Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Cassandra Enjoys Fun Journalism Part 2 "Kerry voted against every major weapons system." How concise.    What an economy of words.    Now thats clear writing,  totally misleading,  but clear. You have to admit it's much less boring to read that line than to wade through all this stuff: In 1990 and in 1995 Kerry voted against two Defense Appropriations bills in order to send them back to committee to be rewritten.    They included, obviously,  a number of weapons systems  (although not "every major weapons system").   Before there ever was a vote,  Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said:  "Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements. … You've directed me to buy more M-1s, F-14s, and F-16s—all great systems … but we have enough of them." Oh that cutie pie Cheney.   He wanted the systems cancelled and he also gets to denounce Kerry for voting against them.   What a kidder! Cassandra is brought to you by ABC News   More Americans get their news from ABC than any other nationality. 9:22:11 PM    comment []

Cassandra Enjoys Fun Journalism Part 1 Thank God we live in an era of Fun Journalism For far too many years reporters weighed down their stories with facts and research and such foolishness as "Getting the story right." Where was the sense of fun? For example, here's a snappy, fun story: "Kerry has received more special interest money than anyone else in the Senate." It's quick, it's to the point it's fun! Old fashioned journalists would have bored the crap out of us, writing: "Kerry has received more special interest money from paid lobbyists than any other Senator. Of course, the vast majority of special interest money comes from PACs, not lobbyists, and Kerry doesn't accept PAC money, so he really comes in at number 92 out of 100 Senators." SHEESH! Talk about draining the life out of a story! Cassandra is brought to you by CNN   Your choice for news flavored entertainment. 5:57:36 PM    comment []

Cassandra Lies Benchmarks Resetting The bar Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie predicts that the 2004 election may well become "the dirtiest campaign in modern presidential politics." When asked if this was a realistic assessment, Gillespie said: "It might take some doing, but we're confident we can swing it." Cassandra is brought to you by FoxNews   We Distort, You Deride. 3:02:27 PM    comment []

Cassandra Suggests Statistics Are Our Friends Another Modest Proposal The Bush administration is missing a simple method to lower unemployment.   One in keeping with their floated plan to raise the number of manufacturing jobs by reclassifying fast food workers as being in the manufacturing sector. Unemployment numbers only measure those who are actively seeking work.    In practice, this is actually just the number of people currently receiveing unemployment insurance.   Once a worker's benefits expire he or she is no longer counted.  ( At least three quarters of a million people have been "disappeared" statistically.) Congressional Republicans are refusing to extend unemployment benefits to cover some of these long term unemployed.    If they go just one step further and cut the current benefit period in half they can eliminate a sufficient number of workers from the rolls of the unemployed to drive the unemployment rate down to around 2.8%.    That would be the lowest number in years                            Cassandra is brought to you by                                                            MSNBC.   In the news business you can get it first or you can get it right. MSNBC, We Get It First! 11:34:08 AM    comment []