Tag Archives: president

THG Caption Contest Winner: June 25

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Friday, THG readers were given the task of writing the best caption for a photo of the President of the United States, delivering a key message on … well … That was your call. We received a lot of quality responses, and the winner for this edition of our Caption Contest is hollace . Congrats on a job well done! The winning caption appears below. Follow the above link for all entries sent in. Thanks to all for playing and good luck in the next THG Caption Contest! “Pre-oiled and BBQ ready, about this big. Right out of the ocean .”

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THG Caption Contest Winner: June 25

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ABC Warns G-20’s Rejection of Obama-Spendanomics ‘Could Plunge World Into a Second Recession’

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

Based on the view of a single economist, ABC portrayed the agreement by world powers, at the G-20 summit in Toronto, to pursue fiscal sanity over the accelerated government spending urged by President Barack Obama, as a threat the well-being of the American people. “President Obama lost an argument today with other world leaders, and some economists say that could plunge the world into a second recession,” Dan Harris intoned at the top of Sunday’s World News. From Toronto, reporter David Kerley agreed: “The President lost the argument and there could be serious consequences. Some economists are saying what was decided in Toronto today could actually lead to a double-dip recession.” A dire Kerley elaborated: “The worry is that by turning off the stimulus spigot the fragile economic recovery could disappear and turn into a double-dip recession.” ABC’s “some economists” turned out to be a single one, Professor Peter Morici of the University of Maryland , who ominously warned: “It will be very difficult to recover from that. Then we start to get into depression-like conditions.” Kerley forecast not following Obama’s policies will mean “an unemployment rate that could rise again, this time above ten percent, no recovery in the housing market and an even tighter credit market. And all of this could last another two to three years.” From the Sunday, June 27 World News on ABC: DAN HARRIS: Good evening. President Obama lost an argument today with other world leaders, and some economists say that could plunge the world into a second recession. The President went to this weekend’s summit meeting in Canada to convince other wealthy nations to keep spending still stimulate their economies. But they said no, arguing now is the time to start cutting deficits. So, who is right here and what does that mean for your wallet? We’re going to start tonight with David Kerley, who is at the G-20 summit in Toronto. David, good evening. DAVID KERLEY: Good evening, Dan. You’re right. The President lost the argument and there could be serious consequences. Some economists are saying what was decided in Toronto today could actually lead to a double-dip recession. Screams and cheers for President Oobama during a photo shoot. But his G-20 colleagues didn’t buy his argument that they need to keep spending to stimulate their economies, rather than turning to cutting deficits. STEPHEN HARPER, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Advanced countries must send a clear message that as our stimulus plans expire, we will focus can on getting our fiscal houses in order. Specifically, we should agree that deficits will be halved by 2013. KERLEY: It is a major split for the major economies, which have been on the same page for a year and a half. The President gave in, signaling as much when he met with the new British Prime Minister. PRESIDENT OBAMA: There are going to be differentiated responses between the two countries because of our different positions, but we are aiming at the same direction which is long-term sustainable growth that puts people to work. KERLEY: The worry is that by turning off the stimulus spigot the fragile economic recovery could disappear and turn into a double-dip recession. PROFESSOR PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: It will be very difficult to recover from that. Then we start to get into depression-like conditions. KERLEY: What does that mean? An unemployment rate that could rise again, this time above ten percent, no recovery in the housing market and an even tighter credit market. And all of this could last another two to three years. MORICI: What Europe did today would be like taking up smoking. You don’t know when it’s going to make you sick, but it will make you sick. KERLEY: The weekend meetings here in Toronto were targeted by protesters who took to the streets, burning cars and breaking windows. Canada spent nearly a billion dollars on security. That’s $12 million per hour that the world leaders were here in town. More than 500 protesters were arrested. Dan?

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Slow Joe Biden’s Subpar Saturday: Part 2 — The Slippery Growth Assertion

