Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Elections – Iranian Style (Mario Piperni)

Barack Obama’s Psychology and Foreign Policy – Israel And Iran (Hillary Is 44)
We sympathize with the voters of Michigan and Florida Iran who have witnessed what is clearly a crooked caucus election delegate court with the preferred candidate of powerful interests and American Iranian Big Media getting delegates in an election he never ran in gifted an nomination election.

Protests Flare in Tehran as Opposition Disputes Vote (New York Times)
The streets of Iran’s capital erupted in the most intense protests in a decade on Saturday, with riot police officers using batons and tear gas against opposition demonstrators who claimed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had stolen the presidential election. Witnesses reported that at least one person had been shot dead in clashes with the police in Vanak Square in Tehran. Smoke from burning vehicles and tires hung over the city late Saturday.
It’s too bad about the violence, but it’s good to know that there are places in the world where people don’t just give up and let the powers that be steal elections—or nominations.

Iran’s 2009 Election Results Suggest Massive Fraud…Just Like Ohio’s in 2004 (The Brad Blog)
It sounds a lot like Ohio 2004. A less than popular old-line incumbent facing massive public demonstrations against him and in favor of his main progressive challenger promising reform; polls that suggest a swell of support for the challenger; unprecedented turnout on Election Day; long lines at polling places; paper ballot shortages and names missing from voter rolls; widespread rumors, concerns and evidence of voter intimidation and vote-rigging, all accompanied nonetheless by a general feeling among the populace that the incumbent has been turned out, only to learn from officials, late on Election Night, that the incumbent has been declared the winner of a second term.

Iran supreme leader orders probe of vote fraud (AP)
Iran’s supreme leader ordered Monday an investigation into allegations of election fraud, marking a stunning turnaround by the country’s most powerful figure and offering hope to opposition forces who have waged street clashes to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Stealing an Election, Iranian Edition (Political Wire)
Juan Cole: “I am aware of the difficulties of catching history on the run. Some explanation may emerge for Ahmadinejad’s upset that does not involve fraud… But just as a first reaction, this post-election situation looks to me like a crime scene. And here is how I would reconstruct the crime.”

Iran reformists held after street clashes (BBC)
Up to 100 members of major Iranian reformist groups have been arrested, accused of orchestrating violence after the disputed presidential election.

Report: Defeated Ahmadinejad rival arrested in Iran (Haaretz)
Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist’s defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, have responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and claim that the result was the work of a dictatorship.

Ahmadinejad Re-election a Blow to U.S.-Arab Allies (Wall Street Journal)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s announced election victory Saturday could deal a blow to Washington’s Arab allies, who have been alarmed by Iran’s regional ambitions and hoped his ouster might moderate them.

Iran election result makes Obama’s outreach efforts harder (McClatchy)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s highly disputed reelection victory will complicate President Barack Obama’s push for better relations with the Islamic republic.

Obama’s Iran dilemma (Politico)
The notion of an “Obama effect” sweeping the Middle East appeared to collide with the realities of the Islamic Republic of Iran Saturday, as the country’s confrontational, anti-American president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, celebrated a landslide victory in Friday’s election amid wide doubts about the honesty of the official vote count.

Netanyahu endorses Palestinian independence (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed an independent Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, dramatically reversing himself in the face of U.S. pressure but attaching conditions the Palestinians swiftly rejected. A week after President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world, Netanyahu said the Palestinian state would have to be unarmed and recognize Israel as the Jewish state — a condition amounting to Palestinian refugees giving up the goal of returning to Israel. Netanyahu, in an address seen as his reponse to Obama, refused to heed the U.S. call for an immediate freeze of construction on lands Palestinians claim for their future state. He also said the holy city of Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty.

Violence Up—Way Up—in Afghanistan (Think Progress)
Gen. David Petraeus announced Thursday that violence in Afghanistan has spiked 59 percent in recent months, hitting its highest level since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. American troops in the country now number 56,000 and will increase to 68,000 in the second half of this year. Petraeus said a coming increase in U.S. military activity signals that the trend of rising violence and casualties will continue.

Pakistan declares war on Taliban leader Mehsud (McClatchy)
Pakistan announced late Sunday that it would fight warlord Baitullah Mehsud in Waziristan in a gamble that will see the Pakistani troops confront the fountainhead of Taliban and al Qaida extremism.

Defiant North Korea ‘to weaponize plutonium’ (CNN)
North Korea said Saturday it would strengthen its nuclear capabilities, a defiant protest against the U.N. Security Council’s move to tighten sanctions against it. North Korea officials said they were enriching uranium and would weaponize all plutonium, according to KCNA, the state-run North Korean news agency. When enriched to a high degree, uranium can be used for weapons-grade material. Plutonium can be used in atomic bombs. These moves are in response to Friday’s U.N. resolution, according to the news agency, which referred to the resolution as a blockade.

Medicare for All (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
Clive Crook [of the conservative Financial Times] says “there are worse things than Medicare for all – and the present system might be one of them”:

Health firms paid Nancy-Ann DeParle $5.8 million (Politico)
The official overseeing White House health care reform efforts earned more than $5.8 million in the past three years from her work for major medical companies, according to a personal financial disclosure and other public records.

