SCORING THE VEEP DEBATE

MORE ON BUSH’S EARPIECE

MEDIA AND THE MILITARY

There are times that you just want to escape from the mudslinging and sloganizing that all too often substitutes itself for our political discourse. The news pickings yesterday were thin. There was the man in Eastern Europe who cut off his own penis by mistake and watched his dog eat it. Or the Prison guard in Nashville who helped a prisoner escape. Or the ash spitting, huffing and puffing of Mount St Helens. And then we heard that Rodney “I can’t get no respect” Dangerfield died along with Nancy Reagan’s astrologer. None of those stories had quite the appeal of the debate we saw last night.

NO ONE DOES IT LIKE PBS

In a way it was appropriate that a PBS host moderated because it felt like a PBS show, like a nightly edition of “the snooze hour’ that Gwen Ifill reports for. No fireworks. No electricity, little passion. But there was a real exchange nonetheless. The Cheney people dictated the format in which both candidates sat like they were on a TV show — which they were.

There was little deviation from the script or the stump speeches except when John Edwards praised Dick Cheney for supporting his gay daughter. The two disagreed, and dissed each other by ticking off their plans and achievements. C defended the war; E criticized it. C attacked K; E defended him. C came off as the School principal and scolded E’s attendance record; E raised questions that C would not answer.

Cheney was more the attack dog with a well-memorized (if error-riddled) list of message points — questioning the Kerry-Edwards team’s credentials, track record and competence. Edwards responded well with the appropriate counter message points. Most of the commentators called it a draw, although, despite the lack of a knock out or TKO, I would score it on points for Edwards. Both men played to their bases and said little that was new or unexpected. Edwards’ best line: I don’t think the country can take four more years.” ABC gave it to Cheney, CBS and MSNBC viewers to Edwards, and CNN to neither, calling it a draw.

At this point in the race, the Dems need more of that pick Mo. A draw ain’t good enough.

MEDIACHANNELERS RATED THE DEBATE

Mediachannel readers rated the debate too, as Andrew Tyndall reports:

“The mix of issues chosen by moderator Gwen Ifill at last night’s Vice-Presidential Debate in Cleveland gained more approval from backers of George Bush than supporters of John Kerry.

“Both groups gave high marks to Ifill for the amount of time she spent on Iraq and the War on Terrorism, on Healthcare and Gay Rights, and on Taxes. After that they disagreed: a majority of Bush backers endorsed her question choices on a range of foreign policy and economic issues; Kerry supporters demanded more depth, especially on Trade, Poverty, Social Security and the Environment.

“These are the results of the second interactive Citizens Debate Scorecard organized by MediaChannel.org for Campaign 2004. It assembled a panel of more than 3,300 volunteers to monitor the exchange between Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat John Edwards.

“Overall, Bush supporters were more positive about the debate than Kerry supporters: more rated it “extremely” helpful in learning about their own ticket’s stance on issues (76% v 59% for Kerry supporters); and about their opponents’ stance (25% v 19%); more said their man won (96% v 82%). These results are the mirror image of the findings from the Scorecard from last week’s Presidential Debate in Miami, which found more positive ratings from Kerry supporters by almost identical margins.”

www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert270.shtml

DEBATING THE DEBATE

Other observers layed into Cheney. Daniel Patrick Welch wrote:

“I waited in vain for Edwards to start channeling Dr. Seuss, and stand up and reveal to the world the depth of Cheney’s mendacity: “Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Griiiiiiiinch!” Alas, it was not to be. Not just because the format of these so-called debates — although they are marginally less straitjacketed than the presidential model — makes it impossible. If there were much to debate between the two major parties, the Comission on Presidential Debates has pretty much taken care of that. And there is also the handicap that so much of the imperial mission is common to both parties; so of course, when Cheney spat out his sideways snarl that Kerry and Edwards are “not credible on Iraq,” Edwards dutifully responded by repeating Kerry’s promise that they would “find terrorists wherever they are and kill them, before they have the chance to do harm.” Yikes.”

