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3/7/08
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Commander warns of al-Qaida threat to US
WASHINGTON -
Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to
maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military
commander in charge of domestic defense said.
EVERY RESOURCE OF
GOVERNMENT will be used to help get John McCain elected president.
Because if a Democrat
wins,
Seeds of Doubt
The World
Bombs reported to kill 4 in Mosul
BAGHDAD -
Bombings in the northern city of Mosul, an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold, killed
at least four people and wounded 46 on Friday, officials said, while relatives
mourned the victims of an attack that killed 68 in a Baghdad shopping district.
Israel tightens security after Jerusalem attack
JERUSALEM
(Reuters) - Israel imposed a security clampdown on Jerusalem and the West Bank
on Friday to prevent violence after a Palestinian gunman killed eight students
at one of the holy city's most prominent Jewish religious schools.
Official: Iraq, China nearing oil deal
Iraq
and China are close to re-signing a $1.2 billion oil deal that was called off
after the 2003 U.S. invasion, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said Thursday.
Egypt walls up Gaza border
RAFAH, Egypt -
Egypt is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall interspersed with watch
towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants
from breaching the border, an official said Thursday.
Turkish army refuses to close bases in northern Iraq
The Turkish
military leadership has rejected a request by Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish
region to shut down several military bases in northern Iraq, the Turkish daily
Vatan reported yesterday, citing a statement by the Turkish General Staff.
Bhutto party: Army has no political role
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan - Pakistan's army must stay out of politics, the party of slain former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said Friday, as it worked to build a government
that can strip its ex-military president of much of his power.
Sri Lanka says 66 combatants killed in fresh fighting
COLOMBO (AFP) -
At least 61 Tamil Tiger rebels and five government troops were killed in fresh
fighting across Sri
Lanka's embattled
north, the defence ministry said on Friday.
Guantanamo detainee loses court case
SYDNEY, Australia
- A judge ruled Friday that claims by a former
Guantanamo
Bay
inmate that he was tortured could not be fully believed because his testimony
was inconsistent and may have been exaggerated to try to help him win a
defamation lawsuit.
Canada abortion debate rekindled as bill passes
OTTAWA (Reuters)
- The long-dormant issue in
Canada
of when life begins has reemerged with the backing by the House of Commons of a
bill that would make it a crime to cause the death of an unborn child when a
pregnant woman is attacked.
Mexico Senate approves judicial reform
MEXICO CITY
- Mexican senators on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a sweeping judicial
reform that would introduce public, oral trials and guarantee the presumption of
innocence.
Venezuela moving tanks to Colombian border: official
Venezuela
has started moving ten tank battalions to the Colombian border, Venezuela's
defense minister said on Wednesday, amid an escalating
Andes
region crisis sparked by a Colombian [US-backed] attack on leftist rebels in
Ecuador.
Showdown among S. American leaders looms
SANTO DOMINGO,
Dominican Republic - A showdown loomed Friday for the presidents of
Colombia,
Ecuador and Venezuela in this seaside capital as a summit of Latin American
leaders aimed to calm a crisis triggered by a deadly Colombian cross-border
raid.
Tons of food aid rotting in Haiti ports
CAP-HAITIEN,
Haiti - While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are
stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape — leaving tons
of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by
vermin.
Judge drops terror charges against former Guantanamo inmates
A Spanish judge
dropped terror charges against two former Guantanamo Bay inmates who recently
returned home to
Britain, saying their
mental health had deteriorated so badly they were suicidal and it would be cruel
to prosecute them.
Contrast that to
the action of an Australian judge, above.
Libya blocks UN from condemning violence
UNITED NATIONS -
For the second time in two months, Libya on Thursday blocked the U.N. Security
Council from condemning violence and unrest in the Middle East.
Chadian children in 'orphan' scandal to rejoin families: UNICEF
GENEVA (AFP) -
More than 100 African children will be reunited with their families some five
months after a French charity sought to take them out of Chad, the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday.
The Nation
NYC Struck Again by Mystery Bomber
For the third
time in as many years, someone riding a bike and armed with a small explosive
has struck in
Manhattan, this time
in the highest-profile location by far: a landmark military recruitment station
in the heart of Times
Square.
Officials: Letters not linked to NY bomb
WASHINGTON -
There's apparently no link between the bombing of an Army recruiting station in
New York's Times Square and letters sent to Congress saying "We did it," law
enforcement officials said Friday.
