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Happy Birthday, Khloe Kardashian!

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

What do you get the woman that has already received the greatest gift she could ever ask for, endless media attention from a contrived marriage? Such is the dilemma the THG staff faces today, as Khloe Kardashian turns 26 years old and the only present we can think of for her is a bikini wax appointment with an actual professional. Perhaps we could also order a hit on Vanessa Bryant . As we continue to rack our brains, we’ll post a photo montage in honor of this talentless reality star and leave the floor open to readers: send in your birthday wishes to Khloe now!

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Happy Birthday, Khloe Kardashian!

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Bird in the Bath

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Just a little bird sitting in my bird bath today that made me want to capture the moment…which proved difficult…but anyhow, here it is! added by: HildeNichols

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(VIDEO) Cubs’ Pitcher Carlos Zambrano, Derek Lee Separated in Dugout…Zambrano Suspended…

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Cubs’ Zambrano, Lee separated in dugout The Associated Press June 25, 2010 CHICAGO — Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano Had to be separated from teammate Derrek Lee in the dugout after the first inning of a game against the crosstown Chicago White Sox on Friday. Cubs White Sox Baseball Full Story And …(VIDEO) Cubs’ Pitcher Carlos Zambrano, Derek Lee Separated in Dugout…Zambrano Suspended… http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/video-cubs-pitcher-carlos-zambrano… Zambrano was seen screaming as he walked down the steps past Lee after allowing four runs and stormed toward the other end. Lee appeared to yell something, and as Zambrano headed back toward him, manager Lou Piniella, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and bench coach Alan Trammell stepped between them. added by: ctpatriot1970

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Geraldo Rivera Compare’s Rolling Stone Writer To Al Qaeda Terrorists

