Time Mag's Joe Klein: 'A Profoundly un-American Administration' --1/9/2009


1. Time Mag's Joe Klein: 'A Profoundly un-American Administration'
Discussing on MSNBC Thursday night his latest screed for Time magazine ("The Bush Administration's Most Despicable Act"), Joe Klein maligned the Bush-Cheney administration, telling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue host David Shuster: "I think this has been a profoundly un-American administration." Klein, whose piece for the January 19 edition of the magazine contended Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials "perpetrated what many legal scholars consider to be war crimes," lamented on MSNBC that "it's going to be very hard to prosecute these people" but, he ruminated about "the fanciful idea" that "it might happen overseas" with "Cheney being snatched mid-stream while, you know, fly fishing in Norway as Augusto Pinochet, the dictator in Chile, was." In the magazine harangue posted Thursday, Klein argued that Bush "led directly to the abuses" of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo "when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention -- the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime -- did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban." He declared: "It was his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency."

2. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter Slams Sarah Palin as 'So Lame'
On Thursday night's Hardball, Chris Matthews played several clips from documentarian John Zeigler's interview with Sarah Palin, in which the former GOP VP candidate criticized Katie Couric and the press as a whole for bias against her, but his guest, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, dismissed Palin's charges as "so lame," and called her "a Nixonian Nanook of the North." Alter noted "the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press," a notion he dismissed: "Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true."

3. NYT on Medicare: Obama's Benign 'Overhaul' vs. GOP's 'Big Cuts'
With a liberal Democrat coming to power, it seems the New York Times has gotten over the false fear of "big cuts" in Medicare it displayed when Republicans tried to reduce the rate of growth of the program back in 1995. Thursday's lead story by Jeff Zeleny and John Harwood, "Obama Promises Bid To Overhaul Retiree Spending," characterized the President-elect's stated willingness to tackle huge entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare in mostly positive terms. The reporters described Obama's vague proposal as an "overhauling," an "approach to rein in Social Security and Medicare," and an "effort to cut back the rates of growth of the two programs."

4. CNBC's John Harwood Pins Obama Down on Blackberry, Topless Photos
Just one day after Ann Coulter chided NBC News' Matt Lauer and Brian Williams, on the Today show, for softball questions to Barack Obama, CNBC's John Harwood, on Thursday's Today, outdid them both in Obama puffery. In an excerpt of a one-on-one interview with the President-elect which aired the night before on CNBC, Harwood asked such hard-hitting questions as what kind of "family advice" he got from his lunch with the former presidents, if he is being allowed to use his Blackberry, and whether recent topless photos of him in Hawaii were "an embarrassment."

5. ABC's GMA Touts 'Amazing' Obama Crayon Sculpture
Proving that no Barack Obama imagery is too embarrassing, the hosts of Good Morning America on Thursday highlighted a sculpture of the President-elect made entirely out of crayons. After mentioning artist Herb Williams, news anchor Chris Cuomo enthused: "He does something amazing. He created a statue of Obama out of all crayons." The GMA crew then proceeded to talk about all the details of how one makes crayon statues of Obama. As pictures and video appeared onscreen, Cuomo explained: "He took the crayons. And glues them in there. Look, there's his process. This is what he does."

6. Two New Stars of Fox's '24' Denounce Bush's 'Torture'
In short USA Today "dossiers" on fresh characters in the new season of Fox's 24 set to debut Sunday night, two of the four profiled actors used the space to espouse their personal disgust with the U.S. government for using "torture," which has been employed by lead character "Jack Bauer." Left-wing activist/actress Janeane Garofalo, who plays "FBI analyst Janis Gold," called the use of torture "reprehensible" and rued: "That our own administration borrowed ideas from 24 is such a tragedy." USA Today explained: "A former Army interrogator has said that soldiers mimic interrogation tactics seen on the show." Garofalo conceded she "was initially very reticent to do it, because I heard about the right-wing nature of Joel's [24 co-creator Joel Surnow] politics and the torture-heavy scripts." But, she quipped: "And then I thought, 'I'm unemployed!'" So much for standing up for principle.

