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RNC - MEMORABLE POLITICAL ENCOUNTERS
Youth Radio's Kelly Chau and Nate Hadden interviews Roland Martin(CNN Political Analyst), Brian Kilmeade(Fox and Friends), Claudio Simpkins(Washington Post/Hip Hop Republican), and Armstrong Williams(Armstrong Williams Show) about their most memorable political encounters. Youth Radio's Kelly Chau and Nate Hadden interviews Roland Martin(CNN Political Analyst), Brian Kilmeade(Fox and Friends), Claudi... more
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Fox News Ad Targets CNN's Heavily Democratic Audience
The Fox News Channel has taken out an ad in Monday's Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and trade publication Multichannel News highlighting recent findings from a study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which found that Fox News' audience is more balanced along party lines than either CNN's or MSNBC's. The Fox News Channel has taken out an ad in Monday's Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and trade publication Multichannel New... more
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U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules
The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years. The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect inte... more
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Should We Give China a Break?
From the lip-syncing imbroglio, to reports on tween gymnasts and Han Chinese kids posing as ethnic minorities, to coverage that's focused on human rights, pollution and China's challenge to West, one could argue that Beijing is getting kicked in the teeth on a daily basis by the Western press.
Are we being too tough? From the lip-syncing imbroglio, to reports on tween gymnasts and Han Chinese kids posing as ethnic minorities, to coverage that's... more -
Mother Ship Unveiled for $200,000 Place in Space
"British entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Branson on Monday took the wraps off an aircraft that, for $200,000 a seat, may someday take tourists who can afford it on the first leg of regular, albeit very brief, commercial flights into space.
Amid extravagantly orchestrated publicity at a historic test airfield near Edwards Air Force Base, Branson unveiled the double-hulled "mother ship" built to carry a capsule filled with six wealthy tourists high into the stratosphere, from where the smaller ship would rocket into the blackness more than 60 miles above Earth.
The dual-fuselage, all-composite plane expands and refines the smaller version that famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan twice used four years ago to begin the journey of a piloted capsule to sub-orbital altitude, winning the X-Prize competition aimed at encouraging private spaceflight.
No one knows when Virgin Galactic will fly, but about 100 people have already paid full price for the trip, which comes to $50,000 per minute for the four minutes the travelers will spend in weightlessness. An additional 170 have put down deposits.
'It's no good saying it's just extravagant. It could lead to all kinds of things,' said Evette Branson after christening the oddly shaped four-engine jet, dubbed Eve in her honor."
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Karl Vick// Washington Post "British entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Branson on Monday took the wraps off an aircraft that, for $200,000 a seat, may some... more -
Lawmakers Agree to Ban Toxins in Children's Items
"Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children's products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from toys.
The ban, which would take effect in six months, would have significant implications for U.S. consumers, whose homes are filled with hundreds of plastic products designed for children that may be causing dangerous health effects.
The rare action by Congress reflects a growing body of scientific research showing that children ingest the toxins by acts as simple as chewing on a rubber duck. Used for decades in plastic production, the chemicals are now thought to act as hormones and cause reproductive problems, especially in boys...
... Phthalates make plastics softer and more durable and also are added to perfumes, lotions, shampoos and other items. They are so ubiquitous that in one 1999 study, the Food and Drug Administration found traces in all of its 1,000 subjects.
The measure had wide support in the Senate, but it bogged down in the House, where the chemical industry waged a costly battle to defeat it. The campaign was led by Exxon Mobil, which manufacturers diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, the phthalate most frequently found in children's toys. The company spent a chunk of its $22 million lobbying budget in the past 18 months to try to prevent any ban."
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Lyndsey Layton// Washington Post
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Image by flickr user Gaetan Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee/298160434/
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en "Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children's products, handing a major vic... more -
Diplomats Barred From Obama’s Berlin Speech, But Not McCain’s In Ottawa
The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Embassy in Berlin “instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. Barack Obama’s [D-IL] public rally” in Tiergarten Park because the event is “‘partisan political activity‘ prohibited under its regulations for those serving overseas.”
The diplomats’ union objected to the ruling, calling it an “unnecessarily narrow interpretation” of the Foreign Affairs Manual. “The fact that you are working for the U.S. government overseas should not preclude political activity that you could engage in in the United States,” one retired senior Foreign Service officer said. But a State official explained the ruling:
But “we always maintain that no U.S. government Foreign Service person overseas should be seen to be advocating one side or the other,” State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said, adding that “it has nothing to do with who” the candidate is.
