TMV is re-instituting its highly popular Around the Sphere linkfest now for two reasons: (1) because many weblogs have requested it given a trend on the part of many blogs to link less to other blogs, (2) in memory of the late Jon Swift, aka Al Weisel, who worked with skippy to try and foster more linking between blogs. Our linkfest will appear one or two times a week. Links will represent blogs of varying viewpoints, but will take readers to posts on issues, not posts blasting other website, weblogs or blog writers. Links to not necessarily represent the viewpoints of TMV or its many writers.
IT’S ELECTION DAY IN IRAQ so here is some live blogging. But there have been some deadly attacks. Comments on the situation HERE and HERE.
IT’S OSCAR NIGHT! And here are Jules Crittenden’s picks.
MORE ON THE OSCARS: Here are Arianna Huffington’s political Oscars picks.
ICELAND VOTES and says “shove it” to Great Britain and the Netherlands.
MORE ON THE NEW JOHN MCCAIN: John McCain continues in his new post-2000 incarnation of being anything but a candidate that can be described as bipartisan. He now takes some license with the truth about the Senate health care reform bill. To get re-elected in Arizona McCain needs to go after his party’s conservative base and he is pulling out all stops to do just that. (QUESTION: McCain is on the Sunday news shows so often, it’s it time to just offer him his own Sunday network news show?)
THE VOTE IN TEXAS: Rick Perry and the Tea Party movement.
GUESS WHO’S BEING BLAMED FOR R-E-A-L-L-Y BEING BEHIND CONGRESS’ VOTE ON WWI, TURKEY, THE ARMENIANS AND GENOCIDE? Let me think…the..Masons? (No). Italians? (No). Catholics? (No). Vegetarians? (No). Veteranarians? (No). Why, who could it POSSIBLY be?
PARTIES AND TWITTER: Among congressmen, Republicans far outnumber Democrats on social media site Twitter, according to a recent study.
THE BEER BELLY OF AMERICA can be seen in this map.
NOT ALL THE NUTS CAN BE FOUND IN BAGS AT WHOLE FOODS OR IN CONDOMINIUM HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS: Increasing distrust of government has fostered paranoia so you may sit next to someone a squirrel might want to gather up on your airplane flight.
JOURNALISM’S DECREASING CREDIBILITY: Glenn Greenwald looks at journalism and credibility in a long post. He writes in part:
The greatest blow to the credibility of establishment journalism over the last decade — especially the NYT and the WP — was their active, enthusiastic involvement in disseminating outright falsehoods to their readers in the run-up to the Iraq War. So glaring and destructive were their failures that even they were forced to acknowledge at least some of what they did. One of the principal steps they took in assuring their readers that they were determined that this would not happen again was the adoption of clear rules which stringently limited the use of anonymity. Anonymity was a key instrument used by dishonest government officials and subservient reporters to disseminate those pre-war falsehoods.
Despite all that, they continue to violate their own guidelines over and over by indiscriminately using anonymity in the most reckless ways. And they know they do it, because it’s been repeatedly documented, even by their own ombudsmen and reporters. Yet they blithely continue. What other conclusion could a rational person reach other than that the publishers, editors and reporters of these newspapers neither care about nor deserve journalistic credibility?
Read it in full.
IS THE US HELPING OR HURTING IN SOMALIA? Thoughts at RealClearWorld.
AND THE TEARS CONTINUE here and we know elsewhere.
IS THE CLOCK TICKING? Is the time now audibly running out on the Obama presidency?
BARACK OBAMA’S LOST MEDIA NARRATIVE has baffled his chief spokesman David Axelrod.
Michael Yon, Soldiers Angels, and the incredible journey of Soldier X a must read from Ed Morrissey.
IS HEALTH CARE REFORM ABOUT TO PASS — AND IF IT DOES IN ITS PRESENT FORM WILL IT MATTER? The always must-readable Dave Schuler says he’s depressed about health care reform:
I’m going to admit to being pretty bummed about the prospects for healthcare reform worthy of the name at this point. It certainly seems to me as though the White House and both sides of the aisle in Congress have talked themselves into believing so many things that are patently untrue that healthcare reform is increasingly looking like the camel, a horse designed by a committee. Or, even worse, an elephant—a mouse built to military specification and completely unsuited to the intended task.
There’s a lot more so read it in its entirety.
HEALTH CARE REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Overhauling health care is a big issue in Saudia Arabia, too…
ON RECONCILIATION: Lindsay Graham says reconciliation would be catastrophic. The problem now for Graham is that he is linked closely to John McCain. McCain long held the reputation of an independent but in his attempt to battle back a primary challenge has moved to the right and on most issues is more RNC talking points than an RNC talking point. So Graham’s credibility as someone who calls it like it is now takes a hit. Is he calling it like it really it really is or is he doing talking points like his political best bud seems to be doing? Finding Democrats and Republicans who give candid answers is increasingly difficult today since both parties are in full spin/politicking mode.
POLITICAL HYPOCRISY REVISITED: The point about Sarah Palin writing notes on her hand is not that she wrote notes on her hand. It’s that a major zinger she delivered was about Barack Obama being seemingly so vapid that he needs a teleprompter. It’s not the notes; its the sheer political hypocrisy. In fact BOTH Obama and Palin have shown they can talk without notes. But in today’s politics partisans will attack one and defend the other and act as if other voters who don’t have a vested interest in it can’t notice the sheer hypocrisy. And it continues: Palin is still defending her notes (implying that that’s OK but if Obama uses a teleprompter that means he is unprepared or incapable of talking without one). This is one (more) instance of why independent voters stay independent voters.
ADD TO YOUR READING LIST? Karl Rove’s new book ‘Courage and Consequence’ is out and the WaPo has this review. (There was an old TV show called “Truth or Consquences,” but perhaps Rove didn’t want that wording for his title?) I usually urge young people who ask me about books such as these to READ THEM. It’s easy taking the word of a reviewer or blogger or ideological soul mate. Read it for yourself and judge it for yourself (and I get no commission from Karl to say that).
MEDIA EGG ON ITS FACE DEPARTMENT: The lesson behind the WRONG report that Chief Justice Roberts was going to quit the court. One undeniable fact: the news cycle is now down to megaseconds and new media, old media, news infooutlets, weblogs are all competing to draw readers. This means getting it first is something that has to be done faster than ever — which leads to dangers. Expect more false reports due to the speed of and competition over news in the 21st century.
Now you can follow Joe Gandelman on Twitter.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.