January 2006

On VeePees and Miners

VeePees:
From the NY Daily News (1/4/06):
"Vice President Cheney told a conservative think-tank audience yesterday that President Bush's supersecret domestic eavesdropping program might have thwarted one of the 9/11 attacks had it been in place then."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/380074p-322752c.html
The 9/11 attacks could also have been thwarted by security check points manned by intelligent life forms, more Federal sky marshals and Federal law enforcement and security agencies that actually exchanged tips with each other, but VeePee Cheney failed to mention those.
For another viewpoint see Frank Rich's The Wiretappers That Couldn' t Shoot Straight in the NY Times Op-Ed section, 1/8/2005.

Miners:
The "Press" once again proved its power to really screw things up when a "reliable source", a Congresswoman, simply repeats the same rumor everyone else is mouthing. Who was there to say that the 'emperor had no clothes'? One cable wag had the guts to say that it was because his audience loves bread and circuses - and boring talking-head reporters be damned.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/speed_before_accuracy_blame_viewers_30399.asp
(Sorry about all the cliches...)
And a most interesting discussion on CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES.