Akkam’s Razor

• Rachel Cooke meets Seymour Hersh, the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington | Media | The Observer - He exposed the My Lai massacre, revealed Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia and has hounded Bush and Cheney over the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib… No wonder the Republicans describe Seymour Hersh as 'the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist'. Rachel Cooke meets the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington.

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• Nation Institute: McCain and the POW Cover-up - The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.

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• The Wars of John McCain - John McCain believes the Vietnam War was winnable. Now he argues that an Obama administration would accept defeat in Iraq, with grave costs to American honor and national security. Is McCain’s quest for victory a reflection of an antiquated pre-Vietnam mind-set? Or of a commitment to principles we abandon at our peril? Is there any war McCain thinks can’t be won?

Cryptome has scanned images and transcriptions from various sources referring to John McCain from the CIA’s reading room. It really tells an interesting tale, one that may not be about John McCain the Presidential candidate or Senator, but rather John McCain, the hopes of what could have been and his own vision of what he was.

On why he flew 50 times more hours to qualify as a jet fighter pilot:

McCain: When I finished [the US and Spanish Naval Academies] I had two choices: to be naval officer or a pilot…I chose to be pilot. I had to study another year and a half and I graduated in 1958. I trained intensively. I flew many hours in training to become a jet pilot.”

• Emptywheel » The Rhetoric of More of the Same
  [W]e want to retain an exception to such regulation for the wilder and more complex financial products. So rather than admit that such a system is no longer sustainable, we will institutionalize a general ‘re-set’ button for the entire financial system.”
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• Reading Tea Leaves and Campaign Logos - The New York Times > Opinion > Slide Show > Slide 1 of 15
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• Open letter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
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This should elate approximately 30% of you and disgust the balance.

A newly formed Pro-War astroturf - think false, ideological grassroots organization - group, Freedom Watch (YouTube) has some local connections, as described at Fables of the Reconstruction.  Most prominently, sports fans, is CEO of Comcast-Spectacor Ed Snider (wiki) Comcast-Spectacorp is a partnership with the Comcast Corporation, which manages the sports arenas, the ComcastSportsnet, the 76ers, the Philadelphia Flyers, and some other related ventures.

Via Politico:

A new group, Freedom’s Watch, is launching Wednesday with a $15 million, five-week campaign of TV, radio and Web ads featuring military veterans that is aimed at retaining support in Congress for President Bush’s “surge” policy on Iraq. 

The Orwellian-named Freedom Watch, helmed by Plamegate-accomplice Ari Fleischer has an interesting cast of characters.

Again, from FotR: 

The board consists of Blakeman; [Ari] Fleischer; Mel Sembler, a Florida Republican who was Bush’s ambassador to Italy; William P. Weidner, president and chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.; and Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The donors include Sembler; Anthony Gioia, a Buffalo businessman who was Bush’s ambassador to Malta; Kevin Moley, who was Bush’s ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Howard Leach, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman who was Bush’s ambassador to France; Dr. John Templeton of Pennsylvania, chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation; Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the huge Philadelphia sports and entertainment firm; Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and ranked by Forbes magazine as the third-wealthiest American; and Richard Fox, who is chairman of the Jewish Policy Center and was Pennsylvania State Chairman of the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980.

 [...]

Richard Fox is local. Comcast, as the article says, is right here in Center City Philly. So Philly is subsidizing pro-war propaganda. Wonderful. The Templeton Foundation is located in a Philadelphia suburb, and has a right-wing track record.

The TV-buys are interesting in that they attack both Democrats and any moderate Republicans who have been less than 100% loyal to the President, and seem to imply that the participation in our Democracy is tantamount to treason and "stabbing the troops in the back". 

The ads are an attempt to grab the security-moms and armchair generals by having Laura and Vicky relate the sacrifices of their sons, Travis and Jesse, as well as linking retreat from Iraq with retreat from Vietnam, and further attempting to confuse Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda with the insurgents in Iraq.  As September draws nearer, expect more political attacks designed to attack any criticism of the effectiveness of "the surge".

Popularity: 38% [?]

This morning, I saw two fire-engines up the street, which I assumed was the Memorial Day observance for the township.  The DelcoTimes stated this…

Briarcliffe American Legion Post 761 will hold its Memorial Day services at 11 a.m. Monday on the corner of Ashland and Bartram avenues in Darby Township. Guests will include township commissioner Larry Patterson, township manager Jack Ryan, police chief Robert Thompson, magistrates Leonard McDevitt and Steven Sandone. Keynote speaker will be Thomas Judge and post Commander Richard Ellis will serve as emcee. Food and refreshments will follow at the post and the public is invited.