Melder's Musings

ABC's Elizabeth Vargas pimps the President's speech.

ABC News may well be a house divided. In its "World News Tonight" broadcast, anchored for the time being by right-leaning Elizabeth Vargas, the network labeled the upcoming State of the Union Address as "America's Agenda." Obviously, to everyone except the crew running WNT, the speech is only one man's agenda. It may be an agenda that America eventually adopts, but until that time, it's only the President's agenda. In fact, that's why Presidents deliver the speech--they're laying out their agenda.

Five hours later, the crew at ABC's "Nightline" took a different course. Instead of glorifying the speech, "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran introduced a report questioning the speech's value in today's political dialogue. The report reminded viewers of several big ticked requests made by President Bush over the last few SOTUs (remember Social Security reform and two billion in debt reduction?), all of which have yet to happen. It also illustrated the use of the President's gallery guests as political pawns.

In the same broadcast, the folks at "Nightline" delivered another blow to the Bush administration: a new Government Accounting Office report says payroll errors affecting soldiers being treated for war wounds are bankrupting many of those soldiers.

Military Mom Cindy Sheehan is escorted into the U.S. House of Representatives Chamber by security personnel shortly before being arrested and forced out of it. (Reuters photo)

As if illegally tapping the phones of American citizens wasn't enough, apparently our rights to freedom of speech are also now null and void. In Bush's America, a t-shirt that someone doesn't like is enough to get you arrested.

Military Mom Cindy Sheehan was arrested tonight. What was Sheehan's crime? Sheehan broke the law by sitting quietly in the U.S. House Chamber, as a guest of Rep. Lynn Woolsey, before the President's address.

Sheehan was wearing a t-shirt with some sort of anti-war slogan. As a mother whose son was taken by the war, I would think that's her prerogative so to do. As an American citizen guaranteed certain rights by our Constitution, I would think that would be anyone's prerogative.

In a flagrant violation of her rights and a slap in the face to a Democratic member of Congress, Sheehan was arrested by Capitol Police and charged with unlawful conduct. Previous reports that Sheehan was going to unfurl some sort of banner are flat wrong. With today's stringent security standards, she probably wouldn't have made it through the door with any banner.

Maybe the Capitol Police should arrest Republicans for booing down the Democrats when they applauded. Maybe the Capitol Police should arrest Democrats for keeping their seats while Republicans jumped up like eager lapdogs. Maybe the Capitol Police should arrest the guests of the President who wore traditional Muslim clothing. After all, there could have been a weapon of mass destruction under those robes and scarves.

If you found any of the last paragraph ridiculous, I congratulate you for your recognition of stupidity. You should also find the arrest of Sheehan, who did nothing more than accept an invitation while wearing a controversial shirt, incredibly stupid.

The hypocrisy of tonight's arrest is staggering. The flag over the Capitol building flies at half-staff for a woman who dedicated her life to a campaign of civil disobedience...the very same thing Sheehan has committed herself to. The President, after Sheehan's arrest, paid verbal tribute to the very same woman for whom the flag was lowered.

Perhaps, though, I am more hurt than surprised. After all, we live under a president who allegedly called our Constitution "just a god damn piece of paper."

With Geraldo River's stunning inability to read the newspaper fresh on the brain, it's time to catch up with This Week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

In this week's edition, we see two items that should promote outrage, but in today's so-called liberal media climate, won't get much further than this blog.

First, President Bush doesn't want Congress to see reports and documents generated by the White House just days prior to the strike of Hurricane Katrina. Bush once told ABC's Diane Sawyer that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." The report he doesn't want Congress to see proves that to be bullshit.

Second, Ann Coulter is at it again. The same woman who once wrote that "much of the left's hate speech bears greater similarity to a psychological disorder than to standard political discourse," told a group of college students in Arkansas that "we need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee."

Just to confirm: it's hate speech if we call the President on his lies, but it's not hate speech to advocate the assassination of a Supreme Court Justice. I'm glad we could clear that up.

Better late than never, I also give you last week's list.

In some good news, angry readers made the allegedly liberal Washington Post eat their words about Democratic consumption at Jack Abramoff's trough.

Also, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is once again choosing which "ongoing criminal investigations" he will and will not comment on. Perhaps he's gearing up to do lots of double speak on his mother's behalf. Look for more on that later.

As if getting caught in a number of lies about his on-location reporting weren't enough to discredit him, American television viewers got to see for themselves today that Fox News star Geraldo Rivera simply cannot read.

