Maggie Gallagher: More Where That Came From?

Maggie Gallagher apparently has forgotten the meaning of the words "journalistic ethics." She also seems to think that because she didn't negotiate as good a deal as Armstrong Williams that her actions aren't as reprehensible. Talking to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who blew the whistle on Gallagher's arrangement, she defiantly said "Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it? I don't know. You tell me." To make matters worse, after initially defending her actions, she changed her story somewhat, saying:

"I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."

Ok, so now it was an oversight. This brand of arrogance, so prevalent in anybody remotely associated with (i.e., being paid by) the Bush administration, is just plain sickening. A half-hearted apology hardly makes it here, especially when there is a total lack of journalistic responsibility.



The sad fact is that the exposure of Williams and Gallagher only begs an even more disturbing question: How many more Bush shills posing as legitimate journalists are out there? Will they be exposed? If so, will any real action be taken? Will anyone care? The Jayson Blair incident seems so tame by comparison.



- Second Columnist Got Money from Bush Administration

Jazz Treasure Trove Being Auctioned Feb. 20

On Feb. 20, Guernsey's Auction House in New York will auction off hundreds of jazz artifacts -- from Benny Goodman's clarinet to writings by John Coltrane -- at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room. Other items include: a lengthy handwritten letter from Louis Armstrong "when he was going through some personal changes in his life," says Arlan Ettinger, Guernseys owner; a notebook filled with writings from Thelonious Monk including a one-page, three-paragraph essay titled "Everyone Should Read Good Newspapers" from Feb. 17, 1933, when Monk was 15. John Coltrane's fifth-grade notebookis also on the auction block. "He created cutout letters spelling the words Negro History. This is the auction of 1,000 stories," Ettinger says.



For more information, go to the Guernsey's website.

Wal-Mart: A Race To Gotham

Richard Schwartz of the Daily News makes a rather lame argument for the infitration of Walmart into our cities' outer boroughs.

Why the resistance to letting mega-discounters into Gotham? It's not the consumers doing the protesting. The bumps in the road come from a loose confederation of unions, endangered shopkeepers and community kibitzers who get their jollies stalling anything one might call progress.

First of all, is he kidding? A resistance of mega-discounters in New York? Though he allows that "a handful [of stores] have made it into enemy territory," his argument has no basis in reality. If anything, New York has already allowed too many megastores into its ranks. Schwartz goes on to say:

To be sure, Wal-Mart carries some ugly baggage, like class-action suits for stiffing workers on overtime pay and for sexual discrimination. If America's largest employer hopes to do business in the world's media epicenter, it had better clean up its act. That said, it would be economic injustice to deny New Yorkers something other Americans take as a given: the right to get the best deal for the dollar.

If New York allows Walmart into our city, what incentive would they then have to "clean up [their] act?" As far as the "best deal for the dollar," how does Schwartz think Walmart acheives this? He should read this for starters.

Special Report: Do Christians Have Anything Better To Do?

Once again, right-wing Christians are practicing intolerance under the guise of morality with the release of a new SpongeBob SquarePants video. The video, featuring a remake of Sister Sledge's "We Are Family,"and created by the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation, is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity. Not so, writes Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association:

"A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality"

This criticism is largely due to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's website which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race. Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who considers tolerance to be a bad thing says:

"Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity" within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary but it crosses a moral line."

Statements like these are so representative of a social climate which deems the thinly-veiled hatred of any outside group acceptable if its doctrine can neatly fall under the category of moral values. McCarthyism wasn't that long ago, kids.

Kate Bush Poised To Return

File this under "Believe it when you see it," but....after an almost 12-year wait, Kate Bush has informed fans that her new, as yet untitled, album for EMI is almost finished and will be released in March of this year.

Ohio Welcomes Homosexuality, Sort Of

In an attempt to employ non-lethal chemical warfare on our enemies, a $7.5 million request from a laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio appeared which suggested the use of behavior-altering chemicals that would spur deviant behavior in enemy camps "so that discipline and morale in enemy units is adversely affected." Said the document:

"One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior"

Lt. Col. Barry Venable of the Army, a Defense Department spokesman, said: "This suggestion arose essentially from a brainstorming session, and it was rejected out of hand."



These and other fascinating tidbits are regularly brought to light by The Sunshine Project, a kind of watchdog group exposes things like

• Maps of High Containment and Other Facilities of the US Biodefense Program
• Agent Green -Biological weapons being tested to kill illicit crops of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis
• A History of Biological Warfare (dating as far back as Ancient Rome)

Check it out.

Just Plant The WMDs at This Point, George

Jesus! Can't this guy do anything right?



