Author: catnip

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold;”
– Robert W Service

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Most of us arrived here at Booman Tribune in about the same way – as refugees at one time or the other from the Big Orange Place(tm). Some of you found a link to BT at another blog. Maybe you heard about this place from a friend, family member or co-worker. Some of you ended up here quite by accident.

It’s that last bunch that interests me, so I’ve been collecting search terms via the SiteMeter monitor that we have on the site. (Look waaay down on the right-hand side).

It’s not like I don’t have anything better to do – there’s much goofing off to be had when I’m not writing or reading stuff here. It’s just that I am inherently snoopy, or as I prefer to call it – “curious”.

What initially sparked my curiousity was when Booman let us know that some surfers (disappointed, no doubt) had visited BT after they’d typed “muff shots” into Google. (Try it. You’ll see why BT appeared in the list.)

Anyway, I’ve found some pretty interesting things that have shown up on the site stats, causing people to visit from far and wide.

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In today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd admits that she “always liked Judy Miller”; “her tropism toward powerful men, her frantic intensity and her peculiar mixture of hard work and hauteur – never bothered me. I enjoy operatic types”, Dowd wrote. But, the fawning stops there.

After listing Miller’s many failures: her non-stop ego, her complete lack of discipline, her inability to obey her superiors, her devotion and defense of Ahmed Chalabi – even in the face of public knowledge about his lies, her contempt and disregard for her editors and colleagues, her questionable journalistic ethics, her outright lies, and her stonewalling of Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation, Dowd rightly concludes:

Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover “the same thing I’ve always covered – threats to our country.” If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands.

The sharks are circling all around Judith Miller and, unless there is some divine intervention from wherever divine intervention comes from for her, it looks like it’s time to stick a fork in her. She’s done.

more…

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When in doubt, throw out a trial balloon by using a leak followed by a staunch denial. The Washington Times signals that the White House is getting very nervous about the friendly fire they’re receiving over the Miers nomination to the Supreme Court. Rumours of her withdrawal abound. They are, of course, being denied. That’s how trial balloons work. Let one go. Gauge the reaction. Make a decision.

“White House senior staff are starting to ask outside people, saying, ‘We’re not discussing pulling out her nomination, but if we were to, do you have any advice as to how we should do it?’ ” a conservative Republican with ties to the White House told The Washington Times.

The White House denied making such calls.

“Absolutely not true,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.

But the conservative political consultant said that he had received such a query from Sara Taylor, director of the Office of White House Political Affairs.

Miss Taylor denied making any such calls.

A second Republican, who is the leader of a conservative interest group and has ties to the White House, confirmed that calls are being made to a select group of conservative activists who are not employed by the government.

The fact that this appears in the Washington Times is, of course, significant. It’s the paper of record for hard-line conservatives (she said, nicely).

According to the Times:

A conservative political consultant with ties to the White House said the president and his political team once thought Democrats would go easy on Miss Miers, a friend of Mr. Bush’s and his personal counsel. The theory was that Democrats see her as the best they could expect in the way of Bush appointments to the high court.

In other words, Bush was so confident that his base would support his decision, no matter what, that he didn’t even give a second thought to screwing over his rabidly fundie fans. No wonder “hubris” is the word now being used in conservative circles to describe their president. It sure took them long enough to take their blinders off. Welcome to the reality-based community. Find a chair. Sit down. And shut up.

The criticism from the right is fast and furious. Read on…

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Still up? Bored?

Read NYT Editor Bill Keller’s memo to his staff courtesy of Crooks and Liars. I don’t think Bill likes Judy much any more. Maybe it’s just me…

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