Doug Ireland wrote:

“I thought Cheney came across just a bit more effectively than a somwhat nervous Edwards — who fumbled or paused over his words at times, parroted Kerry too much, and didn’t produce a single memorable soundbite on Haliburton, Cheney’s Achilles hell — but that was before the blogosphere started ripping into some of the Veep’s statements. There was Cheney’s claim that, even though he presides over the Senate, he’d “never met” Edwards until the debate. Chris Matthews and others on his post-debate MSNBC panel immediately said that the two veep candidates had to have met when he stood in the well of the Senate beside fellow North Carolinian Liddy Dole at her swearing-in, as Senate tradition dictates. Then, Daily Kos ran a video capture from C-Span of Dick and Johnny Ray standing next to each other at a National Prayer Breakfast!

“But the first prize goes to Reason mag’s Hit and Run blog, on which Julian Sanchez quickly posted this comment, revealing that Cheney had mistakenly given a huge plug to prime GOP enemy George Soros:

“Props to New Republic’s Telis Demos, with whom I watched (half of) the veep debates for spotting this one: Cheney mistakenly pointed viewers to FactCheck.com rather than Annenberg’s FactCheck.org. The former is a pointer to George Soros’ website”!!”

William Rivers Pitt:

“Cheney was also every inch the snarling, hunch-shouldered golem that has made him one of the least popular politicians in recent memory. He seldom looked up at moderator Gwen Ifill, or at the cameras facing him, choosing instead to speak into his own chest for the entire night. Cheney appeared, overall, to cut quite the frightening figure, the dark night to Edwards’ optimistic day.”

Pitt carries a photo of Cheney and Edwards at a prayer breakfast. on the hill. Cheney had said he never saw Edwards in the Senate.

www.truthout.org/docs_04/100704Z.shtml

Da’ud X Mahammed: “Edwards shameful in “Israel’s right to defense” with no mention of Palestinians or their plight”

ATTACK POLITICS

On the right, attention is being paid to the ties that bond. David Horrowitz’s Frontpage site reports “During much of the campaign Kerry has worn neckties whose pattern, suggests New York journalist Joan Swirsky, is like a secret signal of support to the Muslim world.

Why else would the richest man in the Senate, a man whose pricey wardrobe is laid out for him daily by his personal valet wear only one necktie during almost all of his public appearances? Asked Swirsky in a September 20 column . . . And that necktie albeit not in a thin muslin or coarse cotton but probably woven from the finest silk ˆ a replica in its pink and white pattern of the Arabs‚ favorite headdress, the kefiyyah. An examination of campaign photographs shows Kerry wearing several neckties with pink or red patterns resembling the familiar kefiyah Arab male headdress. By itself, this could be dismissed as mere coincidence having no signal significance” . . .BUT . . . .

www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/20/93512.shtml

THE EARPIECE DEBATE

Everyone I know including some readers are asking this question: “Is Bush fed cues and lines through an earpiece in his meetings with the press?

Naturally, a new website is now devoted to this mystery. “See www.isbushwired.com for discussion of the anomalies surrounding Bush’s public speaking — and reports of some live Bush broadcasts that included the voice of a prompter.”

www.isbushwired.com

DO YOU THINK THEY HAD CONNECTIONS?

Lynn Cheney formed a group that just received 10 million from the administration. Jim Lope reports for IPS:

“The State Department has awarded an explicitly anti-feminist U.S. group part of a $10 million grant to train Iraqi women in political participation and democracy.

The group, the Washington-based Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), will help implement the administration’s Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative. The organization was founded in 1991 by a number of prominent right-wing Republican women to act as a counterpoint to what they called the radical feminism of the National Organization for Women (NOW), a grassroots group with about 500,000 subscribing members nationwide.

“Among the founders were Lynne Cheney, the spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of the right-wing National Revie and a former senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation; and Midge Decter, the former co-chair with Donald Rumsfeld of the Committee for the Free World and one of the founders of neo-conservatism along with her spouse, former Commentary editor, Norman Podhoretz.”

CHENEY CALLS Z A “BAD GUY” AND SADDAM PAL BUT

The Daily Mislead follows up on reports I have been carrying about the terrorists that are said to be in Iraq:,

“Vice President Cheney and President Bush have repeatedly claimed that al-Qaeda had a working relationship with Saddam Hussein which justified the invasion of Iraq. The key piece of evidence Cheney and President Bush have used to support this claim was that Hussein harbored Abu Musab al Zarqawi — a suspected associated of al-Qaeda. For example, on 6/21/04 Cheney said “Mr. Zarqawi, who is in Baghdad today, is an al Qaeda associate who took refuge in Baghdad, found sanctuary and safe harbor there before we ever launched into Iraq.”President Bush said on 6/15/04 “Zarqawi’s the best evidence of a [Hussein] connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda.” One problem: there is no evidence to support these claims.

