« US, Iraq Seek Timeframe For Troop Cuts | Home | NPR Sobs: For Some, Meat Is Out Of Reach »

Selected News For Week Jul 19 - Jul 25

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

44 Responses to “Selected News For Week Jul 19 - Jul 25”

HNAV
July 19th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Gramm steps down as McCain’s co-chair

What is so deeply embarrassing about this development, John McCain used the name Gramm a number of times to dodge a serious economic question during the debates in the Primary.

Often, McCain’s reference of associates in attempting to answer simple economic questions, appeared somewhat delusional, and reminded this poster, why the Maverick ended up 894th out of 899 at the Academy.

It is really odd, to consider a Washington Beltway Insider of over 3 Decades, who doesn’t have an understanding of basic economic issues.

It reminds one of how poor our Representation in the Capital actually is…

John McCain used class warfare excuses to vote against the essential Bush Tax Cuts, and later in the Primary lied about his concern for overt ’spending’.

He also used the name GRAMM to often portray himself as a Conservative….

It is quite stunning, to consider Gramm as no longer a part of the Maverick’s Senate Team.
BillK
July 19th, 2008 at 2:13 am
This is what happens if you dare speak the truth; Gramm was 100% right - be most definitely are a nation of whiners.

Really, is there anyone who actually wants to vote for McCain?

Get Drunk and Vote For McCain sounds like a better idea all the time, though I’m beginning to wonder if alcohol would be enough…
sheehanjihad
July 19th, 2008 at 4:59 am
McBrainless is getting on my nerves. every enemy he has…(the list is growing) will now know the main crux of his many weaknesses…..every time a supporter says something the left can use against him…..they are gone.

Seems to me both candidate’s “supporters” are becoming awfully familiar with the underside of a Bus chassis….what do you suppose our view of that same bus will be when either one is confronted with a serious threat?

I get tired of the media and small groups of politically focused minions picking our president instead of holding an election that would allow common folks to vote for a viable candidate instead of what we are offered and told to accept.

. Robert Mugabe picked this up from our system long ago, and the enemies of our country have picked up on it, and are playing our system against us as we speak. Purchased politicians usually were bought by Americans, but now, they are being hand picked by the highest international bidder.

our own house of reprehensibles is proof of what you get when someone else pays for their seats and expects to be rewarded. Our future president will be proof of what you get when our own elected officials are told who is going to be president by ideologues and their play is backed with foreign money……we have no room to talk anymore.

And all too soon, we actually wont be able to talk anymore. McCain wont do anything about it. He cant. He is too busy being “nice” to people who would just as soon see him holding a tin cup on “C” street with a sign….” Viet Nam Vet” will vote for food.
amber
July 19th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Who’s funding Obama’s campaign??

From Pamela Geller:

Obama, who is Jeanne McCurdy?

Other overseas contributors are making multiple small donations ostensibly in their own names over a period of a few days, some under maximum donation allowances, but others aggregating in excess of the maximums when all added up. So while some of the contributions appear legal, others appear clearly over the maximums allowed without greater reporting requirement. Some of the contributions may bel egal as reported, but “fishy” can only describe the Obama campaign reporting with regard to aggregate contributions. The countries and major cities from which contributions have been received France, Virgin Islands, Planegg, Vienna, Hague, Madrid, London, AE, IR, Geneva,Tokyo, Bangkok, Turin, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Roma, Zurich, Netherlands, Moscow, Ireland, Milan, Singapore, Bejing, Switzerland, Toronto, Vancouver, La Creche, Pak Chong, Dublin, Panama, Krabi, Berlin, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Prague, Nagoya, Budapest, Barcelona, Sweden, Taipei, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Zurich, Ragusa, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Uganda, Mumbia, Nagoya, Tunis, Zacatecas, St, Croix, Mississiauga, Laval, Nadi, Behchoko, Ragusa, DUBIA, Lima, Copenhagen, Quaama, Jeddah, Kabul, Cairo, Nassau(not the county on Long Island,lol), Luxembourg (Auchi’s stomping grounds), etc,etc,etc, but nare ot limited to these countries, as we’ve have just begun to read through almost 500 pages.

There are way too many overseas contributions and I find it hard to believe they are all American citizens. How does the FEC monitor that? Some of contributions appear to be “bundled” from one person as source to hide the contributions of many, and an example of one among many such “incidents” will clearly show why I arrive at such a conclusion..

A red flag is a donor like Jeanne McCurdy. Look at the contribution excerpt below. It’s a compilation of a mere four pages of listings, pages 40-44, approximately 9% of the pages of the total document I received, and it lists contributions made by a Jeanne McCurdy, who is always listed as unemployed, and who does not have an address at least as can be found in the files provided (and, as you might well expect, no phone number or email address either).

John did a computation of her contributions from roughly Aug. 07 through Feb/Mar of 08, and it is over $1200. She ranges from a $15 to a $400 contribution, most running $25/35 to $50. Several of her separate contributions are listed on the same day, a very curious way to make campaign contributions, which are usually in response to mailed solicitations.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.....is-je.html
HNAV
July 19th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
This could be some good news for the New York Area.

From the New York Post:

‘COMEBACK’ RUDY TO LAUNCH GOP ELEX FUND

By MAGGIE HABERMAN and CARL CAMPANILE

July 19, 2008

Rudy Giuliani is launching a new fund-raising committee to dole out cash to New York GOP candidates - a move that could help him collect political chits as he weighs a run for governor, The Post has learned.

It’s the first major political move by the former mayor since his run for president flamed out in January.

The Giuliani camp is expected to announce the creation of the committee as early as Monday. The same day, he’ll hold a small fund-raiser at the Grand Havana Room on Fifth Avenue for his existing federal political action committee, Solutions America.

Sources close to Giuliani said the state fund-raising venture is simply “him keeping his options open” for his future. But several sources say the former mayor is eyeing a gubernatorial run in 2010.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07.....120572.htm

Too bad Rudy isn’t thinking about the Senator position, taking on the unethical Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But New Yorkers would be well served with this proven Leader, a tax cutter, helping the GOP in a State that needs it badly.

Of course, New Jersey could use a Rudy as Governor as well…
imnewatthis
July 19th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Thanks Amber for providing the link to Atlas Shrugs. I have been there a bunch of times but I never remember to go there on my own. God bless Pamela Geller for always drawing attention to Islamic honor killings and mutilations, and providing the pictures of the women, which she says are very hard to find.
Edwards_wants_me_to_move
July 19th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Gramm is right, but he placed blame on Americans instead of the media where it belongs. We’ve become whiners because we’re always being told that something is wrong when a democrat isn’t in the white house.
sheehanjihad
July 19th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
well soon, we are all going to have something to whine about….and be tacitly ignored by the people who are causing the misery….hell, the only people who really want change in America are the islamic jihadists…..they will stop at nothing to get it, too.
mrfocus
July 19th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Penguins die Global Warming the cause

Penguin deaths rise

* Rio De Janeiro
* July 20, 2008

Penguins.

These penguins, pictured at Rio de Janeiro’s Niteroi Zoo, were rescued by the Brazilian coastguard after being swept from the shores of Antarctica. Photo: Ricardo Moraes

HUNDREDS of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro’s tropical beaches.

