TexasTiger 13,017 Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 Love for SaleBy MAUREEN DOWD Published: January 27, 2005 I'm herewith resigning as a member of the liberal media elite. I'm joining up with the conservative media elite. They get paid better. First comes news that Armstrong Williams got $240,000 from the Education Department to plug the No Child Left Behind Act. The families of soldiers killed in Iraq get a paltry $12,000. But good publicity? Priceless. Advertisement Mr. Williams helped out the first President Bush and Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill scandal. Mr. Williams, who served as Mr. Thomas's personal assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when the future Supreme Court justice was gutting policies that would help blacks, gleefully attacked Professor Hill, saying, "Sister has emotional problems," and telling The Wall Street Journal "there is a thin line between her sanity and insanity." Now we learn from the media reporter Howard Kurtz that the syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher had a $21,500 contract from the Health and Human Services Department to work on material promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage. Ms. Gallagher earned her money, even praising Mr. Bush in print as a "genius" at playing "daddy" to the nation. "Mommies feel your pain," she wrote in 2002. "Daddies give you confidence that you can ignore the pain and get on with life." Genius? Not so much. Spendthrift? Definitely. W.'s administration was running up his astounding deficit paying "journalists" to do what they would be happy to do for free - just to be friends with benefits, getting access that tougher scribes are denied. Consider Charles Krauthammer, who went to the White House on Jan. 10 for what The Washington Post termed a "consultation" on the inaugural speech and then praised the Jan. 20th address on Fox News as "revolutionary," says Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group. I still have many Christmas bills to pay. So I'd like to send a message to the administration: THIS SPACE AVAILABLE. I could write about the strong dollar and the shrinking deficit. Or defend Torture Boy, I mean, the esteemed and sage Alberto Gonzales. Or remind readers of the terrific job Condi Rice did coordinating national security before 9/11 - who could have interpreted a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" as a credible threat? - not to mention her indefatigable energy obscuring information that undercut the vice president's dementia on Iraq. My preference is to get a contract with Rummy. It would be cost effective, compared with the $80 billion he needs to train more Iraqi security forces to be blown up. For half a mil, I could write a doozy of a column promoting Rummy's phantasmagoric policies. What is all this hand-wringing about the 31 marines who died in a helicopter crash in Iraq yesterday? It's only slightly more than the number of people who died in traffic accidents in California last Memorial Day. The president set the right tone, avoiding pathos when asked about the crash. "Obviously," he said, "any time we lose life it is a sad moment." Who can blame Rummy for carrying out torture policies? We're in an information age. Information is power. If people are not giving you the intelligence you want, you must customize to get the intelligence you want to hear. That's why Rummy also had to twist U.S. laws to secretly form his own C.I.A. A Pentagon memo said Rummy's recruited agents could include "notorious figures," whose ties to the U.S. would be embarrassing if revealed, according to The Washington Post. Why shouldn't a notorious figure like Rummy recruit notorious figures? I could write a column denouncing John McCain for trying to call hearings into Rummy's new spy unit, suggesting the senator is just jealous because Rummy's sexy enough to play James Bond. The president might need my help as well. He looked out of it yesterday when asked why his foreign policy is so drastically different from the one laid out in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2000 by Ms. Rice - a preview that did not emphasize promoting democracy and liberty around the world. "I didn't read the article," Mr. Bush said. And why should he? Robert McNamara never read the Pentagon Papers. Why should W. have to bone up on his own foreign policy? Freedom means the freedom to be free from reading what you promise voters and other stuff. I could make that case, if the price were right. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/opinion/...ogin&oref=login Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auburn85 432 Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 First comes news that Armstrong Williams got $240,000 from the Education Department to plug the No Child Left Behind Act. The families of soldiers killed in Iraq get a paltry $12,000. But good publicity? Priceless. Advertisement Oh yeah, great example of comparison Another nytimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auburn85 432 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 "Torture Boy" did he ever personally torture anyone? Did he PROMOTE torture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piglet 0 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Gee, Saddam didn't personally torture people either. Guess he must be not so bad. Are you for torture, or against it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AURaptor 1,126 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Gee, Saddam didn't personally torture people either. Guess he must be not so bad. Are you for torture, or against it? 142626[/snapback] I think this is a moot and inane issue, since we're dealing w/ animals who gleefully saw - not chop, the heads off of completely innocent men and women. C'mon now, don't try to paint Gonzales as being 'for' torture...that is completely and utterly outside of the issue. To pretend to somehow equate the 2 is playing a spin game of partisan politics to beyond absurd levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auburn85 432 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Gee, Saddam didn't personally torture people either. Guess he must be not so bad. Are you for torture, or against it? 142626[/snapback] Give me a friggin break!? Saddam had torture chambers set up. He promoted torture. Gonzalez didn't promote torture. And besides I was commenting on the brilliant piece of the NY TIMES calling him TORTURE BOY. But go ahead, spin it all you. want. I'm against torture, but something tells me our definition of torture may not be on the same page with each other or by law. I think it's amazing that neither you or TT will comment and stand up to the crap Kennedy said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auburn85 432 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 I could write a column denouncing John McCain for trying to call hearings into Rummy's new spy unit, suggesting the senator is just jealous because Rummy's sexy enough to play James Bond Where's the proof of this blantant allegation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auburn85 432 Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 The best thing about this article is the grammar. Pretty much all of the article lacks the most important thing inJournalism............ credibility. I mean at least make sense when criticizing the Bush administration. It talks of CAPITALISM AT WORK , but ends up talking about James Bond, and TORTURE BOY. Can't even follow a straight line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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