The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.
- D.H. Lawrence-
Former AG Gonzales And Five Top Associates To Be Indicted By ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
At least Spain has a pair, we are a bunch of political cowards here in the United States, the Rethuglicans have politicized everything so for us to go after the Bush Administration, but when Nixon got impeached that was no problem, ... I doubt any of them will throw themselves on their swords for UU and Cheney at this point. Their personal legacies are ruined. I ought to feel some guilt over being elated that fellow Americans got singled out for prosecution by a foreign ...
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/
Spanish prosecutors will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five high-ranking Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at Guantánamo. By Scott Horton.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-13/the-bush-six-to-be-indicted/
Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast. Their decision is expected to be announced on Tuesday before the Spanish central criminal court, the Audencia Nacional, in Madrid. But the decision is likely to raise concerns with the human-rights community on other points: They will seek to have the case referred to a different judge…
Pirate Showdown Exposes Conservative Talking Heads for What They Are: Anti-American Disaster Porn Perverts
By David Waldman, Daily Kos
Republican leaders descend further into sick cynicism. Read more »
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904140007
During the April 13 edition of his Fox News program, Sean Hannity disparaged the media for giving President Obama credit for authorizing the use of lethal force against Somali pirates when, according to Hannity, Obama "was legally required to sign on to this. There was no great decision here, in other words." Hannity stated: "So in -- so I'm seeing the media praise him or overly praise him for something he legally was told by his team he had to do. So the slobbering love affair continues." Hannity based his claim on an April 12 Politico article, which reported: "Obama's involvement in the decision to authorize lethal force was legally required, officials said, because it was a hostage situation, not combat, and unrelated to the already authorized U.S. effort against Al Qaeda and other terror groups, officials said." However, contrary to Hannity's reading of the article, the Politico reported that Obama's authorization was required before lethal force could be utilized, not that Obama had no choice but to authorize the use of force.
Indeed, during an April 12 Department of Defense news briefing, Central Command Vice Adm. William Gortney noted that "[o]ur authority came ... directly from the president." An April 13 Department of Defense statement similarly noted that "two groups of military operators were involved in the rescue -- one based in the region and one based in the United States -- with each requiring separate authority from President Barack Obama. 'And the approval was given virtually immediately in both cases,' [Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates said."
From the April 12 Department of Defense news briefing:
Poll: Most Americans Disagree with Dick Cheney About Obama Policies
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
A new poll reveals that 72% of Americans don't buy Cheney's assertion that Obama is making America less safe. Read more »
Krugman Calls Out GOP Hypocrisy on Job Creation and Defense Cuts
By Amanda Terkel, Think Progress
GOP up in arms over jobs losses only when it comes to cuts in defense spending.Read more »
Krugman: 'Republicans Have Become Embarrassing to Watch'
By Rachel Weiner, Huffington Post
"It behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation's two great political parties." Read more »
| National Tea Parties Will Be Held In Over 1,900 Communities Across The Country, According To Latest Estimates. Choose A State……… | Around The Country Tomorrow Supporting Media And Corporate Sponsors Will Be Hailing The” Tax Revolt Tea Parties” As: Real Grassroots America. A careful examination will reveal that to be anything but the truth. The danger in this action is that people who become involved, ensnared in the actions/”The Movement” will soon find themselves the dupes of a broader more far-reaching and sinister agenda…the rumination of the Obama Presidency and the Restoration of the Republican Party and the agenda of the corporate right. Give credit where credit is due. The organizers have gone great lengths to maintain focus on their primary theme of the moment, discouraging more radical right single issue anti-abortionists, anti-gay and anti-immigrationists from either participation and/or open advocacy at these events tomorrow. Their story for