DebateGate

Actually, that was pretty much the jist of the point.  I realize it was a staggering quote, analogus to claiming Jesus was the root of all evil, but you don't see hordes of Christians going around violently protesting everytime Christ is demeaned, demagogued, or portrayed in such a way as applying cow dung on the Virgin Mary, or placing a cross in a vat of urine, calling it "art", and U.S. tax payers actually paying for its presentation.  No, the jist if the point being made was that Islam could be considered a violent religion, with that point now being validated on a daily basis, by so many followers of the Religion of Peace

His words (or more accurately, the Byzantine's quote) were ironically prophetic

Yet, she would still be alive if it were not for the Pope's words.

And you know this how?  Point being, words or no words, the pope didn't tell anyone to go murder a nun.  Islamic radicals, representing the supposed "religion of Peace', put 2 bullets to the back of her head

The point that the FBI is able to check up on anomolous book records was pretty much conceded when it was brought up in my earlier post.  Reading for comprehension isn't a problem, on your end, is it?   Now, back to my query.  Care to show us any EVIDENCE/FACTS of these widespread domestic wiretapping??  Last time I checked it was quite specific, and your cynicism of Bush and the government isn't going to cut it as providing validity to such allegations

Plamegate Fadeout III. Novak Regrets
Reporters 'Don't Say Sorry'

     On Friday's C-SPAN morning show Washington Journal, host Brian Lamb interviewed columnist Robert Novak in the hour of 9 to 10 AM Eastern time on his column on the unraveling of the Plamegate scandal. (Novak was in Urbana, Illinois, at his alma mater, the University of Illinois.) Perhaps the most entertaining parts were his harsh takes on Chris Matthews (un-watchable) and Jon Stewart, whom he called "a self-righteous comedian taking on airs of grandeur." Novak also scolded his media colleagues: "At the beginning there was a lot of attention played to it and a lot of bad journalism on this story. You could write a book about the bad journalism involved of exaggerating it. But journalists don't say they're sorry."

     After a supportive call mentioning Matthews, Novak said Hardball was un-watchable:
     "Well, thank you. My problem here, sir, is that I never watch Chris Matthews' program because I don't feel that I can possibly learn anything from all that shouting and blathering and interrupting people. So I haven't watched his program in years. I don't know if he said much about this and I don't care. I can imagine that Mr. Matthews believes that being mistaken in journalism means never having to say you're sorry. So I don't think he'll say much of anything."

     Later, Brian Lamb revisited the point, which spurred Novak to praise C-SPAN:

     Lamb: "That brings up the question how much television do you watch, what other shows do you watch and do you spend much time in front of that tube?"
     Novak: "Well, I have a -- yeah, I do spend a lot of time. I'm able to do, what's the fancy term now, multi-task. I am able to write and talk on the telephone and watch television at the same time. Pretty good for an old man, isn't it, Brian? I have a television set right next to my terminal at work and I have one next to my terminal at home. And, I do a lot of C-SPAN watching, which I really enjoy. I watch the Senate and House, particularly the Senate. I get a lot of story ideas from that and watch of C-SPAN and watch the cable networks considerably. But, I don't -- don't watch -- I have a lot of problems with Chris Matthews, which I won't go into. This is not the Chris Matthews show, but I just don't watch that program. And I certainly, if somebody mentioned the Jon Stewart program, I've never seen that in my life and I will go to my grave not having seen it."
     Lamb: "Why?"
     Novak: "I don't see a reason for it, it's a comedian, a self-righteous comedian taking on airs of grandeur, I don't really need that."

     I'm sure Novak was smarting from a caller who had mentioned Stewart's "stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America" outburst on CNN's Crossfire about how that show was a civic menace (October 15, 2004). The best part was Stewart saying that Crossfire was for partisan hacks, even as co-host Tucker Carlson was pressing him about how he asked partisan-hack-softball questions to John Kerry on The Daily Show.

     Novak told Lamb that for most of its history, Crossfire was actually a fairly civil show, but that it grew more heated when it started being taped before a studio audience at George Washington University and added the Clinton spinners James Carville and Paul Begala to oppose Novak and Carlson from the left.

     When asked if he would write a book on his Plamegate experiences, Novak replied he has a memoir coming next year on his 50 years in Washington. As he said of Matthews, he repeated that the press in general is paying too little attention to Plamegate's utter collapse:
     "I would say that most of the press really ignored this story I think they intuitively felt there was a build-up phony story. At the beginning there was a lot of attention played to it and a lot of bad journalism on this story. You could write a book about the bad journalism involved of exaggerating it. But journalists don't say they're sorry. In fact, they never even say they're wrong. It's part of, I think, we -- we accept that as our -- as our First Amendment right to be wrong."


http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2006/cyb20060918.asp#4

Plamegate Fadeout I. Borger: Without Rove, Media Lost Interest

     On CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday morning, Gloria Borger, CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent and U.S. News columnist, conceded that the revelation that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was who leaked the fact that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, "was sort of a big yawn" to the news media "and why we didn't cover it that much, is because, first of all, everybody was anticipating a Karl Rove indictment, and that would have been a huge, huge story." So, when "Karl Rove was not indicted, the air went out of the balloon at that particular point." To put it mildly. Host Howard Kurtz called media coverage of Rove "overheated," suggesting that "a lot of journalists practically had the date circled on the calendar when he might be charged."

     The CBS Evening News at least ran a story, unlike the ABC and NBC evening newscasts, but a very skewed and incomplete report, as detailed in the September 8 CyberAlert item, "CBS Interviews Armitage: Spikes Rove, Suggests Apology to Wilson," online at: www.mediaresearch.org

     From the September 17 Reliable Sources, aired live at 10am EDT, with David Corn of The Nation in the DC studio with Borger and John Fund of OpinionJournal.com via remote from New York City as the other guests in the segment:

     Gloria Borger: "I'll tell you why the Richard Armitage thing was sort of a big yawn and why we didn't cover it that much, is because, first of all, everybody was anticipating a Karl Rove indictment, and that would have been a huge, huge story. Top adviser to the President, Scooter Libby, top adviser to the Vice President had already been indicted for lying."
     Howard Kurtz: "And that was overheated, by the way. You know, mean sure, he was certainly vulnerable and he testified four or five times, but you know a lot of journalists practically had the date circled on the calendar when he might be charged."
     Borger: "And the blogs had been blogging, 'oh Karl Rove's gonna get indicted.' Well, guess what? Karl Rove was not indicted. The air went out of the balloon at that particular point."


http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2006/cyb20060918.asp#2