Obama’s Campaign on Health Care: Papering Over the Details (by Karen Tumulty, Time)
[A]t a certain point, the President won’t be able to remain so (deliberately) vague about what he wants to see in the final product, and the details of the plan will very much determine whether potential opponents will support him in the end. Nowhere is that clearer than on the controversial question of whether the health-care-reform scheme will include a “public option,” which would give people the choice of being covered under a government-financed program…

The AMA, which is the nation’s leading physicians organization, is not the political force that it once was, but its opposition could nonetheless complicate the push for overall reform. So as much as Obama is trying to stay with broad campaign themes emphasizing the larger need for health-care reform, he’s also going to have to spell out more clearly where he stands on some of its tougher questions. In fact, that kind of reckoning may come as early as Monday, when he reaches the next stop on his health-care campaign trail — a speech at the AMA’s 158th annual meeting in Chicago.

The healthcare war has officially begun (by Robert Reich)
A public option large enough to have bargaining leverage to drive down drug prices and private-insurance premiums is the defining issue of universal healthcare. It’s the only way to make healthcare affordable. It’s the only way to prevent Medicare and Medicaid from eating up future federal budgets. An ersatz public option — whether Kent Conrad’s non-profit cooperatives, Olympia Snowe’s “trigger,” or regulated state-run plans — won’t do squat. The last president to successfully take on the giant healthcare lobbies was LBJ. He got Medicare and Medicaid enacted because he weighed into the details, twisted congressional arms, threatened and cajoled, drew lines in the sand, and went to war against the AMA and the other giant lobbyists standing in the way. The question now is how much LBJ is in Barack Obama.

The big guns are out and they’re firing… Some congressional Democrats are willing and able to stand up to this barrage. Many are not. They need cover from the White House. The President can’t do this alone. You must weigh in and get everyone you know to weigh in, too. Bombard your senators and representatives. Organize and mobilize others. And let the White House know how strongly you feel. This is one of those battles that define a presidency. But more importantly, it’s one of those battles that define the state of American democracy.
Call your congresscritters (both representative and senators). Tell them we’re tired of all the caving to special interests. Tell them we demand what’s best for the most people. Tell them we want single payer.

Sherrod Brown: “I’d Have Trouble Voting For” Health Care Bill Without Public Plan (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
One of the leading progressives in the United States Senate left the impression on Friday afternoon that he would oppose major health care reform if it did not include a public option for insurance coverage… “I would have trouble voting for it without that,” he said of a bill without a public plan. “I would have difficulty supporting any health care plan that doesn’t keep the insurance companies honest.”
More like this, please.

Healthcare senators have industry ties (Boston Globe)
Members of both parties have industry connections, including Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin and Republicans Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg, John Kyl, and Orrin Hatch, financial disclosure reports showed yesterday.

Rangel proposes $600 Million to subsidize health insurance parasites (by DCblogger at Corrente)
Rangel: “Health-Care Reform Needs $600 Million in New Taxes and Will Cost $1 Trillion” Now more than ever it is necessary to write letters to the editor and alert the public that this money is not to expand access to health care, it is to subsidise the failing business model of health insurance parasites. HR 676, Medicare for All would save us $350 BILLION a year. Never let anyone forget that. The proposed new taxes are not for sick people, they are for parasites.

Obama Identifies $313 Billion for Health Care Through Medicaid and Medicare Savings (by  Sunlen Miller and Sarah Tobianski at Political Punch, ABC News)
The $313 billion savings is in large part made up of savings from three big areas:  $110 billion from incorporating productivity adjustments and Medicare payments, $106 billion from reducing disproportionate hospital payments and $75 billion from better pricing of Medicare drugs.

Would you rather have a plan that covers everyone… and doesn’t screw them out of services, while saving money? (by vastleft at Corrente)
Hell, no!  [Emphasis added.] “…Some outside analysts have said that Congress may have to spend $1.5 trillion or more over the next decade to extend coverage to all Americans.”

NPR and the Biggest Obstacle to Health Care Legislation (NPR Check)
Guess what the biggest obstacle to health care legislation is? Could it be the mountains of cash being being poured into Congress by the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies so that they can override public opinion [and physician opinion] favoring government run health insurance? Or might it be obstructionists like Senator Baucus and “moderate” Democrat, Senator Kent Conrad? (or Evan Byah or Ben Nelson or …) According to NPR and Mara Liasson (…and PhRMA) the option of a public (government-run) plan “has emerged as the biggest obstacle to health care legislation.”…

As if Mara Liasson’s Friday morning take on a public plan wasn’t enough, NPR followed her report with Julie Rovner and Steve Inskeep providing their slant on the matter. Inskeep repeats the Republican argument about “this government plan [that] is going to offer a very nice service, which is good, but it’s going to be cheaper than private insurers can manage” and is “actually going to damage, as Republicans say, damage my private insurance company.” Neither Rovner nor Inskeep offers the most obvious response to this argument: if the government can offer a more efficient, cost-effective program than the private sector, what’s the problem?

Co-op Compromise Gives White House a Health Option (AP)
With Republicans fighting the idea of a government-run health insurance plan, members of President Barack Obama’s team said Sunday that they are open to a compromise: a cooperative program that would expand coverage with taxpayer money but without direct governmental control… While supporters from Obama’s left have advocated a government-run insurance option … presidential aides and congressional leaders in both parties have sought a speedy compromise. Leading that pack: the cooperative approach, similar to rural utilities that have government financial support but operate independently.

