Sutton Impact comments on the Downing Street Memo

Click Here: village voice > Sutton Impact by Ward Sutton:

"Could it be that the sideshow distractions to the Iraq War are at last
IN THEIR FINAL THROES?"

This cartoon does a great job of putting all the flag burning and other administration distractions (and the willing blindness of the media) in perspective and into one panel.

The hottest products on CafePress on 6/28/05? Downing Street Memo products

Here's their copy on today's CafePress.com Wire:

"The recent expose of the Downing Street Memo brought into question at what point President Bush decided to go to war with Iraq. For the most part, all is quiet in the media on this issue, but a hand-delivered petition of 560,000 U.S. citizens signatures demanding answers from Bush on the validity of the memo is a unified voice that is hard ignore. Also, pro-Bush and anti-Bush citizens are keeping the issue alive, expressing all viewpoints on blogs, web sites and now on products for all Americans, especially the families with loved ones killed in Iraq and those still stationed there who deserve answers."

Start spreading the word about September in Washington DC

Here are my new sidebar decorations:

Please click on the image for more information from United for Peace and Justice, and think about doing what you can to get there on September 24-26 and/or spreading the word to others.

Can the Downing Street Memo catch the Runaway Bride® before the end of June??

Anyone who has visited True Blue Liberal in the month of June knows that I have been tracking three search terms on news.google.com. The first check was just to document the point that the MSM were totally ignoring the DSM, but the trend has been surprisingly positive lately.
Here are the results from 9:00 am edt on 6/29/05 compared to my first check at 8:15 am edt on 6/2/05:

"Downing Street Memo" -- 2,220 hits (UP almost 1,000% and rising consistently from 288 hits on June 2nd).
"Runaway Bride" -- 2,840 hits (DOWN from 5,260 hits on 6/2, and at least a few of of the new stories are about generic runaway brides in Kenya and the Carribean, not our celebrity and soon-to-be-trademarked Runaway Bride®).
"Michael Jackson" -- 30,900 hits (UP from 21,400 hits on 6/2, but trending downward from a high close to 50,000 right after his trial) .

Hey Kids!Have Fun! Keep checking the links. The Downing Street Memo will never get as much coverage as the former lead singer from The Jackson Five even if it does lead to Bush's impeachment, but the Runaway Bride® only has a 600 hit lead! Will her fifteen minutes expire before the DSM loses its head of steam? We should do everything we can to keep the pressure on.

True Blue Liberal

No. The rumors are not true that True Blue Liberal now has a job writing speeches for the White House!

I may not be putting words into his mouth.
However, the similarities are eerie between my
prediction from yesterday and the speech itself.

My prediction:

"Good Evening My Fellow Merkins" "I'm Honored to Be Here at Fort Bragg in Front of this Uniformed Uniform Audience of Non-Liberals" "The World Changed On 9/11" "They Attacked Us" "It's Hard Work" "Salute the Brave Soldiers and Soldierettes" "We're Fighting Terrists Over There so We Don't Have to Fight Them Over Here in the Heimat ... uh, Homeland" "Support Our Troops" "July Fourth This Weekend" "Blessings of Liberty" "Flag Flag Flag" "God Bless America and No One Else" "Goodnight"

He hit every one of my bullet points. And here's an excerpt from the pep rally . . . uh, I mean speech itself. I was especially proud to have predicted this fourth of July/flag reference (from whitehouse.gov):

" ... The American people are behind you. Next week, our nation has an opportunity to make sure that support is felt by every soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine at every outpost across the world. This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom -- by flying the flag ... "

Any guesses about what symbol Karl Rove is going to use as the centerpiece of his attack ads in the 2006 midterm elections? I'll give you a hint. It's red, white, and blue, and Congress is trying to pass a Constitutional Amendment about it.
Number of references to "weapons of mass destruction" or "WMD" in last night's Iraq Justification & Continuation speech? Zero.
Number of references to "September 11th, 2001" as a reason for our invasion of, and permanent presence in, Iraq? Five.
Big lies require constant repetition and staying resolutely "on message", which is why it's not very hard to predict what this guy is going to say whenever the teleprompter (or the electronic box under his suit jacket) is turned on. The networks should be ashamed to give him air time.

True Blue Liberal

Here's one reason the mainstream media might be a little shy about digging too deeply into the darker corners of the Bush White House. Jail anyone?

Reporters sans frontières - 27 June 2005
"Reporters without Borders denounces a "retrograde and freedom-curtailing decision"*:

Reporters without Borders is very concerned about the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 27, 2005, not to hear the cases of Judith Miller, of The New York Times, and Matthew Cooper, of Time magazine, each sentenced by a federal court to 18 months in prison for refusing to reveal their information sources. The two journalists have no further judicial recourse and are now facing actual incarceration.

[ . . . ]

Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper had refused to reveal their information sources to a special chamber charged with investigating the information leaks that led to publication in the press of the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. In this case, the White House was suspected of having released Mrs. Plame's name in retaliation against her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had publicly opposed President Bush's arguments in favor of the war in Iraq.

Judith Miller had investigated this matter on behalf of the New York Times, but had finally decided not to devote an article on it. In Time magazine's July 17, 2003 issue, Matthew Cooper had merely mentioned that "some government agents" had given Mrs. Plame's name to the press.

Here's my question. Why are Time and the New York Times, bastions of the so-called liberal media, the scapegoats in this government attempt to silence future Deep Throats? Why isn't Robert Novak, the man who published Valerie Plame's name and knows well which White House source gave him that information, being asked this question and convicted of contempt for not answering? I probably missed something important somewhere along the line, but why is he off the hook? It couldn't have anything to do with him being a useful and loyal rightwing crackpot, could it?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

------------------------------
* The awkward "retrograde and freedom-curtailing decision" sounds much more elegant in the French title: ". . . une décision « rétrograde et liberticide » ". Liberticide should become an English word in these times, used in a sentence such as: "George W. Bush, you are accused by this Congress of liberticide, and are hereby impeached."

The Washington Post does a good job today of putting the Downing Street Memo into context

Click Here: "From Memos, Insights Into Ally's Doubts On Iraq War"
Washington Post 28 June 2005.

