UPDATE/retraction (April 2 | 14:48 EDT): So re-reading and re-reading again Rogers' posts, I've realized he was cleverly playing with and playing up both April Fools pranks by Google. It is notable, of course, that Rogers does regularly blog about all things Google on a regular basis and that his posts, dated March 31 shortly before midnight, were not explicitly marked as satirical or as April Fools writeups. My apologies for not double checking.

ZDNet blogger Garrett Rogers appears to have fallen for not one but two April Fools gags by Google. Happens to the best of us, I suppose, but it's still amusing. One had to do with Google offering a broadband Internet access via the toilet, the other with Google offering to snail mail you any and all emails in your account that you want a hard copy of.

On Wednesday (March 28, 2007), Sen. Diane Feinstein resigned as chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) after serving on it for six years. Beginning in January, Metro, a weekly newspaper serving California's Silicon Valley, reported that Feinstein "voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms." Her husband is Richard C. Blum. Conflict of interest, anyone?

So, exactly how many syllables has the Los Angeles Times dedicated the past week to this potentially explosive ethical problem that Feinstein appears to have? Choose one: A. Zero, B. Zilch, C. Nada, D. Nil. (Hint: Feinstein is a Democrat.)

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is publicly voicing its strong objections to two recent columns in the Los Angeles Times regarding the priest abuse scandal. Both articles contained substantial falsehoods, according to the Archdiocese.

1. A March 26, 2007, article in the Times claimed that Church officials and employees, when questioned in legal proceedings, could invoke something called "'mental reservation' — a 700-year-old doctrine by which clerics may avoid telling the truth to protect the Catholic Church." The article quoted Irwin Zalkin, a lawyer for abuse victims, as saying of church officials under oath, "You're never going to know the truth, one way or the other."

The truth? There is no such doctrine, and the term "mental reservation" is found nowhere in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

http://www.reuters.c...

========Headline : Bush ex-strategist says loses faith in president====================

Oh yeah, Reuters. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd bet that makes your anti-bush willies get off really good by publishing that headline eh? You'all are bunch of sick b***ards, you know that?

============Last paragraph: The Times said Dowd cited Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois as the only 2008 presidential candidate who appeals to him but said the idea of mission work also was attractive as a way to "re-establish a level of gentleness in the world."===============

So you idiots over at reuters knew full well the same thing that I know.

The last paragraph negates the entire article. Go ahead. Now you try. Read this.

Over at Opinion Journal, Mark Lasswell has an article about how ABC seems to be competing with The Daily Show for political comedy, at least when George Stephanopoulos talks about U.S. Attorney firings:

How else to explain those hilarious skits when Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos reports on the brouhaha over the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys while the proverbial elephant in the room is lurking just off-camera?

Mr. Stephanopoulos doesn't mention his own valuable expertise on the subject of fired federal prosecutors, the kind of expertise that might help place the current mess in context. Mr. Stephanopoulos was the Clinton White House communications director in 1993 when the Justice Department cleaned its slate of all 93 U.S. attorneys, and he was central to the administration's finessing of the episode--just the sort of insider experience, presumably, that prompted ABC News to hire Mr. Stephanopoulos fresh out of the White House in 1996.

CNN Baghdad reporter Michael Ware has had quite a week getting his rips in, and more, about how ineffective (in his view) current military efforts in Baghdad have been -- to the point of obviously crossing the line into blatant unprofessionalism earlier today.

Ware's "the war is failing" stridency flared up last Tuesday, and can be seen at this YouTube video (HT Hot Air) -- Ware starts getting his rips in at about the 1:30 mark after McCain states that some neighborhoods of Baghdad are safe. It appears that Blitzer made sure that McCain didn't get any words to rebut Ware after Ware's rant. Ware's strongest riposte:

“I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad.”

Next, on Thursday, Ware took issue with Joe Lieberman when the Connecticut senator said that "American soldiers are more confident walking the streets of Baghdad." Ware's response is that the insurgents are simply "laying low."

Finally, Drudge is reporting the following exclusive about Ware's conduct at a press conference that apparently took place earlier today:

(Updated) Saturday, CNN Headline News ran a repeat of Glenn Beck’s March 27 show, which showed footage of some of the images that ran behind Elton John during his elaborate 60th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden that included a burning church. This is the same man who said that religion promotes hatred and “it’s not very compassionate.” Beck discussed the very tolerant and “compassionate” concert:

This pisses me off.

http://www.cnn.com/2...

Nowhere in this article does it mention that the google CEOs are huge libs.

These activists make it seem as though this is yet another case of some corporation preying on the little guy. Probably republicans, too, cause you know, it was democrats who were on the side of the little guy during katrina. It was that damn BUSH and his buddies over at FEMA and BROWNIE who did this! If you've ever wondered how that whole litany of 'conservative corporations' and 'evil corporations' and other such talking points get out there, here it is.

