President Bush’s approval rating in a new Time poll, his lowest ever.
Fox News: Liberal Media ‘Out To Sabotage The Economy’
According to Fox News guests, the media is ignoring all the great news about the economy just like it does in Iraq. Watch it:
Transcript:
But according to a new survey, 59 percent have bought into that crackpot notion. They rate it [the economy] as bad, very bad, or terrible, in fact, when all the facts say that just the opposite is true. So, where are the folks getting this image? My next guest says look no further than the liberal media. Larry, it’s media making the people thank the economy stinks, is that right?
But the polls don’t reflect media manipulation. Americans see the real state of the economy in their everyday lives:
- After adjusting for inflation, wages have not risen during the last three years. In fact, real hourly wages fell for most middle- and low-income workers in 2005 and the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 29 percent lower today than it was in 1979.
- The poverty rate has risen each year since 2001, with 12.7 percent of the population now living in poverty.
- Job growth during President Bush’s term has been the lowest since World War II.
Full transcript below: Read more
Jonah Goldberg Responds: I’m “Thinking More Clearly” Than Jill Carroll
Jonah Goldberg has responded to my earlier post criticizing his attack on Jill Carroll:
UNTHINK PROGRESS [Jonah Goldberg]
…Is it really so crazy to think that someone who hasn’t spent the last 82 days in captivity by Islamic kidnappers might be thinking more clearly than someone who has? Is it so absurd to think that maybe someone who had their senses about them and their moral center in good order, would be less thankful about her treatment and more upset that the translator she asked to come with her was murdered while working for her? I understand that the logic of the left cannot escape the orbit of “you wouldn’t understand” identity politics. But come on. Does anyone in their right mind think that Think Progress would be rallying to this woman’s side if she emerged from her captivity saying George W. Bush was right and the people who kidnapped her were terrorist animals? Please. They’d be prattling on about how she lost her mind.
A couple of thoughts:
1. The issue of how Carroll was treated is not something you can “understand” or “not understand.” It’s a factual issue and Jill Carroll is the only one who know the facts. Jonah Goldberg does not know the facts and even his razor sharp mind (absent mental telepathy) isn’t going to figure them out.
2. Goldberg has ratcheted up his attacks on Carroll. This morning he was “starting to bug her.” Now she isn’t thinking clearly and has lost her “moral center.”
3. No matter what Jill Carroll or anyone else says we would not make a medical diagnoses without any expertise or facts. That seems to be a specialty of the right.
Mr. Goldberg could put this whole episode behind him with a simple apology to Jill Carroll and her family.
Baseball Steroid Investigation Shouldn’t Skip Over Bush’s Texas Rangers
Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, has tapped former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to lead a thorough and impartial investigation into steroid use in professional baseball. Selig has given Mitchell the permission to “expand the investigation and to follow the evidence where it may lead” through at least the last 15 years.
From 1988 to 1994, President Bush was managing general partner of the Texas Rangers.
Among his players during that time, several — Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Pailmero (tested positive) and Jose Canseco (admitted) — are all alleged to have used steroids while playing for the Rangers under Bush.
Identifying players and suppliers of steroids in professional baseball will undoubtedly clean up the sport. But even more useful will be identifying owners who turn a blind eye to cheating, and rake in major dividends from power hitters like Barry Bonds.
President Bush has denied being aware of steroid use in his tenure as managing partner of the Rangers, and has called for an immediate stop to steroid use in professional sports.
We look forward to Mitchell’s final report.
– Sam Davis
Hearts and minds watch:
“The U.S. military was trying to send a ‘little reality jab‘ to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr when American and Iraqi troops raided a Shiite community center and shrine over the weekend, says a top U.S. military official.”
Imus Exec. Producer: “Taliban Jill” Is “Wearing Terrorist Headgear” And “Carrying Zarqawi’s Baby”
Imus executive producer Bernard McGuirk and sidekick Charles McCord continued their assault on journalist Jill Carroll. Watch it:
Some lowlights:
MCCORD: Put on 20 pounds while in captivity, yeah.
MCGUIRK: And why do we suspect?
IMUS: Well, why do you suspect?
MCGUIRK: She’s carrying Zarqawi’s baby. No doubt about it.
IMUS: Man, you are a such a, you’re a…
MCGUIRK: Did you hear her comments yesterday? She’s wearing the terrorist headgear. And everything points to that.
…
MCGUIRK: She’s Taliban Janie, this girl. Taliban Jill or whatever.
IMUS: That’s a little strong don’t you think.
MCGUIRK: I don’t think so. Well except for the fact that she seems overly sympathetic. There’s something wrong. Something stinks.
The Washington Post reported this morning that the garments Carroll wore in her first interview were “given to her by her captors,” and that she gained weight in captivity because “she never dared turn down their offers of meals or candy for fear of giving offense.”
The full transcript is posted HERE.
Rice admits ‘thousands’ of Iraq mistakes.
“I know we’ve made tactical errors, thousands of them, I’m sure,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today, speaking about Iraq. “But when you look back in history what will be judged on is” whether the “right strategic decision” was made.
BREAKING: Former DeLay aide Rudy flips?
“Tony Rudy, a former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, has agreed to plead guilty to charges in the widening federal investigation of lobbyist fraud. … Rudy would be the first person to plead guilty to charges in the case since Jack Abramoff, once a leading GOP lobbyist, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January.”
UPDATE: A backgrounder on Rudy.
Jonah Goldberg: “Jill Carroll Is Increasingly Starting To Bug Me”
Jonah Goldberg – the right-wing pundit who was recently given a regular column in the LA Times – attacked reporter Jill Carroll early this morning on the National Review’s website:
MAYBE IT’S JUST ME [Jonah Goldberg]
But Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me. The details are still murky and it’s hard to appreciate what she’s been through. And maybe JPod’s right about Stockholm syndrome. And maybe the media’s selectively choosing what to show of her statements. But it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors, particularly about the fact that they murdered her translator in cold blood. I’m very glad she’s alive, but I’m getting a very bad vibe. More, no doubt, to come.
No, Mr. Goldberg, unfortunately it’s not just you.
Apparently, Jonah Goldberg, who has spent the last 82 days in safety, knows what Jill Carroll should be saying better than Jill Carroll herself. And when she doesn’t say it, it means something is very wrong with her.
ThinkFast: March 31, 2006
The Army has banned privately purchased body armor in Iraq, a decision that veterans groups “immediately denounced.” GI’s who have “waited months to be outfitted counter that substandard armor is better than none at all.”
In a letter, President Bush urged Iraqi Shiite Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to get more involved in negotations over Iraq’s new government. Sistani “laid the letter aside” unread because of increasing “unhappiness” over heavy-handed U.S. meddling in Iraqi negotiations.
Another novel right-wing immigration solution from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA): “The millions of young men who are prisoners in our country can pick the fruit and vegetables.”
Slow learner: Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen admits that the first time he realized that President Bush had lied was last week.
In response to “embarrassing allegations” that NASA’s public affairs manipulated scientific information to suit the needs of the Bush administration, a new NASA policy now says their “scientists are free to talk to members of the media about their scientific findings and even express personal interpretations of those findings.” Read more