There's no point in summarizing this article here except to say that it makes the point that the now-famous July 23, 2003 Downing Street Memo written by Matthew Rycroft was preceded by high level British and Anglo-American meetings and Downing Street Memos going back to January 2003 at which Bush's desire for an invasion of Iraq (using WMDs and UN resolutions as a fig leaf of legality) was discussed.

This article seems well-researched, well-sourced (after all, the Post, as the owner of Newsweek, has to be more aware than most that there are rightwingnut bloggers out there searching for the next "Rathergate" of a misplaced comma that's going to collapse the whole liberal media conspiracy against their God-Anointed President), andwell-timed, with the Bush speech on Iraq coming up tonight (Here's the TBL preview of the speech highlights, so you can avoid the pain of listening to the drawling Social Security privatization pitchman on the idiot box tonight : "Good Evening My Fellow Merkins" "I'm Honored to Be Here at Fort Bragg in Front of this Uniformed Uniform Audience of Non-Liberals" "The World Changed On 9/11" "They Attacked Us" "It's Hard Work" "Salute the Brave Soldiers and Soldierettes" "We're Fighting Terrists Over There so We Don't Have to Fight Them Over Here in the Heimat ... uh, Homeland" "Support Our Troops" "July Fourth This Weekend" "Blessings of Liberty" "Flag Flag Flag" "God Bless America and No One Else" "Goodnight").

Now go read the article and forward it to someone,
True Blue Liberal

"Rove is a red herring. Keep your eye on the big fish." --- EXACTLY!

Washingtonpost.com 24 June 2005
"Achenblog: Daily Humor and Observations from Joel Achenbach":

... as part of some double-secret triple-backloop political strategy, Rove realized he needed to cause a distraction. He informed the president that the poll numbers were looking bad, or that Social Security privatization is about as likely as the resurgence of alchemy. The president said, "Karl, go out there and say something really dumb." By now you should know that nothing happens in the White House political shop except for very calculated reasons. Rove is a red herring. Keep your eye on the big fish.

Let the short pasty porcine Rasputin spew all he wants. Personally, I'm glad that he's made it clear that Republicans and Conservatives are the Party of War and Blood and Holy Vengeance and High-Tech Death from Above and that Liberals are the Party of Peace and Law and Justice. Given that choice, I have to assume that most people would rather be liberals. Wouldn't they?

Just one question Karl: How do you reconcile being The Official Party of War® with The Culture of Life®? Or does The Culture of Life® only extend to American embryos and vegetables?

Just asking,
True Blue LIBERAL

Please read Paul Krugman today -- Now that Bush has been beaten on Social Security, PK is going to beat him over the head with the Downing Street Memo

"The War President" by Paul Krugman
- The New York Times / 24 June 2004:

It begins like this:

. . . after 9/11 President Bush, with obvious relish, declared himself a "war president." And he kept the nation focused on martial matters by morphing the pursuit of Al Qaeda into a war against Saddam Hussein.

In November 2002, Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent, told an audience, "I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war" - but she made it clear that Mr. Bush was the exception. And she was right.

It ends like this:

We need to deprive these people of their ability to mislead and intimidate. And the best way to do that is to make it clear that the people who led us to war on false pretenses have no credibility, and no right to lecture the rest of us about patriotism.

The good news is that the public seems ready to hear that message - readier than the media are to deliver it. Major media organizations still act as if only a small, left-wing fringe believes that we were misled into war, but that 'fringe' now comprises much if not most of the population.

In a Gallup poll taken in early April - that is, before the release of the Downing Street Memo - 50 percent of those polled agreed with the proposition that the administration 'deliberately misled the American public' about Iraq's W.M.D. In a new Rasmussen poll, 49 percent said that Mr. Bush was more responsible for the war than Saddam Hussein, versus 44 percent who blamed Saddam.

Once the media catch up with the public, we'll be able to start talking seriously about how to get out of Iraq.

But please read the whole thing at the Times site before you have to pay for it.

Operation Yellow Elephant - Attention Young Republicans! Come on all of you big strong men (& women) / Uncle Sam needs your help again . . .

... he's got himself in a terrible jam / way off yonder in Vietna ... um ... IRAQ!

Attention young college GOPPERS, please click on the picture of the Yellow Elephant to sign up...... and enjoy your convention in Virginia this week before you head off for basic training. Enjoy that keynote address from Tom DeLay tomorrow; I think he proudly served in the Armed Services of the country too!


Love,
TBL

The inspiring story of downingstreetmemo.com to brighten up your day

Lexington Herald-Leader | 06/23/2005 |
"Couple took Downing Street memo to Web audience":

Working from their home in Sunnyvale, Calif., Fesmire and his wife, Gina, a graphic designer, created a homespun Web site called Downingstreetmemo.com in early May, posted the memo and related information there and generated a mass e-mail campaign to urge reporters and editors around the country to keep the story alive.

[ . . . ]

Fesmire and Matzzie [ . . .] regard the memo as proof positive that Bush hasn't told the public the truth. Further, they said, the U.S. news media dropped the ball by not presenting the memo in that light.

"Editors, newspapers that are small and do not have an international or even a White House correspondent, they want information about this and they're not getting it from the small number of organizations that determine what is news," said Fesmire.

At a cost to the Fesmires of $20 a month, the Web site has responded to that frustration."

Well, they are spending $20 a month more than True Blue Liberal to spread the word, but it's amazing what they've helped accomplish and I just wanted to add a note of thanks.

Thanks,
TBL

And let's impose super-secret double-life imprisonment in Gitmo for liberals who publicly disparage the sacred patriotic ribbon magnets on our SUVs!

From The Guardian, "Democrats Fear GOP Push on Flag-Burning" 23 June 2005:

The GOP-led House voted 286-130 on a measure Wednesday that would give Congress authority to ban desecration of a U.S. flag. Its prospects aren't good in the Senate, but Republicans could still get what they want - an issue that divides or even conquers Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The GOP wouldn't be that deviously political about something as sacred as the Red White And Blue, would they?


And from The True Blue Liberal Pronunciation Dictionary:

Remember that "GOP" is always pronounced to rhyme with slop or glop or flipflop! (And SUV rhymes with glove.)

