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The torture of disabled children in American schools
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
After reading this article, New Law Targets Padded Rooms for Autistic Kids, I’m re-posting the item below: If this isn’t torture, I’m not sure what is: Rose had speech and language delays. At school, her mother and I found Rose standing alone on the cement floor of a basement mop closet, illuminated by a single [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Patton Oswalt, I’m sorry you’re so wrong about Boston
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
Patton Oswalt’s beautiful and heartfelt Facebook post understandably struck a chord with a nation stunned by the carnage in Boston: This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring [...]
Categories: Our Friends
“No more hurting people”
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
“No more hurting people” – Martin Richard, 8, killed in Boston Marathon attack. Violence: “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.” The [...]
Categories: Our Friends
A Reader’s Guide to Anti-Hillary Themes
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
Over the years, the chasm between the real Hillary Clinton and the unseemly caricature portrayed during two decades of personal attacks has been all too familiar to those who know her. Distinct from legitimate policy criticisms, these attacks have served as lazy shortcuts to undermine one of the most accomplished women of our lifetime. Now, [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Tobacco kills: grim stats on smoking
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
“If current trends continue, tobacco will cause up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.” – CNN Tobacco companies sell deadly, addictive poison to the public. Consider these grim stats: Smoking remains America’s leading cause of disease and preventable death, resulting in more than 443,000 fatalities annually. More than 8 million Americans live with [...]
Categories: Our Friends
The top ten list you shouldn’t be reading
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
A new year’s list of travesties: It costs just 25 cents a day to provide a child with the vitamins and nutrients to grow up healthy, but every hour of every day, 300 children die from malnutrition. One in seven people on earth goes to bed hungry each night while the top 40 highest-earning hedge [...]
Categories: Our Friends
The truth no one will tell about the Sandy Hook slaughter
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
As the father of a 4-year-old girl, I am heartsick and shattered over the Newtown carnage, as I know all Americans are. These unfathomable mass tragedies shake us out of ordinary reality and seem far more disturbing than the daily dose of suffering and injustice that takes place around the globe, suffering and injustice that [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Climate change compendium: tracking our planetary calamity
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
This post is a continuously updated compilation of news and opinion on our ever-worsening climate calamity. Items are posted chronologically: AP (5/12/13) “The 400 is a reminder that our emissions are not only continuing, but they’re accelerating; that’s a scary thing … we’re stuck. We’re going to keep going up.” New York Times (5/10/13) The [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Is the progressive blogosphere dead?
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
In 2005, I wrote “THE TRIANGLE: Limits of Blog Power,” about the power (and occasional powerlessness) of progressive blogs. Seven years later, the questions remain the same and the Daily Beast’s David Freedlander writes about the perceived decline of the liberal blogosphere, igniting a spirited debate among bloggers. Jane Hamsher: “Pam has already touched on [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Fearing death and facing death
Peter Daou - 58 min 9 sec ago
On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, tributes and remembrances abound, as they should. We learn by remembering. Living in lower Manhattan, I feel surrounded by the spirit of those who gave their lives on that defining day. And I’m reminded of my own experience. I flew back to New York from London on September [...]
Categories: Our Friends
Poll: 39% Of People Who Think Benghazi Is Biggest Scandal Ever Don’t Know Where It Is
Mediaite - 1 hour 37 min ago
Earlier today, President Obama told reporters that the brouhaha over the formulation of talking points on the attacks in Benghazi was “a sideshow,” but as it turns out, the entire issue of Benghazi is nothing but a sideshow to those making the most noise about it.
A new survey from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling shows that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is weathering the scrutiny of the recent Benghazi hearings well, with 49% of voters saying they trust Hillary more on the Benghazi issue, versus 39% who trust congressional Republicans more. The poll also found that 23% of Americans think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history, but of those Americans who think that Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history, 39% don’t even know where Benghazi is:
One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history is that 39% of them don’t actually know where it is. 10% think it’s in
Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia, with 4% not willing to venture a guess.
That’s not to mention the ones who said “Wasn’t he the bad guy in Road House?”
I’m actually impressed that 58% of Americans were correctly able to identify where Benghazi is, because I’m sure there are a significant number of people who think that Watergate took place in Atlantis. One thing you learn from reading polls is that Americans aren’t all that great at knowing stuff. The people who think Benghazi is the biggest scandal in history were actually slightly more able to identify where the city is, but only by 3%. You would think that those people would be much more likely to know where it is, and least likely to think it’s in Cuba, their third most popular wrong answer.
PPP’s poll also showed that Hillary Clinton’s approval rating has remained steady since their last poll, in March, an indication that despite efforts to target her over the Benghazi issue, it might not hurt her politically. Some of that will depend on whether conservatives continue to come to her defense, but also on how much media attention this issue, Benghazi as scandal, continues to get. At a certain point, the noise reaches a volume that penetrates low-information voters, and the details matter less.
