ShowMeBlog

Paul Krugman tells Roger Ailes about Fox News’s “deliberate misinformation”

 

 

Paul Robin Krugman (pronounced /ˈkruːɡmən/;^[3] born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, columnist and author. He is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times.^[4][5] In 2008, Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. He was voted sixth in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals.^[6]

Roger Eugene Ailes (born May 15, 1940) is the American president of Fox News Channel and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. He was a media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as Rudy Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign in 1989.

Yoo on you!

"WASHINGTON – Bush administration lawyers who drafted legal theories that led to waterboarding and other harsh treatment of terrorism suspects showed poor judgment but won't face sanctions for professional misconduct, according to a published report.

A forthcoming government ethics report initially concluded the two key authors of the so-called torture memos, Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who were officials in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, had violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted the memos that allowed the use of harsh interrogation tactics.

But a senior Justice Department official, David Margolis, later softened the department's finding to say the authors simply showed poor judgment, Newsweek reported.

Margolis, who is a career lawyer and not a political appointee of the Obama administration, has supervised the department's internal discipline through several administrations from his post in the deputy attorney general's office.

He declined to comment Saturday to The Associated Press..."

 I was one of the bloggers that said that some sort of state board action should be taken on these lawyers.  I did a YouTube video, if I remember correct, calling on them to take action on John Yoo.
 I remember seeing him all the time on TV news and talk shows defending waterboarding and other un-American misconduct.  I saw him a number of times on the PBS News Hour show.  The other guy may have been on TV often but I remember John Yoo because he appeared, to me, to a punk and a smart ass.  I did not call for legal action like going to jail because that would have just caused more political debate and fighting but my hope was that the state boards would have taken some action but we know they do not.
 That is one of the problems not just lawyers but doctors.  Their state boards do not take action on them.  It is the  good o' boys club.

Cutting the deficit

  President Obama said today that cutting the deficit is as important as job growth.  I think he is wrong.  I think he is just reading the polls and seeing the tone of the nation.  
  We, the people, do not like a deficit.  The Republicans can use that issue to pound the Democrats and the American people will go along with them.  Of course we have the problems that we have because of the Republicans and we have the deficit because of the Republicans.
  One thing .. and I said this back before for the start of the war in Iraq and that is that we need to pay for wars.  I did not agree with the war in Iraq but I said if we went to war we needed to send 400K troops and we needed to tax all Americans to pay for the war.  The Republicans did not send 400K troops and not only did they not tax the Americans they gave a big tax break to rich Americans.  Plus remember how  President Bush and other Republicans and Fox “news” told us that the oil money from Iraq would pay for the war and we would be rolling in money.  We are rolling in debt.

  I think trying to cut the deficit is not as important right now.  We need to get people working.  We need to create jobs.  When people are working and earning money we will have tax money coming in and they can pay their bills and buy things and THEN we can start to work on the deficit.
  But it is not going to be that way because of the Republicans.
  
  My advice is always listen to what the Republicans demand and then go 180 degrees in the other direction.

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight

“Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.

But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here's how the moon works:

The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.

As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object…”   Yahoo News

 

  It is going to be cold tonight but I am going to check it out.
I love looking at the sky.  I love space and astronomy.  I wish my eyes were better and I wish I had the location and the equipment to do astronomy. 
  I can not afford more than one hobby.. Hell I can not afford one hobby and I consider the Internet and computers to be one hobby. 

Supreme Court Ruling and President Obama

“Washington (CNN) -- The political furor escalated over President Obama's high-profile rebuke of a recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign advertising Thursday, as Democrats pounded the high court decision.

Democrats rallied around Obama the day after the president committed a rare breach of political etiquette, criticizing the controversial ruling in his State of the Union address as members of the high court sat only a few feet away.

That triggered something equally unusual. Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative backer of the ruling, frowned and appeared to mouth the words "not true." Alito's apparent reply was a rare flash of emotion among Supreme Court justices who typically sit stony faced and refrain from even clapping during State of the Union speeches.

The actions of both men may be unprecedented, according to one longtime court observer…” 

 

  OK so conservative Justice Samuel Alito had to be an ass at the State of the Union address.  He did not yell out or stand up and toss a shoe or anything… He did know what he was doing and he should not have done it …But it should not have been a big deal.  The media should have commented on it and then that should have been it.
  Now should President Obama have said what what he said about the court ruling?  OH YES.. He needed to mention it there and then.  Again he needed to bring it up in the State of the Union address and ask Congress to pass new laws that will live with the “political” decision made by this current conservative court.
  President Obama had to bring it up because it is going to have a major impact on elections and on all of us.  It was a major step back and it was a major gain for special interests and something that is going to help (surprise surprise) Republicans.
  So did President Obama do anything wrong?  NO NO NO.  If he had failed to mention it he would have done something wrong.

