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NYT public editor slams her own newspaper for posting fake pictures
The Obama administration told a NYT reporter something to the effect that, 'Here, these pictures show Russian military stirring up trouble in Ukraine.'
The photographs were fake.
Now the newspaper that believed "Curveball" suffers another setback as its credibility sinks lower and lower. At least they have a good public editor. Two paragraphs for you:
"It all feels rather familiar – the rushed publication of something exciting, often based on an executive branch leak. And then, afterward, with a kind of “morning after” feeling, here comes a more sober, less prominently displayed followup story, to deal with objections while not clarifying much of anything."
...
"Here’s my take: The Times’s coverage of this crisis has had much to commend it, especially the quality of the on-the-ground reporting. But this article, with its reliance on an administration leak, was displayed too prominently and questioned too lightly. The Times’s influence demands that it be cautious, especially when deciding to publish what amounts to a government handout."
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/aftermath-of-ukraine-photo-story-shows-need-for-more-caution/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=thepubliceditor&_r=0
Snowden adviser: Hillary "either out of touch, or lying" about US protections for whistleblowers
Hillary Clinton said that Edward Snowden should not have fled to China because "we have all these protections for whistleblowers. Link
Jesselyn Radack, human rights attorney of the Government Accountability Project said, ""As for her ignorance about the problem with the lack of 'channels' for national security whistleblowers, she's either out of touch or lying,"
More:
Snowden supporters and advisers say Clinton's remarks were unrealistic and reflect several factual misunderstandings about his predicament. They say he could not have availed himself of whistleblower protections because he was not a government employee (he worked for contractor Booz Allen) and his claims would not have been viewed as exposing any impropriety because authorities in all three branches of government had blessed the NSA telephone program as legal. A federal judge not privy to the program before the leaks later ruled it unconstitutional, but that decision is on appeal.
"Was he supposed to call the Senate Intelligence Committee and say, 'I'd like to report to you a program you approved in secret...'?" Snowden legal adviser Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said in an interview Friday. "Snowden is not a person who stumbled upon this ltitle secret pocket of misconduct....This wasn’t a situation where it's a question of how to tell the boss and tell Congress—his bosses and Congress were the problem."
Wizner also noted that Clinton never squarely said whether Snowden's disclosures were a net positive or not.
Did Hillary agree with Bill's signing of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999?
As you may know from what Nobel-prize winning economists and others have told you, the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act signed by Bill Clinton was at the core of the financial crisis that affected us in the late 2008's.
Thinkprogress: "Economic experts say that Gramm and others are to blame for the current crisis that is shaking Wall Street.Link
Gramm’s successful effort to pass banking reform laws in 1999, which reduced decades-old regulations separating banking, insurance and brokerage activities, helped to create the current economic crisis.
“As a result, the culture of investment banks was conveyed to commercial banks and everyone got involved in the high-risk gambling mentality. That mentality was core to the problem that we’re facing now,” Stiglitz says."
I don't want to jump to conclusions and say that since Hillary was Bill's wife, then we have to automatically assume that she agreed and still agrees with Bill's signing that awful law. I am simply going to ask you guys to tell me if you have heard her speak against it in the past, in newspapers, TV or any other medium. This might be key in my decision to vote for her or another more progressive Democrat in the primaries. Thanks.
NYT op-ed on Comcast and the politicians it owns
Excerpt:
"In Comcast’s case, that monopoly is predicated upon exerting overwhelming political control. Just ask anyone who lives in Philadelphia, where the shiny 975-foot Comcast Center looms over the skyline. As buttons at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia proclaimed: “Welcome to Comcast Country.”"
Excerpt:
Starting in Philadelphia, Comcast built a hometown political machine and turned it into a national juggernaut. In 2013, the company spent $18.8 million on federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s more than all but six other corporations. The company is also a major donor, making nearly $5.5 million in federal political contributions during the 2012 cycle.
Recipients of Comcast’s largess include President Obama and Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation in Washington, a veritable Comcast caucus. In 2011, Pennsylvania’s two senators, Patrick J. Toomey, a Republican, and Robert P. Casey Jr., a Democrat, scolded the Federal Communications Commission for taking too long to vote on Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal: “The American people,” they wrote, “have waited for more than a year for the benefits of this transaction to come to fruition.” The two have now joined hands across the aisle to back the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. And the F.C.C.’s new move to weaken the principle of net neutrality suggests that, once again, Comcast’s wishes will be granted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/opinion/welcome-to-comcast-country.html?_r=1
Chris Christie to ‘Bridgegate’ critics: Prove it
Source: MSNBC
Chris Christie offered a challenge to critics who allege the New Jersey governor created a culture of intimidation that led to so-called “Bridgegate”: Prove it.
The Republican defiantly made his case Thursday at a town hall meeting in Ocean County after an attendee told the governor that his friends and family believe that Christie must have cultivated a toxic environment that allowed such an abuse to take place.
Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. resident Len Ludovico, 71, said he wanted to know what argument he could make to such critics, insisting he knows Christie would not risk his “political career and integrity on something as petty as lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.”
Christie advised the retired high school teacher to argue: “Point to something factually – something that proves that” he created such a culture.
Christie advised the retired high school teacher to argue: “Point to something factually – something that proves that” he created such a culture.
Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/christie-bridgegate-critics-prove-it
Salon: David Brooks' statement that Obama has a "manhood problem" is racist
The New York Times' David Brooks said that in foreign policy issues such as the Russia vs. Ukraine conflict,, Obama has a "manhood" problem:
Brooks: "Basically since Yalta we’ve had an assumption that borders are basically going to be borders and once that comes into question if in Ukraine or in Crimea or anywhere else, then all over the world all bets are off. And let’s face it, Obama, whether deservedly or not, does have a — I’ll say it crudely — but a manhood problem in the Middle East. (editor’s note: the bolding is ours) Is he tough enough to stand up to somebody like Assad or somebody like Putin? I think a lot of the rap is unfair but certainly in the Middle East there is an assumption that he’s not tough enough."
Salon's Paul Rosenberg writes:
The racial aspect adds another dimension. Obama’s entire political career has been defined by pushing back against the “threatening, black alpha-male” stereotype. Conciliation, not confrontation, is not just his style, but the core of his substance as well. The slightest break from this stance can trigger immediate backlash — as was seen in the knee-jerk response to his comment saying police acted “stupidly” when they arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates for trespassing in his own home. Since then, conservative activists and media have manufactured countless similar offenses as Obama has consistently failed to produce them himself. He has a “deep-seated hatred of white people,” as Glenn Beck alleged, without a scintilla of evidence, when Obama held his “beer summit” to atone for his momentary lapse of inconvenient truth-telling. And that has been the right-wing narrative subtext ever since. But the textual evidence has been virtually nonexistent, because Obama’s personality and his politics have been so deeply wedded to compromise and conciliation.
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/22/david_brooks_twisted_manhood_questioning_obamas_manhood_isnt_just_racist_its_wrong/
Hillary is not doing so well in Colorado (Quinnipiac)
In a state that President Obama won by 5% in 2012, Hillary trails Rand Paul by 5% and is tied with Chris Christie. This is troubling.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/colorado/release-detail?ReleaseID=2034
Nate Silver vs. Sabato vs. Cook vs. NYT vs. Rothenberg: Senate chances of Dems vs. Repubs
For those who don't want to rely on Nate Silver alone for guidance on the state of 2014 Senate races, here is compendium of all major forecasts out there, for all states: http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2014/senate-model/comparisons.html
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Member since: Sun Apr 20, 2014, 06:06 PMNumber of posts: 62