Bush told to end threats to Iran over weapons
A Nobel laureate
with expertise on diplomatic negotiations and nuclear strategy urged the Bush
administration Tuesday to stop issuing public statements that imply the United
States will use overwhelming force to destroy
Iran's
nuclear capabilities.
U.S. gives $100 million in military aid to Egypt
The Bush
administration has released $100 million in military aid to Egypt after telling
the U.S. Congress the money was necessary for 'national security' reasons…
Congress had withheld the sum until the administration certified Egypt had done
enough to protect the independence of the judiciary, curb police abuses and put
a stop to arms smuggling from
Egypt
to Gaza. But it also gave the administration an option to waive the restrictions
"in the national security interest of the United States."
When is Congress
going to learn? You can’t give the Bush administration permission to do
something based on contingencies. Those contingencies will ALWAYS be met.
Whistleblower: Cellular carrier giving FBI unfettered access
Computer security
analyst Babak Pasdar says that a major mobile telecommunications carrier has a
built-in backdoor that provides an undisclosed third-party with unfettered
access to its internal technical infrastructure, including the ability to
eavesdrop on all calls through its network.
Law enforcement requests for postal info granted
U.S. postal
authorities have approved more than 10,000 law enforcement requests to record
names, addresses and other information from the outside of letters and packages
of suspected criminals every year since 1998, according to U.S. Postal
Inspection Service data.
National Dragnet Is a Click Away
Several thousand
law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence
system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information
to fight crime and root out terror plots… Although Americans have become
accustomed to seeing dazzling examples of fictional crime-busting gear on
television and in movies, law enforcement's search for clues has in reality
involved a mundane mix of disjointed computers, legwork and luck. These new
systems are transforming that process.
Court order sought in e-mail controversy
WASHINGTON
- A private group told a federal court that the Bush administration made
apparently false and misleading statements in court about the White House e-mail
controversy.
Fired U.S. attorney says colleague told him politics was behind his ouster
WASHINGTON
— A longtime protege of President Bush told former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias
that he was fired for political reasons and that he shouldn't fight his ouster,
Iglesias says in a new book. "This is political," Iglesias recalls Texas U.S.
Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. "If I were you,
I'd just go quietly."
VA estimates fewer homeless vets
The number of
homeless veterans has declined to just over 150,000, the government says. The
Veterans Affairs Department estimates that on any given night last year, 154,000
veterans were homeless, about a 20 percent decrease from 195,827 in the agency's
2006 estimate. The decrease comes even as Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are
trickling into shelters.
FEWER. That’s
good. Bill O’Really said there were NONE.
KBR Dodges $500 Million In Social Security And Medicare Taxes In Cheney-Backed
Scheme (Think
Progress)
No private contractor has financially profited from the Iraq war more than
Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), which until last year was a subsidiary of
Halliburton. The firm currently has more than 21,000 employees in Iraq, and
between 2004 and 2006, received more than $16 billion in government contracts —
far more than any other corporation. Yet KBR hasn’t been passing on these
enormous profits to American taxpayers or even its own employees, thanks to a
plan that Vice President Cheney helped establish. Today, the Boston Globe
reports that KBR has avoided paying more than $500 million “in federal Medicare
and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies” based in
the Cayman Islands.
Political junkie fun:
First Electoral Map Comparisons
SurveyUSA
interviewed 30,000 registered voters -- 600 in each of the 50 states -- to test
potential general election matchups and tally up the resulting electoral votes.
Interestingly, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton put together a very
different collection of states. Key findings:
• Clinton beats McCain, 276 to 262.
• Obama beats McCain, 280 to 260.
There are many caveats to
this type of analysis before nominees are even known, but it's fun nonetheless.
TPM Election
Central has
the maps, so you can see the differences in which states they’ll win.
Rasmussen: Clinton Surges in Pennsylvania
A new Rasmussen
Reports survey in
Pennsylvania finds
Sen. Hillary Clinton has opened a 15 point lead over Sen. Barack Obama, 52% to
37%. Less than two weeks ago,
Clinton's
lead was just 4 points.
Dean Urges Do-Over Voting in Fla., Mich.
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged Florida and Michigan
party officials to come up with plans to repeat their presidential nominating
contests so that their delegates can be counted. "All they have to do is come
before us with rules that fit into what they agreed to a year and a half ago,
and then they'll be seated," Dean said during a round of interviews Thursday on
network and cable TV news programs.
