or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
February 06, 2008
Charles Lewis On Our Horrible, Horrible Political System
Charles Kaiser speaks with Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity about how everyone sucks who isn't named Charles. They also touch on the problems with our political system, which apparently are quite severe.
CHARLES K.: Did you see that thing about the 435 days of missing White House e-mails?
CHARLES L.: I've been astonished by the lack of coverage about this. The New York Times really needs to go into this. I said this to Tom Blanton, who runs the National Security Archive, a nonprofit at George Washington University. Blanton brought the court action about this. His center is the biggest single requester of Freedom of Information records in America today, and has been for years. I bumped into Tom Blanton the other day and I said, "Tom, this is unbelievable!" And he said, "It sure is." I said it reminds me of the 18.5-minute gap in the Watergate tape. And he looked at me and said, "Oh, no, this is much much worse: These are millions of White House e-mails. It is technically against the law to destroy these records. And of course the White House is saying it did not deliberately destroy them. This story should be the lead on the evening news."CHARLES K.: And it probably hasn't been on the evening news at all.
CHARLES L.: No.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at February 6, 2008 10:43 AMkarl Rove just joined Fox News....that says it.
Posted by: frances at February 6, 2008 11:06 AMWell, when IMPEACHMENT is not an option and crimes such as these are ingored by Congress---Thy Kingdom Has Come.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at February 6, 2008 12:10 PMWell, the obvious difference between the missing emails and Nixon's 18 minute gap is that Nixon was facing an actual opposition party. Not so with Bush. You can blame the media if you want to, but when have the Dems given the media anything to cover?
Reporters, generally speaking, are uncomfortable playing the role of opposition party. If someone in government (like, say, the Speaker of the House?) were willing to speak up about this or any one of a hundred other scandals, then the media might report on that.
Posted by: SteveB at February 6, 2008 02:42 PMIf someone in government (like, say, the Speaker of the House?) were willing to speak up about this or any one of a hundred other scandals, then the media might report on that.
Media ownership and dominance is the difference between now and then. Small media doesn't have a chance of making significant difference. But maybe blogs do.
I ask myself, why are the dems and republicans so much alike, so predominantly right, center right, extreme right? It's because the media mirror makes them so, like the flattering, thin mirrors in dressing rooms.
We are what we are told we are. You hear a story often enough, it rings true subliminally.
Posted by: Ted at February 6, 2008 09:37 PMAND THERE YOU HAVE NAN, facing a CORRUPT administrarion and a fairly compliant and therefore also CORRUPT Congress, 300,000,000 bitchy citizens at her back, YET NONE can seem to take the time to back her up with so much as a PHONECALL and help her to bring JUSTICE to the streets of AMERICA!!! (and you wonder why and how WE got here)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at February 6, 2008 10:31 PMWell, last February, when the Dems actually worked up the nerve to send Bush a war-funding bill with a withdrawal timetable, the press played plenty of attention to that, didn't they?
Then the Dems folded, and reporters figured out there was no point covering their protestations, because they didn't mean them, anyway.
Well, the NY Times, the Economist, and the FT all have a lot more credibility with me for news judgment than some random professional squawker. If it's a real story, what's the explanation these not-at-all timid organizations all fail to see its importance?
And the Economist is fiercely critical of Bush, not that you fools would know.
Posted by: xyz at February 7, 2008 08:45 AMOH, POOR POOR NANCY! She's just a babe in the woods and everyone is mean to her and she gets no support from anyone at all!!! Just terrible! If only we all called our congressperson every day on her behalf! POOR, POOR...POOR NAN! ALAS!
Jesus-fucking-Christ you pwoggies are stupid.
Posted by: AlanSmithee at February 7, 2008 10:20 AMYes, Alan, Mike Meyer speaks for all of us. We elected him spokesman at the last meeting.
Got a problem with that? Take it up with Mike, my spokesman.
Posted by: SteveB at February 7, 2008 11:16 AMDamn, nobody told me!!!
AlanSmithee: Have YOU called today, I HAVE. (1-202-225-0100)
Maybe Alan and xyz could start up a group blog, y'know, somewhere else.
Posted by: StO at February 7, 2008 02:25 PM
