Click here to view this media Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) thinks the media made a big mistake by devoting equal time to every “absurd notion” during the debt ceiling debate. “And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely,” Kerry told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Friday. “The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it’s exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.” “It doesn’t deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what’s real, of who’s accountable, of who is not accountable, of who’s real, who isn’t, who’s serious, who isn’t?” Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren offered only a partial quote from the Massachusetts senator Friday, as she expressed her outrage and suggested he was targeting the tea party. “This is really nuts,” she wrote. “Let me get this straight… he doesn’t think it is right to give ‘equal time and or balance’ to a position he does not agree with ?? or to book guests with opinions other than his own?? Really?? You got to be kidding! So, according to him, we are to only air HIS thoughts and his positions?” “I think he is attempting to intimidate the media from airing others’ ideas. That is wrong.”
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enlarge Credit: USA Today/Gallup poll USA Today/Gallup poll on Debt Ceiling deal After the debt ceiling deal was done, all the buzz out of the beltway media was that Washington is broken . People being polled were saying that it’s a Washington problem . Not much from journalists who knew that the debt ceiling vote was never intended to be used as a political weapon against an incumbent President. Because doing that could help cause a financial meltdown . Something like what we’ve been seeing in the markets the last week or so. And not much reporting about the fact that Bush came into office with a huge surplus and destroyed it along with much of the world’s economy. Not much about the debt ceiling being raised countless times under all Republican presidents without a fight. Not much on the fact that this was a manufactured crisis completely by Republicans . This time though, that all changed since a Democrat was in the oval office. And the strategy the administration came up with was to abandon Democratic party core principles to win over the mythical Independent voters and make the tea party look like the radicals that they are and Obama as the only grown up in the room. Obama has succeeded in his tea party strategy since new polling from the NY Times says America can’t stand them even now, So it’s interesting to note that according to the internals of today’s New York Times poll, the Tea Party is rapidly shrinking before our very eyes, and is hemorraging supporters at a surprising rate: Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Tea Party movement, or not? Yes 18 No 73 The 18 percent who self-identify as Tea Party supporters is at its lowest point, tying the 18 percent who supported it way back in April of 2010, when it was first gaining steam as the Congressional races of last cycle began heating up. But how did it work out overall? The people have spoken and I agree with Kos on this: There’s no surprise. Obama expended a great deal of effort selling this piece of crap deal, and at least 58 percent of Democrats gave him the benefit of the doubt. But what strikes me most about those numbers is the data from independents. The Obama-can-do-no-wrong camp argues that Obama couldn’t focus on the supposedly narrow interest of the Democratic base because at 22 percent of the overall public, liberals can’t single-handedly reelect Obama. Therefore, he has to appeal to the all-important independents for electoral reasons. That is, actually, not an unreasonable point. Obama DOES have to keep independents happy in order to win reelection. Can’t argue with that. But you also can’t argue with this: if the goal was to impress and win over independents, then mission failed. Independents sure as heck aren’t impressed with the deal. Republicans obviously hate it. So the only ideological group to give majority support are those maligned liberals, but by just a sliver. And the cost? This deal split the left, demoralized some of its most engaged activists, and saddled us with austerity at a time when the country desperately needs stimulus and jobs. All because of unsupported beliefs that independents are supposedly concerned about the deficit. Or like “grownups in the room.” Or something . If Obama spent his time using the bully pulpit by calling this vote a distraction caused by Republicans who created a phony crisis to push their ideological agenda while he’d rather be trying to create jobs, I have no doubt how it would have worked out in the end. Especially since they knew Mitch, Cantor, Ryan and Boehner were all going to whip the vote for the debt ceiling to be raised in the end. Hey look, it’s jobs time: Here comes the pivot many of us have called for. But, with austerity going into high gear, what can actually be done? The Republican austerity agenda is continuing to hamper job growth, making Obama’s defeat in 2012 all the more likely. Today’s jobs numbers were better than expected, but as Matthew Yglesias points out , a fundamental problem remains — private sector jobs are growing slowly, but public sector jobs are being lost. Yet Republicans want to cut more government spending — curtailing consumer demand in a desperately weak economy. The press release from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in response to today’s jobs report implicitly highlights the GOP’s interest in keeping the economy from growing.
