Why newspapers still matter, and why the Net makes them better

So the Los Angeles Times today had the beginnings of an amazing investigative series on conservators, people who are appointed by the courts in california to oversee and manage (and control) the lives of the elderly placed in their charge. they make tons of money and seem to do in a nearly unregulated environment. best thing, gov. schwarzenegger vetoed legislation that would have added more regulation. So if you've got $385 lying around, get certified and then you, too, can file papers in court to control someone's life that you've never met.

And the New York Times featured a great Op-Ed from Frank Rich (Times select subscription required) about the Bush administrations culture of lying. Here are some of the most salient tidbits ...

... The power of these lies was considerable. In a CBS News/New York Times poll released on Sept. 25, 2001, 60 percent of Americans thought Osama bin Laden had been the culprit in the attacks of two weeks earlier, either alone or in league with unnamed "others" or with the Taliban; only 6 percent thought bin Laden had collaborated with Saddam; and only 2 percent thought Saddam had been the sole instigator. By the time we invaded Iraq in 2003, however, CBS News found that 53 percent believed Saddam had been "personally involved" in 9/11; other polls showed that a similar percentage of Americans had even convinced themselves that the hijackers were Iraqis.
--[this one is terrifying]

There is still much more to learn about our government's duplicity in the run-up to the war, just as there is much more to learn about what has gone on since, whether with torture or billions of Iraq reconstruction dollars. That is why the White House and its allies, having failed to discredit the Fitzgerald investigation, are now so desperate to slow or block every other inquiry. Exhibit A is the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose Republican chairman, Pat Roberts, is proving a major farceur with his efforts to sidestep any serious investigation of White House prewar subterfuge. Last Sunday, the same day that newspapers reported Carl Levin's revelation about the "intentionally misleading" Qaeda informant, Senator Roberts could be found on "Face the Nation" saying he had found no evidence of "political manipulation or pressure" in the use of prewar intelligence.

His brazenness is not anomalous. After more than two years of looking into the forged documents used by the White House to help support its bogus claims of Saddam's Niger uranium, the F.B.I. ended its investigation without resolving the identity of the forgers. Last week, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reported that an investigation into the November 2003 death of an Abu Ghraib detainee, labeled a homicide by the U.S. government, has been, in the words of a lawyer familiar with the case, "lying kind of fallow." The Wall Street Journal similarly reported that 17 months after Condoleezza Rice promised a full investigation into Ahmad Chalabi's alleged leaking of American intelligence to Iran, F.B.I. investigators had yet to interview Mr. Chalabi - who was being welcomed in Washington last week as an honored guest by none other than Ms. Rice.

[i believe what you may be feeling is Yikes!]

So basically, yay newspapers! THERE IS NO WAY THAT WE'D BE GETTING THIS INFORMATION WITHOUT THEM. And more importantly than converted liberals like me getting this information, hopefully more questioning people will also be getting this information.

SPORTS
What else today? it's been a mixed, but mostly shitty, weekend for sports. My fantasy football team lost even though they actually didn't eat it for once. For Fuck's Sake ... I got three touchdowns from Roy Williams thrown by Joey Harrington!!! and I still LOST. The Sabres disappeared against the Senators and Arizona started to believe its hype in college football. DOUBLE YIKES! But the Bills won and Losman played well in the victory. Will they have the sack to let him keep playing?

I didn't get to watch the game, but I can imagine Jerry Sullivan's Monday column already: Leave Losman in. Leave Losman in. Leave Losman in. The defense still sucks, but London Fletcher played half as well as he talks for once.