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Geraldo Rivera on Friday excoriated Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings actually comparing him to al Qaeda terrorists. Discussing the article that effectively destroyed General Stanley McChrystal’s career, Rivera told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, “These guys, particularly the staffers who gave the most damning statements about the civilians in office, including the vice president of the United States, these guys had no idea that they were being interviewed by this guy.”  Rivera then made a staggering analogy (video after the break with full transcript and commentary):   Two days before 9/11, two al Qaeda terrorists posing as journalists got up to Sheik Massoud, our most valuable ally in Afghanistan. They blew themselves and Sheik Massoud up, a tremendous setback. I maintain historically that the removal of General McCrystal at the hands of this freelance reporter for “Rolling Stone” has almost comparable strategic significance.    BILL O’REILLY, HOST: “Friday’s with Geraldo” segment tonight, more journalists agree that the “Rolling Stone” writer who did in General McCrystal did not do anything wrong journalistically. The man Michael Hastings, a far left guy, we said. And the general was very foolish to let him into his inner circle. But FOX News anchor Geraldo Rivera dissents on the journalism front, saying Hastings was wrong for printing provocative quotes from McCrystal and his staff. Geraldo joins us now from upstate New York. Let’s get to the war of journalism here. You know, I’m trying to put myself in Hastings position, if I’m there, and I’m in a bar and McCrystal and his guys are spouting off about Biden and being a moron and all these other things, and it’s not off the record, Geraldo, you know that when you allow a journalist in, you say, look, this is on the record, this is off the record. But if it’s not off the record, I mean, you know, I’m writing it down. You’re not? GERALDO RIVERA, HOST, “GERALDO AT LARGE”: You know, Bill, this is a situation where you have to put it into the context of war and warriors and honor and the number of privacy that is presumed when it’s not on the record specifically. When you are hanging out at a bar waiting for a plane or a train or an automobile, and you’re stuck together hours and hours, and you’re drinking in a bar, or you’re at an airport lounge, this is not an interview context. These guys, particularly the staffers who gave the most damning statements about the civilians in office, including the vice president of the United States, these guys had no idea that they were being interviewed by this guy. O’REILLY: I’m not sure about that, Geraldo. RIVERA: Wait hold on, Bill. O’REILLY: I’m not sure about that. RIVERA: This reporter from “Rolling Stone”, he was a rat in an eagle’s nest. What he did was to become part of the background, part of the scenery, knowing full well, given his political ideology– O’REILLY: All right, let’s walk through. RIVERA: –and everything else, his altitude, he knew what he wanted to do. O’REILLY: Okay, I’m not disputing, look– RIVERA: And I disagree with Chris Wallace. This was not a 280- hitter. General Stanley McCrystal is no 280-hitter. If General Petraeus is Babe Ruth, and I agree with that analogy, Stanley McCrystal is Lou Gehrig. O’REILLY: All right, Lou Gehrig. RIVERA: He led our special operator. O’REILLY: He’s been deployed more than any fighting general. RIVERA: All right, good. O’REILLY: And I really am so sick over this. O’REILLY: Geraldo, all right, take a deep breath. All right, you got to walk with me through this interview, okay? Calm down. Number one, I agree with you that Hastings is a hatchet man. All right? All you got to do is look at what he’s done in the past. “Rolling Stone” is a hatchet operation. They hatcheted me. I was stupid enough to let a reporter named Cola Pinto (ph) follow me around. And he gave me a line of B.S. And he hatcheted me. But, I also told the Cola Pinto what was on and off the record, what he could and could not do. Now, I’m in the business, so I know. So I’m not saying that Hastings did anything wrong. I’m not going to — is he a rat? Yes, he’s a rat. But did he do anything wrong? I don’t know. But you can’t explain to me, I don’t think you can, why a guy as smart as McCrystal, been around a long time, position of power, knows what the press is. They even say that he turned FOX News off in his offices because he’s a liberal guy, McCrystal. So he knows what the press is, why he would even allow this guy to be around, Geraldo. Why we even allow him to be around? RIVERA: I want to be have clear about this, Bill. The president of the United States was totally within his constitutional right and power to dismiss or accept the resignation of General Stanley McCrystal because it was a lapse in judgment for General McCrystal to let this person that close to him. But I have to go back to my principle point. When someone, who works for the general commanding the war front in Afghanistan, mocks the vice president of the United States, calling Joe Biden bite me, that reporter knows that that statement, if it becomes public, has strategic significance. That the president would be forced to do what he did unless he was magnanimous beyond belief. O’REILLY: But that’s what Hastings wanted. That’s what “Rolling Stone” wanted. RIVERA: But when it is a — my point though, Bill, is when it is a strategic issue like that, something of that import, to your country, damn it, then you have an obligation to say was that on the record? Do you really want to say that? O’REILLY: All right. RIVERA: You have to put it in context. Let me give you analogy far beyond– O’REILLY: You’re coming from it an ethical point of view. RIVERA: You got to go beyond the rat in the eagle’s nest. Two days before 9/11, two al Qaeda terrorists posing as journalists got up to Sheik Massoud, our most valuable ally in Afghanistan. They blew themselves and Sheik Massoud up, a tremendous setback. I maintain historically that the removal of General McCrystal at the hands of this freelance reporter for “Rolling Stone” has almost comparable strategic significance. This was a major deal. And to do it under those rules, where you have to admit your third gin and tonic. You’re frustrated. You’re waiting for the volcanic ash to clear. Everybody is on their most relaxed behavior to get a statement, an utterance like that. An utterance from a — but not the general himself, but by one of his over eager macho staffers is something that you have an obligation, an honorable obligation to check out before you rush to the press, knowing that you have done is removing a fine soldier– O’REILLY: All right, one more question– RIVERA: –who has risked his life for his country time and time again. O’REILLY: OK, I got it, Geraldo. We got it. And I only have 30 seconds here. “Rolling Stone” says it ran the quotes by McCrystal. Do you believe that? RIVERA: If they say they did, I know Jann Wenner. I assume that it is true. I take him at his word. O’REILLY: They didn’t run them by me. RIVERA: And I have to honor General McCrystal for not trying to sleaze away. O’REILLY: All right, Geraldo, look, I appreciate your passion on the issue. And you’ve given everybody something to think about. Despite the seemingly over the top analogy, Rivera made what seems to be an important point. A journalist is with a group of military officials hanging out in a bar. If any of them says anything truly controversial, especially something that could impact careers and/or negatively impact the mission in Afghanistan, should a good reporter confirm that what was said was on the record or just a bit of drunk talk? Despite my frequent differences of opinion with Rivera, he has been one of America’s leading investigative reporters for decades. With this in mind, does he have a point, or is he just defending someone he appears to have great admiration for? 

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Were McChrystal and Staff Talking Off The Record to Rolling Stone?