7. Sign Up to Receive the MRC's Notable Quotables Via E-Mail
As the year begins, the MRC is launching a new e-mail product with the content of our every-other-week Notable Quotables, a "compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media." It delivers 16-18 of the most biased quotes from journalists uttered during the preceding weeks. The new e-mail service is available in two formats: You can receive it as plain text, or in HTML which will feature graphics, images and click-and-play links to video clips.


Time Mag's Joe Klein: 'A Profoundly un-American
Administration'

Discussing on MSNBC Thursday night his latest screed for Time magazine ("The Bush Administration's Most Despicable Act"), Joe Klein maligned the Bush-Cheney administration, telling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue host David Shuster: "I think this has been a profoundly un-American administration." Klein, whose piece for the January 19 edition of the magazine contended Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials "perpetrated what many legal scholars consider to be war crimes," lamented on MSNBC that "it's going to be very hard to prosecute these people" but, he ruminated about "the fanciful idea" that "it might happen overseas" with "Cheney being snatched mid-stream while, you know, fly fishing in Norway as Augusto Pinochet, the dictator in Chile, was."

In the magazine harangue posted Thursday, Klein argued that Bush "led directly to the abuses" of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo "when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention -- the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime -- did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban." He declared: "It was his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency."

As opposed to the national embarrassment to sober journalism that is Joe Klein?

[This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

"It would be interesting," a churlish Klein speculated in Time, "just for the fun and justice of it, to subject Rumsfeld to four hours in a stress position -- standing stock still with his arms extended, naked, in a cold room after maybe two hours' sleep."

He concluded the magazine rant with his idea for "a Bush Memorial in Washington: a statue of the hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner in cruciform stress position -- the real Bush legacy."

Shuster made Klein the "Muckraker of the Day" for his 6 PM EST program and pronounced it a "great column."

An excerpt from the piece posted on Thursday, January 8:

"This is not the America I know," President George W. Bush said after the first, horrifying pictures of U.S. troops torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced in April 2004. The President was not telling the truth. "This" was the America he had authorized on Feb. 7, 2002, when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention -- the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime -- did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. That signature led directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. It was his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency....

Since we live in an advanced Western civilization, there needs to be legal justification when we torture people, and the Bush Administration proudly produced it. Memos authorizing the use of "enhanced" techniques were written in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Council. Vice President Dick Cheney and his nefarious aide, David Addington, had a hand in the process. The memos were approved by Bush's legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales. A memo listing specific interrogation techniques that could be used to torture prisoners like Mohammed al-Khatani was passed to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He signed it on Dec. 2, 2002, although he seemed a bit disappointed by the lack of rigor when it came to stress positions: "I stand for 8-10 hours a day," he noted. "Why is standing limited to four hours?"

It would be interesting, just for the fun and justice of it, to subject Rumsfeld to four hours in a stress position -- standing stock still with his arms extended, naked, in a cold room after maybe two hours' sleep. But that's not going to happen. Indeed, it seems probable that nothing much is going to happen to the Bush Administration officials who perpetrated what many legal scholars consider to be war crimes. "I would say that there's some theoretical exposure here" to a war-crimes indictment in U.S. federal court, says Gene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School. "But I don't think there's much public appetite for that sort of action." There is, I'm told, absolutely no interest on the part of the incoming Obama Administration to pursue indictments against its predecessors....

END of Excerpt

For the entire piece: www.time.com

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter Slams Sarah
Palin as 'So Lame'

On Thursday night's Hardball, Chris Matthews played several clips from documentarian John Zeigler's interview with Sarah Palin, in which the former GOP VP candidate criticized Katie Couric and the press as a whole for bias against her, but his guest, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, dismissed Palin's charges as "so lame," and called her "a Nixonian Nanook of the North." Alter noted "the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press," a notion he dismissed: "Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true."