Forget the wait for the Dow Industrials to hit 11,000 / / Here's the good news about the Downing Street 2,000 barrier being broken

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

More Nukes More Nukes More Nukes N! - U! - K! - S! Nukes! Nukes! Nukes! -- Catapulting a new presidential propaganda message

MORE NUKES!

MORE NUKES!

MORE NUKES!

MORE NUKES!

N! - U! - K! - S!

NUKES! NUKES! NUKES!

Because the Terrorists® and Evildoers® just don't have enough high-value targets in the U.S. of A.

Not content to have single-handedly revived the anti-war movement, George Bush the Second is now embarked on his quest for more nucular (or nuclear) power to revive the musical careers of Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and everyone else who reached the peak of their fame at the No Nukes concerts in 1979.

It's bad enough that he had to remind the country what it felt like to live through Vietnam. If you want to know what it felt like to be working in Manhattan on the day Three Mile Island was threatening to melt down and send its radiation east, I'll be glad to relate the story.

True Blue Liberal

UPDATE (23 June 05 @ 7:45 am edt): Interestingly, if you had clicked on any of the words from Cheerleader George's cheer up above when this was first posted yesterday, you would have seen a washingtonpost.com headline that said something like "Bush pushes for more nuclear power plants" (despite my quotation marks, I'm paraphrasing broadly), but click on NUKES NUKES NUKES this morning and you'll find a vaguely similar article about the visit to the nuclear power plant with the headline "Bush Expresses Empathy With Workers: At Md. Nuclear Plant, He Talks About the Economy's Impact"! WTF? The mention of the call for more nuclear power plants, which was prominent, is now short and buried in the bottom of the article. This isn't the first time the Post has done this to one of my links, so be careful when linking to them.

Depressing yes, but it's still no reason to do nothing. Mark Morford writes about the Downing Street Memo

Click Here:Mark Morford from SFGate / 6/22/05 / "Downing Street Is For Liars / Why aren't the media screaming about the latest proofs of Bush's war scams? Don't you know?":

"BushCo survived the illegal sanctioning of inhumane torture. They survived a gay male prostitute acting as a journalist. They survived Enron and Diebold and the rigging of the first election and they will survive Downing Street simply because all the people who should be on the attack about these atrocities all work for the guys who committed them." [emphasis added]

But even if nothing dramatic or definitive comes of our efforts now, there's no excuse to do nothing, because to do nothing is to do the bidding of those committing the war crimes in our name. To be silent right now is to show that you agree with their aims, and their tactics.

Here's one very positive sign from this month's activity in support of the DSM. I won't give any of the grammatically-challenged bloggers the satisfaction of linking to them here, but a quick Google or Technorati search on "Downing Street Memo" will show you LOTS of right-wing blog activity right now on the subject. On June 1st I don't think any of them even would have admitted that such a "so-called memo" from a "so-called Downing Street" even existed. Now they're looking very defensive. They're calling names and grasping at straws. Go visit some of them. Add some comments of your own to their most outrageous posts (if they allow them). It's fun and you'll find you're not alone in your commenting. After all these years of their fears and our dreams, maybe some of them are feeling that there really IS a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country.

A Proud Member,
True Blue Liberal

With Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam" playing on the stereo, I run across the headline: "Bush says he'll visit Vietnam next year". Isn't it a little late?

Click here for details: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/21/bush.vietnam/ . To run across this article about our Commandant in Chief's future travel plans while Jimmy Cliff's 1969 "Vietnam" was playing in the background seemed especially appropriate.

I guess this chickenshit chickenhawk finally thinks it's safe enough, a little over thirty years after he first dressed up in a soldier suit and professed his deeply held belief in (other, poorer, Americans) killing Communists. Maybe if he wears his flightsuit he can stir up a little of the old animosity when he's over there in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City.

--True Blue Liberal

"It's Not Dead," Frist sez of Bolton nomination (despite his medical degree, he may not be the person we want to trust on opinions of life and death)

Frist Reverses Himself on Bolton Vote, Saying He'll Try Again - New York Times:

"It's not dead," he said. "It is going to require some continued talking and discussion." [and maybe a feeding tube]

Didn't we learn anything from the Schiavo case? Didn't we learn that "Doctor" Frist doesn't have any idea what death looks like?

Do we really want this right-wing rabbit abuser representing us in the United Nations?!?

I THINK NOT!

Roll-Call Vote on Bolton - yesterday's result was a success, but guess which Democrat wasn't voting?

click here for the full list: Roll-Call Vote on Bolton - New York Times

Why didn't you vote y esterdayJohn? Why couldn't you add your voice to this important stand? Do you have more important things to do than to take every chance to vote on the record against John Bolton? Are you too busy (secretly) publicizing The Downing Street Memo? Or is it just that you don't want to be called a flippity flopping filiblusterer or an obstructionicating massachusetts librul in your next Presidential debate against a Rove-coached Jeb Bush in 2008?

You know what? To get to that debate, you have to win some Democratic primaries first.

Just saying,

True Blue Liberal

Can we "enlist" someone a little less cautious to carry the banner for us in 2008? Silly question. I guess there's no one more cautious.

BostonHerald.com - National Politics: Kerry cautious on probing `Downing Street Memo': "

Walking a tightrope on a politically charged issue, Sen. John F. Kerry vowed weeks ago to raise the controversial ``Downing Street Memo'' as an issue in Washington, but has since publicly held his tongue on the matter.
Instead, Kerry has been enlisting other senators to sign onto a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee seeking answers about the memo, aides said.

We were afraid it was too good to be true.

--True Blue Liberal

There's no argument from TBL on this choice.

CNN.com - The top album of the last 20 years is ... - Jun 20, 2005

But what's your favorite album from the period between 1985-2005?

