[Guest Post by Lee Stranahan] Media Matters has hit an absolute new all-time low, defending not just the Pigford scam but Pigford’s mastermind, attorney Al Pires. Worst of all, they do it in an article entitled “Stossel Once Again Attacks Black Farmers Who Were Victims Of Discrimination By The Federal Government” and by using video Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Patterico’s Pontifications Discovery Date : 06/05/2011 18:06 Number of articles : 4
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• Press F5 or auto refresh for the latest news • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk • Click here for live, in-running league tables • Get the latest scores from around Europe 3.38pm “Plugging shamelessly,” begins Jonathan Wilson promisingly. “Dennis Bergkamp talks at great length about his first touch for the winner v Argentina in 1998 in Issue One of The Blizzard. You can order it here .” You can and you bloody well should, too. (The great Barry Davies also talks about his commentary for Bergkamp’s goal against Argentina in Issue Two, if Wilson decides its worthy of inclusion.) 3.37pm: Newcastle 1-0 Birmingham (Ameobi 36 pen) Carl Cort gives Newcastle the lead from the penalty spot. 3.36pm Birmingham’s Liam Ridgewell has been sent off for handball on the line at Newcastle, who also have a penalty. In other news, Notts County have equalised at home to Brighton. With Walsall 2-0 down, Notts County look safe at the moment. 3.36pm “I was never Dunc’s biggest fan,” says Jon Gard. “HOWEVER, watching that United goal and celebration has just made my day. Although you’ve also upset me by reminding me the first album I ever got was Now That’s What I Call Music. The first one.” 3.35pm Southampton 2-0 Walsall, Rochester 2-1 Torquay. 3.34pm It’s all happening in Stevenage, and it’s not every day you read that sentence on the Guardian. Nicholas Ajose has equalised for Bury to make it 2-2, but Stevenage are still in the play-off places. 3.33pm Bristol Rovers needed to win by 15 goals at Colchester to have any chance of avoiding relegation to League Two. They are losing 2-0. 3.32pm Southampton lead Walsall 1-0. It doesn’t mean much at the top – Southampton were effectively promoted anyway – but it does at the bottom. If Walsall lose and Dagenham & Redbridge get an equaliser at Peterborough, Walsall will be down. 3.31pm: Everton 0-1 Manchester City (Toure 30) Yaya Toure puts Manchester City ahead at Goodison Park from David Silva’s pass. City are finishing the season strongly, and if they win today they will be only two points behind Arsenal. 3.30pm These are the latest EPL (sic) scores: Aston Villa 1-1 Wigan Bolton 0-0 Sunderland Everton 0-0 Man City Newcastle 0-0 Birmingham West Ham 0-1 Blackburn 3.29pm Ben Strevens has put Wycombe 2-1 ahead against Southend. If they win they will be promoted regardless of what Shrewsbury do at home to Oxford. It’s currently 0-0 there. 3.28pm “Re: Joy of Six first touches,” says Ryan Dunne. “Good God! That Baggio clip is amazing. Take it you’d have Bergkamp and Berbatov in there too?” A gentleman never tells. 3.27pm It’s Carlisle 0-1 Yeovil. This, my scrambled brain is pleased to report, is of no significance whatsoever. 3.23pm “I think I could tell you what’s going on,” lies Edie Richards, “but it would involve a third email, which makes me look sad, and a disingenuous link to my website, to a piece that’s actually about why clever players fail. In short, no-one would come out a winner from it. I’d like to apologise for sending this * *And for the further link I’ve put in the word ‘this’ ” 3.22pm Wycombe have equalised at home to Southend, so they leap back into the League Two promotion places. I think. What day is this? 3.21pm …Stevenage 2-1 Bury… 3.20pm “David Silva had the touch of the season from a crossfield diagonal ball from Kompany,” says Katie McKeown. “I dare you to find an example of better control this year!” So long as you don’t double-dare me. Actually, I really want to write the Joy of Six: first touches. This is number one . 3.18pm It’s now Stevenage 1-1 Bury, and I had no idea what implications that has for League Two or world peace. Ah, it doesn’t mean anything. Stevenage are still in the play-off places, as are Gillingham. Torquay are not. 3.17pm Anthony Grant has given Southend the lead at Wycombe, which is big news in League Two. And it’s also Aston Villa 1-1 Wigan , with Ashley Young scoring a free-kick. That might be his last goal for Villa. So now West Ham are only four points from safety. 