Scott McClellan: Words Fail Him

Media Critic Michael Wolff eviscerates McClellan: "Now that the daily White House briefings are instantly available online, Press Secretary Scott McClellan's mangled sentences, flat-footed evasions, and genial befuddlement have made him the butt of a thousand blogs, as well as of

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Life After Koppel: Why I Joined Al Jazeera

Ex-"Nightline" reporter Dave Marash explains his decision to join Al Jazeera as a correspondent.

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Cleveland "apocalypse" query renews debate on Bush, fundamentalism

Last Monday, when President Bush engaged in a marathon Q&A with unscreened audience members in Cleveland, he got hit with a doozy when a Cleveland attorney asked whether apocalyptic religious views color his decision-making on Iraq.

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Meet the Gen X NSC Neo-Cons: Thirty9/11something

A sidebar to a Sun WaPo article that declared the Dick Cheney era to be over. It's a profile of the "Gen-X aides" who are filling in that void, and it's accompanied by a cheerful group photo.

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Bush Loves Talking About His Rug

President uses his Oval Office floor covering as a metaphor for optimism and leadership. Others use it to walk on.

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America can't decide if Jon Stewart is a comedian or a journalist

Should we laugh at Jon Stewart? Or should we take him seriously? "Both," says Alyson Ward. "Because Stewart's approach to the day's headlines -- too funny to be serious, too serious to be ignored -- just might be where real TV news is headed."

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The Fine Art of Flacking: How Your News Gets Made

An article in The Hill about calling spokespeople for comment on a story: "It's not a science; it's an art. There's no guidebook. There's no training manual... The golden rule is you don't answer the question you are asked, you answer the question you want to answer."

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Does Europe Protest Too Much? Russia Rains on Parade

Plans to stage Russia's first gay pride parade have been vetoed.... [The police chief said:] "If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that - Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike ...

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White House spends $1.6 billion on advertising

"The Bush administration spent at least $1.6 billion on public relations and advertising campaigns over 30 months, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. "

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Funding Points: NYT's Kristof Raising $ To Bring O'Reilly To Darfur

This free E&P story discusses Kristof's subscript-only NYT column: "The "feud" began last December when O'Reilly denounced Kristof as a "left-wing ideologue." Kristof replied by calling him a "bully" and challenging O'Reilly to show truly "traditional values" by joining him on

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Brits Give Good Paper Trail: Memo sez Bush told Blair we're going to war

Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo: "PM promised to be 'solidly behind' US invasion with or without UN backing."

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So THAT's What A Schnitzengruben Is -- German Ads Hawk Produce, Parts

I thought foodvertising was supposed to be appealing.

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Current Priest, Ex-Senator, Lifelong GOPer Almost Mental Over Fundies

"How do traditional Republicans put up with this? They put up with this because it's a winning combination, for now. It won't last."

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Truthsquadding W - Scholars dispute the prez, sign more letters

"Bush's [domestic spying] comments in the State of the Union, which highlighted a week of election-style campaigning to defend the program, were almost entirely disputed yesterday by legal specialists across the ideological spectrum."

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Caveat RINO -- The NRA bites as well as they shoot

" ... the NRA wound up maneuvering behind the scenes to block [Bloomberg's girlfriend's] nomination at the last minute, to send a message to her billionaire boyfriend ... "

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Straight, no chasing -- LAT's SOTU drinking game

Guaranteed to kill you, indeed.

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Utah Town Has Question About President: 'What's Not to Like?'

Might as well be Oompa Loompa land. Who ARE these people, and why don't they know what dijon mustard is?

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A critical juncture for Bush / State of the Union address an opportunity to regain solid footing

" ... [T]he worst standing of any president at the start of their sixth year with the exception of Richard Nixon, who would resign later that year over the Watergate scandal."

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Biblical names are bad news, pt 2

The best line? "Rider told judge Verna Adams he had called his lawyers but no one showed up."

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Biblical names are bad news

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The Other Beat Of Her Heart

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Abduction Forces a Grim Look at What a Story Is Worth - Los Angeles Times

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Photogs Slam White House Use of Staged Pictures

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