the day: America, taxpayers have had enough. They are fed up with excessive spending, planned tax increases and a federal government that first caused the financial bubble through “misregulation”, and then grabbed power in order to "fix" it, they're hitting the streets in protest. They will hero praise CNBC talker Rick Santelli who his "rant heard 'round the world," calling for a "tea party" protest in Chicago on July 4. The name stuck, and further Tea Parties began popping up around the nation. Organizers want us to believe that just really ordinary people discussing things on Twitter, blogs and chat boards and decided that Tax Day, April 15, would be the perfect day for a coordinated national day of protest. Some of that maybe true, but last night’s expensive political campaign style professional telephone assault nationwide belies the Grassroots identity of what is in progress. Online lists of protests (such as taxdayteaparty.com) predict 300 to 500 marches on Wednesday all across the country. Now it’s 1,900 as “The Movement” looks likely to be big and successful. Various established groups (mostly on the right, though a lefty counterpart will march this weekend) are getting involved. But its genesis and enthusiasm are to be billed as pure grassroots: a lot of people who've had enough, brought together by the power of the Web. No doubt they'll be dismissed by much of the Big Media. They have become accounted acclaimated (the same folks who sent more reporters than there were protesters to a staged ACORN protest over AIG bonuses), but these Tea Party protests aren't the same old rituals with the same old marchers. These aren't the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists. Simply become acclimated/accustomed to ignoring public protests. Many in the punditocracy will ignore this week's protests, to the extent possible. But, thanks to alternative media, talk radio and FOX and Friends; they'll still get noticed -- in particular, by the members of Congress in whose districts they take place. And that’s where they want to start….”all politics being local”. The organizers will attempt is their sounds bites, which will be extensive on the FOX affiliates, via instructions already handed down and reported here today, to depict these Tea Party protesters as true American Patriotic types and not the same “old ritual leftists” with the same old cadre of marchers. This is an authentic popular protest movement not a bunch of weekend social theater players.” You will hear: (script) “These aren't the same old usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists who want to take America back and back to “Greatness”. In the short run, the protests and media follow-up is likely to provide at least a bit of resistance to “the borrow-and-spend-like-there's-no-tomorrow approach that now governs Washington”; their words. In the longer run, they can be manipulated as a source of new energy and enthusiasm in politics -- bringing in a lot of voters, organizers and even candidates from among those who were previously on the sidelines…that is what the as yet unknown shadow thinkers and planners have in mind. Sound bites to look for: “ The Tea parties have sparked an online insurgency, with independent media sites driving coverage of the protests, suggesting that conservatives may be catching up with their liberal counterparts in building a Web-driven, grassroots campaign to push their agenda.” And the preemptive strike language designed to deal with folks like you and me: “If the Tea Party movement is acknowledged in the Main Stream Media at all, the movement it will be portrayed by the liberal Soros Obama media as (a) organized by the GOP (or FOX News) or (b) an opportunity for racists to vent. Media Matters will come under attack: “So true to form, Media Matters sounded the horn that this was not a real protest, it's a Fox News segment. Kind of a made for T.V. reality show, with a cast of tens of thousands. Think Progress joined in with "Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests." The script, sound bites talking points and the deflection demonization lines are readied and rehearsed. Blogger stock rebuttal: “And the netroot blogosphere heard the call. FireDogLake proprietor Jane Hamsher posted "What Part of 'FNC TAX DAY TEA PARTIES' Don’t You Understand?"Hamsher also promoted "citizen-organized protests" which were unlike the "Fox-organized" Tea Parties; I guess she didn't catch the irony of promoting counter-protests to protest other people promoting protests. Anyway, almost no one showed up for the counter-protests.” “Well-known blogger Oliver Willis protested that the Tea Parties are not really "Grassroots." Willis works for Media Matters, but blogs under his own name. Yet another irony lost, a blogger who works for a media organization promoting opposition to a protest