3.16pm “The small town nearest me, Kirkintilloch, has multiple nightclubs!” says Ryan Dunne. “Although this might be because it’s called “The Canal Capital of Scotland” and wags invariably deface the second word’s C on the signs. There must be a lot of disappointed tourists (or not).” 3.14pm: WEST HAM 0-1 BLACKBURN (Roberts 13) Oh my. Blackburn have taken the lead at Upton Park, thanks to Jason Roberts. As things stand, West Ham are six points from safety with two games to go . 3.13pm A few vital goals in various leagues: Rotherham 1-0 Torquay, Notts County 0-1 Brighton, Peterborough 1-0 Dagenham & Redbridge. This is going to be a long afternoon for my poor fingers. 3.11pm Poor old Merse. He probably looked at Newcastle v Birmingham and thought he’d be fine for names. Barton, Ferguson, Bowyer, Foster, Taylor, Simpson. Easy. Bring it on. And then Birmingham brought in Jean Beausejour. But seriously, Merse is great, one of the best pundits on TV. 3.10pm: ASTON VILLA 0-1 WIGAN (N’Zogbia 10) This is a surprise for most of us, if not the statisticians. Wigan have never lost at Villa Park, and they lead thanks to a neat finish from the excellent Charles N’Zogbia. 3.09pm A goal! A net-tickler! And it’s an important one as well: Stevenage lead Bury 1-0 . If it stays like that they will be in the League Two play-offs. 3.08pm There hasn’t been a single goal in the Premier League or the Football League yet. Eight minutes multiplied by 30-odd games equals a lot of minutes. What the hell’s going on? 3.07pm Do they still play slow songs at nightclubs? Who is the Celine Dion of 2011? It wouldn’t be the same anyway, what with mobile phones and all. Gone are the days of sheepishly asking the DJ for a pen and paper so you could get someone’s phone number, then waving it around like a moron in front of your mates outside the nightclub, then watching in horror as one of your friends decides to grab the paper and eat it. 3.06pm: SECURITY! Department “Better still, I’ve decided, as everyone I know (two and a half people) has gone out without inviting or even telling me, I’m with you all the way this afternoon,” says Ethan Dean-Richards. “I narrowly missed my foot with a knife a minute ago – who knows where this could take us?* *I suspect I do .” 3.04pm Want to know more about the last day’s inaction in the Championship? Then you know what you have to do . 3.04pm QPR have been fined £865,000 for that funny business everyone has been talking about. They probably won’t care less, as they have been promoted as are currently bathing in crisp £5 notes. 3.03pm On Sky Sports, Phil Thompson is growling about a missed chance for Blackburn at Upton Park, with Morten Gamst Pedersen’s shot deflected wide. 3.02pm “I am working today so have given up my season ticket to Everton and as such am missing the return of Duncan Ferguson to Goodison for the first time since he retired,” says Joe Daly. “I also missed his last ever game where he scored in the last minute. Despite his somewhat erratic behaviour on and off the pitch he was my hero from age nine until 20. So if you can report a few Everton goals and maybe a Lescott sending off I’d appreciate it. I’m hoping they just play this on the big screens when he comes on to the pitch.” Or this , or this , or, best of all, this – which, coincidentally, was an unpopular manoeuvre in certain small-town nightclubs in 1994-95. 3pm It’s all kicking off! 2.58pm “Is it the ultimate put down for the Championship that you’ve linked to the Premier League table, there, Rob, or just something Freudian?” asks Ethan Dean-Richards. “Tee and hee.” Yes, hilarity prevails all right. 2.54pm “Jesus,” says Niall Mullen. “I tuned in to get an update on today’s play and all I got was a belly full of 17-year-old shame to the soundtrack of Celine Dion’s ‘Think Twice’ . You weren’t, er, watching me in 1994-95 were you?” I was slow-dancing with you. You don’t even remember? I can’t believe it meant so little to you. Actually, 1994-95 wasn’t the worst time to have a nine-month nightclub-based aberration. There was some wonderfully naff music around back then. And you haven’t known true romance until you’ve slow danced to this . 