“When a German sees you there, they’re not going to think, ‘Oh, he or she is on their off time.’ It’s ‘Oh, they are a Democrat, a Republican, an independent,’ God knows what,” Kennedy said in an interview.
But the ruling — which Kennedy admitted is unprecedented — appears to indicate a double standard from the State Department. Last June, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) delivered a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa. The event was reportedly organized in part by U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, whom President Bush appointed in 2005. But more than that, the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa confirmed to ThinkProgress that Wilkins also attended the event.
Not only did McCain make clear references to and critiques of Obama’s policy positions in the speech, but he also referred to his own presidential campaign six times.
Although both the McCain and Obama campaigns denied their respective speeches in Ottawa and Berlin were political, the State Department only prohibited diplomats from attending Obama’s event. The fact that Wilkins attended McCain’s speech without worries that he would “be seen to be advocating one side or the other,” undermines Kennedy’s justification for barring Foreign Service personnel from attending Obama’s speech. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Embassy in Berlin “instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. ... more -
Obama poll results withheld by ABC News/Washington Post
In disclosing the results of their poll, conducted July 10-13, ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases, withholding from their first release on July 14 poll results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama "[i]f the 2008 presidential election were being held today" versus 42 percent who favored Sen. John McCain.
A partial release of the results, "embargoed for release after 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14, 2008," was titled "McCain Stays Competitive on Iraq; It's About More than Withdrawal" and disclosed the results of only 10 questions relating to foreign policy.
Among the results, the release noted: 72 percent of respondents think McCain would be "a good commander-in-chief," compared with 48 percent for Obama; "50 percent of Americans prefer Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. forces within 16 months of taking office," compared with 49 percent who side with McCain's position; 47 percent of respondents said they trust McCain more on Iraq, while 45 percent prefer Obama; and 51 percent of Americans "now say the U.S. campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda there [in Afghanistan] has been unsuccessful." Following the July 14 release, ABCNews.com posted an analysis of only the foreign policy poll results under the headline "McCain Tops Obama in Commander-in-Chief Test; Stays Competitive on Iraq."
Similarly, Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin linked to the ABCNews.com analysis using the headline: "Poll: McCain Wins More Confidence as Commander in Chief." In a July 15 article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," the Post reported only the poll results disclosed in the first release. The article did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain among registered voters on who they would vote for "[i]f the 2008 presidential election were being held today."
On July 15, the day after the initial release, ABC News and the Post issued a second release disclosing the results of 18 questions "embargoed for release after 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008." Included in the release was the result that overall, Obama leads McCain by 8 percentage points among registered voters. Additionally, the release stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race, in enthusiasm, levels of partisanship, personal qualities and trust on top domestic issues, notably No. 1, the economy; and he's improved in the past month among swing voter groups." The release noted that Obama leads McCain by 19 percentage points on the question of which candidate respondents "trust more to handle the economy." In disclosing the results of their poll, conducted July 10-13, ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases, withholding... more -
E.U. Agriculture Commissioner proposes some deregulation
[T]he European Commission's agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel of Denmark... proposes scrapping all but 10 of the regulations [on marketing standards for fruits and vegetables], arguing that they are needlessly cumbersome and bureaucratic, and that they lead to people throwing away perfectly edible fruits and vegetables for cosmetic reasons at a time when the world is suffering food shortages and rapid price increases. She hopes representatives from the 27-nation bloc will vote to streamline the regulations at a meeting this month.
"We don't need 34 regulations to decide how round an artichoke should be or how thin a cucumber can be," said Boel's spokesman, Michael Mann, noting that such rules give the E.U. its reputation as an out-of-control bureaucracy. "A bent cucumber is as good as a straight one," he declared. "Let the shopper decide."
(End of excerpt)
Full article "Europe Debates Perfection It Demands of Its Produce" at link by John Ward Anderson// Washington Post [T]he European Commission's agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel of Denmark... proposes scrapping all but 10 of the reg... more -
Nancy Pelosi Altars Passed Congressional Bill to Favor Israel
Does anybody elected official represent the United States anymore?
Nancy Pelosi just takes it upon herself to cut out portions of a passed bill? Who does she think she is? What kind of out-of-control-power does our country's leadership possess?
Thank God Ron Paul is actively aware of the sly workings of elected officials.