BREAKING: MI Caucus Likely, Says DNC Rules Committee Member
A member of the
DNC's Rules And Bylaws Committee--the committee that stripped Florida and
Michigan of its delegates for moving their primaries before February 5th--told
me that Michigan plans to get out of its uncounted delegate problem by
announcing a new caucus in the next few days. "They want to play. They know how
to do caucuses," the DNC source said. "That was their plan all along, before
they got cute with the primary."
Fla. Dems weigh redoing presidential primary by mail
WASHINGTON --
With pressure to resolve the Florida Democratic primary's renegade status
intensifying, the state party is looking at the possibility of giving voters a
chance to cast a second ballot in the presidential primary -- by mail. The party
has all but ruled out as too costly holding an election in which voters would go
to the polls, but is looking at a mail-in contest that could give Florida
Democrats a say in the presidential nominating contest.
Clinton's Wins Halt Move of Superdelegates to Obama
March 6
(Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton scored more than just three presidential primary
victories this week. She also helped freeze a movement of top Democrats set to
call on her to concede to rival Barack Obama.
But did Obama
even have a secret stash of superdelegates? Either they never had them, or the
had them and they’re now backing down. See below.
Obama Spokesman: We Don't Have Any Secret Bloc Of Super-Delegates
(by Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central)
We keep hearing -- from Tom Brokaw, and [Thursday], from Obama's Missouri
co-chair -- that the Obama campaign has a secret bloc of 50 super-delegates that
will suddenly reveal that they're all jumping to Obama en masse. But the story
is bogus, says the Obama camp. Obama spokesperson Bill Burton emails us: “This
is just a rumor. There is no secret stash of superdelegates that we are sitting
on waiting to roll out.” In case you were wondering.
Superdelegates play hardball
(Politico)
Flexing their new power to determine the Democratic presidential nomination, a
bloc of Ohio superdelegates is withholding endorsements from Barack Obama and
Hillary Rodham Clinton until one or the other offers a concrete proposal to
protect American jobs, two Ohio Democrats told Politico Wednesday.
Excellent idea,
superdelegates. Maybe the Edwards pledged delegates could make a similar deal
to ensure some progressive initiatives in the next administration.
Obama raises $55M in Feb., tops Clinton
WASHINGTON -
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama raised a record $55 million in February for his
presidential campaign, eclipsing rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's own
substantial fundraising for the month. All told, Obama has raised $193 million
during his yearlong bid for the White House.
I don’t much like a man
who’s always got to be on top.
F.B.I. Investigates Missing G.O.P. Money
WASHINGTON —
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the chief
fund-raising arm of House Republicans, according to party officials who
described the findings of emergency internal audits. The financial records of
the group, the National Republican Congressional Committee, may also have been
falsified for several years, Republican officials said. The campaign committees
of several Republican lawmakers may also have been victims of a scam that is now
under criminal investigation by the F.B.I.
The party that
preaches greed is good was bilked, and they’re surprised?
Racial inequality persists in U.S.: report
ATLANTA (Reuters)
- Black Americans still trail whites on such basics as income, education and
health, a study showed on Wednesday… Across a range of economic indicators
including measures of employment, poverty, housing, income and wealth, blacks
were much worse off than whites. If whites scored 100 percent on such measures,
blacks scored just 56.8 percent, a figure unchanged from last year, the National
Urban League said.
Economy & Finance
IRS: Use 'Free File' to receive rebate
WASHINGTON -
People who do not normally file a tax return can now use the IRS Free File
program to get their economic stimulus package payment, the Internal Revenue
Service said Thursday.
Stocks fall in early trading
NEW YORK
- Stocks are lower in the first minutes of trading as investors look for cover
following a weaker-than-expected government employment report.
Employers slash jobs by most in 5 years
WASHINGTON -
Employers slashed jobs by 63,000 in February, the most in five years, the
starkest sign yet the country is heading dangerously toward recession or is in
one already.
Homeowner equity is lowest since 1945
Americans'
percentage of equity in their homes fell below 50 percent for the first time on
record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
US household wealth on the decline
American
households are getting poorer for the first time in more than five years,
Federal Reserve figures revealed on Thursday. Data showed total household wealth
fell $533bn to $57,718bn in the fourth quarter, as falling share prices added to
the damage from dropping house prices. The decline will heighten fears that
households could pull back from spending as they become poorer and less able to
tap sources of credit, potentially tipping the US economy over the brink into
recession.
