The Hollywood Liberal

OUR SIDE STILL DOESN’T
GET IT: (by Bob
Somerby at the Daily Howler)
Why aren’t neo-cons and Republicans on the defensive? In large part, it’s
because they get puffed—and Democrats get jeered—within the sprawling public
discussion constructed by the “mainstream” press. Democrats are constant figures
of ridicule—and Republicans simply are not. This framework is being extended
today, even as liberals like Josh [Marshall] refuse to discuss it. In large
part, that’s why it’s easy for scum-bags like Giuliani to go around mocking Big
Dems. And that is why it’s much, much harder for Dems to return the favor.

Mega-donors
prepare for ’08 battle
Sources involved in the nascent effort said representatives of Democratic
powerhouses like MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union, along
with super-wealthy individuals like the fund manager George Soros, are hashing
out the details of a planned independent effort that could finance tens of
millions of dollars of television advertisements. But when they meet after the
two-day conference of the Democracy Alliance in Washington, D.C., this week, the
donors will aim not to repeat what they see as the mistakes of the last
presidential campaign.
Think about what they’re doing. 
They’re putting more money in the pockets of the very media moguls who pay their
minions so well to say nothing good about Democrats while puffing up Republicans
as much as possible.  These donors are paying for the destruction of the belief
system they profess to support.  How I wish I could get some of these people
interested in funding a

media infrastructure
of our own!

Don’t let them fool you:
GAO: Reduction
In Violence Due To ‘Ethnically Cleansed Neighborhoods’ In Iraq
Violence is “down significantly from last year,” declared President Bush. In
a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee [Tuesday], Joe Christoff of
the Government Accountability Office stated that this recent reduction in
violence should be taken with a grain of salt, as it coincides with increased
sectarian cleansing and a massive refugee displacement.

War
protests: Why no coverage? (by Jerry Lanson)
Boston – Coordinated antiwar protests in at least 11 American cities this
weekend raised anew an interesting question about the nature of news coverage:
Are the media ignoring rallies against the Iraq war because of their low turnout
or is the turnout dampened by the lack of news coverage?.. That most Americans
oppose the war in Iraq is well established… Given that context, it seems
remarkable to me that in some of the 11 cities in which protests were held –
Boston and New York, for example – major news outlets treated this "National Day
of Action" as though it did not exist.

B.S. Detector:
DOJ Statement on Blackwater, just out … (by Josh Marshall of Talking
Points Memo)
[DOJ statement:] "… any suggestion that the Blackwater employees in question
have been given immunity from federal criminal prosecution is inaccurate…” A
highly knowledgeable responds … “[A]s a practical matter if the Blackwater
folks got use immunity, there is virtually no chance they will be tried or
convicted for any crime…Bottom line: DOJ’s statement is a very careful
bamboozle. Don’t be fooled.”

Gen. Petraeus’ Spokesman Denies Sending Angry Email — Plot Thickens
A critical email allegedly sent by a top U.S. military spokesman to a
leading blogger this past weekend is starting to draw mainstream attention. But
the colonel had sent an equally hot note to E&P in May defending the general —
without reading the report in question.

Huckabee Is Lying (by tristero at Hullabaloo)
[Republican Presidential candidate Mike] Huckabee worked hard to release a
convicted rapist from prison for one reason only: because extreme rightwing
operatives believed that Bill Clinton had unfairly persecuted an innocent man –
possibly even ordering the rapist’s castration – in order to advance his career.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

A test case for the media (by Paul Krugman)
OK, Rudy Giuliani has just released an ad claiming that the survival rate from
prostate cancer is much higher in America than in Britain, thus proving the
failure of socialized medicine. The problem is that his claim is just plain
false. In fact, mortality rates from prostate cancer are almost the same in
America and Britain.  So, will this get as much attention as, say, the Edwards
haircut or the Hillary laugh? Will it get any coverage at all?

Stephen Colbert’s
joke is on the press (by Eric Boehlert)
[T]he Colbert candidacy becomes a distraction only if the press allows it to.
And the sad fact is the press already has allowed it to, because the press
literally drives itself to distraction on the campaign trail. That’s not an
unfortunate side effect of the process. That’s the goal.

Right Wing Talkers Blame Congress For Not Defining Waterboarding As Torture
(by Logan Murphy at Crooks and Liars)
[On MSNBC’s Dan Abrams’ show,] Pat Buchanan actually says that Congress needs to
pass a law banning it and Michael Reagan chimes in on the same point. Hey
Buchanan and Reagan, ever hear of the Geneva Conventions? We need to pass a law
saying we’re going to honor an international treaty?
Click through to watch the video.

House Republicans: We Opposed SCHIP Program Because Dems Were Mean To Us
This is pretty amusing. House Republicans have concocted a new explanation
for why they voted against the SCHIP children’s health care expansion despite
the fact that it had bipartisan support in Congress and was backed by strong
majorities of the American people. The latest rationale: They voted against it
because Democratic leaders were nasty to them. That’s what angry House GOPers
have now told Dem leaders in a private meeting on the Hill.

