Month: January 2005

I’ve seen some hate mail in my day, but man, this takes the cake.

Kerry to meet with French president, via AP.

PARIS – Sen. John Kerry will meet Friday with French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. and French officials said.

The Massachusetts Democrat who lost the November election to incumbent President Bush has relatives in France and speaks French.

Kerry’s stop in Paris was part of a trip to Europe and the Middle East, the U.S. Embassy in Paris said Thursday. Kerry was also to meet with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

I can only imagine the trash Bush talk that went on in private between John and Jacques. Better yet, what “deals” were made?

Via The Boston Globe:

HERE’S THE new Democratic Party slogan: We stand for nothing but victory.

Or, as Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The New York Times: “Some people argue about old Democrats and new Democrats. I’m a Vince Lombardi Democrat. Winning is everything.”

And this gem from well known leftist Donna Brazile…

“As a party, we have a large tent, but our basic values will remain. The Democratic Party’s problem is not what we stand for, as much as how we communicate our values.”

Wrap it up and tie a big red bow around it. It’s the WAY we communicate, it’s not WHAT we communicate.

The Democrats have a LONG way to go…

Then take the Rathergate Pop Quiz. And yes, this will count against your final grade.

Via Wired:

For all the press that bloggers have received for revolutionizing journalism by bringing Gutenberg’s printing press to the digital masses, when push comes to shove, journalists who operate personal weblogs face an inherent conflict of interest. In the end, it’s the blogs that usually get short shrift.

Read the whole thing.

That’s Video Blogging, and the main stream media is picking up on the topic. Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal featured an article on the subject, and now BBC/Public Radio International/WGBH’s “The World” follows suit. Listen to the report here.

Actually, this came out Monday, but I didn’t get to it until today.

John Fund:

A stolen election in Washington state? Not if bloggers can help it.

The new media–talk radio, bloggers and independent watchdog groups–have followed up their success in exposing Dan Rather’s use of phony memos by showcasing another scandal: Washington state’s bizarre race for governor, which features a vote count so close and compromised it allows Florida to retire the crown for electoral incompetence. If Democrat Christine Gregoire, who leads by 129 votes and is scheduled to take the office Wednesday, eventually has to face a new election, it will have been in large part because of the new media’s ability to give the story altitude before it reached the courts.

Fund also mentions Stefan Sharkansky, founder of Soundpolitics.com, a blog that’s been all over this scandal from the beginning. Stefan got additional press in the Seattle PI today.

…to Ann Althouse.

That’s the suggestion of Heather Mac Donald, who says that He’s gone too far this time. 

Available at finer bookstores near you – “Inspector Dan Rather“.