movement because the protest movement is promoted by a media organization.” These right-wing events aren't just coming together naturally; they're the product of Fox News and corporate lobbyists. This is practically a textbook example of "astroturf." That Glenn Beck is charging $500 a plate to have lunch with him, to help subsidize the effort, only helps reinforce the larger dynamic. Conservatives too often think, "We'll get some money together, deliver a right-wing message, and the grassroots will come together. It'll be awesome." Except, it never is. But we can’t take a chance and ignore these folks…a watchful eye is required. This isn't to say turnout will necessarily be low on Wednesday; I wouldn't be surprised if far-right voters turned out in substantial numbers. What is it that we, Media Matters and its progeny must be concerned with? What do we care if people protest, if they are confident in the power of their views? We must be concerned with not appearing to be or painted as fearful of these folks while opposing them. But Pillsbury, as do many food wholesalers, wasn't keen on giving a competitor room to grow, so it pressured stores not to give Ben & Jerry's shelf space. First, the left cannot be framed as fearing the loss of our alleged internet domination and control. As a really good blog post notes, the left dominates the mainstream media and to a lesser extent, the internet. So the right is moving to Twitter, and now to the streets, to avoid the filtering of its message. We must meet an engage them at every step with sure and thoughtful steps. The left-wing media machine embodied in Media Matters is seen as “having trouble dealing with these alternatives, and so it attacks”. It/we are being depicted already as seeking to assert our control by framing the protests as contrived, when it will be sound bite asserted that in fact the opposite is true. The movement may not be as organized as some would like, but that is what happens when movements start from the ground up, rather than in a community-organizer's playbook or a media boardroom. But they have entered the play ground and organizing will grow rapidly. The fact that some have lent a promotional hand is already taking away from this Grassroots façade. The opinion of the deep backers that the mainstream media practically elected Obama through its over-the-top cheerleading coverage and refusal to ask hard questions, and that Media Matters and other liberal organizations are extremely well funded in their efforts, far more so than the Tea Party movement. They will assert that nothing any conservative organization is doing to help the Tea Parties even comes close. That is the BIG LIE! There has to be a true feeling to motivate people who never before have protested and could be placing their lives on the line to get involved. And that is what should frightens us if the turnout is massive and looks like it has growth potential because these folks have a feeling of mission and a false sense of security in the streets.. We can loose of control over the message, is the only thing we can do is attack the messengers. Show a campaign that is always reacting and I’ll show you a campaign that is losing. Show me a campaign that can respond and I’ll show the winner. Don’t become a doughboy and watch carefully; we may all be meeting and greeting each other soon…in the streets! |
REPORT: Emerging Culture of Paranoia
Obama Derangement Syndrome epidemic on conservative airwaves
In recent months, the violent, doomsday, and anti-intellectual rhetoric that has long been a staple of conservative media has taken a notable turn in at least three significant ways: previously confined to the right-wing media fringe, the rhetoric is now a constant across the full spectrum of conservative media; it is louder and meaner, with conservative media figures appealing overtly to feelings of anger and paranoia in their audience; and it is focused, tied to the specific political aim of undermining the Obama administration and the Congress.
None other than David Horowitz notes "an interesting phenomenon on the Right, which is beginning to cause me concern": "the over-top-hysteria in response to the first months in office of our new president." Horowitz calls this "hysteria" "Obama Derangement Syndrome."
Indeed, the rise of anti-government speech -- and the explosion of anti-Obama rhetoric -- on right-wing radio, Fox News, and among conservatives in other media outlets tracks directly with the arrival of the new administration and its broad efforts to address the myriad and interlocking problems confronting the country. Rather than engaging in substantive policy analysis and critique, the Glenn Becks, Sean Hannitys, and Rush Limbaughs of radio and television insult their audience with simplistic attacks on Obama and his administration's initiatives.
