Permanent link to MTA daily media news

The First 100 Days of… (by Stateofdisbelief at The Confluence)
Click through for more of TOTUS’s accomplishments, including instructive videos.

[W]hat has TOTUS done in his/her’s/its first 100 days?

Started a blog
Barack Obama’s Telepromter Blog

Twittered (or is that tweating?)
TOTUStelepromt on Twitter

Obama’s 100 Days: The Mad Men Did Well (by John Pilger)
It is more than 100 days since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. The “Obama brand” has been named “Advertising Age’s marketer of the year for 2008”, easily beating Apple computers… No one knew what the new brand actually stood for. So accomplished was the advertising (a record $75m was spent on television commercials alone) that many Americans actually believed Obama shared their opposition to Bush’s wars. In fact, he had repeatedly backed Bush’s warmongering and its congressional funding… In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture, opposed habeas corpus and demanded more secret government. He has kept Bush’s gulag intact and at least 17,000 prisoners beyond the reach of justice…

Perhaps the biggest lie – the equivalent of smoking is good for you – is Obama’s announcement that the US is leaving Iraq, the country it has reduced to a river of blood. According to unabashed US army planners, as many as 70,000 troops will remain “for the next 15 to 20 years”. On 25 April, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, alluded to this. It is not surprising that the polls are showing that a growing number of Americans believe they have been suckered – especially as the nation’s economy has been entrusted to the same fraudsters who destroyed it. Lawrence Summers, Obama’s principal economic adviser, is throwing $3trn at the same banks that paid him more than $8m last year, including $135,000 for one speech. Change you can believe in.

Obama, with his toothpaste advertisement smile and righteous clichés, is a godsend. At a stroke, he has seen off serious domestic dissent to war, and he brings tears to the eyes, from Washington to Whitehall. He is the BBC’s man, and CNN’s man, and Murdoch’s man, and Wall Street’s man, and the CIA’s man. The Madmen did well.

Hillary is ’suprise winner’ of first 100 days, Rothkopf says (Foreign Policy, thanks to mablue2 at The Confluence)
FP blogger David Rothkopf has picked his surprise winners and losers of Obama’s first 100 days, and one of the winners is Secretary Clinton. After stating that National Security Advisor James L. Jones is the surprise loser in the “foreign policy division,” Rothkopf writes: “[A] good place to look if [Jones] wants an example [of] how to do it all right thus far is over in Foggy Bottom where the surprise winner of the first 100 days in this division is Hillary Clinton. She was supposed to be the uncontrollable ego, but instead she has turned out to be the team player who is using her star-power to very effectively advance the Obama agenda.”

Obama To Fox News And Tea Baggers: ‘Let’s Not Play Games’ (Think Progress)
President Obama spent part of the 100th day of his presidency today in Arnold, Missouri where he hosted a town hall meeting with local residents. During the town hall, Obama recognized criticism he’s been receiving from the far right. “I know you have been hearing all these arguments about, ‘Oh, Obama’s just spending crazy, look at these huge trillion dollar deficits, blah, blah, blah.’” Obama then noted that the real fiscal problem facing the United States is the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Medicaid, not the Recovery Act or bank bailouts, which he said are “one-time charges.” “If we aren’t careful, health care will consume so much of our budget that ultimately we won’t be able to do anything else,” he warned…

“That’s why I have said we’ve got to have health reform this year to drive down costs and make health care affordable for American families, businesses, and for our government,” Obama said. Referring to the tea baggers’ grievances, he later added, “We tried that formula for eight years. It did not work, and I don’t intend to go back to it.”
My comment: Please stop using the term tea bagger when referring to these people. It’s not only a silly slur against them, it’s a silly slur against gay men, as well.

Obama To GOP: You Have To Start Meeting Me Halfway (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
From the budget, passed by the Senate on Wednesday night, to a stimulus package, the current administration has put in place an economic framework that will shape domestic policy for decades to come. Those achievement, however, have come at a cost to another tenet of the Obama agenda: the dawning of a bipartisan age… Confronted by the fact that, in his words, “there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we’re in the middle of really big crises,” Obama offered a stricter definition of what he views as a Washington bipartisan. The GOP, in short, has to start meeting him half way.
No, they don’t, President Obama.  You continue to misunderstand the situation in Washington. The Republicans are the OPPOSITION party. They believe in OPPOSING the majority. It’s what we netizens wanted from the Democrats when YOU were in the minority. An opposition party doesn’t meet you halfway, it tries to make you stumble. And fall. And hurt yourself. That’s the JOB of an opposition party. I understand that your political experience was almost solely confined to the state of Illinois, where both parties work together to fleece the taxpayers.  It’s not quite that cozy in Washington, and the sooner you figure that out, the better.

Toobin: “On this whole issue of bipartisanship, can I just ask, who cares?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

I want to personally thank our famously free press… (by lambert at Corrente)
… for asking not one single question about the financial crisis during Obama’s presser [Wednesday night]. Every American must do their part in these troubled times, and not asking questions, especially about the extremely large sums of money being collected by banksters, is very important!

Priorities (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
CBS News gets a shot at asking the President of the United States a question — one question — with the nation watching, and Chip Reid uses it to ask what Arlen Specter’s party change says about the state of the Republican Party. It’s in a shambles.  Who cares?  That’s really the most important thing you could think of to ask the President?

We waited a month for that? (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
On March 24, President Obama held a press conference without calling on the New York Times, causing some chatter among Establishment media. [Wednesday night], the Times got its chance to ask the President a question — and Jeff Zeleny used it to ask “What has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most, and troubled you the most?”

Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’ (Think Progress)
In tonight’s press conference, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked President Obama if he believes “that the previous administration sanctioned torture,” in light of Obama’s recent release of Bush-era torture memos. Obama refrained from saying the Bush administration committed criminal acts, but he said, “I do believe that it [waterboarding] is torture.” The President added that the legal guidance that Bush lawyers provided were a “mistake”.
Click through to watch the video.

In presser, Obama lowers the baseline on health care “reform” yet again (by lambert at Corrente)
Is Obama interested in health care? Is he even paying attention? “[OBAMA] You can expect us to work on health-care reform that will bring down costs while maintaining quality” You know, I was under the impression that maintaining quality wouldn’t really be enough.

Press Conference Transcript (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Here. I had it on in the background but I wasn’t really paying attention. I did catch the part where he made it clear that women’s reproductive rights aren’t a current priority but placating the anti-choice movement is (believe it or not, Mr. President, an unwanted pregnancy is a pretty big economic crisis for most women): “…Now, the Freedom of Choice Act is not my highest legislative priority. I believe that women should have the right to choose, but I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the — the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on. And that’s — that’s where I’m going to focus.”

Why should he be seeking “consensus” on women’s rights? Do we now allow people’s opinions to determine whether we have rights? Hmm.

Bennett’s response to CNN internet respondents giving Obama an “A” on the economy: “What are they drinking out there in America?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Cunningham on Obama: “What we have here is this little boy who grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the age of 6 to 10, rejected by his own father, rejected by his own mother, rejected by his stepfather, raised by his grandparents” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Discussing Obama’s tea party comments, Miller says, “I think he looks out at that Norman Rockwell hoi polloi demo, and those are the only people he might want to waterboard” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

World health officials urge governments to prepare for pandemic (McClatchy)
The global threat from the swine flu outbreak reached its highest level yet on Wednesday as the World Health Organization urged government, business and health officials to start planning in earnest for a pandemic, which now appears unavoidable.

Terrorist Plot Uncovered! (by Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors)

Flu panic sweeps Texas; Fort Worth orders schools closed (McClatchy)
The Fort Worth school district shut down all 144 of its campuses until at least May 8 shortly before the first Tarrant County case of swine flu was confirmed at one of its campuses late Wednesday.

School flu closings put working parents in a bind (McClatchy)
President Barack Obama, at the behest of public-health officials, is recommending that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu “strongly consider temporarily closing so we can be as safe as possible.”

Teasing a “swine flu update,” Kudlow asks “Does that mean I’m going to have to call this the Mexican flu?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Combating Epidemic Ignorance (by Joe Conason, New York Observer, posted at Truthdig)
At the first news of the flu outbreak, all of the usual loudmouths on Fox News Channel and the Internet immediately started to spread panic and blame—including rumors that this illness could represent a bioterror attack launched from across the border… As these commentators ought to know, the vector of swine flu into the United States had nothing to do with immigrants from any country, who so far have shown no sign of illness, and everything to do with ordinary travel and commerce. A group of high school students from New York City went to Cancún on spring vacation and on their return carried home the virus—which has traveled as far as Spain, Scotland, Israel and New Zealand via similar pathways.

As the worldwide coordinator for public health officials in every country when a pandemic looms, [WHO] plays an essential role—analogous to the Centers for Disease Control in the United States—that simply would not be performed otherwise. Without the WHO, this planet would be far sicker, poorer and more dangerous. The same cannot be said of the demagogues who inhabit so much of the airwaves and cyberspace. On a planet where human survival will demand cooperation, tolerance, honesty and generosity, their persistent idiocy is not just embarrassing but potentially lethal.

Swine flu fashion hits the streets of Mexico (Metro, U.K.)
Despite the continued spread of swine flu, Mexicans are showing no let-up in their attempt to have the most pimped-up masks around. The first signs of a concerted effort to make face mask fashion appeared [Tuesday], when young Mexicans began drawing smiley faces on their cover-ups. And now there seems to be a new move into a range of altogether more creepy masks – complete with sharp teeth and a Terminator-inspired look.
Click through for more photographs.

CBS’s Knoller watching too much 24? ”[I]f part of the United States were under imminent threat, could you envision yourself ever authorizing the use of those enhanced interrogation techniques?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Disclosure of ‘Secrets’ in the ’70s Didn’t Destroy the Nation (by Amy Goodman at Truthdig)
Back in the Watergate era, the Senate’s Church Committee exposed government abuses. Of course some people tried to block its work. You may have heard of a couple of them—Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Look to the Law—Not to Whether Torture ‘Works’ (by William Pfaff at Truthdig)
The calls for an independent commission to investigate torture usually argue that a congressional investigation, or a Justice Department criminal investigation, would become so politicized as to be hopelessly compromised. I am not sure this is true.

Sadly, we have to depend on the investigations of strangers to bring our elite criminals to justice:
Spanish judge opens Guantanamo investigation (AP)
A Spanish judge opened a probe into the Bush administration over alleged torture of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, pressing ahead Wednesday with a drive that Spain‘s own attorney general has said should be waged in the United States, if at all. Judge Baltasar Garzon, Spain’s most prominent investigative magistrate, said he is acting under this country’s observance of the principle of universal justice, which allows crimes allegedly committed in other countries to be prosecuted in Spain. He said documents declassified by the new U.S. government suggest the practice was systematic and ordered at high levels of the US government.

Sands: Bybee should resign to maintain international credibility of U.S. federal courts. (Think Progress)
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that anonymous friends of Judge Jay Bybee said that he had been apologetic for authoring Bush-era memos that legally justified torture. However, The New York Times [reported Wednesday] that Bybee contradicted the Post’s report. “I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct,” Bybee said. NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed international lawyer Philippe Sands and asked him to respond to Bybee’s most recent defense. Sands said that the American federal courts, where Bybee currently sits, “are immensely respected institutions” internationally and that Bybee should resign to preserve their credibility.

Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal (Think Progress)
Recently, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with some students at Stanford University, where she is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. When a student asked whether Rice had authorized torture, she refused to take responsibility, saying only that she “conveyed the authorization of the administration.” She added that, “by definition,” once the president authorized “enhanced interrogations,” they were automatically legal… In fact, the United States — and its president — are bound by U.S. statute and international treaties that ban the use of cruel, humiliating, degrading treatment, the infliction of suffering, and the attempt to extract coerced confessions.

Bush Flashback: “War Crimes Will Be Prosecuted…It Will Be No Defense To Say, ‘I Was Just Following Orders’” (Think Progress)
Just before launching his invasion of Iraq, President Bush went on national television to issue an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, urging him to leave his country within 48 hours. Bush also had this message for “all Iraqi military and civilian personnel”: “War crimes will be prosecuted, war criminals will be punished and it will be no defense to say, ‘I was just following orders.’”
Click through to watch the video.

The Bad News Continues… (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
First quarter GDP down 6.1%. Green shoots are not, policymakers must plan for a prolonged downturn. If things turn out better than expected, great, but given that this downturn has been deeper and longer than anyone expected, even updated forecasts have consistently been too optimistic, we cannot let down our guard.

Fed Study Puts Ideal U.S. Interest Rate at -5%.(Financial Times)
The ideal interest rate for the US economy in current conditions would be minus 5 per cent, according to internal analysis prepared for the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting. The analysis was based on a so-called Taylor-rule approach that estimates an appropriate interest rate based on unemployment and inflation.

A central bank cannot cut interest rates below zero. However, the staff research suggests the Fed should maintain unconventional policies that provide stimulus roughly equivalent to an interest rate of minus 5 per cent. Fed staff separately estimated what size and type of unconventional operations, including asset purchases, might provide this level of stimulus. They suggested that the Fed should expand its asset purchases by even more than the $1,150bn (€885bn, £788bn) increase policymakers authorised at the last meeting, which included $300bn of Treasury purchases.

Next economic crisis looms: Commercial real estate defaults (McClatchy)
Two years after fissures in the residential housing market gave way to a national collapse of home prices and sales, experts warn the next shoe to drop is the commercial real-estate market, bringing more woes to the battered economy.

Anti-green economics (by Paul Krugman)
Clearly, opposition to doing something about climate change has fallen back to a new position: claims that attempting to limit greenhouse gas emissions would be incredibly costly. Yet the most careful studies, like the big MIT study of Congressional proposals, find only modest costs… Opponents of a policy change generally believe that market economies are wonderful things, able to adapt to just about anything — anything, that is, except a government policy that puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions. Limits on the world supply of oil, land, water — no problem. Limits on the amount of CO2 we can emit — total disaster. Funny how that is.

China’s Stimulus Spurs U.S. Business (Wall Street Journal)
As the Government’s $585 Billion Program Pours Money Into Projects, U.S. Suppliers Find Opportunities
Every country in the world should be doing this. We’ll all benefit.

Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (AP)
Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday and announced it will temporarily halt most of its vehicle production while it completes a deal with Italian carmaker Fiat designed to revive its tattered fortunes. The Obama administration said it had long hoped to stave off bankruptcy for the nation’s third-largest automaker, but it became clear that a holdout group of creditors wouldn’t budge on proposals to reduce Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt. Clearing those debts was a needed step for Chrysler to restructure by a government-imposed Thursday deadline.

Lewis ousted as BofA chairman, remains as CEO (McClatchy)
Bank of America Corp, today said that Walter Massey was named chairman after a proposal to split the chairman and chief executive positions was narrowly approved with 50.3 percent of the vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Massey becomes Bank of America chairman
Bank of America’s new chairman is a distinguished physicist, respected academic administrator and longtime bank director, who has dined with the Queen of England and danced at the White House.

Why Congress Won’t Investigate Wall Street (by Thomas Frank)
The famous Pecora Commission of 1933 and 1934 was one of the most successful congressional investigations of all time, an instance when oversight worked exactly as it should. The subject was the massively corrupt investment practices of the 1920s. In the course of its investigation, the Senate Banking Committee, which brought on as its counsel a former New York assistant district attorney named Ferdinand Pecora, heard testimony from the lords of finance that cemented public suspicion of Wall Street. Along the way, the investigations formed the rationale for the Glass-Steagall Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and other financial regulations of the Roosevelt era.

A new round of regulation is clearly in order these days, and a Pecora-style investigation seems like a good way to jolt the Obama administration into action. After all, the financial revelations of today bear a striking resemblance to those of 1933… It’s probably not going to happen, though, in the comprehensive way that it should. The reason is that understanding our problems, this time around, would require our political leaders to examine themselves… [I]t’s not only Republicans who would feel the sting of embarrassment.

The Clinton Bubble (by Robert Scheer at Truthdig)
Now I know that the conventional wisdom among Democrats is that the Clintonistas were wildly successful in running the economy when they had their turn, and that [Robert] Rubin and his protégés Lawrence Summers and [Timothy] Geithner deserve a lot of the credit. But that view is dead wrong. The seeds of the current economic chaos were planted in those years, in which Wall Street lobbyists were given everything they wanted in the way of radical deregulation, and hence was born the madcap world of credit swaps and other unregulated derivatives. The result was a Clinton bubble, which saw the rise of a new superrich class that vastly skewed income distribution…

What is involved here is an extreme case of government-condoned “moral hazard” offering outrageous compensation to the superrich for screwing up royally. Where is the socially conscious Obama we voted for? E-mail him and ask.
That “socially conscious” Obama never existed, Mr. Scheer. You were sold some cotton candy—spun sugar—plumped up by nothing but air. Those of us who tried to warn the rest of you were called stupid, white trash racists and kicked off message boards.  We are like those who tried to warn the nation about the Iraq War and those who tried to warn about the housing bubble and the subsequent crash we’re now dealing with.  We were not allowed to speak then, and we are still not allowed to speak in many places.

Boxer Will Run for Re-Election (Political Wire)
Though all signs suggested Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) would run for re-election in 2010, some analysts thought she could make a bid for governor instead. But the California lawmaker made it official this past weekend at the state Democratic convention, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Said Boxer: “I’m formally announcing, in front of this convention, that I am running again for the United States Senate.” CQ Politics rates the race as Safe Democrat.

Specter’s first vote as a Democrat: No on Obama’s budget. (Think Progress)
In a 53-to-43 vote [Wednesday night], the Senate followed the House in passing President Obama’s budget. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the budget resolution, but a number of key Democrats including Sens. Evan Bayh (IN), Robert Byrd (WV), Ben Nelson (NE), and most notably Arlen Specter (PA) voted against it. Just yesterday, Specter reportedly said to Obama, “I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.” The budget resolution that passed … allowed for health care reform to be implemented using the budget reconciliation process, which Specter expressed his opposition to yesterday.

The Bolter: Specter Spectacle Hides Deadly New Folly in Terror War (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
So the Democrats have yet another supporter of aggressive war, oligarchy, authoritarianism and torture in their Senate ranks. Wow, that will certainly shake up the political landscape in Washington! It looks like the promised New Jerusalem of hope and change has well and truly arrived at last…

The reaction to Specter’s turning of his blood-spattered coat (or rather, his re-turning, as he began his political life as a Democrat) has been marked by the total amnesia that is the chronic affliction of our dozy, cozy media mandarins. The idea that Specter will vote in lockstep with the Democratic leadership’s wishes, thus providing a “filibuster-proof” majority, is, of course, ludicrous, and flies in the face not only of Specter’s own extensive (and deeply conservative) legislative record, but also the record of the current Democratic Party in the Senate. They can’t even get “real” Democrats to vote their way on every issue.

Heh (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Congressman Joe Sestak threatens to run in the primary against Arlen if he doesn’t vote like a Democrat.

Gingrich: After Specter’s Departure, A New ‘Contract With America’ Sounds Like A ‘Very Good Idea’ (Think Progress)
One of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s lasting legacies was his 1994 conservative revolution where he and other Republicans made a so-called “Contract with America.” Over time, the public learned that the real “contract” conservatives were making was with K Street lobbyists who lined the pockets of the right-wing with hefty contributions, helped them maintain power, and were in turn rewarded with undue (and corrupting) influence over policy-making. Leaders of the Republican revolution — such as Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert – left office surrounded by ethics scandals.

[Tuesday] night, Gingrich — who often tries to find “new, bold” ideas in decades-old proposals – went on Fox News and agreed with Sean Hannity that what America now needs is a new “Contract with America“.

Republicans To Launch “Rebranding” Effort (Political Wire)
CNN reports on a new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party and to counter President Obama’s characterization of Republicans as “the party of no.” “It will involve an outreach by an interesting mix of GOP officials, ranging from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and the younger brother of the man many Republicans blame for the party’s battered brand: former President George W. Bush.” Also involved: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mitt Romney.

Jim Morin

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“I’m not as partisan as I once was. I don’t like what politics has become.” — GOP pollster Frank Luntz, quoted by The Wrap, on trying to change careers.
That is from the man who invented the lie by proximity—he encouraged Republican leaders to put 9/11 and Saddam Hussein together in the same sentence or phrase, thereby making the gullible think Saddam had something to do with 9/11. An implied lie, with implied deniability.

Local GOP cancel speech by Utah’s Republican governor because he’s too moderate. (Think Progress)
Joanne Voorhees, the chairwoman of the Kent County Republican party in Michigan, has “abruptly canceled” an upcoming fundraiser with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. (R). Voorhees “said that hosting the moderate Utah governor would mean abandoning the party’s conservative principles.” The cancellation comes as Republicans are pushing for a more narrow party focused on hard-right principles. In a new interview with ABC News, Huntsman sharply criticizes the national GOP leadership, giving them an “incomplete” grade on their first 100 days as an opposition party to President Obama. “Instead of just kind of grousing and complaining, it would do us all a whole lot of good if we actually started engaging directly in finding compromises and common ground and shared solutions,” said Hunstman.

Steele Losing Control of RNC Purse Strings (Political Wire)
“A battle over control of the party’s purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to ‘embarrass and neuter’ the party’s new leader,” the Washington Times reports. Top party officials have called “for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman’s power to dole out money. The powers include new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.”

GOP Hysterical Over Hate Crimes Bill Because It Would Protect Gay People (Think Progress)
The House is scheduled to vote today on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill, also called the Matthew Shepard Act, would “permit greater federal involvement in investigating hate crimes and expand the federal definition of such crimes to include those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.”… The right wing, unsurprisingly, is up in arms over extending protection to victims of anti-gay crimes. Led by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), House Republicans took to the floor last night to warn that the bill would impose “tyranny,” create a “Big Brother” government, and end religious freedom.

After weeks of grandstanding, Palin will accept stimulus funds. (Think Progress)
Following the lead of the other 2012 GOP presidential contenders, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) announced last month that she would reject nearly half of the $930 million Alaska was to receive from the stimulus package on education, health care, and labor. But after calling the stimulus “an unsustainable, debt-ridden package of funds,” Palin has now decided to accept the vast majority of the package… South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) also recently backed down from his standoff with the White House over his desire to reject stimulus funding.

Democrats Preemptively Attack Crist (Political Wire)
While Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) hasn’t even announced whether he’ll run for U.S. Senate next year, the DSCC isn’t taking any chances and released its first advertisement of the 2010 cycle blasting Crist’s tenure as governor.
Actually, Crist hasn’t been too bad, considering that he’s a Republican.

In New Book, James Carville Dishes And Disses On Hillary Campaign (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
In a forthcoming book, top Hillary supporter James Carville reveals that Bill Clinton was privately shocked and infuriated by the Hillary campaign’s awful financial mismanagement, and he serves up scorching criticism of the campaign, singling out polling guru Mark Penn for “suffering fatal confusion” about delegate strategy… [H]ere are a few choice tidbits:
* Just before the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton was privately informed by Hillary campaign chair Terry McAuliffe that the campaign only had enough money to buy TV ads for two more states…
* As early as mid-April, well before Hillary dropped out, it was already clear that many super-delegates they were pursuing were likely to go for Obama…
* Mark Penn, Carville says, was a key factor in Hillary’s defeat, because he “suffered fatal confusion on the subject of delegates.”
So Greg, did Carville mention in his book the more than 2,000 instances of irregularities in the caucuses that have never been investigated? Did he mention that the person who spent all the money was Patty Solis Doyle, sister of Chicago Alderman Solis and longtime friend of David Axelrod? Did he talk about the Rules & Bylaws Committee of the DNC breaking its own rules to hand pledged delegates to a candidate who didn’t even run in the state for which he was awarded delegates? Obama cheated his way into the nomination. He didn’t win, and Hillary didn’t lose.

Edwards Says Husband Should Not Have Run (Political Wire)
The New York Daily News got an advance copy of Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards who writes that when she learned of her husband’s affair, “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up.” “Despite feeling deeply deceived,” she “nonetheless publicly stood by her husband’s side, lending his candidacy the aura of a warm, loving family life. But she had actually wanted him to quit the race to protect the family.” Later events proved her right. “He should not have run,” she says.

New Hampshire Senate passes gay-marriage bill (Reuters)
New Hampshire‘s Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage after an amendment was added that allows clergy to decline to marry gay couples… Because the Senate and House passed separate versions, they must resolve their differences before the bill can go to the governor, who in 2007 signed a law recognizing same-sex civil unions, making New Hampshire the fourth state to do so. [Governor John] Lynch has said the word marriage should be reserved for a traditional heterosexual relationship.

Coming Soon: Social Networking With The Feds (Paid Content)
If all goes well, soon you’ll be able to meet up with the folks from the Agricultural Research Service or the Office of Personnel Management on Facebook and MySpace! Thanks to agreements that the U.S. General Services Administration reached with the two companies this week, there should soon be lots of new profiles of government agencies on the social-networking sites. The GSA says that the agreements resolve legal concerns on issues like advertising, endorsements, and liability that until now have deterred some government entities from using the sites. A Facebook spokesman says the agreement will enable federal agencies to “establish a presence on Facebook so that they may communicate more interactively with the constituencies they serve.”

Misdemeanor Courts a Waste of Time and Money, Says Defense Lawyers Group (Law.com)
Misdemeanor courts are a waste of time and money. So claims the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which on Tuesday issued a first-of-its-kind national report on the status of misdemeanor courts across the country. The report, which involved 18 months’ worth of research at courts in seven states, concluded that state and local governments are wasting millions of tax dollars to prosecute petty offenses, such as curfew and open container violations, loitering and feeding the homeless. The report found that taxpayers are footing the bill for more than 10 million misdemeanor prosecutions per year, paying an average of $60 a day, per inmate, to incarcerate misdemeanor defendants.

Courts are also violating the constitutional rights of citizens who are being hauled into court, the report claims, and often coerced into cutting deals without legal representation… The report … recommends that states divert nonviolent misdemeanor cases that do not affect public safety to programs that are less costly to taxpayers and repay society through community service or civil fines.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Time has Beck praising Limbaugh’s “honesty” inTime 100 profile

• NBC/WSJ poll question advanced false claim about proposed labor law

• Does Dobbs think Dr. Gupta and others at CNN are “out of their cotton pickin’ minds”?

• Rove pushes “extreme” distortion of Obama health care remark

• Media still bored by Obama press conferences

• Stamp of approval: Media tout Obama polling falsehood

• Fox’s Henneberg repeats right-wing myth that hate crimes bill could gag ministers

• FNC’s Napolitano peddles paranoia about “swine flu,” Obama’s health care plan

French group urges Iran to free US journalist
More than a dozen people in Paris have launched a hunger strike in support of an American journalist who is in jail in Tehran.

French lawmakers reconsider Internet piracy bill
French legislators reconsidered a bill Wednesday that would punish people who illegally download music and films by cutting off their Internet connections.

Panel Advises Clarifying U.S. Plans on Cyberwar
A three-year study concluded that the U.S. has no clear policy about how it might respond to a cyberattack.

Obama picks Clyburn for FCC.
South Carolina Public Service commissioner and former newspaper publisher Mignon Clyburn has been picked by the President to fill one of the open Democratic seats on the FCC. She is the daughter of House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn — who is also the highest-ranking African-American member of Congress.
Thus does Jim Clyburn get his reward for portraying the Clintons as racists during last year’s primary.

Tony Blair’s son begins legal action against Sunday Express
Euan Blair issues writ claiming £50,000 damages after Sunday Express diary item about his personal life

Minnesota asks ISPs to block gambing sites
Minnesota officials are trying a novel tactic to block online gambling sites using a federal law that enables restrictions on phone calls used for wagering.

Microsoft Fights Antitrust Charge Over Its Browser
Microsoft is responding to Opera’s accusation that bundling Internet Explorer with Windows harms the market for browsers.

Gagging on Google (by Willem Buiter at Maverecon, Financial Times)
[T]he Microsoft Leviathan has now been joined or even replaced by Google’s Godzilla as the main threat to the freedom of the internet, and now also a growing threat to key intellectual property rights, especially copyright, and privacy… When confronted with criticism of Google’s repeated assaults on copyright and privacy, Google CEO Eric Schmidt comes up with the most astonishing infantile defence.  It amounts to: if something can be done, it will be done and indeed ought to be done… It is time for people to take a stand, as individual consumers and internet users, and collectively through laws and regulations, to tame this new Leviathan.
Click through for specifics.

So It’s Official, Then: Ashton Kutcher Got Punk’d (Sorry, Twit!) (by Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age)
I’m happy to report that overwhelmingly, readers were able to look past Kutcher’s media stunt — and the mass media’s celebration of his “triumph” — and parse what having 1 million Twitter followers really means and doesn’t mean. In fact, all the reader response helped me crystallize my understanding of everything the media — and Kutcher himself — got wrong about his “win.”… I think it’s pretty clear that Kutcher allowed himself to get punk’d. He drank his own Kool-Aid… Most Twitterers “breaking” news of consequence are, duh, just grabbing it from mainstream media websites like CNN’s.
I’m not a Twit, but I do belong to Facebook. I use it to notify people that my daily website post is done. But a lot of what I see there, which is much like Twitter posts, is a lot of people talking PAST each other.

How to Use the Web to Prevent Remaining Print Readers From Fleeing (by Steve Outing, Editor & Publisher)
As much as media companies tend to focus on how to serve younger people (generally with digital strategies), let’s not forget the older crowd. They have a transition to make, and newspaper publishers, especially, need to help them out — or kiss them goodbye. Here’s why.

Time Warner Is Moving Closer to AOL Spinoff
Such a move would untangle what many consider one of the worst mergers in American corporate history.

WSJ Editor Slams ‘Brain Dead’ Times Readers (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
[Click through to read a memo [the Wall Street Journal's managing editor Robert Thomson] sent to staff… Along with the chart [below], it’s supposed to prove the Journal caters to the sort of active, engaged readers who pick up the paper on the newstand. USA Today and the Times, meanwhile, are for the non-sentient.

New ‘USA Today’ Editor: Seek to ‘Innovate Like Hell’ 
“I think USA Today is in better shape than a lot of papers,” John Hillkirk told E&P Wednesday. “I don’t see radical new changes.” 

Will The Boston Globe Survive? (by Adam Reilly, Boston Phoenix)
There are all sorts of reasons people want the Globe to live, apparently; some are good, but some aren’t. And even the paper’s staunchest partisans already seem to be bracing for defeat. Let’s hope they’re wrong.

Globe Guild Leader Takes Heat as Talks Divide Staff
In negotiating concessions to save The Boston Globe, Daniel Totten, president of the newspaper’s biggest union, sometimes faces a tougher crowd than The New York Times Co. executives across the table: his own members.

Baltimore Sun Cuts 1/3 of Newsroom
The Baltimore Sun has cut its newsroom staff by nearly a third in a reorganization the company said would help it not just survive but succeed in one of the worst economic downturns in decades. The news company laid off 61 newsroom staffers, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Big Job Cuts at NAA — And No Longer Will Print ‘Presstime’ 
While its members struggle under a punishing economic downturn and a secular transition to digital, the Newspaper Association of America is cutting its staff by 50% and will cease publication of the print edition of the magazine Presstime, says John Sturm

Uploading Personal Files to Your Kindle? That’ll Be 15 Cents Per Megabyte (Mashable)
Amazon has announced a couple of Kindle-related changes… First, they’re adding support for two new document types: RTF and DOCX. Support for PDF as well as DOCX files is experimental, and Amazon is warning that “some complex PDF and DOCX files might not format correctly on your Kindle.” The other change has to do with pricing; from now on, Amazon will charge 15 cents per megabyte for wireless uploading of personal documents to your Kindle – rounded up to the nearest whole megabyte. This is effectively quite a large price increase, since up until now the fee was 10 cents per document, regardless of the size.

Taunton Reorganizes, Eliminates Publisher Positions
Taunton Press has eliminated the publisher position across its five magazines as part of a reorganization. Now, staff will be organized into three groups: content creation, marketing and sales. Each group will be led by a separate senior vice president.

Radio Giant Faces Crisis in Cash Flow
Clear Channel, the radio station operator that was taken private last year, is facing mounting debt payments as media companies face a steep drop in advertising.

Updated: More Layoffs At Clear Channel; Up To 1,000 People This Time (Paid Content)
Radio behemoth Clear Channel is laying off more employees … as it struggles with declining ad revenue and a mountain of debt taken on in a buyout by private-equity firm Bain Capital and Thomas Lee Partners. The company may let go as many as 1,000 employees, or more than 6 percent of its staff. (Earlier today, the company had said about 590 people would lose their jobs, but the CEO later said on an internal conference call that the number would be closer to 1,000.) A person familiar with the situation said most of the cuts are occurring in programming and were primarily in small and mid-sized markets.

Al Jazeera Channel Cracks the U.S. Dial
Under an agreement with MHz Networks, a Falls Church-based educational broadcaster, AJE will become available today to households throughout the Washington area, and to cable and broadcast viewers in 20 other cities in a few months.

Hasbro Pays Discovery $300 Million To Reinvent Itself As Kids Content Maker (Paid Content)
Hasbro is effectively buying itself a stake in a new-look Discovery Kids, creating a 50-50 joint venture that will deliver family and kids TV and web content from late 2010. Whilst presented as a JV, Hasbro is actually buying its 50 percent stake by paying $300 million to Discovery Communications. The new entity will continue to hold the Discovery Kids Network’s US operations, but the pair say they will rebrand the network for the venture next year. There’s no name given yet, however, and Discovery Kids will continue to operate overseas. The JV will search for a president and general manager “immediately”, and Hasbro itself is also investing in building a new creative team to produce cartoons, live-action shows, game shows, digital and mobile content.

The deal is primarily about creating new TV distribution opportunities for Hasbro brands, but is referred to in the release as a “multi-platform initiative” that sees Discovery handed some control over Hasbro’s online efforts – the joint company will hold a minority interest in Hasbro.com.

Comcast 1Q profit up 6 percent on new customers
Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable TV provider, said Thursday that first-quarter earnings rose by 6 percent as the company signed up throngs of new customers for its digital cable, phone and high-speed Internet services.

@ LA Games Conference: Making Money From Social Games (Paid Content)
VCs have been pumping money into social-gaming companies like OMGPOP and Zynga because the startups have figured out how to do what the social networks themselves mostly haven’t: make money from users directly, not just through advertising. Players across Facebook, MySpace and other networks have been gobbling up millions of dollars worth of virtual goods, and while actual figures are hard to come by, attendees at the LA Games Conference did shed some light on how they enticed users to pay (and play).
Click through for more information.  I, for one, am completely baffled by people who pay for virtual goods. They’re the ultimate in vaporware.

@ LA Games Conference: What’s My ROI? The Best Metrics For Virtual Campaigns (Paid Content)
It may have been easy to get marketers to invest in virtual worlds two years ago—but the economy (and the Second Life backlash) has changed that. With budgets getting scrutinized across the board, companies like Linden Lab, Sulake (parent company of Habbo) and Stardoll need to try to convince advertisers that paying to brand virtual goods, set up in-world experiences, or otherwise run campaigns in their worlds is still a worthwhile investment. How do they do it? With metrics. LA Games Conference panelists offered some examples:

Recession is latest focus of games for change
With the recession impacting college students, MTV’s college network mtvU is turning to one medium it know will get attention to help teach students to cope with tough financial times — a video game.

As Part Of Entertainment Push, MSN Will Launch User-Created Fansites (Paid Content)
Looking to boost user engagement (and fill space cheaply), MSN said Wednesday it would use Wetpaint’s wiki-platform to let visitors edit and contribute photos, videos and text to new fansites hosted on its MSN Entertainment portal. MSN will launch more than two dozen such sites on its entertainment portal this year. For MSN, the arrangement provides a cheap way to bulk up the portal’s entertainment offerings. In January, MSN launched its Wonderwall celebrity site, to compete with AOL’s TMZ and Yahoo’s omg! Last week, the company also said it would give visitors the option of an entertainment-focused home page. Seattle-based Wetpaint, which also powers fansites on the websites of HBO, Showtime, and Fox, has raised more than $40 million in venture funding.

Study suggests doctors could add to Wikipedia
Researchers are suggesting that doctors could be spending more time writing and editing Wikipedia pages on medical topics, despite questions that have been raised about the collaborative online encyclopedia’s credibility.

HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events With Social Media (Mashable)
Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world’s largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute. But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place. Whether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal. With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.
Click through for step by step suggestions.

General Mills Connects With Social Media Moms (Mashable)
Not long ago, General Mills set up a blog network called MyBlogSpark. Bloggers in the program have access to some of the newest General Mills products around, so long as they review the items on their blogs. This is a unique way to access and discuss General Mills products (i.e. Cheerios, Yoplait Yogurt). One of the other cool things about the MyBlogSpark program is that about 80% of its bloggers are moms. MyBlogSpark is a program to anyone with an interest in GM brands. According to AdWeek, so far about 900 people have signed up, meaning over 700 of the participants are blogging social media moms. There is no actual compensation for reviewing products, just insider access, some samples for review, and maybe a few freebies.

Most-Searched Term on Microsoft’s Live Search Is … ‘Google’ (Paid Content)
Microsoft’s Live Search revamp apparently cannot come soon enough. Hitwise data shows that the most commonly searched term on Live Search over the last four weeks has been “Google,” accounting for one percent of all queries. Number two? “Yahoo.” Granted, many people who go to Yahoo and Google to search are hoping to go elsewhere too. Or maybe they are flat-out confused. “Google” is the 10th-most searched term on Google itself (!)

YouTube Lets Video Publishers Export Their Stats (Mashable)
YouTube has been offering an increasing number of options to publishers for measuring engagement around their videos. Now, the YouTube Insight platform is letting you take that data anywhere you want, by making it exportable. In a blog post, the company notes that they’ve “added a link that allows you to export your Insight data into CSV files. CSV files are open format files that organize data so it can be moved and analyzed using common spreadsheet software such as Google Docs and Microsoft Excel.” That means all of your view counts, comment counts, demographic data, and other stats that YouTube tracks can all be exported to any platform that supports .CSV imports.

Marketers Still Holding On to TV Dollars
Third-Quarter Upfront Options Remain Open Past Deadline

Keeping the News Crawl Running During Ad Breaks
Media buyers and other executives say a channel’s news and information ticker can keep viewers tuned in and watching commercials.

Spammers Trying To Cash In on Swine Flu Frenzy
Worried about Swine Flu? If so, don’t let your fear and anxiety dupe you into clicking dubious links in emails. Spammers are increasingly using Swine Flu in subject lines and messages to take advantage of people’s fears of the rapidly-spreading Influenza strain, according to McAfee’s Advert Labs Blog.

iPhone siblings to land at Verizon Wireless?
An iPhone “lite” and an iPhone “media pad” may be offered by Verizon Wireless, according to sources quoted in stories from BusinessWeek and USA Today.

iTypeFastr jailbreak app helps speed iPhone typing
Having been an iPhone user for nearly two years now, I’ve heard pretty much every gripe there is to hear about the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard—I’ve even agreed with a few of them. But it’s not as if there’s much in the way of alternatives. However, if you’ve jailbroken your phone, you might consider taking a gander at the new keyboard app iTypeFastR.

Pure Digital releases new Flip camcorders
Pure Digital Technologies, makers of the popular Flip line of pocket camcorders announced today the release of two new pocket camcorders—the Flip $149 UltraSD and $200 Flip UltraHD.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Yesterday was my birthday, so I took the day off. My birthday present to me was a webcam, so if I can ever figure out how to get YouTube to accept an upload, we may have some visits from Granny Bee.

Most See Obama as Different Type of Politician (Political Wire)
New York Times/CBS News Poll: “More than two-thirds of the poll’s respondents call Mr. Obama a different kind of politician, while just 1 in 4 say he is a typical politician. When those who called him different were asked what sets him apart, most said it was more a matter of his style of governing and his personal qualities than his policies.”
Because it doesn’t matter what you do, it only matters how you act and what you say.

And what others say about you:
OBAMA’S FIRST 100 DAYS: How the President Fared In the Press vs. Clinton and Bush (Project for Excellence in Journalism)
As he marks his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George Bush during their first months in the White House, according to a new study of press coverage. 

Obama Redefining What It Means To Be A “Strong Leader”? (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
[T]he public seems to approve of Obama policies that his critics — most prominently, Dick Cheney — have tried to associate with weakness. Seventy one percent approve of his willingness to engage hostile foreign leaders. Fifty three percent back his release of the torture memos. A plurality of 49% support Obama’s decision to nix torture. Meanwhile, ninety percent credit Obama with being “willing to listen to different points of view” — a sharp contrast with his predecessor, whose single-mindedness and swagger were often hailed by his supporters as a sign of strength.

At a minimum, the public sees Obama as a strong leader despite the fact that his policies and personal attributes are regularly derided by critics as signs of weakness. The question is whether the public sees Obama as strong because of those policies and personal attributes, and whether those perceptions will harden and endure — something that could redefine conventional media definitions of leadership strength.
SO FAR, the public has tuned out Obama’s critics. They might not always. Didn’t the public once think that George Bush was a “strong leader”?

Obama’s First 100 Days “Remarkable”: Plouffe (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
In an email blasted out to supporters Tuesday morning, Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe framed the president’s hundred days in office as a “largely symbolic” metric but one that contains “remarkable” achievements. In the Organize for America email, Plouffe also announced the launch of a new website that provides a state-by-state breakdown of the benefits bestowed by the administration’s policies (though the source of the data isn’t noted), as well as personalized stories of struggle and recovery from around the country.

Obama’s Report Card (Foreign Policy)
We asked some of the best foreign-policy minds in Washington and beyond to rate the U.S. president’s first 100 days in office. The result? 11 As, 16 Bs, 7 Cs, and a D.

[From] Ivan Krastev… In my view, a recent joke best summarizes his achievements. In the wake of the G-20 meeting, Obama, Sarkozy, and Putin were walking around a beautiful lake. In the middle of the lake, there was an island. “Let’s go there,” Obama suggested, and started walking on water to it. Sarkozy followed him. Medvedev also followed, but started sinking. “Should we tell him where the stones are?” Sarkozy whispered to Obama. “What stones?” Obama replied.

IOwnTheWorld.com

Obama’s first 100 days showed rhetoric loftier than actions  (By Vince Warren, The Progressive Media Project)
As President Barack Obama hits the 100-day mark on Wednesday, it’s time to take stock. Many of Obama’s words have been inspiring. His rhetoric represents a relief to those who watched with horror as the Bush administration systematically dismantled the U.S. Constitution and ignored international human rights standards. Yet in many areas of critical importance – like human rights, torture, rendition, secrecy and surveillance – his words have been loftier than his actions.

Obama Has Missed His Moment (by Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com)
Barack Obama has squandered his presidency. He had a fleeting moment to challenge the casino capitalism and financial recklessness of our economic and political elite. He could have orchestrated a state socialism that would have provided a safety net for tens of millions of Americans faced with dislocation and misery. The sums he has doled out to Wall Street could have been used to force companies to keep workers on the job or create new banks to open up credit. But he lacked the foresight and the courage to challenge entrenched power. And now we are headed down one of two frightening roads—massive deflation or hyperinflation. Neither will be pleasant.

In rant on Obama’s first 100 days, Kudlow says Obama started “war against investors, businesses, and entrepreneurs,” says “political decisions are replacing the rule of law” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity says we’re celebrating “100 days of America going down the drain” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity calls for new GOP Contract with America to take advantage of “opportunity” Obama has given them (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Specter switching parties, Dems will gain filibuster proof Senate (The Raw Story)
The Washington Post reports, “Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [switched] his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced … that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat…” “Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota,” Chris Cillizza writes for the paper’s online The Fix column.

Would it were so! (by lambert at Corrente)
Michael Steele got a fundraising mailer out immediately: “[Specter's] defection to the Democrat Party puts the Democrats in an almost unstoppable position to pass Obama’s destructive agenda of income redistribution, health care nationalization, and a massive expansion of entitlements.” If only…
Well, it will be interesting to see how the Democrats spin their inevitable “inability” to pass legislation benefiting ordinary people with 60 seats in the Senate. It will be the fault of the Blue Dogs, of course. We’ll hear that gosh, those guys just HAVE to be re-elected. And my question is why? Why would they want conservatives in the Democratic Party?