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In the midst of this week’s Gen. Stanley McChrystal controversy, a possibility concerning statements allegedly made by him and his staff has largely gone overlooked: might they have been speaking off the record when they were around Rolling Stone’s Michael Hastings? This certainly would explain some of the bizarre comments allegedly made by military members knowing full well how the chain of command works and that the President is clearly at the top. With this in mind, the Washington Post explored this possibility in a front page piece  Saturday entitled, “Gen. McChrystal Allies, Rolling Stone Disagree Over Article’s Ground Rules”: On Friday, however, officials close to McChrystal began trying to salvage his reputation by asserting that the author, Michael Hastings, quoted the general and his staff in conversations that he was allowed to witness but not report. The officials also challenged a statement by Rolling Stone’s executive editor that the magazine had thoroughly reviewed the story with McChrystal’s staff ahead of publication. A senior military official insisted that “many of the sessions were off-the-record and intended to give [Hastings] a sense” of how the team operated. The command’s own review of events, said the official, who was unwilling to speak on the record, found “no evidence to suggest” that any of the “salacious political quotes” in the article were made in situations in which ground rules permitted Hastings to use the material in his story. The Post elaborated: A member of McChrystal’s team who was present for a celebration of McChrystal’s 33rd wedding anniversary at a Paris bar said it was “clearly off the record.” Aides “made it very clear to Michael: ‘This is private time. These are guys who don’t get to see their wives a lot. This is us together. If you stay, you have to understand this is off the record,’ ” according to this source. In the story, the team members are portrayed as drinking heavily. A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Air Force Lt. Col. Edward T. Sholtis, acknowledged that Hastings, like other reporters who have interviewed McChrystal over the past year, was not required to sign written ground rules. “We typically manage ground rules on a verbal basis,” Sholtis said. “We trust in the professionalism of the people we’re working with.” So, you’ve got husbands and wives in a Paris bar celebrating McChrystal’s 33rd wedding anniversary, and comments made during the event — which were supposed to all be off the record — became part of Hastings’ piece. Is that Kosher? Obviously, Rolling Stone thinks it is: The executive editor, Eric Bates, denied that Hastings violated any ground rules when he wrote about the four weeks he spent, on and off, with McChrystal and his team. “A lot of things were said off the record that we didn’t use,” Bates said in an interview. “We abided by all the ground rules in every instance.” But this isn’t the only beef McChrystal supporters have with this piece: Officials also questioned Rolling Stone’s fact-checking process, as described by Bates in an interview this week with Politico. “We ran everything by them in a fact-checking process as we always do,” Bates said. “They had a sense of what was coming, and it was all on the record, and they spent a lot of time with our reporter, so I think they knew that they had said it.” In an interview Friday, the managing editor, Will Dana, said the reporter’s notes and factual matters were exhaustively reviewed. But 30 questions that a Rolling Stone fact-checker posed in a memo e-mailed last week to then-McChrystal media adviser Duncan Boothby contained no hint of what became the controversial portions of the story. Boothby resigned Tuesday. In the e-mail, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a military official sympathetic to McChrystal, Boothby is asked to confirm the makeup of McChrystal’s traveling staff on the Paris trip and the communications equipment they brought with them on an earlier visit to London. “They don’t come close to revealing what ended up in the final article,” the official said. This all raises an interesting question that seemed to elude mainstream media as they quickly attacked the General probably forcing Obama to relieve him of his command: did the Rolling Stone break some journalism rules with this report? As NewsBusters’ Tim Graham pointed out Thursday, this is a FAR-LEFT magazine with strong anti-war convictions.   Is it indeed possible that much of the truly damning comments were made to Hastings off the record, and that he and his editors in their zeal to tear down McChrystal just didn’t care? Is it also possible that the magazine didn’t go through proper fact-checking procedures before it published the piece? If the answer to both questions is “Yes,” then maybe media quickly overreacted to this article before weighing and investigating such possibilities thereby making them complicit in ruining the General’s career while also conceivably endangering the mission in Afghanistan. As the Post has now let this cat out of the bag, it will indeed be interesting to see how this matter is handled on the Sunday talk shows tomorrow as well as in the coming days. Stay tuned. 