Far from informing the public, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, and numerous others on Fox News and elsewhere launch attacks at Obama, progressives, and their policy proposals with accusations of any one or more "isms" that bear no relationship to reality or even to each other. They warn darkly of purported efforts by the Obama administration to cede U.S. sovereignty to a world order rather than engaging in meaningful discussions about the United States' role and image in the world. They scapegoat vulnerable groups, encouraging the perception that undocumented immigrants, the poor, and racial and ethnic minorities are to blame for economic problems in this country. During a time of numerous high-profile acts of gun violence, they claim with alarm that Obama intends to seize their guns. Fox News has adopted the Tax Day "tea parties" as its own, urging its audience to organize and attend what it characterizes as protests of Obama administration tax and economic policies; the network's promotions of these tea-party protests have been largely devoid of meaningful and truthful discussion of the actual merits and flaws in the administration's proposals for reform -- and of little substantive attention to the question of whether Fox News' audience would be better or worse off under those proposals the network is encouraging its audience to protest.
On his show, Beck has gone so far as to purport to imitate Obama pouring gasoline on the American public to light it on fire.
The demagoguery in the conservative media could have real consequences for the country and for efforts by law and policymakers to address serious problems. It is a disservice to the conservative media's audience and to the country, involving distortions of issues with falsehoods and with rhetoric and imagery that incite anger rather than encouraging citizens to engage meaningfully in political and legislative debate and process.
Media Matters for America is tracking this explosion of anti-government rhetoric in the conservative media and has published the following:
Violent, Revolutionary Rhetoric
Conservative media unleash violent, revolutionary rhetoric
Since Obama's inauguration, Media Matters has documented numerous instances where conservative media figures have called for a "revolution" or have invoked violent rhetoric while discussing the Obama administration or government in general. In addition to encouraging violence, such violent rhetoric has also included suggesting Obama's policies were doing violence to the American people and depicting Obama as a rapist, spousal abuser, or mobster.
Newsbusters' Sheppard fans the flames
Levin: Government engaging in "economic child abuse" and is "enslaving" our children
Fox & Friends hosts former mobster to compare Dems to crime family
Newsbusters' Sheppard defends Limbaugh by pointing to patriotism of secessionists
Warnings Of Incipient "Isms"
Conservatives warn of social-fasc-commun-Nazi-McCarthy-Marxism
Media Matters has documented numerous examples of conservatives in the media warning of socialism, fascism, communism, Nazism, McCarthyism, and Marxism, or using such language to describe Obama or other Democrats.
Beck: "The government is a heroin pusher using smiley-faced fascism to grow the nanny state"
Fox News' Carlson asks, "Are we headed toward socialism?"
Echo chamber: Fox News' Smith joins Limbaugh, MacCallum in comparing Rep. Frank to McCarthy
Hannity declares today "Day number 52 of the socialism that you've been waiting for"
Fox News VP and Washington Managing Editor Sammon: Obama has an "agenda towards socialism"
On Beck, Byrnes smeared CO solar energy company as "socialist"
Fox & Friends asks: "Are we headed towards Socialism?"
Special Report takes a "fair and balanced look" at whether the recovery plan is "socialism"
On CNN, Rollins and Castellanos compare recovery plan to Soviet and Cuban communism, socialism
Hannity claimed the "federal government...is destroying our economic system as we currently know it"
New World Order
Black helicopter alert! Conservative media suggest Obama supporting one-world government
Since Obama's inauguration, Media Matters has documented many examples where conservative media figures have asserted or suggested that U.S. sovereignty may give way to a one-world government.
Media figures advance false claim that Obama ceded economic sovereignty at G-20 summit
Obama will "take away your gun"
Media conservatives fearmongering: Obama will "take away your gun"
Since President Obama's election, several conservative media figures have warned their audiences that Obama is planning to, according to Beck, "slowly but surely take away your gun or take away your ability to shoot a gun, carry a gun" or have suggested that a government effort to ban guns is likely.
Boehlert: Glenn Beck and the rise of Fox News' militia media
Tea Parties
"Fair and balanced" Fox News aggressively promotes "tea party" protests
Despite its repeated insistence that its coverage is "fair and balanced" and its invitation to viewers to "say 'no' to biased media," Fox News has frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with "tea party" protests across the country, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to Obama's fiscal policies. Media Matters has compiled an analysis of Fox News' promotion of these events.
