Thespis Journal

Secretary Rumsfeld concludes with these comments:

“So I suggest to editors and reporters–whose good intentions I take for granted–to do some soul searching. To ask: how will history judge–if it does–the reporting decades from now when Iraq’s path is settled?
I would urge us all to make every effort to ensure we are telling the whole story. To take a moment for self-reflection and reassessment.

Further it is worth noting that there are 158,000 Americans in uniform who are sending e-mails back to friends and families, telling them the truth as they see it. And much of it is different than what those in the United States are seeing and reading about every day
Our country is waging a battle unlike any other in history. We are waging it in a media age unlike any that war fighters have ever known. In this new century, we all need to make adjustments–in government and in the media. And change is hard.

But to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, we are all Republicans. We are all Democrats. We are all Americans. We are all in this together. And what we do today will not only impact us, but our children and our grandchildren, and the kind of world they will live in. “

Others on this topic: Sister Toldjah has it right! From the Left has an interesting take.

Villanious Compnay has a treatise on the topic. The American Spectator has a wonderful article.

From its very start, the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy. The more we learn, however, the more it also reveals about the internal dysfunction of the Bush Administration and the lack of loyalty among some of its most senior officials.In other words, the leaker wasn’t Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or anyone else in the White House who has been accused of running a conspiracy against Ms. Plame as revenge for her husband Joe Wilson’s false accusations against the White House’s case for war with Iraq. So what have the last three years been all about anyway? Political opportunism and internal score-settling, among other things.
While conspiracy theories can be used to weave an intricate plotline, the wild-eyed, totally contrived theories promulgated by liberals and their willing accomplices in the media are finally exposed as the deceitful heresy that has become the foundation of the democrat party. If democrats plan to use these fabricated mantras as Fall campaign slogans, the November elections should prove to be very entertaining.

Although Richard Armitage has been outed as the source for the original Rober Novak column, we must remember that there is not now, nor has the ever been a crime committed against Valerie Plame or the United States government. It has been well established the Plame was not an undercover employee any longer, and in any case, she had already outed herself publicly many times over. We explained this in a detailed post on October 23, 2005.

“So, here is what we have. Valerie Plame uses here married name, her cover name, working at the CIA front company called Brewster-Jennings & Associates, contributes $1,000 to the Gore campaign. The media spins this as a revelation resulting from the Novak article-and of course, Karl Rove. But, this is not what this shows. What this shows is that Valerie Plame blew her own cover because she contributed to the campaign of Gore under the same name that she used for her undercover, her married name, and the name of a CIA front company that she worker for. So, Valerie Plame violates who knows what other kinds of protocol using her undercover name, exposing the existence of a CIA front company and all of this is totally ignored because supposedly her name was leaked and that is how people noticed. Now, this is a clever, clever attempt to try to spin the as she didn’t do anything wrong. Why is it perfectly normal for an American and CIA agent to contribute and want to contribute to the Gore campaign.”

Also, often lost in the devious, democrat, demagoguery parroted by the mainstream media for more than three years is the fact that every assertion by Joe Wilson (aka Clown Wilson) has been proven indisputably false.

“ON JULY 22, 2005, the New York Times published a lengthy, front-page article detailing the work of two senior Bush administration officials, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, on the Niger-uranium story. A seemingly exhaustive timeline ran alongside the piece. In 19 bullet points, the Times provided its readers in considerable detail with what it regarded as the highlights of the story. The timeline traces events from the initial request for more information on the alleged Iraqi inquiries in Africa to Joseph Wilson’s trip to Niger; from the now-famous “16 words” in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union to the details of White House telephone logs; from Bush administration claims that Karl Rove was not involved in the leak to the naming of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, and on from there to the dates that White House officials testified before the grand jury.
As I say, seemingly exhaustive. But there is one curious omission: July 7, 2004. On that date, the bipartisan Senate Select Intelligence Committee released a 511-page report on the intelligence that served as the foundation for the Bush administration’s case for war in Iraq. The Senate report includes a 48-page section on Wilson that demonstrates, in painstaking detail, that virtually everything Joseph Wilson said publicly about his trip, from its origins to his conclusions, was false.”

Only a media culture in which Bush hatred has become the psychotic, impenetrable template for news could produce news stories that make Wilson appear at all credible. The mainstream media continued today to focus on their own irresponsible vendetta while missing the two key elements of this episode.

Since the embarrassing revelation, the Paul Begala wing of the liberal party has been strangely silent. When any of these strident voices fall silent on any topic, it means more than an admission of defeat, it means that further discussion of the tired issue might endanger Ned Lamont or some other current “cut and run” darling of the extreme left. Valerie Plame and Clown Wilson must be sitting at home feeling like a used woman: they were paid for their services and discarded afterwards.

Others on this topic: Rhymes with Right, Donklephant, Mike’s Noise has a Fabulous post.
InstaPundit, GOP Bloggers. Not-A-Pundit.

Mark Levin weighs in..

As we previously stated at Thespis Journal, things aren’t always as they appear to be in the mainstream media.-especially in a strike situation. Although the Dayton News stations have made valiant attempts to cover the news radiating from Huber Heights, these mainstream media outlets have lived up their nickname of being the “drive-by” media. Sketchy facts and supported by sound snippets and finished off with remarks from anchor people who have no idea what might be actually transpiring. All three of the newscasts led their 11:00pm Tuesday telecasts with the news of the “forced” federal mediation taking place in Columbus today. Each of the three networks also foolishly sounded a clarion call that school might resume on Thursday, August 31. While school could resume on Thursday, it seems unlikely, and the real news coming from Huber Heights had nothing to do with school resuming on Thursday or any other day in the near future.

The Huber Heights Education Association has repeatedly requested to return to the table. The hapless Superintendent Kirby seemed to think that he would force the teacher’s to return to the table and forfeit their right to strike. He still seems intent on having the strike declared illegal, yet he has never explained to the public the benefit of having this strike declared illegal. Absent an agreement on a new master contract, the teachers could strike again with a new ten notice, and the district could experience another several days or weeks of turmoil.

Without a doubt, every member of HHEA is thrilled that talks are taking place today. True professionals would always rather be with their students teaching and learning. The blame for the interruption of school lies with Superintendent Kirby, his team and his board. Their failure to bring closure to the process has earned him the distinction of being idiot of the week. Kirby has spent more than a week worried about the legality of the strike. He should have been worried about getting students and teachers back in school.

A lot of the current crisis has been brought about as a result of an alternative Mutually Agree Dispute Resolution Procedure (MAD). Both sides agreed to a legally binding change in the procedure. In a pattern that he established in his previous district in Indiana, Mr. Kirby could not abide by his own agreement. He is very familiar with contracts not being settled since the teachers in his last school district worked for two years without a contract. Kirby brought this baggage with him to Huber Heights. Kirby’s tarnished history with labor relations demonstrates what we have been saying all along: the Superintendent is at the center of all that is wrong in the Huber Heights crisis.

Hopefully, the talks went well today. The football team was practicing, so all is well in the district. Prior to Wednesday, all co-curricular and extra-curricular activities had stopped. Surely, the pressure to settle a contract must be enormous. Parents should be demanding to get their students back in school. School may be in session yet this week. While it is a guessing game, Mr. Kirby’s history and blatant disregard for his teachers and his lack of integrity may cause a longer strike than the mainstream media wants us to believe. It seems like the real question to some is the status of the football game on Friday night.

The Dayton Daily News has more.
Detroit Schools Show Down: Teachers on Strike
Perkins Teachers are on Strike too. More on the Perkins Strike