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.