Sen. Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat who chairs the Budget Committee, has offered the co-op idea as a way to avoid a bruising and protracted political wrangle on Capitol Hill. ”This really isn’t, to me, a matter of right or wrong,” Conrad said. ”This is a matter of: Where are the votes in the United States Senate?” That political situation has guided most of the talks. While Democrats control both chambers of Congress, they have only 59 senators — one short of the number needed to end a Republican filibuster. Even if Al Franken were seated as Minnesota’s second senator, Kennedy and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., are suffering health problems that could preclude them from casting votes to end the procedural delay.
I thought health care wasn’t going to be subject to filibuster. In which case, you don’t need Republican support, Democrats.

Tell your Gov. and state legislator, DON’T WAIT FOR OBAMA! (by DCblogger at Corrente)
“States are pushing ahead with their own reforms instead of waiting for the president to act.”

Something’s Got to Give in Medicare Spending (by Tyler Cowen, thanks to Economist’s View)
Drawing upon the ideas of the Harvard economist David Cutler, the Obama administration talks of empowering an independent board of experts to judge the comparative effectiveness of health care expenditures; the goal is to limit or withdraw Medicare support for ineffective ones. This idea is long overdue… Scholars have been applying comparative-effectiveness research to Medicare for years… If we are willing to take comparative-effectiveness studies seriously, we could make significant cuts in Medicare costs right now. We could cut some reimbursement rates, limit coverage for some of the more speculative treatments, like some forms of knee and back surgery, and place more limits on end-of-life-care.
You mean reduce the fraud? You mean reduce the number of unnecessary tests and procedures? But that would reduce PROFITS! Good idea, but it will take courage. Where is THAT going to come from?

COmmentary: Many health providers’ pledged savings actually boost spending (by Nina Owcharenko at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank)
Ideas such as expanding the use of electronic medical records and health information technology, greater investment in preventive and care management tools, and establishing best practice models are all commonly touted examples of delivery reforms. Unfortunately, most of these savings proposals are unproven and, ironically, some of them actually require more spending. Even the Congressional Budget Office, the score-keeper for Congress, cautioned against depending too heavily on these types of promised savings.

If the administration and Congress are serious about reforming the health-care system by rooting out waste and inefficiencies, their policies should be focused on empowering individuals and families.
How are individuals and families un-empowered now? By for-profit HMOs and insurance companies, which the Heritage Foundation wants to keep in business, so that they can keep contributing to the Heritage Foundation.

Commentary: Health providers can fulfill their pledge to cut costs (by Grace-Marie Turner at Galen Institute, funded by the pharmaceutical and medical industries)
Health spending can be reduced, but it won’t happen in meetings at the White House or in media events. It will happen only by engaging the power of competition and innovation in the private health sector. Market-friendly changes in public policy and countless innovations from the private sector have helped to moderate the rise in health insurance cost, create new models for care delivery and financing, and support the movement toward patient-centered health care.
Isn’t that what we’ve had? And isn’t that exactly what has failed? The Galen Institute also wants to keep the for-profit HMOs and insurance companies in business so that they can keep contributing to the Galen Institute. Are you starting to get the picture here? Our government is FORCING us to pay fees that include profits, some of which are used to support right-wing “stink” tanks that buy Congress to keep their profits going.

The American Empire Is Bankrupt (by Chris Hedges at Truthdig)
There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully… It is the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times.

Do you see what I see? [or, what recovery?] (Econbrowser)
Do you see what I see? I’m still looking for, and still not seeing, the economic recovery that everybody is talking about. One bit of good news this week was the Census Bureau report that nominal seasonally adjusted U.S. retail and food services sales rose 0.5% in May. But of the $1.57 billion increase in total spending, almost $1 billion of it came from extra spending at gasoline stations.

Source: FRED.

Americans Get Poorer More Slowly (Barron’s)
According to just-released Federal Reserve data, U.S. household wealth fell by $1.3 trillion in the first quarter, blessedly less than the previous three months’ $4.9 trillion loss, the biggest quarterly decline since such records started being kept all the way back in 1952. But it was the seventh straight quarter of declines, also a record for the series. U.S. jobs rebound is expected to be long, slow and scattered

Projection: It’ll be years before jobs return to much of U.S. (McClatchy)
Unlike the labor market collapse that killed millions of U.S. jobs in a matter of months, the nation’s return to peak employment will not be nearly as uniform nor as swift. While signs indicate that the worst of the recession may be over, only six metropolitan areas across the country are expected to regain their pre-recession employment levels by the end of 2009, according to projections from IHS Global Insight, a leading economic forecaster… Only five areas are expected to see a similar jobs recovery in 2010… Most of the country – 286 of 325 metro areas covered in the IHS analysis – aren’t likely to regain their pre-recession employment levels until at least 2012.

Stay the Course (by Paul Krugman)
A few months ago the U.S. economy was in danger of falling into depression. Aggressive monetary policy and deficit spending have, for the time being, averted that danger. And suddenly critics are demanding that we call the whole thing off, and revert to business as usual. Those demands should be ignored. It’s much too soon to give up on policies that have, at most, pulled us a few inches back from the edge of the abyss.

