The AP Gets Something Right in Hurriyah

From the story on the Hurriyah Mosques still standing that Michelle Malkin and Bryan are following...

There's an exchange between the reporter and a young gun guarding one of the damaged mosques...

"..."This is the TNT mosque. ... This name was given to it by Wahhabis" — the name of an extremist Sunni branch that is used by the Mahdi Army as a derisory label for all Sunnis...."

How long has the AP been referring to Wahhabism as an "extremist Sunni branch"?

This is a positive development :) It's also a correct statement. Unless of course they decide to edit the article.

The other thing I found interesting about the article was that the person who visited the sites was "An Associated Press reporter who lives in the neighborhood, and whose name has been withheld from this story for security reasons, visited the mosques Friday."

I'm curious how one gets the designation AP reporter? And if AP has had a "reporter" living in the Hurriyah neighborhood, why hasn't he been reporting first hand instead of the mythical Jamil Hussein? Could the AP reporter be Jamil himself?

I sometimes wish I could go back to just reading the paper and watching 60 minutes. This is harder.

Bush Updates Clinton Program; NYT Misses Key Information

This is surprising. President Bush has signed an executive order, that according to the NYT requires each federal agency to "...have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries..." That policy office is required to "...analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities."


What the NYT fails to mention is that this executive order is actually only updating one originally signed by President Clinton under the "reinventing government" push of the early 1990's. It's implementing the "good guidance practices."

The angle of the NYT article is this "This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats." An angle confirmed by Columbia professor Strauss, is "Having lost control of Congress,” Mr. Strauss said, “the president is doing what he can to increase his control of the executive branch.”

That's just not right. The meat of this order was orginally published for public comment on on November 30,2005. Heck, the comment period was even extended and the Whitehouse got 30 plus comments on the thing. Why wasn't any of this in the NYT story?

If the NYT story is right then Bush knew he was going to lose Congress over a year before the election. The other option? NYT got the story wrong.

Boston Globe Reporters Confuse Air rifles and Shotguns

Instapundit linked to this Boston Globe story about Mitt Romney and his stand on gun control.



The article has captioned this photo "Presidential prospect Mitt Romney checked out a display of shotguns Friday during his NRA-guided tour of a sprawling gun trade show in Orlando, Fla. (Gerardo Mora/ Getty Images for the Boston Globe)"
Too bad the reporters can't tell the difference between a shotgun and a pellet gun. In case you're not familiar with them, all the rifles in that display are pellet guns. See the break point at the end of the stock. Here's a close up of some Chinese models.

Slimy Arrogant News Anchor Slips to New Low -
Tom Brokaw Slams Reagan at the Ford Funeral

Tom Brokaw delivered a eulogy today at the Ford Funeral... what caught my ear was how he opened it.

"Mrs. Ford, members of the Ford family, President and Mrs. Bush, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney, President and Mrs. Bush, President and Mrs. Carter, President and Mrs. Clinton, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, it’s a great privilege and an honor for me to be here.

"For the past week, we have been hearing the familiar lyrics of the hymns to the passing of a famous man, the hosannas to his decency, his honesty, his modesty and his steady-as-she-goes qualities. It’s what we’ve come to expect on these occasions.

"But this time there was extra value, for in the case of Gerald Ford, these lyrics have the added virtue of being true...."

Let's pull out the key points... "..familiar lyrics of the hymns to the passing of a famous man...It’s what we’ve come to expect on these occasions. But this time...(were) true"

"Familiar" and "this time" means we've heard it before. When? Well "on these occasions." And what would this occasion be? The state funeral marking the passing of a US President. And what other US President has passed recently? Ronald Reagan is the only that I'm familiar with.

So if "this time" the things said about Ford are true, is Brokaw implying that the praise given Reagan was not? It sure sounds that way. I don't think I'm being overly sensitive here. Brokaw is a smart guy. He likes letting people know just how smart he is. He made a career of it.

Unfortunately for the dignity of the ceremony he wasn't smart enough to write a eulogy for one President without attacking another.


Did you come over from Mudville? You can get back from here.

A commenter on the article about the new Ford Edge at business week says that Ford deserves another chance. I gave them that chance 2 years ago when I abandoned Saturn (Saturn abandoned me first- when they became just another GM label - but that's another story) I bought a brand new Focus. Have had a few problems with low profile tires and the general cheap feel, but the worst is the gas mileage. At 22 mpg..this is their "small car?" They put all their money into big SUV... one can assume that was a strategic decision... and that the guys who make the big bucks asked "what happens if gas goes up" then accepted the answer. I should give them another chance for their poor business decision? Sorry, I work too hard for that.

Show me you got product that's more than clever marketing and I'll reconsider. Not there yet.