Perhaps this is far enough in EPUville, but I was thinking of making fun of plunger by saying that everything in Iran would be the perfect cover to release that report perhaps today. plunger is beyond this kind of sarcasm.

It’s not his personal agenda, but he’s a good marker. Wish I could find that old Billmon post (ca. 2005) about NYT in which Keller rhapsodizes about the new reporters he planned to bring in courtesy of his relationship with one of the standard right wing training camps. Here’s something in its stead, for those who might have forgotten.

In some research on the administrations policy announcements and omissions regarding surface mining permitting and enforcement I came upon this little tidbit from the WV Gazette Coal Tattoo Blog:

For any Coal Tattoo readers who somehow missed the news, here’s the basic story from The Associated Press and a similar account from The Washington Post. Obama officials gave AP and the Post the scoop on the story, by handing them interviews with several top officials who spoke on background and with White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, who spoke for the record and was quoted by name in both stories.

From a PR standpoint, I guess it was nicely played by Obama’s folks. They got two national stories that, at least in their initial versions, failed to point out that one of Obama’s key proposals — doing away with the Corps of Engineers streamlined permit process for valley fills — was something a federal judge had already ordered the government to do (and, bizarrely, that the Obama administration’s Department of Justice had taken action to fight in an appeals court). And it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the Post not only got the jump on the story, but handed Obama a very friendly editorial that — as National Review Online pointed out — basically absolved Obama for teasing coalfield folks into thinking he was going to ban mountaintop removal. (Of course, recall that the Washington Post editorial writers came up with the idea that opponents to the TrAIL and PATH power lines — both truly aimed at helping sending more coal-fired electricity east to their growing suburbs and big cities — were blocking “green energy.”)

The NY Times has sucked mostly during my life.

Yet the Left has grabbed hold of the Times.

Go back into the 1960s. See how the Times supported the war and let down MLK.

that an the pizza crusts behind the couch

(mmm, couch pizza)

I’m learnin’, I’m a-learnin’.