More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found over the past two months, according to the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.

While it is common to find some penguins - dead and alive - swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, the agency’s superintendent, Eduardo Pimenta, said there had been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Experts are divided over possible causes. A veterinarian at Rio’s Niteroi Zoo where many of the rescued birds are being cared for, Thiago Muniz, said he believed overfishing had forced penguins to swim further from shore to find food “leaving them vulnerable to getting caught in strong ocean currents”.

Niteroi, the state’s biggest zoo, has treated 100 penguins so far this year, many drenched in petroleum from the Campos oil field that lies offshore.

Mr Pimenta said pollution was to blame. “Pollution is lowering the animals’ immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs,” he said.

But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved. “I don’t think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we’re seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher,” Mr Costa said.
http://www.theage.com.au/world.....-3hxg.html
sheehanjihad
July 19th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher,” Mr Costa said.

Mr Costa evidently isnt schooled enough to find the actual cause…so like most “academics”, who claim vast knowlege but exhibit very little of it, he blames global warming.

Perhaps the warming atmosphere has rendered Mr Costa’s brain incapable of rational thought. Seems the penguins werent the only thing poisoned when considering Costa’s thought process.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 5:26 am
The Press has a new favorite topic.

Last week, I posted this article:

Obama warns against ‘fighting the last war’

By Glen Johnson

Democrat Barack Obama warned Wednesday about the danger of “fighting the last war” as he pledged to focus on emerging nuclear, biological and cyber threats if elected president.

Among those joining him for a panel discuss at Purdue University were two potential running mates, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga. As the former governor of a Republican state, Bayh could help Obama. Nunn, a defense expert from the South, would burnish the ticket’s experience. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....235D27.DTL

This week, we get this, from the Los Angeles Times:

A battle over ‘the next war’

Many military officers are pushing back against Defense Secretary Gates’ focus on preparing for more ‘asymmetric’ fighting rather than for a large, conventional conflict.

By Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel

WASHINGTON — Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. is not a fighter pilot, wing commander or war planner. But he is waging what many officers consider a crucial battle: ensuring that the U.S. military is ready for a major war.

Dunlap, like many officers across the military, believes the armed forces must prepare for a large-scale war against technologically sophisticated, well-equipped adversaries, rather than long-term ground conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.

First, however, they face an adversary much closer to home — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

For more than 30 years, the Pentagon establishment considered it an essential duty to prepare for a war of national survival. But under Gates, that focus has fallen from favor.

In public speeches and private meetings, Gates has chastised many commanders as ignoring wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while they plan for speculative future conflicts.

“We should not starve the forces at war today to prepare for a war that may never come,” Gates said in a stinging address last month, one of a series he has delivered. Gates even has coined a term for what he sees as a military disorder: “next-war-itis.”

Spurred by Gates and sobered by setbacks in the Middle East, many commanders have signed on to the Defense secretary’s view.

But Dunlap and others are pushing back. They believe that the Iraq war is beginning to wind down and that the United States, chastened by its experience there, is unlikely to ever again become embroiled in a long-term ground conflict where adversaries rely on irregular, “asymmetric” fighting methods.

“We need the bulk of the Army prepared to go toe-to-toe with the heaviest combat formations our adversaries can field,” Dunlap said. “For what it is worth, I predict the next big war will be conventional, or I should say symmetrical. In my judgment, we are not going to get into the business of occupying a hostile country of millions of people.”

Dunlap, a military lawyer, has emerged as the most outspoken advocate for what many once considered the military’s core mission: preparing to fight and defeat countries determined to destroy the U.S. or its interests.

He is not alone. In military journals, midlevel officers’ conferences and gatherings around the Pentagon, a growing number have expressed concern that the Defense Department’s planning and resources are being trained disproportionately on small guerrilla wars.

At the same time, they fear that important military skills — storming beaches, fighting tank battles, using air and land power in unison to attack enemy lines — are beginning to atrophy.

“The military is almost always accused of preparing to fight the last war,” said former Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne. “The most interesting part of ‘next-war-itis’ is that we are being accused of trying to fight the next war.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....4552.story

Either way the Press wins because they can paint the Pentagon as doing the wrong thing.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 5:30 am
Payback time for Obama. That’ll teach the press.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In satirical payback, Obama camp denies New Yorker writer plane seat

By Andrew Malcolm

There’s probably no connection whatsoever.

But the New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, whose long, long article on Barack Obama’s early political days in Chicago’s ward politics (available here) was the reason for the magazine’s controversial cover by Barry Blitt depicting Obama as a Muslim, has been barred from traveling with Obama on his foreign field trip this week.

The elitist magazine claimed the cover’s depiction was satirical of a Muslim Obama fist-bumping with a militant wife Michelle armed with an AK-47 beneath a portrait of Osama bin Laden while they burn a U.S. flag — in the Oval Office.

Initially, the Obama campaign and John McCain’s spokesman denounced the cover.

Later, a cooler Obama dismissed it as a weak attempt at satire amid much more important things to discuss.

More than 200 media folks applied to fly in Europe with the freshman senator. But, alas, the Obama campaign said it simply was not able to find a seat for Lizza.

Now, that’s Chicago politics.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....orker.html

Indeed.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 5:37 am
Sorry for the lag time, but I didn’t see this mentioned in past weeks.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Jefferson Bible reveals Founding Father’s view of God, faith

He compiled the four Gospels into one text without miracles, ending with Jesus’ burial rather than the resurrection.

By Louis Sahagu

Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper — alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin.

In a letter sent from Monticello to John Adams in 1813, Jefferson said his “wee little book” of 46 pages was based on a lifetime of inquiry and reflection and contained “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

He called the book “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.” Friends dubbed it the Jefferson Bible. It remains perhaps the most comprehensive expression of what the nation’s third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence found ethically interesting about the Gospels and their depiction of Jesus.

“I have performed the operation for my own use,” he continued, “by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter, which is evidently his and which is as easily distinguished as diamonds in a dunghill.”

The little leather-bound tome, several facsimiles of which are kept at the Huntington Library in San Marino, continues to fascinate scholars exploring the powerful and varied relationships between the Founding Fathers and the most sacred book of the Western World.

The big question now, said Lori Anne Ferrell, a professor of early modern history and literature at Claremont Graduate University, is this:

“Can you imagine the reaction if word got out that a president of the United States cut out Bible passages with scissors, glued them onto paper and said, ‘I only believe these parts?’ “

“He was a product of his age,” said Ferrell, whose upcoming book, “The Bible and the People,” includes a chapter on the Jefferson Bible. “Yet, he is the least likely person I’d want to pray with. He was more skeptical about religion than the other Founding Fathers.”

In Jefferson’s version of the Gospels, for example, Jesus is still wrapped in swaddling clothes after his birth in Bethlehem. But there’s no angel telling shepherds watching their flocks by night that a savior has been born. Jefferson retains Jesus’ crucifixion but ends the text with his burial, not with the resurrection.

Stripping miracles from the story of Jesus was among the ambitious projects of a man with a famously restless mind. At 71, he read Plato’s “Republic” in the original Greek and found it lackluster.