Beck says you can "celebrate with Fox News" at any of four "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties"
Scapegoating Of Vulnerable Groups
Conservative media consistently scapegoat undocumented immigrants, ACORN
In discussions of major news stories, conservatives in the media have repeatedly turned to two favorite bogeymen -- undocumented immigrants and ACORN -- in place of substantive analysis, even when those groups have little or nothing to do with the issue.
Limbaugh forwards myths that Community Reinvestment Act, Rep. Frank responsible for mortgage crisis
Fox News' Baier advanced conservative attacks on CRA, repeated falsehood about Rep. Frank
Politico's Libit repeated Gingrich's false claim days after Politico reported such claims were inaccurate
Media figures falsely accuse Democrats of attempting to direct millions of dollars to ACORN
WSJ's Fund falsely claimed that ACORN "almost got a slush fund in the housing bailout bill"
WSJ editorial leaves out relevant information in smear of ACORN
Faced with economic turmoil, media conservatives turn to class warfare
CNN reports leave out relevant facts on ACORN voter registration allegations
Fox News' Kelly mocked ACORN for accurate statement about Florida registration law
Dick Morris baselessly accused ACORN of "committing voter fraud"
Myths and falsehoods surrounding the economic recovery plan
The Hill, UPI uncritically reported false GOP claim that Dems steered recovery money to ACORN
SF Chronicle reported false claim that $4.19 billion of recovery plan "would go to" ACORN
Parroting GOP, Dittohead Limbaugh dutifully launches false ACORN attack
Limbaugh says ACORN "got three and a half billion dollars from the stimulus bill"
Fox Business Network joins with GOP senators to further spread false ACORN attack
Fox & Friends' Doocy repeated false claim that stimulus package includes $4 billion for ACORN
Wash. Times echoes recovery bill falsehoods on undocumented immigrants, ACORN
Dobbs again peddles baseless GOP claim that recovery bill has $4 billion for "groups such as ACORN"
Fox News' Van Susteren ignored Graham's economic recovery falsehoods
Rove latest to advance false claim that recovery bill "funnel[s]" money to ACORN
Morris uses boogeyman of nonexistent ACORN funds to solicit funds for GOP group
Confirmed: AP has received GOP talking points
For four hours after AP correction, Drudge flogged false claim about undocumented immigrants
Limbaugh, Hannity, and the GOP: an iron triangle of stimulus misinformation
AP's retracted stimulus bill falsehood finds a new home at Fox
Will Dobbs retract his stimulus bill falsehood?
Politico advances GOP's communist smear against MN secretary of state
Fox News' Bream uncritically repeats conservative claim Obama judicial nominee "has ties" to ACORN
At Fox News, guilty until proven innocent
Dobbs again promoted GOP claims that SCHIP could benefit undocumented immigrants
AP, CNN report that Obama represented ACORN, but not that DOJ was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit
Doom And Gloom
Outbreak: Limbaugh spreads Obama Derangement Syndrome
Since Obama's inauguration, Limbaugh has made numerous baseless and ominous claims warning of what will happen if the United States adopts either Obama's policies or those pushed by other progressives, often while invoking fears of rising socialism, communism, and tyranny.
Limbaugh: "I want the stimulus package to fail," "I want everything he's doing to fail."
Limbaugh on "the economic war": "If Obama is our general, this war is lost"
Limbaugh: "If President Obama succeeds with this, our nation fails"
Limbaugh on difference between Dems and GOP: Dems hate life, liberty, happiness
Limbaugh likens Democrats to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" that "offed his wife's head"
Limbaugh: Rep. Frank and Sen. Dodd are "toxic congressmen," "poison members of our government"
Discussing upcoming "Earth hour," Limbaugh calls Obama "an extremist tyrannical president"
Limbaugh: "Maybe we have descended into a nation that sort of loves the concept of soft tyranny."