Knight Ridder reports “a new CIA assessment undercuts the White House claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al Qaeda, saying there is no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi.” According to a senior U.S. intelligence official “The evidence is that Saddam never gave Zarqawi anything.” Ironically, the assessment was requested by Cheney.

www.Misleader.org

SUE FOR TRUTH

“WASHINGTON — A journalism professor sued the government yesterday to force the Defense Department to release pictures of the flag-draped coffins of soldiers arriving in the United States from wars overseas.

Ralph Begleiter, a professor at the University of Delaware and a former world affairs correspondent for CNN, filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of government photos and video of coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

“The Pentagon has refused to release those photos, saying it has begun enforcing a policy approved in 1991 intended to respect the privacy of the families of the dead soldiers.]'’They’re public records,” Begleiter’s lawyer, Daniel Mach, said in a telephone interview. ‘’This is about the public’s right to know the implications of US foreign policy and to assess the price of war.”

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1005-05.htm

AROUND THE WORLD IN TWENTY SECONDS

At the UN: The United States has vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate end to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip . . . .

Al Jazeera:

“A chief commander of Islamic Jihad has been killed in a missile strike on a car in Gaza City as Israel presses on with a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip” . . . .Reuters reports “Israeli soldiers shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after she approached an army watchtower in a tense border zone, witnesses said. An Israeli military source said the girl was shot inside a restricted area when soldiers suspected she had a bomb. Palestinian medics said she had been hit by 20 bullets.” . . .

BBC:

Karzai campaigning:

“His arrival was accompanied by massive security, with Apache attack helicopters and A-10 tank buster aircraft guarding the president’s helicopter. After the rally, the president mingled with the crowd to the discomfort of his US guards.”

. . . Congress passed a resolution condemning Chinese persecution of Falun Gong.

THE PAIN, THE TRAGEDY

AP reports:

“A 45-year-old woman collapsed and died days after learning her son had been killed in Iraq, and just hours after seeing his body. Results of an autopsy were not immediately released, but friends of Karen Unruh-Wahrer said she couldn’t stop crying over losing her 25-year-old son, Army Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, who was killed by enemy fire near Baghdad on September 25.

“‘Her grief was so intense — it seemed it could have harmed her, could have caused a heart attack. Her husband described it as a broken heart,’ said Cheryl Hamilton, manager of respiratory care services at University Medical Center, where Unruh-Wahrer worked as a respiratory therapist. Unruh, a combat engineer, had been in Iraq less than a month when he was shot during an attack on his unit.”

You have heard about US politicians who did nor did not serve in the military. Here is the record of some media hawks (Disclosure: I protested the draft, did not serve, and was part of the anti-war movement and proud of it

WHO SERVED?

“Sean Hannity: did not serve.
Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a ‘pilonidal cyst.’)
Bill O’Reilly: did not serve.
Michael Savage: did not serve.
George Will: did not serve.
Chris Matthews: did not serve.
Paul Gigot: did not serve.
Bill Bennett: did not serve.
Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
Bill Kristol: did not serve.
Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
Michael Medved: did not serve.”

WORLD BANK FOR SALE ON EBAY

“The Center for Economic Justice reports “Citing 60 years of failed polices and a track record of bankrolling projects that erode human rights and environmental standards, the people of the world have offered the World Bank for sale on the online auction house eBay.com. The posting by eBay user “G6Billion” coincides with the G7 meeting of the leaders of the seven richest countries and the start of the World Bank’s fall meetings. The post warns that the World Bank “does not work” and encourages potential purchasers by saying “the Bank will do a lot less harm to the world gathering dust in your attic.”

YOUR LETTERS

Michael Dunley:

“I wanted to share something hilarious i saw on faux news last night. cavuto actually signed off by saying that these were ugly dangerous times, so it was time to beware of good looks and vote for ugly dangerous leaders! (no doubt preparing us for the edwards/cheney debate).

“his lip was trembling like it always does when he’s putting himself on the line, all heartfelt like. i almost fell off the couch laughing at how low these reptilian brains can go.

“cheney always makes me feel dumbed down anyway, he’s such an ‘invisible man’; all his words sound like they are dripping ambien into my veins. the perils of supping with the devil, even with the long spoon of tv!”