Ever the scientist, he inoculated his wife, children and many of his slaves against smallpox with fresh pus drawn from infected domestic farm animals, according to Robert C. Ritchie, W.M. Keck Foundation director of research at the Huntington Library.

“For a lot of people, taking scissors to the Bible would be such an act of desecration they wouldn’t do it,” Ritchie said. “Yet, it gives a reading into Jefferson’s take on the Bible, which was not as divine word put into print, but as a book that can be cut up.”

Jefferson, a tall vigorous man who preferred Thucydides and Cicero to the newspapers of his day, was not the only 18th century leader who questioned traditional Christian teachings.

Like many other upper-class, educated citizens of the new republic, including George Washington, Jefferson was a deist.

Deists differed from traditional Christians by rejecting miraculous occurrences and prophecies and embracing the notion of a well-ordered universe created by a God who withdrew into detached transcendence.

Critics of the time regarded deism as an ill-conceived attempt to reconcile religion with scientific discoveries. For rationalists in the Age of Enlightenment, deism was one of many efforts to liberate humankind from what the deists viewed as superstitious beliefs.

Jefferson was a particular fan of Joseph Priestley, a scientist, ordained minister and one of Jefferson’s friends. Priestley — who discovered oxygen and invented carbonated water and the rubber eraser — published books that infamously cast a critical eye upon biblical miracles. Jefferson was particularly fond of Preistley’s comparison of the lives and teachings of Socrates and Jesus.

Discussions and letters between Jefferson and another friend, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush, led Jefferson to compile his “wee little book.” In a letter to Rush on April 21, 1803, Jefferson said his editing experiment aimed to see whether the ethical teachings of Jesus could be separated from elements he believed were attached to Christianity over the centuries.

“To the corruption of Christianity I am indeed opposed,” he wrote to Rush, “but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.”

Therefore, Ritchie said, “for Jefferson, the Bible was a book that could be made and unmade.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....0914.story

See?

Take that you people who revere the founding fathers and believe the Bible is the actual word of God.

Jesus was perhaps just a good teacher, and this shows how all logical, scientific people should approach the Bible.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Remember, this is news - unbiased reporting.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Obama raises profile of mixed-race Americans

By Tyche Hendricks

On blogs and around kitchen tables across the country, mixed-race Americans are celebrating the fact that, for the first time, a biracial person, Barack Obama, will be a major party’s nominee for president of the United States.

Obama identifies as African American, and much has been made of the historic nature of his candidacy, which could make him the country’s first black president. But he also frequently evokes his mixed heritage: his white mother from Kansas and his black father from Kenya. His presence on the national political stage is being embraced by multiracial Americans as an opportunity to focus attention on the growing population of multiracial people and deepen the debate about racial identity.

“There’s a huge level of excitement,” said Jilchristina Vest, co-director of iPride, a Berkeley nonprofit that runs a summer camp for multiracial kids and trains teachers on honoring ethnic diversity. “He really represents the multiplicity of mixed Americans.”

Vest and her colleague, Tarah Fleming, encourage children to create their own language to describe their identity, just as golf sensation Tiger Woods termed himself “Cablinasian” to capture his Caucasian, black, American Indian and Asian heritage.

When Fleming’s biracial son, Loyl, was 3, he came home from a day of blending paint colors at preschool and said, “Mommy, you’re white, Daddy’s black - and I’m silver,” she reported.

“Now we spend a lot of time pointing out people who are silver: Bob Marley is silver, Barack Obama is silver,” Fleming said. “What does that say to my son? I can be the president of the United States. For the first time, black children can say that but mixed children can also say that.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....11PND8.DTL

What is wrong with people that they think that only after a person who “looks like them” is successful can they be successful?

Is that one of the obvious dividing lines between liberals and conservatives?

Why would one need to see someone that “looks like me” succeed on television, in business, in elections, to be convinced that they could be successful?

Before anyone on the left wonders, I myself am of mixed heritage and have never felt “held back” by it for a minute.

Showing those who might in any way belittle your racial makeup is, I’ve always felt, the best revenge.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 5:50 am
California wildfires?

Yep, Global Warming. (You had to ask?)

From the San Francisco Chronicle’s environmental reporter:

Warming West is ground zero for wildfires

By Jane Kay

California has been hit by 2,000 fires this year, and climate scientists are predicting that the situation will worsen as temperatures rise.

The American West has been warming dramatically during the past 60 years at a rate surpassed only by Alaska. This year has been particularly dry for California, with less snowfall, earlier snowmelt and lower summer river flows.

Some of the state’s top scientists say the changing water picture is caused by humans producing greenhouse gases, and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts more intense and longer droughts with warmer spring and summer temperatures in the West.

That, scientists say, leads to increases in the length of the fire seasons, number of fires, time needed to put out the fire and size of the burned area.

“The snow melts sooner, the dry season gets longer and rivers crest earlier. That gives more of a chance for drying out and therefore a likelihood of more fires,” said Tim Barnett, a climatologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego who led research on the effects of greenhouse gases on the changing hydrology in the western United States.

“If you look at where we will be in 20 or 30 years, we’ll have serious problems,” he said.

Scientists are quick to caution against blaming one fire or heat wave on global warming. But, Barnett said, “At the minimum, you’re getting a glimpse of your future. Do you like it? I think not.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....11Q7RD.DTL

That’s why climate change is so great for the left; there’s not a single woe - from droughts to floods to dying penguins - that can’t be blamed on it, Man, and Americans and the West being too damn aflluent.

Why, if we all lived like subsistence tribes in Africa, think of how wonderful the world would be!

Now let’s all fly to a multi-day conference somewhere without natural resources like Hawaii to discuss it.

It would be funny if so many Americans weren’t so stupid as to buy it hook, line and sinker.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 7:00 am
Time to give Canada some credit.

From the AP:

Soldier who left unit sent back to U.S.

A Fort Carson soldier who left his unit after being ordered to duty in Iraq has been deported from Canada, where he sought refuge. Robin Long, 25, is being held in the El Paso County Jail.

Officials say Long fled in 2005 after he was told to report to his unit, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry, which had been deployed to Iraq.

Karen Linne, a spokeswoman for Fort Carson, said the soldier will be evaluated before the post decides on what action to take.

Actions could include rehabilitation, discharge, return to service or punishment.

http://www.rockymountainnews.c.....ack-to-us/

Of course it’s good to know the penalty for desertion these days is “rehabilitation.”
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 7:05 am
A sample of the groups intending to protest at the DNC, from the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News:

Protesters, police educate, gear up for convention

By Sara Burnett

Dozens of protest groups are planning a full schedule of classes, concerts, marches and other actions during the Democratic National Convention, hoping to capture the world’s attention and recruit new activists.

They are both energized and organized, and most insist they are not looking for trouble.

“We are completely peaceful,” said Rob Weiland, a 37-year-old courier from Denver and member of the group We Are Change Colorado. “We follow the ideals of Ghandi.”

The organization will be videotaping other groups and police during the DNC, scheduled for Aug. 25 to 28.