Tortoise maintains lead, Achilles close second (by Michael J. Smith at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
Curious how the Democrats are always approaching the capacity to govern — and the concomitant responsibility for what government does and doesn’t do — but never quite getting there… Whatever happened, I wonder, to people’s pattern-recognition skills? Why and how can anybody still repose any hope in these shabby con artists?

Less Than 2 Weeks Ago, Specter Warned of “Big Obama Spending Programs” (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
At a press conference just 13 days ago…, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., said if Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., beat him in the GOP primary “we lose the seat in the fall. He’s to the right of Santorum who lost by 18 points after spending $31 million as a two term senator. All that is standing between the Democrats and an avalanche are the 41 Republican Senators to to filibuster. If he’s the nominee we lose the seat and you have card check, and you have tax increases and you have all of the big Obama spending programs.”

“I am a Republican and I am going to run on the Republican ticket in the Republican primary,” he said. Asked how he responded to attempts by Toomey to link him to big spending programs, Specter said, “I voted against every tax increase, I have the backing of the taxpayers association, I supported a Constitutional amendment for a balanced budget and the line item veto. You can pick out a vote here or there. I have a very strong voting record on supporting a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, line item veto. I voted against tax increases, voted to make the Bush tax cuts permanent…”

Specter Promises Obama To ‘Support Your Agenda,’ Hours Later Restates Opposition To OLC Pick (Think Progress)
President Obama was informed of Specter’s decision [Tuesday] morning and called to welcome him to the party. White House sources told ABC News that Specter pledged loyalty to Obama’s agenda: “At 10:32am, President Barack Obama reached Specter and told him ‘you have my full support’ and “thrilled to have you.’ Specter told the president, ‘I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.’ Just hours later, however, Specter reaffirmed his unfounded opposition to Obama’s pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.
Click through to watch the video.

Gosh, if it wasn’t to support the Democrats’ agenda, why do you suppose Specter switched?
Specter Now Favored for Re-Election (Political Wire)
As a result of Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision to run for re-election as a Democrat, CQ Politics is changing its rating of the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race to “Leans Democratic” from the tossup category, “No Clear Favorite.” Similarly, the Cook Political Report changed its rating to Leans Democratic and the Rothenberg Political Report now rates the race as Clear Advantage for the Incumbent Party.

What makes him think… (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
…that the left wants him?

Specter: Smells like teen spirit (by lambert at Corrente)
The reaction at The Obama 527 Formerly Known as Daily Kos (427 recs): “BWHAHAHAHA HAHHAHA HAHHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHHAHA  HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHA!!”

And then, there’s the adult view:  “Crap[:] I hope this works out better than I expect, but 60 nominal Ds doesn’t equal 60 votes. Specter’s still free to be a dick in the Senate, and I expect the state Dem party to welcome him with open arms and push all challengers away from the primary. Though it does open the door for a non-insider candidate to run and perhaps have a more realistic chance than they would have otherwise.”

What Specter’s switch says about him, the Democrats and our political spectrum (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
[A] few brief points:
(1) The idea that Specter is a ”liberal” Republican or even a “moderate” reflects how far to the Right both the GOP and our overall political spectrum has shifted.
(2) Democrats will understandably celebrate today’s announcement, but beyond the questions of raw political power, it is mystifying why they would want to build their majority by embracing politicians who reject most of their ostensible views…  Specter is highly likely to reprise the Joe Lieberman role for Democrats: a “Democrat” who leads the way in criticizing and blocking Democratic initiatives, forcing the party still further towards Republican policies.
(3)  Arlen Specter is one of the worst, most soul-less, most belief-free individuals in politics.  The moment most vividly illustrating what Specter is:  prior to the vote on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, he went to the floor of the Senate and said what the bill “seeks to do is set back basic rights by some 900 years” and is “patently unconstitutional on its face.”  He then proceeded to vote YES on the bill’s passage.

So, how are those Blue Dogs helping us ordinary folks?
Senate to sink mortgage relief plan (AP)
The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s plan to keep thousands of people from losing their homes amid the worst economic crisis in decades is headed for defeat next week in the Senate. Allowing people to seek mortgage relief in bankruptcy court is opposed by Republicans and enough Democrats to block it. They remain worried that the legislation would unleash a torrent of loan defaults, ultimately driving up mortgage rates and introducing fresh uncertainty to an already ailing economy. The rejection would deal a blow to the popular president pushing an ambitious agenda to stabilize the economy.

Arlen Specter supports the Healthy Parasite Act (by DCblogger at Corrente)
What Does Specter’s Switch Mean For Health Care Reform? “When it comes to health care reform, Sen. Arlen Specter may be one of the few (former) Republicans open to negotiation. A co-sponsor of the Wyden-Bennett health bill, Specter has been a strong proponent of reforming the health care system.” The healthy parasite act would disolve the current employer based system and replace it with a mandate that we all buy our plans individually.

Reid Will Keep Backing Specter — Even If He Keeps Opposing EFCA (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
This one raises questions about what Dems are really going to gain from Arlen Specter’s newly-minted status as a Democrat. Harry Reid’s office confirms to me that he will keep backing Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, even if Specter keeps up his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Only a month ago, Reid suggested to reporters that Specter’s opposition to EFCA was a dealbreaker in terms of a party switch. “In coming out against card-check,” Reid said then, Specter “stopped everyone from being able to help him.” [Tuesday] Specter stated unequivocally that not only does he still oppose EFCA, he’ll also vote against bringing it to the floor for a debate.

But this is now not a dealbreaker for the Senate Majority Leader. I asked Reid spokesperson Jim Manley if Reid would support Specter in the primary if his EFCA position remained what it is today. “Senator Reid is going to support Senator Specter in the primary,” Manley replied. This makes it tougher for labor to mount a pro-EFCA primary challenger, obviously.

Obama Will Fundraise And Campaign For Specter If Asked: Gibbs (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
If there were any lingering doubts about how Arlen Specter would be welcomed in the Democratic Party, or if the party would welcome a primary challenge to the now-former Republican, they were put to rest during the White House Daily briefing on Tuesday afternoon. Asked if the president would aid the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat’s primary efforts, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs replied: “If the president is asked to raise money for Senator Specter, he will happily do it. If the president is asked to campaign for Senator Specter, he will be happy to do that as well.”

PA Gov. Rendell Promised Specter He’d Be “Unopposed” In Dem Primary (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Here’s another incentive that may have persuaded Arlen Specter to switch parties: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell guaranteed that he wouldn’t face anyone in a Democratic Primary. Rendell made the vow in a little-noticed interview with the Regional News Network in mid-March, which means he certainly privately promised Specter the same… Asked if Specter could win a Dem primary, Rendell said: “He’d be unopposed. The Democrats in the Senate would welcome him. We in Pennsylvania would welcome him. He’d be basically unopposed for the Democratic nomination.” That’s basically a guarantee by Rendell that he’d use his muscle to clear the primary field for Specter.
Click through to watch the video.

Specter’s switch underscores the GOP’s weakness (McClatchy)
Just over four years ago, a triumphant Republican Party re-elected a president, controlled both houses of Congress and reveled in its prospects for the future.

Good News for Republicans! (by William Kristol, a right winger)
I wonder if [Tuesday’s] Arlen Specter party switch … won’t end up being bad for President Obama and the Democrats. With the likely seating of Al Franken from Minnesota, Democrats will have 60 seats in the Senate, giving Obama unambiguous governing majorities in both bodies. He’ll be responsible for everything. GOP obstructionism will go away as an issue, and Democratic defections will become the constant worry and story line. This will make it easier for GOP candidates in 2010 to ask to be elected to help restore some checks and balance in Washington — and, meanwhile, Specter’s party change won’t likely have made much difference in getting key legislation passed or not. So, losing Specter may help produce greater GOP gains in November 2010, and a brighter Republican future.
Because, as Lambert says, EVERYTHING is ALWAYS GOOD for Republicans.  Always.

Limbaugh: “Arlen Specter is a liberal Republican. … People who are not really Republicans are now leaving” the GOP (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh on Specter leaving GOP: “A lot of people — Specter, take McCain with you, and his daughter” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Austin Cline, Council for Secular Humanism (via Jesus’ General)

A Hundred Anxious Days (Washington Post)
In a South Carolina Town Where the Downturn Has Deepened Since the Inauguration, Two Obama Supporters Have Struggled, Going From ‘Fired Up’ to Tired Out

Below are a few lines from this article, showing you that while Democrats are laughing at the governor of Texas and mocking the April 15 tea parties, Republicans are busy laying the groundwork for their next takeover:

Childs has heard plenty of anti-Obama rhetoric. “Most people around here know where I stand and let me be,” she says. “People are too polite to be nasty.” So she shakes her head in disbelief as she reads the angry messages scrawled on the poster boards in front of her.

“Say NO to Obama and Socialism!”

“OBAMA’NATION.”

“Who cares what Obama says? America IS a Christian nation.”

Childs puckers her lips and listens as Greenwood residents take turns stepping to the podium and shouting through a megaphone. Their speeches revolve around the same themes Childs hears in her phone messages, except what she identified as the solution to Greenwood‘s problems is what these speakers now disparage as the cause.

“We all know this president is the major problem,” David O. Davis III says. “I’ve got friends with families who are losing their jobs, getting laid off.”

“We’re struggling to pay our bills and get by,” Cathy Heitzenrater says. “We’re feeling disenfranchised from our own country and disappointed about who’s running it.”

“Vote the bum out,” R.J. Fife says.

Where is the barrage from the liberal side, reminding people over and over and over again that the financial crisis was brought on by George Bush and the greed is good mentality? Where is the catapulting of the truth from our side? Answer: it doesn’t exist. Liberals seem to think people will automatically know and understand who caused the problems, and won’t fall for right-wing propaganda—despite the evidence of people consistently falling for right-wing propaganda.

Swine Flu is a wag-the-dog for Sebelius (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
[N]otorious woman-hating president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America, Wendy Wright, suggests that the swine flu pandemic is a tactic being used by our Evil Negro Overlord and Re-Education Camp Councilor, i.e., President Carebear, to push his failing HHS females ecretary nomination, Kathleen Sebelius through through the confirmation process.

If so, it worked:
Confirmed for HHS, Sebelius turns to health care, swine flu (McClatchy)
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary.

Paranoia pandemic: Conservative media baselessly blame swine flu outbreak on immigrants (Media Matters for America)
Summary: Conservative media personalities have baselessly blamed Mexican immigrants for spreading swine flu across the border, despite the fact that several reports have indicated that U.S. swine flu patients had recently traveled to Mexico.

Bachmann: It’s ‘interesting’ that the last swine flu outbreak also occurred under a ‘Democrat President.’ (Think Progress)
During an interview with PajamasTV [Wednesday], Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) falsely claimed that the last swine flu outbreak occurred under “another Democrat President, Jimmy Carter.” Bachmann, however, insisted she was not trying to blame either man for the outbreaks.
Click through to watch the video.

Limbaugh: Swine flu “is out there” “to cover up the mess that is the United States of America right now” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Savage doubts virus was transmitted from pigs, possibility “our dear friends in the Middle East cooked this up ” with “open border policies” in mind (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Media Overhyping Swine Flu? (Washington Post)
“Of course we’re doing too much to scare people,” said Mark Feldstein, a former correspondent for NBC, ABC, and CNN who teaches journalism at George Washington University. “Cable news has 24 hours to fill, and there isn’t 24 hours of exciting news going on. If you scare people, they’ll tune in more.”

Media Drumbeat Amplifies Coverage Of Flu Outbreak (New York Times)
Without the news media the public would be dangerously unaware of the swine flu outbreak, but perhaps without saturation coverage on cable news networks and the velocity of information on the Internet, the public would not be so hysterical, medical professionals said.

The last great swine flu epidemic (by Patrick Di Justo, Salon)
“This virus will kill 1 million Americans,” declared the U.S. in 1976. The panic then has a lot to teach us today.

Summers Says U.S. Economy to Decline ‘For Some Time’ (Bloomberg)
The U.S. economy will continue to contract “for some time to come,” said Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council. “I expect the economy will continue to decline,” with “sharp declines in employment for quite some time this year,” Summers said … on “Fox News Sunday.”… Summers said the economy will pick up as manufacturers rebuild depleted inventories and consumers replace aging cars. “These imbalances can’t continue forever,” he said. “When they are repaired they will be a source of impetus for the economy.”

R.J. Matson

BofA, Citi urged to increase capital: report (Reuters)
U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks, The Wall Street Journal reported. The shortfall amounts to billions of dollars at BofA, the newspaper said on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the bank, adding it is likely the Federal Reserve will have determined other banks might also need more capital.
Oh, yes, we should help an AMERICAN bank, right?

I’m not making this up, part three (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
The Bank of America — which received $200 billion from the taxpayers because it is too big to fail, and which has fired 34,000 workers — now wants to hire 15,000 workers. In India. The Bank of America.

Bank of America Creates 15,000 New Jobs – in INDIA (by Alegre)
Their earnings have been shored up by 199.2 BILLION of our tax dollars and they’re firing American workers so they can hire people on the cheap in India.  I’m thinking the folks at SEIU are on the right track when they call for the firing of Ken Lewis… CLICK HERE to sign a proxy card – tell Bank of America to FIRE KEN LEWIS.

California pension fund lines up against Bank of America chief (McClatchy)
The country’s largest public pension fund announced today that it will vote against Ken Lewis and the entire board of Bank of America directors at the shareholders meeting in Charlotte tomorrow.

BofA rebrands Countrywide, symbol of mortgage meltdown (McClatchy)
As Bank of America Corp. officially puts its brand on former Countrywide Financial Corp. offices today, the Charlotte bank is also unveiling new initiatives aimed at improving mortgage lending for consumers. The changeover follows the Charlotte bank’s July 1 acquisition of Countrywide, which had become a symbol of the nation’s mortgage meltdown as it neared collapse early last year… “The new brand is Bank of America,” Barbara Desoer, head of home loans and insurance, said in an interview. “The promise is to always be a responsible lender and to help create successful homeowners.”

Citi Seeks Approval to Pay Out Bonuses (Wall Street Journal)
Citigroup Inc., soon to be one-third owned by the U.S. government, is asking the Treasury for permission to pay special bonuses to many key employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The request comes as Citigroup is grappling with broad government pay restrictions that could break apart its legendary energy-trading unit. People at that unit, Phibro, are threatening to leave because of pay caps tied to the U.S. bailout of Citigroup. Phibro has been the source of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for the bank, and has paid out hefty compensation

Nationalize General Motors? UAW and U.S. government could own 89 percent of company under GM’s plan (AP)
General Motors, once the colossus of American capitalism, will become a leaner, government-owned company if the Obama administration goes along with 

UAW to own 55 percent of Chrysler stock: report (Reuters)
The United Auto Workers will eventually own 55 percent of stock in a restructured Chrysler under a deal reached by the two, the WSJ reported on Monday.
* Fiat SpA will eventually own 35 percent of a restructured Chrysler – wsj
* Under deal, US government and Chrysler’s secured lenders together will own 10 percent of restructured Chrysler -wsj

Limbaugh on auto bailout: “Don Obama has made Don Corleone look like Daffy Duck” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

How libertarian dogma led the Fed astray (by Henry Kaufman, thanks to Economist’s View)
The Federal Reserve has been hobbled by … major shortcomings that were primarily responsible for the current and several previous credit crises… My second major concern … is the Fed’s prevailing economic libertarianism. At the heart of this economic dogma is the belief that markets know best and that those who compete well will prosper, while those who do not will fail… By guiding monetary policy in a libertarian direction, the Fed played a central role in creating a financial environment defined by excessive credit growth and unrestrained profit seeking. … At a minimum, the Fed’s sensitivity to financial excesses must be improved.
Click through for the specifics.

I’m not making this up, part two (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
“Democracy is the current industry standard political system, but unfortunately it is ill-suited for a libertarian state.” – Patri Friedman, grandson of Milton Friedman. This (true) statement undermines decades of propaganda. When Miltie’s system failed in Chile (where he ran the economy under the dictator Pinochet), he blamed the lack of democracy.
Milton Friedman was the father of the libertarian “Chicago School” of economics.

The great crash of the “Chicago school” of economics (by Andrew Leonard at How the World Works, Salon, thanks to Economist’s View)
I think you can very well blame the Chicago school for the fiasco of growing income inequality in the U.S.  Nice triumph for deregulated capitalism, boys! Ronald Reagan listened closely to Milton Friedman and the Chicago school godfather’s disciples have been rife in the Republican administrations that have dominated the White House ever since the Californian swept into Washington and started blaming government for our problems. Well guess what? It didn’t work so well. The rich got richer and then screwed the pooch.

The Last Temptation of Risk (by Barry Eichengreen, thanks to Economist’s View)
What got us into this mess … were not the limits of scholarly imagination. It was not the failure or inability of economists to model conflicts of interest, incentives to take excessive risk and information problems that can give rise to bubbles, panics and crises. It was not that economists failed to recognize the role of social and psychological factors in decision making or that they lacked the tools needed to draw out the implications. In fact, these observations and others had been imaginatively elaborated by contributors to the literatures on agency theory, information economics and behavioral finance.

Rather, the problem was a partial and blinkered reading of that literature. The consumers of economic theory, not surprisingly, tended to pick and choose those elements of that rich literature that best supported their self-serving actions. Equally reprehensibly, the producers of that theory, benefiting in ways both pecuniary and psychic, showed disturbingly little tendency to object. It is in this light that we must understand how it was that the vast majority of the economics profession remained so blissfully silent and indeed unaware of the risk of financial disaster.

Value for value (by Steve Waldman, thanks to Economist’s View)
We want value for value, an ironclad commitment of root and branch reform in exchange for the unimaginable sums of money we are being asked to hand over… Congress would, because the public would, support large, explicit transfers, if they were attached to reforms sufficiently radical to prevent a recurrence, and suitably punitive towards the people who managed the system that brought us here. Value for value.

Obama’s Treasury sends bill to Capitol Hill that was drafted by bankster lobbyists (by lambert at Corrente)
The Times buried the lead on this one. I missed it, but Yves didn’t. From the Geithner profile: “A bill sent recently by the Treasury to Capitol Hill would give the Obama administration extensive new powers to inject money into or seize systemically important firms in danger of failure. It wasdrafted in large measure by Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm that represents many banks and the financial industry’s lobbying group.” Oopsie! Mr. Geithner also hired Davis Polk to represent the New York Fed during the A.I.G. bailout.

F.D.I.C. Chief Calls for Broader Powers for Agency (New York Times)
The chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,Sheila C. Bair, said in a speech on Monday that her agency should have broader powers to take over and close a variety of financial institutions to prevent taxpayers from shouldering the losses on firms deemed too big to fail. Instead of just seizing commercial banks, Ms. Bair said the F.D.I.C. should be able to take over troubled insurers, bank holding companies and other insolvent financial institutions and force stockholders and bondholders to bear the cost. “Viable portions of the company would be put into the good bank, while the ailing portions would remain at the bad bank to be sold or closed over time,” Ms. Bair said at a speech at the Economic Club of New York.

Protesters disrupt foreclosure auctions on Sacramento courthouse steps (McClatchy)
A large crowd of protesters disrupted several foreclosure auctions today on the Sacramento County Courthouse steps, winning temporary cancellation of one Sacramento foreclosure and sending an auctioneer to the hospital with chest pains.

“Banker to the poor” gives New York women a boost (Reuters, thanks to InsightAnalytical)
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the “banker to the poor” for making small loans in impoverished countries, is now doing business in the center of capitalism — New York City. In the past year the first U.S. branch of his Grameen Bank has lent $1.5 million, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, to nearly 600 women with small business plans in the city’s borough of Queens… Grameen America now operates by lending out money gathered through donations and money from payments on existing loans. The bank is applying for a U.S. credit union license to generate the deposits it needs to make more loans
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is giving fuel oil to poor Americans. Muhammad Yunus is lending money to help poor Americans.  What is the American government doing to help poor Americans—oh right, our government is busy helping the already rich get richer.

New evidence of a secret torture prison (by John Goetz and Britta Sandberg, Salon)
It has long been clear that the CIA used the Szymany military airbase in Poland for extraordinary renditions. Now there is new evidence of a secret torture prison nearby.

GOP lawmaker: Although waterboarding is ‘more torture than not,’ we still shouldn’t have investigations. (Think Progress)
During an interview with WGN radio this morning, Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL) veered slightly to the left of his GOP colleagues on the issue of whether waterboarding is torture and an effective tool of interrogation. After host John Williams recounted the story of Abu Zubaydah (and how all the valuable information he gave occurred before waterboarding took place), Manzullo replied, “Apparently waterboarding doesn’t work.” Williams then established that Manzullo believes that torture is illegal and asked, “Do you think waterboarding is torture?” “I would say its more torture than not,” Manzullo said. Despite his dance with reality, Manzullo firmly came back into the GOP camp, later arguing that no prosecutions should take place because it would be too much of a hassle. [Emphasis added.]

Why We Must Prosecute (by Mark J. McKeon, a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 2001 to 2004 and a senior prosecutor from 2004 to 2006)
[W]e cannot expect to regain our position of leadership in the world unless we hold ourselves to the same standards that we expect of others. That means punishing the most senior government officials responsible for these crimes. We have demanded this from other countries that have returned from walking on the dark side; we should expect no less from ourselves… We cannot expect the rest of humanity to live in a world that we ourselves are not willing to inhabit.

Bernie Goldberg claims use of torture in some cases is “the moral position” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

O’Reilly says NY Times and MSNBC execs, Soros, ACLU’s Romero are “America-haters” for depicting America as a “torture nation” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh on Obama’s view of American values: “We’re not gonna waterboard Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, we’re going to murder a million babies a year” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Bybee defends his torture memos as ‘legally correct’ and ‘a good-faith analysis of the law.’ (Think Progress)
Judge Jay Bybee finally “broke his silence” and talked to the New York Times about his legal memos which authorized torture. This past weekend, the Washington Post quoted anonymous friends of Bybee claiming that Bybee was apologetic for authoring the memos. Speaking for himself, Bybee said that’s not the case: [H]e said: “The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.” Other administration lawyers agreed with those conclusions, Judge Bybee said…

The Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility is currently conducting a review of Bybee’s work. The New York Times’s Charlie Savage recently reported that the review could find that Bybee’s office changed its legal views to cater to policy makers.

Kristol Now Thinks Torture Debate Is ‘Healthy’ If Democrats Are Also The Focus (Think Progress)
Many conservatives have expressed outrage that President Obama earlier this month released four-Bush era Office of Legal Counsel memos that detail the Bush administration’s legal justification for torture. Not only has the right criticized Obama for releasing the memos, but it has succumbed to defending the use of torture and argued vigorously that no official investigations should ensue. The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol has been leading the charge lately on Fox News… However, [Wednesday] night on Fox, Kristol pulled an about face, saying that any debate into the matter would be “healthy.” Why? Because he wants to include the Clinton administration.
Click through to watch a video compilation of Kristol’s comments.

Major defeat for Bush/Obama position on secrecy (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
The first sign that the Obama DOJ would replicate many of the worst and most radical arguments of the Bush DOJ was in the Jeppesen case, a lawsuit brought by five victims of the CIA’s rendition and torture program…  [Tuesday], … the appellate court resoundingly rejected the Bush/Obama position, holding that the “state secrets” privilege — except in extremely rare circumstances not applicable here — does not entitle the Government to demand dismissal of an entire lawsuit based on the assertion that the “subject matter” of the lawsuit is a state secret.  Instead, the privilege only allows the Government to make specific claims of secrecy with regard to specific documents and other facts — exactly how the privilege was virtually always used before the Bush and Obama DOJs sought to expand it into a vast weapon of immunity from all lawsuits challenging the legality of any executive branch program relating to national security 

In rejecting this radical secrecy theory, the court emphasized how the Bush/Obama doctrine, if accepted, would essentially place the President above and beyond the rule of law.
That’s what Obama asked for, Ophiles, to place himself above and beyond the rule of law. Just like Bush.

OBAMA PLANE PHOTO OP STARTLES NEW YORKERS (New York Post)
A jumbo jet being chased by a F-16 fighter jets buzzed Lower Manhattan [Tuesday] morning, panicking New Yorkers, many of whom were forced to evacuate their office buildings. It was not a terrorist attack, however, but a photo opportunity for Air Force One, sources told the Post.
See it on YouTube.

Feds Knew Flying a 747 Through NYC Would Be Terrifying and Still Kept It a Secret (by Owen Thomas at Gawker)
A government memo shows the Federal Aviation Agency predicted “public concern” over fighter jets flying near downtown Manhattan — and yet demanded that New York officials not explain the planes’ terrifying presence.

In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by WCBS-TV in New York, FAA official James Johnston acknowledged “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes.” Instead of proposing a public-awareness campaign to salve New Yorkers’ lingering 9/11 fears, however, Johnston threatened federal sanctions if the purpose of the flyover — staged to create a White House publicity photo of Air Force One flying past the Statue of Liberty — leaked out.

Air Force One Photo Op Could Cost Taxpayers Between $27,500 And $213,000 (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The cost of an Air Force One photo-op over the Statue of Liberty that ended up frightening scores of New Yorkers likely stands between $27,500 and $210,000, according to official estimates of flight costs.

Limbaugh throws out another conspiracy theory: Maybe Air Force One was in NYC to replace Statue of Liberty with “one of Obama” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Exceptions to Iraq Deadline Are Proposed (New York Times)
The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops. Everywhere else, the withdrawal of United States combat troops from all Iraqi cities and towns is on schedule to finish by the June 30 deadline, and in many cases even earlier. But because of the level of insurgent activity in Mosul, United States and Iraqi military officials will meet Monday to decide whether to consider the city an exception to the deadline in the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, between the countries.

Santorum: Reconciliation ‘Has Never Been Done Before’ — Except For When I Used It (Think Progress)
Last week, the White House increased the pressure to pass President Obama’s budget proposal this week by keeping the reconciliation language in place that would allow the budget — and the essential health care reforms it includes — to pass with 51 rather than 60 Senate votes. Adding his voice to the conservative hysteria over the use of reconciliation, former senator Rick Santorum declared today that such a move would “short-circuit the process” and “has never been done before”…

Of course, reconciliation has been used nearly 20 times since 1980, when it was first created. The New Republic notes that using reconciliation to pass health care reform fits into the historical pattern. “Whether reducing or increasing deficits, many of the reconciliation bills made major changes in policy. Health insurance portability (COBRA), nursing home standards, expanded Medicaid eligibility, increases in the earned income tax credit, welfare reform, the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, major tax cuts and student aid reform were all enacted under reconciliation procedures.”

Indeed, Santorum himself was the Senate Republicans’ point man in trying to push welfare reform through budget reconciliation in 1995, including it in a budget then-President Clinton opposed.

U.S. Senate joins House in backing $3.4 trillion budget (Reuters)
The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to approve the $3.4 trillion fiscal 2010 budget compromise, wrapping up a big political victory for President Barack Obama on his 100th day in office.

Global Warming Denier Michele Bachmann Named To House GOP ‘Energy Solutions’ Group (Think Progress)
Last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) announced the creation of the House GOP American Energy Solutions Group, meant to “work on crafting Republican solutions to lower energy prices for American families and small businesses.” Helping lead the way toward finding those solutions? Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who [Monday] announced her appointment to the group… If Boehner and the House GOP were truly interested in promoting real solutions to America‘s energy and environmental crises, Bachmann should be their last pick for the group. After all, she has made a name for herself by constantly repeating the most nonsensical, misleading, radical untruths about energy and the environment:

House Democrats Target Bachmann (Political Wire)
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee triggered a war of words Monday with a certain outspoken Minnesota congresswoman after it launched a new Web site, Bachmann Watch, CQ Politics reports. The site purports to highlight the “extreme rhetoric and false claims” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) “makes to bolster her outrageous statements.” And it hits Bachmann for her assertions on cap-and-trade energy legislation, her record on earmarks, and government spending.

Bush Keeps Sinking (Political Wire)
Though former President Bush has been out of office for 100 days — and made a point to stay out of the headlines — his approval numbers sunk even further in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, from 31% positive just before he left office to just 26% now. Not surprisingly, Dick Cheney’s approval numbers also went down, from 21% positive in January to 18% now. 

Roger Goodman to Leave ABC News ((TVNewser, Media Bistro)
Legendary ABC News director Roger Goodman is leaving day-to-day work at the network. Goodman will focus on his independent production company while still making himself available to ABC News as needed. Goodman was director for special projects for the network.

Global Pulse: Politics and Torture (Video) (Link TV)
Obama declassifies Bush administration documents that detail and attempt to legalize what some have called “torture techniques.” While the U.S media seem focused on the political ramifications, media worldwide present the brutality of torture and point the finger of blame directly at Bush.

CIA And The Washington Post: Joined At The Hip (by Melvin A. Goodman, The Public Record)
The Washington Post’s editorial pages have been particularly protective of the Central Intelligence Agency and its senior leaders — the ideological drivers for torture and extraordinary renditions policies.

How ’07 ABC Interview Tilted a Torture Debate (by Brian Stelter, New York Times)
An official’s claim that waterboarding yielded quick results was widely repeated, but has now been discredited.
Why have we never seen, in the New York Times, an account of how the Times tilted the (lack of) debate before we marched into Iraq?

Spook’s Torture Lie Made Waterboarding Cool (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
[Brian] Ross defended his source, but sounds a little bitter: “I didn’t give enough credit to the fiendishness of the C.I.A.” Right, because a news reporter didn’t have any reason, in 2007, to believe a representative of the CIA would provide false information about crucial decisions, or abet awful human rights abuses.

Business Reporters Confess News Sins While U.S. Economy Collapsed (Colorado Independent)
At the … Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) conference, leading business journalists and editors explained how the media “blew it” in covering the economic meltdown.

‘US Media Puts American Society Into A Cocoon’ (by Danny Schechter)
The American people are getting a certain amount of information regarding news events that tends to divide the world on an “us and them” basis, insists the award winning documentary filmmaker, blogger, journalist, and media critic Danny Schechter in an exclusive interview with Russia Today.

Cheney for President (New York Times)
In his debut column, Ross Douthat writes that a Cheney campaign would have tested the Republican Party’s political viability.

Times Conservative’s Debut Is Awfully Liberal (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
When Ross Douthat was named Bill Kristol’s replacement at the New York Times, both liberals and conservatives were happy. Now we understand why: The “squishy” right-winger fools everyone into thinking he agrees with them… Basically, Douthat just wrote a column slamming Cheney, torture and various other things Democrats hated about the Bush presidency. Which is very much what one would expect from a columnist at the liberal Times. But Douthat’s conservative, and sounds conservative, so it’s not cliché. You see? Very cunning, this one.

Beck claims “the global warming movement… is about population control” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity: “I think if anything, the Republican Party is moved to the left in recent years” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Sean Hannity Calls Porn Star a ‘Role Model’ (by John Cook at Gawker)
Sanctimonious Catholic scold Sean Hannity invited noted porn star Kim Kardashian on his show last night, and—literally—called her a “role model” for young girls. Hannity almost certainly has no idea who Kardashian is. He told her some girls look up to her because, unlike Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, Kardashian doesn’t drink. Then he asked her about her Playboy spread in a concerned, fatherly way: “Why Playboy? That’s the only thing I didn’t understand in your bio. That didn’t make sense to me.”

So that must mean the part of her bio where she taped herself having dirty naked sex with a man [NSFW], and the tape was fairly well-produced and well-lit—almost professionally so!—and then the tape was sold for $1 million? That part made perfect sense to you, Sean. Sean Hannity’s America is sounding like a better place to live every day.

First same-sex couple marries in Iowa (by Alex Koppelman at War Room, Salon)
The Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in that state took effect Monday morning, and within an hour, the first couple to take advantage of it had wed. Melisa Keeton and Shelley Wolfe were married at 9 a.m. in a ceremony at a government building in Des Moines, the Associated Press reports. State law normally requires a three-day waiting period before marriage licenses take effect, but a judge waived that requirement in this case.

This is hardly the end of the fight over marriage in Iowa, though. Conservative legal groups are preparing for battle, with one seeking a plaintiff for a test case that would, they hope, establish a precedent allowing a county clerk to refuse a marriage license to a same-sex couple on the basis of their own conscience. And, given the state’s prominence in presidential primaries — and evangelicals’ influence in the Republican caucuses in Iowa — we can expect to hear more about this once the race for the GOP nomination kicks off.

Support for Gay Marriage Grows (Political Wire)
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds that 42% of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry. That’s up nine points from just last month, when 33% supported legalizing same sex marriage. In addition, there is a widening divide on gay marriage depending on the age of the voter with 31% of respondents over the age of 40 saying they supported gay marriage. By contrast, 57% under age 40 said they supported it, a 26-point difference.

Americans want a health care system that is uniquely … Swiss! (by hipparchia at Corrente)
From the Wonk Room at Think Progress: “Most notably, Obama has rejected a British/Canadian-like single-payer reform and most policy makers are looking for a ‘uniquely American solution’ that preserves the employer-sponsored system and creates a hybrid public-private partnership. In other words, American reforms would look a bit like the Swiss health system.”

Veterans Groups Go To Bat For EFCA (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Adding a new dimension to the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, a host of veterans groups is launching a new effort to help pass the union-backed legislation. In alliance with the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, the 20,000-member VoteVets.org will host events and rallies in a dozen key EFCA battleground states, including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Indiana, Montana, Maine, and Alaska. Joined by veterans and union officials in those locales, these groups and the campaign as a whole seem likely to add a new element to the debate over the need for easier access to unionization.

Veterans comprise a significant portion of the union community. According to officials at the AFL-CIO, 2.1 million union members are vets, or 14 percent of all union members. Considering the respect they engender at home, having these groups and individuals on the frontlines of the pro-EFCA campaign puts a different type of political pressure on those senators whose position on the bill is still up in the air.

It’s time for politics to stop halting our technological progress (By Scot Rourke, Knight Center of Digital Excellence)
As communities plan ways to spend federal stimulus money – such as in health care, education and public safety – let’s not forget the need to invest in the equally important job of automating government itself. During my recent visit to Seoul, South Korea, I saw households with better digital infrastructure than some of our biggest businesses in the United States. I saw video distance learning with one teacher and one student running a camera in an empty classroom – and hundreds of thousands of kids watching online for free. I saw hundreds of government services conducted via remote, from a TV with a standard set-top box – no computer required.

What’s more, the South Korean government tracks customer, I mean citizen, satisfaction. All the while, taxpayer costs are plummeting, enabling a combination of lower taxes and increased investment in education and innovation. If our citizens could see what I have seen, they would accept nothing less.
Our citizens accept so much that it’s crazy. What will politicians reward their supporters with, if all the government jobs are automated? Pie in the sky, Scot. Pie in the sky.

Facebook Backer Wishes Women Couldn’t Vote (by Owen Thomas at Gawker)
Peter Thiel … is the former CEO of PayPal who now runs the $2 billion hedge fund Clarium Capital and a venture-capital firm called the Founders Fund. His best-returning investment to date, though, has been Facebook. His $500,000 investment is now worth north of $100 million even by the most conservative valuations of the social network. On the side, though, his pet passion is libertarianism and the fantasy that everything would be better in the world if government just quit nagging everybody. But, now he’s given up hope on achieving his vision through political means because, as he writes in Cato Unbound, a website run by the Cato Institute, all those voting females have wrecked things.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Stamp of approval: Media tout Obama polling falsehood

• Fox’s Henneberg repeats right-wing myth that hate crimes bill could gag ministers

• FNC’s Napolitano peddles paranoia about “swine flu,” Obama’s health care plan

• Wilson says Michelle Obama “was portrayed in some quarters as an angry woman” — but omits Fox

• Frisch: Fox News: 100 days of “opposition” to Obama

• Fox’s Angle repeated false and misleading claims on harsh interrogations

• Fox’s Cameron provides bad medicine in health care report

• The Hill reported Ryan and Gregg’s reconciliation criticism, omitted their prior support

• Baier ignored study’s finding that media coverage of Obama’s policies skewed negative

• VandeHei uncritically repeats Gregg’s reconciliation criticism

• Post reports GOP criticism of HHS vacancy, but not GOP’s role

• CNN’s Bash didn’t note economists’ argument that spending is necessary in recession

• Fox Nation gets an “F” for Obama rating falsehood

US Journalist Jailed in Iran ‘Very Weak’
An American journalist jailed in Iran for allegedly spying is vowing to remain on a hunger strike until she is freed. Roxana Saberi, who has been on a hunger strike for a week, was convicted more than a week of ago and sentenced to eight years in prison after a one-day trial behind closed doors.

Supreme Court upholds TV profanity crackdown
The Supreme Court upheld a U.S. government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show. In its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching. The case stemmed from an FCC decision in 2006 that found News Corp’s Fox television network violated decency rules when singer Cherblurted out an expletive during the 2002 Billboard Music Awards broadcast and actress Nicole Richie used two expletives during the 2003 awards.

Online gambling bill coming: Frank
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said on Tuesday he would introduce a bill next week to overturn a three-year-old U.S. ban on Internet gambling… The European Commission, the EU’s executive, said late last month in a draft report that a U.S. Justice Department crackdown on European online gambling companies violated U.S. commitments under the World Trade Organization… EU online gambling firms lost billions of euros in value after the U.S. Congress in 2006 made it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

Justice Dept. Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Google Books Deal
The Justice Department has begun an inquiry into the antitrust implications of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service. The inquiry does not necessarily mean that the department will oppose the settlement.

Why can’t we concentrate?
Twitter and e-mail aren’t making us stupider, but they are making us more distracted. A new book explains why learning to focus is the key to living better.

A Pulitzer for software development? Hard to believe!
“Who would have thought a few years ago that it would be possible to win a Pulitzer for software development?” writes Rich Gordon. “Politifact, of course, is software and a whole lot more. …Twenty years from now, I hope we’ll see thousands of journalists developing online software applications that inform, engage and enlighten the way Politifact does. The question is how we’ll get there.”

Death of Newspapers Foretold by Warren Buffett (by Jack Shafer, Slate)
Perhaps the most prescient voice on the fate of newspapers has been Berkshire Hathaway Chairman of the Board Warren E. Buffett. In a Feb. 28, 1992, letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett declared that media properties were losing their status as profit-spewing franchises.

ABC FAS-FAX: Newspaper Circulation Falls 7 Percent (Paid Content)
The steady downward spiral of newspaper circulation continues, as the Audit Bureau of Circulation released figures for 395 dailies that show circulation slipping 7 percent year-over-year to 34.4 million. As for the ad-heavy Sunday papers, ABC said circ fell 5.3 percent for the 557 participants to 42 million. The ABC measures are not complete; the organization only compiles data on papers will more than 50,000 circ level. The results were mostly negative, and even for those the reported positive numbers, at best, numbers were flat. For example, WSJ was one of the few that didn’t decline, but its .06 percent gain was nothing to celebrate.
Click through for a rundown of how some of the largest papers fell in circulation.

Media Darwinism: Which Sites Will Survive? (by Matt Pressman, Vanity Fair)
Although it has been 13 years since the launch of Slate and NYTimes.com, we are still in the early stages of the evolution of online media, and it remains to be seen which creatures will emerge from the primordial ooze adapted to survive in a harsh new environment.

Readers still want big papers to play a gatekeeper role
Jim Brady says if papers start letting real-time traffic drive their home-page promotion, they’re on the path to becoming Digg. “What Digg does is terrific, but it’s not what newspapers should be doing,” writes the ex-WP website executive editor. “There was nothing in our traffic history to suggest that stories about military veterans were of particular interest to our readers. But when Dana Priest and Anne Hull uncovered the poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital, the story went global in hours. That kind of journalism will be increasingly at risk if we get too caught up in the race for page views.”

Google Plans ‘High-Quality News’ Passive Search, Expands Twitter Presence (by Will Sullivan at Poynter Online)
Earlier this week, Google began using Twitter to distribute headlines from Google News. And that’s not all Google has planned for helping readers find the news they want. The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman spoke with Google CEO Eric Schmidt last week at a party held by Arianna Huffington of the HuffingtonPost.com. Waxman reports Schmidt detailed an interesting plan to help struggling newspapers:

“In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it. Under this latest iteration of advanced search, users will be automatically served the kind of news that interests them just by calling up Google’s page. The latest algorithms apply ever more sophisticated filtering –- based on search words, user choices, purchases, a whole host of cues -– to determine what the reader is looking for without knowing they’re looking for it. And on this basis, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content…

“Does The New York Times make more money from this arrangement, I asked? No, Schmidt confirmed, it won’t. But by targeting the stories that readers will want to read, it will get more hits out of the stories it has, which will drive its traffic and ultimately support higher advertising rates beside the stories.” 

The Shrinking Daily vs. The Daily Eric (Schmidt) (by Ken Doctor, writing at Paid Content)
As print shrinks, Google will replace its daily functionality, its daily utility—and it’s been on that road for awhile—with Google News, v2. It sounds like Google News, v1 meets Google IG meets AdWords for news, a new algorithm that knows us better than we know ourselves. Importantly—distinguishing itself from all the My Yahoo products that have come before—Google is recognizing how fundamentally lazy we all are. Google seems to be saying: You don’t have to do anything, we’ll be your new paperboy.

Of course, this digital paperboy keeps all the money from the collections, a bizarro turn on the old value chain. News producers used to get the money and pay a few pennies (Newsies-like) to the distributors. Now the distributors are making the collections, and keeping it… Add it all up, and the future gets clearer. And it’s in pixels. The big questions get bigger. Who will pay journalists to create the news? Who will distribute it? How will a new, fairer, stable ecosystem emerge?

Google’s CEO Gets an Official Seat at President Obama’s Table (Mashable)
The close ties between Google CEO Eric Schmidt and President Barack Obama are well-documented. Schmidt endorsed Obama’s Presidential campaign, and in the months since he has taken office, the leader of the world’s most popular search engine has also been a guest at The White House to discuss policy alongside some of the country’s top economists and financiers. Although Schmidt quickly took his name out of the running to become CTO of the USA after Obama was elected, today, he’s been officially named to a new role: that of a member of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

That group, according to a statement issued today by The White House, will advise the President on “[formulating] policy in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people.” It’s worth noting that Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, is also on the list of advisers, so fear of Google getting unfair sway with the nation’s Chief Executive are probably a bit unfounded. Nonetheless, it probably doesn’t sit well with those that think Google already has just a bit too much power that the company’s CEO will now have a seat at the President’s table in a role that will clearly help define tech policy going forward.

Can news find a business model in the digital age? (by Edward Wasserman, Miami Herald)
For a century or so newspapers in the United States relied on the patronage of political parties; many papers abroad still do. In the 19th-century parties were replaced by the makers of consumer goods, who are now abandoning news media in favor of e-commerce sites and search-engine advertising. Who are the new subsidizers? In the [new] Op-Ed model it’s the contributing journalists themselves. Either they’re donating their work outright or they’re selling it for a fraction of what reporters who were making a living from it would need. Either way, the journalists are paying.

It’s not an ideal setup, but then, every subsidy system has its own drawbacks and distortions — partisan corruption when the parties ran the press, slobbering over local capitalists when the advertisers wrote the checks. With the Op-Ed model, it’ll be very hard to ensure coherence and consistency in coverage, let alone quality. It’ll also be difficult to keep people around long enough for them to develop depth and understanding if they must steal the time from their off-hours — or their day jobs — to keep the sites stocked with news. Worse, the problem of conflict of interest is huge and virtually endemic.
There’s conflict of interest and the potential for corruption in every situation where there’s only one source of revenue.  That’s why a combination of sources may be the best solution.

Sun-Times editor: You need reporters at the listening posts of the city and suburbs every day
“You need to back them up with decent salaries and health insurance and legal muscle when people start spraying you with subpoenas,” says Sun-Times editor-in-chief Don Hayner… “It is not a thousand disparate voices online lacking clarity and cohesion that will ferret out all the news. It is an organization that can pay someone to be on those beats day in and day out to systematically harvest the news.”

Mass. Congressional Delegation Urges NYT Co. to ‘Preserve’ Globe
Most of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, including Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, have sent a letter to New York Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger, expressing concerns about the threatened shutdown of the Boston Globe.

