Last week, the New York Times published an op-ed by Barack Obama, outlining Obama’s Plan For Iraq. It was bound to be followed by a rebuttal from John McCain. And it was– sort of.

McCain’s editorial response was submitted and quickly rejected by the New York Times Op-Ed editor, David Shipley. In his response to the McCain team, Shipley states that he’s “not going to be able to accept [the] piece as currently written,” but that he’d be “pleased” to look over a different draft.

What does that really mean? Is that editorial decision being made based on policy or content? McCain’s camp is quick to point out that Shipley served in the Clinton Administration and that the real problem is that he doesn’t agree with McCain’s policies toward Iraq and that reworking the draft would be useless unless it came with a change in policy. Full Article »

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s got a full load on his hands between media rounds and bank deposits while promoting his new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. The book is a scathing indictment of the Bush administration by one of the chief pitchmen for a massive, flag-draped bag of lies that enabled the hijacking of an entire nation during three of the most crucial years this generation has ever seen. If that strikes you as contradictory, hypocritical even, then buckle the fuck up, because there’s a lot more to be found under this rock.

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Break out the propane and carcass, fill the pool, it’s Memorial Day. While the more traditional towns are holding parades and ceremonies to honor the million American servicemen and women who have given their lives for this country, President Bush thoughtfully asked Americans to pay tribute to veterans by pausing today for “a moment of remembrance.”

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I spent this past weekend sightseeing in Washington DC. Had a blast, but let me spare you the tourism and skip right to something interesting. Being in marketing, one thing I always notice when I travel is the advertising, and how it changes from location to location, and gathering place to gathering place. In DC, I saw a lot of ads for seemingly indestructible Panasonic “Toughbook” laptops targeted to the military sector, with witty block letter press conference messaging such as “Legally, we cannot say it can take a bullet” and “Legally, we cannot say it knows where Navy SEAL team three is.” Meanwhile, venture into Philadelphia or Detroit, and Pepsi’s multi-million dollar ad campaign for whatever new color Mountain Dew comes in presents its sell messaging encoded in street lingo, spraypainted on a brick wall. Consider yourself profiled by marketing, based on where you’re standing, at all times.

The most interesting ad campaign I encountered in DC was an anonymous one asking a compelling question: “Do you own a US oil company?”

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I’d like to post in response to a comment on Johnny’s “Mission Accomplished!” piece, where it was pointed out that Bill O’Reilly claimed that we never invaded Iraq, despite multiple instances of both President Bush and O’Reilly himself stating very clearly that we did.

soundman07 said:
“Agreed [Bill O'Reilly and Paul Wolfowitz are "Totally Full Of Shit"], but so is Olbermann, and you won’t see him crucified here.”

At this, I gasped. Well not really- that’d be totally gay- but I mean, I definitely don’t want people thinking that we’d ever turn a blind eye to someone being completely full of shit just because we agree with what they say most of the time.
So I immediately did two things. First, I welcomed soundman07 (and anyone out there) to supply us with any evidence of anyone being full of shit so we could give them a fair and equal crucifixion. Then, I started doing some research. Because I didn’t want to wait for someone else to do my detective work for me (in the spirit of true journalism), I set out to find examples of Olbermann lying.

I found a little bit right away. Full Article »