You Don’t Get a Vote! (by James Kwak at The Baseline Scenario)
The administration’s style has been to float policy proposals in public, listen to the responses (from other politicians, from the private sector, and from the blogs that Obama does not read), and adjust accordingly. When it comes to the financial regulation proposal that Tim Geithner is scheduled to deliver on Thursday, there may be little left after all the adjusting.

[W]hen you are reforming the regulatory structure of an industry where the existing regulators got it horribly, embarrassingly, catastrophically, world-historically wrong, the last thing you want to do is strike a compromise between the positions of the existing regulators. Members of Congress get votes, and they already have enough ties to the banking industry to worry about; letting the regulators, who don’t have votes, shape the deal makes it more likely that the final result will be watered down into nothingness. Which, of course, is exactly what the industry wants.

Regulators Feud as Banking System Overhauled (New York Times)
Two of the nation’s most powerful bank regulators were once again at each other’s throats. At a public meeting three weeks ago, John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, blasted a proposal to impose stiff new insurance fees on banks as unfair to the largest banks, which he regulates. The financial crisis stemmed in part from problems at small banks, he insisted. Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the regulator for many smaller, community banks, could barely hide her contempt. The large banks, she said, had wreaked havoc on the system, only to be bailed out by “hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in government assistance.” She added, “Fairness is always an issue.”…

The long-running and deeply personal feud between Mr. Dugan and Ms. Bair, two Republican holdovers with similar career paths in Washington, is now helping to shape President Obama’s attempt to revamp financial regulation aimed at preventing the regulatory lapses that contributed to the economic crisis. Some of Mr. Obama’s advisers and some senior Democratic lawmakers have suggested creating a single bank regulator. But the administration’s current version, which could be announced as early as this week, would not combine the regulatory agencies. Instead, it would give Mr. Dugan and Ms. Bair significant new powers — and could intensify their turf battles.
Yup, let’s encourage more infighting. It’s a good way to keep anything from being done.

Making Financial Regulation Work: 50 More Years (by Mark Thoma of Economist’s View, writing at The Hearing, Washington Post)
Banking regulation imposed in response to the Great Depression and the recurrent panics of the 1800s and early 1900s gave us 50 years of stability in the financial system without impeding economic growth… What happened? Deregulation beginning with the Reagan administration combined with financial innovation and digital technology led to the emergence of what is known as the shadow banking system. These are financial institutions that, for all intents and purposes, function just like banks but are not subject to the same rules and regulations and, in some cases, are hardly regulated at all…

So what should we do? In very broad terms, we need:
• Regulations that limit both economic and political power and discourage the buildup of excessive risk.
• Regulators willing to assertively enforce existing regulation, think outside the ideological box and take an active role in identifying areas where regulation is inadequate.
• Regulators with the means and power to stand up to the biggest and most powerful financial institutions. Making financial institutions less powerful by breaking them up into smaller entities is one means to this end.
• A culture within regulatory agencies and their supporting institutions that reinforces and encourages the regulatory process.

US House to debate Ron Paul’s ‘Audit the Fed’ bill (The Raw Story)
After months of activism and lobbying by Congressman Ron Paul’s supporters, House Resolution 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, will move out of committee to be debated by the full House of Representatives. In a show of cross-party unity, Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich became the bill’s 218th co-sponsor, pushing it over the threshold for debate in Congress… “The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for HR 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy,” said Congressman Paul in a Thursday media advisory. “I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure.”

Though the move from committee to full House is sure to hearten supporters, the Senate also has pending before it a bill which would have originally given Congress greater oversight of the Federal Reserve. But in its present form, notes Huffington Post writer Ryan Grim, a recent, ever-so-slight modification essentially ‘neutered’ the bill.
It’s what the powerful powers do every time: Yes, we need reform. We support reform. We support reform so much that we’ll make the rules for reform (which won’t really reform anything, but you won’t know that because the media we own will never tell you).

Fox on 15th (a.k.a. “The Washington Post”) Strikes Again (by Dean Baker)
Departing from normal news practice, the Washington Post put another editorial complaining about President Obama’s deficits on the front page. The subhead says it all: “Concern Mounts in White House as 2010 Elections Loom.” Who is concerned? The story doesn’t tell us. Who says that they are concerned? The story doesn’t tell us. But, the Washington Post wants to highlight the budget deficit, so it won’t let these details stand in the way, after all there were protesters in Wisconsin calling President Obama a socialist. That’s enough for a front page news story in the Washington Post.

Needless to say, the Washington Post has no problem ignoring completely far larger protests that don’t agree with its editorial agenda, much less putting them on the front page. It is incredible that at a time when close to 15 million people are out of work that the Washington Post can continue to obsess about the deficit. Of course this is also a paper that highlights on the front page that it is now easier to hire nannies. There is no doubt which side the Washington Post is on.

Why a Maine GOP senator is taking on oil speculators (McClatchy)
Oil prices shot past $72 a barrel this week, and a growing number of experts point to Wall Street speculators as a key reason why Americans are suddenly paying a lot more for oil and gasoline. Although soaring oil prices threaten the fragile economic recovery, most Capitol Hill lawmakers have remained silent about them, but not Sen. Susan Collins… Collins has been one of the few on Capitol Hill and even fewer Republicans who blame the rising oil prices in part on Wall Street investors. She and her allies, mostly Democrats, are trying to limit speculative investments in oil and other commodities, but they say they need more support from President Barack Obama.