Downing Street Memo by the numbers -- update & more good news

One of my favorite activities during this period of emphasis on The Downing Street Memo has been to check news.google.com for three stories. Here are the results from 9:00 pm edt on 6/17/05 compared to my first check at 8:15 am edt on 6/2/05:

"Downing Street Memo" -- 1,560 hits, many now from major mainstream news outlets (Way UP from 288 hits, only one from a "major" source, and that source was FOX News[!!] on 6/2; most of the hits were from news blogs and activist sites in that first check of Google News).
"Runaway Bride" -- 2,930 hits (DOWN from 5,260 hits, and at least a few of of the new stories are about a Runaway Bride in Kenya, not our runafuckingway bride).
"Michael Jackson" -- 42,100 hits (UP from 21,400 hits, but the percentage of increase[not even doubled] is nowhere near the rate of increase for the DSM over the last two weeks) .

Hey Kids! Have Fun! Click on the links yourself for an update of the totals! I hope everyone remembers the feeling at the beginning of the month when we thought the mainstream media outlets might not ever catch on to the importance of the memo. If some in the media and the Righty Blogosphere are anxious to blame the Liberal Blogosphere for stirring up interest in the Memo, we should be willing to accept some credit for the dramatic developments of the past week, remembering, of course, that it's only the beginning.

True Blue Liberal

Bloomsday was gonna be Doomsday for the TBL sidebar poll, but things are getting interesting, so it's now The Poll of the Month

I could be like the serious news channels and change my Poll of the Week to one of those important questions like CNN's poll on how long the engagement and/or marriage of Tommy Cruise and Kate Holmes will last, or whether or not the readers of True Blue Liberal prefer to watch their movies at home or in the theater (both actual front page polls on cnn.com earlier today), but I'll stick with the poll that I started on June 1, because this has been a month that may go down in history as the turning point of the BushCheney era. Not only are the overall poll numbers taking a plunge, but even among the select group that visits this adorable rodent of a blog there has been a definite dramatic change (for the better) in outlook.

During the first week of this poll, the most optimistic respondents (and there were only a few of them) said that the ultimate result of the Downing Street Memo would be "Quick Congressional (and/or independent government) whitewash " and a sizable proportion of the first respondents even picked "The What Street Memo? Never heard of it." In the second week of the poll, the most popular answers by far have been "Impeachment of the President," which currently leads the overall results with 25%, and "Serious Congressional (and/or independent government) investigation". I'm anxious to see what the final results will be if I leave it up for two more weeks, until the end of Downing Street Memo Month on June 30th. For those of you who miss the Poll of the Week, I'll give you a new one (asking whether you prefer Katie Holmes to Penelope Cruz or Nicole Kidman or Tom Cruise's first wife whose name escapes me) on July 1st.

Thanks for your patience,
True Blue Liberal

They'll have the videotape; I hope they get something explosive enough for a precious Evening News slot (between Michael Jackson & the Runaway Bride)

This is from John Conyers' Blog:

For those commenters who were concerned (or hoping) that there would be a media blackout of the forum, that will not be the case. I have every major network, other than Fox, bringing cameras to the hearing. Nightline is taping the event, which I think represents a welcome development from a well respected investigative program. In addition, C-Span 3 and Radio Pacifica are carrying it live. [unnecessary emphasis added]

The hearing should be starting now. I wonder if I'll get any details from a source other than blogs.

Thanks again John! You make me proud to be an American.

True Blue Liberal

Happy Bloomsday 2005! Here are your quotes of the day from Stephen Dedalus & Leopold Bloom!

On this date in Dublin, 101 years ago, nothing really happened. But, of course, it's the most important date in the fictional history of the English-speaking world. Here are two very small quotations from the protaganists in Ulysses that TBL found appropriate for a Bloomsday which also sees the opening of John Conyers' Congressional hearings on the suspect motives for our current war. Stephen, under the influence of absinthe, alcohol, fatigue and hunger, is arguing in the streets of Dublin's redlight district with a bellicose British Private Carr about king and country:

STEPHEN

(Nervous, friendly, pulls himself up.) I understand your point of view though I have no king myself for the moment. This is the age of patent medicines. A discussion is difficult down here. But this is the point. You die for your country, suppose. (He places his arm on Private Carr's sleeve.) Not that I wish it for you. But I say: Let my country die for me. Up to the present it has done so. I didn't want it to die. Damn death. Long live life! [page 591, Modern Library Edition]

. . . and later in the night of June 16, 1904, we get this from the other major voice in James Joyce's head, Leopold Bloom:

-- Of course, Mr Bloom proceeded to stipulate, you must look at both sides of the question. It is hard to lay down any hard and fast rules as to right and wrong but room for improvement all round there certainly is though every country, they say, our own distressful included, has the government it deserves. But with a little goodwill all round. It's all very fine to boast of mutual superiority but what about mutual equality? I resent violence and intolerance in any shape or form. It never reaches anything or stops anything. A revolution must come on the due instalments plan. It's a patent absurdity on the face of it to hate people because they live round the corner and speak another vernacular, in the next house, so to speak.

* * *

All those wretched quarrels, in his humble opinion, stirring up bad blood--bump of combativeness or gland of some kind, erroneously supposed to be about a punctilio of honour and a flag--were very largely a question of the money question which was at the back of everything, greed and jealousy, people never knowing when to stop. [page 643, Modern Library Edition]

. . . and then, a couple of pages of historical digression later, Stephen again, tired of politics and history, says, "We can't change the country. Let us change the subject." But let's not succumb to the same fatalism this month, when it does seem like there are changes taking place, if only in the minds of our fellow citizens (which is not a small change at all).

Happy Bloomsday,
True Blue Liberal

"... secret internet police target critics with web of propaganda" (or, "Alan S" and "Anonymous," who are you really working for?)

FROM: Guardian Unlimited | Online | "China's secret internet police target critics with web of propaganda":

"In response, the propaganda departments of provincial and municipal governments have recently been instructed to build teams of internet commentators, whose job is to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names."

***

"In the information age and the internet age, the most important and critical mission in front of us is how to seize the initiative on internet opinion and how to seize the high point of internet opinion," the paper quoted the deputy director of the local propaganda department, Zhang Fenglin, as saying.

***

A summary of objectives declared that commentators should "be proactive in developing discussion, increase control, accentuate the good, avoid the bad, and use internet debate to our advantage."