On today's edition of the FNC program DaySide, Rivera went on a tirade against the New York Times. Rivera complained that the Times coverage of injuries sustained by ABC News Anchorman Bob Woodruff called Woodruff's actions a "ratings stunt." Rivera said that the Times should be "embarrassed" for calling Woodruff's coverage a "ratings stunt."

Unfortunately for Rivera, nowhere in the Times article he sites appear the words "ratings stunt."

The Times published a front-page story about Woodruff's injuries and the circumstances of his career and the TV news business that lead up to them. It's that front page store that Rivera is so upset about. The only item even potentially critical of Woodruff's activities was an opinion piece in the Times Arts section.

Fox News...we get pissed off over something that didn't happen...you get lied to.

The folks at Democratic Underground are back on the ball, so that means I need to get back on it, too.

Here's the link to this week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

This week's list is particularly shocking. It provides links to efforts by Republicans to (again) claim that a Democrat's Purple Hearts weren't earned and Bush Administration efforts to make protesting a crime. It also shows that a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee actually coached Sam Alito before his hearings. Fairness, objectivity, and the Constitution be damned!

Let's also be sure to look at last week's list.

It devotes a lot of space to the connection between money, the Republican party, and the law (or violation and/or repeal of it).

In this roundup of people doing stupid things in the name of the Almighty, we have five entries.

First, two Ohio megachurches may have given illegal contributions to Republican candidates. Under current tax law, churches that enjoy tax-exempt status cannot give directly to any political candidate. The complaint against the megachurches, the same credited for delivering Ohio to President Bush in 2004, was filed by members of the clergy.

As reported by the New York Times, "leaders who supported the complaint said that the two churches had gone too far. 'I have become very concerned about how it could be that churches were becoming almost an extension of a political party,' said the Rev. F. Allan Debelak, the minister of a Lutheran church in the Columbus area and a signer of the complaint. 'They have been giving what seems to be an endorsement, even if they never used the word, an endorsement of [Ohio Secretary of State] Ken Blackwell.'"

Meanwhile, the effort to deny the value of science continues. A new book claims that a number of scientific theories widely accepted today are nothing more than a leftist political agenda. Naturally, Fox News is pimping the book. The book's author (a magazine editor with no scientific background) appeared on today's edition of "DaySide."

Our third item concerns another pastor with foam building at the corners of his mouth. As reported by the Associated Press in the San Jose Mercury News, the "pastor on Monday called for a national boycott of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and other companies that support a gay civil rights bill, saying the corporations have underestimated the power of religious consumers. The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, said he would formally issue the boycott Thursday on the conservative radio show Focus on the Family."

That pastor needs to be reminded of this passage from First Corinthians: "For what is it to me to also judge those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But God judges those who are outside. Therefore put out from you the evil one."

Today's fourth item is actually a piece of good news. A school district in California is dropping its plan to teach "intelligent design" as science. I have no problem with the discussion of creationism in a theological class. In fact, I strongly encourage it. It does not belong, however, in the science classroom.

Finally, I want to publicly debunk a ridiculous hoax that landed in my e-mail inbox this week. Rather than rehash it all here, I'll instead let you get the truth from the ACLU directly.

Before you become enraged at that headline, please know that it's very much tongue-in-cheek. That said, it is the impression that media outlets across the globe, but especially here in Texas, are working hard to push.

A number of media reports, especially newspaper reports, are trying to make a connection between the influx of Katrina evacuees into Houston and the rise in that city's murder rate. It's a connection being pushed so hard that the city's mayor wants FEMA to help pay for police protection.

If a reader takes the time to get past misleading headlines and emotional quotes from crime victims, one mathematical fact will stand out: only eight of the more than 325 violent deaths this year have involved storm-displaced people. That was one point made (finally) by the Houston Chronicle in a December 27 editorial.

Do the math. In a city with a 25% increase in the homicide rate, nearly 98% of those murders are being committed by people not displaced by Katrina. The press needs to calm the hell down.

If math isn't enough for you, consider the following. As is being reported by the Dallas Morning News,"Dallas police announced this afternoon that, for the first time in more than a decade, crime was down last year in all major categories in Dallas - led by a double-digit drop in murder." That city, like Houston, has also become home to thousands of Katrina evacuees.

The possibility that President Bush broke the law when he authorized the NSA to spy on the American people is still that: a possibility. It's a matter of semantics and legal interpretation. It's a matter that will become more clear as Congress investigates it.

That said, my interpretation is clear. So is that of the ACLU. They're latest advertising effort by the ACLU breaks it down quite simply.



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