2.51pm The Championship season has finished. This is the final table , and the play-off semi-finals will be Swansea v Forest and Cardiff v Reading. You don’t need to have been on Eggheads to work out who North London police will be supporting. Bolton v Sunderland team news Bolton Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Cahill, Knight, Robinson, Lee, Elmander, Muamba, Taylor, Kevin Davies, Sturridge. Subs: Bogdan, Petrov, Gardner, Klasnic, Moreno, Cohen, Wheater. Sunderland Mignolet, Elmohamady, Onuoha, Ferdinand, Bardsley, Henderson, Colback, Mensah, Malbranque, Zenden, Sessegnon. Subs: Carson, Muntari, Riveros, Knott, Noble, Adams, Lynch. Referee Kevin Friend (Leicestershire) Aston Villa v Wigan team news Aston Villa Friedel, Walker, Collins, Dunne, Luke Young, Downing, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Ashley Young, Bent, Heskey. Subs: Marshall, Pires, Albrighton, Bradley, Delfouneso, Delph, Cuellar. Wigan Al Habsi, Alcaraz, Boyce, Gary Caldwell, Figueroa, Cleverley, McCarthy, Watson, N’Zogbia, Moses, Rodallega. Subs: Kirkland, Gohouri, Thomas, Di Santo, Gomez, McArthur, Sammon. Referee Mike Jones (Cheshire) West Ham v Blackburn team news West Ham Green, Jacobsen, da Costa, Gabbidon, Bridge, Spector, Hitzlsperger, Boa Morte, Sears, Cole, Ba. Subs: Boffin, Tomkins, Collison, Kovac, Hines, Piquionne, Keane. Blackburn Robinson, Emerton, Samba, Givet, Olsson, Nzonzi, Jermaine Jones, Diouf, Pedersen, Hoilett, Roberts. Subs: Bunn, Formica, Andrews, Santa Cruz, Rochina, Mwaruwari, Hanley. Referee Peter Walton (Northamptonshire) 2.26pm A storming goal from David McGoldrick has made it Palace 0-3 Forest . Newcastle v Birmingham team news Newcastle Krul, Simpson, Steven Taylor, Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Barton, Nolan, Tiote, Gutierrez, Lovenkrands, Ameobi. Subs: Harper, Ryan Taylor, Ranger, Ferguson, Donaldson, Tavernier, Kuqi. Birmingham Foster, Carr, Jiranek, Johnson, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Fahey, Bowyer, Beausejour, Jerome. Subs: Doyle, Phillips, Bentley, Derbyshire, Parnaby, Hleb, Davies. Referee Chris Foy (Merseyside) 2.24pm “As I’m sure many other people will be telling you, today is also the day of the Highland League decider, with the noble Buckie Thistle playing at home to retain their title against their fiercest rivals, Deveronvale,” says Mike Cormack. “I’ll keep you posted…” I love Scottish football . Everton v Man City team news Everton Howard, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Baines, Arteta, Heitinga, Neville, Osman, Rodwell, Anichebe. Subs: Mucha, Bilyaletdinov, Beckford, Cahill, Gueye, Coleman, Vellios. Man City Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, De Jong, Vieira, Milner, Toure, Silva, Dzeko. Subs: Given, Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson, Jo, Boyata, Balotelli, McGivern. Referee Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 2.16pm Leeds’ last 0.00000000000001 per cent of hope has disappeared: Marcus Tudgay has just headed Nottingham Forest into a 2-0 lead at Crystal Palace. Somewhere upstairs, Brian Clough has a big dumb grin on his face. Forest are going into the play-offs where, as things stand, they will face Swansea. 2.15pm Admirable stuff from Leeds, if ultimately futile: they now lead 2-1 at QPR thanks to Ross McCormack’s deflected shot. 2.13pm A token video of Arsene Wenger way back when, when he didn’t look like Jeff Stelling circa 1999. 2.05pm Nothing to see in the Championship. It’s still QPR 1-1 Leeds and Palace 0-1 Forest. These are the other scores . Token mention of Jimmy Glass, what with this being the last day of the season and anything being possible department Jeff Stelling looks a bit like Arsene Wenger in that video. When did Soccer Saturday start? Around 1997? It was certainly an improvement on Sports Saturday . 1.53pm In Scotland, Rangers are predictably mauling Hearts: it’s 3-0, with Hearts down to 10 men. Ten men? Pah! 1.51pm “McGugan,” says Philippa Booth, doing her best drunken-Jack-Black-in-High-Fidelity impression. “Crivens, have just seen that free kick. Have switched to Palace v Forest.” 1.50pm You’ll probably be wanting some permutations for the rest of the Football League, then. League One Brighton and Southampton are promoted (effectively if not mathematically in Southampton’s case) Huddersfield, Peterborough, MK Dons and Bournemouth are in the play offs Swindon, Plymouth and Bristol Rovers are down (effectively if not etc in Bristol Rovers’ case) That means one of Dagenham & Redbridge (47 pts), Walsall (48 pts) and Notts County (49) are going down. All three are playing sides in the top four League Two Chesterfield and Bury are promoted, while the final automatic place will go to either Wycombe (77 pts) and Shrewsbury (76) Wycombe or Shrewsbury and Accrington Stanley will be in the play offs. The final two places are between three sides on 68 points: Torquay (goal difference +23), Stevenage (+17) and Gillingham (+12) Stockport are down, and the other relegation place will be taken by either Barney (45 pts) or Lincoln (47). Barnet’s goal difference is superior, so if they win and Lincoln fail to win, Lincoln will go down Confused? Splendid. Now if you’d just like to lie down on the couch… 1.26pm Leeds are at least going down with a fight at QPR, where Max Gradel has made it 1-1. 