People we can't continue to have this kind of representation and have a democratic republic much longer. If you care at all, call your elected official and let them know you care and disapprove of what Nancy did. Does anybody elected official represent the United States anymore? ... more -
Obama supports FISA legislation, angering Left
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) today announced his support for a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by the liberal activists who have fueled the financial engines of his presidential campaign.
In his most substantive break with the Democratic Party's base since becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama declared he will support the bill when it comes to a Senate vote, likely next week, despite misgivings about legal provisions for telecommunications corporations that cooperated with the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program of suspected terrorists.
In so doing, Obama sought to walk the fine political line between GOP accusations that he is weak on foreign policy -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called passing the legislation a "vital national security matter" -- and alienating his base.
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Paul Kane// The Washington Post
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Photo by flickr user Barack Obama
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.e... Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) today announced his support for a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by... more -
Future Man
Jacque Fresco is a genius, architect, engineer, designer of cities and transportation modes, inventor, economist, philosopher and futurist. Did I mention that he has comprehensive plans to redesign the world? Jacque Fresco is a genius, architect, engineer, designer of cities and transportation modes, inventor, economist, philosopher and futu... more
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The Education of George W. Bush
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, June 12, 2008; 1:25 PM
President Bush's slow and painful schooling in constitutional law continued today as the Supreme Court ruled for the third time in four years that he had violated a basic precept of the American legal system.
The court ruled 5-4 that Bush cannot deny prisoners at Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal district court. Some of them have been held already -- without charges -- for more than six years.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, determined that the prisoners in the U.S.-run facility "have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. . . ."
(In other words, BushCo broke the law.)
~ snip ~
The Supreme Court decision was close -- one vote made the difference. And the dissent was bitter. Mark Sherman writes for the Associated Press: "In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts criticized his colleagues for striking down what he called 'the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.'
"Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also dissented.
(One. Fucking. Vote. AAAARGH!)
"Scalia said the nation is 'at war with radical Islamists' and that the court's decision 'will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.'"
(No. The invasion and occupation of a nation which did not pose a threat to us is what's going to almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.)
Full piece available at link.
Man, I dig that Mr. Froomkin. By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Thursday, June 12, 2008; 1:25 PM ... more -
"Stars (and Stripes) in Their Eyes": Iran's appealing image of Amer...
By Azadeh Moaveni// The Washington Post
(Excerpt from main article)
Although their leaders still call America the "Great Satan," ordinary Iranians' affection for the United States seems to be thriving these days, at least in the bustling capital. This rekindled regard is evident in people's conversations, their insatiable demand for U.S. products and culture, and their fascination with the U.S. presidential campaign. One can't do reliable polling about Iranians' views under their theocratic government, of course, but these shifts were still striking to me as a longtime visitor -- not least because liking the United States is also a way for Iranians to register their frustration with their own firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
It might startle some Americans to realize that Iran has one of the most pro-American populations in the Middle East. Iranians have adored America for nearly three decades, a sentiment rooted in nostalgia for Iran's golden days, before the worst of the shah's repression and the 1979 Islamic revolution. But today's affection is new, in a sense, or at least different.
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Full story at link
Photo by flickr user nasseria_slovenly
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70884987@N00/71358536/ By Azadeh Moaveni// The Washington Post (Excerpt from main article) ... more -
Washington Post invites White Pride advocate to trash Edwards and Obama
Glenn Greenwald exposes Kathleen Parker's previously expressed racist sentiments towards Obama, and questions the Washington Post editor's judgement in inviting such a person to write a column essentially calling John Edwards and Barack Obama gay. From the original article:
"Well, at least they didn't kiss.
I was bracing myself for the lip lock Wednesday when John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama."
PS To those who may not have heard of Glenn Greenwald, I'll just say that if I could only read one blog it would definitely be his. I discovered Greenwald's first blog, "Unclaimed Territory" in December of 2005 when the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal broke. No one has been a more effective explainer of constitutional law or more accurate and fierce in the field of media criticism. Glenn Greenwald exposes Kathleen Parker's previously expressed racist sentiments towards Obama, and questions the Washington Post... more -
In U.S., Few Alternatives To Testing On Animals
Each year, American doctors inject more than 3 million doses of Botox to temporarily smooth their patients' wrinkles and frown lines. But before each batch is shipped, the manufacturer puts it through one of the oldest and most controversial animal tests available.
