Josh Nelson is a blogger, activist, and avid news junkie. He is currently the Manager of New Media at a Washington, DC area PR/Communications firm. In his spare time he enjoys arguing on the Internet, spending time with good people and talking politics. He can be reached at josh@theseminal.com.
The opinions expressed by Josh here on The Seminal and elsewhere are his and his alone. They do not reflect the opinions of any other person or organization.
Disgusting. Harold Ford, chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council just said he has "great great respect and admiration for his colleagues" at Fox News. The crowd responded accordingly.
Praising Fox News is not very Democratic, and it certainly does not display Leadership.
I just spoke with Mike Smithson of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. I don't know much about them, but they have an effective way to talk about the drug war. When police officers, prison wardens and judges who have spent years working in the criminal justice system talk about the need to end the war on drugs, people listen. A layperson can make the exact same arguments and be dismissed as a "silly pothead", whether or not it is true. It is a similar strategy to the one taken by T. Boone Pickens, an oil man who is arguing that we can't drill our way out of the energy crisis. I don't trust T. Boone one bit, but it is an interesting comparison. Sometimes the source of the a message is more important than the message itself.
Mike was kind enough to take a few minutes to explain what the organization is about.
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’
The purpose of jokes like these is to minimize the physical and mental impacts of sexual assault by implying that some women enjoy being raped. The attitude behind it (blame the victim / it isn't so bad) makes it harder for victims to receive adequate care and treatment, and it makes it harder for advocates to enact meaningful legislative and sentencing reforms.
Here is an article written about the incident at the time. Click for the readable full size image.
Sam Stein at Huffpo has more, including a new statement from the reporter who wrote the story displayed above.
"Anyone who has experienced a sexual assault (or knows someone who was raped) understands that there is NO excuse for humor or insensitive jokes on this topic. Someone who makes light of this issue is not a person I can respect and certainly not someone I want leading our nation! Wake up, it's not funny–you're not in the fraternity anymore."
The following exchange took place on the eve of the FISA vote, July 8th, between myself and Virginia Senator James Webb.
All emphasis is mine.
Josh Nelson: You mentioned the role the blogosphere played in your Senate campaign. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that a little bit. And also tell us what type of role you would like to see them play in legislative fights in the future.
Jim Webb: The blogs… the good news and bad news about blogs. First the bad news. The bad news is anybody can say anything about someone and they don’t even have to put their name on it. In fact, the anonymity encourages irresponsibility. And it is pretty frustrating, I’ll be honest with you, that’s why I just stopped reading this stuff a long time ago.
The good is, when there are allegations made, in any variety of formats, there are people who know the facts, and step forward, and correct the facts. People who put their name on it and correct. We had, from day one we had strong support from people in the blogging community. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I was going to run for office. After Katrina, I went up and saw my friend Bob Kerrey, the guy who told me that Moynihan wrote 17 books. And talked to him for the first time about the mechanics of running. I’d obviously been involved in political commentary for a very long time. In listening to Bob Kerrey I sort of thought I was going to do it and then I looked at what it would take to raise the money and all the rest of this and I wasn’t sure. There were people in the blogging community who heard that I was thinking about running and on their own they started a draft Webb for Senate campaign. They got 1,000 signatures on this, they came over and saw me, I spent an hour and a half talking with them. And you know that was a big part in terms of convincing me that yea well maybe I oughtta step forward and do this.
With respect to legislation, what I, I think the blogs really communicate, in a very intelligent way, on a couple of these really complicated issues, I would hope they wouldn’t lock themselves into positions so early, uh, there’s some really complex pieces of legislation that kind of get boiled down…
Josh Nelson: Are you talking about FISA?
Jim Webb: Specifically I’m thinking about FISA since I have to vote on it tomorrow afternoon.
(laughter)
That’s a very complicated issue and I’ve looked at it from every single angle that it can be looked at. Having had the black clearances that we were talking about, and at the same time I’m very strong on privacy rights. It’s not an issue that is easy to boil down in the way a lot of the blogging community has boiled it down.
Howard Wolfson, who was a top strategist for the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is going where some Democrats were unwilling to go during the early days of the election season: the Fox News Channel.
Foreshadowed by Terry McAuliffe's outburst a few months ago, the move comes as a slap in the face to progressives, media critics and bloggers, who have maintained for years that Fox is in fact anything but Fair and Balanced.
Wolfson spoke with the NYT over the phone on Monday:
“I thought that Fox’s coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded,” Mr. Wolfson said Monday in a telephone interview from Liverpool, England, where he was vacationing. “It’s a huge audience, and it is important to have a strong, progressive voice on the network.”
It makes me absolutely sick to see another 'Democrat' legitimizing, and even going as far as praising, Fox News channel as anything more than the low-class propaganda dump that it is.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that John McCain doesn't use computers but claims to be Googling potential running mates.
News is coming out of the Personal Democracy Forum that the McCain campaign still hasn't figured out a way to spin the fact that the candidate is functionally illiterate when it comes to computers and the Internet.
Mark Soohoo, Deputy eCampaign Director for team McCain:
"You don’t actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country."
Interesting tidbit there. I wonder if Mr. Soohoo thinks you have to understand the economy to understand how it shapes the country.
Fortunately, Tracy Russo was also on the panel, and was quick enough to make a fool of Soohoo.
"You actually do," former Edwards blogger Tracy Russo responds, suggesting he try to explain Twitter to his grandmother and then ask her how that applies to governing.
Obama's full statement on the House's spying capitulation (via email).
“Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. There is also little doubt that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, has abused that authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders.
“That is why last year I opposed the so-called Protect America Act, which expanded the surveillance powers of the government without sufficient independent oversight to protect the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans. I have also opposed the granting of retroactive immunity to those who were allegedly complicit in acts of illegal spying in the past.
“After months of negotiation, the House today passed a compromise that, while far from perfect, is a marked improvement over last year's Protect America Act.
“Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance – making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.
“It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives – and the liberty – of the American people.”
Telling Americans that we have to give up basic constitutional rights — and allow rampant lawbreaking — if we want to save ourselves from "the grave threats we face" sounds awfully familiar. Obama has obviously calculated that sacrificing the rule of law and the Fourth Amendment is a worthwhile price to pay to bolster his standing a tiny bit in a couple of swing states.
The New York Times is reporting that NBC Senior Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert has died from an apparent heart attack. The are citing family reports. He was 58-years-old.
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