China's rising inflation could hurt U.S. consumers
If China is
unable to tame its rising prices, American consumers are likely to suffer. With
the U.S. economy already dependent on a wide variety of goods — from Nike shoes
to vitamins _that are made in China, the combination of China's inflation and a
weakening U.S. dollar certainly will jack up prices… Rising inflation, just an
economic nuisance a few months ago, could turn into a political problem for
China's leaders, whose legitimacy rests partly on delivering steady improvement
in standards of living. Rising global energy prices and catastrophic snowstorms
a month ago in China have caused food prices to shoot up.
Media
Permanent link to MTA daily media news
I will be a guest on Head-On with Bob Kincaid today at 6:00 PM ET. Listen to Bob from 6:00 to 9:00 PM ET every weekday on the Head-On Radio Network.
POLL: Over Half Of Americans Say They Do Not Trust The Press
(Think Progress)
A new Harris Interactive poll finds that over half of Americans — 54 percent —
say they tend not to trust the press, “with only 30 percent tending to trust the
press.” More Americans (41 percent) trust “Internet news and information sites”
than they do the mainstream media. Radio tends to do best among Americans as 44
percent say they tend to trust it. The Harris results reflect the findings of a
Harvard
University
study conducted last year, which found “nearly two-thirds of Americans do not
trust campaign coverage by the news media.”
Resource: Culture, gender and growth
Discrimination
against women significantly hampers the economic development of many poor
countries. This column introduces two new OECD Development Centre efforts to
assess and reduce gender discrimination, including a new portal
www.wikigender.org.
The article has a
great quote from Somerset Maugham: “Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.”
That observation, along with the knowledge we’re gaining about humans’ ability
to overcome even built-in biases and prejudices, should help us understand how
important it is to use the tools at our disposal to fight, and change, those
biases and prejudices. And isn’t it interesting how often we’re finding that
what liberals see as a moral imperative can also be important for economic
growth? When business leaders can be convinced that doing good will help their
companies do well in the long term, and they are given incentives to care about
how well their companies do in the long term, more than half the battle has been
won. Why aren't we liberals and progressives
banding together to push these themes in the media?
Get the word out:
TELEPHONE COMPANIES WANT TO BE OFF THE HOOK
For an industry
that exists to enhance communication, the telecom industry is awfully quiet
these days. Instead, as members of Congress debate this week whether to provide
immunity from lawsuits for those companies that allegedly cooperated with the
Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, the telecom industry has
reached out and touched lawmakers with cash. The Center for Responsive Politics
has found that lawmakers who've voted to protect telecom companies from privacy
lawsuits also tend to have received more money from the industry than those who
have taken the opposite view.
McCain, Clinton React to NYC’s Times Square Explosion
(The Page, Time Magazine, thanks to
No Quarter)
McCain calls attack “unacceptable,” says he has been assured a full
investigation is taking place… Clinton says she’s “concerned” and authorities
“should be given every resource and every tool” to quickly investigate what
happened.
Crickets
chirping, apparently, from the Obama campaign. Click through for links to the
two campaigns’ full statements.
Breaking: Obama “Not Ready” For 3am Call…
(by Alegre, posting at No Quarter)
…according to his senior foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice, when she appeared
[Thursday] on MSNBC. Sen. Obama’s top foreign policy advisor came right out and
said that he’s not ready to take that call.
Click through to
watch the video. Of course, Rice claims that neither Clinton nor Obama is ready
to take that call, but security expert Larry Johnson disagrees with her about
Clinton. See below.
Obama and His Advisors Not Ready for Prime Time
(by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
I have had the opportunity to brief Senator Clinton twice on terrorism and
Iraq during the last
three years. During the course of my career at the CIA, State Department, and as
a consultant, I have briefed in one form or fashion more than 60 members of
Congress, a Vice President, and a President. I have participated in briefings
for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior military commanders. I entered my
first meeting with Hillary with strong reservations about her competence (based
entirely on what I had heard and read in the media). I walked out of that
meeting very impressed. Hands down, I found her to be the most impressive person
I had had the privilege to brief.
Johnson goes on
to say that Clinton is better at understanding the implications for U.S.
national interests of any threats, that she knows the bureaucratic tools and
resources available for addressing problems, and that her foreign policy team is
much better than Obama’s. Click through to read the entire post. It’s a very
impressive endorsement.