1.11pm Talking of Lewis McGugan, this is surely the free-kick of the season. [Cliche] If Cristiano Ronaldo had scored it… [/cliche] 1.10pm We already know who has been automatically promoted (QPR, Norwich) and relegated (Sheffield United, Scunthorpe, Phil Brown FC) from the Championship. We also know that Cardiff, Swansea and Reading are in the play-offs. The remaining play-off place is between Nottingham Forest and Leeds, who are three points and six goals behind Forest. In other words, Leeds need snookers, a miracle, another miracle, and a six-goal swing. It’s not going to happen: they trail 1-0 at the champions QPR , thanks to a goal from Heidar Helguson, while Lewis McGugan has put Forest 1-0 up at 10-man Crystal Palace . So Leeds now need an eight-goal swing. They are facing an eighth consecutive season outside the top flight, which equals their worst run since the 1950s. You can get all the latest scores from the Championship, and the rest of Europe, by clicking here . Preamble Hello. You don’t need to have spent your teenage years in small-town nightclubs – waiting for the slow songs* and then, at 1.44am on a Sunday morning, roaming wild-eyed across sticky flooring as U Sure Do by Strike morphs awkwardly into Celine Dion’s Think Twice – to know what blind panic feels like. Just take a look at the bottom of the Premier League every April and May, when the search for points, any points, becomes all-consuming. Nothing else matters. Not performances, style of play, dignity, or even the fact you apparently want to slow dance to Celine Dion with someone picked entirely at random through rendered eyes across a dimly lit dancefloor. That is certainly the case for West Ham, Wigan, Blackburn and Birmingham today. The only relegation head-to-head (please don’t call it a six-pointer, or you’ll stir the pedant in me. And, as the poster for all Hulk films would say in an ideal world, you wouldn’t like me when I’m pedantic) is between West Ham (32 points) and Blackburn (38). It’s not quite a must-win for West Ham, as they have two winnable games still to come (Wigan away and Sunderland at home), but if they fail today they will be under all sorts of pressure. Time, then, for their manager’s most Churchillian oratory. Avram? Hello? Even his most Duncan Smithian oratory would be an improvement. Anyway, these are today’s fixtures in the Premier League: Aston Villa v Wigan Bolton v Sunderland Everton v Man City Newcastle v Birmingham Tottenham v Blackpool (5.30pm) West Ham v Blackburn We’ll also keep an eye on the last day of the season in the Football League. The Championship matches kicked off at 12.45pm, although there is basically nothing to play for save that most overrated of emotions, pride. * Do they still play slow songs in small-town nightclubs? Do nightclubs still exist in small towns? JJs in Sittingbourne was shut down. Life has never been the same since really. Premier League Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
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It certainly was no surprise after what happened in Pakistan last Sunday that HBO's Bill Maher was going to spend much of his “Real Time” program fawning over Barack Obama. Having done precisely that for approaching an hour, Maher ended Friday's show by calling members of the GOP paranoid, greedy racists (video follows with transcript and commentary): BILL MAHER: 30 percent of this country will always vote Republican. I'm just asking why? Yes, paranoia, greed, and racism are fun, but it's, it's like when you see someone driving a Mercury, you think, you think, “Did that person really wake up one day thinking, ‘You know what car I want to drive, a Mercury Mariner.’” No. No. You assume he knows someone who sells them or he was molested by a Kia dealer as a child. And I know this all sounds like harsh truth but Republicans are supposed to be the party of harsh truths like there's no such thing as a free lunch – and speaking of lunch, I think Obama