It's Craptastic!

With skillful use of language and images, President Bush and his aides have kept the American public from turning against the war in Iraq despite the swelling number of U.S. casualties there.

Eli Manning is more than happy to have the San Diego Chargers (news) use the No. 1 pick in Saturday's NFL draft on anyone but him. In fact, that would make his whole family happy. And the Chargers know it.

Eli's father, Archie, said the decision to tell the Chargers to pass on Eli was made by the Mississippi quarterback and his agent, Tom Condon, with input from the family and others.

"I plan to be playing football next season," he said. "I've talked to New York. I've talked to Oakland. I've talked to a lot of teams, and I like a lot of teams."

Show me that smile again. (Ooooh, show me that smile)
Don't waste another minute on your cryin'.
We're nowhere near the end (nowhere near)
The best is ready to begin.

Oooohhh. As long as we got each other
We got the world spinnin right in our hands.
Baby you and me, we gotta be
The luckiest dreamers who never quit dreamin'.

As long as we keep on givin'
we can take anything that comes our way
Baby, rain or shine, all the time
We got each other Sharin' the laughter and love

To understand what is happening in the Middle East, you must first understand what is happening in Texas. To understand what is happening there, you should read the resolutions passed at the state's Republican party conventions last month.
...
The delegates began by nodding through a few uncontroversial matters: homosexuality is contrary to the truths ordained by God; "any mechanism to process, license, record, register or monitor the ownership of guns" should be repealed; income tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax and corporation tax should be abolished; and immigrants should be deterred by electric fences. Thus fortified, they turned to the real issue: the affairs of a small state 7000 miles away. It was then, according to a participant, that the "screaming and near fistfights" began.
...
The motion they adopted stated that Israel has an undivided claim to Jerusalem and the West Bank, that Arab states should be pressured to absorb refugees from Palestine, and that Israel should do whatever it wishes in seeking to eliminate terrorism.
...
But why should all this be of such pressing interest to the people of a state which is seldom celebrated for its fascination with foreign affairs? The explanation is slowly becoming familiar to us, but we still have some difficulty in taking it seriously.

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel's occupation of the rest of its "Biblical lands" (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the Antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to earth.
...
The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. This means staging confrontations at the old temple site (in 2000 three US Christians were deported for trying to blow up the mosques there), sponsoring Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, demanding ever more US support for Israel, and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/European Union/France or whoever the legions of the Antichrist turn out to be.
...
And among them are some of the most powerful men in America. John Ashcroft, the attorney-general, is a true believer, so are several prominent senators and the House majority leader, Tom DeLay.

Dear Mr. Wright,

My previous message may have been too flippant in answering your concern; for that I apologize.

I spoke with an editor in the Washington bureau about your concern. He said the administration may plan before the conference which organizations and reporters to call on but that Times reporters do not submit their questions in advance.

The editor said he would be surprised if any news organization submitted questions in advance.

Thank you for writing.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

Dear Mr. Jackson

Thank you for your message.

I spoke with an editor in the Washington bureau about your concern and include his response below:

No one ever provides the president with questions beforehand. The only thing that is pre-ordained is the
seating and who the president will call on. That's decided by his press office. Then they give him a chart,
which has circles around the people he's supposed to call on.

Thank you for writing.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

Dear Mr. Wright,

I recently learned that you wrote to this office concerning the protocols of White House press conferences. I cannot speak for other news organizations, but I can assure you categorically that the New York Times does not -- ever -- submit press conference questions in advance.

Yours sincerely,
Daniel Okrent
Public Editor

Daniel Okrent
Public Editor
N.B.: Any opinions expressed here, unless otherwise indicated, are solely my own

"MATTHEWS: Do you think he was too rough with that? Was he too rough with that by saying nobody likes to see dead people on television, when in fact, they're not just dead people on television? Those television pictures are pictures of people dead.
GREGORY: I think it was one of the more real moments of the night, whether it was good, bad or indifferent. And you don't get a lot of these in these overly scripted press conferences. So it gave us a sense of where his thinking is at, politically speaking, of course."

According to Ron Suskind, "For each press conference, the White House press secretary asks the reporters for their questions, selects six or seven of the questions to answer and those reporters are the only ones called upon to ask their questions during the press conference."

Can you confirm or deny this practice? If it is true, do you feel that the press should inform the public that the press conferences are scripted? This would appear to be a betrayal of the public's trust.

Tony Wright
Iowa City, IA

Dear Mr. Wright,

I'm fairly certain that two reporters at the press conference asked unscripted questions.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Edtior

Thank you for your quick reply.

Only two? Was the NYT reporter's question scripted?

Tony Wright

Dear Mr. Wright,

I am uncertain if Ms. Bumiller's question was submitted to the president before-hand.

Perhaps you might write to the president if you are unhappy with this system.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor