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.
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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.