just ate yours. Most interesting about this concluding segment was that earlier in the program, former Bush speechwriter David Frum several times stated that one of the great revelations from Sunday's raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan was that a large part of the mechanisms enabling the mission were indeed put in place by the previous White House resident. In Frum's, Obama took the ball from his predecessor and ran with it. The point he was making, contrary to protestations by other panelists, wasn't that Bush necessarily deserved credit for something that happened over two years after he left office, but that the current White House resident was utilizing a counter terrorism and intelligence structure created by the previous president thereby giving the mission and its success a distinctly bipartisan flavor. In a nation rife with hyperpartisanship and political sniping, Frum viewed this as an entree to a more civil national discussion. One thing necessary for this to happen was the nation's radio and TV talkers would need to tone down their rhetoric. Maher must not have been listening, for minutes later he called Republicans paranoid, greedy racists. Ironically, folks like Maher and others in the media constantly complain about the caustic tone in this country without ever considering the part they play in fanning the fires of acrimonious discontent. In their distorted world view, only a conservative can be a polemicist. Someone should sit the “Real Time” host down and force him to watch this installment over and over until a light bulb goes on over his head – or am I kidding myself on a Saturday morning?
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The president has good reason to be thankful to the assault team – the raid has silenced his critics and reshaped his image Barack Obama flew to Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border on Friday to thank in person the assault team who stormed Osama bin Laden’s hideout. He has good reason to do so: the raid has transformed the way Americans view their president, changing him overnight from dithering nerd-in-chief to decisive action man. At emotional meetings, held behind closed doors to protect their anonymity, he awarded the units involved the highest honours available to him and heard their first-hand accounts of what happened inside the Abbottabad compound. Afterwards, at an open meeting at the base with other troops, there were cheers when Obama spoke of these “quiet professionals” who had ensured that the terrorist behind the 9/11 attacks “will never threaten America again”. He had told them: “Job well done.” The president spoke to a hangar full of cheering soldiers after meeting privately with the full assault team, army helicopter pilots and navy seal commandos who executed the dangerous raid on Bin Laden’s compound and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan early on Monday. “Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals … the terrorist leader that struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again,” Obama said, speaking at an army post whose troops have sustained heavy losses in a war in Afghanistan, losses that have grown on his watch. A US official said that material retrieved from Bin Laden’s compound shows he was in touch with senior al-Qaida figures and was able to plot future attacks on US targets from his suburban Pakistani hideout. The official said the trove of documents and computer material also includes new video of Bin Laden, both unreleased propaganda tapes and more candid shots like home videos. Obama owes a large debt to the special forces. Since he began campaigning for the presidency in 2007, he has faced criticism that he was not up to the job. First, the Hillary Clinton campaign implied that he was too inexperienced, that he could not handle the 3am crisis call. More followed from John McCain and Sarah Palin. Then came the rightwing commentators Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement. He was too detached, too academic. His patriotism was questioned as was his religion. Stephen Hess, one of America’s most respected commentators on the White House, acknowledged Obama’s changed status since the death of Bin Laden. “His image, fair or unfair, is that he is an intellectual, which he is and which is unusual in a president. Obama thinks about things and takes his time in making decisions, which I think is a good thing.” But Hess, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution, saw