Limbaugh: "We are Venezuela in the early years."
Pandemic: Limbaugh's Obama Derangement Syndrome spreads through conservative media
Numerous conservative media figures have followed Limbaugh's lead in making increasingly dire predictions about the consequences that policies sought by Obama and other progressives might have for the country.
Hannity falsely claimed Obama administration "taking steps to cut defense spending"
Hannity claimed the "federal government...is destroying our economic system as we currently know it"
Hannity promo asks if Obama budget is "a way for the government to completely control our lives"
Gingrich says Democratic proposals "absolutely moves you towards a political dictatorship"
Tax deduction change latest Obama proposal Beck claims "involves enslaving people"
Media figures advance false claim that Obama ceded economic sovereignty at G-20 summit
Savage: "Obama has a plan to force children into a paramilitary domestic army"
Gaffney: "[H]ow Barack Obama spells respect is S-U-B-M-I-S-S-I-O-N"
O'Reilly asks if Obama is "selling out America" in favor of a "global justice jihad"
Levin: Government engaging in "economic child abuse" and is "enslaving" our children
Given The Fact That The “Tea Parties” Are A Recipe For The Most Likely Flash Point For Violence On America’s Streets…
Conservatives Warn Of Social-Fasc-Commun-Nazi-Mccarthy-Marxism
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904090032
Since January, Media Matters for America has documented numerous examples of conservatives in the media warning of socialism, fascism, communism, Nazism, McCarthyism, and Marxism, or using such language to describe President Obama or other Democrats.
April 1
March 31
Beck: "The government is a heroin pusher using smiley-faced fascism to grow the nanny state"
March 31
March 30
Fox News' Carlson asks, "Are we headed toward socialism?"
March 25
March 25
March 24
March 24
March 20
March 19
Echo chamber: Fox News' Smith joins Limbaugh, MacCallum in comparing Rep. Frank to McCarthy
March 18
Hannity declares today "Day number 52 of the socialism that you've been waiting for"
March 12
March 11
March 10
March 5
March 4
Fox News VP and Washington Managing Editor Sammon: Obama has an "agenda towards socialism"
March 3
March 2
On Beck, Byrnes smeared CO solar energy company as "socialist"
February 19
Fox & Friends asks: "Are we headed towards Socialism?"
February 18
Special Report takes a "fair and balanced look" at whether the recovery plan is "socialism"
February 17
February 13
On CNN, Rollins and Castellanos compare recovery plan to Soviet and Cuban communism, socialism
February 9
February 6
January 27
January 27
January 14
January 8
Rep. Michele Bachmann has sump’m to say, she does! She wants everyone to get a gun and go kill the Democrats and establish a new government, because of some tax: “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.” How very inappropriate! [Huffington Post]
Corporate Lobbyists Raising Money for Tea Parties
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 8:41 AM on April 13, 2009.
During the April 14 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson interviewed Atlanta tea party organizers Jenny Beth and Lee Martin, saying to them at one point, "Now you characterize yourselves as everyday Americans." However, Carlson did not mention during the interview that Jenny Beth Martin has been a paid Republican consultant. During the interview, on-screen text identified Jenny Beth Martin simply as "Atlanta Tea Party co-chairman."
As Media Matters for America senior fellow Jamison Foser recently noted, USA Today reported on April 12 that Jenny Beth Martin is a "former paid consultant for local Republican candidates." Foser further noted that Martin's blog makes no mention of her having ceased her work for the GOP. Martin states on her blog, "Recently, I began getting paid for my political consulting services for the first time. From 1992 until July, 2007, I volunteered my time and services."
During the Fox & Friends interview, Jenny Beth and Lee Martin discussed their employment history, and Jenny Beth Martin noted, "I do a lot of blogging."
