PunditGuy

Bush and Koizumi do Graceland.

Remember this story from May 11, 2006?

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

Well, USA Today released this little tidbit just now.

On May 11, USA TODAY reported that the National Security Agency, with the cooperation of several of America’s leading telecommunications companies, had compiled a database of domestic phone call records in an effort to monitor terrorist activity.

Several days later, BellSouth and Verizon specifically denied that they were among the companies that had contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records.

The denial was unexpected.

Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database.

So now, what can we conclude from this? We now know that the “massive domestic calls record database” isn’t so massive. In fact, this correction from USA Today calls into question their entire investigation into the program.

Yet, the damage has already been done. Members of Congress, others in the Democratic Party, and the Left dutifully parroted the shocking magnitude of the USA Today story on Sunday morning talk shows, from the well of the Senate, in editorial pages and throughout the blogosphere. Today’s muted correction/denial does little to change that fact.

What’s being done to prevent this kind of inaccurate reporting from being transferred as fact in the future? Nothing, I suspect, and that’s outrageous. The solution seems to fall at the feet of those on the right side of the blogosphere. Our responsibility is to immediately call into question the obvious anti-American, anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Conservative investigative reporting from the MSM. If what’s being reported is verifiably true, we should acknowledge it and push those involved to right their course. But, if reports are based on dubious facts, and if the news gathering process has been compromised by a political agenda, the reporters and the upper brass need to be called on the carpet (ala the New York Times today). The blogosphere did that a little bit in the immediate aftermath of the NSA phone records story, but we did so defensively. That’s a natural first instinct. An offensive approach was needed then, and it’s needed the next time this kind of thing happens. We can do better. 

Ponder this.

Nancy Pelosi released this statement following the U.S. Supreme Court decision on trying Guantanamo detainees.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision reaffirms the American ideal that all are entitled to the basic guarantees of our justice system. This is a triumph for the rule of law.

“The rights of due process are among our most cherished liberties, and today’s decision is a rebuke of the Bush Administration’s detainee policies and a reminder of our responsibility to protect both the American people and our Constitutional rights. We cannot allow the values on which our country was founded to become a casualty in the war on terrorism.”

Translation…

‘If you plan terrorist attacks against America, if you kill Americans in a successful terrorist attack, if you kill our troops in Iraq or on any battlefield, we, the Democratic Party, will defend your right to be defended.’

In Pelosi’s world, that means these guys (if still alive) would have deserved the same U.S. Constitutional rights you and I share.

Do you agree?

 

Heh.

Defamer congratulates the crack team of web programmers at ABC who, in less than 24 hours, successfully erased every mention of Star Jones from their website. Apparently though, the web guys over at Star’s site aren’t nearly as efficient.

UPDATE: NOT SO FAST…Star found in back alleys of ABC.COM

I’m not kidding

Via the BBC: Lion mutilates 42 midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight. In the end, 28 are dead.

A TV news reporter covering a story about a man wanted for murder is suddenly surprised when the suspect casually walks up to him. The surreal event happened live on the air.

It’s a sad day in Brownsville, Texas. RIP

Mother Sheehan has announced that she’ll be fasting in protest from July 4th until September 2nd. Does anyone know where a guy can get a couple hundred MRE’s and an Army helicopter for a strategically placed food drop a week into Cindy’s fast? You know, just when she’s gettin really hungry?

I’m sorry, but do we really need to see this kinda stuff? Britney tries to pull off her version of a Demi.