Categories: The Media
S.E. Cupp: Obama ‘Might Just Think The Press Is Really Stupid,’ Because Benghazi Makes Them ‘Look A Fool’
Mediaite - 1 hour 41 min ago
During Monday’s The Cycle, MSNBC host S.E. Cupp pushed back against her fellow co-hosts who universally said that conservatives were pursuing a political witch-hunt by investigating President Barack Obama’s administration’s response to the 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi. Cupp said that the political media was unlikely to back off because they do “not want to be made to look a fool.” She added that the White House projects the impression that they “think that the press is really stupid” and the media is prepared to push back against that notion.
“I think we’ve reached a really sad stage with regard to Benghazi,” declared co-host Ari Melber. “There is an abuse of power in connection to Benghazi. The abuse of power is the complete exploitation and politicization of this strategy by some members of the Republican party in the House.”
Melber said that this fact is clear because, as Obama said today, the White House was supposedly covering up that the Benghazi attack was a terrorist act even though they acknowledged that fact three days after the attack.
“It is disgusting,” Melber added. “It has gone totally out of control, and it’s also sad.”
“Obviously, I disagree with all of you on the implications of Benghazi and scrubbing those talking points,” Cupp interjected. She said that, with a wrongly implicated filmmaker still in prison after being accused of putting an inflammatory video on YouTube that resulted in the death of four Americans, “I think those implications are pretty serious.”
She added that it is not surprising that Obama, heading into his second term, is getting push back form Congressional Republicans. What is interesting, she said, is how the press has reacted to the scandal.
“On Friday, with that presser with Jay Carney, I saw them united in their contempt for Jay Carney’s talking points in a way I have not seen this press pool be before,” Cupp declared. “The press does not want to be made to look a fool.”
She said that the political media extended Obama a lot of good will. “And now it feels like they might just think that the press is really stupid and that they can get away with a lot,” Cupp noted.
She said that the result will be a much more thorough and scrutinizing press corps with regards the White House’s talking points in the future “because their credibility is at stake now, and they don’t want to be continued to look like fools just sitting back and eating up this stuff without asking the right questions.”
Watch the clip below via MSNBC:
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter
Categories: The Media
FLASHBACK: Former IRS Chief Told Congress His Agency Does Not Target Tea Party Groups
Mediaite - 2 hours 8 min ago
As we learned last week, the Internal Revenue Service reportedly targeted conservative “tea party” organizations during the 2012 election cycle by applying increased scrutiny to them when applying for tax-exempt status. BuzzFeed has unearthed a clip showing the IRS’ own former head asserting that his agency absolutely does not target any groups for increased scrutiny based on political beliefs.
Appearing before the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight in March 2012, then-commissioner of the IRS Douglas Shulman told Congress that his agency was not engaged in the targeting of tea party organizations, despite complaints lawmakers had received from various groups over their treatment from the bureau.
“Yes, I can give you assurances,” Shulman said when asked to reassure the panel that the IRS does not engage in political targeting. “As you know, we pride ourselves on being a non-political, non-partisan organization,” he added.
Shulman, who was a Republican appointee under President George W. Bush, told the panel: “Me and our chief counsel are the only presidential appointees and I have a five-year term that runs through presidential elections just so we will have none of that kind of political intervention into things that we do.”
Shulman’s term with the IRS ended in November 2012, after the reported targeting took place.
Watch below, via C-SPAN:
[h/t Andrew Kaczynski, BuzzFeed]
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Categories: The Media
Ron Paul Agrees With Obama: The Debate Over Benghazi Is A ‘Sideshow’
Mediaite - 2 hours 27 min ago
Could President Obama have read this op-ed by Ron Paul before his joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron this morning? The president’s assessment of the Benghazi scandal was remarkably similar to that of the former congressman. Both men called the controversy a “sideshow.”
While Obama primarily went after Republicans for trying to politicize his administration’s response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya last September, Paul chose a more equal opportunity approach in his article, published this morning on the website of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
“Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere last week. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the real questions about the attack on the US facility, which resulted in the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.”
Paul accused Republicans of smelling “political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.” But he also went after Democrats for offering “the even less convincing explanation for Benghazi, that somehow the attack occurred due to Republican sponsored cuts in the security budget at facilities overseas. With a one trillion dollar military budget, it is hard to take this seriously.”
“Neither side wants to talk about the real lesson of Benghazi,” Paul wrote. “Interventionism always carries with it unintended consequences.” He repeated his disdain with both sides of the argument in his conclusion:
“The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it. But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.”
Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), has been far less even-handed in his public remarks on the Benghazi controversy, recently saying the events should “preclude” Hillary Clinton from holding political office.
Read Ron Paul’s full article here.