Keith Olbermann eviscerates Hillary: "Look I can be president, I was married to
one!" (by
John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
Tonight on his show, Keith Olbermann eviscerated Hillary Clinton for a good ten
minutes for promoting John McCain's presidency over her fellow Democrats. He
compared her to Joe Lieberman. He asked "is she equating her time in the East
Wing with McCain's time in the Hanoi Hilton?" You have got to watch these
videos. They're devastating in only the way that Keith can be.
My comment: This
is exactly the kind of demeaning attack that turned me into a rabid Clinton
supporter, and I’m not the only one. So keep on keepin’ on, all you white males
who feel you have to denigrate Hillary Clinton. The more you berate her, the
more you create strong support for her.
'Hillary Clinton's a monster': Obama aide blurts out attack in Scotsman
interview
HILLARY Clinton
has been branded a "monster" by one of Barack Obama's top advisers, as the
gloves come off in the race to win the Democrat nomination. In an unguarded
moment during an interview with The Scotsman in London, Samantha Power, Mr
Obama's key foreign policy aide, let slip the camp's true feelings about the
former first lady.
FactCheck says charge that Clinton ad darkened Obama's skin is 'unsubstantiated'
(On Politics, USA Today)
There's been a lot of blogging the past few days about whether a TV ad produced
by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign intentionally darkens
Sen. Barack Obama's skin. Contributors to the liberal Daily Kos blog have been
particularly vocal in charging that the Clinton team did it intentionally.
Clinton's aides say that's not true. Now, the non-partisan FactCheck.org has
weighed in. Its conclusion: "We see no reason to conclude that this is anything
more than a standard attempt to make an attack ad appear sinister, rather than a
special effort to exploit racial bias as some Obama supporters are saying."
See? It’s always
a good idea to wait until the experts have weighed in on these things before
flying off the handle. But that’s what Clinton haters always do, is fly off the
handle.
Will Clinton-Obama fight injure Democrats?
WASHINGTON
— Let Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama rip each other apart. It's really no
problem for the Democratic Party, veteran
California Democratic
strategist Bob Mulholland said. "This is not a debate about ideology or war," he
said. "This is about which one we Democrats love the most."
Actually, in my
case, it’s about which of the two pro-war, pro-corporate candidates left to us
is better fit, by temperament and experience, to fight the right-wing crazies.
In my mind, Hillary Clinton is that candidate.
The Clinton Rules for the Obamas
(by Dave Neiwert at Orcinus)
[B]oth Obamas are going to get the
Clinton treatment. It
happened to Al Gore and John Kerry as well. And we've already seen it in action
this week. It's really just getting underway now, but expect it to be operating
at full tilt by midsummer. What we're confronted with is a Beltway media mindset
that is systemically hostile to Democrats while simultaneously coddling (and
propping up) conservatives. It's just a fact of life, and an ugly one. And until
self-hating "liberals" come to grips with that reality, they're doomed to
irrelevance.
My comment: So
Dave, Why can't we progressives who do understand the problem with the media get
together to
change the dynamic?
Mythbuster:
Dirty Delegate Truths
(by Craig Crawford, CQ Politics)
Delegate counting in the Democratic contest has become one of those goofy media
exercises now that we have such a tight race where the outcome is not likely to
be settled for a very long time. The so-called "hard counts" of delegates could
prove to be even less reliable than predicting the outcome of a sporting
event with nothing but statistics… For starters, forget about hard counting
delegates from just about any caucus state. In many cases, including
Iowa,
delegates are not directly elected to the national convention. Instead, only
delegates to in-state conventions are picked. And final choices on national
delegates are not made until late spring, usually at statewide conventions…
There is also a dirty secret about pledged delegates, those who are directly
elected in primaries. They are “pledged,” but not all are “bound.”
Click through for
more truths about why the current delegate counts aren’t reliable.
The Shortest Comeback in History
(by John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
From AP: “Hillary Rodham Clinton won't catch Barack Obama in the race for
Democratic delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, even if she wins every
remaining contest.” So much for Hillary's comeback. Of course, the media knew
this Tuesday night, but it was more fun to pretend like Hillary's momentum (yes,
winning a state that she was already expected to win for the past 14 months is
now momentum and a comeback) was going to make this an all new race. Now, to be
fair, Obama can't reach the magic number of 2,025 total delegates either - not
without the help of the Superdelegates. But note that the AP article is now
definitively saying that not only can't Hillary reach 2,025 delegates, she also
can't even catch up to Obama in terms of pledged (elected) delegates even if she
wins every race.
