Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Uncle Dale, you asked for an example of Bill O'Reilly liying...

Today's quote from El Presidente Terrible:

"I think war is a dangerous place."
--Washington, D.C.; May 7, 2003


In a conversation I had with my uncle a few weeks back, he informed me how evenhanded and well rounded Bill "winner of two Peabody awards" O'Reilly is. I quickly responded with, "He sucks. That guy lies more than your mother get's drunk and falls down the stairs."

Of course, I then realized that I was insulting my own grandmother, who has never, at least to my knowledge, gotten drunk and fallen down the stairs.

Actually, none of that happened. And when I say "none of it" I am refering to what I said about his mother. I'm sure I said something about Bill sucking and being a liar, but I don't remember exactly what.

Anyway, Dale asked for an example of him lying, and it was neither the time nor the place to get into politics with him. However, Dale, I now provide you with an example of Bill lying as reported by MSNBC's Keith Olberman, and reported on the wonderful website MediaMatters.org:

From the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: "We segue now into our nightly roundup of celebrity and entertainment news, "Keeping Tabs." And it turns out the 2005 Super Bowl was not entirely scandal-free. This year's wasn't about the commercials, the halftime show or even the Philadelphia Eagles' pathetic clock management. It was about the Super Bowl program and Bill O'Reilly. The Fact or Fiction host and noted loofah user wrote the so-called end piece of the score card sold at yesterday's little game. He waxed poetic about the inspiration that his own football career at Marist College in New York provided observing that he once punted a ball backwards. But that, quoting here, "I won the national punting title for my division as a senior." O'Reilly concludes that "I guess you could say the end zone was the beginning of the no-spin zone."

But Mr. O'Reilly has done a little spinning of his own here. Others might call it resume padding. The football office at Marist told me today that football was not a varsity sport there until 1978 -- seven years after O'Reilly graduated. When he played, it was a so-called club sport where players paid all their own expenses, and schedules and, most importantly, statistical record keeping were haphazard.

So when he says he was the top punter in his division in the country in 1970, it does not mean what it sounds like. He was not in the NCAA Division I or II or the smaller-college NAIA Division I or Division II. O'Reilly in Marist played in something called the National Club Football Association. So writing in the Super Bowl program that you won the punting championship in your division would be like me writing in one of my articles in one of the World Series programs that I led the nation's high school baseball players in on-base percentage in 1973.

I did, too. My on-base percentage that season was 1,000. I came to bat once and got hit in the backside with a pitch."

So, Bill is not only the winner of two Peabody awards, but also a championship punter, as well as the leader of the successful boycot of French products?

What a swell guy...

-Your move Dale

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

*Sniff* *Sniff* You smell that?

Today’s quote from President Bush:

“I want to thank you for coming to the White House to give me an opportunity to urge you to work with these five senators and three congressmen, to work hard to get this trade promotion authority moving. The power that be, well most of the power that be, sits right here.”

--Washington, D.C.; June 18, 2001


On to the news…

I get my news from a few sources. The first is NPR's Morning Edition on my drive to work. The second is various talk radio shows I listen to during the day while I’m at work. The third is various web sites I browse in spare moments while at work to catch any big headlines. The fourth is NPR All Things Considered on my drive home from work. Sometimes I catch NPR’s Market Watch if I’m at work late enough.

On a crazy day for me, such as today, it’s easy for me to not have a chance to catch any of these. I listened to Morning Edition on the way to work. Once I got to work though, it was a crazy day and I was in and out of my office all day. So, I wasn’t able to listen or read about to much. I’m sort of out of the loop.

However, I did come across this story on Time.Com. I found it pretty interesting and disgusting. It’s hard though, because I don’t want to be angry at the troops over there. I know there are to many things they are asked to do they cannot control. I have to always remind myself that there is a chain of command and it is those calling the shots at the Defense Department at those running the civil things in Irag that are to blame for these items. This sort of stuff should be happening on the US’s watch. Back in the day we could say, “Hey, we don’t mess with this sort of stuff. We’re the US. If we catch you, we’ll take care of you. We might like not doing it, but we will.” We can no longer say things like this and I find it unfortunate. The US should always be able to say that, and until recently I always thought we would be able to.

-Awww crap

Monday, February 07, 2005

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Today's quote from President Bush:

"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world--you know, people focus on the process and not results."
--Washington, D.C.; May 29th, 2003


Been gone for a while for several reasons. Some good. Some bad.

On to the news....

It appears as though Howard Dean is the sole candidate left for the DNC Chair. I think this is great. For one, it will force many of the Democrats who think the answer to our party's problems is to become "Republican lite" to finally just switch over to the other side altogether. On the other hand, he is in for some fights since his beliefs are a bit more liberal than many beltway Democrats. However, he will provide something our party has been lacking for many many years, originality.

Dean has the ability to get people energized about things. Terry just never had that ability. he spoke and no one really listened. Dean speaks, instant buzz. He has personality. He has wit. He has a bit of a temper. This is a guy people enjoy listening to, enjoy watching, and enjoy arguing with. In other words, he is everything Terry isn't.

Bush also came out with his budget today. In an amazing twist he promised to double projects to help homeless people, promised aide to schools in urban areas so they can fund crucial after school programs, stated they want to help make Veteran's Benefits better and cheaper for vets, and want to help give money to Police, Fire, and Rescue so the front lines officers will be more able to handle problems with they arise. Oh, wait a second here... my bad, he said he wants to cut all of these or otherwise give them less money. "The president is striving to keep a campaign promise to rein in government spending and halve the federal deficit in five years," says this LA Times article. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly what deficit figures the White House was referring to since they use several different sets from several different think tanks to technically never lie about what they are saying. Just remember, compassionate conservatism means cutting social programs so that the rich can keep their tax cuts.

-Word