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Emergency meeting of G7 ministers called after biggest share slump since 2008 banking crisis Britain’s stock market suffered another major selloff yesterday, ending its worst week since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 with almost £150bn wiped off the value of the country’s top 100 companies. After a calamitous five days for stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic, the FTSE 100 closed 146 points lower at 5247 to record its third day of triple digit declines – a trading pattern last witnessed in the immediate aftermath of Lehman’s bankruptcy in September 2008. Better-than-feared American employment figures failed to calm the world’s panicky stock markets as the week of turmoil ended with fresh gyrations in share prices. A rally prompted by news that the world’s biggest economy generated an extra 117,000 jobs last month fizzled out within an hour after the German government ruled out providing extra money for Europe’s bailout fund and rumours swirled around Wall Street that the rating agency Standard & Poor’s was about to downgrade the US’s debt. But after European markets closed, Wall Street – which had suffered a 512-point fall on Thursday in one of its worse performances since the 2008 financial crisis – was helped higher by remarks from the Spanish government that prime minster José Lius Rodríguez Zapatero had agreed with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that greater co-ordination was needed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, in a volatile day, was 70 points higher at lunchtime in New York; tensions were also eased after Italian prime minster Silvio Berlusconi promised to accelerate austerity measures by a year and summoned a meeting of G7 finance ministers as soon as possible. His remarks followed rumours that the European Central Bank was prepared to reverse its hardline stance and begin buying Spanish and Italian government bonds in return for an acceleration in structural reforms. Dealers have been frustrated by the lack of urgency shown by the ECB in supporting Italy and Spain. During Thursday’s market mayhem they had bought only bonds issued by Ireland and Portugal. Amid fears of an escalation in the crisis, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, held a conference call with David Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne – both on holiday – to discuss the impact of the financial crash on Britain’s banks and the struggling UK economy. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was preparing to discuss the situation with US president Barack Obama. The Bank is likely to cut its growth forecast for the UK when it publishes its latest quarterly inflation report on Wednesday. “They discussed the financial situation and the chancellor asked the governor for his judgment,” said a Treasury source. “They agreed to monitor the situation.” The Treasury source said the chancellor was keeping up the pressure on eurozone leaders to carry through the terms of the second bailout of Greece, which was intended to calm the markets when it was announced on 21 July but has failed to do so, with concerns widening to Italy and Spain. “What we are communicating to our European counterparts is you must deliver on what you have promised,” a Treasury source said. Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, which reported a loss for the first half of the year, also called on European leaders to take action but stressed the need for calm despite the wild gyrations in share prices. “The best we can do is keep our heads down, be calm and purposeful,” he said. RBS’s finance director, Bruce van Saun, admitted the atmosphere “feels pretty bad”, but said: “I don’t think it’s as bad [as 2008]. I don’t think banks will topple as they did because they’ve got more capital and liquidity.” The US jobless rate went down from 9.2% to 9.1%. Analysts said that while the increase in non-farm payrolls was bigger than the 85,000 jump expected by Wall Street the figures were not good enough to make traders feel less gloomy about the possibility of a global double-dip recession. Glenn Uniacke, senior dealer at Moneycorp, said there had been relief that the US jobs figures had been better than expected. “With employment growth in the world’s top consumer market an indicator of the future strength of the global economy, today’s non-farm payroll figures gave the markets a modest upside surprise and President Obama some short-term reprieve following the blood-letting of the past week. “However, the data won’t stop the rot and is not sufficient to change the bearish outlook from traders, with a sustained figure of 200,000-plus needed for any major positive impact on the unemployment rate. The markets were seen swinging wildly straight after the data, unsure how to interpret the ray of light in a otherwise gloomy week.” A breakdown of the report from the labour department showed private sector payrolls up by 154,000, while government jobs fell 37,000. US factories hired an additional 24,000 people, while retail, education and retail showed strong increases. The separate household survey, used to calculate the 9.1% unemployment rate, showed employment falling 38,000, and unemployment falling 156,000, with 193,000 people leaving the workforce. Michael Derks, chief strategist at FxPro Such, said there was a “growing pool of discouraged workers”, that had left only 58.1% of Americans of working age in employment, the lowest level for 30 years. Analysts said attention was now switching to the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, which has a policy meeting next week, to see if it was contemplating a third round of electronic money creation through quantitative easing. “Next week’s US data shouldn’t be too bad with retail sales set to rise healthily given the already released auto sales,” said James Knightley at ING. “As a result, the Fed is likely to be more cautious on the outlook, but steer clear of further QE [quantitative easing] for now. That said, recent activity has been poor and the downward GDP revisions show that the economy has more spare capacity than previously thought.” Market turmoil FTSE Stock markets Dow Jones Banking Bonds Gilts European debt crisis European banks Europe Global economy Economics Global recession Larry Elliott Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