My comment: Craig
Crawford shows us that the current delegate counts don't mean much, anyway. [See
the excerpt above this one.] And a lot of people think the drama of this primary
has been the best thing for the Democratic Party in many years. Walter Shapiro,
in
Let 'em duke it out: "The Project for Excellence in Journalism, which
monitors media coverage, found that last week the Democratic race generated four
times the attention of the Republicans… So rather than fantasizing about a
soporific and conflict-free nomination fight, the Democrats should recognize the
value of what they have stumbled into."
Perino: McCain and Bush have always been ‘buddies.’
(Think Progress)
On Fox and Friends this morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino called
President Bush’s anointment of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as his chosen successor
“a significant and symbolic moment.” Perino then described Bush and McCain’s
friendship, including how after the 2000 primary, “McCain went on to work his
tail off to help this president.” She said that they were never “enemies” or
“rivals,” but always “buddies.”… Bush and McCain’s embrace yesterday was a
“symbolic moment.” Symbolic of the fact that McCain represents a “third Bush
term.”
Third term. Did I call it,
or what? Oh, and I have to ask, were they buddies when the Bush campaign said
in South Carolina in 2000 that John McCain was an insane father of a Black
baby? Click through to watch the video.
Being a senator not a ‘high priority’ for McCain.
(Think Progress)
John McCain (R-AZ) has already missed 57 percent of the Senate votes this
session. Today, The Hill reports that McCain will likely continue to “steer far
away from his day job in the United States Senate” in order to avoid
“politically sensitive votes.” Campaign adviser Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
confirmed that voting in the Senate isn’t “a high priority” for McCain.
And being
president has never been a high priority for Bush. Peas in a pod, wouldn’t you
say?
Fewer Reporters on Rice's Plane
[Condoleezza]
Rice, now in her final year as Secretary [of State], scored a minor diplomatic
advance this week when she convinced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas to restart peace talks with Israel. But there are vastly fewer reporters
around to record her acheivement. The three wire services--Associated Press,
Reuters and Agence-France Presse--are on board. Bloomberg News and National
Public Radio took seats. But only three newspapers--The New York Times, The
Washington Post and The Washington Times--are on the plane, down from the
standard five. And the networks did not even bother to send a camera crew, let
alone a correspondent.
Media Matters for America headlines
• Des Moines Register, AP left out McCain reversals in reporting on his immigration position
• Matthews again accused Clinton of fostering doubt about Obama's religion
• In editorial, NY Times misrepresented Obama's position on public financing
• WSJ quoted McCain touting his "pro-environment positions," but didn't note his poor LCV score
• CNN's Borger falsely asserted McCain "absolutely" "called for [Rumsfeld] to be fired"
• Wash. Post's Meyerson asserted Clinton "hemm[ed] and haw[ed]" over Obama's religion
AP Chief: Press Freedoms Among Casualties of 9/11
Associated Press
President/CEO Tom Curley said Thursday that the shadow of the Sept. 11 terror
attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the
United States. Curley is the recipient of the Radio and Television News
Directors Foundation's First Amendment Leadership Award.
FCC vs. The Public
(Think Again by Eric Alterman, Center for American Progress)
Looking for evidence of the Bush administration's distaste for oversight and
responsible government? Look no further than the FCC.
“Distaste”? I’d
go much further, Eric, and say that it has been the Bush administration’s
mission to destroy every function of government, including defense, though that
one was probably unintentially.
NPR CEO Ken Stern Resigns Abruptly; Differences Over Digital Media Part of It
(Paid Content)
Ken Stern, the CEO of National Public Radio, has abruptly resigned, apparently
over clashes on NPR’s digital media startegy. Stern, who spoke at our EconSM
conference last year, was with NPR for 10 years and was appointed the CEO in
Sep. 2006, and had pushed for more digital media outlets and distribution for
the public broadcasting firm, which as [a] WaPo story says, “often riled station
managers, who saw them coming at the expense of serving the hundreds of public
stations that pay dues annually to NPR.”…
Also today, … CBS vet Dick Meyer told readers of his online column that he was leaving for NPR. He didn’t offer details there but we can tell you Meyer has signed on as editorial director for digital media, effective April 7. Meyer, at CBS for 23 years, most recently has been the editorial director of CBSNews.com. His move comes after severe cuts at CBSNews.com, which lost roughly 30 percent of its already small staff late last year. The cuts were seen internally by some as an indication that CBS was not committed to its online news site; we were told then that some believed CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith wanted to do away with the site altogether—or, at least, its staff.