Norman Podhoretz: Anyone Who Doesn’t Want To ‘Bomb Iran’ Is Appeasing ‘Hitler’
On the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer [Monday] night, Commentary Magazine
editor-at-large Norman Podhoretz, who is also a foreign policy adviser to Rudy
Giuliani, repeated his claim that there is “only one terrible choice” left with
Iran, which is to “bomb” their “facilities” and “retard” their nuclear program.
When Newsweek’s Fareed Zackaria asserted that deterrence was a viable option,
Podhoretz repeatedly accused him of “an irresponsible complacency” that “is
comparable to the denial in the early ’30s of the intentions of Hitler”.
Click through to watch the video.

George Will Wants Those Lazy Seniors Off The Dole
[George Will:] “Sixty-five days from now, the first of 78 million baby
boomers begun (sic) to retire. Most Americans who collect Social Security begin
to collect it at age 62, which is absurd. We have the public subsidizing
increasingly long and comfortable retirement of people for a third to a half of
their adult lifetime. Now. That’s why one in four voters in 2004 was over 60
years old. The elderly have the biggest stake in the welfare state, which exists
to transfer wealth to them.”
My payments to Social Security over
many years mean nothing to this man.  I’m on welfare as far as he’s concerned.

Theocracy Now! (by Max Blumenthal)
On October 20 and 21st, I attended the Value Voters Summit… Rev. Lou Sheldon,
dubbed "Lucky Louie" by his former paymaster Jack Abramoff, told me that
homosexuality is a "pathological disorder"… Star Parker, a former welfare cheat
who had multiple abortions, claimed to me that abortion is the leading cause of
death among African American women between the ages of 25 and 34. Then she
described her wish for the forced quarantine of all "sodomites."
Click through to watch the video.

"The Largest Tax Increase in History": They’re So Cute When They Say This
(by Dean Baker)
The NYT … quoted Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as saying that
[Rep. Rangel’s tax] proposal is the “largest increase in the history of
America.” It would have been worth mentioning that this is not true since some
readers may not be aware of this fact. It also would have been appropriate to
point out that charging that a particular tax increase is "the largest in
history" is a Republican ritual. There have been many proposals that they have
labeled the "largest tax increase in history" over the last two decades.

Media Matters for America headlines

Media outlets
uncritically reported White House claim that it does not "employ" fake reporting

MSNBC’s Carlson
falsely claimed he does not "touch" Bill Clinton’s "sex life"

NY Times quotes
2005 blog post claiming Obama compared himself to Christ

Matthews,
Blitzer uncritically cited Giuliani ad without noting his use of "meaningless"
stat, according to cancer expert

Buchanan: Obama
is "not what you would expect from a black guy from the South Side of Chicago"

Time’s Halperin
further distorts poll results mis-cited by Hannity, attributing to "the
Democrats" the view that U.S. better off if Iraq war is lost

Sally Bedell
Smith characterizes as "absolutely fair" Russert’s suggestion that Hillary
Clinton to blame for 40 million uninsured

Ex-Gov. du Pont
claimed "[t]ax rate reductions increase tax revenues" — several Bush
administration economists disagree

Blitzer did not
challenge Huckabee’s claim that Saddam "said that he had" WMD

Katine:
Guardian’s Unique Take on Crowdsourcing
If you have ten minutes today, check out Katine: it starts with a village.
With this project The Guardian is doing something very special indeed with
crowdsourcing, interactive storytelling, and journalism itself.

Clear Channel is attempting to silence Bruce Springsteen (by John Amato
at Crooks and Liars)
Here we go again. The Dixie Chicks redux! Bruce has the #1 record in all the
land called ” Magic,” but… “sources tell [Roger Friedman at Fox News] that Clear
Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from
‘Magic’.”… Republican owned corporate media once again is attempting to silence
progressive positions.

What would
critics say if Couric hosted "Saturday Night Live"?
Ed Bark thinks Brian Williams is "pushing it" by appearing on "Saturday
Night Live" Nov 3. "Maybe this is finally what Katie Couric needs," he writes.
"Because seriously folks, how can anyone question her gravitas or hard news
acumen after Williams submits to ‘SNL’ and becomes the first incumbent news
anchor to host it? …Imagine the reaction if Couric instead were taking the ‘SNL’
plunge."

Web wit livens up Australian election campaign
SYDNEY (AFP) – The Internet is proving both a blessing and a curse for the
major players in Australia’s election campaign, as online satirists gleefully
mock politicians’ carefully-crafted messages to voters.

Bloggers beware:

Confirmed: Selling Links Will Hurt Your Google Page Rank
Last week we saw quite an uproar when a number of prominent blogs had their
Google Page Rank (Google’s measure of a site’s authority) dramatically lowered,
presumably for engaging in the practice of selling text links to other sites.
Today, Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed that the company does indeed penalize
web sites that engage in the buying and selling of text links.

When Brand Companies Become Media Companies: Serious Implications
Have you noticed? More and more brand and other companies are becoming
part-time media companies. This, of course, is yet another "unpleasant"
development (from the media company perspective) inspired by the Internet that
makes it harder to sell advertising. Is there a silver lining?

Online Marketers Joining Internet Privacy Efforts
People will soon be able to sign up for do-not-track lists, which will help
shield their Web surfing habits from marketers eager to deliver specific ad
pitches to them.

Is U.S. stuck in Internet’s slow lane?
NEW YORK – The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on the
Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and cheaper broadband
connections, and more of their population connected to them.