With at least 1,356 dead since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, and ten of thousands more wounded, you would think that the best thing to do at this point would be to lie about the existence of WMDs in Iraq. Just like he lied about them at the beginning. Now that it's essentially too late to undo the damage, Bush should at least convince the easily convinced (aka. the Red States) that their sons and daughters haven't died for nothing. Especially since, even with the new information having come to light, we still have no hopes for so much as an apology from this president or his administration. President Bush still clings to the notion the Iraq War was totally justified because the world is safe without Saddam Hussein in power. Though this is probably true, it is undeniable at this point that Saddam represented no immediate threat circa March 2003.



Sometimes it's appropriate to lie. Now that it's too late for the truth to do us any good, planting false evidence about the existence of WMDs seems like the less arrogant move at this point. It would at least show that he cares enough about us to lie to us.

Bush Selects Pol Pot for Homeland Security Post

In a move that's sure to confound Democrats and Republicans alike, President Bush has picked former Khmer Rouge Central Committee leader Pol Pot as Tom Ridge's successor as chief of Homeland Security. This is a big political opportunity for Pot, having spent the last seven years in hiding. He claims that despite his intense hatred of professionals, intellectuals and "anyone wearing glasses," he will do his best to make America safer.

Armstrong Williams: Blogger's Choice

Yeah, we've heard of him, too. We have nothing to add (at least at this point), but we didn't want to let this story slip by without comment (even if it's comments by others). So, here's a whole bunch of Armsrong. Enjoy.



UselessKnowledge.com

Blue Mass Group

National Ledger

Conspiracy Planet

Editor & Publisher

mediamatters.org

Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog

The State

Author Of Terrible Book Dead At 50, or Danny Sugerman Breaks On Through

Danny Sugerman, a man for whom life as a slobbering Doors fan became a career, died about 36 years in a state of severe arrested development.



I'm not going to make any bones about this: The Doors are one of the worst rock bands you were ever sold, with Jim Morrison the worst lyricist/3rd rate Mick Jagger impersonator this side of The Strokes (with even less of a sense of humor). I find Sugerman personally responsible for extending the shelf life of these worthless, pretentious hacks who comprise the single most overrated band in music history with the release of his book "No One Here Gets Out Alive." Sample quote:

"My personal belief is that Jim Morrison was a god."

I mean, can you beieve a grown man pushing 30 wrote this? The cult of Jim Morrison revolves around perpetual adolescence fuelled by drugs and poor taste in music. The cult is as strong as ever today (Rolling Stone runs a feature on him about every five minutes. The demand for anything Jim Morrsion-related is so great that Moderm Humorist has created a Jim Morrison Simulatron that begs to be seen. It's quite a fitting tribute.



Check it out.

Ashlee Simpson: Victim Of The Musical Peter Principal, or Amusical Renegade?

See, I told you the SNL incident wouldn't hurt her career. What I wouldn't give to be on the cover of the Daily News!



But seriously, Ashlee Simpson gave a special halftime performance at the Orange Bowl last night. She actually sang, though the crowd roared for her to use the tape. The moral of this pathetic display, and perhaps the only good that can come from it, is the knowledge that sometimes (it's rare, I know) major corporate backing from the music industry machine just isn't enough. It takes a "special talent" like Ashlee to bring this kind of thing to light, but it looks as though she's done it. People really HATE her. And a nation really hating Ashlee Simpson signifies the existence of a healthy society far more than the mere acceptance of Britney Spears. Any artist can be mediocre (in fact, almost all of them are nowadays). I think we all owe Ashlee a great deal of thanks for showing us the way by being deemed musically unacceptable. It's as if she planned it all along. She performed the same favor for us as the Sex Pistols in their day: she showed us how utterly lame and careless the music industry can be. What we, the music buying public, do with this knowledge is entirely up to us. The revolution starts now? We'll see.

The Alan Freed Story

This is an idea I'm giving away for free, since no one seems the least bit interested. I've noticed for years the striking similarities between legendary Rock n' Roll disk jockey Alan Freed and actor Gary Sinise. I've also noticed that no one has ever done a proper depiction of Freed's life for the silver screen. This is oscar material in the making here. Think about it: renegade disk jockey gain enormous fame partially by helping to break racial barriers in popular music. The powers that be, predominantly segregationists, hate Freed and slowly destroy him through allegations of payola (a common practice even then, Freed was not unique in this respect) and economic strangulation by banning him from the airwaves. Freed, already an alcoholic, dies a tragic death, entirely forgotten by the music buying public around the time Beatlemania invades the United States.



Am I the only one who thinks this is a great story? I doubt that, my friend. Hollywood, are you listening? Don't make the filmed version of My Mother The Car, make this.

Illustrator Frank Kelly Freas Dead At 82

Frank Kelly Freas, one of the greatest and most influential illustrators of the modern era, died in his sleep 4:46 a.m. January 2nd. Best known for perfecting the image of Alfred E. Newman for Mad Magazine, Freas created many illustrations for science fiction magazines and novels. One of his most famous images (above) was originally created for a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction in October 1953. This artwork was later retooled for the cover of Queen's News Of The World in 1977.