Russia’s RuTube Video Site Sells To Gazprom; Valued At $15 Million: Report
(Paid Content)
The media division of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom is buying a majority stake in
RuTube, valuing the video upload site at $15 million, business paper Kommersant
reports, citing a “source close to the deal”… Gazprom Media has bought stakes in
independent media operators including NTV, Tribuna newspaper and the Ekho Moskvy
radio network.
The gas company
owns media? Well, I guess that’s not much different from GE owning NBC.
Show Me the Money: Why Have the Media Overlooked Key Aspect of the War?
It has always amazed me that critics of the Iraq war, the media in general --
even Democrats running for president -- have made relatively little of the
astounding financial cost of the conflict. That may finally be changing.
NYT's Johnston applies for buyout, wants to work on books
"I want to do
long-form magazine work too," says David Cay Johnston, 59. "And I have
documentarians talking to me about TV and theatrical releases."
Johnston will be
appearing in Chicago on Sunday afternoon. Let me know if you want specifics:
caro-at-makethemaccountable-dot-com.
Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
(Haaretz)
The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists.
The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national
security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury
issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy
blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to
do with sensitive matters of "national security." But conversations with several
sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to
testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently
confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence
Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program.
Reuters profits up ahead of merger
News and
financial information company Reuters today reported a trading profit of £385m
last year, up 25% on the year before. The company, which is to merge with
Canadian rival Thomson next month, also reported a healthy start to 2008, with
underlying revenues up 9% in the first quarter of the year. This followed a 7%
increase over the course of 2007, when underlying revenues were £2.61bn.
"Sometimes flawed, newspapers are more often magnificent"
Psychology prof
Peggy Drexler says she's been watching newspapers like you watch a cherished
friend who has a slow debilitating illness. "You wonder: Even if they survive,
will they ever be the same? The signs are not encouraging. ...As newspaper
companies adapt to the realities of consumers who can travel the world on their
iPhone, I am afraid they are going to become a shell of their purpose; a brand
name for a collection of niche publications, free tabloids and assorted Web
sites."
Niles' guide to what smart journalists need to do to survive
Robert Niles has
some tips for journalists who want to be competitive on the web. Make yourself
the brand, he advises. "You want to ensure that the value you've created with
your content and your promotion of it is associated with you."
Blogger Smackdown, Life Pre-MySpace and What's Truly Obscene
(by Simon Dumenco at Media Works, Advertising Age)
In January, I wrote about how blog-publishing titan Nick Denton -- whose network
of heavily-trafficked blogs, including flagship Gawker, are hugely influential
-- had switched to a compensation system that ties his bloggers' pay more
directly to the number of times readers click on their posts. Last week, several
of my readers called my attention to a post by Alex Balk (a former Gawker
writer) on radaronline.com, quoting Denton's e-mail to one of his current
bloggers, Maggie Shnayerson: "I'm afraid your stories are not performing well
enough on Gawker, and I don't see how you're going to turn that around. Last
month, you got about 400,000 page views; this month you're at 160,000; even
taking into account your break, that's still far from satisfactory." So, yes, he
abruptly fired her (after less than six months on the job). Welcome to the
merciless new-media economy's new math.
A Rare Misstep for O the Munificent
Media Reviews for
Media People: 'Oprah's Big Give'
Disney to Offer Some Vintage TV Series on Its Web Site
The Walt Disney
Company will begin showing its classic television shows on the Internet, its
chief executive, Robert A. Iger, told shareholders on Thursday.
Time Warner Investors See Benefits in Yahoo Tie-up
March 5
(Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc. shareholders and analysts said the company might
benefit from merging AOL with Yahoo! Inc. because it would increase advertising
revenue and free management to focus on film and television businesses. ``That
kind of combination would make some sense,'' said Henry Berghoef, director of
research at Chicago-based Harris Associates, which owned more than 63 million
Time Warner shares as of December. ``The potential attractiveness of a Yahoo-AOL
deal is that Yahoo has this tremendous reach and AOL has a very good advertising
platform.''
Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits
A growing network
of young people armed with memory sticks and clandestine Internet hookups has
been spreading news the official state media try to suppress.
Technology & Science
The Economist’s Technology Quarterly:
The battle for Wikipedia's soul
The internet: The
popular online encyclopedia, written by volunteer contributors, has unlimited
space. So does it matter if it includes trivia?
