they can point at the US military.
Sheesh, looking at these photos, it looks like grunge never lost its cachet in the Pacific Northwest. Either that or the Not In Our Name crowd is recruiting homeless bums to pad their numbers.
The only problem with this set of photos is that the cops probably had to be deloused after dealing with these wackos.
Of the 11 people considering a presidential bid in 2008, Dodd has one great advantage: He doesn't have to position -- or reposition himself -- each morning.
While many in his party are straining to color themselves red, wishing to be reborn in a border state, Dodd's a traditional Democrat from way north of the Mason-Dixon line and happy about it. ``I'm a Sam Rayburn Democrat -- without prefix, suffix, or apology,'' Dodd said, recalling that former Senator Dale Bumpers forgave him for being a ``a northerner because he had a southern sense of humor.''
In the end, geography is insignificant, Dodd says, if you can ``connect with people, convince them you can do something about their problems because the job you've done prepares you for the one you're seeking.''
Like JFK, Bill
Affable and Irish, Dodd comes closest of anyone in the field to the raw political talent of a JFK or Bill Clinton. Dodd, who turns 62 tomorrow, looks like a white-haired lion out of ``Advise and Consent,'' not a Ken doll of a hundred focus groups.
The reason a lot of Democrats wish they were Southerners, is because no Northern Democrat has won the White House since JFK. You can blab about connecting with people all you want; only Southern Democrats have pulled it off.
Even if she doesn't, my bet is on Dodd to claim the un- Hillary spot. His entry puts the most spontaneous of politicians next to the least, and Dodd is one of the few who can still belt out an optimistic and energizing stump speech. He has the greatest advantage you can have in politics: He's a natural who doesn't need handlers to position him. He would never try to appeal to conservatives by introducing a bill that would make flag-burning illegal, as Senator Clinton has done.
Actually, Russ Feingold or Al Gore strikes me as most likely to take the un-Hillary slot, and Dodd seems quite likely to be gone before Iowa.
In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: "Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?"
Mr Galloway replied: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did."
Let's remember that this is a guy who only months ago appeared on a celebrity reality show:
Let's remember that this is also the guy who reportedly got a bundle from the Oil for Food program.
Mr Galloway yesterday made a surprise appearance on Cuban television with the Caribbean island's Communist dictator, Fidel Castro - whom he defended as a "lion" in a political world populated by "monkeys".
Mr Galloway shocked panellists on a live television discussion show in Havana by emerging on set mid-transmission to offer passionate support for Castro. Looking approvingly into each others' eyes, the pair embraced.
George Galloway, supporter of dictators everywhere, and democratically-elected representatives nowhere.
Tree-sitting protesters, including some celebrities, vowed to peacefully resist eviction from a 14-acre (5 1/2-hectare) urban garden on which the landowner wants to build a warehouse.
The inner-city site is "a place of safety and respite from the harshness of the concrete jungle ... we just have to save it," actress Darryl Hannah said Thursday from the branches of an old walnut tree where she perched for the day despite her vertigo.
Vertigo? Quick somebody shake the tree a bit!
The land originally was owned by developer Ralph Horowitz but the city seized it in the 1980s, forcing him to sell it in order to build a trash-to-energy incinerator. When the project fizzled, the land was turned over to a food bank and people began gardening there after the 1992 Los Angeles riot.
Horowitz sued to get the site back and the city settled in 2003 by selling it to him for $5 million, leading to court battles. Eventually, he agreed to sell 10 of the 14 acres to The Trust for Public Land for $16.35 million but the group fell $10 million short and the option expired Monday.
Talking with reporters at City Hall, the mayor called on Horowitz to slash the selling price.
He should "sell this property for what he bought it for," Villaraigosa said, noting that supporters of the garden had picketed his home.
Of course he should. And Daryl Hannah should sell tickets to her new movie for what they cost her.
Kitty located this video of Rick Monday's dash to save the flag. I've blogged about this event several times in the past, nice to see some live footage. It also has Monday today, which sounds a bit like an Abbot & Costello routine.
Rick is also the answer to a baseball trivia question. Who was the very first player drafted in the very first baseball draft?
