Day: April 5, 2005

In this corner, the President of the United States, and in this corner, the (former) President of the United States.

Is there a real feud happening over a snub or is Drudge simply trying to stir things up and manufacture a presidential pre-pope funeral squabble?

According to Matt, Jimmy Carter claims he was “passed over”.

President Bush selected his father and Bill Clinton over Jimmy Carter for the official delegation attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the Carter Center claimed Late Tuesday.

“President Carter expressed to the White House a desire to attend the Pope’s funeral,” an official said.

Carter “was informed that the official delegation would be limited to just five people, and there were also others who were eager to attend.”

“The Carters always relish the memories of Pope John Paul II being a delightful personal guest at the White House in 1979, on a pope’s only visit to our nation’s capital city. Subsequently, they visited with His Holiness in the Vatican.”

But, published reports claim there was no intentional snub. (emphasis mine -ed.)

Former Presidents Bush and Clinton will accompany President Bush to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the White House said Tuesday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be part of the small official U.S. delegation, but former Presidents Carter and Ford will not.

President Bush and his wife, Laura, will lead the group representing the United States at the funeral on Friday, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

McClellan said the White House “reached out” to Carter, but he would not explain why Carter was not going along.

A spokesman at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Jon Moore, said Carter _ relishing the memories of two visits as president with the pontiff _ had told the White House he wanted to go to the funeral. Upon learning that the Vatican was limiting the U.S. delegation to five people and that “there were also others who were eager to attend,”Carter was “quite willing” to withdraw his request, Moore said.

“He and his wife Rosalynn are very pleased with the official delegation,” Moore said of Carter.

Fess up Matt.

UPDATE: NBC, ANDREA MITCHELL – Carter was told no former presidents were going to pope funeral.

Bill Nye the Science Guy has a new program being promoted by my local Seattle PBS TV station (KCTS) called, “The Eyes of Nye“. While the show website is typically cartoony in its design, the new program isn’t just targeted to kids. Bill Nye is going after adults too, with this revealing description.

“Bill is back with The Eyes of Nye, a more in-depth look at science topics that are making news, changing lives, and impacting policy.” (emphasis mine -ed.)

Aside from seeing Bill on episodes of “Almost Live“, I’ve not spent a lot of time watching his kids show. It is obviously very popular. I mean, any TV show that has its own drinking game has got to be exceptional.

Anytime I see a PBS produced program with the word “policy” in its description, I know what I’m in for. The telecast (or radio broadcast from NPR) will (99.99% of the time) permeate with a liberal slant, and any educational content will have to be filtered out from that perspective. It’s a sad reality really, since I enjoy watching most PBS documentaries and educational television. The production quality is always top notch (and it should be, given the millions in tax dollars gobbled up by public television each year).

It’s hard to tell if “The Eyes of Nye” is just another science related TV show, or if it’s just another vehicle for leftist propaganda. On the one hand, you’ve got episodes that deal space exploration, how electricity works, and the interoperability of molecules. But the next minute you’re faced with topics that include sex, addiction and cloning (not in that order). The topics themselves aren’t evil. They only become dangerous when paired with a covert leftist agenda. The slipping in of biased liberal thinking is an art perfected by those who run PBS, especially if one isn’t concentrating on the words that are used. Adults can miss this stuff, and kids are defenseless from it.

As for Bill Nye, he has been known to hang in Democratic party circles and is often hired on as the entertainer for events sponsored by liberal organizations. He received his indoctrination early, attending Sidwell Friends School, the Washington, D.C. institution made famous during the Clinton years when Bill and Hillary enrolled Chelsea there. I can’t say I’d be surprised if Mr. Nye came out as a flaming liberal.

As much as I’d like to give this show the benefit of the doubt, I have to continue to approach it and every “educational” program on television with the “Trust but Verify” standard. I’ll keep watching the program to see if my built-in liberalism detector picks up any propaganda. I sure hope we don’t witness “The Eyes of Nye” slip into the same trap which recently befell our friend Buster, who went looking for his two mommies. That would truly be a shame.

Bill, be sure to stick to factual science and leave any personal theories at home. Don’t let the suits at PBS shape your programming either. If you stick to the truth, you’ll live long and prosper. You’ll also be guaranteed a welcome entry into my home.

UPDATE: I had to shut down the comments section because a few socialist trolls couldn’t behave and carry on a calm, intelligent conversation. Pity.

MORE: I like the way La Shawn handles this problem…

Michael Totten sent an email today that’s worth reprinting in its entirety.

Spirit of America Founder Jim Hake and I landed in Beirut, Lebanon in the middle of the night and spent all day Tuesday talking with leaders of the democratic opposition.

What we’re doing here is raising money to help the opposition as they oust the Syrian military and intelligence personnel from the country, demand (and hopefully get) an international inquiry into the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, and hold truly free and fair elections in May without the interference of a foreign dictatorship.

We’re focusing our efforts on the residents of the semi-permanent tent-city that has been built on Martyr’s Square, a mere two blocks from Parliament, where the opposition leaders say they will continue to reside until their country is a sovereign liberal democracy. They need food. They need bottled water. They need blankets. And they need the eyes of the world.

You personally can help by donating as little as five dollars. Here is a chance for the American people, rather than the American government or military, to help those who live in a beautiful, diverse, and
sophisticated country fight for the freedom and human rights they once had, and that have been taken away by a foreign oppressive power. We can do this ourselves, and we can do it without violence.

Here’s the donation page:
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/96

If you could, please help spread the word on your own blog. It’s for a good cause and, unlike regime-change in Iraq, it’s non-partisan.

On a related note, while I’m here in the country I’m going to be blogging about what’s going on. And there’s a lot going on. I’ve already learned – just in one single day – a great deal that I haven’t read anything about anywhere in the media. In another day or so the Lebanon blog will be up and running at the Spirit of America site. I’ll be sure to give you the link as soon as it’s live.

Michael J. Totten
Spirit of America
http://michaeltotten.com

Support this if you can.

This weeks Carnival of the Vanities is up, over at INCITE.

But this seems to be particularly bad. ABCNews announced today that Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

“Almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer,” Jennings wrote. “I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated.”

Although lung cancer is the leading cause of death in industrialized nations, immunotherapy can boost survivability, according to Cancernet.

MORE: Jennings vows to continue.

STILL MORE: He tried to quit smoking.

Jennings did not anchor the newscast Tuesday (4/5/05) evening, but at the end of the World News Tonight, ABC aired a taped statement from the anchor. Jennings told viewers that he had tried to quit smoking 20 years ago, but he had taken the habit up again. “I was weak and smoked over 9/11,” he said.

“Certainly, it’s been a long time, and I hope it goes without saying that a journalist who doesn’t value, deeply, the audience’s loyalty should be in another line of work,” Jennings said, acknowledging that his voice sounded hoarse. “Finally, I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, ‘OK, Doc, when does the hair go?’ “

Jennings had told CNN’s Larry King in a 1994 interview that he used to smoke “like a chimney.”

“My kids were on my case to quit. … Some of the best pictures of me as a kid … (were taken during) the moon landing. There am I doing the graveyard shift in a sports jacket, which would embarrass me now, with my sideburns down to here and a cigarette in my hand. On television! How times have changed.”

Read Peter’s email sent to staff at ABC News.