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Continue reading …Thylane Loubry Blondeau, 10-Year-Old Model, Ignites Debate Over Sexualization Of Young Girls (VIDEO, POLL)
August 4, 2011 No Comment
How young is too young? That’s the question being batted around in reference to Thylane Loubry Blondeau, the 10-year-old model whose suggestive photo spreads have ignited a debate over the sexualization of young girls. “Good Morning America” took a look at some of Blondeau’s recent photo spreads for Vogue Paris, which feature the young girl in lipstick, high heels and tight dresses, and a slew of smoldering “come hither” stares. Although Blondeau, the daughter of soccer player Patrick Blondeau and reporter-turned-fashion designer Véronika Loubry, appeared in the Vogue Paris shoot with other young models, her looks were more mature and for many readers, more discomforting. A little research shows that little Blondeau has been at this for a while, frequently photographed for editorials (Fashionista has several here), the cover of Vogue Enfants (see pic below) and even walking in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2006 runway show as a child extra. Reactions to the recent, jarringly-adult editorial have ranged from perplexed to utterly appalled, with most questioning the appropriateness of a child consistently photographed like an adult and sexualized in the process. But there are those voices who have defended the photos, such as the blogger behind “F**k Yeah Thylane Loubry Blondeau” (which has been renamed simply “Thylane Léna-Rose Blondeau.”) On the site, the blogger argues that the mini model looks “stunning”, saying, “I just wished that some people would see the beauty in them too” and “stop having such a judgemental attitude.” However most critics are saying that with the appearance of an arguably-sexy 10-year-old model, the line has been drawn. And as “Good morning America” reminds us, thirteen-year-old Elle Fanning for Marc by Marc Jacobs and fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld for Miu Miu raised a few eyebrows. WATCH:
Continue reading …Bill Maher: Obama ‘Has to Give Up Worrying About Looking Like the Angry Black Man’
August 4, 2011 No CommentBarack Obama has given all liberals some pause to consider his personal psychology. I’ve joked often that he’s such a bad negotiator that I would never want him to help me buy a car, because I’d end up paying twice Blue Book value just so everyone could call the deal a “win.” And while it’s tempting to assume some sort of malevolence or corporatist attitude on the part of Obama, I genuinely think it’s something much more deep-seated in Obama’s psyche. As the product of a mixed race union at a time when miscegenation was still illegal in some states, raised by white grandparents in the Kansas heartland, with an exotic name and a Muslim Kenyan absent father, Barack Obama literally defines the term ” Other .” It is not farfetched to believe that Barack Obama has spent pretty much his entire 50 years trying to make people who find him fearful comfortable. Even his white grandmother admitted to being nervous if an African American male approached her , an attitude that could not help but affect him in his impressionable years. Add to that someone who appears constitutionally conflict-averse (his pre-politician career as a community organizer was to get people to work together, not fight it out), and you have the makings of a person ill-suited for the divisive environment of Washington and the full-contact political battles that have to be fought. And we’ve seen that tendency manifest itself as a politician who is always willing to bend over backwards to those who will not trust him, whether from their own innate racism or from their own personal agenda. There’s no question that racism plays a much greater role than liberal white America may have wanted to acknowledge, although our minority friends and colleagues would probably say “duh!”. One little moment of expressed irritation will give rise to literally hundreds of thousands of reports in the media and right wing blogs/publications/foundations of the angry black man . So rather than play to those disposed to give him the benefit of the doubt, Obama rather tries to win over those who will never do so. Subbing for the vacationing Ed Schultz, guest host Eric Michael Dyson speaks to this inherent tension with Real Time host Bill Maher, who exhorts Obama to find his spine and be an unapologetic liberal Democrat instead of the watered-down Republican he’s being. Whether he can give up the ghost of trying to be liked by those who have no incentive to like him remains to be seen, but Maher’s assessment that this path may lead to Obama’s loss in the 2012 election is apt. On a related note, and well worth your time, Peter Daou — no stranger to the looking glass world of DC politics — looks at How the Democratic establishment shunned the left, spawned the Tea Party and moved America right .