Politicos’ appeal to save the Globe poses a conflict
In a letter to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Massachusetts lawmakers urge the Times “to treat the The Globe fairly and to work together on a solution to this immediate crisis that preserves the future of the newspaper.” The politicos probably acted with the best intentions, says j-school dean and ex-editor Tom Fiedler, but still “it poses a conflict for the Globe in some sense because clearly you have people who are being covered carefully by the Globe, especially its Washington bureau, weighing in on the paper’s fate.”

Murdoch’s Journal Threatens to Regain No. 1 Circ Spot
The Wall Street Journal is threatening to reclaim its weekday circulation crown from USA Today for the first time since September 1999. If USA Today falls another two percentage points while The Journal holds steady, The Journal will once again claim the largest paid weekday circulation in the U.S.

Politico Challenges the Post (by Jon Friedman at Marketwatch)
Forget the Democrats versus the Republicans or the Red State-Blue State rivalry. In the District of Columbia, the juiciest smackdown these days pits the established Washington Post against upstart Politico.com to see who will lead political coverage in the Beltway.

Investors Bet on Small-Market Papers
While big newspapers across the country fight for survival, the slice of the industry that serves small markets is drawing new investment from industry veterans. The buyers’ confidence reflects the divide between big-city papers and their relatively healthier brethren in smaller cities and towns.

Few former P-I subscribers have canceled their Seattle Times subscriptions
Times circulation veep Alan Fisco says only about 2% of 74,000 former Post-Intelligencer subscribers have chosen to cancel their subscriptions since the March 18 transition to one newspaper in Seattle.

NYT Co. May Sell Classical Radio Station
Beethoven and Bach could become the latest victims of the New York Times Co.’s financial crisis. Rumors are raging that top suits have discussed putting classical radio station WQXR (96.3 FM) on the block to shore up the company’s dwindling cash stash.

Forty Star-Ledger Buyout-Takers Launch News Site
So what do you do when you have lots of newspaper experience and a year’s salary from a recent buyout? You start a Web site. That seems to be the view of some 40 former Star-Ledger staffers who took a lucrative early retirement last fall and have since formed NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

NY Sun Considers Business Plan for Site
The New York Sun, defunct since September, has been publishing a bit lately online, and former editor Seth Lipsky said there’s a business plan for the site in the formative stages. Lipsky said not to read too much into the initial online items: “These are just some very, very early bulbs of spring (or late winter).”

Former Star-Ledger journalists launch news site
About 40 journalists who took the Star-Ledger’s buyout are now working for newjerseynewsroom.com, which mixes original reporting with links to other sites.

Baltimore Sun lays off several editors, more cuts expected
A Baltimore media blog reports those laid off include deputy managing editor Paul Moore, editorial page editor Ann LoLordo, op-ed editor Larry Williams, medical/science editor Patricia Fanning, copy desk chief John McIntyre, and several others.

NYT, Newspaper Guild agree to 5% pay cut
The Times will save $4.5 million if the union membership approves the deal. Non-union employees at the Times and other New York Times Co. properties had their pay cut earlier this month.

Chicago Tribune tries to keep laid-off reporter’s award
Two days after she was laid off from the Chicago Tribune, reporter Melissa Isaacson won the press club’s Best Feature Story award. “By the time she made her way up front to accept her plaque it had disappeared,” writes Michael Miner. “That’s because [Tribune managing editor Jane] Hirt (left) had hopped up from the Tribune table next to the dais to claim it for the Tribune. Isaacson tells Miner: “My friends asked me later if I got to bask in any of the applause, but there was no basking. I had to go find my award.”

Earnings: Time Warner Meets Expectations, Including AOL’s 23 Percent Rev Decline (Paid Content)
Time Warner reported results in line with expectations this morning: revenue declined 7 percent to $6.9 billion, operating income declined 9 percent to $1.2 billion, and earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.46.  As expected, advertising-reliant Time Inc. and AOL drove much of the declines, while cable-oriented Turner and HBO buoying the results with single-digit revenue gains.  Here are the highlights:

McGraw-Hill Media Division Profits Plunge 76%
BusinessWeek publisher McGraw-Hill reported a first quarter 2009 operating profit of $103.7 million, down 22.1 percent. McGraw-Hill’s media division saw profits plunge 76.4 percent to $2.8 million, compared to the same period in 2008.

Penton Cuts Workweek, Pay
Penton Media has reduced its workweek from five days to four, effective the week before Memorial Day through the week before Labor Day. The b-to-b publisher will also reduce employees’ pay. In a memo, CEO Sharon Rowlands said the first quarter was “the toughest in my business career.”

Portfolio R.I.P.
Portfolio, the two-year-old Conde Nast business monthly, was shut down yesterday morning. Portfolio launched two years ago with a large budget and a slew of big-name contributors. Its high profile made Portfolio the target of endless speculation from media watchers.

Portfolio would have suffered even in a so-so economy
That’s because the magazine was ill-conceived from the start, says James Ledbetter. “Anyone paying attention to the business journalism genre over the past decade would have realized that you can’t cover this world in a timely way if you publish only once a month.”

More Nasty News Ahead at Conde?
The demise of Portfolio has not halted the sense of unease inside Conde Nast. Many staffers are nervously watching for what might come in July, when Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, and others that have largely escaped the 5 percent reduction in staff, will be shipping their September issues.

Earnings: Meredith Profits Plunge 45 Percent; Revs Drop 14 Percent (Paid Content)
Women’s magazine publisher Meredith Corp. saw Q1 net income sink 45 percent to $25.4 million ($0.56 per share) as revenues fell 14 percent to $338 million. The publisher of Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes & Gardens said ad revenues continued to be hit hard by the recession. Publishing ad revs declined 12 percent, while broadcast ad dollars tumbled 31 percent, due to lower automotive spending along with weakness in the Phoenix and Las Vegas markets.

Source Interlink to File for Chapter 11
Source Interlink Cos., publisher of Motor Trend, Automobile and Hot Rod, is expected to file for a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, which will remove Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. as a shareholder and allow the company to get out from under nearly $1 billion of its $1.5 billion debt load.

Earnings: IAC Swings To Loss; Q1 Rev Dropped 10 Percent; Media & Advertising Down 22 Percent (Paid Content)
Barry Diller’s IAC lost $3.2 million on $332 million in revenue during the first quarter, part of a mixed batch of results that shows improvements in some areas but continued weakness in search and advertising. Revenue dropped 10 percent in the first quarter, down from $370.7 million in the same quarter last year—and that’s almost good given that revenue from the Media & Advertising segment, which accounts for nearly half of IAC’s haul, was down a whopping 22 percent.

Clear Channel Cutting 590 Radio Jobs
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, said Tuesday it is cutting 590 jobs, including some on-air personalities, in its second round of mass layoffs this year amid pressure from the recession and evaporating advertising budgets.

CBS’ TV.com Sees Surge in Video Audience
CBS’ significantly redesigned TV.com has seen its video audience skyrocket, as the former reference site has become a consistent destination for full-episode viewing of TV shows. TV.com’s unique viewer base soared by 401 percent to 3.5 million users from February to March.

MTV Bets on British Model for Daily Culture Show
MTV has been without a show that has defined pop culture since the demise of Total Request Live and is betting on a 25-year-old British model who dates a rock star to help fill that void. The Alexa Chung Show will be a mix of celebrity talk, music, and online interaction with viewers.

Sales Of Blu-Ray, Digital Downloads Up Big In First Quarter (Paid Content)
Some new kids on the block in home-entertainment continue to grow rapidly. Sales of Blu-Ray HD more than doubled in the first quarter, while digital downloads were up 19 percent, according to a report from the Digital Entertainment Group. Both formats are still a small piece of the overall pie—DVD sales were $2.9 billion in the quarter versus $230 million for Blu-Ray and $487 million for digital downloads. But Blu-Ray’s sales were up 400 percent last year, for a total of $750 million, and companies like Netflix and Blockbuster continue to make inroads against traditional DVD sales with digital delivery of home movies.

Hulu Overtakes Yahoo as Third Most-Watched Internet Video Site
Hulu.com was the third most-watched Internet video destination last month, overtaking Yahoo Inc. Hulu, whose owners include News Corp. and General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, showed 380 million videos in March, compared with Yahoo’s fourth-place 335 million.

MLB.com By The Numbers: Subscription Sales Up 45 Percent; Nearly $1 Million From iPhone (Paid Content)
Three weeks into the 2009 baseball season, MLB.com is doing a lot better than Major League Baseball’s other New York-based franchises. According to numbers released by the league’s digital business MLBAM, subscription sales are up nearly 46 percent year-over-year to 400,000-plus for premium live game products MLB.TV and Gameday Audio. (MLBAM doesn’t break out the subscribers between video and audio or monthly and annual.) With that increase, it’s not surprising that video delivery is up, too—127.2 million streams, up 136 percent over 53.8 million in the first three weeks of the 2008 season.
Click through for additional highlights.

Technorati’s Blogcritics Gets A Makeover (Paid Content)
One of the web’s oldest online magazines, Blogcritics.org, is set to get a makeover Tuesday. The long list of text links to blog posts on the site’s front page has been replaced by an airy, photo-filled layout… [W]ith the redesign, Blogcritics, known mostly for its arts and culture reviews, hopes to attract additional advertisers and visitors. Blogcritcs’ 15 editors edit all posts before they are posted on the site. It’s a compromise between the heavily edited content on newspaper sites and the unedited posts on most blogs. With the makeover, writers’ profiles will now get more attention, with longer biographies and soon links to social media sites.

Shopflick Fuses Fashion With YouTube and Amazon (by Ben Parr at Mashable)
Shopflick is an interesting hybrid of YouTube, Amazon, and social networking. The website is dedicated to anyone who loves fashion (clothing, accessories, and jewelery primarily), indie goods, and shopping for them. Its primary purpose is to help you purchase fashionable items, but with far more information and entertainment than you’ll find at most shopping websites… Videos appear all across the website. If the item was featured in a show, a YouTube video will be available as well as photos of the item. This helps the fashion-savvy shopper see the item “in action” on a runway.

My favorite video feature, though, has to be “Meet the Designer,” which appears as a tab on almost every item. It provides a video interview or introduction from the designers of the product you are wearing. It’s easy to fall in love with a great designer in the world of fashion, and Shopflick has made sure it’s easy to follow your favorite designers with videos, designer-specific stores, and social features.

AOL’s Socialthing for Websites Ties it All Together (Mashable)
When AOL acquired lifestreaming service Socialthing back in August 2008, it actually had an idea what to do with it (it doesn’t always happen, you know). They’ve just launched Socialthing for Websites, which spreads the lifestreaming service over all websites that are willing to integrate it. It works like this: add Socialthing for Websites to your website, and you get a simple navigation bar at the bottom of the page. Through this interface, your visitors get a unified sign-on, the ability to chat and send instant messages with their friends, as well as syndication of data from other social networks (AOL’s own Bebo, as well as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others).

How Old Media Publishers Plan to Keep You on Their Sites (Paid Content)
Apture is an interesting service that enables site owners to add their own content-rich link icons to articles and blog posts – these little icons next to links allow users to hover over them to view a map, or a YouTube video, or a Wikipedia article related to the link. For instance, a link to a Flickr photo might have a camera icon next to it – hover over it to see the entire photo pop up in a widget without leaving the page. Likewise, a link to the music site Imeem adds a speaker icon and lets you play the music file in a pop up widget. Today Apture is announcing an important relationship with Reuters.com to place these multimedia widgets in its text.
I HATE those popups. Why don’t they make them dependent on a right click, or some other action by the user?

More Facebook On the Desktop: Xobni in Outlook (Mashable)
It hasn’t [been long] since Facebook opened up its developer API stream, but companies and applications have already jumped on the opportunity by expanding the functionality of their products. Just today, we’ve already highlighted the upcoming Facebook updates by Seesmic Desktop that will utilize the new Open Stream API. Now, email management software Xobni, which we featured as a great implementation of Facebook Connect, has taken advantage of the new features as well… [I]t will be possible to see the news feed items of your Facebook friends inside of Microsoft Outlook.

Xobni is a desktop software that creates profiles of all of your contacts, organizes them, and integrates with social networks and IM within Microsoft Outlook. It already integrates with Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networks by providing a way to look through social networking contacts. With the new additions Xobni is putting out later tonight, it will be possible to browse through the activities of your friends, comment on feed items, and like feed items, all from within the mail client.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 Now Available (Mashable)
The latest Firefox beta is called 3.5 beta 4, and although it sounds like a major change from the current stable version, it’s really just a successor to ye olde 3.1 beta. Thus, expect improvements, but don’t expect wonders. However, the good news is that this should be the last beta before the final version of Firefox 3.5 is out. Private browsing is one of those long-sought features that everyone else has, and although Mozilla has been testing it for a while now, it’s one of the “big” features in the latest beta. Besides private browsing mode, which lets you choose whether you want Firefox to retain possibly sensitive browsing data with one click.
Click through for highlights of additional features.

Microsoft Vine is Twitter for Emergencies (Mashable)
Microsoft has an early beta of a new product called Vine. Currently available for beta testers in Seattle, it’s a location-aware social networking application focused on being a robust means of local communication that’ll work even in times of emergency. It’s a desktop client (available for Windows only), and you can also post to it via e-mail or SMS. It gathers local news from 20,000 sources and displays it on a map. It lets you post alerts (short messages) and reports (longer posts). Finally, it integrates with Facebook, while Twitter integration will be added at a later date… Vine [offers] a lot that Twitter doesn’t. However, both Twitter and Facebook are growing extremely fast, and Vine is still in early beta. If Microsoft lets it linger too long, it might never catch up.

60% of Twitter Users Quit Within the First Month (Mashable)
We’re hearing some pretty amazing statistics about Twitter these days: growth from February 2008 to February 2009 was reportedly 1382%, with the incline increasing yet further in recent months. But like many social networks, it seems many people lose steam with the service. Stat tracking firm Nielsen reports today that a full 60% of users who sign up fail to return the following month. And in the 12 months “pre-Oprah”, retention rates were even lower: only 30% returned the next month. That’s good news, to some degree: retention rates have increased over time. But how does Twitter’s retention rate compare to Facebook and MySpace in the early days? Not well, says Nielsen.

Amazon Acquires Popular iPhone E-Reader App Stanza (Paid Content)
A small but potentially mighty acquisition by Amazon, which has picked up e-reader start-up Lexcycle and its popular iPhone application Stanza… Stanza is more than an iPhone app; it’s a desktop e-reader app for Mac and PC and a store for books. But it’s the iPhone app that grabbed people’s attention, allowing them to move beyond a browser experience into reader-friendly digital books via Apple’s iPhone or iTouch and prompting more than a half-million downloads in the first few months. Roughly 10 months after its July 2008 launch for iPhone, Stanza claims more than 1.5 million users.

Rapid Emergence of Vertical Ad Networks for Reaching Engaged, Targeted Audiences
comScore, Inc. … released the results of a study of vertical ad networks, which target ads to specific audiences online according to demographic or category content. Vertical ad networks include entities such as Adify Media, Federated Media, Glam Media and Travel Ad Network, among numerous others. The study showed that the collective reach of vertical ad networks tracked by comScore has increased substantially in the past year, from 21.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience in March 2008 to 57.1 percent in March 2009.

NBC.com Rolls Out Some New Video-Ad Options (Paid Content)
Since online video is the only advertising segment showing any real health these days, NBC.com is giving that area a little more concentration lately. It hopes to woo more sponsors to its site, especially as the network upfront season approaches, with a few new ad options for marketers and agencies… Advertisers will have the choice of six different placements for their video sponsorship. Among NBC.com’s new offerings are the pushdown, which lets users click to expand; the push-back, which begins as a 300×50 rollover and can also be enlarged to 300×250 with a user’s click; the homepage framing rail ad; a photo slide show unit; and pop-out ad player. And for some light targeting, there’s the “choose an ad,” which will showcase an array of different product lines from one advertiser.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Greenpeace (thanks to a tip from Alegre)

After an Off Year, Wall Street Pay Is Bouncing Back‎ (New York Times)
The rest of the nation may be getting back to basics, but on Wall Street, paychecks still come with a golden promise. Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong start of the year for bank profits. Even as the industry’s compensation has been put in the spotlight for being so high at a time when many banks have received taxpayer help, six of the biggest banks set aside over $36 billion in the first quarter to pay their employees, according to a review of financial statements. If that pace continues all year, the money set aside for compensation suggests that workers at many banks will see their pay — much of it in bonuses — recover from the lows of last year.
We give them billions of dollars after they failed miserably, they “lose” the month of December so that they can pretend to be making profits, and the Masters of the Universe still get their gigantic bonuses?  Ain’t it always the story?

Money for Nothing (by Paul Krugman)
From the 1930s until around 1980 banking was a staid, rather boring business that paid no better, on average, than other industries, yet kept the economy’s wheels turning. So why did some bankers suddenly begin making vast fortunes? It was, we were told, a reward for their creativity — for financial innovation. At this point, however, it’s hard to think of any major recent financial innovations that actually aided society, as opposed to being new, improved ways to blow bubbles, evade regulations and implement de facto Ponzi schemes…

One can argue that it’s necessary to rescue Wall Street to protect the economy as a whole — and in fact I agree. But given all that taxpayer money on the line, financial firms should be acting like public utilities, not returning to the practices and paychecks of 2007. Furthermore, paying vast sums to wheeler-dealers isn’t just outrageous; it’s dangerous. Why, after all, did bankers take such huge risks? Because success — or even the temporary appearance of success — offered such gigantic rewards: even executives who blew up their companies could and did walk away with hundreds of millions. Now we’re seeing similar rewards offered to people who can play their risky games with federal backing…

We can only hope that our leaders … carry through with real reform. In 2008, overpaid bankers taking big risks with other people’s money brought the world economy to its knees. The last thing we need is to give them a chance to do it all over again.

Good Government and Animal Spirits (by George A, Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, thanks to Economist’s View)
An understanding of animal spirits — the human psychology and culture at the heart of economic activity — confirms the need for restoring the role of regulators… [W]ith animal spirits, waves of optimism and pessimism cause large-scale changes in aggregate demand… When demand goes down, unemployment rises. It is the role of the government to mute those changes… Its role is not to harness animal spirits but really to set them free, to allow them to be maximally creative… The challenge for the Obama administration, along with the U.S. Congress and our SROs, is to invent a new and better American version of the capitalist game.
Presuming that “creative” is what our masters want us to be…

Creativity, convention, and tradition (by Daniel Little at Understanding Society, thanks to Economist’s View)
[H]ere is an apparent conundrum of creativity and convention. Any performance or artistic work that is wholly determined by the relevant conventions is, for that reason, wholly uncreative… But … novelty without regard to the frame of tradition is incomprehensible and meaningless…

It is relevant here that we are led to refer to the audience. Because cultural products require the conveying of meaning; and communication of meaning requires some reference to conventions shared with the audience — whether in music, painting, literature, or hiphop. Meaning of any cultural performance is inherently public, and this means there have to be publicly shared standards of interpretation. The audience can only interpret the performance by relating it to some set of conventions or other. These may be conventions of representation, structure, or mythology; but the audience needs some clues in order to be able to “read” the work.
I’m thinking that the same is true in political commentary and persuasion. You can’t get too far ahead of the audience, or they will reject what you have to say. I wish I had the skill to help people get from what they want to believe to believing what is actually true, but I’m too blunt. It seems to be embedded in my DNA.

Oh, hey, it’s not just me:
The Sensible People Do Love Their Conventional Wisdom (by Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
I sometimes think the reason I’ve never really gotten that much recognition in the blogosphere is because I’ve never trusted sensible opinion and made no bones about it. And since I wasn’t seeking a career in Democratic punditry, I had no incentive to even simulate that trust. The fact that I’m not deferential to my betters has always been a problem in terms of career advancement. Oh well! It sucks to be Cassandra.

Meltdown notes: Beware Obama — and the guy AFTER Obama (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
If you want to know what will soon hit America, look at Dubai… Dubai teaches us just how callous rich people truly are. Unchained capitalism inevitably forges the chains of slavery. If and when Obama fails, a well-organized propaganda campaign will tell us that socialism has failed, even though socialism was never tried. We will be told — repeatedly — that the only solution is libertarianism, a.k.a. Milton Friedmanism. Propagandists always portray free market fundamentalism as the great untried panacea. In fact, it has been tried again and again — and it has failed again and again.

Free market fundamentalism is not the answer — unless the question is : What got us into this mess? I fear Obama. But I fear the guy coming after Obama far more. I don’t know his name, but I can give you his job description. He’ll be a salesman. He’ll be a charmer, as the best salesmen always are. I can already see his reassuring smile, I can already hear his patter, and I can already sense the scheme that lies behind the spiel. And I know his task: Turn America into Dubai.

But it doesn’t HAVE to be that way:
When textbook macro pays off (by Dani Rodrik, thanks to Economist’s View)
Macroeconomics doesn’t get much plaudits around now, but here is a real-life story that should hearten those who think the field is really broken.  It concerns Andres Velasco, a distinguished macroeconomist who is currently the minister of finance in Chile, and who also happens to be a good friend, colleague and co-author. Until the current crisis hit, Chile’s economy was booming, fueled in part by high world prices for copper, its leading export… Being fully aware of Latin America’s commodity boom-and-bust-cycles and recognizing that high copper prices were temporary, Velasco stood his ground and decided to do what any good macroeconomist would do:  smooth intertemporal consumption by saving most of the copper surplus.  He ran up the largest fiscal surpluses Chile has seen in modern times…

The surpluses accumulated during the good years has given the Chilean government unusual latitude in responding to the [current financial] crisis.  As a result, the economy is doing much better than its peers.  As Bloomberg reports, “the country’s economy is expected to grow 0.1 percent in 2009, as the region contracts 1.5 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.” And does good economics pay off politically?  Eventually, yes.  Five months after being burned in effigy, Velasco is currently President Bachelet’s most popular minister.
I had a dream last night about seven fat cows and seven lean cows—oh wait, that story’s already been told.  Why can’t we save during the fat years to support us in the lean years, instead of the other way around?  Talk about your Ponzi schemes!

Before Tea, Thank Your Lucky Stars, by Robert Frank, Commentary, NY Times, thanks to Economist’s View)
THE link between success and luck is stronger than many people think… Contrary to what many parents tell their children, talent and hard work are neither necessary nor sufficient for economic success. It helps to be talented and hard-working, of course, yet some people enjoy spectacular success despite having neither attribute. (Lip-synching members of boy bands? Money managers who bet clients’ retirement savings on subprime-mortgage-backed securities?)

Far more numerous are talented people who work very hard, only to achieve modest earnings. There are hundreds of them for every skilled, perseverant person who strikes it rich — disparities that often stem from random events… Financially successful tax protesters seem blissfully unaware of how incredibly fortunate they are. To borrow from the late Ann Richards and her description of the first President Bush, they were born on third base and thought they’d hit a triple.
Long time readers: have I not been saying this for years? Why are liberals not conducting education campaigns to make people understand this important point? And to realize that the more you own, the more you benefit from the existence of government and its services? Which justifies higher rates of tax for people who own a lot.

Markets Cheer Stress Test Double Speak (by Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism)
Forgive me for sounding even crankier than usual, but the reason deception sells is that so many people line up for it.[*] [Emphasis added.] The release claiming to describe how the stress tests were conducted in fact provided no new information… Financial stocks did well on the belief that most of the big banks would get clean bills of health. But that was the plan from the outset, to validate that the system was more or less OK so that if the poor chump taxpayer had to stump up more money, it could be positioned as due to completely unforeseen events (thanks to having put on very big blinkers) yet still a good risk. 

The cheer seems a naive view. Citi is far from out of the woods, with a half trillion of foreign deposits, plus roughly $1 trillion in off balance sheet exposures (remember those SIVs, the watchword of late 2007?). Dislocation there would have far bigger ramifications. The Financial Times, looking at more or less the same fact set, comes to less upbeat conclusions. Is this the result of being further from the spinmeisters?
*As I said after last year’s election, “Most of the people WANT TO BE FOOLED most of the time.”

The lying will continue until confidence improves (by lambert at Corrente)
[T]he whole point of the stress tests is that they are a lie. The whole point is to lie, have everyone know it’s a lie, and get away with it; the worst kind of power trip imaginable. Only when our banksters are sure that they can keep lying — about their balance sheets, about their business practices, about their deals, about their fees, about their salaries — will “confidence” be restored. To the banksters, that is the very definition of confidence. Rahm already told us this, in the clearest possible language.

Bill Moyers’ Journal…–Simon Johnson and Michael Perino, author of new book on Pecora Commission, for the hour (by jawbone at Corrente)
Michael Perino, the author, seems less audacious than Simon (or Krugman or Stiglitz). This is a comment which sort of grew into live blogging of the discussion, but, fortunately, Moyers will have an excellent transcript up soon and the video is available at his site. While this financial failure has it’s own peculiarities, it’s still very much the same old/same old. Perino, the author of the book, is saying there’s a danger of going overboard, that just recently the questions have changed from “what went wrong” to “who caused this.” Moyers pushed back on that, saying aren’t both important.

Bear, AIG Dumped $74 Billion in Subprime, CDOs on Fed (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserve took on more than $74 billion in subprime mortgages, depreciating commercial leases and other assets after Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. collapsed. In its biggest disclosure of the securities accepted to stabilize capital markets, the Fed said yesterday it had unrealized losses of $9.6 billion on the assets as of Dec. 31. The bonds, swaps and notes were taken in from Bear Stearns, once the fifth-biggest Wall Street firm by capitalization, and AIG, which had been the world’s largest insurer… The central bank lent $2 trillion to financial institutions and hasn’t disclosed information about most of the collateral backing those loans.
We are proud, PROUD owners of toxic assets, and so happy that our masters don’t burden us with the silly details of what we bought.

Why don’t we turn the banks into regulated public utilities? (by lambert at Corrente)
James Kwak in Baseline Scenario quotes Nicholas Brady, of all people: “I believe that we need a simpler system centered on deposit-based banks. Under this approach, individual accounts in the depository banks would continue to be protected up to $250,000 and these banks would have access to the country’s central bank. These institutions would not be allowed to participate in markets involving inordinate leverage or equity transactions that would risk their deposit-protecting charter… First we should just come out and say it: the financial system that led us to the brink of disaster is broken.”

I don’t think that for Summers, Geithner, Emmanuel, or Obama, the idea that the financial system is broken is even on the table. The entire Obama administration plan — the stress tests, PPIP, the whole contraption — seems designed to let us avoid taking the truth serum, ever. It’s not going to work. And the insiders know this.

Where Are The Pitchforks? (by Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
John Emerson (h/t Avedon): “If there was ever a time for pitchfork populism, it’s right now. Unemployment is past 8% and still rising, and most people have seen a third to half of their retirement money disappear, and this was all the result of multimillionaires’ financial machinations. But so far we haven’t seen much public rage… Someone is going to be blamed, and the Republicans have figured out who: Clinton and Obama. But the Democrats are staying above the battle and refuse to ‘play the blame game’. This responsible, patrician, professional approach hasn’t worked for the Democrats for thirty or forty years, not even during normal times, and it’s certainly not going to work now. But the Democrats don’t realize this, and they’re so committed to their cool, professionalism that are unlikely to be able to deal with the politics of the impending disaster at all.”

At least there was a bit of action at the IMF meeting:
Protesters, police clash near IMF meetings in DC (AP)
More than 100 protesters upset with the way world leaders have handled the economic crisis clashed with police Saturday outside the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings. Authorities used batons and pepper spray when activists tried to march onto a prohibited street, and several people were pushed to the ground by police. The protesters swarmed officers unexpectedly, and police had to respond, said D.C. police Capt. Jeffrey Herold… Protesters claimed police responded without warning.

Finance Chiefs Back a Bolder IMF, Bigger Role for Emerging Nations (Washington Post)
Global financial chiefs agreed yesterday to reshape the International Monetary Fund, moving to broaden its mission and accelerate plans to give developing giants including China, Brazil and India more say within the institution. The IMF, which in recent years had become largely an advisory body to nations in crisis, will now be charged with aggressive monitoring of the global economy. Underscoring that role, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that Washington had consented to a rigorous IMF review of the U.S. financial system for the first time since the fund was created at the end of World War II.

Health care happening (by Paul Krugman)
OK, it looks as if major health care reform is actually going to happen. Democrats have agreed that if Republicans try to block reform in the Senate, they will use the reconciliation process to bypass a filibuster. Republicans will, of course, scream that this is a terrible, terrible thing — something they themselves would never have done — except, of course, to cut food stamps, pass both major Bush tax cuts, and more. We’ll still have to see what the reform looks like — especially whether the public plan survives. But kudos to the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership: this is the big one, and so far it looks very, very good.

I can’t be as sanguine as the good perfesser:
Max Baucus can’t read polls (by DCblogger at Corrente)
I listened to a stomach-turningly dishonest colloquy with Senator Max Baucus last night on NPR. Baucus declared he wouldn’t “waste (his) time” fighting for universal care which had no political support. As we know, a majority of Americans and a majority of doctors support a Medicare for All system.

Health care reform (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Health care reform is actually possible. The Republicans cannot filibuster. For the first time in my memory, the single-payer option is viable. Unfortunately, Obama and Pelosi seem wedded to the idea of keeping private insurers — otherwise known as USELESS LEECHES – in the system. Read this Corrente piece. A single payer activist has received the following feedback from Capitol Hill: “…Pelosi’s aide: ‘Where are the phone calls, e-mails and faxes in support of single-payer? Speaker Pelosi has been in favor of single-payer for a long time. Now make us do it.’”

Will calls and faxes do the trick? I’m captious, but I also believe in doing everything we can. Go here and learn how to do what needs to be done.  Inundate Pelosi’s office. Demand single payer. ALL DAY MONDAY, call her office and say “I want single payer!” Then call your own representative (if you do not live in Nancy‘s district). Don’t let Nancy Pelosi get away with pretending that the people have not spoken. Make it clear — to her and to history — that if she does not put single payer on the table, she acts against the will of the people. [Emphasis added.]

Waterboarding Song Is Surprisingly Enjoyable (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
Jonathan Mann, he of the Paul Krugman tribute pop song, is back with a new tune on waterboarding. Actually, Mann uploads a new song every day, but this is the first one Dick Cheney can rock out to on the way to Starbucks each morning.
Click through to watch the video.  It really is good.

Spies Come Out to Criticize Memos’ Release (ABC News)
Former Bush CIA chief Porter Goss said in an op-ed [last week], that the Obama administration had “crossed the line” by releasing the memos. “We can’t have a secret intelligence service, if we keep giving away all the secrets,” he wrote. Goss excoriates lawmakers who say they were never given a full and clear picture about the interrogation tactics the CIA was considering using against high value terrorist suspects in U.S. detention. “In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA’s ‘high value terrorist program,’ including the development of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ and what those techniques were,” he wrote.

Colleen Rowley blogs about torture… (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
The 9/11 FBI whistleblower makes a guest appearance on BradBlog…, and her piece is a must-read. She quotes another former FBI agent, Ali Soufan: “There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions — all of which are still classified. We have some idea as to nature of the backfiring, as when Khaled Sheikh Muhammed ‘confessed’ to a plot to destroy a building that had not been built at the time of his capture.”

Those who allow the occasional bit of paranoid speculation to color their worldview tend to suspect that false confessions were the point of Bush administration torture

Most Ops Officers Condemn Torture (by Larry Johnson, formerly with the CIA and the State Department, an international security expert)
There are a few apologists masquerading as “CIA veterans” touting the virtues of torture. But if you pick beneath the surface the so-called veterans–Mark Lowenthal and Marc Thiessen in particular–have zero field experience and really know nothing of how our men and women who serve overseas go about gathering intelligence. I am more impressed by the voices of those who have long experience in the field and know what it takes to get reliable information about potential threats. Who? Men like Ray Close (who served honorably for years in the Middle East as a Chief of Station), Haviland Smith (a retired CIA Station Chief who served in East and West Europe, the Middle East and as Chief of the Counterterrorism Staff), Milt Bearden (who helped organize the Afghan resistance against the Soviets) and Tyler Drumheller (former Chief of the European Division)…

If Americans want to listen to political clowns and hacks like Dick Cheney and Marc Thiessen, so be it. But know this. No American can delude themselves with the lie that most CIA field officers who actually work against these targets believe torture efficacious or moral.

The real test:
Torture and truthiness (by Joe Conason, Salon)
If Dick Cheney believes he can prove that torture saved us from terrorist attacks, why does he oppose a full investigation?

Upping the ante:
Freedom of Disinformation (by Joseph C. Wilson IV, writing at the Daily Beast)
Dick Cheney has called for declassifying memos he claims will vindicate the Bush administration’s torture policy. Now former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV urges the former vice president to extend his demand for transparency to his still-secret testimony in the Scooter Libby obstruction of justice case.

Military agency warned Bush administration in 2002 that its interrogation program was ‘torture.’ (Think Progress)
In a July 2002 document uncovered by the Washington Post, the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency warned that the Bush administration’s interrogation program was “torture” and that it would produce “unreliable information.” JPRA is the military agency that ran the program known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE), “which trains pilots and others to resist hostile questioning.” JPRA warned in the 2002 document: The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel.

Top of the Heap: The Democrats’ Teachable Moment on Torture (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
Here is one of the most clear-cut points of national decision and self-definition that can be imagined. Clear, credible evidence of atrocity and conspiracy has been produced. The course prescribed by law is clear: criminal investigation and, if warranted, prosecution. If, as you claim, your state is founded upon the rule of law, then there simply is no choice in the matter: the torture program and all of its perpetrators, facilitators and instigators must be subjected to the due process of law, without fear or favor. If this does not happen, then your state, however modernized and sophisticated, is nothing but a gilded barbarism, a gangland, where the brute force of money, privilege and power hold tyrannical sway. There is no law, only the triumph of the will of corrupt and criminal factions as they preen and jostle for position atop a fetid heap of blood and filth.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic leaders have now openly joined the long-time Republican resistance to applying the law of the land to the torture program. What lesson, then, are we to take from this “teachable moment”? What does this decision, this act of self-definition, say about the true nature of the American system of government today? Where does it put our righteous, noble, God-professing leaders? Why, on top of that stinking heap, of course!

Amid Outcry on Memo, Signer’s Private Regret (Washington Post)
“I’ve heard him express regret at the contents of the memo,” said a fellow legal scholar and longtime friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity while offering remarks that might appear as “piling on.” “I’ve heard him express regret that the memo was misused. I’ve heard him express regret at the lack of context — of the enormous pressure and the enormous time pressure that he was under. And anyone would have regrets simply because of the notoriety.”
Misused? Lack of context? Sorry he got caught? No way this man should be a federal judge.

Podesta Calls For Bybee Impeachment On CNN, Delivers Your Petitions To Congress (Think Progress)
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union [Sunday] morning, Center for American Progress Action Fund President and CEO John Podesta called on Congress to commence impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee, should he decide not to voluntarily resign his seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals… Podesta added that he suspects the White House doesn’t agree with the call for impeaching Bybee. The other panelists — David Gergen and former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein — disagreed with the call for impeachment.
Click through to watch the video.

Bybee’s ‘remoteness from the actual torturers’ increases his ‘degree of responsibility.’ (Think Progress)
Jon Eisenberg, one of the lawyers who is representing the plaintiffs in a case challenging Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, writes in the Philadephia Inquirer today that Jay Bybee’s “remoteness from the actual torturers increases his degree of responsibility”: “Bybee did not write the torture memo he signed; it was written by John Yoo, then at the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel and currently a law school professor… Far from absolving him of guilt, his remoteness from the actual torturers – his thoughtlessness – increases the degree of his responsibility. His is a special kind of evil – the evil of nonchalance where there should be outrage.”

Appeals court rejects lawsuit by Guantanamo detainees (Boston Globe)
A federal appeals court yesterday for a second time rejected a lawsuit by Guantanamo Bay detainees who say they were tortured and denied religious rights… The Court of Appeals in Washington ruled against the detainees early last year, saying because the men were foreigners held outside the United States, they do not fall within the definition of a “person” protected by the act… [Emphasis added.] [Saturday], the appeals court reached the same conclusion… The Obama administration supported the case’s dismissal, arguing that holding military officials liable for their treatment of prisoners could cause them to make future decisions based on fear of litigation rather than appropriate military policy.

So the military should never, ever think about the possibility of being brought to justice if they do things that are morally wrong, no matter what they might have been told by a superior?  Not the standard I’d like to see.

Politics and the English language at WaPo (by lambert at Corrente)
When you get mildew, it’s never just one plant. Whatever rotted Broder’s sensibility and conscience infests everything. Take a look at this front page teaser today from Pravda on the Potomac:

It’s all here, isn’t it? All wrapped up in one little compact package.

Obama wants to limit the legal rights of all of us, not just the detainees:
Obama legal team wants to limit defendants’ rights (AP)
The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule a 23 year-old decision that stopped police from initiating questions unless a defendant’s lawyer is present, the latest stance that has disappointed civil rights and civil liberties groups… Since taking office, Obama has drawn criticism for backing the continued imprisonment of enemy combatants in Afghanistan without trial, invoking the “state secrets” privilege to avoid releasing information in lawsuits and limiting the rights of prisoners to test genetic evidence used to convict them.

Unions See Specter Opening, Dangle Electoral Help For EFCA Vote (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
With poll numbers showing Sen. Arlen Specter in dangerous electoral water, union officials have begun presenting what amounts to a “get-out-of-jail-free” card for the Pennsylvania Republican: Recant your opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, pledge to support the labor-backed bill, and we might be able to carry you to reelection… The senator’s abruptly-declared opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act was supposed to stop the bleeding he was experiencing among more conservative Pennsylvanians. Now, with evidence suggesting the opposite, union officials see an opening to win his vote back.

FEC Report: PACs Doubled Independent Expenditures for ’08 Races (OpenSecrets.org)
Special interests appear to have made an unparalleled pre-emptive strike in the 2008 election cycle as they anticipated which legislative battles they’d face this year. According to an extensive report released by the Federal Election Commission today, political action committees spent $135.2 million on independent expenditures in the last election cycle in an attempt either to seat the congressional candidates and presidential hopefuls that would best promote their agenda or to defeat those they thought would not. That’s a 250 percent increase over their independent expenditures in the 2006 election cycle and a 100 percent increase over what they spent to influence elections in the last presidential election cycle in 2004.

Not surprisingly, the largest chunk of those independent expenditures ($58.6 million) came from labor unions, which were gearing up for another fight over the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would give workers more options for ways to unionize, including by collecting signatures from a majority of employees.
Click through for highlights of the findings.

GOP sees lessons, silver lining in Tedisco loss (The Hill)
“If you look at the recent voting in this district, having the race end in a virtual tie was pretty damned impressive,” said one House Republican leadership aide. “Would I rather have won than lost in the end?  Sure, but we should remember that this is the sort of Northeastern district where we got crushed in November of ’06 and ’08.  Getting to a push is real progress.” Though they expressed disappointment at the results, GOP officials like National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said they saw progress being made.

“The Republican Party must be competitive in districts like NY-20 if we are going to regain our Congressional majorities,” Steele said in a statement released Friday. “While we were unsuccessful in this race, the combined efforts of our candidate, the national and state parties and NRCC show that the GOP is going to invest the resources necessary to regain our majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
I, too, am surprised they came so close.  And I still can’t believe that Obama beat McCain by such a small margin—only because of the ginned up hysteria over the economy, the October Surprise that gave the election to Obama so that the Republicans could blame all of Bush’s failures on him. Which they’re now doing.  While the Democrats, as always, sit on their hands.

Masters of disaster (by Paul Krugman)
So Bobby Jindal makes fun of “volcano monitoring”, and soon afterwards Mt. Redoubt erupts. Susan Collins makes sure that funds for pandemic protection are stripped from the stimulus bill, and the swine quickly attack. What else did the right oppose recently? I just want enough information to take cover.

Texas governor’s secession talk a laughing matter on Capitol Hill‎ (Miami Herald)
There’s been an almost universal reaction in the halls of Congress to Gov. Rick Perry’s suggestion that Texas maybe, oughta, secede from the union. Laughter. “It’s known as a joking matter up here,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who chuckled when he was asked about it earlier this week. “It doesn’t present Texas in the best way.”
Is this what Obama meant when he said he would change the tone in Washington, that Democrats could now laugh freely at legitimate concerns expressed by conservatives?  Perry didn’t say Texas would secede, the story is that “Gov. Perry Backs Resolution Affirming Texas’ Sovereignty Under 10th Amendment”.  But we must laugh, because we are all sixth graders now.

Secessionist Gov. Rick Perry asks for federal help to deal with swine flu. (Think Progress)
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), who was last making headlines for suggesting that Texas may consider seceding from the Union, is requesting help from the federal government to deal with a possible swine flu pandemic: Gov. Rick Perry [Sunday] in a precautionary measure requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide 37,430 courses of antiviral medications from the Strategic National Stockpile to Texas to prevent the spread of swine flu. Currently, three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Texas.
Think Progress is pretty consistently accurate, but as we saw above, Gov. Perry did not talk about seceding. But it’s hypocritical of him to talk about reserving rights while asking for more money from the federal government.

In GOP base, a ‘rebellion brewing’ (Politico, thanks to Alegre)
There was Sen. John McCain’s daughter and his campaign manager who last week demanded that their fellow Republicans embrace same-sex marriage. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – the most devoted modernizer among the party’s 2012 hopefuls – won approving words from New York Times columnist Frank Rich for his call to downplay divisive values issues. The party’s top elected leaders in Congress, meanwhile, spooked by being attacked as the “party of no,” were recasting themselves as a constructive, respectful opposition to a popular president.

But outside Washington, the reality is very different. Rank-and-file Republicans remain, by all indications, staunchly conservative, and they appear to have no desire to moderate their views. GOP activists and operatives say they hear intense anger at the White House and at the party’s own leaders on familiar issues – taxes, homosexuality, and immigration. Within the party, conservative groups have grown stronger absent the emergence of any organized moderate faction.

Antiabortion movement gets a new-media twist (Los Angeles Times)
Lila Rose, a UCLA student, goes undercover at Planned Parenthood clinics to pose as an underage girl pregnant by a 31-year-old. Her surreptitious videos go on YouTube, and inspire outrage.

George W Bush think tank plan provokes controversy as he begins to raise cash (The Telegraph)
Academics at SMU have mostly welcomed the plan to host Mr Bush’s presidential library, which will eventually house all the documents from his eight-year administration and be run impartially by the National Archive. But they fear that the George W.Bush Policy Institute – whose goal is to “further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration” – will become a vehicle for propaganda, not least about the Iraq war.

Professor Thomas Knock, a noted historian and expert on presidential and diplomatic history, told The New York Times that the prospect of a George W.Bush policy institute within the walls of SMU that was “in no way beholden to academic principles or standards, responsible only to itself”, appalled him and many of his colleagues as well.

Obama May Sweep Aside TV Schedule  (Washington Post, thanks to Alegre)
President Obama might take an additional $9 million to $10 million out of the purse of the broadcast TV industry when he stages another of his news conferences next week to talk about his efforts to bail out the banking and automotive industries… Obama’s camp is asking for the 8 p.m. hour this coming Wednesday. That date, not coincidentally, marks his 100th day in office. He is expected to use the news conference to take control of the inevitable 100-days-in-office news-cycle blather — first-100-days navel-gazing being a time-honored journalistic tradition. Sadly for broadcasters, April 29 — Wednesday — also falls in the May sweeps ratings derby, which started last night.

Can CNN compete effectively with news delivered more or less straight?
Competitors and even some of CNN’s own staffers say recent trends suggest the answer may be no. “The people who watch these channels are news junkies,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin tells Bill Carter. “They’ve already had access to the headlines all day long on the Internet. In prime time you’ve got to stand out and make a splash.”
Because we need more performers and fewer reporters, don’t we?  Do you think Walter Cronkite ever worried about making a splash?

What’s the journalistic benefit of Atlantic owner’s off-the-record dinners? (Poynter Online)
David Bradley’s catered gatherings for journalists and newsmakers sound rather cozy, writes Howard Kurtz, “like some secret-handshake gathering of an entrenched elite. Are the top-level officials, strategists and foreign leaders there for serious questioning or risk-free spin sessions? And what exactly is the journalistic benefit if the visitors are protected by a shield of anonymity?”