[This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday evening on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org

The following exchanges were aired on the January 8 edition of Hardball:

First up, after Matthews aired a clip of Palin criticizing the McCain campaign for forcing her to conduct continuing interviews with Couric, Alter called the Alaskan governor: "So lame."

CHRIS MATTHEWS: There ought to be a law against politicians blaming their handlers. What do you think Jonathan?
JONATHAN ALTER, NEWSWEEK: Yeah this was just so lame, Chris. I mean why didn't it go well the first day? It wasn't because Katie Couric was asking awful questions. Her questions were very straight, no spin on the ball. The problem was Sarah Palin couldn't answer the questions in a way that showed the knowledge that is required to be Vice President and quite possibly President. So if she had decided not to go back for the rest of the interview she would have been conceding that she simply wasn't qualified to be Vice President if she couldn't answer Katie's questions.

Then after a clip of Palin wondering if Caroline Kennedy would get better coverage in her quest for the New York Senate seat because of a "class issue," Alter insulted Palin as acting like a "Nixonian Nanook of the North."

ALTER: Chris you wrote the book on Kennedy and Nixon. You know this is Sarah Palin acting kind of like a Nixonian Nanook of the North. She's trying to play that class argument against the Kennedys. That goes back a long way. It's had some success in American politics. But you know this, at this point it's kind of comparing apples and oranges. She was on the threshold of becoming Vice President and possibly President. Caroline Kennedy hasn't even been, you know, chosen yet for the U.S. Senate, as one of 100. So you know the standards in covering them aren't quite comparable. Not to mention the fact that Caroline's had a pretty tough press so far. She has hardly been handled by kid gloves in the last couple weeks.
MATTHEWS: You're right.

Finally right before the close of the show, Alter denied Palin's claim of liberal bias that she would've received positive coverage if she was on the Democratic ticket:

MATTHEWS: Jon, Jon would she have gotten better treatment had she been on the "D" ticket instead of the "R" ticket?
ALTER: Well first of all, first of all Chris she never would've been on the Democratic ticket. I mean John McCain said that the first requirement for his pick was that, that person be qualified to step in at a moment's notice and deal with terrorism and all the big international issues. So he violated his own standards. That was also Barack Obama's standard for who he would put on the ticket and he chose somebody with, with the requisite experience. But if she had been -- the, the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press. Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true.
MATTHEWS: Okay, ask Jimmy Carter.
ALTER: Jimmy Carter! Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Anyway. Ask Jimmy Carter, he got a terrible press.

To read about Zeigler's interview with Palin, visit: bighollywood.breitbart.com

NYT on Medicare: Obama's Benign 'Overhaul'
vs. GOP's 'Big Cuts'

With a liberal Democrat coming to power, it seems the New York Times has gotten over the false fear of "big cuts" in Medicare it displayed when Republicans tried to reduce the rate of growth of the program back in 1995. Thursday's lead story by Jeff Zeleny and John Harwood, "Obama Promises Bid To Overhaul Retiree Spending," characterized the President-elect's stated willingness to tackle huge entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare in mostly positive terms. The reporters described Obama's vague proposal as an "overhauling," an "approach to rein in Social Security and Medicare," and an "effort to cut back the rates of growth of the two programs."

[This item, by Clay Waters, was posted Thursday on the MRC's TimesWatch site: www.timeswatch.org ]

An excerpt from the article:

President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be "a central part" of his administration's efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.

....

Speaking at a news conference in Washington, he provided no details of his approach to rein in Social Security and Medicare, which are projected to consume a growing share of government spending as the baby boom generation ages into retirement over the next two decades. But he said he would have more to say about the issue when he unveiled a budget next month.

