Sen Pat Roberts wants to get some legislation going that would try to plug some of the leaks in DC, but it turns out that could have already been in place.

The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said yesterday that he may add language to the fiscal 2007 intelligence authorization bill to criminalize the leaking of a wider range of classified information than is now covered by law. He indicated the new measure would be similar to legislation vetoed by President Bill Clinton more than five years ago.

What, I thought Clinton did everything he could to protect our country?

“I’ve often said a leak is not a leak in Washington until somebody gets wet, but we’re all in the swimming pool,” Roberts said. Recalling the legislation Clinton vetoed, Roberts said, “Whether it’s a reporter or just any individual or somebody by the water cooler who’s upset or somebody who has just a very strong difference of opinion knowingly reveals classified information, that would be a felony.”

Sounds like common sense to me. But then again, if legislation like this was in place, dozens of news organizations would be SOL since they wouldn’t have anything to write on.

Since the Clinton veto, he added, “I think times have changed, and we may be introducing that in the intelligence authorization bill.” A spokesman for Roberts said late yesterday, “A lot of items are on the table to curb leaks, but we have other matters to take up first.” A senior Democratic staff member said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and his colleagues “are concerned about leaks, but they don’t see legislation as the remedy.”

Why don’t the Democrats see legislation as the remedy? Seems to me like plugging the leaks is a partisan issue.

Clinton vetoed a measure by Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) that would have broadened the law that criminalizes release of “national defense information.”

Huh

Civil liberties groups and news organizations, which argued that the legislation would chill their ability to get information from officials, lobbied for the veto, which Clinton exercised in 2000.

Are you saying that Democrat Bill Clinton bowed down before special interest groups and vetoed legislation aimed at protecting America? Thanks Willy.

Tim Walz, who is becoming a ‘Rock star’ among the DFL activists in Minnesota said the following at today’s DFL Press Conference trying to silence the Midwest Vets.

“Freedom of speech has its limitations on this, and that that is one of them, that is you cannot just say whatever you think.”

The Liberal left known as the DFL in MN is trying to tarnish the service of another generation of America’s finest. Tim Walz is a DFL Candidate for the 1st Congressional District. This is just another example of how extreme the DFL candidates for Congress are. You may remember Colleen Rowley’s slam on Rep. John Kline (another Vetran) when her campaign blog likened him to a Nazi.

How many more times will America’s vetrans have to be spit on by people like this?

Go check out the Bios of these people from the Midwest Heroes ads. You still want to silence them DFL? You should be praising these people, not telling them to shut up.

The DFL wants people to call and silence the Midwest Heroes, the Republican Party of Minnesota thinks they have earned thew right to be heard.

“It is disappointing to see the DFL seek to silence veterans who support the President in the War on Terror.

“While the President and Republicans in Congress are working to win the War on Terror, the DFL’s political sideshows do nothing to protect our country from future terrorist attacks.

“Regardless of one’s politics, those who have worn the uniform deserve to have their voices heard in the public square.”

MNGOP Chair Ron Carey

Here’s the point of view from a guy who just happens to served in Iraq. Here’s Col. Joe Repya’s response to a Strib column this weeekend. (via Powerline)

I recently returned from Iraq and must respond to Nick Coleman’s (”Iraq War Vets Spin…”) column. Who is really spinning Minnesota? How about looking in the mirror, Nick! You conveniently failed to mention that your major “nonpartisan” source, Paul Rieckhoff, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), was a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and a New York State Chairman for Veterans for Kerry. Ex-Gov Jesse Ventura as an IAVA board advisor also “nonpartisan”? Sorry, we’re not buying that either! Don’t know what poll Mr. Rieckhoff was quoting but the Military Times 2005 Iraq Poll of our service members (released January 2006) has some interesting results. A staggering 73% of the respondents believe it’s likely the United States will succeed in Iraq. Four of every five respondents said they believe media reports often are inaccurate. I suggest before you spin more misinformation on a subject you know nothing about, you actually visit Iraq and see for yourself. You radical liberals and Moveon.Org types have to get over losing the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections. No, the War is not going “swimmingly,” but most service members that have recently been in Iraq will tell you we are winning. Unlike Vietnam, we won’t allow you “cut and run” types to snatch Defeat from the jaws of Victory. The bottom line is most in the military know what is at stake in the War on Terror and believe you can’t be trusted with our National Defense.
Joe Repya
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army
101ST Airborne Division (Air Assault)
Fort Campbell, KY
A veteran of Vietnam, the Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom

Thanks to Col. Joe. Too bad the Strib has its censorship hat on still. The letter has yet to be published.