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What’s In The News: August 3, 2011 Market Movers: August 1, 2011 UBS Recruits Bank of America Global Equities Co-Head troaeportfolio says: NYSE :$ BAC previous prediction was INCORRECT, predicted UP, went DOWN. 0.00% accuracy so far
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On Thursday's The Situation Room, Fareed Zakaria said the tactics used by Tea Party congressmen in the debt ceiling debate were akin to holding the country hostage and threatening to “blow up” the economy. “So nobody has ever held a country hostage and say [sic] if you don't pass our policies, we'll blow up the economy, we'll blow up the credibility of the United States,” Zakaria remarked on CNN Thursday. He called the recent debt ceiling fight “unprecedented” and slammed the Tea Party for its refusal to compromise. [Video below the break.] “This is why the Tea Party's insistence on holding the debt ceiling hostage in order to force its policies on the country – the first time the debt ceiling has been used this way – was so deeply un-American,” Zakaria ranted in his newest Time cover story. Zakaria is CNN's foreign affairs analyst and the editor-at-large for Time magazine, and recently made headlines for having had off-the-record conversations with President Obama on foreign affairs. He has praised the President's foreign policy multiple times and ripped Tea Party conservatives for being too extreme. His latest knock against the Tea Party is that not only are they acting like hostage-takers, but their refusal to compromise stands completely against what America's founding fathers wished for. Zakaria remarked that “the American system is built on shared powers overlapping authority…. and the founding fathers designed it that way because they wanted there to be an effort to create policies through compromise, through consensus. So if you take the position that it's your way or the highway, that if you literally will not give an inch, what you're doing is really against the spirit of the American republic, against the spirit of what the founding fathers wanted.” A transcript of the segment, which aired on August 4 at 5:31 p.m. EDT, is as follows: WOLF BLITZER: Fareed, you've written the cover story of the new issue of Time magazine, “The Great American Downgrade,” why the debt crisis has hurt growth and our position in the world. Let me read a line from the article, because it's very, very poignant. Controversial, I should say, as well. “People have to cooperate for anything to get done. That is why the Tea Party's insistence on holding the debt ceiling hostage in order to force its policies on the country – the first time the debt ceiling has been used this way – was so deeply un-American.” Alright, you've gotten some feedback on that, some – some reaction. Un-American? FAREED ZAKARIA: I'll explain why. First, understand how unprecedented it was. The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960. It has never been used this way, essentially as blackmail. It was not – the Democrats did not use it during the Vietnam War, it was not used this way during Civil Rights legislation. So nobody has ever held a country hostage and say [sic] if you don't pass our policies, we'll blow up the economy, we'll blow up the credibility of the United States. The reason I say it's un-American Wolf, is because the American system, unlike European parliamentary systems, the American system is built on shared powers overlapping authority. Noone is in control in America. You know, there's the President, there's the Senate, there's the House of Representatives, there's state government, and the founding fathers designed it that way because they wanted there to be an effort to create policies through compromise, through consensus. So if you take the position that it's your way or the highway, that if you literally will not give an inch, what you're doing is really against the spirit of the American republic, against the spirit of what the founding fathers wanted.
Continue reading …If you need to get somewhere on time, try not to fly through Newark. The Newark International Airport “has been the worst of the worst,” the Wall Street Journal reports, with a whopping 40 of America’s 100 most-delayed flights taking off or landing there, according to data compiled by the…
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Islamic punk was just an idea in a novel by a disaffected Muslim convert – but for the bands he inspired around the world the scene became real. Now, as The Taqwacores is about to be released, has the scene has already betrayed its ideals? There was a time when the words “Muslim radical” painted a clear enough picture – a young man strapped with explosives, perhaps, or a bearded cleric calling for Sharia law from Land’s End to John O’Groats. But things have changed. The protestors of the Arab Spring are both Muslim and radical, as
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