Thursday, September 29, 2005

Judith Miller Sprung From Calaboose



Judith Miller Sprung
From Calaboose


NY Times reporter Judith Miller was released from jail today. She was allegedly convinced that Scooter Libby's legal waiver was not "coerced." She'll testify later today. How many indictments will follow?

Arianna Huffington says:
"..there is no way that the New York Times editorial claiming “it should be clear…that Ms. Miller is not going to change her mind” can be squared with Ms. Miller changing her mind. And there is no way to accept at face value Miller’s grandstanding about “fighting for the cause of the free flow of information.” Who is she still trying to convince? Herself?"
After Miller answers Patrick Fitzgerald’s questions today, Huffington says she'd like to see Miller start answering some "obvious questions raised by her head-scratching stance." (link)


Edwards Launches "College for Everyone" Initiative



Edwards Launches "College for Everyone" Initiative
Pilot Program Will Benefit Students in Greene County, N.C.

Former Sen. John Edwards promised 140 high school seniors in one of the state's poorest counties that they could get free college tuition through a new program that will require them to work while they study. [Greensboro News and Record]

Edwards says the program would be funded by donations from individuals, companies and charitable foundations. Students could attend North Carolina State, East Carolina, Fayetteville State, North Carolina A&T and UNC-Wilmington. They could also go to two nearby community colleges. [WFMY News, Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem]

See the story by guest blogger Jon at the One America website.

See today's feature on John Edwards at The Daily Tar Heel by Erin Gibson -
A man with many hats

Also, Edwards appeared on News and Notes with Ed Gordon (NPR) today:
Former V.P. Candidate Edwards: Class and Katrina: News & Notes with Ed Gordon, September 29, 2005 · Former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards talks about America's class crossroads and what can be learned from Hurricane Katrina.

*Audio for this story will be available here at approx. 1:00 p.m. ET




Keep It Real, David Brooks



Keep It Real, David Brooks
We'll respect you a lot more if you stop repeating what we know to be false

David Brooks really needs to get over himself and the patently false point he keeps trying to drive home, which is that Democrats are divided between those who are bitter partisans and those who are less so.
The Democrats have drawn the 10-years-out-of-date conclusion that in order to win, they need to be just like Tom DeLay. They need to rigidly hew to orthodoxy. They need Deaniac hyperpartisanship. They need to organize their hatreds around Bush the way the Republicans did around Clinton.- [NYT Select]
It just isn't true, no matter how many times Brooks says it. Perhaps this is what some pundits hope will become CW ("conventional wisdom,") if it is repeated enough. Democrats will have to show David Brooks that he is wrong. George Bush has become an unpopular president, and it has stunned those of us who have paid attention all along that he has gotten away with so much and has fooled so many Americans, with the help of pliant and intentionally tilted (Fox News) media.

Partisanship is a natural political tendency. To see the Bush administration getting away with lies and the systematic destruction of social democracy has never seemed natural. To see Fox News intentionally tilting the news to the right has never seemed natural. To see the Republican majority virtually shutting the Democrats out from the participatory process in Congress at every opportunity has never seemed fair, natural, or democratic.

If Howard Dean takes the time to remind Americans that it was a vile (and sometimes criminal) kind of partisanship that has allowed us to be in the weakened position our country is in today and to allow the evils of poverty and inequality to flourish, then I say more power to him. At the same time, I look to potential presidential candidates who can offer positive ideas to pull our nation out of the rot to which the Bush administration has led us. Americans aren't so stupid that they're going to continue falling for the line about how Democrats hate Bush. We don't have to hate him anymore - he's a proven abuser of the public trust, and so are many who played vile games thinking the media would continue to cover for them. Drunk with power, Republicans got much too cocky. As Bush and his Republican cronies (in Congress, his administration, and beyond) continue to screw up royally, and as each wrongdoer falls in shame, it will be less likely that Democrats will be forced to convince Americans of what's been true all along.