Before we get into what’s missing from the Senate Intelligence Committee report, let’s first acknowledge the conclusions that were released this afternoon. There’s no evidence [tag]Saddam Hussein[/tag] had ties with [tag]al-Qaida[/tag], according to a Senate report on prewar intelligence that Democrats say undercuts President [tag]Bush[/tag]’s justification for invading Iraq. Bush administration officials have insisted on […]
Since I was fairly critical of CBS’s Katie Couric for her softball interview with the president from Wednesday night, I think it’s only fair that I offer ABC’s Charlie Gibson some praise for a much better interview yesterday. Gibson began by asking Bush how it is we went from a united country after 9/11 to […]
Long time readers may recall that the biggest TV ad campaign of the 2004 election didn’t come from either of the two presidential nominees, or MoveOn, or ACT. It came from a right-wing 527 group called [tag]Progress for America[/tag] Voter Fund. With two weeks to go before the election, PFA launched a $14.2 million ad […]
It’s after Labor Day, the fifth anniversary of 9/11 is around the corner, and the Bush White House is in the midst of its third “major public relations offensive” on Iraq and the president’s vision of a war on terror. Given the speeches, legislative proposals, and debates, this was supposed to be a successful week […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Don’t look now, but Tennessee’s Senate race is becoming a key Democratic pick-up opportunity. In a new Rasmussen poll released this morning, Rep. [tag]Harold Ford[/tag] (D), trailing [tag]Bob Corker[/tag] (R) by 12 […]
Shortly after Osama [tag]bin Laden[/tag] was identified as having orchestrated the attacks of 9/11, [tag]Bush[/tag] pledged to get the terrorist “dead or alive.” Six months later, after bin Laden proved to be elusive, the president said, “I truly am not that concerned about him.” With this in mind, it was hardly a shock when we […]
As you’ve probably heard by now, Al-Jazeera TV obtained and began broadcasting a new video yesterday afternoon with previously unseen footage of Osama bin Laden meeting with the top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks. It prompted similar responses from some of my favorite writers. For example, The New Republic’s Michael Crowley wrote, “Given the […]
What a surprise, despite all of the president’s rhetoric about humane treatment of detainees, Bush’s actual proposal would allow — you guessed it — the same abusive techniques the administration has been using for years. Many of the harsh interrogation techniques repudiated by the Pentagon on Wednesday would be made lawful by legislation put forward […]
ABC is on the defensive, and the network is taking steps that look like backpedaling, but “[tag]The Path to 9/11[/tag]” docudrama remains a political problem. Under growing pressure from Democrats and aides to former President Bill Clinton, ABC is re-evaluating and in some cases re-editing crucial scenes in its new [tag]mini-series[/tag] “The Path to 9/11” […]
The more I think about ABC/Disney’s official statement in response to “The Path to 9/11” controversy, the less sense I think it makes. Here’s the statement in its entirety: “The Path to 9/11” is not a documentary of the events leading to 9/11. It is a dramatization, drawn from a variety of sources including the […]