Muckracking

There are days when the scribe would simply like to abandon the tit-for-tat, your-side-did-this dialectic that characterizes national debate. It has been suggested in some quarters that progressives need to move beyond bashing Bush because opinions about him are set in stone.

Maybe so, but way back in November 2000 when this gentleman went before the people of the United States and asked us to drop our animosities and join him in implementing his vision, the scribe responded with a quick letter to the governor’s mansion in Texas (symbolism implied).

the scribe was stunned at the cynicism of the Bush team’s legal effort in post-election Florida and felt that the damage done to the American system was irreparable where faith and trust in government were concerned.

That letter said the scribe would not join Bush and would, instead, work his hardest to make life miserable for the false president, in print, electronics, on the streets and at cocktail parties.

The pledge must be honored and highwayscribery must be at least as tendentious as those who propagandize for power.

The (p)resident had the audacity to come out yesterday and make news with something that (allegedly) happened four years ago. The administration wanted to take credit for an attack it never told us about and insinuated eavesdropping is what made it possible.

That’s nothing new, and good for him. What sickened the scribe was the mainstream media’s willingness to make the (p)resident’s point for him. The story ran everywhere, yes with a critical counterpoint, but it ran, thereby helping the (r)epublican party in its effort to define November elections in terms of national security.

But it’s not going to hold. These pigs have been at the trough way too long and in one day we find out the following:

The former head of FEMA says he told the White House levees had broken in New Orleans earlier than the White House claims;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021000267.html

Scooter Libby told a grand jury Dick Cheney directed him to leak Valerie Plame’s name (or something very close to that);

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020902117.html

By the way, the Libby revelation is old news and only comes up because the reporter took the time to read an entire document put out by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgeralds. The facts were found in a simple two lines.

Not when blogging, but when practicing journalism, the scribe will always opt for being a day late, if a lawsuit, study, or report stands waiting to be read. As he delves in, it becomes clear that reporters are probably the only disinterested people taking a gander at such things.

Questions of White House credibility on a number of issues being called into question;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html


Associated Press has Bush’s approval rating “stuck near bottom” at 39 percent (you have to watch an advertisement first);

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8FMEKA00.html