Plus Admiring Liberal Sen. Chris Dodd and Blaming the Gun Lobby for VT Murders
By
Clay Waters
May 4, 2007 - 3:38pm
"An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well." - Lead sentence to a May 2 front-page story by sportswriter Alan Schwarz about an academic paper alleging discrimination in foul calls against black NBA players.
Times Again Ignores Unanimous Rejection of Kyoto by Senate
"Mr. Bush has been criticized for coming late to the idea that human actions contribute to the threat of global warming, and in his first term he renounced the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which European states agreed to." - Sheryl Gay Stolberg, May 1. Stolberg failed to mention that during the Clinton Administration the U.S. Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol by a vote of 95-0.
Latest Indignity for Iraqis - A Wall to Protect Them
"But the Adhamiya wall, only partly built, has fast become a metaphor for the cumulative resentment that Iraqis feel about the violence and disruption of daily life that have brought so much misery to the country since the American invasion in 2003 ....Iraqis feel demeaned and infuriated when they find themselves sitting in traffic for hours as it trickles through checkpoints or standing in lines in the already blazing spring sun waiting to be frisked to get into government buildings." -Alissa Rubin reporting from Baghdad, April 24.
Virginia Tech Tragedy - Blame Gun Lobby, not Cho
"True safety lies in the civility of society, in laws that publicly protect all of our rights and in having law-enforcement officers who are trained in the use of deadly force, then authorized to apply it in rationally defined situations. It is the gun lobby's incessant efforts to weaken the gun laws that makes a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech possible." - Conclusion to an April 26 editorial on the Virginia Tech murders.
Gee, Wonder Which One She'd Vote For?
"Mr. Sarkozy, 52, the son of a Hungarian immigrant with minor aristocratic roots, and Ms. Royal, 53, the daughter of a career army officer, faced different challenges. Mr. Sarkozy had to avoid looking like a sexist bully; Ms. Royal had to prove herself presidential. Mr. Sarkozy, the former interior and finance minister, had to fight off the demon that has tormented him: his image as an authoritarian figure with a volatile temper." - Paris-based Elaine Sciolino, covering the presidential debate between conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal, May 3.
God, I Admire You
"There could be a certain poignancy to Mr. Dodd's enterprise, the narrative of a man who has waited his whole career to do this - maybe too long, past his time - and who, for whatever reason, is not catching on. In the shoes of another character, someone who takes himself more seriously than Mr. Dodd does, it could be sad. Indeed, he could be bitter that the so-called top tier of candidates, his Senate colleagues Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and his former colleague John Edwards, have a combined tenure in the chamber barely half Mr. Dodd's 26 years. As he ambles through the early voting states, there is a decided 'Why the heck not?' feel to Mr. Dodd's joyous orbit. As in, why the heck shouldn't Chris Dodd run for president, and enjoy the heck out of the ride? At 62, this could be Mr. Dodd's last chance to run. He is intent to hang around, to wear well, and he hopes, to get Democrats to say: What the heck? Why not Dodd? He is experienced, telegenic and could hold his own in any popularity contest on Capitol Hill. Which might be a handicap, but what the heck?" - From reporter Mark Leibovich's March 28 profile of long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.