Democrats who have been praising their side’s progress this year against the GOP might want to sit down before reading this one. Glass house in shards

Can’t be, I thought this year was going so well for Reid, Pelosi, and the Dean?

The economy shows increasing strength and staying power. The latest evidence is the best nonauto retail sales data in six years. Congress is reauthorizing the antiterrorism Patriot Act over the objections of Senate Democrats, and is now working to make some of the Bush tax cuts permanent. And in a year when most political prognosticators say Republicans will suffer losses in the Senate, Democratic seats in New Jersey, Minnesota and Maryland have become surprisingly vulnerable.
Abroad, movement toward a permanently democratic Iraq is heading inexorably toward higher ground. There are near-weekly reports of military successes by Iraqi security forces against al Qaeda terrorists. The likelihood of some drawdown of U.S. troops later this year is improving.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

At home, one prominent Democratic campaign issue — that Republicans are responsible for a “culture of corruption” — has been undermined by one of their own leaders.
It turns out Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who has been running around the country preaching the “culture of corruption” message, is up to his eyeballs in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
For several weeks, Mr. Reid has been leading a fierce offensive on this issue, while insisting no Democrat received any money in return for legislative favors in the widening scandal under Justice Department investigation.
But new details reported last week by the Associated Press reveal Mr. Reid’s fervent, repeated denials of any connection with Abramoff or his lobbying firm were not entirely true.

And that may be the straw that breaks the Donkey’s back.

Have we once and for proven the liberal DFL doesn’t support the troops? (HT MDE)

We have extraordinary sympathy for our troops and their families and believe that while our soldiers’ role is to protect the citizens of our country, it is our role as citizens to protect our soldiers and to make certain that they are not misused. It is a travesty that the tragedies of five countries and the deaths of our brave men and women are being used in this type of propaganda.

Right now, our state is a testing ground for these ads. If Minnesota speaks out and says no to this ad, the entire country can thank us. What we do here, now, will have an enormous impact on the success or failure of this kind of swiftboating in 06.

Emphasis mine. Stupidity DFL’s.

Ladies and Gentleman, pay attention: The DFL thinks that keeping troops from speaking about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan is supporting them. They want to silence the vetrans and familiess of those whose own have given the greatest sacrafice so that you won’t be swayed by their (Vet’s) side of the story.

Remember this moment. I think this may be the new low point for the DFL. The DFL is trying to silence these Vets before you see the truth in the honor of these brave men and woman.

Here is the Transcript from CCO’s Reality Check from last night. My earlier post.

(WCCO) Many viewers have sent WCCO-TV e-mails asking about an ad that’s getting a lot of time in Minnesota.

Walt from Lakeville wrote, “I am curious who the people are that are behind the ads that have been appearing lately which seem to endorse the war in Iraq.”

Mary wrote, “Please do a Reality Check on these ads right quick.”

Two? That is all it takes? Two?

The ad is a skillfully blended mix of war facts and war politics.

“The media only reports bad news,” the ad states.

This is NOT TRUE. Even the harshest media critics don’t say that.

One conservative study reports 61 percent of network news stories about Iraq were negative last fall. But that study didn’t include the 24-hour cable news channels.

What is CCO’s beef here? What if they didn’t include the 24 news chanels? Think adding CNN into the mix would make that better? What is CCO’s resource for claiming that the ad is wrong?

And a separate study of Sunday morning political talk shows reports the guests are mostly conservative — 58 percent of them — and critics of the Iraq war were largely absent.

Oh, so just Sunday talk shows are the basis for their study. (Anyone else suspect of that number? 58% are conservative? Think they asked conservatives if the people they considered as representing conservative thought were actually conservatives?

“You would never know it from the news reports, but our enemy in Iraq is al-Qaeda,” the ad states. “The same terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11.”

This is very MISLEADING.

Oh, please explain all knowing military expert Pat Kessler.

First, the ad links images of 9-11 and al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

No it just played images of 9-11 and Iraq.

There’s no evidence, according to the 9-11 Commission, that there’s any real connection.

They did a piss poor job investigating it.

But America’s use of force in Iraq did spark a violent insurgency, and there’s evidence that al-Qaeda subsequently moved in there — responsible now for kidnappings, suicide bomb attacks and roadside explosions.

So our enemy in Iraq is al-Qaeda! The ad is NOT misleading.

“American troops overwhelmingly support the mission President Bush has given us,” the ad states.

This is PARTLY TRUE.

Support for the war in the military is higher than in the general public.