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

As pathetic as Joe Biden’s thin-skinned “Why do you have to be such a smart-a**” comment to a Milwaukee-area custard shop manager was yesterday (covered at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ), it wasn’t even the Vice President’s worst Wisconsin Saturday moment. A far worse moment, in terms of familiarity with the truth, occurred as Biden rewrote history and unilaterally revised economic growth upward in a speech to Democrats in support of Senator Russ Feingold’s reelection. In a CBS News online report by Stephanie Condon that I suspect will not make it to the airwaves Biden was dour and downbeat, while misstating economic reality: Biden: We Can’t Recover All the Jobs Lost Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.” Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost. “We inherited a godawful mess,” he said, adding there was “no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost.” … Biden said today the economy is improving and noted that in the past four quarters, there has been 4 percent growth in the economy. Over the last five months, more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created. I have no idea how Biden arrived at his $3 trillion figure; I’m guessing Ms. Condon doesn’t either. One very minor error: The Vice President’s claim that “more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created” is false, but barely. On a seasonally adjusted basis, it’s 495,000, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The big error: GDP growth has been nowhere near 4% during the past four quarters, no matter how you define “the past four quarters” (compounding was ignored for simplicity’s sake): The 2.5% estimate for 2Q10 is based on the assertion in this Friday Associated Press report that “Economists expect slower growth ahead” from 1Q10’s annualized 2.7%. Biden’s economic growth assertion is nowhere near true no matter how one interprets it. If 2Q10 growth comes in at an annualized 5.5% or higher, readers can come back and crow that Biden was really right. Good luck with that. Stephanie Condon should have known better than to blindly relay Biden’s false assertion. Does anyone else besides me think that she would have checked it out if Dick Cheney had said it instead? Photo at top right is at CBS link via AP. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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George Will Schools NYT’s Sanger: Extending Unemployment Benefits Doesn’t Stimulate Economy

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

George Will on Sunday gave a much-needed economics lesson to New York Times Washington correspondent David Sanger that greatly demonstrated the difference between how conservatives and liberals view unemployment benefits. As the Roundtable segment of ABC’s “This Week” shifted to the G20 summit in Toronto, Sanger said, “Just the day before [Barack Obama] left, Congress could not come to an agreement on a very small extension of unemployment benefits, you know, the most basic stimulus effort that the President tried to push.” Host Jake Tapper asked, “George, why can’t they pass this extension?” With the ball sitting up nicely on the tee, Will smacked it out of the park (video follows with transcript and commentary, relevant section at 4:10):   DAVID SANGER, NEW YORK TIMES: The President’s also in the position in Canada of saying, “Don’t do as I do, do as I say.” I mean, just the day before he left, Congress could not come to an agreement on a very small extension of unemployment benefits, you know, the most basic stimulus effort that the President tried to push. JAKE TAPPER, HOST: 1.2 Million Americans are going to lose their unemployment extensions, or unemployment benefits this week. SANGER: That’s right. So there’s a fundamental stimulus action and the President had to go up and tell the Europeans they were not doing enough for stimulus. TAPPER: George, why can’t they pass this extension? I don’t understand. The Republicans say, “Let spending cuts should pay for this.” The Democrats say, “No, it’s emergency spending.” It seems that this is something where there could be a compromise. GEORGE WILL: Well, partly because they believe that when you subsidize something, you get more of it, and we’re subsidizing unemployment. That is the long-term unemployment, those unemployed more than six months is at an all-time high. And they want, they do not think that it is stimulative because what stimulates is the consumer and the saver’s sense of permanent income. And everyone knows that unemployment benefits are not permanent income. Indeed. Unfortunately, much of America’s media have the same misconception that extending unemployment benefits helps the economy.  Of course, nothing could be further from the truth for those receiving such benefits aren’t going to increase they’re spending because they don’t know how long they’ll be unemployed. Beyond this, they feel little need to get back into the workforce until their benefits expire. This means that despite what folks like Sanger believe and write about, extending unemployment benefits has no economically stimulative impact.  As such, calling this extension an economic stimulus is like calling an ox a bull: he’s thankful for the compliment, but would much rather have back what is rightfully his. Nice job, George. 

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Obama’s Former Rev. Wright Gives Seminar Bashing Whites and Jews, Media Mum

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

President Obama’s former spiritual advisor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, gave a seminar at the University of Chicago last week in which he made numerous anti-Semitic remarks while once again attacking white people. According to the New York Post, during the five-day course that cost up to $1,000, Wright claimed “whites and Jews are controlling the flow of worldwide information and oppressing blacks in Israel and America.” “White folk done took this country,” Wright said. “You’re in their home, and they’re gonna let you know it.”  Despite the astonishingly racist comments during this week-long event, as well as his former connection to the current President of the United States, not one media outlet besides the Post reported what transpired at the Chicago Theological Seminary on the university campus. Not one! For those that can stand it, here are some more disgraceful things uttered by the man our President worshiped with for twenty years (h/t Weasel Zippers ): “You are not now, nor have you ever been, nor will you ever be a brother to white folk,” he said. “And if you do not realize that, you are in serious trouble.” He cited the writings of Bill Jones — author of the book “Is God a White Racist?” — as proof that white people cannot be trusted. “Bill said, ‘They just killed four of their own at Kent State. They’ll step on you like a cockroach and keep on movin’, cause you not a brother to them.’ ” Wright referred to Italians as “Mamma Luigi” and “pizzeria.” He said the educational system in America is designed by whites to miseducate blacks “not by benign neglect but by malignant intent.” He said Ethiopian Jews are despised by white Jews: “And now the Knesset [Israeli parliament] is meeting with European Jews, voting on whether or not these African Jews can get into [Israel].” The civil-rights movement, Wright said, was never about racial equality: “It was always about becoming white . . . to master what [they] do.” Martin Luther King, he said, was misguided for advocating nonviolence among his people, “born in the oven of America.” “We probably have more African-Americans who’ve been brainwashed than we have South Africans who’ve been brainwashed,” he said, and seemed to allude to President Obama twice: “Unfortunately, I got in trouble with a fella for saying this . . . All your commentaries are written by oppressors.” At the mention of Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan — whom Obama disavowed during the campaign — black leaders “go cuttin’ and duckin’,” he said. As media ignore the disgusting things this man says, they are complicit in separating him from the man he once advised spiritually. It’s as if Obama never sat in the pews of the Trinity Church and his Reverend never existed. 

