Very interesting Congressional Hearing on C-SPAN yesterday

AP Wire | 07/23/2005 | Ex-CIA officers rip Bush over Rove leak

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson made excellent points yesterday when he spoke at a Congressional Hearing (televised on C-SPAN).
He filled in some of the blanks, and at the same time pointed out some of the administration's blatant lies, along with the media's careless repetition of many of those "falsehoods" like the reporting/smearing that his wife was the one responsible for sending him to Niger.

He also brought home the serious danger, and the extent of the damage to the intelligence community that was done.

All done (I feel) because the White House was embarassed and shown to be full of it by Joe Wilson. (GOOD job Joe!)

But there's a real problem.... So few people will have seen this hearing that these important facts won't enter the collective consience, like the Watergate Hearings did. It was carried by the networks and a great majority watched it and talked about it.
As I see it, the chances of this hearing even being mentioned on the numerous "news" channels is remote.

Jon Stewart and/or* Al Franken might talk about it though.

Just think about that for a moment.....

The MSM (saying again for the millionth time) should be ashamed, although I *think* some of them might be starting to smell the coffee (and as I see it, the Internet and Blogs have been an important part of them "waking up").

*And a couple of others I can't come up with at the moment.

It hurts in here (more than usual).

No posts lately due to brain that feels like it wants to explode.....bbl

It's always interesting hearing from a person's colleagues.

Daily Kos: More Rove

Interesting reading I caught at Daily Kos.
This sentence captures it:
" In this case, journalists as a community have been played for patsies by the president's chief strategist, Karl Rove, and are enabling him to abuse the First Amendment, by their invoking it. [...] "

Not an endorsement, eh? Right, and I'm not turning 48 this year either...

NTI: Global Security Newswire - Tuesday, July 5, 2005

More verbal sleight of hand from the mouth of a politician. Check out this snippet from the article (I added the bold/italicized lettering for emphasis):
" U.S. Representative Ralph Hall (R-Texas) said in the promotion video that Bio-Germ “certainly appears to be a breakthrough and the answer to the anthrax problem.” He said he did not believe he was endorsing the kit. Members of Congress are barred from endorsing products in their capacity as lawmakers. "

Congressman Hall? Here's your first clue... It's called a "Promotion Video" for a REASON!

I'm not surprised, but my brain says "Is this too easy?"

The Huffington Post | The Blog

I've always been a skeptic, and there's something in the back of my head that says "Is this too easy?"

Like some of the others who've commented already on this "news", I feel that Rove surely knew this was coming, and has had plenty of time to pull the puppet strings, syncronize watches, and the like.

Aside from that, I know that one of the things I'll be watching is how this gets "treated" in the media. If current history is any indication I have my worries.

In a world where distinguished military men have had their honor challenged by "friends" of this administration, lying to the American people through dishonest TV ads like the Swiftboat ads (which the majority of the media just couldn't seem to see through), I have my doubts whether the majority of them have the work "ethics" (or in some cases their bosses blessings) to cover this story so that this time the American people won't be mis-led by the professional liars.

This will be a true test for all the media, and I'll be watching with intrest. It was disheartening to watch the way the public was allowed to be manipulated before the election by men like Rove pulling the strings and working the levers "behind the curtain", with no "counterbalance" provided by the news media, who should be seeking the truth and providing it to their readers, viewers, and listeners.

These days, I trust certain blogs much more than anything I'm told by the talking heads. In fact, I have little to no confidence in most of what I see on TV news now.
That's a sad state of affairs, and what's worse, I don't see it getting any better any time soon.
And if the current state of influence wielded by (the minority of) the "Religious Right" is allowed to continue, we'll be headed for our own version of the "Dark Ages".

One thing I do know though, is that blogs are part of the solution.
Especially in investigative journalism, I think that having an outlet for news without the pressures of station owners, news directors, etc., can help prevent the "filtering" that keeps many stories out of the news and other stories from being "skewed" in one direction or another.

Aside from that, turning the mainstream (news) media away from their current path of "entertainment", and back towards thoroughly and impartially investigating stories (of course there's room and need for both) is so important.

I believe that in one way or another, "What goes around comes around", and "You reap what you sow", although in many cases it's not apparent. In the case of Karl Rove I truly hope that what he has "sown" is finally come around to bite him in the ass.