A widely used Military Times poll shows 56 percent of soldiers approve of going to war, and only 54 percent approve of Bush’s policy in Iraq now. Those poll numbers are declining.

Didn’t 75% of the military vote to re-elect Bush? And here is an article about how military personel preferred Bush 4 to 1 over Kerry. Kind of overwhelming if you ask me.

That’s NOT THE WHOLE STORY.

The ad was paid for by the Progress for America Voter Fund. It’s a conservative advocacy group with close ties to the Bush Administration, running issue ads much like the liberal group moveon.org.

So. Is this not a free country? Does CCO plan to do the same to the Liberals’ ads?

Right now, Minnesotans are a test audience, and this is the only state in the country where the ad is running.

That’s Reality Check.

The absolute bias of CCO is on full display here. Their anti-war personal views blead through to the news room, and affected their editorial judgement.

Midwest Heroes and Progress for America have started to run ads in Minnesota that are intended to garner up support for the troops and the War on Terror. I already posted on how WCCO had gone through the trouble to Reality Check a paying advertiser (Midwest Heroes) during their 10PM newscast last night. I have posted both Ads as well, in case the media decides to further censor them or refuse to air them all together.

Now it turns out that another Twin Cities station KSTP, Channel 5 has refused to run the ads from the get go. Gary from KvM received an email from Progress for America about this and forwarded it to me.

I thought you would be interested in this bit of “news.” The MSM does not like to be criticized .

KSTP, the ABC station in Minneapolis/St. Paul, refused to run the PFA ad because the ad quoted a soldier saying “the media only reports the bad news…” The owner - Rob Hubbard, CEO/Owner, Main Phone: 651-646-5555 – personally turned down the ad according to our media buyer who was trying to buy more than $30,000 worth of ad space on their station.

I’ve attached a copy of the voided check. I also attached a copy of the letter from their general manager explaining their reasoning.

Here is copy from the letter Progress for America received from John McCormick General Sales Manager of KSTP.

The reason that KSTP-TV management decided not to air the recent :60 commercial for Progress for America were the lines, “that the media only reports the bad news”, and “you would never know it from the news reports but the enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda.”

We are a major news operation in our market, as is our network, ABC. We looked at the copy very carefully and decided that it was not appropriate since news is what we provide in the communities we serve and the statements are not consistent with our product.

We would like the opportunity to run this particular ad on the station provided it did not include the two lines regarding news.

Does this seem like media is trying to censor something, or is it just me?

The Media (and I am going to lump the local TV stations in there, since they have lumped themselves in with the Media mentioned in the ads) doesn’t bat an eye at airing news that is detrimental to the War on Terror and the moral of our troops. Now here these troops have come home, seen the enormous level of negativity coming from the American Media, and they decided to create their own ads, and the media attacks them.
I guess our troops can’t get away from hostile fire even here at home.

How much else does the media hide from us? Do they do this on a regular basis?

CCO’s Reality Check last night took after a new commercial series being put together by Vets of the War on Terror and their families. Midwest Heroes & Progress for America to be specific.

CCO say the facts used are misleading. And they went through the time to say that the media coverage has been fair when it comes to Iraq. That a majority of the Sunday morning talk show guests have been conservative, and that 6 of 10 stories in papers have been positive about Iraq. Don Shelby even did a whole disclaimer at the end saying that this commercial was airing on the station, and that even though they don’t see it a completely factual, that they have graciously decided to still allow the group to use the airwaves.

Well here it is. The video in its entirety (which CCO didn’t do). You decide.

Here is the second clip, which I’m sure DFL Don Shelby will have to discredit ASAP before people start to see the truly giving nature of the men and women who are making the ultimate sacrifice for you and I.

What I want to know is if it is standard operating procedure for CCO to investigate all of the political ads? Last election cycle when MoveOn was flooding the airwaves with imagery of an American soldier surrendering in a desert, did CCO go through such due diligence?

I have always held that CCO is on the side of the DFL/Left (ahem BIAS), but this seems to be a bit over the top. I think it is a perfect example of their lack of troop support. It is proof of their agenda journalism. You cannot tell me that attacking this series that is based on rallying troop support in this Nation, is not part of a political scheme of the anti-Bush/War left. (Yes, I’m questioning the patriotism of those of you who think this ad should not be allowed to be aired.)

I hope CCO knows that this is not exactly the best way to increase ad sales. If they do extensive research and then run Reality Checks like this on all of the Pro-War/Bush/GOP groups, they will shy away from advertising on CCO. Then again, that could be exactly what the powers that be at CCO want. (Yes, I am alleging that they want to have all Leftist ads run on their station this year.)