As in many other areas, the Chinese may be slightly behind the US in this particular objective, because we already have this policy written into our Patriot Act, and hordes of pro-government anonymous posters on our "internets". What do you think "Alan S"? Or "Anonymous"? Please comment in your normal 3am visits and tie this post together with Hillarycare, Vince Foster, Bill Clinton's infidelities, or Michael Moore's weight, or my lack of patriotism (oh, by the way, I have not forgotten that it's Flag Day; I'm not burning any on the barbeque this year like we liberals usually do, but I am taking special pleasure in the fact that we seem to be seeing a pronounced reduction in the number of them on antennas and windows lately).

Waiting for official comments,
True Blue Liberal

What is this? Good news week? - "Endangered condors soar over Arizona skies"

I hadn't know about this : CNN.com - "Endangered condors soar over Arizona skies" - Jun 13, 2005. I find it pleasantly shocking news, like the Florence Aubenas release over the weekend.

When I was a Boy Scout in Los Angeles in 1967-69 (Life Scout, Patrol Leader of Troop 118's Rattlesnake Patrol, Bugler & now a True Blue Liberal, who woulda thunk it), it was assumed that California Condors would be extinct by the 1970s or 1980s at the latest. I never saw one in the wild, despite monthly hikes and camping trips into their (ex-)habitat. But we got the banning of DDT, the creation of the EPA, and the passing of the Endangered Species Act, and look, now we have groups of 25-30 wild California Condors flying over the Grand Canyon, thanks to dem dam librul treehugger en-vi-ro-mentlists and their RINO President Nixon.
Would we have Condors in our western skies today if we had Bush, Cheney & Gale Norton in power in 1969?

Just Asking,
True Blue Liberal

What's the hot automotive color palette for the next presidential election year?

from"Harvest Season for the '08 Car Colors" -
The New York Times -
13 June 2005:

"And the new crop is in - the 08's are already in the can, so to speak. They are the new blues that are verging into purple; after years of silver and gray and other noncommittal tones, blues are coming back strong, said Christopher Webb, color trend manager for General Motors."

It's what I've been saying all along,

-- True Blue Liberal

Very Good News to start the week - - "Ils sont enfin libres" (not that anyone in the US ever knew they were missing)

Click here: Libération : Ils sont enfin libres!!! [They are finally free.]

The banners of support on this blog for Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi almost seemed like part of the original design. They have been missing in Iraq since January 5 and got no media mentions in the United States (though they are media stars in Europe). Why didn't a victim-hungry US Press ever pick up on this damsel-in-distress story? Is it possible that there's a political element in choosing missing teenagers and brides over prominent and attractive foreign reporters? Anyway, I had no idea that Florence and Hussein had been freed over the weekend, in apparently robust health, until opening Le Monde and Libération on my work computer this morning and seeing their very happy faces on the front pages of both.

Still, these faces feel like the faces of friends, and it will be sad to remove them from the sidebar:

This issue of the safety of the news media --the unembedded news media-- in war zones is an important one. There are times when it seems as if the current so-called "War on Terror" is mirroring the fictional world of "The Proxy War" that serves as part of the ominous political backdrop in Martin Amis's London Fields, the novel I'm (re)reading at the moment. Here's a relevant quote that I coincidentally read on the train just this morning:

... The Proxy War had put a curve on things when both sides agreed, or when 'both sides agreed', to play their game in the dark. This condition they quickly brought about by a declared policy, much publicized in the press and on television, of killing all journalists. No longer could the foreign correspondents hop from foxhole to foxhole with their MEDIA tags in their hatbands and then telex their stories over cocktails from the garden rooftops of scorched Hiltons. {. . . } They went in, but they didn't come out . . . (page 142, Vintage paperback)

But Florence and Hussein have come out, and the nation and the continent that called for their release in a thousand creative ways can celebrate.

And so should we!

-- True Blue Liberal

If Dubya had his way, the Iraq War would still be known as "The Story of Brave Blond Jessica Lynch versus The Very Big Very Bad Evil Evildoers"

Can't you imagine George proudly reading a illustrated children's book of that title to a crowded classroom of kindergartners? . . . while Mister Cheney does the real work of government back at the office?

Please read this great column about the endless parade of cable and tabloid damsels-in-distress by Eugene Robinson from today's Washington Post, "(White) Women We Love":

...We even found, or created, a damsel amid the chaos of war in Iraq: Jessica Lynch.

* * *

I have no idea whether the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida hung on every twist and turn of the Chandra Levy case; somehow, I doubt he did. But I suspect the apostle of "deconstructionism" would have analyzed the damsel-in-distress phenomenon by explaining that our society is imposing its own subconsciously chosen narrative on all these cases.

It's the meta-narrative of something seen as precious and delicate being snatched away, defiled, destroyed by evil forces that lurk in the shadows, just outside the bedroom window. It's whiteness under siege. It's innocence and optimism crushed by cruel reality. It's a flower smashed by a rock.

Or maybe (since Derrida believed in multiple readings of a single text) the damsel thing is just a guaranteed cure for a slow news day. The cable news channels, after all, have lots of airtime to fill.

This has bothered me for years, how in a country with tens of thousands of murders and other violent deaths every year, we are focussed by our media on one white woman or child at a time. I don't know whether it's to focus our fear (à la Marilyn Manson's brilliant dissection of fear, consumption & American culture at the heart of "Bowling for Columbine"), or whether it's to make us feel more secure by making crime look like it's something rare and precious and only happening to one celebrity victim at a time. Or whether it's all just entertainment, to compete with CSI and SVU and ER and the rest of the televised alphabet soup of "human drama." In any case, it bothers me that this paranoia-inducing "news" coverage destroyed hitchhiking as a viable means of transportation in this country. And it bothers me that it takes time away from real news.

--True Blue Liberal

Pass it on! Moveon.org pushing for 500,000 signatures on the Conyers letter today!

Look, I know that every reader of True Blue Liberal (except a couple of wingnuts and FBI spies) has already signed the Conyers Letter, but MoveOn has placed a mass mailing behind the drive to get 500,000 signatures on the letter today, so pass on the e-mail if you got it, or pass on this link:
http://www.moveonpac.org/tellthetruth/
At 12:15 est they have 181,389 signatures and they're being added fast.
Help spread the word!