They’ll post the videos on YouTube.com or the group’s Web site so the public may see what’s happening without the filter of mainstream media, Weiland said.

If any protest groups are provoking police, he said, “our cameras will be on them.”

The Alliance for Real Democracy, a coalition of 18 groups, is planning a week of classes in City Park on topics such as non violence and how to organize a demonstration. A concert with Denver band the Flobots also is in the works.

The large-scale effort is being planned by six or seven different committees, focusing on areas such as fundraising, promotions and working with city officials, member Duke Austin said.

“This is on a much bigger scale than anything we’ve done so far, so it requires additional organizing,” said Austin, a 33-year-old Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado who leads the group Students for Peace and Justice.

“I think it will be an incredible learning experience for everybody there,” he said. …

http://www.rockymountainnews.c.....plans-dnc/

The funniest quote of them all:

If any protest groups are provoking police, he said, “our cameras will be on them.”

Of course there is absolutely nothing this group would likely consider a provocation of police, but that’s not important.

A side bar on the groups:

A sample of groups, some of their causes and what they’re planning:

* Students for Peace and Justice: Grass-roots movement against the war in Iraq. Supports immigrant rights, more diplomacy with Iran and end to death penalty. Part of Alliance for Real Democracy, which plans concerts and classes in City Park.

* Escuela Tlatelolco de Estudios: Denver private school for young Hispanics, also active in issues affecting immigrants and indigenous communities. Has permit for an immigrant-rights parade on Aug. 26.

* CODEPINK: Opposes the war in Iraq, wants resources put into health care and education. Name is a play on President Bush’s color-coded terror alert levels. Part of Alliance for Real Democracy events at City Park.

* Americans for Safe Access: Advocates for safe and legal access to marijuana for medical and other scientific use. Has permit for a parade on Aug. 28.

* Unconventional Denver: Uses direct action to hold Democrats accountable for policies such as environmental degradation, war and corporate funding of political campaigns and conventions.

Direct actions could include targeting delegate hotels and parties, trying to block delegate access to DNC.

What a joy Denver will be.

Do you suppose “Unconventional Denver” will protest the cash of George Soros and labor unions?
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 7:14 am
From the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News:

DPS pay plan loses its luster

Obama no longer mentions once-touted, now troubled merit system

By Nancy Mitchell

Denver’s pick as host of the Democratic National Convention was seen by city education leaders as a chance to show off an urban school district in the midst of groundbreaking reform.

Now it may bring more embarrassment than acclaim.

The unique collaboration between Denver Public Schools and its teachers union that produced the nation’s first wide-scale pay-for-performance plan is in tatters as the two sides squabble over how to spend the $25 million approved by voters to make the plan work.

ProComp, officially the Professional Compensation Plan for teachers, has been hailed from New York to Beijing for thoughtfully leading the nation’s foray into merit pay for teachers.

If it collapses, “People will say, we thought that was the one that was going to work,” said Paul Teske, dean of the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado in Denver. “If that didn’t work, is this really doable?”

Wednesday, DPS and union officials will meet with a mediator to set the agenda for negotiations scheduled Aug. 20-22. Three days later, on Aug. 25, the DNC kicks off with an estimated 30,000 guests and 15,000 members of the media.

“Prepare to Strike,” reads a headline in the latest issue of the teachers union newspaper The Slate, which also contains a notice for an Aug. 24 “all member meeting prior to the Democratic National Convention.”

But Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, denies the union is encouraging a strike during the DNC.

“We will be doing everything in our power to get to a fair and equitable settlement as quickly as possible,” she said.

Still, sentiment among some union members against DPS’ proposed changes to ProComp is strong. In May, union representatives from Denver schools voted “no confidence” in DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet. Some members circulated cartoons depicting Bennet beside a grave with a marker labeled ProComp.

One veteran teacher angry over the DPS proposal reported in an e-mail that she is “quietly, or not so quietly, making picket signs in my garage.” …

http://www.rockymountainnews.c.....ts-luster/

Wow, I’m really glad these are all professional educators whose primary concern is the kids’ education.

OK, no, I couldn’t say that with a straight face.
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
Perhaps one of the biggest “duh” headlines of all time, from the AP:

Is media playing fair in campaign coverage?

NEW YORK - Television news’ royalty will fly in to meet Barack Obama during this week’s overseas trip: CBS chief anchor Katie Couric in Jordan on Tuesday, ABC’s Charles Gibson in Israel on Wednesday and NBC’s Brian Williams in Germany on Thursday.

The anchor blessing defines the trip as a Major Event and — much like a “Saturday Night Live” skit in February that depicted a press corps fawning over Obama — raises anew the issue of fairness in campaign coverage.

The news media have devoted significantly more attention to the Democrat since Hillary Rodham Clinton suspended her campaign and left a two-person contest for the presidency between Obama and Republican John McCain, according to research conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

News executives say there are reasons for the disparity, such as the continuing story about whether Clinton’s and Obama’s supporters can reconcile. They even partly blame McCain. By criticizing Obama for a lack of foreign policy experience, McCain raised the stakes for Obama’s trip, “especially if he winds up going into two war zones,” said Paul Friedman, senior vice president of CBS News.

Obama has traveled to Afghanistan and is expected to go to Iraq. He is also scheduled to visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England. Network anchors stayed home during McCain’s recent foreign excursions.

“The question really needs to be posed: Is this type of coverage fair?” said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. “This is nothing but a political stunt.”

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh said none of this should be a surprise.

“My prediction is that the coverage of Obama on this trip will be oriented toward countering the notion he has no idea what he is talking about on foreign policy and defense issues and instead will prop him up as a qualified statesman,” Limbaugh told The Associated Press. “McCain, on the other hand, is a known quantity on these issues and his position does not excite nor fit the mainstream media’s narrative on Iraq and Afghanistan, so they simply ignore it and him.”

Along with newsworthiness, the question of fairness was discussed within ABC News before it was agreed Gibson would travel, said Jon Banner, executive producer of “World News.” Also, if one network anchor decides to hit the road for a big event, chances are the others will follow.

“We have already been in discussions with the McCain campaign to try to afford them the same or a similar opportunity,” Banner said. “We have gone to great lengths to be fair and provide equal time to both campaigns.” …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....dexXeuGL8C

So the answer according to the AP and networks is basically “Of course we’re being fair - Obama is just a bigger story because he’s going to be our next President! Whoops, did we say that out loud?”

I love this:

The Democrat has proven an attractive commodity; TV debates involving Democrats this campaign consistently drew more viewers than the Republicans. A Time magazine cover with Obama in 2006 was the second-best-selling of the year, and a Men’s Vogue cover outsold every issue but the debut, according to circulation figures reported by Portfolio.com. Newsweek has done six covers with Obama over the past year, two with McCain. A Rolling Stone cover with Obama stopped just short of adding a halo.

If the attention gap continues, the campaign will essentially become a referendum on Obama, Rosenstiel said. While that may serve McCain’s purpose — it beats a referendum on President Bush — it could leave the nation electing a president while the media are paying attention to someone else. Past press infatuations, like Howard Dean in 2004 and McCain in 2000, didn’t turn into long-term affairs.

