Friday, May 15, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 5:50 PM
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17 comments:

Porter Melmoth said...

1. Why was Miss Julie (McCarthy) given the assignment of front line duty in Pakistan? I thought her thang was S. America. What happened to the honorable Philip Reeves? I'm hoping that he told National Puffball Radio where to stick it, and returned to BBC. You CAN go home again, Phil.

2. I heard Gwen-Gwen (Thompkins) give some report from Nairobi the other day. She sounded so 'hopped up' on the air, I was sure she was mainlining speed or something. I wonder what the level of drug abuse (both prescription and illicit) amongst Nationalistic Propaganda Radicals in faraway places is?

3. Have a great weekend. For those of you who plan to ruin it by exposing yourself to Scootie's Sermonization (TM) and Auntie Liane's aggressively false modesty, I, well, I'm sorry. Me? Well, my dog needs me more than I need uNPR.

5/15/09, 6:17 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Speaking of my dog, he's very intuitive. Once, upon hearing Steve Inspeep's maniacal 'laugh', my dog let out a fine basso-profundo growl, and looked at me with a droll expression, as if to say, 'Are they KIDDING with this crap?'

My dog: he's got good taste. I trust him.

5/15/09, 6:22 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Some Swat and other thoughts over at yrs trly's Yakkings:

http://yakkingmelmoth.
blogspot.com/

5/15/09, 6:51 PM
bg!pnk!fzz!bnn! said...

Nice to know your canine pal can spot a bona-fide knobnik when he hears one, Port.

Good weekend to ye as well, where I'll be in a somewhat kindred place.

5/15/09, 7:15 PM
gopol said...

What if doggie needs a moist flushable wipe? Scott's issues are snot issues.

5/15/09, 10:59 PM
biggerbox said...

Simon had a pathetic opinion piece on WESAT this morning, comparing one statement of Miss California "opposite marriage" Prejean and one of Obama, and then accusing those who think the two have different positions of some kind of projection based on emotional identification with the speaker. What a crock.

He really has decided that the election of Obama means he won't even try to hold his conservative beliefs to one side while hosting. He's ridiculous.

5/16/09, 7:51 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh you critics just keep right on carping about NPR and their excellent broardcasters.

Maybe you don't see the value of Scott Simon talking to Kathy Lee Gifford.

I see it as a dialouge between intellectual equals. That's why Fox has NPR envy!

edk

5/16/09, 9:16 AM
Archtype said...

Planet Money has a fine rationale for why we should not Audit The F'ing Fed.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/14/pm_stress_tests/

I would think most sane people would see the need to audit a secret cabal controlling our money, but not NPR.

5/16/09, 9:46 AM
larry, dfh said...

And right after the stupid bit about same-gender marriage mentioned by biggerbox, was the wanster, tellin' us all about pelosi: you see, there are only 2 ways to explain it, either she's lying or she knew and did nothing about it. That's it, folks. No mention of bob graham's interview where he flat-out said the dates when meetings were alleged to have have occurred were WRONG. No, either pelosi's lying or she did nothing (even though she was MINORITY leader at the time). Williams is a lazy, dishonest p.o.s. And his whole rational for fighting the release of the torture photos was standard repub. talking points. As with all news not complimentary to the militarists, everyone in the M.E. has already seen them or their equivalents through Al Jazeera or some other news source much more legitimate that npr. Contrary to what williams stated, the intention of blocking the publication of the photos is to protect the torturers, you know, the ones who are threatening those with the power to release the pics. Neither williams nor anyone else at npr is concerned with the safety of U.S. military personnel; it's not about them, it never was about them.

5/16/09, 10:13 AM
Anonymous said...

Dead on, Larry

Right out of the gate there was Juan Williams declaring Pelosi a liar or a hypocrite. Mystery solved. Game over. Well, yes, in a sense -- I just turned it off. I find I've been doing that a lot lately or looking for alternate programming: The World instead of ATC; The Takeaway in place of ME. I have problems with Hockenberry, but at least he can't pull off Inskeep's ability to condescend and display unctuous sycophancy simultaneously.

5/16/09, 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...