Guiding light
Display
technology: Three-dimensional television pictures for all the family, with no
need for special glasses, could be on the way
More to it than meets the eye
Materials
science: As more commercial uses are developed for holograms, they may soon be
found all over the place
The new shape of circuitry
Materials: Making
circuits that are stretchable could open up a host of new applications, from
medical sensors to video-game controllers
A healing balm
Materials
science: Self-healing substances that are capable of repairing themselves when
damaged are under development
Stay tuned
Communications:
Broadcasters plan to hop, skip and jump around the world with a new long-range
digital-radio technology
Down and dirty
Energy: If
geothermal energy, which exploits underground heat reserves, is to become
widespread, it will have to work outside volcanic areas
A bag full of sunshine
Energy: A
combination of flexible solar cells and low-energy lighting provides a way to
bring electric light to isolated communities
Less troubled waters
Chemistry:
Detergents with active ingredients that can be switched on and off should help
the oil industry, as well as getting clothes clean
End of a dammed nuisance
Energy: A new
generation of free-standing turbines promises to liberate hydroelectric power
from its dependence on dams
Your call is important to us
Software: Making
call centres run smoothly involves an ever-greater dependency on technological
trickery behind the scenes
Power plays
Consumer
electronics: Displays that reveal how much electricity your home is using can
give you a nasty but informative surprise
Sounds like a good idea
Biomedical
technology: As cochlear implants improve, people who use older versions of the
technology could face a difficult choice
Software that makes software better
Computing:
Programmers are using a variety of software tools to help them produce better
code and keep bugs at bay
Looking at the bigger picture
Consumer
electronics: How do you fit an enormous screen into a portable device? By using
a tiny projector, of course
Bugging the cloud
Law enforcement:
Governments want to extend wiretapping rules from phones to the internet, but
doing so is hard
From palmtops to brain cells
Jeff Hawkins,
best known as the creator of the Palm Pilot, hopes his new theory will lead to
more brain-like computer software
Environment
Prince: Global effort needed to counter climate change
Sheer madness.
That's how Prince Charles described skeptics who view calls for rapid action to
counter climate change as overstated or completely invented.
European Union Joins Methane-to-Energy Partnership
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
March 7, 2008 -- The European Union has formalized its commitment to participate
in a global group to convert methane released by animal waste, landfills and
coal, gas and oil fields to energy.
Heard the One About the Farmer’s Ethanol?
Robert Bryce
mounts a savage attack on the concept of energy independence and the most
popular technologies currently being promoted to achieve it.
Low-cost reusable material could capture carbon dioxide from power plants
Researchers have
developed a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the
smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse
gas. Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the new material has a
high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide — and can be reused many times.
No way to fix climate without private sector: UNDP
HELSINKI
(Reuters) - The private sector must be encouraged to help developing countries
combat climate change now, before it becomes too severe to handle, the head of
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said. Kemal Dervis said that while
public transfers in form of official development assistance should be used to
assist in "adaptation," or protection against potential catastrophes, the
private sector should help finance long-term solutions.
Investors Want Companies to Disclose Climate Change-Related Impacts
BOSTON, March 7,
2008 -- U.S. investors filed nearly twice as many shareholder resolutions with
companies that will likely encounter business impacts from climate change.
SMEs Save Energy and $700K
HAYWARD, Calif.,
March 7, 2008 -- More than 2,500 businesses in this suburb southeast of San
Francisco participated in an energy efficiency program that will save one
megawatt of energy annually. That translates to roughly $700,000 a year in
energy savings.
Greed In the Name Of Green
Congregation of
the Church of the Holy Organic, let us buy. Let us buy Anna Sova Luxury Organics
Turkish towels, 900 grams per square meter, $58 apiece. Let us buy the
eco-friendly 600-thread-count bed sheets, milled in Switzerland with U.S.
cotton, $570 for queen-size.
Japan denies shooting anti-whaler in clash
SYDNEY (Reuters)
- A hardline anti-whaling activist, Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson, said he
was shot during a clash with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean on Friday,
but survived because he was wearing a Kevlar vest. But Japan's fisheries agency
said coastguard officials aboard the whaling ship had only thrown "flash
grenades," which are used for crowd control and are not regarded as weapons.
Oceans to fall over millions of years
OSLO (Reuters) -
Sea levels are set to fall over millions of years, making the current rise
blamed on climate change a brief interruption of an ancient geological trend,
scientists said on Thursday.
Where is the
water going?
