Let's Hope the Bancroft Family Doesn't Sell the WSJ to News Corp

Fallows explains why the sale of the Wall Street Journal to Murdoch's News Corp is bad news for democracy:

. . . the press has cultural, social, and political effects beyond the purely commercial. But its managers are being forced to make decisions on the same focused quarterly-returns basis that guides choices at Merrill Lynch or General Motors. Sometimes those pressures for maximized return (and rising stock price) make news organizations more efficient. But in general they weaken or destroy the parts of news systems that affect people in any role other than as shareholders - that is, as readers, viewers, voters, citizens.

More on the ethical argument against the sale here (Columbia Journalism Review).

Voter Caging

On PBS's NOW, a story broken by BBC correspondent Greg Palast:

It seems that in 2004 the Republican Party had a plan to challenge the voter registrations of thousands of newly registered voters. They sent out junk mail letters to newly registered voters, and if these letters were marked "Return to Sender" they intended to use this as evidence to challenge the legality of the votes of new voter registrants (who did not vote Republican). They were targeting African American voters with these letters -- most blacks vote Democratic. Also targeted were overseas servicemen. This is called "Voter Caging."

Insiders say there was a plan to use the power of the Department of Justice to challenge newly registered voters. It turns out that at least one of 9 attorneys fired by the Bush administration -- David Iglesias -- had been asked to investigate liberal voter-registration advocacy groups such as Acorn. Effectively, Iglesias claims he was fired for his refusal to prosecute bogus allegations of voter fraud (for more background to this story, see this Jotman post). This fired attorney is convinced the White House was behind this illegal scheme to suppress African Americans from voting.

This Man's their Dam

One man serves as dam, holding back the floodwaters of justice; investigations into Bush Administration criminality. That man is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Bush's legal buddy since his days as Governor of Texas. Bush cannot fire Gonzales, because if he does, the US Congress will not confirm another such stalwart friend of Bush to serve as chief law enforcement officer of the US. Rather, Congress would confirm a person of integrity to the position of Attorney General; a person willing to approve investigations by the US Department of Justice into allegations of Bush White House crimes. So from Bush and Cheney's standpoint, Alberto Gonzales is irreplaceable, indispensable. The man's their dam.

Yesterday, Gonzales faced a panel of US Senators. As Josh Marshall notes, Gonzales was "basically called a liar to his face by the top Democrat and Republican on the committee." TPM has compiled a video of the "ugliest parts" of this remarkable spectacle posted here. How long will the dam hold?

Violent Anti-Coup Protest in Bangkok Targets Prem Tinsulanonda

Some arrests and violence at a recent protest in Bangkok. Thousands of Thais gathered outside the house of General Prem Tinsulanonda, the head of the King's privy council. Prem is believed by some to have orchestrated the September 19 2006 coup d'etat which ousted elected Thai Prime Minister Thaksin (which was blogged live at Jotman.com).

It appears that police actions may have precipated the violence. Money quote from a Thai source (via the Pundit):

"We did not expect a violent reaction," said Weng Tojirakan, one of the leaders of the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) that organised the demonstration. "This shows that we have hit a sensitive spot in attacking Prem, because they have reacted so badly."

Dr Weng claimed the violence broke out when hundreds of police rushed the demonstration "like water from a burst dam," in an attempt to arrest the ringleaders who were making speeches outside Prem's house. The crowd prevented the arrests by fighting off the police and throwing rocks and plastic bottles at them.

Bangkok Pundit examins the protest and analyzes the Thai media's coverage of it. Here is a link to my own previous posts and research on General Prem Tinsulanonda.

Update: Pundit has a video indicating under-reported questionable behavior on the part of the police.

Propaganda Headlines -- progress noted at CNN

I have updated this post which concerns the most recent distortion of truth by Bush.

Some Friendly Advice for French President Nicolas Sarkozy

The new government of France claims to have identified a problem: the French think too much. But it looks to me like France's leaders are going about solving the problem the wrong way. The NY Times reports:

In proposing a tax-cut law last week, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde bluntly advised the French people to abandon their “old national habit.”

“France is a country that thinks,” she told the National Assembly. “There is hardly an ideology that we haven’t turned into a theory. We have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves.”

Citing Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.

Making speeches citing de Tocqueville is no way fix France's "thinking problem." If the new leaders of France sincerely want French people to think less, I suggest they look into launching a French version of Fox News. That's the tried and proven means of turning citizens into uncritical thinkers.

President Sarkozy ought to give Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch a call. Perhaps Murdoch could also be talked into buying Le Monde.

TERRORIZE (also TERRORISE): v. create and maintain a feeling of terror in.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I believe we're entering a period this summer of increased risk. We've seen a lot more public statements from Al Qaeda. I mean, there are a lot of ways you could speculate about -- or a lot of reasons you could speculate about to have at. But one thing that occurs to me is that they're trying -- they feel a little more comfortable in raising expectations.

All of these things give me kind of a gut feeling that we are in a period of -- not that I have a specific threat, you know, that I have in mind right now, but that we are entering a period of increased vulnerability.

- from the CNN Transcript

Fallows has an amusing take on the Secretary's attitude here. And a more serious reflection here.

CNN and Bush's Irrelevant Message

"The same people that attacked us on September 11th is the crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims, trying to stop the advance of a system based on liberty" said George W. Bush, fabulously stretching the truth.

Update July 25: The president has declassified some intelligence to bolster the above claim. But the old information he provided is irrelevant to the present situation in Iraq:

CNN's Michael Ware, who is based in Baghdad, said the fact that al Qaeda in Iraq is part of the broader terror network has never been in question. He called Bush's speech "an ancient history lesson."

In the past, I have criticized CNN for giving its stories headlines that serve to reinforce Bush Administration spin (I call this "Propaganda Headline Syndrome"). But this particular story caught my attention because the link-headline -- Bush Accused of Simplifying Threats in Iraq -- shows that someone at CNN has finally declined to give a CNN story the usual Propaganda Headline. But it's too early to celebrate.

If you click on the link, you will discover that the actual story-headline is -- as usual -- a Propaganda Headline: Bush defends Iraq war, details threat from al Qaeda. As I have noted before, this kind of headline serves to reinforce Bush Admin spin in the minds of readers: Bush spin-doctors count on the US media to give White House rebuttals headlines that regurgitate the tortured logic of the Bush Administration. For example, they still try to link the Iraq war to the 9/11 attacks.

It's good to to see a CNN webmaster has declined to serve the Bush Administration as a propagandist. If only CNN editors would wake up to the fact they allow themselves to be used.