Bronstein gives Dowd a tour of SF places where journalism had had an impact (Poynter Online)
They swing by police headquarters, the Castro, and the Giants’ ballpark. Phil Bronstein ends the tour by telling Maureen Dowd. “For people who still love print, who like to hold it, feel it, rustle it, tear stuff out, do their I. F. Stone thing, it’s important to remember that people are living longer. That’s the most hopeful thing you can say about print journalism, that old people are living longer.”

Sisyphus Shrugged – columnist fails to recognize mouldering corpse of undead irony, which then eats her brain (thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
[Y]ou, Maureen Dowd, are the woman who mainstreamed snark. So you kind of own the commentary career of William Kristol. You were the precipitating cause of Dana Milbank’s decline from a damn good reporter into someone who thinks the readers of his paper tune in to monitor the production of his gall bladder, and the godmother of Ron Fournier’s figleaf attempt to disguise naked political partisanship as a fearless determination to remain unspun. You, Red, are a shining symbol of the royal road to success that lies in writing low-content trash which amuses the folks your publisher or your great and good friend the managing editor network with.

And here’s the thing – lots of folks, now that they don’t have to write journalism with standards any more, are better at it than you are. They’re also younger and hungrier, and while they may not all have the sterling family political connections that got you your shot at the big time over others equally young and hungry who had to start a bit lower down the food chain, a lot of them are funnier, and smarter, and didn’t spend the last eight years writing think pieces about Hillary’s fat ankles.

As a matter of fact, since you don’t necessarily need a research department or actual reporting to do what you do, many of the people who are better than you at it write for blogs. After you, the deluge, sunshine. Hope you wore your hipboots.

Times Suppressed News of William F. Buckley’s Suicide Impulse (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
Christopher Buckley’s family tell-all has already made him some enemies. Will people look more kindly on the writer’s crusade to break the news of his father’s suicide urge? Buckley told the Washington Post his memoir has eroded his standing within Manhattan society, even prior to its release. It depicts his father Willilam F. Buckley Jr. relieving himself out of a car window, ditching Christopher’s Yale graduation in boredom and, apparently suffering dementia, planning a party for dead associates. The book also reveals that the conservative icon considered suicide in his last days, amid emphysema and a heavy regimen of pills, before heeding the Catholic Church’s prohibition against the act.

It turns out Sam Tanenhaus of the New York Times Book Review nearly broke this news first in the Times, two days after William F. Buckley’s February death — until Christopher Buckley strong-armed him… Instead, the news appeared weeks later in the gossip section of the New York Post, a seemingly odd venue for someone trying to protect his father’s image against sensationalism (the headline: “BILL BUCKLEY’S MORBID END”). The item was careful to credit Buckley’s book. Go figure.
The son of the Father of Modern Conservatism was another early Obama supporter.

FactCheck posted these new items during the week ending April 24, 2009 (Follow links to read complete answers)

Q: Did Obama delay the rescue of Captain Phillips?
A:  No. Military officials say that the claims being made in a widely circulated chain e-mail are false.

Q: Have 84 members of Congress been arrested for drunk driving in the last year? Have seven been arrested for fraud?
A: We judge these statistics to be not credible. They originated nearly a decade ago with a Web site that still refuses to provide any proof or documentation, or even to name those accused.

Congress and Progress
A liberal group’s ad claims Republicans in Congress oppose “progress.”

Helen Was Right
Veteran reporter Thomas got Obama’s bio right; press secretary Gibbs was wrong.

Hot Air on “This Week”
Rep. Boehner claims carbon dioxide isn’t “harmful to our environment.”

Drugs: To Legalize or Not (by Steven B. Duke, professor of law at Yale Law School, writing in the Wall Street Journal)
Decriminalizing the possession and use of marijuana would raise billions in taxes and eliminate much of the profits that fuel bloodshed and violence in Mexico.
Don’t go making SENSE, now!

The Original Bernie Madoff (by Frank Partnoy, Professor of Law and Finance at the University of San Diego, writing at the Daily Beast)
The forgotten saga of Ivar Kreuger—a financial fraudster from the 1920s who spun lies to friends and investors, was put under surveillance in his Park Avenue apartment, and sparked an epic bankruptcy scandal— provides valuable lessons for today’s economic crisis.

High school hell is great fodder for games
War is hell, but a few savvy developers have figured out an even more hellish and heart-pounding backdrop for games: high school. Bullets whizzing past your head? Pshaw. Just try surviving the cafeteria.
High school hell is great fodder for suicides.

Commentary: Addressing harassment and suicide prevention in schools
The affect of language and behavior can be deadly, especially in a school environment where young people are already highly impressionable and vulnerable. Unfortunately, this difficult lesson has been conveyed many times when young people resort to drastic and permanent measures to escape the despair of enduring constant bullying and harassment at school.

What if Susan Boyle Couldn’t Sing? (by Dennis Palumbo, Huffington Post)
Like millions of viewers, I was thrilled and moved when 47-year-old Susan Boyle wowed the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent with her superb singing. As everyone knows by now, the unmarried, “never been kissed” woman from a small village was greeted by both the audience and the talent show’s judges with derision when she first took the stage… Then Susan opened her mouth and sang. And her voice was so powerful, so achingly beautiful, so full of yearning, that even the usually heartless Simon Cowell was blown away. As were the other judges, and the audience, all of whom gave Susan a standing ovation. And now, online and elsewhere, Susan’s voice, and the story of her triumph on that stage, are known throughout the world…

But I can’t help wondering, what would have been the reaction if Susan Boyle couldn’t sing?… Would we still acknowledge that the derisive treatment she received before performing was callous, insensitive and cruel? The unspoken message of this whole episode is that, since Susan Boyle has a wonderful talent, we were wrong to judge her based on her looks and demeanor. Meaning what? That if she couldn’t sing so well, we were correct to judge her on that basis? That demeaning someone whose looks don’t match our impossible, media-reinforced standards of beauty is perfectly okay, unless some mitigating circumstance makes us re-think our opinion?
I guess I’ve heard the song, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” most of my life, but one day—I don’t even remember when—it struck me as a pretty sad commentary on the other reindeer. They made fun of Rudolph until Santa gave his stamp of approval to Rudolph’s special gift. So it took intervention from a higher authority for the reindeer to appreciate Rudolph. Before that, they had bullied and shunned him. According to the song, it’s just great and wonderful that the other reindeer started loving Rudolph and letting him play their games.  They never had to learn a damn thing, so what will happen when the next unusual reindeer comes along? I hate that song now, because I’ve seen too many instances where the higher authority never appeared, and the stupids just kept on being stupid.

Media Matters for America headlines

On Fox, McInerney criticizes Gates for proposed F-22 replacement without noting ties to aircraft subcontractor

AP reported that Gore “bragged” he read energy bill, but he was asked if he had done so

Claiming “[e]verybody supported” interrogation methods, Scarborough misrepresents Holder

Fox omits Republican role in Sebelius confirmation delay

National Journal’s Taylor latest to advance debunked Library Tower claim

Huckabee falsely claimed Obama “toying with … criminal prosecutions” for CIA interrogators

Goler reverses meaning of Obama quote to falsely suggest he supports European-style health care

Media reported GOP reconciliation criticisms, ignored their previous support for process

100 days of myths and falsehoods

NRO’s Hemingway gets history wrong in accusing Begala of botching facts

Commentary: Not much to celebrate on World Press Freedom Day (Editorial, Miami Herald)
Monday is World Press Freedom Day, but don’t expect a party. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 125 members of the press are being held in prisons around the world. China, as usual, is leading the pack with 28 behind bars and Cuba is second with 21. At least 11 journalists have been killed worldwide in 2009, and now American reporters in Iran and North Korea have become pawns in international negotiations.

Oklahoma Man Arrested for Twittering Tea Party Death Threats
An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.

Obama Passing New Law To Allow Searching of PC’s, Laptops, and Media Devices (video at AfterDowningStreet.org)

Judge in RealNetworks Case Seals Court‎
U.S. District Court judge Marilyn Hall Patel sealed the San Francisco courtroom Friday where RealNetworks and several Hollywood studios began squaring off over the issue of whether Real’s RealDVD software can be legally sold. The decision came as a result of a motion by the DVD Copy Control Association, who argued that public testimony of aspects of the CSS copy-control technology would violate trade secrets.

Update: Coach who banned student reporters apologizes for “unacceptable” behavior
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater head football coach Lance Leipold has apologized to the campus newspaper for his use of inappropriate language to a reporter and his banning of student reporters from covering the team. He promises to cooperate with the paper in the future, says a release.

J-schools should teach students how to be storytellers
“It’s easy to teach people to become recorders of events or repeaters, transferring a message from one source to another,” writes former Rocky editor John Temple. “It’s difficult to teach people how to become storytellers. And, yes, of course I mean ‘all-platform’ storytellers.”
Paging Bob Somerby, paging Bob Somerby!  Story telling by the media, instead of plain old reporting, is what has gotten us into so much trouble.

Sun-Times’ city hall reporter had 600+ bylined stories last year
“I can tell you her great frustration was that — in an era of shrinking newspapers — there wasn’t room for hundreds more she wanted to write,” writes Mark Brown. Longtime Sun-Times city hall reporter Fran Spielman receives the Chicago Headline Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award tonight.
Give the woman a blog, Sun-Times, so she can write as much as she wants to.

Drop in Newspaper Circulation Accelerates
The rate of decline in circulation at the nation’s newspapers has accelerated since last fall, with industry figures showing a more than 7 percent drop compared with the prior year.

Publishers Seize on iPhone as Great White Digital Hope for Print
Industry Progressing from Replicas of Issues to Formats Better Suited to Small Screen

Google CEO bats down rumors about getting into the content creation business
Sharon Waxman says Eric Schmidt repeats what he’s said before: Google isn’t interested in creating original content. In about six months, he says, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it, and hopes to sell premium ads against that premium content. News orgs, however, won’t see more money for supplying the content. || More Waxman: What Huffington has attempted is working.

AOL Gets Political—And More Professional—As Content Rollout Continues (Paid Content)
AOL has been reworking its content strategy yet again—BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine half-jokingly estimates the Time Warner unit is on its 72nd revamp since 2001—this time with an eye towards politics.PoliticsDaily.com is the latest blog being rolled out by the portal’s programming unit, MediaGlow. In a conversation last week with AOL programming SVP Marty Moe, the site is a bit different than the series of blogs it has been rolling out last year.

INDenverTimes Troubles May Signal Difficulty of Replicating Newsrooms (by Amy Gahran at Poynter Online)
Funders of INDenverTimes — the independent online-only startup founded by former employees of the Rocky Mountain News — announced today they will not move forward under the original business model but will explore a different model for the site, without some of the journalists who created it.

Execs Talk Compensation at Festival of Media
Agency CEOs Say It’s Time to Alter Payment Model, Relationships With Clients

At Newspapers, New Levels of Job Insecurity
The fast-shrinking newspaper business set a new standard for job insecurity in the last couple of weeks. Winning your profession’s highest honor does not mean you get to keep your job, and neither does taking a bullet while at work.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom staffers approve 6.6% pay cut
The vote was 86 to 46. If Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members hadn’t approved the proposal on Thursday, Journal Sentinel was prepared to lay off more newsroom staffers at the end of April.

Star Tribune union says it has a tentative deal on “painful and distasteful” concessions
The tentative deal calls for a 3% pay cut; a wage freeze that extends to the end of the current contract, July 31, 2011; a two-day furlough in each of the next two years; and other concessions. The agreement, which needs membership approval, prevents a filing to terminate the union’s contract in bankruptcy court.

It’s Official (and Hacked): 4chan Founder Sweeps Time’s Top 100 List (Mashable)
The Internet has different rules. The folks at Time just learned about it in a very amusing way, as their third annual poll for the world’s most influential person was topped by moot A.K.A. Christopher Poole, founder of the legendary meme breeding forum 4chan… One can easily argue that 4chan is one of the most influential sites on the Internet… However, the results of the vote have nothing to do with influence. If you think that this is the result of a fair vote, think again. The entire first 21 results, as noted days ago, are the result of an elaborate hack done by 4chan users.

Tierney collected $1.175M in salary and bonuses in ’08
That’s somewhat higher than previously disclosed. Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney’s compensation included $650,000 in salary, a $350,000 bonus for 2008, a $175,000 bonus for 2007 and $81,000 in transportation costs. Court filings also show payments of $50,000 to an Internet consulting company Tierney’s son Brian Jr. co-owns. The company, Clipper Global, has no website or phone number.

Keller: “I’m a little puzzled by WSJ’s evolving identity”
“Some days the front page is mostly general-interest news, like a cross between the Times and USA Today,” NYT executive editor Bill Keller e-mails Scott Sherman. “Then the next day you get a front like today [March 12], when the lead story (‘EBay Retreats in Web Retailing’) is clearly aimed at core business readers. Some days the tone is FT (a top-of-the-page curtain raiser on the G-20 summit); some days it is tabloid populist (lashing the million-dollar-bonus recipients at Merrill). …Maybe they hope we’ll all keep reading just to see how they resolve their identity crisis.”

Graham: WP bought Foreign Policy for its “very, very remarkable audience”
Erik Wemple asks: Why would a company in the midst of a tanking media economy snap up a property like Foreign Policy, which is running year-after-year losses in the millions of dollars? Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham explains: Foreign Policy has “attracted a very, very remarkable audience — a tremendous number of policy makers and foreign ministers that advertisers want to reach. We know a little bit about selling to such an audience.”

Empire of Martha Marches On
David Carr: Martha Stewart is prevented by law from running her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. But you get the feeling that no one else is allowed to run it without her say-so, either. Stewart is still very much the creative maypole of the franchise.

It’s Still Called PRWeek, but It’s Going Monthly
The magazine is shrinking its format, adding longer feature articles and charging for its Web site.

Scientific American Cuts Workforce 5 Percent; Mag’s President, Editor Prepare To Leave (Paid Content)
Scientific American has laid off 5 percent of its staff and is losing its president and its editor, Folio reported. President Steven Yee is preparing to step down from his post this summer.  He told Folio that the decision was related to the magazine’s “transition” into parent Macmillan’s Nature Publishing Group. He plans to go into what he would only describe as a “design-related entrepreneurial venture.” Also, editor John Rennie will exit his post after 15 years at the magazine. Executive editor Mariette DiChristina will serve as acting editor-in-chief.

Esquire says prediction of its demise is wrong
Douglas McIntyre, who recently angered many editors and publishers with his prediction that their papers will go under, has now targeted Esquire. He says the magazine won’t survive the downturn, which the Hearst title denies. “The Esquire brand has shown stunning vitality in the recent past,” say the editors.

Hearst Enters The Modern Age, Orders Agencies To Submit All Ads Via Portal (Paid Content)
Hearst Magazines has created an online portal—not for users, but for advertisers and agencies. AdAge notes the mag publishers is compelling marketers and agencies to send all advertising through its portal and will no longer accept ads delivered physically. The system will be fully in place this summer. Hearst hopes to make it easier to place ads across its various properties by requiring standard, uniform settings on the ads. This is also the idea behind the Online Publishers Association’s test of three distinct display ad formats.

Hearst also wants to give more flexibility to the lead time for when its print mags can accept ads. Magazines can lose potential revenue when an ad is submitted too late for publication and has to be dropped. The publisher has tried to reform the process and claims some success already. Hearst execs tell AdAge that Cosmopolitan’s has cut the lead time down from 48 days to 28 days. It expects to cut more when the system is in place.

Condé Nast Closes Portfolio Magazine
Portfolio, a business magazine that Condé Nast began publishing in April 2007 with much fanfare, will cease publication immediately.

Sirius Debt Challenges Aside, Satellite Radio Has Largely Lived Up To Expectations (by Rory Maher at Paid Content)
Sirius XM Satellite Radio has had an interesting 2009: it fended off rumors its burdensome debt would send it into bankruptcy, then reported that Q408 subscriber additions had plummeted. But, while the company’s debt issues have fueled speculation about the viability of its business, few reports explore whether the satellite radio industry as a whole has achieved success as a viable consumer product. With that in mind, I compared forecasts from one of the original analyst reports on satellite radio—published in 2002…—with benchmarks the industry achieved in 2008. The result may be surprising to some who have been negative on the industry’s prospects: it largely has lived up to expectations set way back in 2002, when the satellites were first being sent into orbit.

How Network TV Will Reinvent Itself (by Ronald Grover and Tom Lowry, Business Week)
For decades network TV has been about reach. Programmers traditionally chose shows with broad appeal, the better to get millions of viewers and, in turn, persuade national advertisers to buy those eyeballs. That era is essentially over and the networks are scrambling to adapt to a fragmented landscape where even popular shows are lucky to pull in 10 million viewers… In time, TV networks likely will start to look more like cable channels that have built audiences based on shows that cater to specific groups.
I’m no expert, but it seems to me that everyone in media needs to start thinking smaller, and that goes for book publishing, movie and TV show making, and maybe everything else, too. Think about works produced with smaller budgets—but many with higher quality, because no one is pretending to appeal to everyone. Aiming to recoup the cost of each production with maybe a small profit could be a viable business model.  And now and then there might be the lagniappe of a breakout hit that appeals to a vast audience.

For Fox, a Contest Offers a Chance to Hunt for the Next Big TV Show
In a partnership with the New York Television Festival, the network will solicit scripts from aspiring writers.

Facebook Makes It Easier For Developers To Play With Its Data (Paid Content)
Facebook is slated to give third-party developers like Playdom and LivingSocial greater access to its data—loosening the restrictions on the kinds of data they can pull into their applications, as well as what the apps can do with that info… Inside Facebook suggests that Facebook will let developers piggyback off of members’ “shared items,” or the articles, videos and other content that they post to their profiles; access to this info would give developers a better read on when and where specific content like videos and news articles started to “go viral,” and could help them create apps with more longevity.

Alaskans using Twitter to call out bad drivers
Forget about waving fists and wagging middle fingers, a few Alaska motorists are venting road rage with something more high tech: Twitter.

Online Video Ad Spend Still On Track To Generate $1 Billion By 2011 (Paid Content)
While ad spending in general craters, online video is still growing despite experiencing a significant slowdown. Interpublic Group’s Magna forecasts the US market for online video will grow by 32 percent this year, rising from $531 million in 2008 to $699 million in 2009.

Lambient Media
In U.K., Selling Train Tickets Using Sheep as Billboards

U.K. Insurer Says, ‘Help Yourself’
PruHealth Teams With JCDecaux Innovate to Dispense Free Goodies With a Message

Verizon 1st-qtr profit, revenue beat expectations
Verizon Communications Inc. said Monday its earnings grew 5 percent in the first quarter, boosted by its acquisition of Alltel Corp. and strong demand for its wireless, Internet and TV services.

Internet users ’could suffer brownouts due to YouTube and iPlayer’‎
Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube and the BBC’s iPlayer cause online traffic to double, experts warn.

One Internet Village, Divided: In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit
To serve emerging markets, companies like YouTube need to invest in expensive servers, but ad revenue for those countries doesn’t cover those additional costs.

G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc
Experts say the breakthrough holds the promise of being a big step forward in digital storage with a wide range of potential uses.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Larry Summers falls asleep during Obama’s meeting with credit card executives. (Think Progress)
[Thursday] President Obama met with credit card industry officials at the White House. After the meeting, he pledged to push for a law that would offer “strong and reliable” protections for credit card users in the United States. He called the session with the industry executives “open and productive conversation.” However, one person who seemed less than interested in the meeting was White House economic adviser Larry Summers, who fell asleep.

What, me worry?

Obama tells bankers: End credit card abuses (McClatchy)
Armed with letters from Americans hit hard by soaring credit card fees and rates, President Barack Obama warned credit card executives Thursday that he’d happily sign into law tough new regulations that are working their way through Congress.

Where Credit Is Due (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Sitting in the Roosevelt room in the private meeting, Mr. Obama told the executives that every day he reads 10 letters, winnowed from the thousands the White House receives…, and on average one of the 10 is someone complaining about unfair credit card company practices…

Mr. Obama outlined four core proposals that he’d like to see:
• Banning unfair rate increases and forbidding abusive fees and penalties;
• “No more fine print; no more confusing terms and conditions”;
• Having every credit card company “issue a plain- vanilla, easy-to-understand, simplest-terms-possible credit card as a default credit card that the average user can feel comfortable with”; and
• Requiring more accountability in the system, more effective oversight and more effective enforcement.

Some of the attendees from the credit card industry said the meeting was more “political theater” than anything else, more for the cameras than about substance.
Right.  Stopping gouging can’t possibly be about substance.

The Great Credit Card Battle To Come (by Robert Reich)
[G]etting tough on the banks’ credit card lending practices has [great] appeal for the Administration, politically. It puts the White House on the side of the people rather than Wall Street, on an issue that the public is becoming more and more upset about. And the Administration’s push could be enough to get reform legislation through Congress.

The bankers [were to] tell Obama [Thursday] that any new con[s]traints on credit card lending will cause the banks to reduce the amount of credit card lending they do, which will hurt the economy. But it’s a weak argument because it presupposes that any lending is good for the economy — even lending to people who don’t know what they’re getting into and can’t repay the loans. It’s the same argument banks used two years ago, when pre[s]cient observers warned that constraints had to be placed on mortgage lending practices. What may hurt the economy in the short term, we now know, may save it from even larger pitfalls to come.
I’m reminded of the arguments over fighting climate change. The anti-change forces say that any attempt to mitigate the consequences of pumping tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will slow down the economy. But sometimes making an investment slows things down in the short run while paving the way for a huge new industry to establish itself. The objections aren’t based in science or even rationality, they’re based in partisan strategery. Right wingers are afraid of any success that might be attributed to any other ideology but theirs, so they believe must fight the fight against climate change. As Jared Diamond showed us in Collapse, when ideology stops people from facing the truth about their environment, the environment wins devastating victories.

Think about the choices: If we do something about climate change, we may slow the economy (more), but there’s a good chance of building a whole new economy with a sound basis on alternative energy sources; if we do nothing, all life on earth could be destroyed. That’s no choice at all, except to the dogmatically blind.

The evidence is starting to come in, evidence that will be denied, skewed, and rejected by the ideological right:
Cap-and-Trade Program Creates Green Jobs (Scientific American, thanks to Economist’s View)
The cap-and-trade program created by 11 Northeastern states has begun to deliver revenues that are being used to pay the salaries of new “green collar” workers

How denialism works (The Edge of the American West, thanks to Economist’s View)
The problem with Politico reporting of Amity Shlaes’s Forgotten Man that

Critics of the book, including economist Paul Krugman and historian Eric Rauchway, have challenged Shlaes’ use of data, noting, for example, that the unemployment statistics she uses do not count Works Progress Administration jobs. Shlaes defends her approach, arguing that make-work jobs are not evidence of economic growth and noting that President Barack Obama recently used the same data series she did in discussing unemployment during the Great Depression.

is not that it’s “they-said, she-said” journalism, but that it’s an inadequate representation of the truth. It’s not just Shlaes versus a famously shrill Nobelist and some dude at an ag university; it’s Shlaes versus the accepted academic consensus.

As previously noted, if you were a sufficiently honest and competent researcher located like Amity Shlaes near any number of world-class reference libraries simply out to find out the unemployment rate in the 1930s, you would not find the data Shlaes cites; you would find, in the authoritative reference work, an explanation of why it’s not best to cite the data Shlaes cites. Shlaes has to go out of her way to find other data… This may seem rather similar to the method used to deny that tobacco use causes cancer, or that human action promotes global warming: by making something seem complicated, by saying, well, there’s disagreement, Shlaes and other denialists undermine the entire academic enterprise.
Yes, and the same tactics are used to undermine the entire public discourse, as well. The national media have been helping Republicans win this wretched game for many years.

The Recovery to Come (by James K. Galbraith, thanks to Economist’s View)
Will what went down, come back up?… A future of short and incomplete expansions may be the most likely case, with no prospect for a return to full employment. For the working population of the country, this is no recovery at all. And it will be made all the worse [by] rising financial markets and premature declarations of victory, the gloating of the bailed-out… [Here are] four steps that would help to avert this future, and help to assure a long and relatively stable expansion, leading ultimately back to high employment.

- Treasury should change its bank plan, recognize that too-big-to-fail is also too-big-to-regulate, and too-big-to-regulate is also too-big-to-manage… Apart from the vast political power of the big banks, this is not a difficult choice.
- The unmet human disaster of this slump remains urgent, and the way to meet it is to strengthen, not weaken, the social safety net…
- For the long term, we should build institutions now, including a National Infrastructure Fund and a cabinet Department for Energy and Climate, capable of planning and funding the reconstruction of the country.  The point of this is to build expectations for a sustained expansion and also to give it a direction, charting the course that private investments will follow when they eventually return.
- Finally, we should recognize … that the rest of the world … lacks the mechanisms and the inclination to take action as we can… It is therefore quite possible that the rest of the world will not cooperate in economic recovery even if one gets started here. It is possible that credit, debt and exchange-rate crises still to come will overwhelm the capacity of the global system to cope. We should be prepared, if we can, to deal with that risk.

Government ultimatum sealed Merrill deal: Cuomo letter (MarketWatch)
The government threatened to oust Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis if the bank didn’t go through with its acquisition of struggling investment bank Merrill Lynch, according to the results of an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released Thursday. Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary at the time, told Lewis in December that the management and board of directors of Bank of America would be removed if the deal wasn’t closed, Cuomo said… Federal regulators also warned Lewis that a meltdown of the financial system could be triggered if the deal fell through.

Control without accountability (Interfluidity, thanks to Economist’s View)
It’s not exactly right to say that our don’t-ask-don’t-tell quasinationalization policy has given us “ownership but not control”. An assertive Treasury secretary has tremendous leverage over zombie bank managers. Instead, what we have is … control without accountability. An informal, unauditable, hydra-headed set of private managers and public officials controls how quasinationalized banks behave. Neither taxpayers nor shareholders have reason to believe that decisions are being taken in their interest. The informality and disunity of control impedes the kind of hands-on, detail-oriented supervision and risk management that ought to be the core preoccupation of bank managers. Exactly as opponents of nationalization feared, America‘s large banks are poorly run behemoths that routinely make idiotic commercial decisions to satisfy tacit political mandates. No one really knows who is responsible for what.

And that’s not all that nobody can be held accountable for:
Government Watchdogs Warn of Lack of Oversight For Trillions in President’s New Spending Programs (by Jake Tapper and Matt Jaffe at Political Punch, ABC News)
The Government Accountability Office [Thursday] issued a report on the $787 billion stimulus bill called “RECOVERY ACT: As Initial Implementation Unfolds in States and Localities, Continued Attention to Accountability Issues Is Essential.” The GAO study asserts that officials from most of the states surveyed “expressed concerns regarding the lack of Recovery Act funding provided for accountability and oversight. Due to fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff — limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.”

Because the economic downturn has led to “fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff, limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.”
States: Thanks for the billions! We’d just love to tell you how we spent it all, but we just can’t afford to!

Pelosi Briefed on Waterboarding in ’02 (Politico)
Nancy Pelosi denies knowing U.S. officials used waterboarding — but GOP operatives are pointing to a 2007 Washington Post story which describes an hour-long 2002 briefing in which Pelosi was told about enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail. Two unnamed officials told the paper that Pelosi, then a member of the Democratic minority, didn’t raise substantial objections.

Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Democratic complicity and what “politicizing justice” really means (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Bush-defending opponents of investigations and prosecutions think they’ve discovered a trump card:  the claim that Democratic leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller and Jane Harman were briefed on the torture programs and assented to them.  The core assumption here – shared by most establishment pundits – is that the call for criminal investigations is nothing more than a partisan-driven desire to harm Republicans and Bush officials (“retribution”), and if they can show that some Democratic officials might be swept up in the inquiry, then, they assume, that will motivate investigation proponents to think twice… Most people who have spent the last several years (rather than the last several weeks) vehemently objecting to the Bush administration’s rampant criminality have been well aware of, and quite vocal about, the pervasive complicity of many key Democrats in this criminality…

The reality is exactly the opposite (as usual) of what is being depicted in our media discussions.  The call for criminal investigations of torture and other forms of government criminality is the most apolitical and non-partisan argument one can make.  The ones who are trying to politicize the justice system and exploit the rule of law for partisan gain are those who are arguing against criminal investigations.

Obama Administration to Release Detainee Abuse Photos; Former CIA Official Says Former Colleagues ‘Don’t Believe They Have Cover Anymore’ (Political Punch, ABC News)
In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge…, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over to the American Civil Liberties Union 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration. The photographs are part of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU for all information relating to the treatment of detainees — the same battle that led, last week, to President Obama’s decision to release memos from the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel providing legal justifications for harsh interrogation methods that human rights groups call torture.

Courts had ruled against the Bush administration’s attempts to keep the photographs from public view. ACLU attorney Amrit Singh tells ABC News that “the fact that the Obama administration opted not to seek further review is a sign that it is committed to more transparency.” Singh added that the photographs “only underscore the need for a criminal investigation and prosecution if warranted” of U.S. officials responsible for the harsh treatment of detainees… Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs “prurient” and “reprehensible,” Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
How “prurient” and “reprehensible” was the Starr Report? And it was about truly unimportant stuff.

A Brief History of Torture (The Daily Show)
Jon Stewart rips apart the media’s tortured logic on covering torture.

Pressure grows on Obama to call for interrogation panel (McClatchy)
If growing political pressure doesn’t subside soon, President Barack Obama may have to do something he’s resisted doing since he took office: support a new investigation into how the Bush-era CIA interrogated suspected terrorists using techniques that are widely considered torture.

Reclaiming America’s Soul (by Paul Krugman)
It’s hard … not to be cynical when some of the people who should have spoken out against what was happening, but didn’t, now declare that we should forget the whole era — for the sake of the country, of course. Sorry, but what we really should do for the sake of the country is have investigations both of torture and of the march to war. These investigations should, where appropriate, be followed by prosecutions — not out of vindictiveness, but because this is a nation of laws. We need to do this for the sake of our future. For this isn’t about looking backward, it’s about looking forward — because it’s about reclaiming America’s soul.

A Nation of Laws, Oh Yeah (by paradox at The Left Coaster)
I’d like to state this to all the obnoxious assholes who so stupidly called me an Angry Liberal all these years: I told you so. Oh yes, I told you when you ripped up the law to steal an election you empirically demonstrated to Bush he could break any law he liked, why the hell not, since he got his job that way… I doubt very much real adherence to The Law will ever occur in my lifetime, and after Bush vs. Gore my base respect for lawyers and their clownshow courthouses never will.

Extreme? Radical? Embittered? Angry? Jesus, take a look around: two heinous, stupid futile wars, felons everywhere for torture in them, a smashed economy in horrifying ruins, pride and reputation for country in utter shameful desolation. All for Georgie and Dick, all from treating the The Law like toilet paper with Bush vs. Gore… We are a nation of alleged laws we have desperate problems enforcing equally to a heinous, sickeningly hypocritical degree, and throwing Bush felons in prison would be a tiny start in actually living the Rule of Law in the United States. That I can live with.

U.S. Soldier Killed Herself — After Refusing to Take Part in Torture (by Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, writing at the Huffington Post)
With each new revelation on U.S. torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo (and who, knows, probably elsewhere), I am reminded of the chilling story of Alyssa Peterson, who I have written about numerous times in the past three years but now with especially sad relevance. Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, she refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003. Of course, we now know from the torture memos and the U.S. Senate committee probe and various new press reports, that the “Gitmo-izing” of Iraq was happening just at the time Alyssa got swept up in it. Alyssa Peterson was one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq. A cover-up, naturally, followed.

Notes From Underground: Prosecution, Power and the Poison Chalice (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
A reader writes…: “There might be another reason [why Obama is not calling for prosecutions on torture]: a desire to win the case that’s built against the former administration and not taint or discredit it by inappropriate pressure to prosecute… Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor who has been calling for criminal investigations of the Bush Administration for years, has written an excellent article posted at truthout.org. In it she writes: ‘No smart lawyer who secretly wanted this entire issue to disappear would have released those torture memos… He may actually want to make inroads into the system, not just righteously rail against it from the outskirts.’”

A response from the outskirts: An interesting viewpoint. But the idea of Obama’s calculated “non-interference” in the decision-making process on prosecutions for torture seems hard to square with his very public, very forthright statements that none of the actual, physical perpetrators of the torture under question — the CIA agents — will face prosecution for their actions… What’s more, the very torture statutes under which any prosecution would take place very specifically rule out Obama’s justification for not prosecuting the CIA agents, i.e., “We were only following orders,” or “The higher-ups said it was OK.”… Obama released memos that he was legally required to release, while at the same time making very public claims that the CIA perpetrators of the torture would not be prosecuted, and quieter, “deep background” claims to favored press outlets that the officials who ordered the torture would not be prosecuted either…

Note too that we are dealing here with only a miniscule aspect of the entire torture program, which was by no means confined to the CIA’s “high-profile detainees.” Thousands of Terror War captives remain in U.S. custody, including many in black-hole sites in Afghanistan — captive whom Obama is, at this very minute, seeking to strip of every single vestige of legal redress… Couple this with Obama’s recent court moves seeking not only to defend but to expand Bush’s claim of authoritarian executive power… [W]e have an expanding war, an expanding military, an even-more entrenched and coddled oligarchy, the reach for even more draconian executive powers. Where exactly are the radical “inroads into the system” in all of this?
Chris needs your help to continue his important work, as do all of us, even—no especially—in these hard times. When I tried to make Bush accountable, I was a communist.  Now that I’m trying to make Obama accountable, I’m a stupid, white trash racist.

Liz Cheney Claims Waterboading Isn’t Torture Because Similar Tactics Were Used In SERE Training (Think Progress)
On MSNBC[Thursday], former State Department official Liz Cheney, who is the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, defended the infamous Bush-era torture memos that were recently released by the Obama administration. “The tactics are not torture, we did not torture,” said Cheney. To support her claim that the brutal techniques, such as waterboarding, that were authorized by the memos are not torture, Cheney invoked the common conservative argument that the techniques were derived from special forces training called Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Evasion (SERE)… Later in the interview, Cheney insisted that “We did not torture our own people. These techniques are not torture.”
Standing up for her daddy, isn’t that sweet? Why is she given a platform?  Wasn’t she fired from the State Department for bringing a handgun to work? Click through to watch the video.

Gates supported release of torture memos. (Think Progress)
Following President Obama’s decision to release four Bush administration legal memos authorizing torture, former Bush CIA director Michael Hayden and former Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey co-authored an Wall Street Journal op-ed decrying the move as “a terrible problem for our national security.” But Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in the Bush administration and is also a former CIA director, told reporters today that he supported Obama’s decision: “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates indicated Thursday that he supported the release of sensitive memos on detainee interrogation methods last week because he viewed their ultimate disclosure as inevitable.”

Bush’s FBI Chief Not Backing Off Torture Views (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Robert Mueller, the Bush-appointed FBI director, is not backing away from his claim in a 2008 interview that torture has not foiled any terror attacks on America, a view that directly contradicts Dick Cheney’s claims. I asked Mueller’s spokesperson, John Miller, whether he wanted to revise or clarify his view, now that some time has passed since he first expressed it, and Miller declined comment. So Mueller’s claim stands.

Cao open to torture prosecutions. (Think Progress)
[T]he Times-Picayune reported that Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA) is one of the few Republicans in Congress who have agreed that the door to possible prosecutions for torture architects in the Bush administration should be left open: “…Rep. Anh ‘Joseph’ Cao, R-New Orleans, whose father, a former South Vietnamese Army officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese re-education camp after the fall of South Vietnam, [said,] ‘I agree we have to look to the future, not the past, but if people broke the law, I believe that no one is above the law and if people violate the law they have to face the consequences of what the law dictates.’”

Cheney Succeeding In Shifting Torture Debate? (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
In case you’re wondering whether Dick Cheney and other former Bushies are succeeding in shifting the torture debate on to the narrow question of whether torture has “worked,” [click through to see the] headline, photo, and article in [Wednesday's] New York Times… This is precisely what Cheney and other Bushies want the debate to be about: Whether torture has stopped terror attacks, as opposed to whether it’s moral, or detrimental to America’s global image, or a boon to Al Qaeda recruitment, or whether the architects of the policy broke the law and should be prosecuted… [I]t’s easy for the Cheney camp to muddy the waters and turn this into a matter of debate by citing unspecified classified info that supposedly supports the claim that it has saved lives — info that we’ll never see.
These masters of propaganda and persuasion probably don’t even care how many people actually believe their lies.  As in the courtroom, they only care about throwing doubt into the mix.

Three key rules of media behavior shape their discussions of “the ‘torture’ debate” (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Here are three key rules for Beltway media behavior that, as always, are shaping what they say and do:
(1) Any policy that Beltway elites dislike is demonized as coming from “the Left” or — in this case (following Karl Rove) – the “hard Left.”…
(2) Nobody is more opposed to transparency and disclosure of government secrets than establishment “journalists.”…
(3) The single most sacred Beltway belief is that elites are exempt from the rule of law…

That elite-protecting consensus is the central affliction of America’s political culture.  It explains not only how we continuously shield our elites from the consequences of their crimes, but also explains the reason such crimes keep happening.  If you constantly announce to a small group of people that they will be able to break the law with impunity, you are rendering inevitable future rampant criminality. That’s just obvious…

Torture memos and Bizarro World, cont’d (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
We noted [Wednesday] the oddity of the press turning the release of the scandalous Bush-era torture memo into a problem for the Obama administration. i.e. Process over substance. [Thursday], the AP breathlessly illustrates the peculiar trend: “Shifting rhetoric at the White House on prosecutions related to interrogation policies”… The AP then unfurls a tick-tock look back from Sunday to Tuesday as it roots around with a what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it narrative of the Obama White House, not, y’know, the one that actually ok’d the law-breaking.

WaPo’s Kane explains why his paper avoids the term “torture” (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Washington Post reporter Paul Kane explains the reluctance to use the word “torture” to describe torture:… “You can’t call someone a convicted murderer until he/she has actually been convicted.” Understand? Get it? The reason we say ‘alleged’ murder and things like that is for our own legal protection. So we can’t be sued for libel. Take a look at financial reports on the newspaper business. We’re not going to do anything that leads to us losing any more money these days. So who does the Post think is going to sue them for libel if they refer to torture as ‘torture’?  It doesn’t seem like there is a long line of people who participated in harsh interrogations torture who are eager to litigate their conduct, but maybe I’m wrong.

Politico’s torture-friendly framing (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Mike Allen, on the torture debate: “Obama as a candidate embraced the view that torture is both wrong and ineffective. But now that he has full access to the same top-secret documents cited by Cheney, the question cuts more sharply: Does he agree or disagree with Blair that coercive tactics produce valuable intelligence?”… [E]ven if you stipulate that the efficacy of torture is worth considering, Politico skews that question as well, setting it up as a question of whether torture can “produce valuable intelligence.” A better version might be “does it produce valuable intelligence that could not have been otherwise gained, and can that intelligence be readily distinguished from false leads?” A bicycle will get you from New York to San Francisco, but if you have to be there tomorrow, it isn’t a particularly good choice.

Gallup To Release Poll On Bush Investigations (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The political establishment will soon have a better sense of where the public stands on investigating the Bush administration for the possible torture of detainees. An official at Gallup confirms that the polling firm will be conducting a survey this weekend on criminal investigations into the Bush years… The last time Gallup polled this issue was on February 12, when the firm found that 62 percent of the public supported some sort of investigation into the “possible use of torture in terror interrogation.” Thirty-eight percent favored a criminal investigation, 24 percent favored an investigation by an independent panel, and 34 percent said they favored neither.

The shaming of America (by Gene Lyons, Salon)
In a 2002 advisory, Jay S. Bybee, subsequently appointed to the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals by President George W. Bush, notes dryly that the practice of “waterboarding” — recognized as torture since the Spanish Inquisition — “constitutes a threat of imminent death,” but says it’s nevertheless legal because it doesn’t cause “prolonged mental harm” in a psychologically healthy subject… So here’s my question: Would Bybee, in his capacity as a federal judge, uphold a murder conviction in which witnesses had been waterboarded? A rape confession? Would it be all right for police to induce confessions by keeping suspects awake for 11 days by shackling them naked in a standing position, dousing them with ice water and smashing their heads into a wall? How about cramming them into coffin-size boxes for weeks? He thought that appropriate for terror suspects… If he had a particle of shame, he’d resign.

Gonzales Intervened on Harman Wiretap (Political Wire)
The New York Times has more on the Jane Harman-wiretap story that CQ Politics broke this week: “The director of the Central Intelligence Agency concluded in late 2005 that a conversation picked up on a government wiretap was serious enough to require notifying Congressional leaders that Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, could become enmeshed in an investigation into Israeli influence in Washington, former government officials said Thursday. But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the director of the agency, Porter J. Goss, to hold off on briefing lawmakers about the conversation, between Ms. Harman and an Israeli intelligence operative, despite a longstanding government policy to inform Congressional leaders quickly whenever a member of Congress could be a target of a national security investigation.”

The reason: “To protect Ms. Harman because they saw her as a valuable administration ally in urging The New York Times not to publish an article about the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants.”

Republicans Stall Vote on Sebelius (Political Wire)
Senate Republicans refused today to allow a confirmation vote on his health secretary nominee Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the Washington Post reports. She is the last Cabinet member awaiting Senate approval. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected, “arguing that lawmakers needed more time to consider her ‘fairly contentious’ selection. A handful of Republicans have complained about Sebelius’ support for abortion rights and her failure to report the full extent of campaign contributions she received from a physician who performs abortions.”

Remind me again why we’re kowtowing to the forced pregnancy loons? (by lambert at Corrente)
They’re holding Sibelius up, and confirming her is going to require 60 votes (translation: Filibuster, except it’s not a filibuster when Republicans do it, and we have a free press, and up is down). Anyhow, what Reid should do is let ‘em filibuster. But the old-fashioned way. Where they have bring in matresses to sleep on the Senate Floor and read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire into the record for sixty hours. When your enemy’s drowning, throw ‘em an anvil.

Key Dem Senator Likely To Vote Against Anti-Bush Obama Legal Nominee (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Uh oh. This could signal real trouble for a key Obama nominee under assault by the right: Office of Legal Counsel chief Dawn Johnsen, a fierce Bush critic who would be at the center of the war over whether Obama will meaningfully reverse a host of Bush-era legal policies. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson is all but certain to vote against Johnsen, Nelson spokesperson Clay Westrope tells me. Westrope confirms that while Nelson will take into account any further information that emerges, the Senator cannot now envision a scenario under which he’d support her — potentially making it an uphill climb to get her confirmed.

Rick Reyes, The New John Kerry: Afghanistan Vet Speaks Out Against War Before Congress (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday hosted a hearing of compelling politics and historical parallels, as an Afghan war veteran offered critical testimony of that war in front of a committee chairman who had done the same during Vietnam… [R]etired Marine Corporal Rick Reyes … has chosen to go public with reservations about the scope and direction of the military strategy his government is pursuing in a difficult terrain. Having supported Barack Obama in the 2008 election, he now is deeply skeptical about the president’s decision to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan….

Nearly 38 years earlier, John Forbes Kerry was in a similar spot. Called before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the three-time recipient of the Purple Heart declared that an “attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy.”

Will Harry Reid snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? (by DCblogger at Corrente)
Chris Bowers: “If Democrats provide cheaper and more accessible health care to Americans, Republicans have promised to publicly turn themselves into the biggest partisan assholes of the last forty years. Seriously. That is the actual political calculation Senate Democrats face on health care reform right now. It is the most obvious win-win political calculation Democrats have been presented with during my entire lifetime.” The Republicans plan the destabilize the country through a process of legislative sabotage. It would be easy for Harry Reid to expose this, but that depends upon whether he wants to.

A sane Republican?  Is it possible?
Rep. Ryan: Democrats have a ‘right’ to use budget reconciliaton. (Think Progress)
Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration have floated using “budget reconciliation” to pass health care reform — where only 51 votes would be required for approval of a bill — to bypass the increasing number of Republican filibuster threats. In response, Senate Republicans have said they would “grind the Senate to a virtual halt”; Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) explained that reconciliation would be “the nuclear war.” Today, GOP up-and-comer Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), however, said it is Democrats’ “right” to use budget reconciliation: “‘It’s their right. They did win the election,’ said Ryan, R-Wis. ‘…It is their right. It is what they can do.’”

