Day: 1/11/2009

This Is Joe The Plumber Reporting From Israel

Posted by on January 11, 2009 at 2:20 pm. NO Comments :

The highly anticipated debut installment of war correspondent Joe the Plumber has been filed and is ripping apart the fabric of the journalistic community. For someone who was ridiculed for not having the experience or skills to perform as a reporter, Joe showed his critics that he should not be underestimated with profound declarations like this:

“I have thousands of questions but I can’t think of the right one.”

That should put to rest any notion of his being unqualified. And to demonstrate that he was precisely the right choice to represent the “Average Joe” in Israel, J the P offers a sympathetic observation of life in a battle zone:

“I’m sure they’re taking quick showers,” he said. “I know I would.”

Now that’s a real plumber’s perspective. How can the elitists of the mainstream media, with their fancy college degrees in journalism and their years of experience, compete with insight like that? In fact the media is at a big disadvantage when it comes to Joe because, as he says himself, he came to this vocation as:

“…an expert on media bias. I was on the short end of the stick [just like Israel].”

And he’s using his “expertise” wisely. The bulk of his time in Israel appears to have been spent posing in picturesque tableaus of billowing smoke miles off in the Gazan distance, and in junk yards examining scrap metal collected from used Hamas rockets. Pajamas Media must be proud to have him as their correspondent relaying these vital stories back to the American public. Money well spent.

This Just In – VIDEO!

Joey The P: I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war [sic]. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for ’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer-and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.

Oh my FREAKING God! PJ believes – and actually said aloud – that the media should be “abolished” from “uh, you know, reporting.” He complains that they don’t know the whole story, as opposed to his encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East, Jewish and Muslim cultures, and the language and history of the region. And he pines for the newsreels of WWI that were nothing more than propaganda and that he has probably never seen.

He thinks it’s asinine to make a big deal out of a little thing like WAR! What’s asinine is his accusations of the media disclosing troop movements. If that happened they would be prosecuted. That’s how little Joe knows about reporting from a war zone. And despite his disparagement of government, he thinks that it should be able to operate without the interference of an independent press corps.

His lament that “everyone’s got an opinion” is especially ironic considering that that is the only thing that his moronic ranting consists of – absolutely zero substance. He’s even stupider than I thought. Somebody get him out of there before he gets someone, or himself, killed.

More Joe: “You don’t need to see what’s happening every day. […] I think the military should decide what information to give the media and then the media can release it to the public.”

Bernie Sanders Sets The Smithsonian Straight

Posted by on January 11, 2009 at 12:08 pm. NO Comments :

It’s pretty sad when a respected national institution like the Smithsonian fails to uphold the minimum scholarly standards that its reputation implies.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery recently unveiled the portrait of George W. Bush that will hang in the museum. Accompanying the portrait will be a description of Bush’s tenure that says it was…

“…marked by a series of catastrophic events” including “the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Of course the catastrophic events of 9/11 had absolutely nothing to do with the war in Iraq. Well, unless you consider the fact that the Bush administration conspired to exploit the tragedy in order to justify their previously determined agenda of aggression against Iraq and other Middle East oil producers. By now everyone knows that the claims about WMDs and connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda were lies. For the Smithsonian to be so careless in their exposition of these events is an irresponsible mangling of history.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has sent a letter to the portrait gallery director, Martin Sullivan, objecting to the language. The letter says in part…

“The 9/11 attacks did not lead to the war in Iraq. What President Bush was telling us (before the war) was that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq was somehow in collusion with Al Qaeda. Those were misstatements of fact, as even President Bush has since acknowledged. […] You can agree or disagree with the war. I simply think it’s important that history not be rewritten. Politicians spin all the time, but a wonderful national institution like the National Portrait Gallery should stick to the facts.”

The Smithsonian has not yet responded to Sen. Sanders’ letter. In the meantime, it might be useful to weigh in on the matter by letting the gallery know that people are paying attention and that accuracy in the depiction of American history is important. Particularly as it relates to matters of war and the trustworthiness of our government representatives at the highest levels.

Email the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Exhibitions group and demand that they tell the truth: NPGExhibitions@si.edu. And please be respectful in your communications. Gallery director Sullivan has a distinguished record that includes this honorable act after the Bush administration permitted Iraq’s historical treasures to be stolen and destroyed:

“It didn’t have to happen,” Sullivan told Reuters. “In a pre-emptive war that’s the kind of thing you should have planned for.

Sullivan said that just prior to resigning in protest from his post at that time as chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Property. He had been appointed to that office by President Clinton. Also, as Gallery director Sullivan acquired the iconic “HOPE” poster of Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey. That’s the very same poster made internationally famous by my John McCain “NOPE” parody of it.

Victory Update: Gallery director Martin Sullivan has responded to Sen. Sanders’ letter conceding the inaccurate language and promising to revise it:

“Our label was not intended to imply that there was a causal connection between the attacks that occurred on 9/11 and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Iraq…I appreciate your concern, however, about the words ‘led to’. We will revise the label and delete the words ‘led to.'”

Much thanks go out to Mr. Sullivan and, of course, Sen. Sanders.