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Categories: The Media
Rep. Issa To Megyn Kelly On Obama’s Benghazi Response: ‘An Act Of Terror Is Different Than A Terrorist Attack’
Mediaite - 2 hours 56 min ago
Shortly after President Obama responded to the Benghazi “sideshow” during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron this morning, the man leading the investigation gave his reaction to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) began by saying, “only the president could tell us with a straight face there’s never been any confusion.”
“As you go through the facts as they were,” Issa continued, “yes, in real time we knew this was an Al Qaeda-backed terrorist attack and everything else in between is simply revisionist history.” Following the testimony of Gregory Hicks and the other Benghazi “whistleblowers,” Issa challenged President Obama’s assertion that no one in the initial days after the attack knew exactly what had happened. Now that he has more information, Issa called the administration’s response, “just, plain, a cover-up.”
Last week, Rep. Issa suggested that the major takeaway of the congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack is that we now know it was a “terrorist attack.” Pressed by Kelly today to elaborate on why the administration’s response constitutes a “cover-up,” Issa focused on the difference between a “terrorist attack” and an “act of terror.” While he admits that Obama called the incident an “act of terror” he sees a sharp distinction between that phrase and the words “terrorist attack.”
“The president sent a letter to the President of Libya where he didn’t call it a terrorist attack even when at the time the President of Libya was calling that a pre-planned Sept. 11 terrorist attack. So, when you look at official correspondence from the president through the acting ambassador to the president of Libya, which came out in our hearing and was testified to under oath, the words that are being used carefully — like you just said, ‘act of terror’ — an ‘act of terror’ is different than a ‘terrorist attack.’ The truth is, this was a terrorist attack, this had Al Qaeda at it.”
Issa appears to be implying that the words “terrorist attack” connote pre-meditation and advance planning, whereas an “act of terror” could be spontaneous. Was President Obama really trying to make that distinction when he spoke about the Benghazi attack the day after it occurred?
Watch video below, via Fox News:
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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
Categories: The Media
Lou Dobbs Rips ‘Nixonian’ Obama For Lying ‘Through His Teeth’ About IRS: ‘President Who Has Lost His Way’
Mediaite - 3 hours 21 min ago
Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs stopped by Megyn Kelly‘s show on Monday afternoon to offer his reaction to President Obama‘s press conference — during which he responded to the IRS scandal involving the agency’s targeting politically conservative groups. Dobbs didn’t take well to Obama’s reaction and went after him for flat-out lying.
“What is outrageous is that the president of the United States this morning stands before the American people and lies through his teeth,” Dobbs charged. “That is what is outrageous.”
Kelly followed up, asking how exactly Obama was lying. Dobbs took issue with Obama’s conditional statement — that the IRS’ actions are outrageous if they’re true.
“The president must have forgotten that the Internal Revenue Service took the extraordinary step last week and admitted doing these things and apologized for doing these things — and then this president…says that if they are found to have done these things, we will have to hold them accountable, as if that would not be his first and immediate and urgent action to take,” Dobbs explained. “This is a president who has lost his way.”
Kelly delved further into the IRS issue by also bringing up Benghazi and the general response we’ve gotten to many questions, which has been, “Well, we didn’t know anything about this.”
“Is anybody minding the shop?” she asked. “Somebody has got be paying attention.”
The IRS scandal is much more serious that it appeared last week, Dobbs contended: “This is an agency with an enemies list. This is Nixonian. This is a president whose inner Nixon is being revealed. This is a government that is out of control.”
To that point, Kelly reminded Dobbs that it’s as yet unclear whether the issue is linked to Obama, but Dobbs argued that it is — because he’s “responsible for the nomination and the actions of the” IRS. The agency doesn’t exist independently.
Take a look, via Fox News:
Categories: The Media
Verdict Reached In Kermit Gosnell ‘House Of Horrors’ Abortion Murder Trial
Mediaite - 3 hours 24 min ago
Hours after the Philadelphia jury announced a deadlock on two of the charges against former abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, the court has announced that the jury has reached a verdict on all 263 counts against him, including murder.
In a multiple-murder case that the prosecution has described as a “House of Horrors,” Gosnell’s rap sheet is lengthy, including four charges of first-degree murder.
We will update when the verdict information comes in…
UPDATE: The most important verdicts, according to Fox News:
First-degree murder of “Baby A” – GUILTY
First-degree murder of “Baby B” – GUILTY
First-degree murder of “Baby C” – GUILTY
First-degree murder of “Baby E” – NOT GUILTY
Third-degree murder of Karnamaya Mongar, 41 — NOT GUILTY
Involuntary manslaughter of Mongar – GUILTY
Categories: The Media
Fighting Criminal Networks Through Law Enforcement Networks
State Department Dipnote - 3 hours 33 min ago
Each year, tens of thousands of law enforcement officials from across the country descend on Washington, D.C. to participate in… more
Categories: Our Government
Let’s Honor Barbara Walters With This 1986 Interview Of A ‘Sexually Alive’ Golden Girl
Mediaite - 3 hours 50 min ago
Categories: The Media