links for 2006-11-07

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”

someone is weighing his place in history: two things come to mind.

The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » ‘Just a comma’:

BLITZER: Let’s move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war…. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that’s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there’s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

Now that we have had more military personnel killed in Iraq than civilians on 9/11 and a commitment to keep on keepin’ on til 2009, how is this insignificant? And is this a tacit admission that his legacy is a flyspeck?

Bonus points if you recognize the quote I swiped for the title.

links for 2006-09-15

  • once this thread calms down (unfogged threads are pretty busy), I’ll see what they say about decent bags.
    (tags: markets)
  • The silly thing is that rights-owners spent considerable money producing these videos, and now most of them are gathering dust, perhaps deteriorating or getting lost, where they could be making back some of the investment from people of a generation that

idea laundering

astro-turf or something less obvious?

Worldandnation: Corporate spin can come in disguise:

If McDonald’s makes the case that fast food is nutritious or ExxonMobil argues against higher taxes, it looks like simple self-interest. But when an independent voice makes the case, the ideas gain credibility.

So big corporations have devised a form of idea laundering, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to seemingly independent groups that act as spokesmen under disguise.

Their views wind up on the opinion pages of the nation’s newspapers – often with no disclosure that the writer has financial ties to the companies involved. A few examples:

– James K. Glassman, a prominent syndicated columnist, denounced Super Size Me, a movie critical of McDonald’s. Readers were not told that McDonald’s is a major sponsor of a Web site hosted by Glassman.

– John Semmens, a policy adviser at the Heartland Institute, wrote a column for the Louisville Courier-Journal that called Wal-Mart “a major force in promoting prosperity for everyone.” Readers were not told that his think tank had received more than $300,000 from the Walton Family Foundation, run by the heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

– Steven Milloy, an analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote a column in the Washington Times that sided with the oil industry against windfall profits taxes. Readers weren’t told that groups closely affiliated with Milloy have received at least $180,000 from ExxonMobil.

Idea Laundering: what a felicitous phrase.

[h/t, Teresa @ Making Light]