Should he follow through with a serious effort to cut back the rates of growth of the two programs, he would be opening up a potentially risky battle that neither party has shown much stomach for. The programs have proved almost sacrosanct in political terms, even as they threaten to grow so large as to be unsustainable in the long run. President Bush failed in his effort to overhaul Social Security, and Medicare only grew larger during his administration with the addition of prescription drug coverage for retirees.

END of Excerpt

For the entire January 8 story: www.nytimes.com

The headline's subhead noted the "potential for risky fight" over the move, which Obama has provided no details on. Still, the story cast his vague "overhaul" in positive terms. Compare that to how the paper treated the last serious attempt to fix Medicare, back in the mid-1990s.

After taking over Congress in 1994, Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress proposed to slow the growth of the Medicare program by slicing spending by around $250 billion over a seven-year period. That would have trimmed the Medicare programs annual growth rate from 10 percent to around 7-to-8 percent -- not an actual spending cut, just a slowdown in the rate of spending increase. But the GOP's gallant (and failed) attempt to at least somewhat rein in the growth of Medicare spending was falsely blasted by the media as butchering the safety net with "big cuts."

A front-page Times story on October 26, 1995 was headlined: "Americans Reject Big Medicare Cuts, a New Poll Finds." A May 8, 1995 front-page headline read: "Gingrich Promises Big Medicare Cut With Little Pain."

The paper's myriad inaccuracies were documented by the MRC's Tim Graham in July 1996. Reviewing 18 months of news stories, Graham found that the Times used the false description of "cuts" far more often than more accurate terms like "cuts in growth." He wrote:

The New York Times filed 508 stories matching the search terms, with 386 references to "cuts." Reports of "savings" came on 144 occasions, "cuts in growth" on 112, and "cuts in projected spending" on 76. On May 11, 1995, reporter David Sanger wrote: "But when it came to the details, they balked at many of the most extreme cuts, from the deepest slashes in Medicare to the elimination of the Commerce Department."

On October 27, the Times reported a controversy over its poll question: "If you had to choose, would you prefer balancing the budget or preventing Medicare from being significantly cut?"

END of Excerpt

For the study, "The Health Program That Grows by Leaps and Bounds Mysteriously Described as 'Cut,'" in full: www.mediaresearch.org

CNBC's John Harwood Pins Obama Down on
Blackberry, Topless Photos

Just one day after Ann Coulter chided NBC News' Matt Lauer and Brian Williams, on the Today show, for softball questions to Barack Obama, CNBC's John Harwood, on Thursday's Today, outdid them both in Obama puffery. In an excerpt of a one-on-one interview with the President-elect which aired the night before on CNBC, Harwood asked such hard-hitting questions as what kind of "family advice" he got from his lunch with the former presidents, if he is being allowed to use his Blackberry, and whether recent topless photos of him in Hawaii were "an embarrassment."

[This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Today co-host Meredith Vieira teased the interview, claiming Harwood "sat down with Obama to talk about the economic challenges," ahead but instead the segment focused on less weightier matters, as seen in the following exchange:

JOHN HARWOOD: As of this moment, you still have your Blackberry?
BARACK OBAMA: As of this moment, I still do. This is a concern, I should add, not just of Secret Service, but also lawyers. You know, this town's full of lawyers. I don't know if you've noticed.
HARWOOD: Yeah.
OBAMA: And they have a lot of opinions. So, so I'm still in a scuffle around that. How do you stay in touch with the flow of everyday life? When we were on vacation in Hawaii, I was greatly discouraged from going body surfing. Going to get shaved ice was a major ordeal. And, you know-
HARWOOD, OVER STILL PICTURE OF OBAMA IN BATHING SUIT: Were, were you told not to walk outside without your shirt on?
OBAMA: Well, I learned of that after the first day. But, but I think that-
HARWOOD: Was that, was that an embarrassment to you, or do you care? You got a lot of commentary about that.
OBAMA: You know, it was, it was silly, but you know, silliness goes with this job.
HARWOOD: You got some flattery for that.
OBAMA: Well, you know, the, my wife was, was tickled by, by me blushing.