As Media Matters has noted, Fox News has aggressively encouraged participation in the tea parties, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to President Obama's fiscal policies. According to Fox News host Bill Hemmer, Fox News' new website, The Fox Nation, will "host[] a virtual tea party" for those who "[c]an't get to a tea party." Fox News has also repeatedly labeled the protests "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties."
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/13/39we-want-them-registered39/
Never Yet Melted » Nancy Pelosi Wants Guns Registered
By JDZ
line. As the Washington Times explains, registration isn’t really about crime, it’s about future confiscation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, announced last week that she wants to register guns. ...
Never Yet Melted - http://neveryetmelted.com/
Redstate: Speaker Pelosi wants to register your guns (and Guess ...
By Your Humble Servant
On “Good Morning America” last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared: “We don’t want to take their guns away. We want them registered.” Somehow, I don’t think America’s 80 million firearms owners feel reassured. ...
Alamo City Pundit - http://jdlong.wordpress.com/
Speaker Pelosi Wants Guns Registered, Feinstein Will Bring Back ...
By Tom Remington
According to the NRA, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told ABC that even though the Supreme Court decision in D.C. vs. Heller affirmed an individual right to keep and bear arms, she stated unequivocally that she wants all guns ...
Black Bear Blog - http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/
About 116,000 for Speaker Pelosi Wants Guns Registered
Conservative Talk Show Hosts: Obama Had Little Or Nothing To Do ...
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
I don't recall a whole lot of criticism from the moderate left of Michael Moore, or Code Pink, or Daily Kos, or Keith Olbermann, Randi Rhodes, or MoveOn.org. I think that people who weren't happy with the tone and tenor of those ...The Moderate Voice - http://themoderatevoice.com/
Drew Westen: Why the Democrats Are Losing Ground As Obama Is ...
By Drew Westen
While they have proven their political cowardice by taking impeachment of Bush & Co. off the table ¦ deep-sixing efforts to hold it accountable for the Iraq debacle ¦ enabled crooked banks and bankers to survive through massive ... BUSh / Cheney got off very easy. Dumped their toxic mess on Obama.Bush / Cheney started a Pre emtive war that cost billions - 1000's killed - limbs lost - soldiers brain damaged-. Bush even ignored a clear warning 1 month before 9 / 11 - about ...
The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/
Yet at the same time, something else is happening under the radar: the fortunes of Democrats more generally are starting to wane. March was a good month for Barack Obama but a bad month for the Democratic Party. As the latest Rasmussen polls show, in March the percent of voters who consider themselves Democrats dropped by 2 percent--four times the rate of decline among Republicans (even as the Republicans were publicly flailing, producing numberless budgets, and unwittingly branding themselves as the party of old ideas and the party of "no"). More ominous, the margin of voters supporting a Democrat over a Republican in a generic ballot for Congress dropped to its lowest point since both the Iraq War and the economy had clearly gone south by 2006: one percent (40 vs. 39%).
Traces of explosives in 9/11 dust, scientists say
http://www.deseretnews.com/site/rss/
http://patriotsquestion911.com/
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‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer. Minh Uong/The New York Times Read All Comments (45)
A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists.
The sites, like EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placeblogger andPatch, collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources. They might let a visitor know about an arrest a block away, the sale of a home down the street and reviews of nearby restaurants.
Internet companies have been trying to develop such sites for more than a decade, in part as a way to lure local advertisers to the Web. But the notion of customized news has taken on greater urgency as some newspapers, like The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have stopped printing.
The news business “is in a difficult time period right now, between what was and what will be,” said Gary Kebbel, the journalism program director for the Knight Foundation, which has backed 35 local Web experiments. “Our democracy is based upon geography, and we believe local information is such a core need for our democracy to survive.”
Of course, like traditional media, the hyperlocal sites have to find a way to bring in sufficient revenue to support their business. And so far, they have had only limited success selling ads. Some have shouldered the cost of fielding a sales force to reach mom-and-pop businesses that may know nothing about online advertising.