CHIRAC V BUSH

Thomas Cantaloube writes:

“I just wanted to let you know that a new book I co-authored is being released this week in France. I thought it might interest you. Its title says it all : “Chirac contre Bush, l’autre guerre” (which translate as “Chirac vs Bush : the other war”).

“It’s a behind-the-scenes account of three years and a half of french-american diplomatic relations — the major part dealing with the crisis over Iraq. With my co-author (we both work for the French daily newspaper Le Parisien), we have interviewed over fifty persons on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and many of the stories in the book have never been reported or have been undereported. Stories like:

“. . . the US “listened” to Chirac’s conversations in Paris (the Times of London wrote about it on October 5 quoting our book);

“the intense French-bashing relying on very questionable leaks to the press was orchestrated from within the Pentagon and the White House . . .

FACT CHECKING

Jeff Adams writes to MSNBC’s “fact checkers.” (Do they have fact checkers? I doubt it):

“At the advice of Mary Matalin this morning on MSNBC, I browsed to your web site to check out the Real Truth with regard to the question of Dick Cheney’s ongoing relationship with Halliburton. The Bush Camp would probably rather that she not recommend that undecided voters like me browse your web site because your home page points out four distortions of truth by the Bush Republicans as compared to only one truth distortion by the Kerry Democrats (not including the story on facts from the first debate). I’m not writing to point out Mary’s blunder, but to question the reporting you did on the Halliburton story.

“I find your reporting of Dick Cheney’s deferral of earned income from 1999 inconclusive at best. You report points to a document he signed in 1998 to defer 1999 income forward 5 years. Mr. Cheney’s release of a fill-in-the-blanks and check-boxes standardized Halliburton form isn’t the document upon which you should have focused your reporting attention. Rather, your fact checkers should have noted from the form Mr. Cheney released that he agreed under Section I Deferral Election to be subject to all provisions and conditions of the Halliburton Elective Deferral Plan. The substance of this document is the real unanswered newsworthy story.

“As a regular U.S. taxpayer, I know that I have to report and pay taxes on all the income that I earn in a given tax reporting year. It is my understanding that the IRS views income that is substantially earned in a given tax year to be taxable for that tax year, regardless of when the payroll check is disbursed to the employee. Yet your story reports that tax deferral is a common practice for high-salaried executives like Mr. Cheney giving it your subtle blessing and implying that we shouldn’t question the underlying details of the deferral. ”

Sofron writes: “I thought a global test was when you checked out an IT system with all its parameters before you put it online to see if the system worked.”

Wendii Meremark:

“Again, the blogs are toppling the credibility stature of news channel media, like so many Saddam statues with clay feet. Cable has lost its monopoly on the 24/7 news feed. In a slow shift like the tide going out, cable subscribers are starting to realize they aren’t getting what they pay for, which is to say: the news. Maybe the debate precipitated some of that feeling, for those who didn’t recognize Bush in the raw for having only their cable TV appearance of him before then. Suddenly, he wasn’t dressed . . . ”

ON TV

Steve Withers on TV:

“The people who run the world don’t watch TV. It’s as simple as that. TV news is a waste of time. The people in power know it. For the hour spent, you get very little in return.

“TV drama is entertaining. But in the pre-TV era, did people go to live stage shows for 3-4 hours every day? This is the equivalent of an evening watching TV.

“For any person — young or old — TV is most often a waste of time that stunts potential and chokes off opportunity through misdirection of time and dis-use of personal resources. The cumulative effect of this time wasting and potential limiting influence is a dumbing down so broad and so profound that it is serious threat to democracy . . . ..and its dependent civilization.

“You can either be among the people who run the world . . . or you can watch TV. The people who run the world do not watch TV 3-4 hours / day. ”

Patrice Greanville: “Danny, you irrepressible troublemaker . . . I don’t know where you get the energy to keep on writing. You must be chained to your computer, like me. But some of those columns are simply superb.” Check out Patrice’s great work online in Cyrano’s Journal:

www.cjonline.org

If you live in the UK, check out John Pilger’s ITV documentary called “Stealing a nation” tonight . . . I will be going to see the play White Chocolate with the We Are Family Foundation.

For a guide to the information in Michael Moore’s Farenheit 911, just out on DVD:
FootnoteFahrenheit.com.

Keep your comments coming and pass on word about this blog to friends and enemies alike. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org