The following is the full transcript of the segment as it ran on the January 8 Today show:

MEREDITH VIEIRA: President-elect Barack Obama is set to deliver what aides are calling a major speech on the economy later today, and it comes just 24 hours after the Congressional Budget Office put the federal deficit for 2009 at $1.2 trillion. CNBC's chief Washington correspondent John Harwood sat down with Obama to talk about the economic challenges that he will face in office, among other things. John, good morning to you.
JOHN HARWOOD: Good morning, Meredith. As you said, Barack Obama is set to deliver a major speech outlining his plans for economic recovery today. I talked to him yesterday about his confidence in that plan, the advice he's received from his predecessors, and a whole lot more.
BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think that the approach that we've taken is not just to talk to the usual suspects, but talk to people that traditionally don't agree with me. It's not gonna happen overnight. This is a tough situation. And, you know, no matter what we do on reinvestment and recovery, we're still gonna have to do some other things to make sure the economy is, is, is in much better shape.
HARWOOD: How did it feel to be there with the former presidents?
OBAMA: They gave me good counsel, not just on specific issues, but more importantly, some of the typical problems that you may end up confronting in the office. How do you make sure that you get good information? How do you make sure that people aren't just telling you what you want to hear?
HARWOOD: Any family advice as well?
OBAMA: President Carter and Clinton both had some unique insights because they had younger children when they were in the White House. And obviously, Malia and Sasha are 10 and 7, and we just want to make sure that we are creating normalcy as much as possible in what obviously is an extraordinary situation.
HARWOOD: As of this moment, you still have your Blackberry?
OBAMA: As of this moment, I still do. This is a concern, I should add, not just of Secret Service, but also lawyers. You know, this town's full of lawyers. I don't know if you've noticed.
HARWOOD: Yeah.
OBAMA: And they have a lot of opinions. So, so I'm still in a scuffle around that. How do you stay in touch with the flow of everyday life? When we were on vacation in Hawaii, I was greatly discouraged from going body surfing. Going to get shaved ice was a major ordeal. And, you know-
HARWOOD, OVER STILL PICTURE OF OBAMA IN BATHING SUIT: Were, were you told not to walk outside without your shirt on?
OBAMA: Well, I learned of that after the first day. But, but I think that-
HARWOOD: Was that, was that an embarrassment to you, or do you care? You got a lot of commentary about that.
OBAMA: You know, it was, it was silly, but you know, silliness goes with this job.
HARWOOD: You got some flattery for that.
OBAMA: Well, you know, the, my wife was, was tickled by, by me blushing.
HARWOOD: Of course, the president-elect has got a lot more serious issues to worry about when he takes office 12 days from now. New government figures out tomorrow are expected to show a new escalation in job losses well beyond the 500,000 jobs lost in November, Meredith.
OBAMA: Some serious issues to tackle. John Harwood, thank you so much.

To read about Ann Coulter making fun of other NBC News reporters' softball questions to Obama, see: www.mrc.org

ABC's GMA Touts 'Amazing' Obama Crayon
Sculpture

Proving that no Barack Obama imagery is too embarrassing, the hosts of Good Morning America on Thursday highlighted a sculpture of the President-elect made entirely out of crayons. After mentioning artist Herb Williams, news anchor Chris Cuomo enthused: "He does something amazing. He created a statue of Obama out of all crayons."

The GMA crew then proceeded to talk about all the details of how one makes crayon statues of Obama. As pictures and video appeared onscreen, Cuomo explained: "He took the crayons. And glues them in there. Look, there's his process. This is what he does."

[This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

The news anchor began the segment by explaining, "A little bit of an event here. Do you remember this? The original red and blue hope collage?" This allowed for Cuomo to show the famous Obama "Hope" painting.