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Who Can Ignore and Downplay Democrat’s Racist Statement? The Establishment Media Can

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

To refresh, as posted at NewsBusters and Eyeblast.tv , Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski said the following on Wednesday while he was defending what Investors Business Daily has called “Financial Deform” : We’re giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now unfortunately. But because of the longevity of this recession, these are people — and they’re not minorities and they’re not defective and they’re not all the things you’d like to insinuate that these programs are about — these are average, good American people. This isn’t too tough to decipher, no matter how many House Democrats try to give him defensive cover — If the people Kanjorski “deal(s) with in my office everyday” are “average, good American people” because “they’re not minorities and they’re not defective,” then those who are minorities and “defective” in some way are not “average, good American people.” Kanjorski uttered an objectively racist (embodying “the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others”) statement. According to this report , Kanjorski is not apologizing. Therefore, one must conclude that the congressman is comfortable with his objectively racist statement. So how is the press handling this? The mostly Democrat-defending establishment press that generally sets the narrative for radio and TV news mostly understands the aforementioned elementary exercise in logic. This explains why Kanjorski’s statement, while occasionally being framed with the usual “Republicans attack poor misunderstood Democrat” approach, is mostly getting ignored. A search at the Associated Press’s main web site on the Congressman’s last name comes up with one seemingly relevant item , an article headlined “McMahon: Wrestling was soap opera.” Yeah, you read that right. But the article is really a collection of four short items and two “Quick Hits.” AP writer Philip Elliott (or perhaps his editors) thought that Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s description of her Word Wrestling Entertainment enterprise was more important than Kanjorski’s racist remark, the coverage of which came second. Naturally, Elliott’s item used the “Republicans attack” technique: Republicans criticized Rep. Paul Kanjorski for what they said were remarks suggesting minorities are not “average, good American people.” The 13-term Pennsylvania Democrat vigorously denied the charge, saying Republicans were taking his words out of context to score political points. … A Kanjorski spokeswoman said the congressman was defending people who get government help from those who unfairly criticize them. Sure he was. But in the process, he uttered an objectively racist remark. Alleged “context” is irrelevant. Well, at least the AP has covered it in its own quirky way. The New York Times hasn’t . The Washington Post restricted coverage of Kanjorski’s statement to its “44” blog , and has apparently kept the matter out of its print edition. Matt DeLong’s post is funny, in a reality-denying, sickening sort of way (bolds are mine): A Democratic congressman has found himself the target of conservative criticism after an inartful description of who will be helped by the financial reform bill currently working its way through Congress. The conservative website Human Events reported that Rep. Paul Kanjorski’s (D-Pa.) appeared to say during Wednesday’s financial reform conference committee meeting that the financial overhaul will help “average, good American people” — but not minorities or “the defective.” It’s amazing how often the word “inartful” — which isn’t even a recognized word in the dictionary ( here or here ) — has appeared since candidate Barack Obama and others frequently employed it in 2008 to defend him and others after verbal gaffes and worse utterances. As to DeLong’s use of “appeared” — Matt, stop insulting our intelligence. Finally, it’s also quite predictable to see DeLong tag Human Events (accurately) as “conservative,” while, as Tim Graham at NewsBusters noted earlier this week , magazines like Rolling Stone almost never get the “liberal” or “radical left” tag from the establishment press. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Weigel-gate: WaPo Editor Brauchli Huffs They Won’t Do ‘Supreme Court Justice’ Scrutiny on Blogger Hires

