Say it isn't so Dave. Shameful.

We need Trekkie and Obi-Wan to clarify this one for us. It must be a mistake in context and an error in the transcript with an ad hominem attack on top of a cheap shot.

Johnny,

I'm stunned at this. If it's an NIE that Libby was given permission to leak, rather than info about Valerie Plame, then this story isn't just being misreported by Olbermann, but the entire media.

Maybe I'm naive, but it's hard for me to believe that could happen.

Oh much of the tv media have thoroughly confused the issue, as have the blue blogs, editorial writers, etc. But the wording of the letter is clear. For example, here's CNN. I don't know how they handled this on the air, but their website clearly states:

In a letter to Libby's lawyers, obtained by CNN, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said it is his understanding that Libby testified he was "authorized to disclose information about the National Intelligence Estimate to the press by his superiors."... A legal source involved in the case tells CNN that Libby did not testify to and has never suggested that anyone in the administration -- including Cheney -- authorized disclosing the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

At least on the web, CNN got it right. Fox got it right. For all I know, other shows on MSNBC may have gotten it right. But not Olby & Shuster. They got it wrong even though they had to doctor a quote to make it happen.

Johnny,

Chris Matthews got it wrong too.

MSNBC seems to care more about throwing mud at the WH than about accuracy.

Shocking!

I've looked at the FOX piece and the CNN piece.

I think both Olbermann and Matthews need to correct the record on this.

*************************************************
OLBERGASM ALERT!!!
*************************************************

"Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter
Feb 12 3:45 PM US/Eastern

WASHINGTON

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday."

Luckily the man is OK. Look for Olby to salivate all over this one tomorrow! Wowy wow wow wow! Hot dog! A near death from an accident involving Dick Cheney! Hurray!

Last ratings:

Thursday, February 9

Total viewers:
Primetime:
1. FNC: 1,944,000
2. CNN: 786,000
3. HLN: 383,000
4. MSNBC: 279,000

I believe infomercials get better ratings than Keith now. This is getting very VERY sad.

hahahahaha!

Anonymous, for a second there I thought one of those porn sites had posted a link again.

> I think both Olbermann and Matthews need to correct the record on this.

There's about as much chance of that as there is of Olby organizing a testimonial dinner for Bill O'Reilly.

> "Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter"

Olby on Monday: But why did it take 24 hours for the White House to tell us it happened?

Johnny,

Thank you for pointing out this distortion by David Schuster, that was taken up by Olbermann and Matthews.

I had been meaning to tell you that I recently saw a promo of Olbermann's show claiming that Countdown is "as funny as The Daily Show".

Now, if Countdown starts being widely billed as a partisan political satire show, our work here is done. That's certainly what it is and I'll enjoy it for that, as I do The Daily Show.

But how about our next project being "Schuster Watch"?

Not a bad idea, but you can include me out. I get too much of that hyperactive grimacing on MeltDown.

David Shuckster puts out false intel? I'm surprised anybody's surprised. N.B.C.! from the group that once rigged side saddle gas tanks on chevy pickups to blow up!

JD has just shown us that Edward R. Moron and his group have not yet hit the bottom of the barrel.

Maybe this is why Fox didn't try to keep David Shuster. Not only is his mouth too big for his face, but it distorts the news too.

I never thought he was a very good reporter.

I've been trying to think for a while who David Shuster reminds me of. Does he remind any of you of Gomer Pyle? Something about his huge mouth and the way it moves when he talks.

MSLSD alert:

Just for fun, knowing that MSLSD is the most leftist of the cable news networks, I cruised their websites to see where the Cheney story wound up.

On Fox and CNN, it is a line item in the middle of the days stories.

On MSLSD it is featured in the upper right with an unflattering picture of Cheney, and the following title:

"Cheney Shoots Pal"

Ah, MSLSD, how we love thee. Makes it look like Cheney just woke up and decided to ice his friend. I hate the fact that the web site does well. Bill Gates has all his computers set up to push people toward the site. I use Mozilla and may switch to Linux just because of Gates' involvement in this leftist enterprise.

KfK,

Maybe Cheney discovered his friend was a terrorist involved in plotting an attack on our country.

I like to think that every American, if finding themselves face-to-face with a known terrorist, would make it a point of honor to spray as much lead as possible at them, even if it's only birdshot.