As a motion picture, An Inconvenient Truth has a lot to say, but contains little imaginative cinematography that might have made global warming engaging at the suburban cineplex. The picture the movie paints is always worst-case scenario. Considering the multiple times Gore has given his greenhouse slide show (he says "thousands"), it's jarring that the movie was not scrubbed for factual precision. For instance, this 2005 joint statement by the science academies of the Western nations, including the National Academy of Sciences, warns of sea-level rise of four to 35 inches in the 21st century; this amount of possible sea-level rise is current consensus science.
Yet An Inconvenient Truth asserts that a sea-level rise of 20 feet is a realistic short-term prospect. Gore says the entire Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could melt rapidly; the film then jumps to animation of Manhattan flooded. Well, all that ice might melt really fast, and a UFO might land in London, too. The most recent major study of ice in the geologic past found that about 130,000 years ago the seas were "several meters above modern levels" and that polar temperatures sufficient to cause a several-meter sea-level rise may eventually result from artificial global warming. The latest major study of austral land ice detected a thawing rate that would add two to three inches to sea level during this century. Such findings are among the arguments that something serious is going on with Earth's climate. But the science-consensus forecast about sea-level rise is plenty bad enough. Why does An Inconvenient Truth use disaster-movie speculation?
The answer of course is that the lie serves a "higher" truth. Remember that anti-drug ad that was out about 20 years ago, purporting to compare the brainwaves of a normal 16-year-old (bouncing around like a ball), and a 16-year-old on pot (flatlined)? The group that produced the ad didn't care that it was completely bogus; they just hoped it was effective.
I don't buy that logic myself. A lie never serves the truth; in fact, when it is discovered, it may discredit the truth. This is something that I've been blogging on heavily over at Screw Loose Change. Many in the purported 9-11 "Truth" movement have been willing to overlook the obvious lies and errors in Loose Change, in the hopes that this slick, MTV-inspired movie will draw more converts to their beliefs.
Our buddy Gaius has a picture of Gore with some other stuffed shirts.
For one—to paraphrase a slogan once applied to Barry Goldwater—in his heart, Gore knows he’s right. He’s been ahead of more curves than a NASCAR driver: the concerns about global warming, the implications of the rise of the internet, the need to be wary of deadly friction along the faultline between Islam and the West, his early and deep opposition to the launching a war in Iraq. It’s an impressive record.
“The reason people don’t like Gore is that he has been right so damn many times,” James Carville told me with an appreciate laugh.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Wednesday that there is no comparison between the ethical problems faced by U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D- La.) and what he termed the Republican "culture of corruption" in the nation's capital. A GOP spokesman dismissed Dean's criticism as "trying to sell a fundamentally flawed campaign slogan."
"There's a difference between the involvement of Congressman Jefferson in activities for which there's been no indictment and the culture of corruption that extends throughout the White House, the vice president's office and both houses of Congress," Dean said during a press conference at the DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Yeah, and the difference is that there will be an indictment in the Jefferson case.
Maher said he first approached Bantis about three years ago during a Memorial Day event in Peoria.
"I told him, 'You do realize you're wearing your awards incorrectly?' He just turned and walked away," Maher said Monday. "I never could find out if he was telling the truth or not."
And the classic alibi:
Bantis claims his military records are sealed because of his work with naval intelligence.
Shed a tear for Brian Haw (above), the nutty protester in England who's been waging a five-year battle against the war:
Police moved in overnight to remove the majority of anti-war placards from Parliament Square - although its lone protester, Brian Haw, has not been evicted.
Although Mr Haw - who began his Iraq peace vigil in 2001 - has been allowed to stay, all but three metres of his posters facing parliament have been removed.
"What gives them the legal right to remove 40 metres of evidence of genocide and reduce it to just three metres?"
The legal size of the protest - three metres - was imposed by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005.
Mr Haw now suggested he may go on hunger strike in protest at the move. He said: "It seems I am going to die in this place now because I'm going to be fasting and praying - I have to accept the possibility.
Basically there are two templates Glenn uses for his posts:
1. Republican bloggers are blindly loyal to Bush.
2. Democratic politicians won't go along with the liberal blogosphere.
Obviously today's post is #2:
Yet again, Senate Democrats show that they have no more concern for the rule of law and for the excesses of this administration than Senate Republicans do. Due to their really pitiful passivity, they are every bit as much to blame for the excesses and abuses of the administration as the compliant Republicans are.
A more careful man might conclude that perhaps the Democrats have a better idea of what works and doesn't work in the political arena. But then, the anti-Bush blogosphere has never believed in that principle yet, why should they start now?
