Most Bizarre

If you haven't been following the Glenn Greenwald/Col. Steven A. Boylan affair, you should get in on it.

It started with GG writing a column on the fact our military seems to be closely linked, exclusively, with right-wing news sources and right-wing bloggers.

Col. Steven A. Boylan, the spokesman for General Patraeus, wrote an e-mail to Greenwald basically saying that GG was full of shit, didn't know what he was talking about, and it a hack "journalist."

Greenwald published the e-mail and wrote another column about how Boylan's response only goes to prove Greenwald's point and doesn't dispute any of Greenwald's theses.

Because Boylan's e-mail is over-the-top and he speaks for the commander of US forces in Iraq, many people thought maybe the e-mail was a fake. Greenwald wrote to Boylan asking him to verify that the e-mail was from him. Boylan said that the e-mail was not from him.

And you can read from the many updates, the story is now about whether or not Boylan wrote the first e-mail. Apparently, many, many, computer experts, including the GTFF's own Peter Boothe have determined that there are no differences between the e-mail Boylan denies sending and other e-mails that he has sent to Greenwald.

Through other sources, Boylan has emphatically denied writing the first e-mail.

We now have a choice to make. One thing is true, the other is not.

1. Boylan sent the e-mail and is now lying when he claims he did not.

2. Someone was able to gain access to the US military e-mail service and send an e-mail that is indistinguishable from legitimate e-mails sent on this system.

Certainly, option #2 is the most disturbing, but option #1 is not much better. Let's not forget that this guy is the personal spokesman for General Patraeus and is a Public Affairs Officer in the US military.

Echo Chambering, Just for You

Snow: President Bush Is ‘On The Frontlines’ Of The Iraq War ‘Every Day’

In today’s White House press briefing, reporter Helen Thomas asked Tony Snow if there are “any members of the Bush family or this administration in this war.” Stunningly, Snow claimed that President Bush is actually on the “frontlines” of the war in Iraq:

Q: Are there any members of the Bush family or this administration in this war?

SNOW: Yeah, the President. The President is in the war every day.

Q: Come on, that isn’t my question –

SNOW: Well, no, if you ask any president who is a commander in chief –

Q: On the frontlines, wherever…

SNOW: The President.

Watch it