However, the most telling quote in the piece is from Paul Friedman, once again, senior vice president of CBS News:

While fairness is the goal, “what are we supposed to do, go gin up some story about McCain to get some rough equality of airtime?” he said. “I don’t think so.”

Yep, McCain isn’t “newsworthy,” so don’t mind us if we run a 30 minute free infomercial for Obama each weekday.

They really have no clue, do they?

Meanwhile:

NBC News President Steve Capus said he finds it funny this is an issue, considering how much people have accused the press corps — and still do — of being too cozy with McCain. The Arizona senator had been a frequent guest of “Meet the Press.”

“We’re just trying to do our jobs,” Capus said. “There’s no question that there’s great news value in Sen. Obama’s trip overseas. That’s why we are doing this.“

Of course the complaints about the media being too cozy with McCain came from the left - the very ones your placating by doing your nightly “Obama: Countdown to Inauguration” piece disguised as a “news broadcast.”
BillK
July 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Expose a breast on national TV with children watching? No consequences.

From AP:

Court tosses FCC `wardrobe malfunction’ fine

PHILADELPHIA - A federal appeals court has thrown out a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction.”

The three-judge panel in Philadelphia ruled Monday that the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.

The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” as he reached for Jackson’s bustier.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....KJovas0NUE

Remember, it was just an “accident.” Riiiight.

Look for “inadvertently” exposed vaginas to be the hottest programming trend this fall.
Gila Monster
July 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am
“Look for “inadvertently” exposed vaginas to be the hottest programming trend this fall.”

We may get more than that BillK. CBS is giving us the ultimate narcissistic prime time series about returning to those “summers of free love” that libtards so crave.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/swingtown/about/

A sort of “Sex in the Suburbs” for the frustrated hippies that dominate TV and Hollywood.
I predict an abject ratings failure with the bible reading gun clinging demographic in those pesky fly-over states.
Reality Bytes
July 21st, 2008 at 10:42 am
“I’m too old to have other people see me naked” and I’m thankful for the wisdom it brings me too.
wardmama4
July 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
-’CODEPINK: Opposes the war in Iraq, wants resources put into health care and education’- Someone just might want to pull aside the pinko ladies and tell them that War (i.e. Defense of America) is in the Constitution - -’health care and education’- aren’t.
sheehanjihad
July 21st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politi.....tico/11935

Just read this blurb about obama’s campaign instructing everyone NOT to wear anything green on the trip. Something about right wing conservative sites saying that his wearing green shows he is a muslim sympathizer at least, muslim at best.

It shows you how sensitive obama and his campaign have become to the exposure of his muslim roots. No green, no problem right?

Wrong! Green is the colour of islam….and now a half billion muslims are foaming at the mouth because he wouldnt honor islam by wearing green…..

clueless in the land of the shoeless….
BillK
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 am
Yet another “the public is too stupid to select Supreme Court judges” editorial from the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

Restore public’s trust in court

This month the state Supreme Court decided a tax case that will result in refunds to Wisconsin businesses of up to nearly $300 million at the state ’s expense.

But the 4-3 ruling produced another result as well.

It further shook public trust in the court ’s ability to decide cases impartially.

The problem was not the decision itself, which considered vexing legal questions regarding which kinds of software are exempt from sales tax.

The problem was how Wisconsin selects the Supreme Court justices we rely on to judge such matters impartially.

Highly politicized elections and costly campaigns for Supreme Court seats have raised doubt about the justices ‘ ability to remain independent from partisan influence.

That doubt looms large following the court ’s high-stakes tax decision.

Common Cause, a bipartisan government watchdog group, is just one of many voices asking: Did Wisconsin get the best, impartial justice it could find, or did well-financed interest groups get the most partial justice their money could buy?

Wisconsin should respond by adopting a reform called merit selection to better protect the public ’s interest in an independent court. …

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/opinion/296976

Or, to reword the opinion - “We don’t like the latest decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court made, so we’ve got to make sure that the people no longer elect them. Instead, other judges and politicians - you know, the elite ruling class - should decide.”

Of course people will be so stupid as to agree.
BillK
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 am
From WorldNetDaily:

American flag disappears from Obama campaign jet

Candidate’s trademark ‘O’ replaces stars and stripes

By Aaron Klein

As part of a month-long aircraft makeover, a painted American flag was removed from the tail of Sen. Barack Obama’s official campaign airplane and was replaced with the presidential candidate’s trademark “O” symbol.

The refurbished 757 was unveiled to members of the news media today, 41 of whom boarded the craft and took off to meet Obama in Amman, Jordan, where the presidential candidate will stop as part of a Middle Eastern and European tour.

Obama traveled to the Mideast earlier this week on board a separate airplane.

Fox News blogger Bonny Kapp, traveling on Obama’s new airplane, reported:

“The North American jet that flew Obama and his traveling crew around for much of the primary season was refurbished with new seats and power for each passenger a must on the campaign trail. And the plane that once had an American flag on its tail now sports the Obama ‘O.’”

Obama’s ‘O’ symbol is red, white and blue.

Most official U.S. government aircraft, including Air Force One, have U.S. flags on their tails.

Both Fox News and the Chicago Sun-Times posted pictures of the Obama campaign’s redressed airplane, which does not have an American flag or any other U.S. national symbols on the section that sports the airplane door from which Obama and his team will enter and exit.

The airplane boasts Obama’s anthem, “Change We Can Believe In” and the candidate’s website address. …

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/i.....geId=70236

Oh yeah, that’s right - until American kids learn Spanish and other languages, he’s embarrassed by America.
BillK
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 am
The latest controversy surrounding the Treason Times, as reported by the Los Angeles Times:

N.Y. Times rejects McCain opinion piece

The essay, about Iraq, was supposed to counter one by Obama.

John McCain has felt the sting of rejection for what he no doubt considered a finely wrought piece of prose (we know the feeling). But it appears that for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee (and perhaps one of his ghost writers), all’s well that ends well.

As first reported on the Drudge Report, the New York Times rejected an opinion piece submitted by McCain that sought to counter an essay on Iraq by Barack Obama that appeared — prominently — on the paper’s Op-Ed page July 14.

“I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written,” a Times editor, David Shipley, informed the McCain campaign, according to Drudge.

Shipley, in requesting a rewrite from the McCain camp, elaborated that Obama’s offering “worked for me because it offered new information; . . . while Sen. Obama discussed Sen. McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans.” For a parallel piece to pass his muster, Shipley added, it “would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Sen. McCain defines victory in Iraq.”

In a written statement Monday, the New York Times also said that it “is standard procedure on our Op-Ed page, and that of other newspapers, to go back and forth with an author on his or her submission.”

“We look forward to publishing Sen. McCain’s views in our paper just as we have in the past,” the statement added, noting that the newspaper has published “at least seven Op-Ed pieces by Sen. McCain since 1996.”

Shipley may have been on slippery ground in touting the “new information” that Obama had provided; little leaps out in a rereading. Indeed, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee introduced several of his specifics with the phrases “As I’ve said many times” and “As I have often said.” …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....6820.story

Nope, no bias there.

