business as usual

Last week Michelle Malkin posted a summary of the Democratic scheme of the moment: claims that the Bush administration is (secretly, of course) planning to reinstate the draft. There is not a shred of evidence to support this accusation—well, except for the bills conveniently introduced in both houses of Congress by Democrats.

I haven't blogged on the subject until now, mostly because I could not believe that a ploy so ludicrously transparent would ever go mainstream. Silly me: for by Wednesday last John Kerry himself was broadly winking in the direction of the conspiracy peddlers.

And now the CBS Evening News has stepped in it. Again.

For months now, left-leaning interest groups have been trying to scare America’s young people into believing that the Bush Administration is eager to bring back the draft if President Bush is reelected. For the most part, this story has been spread by word-of-mouth and through the internet—rumors in other words. Up until this month, CBS News has shown no interest in a story that has basically no basis in fact.

That changed last week after Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was asked about the rumors. He seemed to give them little credence, but refused to outright disown them, saying only “Is it possible? I can’t tell you.”

Once again, it seems that the Democratic Party has proven itself more intelligent than its media arm, CBS. Just as it earlier refused to run with Bill Burkett’s third-rate forgeries, the Democrats have mostly stayed away from draft speculation. But last night, CBS News once again let its ideological blinders cause it massive embarrassment. […]

In a story that was a textbook example of shoddy and biased reporting, CBS reporter Richard Schlesinger used:

1. Debunked internet hoax emails
2. Michael Moore-esque editing
3. An unlabeled interest group member

to scare elderly “Evening” viewers into believing that the U.S. government is poised to resume the draft.

With not a single political figure willing to stake his credibility on the idea that conscription is returning, Schlesinger (and his associates producer Linda Karas and editor Tom McEneny) had to invent his case out of whole cloth, basing it on a fraudulent internet chain letter and a woman who says she believes it.

Either link above will take you to the whole story (the first is the source, but that site is presently crashed). Ace has two posts on the Evening News' interview subject, who just happens to not be the “apolitical” (though Republican-leaning) mere concerned citizen that she claims to be. Fancy that.

The silver lining, I suppose, is that the legacy media and the left seem have run out of options for smearing President Bush personally—not, of course, for any lack in trying.

UPDATE. RatherBiased is now posting from new digs here.

UPDATE 2. Let's just hope this doesn't represent more business as usual:

The Justice Department has charged that a veteran New York Times foreign correspondent warned an alleged terror-funding Islamic charity that the FBI was about to raid its office — potentially endangering the lives of federal agents.

The stunning accusation was disclosed yesterday in legal papers related to a lawsuit the Times filed in Manhattan federal court.

The suit seeks to block subpoenas from the Justice Department for phone records of two of its Middle Eastern reporters — Philip Shenon and Judith Miller — as part of a probe to track down the leak.

The Times last night flatly denied the allegation.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago charged in court papers that Shenon blew the cover on the Dec. 14, 2001, raid of the Global Relief Foundation — the first charges of their kind under broad new investigatory powers given to the feds under the Patriot Act.

“It has been conclusively established that Global Relief Foundation learned of the search from reporter Philip Shenon of The New York Times,” Fitzgerald said in an Aug. 7, 2002, letter to the Times' legal department.

From “All the News That's Fit to Print” to “Just Slightly Less Treacherous Than al-Jazeera”?

UPDATE 3. Whoever said bloggers don't do real journalism?

I am so tired of these shenanigans. My election fatigue is growing by the CBS news cycle day. Instead of debating what types of policies that the potential presidents will take on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, possible Syrian WMDs (from Iraq), terror cells trying to attack US at home before the election, January elections in Iraq, Afghanistan’s first election, troop commitments in Iraq & Korea, future US involvement in the UN and NATO, genocide in the Sudan, Korean threats against the US and our regional allies, China’s threats against Taiwan, AIDS in Africa, privatization of Social Security, gov’t spending and taxation levels we are constantly on the horn trying to expose false reporting based forged documents and false emails so suspect that Jayson Blair is blushing. I blame post-modernism for this mess. I just hope that handful of these narrative pushers could get slapped aside the head with the cold facts and realize why a majority of the population is completely shaking their heads at this frivolous rubbish right now. Hopefully a crushing defeat for Kerry will be the first step in the process to destroy the post-modern fantasy world that way too many people are living in today.

I think there's 2 pieces of revive the draft legislation out there, both by whacked out lefties, Shumer & Stark. So the motto should be, if you don't want a draft, vote Republican

I personally would put both bills out of committee tomorrow and vote.

A 99-0 Senate vote, and a 400+ to something-small vote would show how ludicrous it is.

Unless someone wants to give the folks who started this cover - 48 D's in the Senate voting _for_ a draft would pretty much take it out of rumorland. Just not the way it was planned.

The media spin on that scenario would be something to see—especially from those who saw Darth Rove behind the memo forgery.