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In the Saturday Washington Post, media reporter Howard Kurtz wrote up the resignation of blogger David Weigel, whose disgust for conservatives was too much for the Post to defend for a man hired to cover conservatives. Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli  lamented “we can’t have any tolerance for the perception that people are conflicted or bring a bias to their work.” Everyone brings some bias to their work, and some Post reporters bring plenty. I’d guess he means that the Post couldn’t have the perception that a reporter/blogger viscerally hates the people he’s supposed to cover, and wants some of them dead. Brauchli bristled at the idea that the Post didn’t exactly take a hard look at Weigel’s writings before hiring:   Asked about Weigel’s strong views about some conservatives, Brauchli said: “We don’t have the resources or ability to do Supreme Court justice-type investigations into people’s backgrounds. We will have to be more careful in the future.” It didn’t require a committee of investigators to read through 40,000 documents. Two NPR interviews would have been a decent start. I’d think that anyone who’d read Weigel’s reports for The Washington Independent would have found a liberal vibe. For the Post, that’s not disqualifying, it’s a plus, just as it was for NPR. Media outlets don’t have to hire conservatives to cover conservatives, and they generally avoid “stooping” to that, perhaps for the sake of newsroom peace. But a reporter-slash-blogger can’t gain access to conservatives very successfully after suggesting you wished Rush Limbaugh would die, or especially that it’s unfair that the media has to offer “equal time” for moronic “real Americans.” Kurtz relayed:    The Daily Caller reported more inflammatory comments on Friday, with Weigel writing that conservatives were using the media to “violently, angrily divide America” and lamenting news organizations’ “need to give equal/extra time to ‘real American’ views, no matter how [expletive] moronic.” When Rush Limbaugh, who has called for President Obama to fail, was hospitalized with chest pains, Weigel wrote: “I hope he fails.” Post ombudsman Andy Alexander reported the Post will try, try again , but he suggested two hires:  “We will look for someone to replace Dave,” [managing editor Raju] Narisetti said. Instead of just a replacement, The Post might consider two: one conservative with a Klein-like ideological bent, and another who can cover the conservative movement in the role of a truly neutral reporter. In the meantime, Post managers would be wise to remind all staffers that personal opinions, expressed privately on listservs or through social media, can prove damaging if made public…. Alas, it took only one listserv participant to bundle up Weigel’s archived comments and start leaking them outside the group. The result is that Weigel lost his job. But the bigger loss is The Post’s standing among conservatives.

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Weigel-gate: WaPo Editor Brauchli Huffs They Won’t Do ‘Supreme Court Justice’ Scrutiny on Blogger Hires

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Tropical Depression Forms in the Caribbean | Weather Could Push Oil Further Along Florida’s Beaches | CNN Video