Two years ago, I became the proud owner of a lovely pistol. Since then I've taken lessons in how to shoot it (great fun!) and I'd consider it a source of immense patriotic pride to off a terrorist if ever given the opportunity.

I'm sure Jill, Obi-Wan, and company feel the same.

There's a pretty good analysis by emptywheel:

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/02/libbys_nixon_la.html#more

...which includes the now-famous Shuster quote. (I've given it a quick read.)

Additionally, this "new" Libby news story has actually been around for a week or so. (See emptywheel's earlier posts.)The story has actually been out since around February 1.

This "new" story just happened to pop up on the media radar when Murray Waas dropped a story at the National Journal:

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0209nj1.htm#

Waas spurred a lot of me-too journalism, as noted by Tom M. at JustOneMinute.

Among these Me-Too journalists -- none other than NBC, the NY Times, and others.

This presentation by NBC and others is really turning into an embarrassment.

Even more interesting is KO's leading quotes in this piece. Nice catch again, JD.

Let's lobby to keep KO!

Wow, you shitbags floor me. I read the comments section for the previous week, and Shitbag KfK is ragging on Chappaquiddick: hmm... Laura Bush has the same body count as Ted Kennedy. Dick Cheney just shot someone, and is holding off a Texas police investigation. What's your take on that, Shitbag?
Douchebag Cecelia comments on the use of a dead soldier's quotes: Well, Douchebag Cecelia, how many times did the GOP macabely promote 9/11 victims? And Douchebag Cecelia, YOUR GOP smeared men who honorably served (Cleland, Kerry, Hackett and Murtha) by questioning their service, going so far as calling them cowards, while lil pussies like Georgie, Cheney, Chambliss and Quayle PUSSIED OUT WHEN THEIR COUNTRY CALLED THEM. But they're cowards, right Douchie C? This is YOUR team.

WOW! Who pissed on Kmfdmxyz's Granola? Probibly his roomate. OR THE DOG!

kmfdm

Nice diatribe.

1. The police cleared Cheney of any wrongdoing the day the accident occured you conspiracy nut.

2. As far as my bringing up Chappaquiddick, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring up Kennedy's drowning of a woman -- after all, he did report the accident 24 hours after it occured.

3. Your hero Kerry is a lying sack of crap:
http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_video5.html

4. Does the band you love know you go around linking your crazy posts to their name?

What Laura Bush did:

*************************************************
According to the two-page accident report, Laura Welch was driving her Chevrolet sedan on a clear night shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 6, 1963, when she drove into an intersection and struck a Corvair sedan driven by 17-year-old Michael Douglas.

The speed of Laura Bush's car was illegible on the report. The speed limit for the road was 55.

Laura Bush and her passenger, Judy Dykes, also 17, were taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, according to an accident account printed at the time in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

The police report indicates no charges were filed. That section of the report was left blank.
*************************************************

What Teddy Kennedy did (in his own words i.e.lies):

*************************************************
"On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 PM in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vinyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary ( Kennedy was not sure of the spelling of the dead girl's last name, and offered a rough phonetic approximation ), a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recolection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the back seat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period of time and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police."
*************************************************

So Laura was a 17 year old kid who killed someone in a car accident while sober. Teddy K drove into a pond and left the woman to drown, only calling cops the next morning. Even in his pathetic excuse-laden confession he admits leaving her down there overnight. We'll let the readers decide how to think about these two incidents.

Ooooo,kmfdm, angry aren't we....

I don't think of politics as a team sport. I'm not a fan type and I don't paint my face in the team colors or think of everyone on the right as being part of some monolith.

However since you seem to do just that, I'll remind you that the questioning of service began by YOUR team after the first president Bush put Dan Quayle on his ticket. Yes, that was the first occurance of the mindset that argues 'they do NOT serve if they serve in the National Guard'....

But times change with your team.... with the next election not serving didn't matter at all. In fact when an actual letter was found that then college student Bill Clinton wrote to then senator Fullbright asking for help with a draft deferrment by promising to go into the National Guard (he broke that promise) not servicing certainly didn't matter anymore. Neither did seeking special favors and reneging on promises.

But then George Bush, the son, arrived on the scene and suddenly service mattered again and serving in the the National Guard wasn't good enough once more, unless you were for Howard Dean and then ANY service was a nonstarter...but I digress...