the Abbottabad decision as “gutsy, tough, made quickly” and responsible for changing the dynamics of American politics. “It is going to be very hard for Republicans to use any more that label of weak and indecisive,” he said. Helping to reshape the image are those pictures of Obama in the situation room looking grave, grim and anxious as the raid is taking place. He was risking not only the special forces he had sent in but his own presidency, with the danger of a Jimmy Carter-style Iranian hostage rescue debacle that could have finished any hopes of a second White House term. Richard Wolffe, the author of two books on Obama, acknowledged that the perception had changed but insisted the view of the president as weak and naive was always wrong. “If he was as cautious as people said, he could have flattened the building with a bombing raid,” he said. “He makes a few big gambles, but cautiously. He will make the gutsy move, but gets there more slowly. It is a weird combination because we are used to someone who shoots from the hip like Bush or someone more hesitant like Kerry or Clinton. But we have someone who is a combination of the two, someone who is cautious but who makes the calls.” There is a hard core that will never be convinced that Obama is truly patriotic and will continue to insist he was not born in the US, that he is a secret Muslim. But their numbers have dwindled fast because of the combination of his release of his birth certificate a fortnight ago (and his ridiculing of Donald Trump at the White House correspondents’ dinner) and the Abbottabad raid. Beck, Limbaugh and former members of the Bush administration joined in the praise. David Frum, who as an assistant to Bush wrote the “axis of evil” speech, deplored the vilification of Obama as some dark-skinned alien. “So we had this situation where he was not an American, a Muslim, not a patriot. I do not think it [the Bin Laden killing] ends the paranoia but it shoves it back from the centre to the margins. He has shown he understands that the nation has enemies and that force is sometimes the only remedy,” Frum said. The White House and Pentagon almost threw away their advantage with its poor handling of the aftermath, offering exaggerated accounts of what happened and then having to recant. Obama’s meeting with the 9/11 relatives on Thursday and his trip to see the troops at Fort Campbell have undone some of that damage. Within minutes of Obama announcing last Sunday that Bin Laden was dead, US commentators were tweeting that the president had the 2012 election in the bag. That is grossly premature. Obama has not enjoyed the kind of spectacular jump in approval ratings that he might have expected. He has not soared into the 80s, instead seeing relatively modest rises that take him from the mid-40s to the mid-50s. That is mainly because of the sluggish economy. Democratic strategists, speaking anonymously, reluctant to sound negative in a week of good news for the president, are far from convinced he is invincible and are nervous about the slowness of the economic turnaround. Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon polling, agrees. “There is no reason for Democrats to say it is over. I think Republicans thought the same thing in 1991.” George Bush Sr had seen the Berlin Wall fall on his watch and had high approval ratings for his handling of the Gulf war, but still lost. “There is plenty of time for Obama’s shine to fade. Now you have all this stuff surrounding the release of these photos. Not wanting to put them out feeds into the old Obama image, not wanting to offend Muslims. We are a tabloid country. We want to see pictures of Bin Laden,” Coker said, predicting that Obama’s modest boost in the polls would last only a week before being halved. Obama came to power with some of the highest approval ratings in US political history. Millions turned out for his victory night party and inauguration. He has managed to get some of his programme through, delivering on his promise to introduce near-universal healthcare, due to begin in 2014. He has had other gains too, on gay rights, a US-Russian arms reduction deal and preventing the shutdown of government. But there is a lot left to do, including closing Guantánamo, reforming immigration laws and ending tax breaks for the wealthy. These failures have brought criticism from the left. Clarence Jones, a former lawyer and adviser to Martin Luther King, writes regular commentaries calling on the left