A transcript of the brief segment, which aired at 7:50am on January 8:

CHRIS CUOMO: Around the water cooler this morning, A little bit of an event here. Do you remember this? The original red and blue hope collage? [Obama "Hope" poster appears onscreen.]
DIANE SAWYER: Oh, right. Right.
CUOMO: Graphic designer. Shepherd Ferry. It inspired so many t-shirts. Everything now. They have coin collections with it. Well, it's going to be hanging in the National Portrait Gallery, just in time for the inauguration as a gift from some Washington super-lobbyists. It will be hanging right near another unveiled one of Laura Bush, her portrait is going to be out there.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Right. Right.
CUOMO: But there is somebody else who got brought in for the inauguration. A Mr. Herb Williams. He does something amazing. He created a statue of Obama out of all crayons. You know, when you talk about crayons isn't kids play? These are crayons. Took him four months. 50,000 crayons. He glues them onto whatever the standard's going to be, an easel or whatever the paper is going to be. The portrait really sold to a Nashville collector for $25,000.
SAWYER: Let me understand this. He just peels off the little paper, the way he used to do, you used chew down. Right? And you take the paper off and you glue the actual crayon?
CUOMO: You're not supposed to chew them, by the way. He took the crayons. And glues them in there. [B-roll of sculptor appears onscreen.] Look, there's his process. This is what he does.
ROBERTS: He slices by hand or with a cigar cutter.
SAWYER: Oh, I see.
ROBERTS: You know how much it weighs? 150 pounds. 150 pounds. Who knew it weighed that much?
CUOMO: That's a heavy work of art right there.

Two New Stars of Fox's '24' Denounce
Bush's 'Torture'

In short USA Today "dossiers" on fresh characters in the new season of Fox's 24 set to debut Sunday night, two of the four profiled actors used the space to espouse their personal disgust with the U.S. government for using "torture," which has been employed by lead character "Jack Bauer." Left-wing activist/actress Janeane Garofalo, who plays "FBI analyst Janis Gold," called the use of torture "reprehensible" and rued: "That our own administration borrowed ideas from 24 is such a tragedy." USA Today explained: "A former Army interrogator has said that soldiers mimic interrogation tactics seen on the show."

Garofalo conceded she "was initially very reticent to do it, because I heard about the right-wing nature of Joel's [24 co-creator Joel Surnow] politics and the torture-heavy scripts." But, she quipped: "And then I thought, 'I'm unemployed!'" So much for standing up for principle.

Cherry Jones, who handles the role of "President Allison Taylor," lamented "it's too bad this season's topic is not Wall Street. The torture thing is very unfortunate; I have trouble with it. Fortunately," however, "my President," meaning the character she plays, "is opposed to it."

Jones saw similarities between the show and reality: "She's...very committed to restoring stability in this country and also the country's reputation around the world, not unlike where we are now."

For USA Today's January 8 "The 411 on those new '24' recruits," go to: www.usatoday.com

Sign Up to Receive the MRC's Notable
Quotables Via E-Mail

As the year begins, the MRC is launching a new e-mail product with the content of our every-other-week Notable Quotables, a "compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media." It delivers 16-18 of the most biased quotes from journalists uttered during the preceding weeks. The new e-mail service is available in two formats: You can receive it as plain text, or in HTML which will feature graphics, images and click-and-play links to video clips.

To subscribe to either format: www.mrc.org

The first edition will be e-mailed on Monday.

Note: As a CyberAlert subscriber you will continue to receive Notable Quotables text every other week as a "CyberAlert Special."

The new HTML version of the Notable Quotables e-mail, however, features an eye-pleasing colorful layout with photos, video images and the ability to click to play video clips.

Suggest to any of your friends, relatives or work colleagues -- who might be overwhelmed by daily CyberAlerts but are interested in evidence of the media's left-wing agenda and wildest claims -- that they sign up for the Notable Quotables e-mail so they get a cache of fresh ammunition every other week.

Again, to subscribe to either format: www.mrc.org

-- Brent Baker