Jennifer Harper of the Washington Times is moaning about her paper not being invited to the “Media at War” conference. She complains that only liberal media were invited. Then in her column she quotes only one person to buttress her argument: Bob Lichter, director of the “nonpartisan” Center for Media and Public Affairs. Problem is the CMPA is anything but non-partisan. It’s a front for conservatives.

Round 2 of the budget negotiations
House adopts pretty much the same budget they had before; Senate drops http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2378-2004Mar17.html its transportation plan.

It seems like the Senate is making all the concessions. See previous post and article today.

The Senate cut $1.6 billion from its plan and the gas tax that went with it. If the House will add as much to its budget, we should have a deal. Here’s betting we won’t.

Gov. Mark Warner has called the General Assembly into special session, but the legislature may still recess for a few days to put their collective fingers in the wind. It has been ugly, sure, but most of all embarrassing for a state that had prided itself as more collegial and productive that most state legislatures. Few of the players have come off looking good.

Among those who have are two Republicans – Sen. John Chichester (Stafford) and Del. Jim Dillard (Fairfax). Each have been willing to buck party and House leaders to call for significant investment to secure the state’s future. In fact, I can’t for the life of me understand why these guys are still Republicans.

Some Democrats have looked good, at least the ones who’ve not let themselves be baited.

Here’s how the Richmond Times-Dispatch reporters see the House GOP:

Since the assembly convened in mid-January, the House Republican Caucus has been on the political equivalent of a war footing, digging in to protect the anti-tax theme that elevated the party to power, starting a decade ago.
Illustrative of this: Before yesterday’s floor session, Republican delegates met privately for about a half-hour with Ray Allen Jr., one of the Virginia GOP’s best-known strategists, and poll-taker John McLaughlin.
Asked about the meeting, Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr., R-Virginia Beach said, “When you run every two years, you’re in campaign mode all the time.”

Here’s what Larry Sabato, who follows politics at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said:

“The only thing that will prevent this General Assembly from winning the raspberry for worst performance ever is the massive resistance session of August 1956.

“It was a complete disaster, an indelible black stain on Virginia history.

“Some people push for progress; others want to hold it back. The governor and the Senate have aligned themselves with the idea of progress. I suspect history will not look kindly on the House of Delegates.”

1956 was the year the governor retaliated against school districts that integrated –- even if required by the courts — by reducing their funding.

The Lynchburg News and Advance story continues:

Bob Denton, a political analyst at Virginia Tech, said lawmakers should be greeted with disdain from their constituents for failing to act on the budget by Saturday’s deadline.

And despite the lawmaker’s possible willingness to forego their $115 per diem for room and board, a special session would cost Virginia taxpayers thousands per day as the assembly fights for a compromise budget.

“This has been a very serious game of chicken and in some cases Russian roulette,” he said.

After Gov. Warner called a special session, the GOP, which during budget negotiations had complained the governor wasn’t involved, denounced him for calling the session.
When Democrats tried to call for a vote to end the GOP speeches, high fives and fist pumping, the GOP shouted the motion down while they lifted their desks and banged them against the floor, revealing an almost juvenile streak in among the GOP.

For his part, the Governor has been resolute and patient with the Assembly, though he has miffed some senators, especially the Democrats, for calling the Senate proposal too high. And he reportedly said yesterday, “I have not seen from either side a willingness to compromise.”

Yet (and to my mind to his credit), he’s said his budget – which calls for spending levels between those proposed by the two chambers – is the bottom line: “Let me be very clear: I will settle for nothing less.”

But the Senate compromised again yesterday, according to the Times-Dispatch: “Before the session collapsed in procedural bedlam, the Senate advanced another proposal to end the stalemate: reserving revenues from a sales-tax increase for education, with most dollars earmarked for public schools, and offering to phase in over three to five years a new tax rate, 6.5 percent, for high-income Virginians.”

Meanwhile, scores of bills already passed are held hostage to the budget deadlock.

Quote of the Day:
Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr., R-Virginia Beach: “No one has done more to destroy the Triple-A rating than the governor. . . . I’m sorry governor, but the gloves is off.”