Throw this one in with the reports regarding television coverage of Obama, above.
sheehanjihad
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 am
It is truly sad that our next president will attain office by selection, and not election. We are going to pay a heavy price for putting a political lap dog in the most powerful position in the world. I weep for America, because I am old enough to remember how it used to be.
Diane
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
From Reuters:

Senior Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan
A senior Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan surrendered to Pakistani authorities and British forces killed another leader, dealing a “shattering blow” to the militant group’s leadership, the British army said on Tuesday.

Mullah Rahim, the top commander for southern Helmand province, gave himself up after British forces had killed two other Taliban leaders in little over three weeks.

Hours after his surrender, another senior Taliban commander, Abdul Rasaq, also known as “Mullah Sheikh”, was killed in a British missile strike 15 km (9 miles) north of the town of Musa Qala in Helmand on Monday morning, the British army said in a statement. Three other insurgents also died.

Interestingly enough, Reuters couldn’t find any black lining in this particular silver cloud, although I’m sure their work continues on the story.

So, tell me again how we’re losing in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama?

Edit: Whoops! My bad: http://www.reuters.com/article.....7820080722
sheehanjihad
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
We’re not getting a real hot summer as some had forecast,” reducing the need for gas-fired electricity to power air conditioning, Ritterbusch said. “Natural gas had a much larger rally than crude this year. Now we’re seeing a much larger decline.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

seems global warming hasnt quite lived up to Al’s trumpeting.
BillK
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The lowdown on offshore oil reserves

By David R. Baker

U.S. offshore oil fields could hold enough crude to supply all of the country’s needs for more than 11 years.

Or they might not. No one knows for certain because, with new offshore oil drilling banned on the East and West coasts, no one has gone looking for oil there in years.

Now congressional Republicans are pushing hard to make offshore drilling a key issue in the presidential campaign, hoping to channel the anger Americans feel over historically high oil and gasoline prices. More oil, they argue, will bring lower prices.

The federal government estimates the nation’s outer continental shelf might hold 85.9 billion barrels of crude, including 10.13 billion barrels off California. For comparison, the United States consumes about 7.56 billion barrels of oil per year. The nation’s sea floor also could hold 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equal to U.S. consumption for 14 1/2 years. But the federal estimates are just that - estimates.

“You don’t really know what’s there until you go out and drill a well,” said Ken Medlock, an energy research fellow at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. “And even then, you’re not 100 percent sure of what you’re going to get.”

In addition, offshore oil exploration is slow and costly.

If the federal government opened California’s coast to drilling tomorrow, the first exploratory wells probably wouldn’t be drilled for at least six years, Medlock said. Bringing newly discovered oil fields into full production would take longer.

That means any new oil wouldn’t arrive on the market until midway through the next decade, at the earliest. The process is slow enough that the Energy Information Administration, the statistics branch of the U.S. Department of Energy, estimated last year that opening the coasts to offshore drilling would have no significant impact on oil prices before 2030.

“It’s a crock to say that’s any kind of near-term solution for the pain drivers are feeling at the pump,” said Bill Corcoran, senior regional representative for the Sierra Club.

Drilling supporters acknowledge the long time frame but say there’s no better moment to start than now. If the federal government hadn’t stopped most new coastal drilling 26 years ago, some of that oil would already be on the market, they argue.

“We’ve had a lot of years of federal policy that has resembled a ‘Just Say No’ approach,” said Joe Sparano, president of the Western States Petroleum Association.

He hopes changing public attitudes toward drilling will open the coasts. A Field Poll last week found that while a majority of Californians - 51 percent - still rejects offshore drilling, opposition within the state isn’t as strong as it once was. The last time the poll asked Californians about drilling, in 2005, 56 percent opposed it.

“If the number of Californians who support new drilling offshore continues to increase, maybe the politicians who represent them will respond,” Sparano said. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....11SN60.DTL

As always, the left is always willing to try any half-a**ed idea of how to solve social woes (particularly if it involves Government funding and taxing “the rich”), but drilling won’t lower prices tomorrow, so it’s not worth it.

But since the left is never held to their comments, it doesn’t matter.
sheehanjihad
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
“In addition, offshore oil exploration is slow and costly.”

Not exploring at all is a lot slower, and obviously a hell of a lot more costly.

““You don’t really know what’s there until you go out and drill a well,”

Cant drill a well until the eco activist purchased congress says you can

“the first exploratory wells probably wouldn’t be drilled for at least six years”

The first exploratory wells are sitting there idle….one year to activate and produce.

“It’s a crock to say that’s any kind of near-term solution”

It’s more of a crock to say there isnt. American industry can do anything, when allowed.

“drilling would have no significant impact on oil prices before 2030.”

Just the mere mention of the United States drilling and refining it’s own petroleum resources dropped the price of oil almost $20 in less than one week. Gas went down at the pump and average of 5 to 8 cents a gallon overnight.

The price of oil on the world market would plummet once they saw we were serious, and the real American people demanded congress stop the stupidity they are practicing. The price at the pump would erode to a level the public would accept, and the futures traders would bail out of the oil trading business in a heartbeat.

The reason the way things are the way they are is the world sees us as weak, our congress as bought and paid for, and we have a president who has been selected by the liberal left aka, the media. So they dont care!

The nanosecond they see American resolve rear it’s head…..they will bail. They are investing huge sums of money in our political system to keep us weak…..and only we, the real Americans can stop them. Demand it. DRILL HERE….DRILL NOW!!
BillK
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 am
Never mind - now the Treason Times says the lack of McCain coverage by the networks is just “good news decisions.”

Obama Overseas! In Presidential Mode! Back Home, It’s McCain in a Golf Cart.

By Alessandra Stanley

It wasn’t a television blackout of John McCain; it was worse: split-screen contrasts that at times made it seem as if Barack Obama was on a state visit while back home his opponent chafed at the perks and privileges of an incumbent commander in chief…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07.....watch.html

Seriously, I can’t quote any more without throwing up.

Once again, this is considered unbiased reporting at the Times:

But it’s not pro-Obama bias in the news media that’s driving the effusion of coverage, it’s the news: Mr. Obama’s weeklong tour of war zones and foreign capitals is noteworthy because it is so unusual to see a presidential candidate act so presidential overseas. Mr. Obama looks supremely confident and at home talking to generals and heads of state, so much so that some viewers may find the pose presumptuous — as if Mr. Obama believes that not only is his official nomination at the Democratic convention in August a mere formality, so is the November election.

Surely this should at the very least count as a donation of space by FEC rules… if there was anyone at the FEC who’d dare to investigate it.

[Posted on its own thread.]
JohnMG
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
BillK; …..”Surely this should at the very least count as a donation of space by FEC rules… if there was anyone at the FEC who’d dare to investigate it……”

This is nothing more than “playing house” at the tax-payers expense. Of course, the military has to be polite and non-political, and the media shills are playing this trip like a fine violin. The FEC has always been a toothless watch dog. Besides, “everybody” wants the messiah as our next POTUS, don’t they?
U NO HOO
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
“Jefferson Bible”

““the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.””

Kind of says it all, forget the “miracles,” if we follow just the last seven commandments “what a wonderful world this would be.”