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Video explanations really worth watching… http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/25/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?hpt=T2 Weather could push oil spill farther along Florida's beaches By the CNN Wire Staff June 25, 2010 7:38 p.m. EDT New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — The disaster thousands of feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico may be exacerbated by a different type of calamity in the coming week — tropical weather — that could push the oil farther along Florida's pristine panhandle beaches. It all depends up whether a weather system now brewing off Honduras grows in intensity, possibly to a tropical cyclone, and where it heads. The National Hurricane Center upgraded the system to a tropical depression late Friday — the first of the Atlantic hurricane season. Meanwhile, there been some promising news for potentially tens of thousands of people seeking claims against BP. Kenneth Feinberg, who is administering the $20 billion fund set up by BP under White House prodding, says that people who work in support of oil rigs will be able to file claims — and not just fishermen and businesses along the coast. Employees of businesses that brings tools to oil rigs, for example, also would be able to file a claim. The company previously agreed to set aside the $20 billion in an escrow account for spill-related costs, a sum that does not cover fees and penalties that could be imposed by the federal government. BP had resisted approving claims by people who said they were affected by the moratorium on oil drilling, saying it was imposed by the Obama administration. But Feinberg said BP and the adminstration now have agreed those claims will be covered. “I now have discovered — I didn't realize this until yesterday, but the moratorium claims will fall under my juridiction,” he told CNN. To date, almost 74,000 claims have been filed and more than 39,000 payments have been made, totaling almost $126 million, according to the company. As for the weather, the National Hurricane Center said the tropical depression is heading west-northwest and packing winds of 35 miles an hour, with some higher gusts. If it becomes a tropical storm, it will be named Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. An Air Force “hurricane hunter” plane headed into the storm Friday afternoon to learn more about the weather system. The tropical depression is centered between the northern coast of Honduras and Grand Cayman and is expected to move northwest, toward the Yucatan Peninsula — although it's unclear exactly what path it will take. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis says the “preferred scenario” actually would be for it to head to northern Florida. That's because the oil spill has been gradually rotating counterclockwise. If the storm heads to the east of it, it would send the oil farther out to sea. If the storm heads more directly towards the central Gulf and Louisiana, it might push the oil toward Florida. Of course, forecasting where oil spills are headed in not easy. “We're really in unchartered territory,” Maginnis said.”We've never been in this situation before. We've never seen an oil spill that encompassed the Gulf like this, end up so close to shore.” She noted that the latest models do point to the storm heading to the central Gulf. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who's heading the federal cleanup operation, says he'll have to redeploy people and equipment to safer areas 120 hours (five days) in advance of gale-force winds. And he agreed there is “no playbook” when it comes to responding to a massive oil spill as a storm brews. “But I will tell you there's been an extraordinary amount of planning being done,” he told CNN. “We are going to try to merge two response structures. One has proven effective in the past, and that's a central coordination of search and rescue and how operations are conducted, and that's done out of Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for hurricanes. And we are in the process of integrating our planning processes so the oil spill response is integrated fully within the search and rescue recovery operations.” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Florida, issued a statement Friday saying there needs to be a detailed plan for a “surge” in ships, in case cleanup crews need to abandon their efforts because of a storm, leaving the crude gushing unabated until the weather lets up. In a letter sent Thursday to Allen, Nelson asked whether Navy and other vessels have been identified for prepositioning in order to most quickly respond in the aftermath. Allen responded, “At the time we would break away is the time you need to be seeking shelter. I understand the need to skim the oil as soon as we can but it's going to be after the storm passes. I don't think anybody wants a vessel out there trying to skim oil with the weather building beyond gale-force winds, so the goal would be to get to a safe quadrant of the hurricane, come in behind it and as soon as we can. We have the ability to do that.” Allen said he and some top Obama administration officials will be headed back to the Gulf region next week to assess the oil relief efforts. He said Vice President Joe Biden would travel to the Unified Command Center in New Orleans and to the Florida panhandle next Tuesday. Also, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and presidential environmental advisor Carol Browner will visit the region “next week,” said Allen. Meanwhile, there has been a promising new development in the effort to permanently stop the leak. BP said Friday its “ranging” process, by which it sends an electrical current that puts out an electromagnetic field down the well bore, detected Wednesday where the leaking well is in relation to the first relief well, at a depth of 16,275 feet. BP said subsequent ranging runs will be needed to more precisely locate the leaking well and figure out how to best intersect the two. “What they will do is continue to drill down in short intervals, withdraw the pipe, put that sensing device down and slowly close on the well bore to the point where they're ready to do the intercept drilling. This last part takes some time because they only do several hundred feet at a time.” said Allen. “They'll also have a vessel standing by full of mud on the top, so in the event there were to get really close and potentially nick the well bore, they could actually put the mud down to control any hydrocarbons that might come out.” Drilling and ranging operations will continue over the next few weeks toward the target intercept depth of approximately 18,000 feet. “Kill” operations are expected to begin when the relief well reaches the leaking well. BP said drilling also continues on a second relief well, which has reached 10,500 feet. Costs associated with the Gulf oil disaster have gone up more than $300 million in less than a week, BP said Friday. “The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $2.35 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs,” a company statement said. BP put the tab at $2 billion on Monday. Meanwhile, Deepwater drilling could resume by the end of July. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday denied a request to keep a six-month moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama on May 27 in place, pending a government appeal. The government has 30 days to show it is beginning to comply with Feldman's order and start issuing permits. The appeals process can continue, but until the appeal, the government must act as if Feldman's order will be upheld. Government lawyers filed an appeal to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday, asking the court to stay Feldman's order pending the appeals. CNN's Brandon Miller contributed to this report added by: EthicalVegan

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Movieline Interview Flashback: Restrepo Directors Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

Posted on June 25, 2010 by | Leave a comment

“I hope if anything that’s we’ve made the most visceral war documentary that one can see, and the most honest.” Those were Tim Hetherington’s words in January, a week before his and Sebastian Junger’s Restrepo won the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. documentary jury prize. The film opens theatrically today to even more acclaim . For the occasion, Movieline is republishing Seth Abramovitch ‘s in-depth interview with the filmmakers from Park City. Twenty-four hours after catching Restrepo at Sundance — a war documentary that offers an unprecedented glimpse at a full year’s deployment in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan — and I still can’t shake its startling, enthralling, and frequently devastating images. If anything, they’ve only embedded themselves deeper. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to speak at length with the two filmmakers, veteran war correspondents both, responsible for bringing Restrepo to the screen: Sebastian Junger, best-selling author of The Perfect Storm , and award-winning photojournalist, Tim Hetherington. Our conversation follows.

