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June 25, 2006
Grandpa Simpson Toyko Murtha - at it again
Absofuckinglutely unbelievable
MIAMI — American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.What? What happened to Okinawa?Murtha was the guest speaker at a town hall meeting organized by Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Miami, at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus. Meek's mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, was also on the panel. [...]
He said the more than 100,000 troops in Iraq should be pulled out immediately, and deployed to peripheral countries like Kuwait.
Murtha also has publicly said that the shooting of 24 Iraqis in November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, was wrongfully covered up.Which must be news to Major General Eldon Bargewell who reported last week that there was none.
"(The United States) became the target when Abu Ghraib came along," Murtha said.So the Islamofascists only targeted Americans after abuse (not torture) at Abu Ghraib? So exactly what was Clinton reacting to when he signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998?
Or does Murtha believe that Pissed-Off Presbyterians bombed Khobar Towers ten years ago today?
This is no longer innocent senility.
Technorati: Murtha, Islamofascism ,
Posted by Darleen at June 25, 2006 11:51 AM
Comments
Hilarious :)
I swear if the media hyped half the stuff this twit said he'd be out of office in a heartbeat. I really think he's off his meds in a very big way.
Posted by: Cassandra at June 25, 2006 01:03 PM
He's dangerous. Such a turn coat.
Posted by: Jane at June 25, 2006 01:25 PM
This guy is a sack of sphincters? I think he has the Hots for Teddy Kennedy and Kerry will be the towelboy!
Posted by: Don Dickensheet at June 26, 2006 12:59 AM
So exactly what was Clinton reacting to when he signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998?
Well, he wasn't reacting to al Qaeda terrorism, Darleen.
Posted by: Brad at June 26, 2006 05:09 PM
"MIAMI — American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon."
Were I in Sun-Sentinel's shoes, I'd sit quiet as a mouse, hoping this will all blow over without much more fuss. Elizabeth Baier quotes Murtha several times in her Breaking World News (Brit Hume of Fox News as well as the Wall Street Joural have taken Baier's ball and run with it) claims of what Murtha said in Miami. When direct quotes are used, it's often the case the reporter has recorded the event, in order to make certain their quotes are accurate. What initially drew my attention was her lack of quotes for what she claims Murtha said in her first paragraph.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-ctownhall25jun25,0,7119684.story
Shortly after reading the Sun Sentinel story, I googlenews'ed "Murtha Miami Iran Nuclear"
Among the dozens of hits quoting Ms. Baier indexed within a few hours of the Sun Sentinel's earth shaking expose' of Murtha's talk, I found another article published by the Miami Herald.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14896189.htm
You will notice, this writer totally missed Murtha's "shot heard around the world" (technorati now has 400+ hits for what Ms. Baier claims Murtha said.)
On the unlikely chance Ms. Baier did *not* quote Murtha from a recording she made at the event ... I've written the Florida International University Public Relations folks asking them to preserve their audio/video recording of this event they sponsored for Murtha to speak at.
I've sent inquiries to the entire editorial boards of the Sun Sentinel, Wall Street Journal, Arizona Sun Star and Miami Herald, as well as Knight Ridder, asking them to pursue any recording of this event, in pursuit of the real news story, Elizabeth Baier.
It shouldn't take more than a day, or three, for Ms Baier to experience personally, that the world of journalism is flat. Whether you like or despise John Murtha is no longer the story. The real story is ... just how far has mainstream media sunk? Is Jerry Springer Journalism the new standard for reporters?
Here's what should strike every blogger as truly shocking... If Murtha never said anything like this ... If America's Conservative Talking Heads plastering this "Murtha fiction" all over the internet, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, then who's to blame for this story achieving such prominence that our enemies will have no trouble finding it, and get the comfort these stories provide them?
Hold your breath and hope that all this aid to our enemies really does have to do with what Murtha said in Miami. Until this gets cleared up by audio/video recordings verifying what was said, it's America's media "dittoheads", including bloggers that are the ones providing comfort our enemies.
Let's hope Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and of course, bloggers ain't the real culprits giving comfort to our enemies.
Keep in mind there are only two stories written by reporters who were actually in Miami last Saturday, where Murtha spoke. One used Mutha's outrageous comments as her opening paragraph, and the other, at a competing Newspaper in Miami, never mentioned them at all.
I spent a few hours on the phone with a friend of mine who is editor for a news site. I'm letting him run with this ball. You can follow how this story develops at:
http://theinfozone.net/
chancuff
Posted by: chancuff at June 27, 2006 03:08 AM
Murtha defends himself against this most recent smear job.
He was only making reference to a Pew Poll.
I'm sure you will now frontpage your retractions. Wouldn't want to smear or slime a man's reputation with lies, would you? No matter how much fun it is.
Posted by: Lindy at June 27, 2006 01:41 PM
For those of you who haven't seen Murtha's press release, here's the link.
http://www.house.gov/list/press/pa12_murtha/pr062706.html
The link Murtha refers to in his release,
www.theinfozone.net
..belongs to an online acquaintance of mine, James Murray. Last Sunday night he emailed me the story DrudgeReport linked to at the Arizona Star, which was a reprint of the Sun-Sentinel story by Elizabeth Baier. The Sun-Sentinel story had only been up a few hours then. When I read that story I was puzzled. It just didn't sound like something Murtha would say.
That got me poking around with google news, which lead to further circumstantial evidence that this story, as reported by Elizabeth Baier, was malarkey. I wrote my friend at theinfozone, who had sent me the story, with what I was discovering.
The further I poked the more interesting things became. I decided I enjoyed the hunt more than story telling, so I kept passing onto James what I had found, leting him craft it into a story. James, being the experienced newsman, pursued this story with the folks at the Sun-Sentinel, as well as Murtha's Congressional Office, while I continued to dig. This story is still unfolding at James site, www.theinfozone.net.
I've spent the last two days and nights exchanging emails with hundreds of media outlets all over the country.
Sorry, Adriana, I really meant to include you in the loop, but until Murtha published his press release, there really wasn't much to write you about. The story that I was following was of interest to me, but hardly something that would catch the eye of your readers, the story being Elizabeth Baier, and not John Murtha.
If you use technorati.net to do a search using the terms "murtha iran miami nuclear" you can follow my footsteps as I worked my way through the blogsphere waging my private battle against "Jerry Springer Journalism", the term I used in dozens of my responses to blog posts citing the Sun-Sentinel story.
The Sun-Sentinel will be posting their correction tomorrow.
My self assignment for the next couple days is pursuing Brit Hume at Fox News to publish the appropriate correction for this story,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201054,00.html
..and then move onto the interesting task of nudging the Wall Street Journal to do the right thing with this story,
"The South Florida Sun-Sentinel quoted Mr. Murtha as claiming that the "American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran.""
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110008569
Ms Baier may have screwed up, but John Lund is about to learn a valuable lesson about how a writer should *never* upstage the story. I've collected hundreds of email addresses of professors of Journalism, worldwide, so they can play moderator, if they so choose.
The battles against Jerry Springer Journalism continues.
Wish me godspeed.
Cliff Hancuff
Posted by: chancuff at June 27, 2006 10:02 PM