Remember, it wasn’t the Jefferson Koran.
Rmy-mac-was-here
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
from the: Say Anything: North Dakota’s Most Popular Political Blog:

“Obama Releases Spanish-Language Campaign Ad
By Rob on July 23, 2008 at 10:27 am 2 Comments
Probably to target all those illegal immigrants his buddies at ACORN will be registering to vote (illegally) this fall.

(CNN) — Barack Obama’s campaign released a new Spanish-language radio ad Wednesday that will hit the air in battleground states with large Latino voting blocs, after mistakenly sending out an earlier script of the spot that included a reference to the Illinois senator’s immigrant father.

“Some people have power and connections. But most of us have to make our own way through life,” says the announcer in “Nuestro Propio Camino.”

That statement from the ad is an interesting one. Obama suggests that the most successful Americans only got that way because of nepotism and cronyism, where as average middle class Americans have to actually work for a living. But is that really true?

Seems to me that most rich people - though I’ll grant that not all - get rich because they’re smarter and work harder than the rest of us. And it also seems to me that politicians like Obama are trying to make it so that certain demographics in American society live at the expense of the most successful Americans.

Already our tax code amasses the vast majority of the tax burden on “the rich,” and the majority of spending our government does goes into entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security alone combine for a bigger slice of our federal budget than anything else) that are funded by those taxes.

Meaning that “the rich” pay a hell of a lot of taxes to pay for government programs that, for the most part, benefit everyone else.

So Obama can talk about people who have to make their own way in life, but in reality he wants to pander to Americans with higher taxes on “the rich” and more government programs so that they make their way in life at the expense of others.”

If the targeted community for the radio add needs to be in a different language, then wouldn’t you say that the targeted community is made up of people have NOT assimiliated into the whole society? Subsequently, how would they HAVE the right to vote, aren’t voter ballotts in English, don’t you have to take the citizenship oath of Allegience in English? Why is he pandering to what is presumably NON-VOTERS? I mean, if I was a hispanic, I would be wondering why he was taking the time to campaign in Spanish.
Yes, start the name calling.
BillK
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I bet you thought the Olympics were about being apolitical and celebrating our athletes!

Not so fast.

From Television Week:

Obama Buys Olympics Ad Time

By Ira Teinowitz

It’s official. Barack Obama’s campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC’s Olympics coverage.

In the first significant network TV buy by any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

The package is less than one $10 million package NBC had offered the campaign, according to NBC’s political file, but well above the $500,000, $2 million and $4 million package of Olympics spots the campaign initially requested information about.

NBC Universal is airing 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on its broadcast network and cable networks including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo.

While some of the Obama spots will air on network TV, the breakdown of how many or exactly when they will air was not immediately available, but it included most dayparts.

The Obama campaign did not return several calls seeking comment on the reasoning behind the buy.

The Obama campaign will join major advertisers including McDonald’s and Anheuser-Busch with a presence on the telecasts from Beijing that begin Aug. 8 with the Opening Ceremonies.

While Rudolph Giuliani’s campaign did a tiny buy to air political ads on “Fox News Sunday” in consecutive weeks, the Obama campaign’s spending on the high-rated and expensive Olympics tops anything that has been done on network TV by presidential candidates in years.

The last network TV spot apparently was a single multi-minute ad Republican Bob Dole ran in 1996.

Since then, presidential candidates have mostly used their advertising dollars to target battleground states, with some in recent campaigns also running national ads on cable television.

Obama campaign officials have said before they were looking at the possibility of doing national advertising and were looking at a variety of options including cable channels such as MTV and BET and potentially the Olympics.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/200.....d_time.php

I always have enjoyed watching the Olympics in the past; thanks NBC for saving me a whole lot of time in the coming weeks.

Instead of being proud of our athletes, Obama can make us all ashamed of our country instead and tell us why only his “Change” can fix that.

Great - maybe we can even get gold medal athletes to wrap themselves in Obama’s “O” flag instead.
Gil
July 25th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Israeli intelligence: Iran will wait for Bush exit
July 23, 2008

TEL AVIV — The Israeli intelligence community has reported its conclusion that Iran has decided to maintain restraint until the departure of U.S. President George Bush and that its allies hope for the election of Sen. Barack Obama.

The intelligence community has assessed that Iran and Syria would continue preparations for war with Israel and the United States but would seek to maintain regional calm until the new administration takes office in January 2009.

“They are unlikely to begin a war with Israel while President Bush is still in office,” Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said.

The Israeli intelligence assessment has determined that Damascus and Teheran believe that Bush’s successor would either reject or suspend any U.S. plan to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure. The assessment said Iran and its Middle East allies were rooting for the victory of Sen. Barack Obama.

http://www.worldtribune.com/wo....._07_23.asp
BillK
July 25th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Yes, our friends at the “A”CLU are back.

From the Los Angeles Times:

New torture memo from 2002 is disclosed

Interrogators would be on safe ground if they had an ‘honest belief’ that suspects would suffer no ‘prolonged mental harm,’ the Justice Department told the CIA.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed “in good faith” that harsh techniques used to break prisoners’ will would not cause “prolonged mental harm.”

That heavily censored memo — obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, which released it Thursday — approved the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques method by method, but warned that if the circumstances changed, interrogators could run afoul of anti-torture laws.

“Although an honest belief need not be reasonable, such a belief is easier to establish where there is a reasonable basis for it,” said the memo, dated Aug. 1, 2002, and signed by then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Jay Bybee, the Washington Post reported.

The memo was issued the same day he wrote a memo for then-White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales defining torture as “extreme acts” causing pain akin to death or organ failure. The legal opinion defining torture was withdrawn more than two years later.

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr told the Associated Press on Thursday that the interrogation techniques currently authorized by the Bush administration are legal. It’s unclear which of those outlined in the newly released memo are still used. Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey has refused to address whether waterboarding, for example, is legal since the CIA no longer uses it. …

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....3614.story

Of course the Times says the memo “OKs torture” where the memo does no such thing.

Instead, the memo states that certain censored interrogation techniques would be acceptable as long as they did not in fact meet the definition of torture, which the memo defines as the intent to inflict severe pain or suffering.

In fact, the memo specifically states:

Furthermore, no specific intent to cause severe mental pain or suffering appears to be present.

Bottom line, this means that certain interrogation techniques were asked about, and the Justice Department said they were not torture.

The only way this memo involves torture is that it stated what the United States was doing was not torture.

But that doesn’t make for quite as flashy a headline, does it?
BillK
July 25th, 2008 at 5:06 am
How could this be? Obviously this study must be deeply flawed.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Math scores for girls and boys no different, study finds

The analysis of standardized test results for more than 7.2 million students in grades 2 through 11 contradicts a pervasive gender stereotype.

By Wendy Hansen

The notion that boys are better than girls at math simply doesn’t add up, according to a study published today in the journal Science.

An analysis of standardized test scores from more than 7.2 million students in grades 2 through 11 found no difference in math scores for girls and boys, contradicting the pervasive belief that most women aren’t hard-wired for careers in science and technology

The study also undermined the assumption — infamously espoused by former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers in 2005 — that boys are more likely than girls to be math geniuses. Girls scored in the top 5% almost as often as boys, the data showed.