“Gloves is off”? And no one has done more to destroy the English language.

Rounding up a few hundred terrorist will simply mean a few hundred recruits will take their place unless we deal with the underlying tacit support terrorists have among Muslims and others who feel wronged by U.S. policy. Once such support dries up, it will be more difficult for terrorists to operate.

We’re moving in the wrong direction, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. The image of the U.S. has never been worse, the study says. “This poll says to me the discontent with America is a long-term problem that U.S. leaders have to confront,” said poll director Andrew Kohut. “We’ve never seen ratings as low as this for America.”

And Bush is largely the problem. The poll found favorable views of Bush among only 14 percent of Germans, 15 percent of the French, 28 percent of Russians and 7 percent of Pakistanis. Brits were a little more favorable, but 39 percent isn’t overwhelming support. Back in 1991, for example, 75 percent of Germans and 72 percent of Russians viewed Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, favorably.

The Washington Post reports:

Ominously, the poll showed some increased support in Muslim countries for suicide bombings and other forms of violence; 82 percent of Jordanians, 40 percent of Moroccans, 41 percent of Pakistanis and 15 percent of Turks said such violence could be justified. Majorities in Pakistan and Jordan had favorable views of Osama bin Laden, while majorities in Jordan and Morocco said attacks against Americans and Westerners in Iraq are justified.

Until we address the legitimate concerns of Muslims worldwide – the Middle East conflict and our support for repressible regimes, chief among them – we’ll continue down this spiral of deadly attacks against which even the mightiest military forces cannot protect us.

We can’t protect ourselves from enemies who are willing to kill themselves to kill us. Anyone who tells us we can is lying. I wonder who?

British journalist Robert Fisk maintains this is the question we never fully confronted after 9/11. If we had, maybe the Islamic and Arab world wouldn’t almost universally mistrust the U.S. Of course, so do other cultures and countries, as opposition to the Bush administration grows worldwide.

Thanks to blogger GOTV for highlighting what might be an enlightening discussion airing this Saturday and Monday on the MHz channel. See here for local listings. It’s called The Angry World: International News Coverage in America.

Incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is raining all over Bush’s coalition parade with succinct commentary: “I have said many times that the Iraq war was a great disaster, the occupation continues to be a disaster — it only generates more violence.”

The minority staff of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform has issued a report detailing the 237 misstatements the Bush administration has made on Iraq.

We may not be mainstream media, but we can impact them.

We Done?
The Washington Post is reporting the House will NOT extend the session, meaning “unchartered waters,” “unprecedented,” “embarassment,” you name it. What next?

The GAO is investigating the Bush administrations “video news releases” that have actors portraying government officials and Washington reporters hyping the Bush Medicare bill. The GAO is trying to determine if they are “illegal covert propaganda.”

VNRs are common PR tools that package info. into a TV news-style story. Local stations often rely on these VNRs for content. The VNRs have apparently aired 53 times on 40 stations in 33 media markets.

You’ll remember earlier this week it was reported that the top Medicare actuary claimed he was threatened with dismissal if he revealed the true cost of the Medicare bill before the vote.

The New York Times editorializes:

The plan is being sold to the public through propagandistic ads disguised as TV news reports, and it turns out the government’s top Medicare actuary was muzzled by superiors during the debate about the program’s price tag….

This sleight of hand only deepens doubts about White House credibility on a complex issue. The public deserves straightforward information about the changes in Medicare, and federal agencies should not be engaging in political spin. This is no way to run a democracy nourished by information and taxpayers’ money.

So does the San Francisco Chronicle:

After first covering up and then misrepresenting the facts about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush administration is now shamelessly working to further mislead the public by staging phony “news reports” about how well the law will work.
….
The idea is to make propaganda appear to be unbiased news during prime-time viewing.

It’s a covert effort to exploit both the press and public. Coupled with the misinformation about the bill, it paints an alarming picture of a White House unconstrained about using deceit.

Repeatedly manipulating data to stifle honest debate, stirs up disquieting recollections of another White House, disgraced by lies and dirty tricks.