Bill Calls For Easing Barriers to College for Undocumented Students (American Constitution Society)
U.S. Sens. Bob Menedez and Richard Durbin are promoting legislation that would allow states to ease barriers to college for thousands of undocumented students. U.S. News & World Report says: “The Dream Act would allow students who have lived in the country since age 15 to apply for conditional legal residence after graduating from high school. They would then be able to work and pay in-state college tuition rates. Those who attend college or join the military could ultimately become citizens.”

House votes to revive Bill Clinton’s COPS program (McClatchy)
Legislation that the House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly Thursday would send billions of dollars to thousands of communities to help them hire and retain 50,000 police officers.

Poor Widdle Bankers (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
“Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Senate Democrats have spent the last several weeks negotiating with major banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, hoping to come to a compromise on bankruptcy legislation… The central debate is whether to allow bankruptcy judges to reduce — or cramdown — mortgages for homeowners who enter bankruptcy. The banking lobby strongly opposes allowing cramdown. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a key vote on the banking committee, dealt a blow to the bill Wednesday, telling the Huffington Post that he is ‘opposed to cramdown.’”

Norm Coleman is a sore loser.  Why won’t the press say so, cont’d (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Coleman asks state Supreme Court to take it slow” The Trib reports: “Coleman, a Republican, proposed to the court that his appeal of Democrat Al Franken’s victory in the recent Senate election trial be argued no sooner than mid-May, two weeks later than Franken suggested on Tuesday.” Coleman doesn’t even want the recount trial to begin until May, which was when some Minnesota court watches thought the case might conclude. As we noted earlier, as Coleman and his attorneys look over their recount legal options, they in no way have to be concerned about, or factor into play, the potential “sore loser” meme that could do real damage to his effort. They can play hardball with impunity because they’re getting a free pass from the press.

Source Says Tedisco Knows He Lost (Political Wire)
A GOP source on Capitol Hill says that Jim Tedisco’s (R) camp “has abandoned hope” of winning the NY-20 special election but that he “won’t concede the race” to Scott Murphy (D) “until technical legal questions surrounding voter residency issues are resolved,” Roll Call reports. Apparently, Tedisco believes the residency issues “could have a bearing on future races in New York. As such, the source said, Tedisco wants to see those issues resolved before ending the legal battle.” Meanwhile, the Albany Times Union reports Murphy’s lead expanded again to 401 votes.

Toomey Leads Specter by 21 Points (Political Wire)
A new Rasmussen Reports poll in Pennsylvania finds Pat Toomey (R) crushing Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in a GOP primary match up, 51% to 30%. Key finding: Specter is viewed favorably by 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans and unfavorably by 55%.

What’s Up With the Governor of Texas? (by Jim Hightower, thanks to Alegre)
Facts aside, what’s going through Perry’s perfectly coiffed head is that polls presently show him losing his re-election bid in next year’s Republican primary. Thus, he’s scrambling to excite the most rabid of the Texas GOP fringe by posing as a courageous defender of Texas sovereignty against meddlers from Washington. His chief target is $555 million in federal money that would come to our state under Obama’s economic stimulus program. This is desperately needed money that would go straight into our nearly broke unemployment compensation fund, but he asserts that he will reject it, claiming that the federal dollars come with strings attached. …

Yes, comandante, but what about that other $16 billion or so in Obama’s stimulus money that you are going accept? For example, while you slap away funds to help working folks, you’re eagerly reaching out with your other hand to grab $1.2 billion of those filthy federal dollars to put into your pet project of saddling Texans with a network of privatized toll roads. If it’s a matter of principle, why not reject all federal money? Indeed, you used to be a cotton farmer who benefited from Washington’s crop subsidy programs – how oppressive was that for you?

Sarah Palin To Be Given Huge Engraved Assault Rifle (Huffington Post)
A custom firearms manufacture plans to give Sarah Palin a smokin’ gift at a May banquet of the National Rifle Association, according to RedState… The gift is an assault rifle custom-engraved with the image of a moose, the Big Dipper, a map of Alaska, and the words “In Honor of Governor Sarah Palin.” The governor could really mow down a moose with this thing, or perhaps spray several wolves from a helicopter, or, say, terrify one Levi Johnston.

As U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie Approved Warrantless Tracking Of Suspects Using Cell Phone GPS (Think Progress)
While serving as a U.S. attorney during the Bush administration, Christopher Christie, now a Republican candidate for Governor in New Jersey, tracked the whereabouts of citizens through their cell phones without warrants. The ACLU obtained the documents detailing the spying program from the Justice Department in an ongoing lawsuit over cell phone tracking… The new revelations about the cell phone tracking program under Christie is yet another example of the warrantless spying programs authorized under the Bush administration. Previous programs approved without a court order or warrant have included the secret program to monitor radiation levels at over 100 Muslim sites and the NSA spying program on the phone and e-mail communications of thousands of people inside the U.S. These programs run contrary to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids “unreasonable searches” and sets out specific requirements for warrants, including “probable cause.”

During his tenure as U.S. attorney, Christie also awarded his former boss, John Ashcroft, a $28-52 million dollar no-bid contract to “monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges out of court.” Former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach blasted the decision, saying that awarding a no-bid contract “suggests other political things, and that seems to me to be as wrong as it can be.” Christie also doled out “a multi-million-dollar, no bid contract to an ex-federal prosecutor who declined to criminally prosecute Christie’s brother on stock fraud charges two years earlier.”

RNC Confirms It: Steele Thinks Dems Are Leading Us “Down The Road To Socialism” (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
RNC chair Michael Steele is in a political pickle right now, with right wingers exerting more and more pressure on him to start calling Dems “socialists.” Over a dozen members of the RNC’s conservative wing have introduced a resolution to officially designate the Democratic Party the “Democrat Socialist Party.” But Steele has refrained from labeling Dems with the S-word, instead preferring the term “collectivists.” How will Steele get out of this one? The ever crafty Steele has figured out a middle ground. An RNC spokesperson just confirmed to me that Steele does generally agree with party members who say Obama and Dems are socialists. But he doesn’t want the RNC to designate Dems socialists as a matter of official policy.

“He agrees with the notion that Obama and Democrats are taking us down the road to socialism,” the spokesperson told me. “But his opinion is that having specific resolutions to change the way we talk about Democrats is not the right message to be sending.”

Judge finds probable cause to charge Levy murder suspect (McClatchy)
A judge found Thursday that there was probable cause to charge Ingmar Guandique with the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy, even as Guandique’s attorneys denounced the evidence as flimsy.
Where does Gary Condit go to get his reputation back? I don’t at all like his politics, but he in no way deserved the treatment he received from a media obsessed with Democratic sex. Have any of the media people who hounded him ever apologized? And may I remind you that while the media fixated on Condit, the alarms at all our intelligence agencies were deafening, warning about an incipient attack on U.S. soil—the one that exploded on 9/11/01.

Mary Matalin Signs on as CNN Contributor (TVNewser, Media Bistro)
Mary Matalin has signed on as a CNN political contributor. Matalin will appear on various CNN shows as well as twice monthly alongside her husband, Democratic strategist and fellow CNN political contributor James Carville. Those appearances will be on State of the Union with John King beginning this Sunday.

BREAKING: Randi Rhodes to Return to Talk Radio (The Brad Blog)
Following a nearly two-month absence from the airwaves, Progressive radio talker Randi Rhodes is set to return, according to an announcement this afternoon from John Scott of San Francisco’s Green960 (KKGN). She will be syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks as reported in a video-taped announcement just posted on the Green960 website. Premiere is known for their national syndication of far-right talkers such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dr. Laura and Glenn Beck. Rhodes, known by fans as the “Goddess of Progressive Talk”, had formerly been with NovaM Radio, which folded when she left, and at Air America Radio prior to that.

She’s back on the streets (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
The fucking whore[*] walks again — and now she’s whoring for a right-wing radio network.
Because it really is all about the money, i’n’t it?

*What Randi called Hillary Clinton at a so-called comedy show during the 2008 primary.

Bill O’Reilly Just Making Things Up About Nixon (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
Here’s Bill O’Reilly, correcting in-house libtard Alan Colmes’ ludicrous assertion that Richard Nixon shook hands with Mao Zedong, so it’s OK for Barack Obama to give Hugo Chavez a handjob. Nixon never touched Mao. “I don’t want to confuse you,” O’Reilly told Colmes, who was like, “OK.” If you know anything about the O’Reilly Factor host, you can see where this is going: Nixon totally shook Mao’s hand, on the same historic, initial trip where he similarly greeted Zhou Enlai. Not only that, but Nixon quoted Mao in a toast to the Chinese tyrant, during an endless communist orgy.

Are GE Shareholders really upset that MSNBC is a ratings success? (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
That’s what The Hollywood Reporter claims, although its report seems a bit fishy… “One shareholder at the Orlando, Fla., meeting was Jesse Waters, a producer of ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’ Waters asked a question at the meeting, then turned on the Fox News Channel cameras outside the venue and interviewed other shareholders who attended the meeting.” This is a classic stunt: buy minimal shares in a company in order to be granted access to the annual shareholder meeting where you might be allowed to ask the chairman a question. Are GE shareholders worldwide upset that MSNBC’s become a ratings hit in recent years? Outside of O’Reilly’s paid players, there’s no indication that’s the case.

Also, note that THR hyped the MSNBC “drama” at the shareholder meeting, but neither Bloomberg nor AP nor WSJ even mentioned the topic in their dispatches from GE’s annual confab.

Glenn Beck Calls Kettle Black (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly have had it with parent companies getting involved with the content of cable news! They are talking, of course, about News Corporation General Electric. Fox News … infiltrated General Electric’s shareholder meeting and inundated company executives with questions about why MSNBC is crushing so hard on Barack Obama and why CNBC is being turned into the president’s concubine or something… Rupert Murdoch’s minions are shocked — shocked — at the very idea that a media conglomerate would use its properties in concert with one another to advance its owner’s political line.
Don’t forget about the Fox News daily memo, telling pundits and so-called news reporters what to say.

Is Glenn Beck Dangerous? (by Troy Patterson, Slate)
Glenn Beck’s contemptuous sissy lisp is coming along nicely. He is, impressively, more snide than Sarah Palin, whose high-wattage yahoo-baiting anticipated Beck’s combination of mean anger, cheap humor, and, when talking policy, the occasional complete obfuscation of fact.

Morris on Obama’s foreign policy: “If you’re an enemy of America… he’s in bed with you… The way to get popular with this administration is to be an enemy of the United States” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity accuses Obama of the “politicizing of our national security” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

On Fox, NY Post’s Peters compares possible torture prosecutions to “show trials” of Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, McCarthy (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Burnett discusses whether “the government is over-extending itself” over the caption, “Dictator in Chief?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Alongside “Communism?” graphic, Burnett promises to address whether America is “creating its own oligarchs” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Why is the Phildelphia Inquirer paying Rick Santorum $1,750 to a write a column? (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
And a bad one at that?… Even if newspapers were flush with cash, the Santorum pay scale is so far out of whack for the newspaper industry it’s crazy. Obviously major dailies, such as the New York Times, pay their staff columnists very well. But Santorum’s not on staff. He’s a glorified freelancer and major dailies often pay freelancers $300 per-column. So why $1,750 for Santorum? Or newspapers pick up syndicated columns and pay a laughably small amount for those; often less than $50. But the Inquirer’s paying (or was paying, pre-bankruptcy) Santorum $40K annually? Makes no sense.

Perhaps you should look at the payment in a larger context, Eric:
Fox News contributor Santorum latest to claim Obama “palling around” with Chavez (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Savage on Freddie Mac CFO’s reported suicide: “I don’t believe it…Somebody had this man executed” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Shimkus: Capping CO2 a greater ‘assault on democracy’ than 9/11. (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) described President Obama’s energy plan as “the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced.” Speaking at a hearing on the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act — which caps global warming pollution to build a clean energy economy – Shimkus said that he feared this legislation more than the Clinton impeachment trials, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Click through to watch the video.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Foser: Gaps in the Right’s “banana republic” rhetoric

• FBN’s Sullivan falsely claimed DHS report “nam[ed] veterans groups as possible extremist groups”

• LA Times reported McConnell’s criticism of reconciliation without noting his past support of process

• Drudge hypes article claiming Gore “chickened out” from confronting skeptic

• CQ, AP ignore Boehner’s use of “torture” to describe techniques

• Wash. Times editorial distorts Rosa Brooks’ statement on Al Qaeda

• Kudlow echoes baseless Drudge headline on Obama supporters

• REPORT: Media favor process over substance in Obama press briefings

• Conservative media claim prosecution of Bush administration officials will turn U.S. into “banana republic”

• Fox News greets alleged torture with antics

• More Fox figures pick up tenuous claim that harsh interrogations thwarted L.A. plot

• Fox News’ Hemmer “keeping track of the stimulus money” — by lifting research from GOP website

Pirate Bay Appeal Accuses Judge of Copyright Bias
Lawyers for defendants in The Pirate Bay case are demanding a retrial. Four men were sentenced last week to one year in jail and ordered to pay $4.5 million to several copyright owners, including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Columbia Pictures, after being found guilty of enabling downloading of copyrighted material.

U.S. Journalists Must Stand Trial in North Korea
North Korea has decided to put two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, on trial. They have been under arrest since they were detained on March 17 on North Korea’s border with China. The pair, who work for Current TV, were reporting on Korean refugees living in China.

Saberi Goes On Hunger Strike, Chicago-Area Students Rally In Support
Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American freelance journalist sentenced to eight years in an Iranian prison, began her hunger strike as students at her U.S. alma mater rally in her support.

Israeli cartoon mocks stereotypes, but not everyone’s laughing
Its creators and fans see a humorous series that resembles “South Park” — at least visually — and mocks Islamic terrorism. Its critics see a hate-filled cartoon that uses crude stereotypes to dehumanize Muslims, intensify Arab-Israeli divisions and inflame the conflict between Muslims and Jews.

Indian Police Drop Child-Selling Case, Rather Than Place Phone Call to England (Gawker)
The father of nine-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali will not be charged with any crime for allegedly trying to sell her to undercover reporters for $300,000. Indian police couldn’t track down the reporters. It was always somewhat unclear what exactly went down in this case, and it seemed to boil down to a tabloid’s word versus the word of the father, Rafiq Qureshi. So it’s good to know the authorities WENT ALL OUT to get the testimony of every witness: “Police questioned Qureshi but were unable to track down the three journalists who carried out the alleged sting.”

6 years in prison for airing Hezbollah TV in NYC‎
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman handed down a sentence of five years and nine months to Javed Iqbal, who had pleaded guilty in December to providing aid to a terrorist organization. Iqbal, 45, admitted as part of a plea agreement that he used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the TV station of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s and has been branded by the U.S. government as a terrorist group…

Iqbal’s lawyer, Josh Dratel, said his client didn’t intend to aid Hezbollah as he tried to build his Brooklyn-based satellite television company, HDTV Limited. Dratel called the airing of Al Manar “one discreet and narrow aspect” of an otherwise legitimate broadcasting company that also aired Christian programming, adult entertainment, a Jamaican channel and a gay and lesbian channel.
So much for the First Amendment.

Hollywood, RealNetworks square off on DVD copying
Hollywood calls it “rent, rip and return” and contends it’s one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry’s annual $20 billion DVD market — software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it. On Friday, the showdown over the issue will take place in federal court in San Francisco, where an army of lawyers representing Hollywood will argue that RealNetworks Inc.’s DVD “ripper” is an illegal digital piracy tool… The same federal judge who shut down music-swapping site Napster in 2000 because of copyright violations will preside over the three-day trial, which is expected to cut to the heart of the same technological upheaval roiling Hollywood that forever changed the face of the music business.

How E-Pulitzers Can Elevate Journalism (by Roy J. Harris Jr., Christian Science Monitor)
Granting the prizes to more online work would raise standards.

Newspaper Traffic Rises 10 Percent, NAA Says, But Skips The Divide Between Print And Online-Only (Paid Content)
Here’s a slight balm for all the bad news about newspapers: websites tied to daily papers rose a collective 10 percent in Q1 to 73.3 million unique visitors, according to the Newspaper Association of America. That’s a little more than 43 percent of all U.S. internet users, the organization estimates, citing Nielsen Online figures… [G]rowth rates for online newspaper traffic appears to be slowing generally. In Q108, the number of uniques grew 12.3 percent.

WSJ Online Pricing Sends Mixed Market Signals (by Amy Gahran at Poynter Online)
A month ago, as I wrote earlier, I was willing to pay $10 a month to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal on my Kindle. I canceled that subscription last week, after the release of the WSJ iPhone application that provides free access to all Journal content. The iPhone app carries ads at the bottom of the screen, but I don’t mind. I also get audio and video content from WSJ through the app. Meanwhile, Subscribing to WSJ.com currently costs $89 per year. ($99 per year if you want the print edition, too.) And, as I noted elsewhere, WSJ’s own subscription page currently doesn’t even mention subscribing via Kindle. What’s going on with WSJ’s pricing?
Can’t the Kindle download ads?  If not, it’s a serious design flaw.

Gannett Puts Its Acquisition Strategy To The Test With Digital Media Network (Paid Content)
Gannett, which recently posted a 60 percent drop in profit and a 26 percent fall off in publishing revenues, has been banking on its ramped up internet offerings to eventually balance out the business. The latest Gannett gambit revolves around its an ad network that wraps around USAToday.com and included 100 local print and broadcast related websites. The network is part of a set of online tools to bring its various properties closer together on the web, including the much-hyped local/national web hybrid ContentOne.

NYT Foundation Suspends Gift Program
The New York Times Company Foundation announced on Thursday that it was suspending grant-making and the company’s matching gift program. “This is a difficult but necessary step,” said Michael Golden, vice chairman of the company and a board member of the foundation.

NYT Co. Sticks to May 1 Bargaining Deadline for Globe
Janet L. Robinson, chief executive of the New York Times Co., today said the company intends to stick to its May 1 deadline to gain $20 million in concessions from unions at the Boston Globe. Without concessions, the Times Co. has threatened to shutter the money-losing newspaper.

Will Sulzberger Pull The Trigger? (by Steven Syre, Boston Globe)
I went to The New York Times Co. annual meeting to find out if my boss’s boss, Arthur Sulzberger, would really shut down The Boston Globe if he couldn’t get $20 million in union concessions soon. The short answer: I don’t believe so.

Philly Newspapers Boss Tierney Made $1.175M in ’08
Recent court filings show that Brian Tierney collected $1.175 million in salary and bonuses last year, somewhat higher than previously disclosed. Tierney’s compensation included $650,000 in salary, a $350,000 bonus for 2008, a $175,000 bonus for 2007, and $81,000 in transportation costs.

McClatchy 1Q Loss Widens Amid Advertising Meltdown
The McClatchy Co.’s losses widened in the first quarter amid an advertising meltdown that is increasing pressure on the publisher to meet commitments to lenders. The report released Thursday was far worse than analysts had anticipated.

So Which Magazine Would You Vote Off the Media Plan?
A recent request for proposals from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on behalf of Elizabeth Arden pits mags against each other. “We need you to help identify a book that has carried any of our business that you should replace, or steal paging from,” reads the RFP.

New York Mag to Cut 2 Summer Issues
New York magazine is cutting two issues from its publishing schedule. The weekly title is anticipating that advertisers, who traditionally pull back during the summer months, will pull back more so in a recession. The issues dated June 22 and August 10 will not be published.

Earnings: Netflix Rides High On 68 Percent Profit Growth In Q1 (Paid Content)
Strong demand for cheap entertainment bolstered Netflix’s revenues, and lower subscriber acquisition costs boosted the company’s profits. Net income came in at $22.4 million for Q1 ($0.37 per diluted share), up 68 percent year-over-year (though down slightly sequentially.) Revenue came in at $394.1 million, up 21 percent year-over-year, and up 10 percent from the previous quarter. The company narrowly beat analysts’ estimates of an EPS of $0.33 on $391.1 million in revenue, per MarketWatch.
Click through for the highlights.

NPR Cuts to Include Thirteen Layoffs
National Public Radio said [Wednesday] it will lay off 13 employees and furlough all of its employees for five days over the next five months in the latest round of belt-tightening. The cuts are part of a series of measures that will help NPR close a projected $8 million budget gap during its current fiscal year.

AT&T’s U-Verse TV Service Adds Record Subscribers In First Quarter (Paid Content)
AT&T’s U-Verse TV service racked up a record 284,000 net subscribers in the first quarter, to give the telecoms company’s IP TV service a total base of over 1.3 million users. It also helped grow the number of net adds to AT&T Advanced TV services –which included bundled and satellite TV services—to more than 3.5 million… The surge in subscribers seems to have been boosted by AT&T’s introduction of its DVR service, that allows users to record TV programs to view when they want.

AOL’s New Plan: Content, Content, Content
Revenue-challenged and consummately uncool AOL is readying a blitz around Web content through its (unfortunately named) MediaGlow unit, which encompasses all of AOL’s content sites. There now are more than 70. And MediaGlow has previously disclosed plans to launch at least 30(!) more in 2009.

YouTube Joins The Real-Time Bandwagon (Paid Content)
Twitter. Facebook. And now YouTube, with a new feature that lets visitors see in real time which YouTube videos their friends are watching and what they are saying about them. It builds on the “friend activity” function on the site, which already shows what videos others are uploading and rating. The difference: now that information follows a user as he or she navigates around the site via a toolbar on the bottom of every YouTube page showing which friends are online and what they are doing… [T]he feature—if it’s widely adopted—should definitely facilitate the passing on of videos.

Wikipedia Strikes Mobile, Internet Content Deal With Orange (Paid Content)
One of Europe’s largest phone carriers, France Telecom’s Orange, has reached a deal with Wikimedia to provide its users with co-branded content. The content will be offered through specific Wikipedia channels on Orange’s mobile and internet portals, the two announced… Orange will place ads alongside Wikipedia content and the two will share the ad revenues. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, but Wikimedia called the deal ”an important new revenue stream”.

Yahoo To Close GeoCities; Latest Cutback Under New CEO Bartz (Paid Content)
During the company’s earnings call Tuesday, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said that she had decided to focus on the properties that generated the most traffic and therefore had the most economic value for the company. The latest Yahoo property that apparently did not fit that description? Free web hosting service GeoCities. Yahoo is now telling existing GeoCities customers that it will shut down later this year, according to SiliconTap.com… GeoCities is by far the most prominent property to be cut under Bartz. Yahoo bought the service for $3.6 billion 10 years ago and it continues to bring in large numbers of visitors. Compete.com puts traffic to the GeoCities.com domain at 13.5 million unique visitors in March. However, the free service had become somewhat outdated with the advent of free, easy-to-use blogging platforms. A number of other free website hosting services also exist, although GeoCities probably had the most brand awareness.

Since Bartz took the job, she also has cut travel search engine FareChase and its Briefcase online storage service. Yahoo is also reportedly looking for a buyer for HotJobs.

Earnings: Amazon Revenue Beats Street; Media Sales Up 7 Percent (Paid Content)
Amazon generated Q4 revenue of $4.89 billion and operating income of $244 million—revenue growth that exceeded analyst consensus estimates of $4.75 billion, but below operating income consensus estimates of $268 million. The company said it expects second quarter revenue to grow between 6 percent and 17 percent, a range in line with analyst consensus estimates.  Excluding foreign exchange fluctuations, revenue grew at essentially the same rate as in fourth quarter 2008 (25 percent vs. 24 percent), indicating Amazon continues to increase its dominant share of the online e-commerce market.
Click through for highlights.

Earnings: Microsoft Posts First Ever Drop in Revenue; Online Ad Revenue Falls 16 Percent (Paid Content)
Hit hard by the recession, Microsoft reported the first year-over-year revenue drop in its history Thursday—and posted revenue short of analysts’ expectations. The company posted net income of $2.98 billion (33 cents per share), down 32 percent from the $4.4 billion (47 cents per share) recorded during the same period a year ago. However, that included a 6 cents per share one-time charge due to severance payments and investment impairments. Revenue for the company’s third fiscal quarter dropped 6 percent to $13.65 billion, from $14.45 billion a year ago… The results marked the first time in the company’s history that Microsoft had reported a quarterly drop in revenue. (Microsoft’s previous worst year-over-year performance was a 0.7 percent increase in revenue in mid-2000).

@ Microsoft Digital: Moore: Plans For More Partners, Content For Women And Parents (Paid Content)
The centerpiece of the Microsoft Digital Showcase was Wonderwall, MSN’s entertainment channel which was launched in February. The channel is a joint production of MSN and BermanBraun Interactive… In general, Wonderwall is all about entertainment and lifestyle… [Scott Moore:] “We’re going to be developing content for women, so stay tuned. We’re also focusing on creating programming for parents, which will be a section within entertainment. I’m most proud of MSN Video, which we launched in 2003. 80 percent in year to year growth, 35 million unique users, 250 million streams a month. The one thing that’s tricky about web video, you’re never sure where it’s going to go. Who would have guessed Susan Boyle was going to be such a hit? I would have signed her up, if I’d known. But that makes it difficult to sell ads against.”
Yes, we should all know who is going to make a hit before the hit is made.

Susan Boyle Video Profits: $0 (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
As Simon Cowell might say, this story is utterly disappointing and self-indulgent. But the fact that YouTube and ITV have been unable to monetize the Internet sensation that is Susan Boyle is a rather significant blunder, and highlights some of the archaic ways that business is still done between old and new media. By some estimates, video of Boyle’s performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent has already asmassed more than 100 million video views on the Web. However, according to The Times of London, Britain’s ITV – who owns the rights to the show – and YouTube – where most of the views have taken place – have been unable to reach a revenue share deal, meaning no ads have been served, and more than a “million-pound windfall” has been missed.

The holdup is apparently over ad formats, as ITV wants pre-rolls and YouTube doesn’t… While these two sides bicker over ad formats and revenue sharing, the bottom line is that the majority of Boyle video views are likely behind us as the sensation fades and we await the unlikely singing hero’s next performance. Even if these two companies do eventually reach a deal, there is only so much cream left to skim off the top at this point… Ultimately, a couple million dollars isn’t going to make or break either YouTube or ITV. But this story does illustrate that old and new media still have a long way to go in finding ways to work together and not snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Us Weekly Runs Ads On Its Facebook Page—Without Facebook’s Help (Paid Content)
Us Weekly’s newly redesigned Facebook page comes complete with a Tweet stream, red carpet video clips, breaking news updates, and a big “sponsored by State Farm” logo. The gossip mag sold sponsorship of the page to State Farm as part of an existing ad campaign, but AdAge reports that Us Weekly plans to offer the inventory as a standalone buy in the future. It’s just the latest example of a third party using the Facebook platform (and its rabid user base) to make money—without splitting any of that revenue with the network itself. Facebook is already missing out on millions of dollars in virtual goods and ad sponsorship revenues. When members play games like Mafia Wars and Sorority Life and buy credits or sign up for sponsor offers (typically credit card applications and subscriptions to services like Netflix), that money goes right to the app developer.

Boom times ahead for mobile Web access
After a slow start, mobile Web access has finally taken off, thanks in large part to better technology, and it will drive growth in Internet use in the future, industry leaders say.

European Parliament Approves Caps; Mobile Net, Texting 60 Percent Cheaper For Travelers (Paid Content)
It’s official. After months of debate, the European Parliament, on Wednesday, formally adopted price cuts that will make sending text messages or surfing the mobile internet 60 percent cheaper for travelers in the European Union. The price curbs take effect in the start of July, and according to Reuters, are already being adopted rapidly “because EU parliamentarians, facing an election in June, want to show how the bloc can make a positive difference to the daily lives of its nearly 500 million citizens.” European carriers were less happy with the legislation, arguing that market forces were already driving down data prices.

How Comcast Bought Its Way Into Boing Boing’s Good Graces (by by Owen Thomas at Gawker)
Previously, if edgy digerati blog Boing Boing mentioned Comcast, it was with a sneer that was practically house style. Suddenly Boing Boing has fallen in love with the “bumbing, evil” cable guys. Why? Money… It makes everyone look stupid: The Boing Boingers, for thinking they could take Comcast’s money and escape criticism; Comcast, for entering the lion’s den already smeared in blood; and Boing Boing readers, for thinking the blog had any credibility left to get up in arms about. We’ll give the Boingers this much: At least it wasn’t a promo for their latest book.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Katie Couric and CBS News Get Creative With Facebook Pages (Mashable)
Hi there, Facebookers! Katie Couric has a video challenge for you. The CBS Evening News anchor is putting the upgraded Facebook Pages to good use. In a 48 second video clip posted to her page, Couric explains that she’s going to be taking stock of President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office, and she needs your help (and Facebook juice) to do it. The challenge, should you choose to accept, is to create a 20 second video on what Obama’s done wrong or right while in office, and post it to her Facebook Page. The best videos will be included in a live broadcast from CBSNews.com on April 29 at 7pm EST.

Matt Davies

Pressure mounts for inquiry into CIA interrogation tactics (ABC, Australia, thanks to J-SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Washington correspondent Michael Rowland reports.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The release last week of Bush administration memos justifying the use of interrogation techniques like water-boarding has triggered a fierce political debate over whether those who gave the green light to these tactics should be prosecuted. Human rights groups and many Democrats want those who endorsed what they see as torture held accountable. Jonathan Turley is a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.
JONATHAN TURLEY: There is an undeniable claim of a crime here, a war crime. The evidence is insurmountable. [Emphasis added.]

Document: Cheney, Rice signed off on interrogation techniques (McClatchy)
A newly declassified narrative of the Bush administration’s advice to the CIA on harsh interrogations shows that the small group of Justice Department lawyers who wrote memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques were operating not on their own but with direction from top administration officials, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

UK High Court demands U.S. torture documents (McClatchy)
The chief justice of the British High Court on Wednesday gave the British government one week to obtain the U.S. release of classified information about the alleged torture of a British resident who’d been detained at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Fatal Thread: Torture, War and the Imperial Project (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
You cannot disentangle the torture program from the war of aggression in Iraq – nor from the illegal wiretapping program, the corrupt war profiteering, and all the other degradations of liberty and law that have been so accelerated in the past eight years. They are all of a piece, part and parcel of a plan to expand and entrench America‘s “unipolar domination” of world affairs with a thoroughly militarized state led by an unaccountable, authoritarian “Unitary Executive.” This is one reason why Barack Obama is so obviously reluctant to tug on the torture thread too hard. If you tear it out, with full-scale prosecutions and top officials locked up behind bars, the whole rotten skein would fall apart…

Thus the mere act of applying the ordinary, bourgeois laws of the land as they stand right now would constitute a world-shaking revolution, an overthrow of the existing order every bit as radical as any ideologue’s dream of mass uprising. It would be, in effect, a re-founding of the Republic – and the end of the empire, which cannot survive without continual war, lawless rule and endless corruption. And that’s why we will not see Barack Obama follow such a course…

Ironically, the torture issue that he is so desperately trying to shake off his hands is in fact the one opportunity for the historical greatness that Obama – and his ardent fans – obviously yearn for. It holds forth the best chance – the last chance? – for dismantling the imperial machine of brutality and corruption, and starting anew. But he would not be where he is today if he were the kind of man to see – and seize – such an opportunity. He will let it go – and all hope for change, for renewal, for a re-founded Republic, will go with it.

Misoverestimating Obama (by J -SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Punting is the Obama way… He, in effect, punted on the memos, trying to please everyone and pleasing no one… People need to understand that this comes from a fundamental lack of Executive skill. And this lack of skill comes from having things handed to him through out his life and having others do the heavy lifting. The gravity and the blowback potential of releasing the memos seems not to have occurred to him. I have no doubt that he convinced himself of the righteousness of his muddled stance and assumed everyone else would go along.

Dems push for torture hearings, ignoring Obama (AP)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California pointedly noted that her Intelligence Committee already is investigating the Bush administration’s legal underpinnings for the interrogation program and the value of information gained from it. And several Democratic leaders appeared to favor using that panel for any hearings… The chairmen of both the Senate and House Judiciary committees. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, are proposing an independent “Truth Commission,” and Conyers also is planning committee hearings of his own. His panel is populated with liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, a prescription for a bitter fight.
Why not have one committee, representing both houses, like the Watergate Committee?  Popcorn sales would go through the roof.  Of course, we’d have to put up with hours of “analyzing” by the Beltway gasbags, who would tell us that we really didn’t see what we just saw.

Flashback: Bush’s FBI Director Said Torture Didn’t Foil Any Terror Plots (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Now that Bush administration officials have launched a major campaign to persuade us that torture “worked,” perhaps it’s worth recalling that George W. Bush’s own FBI director said in an interview last year that he wasn’t aware of a single planned terror attack on America that had been foiled by information obtained through torture. Robert Mueller, who was appointed by Bush in 2001 and remains FBI director under Obama, delivered that assessment…: “…[H]ave any attacks on America been disrupted thanks to intelligence obtained through what the administration still calls ‘enhanced techniques’? ‘I’m really reluctant to answer that,’ Mueller says. He pauses, looks at an aide, and then says quietly, declining to elaborate: ‘I don’t believe that has been the case.’”
But there are MEMOS! Dick Cheney said so! And even if the memos don’t exist at all, or if the memos say the direct opposite of what Cheney is alleging, that will not change the right wing mantra at all.  They will continue to assert, over and over and over again, that torture made us safe, as though the lie had never been debunked.

Barry McCaffrey and Robert Baer: Investigate the Bush White House on Torture (by Sarah at Corrente)
How shall I put this? To say four-star General Barry McCaffrey is no sycophant of the Bush/Cheney regime is to say it’s damp at the bottom of the Marianas trench. But McCaffrey, who’s got some cred with such veterans as H. Norman Schwarzkopf, wants an investigation into the Bush White House concerning torture. Moreover, he has a strong opinion about the matter with which I completely agree: “We should never, as a policy, maltreat people under our control, detainees. We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A.”

Robert Baer is an intelligence analyst and author now; but he used to be a real-life version of the guy Jack Bauer is modeled upon (allowing, of course, for dramatic license in every sense of both words of that phrase). “…[Current CIA] management has got to go. For too long it has truckled to power, spending its day scurrying down to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for orders. If it’s not Cheney treating George Tenet as a court jester, it’s some analyst badgered until he changes his assessment. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not the CIA that is broken, it’s Washington — which means the quick fix is to build a firewall between a hopelessly partisan Washington and the CIA.”

Wasserman Schultz on Bybee’s future: ‘It doesn’t look good.’ (Think Progress)
[Wednesday] on MSNBC’s Hardball, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) endorsed House Judiciary Committee Chariman John Conyers’ pledge to hold hearings into the torture techniques authorized by the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel. Asked by host Chris Matthews if she believed Judge Jay Bybee “should go” because of his role in authoring the OLC torture memos, Wasserman Shultz said that she believed the government needed to take a “first things first approach,” but said “it doesn’t look very good”… Wasserman Schultz also said she would not rule out prosecuting former President Bush or Vice President Cheney.
Click through to watch the video.

The right wing propaganda machine is desperately trying to stop an inquiry:
Ensign Calls Senate Armed Services Committee Report A ‘Democrat Partisan’ Document (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) went on MSNBC to attack the Senate Armed Services Committee report on the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees. When host Chris Matthews asked Ensign whether he was shocked that our interrogation practices were based on those used by Chinese Communists to elicit false information from U.S. troops, the senator criticized him for being “inflammatory.” When Matthews insisted that he wasn’t being inflammatory because he was reading directly from the report, Ensign tried to discredit the entire document by saying it was a “Democrat partisan” report.
Click through to watch the video.

But professor — What if they broke the law? (by lambert at Corrente)
“‘When you get one administration prosecuting its predecessor, you start creating the conditions of a banana republic,’ said Philip Heymann, a law professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who served as deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton. ‘Every Republican in the country would think this was a dangerous attack on the two-party system.’” It’s the two party system that separates us from Banana Republics?!?! Funny, I would have that thought is not having a lawless elite was the difference. You know, the Constitution? The rule of law? Parties not having even been envisaged by the Framers.

The torture memos and Bizarro World (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Does anybody else think it’s odd, albeit telling, that for chunks of the corporate press corps, the emphasis surrounding the release of the Bush era torture memos is now centered on the political problems they’ve created for the Obama administration–how the memos reflect poorly on the current White House–and not, y’know, what the memos say about the administration that actually okayed the law breaking in the first place? Please note how the press has (surprise!) turned the torture memo story into a Beltway process one (i.e. the Obama White House is “creating confusion and political vulnerability”), and turned away from the larger issues at hand. 

Hannity slams football into desk, yelling “Imagine this is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s head. Dunk it in water so we can save American lives” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Miller: “Some people view this as torture, some view it as harsh interrogation, I happen to view it as the first shower some of these slugs in Gitmo have had in around eight years” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity claims enhanced interrogation techniques “saved an American city, Los Angeles” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

O’Reilly: “I woulda dunked that guy in the water 1000 times to save your life” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Beck: “Whether or not you’re morally in favor of waterboarding or not, it is a far cry from torture” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

But then, suddenly, a voice of sanity:
Shepard Smith Uncensored: “We Are America, We Do Not F**king Torture!” (VIDEO) (by Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post)
Fox News viewers witnessed a rather incredible scene on Wednesday as anchor Shepard Smith and Fox contributor Judith Miller (of CIA leak infamy) repeatedly and passionately condemned torture, with Smith declaring at one point, “We are America, we don’t torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train! This government is of, by, and for the people — that means it’s mine. That means — I’m not saying what is torture, and what is not torture, but I’m saying, whatever it is, you don’t do it for me! I want off the train when the government starts — I want off, next stop, now!”
Click through to watch the video.

The mainstream media are doing their best to help the right wingers:
“Know-Nothings at the NYT” (by Charles Kaiser, Columbia Journalism Review)
[If New York Times torture “experts” Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti] had ever bothered to pay serious attention to people who actually know something about this subject—like the fifty former generals and admirals who, for the last four years, have lobbied continuously to end these idiotic practices—they would know, and they would make it clear to their readers, that most experienced American interrogators overwhelmingly believe that those “traditional noncoercive methods” are vastly more likely to produce genuine intelligence.

They would also make it clear that everyone in the F.B.I., including its director, have repeatedly argued that the approach of the Bush administration has been utterly counterproductive. They would remind us that the F.B.I. has long maintained that the most useful information obtained from Abu Zubaydah came from those noncoercive methods—and not after he was waterboarded eighty-three times. And somehow, somewhere, they would have managed to get into the paper the fact that F.B.I. director William Sessions does not believe that any of these torture techniques produced any information which prevented any attacks on the United States.

Balz: Obama ‘quashed’ 9/11 Commission-style torture panel. (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], President Obama said he would support a “bipartisan” congressional commission examining the Bush administration’s torture program. The Washington Post’s Dan Balz reports that this development followed weeks of “vigorous” debate inside the White House. Obama reportedly rejected a 9/11-style national commission because he thought it would “ratchet the whole thing up”… According to Balz, Obama was “reluctant to give a presidential imprimatur to a national commission that would keep the controversy alive for months and months and months.” Instead, Obama chose to release the OLC torture memos. Multiple members of Congress have signaled they will try to move forward on a commission.

A Google ad on Zero Hedge (and if you think the right wing propaganda machine isn’t behind this kind of “business”, I have a pair of twin towers in lower Manhattan to sell you)

Tracking how stimulus is spent won’t be easy, GAO finds (McClatchy)
Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge that the $787 billion in economic stimulus money will be subject to “unprecedented accountability,” many state officials worry that they lack the resources to oversee properly how their share of the money is being spent, a report Thursday from Congress’ watchdog agency says.

Wells Fargo reports $2.4 billion first quarter profit (McClatchy)
Wells Fargo & Co. reported this morning that it made $2.4 billion in the first quarter, a huge turnaround from the loss it suffered in the previous earnings period. Those earnings are measured after the bank paid $661 million in dividends on preferred shares, more than half of which went to the U.S. government.

Federal Program to Boost Private Lending Struggles to Get Money to Consumers (by Neil Irwin, thanks to Economist’s View)
Officials envisioned TALF supporting tens of billions of dollars a month in new lending, saying it could eventually total $1 trillion. But in March, when it was launched, it backed only $4.7 billion in auto loans and credit cards. For April, it logged only $1.7 billion. Sources involved in the program said private investors have been reluctant to work with the government, which they view as an unreliable business partner. … There are restrictions on the business activities of participants in the program. … But perhaps more significant … is a fear that the government could retroactively change the terms, exacting new limits on what investors can pay their executives, for example, or trying to claw back profits that firms make in the program.
They want their effing BONUSES, dammit!

“The Crisis, Reduced Inequality, and Soak-the-Rich Populism” (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Alberto Alesina and Paola Giuliano ask, “Will Americans turn into ‘inequality intolerant’ Europeans?” They use the word intolerant because they believe that “The increase in income inequality of the last three decades in the US is not extraordinary if viewed from a very long-term perspective,” therefore the recent increase in inequality and social immobility shouldn’t be viewed as unfair. But I don’t see why the distribution or degree of immobility in the past was necessarily fair just because it prevailed, nor why the recent increase in inequality – which we know was based in large part upon false valuations and hence false rewards – should be viewed as justifiable in any case.
There was a time when slavery prevailed.  And the view that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

Claims for unemployment compensation jump more than expected to 6.1 million. (Think Progress)
“New jobless claims rose more than expected last week, while the number of workers continuing to filing claims for unemployment benefits topped 6.1 million,” reports the AP. It marks the 12th week in a row that the number of people filing unemployment claims has set a record. “The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week. That was slightly above analysts’ expectations of 635,000.”

Another Family Evicted (by Alegre)
Hubby just got home – he spent the last 14 hours helping a friend move out of their apartment before the sheriff turns up to throw them out on to the street. The friend was living in a 2 bedroom apartment with his wife and 85 year old mother-in-law, and they hit on hard times.  They couldn’t make the $2,000 a month rent, so the landlord gave them 24 hours to pack up their belongings and get out. Hubby and his friend spent the day putting things in to a u-haul, while the mother-in-law sat on her bed crying and not knowing why this was happening.  Elderly and from another country and unsure as to what was going on, she just sat there as everything she owned disappeared down the elevator. This friend of hubby’s served his country in Vietnam – a decorated officer who’d been awarded the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor and they’d be sleeping on the streets tonight if it weren’t for someone from his church who offered to put them up for a few weeks.

This is going on all over the country today and will again tomorrow… I don’t have a solution – and you probably don’t have answers either.  But I wanted to acknowledge and note what’s happening to one family tonight, and send up a prayer that they keep safe and land on their feet again soon.
And even now, the right wing is successfully turning the anger caused by incidents like this from the actual perpetrators to each other. So-called progressives aren’t doing a damn thing about it.

GM to shut many US plants up to 9 weeks (AP)
Thousands of workers could be laid off but would still get most of their pay because their United Auto Workers union contract requires the company to make up much of the difference between state unemployment benefits and their wages.

World Economy Gets Smaller (Political Wire)
“The world economy is likely to shrink this year for the first time in six decades,” the AP reports. “The International Monetary Fund projected the 1.3% drop in a dour forecast released Wednesday. That could leave at least 10 million more people around the world jobless.”

‘Washington Consensus’ a thing of the past now (by Jonathan Holslag is Head of Research of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, thanks to Economist’s View)
President Barack Obama’s first appearances outside North America – in London, Strasbourg, Prague, and Istanbul – galvanised world attention. But what that trip singularly failed to do was paper over a startling fact: the “Washington Consensus” about how the global economy should be run is now a thing of the past…

As the US backtracks on its liberal standards, it is flirting with what can be called the “Beijing Consensus”, which makes economic development a country’s paramount goal and prescribes that states should actively steer growth in a way that suits national stability. What matters in this worldview is not the nature of any country’s political system, but the extent to which it improves its people’s wellbeing. At the diplomatic level, this implies that national interests, not universal norms, should drive co-operation.
What is more liberal than improving the wellbeing of all of the people?  And what evidence do we have that doing so is part of Obama’s strategy?  All we’ve seen from him so far is improving the wellbeing of the rich.