McClatchy has been reporting for 14 months that speculative investment — not simply supply and demand — has been helping drive oil prices higher.

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.
Lambert asks, “Couldn’t we bulldoze Versailles instead?” It’s tempting. It’s certainly tempting.

You’re on the Battlefield Right Now (by Arthur Silber at the Power of Narrative)
My head began exploding when I read the opening paragraph of this NYT article:… “Some administration officials have begun to discuss whether laws or regulations must be changed to allow law enforcement, the military or intelligence agencies greater access to networks or Internet providers when significant evidence of a national security threat was found.”… In other words, you’re on the battlefield this very minute, and your computer might be a deadly weapon. In these circumstances, it’s remarkably shortsighted and selfish of you to think your computer is yours and that you’re entitled to some nambypamby notion of “privacy.” What world are you living in? The Pentagon will decide what you’re “entitled” to. Or not…

[I]f the Obama administration is determined to consolidate and expand the scope and reach of the surveillance state, and it is, the fact that those who may wish to keep watch over a huge range of online activities, all in the name of “cybersecurity,” of course, know what they’re doing should not be a source of comfort for you. It should fill you with dread. And always remember: just as the government will never hesitate to manufacture an alleged justification for its overseas campaigns of terror, so too the government will find some reason, even if it has to concoct it out of less than nothing, if it decides to go after you.

Gays decry Obama’s stand on gay marriage case (AP)
Gay rights groups expressed dismay with the Obama administration Friday over its championing of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law the president pledged to try to repeal while on the campaign trail. The government filed a motion late Thursday to dismiss the case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who are challenging the 1996 federal act. The law prevents couples in states that recognize same-sex unions from securing Social Security spousal benefits, filing joint taxes and other federal rights of marriage.

The Other Side of Justice (The Advocate)
Below are excerpts from an interview conducted with Harvard professor Laurence H. Tribe, who firmly believes DOMA is unconstitutional and would like to see it overturned, and yet is grateful that the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the legal challenge posed by the ninth circuit court case, Smelt v. United States.

Why Smelt posed a weak legal challenge to DOMA: “As someone who wants to see DOMA dismantled and invalidated, I would love it if this ninth circuit case would evaporate into the ether. Even though I personally believe that DOMA is unconstitutional, I think that this particular lawsuit is very vulnerable; it’s not anywhere near as strong as the one that was brought in the federal district court in Massachusetts [a suit filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders]…  A strategic Justice Department interested in a litigation strategy that has some realistic chance of success certainly would not have taken [the Smelt] case as the one in which the constitutional vulnerabilities of DOMA should be explored.
But is that the reason for the Obama administration’s objection to this case?

Obama removes AmeriCorps’s IG in spat with [Obama] friend (Time)
Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

Enough with the Obamathon (by Bill Maher)
[W]e need to marry the good ideas Obama really believes in with that Bush attitude and Bush certitude. I’d love for Obama to come out one day and say, “Jesus told me to fix healthcare.” Or, “History will decide whether stopping the polar ice caps from melting and drowning us all was a good thing.”… I’m glad that Obama is president, but the “Audacity of Hope” part is over. Right now, I’m hoping for a little more audacity.
What are those “good ideas Obama really believes in”, Bill? I’ve never heard him state unequivocally that he believes in anything. He’s a many handed guy: On the one hand… and on the other hand… You helped to trash Hillary for this guy.

Bush Defends Sotomayor (Political Wire)
In a CNN interview, former President George H.W. Bush defended Judge Sonia Sotomayor: “Said Bush: ‘I don’t know her that well but I think she’s had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings… And she was called by somebody a racist once. That’s not right. I mean that’s not fair. It doesn’t help the process. You’re out there name-calling. So let them decide who they want to vote for and get on with it.’”

Europeans to U.S. on taking Guantanamo inmates: You first (Los Angeles Times)
U.S. officials trying to relocate detainees face skepticism from EU nations, who want to know why the U.S. can’t taken them itself if they pose no risk.

Yoo, Bush Administration Lawyer, Must Face Torture Lawsuit (Bloomberg) – John Yoo, a ex-Justice Department attorney who wrote memos justifying harsh interrogations of terrorism detainees, lost his bid to dismiss a lawsuit blaming him for alleged violations of a detainee’s rights. Jose Padilla, convicted last year of supporting terrorists and conspiring to commit murder, was detained for three years as an enemy combatant in the U.S., where he claims he was subjected to physical abuse. He sued Yoo, who wrote in advisory memos for the Bush administration that terrorism suspects weren’t protected by Geneva Convention bans on physical abuse. Padilla claimed Yoo created a system of torture. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White denied most of Yoo’s motion to dismiss the case, saying even enemy combatants are protected by the U.S. Constitution.

“Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct,” White wrote in the ruling [Friday]. “The specific designation as an enemy combatant does not automatically eviscerate all of the constitutional protections afforded to a citizen of the United States.”

