Posted by: Jon Henke on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Yesterday, the White House responded to Al Gore's speech by claiming that... "[Al Gore's] hypocrisy knows no bounds. It was the Clinton administration that used warrantless physical searches. An example is what they did in the case of Aldrich Ames. And it was the Deputy Attorney General under the Clinton administration that testified before Congress and said, "First, the Department of Justice believes and the case law supports that the President has inherent authority" — inherent authority — "to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General."After initially passing on this White House assertion unremarked, the Associated Press eventually updated their story to include this smackdown... But at the time of the Ames search in 1993 and when Gorelick testified a year later, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes, but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed. I hope this continues. Our political discourse will be well-served if the media will continue to immediately correct misstatements by politicians at all levels. A politicians lie might travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes — or being blogged — but the media doesn't have to provide politicians with free travel. [MORE BELOW] Well, you win some, you lose some. Captain Ed notes that New York Times reporters seem unable to differentiate between "sought uranium" and "took delivery of uranium". Eric Lichtblau writes... A high-level intelligence assessment by the Bush administration concluded in early 2002 that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was "unlikely" because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles, according to a secret memo that was recently declassified by the State Department.You know, I once looked into purchasing a large piece of furniture for which I had no delivery vehicle and insufficient room in my home. I didn't buy it, but I did inquire into it. The two are not mutually exclusive. As Ed observes, Lichtblau uses the "same trick employed in Wilson's original op-ed; both start off by talking about the fact that no sale had been completed — a true statement — and then substitute that for no attempt to purchase uranium had been made". MORE: Another good fact-check from the Washington Post... In a call with reporters, Leavitt said enrollment in the program, called Medicare Part D, exceeded expectations and put the administration "well on track to meet our goal of enrolling 28 to 30 million in the first year."If they kept this up, we bloggers would spend a lot less time fact-checking the media and a lot more time congratulating them. UPDATE: Hm. It looks like this last fact-check was accurate, but misleading. The White House did, indeed, claim in early 2005 that "39 million people would receive drug coverage in 2006 through a Medicare drug plan or an employer-sponsored health plan subsidized by Medicare". But by June of 2005, they'd already amended it to the figure they currently claim is the administration goal: In June, Secretary Leavitt scaled back the official estimate. He predicted that 28 million to 30 million people would receive drug coverage next year. He said those figures came from "Wall Street analysts."Consider us all fact-checked. I think the Washington Post ought to consider correcting that story. |
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