Surreal (by lambert at Corrente)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: “In France in the 1980s, the socialists took over the banks. In the US in the 2000s, the banks took over the government. This is surreal.” Oui! Read the whole thing, but point 10 sounds just like what the doctor ordered:

“10. Make an omelette with the broken eggs. Finally, this crisis cannot be fixed with makeshift repairs, no more than a boat with a rotten hull can be fixed with ad-hoc patches. We need to rebuild the hull with new (stronger) materials; we will have to remake the system before it does so itself. Let us move voluntarily into Capitalism 2.0 by helping what needs to be broken break on its own, converting debt into equity, marginalising the economics and business school establishments, shutting down the ‘Nobel’ in economics, banning leveraged buyouts, putting bankers where they belong, clawing back the bonuses of those who got us here, and teaching people to navigate a world with fewer certainties.

“Then we will see an economic life closer to our biological environment: smaller companies, richer ecology, no leverage. A world in which entrepreneurs, not bankers, take the risks and companies are born and die every day without making the new[s.]

Using Anti-Trust Law to Break Up Banks that are Too Big to Fail (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Simon Johnson wants to apply anti-trust laws to financial markets and use it to break up banks that are too big too fail. More vigorous enforcement of anti-trust laws is something I’ve been pushing here for a long time, and as I explain below I agree with this idea, but as I understand it, current anti-trust law is inadequate for this task (particularly on dimensions such as connectedness and systemic risk). So it will likely take Congressional action before we can proceed.

The Return of Hillary (Political Wire)
[The] slap down of former Vice President Dick Cheney by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was a reminder of how useful it is for President Obama to have a star in his cabinet.

The Washington Post: “It wasn’t the most stirring defense, but a defense it was, and it served as a reminder of Clinton’s relatively low-profile in the first months of her tenure. To an extent, that makes sense; it’s not the job of any Cabinet secretary to overshadow her boss, Obama has generally preferred to make major public announcements himself, and the White House is surely relieved that the Obama vs. Clinton storyline has been largely dormant since the Inauguration. But Clinton is a bona fide celebrity, the only one in the administration — apologies to Hilda Solis and Shaun Donovan — other than Obama. So when the president needs a surrogate to step up and help deliver his message, and rebut the criticism of a major figure like Cheney, Clinton is the obvious choice.”
When did Hillary go from evil, racist cunt to star?  I missed the transition.

Blame Canada? (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
At a border conference in Washington, DC, on Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was giving an interview with CBC’s Neil Macdonald when she upset Canadian government officials by seeming to reinforce the false story that 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. through Canada… Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Wilson Tuesday told reporters that “unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from.” Wilson said that “as the 9/11 Commission reported in 2004, all of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9/11 terrorists came from Canada.”
Glad that the Canadian Ambassador could explain to a U.S. cabinet member what happened in the U.S. only seven years ago.

FDA will authorize Plan B for 17-year-olds without a prescription. (Think Progress)
Last month, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman concluded that Bush administration officials let “political considerations, delays, and implausible justifications” rule decision-making on the emergency contraception Plan B. Korman ruled that “at the behest of political actors,” the FDA commissioner “decided to deny non-prescription access to women 16 and younger before FDA scientific review staff had completed their reviews.” The FDA is now announcing that it will be complying with Korman’s order and reversing the Bush-era policy. Women 17 years old will be able to purchase the emergency contraception without a prescription.

FEMA nominee pledges higher standard for disaster response (McClatchy)
Craig Fugate, who oversaw the response to back to back hurricanes in Florida, said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he’d hold the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a “much higher standard of success” than its Hurricane Katrina performance.

Gibbs on Moran’s Departure: Family, not Friction (by Sunlen Miller at Political Punch, ABC News)
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today beat back questions over the abrupt departure of White House communications director Ellen Moran, framing her move as a decision made more for her family and less due to troubles breaking into the tight-knit communications team.

Drought politics heat up in California and on Capitol Hill (McClatchy)
As the politics of water grow more intense on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock is skeptical that there’s a shortage in California, even though the governor has declared a drought emergency.

Obama advisers endorse House Dems’ climate bill (USA Today)
The Obama administration said Wednesday that a Democratic House proposal to tackle climate change would create jobs and be an investment in clean energy technology, rejecting criticism from some Republicans that the increase in energy costs will undermine the economy.

Follow the Money as the Global Warming Hearings Heat Up (OpenSecrets.org)
Today is Earth Day and lawmakers are doing their part to look out for the well-being of Mother Nature with hearings throughout the week related to global warming and climate change. According to Politico, 54 witnesses in total will testify about a comprehensive global warming bill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. The full committee hearings started yesterday and will last two days before the subcommittee takes over on Thursday and Friday. In addition, the House Science and Technology Committee will hold a separate hearing today on the best way to monitor and measure greenhouse gas emissions, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hear testimony about global climate change agreements.

Here are a few resources on OpenSecrets.org that can help you follow the political influence of the industries most vested in these debates.
Click through for details.

Letters to the editor for HR 676 (by DCblogger at Corrente)
MoveOn is asking us to write a letter to the editor in support of Obama’s health care plan. Since Obama’s plan has not been submitted, it is hard to know what we are supporting. However, we know what Medicare for All is, write a letter to the editor in support of HR 676. PNHP has a sample letter, but DON’T copy and paste. Write your own letter, it is much more powerful. And then use MoveOn’s interface to send your letter in support of HR 676, Medicare for All.

House panel to target ‘predatory’ mortgage lending (McClatchy)
Once again, Congress will take up legislation to bar mortgage companies from steering homebuyers into houses they can’t afford.

CREW ASKS OCE TO INVESTIGATE REP. HARMAN IMMEDIATELY (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington)
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) after Congressional Quarterly reported that a tape exists in which Rep. Harman offers to influence a Justice Department investigation into two former American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employees in exchange for AIPAC’s help in securing her the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. CREW also asked the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate why the case against Rep. Harman was dropped.

Murphy’s Lead Grows Again in NY-20 (Political Wire)
The official vote tally in the NY-20 special election now shows a 365 vote lead for Scott Murphy (D) over Jim Tedisco (R) as 250 ballots that were set aside were counted today, according to Politicker NY. Meanwhile, Republican strategist Mike Murphy is the latest to say he believes Democrats will ultimately hold this seat.

Review of Governor’s Conviction Sought (New York Times)
Less than a month after the Justice Department asked a judge to drop the case against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of prosecutorial misconduct, 75 former state attorneys general from both parties have urged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to conduct a similar investigation of the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, who was convicted nearly three years ago on bribery and corruption charges… Lawyers for Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, have long accused the Justice Department under President George W. Bush of conducting a politically motivated prosecution that they say was filled with irregularities, including a failure to turn over pertinent information to the defense team.

Palin faces ethics complaint for SarahPAC role (McClatchy)
A new ethics complaint filed Wednesday against Gov. Sarah Palin says her role in the political action committee SarahPAC poses a conflict with her official duties as governor.

Corzine Trails Christie in New Jersey (Political Wire)
Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in New Jersey that shows Chris Christie (R) leading Gov. Jon Corzine, 47% to 36%. Key finding: Corzine’s job approval is just 36%. 

S.C. Supreme Court won’t hear student’s stimulus suit (McClatchy)
South Carolina’s highest court has decided not to hear a case asking the court to decide who – Gov. Mark Sanford or the Legislature – controls a disputed $700 million in federal stimulus money.
Because you have NO RIGHT to question how your state deals with your federal government.

New Jersey Voters Back Gay Marriage (Political Wire)
By a 49% to 43% margin, New Jersey voters support a law that would allow same-sex couples to marry, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

Court Rules Gay People Are Human (by Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
And entitled to the full range of human options. What won’t they think of next? “…A decade-long battle for marriage equality in Connecticut ended late Wednesday when the General Assembly voted to update the state’s marriage laws to conform with a landmark court ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to tie the knot.”

America Is Becoming More Progressive (Center for American Progress)
Ruy Teixeira discusses changing demographic trends in the United States and whether the nation will continue to become more progressive over the next 20 years.
And so-called progressives are doing very little to enhance the process or ensure its continuity.

Failure to promote white firefighters draws Supreme Court scrutiny (McClatchy)
Firefighters from New Haven, Conn., on Wednesday exposed an enduring Supreme Court split, as the justices confronted the year’s most anticipated racial discrimination case.

Get Ready for 100 Day Stories (Political Wire)
Prepare yourself for a week of “early verdict” stories on President Obama as we approach his 100th day in office. Ever since the early days of the New Deal, when FDR took major actions to pull the nation out of the Great Depression, reporters can’t help themselves in celebrating this meaningless milestone. However, Politico notes “senior White House aides are playing the game with relish, doling out made-to-order anecdotes and what-it-means analytical insights to help reporters write their 100 days pieces. You can already see the results in a spate of stories that — thanks to competitive pressures — editors are deciding to publish before the actual 100th day.”

Kristol Up $250,000 After Nabbing Bradley Prize (FishbowlDC, Media Bistro)
Weekly Standard editor and Fox News contributor Bill Kristol is the third of four 2009 Bradley Prize winners, as announced today by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The award will be presented in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center in June and includes a $250,000 stipend. In a release, Foundation President & CEO Michael W. Grebe said, “The Bradley Foundation selected William Kristol for his outstanding achievements in a wide range of activities affecting the development of public policy from national and international perspectives… He is a widely respected conservative leader.”
Please name the liberal foundation that grants stipends this big.  Or even a tenth this big.  Wait, not all at once!

How conservative media works, pt. 2 (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
[A] right-wing foundation is handing Bill Kristol a check for a quarter of a million dollars for … what, exactly?  Ensuring that 40 million or so Americans don’t have health care?  Helping drag the country into an unnecessary war?

Drama at GE shareholders meeting (The Hollywood Reporter)
The hostility between Fox News Channel and MSNBC reached a fever pitch Wednesday when a Fox producer infiltrated the GE shareholders meeting. Just before GE re-elected board members, company brass were hit with questions from shareholders critical of an alleged leftward political slant at MSNBC. But one of those questions came from Jesse Waters, a producer on “The O’Reilly Factor” whose criticisms were cut short when his microphone was cut off, according to several attendees. Waters apparently did not publicly identify himself as a Fox employee. Waters has built a reputation as an ambush interviewer, specializing in on-the-street confrontations. But this is arguably the boldest move by a Fox newsie to utilize the tactic inside their chief rival’s tent, as it were…

When he got the floor, Waters focused his question about MSNBC on Olbermann’s interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of “the limbic brain inside a right-winger.” “He (Waters) was complaining that Olbermann didn’t bother to challenge her,” another GE shareholder said… “My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC,” said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund and a four-year critic of Immelt. “It was noticeable and loud. I don’t remember any of this going on last year.” “Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people,” he added.

Fox News Files FOIA Request With Homeland Security Over Right-Wing Extremist Threat (by Danny Shea at the Huffington Post)
The Huffington Post has obtained a letter from Fox News to the Department of Homeland Security requesting they release the entire report on the right-wing extremists identified as a national security threat. The letter, sent Wednesday from Senior Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs Dianne Brandi, was sent pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

The Red Scare Index: 64 (by Karl Frisch at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Here is today’s daily Red Scare Index — our search of CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC and CNBC for uses of the following terms: Socialism, Socialist, Socialists, Socialistic, Communism, Communist, Communists, Communistic, Marxism, Marxist, Marxists, Marxistic, Fascism, Fascist, Fascists and Fascistic. Here are the numbers for Tuesday, April 21, 2009:

TOTAL: 64
Socialism, Socialist, Socialistic: 28
Communism, Communist, Communistic: 15
Marxism/Marxist: 1
Fascism, Fascist/s, Fascistic: 20

Limbaugh calls Fidel Castro “one of Obama’s idols” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: For Obama administration, statement that “the best way to generate capital is to earn it” “could be a hate crime” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

If It’s Not Spelled Phonetically, Don’t Expect a Fox News Anchor to Pronounce It Correctly (by John Cook at Gawker)
Fox News gives subliterate people Atlas Shrugged on tape and puts them on camera. Here is a clip reel of Fox anchors repeatedly mispronouncing every proper noun they attempt to read off the teleprompter.
Isn’t Atlas Shrugged their Bible?  Don’t they know it by heart?

Media Matters for America headlines

• More Fox figures pick up tenuous claim that harsh interrogations thwarted L.A. plot

• Fox News’ Hemmer “keeping track of the stimulus money” — by lifting research from GOP website

• Political History 101: O’Reilly falsely claimed Nixon never met with Mao

• O’Reilly revived “wall” falsehood to suggest Holder — not Bush officials — should be “prosecuted”

• NY Times drew false “contrast” between Blair, other Obama officials

• Media ignore facts undermining GOP calls for Napolitano resignation

• NBC’s Mitchell falsely suggests Blair letter expressed approval for interrogation methods

• MSNBC’s Buchanan falsely attributed dubious OLC memo claim to Hayden-Mukasey op-ed

• Media cite DOJ memo to claim link — refuted by Bush timeline — between KSM waterboarding, thwarted L.A. plot

• Fox News runs with dubious claim that KSM’s interrogation thwarted L.A. plot

• Media ignore falsehood in Miss California’s same-sex marriage response

UK privacy watchdog clears Google Street View
The Information Commissioner’s Office rejected a complaint Thursday by London-based human rights group Privacy International which had argued that Google’s high-quality photos of houses and streets breached people’s privacy.

Was The Pirate Bay Judge Biased? (Mashable)
[S]everal sources are reporting that the judge in the recent Pirate Bay trial, Tomas Norström, is a member of several organizations which are closely connected to the prosecutors in the case; i.e. the entertainment industry.

Chicago Tribune won’t let “Recession Diaries” blogger tell readers he’s a recession victim
Chicago Tribune editors assigned Lou Carlozo to cover the recession — then made him a victim of the recession. Carlozo writes: “‘The Recession Diaries’ blog was a beat I did not want nor ask for, and it involved me telling very tough stories about my own family finances — stories that led me and my wife to squabble many times over which details to withhold, which to print, and which ones looked inappropriate in print after the fact. I wanted to post a final blog Wednesday to readers explaining that I had lost my job, a victim of the very recession I covered. I posted this without management’s approval. I then informed management. Management took it down.”

Critic scolds TV news shop for its child abduction experiment
KMSP Fox 9 in the Twin Cities planned to have investigative reporter Trish Van Pilsum (left) drive around in an SUV, ask children for directions and see how they respond. (Run away? Hop in the vehicle?) “The police indicated while there is nothing illegal with this, they do not endorse this activity,” a school principal told parents. The TV station reportedly called off its “investigation” after parents complained.

Wisconsin university football coach bans student reporters
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football coach Lance Leipold apparently hit the roof after reading a column, headlined “Spoiled athletes need reality check”, in the campus newspaper. He’s now banned student reporters from interviewing coaches and players.

NYT tells blog to drop “All the News That’s Fit to Eat”
The Times told The Food Section blog that the “use of this similar slogan capitalizes on the good will and reputation associated with the Times’s trademark and constitutes trademark dilution and infringement.” Josh Friedland says he doesn’t have the resources, time, or energy to deal with a lawsuit so “I decided to cave in.”

High Time We Set the Record Straight on Newspaper ‘Myths’ (by Donna Barrett, Editor & Publisher)
The crisis facing newspapers is not an audience problem. It is a revenue problem. Confronting this, and dispelling popular myths about why the industry is in trouble, is the first step we need to take.

Lessons You Learn at a ‘Future of the Media’ Party (by Gabriel Snyder at Gawker)
[Tuesday] night The Atlantic held the only sort of media party left: a discussion about the future of media with television producer Michael Hirschorn and blogger Andrew Sullivan… These are the new things I learned…:
• Years ago, Hirschorn and Sullivan were roommates in D.C.
• Sullivan was once straight and had a girlfriend that Hirschorn thought was hot.
• Sullivan, who suffers from sleep apnea, did not sleep well the night before because he left his air mask back in D.C.
• ABC News in-house libertarian John Stossel was unaware of Andrew Sullivan’s evangelism for testosterone therapy.
• Ira Glass hops from foot to foot when he wants to ask a question.
• Sigourney Weaver doesn’t read Gawker.
• The media as we know it — i.e. relatively easy way for a large few to eke out a comfortable upperclass existence — is doomed.

AP And NFL Kick Off Photo Licensing Deal (Paid Content)
With newspapers’ ad revenue continuing to plunge, the Associated Press hope to make revenue-sharing deals based on e-commerce a more significant part of its relationship to its struggling members. One key strength of local newspapers is sports and the AP is offering some more details over its exclusive licensing deal with the National Football League. During his address at the AP’s annual meeting earlier this month, Tom Curley, the wire service’s president and CEO, touched on the arrangement as part of the AP’s Digital Cooperative, searchable content warehouse that allows for a broad range of digital revenue models, including paid content.

Under the terms of the agreement, the AP will be able to sell its own NFL images, which have only been allowed for editorial purposes up to this point, for commercial use. The deal also lets AP the rights to NFL-owned event photos—including the league’s archival images—for commercial use and sell them for editorial purposes. The AP already has commercial arrangements with Ebonyand Jet magazines as well as NBC Universal.

Global Media Services Merges With Video Startup GridNetworks (Paid Content)
A month after reports surfaced that video streaming startup GridNetworks was being sold, the buyer has been identified: Global Media Services. Financial terms of the deal, which was announced last week, were not disclosed. GridNetworks’ Gridcast TV service streams online videos in HD to TVs, while Global Media Services provides various services companies looking to stream content online. The combined company will be led by Global Media Services CEO Charles Picasso

Traffic at Newspaper Sites Soars 10% in Past Year, Nielsen Says 
The number of people visiting newspaper Web sites hit a new high in Q1 with an average of 73.3 million unique users, a 10.5% jump compared to the same period a year ago. 

Fifty-three Newsroom Employees Laid Off at Chicago Tribune
The exit of 53 editorial employees at the Tribune is part of a paper-wide cost-cutting effort. Editor Gerould Kern said in a letter to staff that cuts are part of a newsroom reorganization that “will focus us more clearly on our core mission” going forward with a newsgathering team of around 430.

Tribune asks court to OK $13 million in bonuses for 700 employees
On the day it laid off dozens of journalists at its Chicago paper, Tribune asked a bankruptcy court to approve $13 million in bonuses to nearly 700 managers, directors and others. It also asked permission to resume severance payments to individuals who left Tribune before its Chapter 11 filing in December.

McClatchy Widens Q1 Loss on Nearly 30% Slide in Ad Revenue
The McClatchy Co. Thursday reported a first-quarter loss that exceeded expectations on newspaper advertising revenue that plunged 29.5%.

Longtime Observer Editor Peter Kaplan Stepping Down
Peter Kaplan, the longest-serving editor of The New York Observer, announced he is resigning from the newspaper effective June 1, 2009. Kaplan joined the newspaper in 1994, after working as a magazine editor, the executive producer of The Charlie Rose show, and as a reporter for The New York Times.

Minority Journos: Lack of Diversity a Cause of Newspaper Industry’s Crisis (by Mark Fitzgerald, Editor & Publisher)
Minority journalists warned for years that diversifying newsrooms was critical to newspapers’ survival. The industry’s failure to make more than the barest progress towards diversity partly explains its current crisis, the president of the umbrella group for journalists of color said Tuesday.

Feds to End Some Newspaper, Magazine Subscriptions
The Homeland Security Department is dropping some newspaper and magazine subscriptions to save money. The agency has told its employees to cancel subscriptions to general interest newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and to magazines such asTime by April 27.

Backers Exit InDenver News Project
Financial backers of InDenver Times and many of its unpaid employees — former staff members of the Rocky Mountain News – are parting ways after a meeting Wednesday night. The employees want to go on with the site and will search for new backers, business writer David Milstead said after the meeting.

Gannett Forms Digital Advertising Network
Gannett Co. is formally grouping its Web sites and forming an advertising network to be known as the Digital Media Network, representing more than 100 digital communities including USAToday.com and the Web sites of its broadcast properties.

As Print Mags Die, New Mag Blurt Marches to Its Own Upbeat
Scott Crawford recently did something audacious: Amid a major magazine industry contraction set off by declining print readership and a precipitous drop in advertising revenues, Crawford decided to turn his nascent online music magazine, Blurt, into a print publication.

Time’s ’100 Most Influential’ Hacked
Even Time.com isn’t immune to hackers. The magazine’s annual online poll of the top 100 most influential people in government, science, technology, and the arts has been flooded with fake votes by followers of 4chan, an online message board.

David Pogue Latest Victim of Twitter-Book Rage (by Ryan Tate at Gawker)
The idea of a book of microblogging “tweets” really bugs some people. Our own Nick Douglas, author of the forthcoming TwitterWit, already knows that. Now a New York Times columnist is feeling the hate. David Pogue, who makes those surprisingly entertaining gadget-review videos for nytimes.com, also has a joint book venture with technical publisher O’Reilly. Through this imprint, he plans a book of funny tweets from his Twitter followers…

Cue Russ Marshalek, a book-industry publicist with a blog on Creative Loafing: “This sort of attempt at an of-the-minute cash-grab really irks me. While publishers, authors and other various incidental folk in the book business are actually working, diligently and full of heart, to discover what it’s going to take to turn the sinking ship of books around, Pogue’s trying to ramp up excitement for 200 pages of @SomeGuy tweeting ‘hey I really like dogs.’”
My comment to Russ Marshalek: It’s not the cash grabbing that irks me. It’s the cash grabbing without any recompense to the people who provided the material. Scott Adams has done it for years. Most of his Dilbert cartoons come from ideas submitted by his readers, and always have. Yes, he has the skill to make the suggestions into a cartoon. Yes, he has the juice to get the cartoons published. But when will those with the skill and the juice recognize (and pay for?) the contributions of others?

Oh, and I have an idea for the book publishing industry: Stop trying to publish a blockbuster every time. If you concentrated more on publishing quality work than on whose work can sell the most books, you might surprise yourself by selling more.

One more thing: When you decide on what might be a good quality book, don’t rely just on the elite effete of the Ivy League. I stopped reading most fiction years ago, when it became just plain silly.

Ebert and wife give $1 million to University of Illinois
The money will be used to launch the Roger Ebert Program for Film Studies Fund. The University of Illinois will continue fundraising efforts and when the principal of the Roger Ebert Program reaches $5 million, it then becomes the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, which will house the activities of the Ebert Program.

France Tries to Lure Hollywood
France this winter approved a plan under which, for the first time, foreign producers would be eligible for financial support to shoot in France.

Warner Offers HD DVD Disc Bailout
If you were burned during the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, hold off on using all those red HD DVD discs as a wall covering. Warner has introduced a new Web site called Red2Blu that lets you trade in HD DVD movies for Blu-ray discs-for a price.

Reimagining Radio as a Spectator Sport
On Tuesday WNYC radio’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space will open its doors on Charlton and Varick Streets in Lower Manhattan, with ambitions to be more than just another of the electronic-news-ticker-wrapped, street-level broadcast studios that have popped up across the city.

How Network TV Will Reinvent Itself
Five years from now network television will look very different. The 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. prime-time period likely will be shorter, programs will be tailored to audiences, and networks may turn over programming to outsiders some nights or let local stations provide their own shows.

ABC Brings Back Millionaire for Limited Primetime Run
ABC is bringing back the primetime version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in August, nearly 10 years to the date after the iconic game show changed the face of American television. Regis Philbin has agreed to return as host of the primetime revival, which will unfold as a two-week, 11-night event.

BET to Offer New Channel for Adults
Viacom, the owner of BET, is forming a new cable television channel for middle-aged African-Americans, heightening the competition for the minority viewing audience. The channel will be named Centric and is scheduled to make its debut in October.

Yes, This Is Where You Can See ‘Project Runway’
Now that Lifetime has finally won the rights to “Project Runway” after a yearlong lawsuit between NBC Universal and the Weinstein Co., fans will have to wait just a little bit longer to catch the already-completed sixth season. “Runway” will make its debut on the network Aug. 20, along with a sister series, “Models of the Runway,” which will simultaneously document the lives of the designers’ models and their own quest to achieve fashion fame. “Runway” will return with a new lineup of integrated sponsors: editorial partner Marie Claire, returning makeup sponsor and new hair-care sponsor Garnier, and returning retail partner Macy’s.

Bravo came up with a replacement mighty quickly:
Bravo Announces 15 Designers to Compete on “The Fashion Show” Premiering May 7
Bravo unveiled the 15 professional designers chosen for the new fashion creative competition series, “The Fashion Show,” as they compete for a chance to have their designs sold in the retail market and win a $125,000 prize. “The Fashion Show” premieres on Bravo on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Internationally acclaimed designer Isaac Mizrahi shares hosting duties with four-time Grammy Award-winning performer and actress Kelly Rowland. Mizrahi and Rowland will also serve as judges alongside fashion luminary and Senior Vice President of IMG Fashion, Fern Mallis.

Charter Plans To Sell New Shares To Bondholders In Bid To Raise Funds (Paid Content)
Bankrupt cable operator Charter Communications plans to raise new funds by issuing new common shares to some of its bondholders, Reuters reported, citing an SEC filing. The St. Louis-based company will issue the rights to buy the shares of Class A Common Stock to holders of 11 percent senior notes issued by its units CCH I and CCH I Capital Corp… Charter, the number four cable company in the U.S., has been working on agreements with some of its creditors lowering its $21 billion in debt by roughly $8 billion.

Nielsen: Facebook Use Surpasses Email
In the last year, people somehow found a way to spend 73 percent more time on Facebook Inc. and other social networking sites. In February, Nielsen found, people used social network sites more than they used Web-based email for the first time ever.

Social Media Home Run: MLB and Citizen Sports Team Up (Mashable)
With so many businesses embracing social media, it should be no surprise that the major sport leagues have been joining the trend. Both Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have put out iPhone and Facebook apps, and the NBA has an active and popular Twitter account. However, MLB has taken its social media involvement to another level with the announcement of its partnership with Citizen Sports, a developer of social networking and iPhone apps… The core of the partnership is advertising – MLB, specifically its digital branch (MLB Advanced Media), will sell ad inventory on all of Citizen Sports’ baseball applications, the best-known ones being Salary Cap Baseball and Beat the Streak.

Nerve.com Hires New CEO, Plans To Downplay Nudity
Nerve.com, the long-running erotica site that originally billed itself as a purveyor of “literate smut,” has a new CEO and a new notion to tame some of its wilder impulses and position itself as a broader lifestyle play.

Hulu, Labels Said to Be in Talks on Music-Video Site
Hulu.com is in talks with the world’s largest record labels to offer music videos in competition with Google Inc.’s YouTube. EMI Group Ltd., Warner Music Group Corp., Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment are negotiating to add music videos to Hulu.

Polar Rose Adds Facial Recognition to Your Flickr Photos (Mashable)
Since the debut of the new iPhoto, which comes complete with facial recognition plus integration with Flickr and Facebook, tagging your friends in photos has become a much easier process. In a similar vein, but on a broader scale, Polar Rose, a company focused on digital content analysis, has released an application that brings facial recognition to all Flickr photos and users.
Could this capability be used for political gatherings, as well?

Microsoft Testing Topic-Centric Versions Of MSN Home Page; Starts With Entertainment (Paid Content)
Microsoft says it has started to test new, topic-focused versions of its MSN home page—beginning with one dedicated to entertainment news. The reason? The company says it wants to offer users the option of a home page that better meets their interests, although it emphasizes that the current MSN home page is not going away. The move will also presumably give advertisers a way to target their homepage display ads to users with certain general interests. The first test prominently features entertainment news and videos because of the category’s tremendous popularity online.

Mayo Clinic Signs Up For Microsoft HealthVault App (Paid Content)
Microsoft has gotten yet another major hospital to embrace its HealthVault online health records platform: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota says it will use HealthVault to build an online application that Mayo Clinic patients can use to store medical information. The application also will include specialized tools to help monitor a number of ailments—and provide treatment recommendations…

The deal is important because it should spur adoption of HealthVault. It is unclear how many people are using HealthVault or competitor Google Health. However, it’s much easier for patients to use the platforms if their medical organizations have ties to them, and both Google Health and HealthVault have been steadily signing on hospitals, pharmacies and HMOs. Both HealthVault and Google Health are also expected to benefit from the recent economic stimulus bill, which allocates billions to the goal of electronic health records for every American.

Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned From Susan Boyle (by Simon Dumenco, Advertising Age)
What can we learn from viral-video sensation Susan Boyle? For one thing, you can make being a frump a good thing. Simon Dumenco lays out how you too can glean insight from a 47-year-old woman who lives with her cat, Pebbles, and, oh yeah, sings.
1. Accentuate the negative…
2. If you’re going to be a frump, be a lovable frump…
3. Come equipped with your own soundbites…
4. Subtext, Sclubtext. Just spit it out already!…
5. Pluck is everything…
6. Everybody needs a good cry right now, so you might as well give it to them…
7. Get on the Google Dole… [A] recent Credit Suisse report … puts YouTube’s estimated 2009 losses at nearly half a billion dollars — thanks to ever-escalating bandwidth costs and nowhere near enough advertising support to pay the bills. In other words, Google can’t really afford more Susan Boyles!
The OTHER curmudgeon named Simon continues to entertain.

ConnectedAds Tracks Social Engagement for Advertisers (Mashable)
Social advertising has been a nut that many companies have been trying to crack. One of the leaders in social advertising has been Clearspring, a platform for creating and distributing widgets. Today, Clearspring announced another interesting innovation in the social ad realm, called ConnectedAds.

ConnectedAds is an ad service that focuses on tracking the engagement of widgets on social networks (primarily Facebook it seems), as well as how much they are shared on other social media services like Twitter. Unlike many other ad services however, Clearspring’s ConnectedAds is making full use of the wealth of information available on Facebook to target the ads. This could be a boon to advertisers looking to make social advertising pay off.

Home Depot, NBC Craft Ad Spots That Rely on the Weather
Local Forecasts Enhance Weekend Project Message

TiVo Promotes Ads It Hopes You’ll Talk to, Not Zap
The new interactive ads appear when a viewer pauses or fast-forwards, and offer information, accessible through the remote.

Auto ad cuts may be slowing
Journal Broadcast Group CEO Doug Kiel says, “If we haven’t seen the bottom, we’re clearly dragging close to it.” Journal’s auto dollars were off 45% in the first quarter. Kiel says despite such “significant declines” the pace of new cutbacks has slowed.

McDonald’s to increase ad efforts.
Radio’s sixth-largest advertiser says “softness” in the ad market is an opportunity for it “stay aggressive” or do “even more” advertising. McDonald’s has been one of the recession’s success stories and believes the downturn will help it grow market share.

Apple pulls plug on ‘Baby Shaker’ iPhone program
Apple Inc. pulled a 99-cent iPhone game called “Baby Shaker” from its iTunes store Wednesday after its premise – quiet a crying baby with a vigorous shake – prompted outrage.

Android Growing Fast, But Not as Fast as iPhone (Mashable)
With version 3.0 of the iPhone OS and the rumors of a new device, the iPhone is all the rage once again, but 2009. was supposed to be the year of the Android. Has it happened yet? AdMob’s Mobile Metrics Report for March 2009 reveals how quickly the Android platform has been growing in the US. Looking at AdMob’s statistics, the HTC Dream, the first Android-based phone, generates 2% of their US requests and is now the fourth smartphone overall, behind the iPhone, BlackBerry Curve, and BlackBerry Pearl. It has also managed to capture 6% share of the smartphone OS market in the US. Furthermore, AdMob’s data shows that applications play a very important part in the growth of these two platforms.

Why Making Twitter Apps Could Be A Risky Business (Paid Content)
Twitter has capped the number of accounts a user could follow in a single day to 1,000—the company said there were “technical reasons” behind the change, but also made it clear that the follower-limit was meant to discourage spammers. The problem is that Twitter started enforcing this follower-limit without giving developers a heads up, and for app-makers like SocialToo’s Jesse Stay, the change reduced the utility of their services. Stay isn’t the only developer up in arms about the follower caps, LouisGray reports that apps like TweetLater and Mr. Tweet have also had to deal with reduced functionality because of limits Twitter is placing on their ability to get user data.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

MakeThemAccountable (thanks to diy.despair.com)

A Lexicon of Disappointment (by Naomi Klein, The Nation)
All is not well in Obamafanland. It’s not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury’s latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama’s silence during Israel‘s Gaza attack. Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.

This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding. The first stage, however, is to understand fully the awkward in-between space in which many US progressive movements find themselves. To do that, we need a new language, one specific to the Obama moment. Here is a start.
Click through for the definitions of Hopeover, Hoper coaster, Hopesick, Hope fiend, Hopebreak, Hopelash, and Hoperoots. “Sample sentence: ‘It’s time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots.’”  Need I say that The Nation was one of the hopium pushers during last year’s primary?  But at least they didn’t trash Hillary the way some others did.

Wednesday: Foxhole Liberals (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
I suspect that there are a lot more people out there who in the next couple of years are going to discover their inner liberal.  After all, it’s one thing to rail about deadbeats on unemployment when times are good.  It’s quite another thing to be ON the unemployment line, realizing you haven’t done anything wrong but that the wealthy shareholders of your company preferred a juicier dividend to your wage slavery… That social safety net doesn’t look so bad now that we’re all sitting in the same foxhole, does it?… And really, are the proscriptions against gay marriage that important when we’re all struggling to keep our heads above water?

Keep it in mind as you watch the tea party phenomenon develop.  There is an opportunity out there to turn this country on its head for the persons who seize it.  And it won’t be long before Americans all over the country demand more of their government to do something.  Liberalism may become the next new religion for Republicans too.
Right wingers are fond of saying that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged—presumably by a dark-skinned person on welfare. But can we now say that a liberal may be a conservative who was mugged—by Republican policies?

The opportunity that Riverdaughter points to is being squandered, however. The party poobahs still don’t understand that you can’t create and sustain a long-term movement based on a person or by strategizing to win just the next election. The right wing is successfully diverting the resentment shown in last week’s tea parties from the people responsible for our current predicament and to each other. Democrats, so-called progressives, and so-called liberals are looking down their noses instead of trying to educate, trying to help people understand what damage the Republicans have done.  It’s just not happening.

Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Brutal Techniques (New York Times)
A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military’s use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration… The Senate report documented how some of the techniques used by the military at prisons in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq — stripping detainees, placing them in “stress positions” or depriving them of sleep — originated in a military program known as Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape, or SERE, intended to train American troops to resist abusive enemy interrogations.

According to the Senate investigation, a military behavioral scientist and a colleague who had witnessed SERE training proposed its use at Guantánamo in October 2002, as pressure was rising “to get ‘tougher’ with detainee interrogations.” Officers there sought authorization, and Mr. Rumsfeld approved 15 interrogation techniques.. “The paper trail on abuse leads to top civilian leaders, and our report connects the dots,” Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “This report, in great detail, shows a paper trail going from that authorization” by Mr. Rumsfeld “to Guantánamo to Afghanistan and to Iraq,” Mr. Levin said.

The Daily Show – We Don’t Torture (video)

President Obama Discusses Possible Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
“For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted,” President Obama said [Tuesday]. “With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws, and I don’t want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there.” The White House also suggested, for the first time, that any public investigation of interrogation policy should be like the 9/11 Commission.
The 9/11 Commission. Great. It settled ALL the questions about 9/11.

But is Obama really willing to bring the culprits to justice?
When the Deal Goes Down: Obama Signals Move to Save Bush Bigwigs on Torture (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
[O]n Tuesday, [Obama] sought to appease the growing pressure by saying that he was open to the possibility of maybe potentially putting together some kind of commission or something somewhere down the line that could look into whether or not some of these charges might need to be, er, looked into a little further — although he was quick to add that he was “not suggesting” that such a thing should be done. You musn’t get that idea! But he was, magnanimously, willing to say that he would not immediately put the imperial kibosh on the process if and when it ever cranked up.

He also signaled the beginning of a possible “compromise” that could tamp down the heat and get torture off the table, out of the news,  and back into the shadowlands where it belongs… How to do it? Easy-peasy: grab two or three of the middlemen, the facilitators, and offer them up on the altar as sacrificial lambs… Yes, that’s right: Obama and his team are saying that they will not punish the torturers, and they will notpunish the men who ordered the torture — but they just might, possibly, consider punishing (in some way) those who transmitted the orders from the chief culprits to their frontline minions. 

Russ Feingold Nails Torture Advocates (by Sarah at Corrente)
“If you want to see just how outrageous this is, I refer you to the remarks made by Peggy Noonan this Sunday,” [Feingold] said, referring to the longtime conservative columnist’s appearance on ABC’s This Week. “I frankly have never heard anything quite as disturbing as her remark that was something to the affect of: ‘well sometimes you just have to move on.’”… Feingold’s remarks, delivered before the Religious Action Center convention, represent some of the most forceful pushback against the line coming out of the White House… A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a long-time critic of torture, Feingold viewed investigations and, perhaps, prosecutions as a key tool to restoring America‘s moral standing.

Press Reduces Torture Investigations Into Partisan Warfare (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
In the aftermath of the president’s statement [on a possible torture investigation] the preponderance of attention has been spent on political minutia as opposed to the policy details. The media, in particular, focused almost exclusively on two specific angles: had Obama cowered to those liberal proponents of prosecuting Bush officials, and had he contradicted his own administration in expressing openness in doing so? In the process, the issue of launching an investigation — which would have to be bipartisan in nature for Obama to support it — was reduced into an overtly partisan and cynical frame. Issues of justice and morality boiled down into “the left’s” influence compared to “the right.”
In America, it can never be right vs. wrong. It must always be right vs. left.

Chuck Todd Depicts Support For Torture Investigations As Outside-The-Mainstream Phenomenon (by Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post)
[T]o suggest that public support for torture prosecutions is a struggle the “hard left” or the blogosphere is to miss the point entirely. There is strong, active, mainstream support for prosecutions. Period.

Kondracke claims “hysteria on the left,” who want “the heads of Bush administration officials,” “blood” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Moments after O’Reilly says a bipartisan investigation into torture would “polarize the country,” onscreen text states: “The battle lines are drawn. Americans need to take a side.” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Rove claims prosecuting torture memo authors will turn Obama admin “into the moral equivalent of a Latin American country run by colonels in mirrored sunglasses” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
No, it will turn us into a country FORMERLY ruled by colonels in mirrored sunglasses.

What Obama’s Intel Chief Really Believes About Torture… (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
The stakes in the torture debate just shot up dramatically with the revelation last night that Obama’s intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, wrote a memo saying torture had yielded some “high value information.”… Will the media clearly report Blair’s actual views about torture? Blair released a statement late yesterday in which he clearly stated that there is no way of knowing whether means other than torture would have obtained the same info. More important, he said the damage done to us by torture “far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.” Blair has outlined these views elsewhere…

Blair believes that some valuable info was collected via torture, but that torture is not essential to our security and has done far more harm than good…The effort to obscure and twist this plain fact is going to be very intense.

Scientists ‘disappointed, upset,’ and ‘consternated’ that Bush officials misused their work to justify torture. (Think Progress)
In the past week, at least three scientists have come out and objected to their work on sleep deprivation being used by the CIA and Justice Department to justify torture. In one of his 2005 memos, the OLC’s Steven Bradbury said that sleep deprivation causes “at most only relatively moderate decreases in pain tolerance.” But one of the scholars, Dr. Bernd Kundermann from the University of Marburg, pointed out that that he was “working with healthy volunteers and didn’t deprive them of sleep for more than one day without allowing them to recover.” 

Torture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals (by Mark Benjamin, Salon)
Bush officials said they only tortured terrorists after they wouldn’t talk. New evidence shows they planned torture soon after 9/11.

Report: Abusive tactics were used to find Iraq-al Qaida link (McClatchy)
The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist. Such information would’ve provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush’s main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. No evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and Saddam’s regime. The use of abusive interrogation — widely considered torture — as part of Bush’s quest for a rationale to invade Iraq came to light as the Senate issued a major report tracing the origin of the abuses and President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecuting former U.S. officials for approving them.

All Hat No Cattle

Cheney Mystery Solved! (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
That whole question of whether Dick Cheney asked the CIA to declassify and release intelligence supposedly proving that the torture worked? Turns out Cheney made the request through the National Archives, a spokesperson for the archives confirms. That means that we may, in fact, see the documents that Cheney claims will demonstrate that the Bush torture program collected a whole bunch of useful intelligence, though it may take awhile.

Fujimori’s conviction should give Bush nightmares (by Dennis Jett, McClatchy)
There was a truly remarkable news item recently that received less notice than it deserved. A former president was tried, convicted and sentenced to a long jail term for crimes committed in his government’s fight against terrorism. No, this was not George W. Bush’s worst nightmare come true. The story came from Peru where Alberto Fujimori was found to be responsible for the killing of a number of innocent civilians by government death squads. The conviction of Fujimori, who had been president from 1990 to 2000, was a rare triumph of justice over the impunity of power and was the first time in Latin America that an ex-president had been called to account in such a manner.

Jane Harman’s Media Tour Gets Off to a Bad Start (by John Cook at Gawker)
Congresswoman Jane Harman took to the airwaves to defend herself against the charge that she conspired with a “suspected Israeli operative” to quash an espionage prosecution against former AIPAC employees. It didn’t go so well…

Harman’s gall is epic. She enabled the very abuse of power she decries: Harman was one of the eight members of Congress “read into” the NSA’s wiretapping program—which completely ignored the very law passed to prevent abuses of power like listening in on members of Congress’ phone calls—by the Bush Administration. She knew about it years ago. For her to pose—”I’m thinking of others who may not be aware, as I was not”—as an ingenue when it comes to her country’s deliberate targeting of it’s own citizens in NSA sweeps is pathological.

Jane Harman: Angry, partisan, civil liberties extremist (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Blue Dog Rep. Jane Harman — once the most vigorous Democratic cheerleader of Bush’s NSA warrantless eavesdropping program — is rip-roarin’ angry…  Apparently, her private conversations were eavesdropped on by the U.S. Government!  This is a grave outrage that, as she told Andrea Mitchell [Tuesday], demands a probing investigation: “…I’m just very disappointed that my country — I’m an American citizen just like you are — could have permitted what I think is a gross abuse of power in recent years…”

So if I understand this correctly — and I’m pretty sure I do — when the U.S. Government eavesdropped for years on American citizens with no warrants and in violation of the law, that was “both legal and necessary” as well as “essential to U.S. national security,” and it was the ”despicable” whistle-blowers (such as Thomas Tamm) who disclosed that crime and the newspapers which reported it who should have been criminally investigated, but not the lawbreaking government officials.  But when the U.S. Government legally and with warrants eavesdrops on Jane Harman, that is an outrageous invasion of privacy and a violent assault on her rights as an American citizen, and full-scale investigations must be commenced immediately to get to the bottom of this abuse of power.
Patrick Lang asks, at No Quarter, what’s the difference between Jane Harman’s quid pro quo and Rod Blagojevich’s attempted quid pro quo for Obama’s senate seat?  And then I thought of former governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman.  He was convicted for influence peddling, possibly at the behest of Karl Rove.  We really need some better definitions for these possible crimes.  When is it doing a constituent or a donor an allowable favor, and when is it a crime?

Geithner says big banks are healthy as skepticism grows (McClatchy)
Days before his agency releases key details of unusual tests to measure the health of the nation’s 19 largest banks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a watchdog panel Tuesday that the “vast majority” have sufficient capital, implying there’s little need for more injections of taxpayer money.

Geithner fails to impress (by Andrew Leonard at How the World Works, Salon, thanks to Economist’s View)
Results of the stress tests are due soon, his Public-Private Investment Program is getting assailed from all sides, the banks are releasing profit numbers that are clearly the result of dodgy accounting techniques, and still, Geithner refuses to defend his actions with any argument more compelling than that, in the administration’s judgment, their chosen strategy is the least costly way to ensure the stability and health of the overall financial system… I don’t think Geithner impressed the oversight panel with his answers, and I’m certain he didn’t say anything that will have the financial industry worrying that Obama administration is about to get tough.