McCollum kicks off Florida race attacking Obama ’socialism’ (McClatchy)
In his first major speech as the Republican front-runner for governor, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum sought to link his likely Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, with the ‘’socialism” advocated by President Barack Obama.

Clinton Payback (Political Wire)
“Though it’s largely gone unnoticed — or at least as unnoticed as a former president can possibly go — Bill Clinton has jumped headlong into the 2010 election cycle, deploying his political star power to boost some of his family’s most steadfast allies — many of whom stuck their neck out on behalf of his wife’s presidential campaign,” Politico reports. “No request — or campaign — seems too local for Clinton in his current loyalty tour.”
But the Clintons are all selfish, and everything. I know because the A-list, so-called progressive bloggers told me so. Oh, and who is Obama campaigning for?

Bush DOJ Failed to Enforce Federal Law Protecting Abortion Providers from Anti-Abortion Extremists (Think Progress)
After the 1993 murder of an abortion provider, Dr. David Gunn, Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which made any use of “force, threat of force or physical obstruction” against doctors and patients a federal crime. The law was an attempt to put an end to the constant wave of death threats, acts of vandalism, and clinic bombings. According to the National Abortion Federation, the “FACE law has had a clear impact on the decline in certain types of violence against clinics and providers, specifically clinic blockades.” Under the Bush Administration, however, criminal and civil enforcement of the law by the Department of Justice declined dramatically

Holocaust Museum Attack Is an Excellent Media Opportunity For Deranged Racists (by John Cook at Gawker)
Why would a right-wing extremist shoot up the Holocaust Museum? To get the message out. And it’s working—news networks are turning to neo-Nazi John de Nugent for background on James von Brunn. He’s thrilled about the publicity.. [As Rachel] Sklar notes, de Nugent has turned up on ABC News, CBS News, Fox News Channel, the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bloomberg, the Associated Press, and the BBC to offer his insights into von Brunn and the vicious right-wing extremist views that the two men share.

De Nugent is reveling in his media moment. He even made sure that his interlocutors described him according to his own deranged taxonomy, as opposed to the truth: “I am also happy to say that most media more or less correctly called me a ‘white separatist’ and NOT a ‘white supremacist’ after I made that point crystal-clear.”… P.S. Along with being a right-wing extremist, it also appears that von Brunn was a Republican.

Jamiol’s World

Socially Unacceptable (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
Remember a couple weeks back when Barack, Michelle and their media entourage flew to New York City one Saturday night for dinner and a show?  Imagine what would have happened if the following week David Letterman did a “Top Ten” list of the worst moments of their trip and said this: “Number 2 – Finding out that the restaurant didn’t serve fried chicken and watermelon“ Not only would Letterman be retired right now, but so would the writers and producers of his show and the head of CBS would be offering profuse apologies to the Obamas… But it’s still permissible to call a woman governor “slutty,” at least as long as you pretend you were just joking.

Could Letterman benefit from his attacks on Palin? (by Alegre)
Seriously?  [An] AP writer found a new and offensive twist on Letterman’s attacks on Palin’s daughter.  I mean this guy actually thinks Letterman could come out ahead of the game after his offensive behavior… Unreal. Attack a woman on national television with vile and hateful “jokes” – laugh about her daughter getting knocked up and call her a slut and you’re everybody’s hero.  When are we going to stop rewarding people for sexist attacks on women?  

Fox & Friends Terrified of Ex-Gitmo Bartenders (by Pareene at Gawker)
The good people of Fox & Friends (which ones are Fox and which ones are the friends?) are outraged that their vacations might be endangered by four innocent men recently freed from years of wrongful imprisonment!… [W]e cannot send them back to China, because they will be tortured and executed. We cannot send them to America, because America is scared of people it wrongfully imprisoned for years without cause or due process. We cannot send them to some random other country, because who would want them? What a pickle!

Well it turned out that we could just send a couple of them to Bermuda, a little island inhabited by tropical drink umbrella peddlers and cruise ships. Now Bermuda is a “dependency” of the UK but the UK’s mild objections to this little relocation are basically unimportant. Especially compared to the very reasonable and important points brought up by Steve Doocy, the lady, and the guy who isn’t Steve Doocy. “We better warn Geraldo they could be coming to Puerto Rico!” Sure!

“Do you want to go to a place where that guy over there, in the sombrero, was actually trained in a terror camp in Afghanistan?” What a good point! No, I don’t want to go to this weird Mexican restaurant in Bermuda, with the Chinese Muslim staff! I’d imagine the food would be terrible!

British Vogue Editor’s Lame PR Coup: No More Size Zeros! (by Foster Kamer at Gawker)
The ground zero of Size Zero is here. Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, called out a bunch of prominent fashion designers for encouraging Size Zero models… How was this problem not in their control before? And why couldn’t Shulman extend her influence privately? She could’ve had conversations with these designers, who she can probably call up to her office whenever, rather than a poorly guarded, “leaked” letter. One aimed at winning a populism vote from an economically distressed public. Who could care less about fashion right now. Really, it’s a brilliant play.

