Kos For Dean
 

It's a good thing that Turbo Tax sends me a .pdf of my returns, so it's easier for me to just post them on the blog so they know where I'm coming from when I bitch about the street construction in front of my house.

Kos For Dean
 

It's Apples (federal money) and Oranges (campaign money),

Except you have to laugh at the Orange, since - although on the take himself - he was so overly critical of the Apple.

Kos For Dean
 

So your boy Josh is just some internet maverick, while the true "journalists" with integrity are the television people like ...[drumroll please].....Dan Rather???

Kos For Dean
 

I linked to the Kerry-Edwards campaign blog a few posts back to make the point that just because you post stuff on the internet, it doesn't implicitly suggest that you are holding yourself out as an impartial, disinterested observer. Like Kos, it's perfectly possible to hold yourself out as an advocate.

If you hold yourself out as a journalist, you have no business taking money to slant your coverage. Everyone here agrees about that -- your question seems to be, why doesn't that principle extend to others, like bloggers, who say things that the public can read? I think it's a question of whether they're trying to deceive people. Williams was. Kos wasn't. IMHO, the Thune bloggers were, but it's a closer call there.

If you are really bothered by these sorts of conflicts, you should check out astroturfing campaigns. This happens particularly on the GOP side, since the GOP more commonly aligns itself with corporate interests that have more money than popular support, and would like to pretend otherwise. Astroturfing involves fake citizens groups, the planting of paid-for op-ed pieces, and so on. Relatedly, TechCentralStation is a collosal conflict of interest -- it's basically running op-eds as an extension of corporate lobbying efforts, but you have to very closely and read between the lines to try to figure this out.

I will not pretend that these sorts of conflicts never happen on the Dem side, but it's far more pervasive on the GOP side, and the reason is simple: You have monied interests trying to turn that money into the appearance of public support.

Kos For Dean
 

Josh Marshall is journalist, and Glenn Reynolds is a law professor, and because they blog in their real names, people rightly can expect that they will live up to the professional standards that they live by in the rest of their life. Many of the most interesting blogs are put up by people who have some expertise IRL and are making that expertise accessable to the rest of us.

Kos For Dean
 

[Whew. OK, here we go. Be brave!]

Hi. I just need to say that ... I've received compensation from the Chinaski campaign.

There, I said it. My GOD, do I feel better.

You should know that the "payments" that I received were nominal, and did not impact my views as a poster to this Internet forum in any way, because I already agreed with the things I was asked to post about!

Well, sort of. I have to agree twice with him, and I still have ... uh, two to go. Still, you get the idea.

In no way has this arrangement colored my judgments, endorsements, or arguments as an Internet poster, and it will remain so, no matter how many times Hank promises that he'll do better next time.

I certainly hope that this disclosure will not impact your view of my integrity, nor the seriousness with which folks here take my posts.

Thank you for your continued support,
Gattigap

Kos For Dean
 

Hank, I want money too.

Kos For Dean
 

If there has been anyone more generous than Hank in supporting these boards, I would like to know who it is.

Kos For Dean
 

WTF are you talking about? I want money for me. Cash. Or expensive jewely, I suppose.

Kos For Dean
 

Oh, dearest! That would be illegal for a whole nother reason.

Kos For Dean
 

If I paid you to post here, it wouldn't be equivalent to the bribes paid by Cheney to a journalist. It would be more like how the Globetrotters pay a salary to the Washington Generals.

Kos For Dean
 

HCPOTD.

Kos For Dean
 

Hunh. I didn't know that the Generals were proving out the limitations of athletic performance during the refractory period.

Who knew?

Kos For Dean
 

OK, fine, make it jewelry. Gifts. They are gifts, Hank.

losing the war on terrorism
 

• Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.
  
  Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries."
  
  Low's comments came during a rare briefing by the council on its new report on long-term global trends. It took a year to produce and includes the analysis of 1,000 U.S. and foreign experts. Within the 119-page report is an evaluation of Iraq's new role as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists.
  
  President Bush has frequently described the Iraq war as an integral part of U.S. efforts to combat terrorism. But the council's report suggests the conflict has also helped terrorists by creating a haven for them in the chaos of war.
  
  "At the moment," NIC Chairman Robert L. Hutchings said, Iraq "is a magnet for international terrorist activity."
  
  Before the U.S. invasion, the CIA said Saddam Hussein had only circumstantial ties with several al Qaeda members. Osama bin Laden rejected the idea of forming an alliance with Hussein and viewed him as an enemy of the jihadist movement because the Iraqi leader rejected radical Islamic ideals and ran a secular government.

Washington Post