THIS MODERN WORLD

December 19, 1999: With Al Gore as guest, Tim Russert says on Meet the Press: “One year ago Saddam Hussein threw out all the inspectors who could find his chemical or nuclear capability.” Russert asks Gore what he’s going to do about this.

Soon afterward: Sam Husseini leaves a message on Russert’s answering machine, and speaks to two of his assistants, telling them the inspectors were withdrawn by the UN at the request of the United States.

January 2, 2000: With Madeleine Albright as guest, Tim Russert repeats the error on Meet the Press: “One year ago, the inspectors were told, ‘Get out,’ by Saddam Hussein.” Russert asks Albright what she’s going to do about this.

January 21, 2000: Sam Husseini writes a letter to Russert, again laying out the facts, and requests a correction.

January 22, 2000-March 19, 2003: Russert never corrects his error.

March 19, 2003-present: Hundreds of thousands of people die in Iraq War. Russert dies, not in Iraq War. Official Washington weeps copious tears for Russert and his Extraordinary Journalistic Standards.

More details with Sam Husseini’s letter.

Recently Barack Obama promised “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” We’ll see if that pans out, but his online supporters certainly aren’t shy. In response to recent reports that conservatives are planning to bash Michelle Obama into the ground, 23/6 has a new campaign :

So as a public service, from now until the second Tuesday in November, every time Michelle Obama is unfairly attacked or portrayedby the media or a Republican-backed 527 group, 23/6 will remind you of this terrifying and true fact about Cindy McCain.

A photo my publisher passed along from the recent Book Expo in Los Angeles …

The new compilation will be out in October. (It’s part of the reason I haven’t had much time for blogging lately…)

There’s more than enough reasons to oppose John McCain, so I hope as the general election goes on, we can avoid joining conservatives in delving into this muck :

Perot’s real problem with McCain is that he believes the senator hushed up evidence that live POWs were left behind in Vietnam and even transferred to the Soviet Union for human experimentation, a charge Perot says he heard from a senior Vietnamese official in the 1980s. “There’s evidence, evidence, evidence,” Perot claims. “McCain was adamant about shutting down anything to do with recovering POWs.”

Oddly, this was the second time I’ve seen the POW issue pop up in the past week. Earlier, I saw it mentioned in the last two minutes of this video created by a Ron Paul supporter (via JedReport) :

I’m not being disingenuous when I say that attacks on John McCain’s time as a P.O.W. are unseemly and should be avoided. Any mentions of John McCain and Vietnam are a rabbit hole Democrats would be ill-advised to jump down. I don’t mention this because I’m trying to be high-minded, but because these assertions are largely unprovable and only highlight the military record that John McCain hides behind to help distract people from the fact that he’s a hot-headed, ethically-challenged, war-mongering phony who doesn’t know his ass from a hole the the ground. The “he said, she said” accusations about McCain’s time as a P.O.W. won’t really settle anything and are overshadowed by his three decade record of being a shameless panderer and faux moderate who, despite his self-righteous rhetoric about working across party lines, has an overwhelming record of voting with Republicans and helping dig the hole we’re stuck in now.

Dennis Kucinich is on C-Span 1 right this second (7:30 pm ET) on the floor of the House, introducing 35 separate articles of impeachment for President Bush. And he’s reading them all into the record, so if you want to tune in, he’ll be there for a while.