Anti-war zealots initially defended the bogus soldier's tale, but are now moving quickly to cover up the MacBeth stain. The video was yanked Tuesday afternoon. But not to worry.
I hear former CBS producer Mary Mapes, champion of "fake but accurate" journalism, is interested in publicizing Jessie MacBeth's tall tales.
Longtime friend of this blog John Hawkins has a column in Human Events Online that everybody should read.
Since that’s the case, it’s not hard to see why so many conservatives have become dispirited and angry about the performance of our elected representatives. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about politics, it’s that the solution to the GOP’s problems is never, “more Democrats.”
That doesn’t mean that we conservatives should engage in a bunch of fake “rah-rah” or refuse to criticize Republicans if they deserve it, but it does mean that when November rolls around, conservatives should show up at the ballot box and pull the lever for the GOP.
Making the opposite case is another longtime friend of the blog, Teflon at Molten Thought.
Hugh Hewitt's fond of saying "when everybody tells you you're drunk, it's time to sit down."
What message is the conservative punditocracy sending the President and the GOP establishment regarding immigration if not, "You're drunk. Sit down"?
My own thoughts? Those that think they're going to send a message to the Republicans by sitting on their hands had better think hard about what message they might be sending to the Democrats as well.
And the message is not always received on our side. Losing in 1992 didn't force the Republicans to nominate a tax-cutter; instead they nominated Bob Dole, who ran ads against the flat tax.
MYTH: If I treat a woman well and listen to what she says, she'll stop complaining
TRUTH: Women never stop complaining. For them, it's a sport. Some complain more than others, but none of them will ever stop, any more than one day men will stop discussing football. Men have built civilizations, created law, invented husbandry (that's keeping domestic animals by the way, not marriage; women invented marriage), built skyscrapers, invented cars, washing machines, antibiotics, toilets, computers, and microwave ovens, and generally dragged us out of caves and into condos. Don't kid yourself: men did it all. If it were up to women we'd still be living in caves and dying at 20. I know that men did it all because I know why they did it: they hoped that it would stop women complaining. It didn't.
Greg Gutfeld has a hilarious post on the speech Jean should have given:
I felt bad for McCain. But not really. I mean, he didn't even bring up Darfur which I am bringing up now - because a friend of mine said it would be cool if I did. So, like, what's going on in Darfur sucks. Or maybe wearing Darfur sucks. Anyway it wasn't McCain fault that he got invited into a pit of very well-educated vipers, and it really wasn't my fault that I did what I had to do in the situation. We are all prisoners of fate! Which is like being a prisoner of war. Yet we both survived it!
Meanwhile, our buddy Pat Hynes has a good piece in the AmSpec on the Agents of Intolerance on the Left.
Therein lies exhibit, oh I don't know, 4,972 of the bizarre upside-down-ness of our national politics. George W. Bush and the Republicans are said by their detractors to be dividers, not uniters. And yet it is the fringe left (also known as mainstream Democrats) who can't stop fighting with everyone.
Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, and Helen Golay, 75, took out 19 life insurance policies on the two victims and tried to take out more, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. They offered to help the men get off the streets in exchange for the men signing a life insurance policy. Then the women had rubber stamps made from the signatures and used the stamps to acquire more insurance, court records show.
Police believe the women kept up the rent on the men's apartments for two years after their policies were signed and then ran them down to collect the money. California law allows an insurance company to contest a new policy for two years, Vernon said.
"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
But, sadly as it turns out, the press once again didn't do their job, didn't check the facts. A recent story on NewsMax.com – 15 years later – revealed that Bentsen wasn't a friend of JFK. In fact, JFK didn't even know Bentsen, had never met him.
The Online report said NBC anchor Tom Brokaw remembers getting a call two weeks after the Bentsen/Quayle debate from longtime JFK aide Dave Powers, who was in charge of the Kennedy Library in Boston. Brokaw says Powers told him in 1988: "We've gone through everything we have on this. And there's no evidence whatsoever that Jack Kennedy ever knew Lloyd Bentsen."
I doubt that Kennedy had never met Bentsen; after all they did serve in the House together for two years before Kennedy moved up to the Senate.
Although the album hits stores Tuesday, the first two singles from the album are not getting widespread airplay, Billboard.com reported Monday.
The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," only peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the second single, "Everybody Knows," is moving downward after its peak at No. 48.
Sounds like country fans are not ready to make nice either.