“Both parents and teachers continue to hold the stereotype that boys are better than girls” at math, said psychologist Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who led the study. “That’s just not accurate.”

Hyde and her colleagues examined detailed data from math tests administered between 2005 and 2007 as part of the No Child Left Behind initiative.

Comparing the average scores of girls and boys in California and nine other states, the researchers found that neither gender consistently outpaced the other in any state or at any grade level. …

.http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-math25-2008jul25,0,7509008.story

So it destroys the stereotype - but what of the long-standing liberal screed that we’re shortchanging girls’ education in math and somehow gender roles are to blame for girls’ lower math scores?

Of course the propaganda continues:

Hyde said that pressure to get into selective colleges has prompted girls to take more advanced math classes, including calculus, and she said that may explain the improvement in test scores.

Hyde said it might take time for the new data to dispel lingering stereotypes, and she remained worried that girls would continue to be steered “away from careers that require a lot of math, like engineering.”

Or perhaps many women have more sense than many men, preferring a balanced life to one that involves staring at a monitor 21 hours a day. It doesn’t mean they can’t, they may just want a life.

But no, the lack of women in many engineering careers couldn’t be personal choice, it must be something the educational system is doing wrong…
BillK
July 25th, 2008 at 5:12 am
From the Los Angeles Times:

No love from state workers in L.A. for Schwarzenegger’s wage-cut plan

At the Ronald Reagan State Office Building, anger and dismay greet the governor’s plan to impose the federal minimum wage until a budget is signed. ‘There’s just no way,’ a legal secretary says.

By Carla Hall and Joanna Lin

No one likes to wake up to the news that the boss may slash salaries to the minimum wage.

California’s state workers on Thursday were digesting the news that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may cut their pay to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until legislators send him a budget he can sign.

For some, that went down about as well as a meal that could be afforded on minimum wage.

“I’d probably be out on the streets . . . learning how to eat out of garbage cans,” said Zola Salena-Hawkins, a legal secretary at the attorney general’s office at the Ronald Reagan State Office Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Salena-Hawkins said she left the private sector nine years ago for job security and benefits, but with the way things are going, she’s “thoroughly disappointed.”

“I’m a Republican. Ouch!” she said. “It really hurts to see the way everything is falling apart, especially during a Republican watch.”

Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the order early next week, affecting 200,000 state workers. The deadline for passing a 2008-09 budget was July 1, and without one soon, California may be unable to borrow billions of dollars needed to keep the state solvent, officials have warned.

The plan would allow the state to defer paying about $1 billion a month, administration officials said. Workers would be repaid their lost earnings once a budget was in place. But many workers questioned how they would pay their immediate costs: mortgages, food, gas, child support.

“I won’t be able to survive,” said Carolina Castillo, a legal secretary. “I have three kids, I’m a single mom. . . . There’s just no way.”

Castillo, 34, said that if her wages were cut, she might need welfare and would have no choice but to return to the private sector, which she left a year and a half ago for a steadier schedule and more time with her family.

However, some state workers with a knowledge of political history considered the prospect of Schwarzenegger’s plan with a Zen calm. Many a July has come and gone without a budget in place but with dramatic predictions of layoffs and pay cuts that never came to pass, they noted.

“It’s possible but improbable,” said Don Williams, a staffer in the Department of Social Services who ruefully called himself “a veteran of many wars” during his state service. …

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....8092.story

Yep, blame the Governor, not your idiot legislators.

Yet one person clearly doesn’t get it:

“I’m a Republican. Ouch!” she said. “It really hurts to see the way everything is falling apart, especially during a Republican watch.”

If you’re a Republican and think Schwarzenegger’s one, you obviously lost touch with reality a long time ago so your comments really don’t have much import - except it looks good in a left-wing press piece.

Meanwhile, state employees leaving and getting a job in the private sector.

Why is this painted as a bad thing?

As far as “eating out of garbage cans,” somehow, I don’t think so. Not with all the social programs the California state government dare not stop wildly increasing year after year.
Gila Monster
July 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am
From BillK’s 0506 EDT linked LA Slimes article;

“Girls scored in the top 5% almost as often as boys, the data showed.”

Almost as often? That’s an interesting qualifier. In statistical analysis, I was always taught that 55 out of 100 is 55% and 52 out of 100 is 52%. It appears the new liberal math is quite different from what I was taught.

Girls either scored the same as boys or they didn’t, and if they didn’t, then there is a statistical difference between the two regardless of the agenda pushed by this “reporter”.

Summers’ assertions about inherent differences between the sexes just doesn’t fit the progressive liberal / feminist narrative. In their minds, it must be proven wrong regardless of what the facts state.
Arctain
July 25th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
From Reuters (who almost NEVER get it right…)

Obama drops visit to wounded U.S. troops in Germany

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama dropped a plan to visit wounded U.S. troops in Germany on Friday after the Pentagon said such venues should not be used for political campaigns.

The Pentagon in a statement cited longstanding Defense Department policy that prohibits military personnel or facilities from association with partisan political campaigns and elections.

“We told him he could visit Landstuhl (Regional Medical Center in western Germany) with his Senate staff, but not with his campaign staff,” said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, an adviser to Obama, said Obama had opted against the visit.

“Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country,” Gration said, but added: “Sen. Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event.”

The visit to Landstuhl had not been officially announced but Obama’s campaign acknowledged it had been planned after Republicans criticized Obama for cancelling the visit.

The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near the city of Kaiserslautern is the largest American hospital outside the United States. It provides treatments to casualties injured during operations in Afghanistan.

Senior Obama aide Robert Gibbs said the Illinois senator had visited troops during the earlier part of his foreign tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a stop at a combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

“The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign,” Gibbs said.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the campaign of Republican John McCain, Obama’s rival in the November election, said: “It is never inappropriate to visit and comfort our brave men and women who have served in combat.”

So - even though it’s buried within the story, and minimized - even Reuters couldn’t bring itself to overlook the obvious: that the U.S. military told Obama not to turn wounded warriors into campaign fodder - that he could visit them with his Senatorial staff (and without reporters and campaign staff), but that he was, under no circumstances, to attempt to use a wounded soilder as a political prop. Of course, once Obama found that he couldn’t use the troops for his own political purpose, he ignored them. Typical Liberal - the troops are only useful if they provide a good photo-op.

While not a great fan of Tucker Bounds effort on McCain’s campaign to date, he’s getting better on the job.
JohnMG
July 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Arctain; ….“We told him he could visit Landstuhl (Regional Medical Center in western Germany) with his Senate staff, but not with his campaign staff,” said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner…..

In the event the Obomanation becomes president, it is likely Lt. Col. Hibner has effectively precipitated the end of her career.

You must be registered and logged in to post a comment.

« Front Page | To Top
« US, Iraq Seek Timeframe For Troop Cuts | NPR Sobs: For Some, Meat Is Out Of Reach »

Buzz

Articles

Links

S & L

Selected News For Week Jul 19 - Jul 25

44 Responses to “Selected News For Week Jul 19 - Jul 25”

Leave a Reply