I posted this elsewhere, figured some of my fellow NBers might get a kick out of this.

I happened to notice the lack of media demonization on part of the new spending bill. I did a little research, and I came up with this, from the clinton news network.

http://money.cnn.com...

============Headline: South Dakota's $2.5 billion railroad jackpot

Subhead: A provision inserted into last year's transportation bill by a lawmaker turned lobbyist turned lawmaker is attracting renewed scrutiny.

First paragraph: In Washington, the revolving door usually leads lawmakers to become lobbyists so they can cash in on their connections. But in some cases, it spins all the way around; creating a rare circumstance in which a lawmaker turns lobbyist turns lawmaker.=====================

Many military writers, in addition to our experiences in the Philippines and similar conflicts, teach that it is impossible to combat terrorism (insurgencies) with conscripts. They simply are not trained for this particular type of combat. Our second major mistake is trying to "fight" in a mostly defensive posture.

The only way to fight insurgencies is with counter-insurgencies -- specialist forces such as Army Ranger and Navy Seal types. Remaining on the defensive, even with specialist forces, also is doomed to failure.

We must go on the offense taking the war to the terrorists using small, numerous squads of specialist forces OPERATING AROUND THE CLOCK with Iraqi intelligence. Only then can we root out and exterminate these groups. This tactic must be ongoing and non-stop until the job is completed.

Conservative college journalism students might want to consider a summer internship with Katie Couric and the CBS "Evening News." Aspiring journalists are invited to submit print or video entries bringing a local perspective to a global issue. CBS lists three categories: climate change, "social entrepreneurs," and Iraq War veterans. Will the most compelling presentation of liberal bias win the internship, or could a conservative effort start someone's career? You'll be able to see the results online. The online ad (with a big pic of Katie) says:

Launch your journalism career -- while earning course credit -- with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work directly with Katie Couric and the staff of CBS News. It's all part of SPRINGBOARD, an exciting new journalism program sponsored by CBS News and U-Wire.

SPRINGBOARD invites aspiring print and broadcast journalists to provide a unique local perspective to a global topic, and submit the print or video result for consideration by the journalists of CBSNews.com and CBS News. We'll post the best submissions online, and award one entrant with a summer internship at CBS News in New York City.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) began its spring season of announcing its annual GLAAD Media Awards for pro-gay journalism last week at the Marriott Marquis in New York (thanks in part to 100 donors, including "Platinum Underwriter" Time Warner). Other ceremonies will follow in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami, but the bulk of their awards were celebrated in New York. Among the big winners: Rosie O'Donnell for her "All Aboard!" HBO documentary touting her gay and lesbian family cruise. She was there to accept the award with filmmaker Shari Cookson, and gave a nod to tennis legend Billie Jean King, subject of another nominated documentary, saying "if it hadn't been for Billie Jean King, there wouldn't have been a gay movement."

Also honored in the awards, offered to journalists and entertainers GLAAD thought were "fair, accurate, inclusive, and impossibly glam," were the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, ABC's "Nightline," and especially The New York Times, which won three.

That was the headline on the AP story, claiming that Sydney went “black.” The much-ballyhooed event actually fizzled and the same story said “that the city’s patchwork of millions of tiny lights had thinned, not disappeared.”

Still the eco-elite couldn’t grasp that the lights did not go out on Sydney. Sure, the city government turned out some of the lights and so did some restaurants, but the city stayed amazingly bright – unlike the clueless lefties who claimed otherwise.

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett was there to watch and claimed “It’s an hour of active, thoughtful darkness, a celebration of our awakening to climate-change action.”

On Saturday's World News, ABC's David Kerley characterized President Bush's statement regarding the standoff between Britain and Iran as "lashing out," presumably because the President referred to the captured British soldiers as "hostages," as the ABC anchor suggested that Bush risked "inflaming" the situation. After relaying that the "outspoken" Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today called Britain "arrogant" while still demanding an apology, Kerley also suggested that Bush's statement was not "cool-headed" as he introduced a story by correspondent Mike Lee playing up the possibility of a diplomatic solution. Kerley: "In spite of that rhetoric [from Ahmadinejad] and those remarks from President Bush today, there were some new signs that cooler heads may be prevailing." (Transcripts follow)

Original caption:

U.S. President George W. Bush talks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington March 2, 2007 about a deadly tornado in Alabama before his departure to Indiana and Kentucky.

Check this out (h/t Drudge). This obscure magazine, which has distinguished history of half-truths, pseudo-experts, and just plain liars, is trying to tell us that WTC7 came down on it's own (which we all KNOW can't be true). Here's what the liars have to say:

Recently, Rosie O’Donnell, a co-host of ABC talk show The View, made comments on the show that renewed controversy over the collapse of World Trade Center 7.

While saying she didn’t know what to believe about the U.S. government’s involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, she said, “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.”