Scarborough: “I also don’t think that we win the middle … by calling Barack Obama a communist or by calling Sotomayor a racist” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Media Matters for America headlines

Doocy twisted Biden remark to falsely claim administration backtracking on job creation

NBC’s Guthrie falsely suggests AMA represents “the nation’s doctors”

NY Times left out key facts in report on AMA

Hume, Will use Iranian election to promote long-standing opposition to engaging Iran

McLaughlin Group further crops NY Times clip of Sotomayor’s affirmative action comments

Disappearing Bush: WSJ falsely suggests Obama admin. took over Fannie, Freddie, AIG

Conservative media blast Krugman for column about right-wing extremism

Fox, MSNBC air NY Times’ cropped video of Sotomayor’s affirmative action comments

Responding to Krugman, Beck claimed of FEMA conspiracy theories: “Never said anything like it”

Cavuto again misleads on DHS report

Iran Cracks Down on Western Media as Protest Spreads
Iranian authorities criticized international media reports and took steps to control the flow of information from independent news sources as anti-government protests raged in the country for a second day Sunday.

CNN Debates Twitter’s Relevance While Ignoring Important World Events Being Reported on Twitter (by The Cajun Boy at Gawker)
Over the weekend CNN’s Howard Kurtz asked America the burning question, “are we going overboard with this Twitter business?” Meanwhile, CNN virtually ignored an event overseas with the potential to alter world history, an event reported extensively by Twitter users… Twitter served as a vital mode of Iranian citizen communication and as a channel to the outside world after the government shut down much of the web and blocked virtually all cell phone communications… Meanwhile, Howard Kurtz had Rick Sanchez and sportswriter Gregg Doyel on Reliable Sources for an utterly useless but incredibly ironic debate over Twitter’s relevance.

#CNNfail: Twitter Blasts CNN Over Iran Election (Mashable)
Twitter users blasted CNN this weekend for a lack of coverage of the Tehran protests, with Iranian citizens claiming ballot fraud and taking to the streets. Twitter has proven a powerful tool for spreading news of developing events in the country, but it has also taken on the role of media watchdog: thousands of Twitter users adopted the hashtag #CNNfail to highlight a lack of Iran coverage from the news organization.

World of Risk for a New Brand of Journalist
Freelancers and others on unconventional assignments for start-up news organizations may find fewer resources to help them when they are in danger.

Glitches seen in China’s web filtering software
The designers of controversial Internet filtering software that China has ordered shipped with all new computers said they were trying to fix security glitches in the programme.

800,000 callers phone digital TV hot line
The Federal Communications Commission said that about 317,450 calls went into the help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC, on Friday alone, the day analog signals were cut off. Another 102,000 came in Saturday by 6 p.m. Eastern time. The total is still below the 600,000 to 3 million callers that the FCCexpected in early March would call on transition day.

Cross-ownership stay upheld.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals keeps its stay on the FCC’s revised media ownership rules allowing newspaper-broadcast ownership in the top 20 markets. On Friday, Chief Judge Anthony Sirica told attorneys to file status reports October 1. Critics expect the new Democratic FCC will reverse course.

NYT: Privacy may be a victim in cyber plan
The Obama administration’s plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising privacy and diplomatic concerns.

Accused Facebook Spammer Could Face Jail Time
An alleged spammer could face jail time in connection with a Facebook lawsuit after a judge referred him to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office for criminal proceedings.

Man accused of using Craigslist to arrange wife’s rape
A 39-year-old man was charged Friday with raping a woman through an arrangement police say he made with her husband on Craigslist. The victim’s husband is also in jail, also charged with rape.

Knight Foundation sets aside $15 million for investigative reporting
At a time when newsrooms are shrinking and enrollment at journalism institutions is declining, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced a $15 million initiative to spur investigative reporting.

AP Pilot Program Will Distribute Nonprofit Watchdog And Investigative Journalism (Paid Content)
Four nonprofit watchdog and investigative journalism organizations will have their work distributed by the Associated Press to its 1,500 members as part of a six-month pilot project that starts July 1. The project, [announced Saturday] at the 2009 Investigative Reporters & Editors conference, is meant to encourage “public service” journalism—being seen more often today as a way to combat the gaps in newsroom budgets and staffs—by expanding the nonprofits’ reach and providing members with articles for publication at no cost to either. The first four are the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop and ProPublica.

Being available via a dedicated section of AP Exchange, the content management system that newspapers use to receive content from AP, syndications and each other, literally should make it easier for the nonprofits’ work to be published, which in turn makes it more likely newspapers will use it. The project will be evaluated and, if extended, may include other nonprofits.

‘Globe’ Potential Buyer Has Been Subject of Paper’s Critical Stories
Jack Connors’ company, Partners HealthCare, was the subject of an in-depth, three-part Globe series in late 2008 that claimed Partners contributed to the rising cost of health care in the area. “Partners became what some called the ‘800-pound gorilla’ of Massachusetts healthcare, able to bend insurers to its will,” one story stated.

Kindle Joins a Literary Ritual: Authors Can Autograph It
At a recent reading in Manhattan by David Sedaris, a reader presented his electronic-book device for the author to sign.

A New Entry Stakes Out Low-Budget Film
A group of entertainment professionals is establishing DF Indie Studios, a movie company that will focus on films with budgets of up to $10 million.

Porn industry healthcare clinic not cooperating, public health officials say
Public health officials said [Thursday] they have had no cooperation from the adult entertainment industry health clinic that recently confirmed a porn actress had tested positive for HIV, hampering their efforts to investigate how she contracted the virus.