(UPDATE: At 3:15pm est they're more than halfway there with 258,000 signatures, so they're receiving them at a rate of 25,000 signatures an hour! John Conyers' server was crashing under a much lighter load than that earlier in the week.)

The Next Fight (& A Caption Contest)

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.”

-- John R. Bolton, GWB's harebrained image of an
Ambassador to the United Nations

Who's he pointing at?
&What's he saying?

Here's a great reminder that The Downing Street Memo is not the only piece of evidence that US intelligence was "fixed" to match our war plans

PHXnews.com | From Richard Clarke: America's Own Downing Street Memo

Clarke says that as early as the day after the attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, even though al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan. --(CBS News, 3/21/04)

Also, the Democrats in Congress will be extremely derelict in their duties if they do not bring up the intelligence-twisting actions of John Bolton in his upcoming Senate confirmation debate, and tie those actions firmly to The Memo. The Downing Street Memo, if anything, is the simple straightforward summary by which a thousand other suspect actions can be framed. Where's the evidence of independent intelligence gathering that disproves or contradicts the observations in the memo? It starts to feel like this is another round between the true believers on both sides of the never-ending Evolution vs. Creation fight -- on one side there's a mountain of evidence and a theoretical structure to explain it; on the other side there's God (or at least the moron he talks to and uses to express his illogical and vengeful will on earth).

-TBL

Democracy For America is e-mailing this message about The Downing Street Memo this afternoon

They're sending an e-mail to this link with a facsimile of the full memo: Democracy For America : Downing Street Memo

Here's part of the text of their e-mail:

Read the memo for yourself -- the full-text is at the end of this email.

We all have to spread the word about the deceptions it reveals. Together, we can put the truth on our leaders' agenda.

But it's going to take a lot of work. That's why grassroots DFA groups across the country will be setting up tables, handing out copies, and asking Americans: have you read the memo?

When it comes to matters of war and peace, doesn't every American deserve the truth?

With TBL receiving e-mails about The Memo in the past week from MoveOn, DFA, and The Nation in my inboxes, the drive to publicize this smoking gun only seems to be increasing in speed and volume. I don't know about the other members of the Big Brass Alliance, but I feel proud to have played a small part in upping the pressure and the volume.

"Steve" asks Bush & Blair the big DSM question. Blair bullshits. Bush uh ah . . . "the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power".

This excerpt from this afternoon's joint press conference is cut and pasted, without additions, deletions, added emphasis, or snarky asides (it wasn't easy), directly from the first official transcript at whitehouse.gov:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.

Q Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law.

He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.

But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren't able to do that because -- as I think was very clear -- there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who "they dropped it out" is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.) And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.

And so we worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully, take a -- put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, and say, the world speaks, and he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

I like that the whitehouse.gov transcriptionist put the "(Laughter)" tag in after Bush's first incoherent stumbles. But didn't George know this question was coming? Didn't they program an answer into the electronic box on his back? Isn't it embarassing that our President can't be as slimy and slick as their Prime Minister? And how long is it going to be before George calls on "Steve" again?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

TBL saw Democratic Undergound's Number 1 Conservative Idiot in person this morning (there were no crowds of Dean supporters around him!)

Click here and see how New Jersey Republicans find supporters: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 200 - Democratic Underground.

In the past week I've seen 3 of the 7 candidates for the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial nomination in the flesh, Murphy & Forrester marching in a Memorial Day parade and Murphy & Schundler standing in the Hoboken train station. Their primary is today and my only regret is that only six of them can be losers. Brett Schundler may not be number one after the polls close tonight (the designated Republican sacrifice to Jon Corzine in November will probably be Doug Forrester), but I'm glad to see that Schundler was able to win the DU Number One Conservative Idiot title before his inevitable quick fade back into obscurity.

So what kind of crowd was around him at 7:45 this morning without help from Photoshop? It wasn't a crowd of enthusiatic Dean supporters. There were a few uniformed police and a couple of security types hovering (and probably a few more undercover), a young campaign worker trying to hand out literature and telling commuters, "Bret is right over there if you want to meet him!" and the man himself was standing alone as if surrounded by a force field that extended for 15 feet. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

--TBL

In case you missed this invitation on Sunday from the new NY Times Public Editor, Byron Calame

The New Public Editor:
Toward Greater Transparency -
New York Times, June 5, 2005:

"I also plan to make greater use of the Web. I intend to post more actual reader e-mails - with responses from Times editors and perhaps from me, if appropriate - on the Public Editor's Web Journal. My first commentary, posted there two weeks ago, questioned the Washington bureau's slowness in pursuing the significance of the so-called Downing Street memo on planning for the Iraq war. (My Web journal can be found at nytimes.com/byroncalame.)"

Let's keep on them until the Times and the rest remove the "so-called" prefix from the Downing Street Memo. Everyone knows that the only place to use the "so-called" epithet is before the term "liberal media."

--True Blue Liberal

Republicans and the Cheerleading Temperament

Have there been any serious published studies of this particularly American disorder of cheerleading and boosterism?

More importantly, are there drugs for its treatment?

If so, could this be why Republicans hate marijuana so much?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

Who needs Brylcreem?

Why post this?
Why not?

Get your free copy of the Quran from The Council on American-Islamic Relations. Give it a place of pride next to your Gideon Bible from Holiday Inn.

Have you requested your free Quran yet from The Council on American-Islamic Relations?

Tim Russert on "the now-famous Downing Street memo." It's not famous from repetitive mentions in the mainstream media, so maybe Tim is reading blogs!

From the official Transcript for June 5 - Meet the Press, online at MSNBC - MSNBC.com:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the now-famous Downing Street memo. This was a memo, July 23, 2002, from the head of British intelligence to Prime Minister Blair; in effect, notes taken from a briefing that was given to Prime Minister Blair after the head of British intelligence came back from a trip to Washington. It says this: "[The head of British Intelligence] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, though military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
This is July of 2002. We didn't invade until March of 2003. And the prime minister of Great Britain is being told by the head of his intelligence that he went to Washington and believes that a decision had already been made and that the administration was fixing or manipulating the intelligence to support the policy.

MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, that report has been discredited by everyone else who's looked at it since then. {blah.. blah.. blah..}

MR. RUSSERT: I don't believe that the authenticity of this report has been discredited.