Vast majorities (by Paul Krugman)
So the market was greatly reassured when Tim Geithner declared that the “vast majority” of banks are well capitalized. Count me as baffled. I mean, maybe he was actually giving us a hint about the stress tests — but I took it as a remark that was uninformative at best, ominous at worst. After all, there are a lot of banks in America. There are 1,722 institutions on the Fed’s list of “large commercial banks”. And I have no doubt that most of these banks — indeed, the vast majority — are in fine shape. That’s because they’re regional institutions that never got into the risky games played by the big guys.

But the big guys are where the money is… What Geithner said, then, was true but useless. If anything, his wording was cause for concern: Treasury knows the difference between raw numbers of banks and asset holdings, even if the press seemed to miss the distinction, and if he’d meant to say that the vast majority of assets are held by sound banks, he would have.

Stressful (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
I hope I’m wrong, but this sure sounds like the administration is going to throw the regional banks under the bus to protect Wall Street behemoths: “…The government’s ‘stress tests’ of 19 large banks take a harsher view of loans than of other troubled assets, according to a Federal Reserve document obtained by the Associated Press. That approach favors a few Wall Street banks while potentially threatening major regional players.”

Pelosi to push for Pecora Commission-style inquiry (by lambert at Corrente)
Following through on her commitment last week at the Commonwealth Club, Pelosi moves to schedule hearings: “Wall Street may be heading for the deepest investigation of its practices since a congressional panel’s probe of abuses following the 1929 stock market crash. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to push for a comprehensive inquiry… She favors one patterned after Senate Banking Committee hearings led by Ferdinand Pecora starting in 1933… ‘I think it’s useful to have it, but that should not be a reason to hold off on legislating,’ [Barney] Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said of Pelosi’s proposal after a speech in Washington yesterday.”

Who does Frank think he is? The Red King in Alice in Wonderland? “Sentence first, verdict afterward”? I mean, isn’t it barely possible that the results of the Pecora Commission might impact legislation?… I’ve chewed on Leader Nance’s ankles before, gawd knows. If she’d left Bush’s impeachment on the table in 2006, I bet we’d be in better shape today. That said, this is a good move. And if it’s citizen outrage and activism that caused it, so much the fucking better.

For Housing Crisis, the End Probably Isn’t Near (by David Leonhardt, New York Times, thanks to Economist’s View)
The glut of foreclosed homes creates a self-reinforcing cycle. Falling prices lead to more foreclosures. Foreclosures lead to an excess supply of homes for sale. The excess supply then leads to further price declines. Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs, says that the “massive amount of excess supply” means that home prices nationwide will probably fall an additional 15 percent. This estimate hides a lot of variation, too. In Miami, Goldman forecasts, prices could drop an additional 33 percent, which is pretty amazing since they’ve already fallen 50 percent from their 2006 peak.

Nor is excess supply the only reason prices still have a way to fall. Nationwide, homes may not be overvalued by much. But in some cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Miami, they remain very expensive.

IMF estimates necessary global write-downs: $4.1 trillion (Passport, Foreign Policy, thanks to Economist’s View)
The IMF released its biannual Global Financial Stability Report. The big news: the global economy may need $4.1 trillion in write-downs on around $58 trillion in assets before the crisis is over.  It estimates that the United States leads the world in ripping the bandaid off — completing about half of necessary write-downs; European countries are lagging. Banks will take the brunt of that cost, around two-thirds.

The crisis: holding the professionals to account (by Michael Pomerleano at Economists’ Forum, Financial Times, U.K., thanks to Economist’s View)
My education (Harvard Business School and economics department) and professional experience prime me to advocate finance’s role in the growth of economies… However, the conduct of professionals in the financial crisis leads me to reassess these beliefs… In this context,… the professionals are not being held accountable… We seem to forget one of the successful lessons from the late 1980s savings and loan crisis in structuring positive and negative incentives: holding accountable the directors and officers, lawyers, accountants of the banks, investment banks and the rating agencies…

The Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates the US’s thrifts, and its sister agency, the Resolution Trust Corp which was in charge of disposing of the assets of failed S&Ls, embarked on a deliberate deterrence strategy targeting lawyers, accountants, directors and officers of failed thrifts that aided and abetted the excesses leading to the S&L crisis. The intent was to discourage futures abuses and recover some of the lost taxpayer funds.

It looks as though one of the professionals has held himself accountable:
Police investigating death of Freddie Mac official (AP)
WASHINGTON – David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.

How economics lost sight of real world (by John Kay, Financial Times—no relation, as far as I know—thanks to Economist’s View)
There is not, and never will be, an economic theory of everything. Physics may, or may not, be different. But the knowledge we can hope to have in economics is piecemeal and provisional, and different theories will illuminate different but particular situations. We should observe empirical regularities and – as in other applied subjects such as medicine and engineering – we will often find pragmatic solutions that work even though our understanding of why they work is incomplete.
Economists, in an attempt to turn their field of study into a “pure” science, have removed morality from their calculations.  And economics that is not grounded in morality is not grounded.

The Costs of Expanding the Government’s Economic Role (by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Scientific American, thanks to Economist’s View)
he truth is that the U.S. … will probably have to raise new revenues … to carry out its vital roles in protecting the poor, promoting health and education and building a modern infrastructure with … sustainable technology. Ending the Bush-era tax cuts on the rich certainly is merited, but further taxing the rich much beyond that will come up against political and practical limits. Within a few years, we’ll probably see the need for new broader-based taxes, perhaps a national sales or value-added tax such as those widely used in other high-income countries. If we continue to assume that we can have the expanded government that we need but without the tax revenues to pay for it, the unacceptable build-up of public debt will threaten the well-being of our children and our children’s children.

Lockheed accepts Pentagon’s decision to cut F-22. (Think Progress)
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed his intention to end production of the F-22 fighter jet, an expensive weapons system that has not flown a single mission in either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. The defense contractor Lockheed Martin had been pouring money into a “publicity campaign” and engaging in “congressional lobbying efforts” to maintain funding for the F-22. But, it appears Lockheed is now conceding that the days of the F-22 are numbered.
More like this, please.

Sunstein Nominated to Head OIRA (American Constitution Society)
The White House has officially announced the nomination of Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget. OIRA is responsible for reducing government paperwork and performing cost-benefit analyses of federal regulations. Sunstein, currently at Harvard Law School, taught at the University of Chicago Law School for 27 years. In a recent pair of articles for the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the official journal of ACS, Sunstein explored regulatory issues. The articles, including responses from economist Frank Ackerman and now-senior EPA adviser Lisa Heinzerling, are available here.
Sunstein claims that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. Is he on he way to the Supreme Court?

Obama nominee touches a nerve in conservatives (Boston Globe)
Harold Hongju Koh, the Boston-born dean of Yale Law School, has spent part of his academic career analyzing the ways international law can influence a country’s domestic laws. Koh casts himself as a pure academic, studying how international norms seep into domestic legal opinions. But during the Bush administration, he was among the many academics who criticized the president for failing to uphold the Geneva Conventions and other treaties. Now, President Obama has nominated Koh, 53, to become the State Department’s top lawyer, and Koh is also widely believed to be a leading candidate for the Supreme Court. But as a key Senate committee prepares to take up his nomination later this week, opposition is growing among conservative thinkers, right-wing blogs, and some Republican lawmakers.

They suggest that if Koh becomes the chief legal adviser to American diplomats, he would give undue influence to foreign legal opinions, perhaps limiting American options in matters of national security.
And we should listen to the conservatives because their way has brought us to the brink of disaster?

Inhofe Will Filibuster Judicial Nominee For Ruling Against Sectarian Prayers In Indiana Legislature (Think Progress)
[Monday] on the Senate floor, Sen. James Inhofe announced that he intended to filibuster Obama’s nomination of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals… Inhofe does not appear to have explained his decision to filibuster in front of his colleagues on the floor of the Senate. But in statements that he entered into the Congressional Record, Inhofe cited a 2005 ruling in Hinrichs v. Bosman in which Hamilton found that the Indiana House of Representatives may open proceedings with “non-sectarian prayers” only. Inhofe called it “insane” that the ruling would allow payers to invoke the name of “Allah” but not “Jesus”…

But as Overruled notes, Hamilton‘s ruling was not particularly novel. Rather, Hamilton was upholding the Supreme Court’s ruling in Marsh v. Chambers, which “held that legislatures can open their session with a non-sectarian prayer, and that such a prayer could invoke ‘God,’” as long as the prayer was not meant to “proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief.” Hamilton found that “sectarian content of the substantial majority of official prayers took the prayers outside the safe harbor the Supreme Court recognized for inclusive, non-sectarian legislative prayers in Marsh v. Chambers.” As Hamilton explained in a post-judgment ruling, “‘Allah’ is used for ‘God’ in Arabic” and as such should be permitted:

Congress sets marathon hearings on fixing global warming (McClatchy)
As Congress began work Tuesday on groundbreaking climate legislation, Washington lawmakers were unusually optimistic on Earth Day 2009 about getting at least some climate-change legislation passed this year.

San Francisco mayor tweets his bid for California governor (McClatchy)
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom became an official candidate for California governor Tuesday, staking his claim as a Web-savvy, new-generation candidate by announcing his decision on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Judge Rejects Blago Reality Show (TV Week)
A state judge has nixed impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to appear on NBC’s summer reality show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. According to MSNBC, the Illinois judge in the case turned down the request because he believed Mr. Blagojevich wasn’t taking his criminal case seriously.

Texas lawmakers might send ‘cease and desist’ to U.S. government (McClatchy)
Note to Washington, D.C.: Texas is a sovereign state. After Gov. Rick Perry’s recent comments about some Texans talking secession from the union made national news, legislators are considering issuing a “cease and desist” order to the federal government. “This state prefers, to the greatest extent possible, to control our own destiny,” said Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, one of several members co-sponsoring the measure. “We prefer that federal government limit the amount of federal mandates it forces upon the people of Texas.”

House Concurrent Resolution 50, which claims sovereignty for Texas under the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment, was one of several proposals to go before the House State Affairs Committee late Tuesday. Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, filed the bill, saying that more than a dozen states have proposed similar efforts amid concern that the federal government may be overstepping its boundaries.

NBC’s Whitaker Is Media’s Prince of the City in D.C. (by Jon Friedman at Marketwatch)
Mark Whitaker, NBC News bureau chief in Washington, would be an ideal choice eventually to take the reins at MSNBC or CNBC. Both entities have been criticized for exhibiting a lack of discipline on-air. Whitaker, a tough, seasoned manager could remedy that problem quickly.

NYT Execs Forgot NYT Crusade Against CEO Pay (by Hamilton Nolan at Gawker)
Class rage at the New York Times! While the paper is on a ride straight to no-money hell, the execs are still getting paid big bucks. The NYT’s not living up to its editorial page!… “According to the New York Times proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, corporate president and CEO Janet L. Robinson received a total compensation package valued at $5.58 million in 2008, up well over a million from the $4.14 million she received in 2007, and the $4.4 million she received in 2006.”

That’s in contrast to top boss Pinch Sulzberger, who’s actually been taking pay cuts over the past three years… Does [NYT CEO] Janet Robinson need a refresher in the NYT’s unceasing, wall-to-wall coverage of one of the paper’s most cherished pet issues, the way the CEO pay is “out of control, socially corrosive and divorced from any real rationale”?

WP’s Milbank finally gets around to reading comments about his columns (Poynter Online)
In his February 13 chat, Dana Milbank told readers he didn’t waste his time reading comments about his pieces. With some prodding, “I reviewed all 1,800 comments posted on my columns over the course of a week,” he writes. “As a sociological experiment, it was fascinating.” What Milbank discovered: Some think he’s a right-wing hack; others call him a bleeding-heart liberal.
My hero Bob Somerby calls Milbank a clown.

Maddow Losing Viewers (Los Angeles Times)
When MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show debuted during the historic campaign of Barack Obama, the program’s ratings soared and made its host a breakout star on cable. But as the president’s administration nears its 100-day milestone, Maddow’s show has seen its numbers cool.

“Limbaugh Wire” editor says listening to Rush is a challenge at times (Poynter Online)
“I don’t know if it’s the absolute worst job,” says Simon Maloy, who listens to every second of every Rush Limbaugh radio broadcast to prepare Media Matters’ “Limbaugh Wire.” “[Friends and family] praise my fortitude. Nothing but support, and a few condolences.”

How conservative media gain readership (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
I just saw [a] commercial for Newsmax on MSNBC… Newsmax is dressing someone up as a police officer in order to scare people into subscribing to their lie-filled magazine? Classy.
And they’re giving away a free emergency radio! They have also given away books by right wing authors like Ann Coulter.  If you ever wondered how the crap they write gets on best seller lists, it’s because conservative stink tanks buy them up in bulk and give them away through distributors like Newsmax. Click through to watch the video.

Michelle Obama: First Lady of Comic Books
Next Wednesday, Michelle Obama will join the ranks of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin as a featured star in the “Female Force” comic series.

Barack Obama’s Nipples Are an Outrage! (by John Cook at Gawker)
This month’s Washingtonian features a four-month old paparazzi photograph of our president in a bathing suit. This is apparently an occasion for outrage, or concern, or an excuse to run a picture of Obama shirtless. The photo was taken—and widely circulated—last December, while the Obamas were on vacation in Hawaii. The Washingtonian’s decision to put it on the cover was unadulterated outrage-bait, and the gambit has succeeded… FIshbowlNY presents its fauxtrage in gender terms: “Now imagine someone deciding to run a similar cover of Michelle.” Trust us, we’ve been imagining it. Too bad it will never happen because Michelle Obama has female breasts.

But we certainly could imagine someone running similar pictures of Ronald Reagan! In fact, here, for your edification, is a photo illustration of almost every post-war president shirtless, made out of real photos taken by the awful media.

Click here for a larger view of the illustration.

Resource: Sunlight Foundation’s Apps for America Contest Winners Use OpenSecrets Data to Shine Light on Politicians (OpenSecrets.org)
Our friends over at Sunlight Labs [have] announced the winners of their first ever Apps for America contest — an endeavor that delivered scores of people-powered, open source applications to track and monitor the government and to communicate with lawmakers on Capitol Hill… The apps that won accolades from Sunlight by drawing on CRP’s data included:
• A bookmarklet called Know Thy Congressman, which displays a variety of information about each lawmaker, including how much they have raised, spent and the top industries giving money to them, when you hover your mouse over the name of any Congressman linked to with this app.
• A site that allows you to monitor the amount of independent expenditures by group, by district, or by zip code called Expendicus.
• An app called Capital Calls that brings campaign finance data and other information to your fingertips.

Don’t cave now, cave later! (by vastleft at Corrente)
There’s a right time and a wrong time to sacrifice core principles: “‘It’s way too early’ to abandon what it considers a central plank in health reform, said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union. He said the organization pulled out of the bipartisan Health Reform Dialogue because it feared its friends in the coalition were sacrificing core principles too soon. ‘You don’t make compromises with your allies.’ Last week, two top administration officials suggested that Obama is open to compromise on the public plan, comments that set off alarm bells in some corners of his party.” Is it too much to ask for President Obama to give us a little more kabuki before Big Money does what it does best?

Wellpoint’s robo call (by DCblogger at Corrente)
WellPoint Makes Three Million Calls In Health-Reform Survey “The company placed three million automated calls. Of those, 142,000 connected and 66,000 people told the computer on the other end of the line that they’d be interested in learning more, WellPoint spokeswoman Cheryl Leamon told the Health Blog. Insurers sometimes enlist interested beneficiaries to help sway public opinion. ‘If there are members who are interested in supporting our pos and being parts in the health care policy debate we want to make sure that they are able to participate,’ Leamon said.”

Next stop, Alpo! (by lambert at Corrente)
The New Frugality: “Sales for Spam and Dinty Moore stew rose by double-digit percentage increases in the quarter that ended Jan. 25.” Yay!

PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama and black farmers (AP)
As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away. The change isn’t sitting well with black farmers who thought they’d get a friendlier reception from Obama after years of resistance from President George W. Bush.

“You can’t blame it on the Bush administration anymore,” said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association, which has organized the lawsuits. “I can’t figure out for the life of me why the president wouldn’t want to implement a bill that he fought for as a U.S. senator.”

Obama’s Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids (by Juan Williams, Fox News)
[O]ver the last week I find myself in a fury. The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students.

The reckless dismantling of the D.C. voucher program does not speak well of the promise by Obama to be the “Education President.” This is critical to our nation’s future in terms of workforce preparation to compete in a global economy but also to fulfill the idea of racial equality by providing a real equal opportunity for all young people who are willing to work hard to succeed.
I disagree with Williams on the effectiveness of vouchers, but it’s another example where Obama led people to believe one thing in the primary and is now doing something else entirely.

Media Matters for America headlines

• Fox News runs with dubious claim that KSM’s interrogation thwarted L.A. plot

• Media ignore falsehood in Miss California’s same-sex marriage response

• Scarborough falsely compared harsh interrogations to military training programs

• Politico omits Blair’s reported statement that costs of techniques “far outweighed” the benefits

• Hannity decries use of “the ‘B’ word,” unless Ted Nugent is using it about Clinton

• Media continue to ignore Cheney role in authorizing torture tactics

• Kristol falsely suggested DNI Blair supports torture techniques

• CNBC hosts fail to challenge Pence’s debunked cap-and-trade claim

• Conservative media’s take on torture: A laughing matter

• Wash. Times editorial misleadingly crops Summers’ remarks on increasing cost-effectiveness to finance health coverage

• Fox Nation advances dubious report that “Obama actually delayed pirate rescue”

Gates may recommend new ‘Cyber Command’
While no final decisions have been made, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to recommend the creation of a new military command to face the growing threat from cyber warfare, a senior U.S. official told NBC News on Tuesday.

US Seeks To Prevent Taliban Use Of Radio And Web
The United States has started a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and websites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks.

Obama Campaign’s Multi-Million Dollar Propaganda Firm Deployed In Iraq To Advise On ‘New Media’ (by Jeremy Scahill at Media Channel)
With Iraq in ruins, Obama sends a politically connected firm, along with reps from AT&T, Google, and Twitter to build ‘smart power’ in Baghdad.

Web founder makes online privacy plea
Plans by Internet service providers to deliver targeted adverts to consumers based on their Web searches threaten online privacy and should be opposed, the founder of the Web said Wednesday.

Second Life to let users filter adult content
Second Life is getting a little less steamy for people who want to use the virtual world for a myriad of PG-rated experiences, such as taking classes, prototyping buildings or designing virtual goods.

Government, tech giants team up to protect kids online
The Department of Homeland Security and several tech giants are teaming up to launch a nationwide volunteer program that will put tech pros in K-12 classrooms to make the younger generation aware of dangers on the Internet.

New Guinea Tribe Sues New Yorker For $10 Million
In an April 21, 2008, New Yorker story, “Vengeance Is Ours,” Pulitzer Prize-winning geology scholar Jared Diamond describes blood feuds that rage for decades among tribes in the Highlands of New Guinea. Now the protagonist of Diamond’s tale is suing him and the magazine.

Tierney: Antitrust laws need to be loosened for newspapers
Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney told a congressional subcommittee Tuesday that antitrust laws need to be loosened for newspapers if the industry is to reinvent itself. Current laws are so restricting, he said, that publishers from different cities are unable to discuss possible joint ventures that could help keep their newspapers running. “We don’t need subsidies. We need a little room to move.”
Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Don’t Believe the Media’s ‘Crumbling Infrastructure’ Hype (by Jack Shafer, Slate)
Whenever the government and the construction industry start squawking to the press about the horrors of our aging, crumbling, decaying, decrepit infrastructure, and warn that we must spend hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars, hold onto your wallet and grab your BS detector.

Texas paper to run a “Print Edition Exclusive” every Sunday
One story “of major impact, importance and interest” will only be available to readers of the McAllen newspaper’s Sunday print edition.

Colorado Springs Gazette to launch free, quick-read paper
The new publication will combine original reporting, readers’ stories, news from wire services and from the Colorado Springs Gazette. “This is meant to be a 10-minute publication people can read while they’re having a bagel,” says Jeff Thomas, executive editor of the Freedom Communications-owned Gazette. The free paper launches May 6.
I had this idea years ago.

With Print Edition Gone, Seattle P-I Web Traffic Sinks
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which published its last edition on March 17, was knocked off the list of top 30 newspaper Web sites in March. Seattlepi.com fell to No. 32 with 1.4 million unique users, down 23% compared to March 2008.

Potts suggests a way to get people to pay for online news
Print consumers plunk down their quarters for the package, not the story, notes Mark Potts. “News collected in a convenient, easy-to-use form that adds value. So maybe we need to figure out how to replicate those traditional collections of news by creating compelling online packages that people will want to pay for.”

“Newspapers could take a page from Costco’s book”
“Costco charges a membership fee before customers can take advantage of the great values it offers,” and users pay it once they see the benefits, writes ex-Rocky editor John Temple. “Instead of offering a range of benefits to their users, newspapers are still selling subscriptions to their print products rather than membership in an information company that can help people do everything from save money on groceries to pick the best school for their child to report road conditions in real time.”

NYT Co. CEO discusses BG, “chatter” about pay walls
Janet Robinson said during today’s earnings call that Globe managers are “working very hard on circulation profitability and moved in regard to combining printing facilities. All of those moves are going to help the paper in terms of its financial position.” She also said that “we continue to explore different payment models and other approaches to generate revenues from our online content.”

Will It Be The Readers, After All, Who Fund Our Newspaper Websites? (by Donald Trelford, The Independent, U.K.)
With two American titles folding every week, global advertising apparently in freefall, and sales here dipping as readers cut their household bills in the recession, newspapers are desperately seeking an answer that has eluded them to the industry’s most urgent question: how can they make their websites pay?

“The days of the six-part series are gone,” says Baltimore Sun editor
Monty Cook also told his audience at Johns Hopkins University:
* The Sun will soon be shifting to a “platform-neutral newsroom,” fully integrating the news and online operations.
* “We want reporters to think of themselves as a brand. …The journalists of the past were required to be professional and dispassionate. Today’s journalists are required to be professional and passionate, [but] that does not mean advocacy or bias.”

Why papers should run multi-part enterprise stories
Baltimore Sun editor Monty Cook may be right when he says the days of the six-part series are gone, “but if he is, he’s also wrong,” writes John Temple. Multi-part enterprise stories “build the brand. They help set the identity of a news organization in the minds of readers. Readers remember them; they color how readers feel about a newspaper.”

Google’s New Doubleclick Network Builder Offers Business Promise for Online Revenue (by Rich Gordon, Poynter Online)
This week, Google announced a new product that, for savvy online publishers, just might provide a big part of the answer to the online revenue conundrum. Its Doubleclick subsidiary is officially launching Doubleclick Network Builder, a tool that makes it easier for publishers to assemble a group of separate Web sites into a single network for selling, placing and distributing revenue from online advertising.

Forget Fair Use, Pubs Want Ad Nets To Pay For “Fair Syndication” Of Their Content (Paid Content)
“If you can’t beat ‘em—make money off of them.” That seems to be the thinking behind the Fair Syndication Consortium, a group of online publishers that have partnered with tech firm Attributor to help tackle the hot-button issues of content scraping, copyrights and dwindling ad revenues. The Consortium’s goal is to help publishers get a cut of the ad revenues generated by sites that repurpose their content—and the group wants to work directly with the networks that serve the ads to do it. “What we are saying is maybe there is a middle ground,” Attributor CEO Jim Pitkow told the Journal. “If people are taking full copies of your content—why don’t you take a revenue share?”
It shouldn’t be impossible, technically, to embed an advertisement with an article (or even a portion thereof) that is “borrowed” from you.  We’ve seen that ads can be attached to graphics, why not to text, as well?

Oh, and BTW, why have so few of you cartoonist friends gotten back to me on the idea of using AdSense for images on your cartoons?

AP isn’t interested in going after “small time bloggers”
AP director of strategic planning Jim Kennedy says the news service’s campaign to protect its content from misappropriation is directed at “people and entities who come along and scrape content systematically and have no intention of licensing it,” and that’s not “small time bloggers who post a link to a story.”

No Social Networking in the Newsroom, Says Gannett Editor (Gawker)
The editor of some Gannett paper issued a memo asking reporters to “reserve social networking… for your private time,” since it’s not like you can find sources on Facebook and Twitter. The editor, not named, said spending “a lot of time” on Facebook on Twitter was inappropriate. Employees quickly responded in the comments section of Gannett Blog. It turns out USA Today is among multiple other Gannett papers were reporters are being encouraged to spend more time on social networking — just the opposite of the anonymous editor’s orders.

Company Vice President Tara Connell, meanwhile, seems to connect with plenty of co-workers using her Facebook account. As one reporter put it, “Facebook is a modern day Rolodex.”

Google Goes After People Searches With New Initiative (Paid Content)
Want to control what people see when they search for your name in Google? That’s the gist of a new initiative by the company, which could have big implications for other sites fighting to get to the top of Google people search results. Google has started to list Google profiles—which anybody can create for themselves—on the first page of results for name queries. Adjacent to a profile, Google is also showing links—making it easy to search for the same person on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates.com and LinkedIn.

The Wall Street Journal says that I’m rich (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Mark Penn of the Wall Street Journal has published the most absurd article about blogging I’ve ever seen… According to Penn, bloggers earn upwards of $75,000 a year if they can attract 100,000 visitors a month. Not only that: In Penn-vision, bloggers are constantly showered with expensive free gifts… You cannot make any money from blogging unless you are whoring for a corporation — or, conceivably, for a political candidate. I suspect that a few very well-known writers have done just that. I won’t mention any names here, beKos I don’t have any hard evidence of a pay-off.

Mark Penn has, once again, shown his ignorance. From Technorati’s 2008 study (the most recent numbers available):
High Revenue Bloggers (click through and scroll down)
The top 10 percent of blogger respondents earned an average of $19,000 annually. Three-quarters of these successful bloggers are male, and four in ten are self employed (twice as high as the average blogger). They are also more likely to be professional or corporate bloggers. Overall, the high revenue bloggers are more sophisticated in terms of the tools that they use, their usage of readership events, and advertising platforms. They also invest far more resources (both time and money) in their blogs.

Blog money: Added note (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
Right now, an omnipresent ad campaign promotes the idea that one can make hundreds of dollars — if not thousands of dollars — each and every day, by setting up dozens of insta-blogs… These offers have obvious appeal to people who have lost their jobs. Alas, such ads (text versions of which have appeared on this very page) are a scam. Always. Rubes are asked to fork over hundreds of dollars for a blogging “kit.” Some of the information in the kit is false; the rest is available for free online… The only people making money are the grifters selling kits. The marks who follow the instructions set out by these kits end up wasting hundreds of hours — time more productively spent looking for a new job. Mark Penn’s egregious article gives false legitimacy to the grifters’ spiel.
Well, I always heard that to take advantage of a gold rush, go in business to sell shovels to the miners.  Hey, maybe Mark Penn’s firm was hired to promote those kits!

Lopez: LAT’s “Soloist” wraparound may be inappropriate, but…
“It’s a story that came from the newspaper and touched all these people. Why not play up some of our work that has captured the imagination?” says Steve Lopez, when asked about the four-page “Soloist” ad that wrapped around the Los Angeles Times’ entertainment section.

Do Newspapers Count Online Readers Accurately?
Newspaper publishers and advertising managers routinely toss around print and online readership numbers, but sometimes in ways that don’t make sense, and that might even miss opportunities to build revenue, business and community.  Dan Thornton, community marketing manager at Bauer Media, explained in his blog this week why it’s dangerous to compare print figures to Web site statistics.

Reporter Gets Shot, Gets Fired (Gawker)
St. Louis-area newspaper the Suburban Journals laid off 37 year-old reporter Todd Smith last week due to budget cuts. Despite the fact that Smith hadtaken a bullet in the line of journalism. He was shot in the hand during a crazy guy’s shooting rampage at a city council meeting last year. “He immediately pulled out his cell phone with his left hand to call the Journals. ‘I said they’d need to send somebody else, because I’d been shot in the hand.’” Could you maybe make your situation a little more heartbreaking, Todd?

“I got called in Tuesday and told I needed to be at a meeting on Wednesday,” Smith said. “I’d heard that the Post and [an unnamed] reporter won an award for the Kirkwood coverage, so at first I thought it might be about that.” Oh no, they just wanted to lay him off.

Farewell to N&Oers tells the RMS McClatchy story
A mock front page created for the 31 News & Observer staffers who are leaving the paper today explains that the RMS McClatchy — one of the largest newspaper steamships in the world — “was welded together from the hulls of several old steamships, including a leaky tub called the RMS Knight Ridder.” Eventually, the steamship hit an iceberg and began to take on water. “Capt. Gary asked for volunteers who would like to go for a swim and then extended the plank.”

NYT Co. Effectively Has Only $34M in the Bank
As The New York Times Co. tries to bask in the glory of having bagged five Pulitzers, the company is facing a cash crunch that could put it on the path toward insolvency.

NYT Co. rejects Globe union’s proposal to negotiate in public
The Boston Newspaper Guild has called for concessions negotiations to be held in public, but the paper isn’t interested. “We believe that any successful negotiation depends on a high degree of confidentiality where differing opinions and proposals can be freely exchanged,” says a spokesman.

Why Hollywood keeps making movies about reporters
“The short answer is that Hollywood loves a good yarn,” writes Patrick Goldstein. “Newspaper movies get made because good drama usually involves moral dilemmas — and when it comes to complicated choices, the daily work of a newspaper reporter is a perfect vehicle.”
Why does Hollywood still make movies about cowboys?  And about war heroes?

Lunch, Twitter Propel Media Networking in Tough Times (by Diane Clehane, Variety)
With the avalanche of lost jobs in media, publishing, and fashion and the remaining players subsisting on newly tightened budgets, Gotham’s glitterati are relying on power lunches — and social networking sites — to stay in the game during these tight times.

Trudeau rips reporters who solicit interview questions via Twitter
“Please. You’re supposed to be professionals,” says “Doonesbury” creator Garry Trudeau. “Do pilots and surgeons ask for suggestions? If you can’t think of a few good questions, you and your producer are in the wrong business. It’s not about getting fresh, out-of-the-bubble perspectives, as they would argue: most questions sent in are obvious or inane. It’s really about flattering the followers, populist pandering.”

Get Me Rewrite! (by John Koblin, New York Observer)
Once upon a time, Variety owned the town of Hollywood. It was the hometown paper. Something only became news after it was reported in Variety. And if that ray of sunlight ever hit and you finally found yourself reading your own name in Variety, then maybe one day you’d be a “topper” somewhere. And then—as the now-familiar story of journalism goes these days—the Internet happened, and so did the imploding economy. And so a vacuum of power, that motor of everything in Hollywood, opened up in the Hollywood press corps.

B-to-B Ad Pages Fall 28.6 Percent in February
Ad pages for b-to-b magazines fell 28.6 percent in February, according to the latest report from American Business Media’s Business Information Network. Through the first two months of the year, ad pages are down nearly 29 percent.

Report: Amazon’s $359 Kindle 2 costs $185 to make
If you aren’t sure whether Amazon.com Inc.’s latest Kindle electronic reading device is worth its $359 price tag, an analysis by research firm iSuppli may shed some light. It broke down the device’s components and determined that the gadget costs about $185 in parts and manufacturing, or about 52 percent of the total price.

LEGOs Will Rock in Unusual Game with (Gasp!) MTV
It’s either a brilliant marketing move or a mind-blowing public-relations disaster on the scale of the Edsel or New Coke. This December, two high-profile brands will merge with the planned release of LEGO Rock Band. The video game is being developed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games, in conjunction with the LEGO Group, Harmonix and MTV Games.

Global Music Income Down 8.3 Percent In ’08 Despite Digital Uptick (Paid Content)
Physical music sales are drying up ever more quickly – but still aren’t being compensated by digital equivalents, according to annual figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) umbrella org. Despite global digital sales growing 24.1 percent to $3.78 billion and performance income by 16.2 percent last year, total sales still finished down 8.3 percent at $18.4 billion after a 15.4 percent collapse in physical sales. The picture is far worse in the US, where physical sales dropped by nearly a third…

The takeaway - in income terms, the music business is still dangerously dependent on selling bits of plastic. Some 75 percent of global sales are still physical, against just four percent digital. Though that tips to two-thirds physical against one-third digital in the US, after stripping out emerging nations, it’s still clear why the business is so keen to stamp out piracy if it is ever going to reach its digital tipping point.

Music Pirates More Likely to Buy Songs Too – Study
Music lovers who download tunes illegally are much more likely to buy music than those who don’t use P2P networks like The Pirate Bay, according a new study out of Norway. But the recording industry says the report is off-key.

TV Aims to Embrace the Recession
Several new shows on the networks will address American life from the other side, trading on the current recession. This fall, the Fox may debut a comedy set in a blue-collar neighborhood in Detroit. Another Fox comedy focuses on get-rich-quick schemes hatched by its financially reeling heroes.

Cowell Will Bail If Idol Sinks
American Idol judge Simon Cowell says he will leave the most popular show on television if it ever slips from the top spot in the ratings. “The idea that for the next five years, I’d be doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the past five years… the thought is just too depressing,” Cowell said.
He’s the only judge willing to tell it like it really is, so I hope he doesn’t leave.  Maybe if they put ordinary citizens who grew up in different eras on the judging panel from time to time, Simon wouldn’t be so bored.

NBA highlights go mobile via Score Media iPhone app
Canadian broadcaster Score Media has pacted with the National Basketball Association to distribute video of game highlights on the iPhone for free.

News Corp Ups Stake In German Pay TV Outfit Premiere (Paid Content)
News Corp. announced this morning that it had invested an additional €115m in German pay-television provider Premiere AG, bringing its stake to 30.5 percent. 

PBS Launches New Online Video Channel
PBS will significantly dial up its online video strategy with the launch of a new video-only channel which will aggregate thousands of full-length episodes from the network’s top series, along with complete seasons of current shows and full back-catalogues of classic series.

Amazon launches HD movie rental, TV show sales
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday it is adding high-definition video to its on-demand service, offering consumers the ability to rent movies and purchase television episodes shown in HD.

Bob Dylan picks Amazon.com for his new music video
A music video from Bob Dylan’s soon-to-be-released “Together Through Life” album has an exclusive stage online at Amazon.com.

UN Launches World Digital Library
The world’s most ambitious online library of primary sources has been launched by Unesco, giving unlimited public access to some of the rarest and most protected cultural texts in existence.

Mobile Roadie: iPhone App Creator for Bands on a Budget (Mashable)
If you’re a band with an indie following that’s not quite at mainstream size, and you want your own iPhone app to promote your music, you’re pretty much out of luck unless you have a large wad of cash to throw at app development. Hiring a professional developer to build something that not only includes your music, but also allows fans to interact with you, is a pretty pricey endeavor. You could turn to Kyte to do the heavy lifting for you, but that isn’t going to be cheap. The appeal of Mobile Roadie is that it offers an affordable, full-featured, music-driven application on a pay-as-you-go plan for bootstrapped bands and musicians.

Yahoo’s feeble 1Q triggers nearly 700 more layoffs
Yahoo Inc.’s first-quarter results tread familiar ground as the Internet company’s financial erosion triggered another round of layoffs and management promised better days ahead. With its three-year slump worsening, Yahoo said Tuesday that it will lay off nearly 700 workers.

Oracle Buys MySQL, Java, and some other stuff. Now what?
Big headline [Monday] morning with Oracle buying Sun after IBM had walked away… Startups and web companies should be wondering how much longer the free lunch is going to last.  Oracle has never been known for its generosity, and an extremely large market has been dining for free on MySQL and Java for years.  Will Oracle change that dynamic in some way?… At the very least I would expect Oracle to be a lot less squeamish than Sun about setting up a tiered set of versions where only the bottom tier is really free.
A lot of website software uses MySQL at its base.

Lawmakers to re-examine Internet-sharing software
A House committee is reopening its investigation of Internet services that let computer users distribute music and movies online amid reports the same software was exploited to gain unauthorized access to government and private data.

Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest
Danyelle Freeman, the restaurant critic for The New York Daily News, is calling in lawyers to reclaim her name.

Sponsored Hashtags: A Brand Risk Worth Taking? (Mashable)
Somewhere in between Skittles’ experiment of turning their homepage into a Twitter search for their brand and Magpie paying users to tweet sits the marketing effort that Land Rover tried last week for The New York Auto Show. The campaign was part traditional media buy, part buzz marketing, and part pay-per-post, all sharing one common theme: Twitter. As MarketingVox recaps, the focus was on a special hashtag setup for the campaign - #LRNY – that was included both in marketing collateral and in pay-per-tweet ads purchased through ad network Twittad. The result – as far as searching for the hashtag go – appears to be fairly good…

Land Rover was successful in getting positive reviews of their new vehicle – reviews that were of course seen by everyone who follows these users… What critics will no doubt argue is that the credibility of these tweets is totally out the window, because some of these users might’ve been paid to talk about Land Rover. While Land Rover didn’t say “tweets must be positive,” the argument goes: “how can one really stay objective when they’re being paid?” Not everything said about Land Rover has been positive, however. As users – some of whom might be getting paid and others who are probably not – have caught wind of the campaign, they’ve been using the hashtag to voice problems with Land Rover

eBay banned from claiming lower prices than British stores
US online auction giant eBay was on Wednesday banned by the British advertising watchdog from claiming its prices were a quarter cheaper than those sold in British stores.

AT&T earnings fall, but iPhone cushions the blow
Cost-cutting and the lure of the iPhone softened the effect of the weak economy at AT&T Inc., helping the country’s biggest telecommunications carrier beat analyst estimates for the first quarter.

AT&T to shut CallVantage Internet phone service
AT&T Inc. is shutting down its CallVantage Internet-based phone service, according to letters received by subscribers this week.

Android a one-phone pony for now
Six months after the first Android phone was released, it remains the only phone that runs Google’s open-source operating system, although manufacturers and carriers say more Android products are coming in the weeks and months ahead.

Ditch Adobe Reader for Better Security
The popular Adobe Reader is a favorite target of online crooks, according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with antivirus company F-Secure. And for better security you should ditch Reader and go with a free alternative, he says.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Tom Friedman (No, not THAT Tom Friedman, but it’s ironic that this work of art was created by a person with the same name as the one who wrote a book called The World Is Flat, which gave little consideration to those humans flattened by his definition of a flat world.  I’ve request permission to post the work.)

Here’s what happened to THAT Tom Friedman:
Thomas Friedman Will Have to Sell His Moustache For Food (by John Cook at Gawker)
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman didn’t have a column in [Sunday’s] paper. Was it because the company that his wife’s fortune is invested in went bankrupt last week, and he’s too sad to type? General Growth Properties filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, which is notable because it’s one of the nation’s largest mall operators, with 200 malls in 44 states—the Times called the company’s failure “one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in United States history.”

It’s also notable because Friedman’s wife, Ann Bucksbaum Friedman, is an heir to the family that founded GGP, and her family still owns about a quarter of the company… [I]t’s got to hurt when your spouse’s family loses $4 billion. Here’s what Friedman had to say about his family’s business back in 2000: “My relatives are in the mall business, where everyone is worried about all the stories of the high-tech age, just around the corner, when you will be able to do all your shopping online from your Palm Pilot, and your refrigerator will automatically order more milk via the Web when its high-tech sensors indicate you’re low.”
Well, Tom, you loved it when the flat earth mentality was destroying MY business (IT).  How do you like being flattened yourself (by, essentially, IT)?

Tuesday: The Rich have feelings too (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
O.M.G.  This piece, The Rage of the Priveleged Class, in New York Magazine is a must read.  It’s all about the trials and tribulations of the movers and shakers on Wall Street who are starting to feel the pinch both economically and socially.  It is hard to find a piece of journalism that is this unbalanced by the subjects themselves.  These people need a major attitude adjustment….

The hidden nugget in this piece, and one of the most important reasons why we have to kill this out of control greedy mindset once and for all, is the account of the Goldman-Sachs vet who says that last fall, G-S employees were panicky and dismal over the value of their company.  They thought they were done for and were going to go the way of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.  Then the government and AIG stepped up to the plate with cash infusions and now they’re partying again like nothing ever happened.

Geithner says hard to set prices on toxic assets (Reuters)
Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said difficulty in setting a value on banks’ toxic assets was a continuing hindrance to their ability to lend and borrow.
Yes, it is hard, Tim.  It’s very hard to set prices when you’re trying to shovel taxpayer money to people who should be losing their shirts.

A Crisis of Ethic Proportions (by John Bogle, thanks to Economist’s View)
I recently received a letter from a Vanguard shareholder who described the global financial crisis as “a crisis of ethic proportions.” Substituting “ethic” for “epic” is a fine turn of phrase, and it accurately places a heavy responsibility for the meltdown on a broad deterioration in traditional ethical standards… [T]he larger cause [of the financial crisis] was our failure to recognize the sea change in the nature of capitalism that was occurring right before our eyes… The managers of our public corporations came to place their interests ahead of the interests of their company’s owners… The malfeasance and misjudgments by our corporate, financial and government leaders, declining ethical standards, and the failure of our new agency society reflect a failure of capitalism. …

What’s to be done? We must work to establish a “fiduciary society,” where manager/agents entrusted with managing other people’s money are required — by federal statute — to place front and center the interests of the owners they are duty-bound to serve. The focus needs to be on long-term investment (rather than short-term speculation), appropriate due diligence in security selection, and ensuring that corporations are run in the interest of their owners. … Making that happen will be no easy task.
Just remember that the 40 year campaign by a few rich, right wing families to convince Americans that greed is good (and to reduce their own taxes) is what gave us this result.  It’s no accident that greed rules the American elite.  Read this chapter from my partially written book, Off Balance (written before the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006).

Business needs to speak out against greed (by Matt Miller, a management consultant and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, author of The Tyranny Of Dead Ideas: Letting Go Of The Old Ways Of Thinking to Unleash A New Prosperity)
[F]ar-sighted business leaders need to weigh in now on three subjects on which they have been notably absent: executive pay; the need for an updated “social contract” that fits 21st-century realities; and a strategy to make service jobs that cannot be offshored a path to the middle class. These are no longer political questions that can be left to Washington trade associations or viewed as a distraction from the “real work” of running one’s business, because failure to address them will fuel a backlash that affects every company’s licence to operate…

Chief executives face a choice. They can help bolster workers’ security, or they can hire more security guards and hunker down. There is little doubt that the risks of business as usual are far greater than the risks of such new approaches. The trouble is that every individual chief executive has an incentive to lie low. A group of 10 far-sighted business leaders who sense the threat (and the opportunity) could get this ball rolling. With business nearing the brink, who will answer the call?
Yep, it’s reform or pitchforks.  I suggested to Matt that United for a Fair Economy might provide a basis for this suggested project.  Any other ideas?

Inspector General Barofksy on TARP (Calculated Risk)
From the WSJ: TARP Watchdog Urges Better Oversight “A report by the TARP watchdog said the Treasury should take steps to better manage its financial-rescue effort so that taxpayer dollars are safeguarded and programs are more fraud-resistant, accountable and transparent.” And on the potential for gaming the PPIP: “‘The significant Government-financed leverage presents a great incentive for collusion between the buyer and seller of the asset, or the buyer and other buyers, whereby, once again, the taxpayer takes a significant loss while others profit,’ [the report said].”
Oh, no, they wouldn’t GAME THE SYSTEM!

Crimes suspected in 20 financial bailout cases (Chicago Tribune)
The special inspector general says TARP is ‘inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse.’ The risk grows as the plan becomes more complex, he says. In the first major disclosure of corruption in the $750-billion financial bailout program, federal investigators said Monday they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax violations, insider trading and other crimes.

Clan members have always believed this way. It’s the essence of life in the clan (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
For five solid nights [last week], [Rachel] Maddow … ridiculed Tax Day participants as “tea-baggers,” stressing a slang meaning of “tea-bagging.” (It was a “juvenile, prurient approach,” she mused, explaining that she “just couldn’t help it.”) … On Friday, we briefly mentioned the astounding performance by Janeane Garofalo on Thursday’sCountdown… According to Nate Silver, more than 300,000 people attended last Wednesday’s events. In a deeply moronic oration, Garofalo clued us in to their motives and world-view… “You know, there is nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry at a speech they’re not quite certain what he thinks.”… It’s stunning that any cable channel would put something so stupid and ugly on the air, with its own $5 million man nodding dim-witted approval… Things slid downhill from there…

It’s … stunning that “liberal” bloggers have said nothing about this week-long nonsense. But throughout history, the clan has always defended the clan—and these bloggers are part of a “liberal” clan. (The Clan of the Bad News Cave Bears? The Clan of the Kewl Kidz?) This clan has now made an organizing principle clear: It’s OK to show overt contempt for those who are beneath us… Historically, these openly condescending attitudes have always damaged progressive interests. [Emphasis added.] It may be that the rules of politics have fundamentally changed in the wake of the Bush Administration’s varied depredations. More likely, this won’t turn out to be the case—and progressive interests will pay the price, again, for these repellent, moronic attitudes.

