Stumbo made my day by pointing out this USAToday article on blogging. How the media are starting to pay attention-- all that crap.

But check out the screen shot of Rathergate.com that runs with the article:

It's clearer in the print edition.

Not exactly an appearance on Brit Hume, but I'll take it.

I can almost feel that crazy blog-money about to roll into my pocket.

Posted by: Ace at 12:50 PM | Comments (4)
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The Daily Recycler thinks Gene Simmons has nothing on John Thurston Kerry.

Hey, I've got to admit, even I'm a little turned on.

Update: Women are abandoning Kerry for Bush, based on the security question.

But that's before they see those pics at the Daily Recycler. Those photos are very sexiful, as Tiger Tanaka says.

Link via Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 07:23 AM | Comments (14)
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Bill Maher is one of those comics who's not actually "funny" so he just attempts to be "edgy" -- edgy in this case meaning having a rather blase attitude towards terrorist murder.

I'm ever so glad that prominent voices on the left never say anything "hateful" or "over the top" like Ann Coulter occasionally does.

Message to Bill Maher:

I DON'T GET IT. ARE YOU TRYING TO BE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.

Posted by: Ace at 07:21 AM | Comments (7)
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Corante (I think) tips that CBS News seems to suddenly be offering up an awful lot of derogatory, well-nigh incriminating, information about Mary Mapes, she who was formerly called a "well-respected journalist" with an "unblemished reputation:"

CBS News executives want to know why Mapes, one of Rather's most trusted producers, repeatedly assured them that both Bill Burkett and the documents he gave her could be trusted — only to have both widely called into question by Internet bloggers and rival news organizations soon after 60 Minutes aired the story. On Monday, CBS said the story should have never run, and Rather apologized to viewers.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Mapes arranged for Burkett to talk to a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

"Funny, she doesn't look
like a hardcore lefty feminist.

Standard journalistic ethical practices forbid reporters from doing anything that could be perceived as helping a political campaign.

CBS News hopes to name an independent panel today that will investigate how Burkett, a Texas Democratic operative and opponent of President Bush, deceived 60 Minutes in its now-retracted story about Bush's military record — and who at the network is responsible.

"It's clear that something went seriously wrong with the process," CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said. He called the review "both necessary and important."

As Joshua Micah Cougar Mellancamp Marshall would say: I question the timing of these leaks.

He then offers an updated timeline for the DNCBS Rathergate mess in two parts.

I don't want to say they're setting up Mary Mapes as a patsy, but my sources just informed me CBS is planning to move her through an underground police parking garage in Dallas, and that they plan on having fat guys in cowboy hats milling around when they do so.

Fake But Accurate Update: Dan Rather responds to his critics.

Dan Rather Retirement Watch Update:

They're planning on making Mapes the fall-gal and claiming that Dan Rather was just a senile old barking-mad crank who wasn't responsible for the content of this story, which is half-true, of course. (The first half is true.)

Will this work? I don't think so, but firing Mapes and claiming she was the Lando Calrissian on this Bespin betrayal will buy them some time-- some. We may have to wait for the ratings to fall below O'Reilly's to actually get justice-- Ace of Spades Justice.

At the tone, the Dan Rather Retirement Watch displays a time of

(bong)

11:56PM -- the watch clicks one minute back away from midnight

Mary Mapes "I'm Just a Patsy" Watch Update:

At the tone, the Mary Mapes "I'm Just a Patsy" Watch displays a time of

(bong)

12:01AM -- one minute past midnight. She's already gone; the pinkslip is already in the interoffice mail-cart.

Not Exactly A Ringing Endorsement Update: Last Tango hips me to a quote I missed:

"CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius... said that Mapes, 48, remains on CBS' payroll."

"Remains on the payroll"? One can't help but notice the egregiously present-tense form of the verb.

The present-tense here is just the polite form of the past-tense. In Latin, they call it the Pluperfect Patsy Tense, which is sometimes hard to distinguish from the Get Your Partisan Ass Working On Your Resume Tense.

Posted by: Ace at 07:11 AM | Comments (11)
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Bush Pulls to 48-48 Tie in Very Democratic NJ

A Quninppiac University poll (requires registration):

The Kerry campaign insisted yesterday that it still considered New Jersey safe for the Democrats and had no plans to divert the candidates' time or money from battleground states such as Pennsylvania.

The Quinnipiac poll reflects a stark change from a month ago, when Kerry led by 10 points among registered voters in New Jersey and seemed a lock to carry the state, which has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1988.

But Kerry's advantage came before the Republican convention, which drew sharp contrasts between the two candidates on national security and catapulted Bush past Kerry in most national polls.

..

Republican officials said yesterday that the party was evaluating whether to make a serious push to win the state's 15 electoral votes.

Buoyed by New Jersey polls that indicated Bush was gaining ground, the White House sent Laura Bush to the Trenton area for a campaign rally last week. No decisions have been made on whether the President or Vice President Cheney will follow suit, according to GOP campaign officials.

Tawny Kitaen says: "Ride that
Jaguar, Mr. President. Ride that
Jaguar-- like the wind."

Posted by: Ace at 06:32 AM | Comments (1)
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And the disappearing poor and working-poor classes, as well. Where are they all disappearing to? The New York Times wants to keep it a secret, but it seems they're "disappearing" into the middle-upper and upper classes.

When even the amateur liberal webzine Slate can so thoroughly -- and so easily -- debunk the NYT's "disappearing middle class" lie, maybe it's time the Times hired reporters who were less kneejerk leftist, or more intelligent, or preferably some mix of both.

Christopher Walken sends this open letter to the Times, in the form of a cowbell-heavy rap.

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 PM | Comments (7)
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RedState says this ad will be played a lot more, and a lot wider, than the previous ones.

Jane Fonda makes a cameo. She's compared to John Kerry-- favorably.

Posted by: Ace at 05:44 PM | Comments (9)
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I should be writing perfect syntheses of the day's events like Allah does, but since he's already done all the first-class work, why not just link?

Here's a taste:

In interviews, Burkett accused the Guard of failing to provide him with proper medical treatment, as a result of which he became partly paralyzed and had a nervous breakdown. He told author Moore that, in desperation, he saved himself from death by taking a dose of cattle penicillin that turned out to be three times the correct dosage for his body weight.

Kurtz quotes Joe Lockhart as saying he's "99.9 percent sure" that Burkett didn't bring up Bush's military service when they spoke on the phone. And why would he, really? It's only the subject he seems to have obsessed over morning, noon, and night for the past five fucking years. And he only happened to have in his possession at the time documents relating to that subject which, he told USA Today, he considered to be "absolute TNT". Why would he think to mention them to one of Kerry's campaign advisors?

Pssst: I think he's being sarcastic.

Posted by: Ace at 05:34 PM | Comments (8)
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Hey, it's not me calling Dan Rather "barking mad." It's a paid writer for an allegedly professional web magazine.

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (3)
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Newcomers to this site might wonder what the hell I was doing before Dan Rather decided to give me the gift of traffic.

Well, pretty much I was doing the same crap, except to Andrew Sullivan.

Andrew "No Offense Taken" Sullivan had his nineteenth nervous breakdown after Zell Miller spoke at the Republican convention, declaring:

"I'm not easy to offend, but this speech was gob-smackingly vile."

Well, I decided to check the evidence as for his self-declared immunity to offense. The results of this investigation follow.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:21 PM | Comments (14)
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