Never let it be said that virtual anonymity would stop somebody from running for president.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said today he has "decided to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008."
Of course, I have heard of Dodd. I just haven't heard anybody saying, "Why doesn't this guy run for president?"
But a Dodd White House run would faces numerous hurdles. He lacks the name recognition of candidates such as 2004 ticket-mates John Kerry and John Edwards, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., and others. And the $2 million Dodd has on hand for a race is dwarfed by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's estimated $20 million and Kerry's estimated $17 million.
This may be a trial run, with the idea of getting his name out there, so that he can make the real push in 2012 (or 2016 if a Democrat wins in 2008).
Brainster's rule about military imposters: They all claim to have been in elite units. You meet a guy who claims to have been a Green Beret or a SEAL, odds are high he's BSing. You meet a guy who claims to have been a radioman or in a supply unit, odds are high he's telling the truth.
Here's a video of the nut claiming that he committed lots of war crimes:
After sending the Google Help Desk a query concerning the matter, Salvato was informed that there had been complaints of “hate speech” at his website, and as a result, The New Media Journal would no longer be part of Google News. As evidence of his offense, the Google Team supplied Salvato with links to three recent op-eds published by his contributing writers, all coincidentally about radical Islam and its relation to terrorism.
Unfortunately, this was not the first conservative e-zine to be terminated in such a fashion. On March 29, Rusty Shackleford, owner of The Jawa Report, received a similar e-mail message as Salvato informing him that:
“Upon recent review, we’ve found that your site contains hate speech, and we will no longer be including it in Google News.”
For those unfamiliar, The Jawa Report focuses a great deal of attention on terrorist issues and how they relate to radical Islam.
We covered this wet behind the ears grad of the New School, who used her graduation speech to deliver a diatribe against John McCain. Here's her discussion of the event over at the HuffPo.
The rest is a blur. I didn't have a high school graduation, so I was kind of looking forward to the whole ceremony of it, but all I remember is suddenly being in a robe, walking down the aisle of the MSG Theater to the cheers of my friends (who, incidentally, had no idea what to expect) and then I was on stage staring out at thousands of people and trying not to vomit. Eventually I spoke, and everyone loved it. And McCain spoke and we all had a bit of déjà vu. Then some other people spoke and I tried to pay attention but I couldn't stop gawking at the protesters in the audience. And just before the end of the ceremony Bob Kerrey asked if I wanted to walk out with McCain. I said that would be OK. Kerrey led me over to him as the recessional music began, and I took McCain's arm. "I'm sorry, man," I told him, "I just had to do it." He mumbled something about it being alright, but I think he probably would've rather not had me there. It really wasn't his fault that he got invited into a pit of very well-educated vipers, and it really wasn't my fault that I did what I had to do in the situation. Had he been speaking at something other than our graduation, or had he spoken about almost anything other than his life and his position on the Iraq War and Darfur it might have been OK. But what did he expect? Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination at the New School is like trying to catch fish in a swimming pool. It was just totally out of place. Many thanks go to the people in the audience who managed to capture with a few yelled and widely-quoted phrases, just exactly what was going on there.
Reading through the entire post, it's not hard to see that she did it to be popular. She realized that this was her moment to get catapulted into the big time, to get mentioned in a Maureen Dowd column.
The ultraliberal kids at the New School, the pacifist Greenwich Village university, think of themselves as free-thinking rabble-rousers in a world where many college kids, complacently cocooned under iPods, don't even like to debate, much less protest.
When a rigid-faced Mr. Kerrey chided the audience for being rude, a young woman yelled out, "You're a war criminal!" And a guy chimed in, "Yes, you are!"
It was a remarkable tableau to see the two iconoclastic vets, their bodies beneath the black gowns still bearing broken pieces from Vietnam, being pilloried by kids angry about another endless war, faceless enemy and feckless defense secretary.
The students here are all twits. And John McCain's Chief of Staff rightly chided them in a comment on Rohe's post:
Let me tell you a little bit about the Senator, the man you dismiss so derisively. Once upon time, even among the young, the words courage and hero were used more sparingly, more precisely. It took no courage to do what you did, Ms. Rohe. It was an act of vanity and nothing more. And please don't worry about the Senator's discomfort with you. He has managed to endure much worse. McCain was once offered release from imprisonment and torture because of his father's position as a senior military officer. He declined because he would not leave his comrades behind, and thus, willingly, accepted four more years of hardships life will spare almost all of us from. In his political career he has shown the same character he showed as a Navy officer all those years ago. He has, over and over again, risked personal ambitions for what he believes, rightly or wrongly, are in the best interests of the country. What, pray tell, have you risked? The only person you have succeeded in making look like an idiot is yourself.