While the so-called progressive hosts and blogs are busy mocking the tea party folks (read the Daily Howler every single day), Republicans are busy turning the ire of these people, and the anger of all of middle America, away from the Republican plutocrats who deserve it, and against Democrats.  There is no real rebuttal, no education campaign telling people who is really at fault.  It’s just hard to understand how progressives and Democrats can allow themselves to be punked so easily, time and time and time again.
The United States of Amnesia (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)

It’s the right-wing disinformation campaign hard at work, with absolutely no countering campaign. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Axelrod: We Can’t Afford To Get “Bogged Down” In Bush Investigation Debate (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Remarks made by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod on Monday provide the clearest indication to date that the White House is not only uninterested in pursuing investigations of Bush officials involved in torture but views them as a distraction from a larger governing agenda… “The president believes strongly that we need to be looking forward,” said Axelrod. “If he had not banned these [interrogation techniques] there would be a different case to be made here. But these practices are a thing of the past. What this should not become is a forum for re-litigating these issues apropos to the last administration and some of the policy makers there, because we have too much work to do to become bogged down in that debate. That’s the feeling.”…

The president himself has said that if illegalities were proven it would be the obligation of his Justice Department to investigate and/or prosecute them. And while, also on Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated the president’s preference for moving “the country forward” he did not, like Axelrod, qualify why it was that Obama was disinclined to look back.

How can you prove illegalities if there is no investigation?FREE BERNIE MADOFF (by paradox at The Left Coaster)
This is a time for reflection, not retribution, and we must look forward, not backwards.

Slacker Friday (by Eric Alterman at The Nation, thanks to Lambert at Corrente, via Avedon)
[From Charles Pierce:] I have now lived through three major episodes in my life where the political elite have told me quite plainly that neither I nor my fellow citizens are sufficiently mature to suffer the public prosecution of major crimes committed within my government. The first was when Gerry Ford told me I wasn’t strong enough to handle the sight of Richard Nixon in the dock… Dick Cheney looked at this episode and determined that the only thing Nixon did wrong was get caught.

The second time was when the entire government went into spasm over the crimes of the Iran-Contra gang and I was told that I wasn’t strong enough to see Ronald Reagan impeached or his men packed off to Danbury. Dick Cheney looked at this and determined that the only thing Reagan and his men did wrong was get caught and, by then, Cheney had decided that even that wasn’t really so very wrong and everybody should shut up.

Now, Barack Obama, who won election by telling the country and its people that they were great because of all they’d done for him, has told me that I am not strong enough to handle the prosecution of pale and vicious bureaucrats, many of them acting at the behest of Dick Cheney, who decided that the only thing he was doing wrong was nothing at all, who have broken the law, disgraced their oaths, and manifestly belong in a one-room suite at the Hague. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m sick and goddamn tired of being told that, as a citizen, I am too fragile to bear the horrible burden of watching public criminals pay for their crimes… Trust me, Mr. President. I can take it.

I have lived through those same three events, and I am just as pissed as Mr. Pierce.Immorality and Imbecility in the Torture Memo Mess (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
[J]ust for a moment, let’s “processize” Barack Obama’s bold, progressive, morality-restoring decision not to prosecute anyone at all for the filthy, KGB-derived torture system installed by the very highest officials of the Bush Administration, even as he releases memos showing clearly that practices which are high crimes under U.S. law were explicitly authorized by the White House… Leaving aside the moral perversion of this action, consider what a boneheaded move it is politically.

By releasing the memos, Obama has guaranteed the enmity of many powerful factions in the security organs — the secretive, lawless, military-covert complex that holds such vast and deadly sway over imperial affairs. Yet by promising not to prosecute any of them for their glaring misdeeds, he has merely angered and embarrassed them to no good purpose. He has allowed them to roam free around the political landscape, denouncing and deriding him at every turn in the corporate media that is only too happy to treat torturers and mass-murdering war criminals as respectable, “serious” figures in affairs of state.

Gibbs confirms that torture memo authors are ‘not being held accountable.’ (Think Progress)
[Sunday], White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that when it came to the Bush administration’s illegal torture program, “those who devised the policies…should not be prosecuted.” [Monday] White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that these officials would not be “held accountable”.

Click through to watch the video. 

 

See what I mean?  We have to PUSH the guy:
Obama leaves door open to prosecution‎ (NBC)
In a brief press availability after his talks with King Abdullah of Jordan [today], President Obama left the door open to possible prosecution of Bushadministration officials who drafted interrogation memos permitting practices like waterboarding. “For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted,” he told reporters. But then Obama added that prosecutions for those who drafted the memos would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder. 

Cheney, Doing Damage Control, Calls For Release Of Classified Intel (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
There was an extraordinary moment during Dick Cheney’s interview on Fox News last night, in which he revealed that he’d “formally” asked the CIA to release classified intelligence that would prove that the torture program had been effective. Here’s what Cheney said, via Nexis: “There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified. I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven’t announced this up until now, I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”

And you can bet that they’ll never be declassified.  They probably don’t even exist.  But this lie will be propagated over and over and over again through the rightwingosphere.  It will remain truth to them forever.  And again, there’s no anti-disinformation campaign coming from Democrats.Obama And Top Advisers Scale Back Use Of Word “Torture” (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
The word “torture” apparently has all but vanished from the White House lexicon. In the wake of President Obama’s decision not to prosecute those connected with Bush’s torture program, Obama and his top aides have dramatically scaled back their use of the word “torture” — a sharp contrast with their frequent use of it earlier this year to describe Bush-era techniques Obama banned upon taking office. Instead, they have been regularly employing euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The use of the word “torture” is politically treacherous for the White House right now: It’s a reminder that those granted immunity by Obama used techniques prohibited by the international treaties Obama has vowed to uphold.

Because in America, if you don’t say the word, or if you shut your eyes really really tight and make a wish, the bad thing disappears.  Click through for examples.NY Times Pretends That Bushies’ Bogus Torture Claim Is Matter Of Debate (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
[Monday’s] New York Times has published a whole article devoted to the claim by former Bushies, and some Republicans, that Obama’s release of the torture memos endangered our national security by revealing secret torture techniques that we can now never use again. It is a matter of simple fact that much about these techniques were already publicly known, well before Obama’s release of the memos. But [the] Times treats this as a matter of debate, as a claim being made by “Democrats” — even though the Times has itself reported this as outright fact in the past.

Meet the Press and the media’s distortions of the prosecutions debate (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Whatever else one thinks about the debate over investigations and prosecutions for Bush crimes, there is no question that huge numbers of Americans — likely majorities — favor them… [But on Sunday’s] Meet the Press panel discussion of this issue involv[ed] David Gregory and five exceedingly typical Beltway insiders… Exactly as one would expect, they were all in full and complete agreement that there must be no investigations or prosecutions.  There was not a syllable uttered that political officials should be treated the same as ordinary Americans when they got caught breaking the law.  As always, only the suffocatingly narrow Beltway consensus is heard in our political debates, even when huge percentages of Americans reject it.

Limbaugh on interrogation memos: “If you look at what we are calling torture, you have to laugh” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress To Hold Impeachment Hearings Against Judge Jay Bybee (Think Progress)
Last week, President Obama released four Bush-era legal memos authorizing torture. The earliest one, from 2002, was signed by Jay Bybee, then an Assistant Attorney General and now a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals… [The techniques authorized] are illegal by U.S. statute and international treaty to which the U.S. is a signatory. Bybee attempted to give legal cover to illegal acts, and thus broke the ethical, professional, and legal standards that should govern lawyers. For this, Judge Jay Bybee should be impeached. Congress needs to assert some accountability for these heinous acts.

ThinkProgress is sending a petition to the members of the House Judiciary Committee — where impeachment articles are drawn — imploring them to act now to remove Bybee from public office. Please join our efforts by signing onto our campaign.

Dem Rep Harman Did Urge Times Not To Publish Wiretapping Expose! (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Whoa. Dem Rep Jane Harman did in fact urge The New York Times not to publish its big expose of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping, apparently before the 2004 election, potentially changing the election’s outcome and the course of history, according to a statement from the paper… Times spokesperson Catherine Mathis sends over a more detailed statement from Keller explaining what really happened: “Congresswoman Harman spoke to Washington Bureau Chief Phil Taubman in late October or early November, 2004, apparently at the request of General Hayden. She urged that The Times not publish the story…”

So Harman did urge the paper’s Washington bureau chief not to publish. While the timing is slightly fuzzy, it seems fair to assume in light of the CQ story that it was in fact before the election. Wow. So Dem Rep Harman appears to have worked behind the scenes to dissuade publication of a blockbuster expose about Bush that could have put her own party’s nominee in the White House and changed the history of the last four years. And, according to Keller, she apparently did this at the request of Michael Hayden, Bush’s National Security Agency chief.

Yglesias, on Harmon, nails it (by lambert at Corrente)
“Surveillance and political corruption … Thinking about that further reenforces the point that selective, unaccountable surveillance is very dangerous. A president could do a great deal to gin up pretexts to wiretap members of congress and blackmail them even without the members doing anything unusually egregious.” Thank gawd President Obama preserved accountability by taking a strong stand against retroactive immunity for the telcos! Oh, wait…

National service bill to get Obama’s signature (AP)
The AmeriCorps program started by President Bill Clinton will triple in size over the next eight years, and tens of thousands of other Americans will soon see new opportunities to give back to their communities… Bolstering voluntary public service programs has been a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer in his early 20s for giving him direction in life…

The legislation provides for gradually increasing the size of AmeriCorps to 250,000 enrollees from its current 75,000. It outlines five broad categories where people can direct their service: helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting veterans. The bill also ties volunteer work to money for college. People 55 and older could also earn $1,000 education awards by getting involved in public service. Those awards can be transferred to a child, grandchild or even someone they mentored. Students from sixth grade through senior year of high school could earn a $500 education award for helping in their neighborhoods during a new summer program.

Obama was paid for his community organizing.  It probably wasn’t a lot of money, but enough for a young man to live on.  And Obama’s community organizing had only one small success, other than providing a network of people who could help him later in his political career.  And as to $500 and $1,000 education awards, that’s nothing.  It’s only a very small drop in the huge bucket of today’s higher education costs.  Right wingers are convinced that this is some kind of compulsory program that will lead to an army of Brownshirts.  And, as always, there’s no counter from the Democrats.One more thing: if community organizing gave Obama a direction in life, what was it?  The only direction I’ve ever seen in the man is the trajectory of his own career.

 

 

Another day, another campaign promise broken:
In Shift, Obama Doesn’t Plan to Reopen Nafta Talks (New York Times)
The Obama administration said on Monday that it had no plans to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement to revise its labor and environmental provisions, as then-Senator Barack Obama promised to do during his presidential campaign. “The president has said we will look at all of our options, but I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement,” said Ronald Kirk, the United States trade representative.
Remember all the hooplah over whether Obama advisor Austan Goolsby had told the Canadians on the sly, “Don’t worry about NAFTA, he doesn’t mean what he says on the campaign trail?”  Remember how Kos and others turned that around and made Hillary the one who had done it?  I just want to make sure we never forget these betrayals.Obama Spending Cut Effort Backfires (Political Wire)
President Obama’s effort to get his Cabinet to cut $100 million from their budgets over the next 90 days wasn’t exactly a public relations success story.
The New York Times: “Budget analysts promptly burst out laughing. A reporter declared at the White House briefing that the initiative would become fodder for late-night talk show hosts. The Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscal conservatives, put out a news release with the headline ‘Obama’s 0.0025% spending cut.’”
David Nather: “If you want to put it in perspective, Obama asked the department and agency heads to cut the equivalent of about 1/37,000th of his budget plans.”
Nonetheless, the DNC released a video this morning calling Republican leaders hypocrites on government spending.

Obama calls credit card executives to the White House (McClatchy)
Executives of the nation’s largest credit-card companies will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday to discuss growing concerns about questionable practices in the industry.

Let’s fast-track universal healthcare (by Robert Reich, Salon)
Obama will be tempted to bargain for his agenda with spending cuts; healthcare’s not the place to trim.

Democrats Demonstrate Signs of Spinal Growth (by Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
Who would have believed it? “As Congress returns to begin an intense debate over reshaping the nation’s $2.2 trillion health-care system, prominent left-leaning organizations and liberal House members are issuing a warning to their Democratic allies: Don’t cave on us… More than 70 House Democrats recently warned party leaders that they will not support a broad health reform bill that does not offer consumers a government-sponsored policy, and two unions withdrew from a high-profile health coalition because it would not endorse a public plan.”

WaPo’s Bacon: Universal health care is a “tired” idea (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Perry Bacon: “If you watch the Sunday shows, the Obama people are no longer arguing the GOP has ‘no ideas.’ Now it’s they have ‘no ideas’ or ‘the same old tired ideas.’ I don’t know what’s more tired, Republicans calling for tax cuts or Democras for expensive health health care programs, and I suspect voters just want something to help them get through this recession, whether the idea is tired or not.” Well, let’s see … we’ve implemented the GOP’s tax cut proposals – many, many times – with somewhat limited success. We haven’t tried universal health care. So it should be pretty obvious which is the “more tired” idea, shouldn’t it?

And the problem is? What? The end of Murder-By-Spreadsheet? (by katiebird at The Confluence)
The Wall Street Journal thinks that a public plan costing 18% – 32% below what I’m paying now for Health Insurance is “Free” (laughing) Only a Wall Street resident could call a $600 – $700 per month bill “Free” Also? If that’s the best the Democrats can do to make Health Care affordable, then we’re in trouble. I’m hoping we can do better.

FBI’s newest ‘Most Wanted’ terrorist is American (AP)
For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted” terror suspects. Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California. Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks and say he has tattoo that proclaims, “It only takes a spark.” A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the “Most Wanted” terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

I am so sick and tired of these “unauthorized” “anonymous” announcements that started during the Bush administration and are continuing right along in the Obama administration.The two Obamas (by Michael Lind, Salon)
Obama is a better foreign-policy president than domestic-policy president. Unfortunately, so was Jimmy Carter. Time to be bold.

Yes, well, look at the advisors:  His primary advisor on foreign affairs is Hillary Clinton.  His primary advisors on domestic affairs are Joe Biden, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner.  Any questions?Another Key Dem Senator Won’t Say Whether He’ll Cast Key Vote For EFCA (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
This one is very, very bad news for the Employee Free Choice Act: Senator Jim Webb, who was thought by labor to be supportive of the measure, now won’t say whether he’ll cast a key vote for it. Worse, his office says he views this as a bad time to be introducing the legislation — a potentially serious blow, because Webb is generally seen as strong on labor issues. “He doesn’t believe this is the appropriate time to introduce this legislation or to be debating it,” Webb spokesperson Jessica Smith confirms to me. “He’s always been a strong supporter of the right to collective bargaining, but as written, he would look towards improving the legislation in a way to make it more fair and equitable.”

In another blow, Webb’s also won’t say whether he’ll support bringing it to the floor for debate. “He’s not publicly going to say at this point,” his spokesperson said. That could be a big deal, because the initial “cloture” vote to allow the bill to be debated, thus overcoming the GOP’s filibuster, is the one that requires 60 votes in the Senate. Labor, obviously, can ill afford to lose another Dem like Webb, particularly with another reliable backer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, also refusing to say whether she’ll back it. So Webb’s position will cause some serious heartburn in labor circles.

Coleman Files Appeal (Political Wire)
Norm Coleman (R) filed notice of his intention to appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court last week’s trial verdict awarding the U.S. Senate election to his opponent Al Franken (D), the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The court is expected to hear the case on an accelerated schedule.

Quigley To Be Sworn Into Congress (CBS 2 Chicago)
Congressman-elect Mike Quigley will be sworn in later Tuesday, and will bring with him to Congress more than a decade of experience as an outspoken commissioner on the Cook County Board.

Dodd taps Wall Street money for re-election
Wealthy Wall Street executives may be outcasts to some Americans, but not to Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd.

Top Republican Says NY-20 is Lost (Political Wire)
Former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), “a veteran election vote-counter” and former NRCC chairman, threw in the towel for his party in the NY-20 special election, the Washington Times reports. Said Davis: “We lost the special election in New York. It’s gone.” However, according to Politicker NY, GOP lawyers are looking to “reargue” a ruling by a judge last week on absentee ballots.

Democrats Top Republicans in Q1 Fundraising (Political Wire)
Democratic Party committees have raised more money than their Republican counterparts this year even as the RNC had the biggest take, Bloomberg reports. “The three major national Democratic campaign committees brought in a combined $45.1 million in the first quarter, compared with $41.8 million on the Republican side.”

Pennsylvania Republicans Hold Back on Specter (Political Wire)
Even though NRSC Chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) may have called for Republicans to unite behind Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) last week, Roll Call says GOP members of the Keystone State delegation “are choosing to sit on the sidelines in what is expected to be a blockbuster primary in 2010.” Specter “enjoyed the support of almost everyone in the delegation in 2004, when he narrowly defeated” former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA) “by less than 2 percent in the GOP primary. But with Specter trailing Toomey in polling on next year’s rematch, Pennsylvania Members aren’t inclined to choose sides for now.”

Paterson Approval Plummets (Political Wire)
New York Gov. David Paterson’s (D) popularity continues to fall, according to a new Siena Research Institute poll of registered voters. Paterson is viewed favorably by 27% of voters and unfavorably by 63%. His job performance rating is 18% positive, 81% negative. Only 12% of voters are prepared to elect Paterson as Governor in 2010, compared to 71% who prefer “someone else.” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) is the runaway favorite to become the next governor.

DNC Hammers Republicans As Party Of Hypocrites (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The Democratic National Committee released a web ad on Tuesday morning that, playing of the “Party of No” meme, accuses the Republican party of a double standard when it comes to budgetary prudence. The spot, titled “Party of Hypocrisy,” accuses several high-profile Republican lawmakers of being silent or supportive as large deficits were run up during the Bush years, even as they proclaim themselves fiscal hawks today. The video points out that House Minority Leader John Boehner “voted for Bush budgets totaling $9.8 trillion,” while Minority Whip Eric Cantor voted for $12.1 trillion in Bush budgets.

Click through to watch the video.GOP power grab is an affront to voters (Editorial, St. Petersburg Times, thanks to The Brad Blog)
Republican legislative leaders have lost all sense of shame with their 11th-hour bill to roll back voting rights in Florida… The Senate bill, SB 956, and its companion legislation moving through the House would make it harder for voters to have their voices heard and easier for the major political parties to manipulate the outcome of the electoral process.. [T]he move looks like nothing more than a scheme by the Republicans who have power in Tallahassee to cling onto it.

Barstow wins Pulitzer for military analysts story; will networks notice? (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
New York Times reporter David Barstow has won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the conflicts of interest of “military analysts” used by television networks. The networks have given scant attention to the military analysts story; maybe now that the story has won a Pulitzer for Barstow, they’ll pay attention.

Gregory Finding His Niche on MTP? (by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post)
David Gregory says he is “letting loose,” not holding back, and his executive producer, Betsy Fischer, says he is pinning down guests. But where Tim Russert created tension by trying to catch his guests in inconsistencies, Gregory often poses low-key, open-ended questions.

Which is the way to actually learn something, rather than practicing the Beltway’s normal kind of gotcha journalism that Russert was so “good” at.  But I can’t bring myself to watch any of the Sunday shows any more, so I have no idea if Gregory is an improvement.Slate’s John Dickerson Joins CBS News (TVNewser, Media Bistro)
Slate magazine’s chief political correspondent John Dickerson has been named a CBS News political analyst and contributor. Dickerson will provide on-air analysis to all CBS News broadcasts, effective immediately.

 

Your sold-like-candy president:
President Beefcake? D.C. magazine to feature shirtless Obama on cover (by Karen Travers and Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
In the throes of an economic crisis and two wars, does the nation want more headlines about a “Pec-tacular” “Buff Bam”? President Obama appears shirtless in a bathing suit on the cover of May issue of The Washingtonian magazine. The magazine’s excuse? The pec pic illustrates the #2 reason (out of 26) to love living in the nation’s capital: “Our New Neighbor is Hot.”… Media critics, who have attacked reporters for coverage of the president’s dog, Bo, and the first lady’s penchant for wearing sleeveless dresses, now have more fodder for the week.

Limbaugh: “Do you realize that Obama and Chavez have more in common than they do not?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Gingrich raps Obama on Chavez summit greeting (AP)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich charged Monday that President Barack Obama’s cordial greeting with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez sends a poor message to enemies of America.

History Professor Gingrich Falsely Claims U.S. Presidents Don’t ‘Smile And Greet’ Russian Leaders (Think Progress)
On NBC [Monday], former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama “bows to the Saudi King and is friends with Venezuela” and claimed the President showed “shallowness” in talking with Chavez. Gingrich then claimed that U.S. presidents do not “smile and greet” with Russian leaders… Dr. Gingrich, who has a Ph.D. in European history, should re-read his history books. As the Cold War waned, President Reagan (whose foreign policy Gingrich repeatedly praises) met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at four summits, leading to nuclear arms reductions. President George H. W. Bush negotiated the Start II treaty alongside Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and President Clinton discussed foreign investmentwith Yeltsin. President Bush, of course, said he saw into Vladimir Putin’s soul after a private engagement. Each meeting had smiles all around.

Click through to watch the Gingrich video and to see the smiling photos.Who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks, cont’d (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
As long as Politico keeps trumpeting Gingrich’s anti-Obama tirades as breaking news, we’ll keep asking the simple question: who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks? We’re hoping at some point Politico tries to answer the question… [N]ot only was Gingrich essentially driven from Congress more than ten years ago, but we can’t think of a single Bush initiative from this decade that had Gingrich’s fingerprints on it. Now, Newt can’t be bothered with running for office, nor does he seem to represent any larger institution. He’s just a partisan talking head, which is fine. So why has the D.C. press corps, and Politico in particular, carved out a special niche for what’s-Newt-thinking-today coverage?

Kudlow complains about Obama and Chavez’s “Boyz N The Hood handshake” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Absent liberal balance, CNBC’s Kudlow and Francis attempt to present liberal arugments “even though you could probably tell our heart wasn’t in it” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Kudlow: “I don’t think global warming is stated science” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: Obama’s “ideas are not America’s” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “So the people imprisoned by Stalin who cried when he died are the same kind of people we’re dealing here with Obama” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “It’s irresponsible to now say you hope Obama succeeds” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Hannity wonders if Obama “even likes” America, since he “has so completely condemned his own country” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will debate each other next month. (Think Progress)
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will meet for a debate late next month. The event will take place on Friday, May 29th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. ThinkProgress has been told the “debate” will occur in the form of a moderated question-and-answer session, rather than a more lively exchange between the two Presidents.

Massacre!  Except that Bill is too decent to squash Bush like a bug.  He’ll toy with him.This doesn’t bode well for the GOP (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
Male chimps that are willing to share the proceeds of their hunting expeditions mate twice as often as their more selfish counterparts.

Oh, I don’t know, Tengrain.  I think the selfish bastards who hoard billions get plenty of sex.  As Henry Kissinger wisely imparted to us, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”  And I guess he would know, ‘cause it sure ain’t his looks that led women to fawn all over him.

Big Gov’t. Still Viewed as Greater Threat Than Big Business (Gallup)
Gallup’s recent update of its long-standing trend question on whether big business, big labor, or big government will be the biggest threat to the country in the future finds Americans still viewing big government as the most serious threat. However, compared to Gallup’s last pre-financial-crisis measurement in December 2006, more now see big business and fewer see big government as the greater threat. [Emphasis added.]

Will gay marriage still work as a Republican wedge issue? (by Thomas Schaller, Salon)
Salon’s experts think the issue that helped George Bush win reelection in 2004 may have lost its electoral magic. But look for it to resurface in the 2012 GOP primaries.

Perez Hilton: beauty queens need to be more enlightened than presidents about gay marriage (by vastleft at Corrente)
[T]he mother of Miss New Mexico cannily said in support of Miss California’s disapproval of gay marriage: “In the Bible it says marriage is between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” Actually, the Bible doesn’t say anything about Adam and Eve marrying, but granting that they had a common-law marriage, their story also says that women are formed by men ripping out their ribs and that snakes can talk. Additionally, the Good Book sanctions slaves, polygamy and concubines, with the famously smartest man in the book having 1,000 total wives+concubines. I’m sure we all can agree that we’ll have a better America if more people would uphold those Biblical values, along with stoning people to death for working on the Sabbath.

Why Susan Boyle Makes Us Cry (by Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founding editor of Ms. Magazine, writing at the Huffington Post)
Half the women I sent the link to cried when they watched the YouTube clip of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent and I think I know why…. Partly, I think it’s the age thing, the fact that a woman closing in on 50 had the courage to compete with the kids — and blew them out of the water… Then, too, we were weeping for the years of wasted talent, the career that wasn’t, the time lost — both for Susan Boyle and two generations of her putative fans. If someone with a voice like Julie Andrews’ spent decades in a sea of frustration and obscurity, how many other women (and men) must be out there becalmed in the same boat? I believe we were crying for them and for whatever unrealized, yet-to-be-expressed talent may lie within ourselves.

But I’d wager that most of our joyful tears were fueled by the moral implicit in Susan’s fairy-tale performance: “You can’t tell a book by its cover.” For such extraordinary artistry to emerge from a woman that plain-spoken, unglamorous, and unyoung was an intoxicating reminder of the wisdom in that corny old cliché… I think we cried because her story appears to be en route to a happy ending, but also, perhaps, for all the books whose covers have never been cracked.

If you haven’t seen the video, you’re in for a treat.  If nothing else, the look of surprise on Simon Cowell’s face is worth the time.  The various videos on various sites have totaled 100 million views.  If that’s not a slap in the face to the “must look perfect and, oh yeah, kinda be able to sing” crowd, I don’t know what is.Media Matters for America headlines

• Lost in Hannity’s “liberal translation”: the full context of Axelrod’s “unhealthy” comment

• Media quote Cheney on torture memos without noting his role in matter

• Politico doesn’t challenge comparison of Obama health care plan to UK and Canada

• Fox’s Angle did not disclose that “analyst” Holmstead is an energy lobbyist

• Scarborough slowly walked back criticism of Obama’s interaction with Chavez

• Contradicting Bush Justice Dept., Angle equated waterboarding of terrorists, trainees

• NBC report on NY Times’ five Pulitzers ignores military analysts report

• Fox obsesses over Obama-Chavez handshake, but ignored Bush’s handshake with Uzbekistani president

• Conservative media figures claim Obama’s actions at Americas summit showed “weakness”

• Limbaugh falsely claimed that “left-wing blogger” was NYT’s source on waterboarding use

• Wash. Times advanced “myth” that 17 percent of guns recovered in Mexico can be traced to U.S.

Silicon Valley Execs Are In Baghdad To Aid Iraq’s New Media Industry (Paid Content)
Silicon Valley executives representing seven companies, including Google, AT&T and Twitter, are in Baghdad this week to help out Iraq’s fledgling new media industry. The State Department says it’s the first visit of its kind. The executives are slated to meet with government officials, Iraqi technology companies, and other groups to offer ideas on “how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale-up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building.”

Obama Says Jailed Iranian-American Journalist Is Not a Spy
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year old American journalist sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran last week, was not “engaging in any sort of espionage,” President Obama said Sunday. Obama said that he is “gravely concerned with her safety and well-being.”

Iran orders probe of jailed US journalist’s case
Iran’s judiciary ordered a full investigation Monday into the case of an American journalist imprisoned for allegedly spying for the U.S. and allowed the woman’s parents to visit her for the first time since she was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Current TV Reporters Face Jail in North Korea
In a state “guest house” on the outskirts of Pyongyang, Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been held for more than a month: valuable pawns in an growing international nuclear stand-off. Hanging over the heads of the American journalists is the possibility of a show trial and ten years in a prison camp.

Korean Officials Angered By Google’s Decision To Bypass Law (Paid Content)
Google’s decision to bypass a new South Korean law by shutting off comments and video uploads on its YouTube Korea site appears to have seriously irked the Korean government. Korean paper Hankyoreh reports that the Korean government is considering some sort of legal action against Google. The paper also says that a lawmaker told a National Assembly committee last week that Google was “speaking as though Korea is (a) backwards internet nation that is intensifying its internet censorship.”

Is Slumdog Star’s Dad a Child-Seller, or a Tabloid Victim? (by Hamilton Nolan at Gawker)
The father of nine-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali has been arrested for allegedly trying to sell her to an undercover reporter—but he says he’s innocent, and it’s all a setup. What’s going on?… Qureshi tells PEOPLE that there had been an offer but insisted that he had feigned interest out of politeness and a reluctance to appear cold and unfriendly. He said, “In India, you never say ‘no’ directly, least of all to guests. You try not to offend people by refusing to help. They said they were childless and desperately fond of Rubina after seeing her in the film. I felt sorry for them, but I was never going to give her up.”… But there doesn’t seem to be any rock solid proof either way yet.

Fox News Brings uReport to MySpace (Mashable)
Citizen journalism has become tightly integrated with many cable news programs, whether it’s simply soliciting the audience for tweets or more robust projects like CNN’s iReport or Fox News’ uReport. The latter is now getting on MySpace (also owned by Fox News parent company News Corp), giving the cable channel another big medium to get submissions from potential uReporters. Essentially, uReport on MySpace is a simplified version of the uReport website with a MySpace twist. Once logged in, users can submit photos and videos to uReport, with the potential for submissions being shown on-air in Fox News programming. Users are also able to “friend” various Fox News personalities like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.

New York Times Torture Story Is Recycled From Blogs (by John Cook at Gawker)
The New York Times’ lead story today reports that, according to the torture memos released last Thursday, the CIA waterboarded two suspects a total of 266 times… The new information on the number of waterboarding episodes came out over the weekend when a number of bloggers, including Marcy Wheeler of the blog emptywheel, discovered it in the May 30, 2005, memo… In other words, a blogger noticed something really important in these documents that we totally whiffed on, even though we read them all and wrote a really big front-page story about them. Kudos to the Times for actually naming one of the bloggers in question and acknowledging the lack of a hook for their story. Still, aren’t bloggers supposed to be rewriting newspaper stories, and not the other way around?

America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire (by Mark Penn, writing in the Wall Street Journal)
In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters, or even bartenders.

Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity (by David Carr, New York Times)
Cable news stations have been criticized for “event-izing” all manner of minor news occurrences — President Obama’s first news conference comes to mind. But the Tax Day Tea Party was all but conceived, executed, and deconstructed in the hothouse of cable news wars.

I remember objectivity—from 30 years ago.  Haven’t seen much lately, though.Congress to Hold Hearings on How to Help Newspapers
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) will hold hearings this week intended to find ways to help the struggling newspaper industry. A press release from Kerry’s office said a Commerce Subcommittee hearing “will address the economic recession’s impact on media.”

Steve Brill’s Doomed Plan to Build a Pay Wall Around Newspapers (by Jack Shafer, Slate)
Even if Steve Brill recruits 95 percent of the top newspapers and magazines in the country, welds digital-rights-management security bracelets onto all content, and assassinates hackers who redistribute copy without authorization, the idea can’t work.

Yes, don’t even try to stem the tide.  Just sit on your hands and wait for death.Newser’s Michael Wolff: In 18 Months, 80 Percent Of Newspapers Will Be Gone—Give Or Take… (Paid Content)
Media columnist Michael Wolff certainly knows an attention-getting quote. Appearing with Air America CEO Bennett Zier and CraigsList’s Craig Newmark in a panel discussion sponsored by Gotham Media Ventures, the head of aggregation site Newser, predicted that big media, whether it’s newspapers or conglomerates, are just months away from the dustbin of history. “About 18 months from now, 80 percent of newspapers will be gone. 

Fortune 500: Media Some Of The Biggest Losers (Paid Content)
Last year was one of the toughest ever for the 500 largest American companies —combined they lost over $500 billion—and media companies, unsurprisingly, are near the top of the list. Total U.S. advertising fell 4.1 percent last year, according to ZenithOptimedia, and since the majority of media companies make most of their revenue from advertising, it makes sense that three of the largest—Time Warner, CBS, and Gannett—made the top fifteen losers together, losing nearly $32 billion last year. Few media sectors were spared and most media companies took huge writedowns to assets they until recently viewed as far more valuable than they were worth. Highlights:

Beleagured New York Times Nabs Five Pulitzers; No Online-Only Winners (Paid Content)
While the New York Times doesn’t have a lot to celebrate these days, the paper did get something to cheer about: it racked up five Pulitzers on Monday, the second-best year in its history…
—Aggregation sites shut out: This was also the first year online-only pubs were allowed to compete. There were 65 online-only entries this year—and 21 were shut out because these news sites mostly do aggregation with only some reporting…
—St. Pete Time’s website wins: It’s not online-only but the St. Petersburg Times came close to winning Public Service for political truth-finding site PolitiFact.com. Instead, it was moved to the National Reporting andSt. Pete was awarded that Pulitzer for “its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters.”

Gawker has the complete list, and photos of some of the winners.NYT Co. Losses Widen — Ad Revenue Down 27%
The New York Times Co. says its first-quarter losses worsened amid a dramatic downturn in ad revenue at its newspapers. The setback was even worse than analysts expected. Revenue for the period totaled $609 million, a 19% drop from last year. Advertising sales plunged nearly $124 million, or 27%.

Earnings Call: NYTCo’s Robinson: Our Ad Supported Model Works Best; Still Exploring ‘Payment Models’ (Paid Content)
[In progress] Anticipating the questions about the NYTCo’s survival during a time of crisis for newspapers, President and CEO Janet Robinson sought to offer assurances that the company is at least getting a grip on costs. By the end of the year, the company should be able to realize $300 million in operating cost reductions.

Hey, that’s three times the amount of savings the president has asked the cabinet to come up with.Web, Media Funding Continued To Plummet In Q1 (Paid Content)
Venture activity dropped dramatically in Q109—and internet and media/entertainment startups were not spared from the carnage, according to a report by The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers Activity among online-related businesses dropped 31 percent from Q408 to $556 million spread across 123 deals.  Media and entertainment deals (no number given) decreased 45 percent from Q408.

McClatchy Moves Closer To Being De-Listed From NYSE (Paid Content)
As if newspaper companies don’t have enough problems, McClatchy informed investors that it could be delisted from from the NYSE in an in an 8-K filing. As of April 8, the Sacramento-based publisher’s total market cap fell below $75 million for 30 consecutive trading days, triggering the NYSE’s delisting warning. Separately, McClatchy’s last reported stockholders’ equity on its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was $52.4 million, which is another violation of the $75 million trading threshold.

Writers Sue Gotham Books
Shelly Branch, a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal, and Sue Callaway, a contributing editor at Fortune, are suing Penguin’s Gotham Books and writer Pamela Keogh alleging breach of contract, misappropriation of idea, and unfair competition, demanding damages of $1 million each.

Five Million Copies of New Dan Brown Book Coming in September
After years of delay and anticipation, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group will release Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol this September with an initial print run of five million copies. The new novel is a follow-up to the The Da Vinci Code, the bestselling adventure that sold 81 million copies worldwide.

While Others Pare, Food Network Magazine Doubles Circ
Hearst Magazines is hiking paid circulation at Food Network Magazine from 400,000 now to 900,000 this fall and then 1.1 million next summer. Media buyers said they thought the magazine, introduced as a newsstand-only test last October, was simply growing on demand from readers.

OK! Magazine, Buzz Media Ink Web-Based Pact
Northern & Shell’s OK! magazine has labored in virtual obscurity online, dwarfed by online celebrity sites like Yahoo’s OMG! and even print-based brands like People.com and Usmagazine.com. Now, OK! is hoping to change that by teaming up with Buzz Media.

The Early Learning on Mobile-izing the Magazine (by Steve Smith at MIN)
The best thing about the mobile segment of the digital media world is that no one knows what shape the content ultimately will take on handhelds — a fact that makes the platform exciting to watch as media companies experiment. Here are some of the early learnings from this creative rush.

Why Time and Newsweek Will Never Be The Economist (by Matt Pressman, Vanity Fair)
While raising subscription and newsstand prices might not be a bad idea, trying to imitate The Economist in other ways is a fool’s errand. The news weeklies can never be like The Economist, no matter how hard they try. Here are the four main reasons why.

Esquire to Disappear Next Year?
24/7 Wall St. examined 100 large brands facing troubled futures and compiled a list of 12 brands that they we believe will not survive until the end of next year. Among them are Esquire magazine and Architectural Digest, as well as Borders bookstores.

ASME is Really, Really Mad About Ads on Covers — And You Should Be, Too (by Jeffrey Seglin at Folio:)
As soon as magazines blur the line between editorial and advertising, the game changes. If that clarity disappears, readers may begin to wonder which portions of the content of consumer magazines are independent editorial and which are driven by advertisers.

Clear Channel Planning to Revamp Its Debt Load
Clear Channel Communications, the embattled radio and outdoor advertising giant, is seeking to reorganize its debt load by exchanging $2.3 billion worth of bonds, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

Cox Siblings Adify And AutoTrader Partner On Ad Net; Cox Enterprises Offers To Buy Cox Radio (Paid Content)
Ad network provider Adify hopes to give a jump to its Cox Enterprises sibling AutoTrader.com, as the two will partner on a vertical net targeting in-market car shoppers. As newspaper classifieds show, there are fewer auto ads chasing even fewer car buyers. That makes it as good a time as any for Cox Enterprises to see some fruits from its $300 million acquisition Adify, which was completed last summer. The new ad net will also align 40 local media sites owned by Cox Media Group and the cable TV unit Cox Communications.

Local TV News and Twitter
If Oprah can use Twitter, so can TV stations. Three local television news chiefs said Twitter can be used like a police scanner to ferret out tips, offer transparency about the newsgathering process, and make for a tighter bond with viewers.

Fred Segal Store Set for Reality Series
On the heels of announcing its biggest programming slate ever, Bravo has one more new project adding to its fashion-savvy lineup — a reality series set in a Fred Segal store. The show in development will document the daily drama at the high-end retail outlet’s Santa Monica location.

What is it with Bravo and these shows about vapid rich people?  I like some of their shows, but the housewives and the matchmaker and some of the others are stupid and boring.MTV Goes Positive
After years of celebrating wealth, celebrity, and the vapid excesses of youth, MTV is trying to gloss its escapist entertainment with a veneer of positive social messages. In the era that was passing “the humor was more cynical, the idea of community seemed earnest and not cool. It’s the opposite now.”

The Pirate Bay Supporters Attack IFPI’s Site (Mashable)
As expected, some people are…less than enthusiastic about way The Pirate Bay’s trial ended. As a result of a seemingly coordinated action called Operation Baylout, the site of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is being DDoSed; at the time of this writing, it’s not completely inaccessible but it’s definitely loading very slowly. There are also reports that the IFPI site has been defaced by hackers, and that The Pirate Bay supporters are sending black faxes to IFPI’s fax machines in protest. Of course, most of these actions are illegal in many countries, so no one is openly taking responsibility for them; but as you can see in the discussions on irc channels at server anonnet.org, most visitors are supporting the actions against the IFPI.

Abrams Readies Media Site
The former MSNBC host revealed more details about his soon-to-launch media news Web site Mediaite.com, which he said will, in addition to aggregating news from the mainstream and online press, essentially “watch the watchers.”

Gawker Alumni Start New Site
Rumors that former Gawker-ers (and RadarOnline-ers) Alex Balk and Choire Sicha had some sort of secret project in the works have been flying around for a while now. Turns out the rumors were true. The Awl went live yesterday.

Jossip Reportedly Folds
David Hauslaib has shuttered his flagship gossip site, Jossip. It had been for sale since last March, but apparently no one wants to buy a blog in these worrisome times. The technical term for the shut down is a “hiatus,” but both of the site’s editors, Cord Jefferson and Drew Grant, have been fired.

Google News, and More, on a Timeline
Google on Monday unveiled a new experimental product called Google News Timeline that displays news and related search results on an interactive timeline. It offers interesting possibilities for exploring stories, especially older ones, that are largely hidden in newspaper and magazine archives.

Google Has A Comment-Filtering System In The Works For YouTube (Paid Content)
Google continues to try to make YouTube more acceptable to paying customers—be they content providers, advertisers or viewers—but its latest clean-up effort is aimed at keeping the Federal Communications Commission and groups like the Parents Television Council off its back, too. Google is currently testing a comment-filtering system for the video site, one that’s designed to “give users and families greater control to moderate their YouTube experience,” according to Ars Technica, citing a statement the company recently filed with the FCC.

Viewers will be able to choose whether to see all comments, no comments or filtered comments, though the filing doesn’t offer specifics on the technology or when there will be a widespread roll out; Google wrote that it’s one of “a number of initiatives” around moderating content that it has in the works.

11 Essential iPhone Apps for a Road Trip (by Ben Parr at Mashable)
Whether you’re driving 20 miles or 2000, being able to find gas, grab a bite to eat, keep up with the news or check the map for your location are all essential to a good journey on the road. With the right iPhone apps, you can avoiding sticky situations like running out of gas or getting lost miles from home. Recently, I drove across the country (Chicago to San Francisco) and got to experience the usefulness of iPhone apps on the road. From finding the nearest gas station to learning about the local scene, the iPhone was integral to my journey. The following are 11 of the most useful iPhone apps if you plan to embark on a road trip, or even just a drive across town.

Click through for more information.Qik Adds Mobile Video to Facebook (Mashable)
Qik, the live streaming video service for mobile phones, has launched its own integration with Facebook’s video application to help you publish your videos to the social network. Now, not only can video lovers upload their mobile videos to the Facebook video app using Facebook Connect, but they can update their status, post it to their wall, and add it to the news feed as well. For those unfamiliar with Qik, it is a mobile streaming video application that’s available for most phones that have video capabilities. With its Facebook integration, users can now post any of those videos to Facebook. This doesn’t require the user to install a Facebook app, but instead simply linking their Qik account to their Facebook account.

Adobe Adds TV To Flash Platforms; Enabled Sets Due Later This Year (Paid Content)
Adobe’s Flash player, a mainstay of the PC and increasingly the phone, is now coming to the TV. At the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, Adobe Systems announced a new version of Flash designed to deliver high-definition video to internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players. The company said that Adobe Flash for the Digital Home would be available immediately, although TVs that support it won’t ship until late this year. In announcing the new version, Adobe is acknowledging the growth in the number of internet-connected TVs and preparing for the future.

TiVo to Battle Nielsen for Ratings Data
TiVo is stepping up its turf battle with ratings-data giant Nielsen, unveiling a product that will capture ratings data for local television markets. The provider of set-top boxes, which already sells national ratings, will offer data on TV ratings and viewership at the local level, where Nielsen is the only player.

Major Brands Learn They Can’t Ignore Twitter
Every brand misstep can spur social-media denizens these days, said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. To stay safe in the social media minefield, he said, brands need to make sure to secure their own domain names in the various online environments.

Gore Vidal says that we live in the United States of Amnesia. To prove the point, one need merely examine this photograph which comes to us from this conservative website. The photograph depicts a sign that appeared at a tax protest “tea” party in — you guessed it: Texas. Apparently, the national deficit is entirely the fault of — get this – Nancy Pelosi. Can people mentally rewrite history to this degree? Yes they can.

Why Republicans are devouring one book (Politico)
House Republicans are tearing through the pages of Amity Shlaes’ “The Forgotten Man” like soccer moms before book club night. 
Shlaes’ 2007 take on the Great Depression questions the success of the New Deal and takes issue with the value of government intervention in a major economic crisis — red meat for a party hungry for empirical evidence that the Democrats’ spending plans won’t end the current recession… “Republicans are gobbling it up — and so are other lawmakers — because it tells you what they did, what worked and what didn’t.”