More "media" like faux noise

Just saw this on DailyKos...

ME-Sen: Conflict of interest in Maine press - for Collins
by maineiac
Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 09:24:25 AM PDT

(From the diaries -- kos)

Senator Susan Collins gets amazing press from the Bangor Daily News. AMAZING. Her press release's complaints that she was being taped by the Allen campaign - while, gasp, marching in a parade - got the BDN to do a front page story and to run an editorial tut-tutting over it as bad for civil discourse in Maine.

When she first ran, the BDN got all agog because people had looked at information in the public record about her.

They are her biggest fans, excusing away every pro-war and pro-Bush vote. They help keep the myth alive that she is a thoughtful moderate.

Well, what almost no one knows is that the Executive Editor of the BDN (Mark Woodward)'s wife (Bridget Woodward) is on Senator Collins' Bangor staff. This is a clear conflict of interest.

How can we inform the people of Maine about it? You know darn well that the BDN won't tell anyone!!!

For a bunch of folks who are SO concerned with potential problems in how campaigns are run, the BDN is living in a big glass house.

At least with faux noise - we know they are a republican sound bite machine....even after years in New England, I was not aware of this connection between the newspaper and the Senatorial staff member...

Don't you just know if it were a "D" Senator - this news would be on faux noise all the time?

This is good!

Tom Matzzie, the Washington Director of MoveOn.org PAC, sends a love note to Ari Fleischer:

Dear Ari Fleischer,

Thank you. The news today about a $15 million TV ad campaign targeting Republicans in the name of a group called "Freedom Watch" is probably the best thing we could want right now. It is a gift.

The revival of your role as salesman-in-chief for the White House’s failed war policy is also welcome. We were looking for a way to connect this mysterious “Freedom Watch” outfit to the White House Iraq PR machine. And then it turned out that you made our job very simple—you are in charge. This is the “White House Ad campaign.”

Our researchers tell us your ads are targeting 90% Republicans (37 out of 41). We’ve had strong fundraising but we never thought a $15 million TV buy was in the works. Every extra minute of TV time talking about Iraq is another drip, drip, drip of bad news for politicians who won’t break with Bush. So, thanks.

I hope we can meet in person. Perhaps your schedule is clear now that you are no longer a witness in the Libby trial or a spokesperson for the White House. (Have you thought about writing a fiction novel about yellowcake and Niger?)

Also, how do you define “progress” in Iraq? This is now the bloodiest summer since the war began. Already 243 Americans have been killed in June, July and August. Last year 169. In 2005, 217 were killed. 162 in in 2003 and 113 in 2003. The Iraqi parliament is on vacation. Nearly half the Iraqi cabinet is boycotting the government. The surge has failed.

Now, for the first time, we’re not the only campaign on Iraq making Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, Mitch McConnell and others look over their shoulders. If I were you I wouldn’t answer phone calls from the NRSC, the NRCC or the RNC. I don’t think they’re too happy about these ads.

Thanks again.

-Tom Matzzie
Washington Director, MoveOn.org Political Action
campaign manager, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq

**************
PS - I hear tell that if you call the number this ad gives you to speak to "your congressman" you get
some repug person who won't put your call thru to our congress person if you disagree with them...[it's not the real congressional phone number] - but we know they can do nothing but lie! They are so pathetic!

Here is a clip of someone calling the "freedom watch" phone number for congress:

Here we go again

Faux Noise wants WAR WAR WAR - why not - they need more viewers!

More pet food recalls

I'll say it - stay away from ANYTHING made in China
mr 25 % does not care - nor does China...all they want is your money!

WalMart - sorry but if you go for cheap - you get less safe products

Tests on two brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. have shown the pet food contains traces of melamine — the same industrial chemical that caused an earlier recall of pet food products across North America in March.

Company spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said Tuesday that 17 tests confirmed the presence of the industrial chemical in Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading. The pet food was not sold in Canada.

Customer complaints about the products prompted Wal-Mart to pull the product from its store shelves in the U.S. in July. Company officials said they did not issue a recall of the product until testing could be completed.

And if your pets eat Krasdale Gravy - read on:

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) _ Some bags of Krasdale Gravy dry dog food may be contaminated with salmonella, which could affect both pets and their owners, Mars Petcare U.S., Inc. announced Tuesday. The company is recalling the product and asking pet owners who purchased it to throw it away and bring the bags in for a refund.

The new recall applies to five-pound bags of dog food sold in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania with the UPC code 7513062596 and a "best by" date of July 16, 2008 or July 17, 2008, according to a news release from the company.

No surprises here...damn it

When money talks, some prefer that to real live people!

Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration
Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: August 21, 2007 05:02:47 PM

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products.

Both have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China.

Now both are under increased scrutiny following last week’s massive toy recall by Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker. The recalls of Chinese-made toys follow several other lead-paint-related scares since June that have affected products featuring Sesame Street characters, Thomas the Train and Dora the Explorer.

Lead paint is toxic when ingested by children and can cause brain damage or death. It’s been mostly banned in the United States since the late 1970s, but is permitted in the coating of toys, providing it amounts to less than six hundred parts per million.

The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.

The 82nd Airborne: or Things I would not have known if my son had not been in the military!

My son spent 4 years in the 82nd Airborne....and I learned more about the military than I sometimes wanted to now - like how low the planes fly that drop the infantry and that they fly at night....[I am a white knuckle flyer :-0]

As my son rotated through all the levels of readiness I got to know more about how prepared this country was to protect us in any emergency! There was always a group [sorry I forget the lingo] ready to depart in 2 hours! Then there was the group who supported that first ready response group and so on down the line....

Today we as a country HAVE NO READY RESPONDERS! Why? they are all in Iraq.....

My son's comments as we discussed this was along the lines of "everyone is in Iraq, coming home from Iraq or on the way back to Iraq." It seems we are "out of" infantry.

My reading of this situation is:

If we had some major military issue to contend with here or elsewhere - we simply could not attend to it!

Scary thoughts for a country that once had a proud military and saw itself as well prepared for any and all emergencies...
now we pray that hurricanes do not hit - as we have limited National Guard left in the states; we keep lowering the standards for entry into the military - all he while offering bigger incentives to join; and losing equipment and people in Iraq while seeing no end in sight.

If you thought the Democrats were going to do something - and I as on who so thought - you were sorely disappointed that they turned out to be Repug-lite...