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Bill Press: Glenn Beck Rally at Lincoln Memorial ‘Like Granting Al Qaeda Permission to Hold a Rally on Sept. 11 at Ground Zero’

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

It’s well known liberals don’t particularly care for Fox News host Glenn Beck, but wouldn’t be comparing him to al Qaeda be a bit much? On Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center claimed the lives of over 2,700 people . So what does that have to do with Glenn Beck? Well according to liberal talker Bill Press, Beck’s plans to hold a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 are somehow akin to al Qaeda’s worldview. Press demanded the National Park Service revoke permission for Beck to hold a rally where Martin Luther King had given his “I have a dream” speech 47 years earlier. (h/t Outside the Beltway ) “In a slap at both President Lincoln and Dr. King, not to mention the American people, the National Park Service has given Glenn Beck permission to hold a Tea Party rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 – 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King gave his magnificent ‘I Have A Dream’ speech,” Press wrote in a June 16 post on his blog . “If you ask me, that’s like granting al Qaeda permission to hold a rally on September 11 – at Ground Zero. What the hell were those bureaucrats at the Park Service thinking?” Press made similar remarks on his June 15 radio program , arguing the Lincoln Memorial was sacred and that it should not be “rented out like a cheap suit.” But even some of Press’ liberal audience had disagreed with the host, one suggesting if they had Press’ mentality 47 years ago, King might not have had the opportunity to speak at the memorial.

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Bill Press: Glenn Beck Rally at Lincoln Memorial ‘Like Granting Al Qaeda Permission to Hold a Rally on Sept. 11 at Ground Zero’

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Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers

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

President Obama will be handed the power to shut down the Internet for at least four months without Congressional oversight if the Senate votes for the infamous Internet ‘kill switch’ bill, which was approved by a key Senate committee yesterday and now moves to the floor. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power to the federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency. Despite the Center for Democracy and Technology and 23 other privacy and technology organizations sending letters to Lieberman and other backers of the bill expressing concerns that the legislation could be used to stifle free speech, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed in the bill in advance of a vote on the Senate floor. In response to widespread criticism of the bill, language was added that would force the government to seek congressional approval to extend emergency measures beyond 120 days. Still, this would hand Obama the authority to shut down the Internet on a whim without Congressional oversight or approval for a period of no less than four months. The Senators pushing the bill rejected the claim that the bill was a ‘kill switch’ for the Internet, not by denying that Obama would be given the authority to shut down the Internet as part of this legislation, but by arguing that he already had the power to do so. They argued “That the President already had authority under the Communications Act to “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication” when there is a “state or threat of war”, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. ears that the legislation is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government in an offensive against free speech were heightened further on Sunday, when Lieberman revealed that the plan was to mimic China’s policies of policing the web with censorship and coercion. “Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley. While media and public attention is overwhelmingly focused on the BP oil spill, the establishment is quietly preparing the framework that will allow Obama, or indeed any President who follows him, to bring down a technological iron curtain that will give the government a foot in the door on seizing complete control over the Internet. As we have illustrated, fears surrounding cybersecurity have been hyped to mask the real agenda behind the bill, which is to strangle the runaway growth of alternative and independent media outlets which are exposing government atrocities, cover-ups and cronyism like never before. Indeed, China uses similar rhetoric about the need to maintain “security” and combating cyber warfare by regulating the web, when in reality their entire program is focused around silencing anyone who criticizes the state. The real agenda behind government control of the Internet has always been to strangle and suffocate independent media outlets who are now competing with and even displacing establishment press organs, with websites like the Drudge Report now attracting more traffic than many large newspapers combined. As part of this war against independent media, the FTC recently proposing a “Drudge Tax” that would force independent media organizations to pay fees that would be used to fund mainstream newspapers. added by: im1mjrpain

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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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Ten Stories In The News That The BP Oil Spill Is Overshadowing

