Jogging Robert Gibb's Memory

Friday, Nov. 6, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking about offensive signs carried by some anti-Obamacare protestors, said, "People -- imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler."

Well, actually, yeah, I can imagine it. Here's why:

Rachel Maddow: Constitutional Scholar -- Not!

The incredibly arrogant Rachal Maddow of MSNBC, speaking with the assurance of the profoundly ignorant, proclaimed that the U.S. Constitution has no preamble. Perhaps if she'd have consulted a Midwestern middle school social studies student, she's have know better. I guess Ms. Maddow didn't have the benefit of a public education in Missouri, such as I had.




In case she still doesn't get the point, here's the Preamble to the Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And for some reason, people take this creature seriously?

ZOMBIES!!!

Beware! They walk among us!

Fashion Statement

If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out

Back in The Day when I was in journalism school (Northwestern University, M.S.J., ’77) we had a saying, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” This was part of an effort to instill in us would-be journalists a healthy skepticism. We were taught to check out every fact and if it couldn't be verified, leave it out of the story.

Apparently that is no longer the case.

I’m referring specifically to the media’s coverage of Rush Limbaugh and his attempt as a minority party of a consortium to purchase the St. Louis Rams National Football League team.

As soon as the story of Limbaugh’s interest in the team broke, stories surfaced in the media about Limbaugh’s racist statements on his radio show, such as praising slavery and saying Martin Luther King’s assassin James Earl Ray deserved a medal.

The problem is that Limbaugh never said any of these things. He wasn’t misquoted or taken out of context; he simply never said them. The most cursory check would have revealed the untruth of these statements.

Yet, the mainstream media, not to mention left-wing bloggers, accepted these outrageous allegations as Gospel truth.

In the wake of the firestorm created by these false accusations, the consortium asked Limbaugh to withdraw his offer. He refused. The consortium fired him.

Another subject covered in journalism school was libel law. One aspect of libel is what’s known as the public figure doctrine. That means that it’s not enough to demonstrate that the story was untrue, malice had to be demonstrated as well as damage.

Rush Limbaugh is certainly a public figure.

So, can he demonstrate malice?

In this context, malice means either knowing that the information was untrue or that the reporter displayed careless and reckless disregard for the truth.

For example, if I were to report a story from the Associated Press that later turned out to be untrue, I'd be protected from libel because I would have every reason as a professional journalist to assume an AP story was accurate. But if I us to cite such an unreliable source as the neighborhood gossip, Wikipedia or someone with a history of libel such as Al Sharpton, I’d be in serious trouble.

But this doesn’t prove libel against a public figure. It’s not enough to demonstrate that the story was maliciously untrue, the libeled party must also show loss.

Rush lost the St. Louis Rams

I’m a “recovering journalist,” not a lawyer. I can’t speak to what will happen should Limbaugh seek judicial relief.

But I will say from what I know as a journalist, some journalistic careers will be ended by this shameful episode.

We don’t need no stinkin’ hate crime legislation!

Notice to gay bashers:

It’s best to make sure that your intended victims are not actually two extreme cage fighters out for a night on the town, as these two Brits discovered to their chagrin.






According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail:

Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.

Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, singled out the two men walking along a street in wigs, short skirts and high heels.

Bare-chested Gardener was caught on CCTV confronting one of the men in a pink wig, black skirt and boob tube - then seen swinging a punch, a court heard.

But the other cage fighter, wearing a sparkling black dress and matching long wig, sprang to his friend's help, delivering two lightning-quick punches to the two stunned yobs.

The cage fighters were then seen teetering away in their high heels, stopping only to pick up a clutch bag they dropped during the melee.

Gardener and Fender were left dazed and seen staggering to their feet after their failed attack.

Restoring America’s Image in the World

One of the biggest campaign issues last year was America's image overseas. Democrats claimed that the country's reputation was tarnished by the Bush Administration's policies. They promised that an Obama Administration would restore the United States' standing in the eyes of the world through enlightened leadership.

President Obama announced one of these policy changes Sept. 17 when he cancelled anti-missile defenses promised to Poland and the Czech Republic. The timing was particularly ironic, coming as it did on the 60th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland when Communist forces joined hands with their Nazi cousins in destroying the Polish state.

The Poles and Czechs are not happy with this shift in American policy.

According to an Associated Press report by Vanessa Gera on Sept. 18:

Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.
"Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere.
Recent events in the region have rattled nerves throughout central and eastern Europe, a region controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, including the war last summer between Russia and Georgia and ongoing efforts by Russia to regain influence in Ukraine. A Russian cutoff of gas to Ukraine last winter left many Europeans without heat.
The Bush administration's plan would have been "a major step in preventing various disturbing trends in our region of the world," Kaczynski said in a guest editorial in the daily Fakt and also carried on his presidential Web site.

According to the AP report, the Czechs are no happier with Obama's policy reversal than are the Poles:

An editorial in Hospodarske Novine, a respected pro-business Czech newspaper, said: "an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid."
The move has raised fears in the two nations they are being marginalized by Washington even as a resurgent Russia leaves them longing for added American protection ... "No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline.

Reportedly, the Russians offered no concessions in return for scrapping the missile shield plans.

This new policy gained nothing for the United States and betrayed the trust of two allies, both of whom have reason to distrust their aggressive neighbor to the east.

Still, there is at least one major foreign leader who appreciates this policy shift by the Obama Administration: