Bad Deeds for 7-24-2008

Anbar Sheik That McCain Said Was Protected by the Surge Was Assassinated Last Year – The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.

On Tuesday evening, McCain falsely claimed that the downturn in violence in Iraq’s Anbar province was a result of the surge, when in fact the surge began months afterward. Moreover, he said, if it weren’t for the work of U.S. forces, the major Sunni figure leading that awakening wouldn’t have had the protection he needed.

“Colonel MacFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks,” said the Senator. “Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening.”

The Arizona Republican’s campaign went further the next day, claiming that the major figures that turned around Anbar province would have been killed had the surge policy not been in place. “If Barack Obama had had his way, the Sheiks who started the Awakening would have been murdered at the hands of al Qaeda,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Sadly, that murder took place even with the surge underway. In September 2007, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the sheik widely credited with persuading Sunni leaders to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, died in a bomb attack in Anbar.

 

McCain Cancels Trip to Oil Rig After Fuel Oil Spill, Blames Weather – Thursday, workers on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast will see clear skies, mild temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, and feel only a slight breeze. However, John McCain’s campaign says inclement weather caused the cancellation of his appearance there, aimed at promoting offshore drilling. Perhaps a more likely cause is the 400,000 plus gallons of oil floating through the Mississippi, spilled yesterday after a barge collided with a tanker at New Orleans. No sooner than the announcement of the spill, McCain’s campaign announced the cancellation of the candidate’s visit to the rig. McCain was planning to helicopter from Louisiana, where the spill occurred, to an oil rig in the Gulf Coast to make the case for expanded off-shore drilling.

 

McCain Campaign Complains About Lack of Press Coverage, But McCain Cancels His Only Press Conference for This Week – The one scheduled McCain press conference of the week has just been canceled, we are told. No word as to why. Grumble, grumble.

 

CBS Spokesman Distorts Standard of Editing on Couric-McCain Interview – CBS edited an interview with John McCain that mixed answers to different questions. A CBS spokesman tried to defend their behavior and told TV Newser:

Of the 14-minute interview, a little less than three minutes was used on the Evening News. A CBS spokesperson tells TVNewser, “As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night’s Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences. The full transcript and video were and still are available at CBSNews.com.”

But here is what the CBS manual—CBS NEWS STANDARDS….SEC111-5….EDITING says:

If a question to an interview subject is used, the answer must be to that specific question. The question and the answer may be edited, but not in a way that would distort the meaning of either. Answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response. In short, we cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better.

 

Land Sold for Bush’s Presidential Library for Well Below Fair Market Value; Library Operation to be Without Academic Oversight – United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdiction Conference approved the sale of 23 acres of land-locked Southern Methodist University soil to the Bush Foundation for well below fair market value. Moreover, they agreed that the think tank for President George W. Bush would have no contractual academic oversight for the next 250 years. None of the other presidential policy centers are so rigidly structured like Bush, Jr.’s. Both his father’s and President Bill Clinton’s have academic oversight through their respective universities.

 

Political Appointees at the Department of Labor Are Trying to Make it Tougher to Regulate Workers’ On-the-Job Exposure to Chemicals and Toxins – Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins. The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao’s intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title. The department’s speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order.

Regards,

Jim