One problem is that the number of readers for each neighborhood-focused news page is inherently small. “When you slice further and further down, you get smaller and smaller audiences,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst who has followed the hyperlocal market for a decade. “Advertisers want that kind of targeting, but they also want to reach more people, so there’s a paradox.”
Still, said Peter Krasilovsky, a program director at the Kelsey Group, which studies local media, many small businesses have never advertised outside the local Yellow Pages and are an untapped online ad market whose worth his firm expects to double to $32 billion by 2013.
One of the most ambitious hyperlocal sites is EveryBlock, a six-person start-up in an office building in Chicago overlooking noisy El tracks, which is stitching together this hyperlocal future one city at a time. Backed by a $1.1 million grant from the Knight Foundation, it has created sites for 11 American cities, including New York, Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco.
It fills those sites with links to news articles and posts from local bloggers, along with data feeds from city governments, with crime reports, restaurant inspections, and notices of road construction and film shoots. (The New York Times has a partnership with EveryBlock to help New York City readers find news about their elected officials.)
One day last week, the EveryBlock page for Adrian Holovaty, the company’s founder, showed that the police had answered a domestic battery call two blocks from his home and that a gourmet sandwich shop four blocks away had failed a city health inspection.
“We have a very liberal definition of what is news. We think it’s something that happens in your neighborhood,” said Mr. Holovaty, 28, who worked at The Washington Post before creating EveryBlock two years ago.
In some ways the environment is right for these start-ups. In the last several years, neighborhood blogs have sprouted across the country, providing the sites with free, ready-made content they can link to. And new tools, like advanced search techniques and cellphones with GPS capability, help the sites figure out which articles to show to which readers in which neighborhoods.
Unlike most hyperlocal start-ups, Patch, based in New York, hires reporters. It was conceived of and bankrolled by Tim Armstrong, the new chief of AOL, after he found a dearth of information online about Riverside, Conn., where he lives. Patch has created sites for three towns in New Jersey and plans to be in dozens by the end of the year.
One journalist in each town travels to school board meetings and coffee shops with a laptop and camera. Patch also solicits content from readers, pulls in articles from other sites and augments it all with event listings, volunteer opportunities, business directories and lists of local information like recycling laws.
“We believe there’s currently a void in the amount, quality and access to information at the community level, a function, unfortunately, of all the major metros suffering and pulling back daily coverage of a lot of communities,” said Jon Brod, co-founder and chief executive of Patch. This month, the home page of The Star-Ledger’s Web site, based in Newark, twice referred to articles first reported by Patch.
Outside.in publishes no original content. The company gathers articles and blog posts and scans them for geographical cues like the name of a restaurant or indicative words like “at” or “near.” An iPhone application lets users read articles about events within a thousand of feet of where they are standing. Outside.in, which is based in Brooklyn, licenses feeds of links to big news sites that want to deepen their local coverage, like that ofNBC’s Chicago affiliate.
Venture capital firms have invested $7.5 million in the company, partly on the bet that it can cut deals with newspapers to have their sales forces sell neighborhood-focused ads for print and the Web.
One hurdle is the need for reliable, quality content. The information on many of these sites can still appear woefully incomplete. Crime reports on EveryBlock, for example, are short on details of what happened. Links to professionally written news articles on Outside.in are mixed with trivial and sometimes irrelevant blog posts.
That raises the question of what these hyperlocal sites will do if newspapers, a main source of credible information, go out of business. “They rely on pulling data from other sources, so they really can’t function if news organizations disappear,” said Steve Outing, who writes about online media for Editor & Publisher Online.
But many hyperlocal entrepreneurs say they are counting on a proliferation of blogs and small local journalism start-ups to keep providing content.
“In many cities, the local blog scene is so rich and deep that even if a newspaper goes away, there would be still be plenty of stuff for us to publish,” said Mr. Holovaty of Every Block.
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