Archive for Blogger
Tea Party version 1.1
Posted by: | Comments
Aside from being jihadists, hostage takers, and terrorists, some say that the Tea Party version 1.1 (version 1.0 was racist) has no interest in governing.
Presser
Posted by: | Comments
The president’s press conference ran about an hour today. It seemed like each answer ran that long. The thrust was 1.) the Republicans better do their job and raise taxes and 2.) Malia and Sasha are more responsible than Congress. Number 2 I agree with.
Twitter Flasher
Posted by: | Comments
Turns out Weiner did send those naughty bit pics. Pathetic but not as pathetic as 2000 page bills nobody reads.
Carnival Barker-in-Chief
Posted by: | Comments
The president accused the media of being carnival barkers who focused on silly distractions rather than serious issues like the budget. Then he flew off in Air Force One for an Oprah appearance. As it happens, according to Poynter, 39% of stories last week were about the economy while only 4% were about the birther thing. James Carville hopes this is a shrewd move by Obama to make Trump look good enough to win the Republican nomination.
New Media Merger
Posted by: | Comments
The ideologically supple Arianna Huffington sold her left leaning Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million. Not to begrudge a successful capitalist, but The Huffington Post is famous for stiffing original content providers.
Junk Science
Posted by: | Comments
I got the idea for this one from Charles Krauthammer’s Friday “Don’t Touch my Junk” column and the PETA “We’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. Some things just go together.
Here’s a link to the John “If You Touch My Junk I’m Gonna Have You Arrested” Tyner cell phone video of his own last stand against TSA. And then there is this from The Daily Caller.
Groping for Answers
Posted by: | Comments
Airport security procedures have been flying under the cover of election news recently. The attention they do get has mostly been focused on air freight – with good reason. Matt Drudge, however, is lifting the veil on the use of full body scanners in some locations. Travelers who exercise their option to “opt out” are subject to full body searches. Here’s an LA Times story on transparency.
How NOW Brown Cow
Posted by: | Comments
The National Organization for Women endorsed Jerry Brown for governor of California last week. A week earlier Brown, or an advisor, was recorded calling his opponent, Meg Whitman, a whore. Here’s the story in the Daily Caller. After its endorsement, NOW called for the firing of whoever dropped the “W” word.
Don’t Let the Back Door Hit You
Posted by: | Comments
The FBI wants a “backdoor” to the web.
Since 9/11 the government has relied on phone wiretaps for national national security purposes. That practice, under the Bush administration, created an uproar (here’s a 2007 James Risen NYT story). With more sensitive information being encrypted on the web, the current administration wants to require that all internet communication be wire-tap friendly.
Apparently this would be a step backward, requiring an internet retrofit. Here’s Jack X. Dempsey, V.P. of an outfit called the Center for Democracy and Technology, in Monday’s New York Times:
“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”
Valerie Caproni of the FBI claims the government is just trying to preserve authority it already has.
“We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”
Wouldn’t be the first enterprise seeking special favors to avoid being bypassed by technology.
Everybody Hide With Molly Day
Posted by: | Comments
When Muslim radicals threatened South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, cartoonist Molly Norris dreamed up Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. Her thinking was that they can’t threaten everybody. Now Molly is no more. She has taken the FBI’s advice and “gone ghost“, meaning she adopted a new identity and went into hiding. Apparently Molly’s apology for her idea didn’t help. Ditto for Nicholas Kristof’s apology here.
I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.
The Molly fatwa hasn’t received nearly the media attention of Terry Jones’ faux Koran burning, but it did merit this editorial in the San Francisco Examiner.
Instead of telling the rest of us that we’re all bigots, shouldn’t Kristof and the rest of the journalism profession be outraged by what has happened to Molly Norris? And shouldn’t they be angered that her government believes it cannot protect her? Imagine what they would be saying if white-hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan were threatening to kill Norris in Selma, Ala., instead of radical Muslims in Seattle. Would the FBI tell Norris she had to stop being a journalist and go into hiding?
To update Henry Kissinger, even Islamophobes have enemies.