When John Kerry got the nomination and came on the scene with his "band of brothers" and service became even more viable to Dems... Kerry had smeared his fellow servicemen and thrown his medals (or someone else's medals, or his ribbons, or their ribbons...)away in protest...but now he was in a boat with his team and coming up the Boston Harbor in order to keep the DNC convention safe from ...what? Howard Dean?

That 200 of Kerry's brothers, a group that included all, save one, of the commanders of swift boats, had their own little band against Kerry's nomination was the source of much hysteria. These SERVICE men were accused of smear tactic and merely being pawns of Karl Rove. That Kerry was hypocritically using his service, despite his former denunciation of it, wasn't cynical at all to your team.

So it seems that service is good if you are a Democrat who served and unimportant if you're a Democrat who didn't serve. And it seems it's all whining and rage over the fact that if you make your service record a political issue, then you're likely to be challenged on that issue...

Well, what is else new, pinhead....

And by the way, Laura Bush was a teenager. Teddy Kennedy was a grown man who swam away while a woman drowned in a car and didn't even report the accident for hours afterwards.

Get a clue. You're not just a silly fan, but a raging fanatic. Well, rage away. Your type is the very reason your team has lost so much.

Yo, dumb bitch! Majority of the Shifties did not serve with Kerry, but that fact probably eluded you. Nice try... reward yourself with some Baskin-Robbins!

Anonymous,

Goodness! The world bows to your genius... When you have over 200 people in an organization it IS true that the "majority" did not sit in Kerry's swift boat or in a swift boat in his general vacinity...

The fact that this is not the relevant statistic seems to elude you, but rage on, Einstein...

Wow, so much anger on this board! I like Keith Olbermann; I think he's funny, and he tells the news from a different perspective. Last time I checked, that was still American.

I noticed that Cecelia was supporting the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. Cecelia, I hate to point this out, but that organization was discredited by numerous news organizations:

NYT: "A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove.
Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family - one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice. And the group's television commercial was produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr. Bush's father faced off in the 1988 presidential election.

The strategy the veterans devised would ultimately paint John Kerry the war hero as John Kerry the "baby killer" and the fabricator of the events that resulted in his war medals. But on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' prove to be riddled with inconsistencies. In many cases, material offered as proof by these veterans is undercut by official Navy records and the men's own statements [...]

Mr. Perry, who has given $200,000 to the group, is the top donor to Republicans in the state, according to Texans for Public Justice, a nonpartisan group that tracks political donations. He donated $46,000 to President Bush's campaigns for governor in 1994 and 1998. In the 2002 election, the group said, he donated nearly $4 million to Texas candidates and political committees.

Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's top political aide, recently said through a spokeswoman that he and Mr. Perry were longtime friends, though he said they had not spoken for at least a year. Mr. Rove and Mr. Perry have been associates since at least 1986, when they both worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bill Clements."

Keep up the interesting work, though, and try to to tone down the venom! ;-)

Keith Olberman funny?.....how did I miss that one. Oh well there are people out there that even think Pauly Shore is hillarious. Now thats SHOCKING!

Nice post Celia B.

Unfortunately, all you posted were attempts by the MSM to defend Kerry by smearing the vets. Not ONE charge they leveled against him is refuted in your post. Onstead you rely on blaming Bush and the NY Times' favorite cry of "unsubstantiated." Funny how the NY Times thought the Guard memos were "fake but accurate" though!

The commercial I linked to (medals. . .ribbons. . .medals) was their work. I read "Unfit for Command" and have not seen the book's claims refuted. Kerry's dubious statements about his injuries for wounds he allegedly sustained from the enemy still remain unclarified, and he wrote his own reports on the incidents, and pushed for his medals. None of his purple hearts involved enemy fire. One time he plopped a grenade in a rice basket and ended up with schrapnel in his ass. Another time he shot an RPG at too close range and hurt himself. The guy is a clown. Don't feed me the pablum from the New York Times, which never tried to validate or refute any of the Swifties claims.

The fact that NOT ONE of his commanding officers wanted him to be President would tell most people something, but not you people.

Watch this and get back to us Celia

http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_video5.html

I see Celia is letting the crickets respond for her! It is hard to defend the indefensible though! Check and mate Celia! Try a lefty site on for size before you mix it up with the adults.