to mobilise and press Obama to do more. While pleased that it went well in Abbottabad, he would like to see the president “apply the same careful, premeditated, calculating weighing of options about major domestic issues as he did in determining which course of action to pursue to get Bin Laden”. Jones, who helped draft King’s “I have a dream” speech, believes there was an undercurrent of racism behind many of the jibes about the president not being up to the job. “Yes, his academic professorial background was used by his critics to portray Obama as some ivory tower intellectual incapable of taking decisive action. Regrettably there was a racial undercurrent in the suggestions he was not up to the job.” Jones does not believe that the removal of Bin Laden has exorcised that. Politics will return to normal in Washington next week. The Republicans will resume their confrontation with the White House over the size of the national debt. Catching Bin Laden has given Obama an edge in those negotiations and an edge in the longer term. National security is usually a point of weakness for Democrats. But next year, if any Republican rival questions his credentials, the president will have an easy, one-word answer: “Osama”. Barack Obama Osama bin Laden United States US politics Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: NASA Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 – a lot riding on it . Click here to view this media This day 50 years ago the Space Race heated up. Hot on the heels of the Soviet accomplishment, sending their first astronaut (Cosmonaut) Yuri Gagarin into space in April, America quickly followed suit by sending Alan Shepard , America’s first astronaut into space. Here is the sound of the launch from May 5, 1961 and the first Press Conference Shepard delivered on May 8th where he recapped the flight to an overflow crowd of reporters. A large page of history was made on this day and space became the biggest thing on peoples minds. . . .and if you don’t mind . .
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Click here to view this media Well, we had the first Fox Republican debate in South Carolina this Thursday night and of course we then got treated to a Frank Luntz focus group segment for follow up. I don’t know about anyone else, but I got a kick out of watching Hannity try to make amends with the members of that focus group and apologize for the potential Republican primary candidates that dissed their state and primary voters and didn’t show up there. And who did the panel say they loved during the debate? Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and “tea party” favorite Herman Cain. Tim Pawlenty can’t be thrilled that someone who was considered a B-list candidate showed him up tonight. The panel didn’t react very well to Romney deciding to bow out and to the Donald, who I never thought was a serious candidate in the first place, like Palin, and him needing to finish up his television series before he can participate in debates. It looks like the Republican primary race is off to a rocky start when Rupert Murdoch can’t even summon enough of them that are actually going to run to show up for one of his debates in what is extremely friendly territory to say the least. Here’s more on Luntz’s segment and their reaction to the debate — Focus group: Herman Cain clear winner in first GOP Presidential debate : If Frank Luntz’s South Carolina focus group had their way, businessman and talk show host Herman Cain would be America’s next President. Cain’s honesty and candid answers won over a large number of those present. One man said he worked for Mitt Romney in the 2008 election, but would now campaign for Cain. Others said they appreciated the fact Cain never held public office, and his answers were not those of a polished political operative. When asked about this in the debate, Cain said he “was proud” he had never held public office. He noted that most in Washington have held public office and asked, “how’s that working out for us?” Only one person went into the debate saying Cain was his first choice, but the vast majority switched by the end of the hour and a half long event.. Cain joined former Senator Rick Santorum, Congressman Ron Paul and former Governors Tim Pawlenty and Gary Johnson for the first GOP Presidential debate held Thursday night in South Carolina. Santorum came in second with Luntz’s group. Other presumed candidates were not present, something the focus group did not appreciate.
