"I am trying to make sure that his statements by him are answered. Don’t you think that’s important?" Obama shot back, while walking away.
When Zeleny yelled a follow up question suggesting the Illinois senator had not answered the question, Obama fired back angrily, "Don’t try cheap stunts like that."
Obama then walked away and shook hands with the mass of voters that surrounded him.
A few minutes later, Obama came back and confronted Zeleny again.
"I will answer your question though off the record, would you like to talk off the record?" Obama asked. Zeleny refused to go off the record and then motioned toward the gaggle of TV cameras gathered around him.
(Emphasis added)
"Shot back"? "Fired back angrily"?
Now take a look at the video and see if, in your view, ABC News accurately characterized the exchange:
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration’s position that the world community viewed Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.
"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Mr. Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al Qaeda or both.
"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."
Named in the study along with Mr. Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
Mr. Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda, the study found. That was second only to Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.
Now, I’m not one to stick my neck out for the Bush Administration, but I wonder exactly how many of these statements were knowlingly misleading or false. The Bush folk may just have been stupid or engaged in wishful thinking, both of which lack the element of duplicity. Unfortunately, I can’t get at a copy of the study, seeing as how the website is down at the moment (probably due to everyone trying to get the study).
It’s always sad when they die young. And always the cliche — young successful male actor, dead in his New York apartment [UPDATE: apparently is was Mary-Kay Olsen’s apartment], drugs likely to blame, yada yada yada.
UPDATED THOUGHTS: This strikes me as odd timing. Sure, he hasn’t done well so far, but he’s got some delegates in his column (see sidebar at right) — more than Giuliani and Ron Paul. He’s also got some money. Maybe he’s just disappointed that he didn’t do well in South Carolina (Thompson being from the South and all). Still, one would have thought he would ride it out a little longer, unless (as I suspect) his heart really wasn’t in it in the first place.
The thought of winning Best in Show however had never really crossed my mind until it happened. It was such a proud moment especially when it was conformed that Ken Ashford, the Himalayan Dwarf’s creator, was the only other breeder in the country to have won BiS at a specialist club show with a Himmy. Within the next few years I won 4 more Best in Show awards with different bucks….
Apparently, there is a guy with my name who breeds Himalayan Dwarfs. They’re a breed of rabbit…
When George Bush and Republicans talked about privatizing social security a while back, they were talking about putting it in the hands of Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and the other financial geniuses behind the current economic crisis.
"Spanning all cultures and eras, roughly one man in every 100 is born a clinical psychopath, as well as one woman in every 300. They are so common that every person reading this sentence almost certainly knows one personally; indeed, a significant number of readers are likely psychopaths themselves."
Take this test (and read the accompanying article) to see if you’re one of them.
On the sidebar at the right, I’ve brought back the "2008 Election Market" information, showing where the candidates are currently trading in the "prediction market" (Intrade).
I’ve also added, courtesy of MyDD, the current delegate count for each party’s race. This is rather complicated, as many delegates are uncommitted. And then you have the countroversy regarding the Michigan delegates — delegates who went to HIllary (Michigan is a winner-take-all state), but which may not be recognized by the Democratic National Committee because of the controversy involving Michigan moving up the date of its primary. [UPDATE: Apparently, there’s a lot of inconsistency in delegate counts]
But anyway, it’s all there.
By the way, this post at The Talent Show — Thoughts On The Democratic Party — is just about what I would write if I had the time.
Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.
The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body’s ability to repair damage suffered during the day.
The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom – surveys suggest – use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.
I don’t know as much about economics as I should, but just listening to the radio on the way in to work — with the news about the fed lowering the interest rate, and the world markets taking severe dips — I really am nervous. I guess everybody is.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — U.S. stocks plunged at the start of trading Tuesday, with investors ignoring the Federal Reserve’s emergency rate cut to join the global selloff on recession fears.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 400 points. The Nasdaq composite index fell 5 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3.5 percent.
UPDATE: Seems to be rebounding, so I guess I’ll put up a widget:
FURTHER THOUGHTS: Okay. Like I said, I’m no expert on these things, but I fail to understand how a tax rebate is going to help the economic woes. President Bush and all the candidates (with the exception of Edwards) seem to be pushing this as some sort of solution to "kick start" the economy.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I could use another $500 in my pocket. Everyone could. But there are a number of issues with this:
(1) Do we actually get it? I mean, will the government send me a check for $500, or will the rebate be a tax writeoff, so it’s not like I actually see the money? Because if it’s not an actual check, I don’t see that people are going to spend it.
(2) When would we get it? If this is going to take months, as I suspect it is, then it’s not going to be in time to turn this economic downturn.
(3) Doesn’t the whole "rebate" plan operate on the assumption that people are going to take that money and buy stuff with it, thereby stimulating the economy? Well, what’s the basis of that assumption? Maybe they’ll just pay off their debt. Or maybe they’ll buy Wiis, and stimulate the Japanese economy.
(4) Isn’t this economic downturn global? As I understand it, the recession has been driven by the subprime mortgage mess — but a lot of foreign banks are holding bad debt because of this, aren’t they? And isn’t the dollar very weak overseas, so there’s no demand for U.S. exports? How is a rebate going to help there?