  OK OK.. I understand history… I love history… I love our system of government and I understand what the State of the Union is and the history and the need for it. 
  But now that we have cameras in there and they are zooming in on people and they reading lips … We may just need to see a change in history and the way we do things…  I have felt for a long time that it is just stupid for the high court to be sitting in the front row and they all look like they are dead.  No matter what is said in the speech they are not to re-act to it. They do not stand, do not clap… They just sit there.  It looks stupid.  I understand the reasons behind it. 
  I think it is time for the members of the court to not attend the speech.  They are part of the government.  In fact they are one of three parts of our system of government.  But I think the SOTU bit needs change. 
  Maybe it could be that the court meets in private at the Supreme Court and they then watch the State of the Union address on TV in private.  Then they can put their feet up and smile, laugh, cuss, fart and yell at the TV if they want to do it. 
  The current SOTU system for the high court sucks.  Plus it scares me.. I see them and I get the feeling it is like Night of the Living Dead or something.  I keep waiting for them to jump up and start attacking members of Congress and eating their brains.  I know I know.. it would not be very filling eating the brains of Congressmen.. That is what scares me they might have to start attacking  me.

  In case you wonder why I am an expert on all this (SMILE) I took one year of Constitutional law in college. 

Judge Orders James O’Keefe to Live with Parents

“As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office, getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25. (Read them here)

The young conservative filmmaker is free on $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 13.

It's not clear where O'Keefe, who hasn't said much publicly since getting out jail, is right now. But his father, the elder James O'Keefe, told the AP "I'm confident this was poor judgment ... but not much more." James and Deborah O'Keefe live in New Jersey, the state where Moore ordered the younger O'Keefe to remain while out on bond.

It's also unclear where O'Keefe lived before the arrest.”  TPM 

 

  James O’Keefe III, age 25, the hero of Fox News and the employee of  Andrew Breitbart must live with his mommy or daddy until his next court hearing. The right wing darling and the man who exposed ACORN is the face of conservative “journalism.”   
  A lawyer for one of the men arrested with James O’Keefe said “You’re dealing with kids.”  Attorney J. Garrison Jordan said his client, the 24 year old son of a federal prosecutor, did not mean to break a law.
 

Eric Cantor rejects President Obama’s “lecturing”

“House Minority Whip Eric Cantor says he hopes President Barack Obama will avoid during a visit Friday to a House GOP retreat in Baltimore “the kind of rhetoric and lecturing that occurred in the State of the Union.”

Obama told Republicans in his address Wednesday night that “saying ‘no’ to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership” and that they share in “the responsibility to govern.” Stepping up his own efforts at bipartisanship, he said he plans “monthly meetings with both Democratic and Republican leadership.”

Cantor, the No. 2 House GOP leader, said he “appreciated his offer” but said Obama has made calls for bipartisanship before…”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32192.html#ixzz0dzeNurpd

 

  What a fucking shit head.  He hopes the President of the United States will not lecture him!  If I were the President of the United States when I talked to Republicans I would talk very SLOW and I would REPEAT the message and then REPEAT the message again very slow.
  I would talk to them the way you might talk to a child or someone that was a bit slow.
  The fucking gall of the congress man from a small congressional district of VA.  The guy did law work and real estate stuff in a family business.  He has been in congress for nine years and he does not think the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES should be “lecturing” him.
  So he fucking knows knows everything? 
  This guy is a REPUBLICAN that has been in congress since 2000!   So he was voting with President Bush and supporting the policies of President Bush and the Republican party.
  He fucking IS the guy that needs LECTURING.  He is the one of the people that cause ALL the problems that we have today and he does not want the President of the United States lecturing him.
  My fucking God….  It is because of him, President Bush and the Republican party that we have all the problems that we have today and this fucking ass hole has the fucking gall to open is mouth?
  If I was Eric Cantor I would keep my mouth shut and try and pretend that I am NOT a Republican.

Does Breitbard look guilty of something?

 

 

  When I heard about the crime that O’Keefe and the other three guys committed…I said here that I bet Fox News was worrying that one of their  staff might have said something to O’Keefe that would come back and bite them in the ass over this deal.  I said I did not think they were that stupid at Fox however.
  I have never heard of Andrew Breitbard or his blog until now…  I will go and look at his blog later today but from watching this video my gut feeling is that he looks like he is guilty of something. 
  Andrew Breitbard admits to paying “James” money.  I would be worrying if I were him. If I were Andrew Breitbard I would also be wondering just what tapes does James O’Keefe have of them talking in private.

Actress Zelda Rubinstein dead at 76

      (CNN) -- Zelda Rubinstein, the actress best known for her role as the psychic in the horror film "Poltergeist," died in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, her agent said. She was 76.

Eric Stevens, Rubinstein's agent for the past four years, said the 4-foot-3-inch actress had never recovered from a mild heart attack she suffered several months ago, which he said left her a patient at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles.

"She had several pre-existing conditions that she had been dealing with for years, and unfortunately they began to overtake her," Stevens said.

Rubinstein, who took up acting later in life after a career as a lab tech, also appeared on television in shows including "Picket Fences" and "Hey Arnold."

“…Rubinstein became active in the fight against AIDS/HIV in 1984. She appeared in a series of advertisements, directed towards gay men specifically, promoting safer sex and AIDS awareness. Rubinstein did so at risk to her own career, especially so shortly after her rise to fame, and admitted later that she did "pay a price, career-wise". She attended the first AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS Walk…”

  Sounds like she was a good little soul.  May she rest in peace.

Author J. D. Salinger dead at 91

“(CNN) -- J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author whose 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," became a touchstone for generations of readers, has died. He was 91.

The author died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire, according to a family statement that his literary agent, Phyllis Westberg, provided Thursday…” 

 

  OK the truth is I did not know he was still alive. 

  J. D. Salinger from Wikipedia