Diary upgrades without rate hikes.
Arbitron has announced a series of steps to improve the diary methodology over the next year. They estimates it will cost $10 million to implement the changes, and so far the company’s is cutting costs instead of increasing rates. One factor: Nielsen’s return to radio.

FCC set to adopt AM on FM rules.
There’s been heavy lobbying over the last two months about whether AM stations using FM translators should be granted permanent status, and it appears the FCC will take action at its July 2 meeting. Broadcasters say it’s already making a difference in some markets — but LPFM activists worry it may mean fewer stations for them.

Clear Channel Launches Online Radio Player (by Rachel Kaufman at MediaJobsDaily, Media Bistro)
Clear Channel has launched iheartradio.com, an ad-supported online radio player that allows consumers to listen to 350 different am/fm stations and Clear Channel’s entire library of on-demand audio and video programming… [I]n the Sirius/XM/ITunes era, will anyone bite? And besides, won’t all the Clear Channel stations in the country be playing the same song? (Rim shot!)

Rumor: Facebook to “Undo” Twitter-like Homepage (by Adam Ostrow at Mashable)
Earlier this year, when Facebook moved towards a more Twitter-like homepage that focuses on status updates, the opposition was fierce – so much so that the company quickly responded to criticism and announced some changes they’d be making to bring back the features that users were missing… Why the change? Well, it turns out a lot of Facebook’s 200 million users aren’t like us – keeping the site open constantly or watching updates stream in real-time through a desktop client like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. In turn, the concern is that these less active users are missing out on a lot of updates from friends, which, means less value from the service.

Adobe’s Acrobat.com Collaboration Services Emerge From Beta
Adobe Systems on Monday will move its Acrobat.com Web-based productivity and collaboration services out of beta and offer for-fee subscriptions to provide what the company hopes will be a new way for business users to collaborate on document creation.

Is Google About To Introduce A Microblog Search Offering? (Paid Content)
The Google Operating System blog reports that the company will launch a search service that will index content from Twitter and other microblogging sites, similar to Google’s current blog search offering. Results would also be incorporated into Google’s main web results. Google Operating System (which is not associated with Google) does not cite sources for its story but does note a recent Google listing, which refers to “Google’s MicroBlogsearch” and mentions Twitter as “the popular service associated with this format.” As the blog notes, it also wouldn’t be too surprising for Google to launch a way to search Twitter, considering that Google’s Marissa Mayer has said that that the company is “interested in being able to offer … micro-blogging and micro-messaging in our search.”

Google Wants Artists to Work For Free, Is it Wrong? (by Stan Schroeder at  Mashable)
Google has called prominent illustrators to create new skins for Google Chrome, but there’s catch: they’re not offering them any money. Similar to how artists created artwork for iGoogle, Google is not planning to compensate them for the work they’ll do for Chrome; instead, they believe these projects are a good promotion for the artists. This has provoked a lot of negative comments from prominent illustrators, who think that a (very) profitable company such as Google should pay them for their work… However, even professional illustrators and designers should understand that they don’t get paid for these types of projects because Google is cheap, but because there’s a huge community of artists who have been doing it for free for years.
Yes, let’s destroy the possibility for artists to make a dime, TOO. Good idea. Everybody works for nothing, nobody can buy anything, economy is totally destroyed. Besides, how long will it be before the IRS catches on and starts taxing these bartering deals?

On Web and iPhone, a Tool to Aid Careful Shopping
GoodGuide is a Web site and iPhone application that lets consumers dig past the marketing spiel by discovering a product’s health, environmental and social impacts.

A World Without Local Car Dealer Ads?
Autos No Longer the Top Individual Spender on Spot TV

‘Bing’ Ballmer Says, ‘Don’t Drink That Poison Google Milk!’ (by Simon Dumenco at Advertising Age)
Five Ways to Find Meaning in Microsoft’s Branding of ‘Decision Engine’ Without Really Even Searching for It

Bigger Budgets Ahead For Viral Campaigns—Ad Nets, Not So Much (Paid Content)
Expect an influx of experimental social media campaigns (like Ford’s Fiesta Movement) to crop up over the next six months—as a majority of marketers recently told Forbes that they’d be increasing their viral marketing budgets at the expense of other tactics. About 42 percent of survey respondents said they’d spend more on viral campaigns later this year. Marketers were also bullish on SEO, with 40 percent saying they’d spend more. The one channel we’ll see a marked decrease in spending in is ad networks.

Providing Cellphones for the Poor
A federal program providing subsidized phone service now offers cellphones, showing how much society values them.

SingTel launches music service for mobile phones
SingTel, Southeast Asia’s largest telco, on Sunday launched in Singapore a service that lets mobile subscribers download music files and videos which it hopes to introduce to other parts of Asia.

Mobile money to poor seen $5 billion market in 2012
The market of mobile financial services to poor people in emerging markets will surge from nothing to $5 billion in 2012, U.S.-based microfinance policy and research center CGAP said on Monday.

Nokia launches new touch-screen music phone
Top cellphone maker Nokia launched three new handsets on Monday, including a new touch-screen model to follow its successful 5800 phone.