Furtive Glances - "Ringing In '07" Edition

I've been less than faithful to blogging since approximately Christmas, so this is a look around at some of the interesting stories circulating today.

• President Gerald Ford's state funeral is today in Washington, and it's a national day of mourning officially.  RIP, Mr. Ford.  Hail to the victors, indeed.

• I'm a little upset that I missed this game.  You've got to love New Year's Day bowl game a last-minute comeback, featuring a trick play, by a little known underdog against a traditional football powerhouse.  You gotta like them Boise State Broncos.

• At this point it's becoming clear that when we see a story about Iraq, if it's written by the AP, we'll just agree to ignore it and move on.  Between the non-existent and/or falsely represented Iraqi police officials and the anti-American Iraqi stringers doing the primary reporting it's awfully difficult to draw a line between truth and fiction.  Kudos to Curt at Flopping Aces who continues to track down the misdirection plays run from the AP offices.  Power Line notes a story by Eason Jordan, of CNN in Baghdad and "targeting journalists" fame, that he has been unable to locate even the faintest trace of the AP 'Iraqi police' source Jamil Hussein.

Therefore, in the absence of clear and compelling evidence to corroborate the AP's exclusive story and Captain Hussein's existence, we must conclude for now that the AP's reporting in this case was flawed.

To make matters worse, Captain Jamil Hussein was a key named source in more than 60 AP stories on at least 25 supposed violent incidents over eight months.

Until this controversy is resolved, every one of those AP reports is tainted.

Those, and apparently many others as Curt has shown.

• More to come ...

1/4/07 1130: Okay, so Jamil Hussein lives.  That is one hurdle, and the AP has - perhaps - cleared it.  Next up - confirming the 'burning Sunnis' story given them by Hussein that started the whole ball rolling.

Comments

[Hoodlumman]

The OU/Boise State game was a real treat to watch. One of those back and forth instant sports classics.

[Anna]

Happy New Year, Giacomo! May it be joyful!

[Assistant Village Idiot]

I don't have TV, but after reading about the game looked up the clips online. Forget the drama, the underdogs, the gutsy play-calling - Boise State competently executed the sort of plays we always tried to run in schoolyard football, but never worked. They deserve to be enshrined in sports fantasyland for that alone.