The claim that President Bush's top political strategist had been indicted in the CIA leak investigation was written by a journalist who has battled drug addiction and mental illness and been convicted of grand larceny. That didn't stop more than 35 reporters -- from all the major newspapers, networks and newsmagazines -- from calling Luskin or Rove's spokesman, Mark Corallo, to check it out.
The reports appeared on the liberal Web site Truthout.org, run by Marc Ash, a former advertising man and fashion photographer in California. Jason Leopold, the author of the stories, directed inquiries to Ash, who says that "we stand by the story. We have multiple points of independent confirmation of what we originally reported. Our problem is, the prosecutor's office is under no obligation to go public."
Holes, first rule of. Notice as well that there's no discussion of Leopold revealing his sources, although he claimed at the time that he'd reveal them if the story didn't pan out.
Or just statistical variability? Here's an interesting article on icebergs, which discusses whether global warming could be to "blame" for the absence of them this year:
"There is no doubt in my mind that major climate change is happening," says Murphy who has been a professional oceanographer for 22 years. "Studies in Greenland show that the glaciers are moving twice as fast as before. That means a lot of production of ice. My expectation has always been if the Greenland glaciers started moving faster there would be increased production [of icebergs] for decades and there should be an increase in the number of icebergs into the shipping lanes. That was my model. But the last couple of years that hasn't happened, and I'm having a hard time understanding what is going on except that there are complicating factors having to do with increased storms. Maybe the destruction processes dominate over the production processes."
BTW, when he talks about the glaciers "moving twice as fast", he means growing. Hence the "climate change" rather than "global warming. It certainly highlights the problems with climate models:
In 2005, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, sea-ice cover was at its lowest extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979, and this year the IIP have noticed "very little although not an absolute minimum" level of sea-ice conditions. Yet a computer model linking sea-ice levels to the number of icebergs making it into the shipping lanes has performed "horribly" according to Murphy.
And this certainly suggests that there is another cause:
Yet, Murphy points out, that does not explain the huge discrepancy in the number of icebergs recorded in years before climate change was an issue: eg, 15 icebergs in 1952; 1,500 in 1972. After thoroughly studying and analysing data from as far back as 1900, Murphy can find no significant or consistent pattern in the number of icebergs making it into the shipping lanes.
"It's a very complicated system and there are a lot of moving parts," he says, but he claims some people are eager to ascribe meaning to the figures.
"Back in the mid-1990s, when we had thousands of icebergs, I got a call from Japanese TV who wanted to do a story on us because they believed the large number of icebergs was indicative of global warming," he says. "Then, in 1999, we had only 22 icebergs and I got a call from a European TV company who wanted to do a story because they were certain that the fact that there were only 22 bergs in the shipping lanes was a clear indication of global warming."
James of the Chief Brief and I were interviewed regarding the Screw Loose Change blog we've created by "Tom Paine" of the Anglospheric group blog Silent Running. The interview is included on this week's edition of the Shire Network News, which features bloggers from the UK, Australia, Canada and the United States, including Damian Penny (who suggested that Tom interview us). I recommend strongly that you listen to the entire podcast--it's terrific, with a biting wit and smart commentary--but if you're in a rush be sure to check out Tom's thoughts on Ned Lamont's new commercial featuring Kos starting at about 13:58 (falling out of your chair funny). Our segment begins at 23:40.
I know I speak for James when I say that the interview was almost as entertaining to give as it is to listen to. "Tom" is a fascinating individual and after the interview as over we had a wide-ranging conversation for over a half hour (fortunately on his dime). Thanks, Tom, and thanks Damian! Tom tells us he has 3,000 weekly listeners; make that 3,002 and counting.
The time has now come, however, to issue a partial apology to our readership for this story. While we paid very careful attention to the sourcing on this story, we erred in getting too far out in front of the news-cycle. In moving as quickly as we did, we caused more confusion than clarity. And that was a disservice to our readership and we regret it.
As such, we will be taking the wait-and-see approach for the time being. We will keep you posted.
Well, of course, if Rove is indicted in July they will claim they were right all along; just right too early.