Several U.S. government officials now consider the system broken. As a result, critics say, hundreds of thousands of mice, rabbits, hamsters and dogs continue to suffer and die unnecessarily in tests for pesticides, household cleaners, sunscreens and other products. Each year, American doctors inject more than 3 million doses of Botox to temporarily smooth their patients' wrinkles and frown li... more -
Kids thumb noses at leadership. Give them money, conformity, and environmental cau...
With the examples set by them, who can blame them? Here is something to think about:
""The millennial generation has ambivalent, even negative, feelings about formal leadership," said Peter Levine, director of a nonpartisan research center at the University of Maryland that studies young people and civic involvement. "They prefer horizontal leadership in which everyone's a leader.""
I'm trying to drum up examples of leadership that could trump the obvious reasons for this sentiment, but I'm having trouble finding them.
Where are our true leaders? Better yet, do we need individual figurehead leaders, or would something like a horizontal leadership work? With the examples set by them, who can blame them? Here is something to think about: ... more -
Once common, now obsolete
Washington Post story about 209 once-common things that are either obsolete or well on the way. Includes truly blind dating (Google them before you date them!) and phone sex (now its text messaging minus the heavy breathing). Washington Post story about 209 once-common things that are either obsolete or well on the way. Includes truly blind dating (Google t... more
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Richard Cohen: Obama Is Scary!
It only took a few tweaks and voila! Richard Cohen managed to repackage the "Obama is actually a closet black racist who will turn the White House into a black Muslim enclave" smears that are circulating the worst of the right wing hate sites, into a column for today's Washington Post. It only took a few tweaks and voila! Richard Cohen managed to repackage the "Obama is actually a closet black racist who will tu... more
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Next Smithsonian exhibit may be portraits of museum executives doing "perp�...
Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene especially when it involves taxpayers money.
Even half that nealry 50 grand could have been significant funding for the non-profit Native American and environment projects I volunteer for in northern Michigan.
More comment after a few sentences of the article and a look at this portrait:
Portrait Cost Indian Museum $48,500: Senators, Trustees Question Spending By Former Director
By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, spent $48,500 in museum funds to commission a portrait of himself.
The portrait of West by New York artist Burton Silverman hangs in the patrons' lounge on the fourth floor of the flagship museum, which is dedicated to the arts and culture of American Indians.
Silverman said West picked him after he saw a portrait Silverman had done of former Smithsonian secretary Robert McCormick Adams.
The Adams portrait, completed about a decade earlier, was smaller and cost about half as much.
Rest of the Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
Portrait:
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2...
[IMG http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee225/YOOPERNEWSMAN/...[/IMG]
Native American on Native American crime - much like black on black crime - is especially insidious because so much good could have been done for First Nations peoples heritage with this wasted and misappropriated money.
It's also a crime against taxpayers and common decency.
Spending $48,500 on a self portrait is among the disgraceful financial crimes of W. Richard West Jr., the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
For this crime to occur in the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian shows again thievery knows no class boundaries - and should be treated just as severely as the poor man who sticks a gun into the face of a 7-11 clerk.
The Smithsonian needs to be thoroughly audited from top to bottom as this is at least the second huge scandal to tarnish its once respected reputation.
No doubt it's only the tip of the fiduciary iceberg that's tearing through the Smithsonian's highbrow richly-protected hull.
I do volunteer work for several Native American related non-profits whose budgets are much smaller than even the cost of that disgraceful portrait.
And the suggestion that it could not have been painted by an American Indian artist is as laughable as it is sickening with a hint of racism against one's own culture.
Even the portrait stance is borrowed and unoriginal, as a buttoned-down Mr. West gazes thoughtfully off to the east, his coat hanging on a crooked forefinger and tossed over suspenders with his soft thumb and the remaining fingers forming the "OK" sign.
The Washington ego commands that a portrait much be painted to prove one's importance.
No doubt many law offices, banking institutions and the halls of officialdom are plastered with the self-aggrandizing crafty art.
Prior to the Polaroid, a self-portrait may have been necessary to preserve one's historic legacy but in today's world it's merely a measure of one's self-importance that is more often scoffed at than admired by those it's meant to impress. Perhaps, a modern definition of irony.
Maybe the next exhibit at the Smithsonian will be portraits of former executives doing the proverbial "perp walk" - cuffed and stuffed for perp-etuity. Washingtonians - and others with big egos - have a portrait fetish that is obscene especially when it involves taxpayers money. ... more
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