MR. MEHLMAN: I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it.

MR. RUSSERT: There--let me go back to another sentence from that report. "There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action." {. . . } we now have 1,669 Americans who've died bravely in Iraq, 1,532 of those after the president said major combat operations were over. We have 12,762 Americans wounded or injured, 12,000 of those after the president said major combat was over. This memo seems to suggest that the head of British Intelligence told Prime Minister Blair that there was little discussion in Washington to plan for the aftermath of military action.

MR. MEHLMAN: I would respectfully disagree with that finding. I think that there was clearly planning that occurred, planning that occurred {blah .. blah ... blah...} I believe we're doing a very important mission in Iraq, which is defeating the terrorists, promoting democracy and you've seen throughout this spring what the effects of that democracy have been in other Arab nations.

MR. RUSSERT: The primary rationale given for the war, however, was the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. And again I refer you to the memo of the prime minister's meeting. "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than half that of Libya, North Korea and Iran."

MR. MEHLMAN: Well, the president, I think, was responsible in saying we need to simultaneously prepare for war and also try to avoid that war. {blah etc...}

Of course a political party professional like Ken Mehlman is not going to answer with anything other than the official party line, but more important than his predictable answers is the fact that Tim Russert, who helps to define the national political dialogue in a much larger way than we bloggers do, asked the right questions yesterday, and put large chunks of the memo's unambiguous text into his questions.

Wouldn't you love to see him put the same questions to Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rice or Bolton?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

Attention Passive Citizens of the Homeland: Here's the Friday Quote of the Week for Big Brass Alliance Week via Fritz Stern

Here's the quote of the day from my morning reading. It seemed appropriate for this week of intensive Downing Street Memo blogging:

...the wars and revolutions of our time have been made possible not so much by a few leaders or sects as by the multitude of passive citizens who smugly thought that politics was the responsibility of statesmen.

-- Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism:
Essays on the Political Culture of Modern Germany
[New York: Knopf, 1972, p. 146]

HM Ambassador Matthew Rycroft CBE, British Embassy, Sarajevo

I thought it might be nice to share this link to a current photo and biography of the man at the center of The Downing Street Memo, HM Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Matthew Rycroft.

(TBL is especially delighted to see that he was born on Bloomsday!)

Where are the stories on the non-Fox media?

Why is this only appearing on the Fair and Balanced Fox?

In White House Talk at The Washington Post on June 1, much of the talk was about the Downing Street Memo, but why isn't The Memo in the paper?

At least four of the questions to Dan Froomkin in White House Talk on washingtonpost.com were pointedly about The Downing Street Memo and the press's abdication of its duties. A geographically (if not politically) diverse group would not let the question drop:

"Fairfax, Va.: A Post editorial today praises President Bush for doing what he is supposed to do, hold regular press conferences. But something is missing. Look at the transcript of yesterday's press conference and you will see no questions about the Downing Street Memo which claims Bush was fixing the facts to justify the Iraq invasion. If no one lights that slow fuse you talked, how are the facts ever going to see the light of day? To see the smiling face of Mark Felt ought to inspire The Post to reclaim its heyday of investigative reporting."

"Arlington, Mass.: Dan, Why, why, why do reporters consistently not ask the President pointed questions? Yesterday's Rose Garden chat should have included questions about the Downing Street Memo, questions about the Pat Tillman cover-up, questions about {. . . } I know this frustrates you as well but what can be done??!!!"

"Pyongtaek, Korea: What will it take to get the MSM to report in-depth on the Downing Street Memo and, now that it has come to light, the stepped-up bombing campaign of Iraq months before Congress approved any action or the U.N. even considered Resolution 1441? {. . .}"

"Los Angeles, Calif.: Hi Dan, I have repeatedly asked various Washington Post online chat hosts (not all of them Post journalists) why the MSM isn't pursuing the Downing Street Memo more doggedly and the question never gets posted. I see a poster just asked you on today's chat and you answered the 2nd question but did not address the Downing Street Memo. What gives?
Dan Froomkin: I wrote about this in my May 17 column, and frankly expected coverage to pick up afterward.
I said then that the memo story was possibly "less a dud than a bomb with a long, slow fuse."
So I guess that either the fuse is even longer than I had thought, and investigative reporters are digging away even as we speak, or the American press is cynical enough to consider this all old news."

Or maybe all the investigative reporters are just careerists more interested in getting Bush to invite them to, and call on them at Rose Garden events. Or maybe all their digging is for the book they plan to write in a few years rather than the public service they can do by publicizing this now.

But it is great to see that the mainstream media outlets are getting pressure from all directions about this lack of coverage. How many people do you think are calling or writing to them with complaints that there's too little coverage about Michael Jackson or the Runafuckingwaybride?

Just asking, TBL

Morning Update on the News Media's Great Downing Street Memo Blackout

Here's the morning update on one of my favorite activities during this period of emphasis on The Downing Street Memo, checking news.google.com for the raw number of news hits for three stories. Here are the results at 8:15 est (with a comparison to yesterday at the exact same time):

"Downing Street Memo" -- 305 hits (17 more than yesterday's 288). Most of the hits are still from blogs and activist sites, though some of the new hits are from right-wing Fox-related sites like NewsMax (preparing their followers to debunk and defame The Memo? To give it the Rather/Newsweek treatment?).
"Runaway Bride" --6,070 hits (810 more than yesterday's 5,260 hits). Most are from mainstream media outlets.
"Michael Jackson" -- 23,800 hits (or 2,400 more than yesterday's 21,400 hits). But we still can't get enough information on this ex-pop idol.

Click on the links yourself for a minute by minute update of the totals. It will be interesting to see if the Conyers letter or the promised Kerry speech finally does anything to spike the numbers. Maybe it will. Maybe the fact that the right is gearing up for the debunking and the counterattacks is a very good sign.

True Blue Liberal

Kerry promises the bring up The Downing Street Memo in Washington on Monday -- "It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."

