Today's Menu: Bear & Squirrel Stew

Yes, regular readers, I've written about Bear & Squirrel Stew before; however, the metaphor deserves repeating every now and then...

Until it becomes part of the necessary public discourse when describing Republican smear tactics.

In case you've forgotten...

Recipe For Bear & Squirrel Stew:

Add to pot:
Equal parts of Bear & Squirrel
(1 Bear; 1 Squirrel)

Add vegetables and water

Season to taste

Cook until done


Today's bear is the media coverage of and Republican response to The Armstrong Williams affair.

Today's squirrel is the lame attempt to equate 2 bloggers on Howard Dean's 4 month (private citizen-funded) payroll (insisting on full disclosure) with The US Government using taxpayer dollars to hire MSM (mainstream media) "journalist," Armstrong Williams, to spew BushCo propaganda secretly.

Bear:

FCC Chair Orders Investigation Into Williams' Deal With Bush Administration

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation Friday into whether conservative commentator Armstrong Williams broke the law by failing to disclose he was paid by the Bush administration to plug the president's education agenda.

The investigation relates to provisions that require disclosure of such arrangements, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a brief statement.

Also Friday, two Democratic senators asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, to review whether any other federal agencies have paid commentators to support the administration's agenda.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether the Education Department's payment to Williams violated a ban on propaganda - and, if so, to determine who should be held accountable. LINK


Squirrel:

Dean Campaign Made Payments To Two Bloggers


By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY and JAMES BANDLER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 14, 2005; Page B2

Howard Dean's presidential campaign hired two Internet political "bloggers" as consultants so that they would say positive things about the former governor's campaign in their online journals, according to a former high-profile Dean aide.

-snip--

The issue of political payments to commentators has become hot following disclosures that the Bush administration paid a conservative radio and newspaper pundit, Armstrong Williams, $240,000 to plug its "No Child Left Behind" education policy.

--snip--

The two men, who jointly operated a small political consulting firm, said they didn't believe the Dean campaign had been trying to buy their influence. Both men noted that they had promoted Mr. Dean's campaign long before they were hired and continued to do so after their contract with the campaign ended.

Mr. Moulitsas said they were paid $3,000 a month for four months and he noted that he had posted a disclosure near the top of his daily blog that he worked for the Dean campaign doing "technical consulting." Mr. Armstrong said he shut down his site when he went to work for the campaign, then resumed posting after his contract ended. LINK

BushCo paid Williams with your tax dollars to promote his stupid Nickelby (NCLB) Nonsense...

But you should be appalled that 2 bloggers taught the Dean campaign how to introduce blogging to the political campaign process!

Yep.

Equal parts of bear & squirrel.

Heavy sigh.