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

Corporate media does it’s best to keep you uninformed… The mainstream media is running a 24 hour news cycle focusing purely on the BP oil spill, a disaster, as we have shown, that is being intentionally hyped in order to sell cap and trade legislation and moves to nationalize big business. In the wake of this, big important news stories are being overlooked. Here are just some of the stories, in no particular order, that you should be hearing on the nightly news, but of course, are not. 1. Israeli nuclear submarines positioned close to Iran: Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline. The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers. The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels. ** 2. Iran war propaganda: US intelligence has shown Iran could launch an attack against Europe with “scores or hundreds” of missiles, prompting major changes to US missile defenses, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said on Thursday. The anti-Iran rhetoric has amplified following the revelation that many Bilderberg members, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, are now in favor of U.S. air strikes on Iran and are “leaning towards war,”. “Some of them in Europe are saying no we shouldn’t do it but most of them are in favor of American air strikes on Iran,” Bilderberg sluth Jim Tucker relayed from the recent meeting in Spain. “They’re tilting heavily towards green lighting a U.S. attack on Iran.” ** 3. The continuing economic slide: The greatest bankster heist in history and the looming greatest depression rumbles on. Gold has hit record highs as the dollar slumps and the Euro continues to face complete collapse. Unemployment figures in the U.S. are through the roof and U.S. consumer prices posted their largest fall in nearly 1-1/2 years in May. Rumours in Europe persist regarding an impending bailout for spain, while Russia says it is ready to found a “new economic world order“. ** 4. FCC ready to restrict the Internet: The federal government would have “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative “kill switch” to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive. Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity, but this new bill goes even further in handing emergency powers over to the feds which could be used to silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency. 5. Obama/Blagojevich story As the Blagojevich trial continues and important details emerge, linking Obama to possible political corruption, Federal prosecutors are seeking a gag order to keep the ex-Governor and his lawyers from making public comments. ** 6. UN small arms treaty Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that the Obama Administration would be working hand in glove with the U.N. to pass a new “Small Arms Treaty.” Congressman Paul Broun warns that, “With willing one-world accomplices in Washington, D.C., gun-grabbers around the globe believe they have it made.” Broun characterizes the U.N.’s Small Arms Treaty as “nothing more than a massive, GLOBAL gun control scheme.” The treaty would force national governments to acquiesce to a global gun registry, while strengthening licensing procedures so as to make it almost impossible for a citizen to legally purchase a gun. It would also ban the private sale of semi-automatic weapons and ultimately lead to the confiscation and destruction of all “unauthorized” firearms owned by citizens. By encapsulating the gun grab within a treaty, the Obama administration could claim that no Senate approval is needed to authorize any such move against the right to bear arms – although whether a treaty trumps the Constitution is a very murky area of debate. ** 7. Mexicans riot in LA/Land given over to Mexico Violent scenes following the LA Lakers’ championship-clinching win over the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals saw angry mobs smashing their way through the streets waving Mexican flags as they went. Meanwhile, a massive stretch of Arizona has become effectively off limits to Americans, Prompting questions over whether the Obama administration is giving a major strip of the south-west back to Mexico. ** 8. Obama Plans To Sneak Through Carbon Tax By Stealth President Obama is planning to sneak through his job-killing, economy wrecking carbon tax by stealth according to the Washington Post, by passing a weakened bill and then adding in cap and trade provisions after the heat is off following the November elections. Described as the “lame duck climate strategy,” Obama is planning to secure enough votes in the Senate to pass a weakened energy bill and then drag out the conference long enough to ensure the stronger provisions contained in the original House version are added “after lawmakers have faced voters in November, thereby cushioning the vote’s political impact.” ** 9. Afghanistan Mineral Riches Story Is War Propaganda News that the U.S. has suddenly discovered $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan, and descriptions of the bounty as a “game changer” by the corporate media, represent nothing more than crude war propaganda designed to reinvigorate public support for a failing and ever more pointless occupation. The “newly discovered” riches have been known about since the 1970s and further revelations indicate that the Pentagon report cited by the New York Times as their source for the story did not even mention the untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan. ** 10. Free Speech Gag Bill Moving in House H.R. 5175, The so-called DISCLOSE Act would severely limit the ability of political groups to communicate to their members and the general public. Politico reports that , the NRA bargained for an exemption for itself and other large, established groups while trampling the rights of private citizens, new political groups, like Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, and other small organizations. As John Bresnahan reports, “The proposal would exempt organizations that have more than 1 million members, have been in existence for more than 10 years, have members in all 50 states and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations… The NRA, with 4 million members, will not actively oppose the DISCLOSE Act, according to Democratic sources.” added by: im1mjrpain

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

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