On SouthcoastToday.com, webpage of The Standard-Times (not exactly the major mainstream media yet) "Kerry assails Bush on Iraq" (and raises The Downing Street Memo!) 6/ 2/ 2005:

"Sen. Kerry puzzled over the apparent lack of interest by Americans in the Iraq war and the near silence in the U.S. mass media about the so-called Downing Street Memo.
That leaked secret document, the minutes of a 2002 cabinet meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, says bluntly that Mr. Bush had decided to attack Iraq long before going to Congress with the matter, and that 'intelligence was being fixed around the policy.'
It caused an uproar in Great Britain and badly hurt Mr. Blair in national elections but went almost unnoticed in the United States.
'When I go back (to Washington) on Monday, I am going to raise the issue,' he said of the memo, which has not been disputed by either the British or American governments. 'I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that.' "

Will the media outside of New Bedford, Massachusetts pick this up?

The Shape of the Right-Wing Response to The Downing Street Memo

It may not be as bad as Tom Tomorrow's vision of Jeffrey Dahmer as a Right Wing Pundit, but I have received some responses about The Downing Street Memo in my recent Comments from those who appear to be somewhat to the right of the Big Brass Alliance. These excerpts should give a sense of what we might hear if the mainstream media ever does pick up the ball and start running with it (admittedly a big if):

"A British Memo about President Bush. No one but Liberals believe this. This is the Dan Rather,Newsweek report in Britian. Stop hating America so much. Your love of George Soro's only goes to show you hate America. Why would you take what a true Nazi like Soro's is and run withit. He compares all Republicans to Nazi's even though he is a card carrier himself." [emphasis added, it was hard to resist adding sics]

Among the grammatical errors, I'm especially impressed by the superfluous apostrophe in Soros (toward whom I've never expressed an opinion one way or the other in this blog, but he's obviously a Fox and Limbaugh whipping boy).

And another:

"Another Newsweek, Dan Rather hatchett Liberal Media Job. Move On.Org yeah thats a credible place. Lets see people said Swift Boat Vets truthful. Move On .Org big piece of manure. Bush win re-election Kerry crybabies keep crying." [emphasis added]

I could not have written a better parody myself. On the other hand, we have to get it on the mainstream media first before these rants are heard through the land. The status of that effort is still in doubt.

One of my favorite activities during this period of emphasis on The Downing Street Memo has been to check news.google.com for three stories. Here are the results at 8:15 est this morning:

"Downing Street Memo" -- 288 hits, only one from a "Major" source, and that source is FOX News!! A quick scan shows that most of the hits are from blogs and activist sites.
"Runaway Bride" --5,260 hits, "168 related" in the top major news story category, and a quick flip through the pages and pages of hits shows that most are from mainstream media outlets.
"Michael Jackson" -- 21,400 hits, "967 related" in the top major news story category, and a quick flip through the pages and pages and pages and pages of hits shows that most are from mainstream media outlets.

Hey Kids! Have Fun! Get Depressed! Click on the links yourself for an update of the totals! Does anyone doubt that this is a media problem even more than a problem with our government? Does anyone doubt that The Downing Street Memo would be a major issue for Americans if its contents were as well known as the Runafuckingwaybride's eyes and Michael (whose-last-hit-was-in-the-past-century) Jackson's nose?

Just asking,
True Blue Liberal

NEWS FLASH : MoveOn joins the fight for the Downing Street Memo!!!

Here's the e-mail I just received from MoveOn.org with the subject heading "Demand networks cover appalling Iraq memo"; it's useful for the e-mail addresses and telephone numbers:

Dear MoveOn member,
A London newspaper rocked British elections when it leaked a top intelligence official's report that President Bush was intent on invading Iraq long before he sought Congress' approval. Bush called Iraq an urgent threat, but the memo says "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."1 British officials are not denying the memo's accuracy, and a former senior American official called it "an absolutely accurate description of what transpired."2 This revelation nearly cost Prime Minister Tony Blair his re-election, and it was all over the British press. But American newspapers barely mentioned this new evidence that Bush twisted the facts to justify war. The major newspapers ran one or two stories rehashing the British reports. Worse, TV network news shows haven't covered the memo at all.3 Readers of the New York Times recently demanded coverage of the British memo, and the newspaper finally wrote a full story.4 We can do the same for network news.
Please call or email the nightly news programs you watch, at:
ABC World News Tonight
Phone: 212-456-4040
PeterJennings@abcnews.com
CBS Evening News
Phone: 212-975-3691
evening@cbsnews.com
NBC Nightly News
Phone: 212-664-4971
nightly@nbc.com
PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
Phone: 703-739-5000
newshour@pbs.org
Identify yourself as a viewer, then say something like:
"Please investigate and report on the British memo suggesting the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to support its plans to invade Iraq. We need to know what really happened. Thank you for your time."
It's important to track our impact. Please let us know you're calling at:
http://www.moveon.org/mediacorps/
britishmemo.html?id=5614-1457123-JGH6fGYJQ6ojVyJqzQjsfg&t=1
The American media's failure to question the Bush administration led to an unnecessary war. Now the media's failure to cover the war is making it impossible for Americans to unite behind an exit plan. This won't get better until we demand more coverage of the war.
Thank you for all that you do,
–Noah, Wes, Micayla, Matt and the MoveOn.org Team
Wednesday, June 1st, 2005

The new TBL Poll of the Week is Up! What's the most likely ultimate reaction to the Downing Street Memo?

Here's the brand-new Big Brass Alliance Edition of the TBL Poll of the Week. Vote here or in the sidebar:

What do you feel is the most likely result of the Downing Street Memo?
	Impeachment of the President
	Serious Congressional (and/or independent government) investigation
	Quick Congressional (and/or independent government) whitewash
	No Congressional action despite intense media pressure and interest
	No Congressional or Mainstream Media interest
	No immediate effect, but a keystone in the historical legacy of the second Bush
	A blip in the blogosphere and a minor footnote to history
	The What Street Memo? Never heard of it.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

See last week's poll here. You can still vote for the most appropriate name for our opponents on the right (at 9:30 on June 1, Radical Republicans leads with 24%, Neo-Conservative and Regressive are tied at 16%, Illiberal has 12%, Reactionary and Fundamentalist have 8%, and Red State, Right Wing, and Conservative are tied with 4% -- one commenter wrote in Asshats).