No mention of bob graham's interview where he flat-out said the dates when meetings were alleged to have have occurred were WRONG."I hate to appear to be defending Williams, but I would just point out that there are significant inconsistencies in Pelosi's story.

for example, at the end of April, she claimed that

"We were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,"

She is now claiming something different:
"we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used

Also, I would not say Graham is the most reliable "alibi" for Pelosi. He's trying to cover his own ass.

Besides, whether Pelosi was informed by CIA that waterboarding was being and/or had been used when she was briefed back in 2002 is largely irrelevant.

First, if Pelosi learned back then that waterboarding was among the enhanced interrogation methods that the CIA was considering, that should immediately have sent up a red flag. the very least she should have done is kept a vigilant eye on the ball and kept asking questions of the CIA on a regular basis.

Second, lots of information has come out since that 2002 briefing to indicate that the CIA and others have been torturing prisoners and "rendering" them to countries that use torture.

According to Washington Post, Top Pelosi Aide Learned Of Waterboarding in 2003 "A Democratic source acknowledged yesterday that it is almost certain that Pelosi would have learned about the use of waterboarding from Sheehy[the aide]" -- end quote

About this, pelosi has said:

"It was my understanding at that time that Congresswoman Harman filed a letter in early 2003 to the CIA to protest the use of such techniques, a protest with which I concurred," Pelosi said in the Dec. 9, 2007, statement. -- from above Washington post article


That's it? "It is my understanding?" She was pparently not very interested in what came of harman's letter or even whether she had sent it.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that Pelosi did very little to find out what the CIA was actually doing and when she did find out, she did very little to stop it (other than possibly "registering a complaint" throug ha third party)

Admittedly, that may demonstrate incompetence rather than complicity. Either way, Pelosi has shown herself unfit to serve as Speaker.

Pelosi apparently thinks that "blissful ignorance" is some sort of excuse. It's not. Above all else, it's her job to ask questions and to never take what she gets for answers at face value. On the latter counts, Pelosi has failed miserably.

That makes her a miserable failure s Speaker.

5/16/09, 12:00 PM
Anonymous said...

The focus on what Nancy Pelosi knew about waterborading and when she knew it is little more than a freak show to divert our attention from what the American media do not want us focused on:

The primary purpose for the use of waterborading and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques (torture) was NOT to obtain information to prevent an attack on America or its allies, but to obtain "confirmation" of a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein.

read The Media’s Collective Yawn Over Torture for War" by Joy-Ann ReidIn other words, the "enhanced interrogation" (torture) program was a fishing expedition planned and outfitted by Dick Cheney and perhaps the President himself to "establish" a link between al Qida and saddam Hussein. It was created to bolster the primary rationale for invading Iraq: to prevent the possibility that Saddam Hussein would give WMD to al Qiada.

Here's what Colin Powell's deputy Lawrence Wilkerson has said:
... what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002--well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion--its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.

So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.

5/16/09, 2:30 PM
larry, dfh said...

What nancy pelosi did or did not do as minority leader is not the point of discussions about who tortured whom when. Since then, her performance as Speaker has not been stellar. She would have paid hell had she had more courage and morality as minority leader, had she done the right thing. I would have liked her more, though.
I believe Hockenberry was the original host of t.o.t.n. ('88,'90-something like that). He was good in that gig. I think years of being kicked around by mgt. has taken it's toll. It is good to see that he can still find work.

5/16/09, 8:53 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Juan Williams is either:

(a) a misogynistic pig, or
(b) a journalistic hack.

I have a border collie and he is smarter than NPR dishonor students Scott Simon and Juan Williams.

5/18/09, 12:24 PM
gopol said...

It must have started at an early age for Juan Williams. His parents and teachers would address him by name, but all he heard was "Wah Wah". Then George Harrison's song of the same title and he felt so rejected - been trying to overcome it ever since.

Wah-wah
I don't need no wah-wah
And I know how sweet life can be
If I keep myself free from the wah-wah
I don't need no wah-wah

5/18/09, 12:54 PM
glib!klinp!fzzuy!bnnuy! said...

"Sittin' in a Yah-Yah waiting for my Wah-Wah... huh?"

(or suntin' like that)

5/18/09, 5:40 PM
Anonymous said...

I think the CIA compromised as many people as they could by "briefing" them about this. I have always felt the Patriot Act and other security state laws were designed to neuter opposition within the American political/social state.

edk

5/18/09, 5:57 PM

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