Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/29/06

As President Bush's claims of progress in New Orleans meet a statistical challenge, a surprise announcement by the Yes Men reignites anger about closed public housing projects in 'a city left to rot.'

Naomi Klein considers the implications of the growing "Disaster Capitalism Complex," which feeds off government funds but is beyond the reach of taxpayer control, as another commentator sums up the apparent strategy of the Bush administration as "feed the beast, but blind it."

CJR Daily's Paul McLeary describes how "the AP, and sometimes other news organizations, continue to cut the legs out from under their own reporting about the sad carnage in Iraq," and E. J. Dionne predicts that "August 2006 will be remembered as a watershed in the politics of Iraq."

Although 'Everything is always good for the Republicans,' Bloomberg's Al Hunt reports that "Privately, Republican congressional leaders are bracing to lose 20 to 30 House seats ... and to barely hold on to their Senate majority."

In an interview about her documentary, "Mr. Conservative," Barry Goldwater's granddaughter reminds that "Hillary was a Goldwater girl." And Stephanie Miller, whose father was Goldwater's 1964 running mate, tells The Progressive: "I can't even imagine what they'd think today about their party."

PZ Myers takes former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson to task over his promotion of 'the new Republican alibi for crippling stem cell research,' and the proliferation of new state 'fetal homicide laws' is examined.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's support for a more Christian EU constitution sparks protest, as the pope prepares to 'embrace the theory of intelligent design,' and the Vatican's chief exorcist discusses Pope Pius XII's attempt to exorcise Hitler.