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Movieline Interview Flashback: Restrepo Directors Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

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NBC’s Todd Defends Obama ‘Twitters’ Gaffe: ‘Written Incorrectly in His Prepared Remarks’

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On NBC’s Today on Friday, White House correspondent Chuck Todd preemptively dismissed any criticism of President Obama referring to “Twitters” during a joint press conference with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev on Thursday: “It turns out he didn’t misstate it. It was written incorrectly in his prepared remarks.” During Todd’s report, a clip was played of Obama noting how in a visit to California’s Silicon Valley, Medvedev went to “visit the headquarter of Twitters.” Obama simply placed an ‘s’ after the wrong word. Rather than let the minor gaffe stand, at the conclusion of the report, Todd made to sure to explain the typographical error to viewers: “You did not mishear. The President did say the word ‘Twitters,’ plural.” Despite Obama’s inability to correct the remarks off the cuff, Todd solely blamed a White House staffer for the mistake: “A speechwriter falling on his sword on that one.”                              Todd quickly changed the subject to a similar gaffe made by President Bush: “…it did bring back memories of President Bush one time referring to those ‘internets.'” The media was certainly never quick to come to Bush’s defense after a verbal misstep.   In his report, Todd observed how Obama got a “diplomatic head-start” on the upcoming G-20 economic summit in Canada by meeting with Medvedev and how “…the President treated Medvedev to cheeseburgers at one of the President’s favorite burger spots in northern Virginia.” Here is a full transcript of Todd’s June 25 report: 7:07AM MATT LAUER: President Obama will be keeping an eye on what’s happening in the Gulf today from Toronto. He’s heading there this morning to join a host of world leaders at the G-20 summit. NBC’s chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd is there as well. Chuck, good morning to you. CHUCK TODD: Well, good morning, Matt. The President is scheduled to arrive here later this morning. He’s going to have a new Wall Street reform deal in his back pocket. It’s something he’s going to try to use to convince these other nations from around the world to do similar action. On Thursday he met with an important G-20 ally, the Russian president. Believe it or not, it’s the seventh time these two have met face-to-face. Security here at the G-20 meeting is tight. The Canadian government has spent more than any other host country ever to try to make sure world leaders are safe. Heading into the important economic summit, the President got a diplomatic head-start by meeting with one of America’s most touchy allies, Russia, and its president, Dimitri Medvedev. BARACK OBAMA: America’s most significant national security interests and priorities could be advanced most effectively through cooperation, not an adversarial relationship, with Russia. TODD: And yet, despite the global economic concerns and the presence of the Russian president- UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Does the change in command in Afghanistan- TODD: A reporter’s first question brought the President back to the issue that’s dogged him all week, Afghanistan. OBAMA: I am confident we’ve got a team in place that can execute it. TODD: The President promised no more personnel changes after Wednesday’s dramatic firing of General Stanley McChrystal and the President made sure to leave himself wiggle room on the question of whether the U.S. will actually go through with its plans to draw down troops in July, 2011. OBAMA: We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us. We said as we begin a transition phase in which the Afghan government is taking on more and more responsibility. TODD: Medvedev was asked if he had any advice for the President, given Russia’s long and costly war in Afghanistan. DIMITRI MEDVEDEV: But I try not to give pieces of advice that can’t be fulfilled. TODD: But Defense Secretary Robert Gates did have words of advice. ROBERT GATES: No one, be they adversaries or friends, or especially our troops, should misinterpret these personnel changes as a slackening of this government’s commitment to the mission in Afghanistan. OBAMA: Visit the headquarter of Twitters. TODD: On a lighter note, President Obama noted President Medvedev opened a Twitter account and joked it was a 21st sentry substitute for the old Cold War hotline. OBAMA: I have one as well, so we may be able to finally throw away those red phones that have been sitting around for so long. TODD: Earlier in the day, the President treated Medvedev to cheeseburgers at one of the President’s favorite burger spots in northern Virginia. MEDVEDEV: Probably it’s not quite healthy but it’s very tasty and you can feel the spirit of America. TODD: Alright. You did not mishear. The President did say the word ‘Twitters,’ plural. It turns out he didn’t misstate it. It was written incorrectly in his prepared remarks. A speechwriter falling on his sword on that one. But it did bring back memories of President Bush one time referring to those ‘internets.’ Matt. LAUER: Alright, Chuck Todd, thank you very much. He’s in Toronto this morning.

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NBC’s Todd Defends Obama ‘Twitters’ Gaffe: ‘Written Incorrectly in His Prepared Remarks’

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