Continue reading …Peter King says don’t take cheap shots at the President over national security — like he did
May 6, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Rep. Peter King is one of the blowhards of the GOP who uses every opportunity to paint President Obama and the Democratic Party as weak on national security, but now listen to what he said to Bill O’Reilly after pumping the torture meme: KING: And that’s why I think it’s really wrong, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, when they go out of their way to take cheap, personal shots at a President. It’s OK to criticize, but they are going through incredible stress and strains at all times and one small mistake; now just think if the President made the wrong decision when he OK’s the mission, you could have had civilians killed and you could have had Navy SEALs wiped out…. O’REILLY: It was a daring mission… Do you think he was talking about himself? I’ll never forget when he told people at the Merrick Jewish Center that conditions on the ground in Iraq were just like Manhattan back in 2006. As soon as the underwear bomber was arrested he immediately took to the airwaves to ridicule Obama and the administration because the suspect was arrested and given his Miranda warning. Peter King thinks the key to protecting America is for Obama to use the word “Terror” more. New York Rep. Peter King, a leading Republican critic of the White House on terror policy, offered a piece of advice on Good Morning America today: Obama should speak the word “terrorism” more. “You are saying someone should be held accountable. Name one other specific recommendation the president could implement right now to fix this,” host George Stephanopoulos said to King. “I think one main thing would be to — just himself to use the word terrorism more often ,” said King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee What about this fearmongering of the Times Square plot? KING: Well, I was very critical of the administration for the Major Hasan shooting. I was also very critical of the Abdulmutallab incident on Christmas Day. As far as this one, Chris, the evidence isn’t in yet as to what was available. Based on what we’ve seen, I don’t know if we could have stopped him before he got — Shahzad before he got to Times Square. We’ll have to wait until, you know, all the dots are put out there. It’s very difficult because we don’t get very much information from this administration. But one real criticism I do have, Chris, is what happened in the last hours of the investigation. Beginning some time on Monday afternoon, high administration sources were leaking out the most confidential, classified information which compromised this investigation, put lives at risk and very probably caused Shahzad to escape and make it undetected to the airport. Or this golden oldie: Peter King Compares Obama Not Doing Press Conference on Bomb Plot to Bush Not Going to New Orleans After Katrina And who can forget his ridiculous attacks of Comedy Central? Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that a car bomb found Saturday night in Times Square might have been the work of Islamic extremists who were upset over an episode of the Comedy Central series that attempted to depict the prophet Muhammad. It’s one possibility out of 100, but this vehicle was close to a Viacom building, which owns MTV and Comedy Central,” King said Sunday during an appearance on CNN. ” Maybe he’ll tell Kit Bond the same thing. Administration’s handling of Christmas bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Bush’s similar handling of shoe-bomber Richard Reid in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” On Tuesday, Bond had called for Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan’s resignation after an increasingly politicized debate on how the administration has handled the Abdulmutallab case. During the MSNBC interview, anchor Savannah Guthrie asked Senator Bond to make a distinction between the mirandizing of previous terror suspects and Abdulmutallab. “When Richard Reid was mirandized, treated in the civilian court system, same as Zacarius Moussaoui, the 9/11 co-conspirator, did you call for anyone’s resignation because of that?” Guthrie asked. “It’s a lot different time,” Bond responded. “We now have military commissions…It turns out that mirandizing Richard Reid and trying him in the civilian courts was a bad idea.” “He is serving a life sentence right now, he will never get out. How is that a failure?” Guthrie shot back. Read on… Maybe he had a pang of remorse after acting like a jerk all those other times, but I doubt. Maybe all the heat he took for his race baiting Muslim hearings had something to do it with? Maybe it was because he got busted for being an IRA supporter? Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army . “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry,” Mr. King told a pro-I.R.A. rally on Long Island, where he was serving as Nassau County comptroller, in 1982. Three years later he declared, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.” I do know that I’ll remind him of his new words every time he tries to demonize Obama’s national security policies.
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Academic sorts have declared modern pop to be chock-a-block with narcissism. Gwilym Mumford checks the charts for proof “Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.” The words of cigar and incest aficionado Sigmund Freud. Unfortunately, for anyone who still values a concept as hackneyed as “love” in the age of Bieber, a new study into pop lyrics has unearthed a pronounced shift away from caring and sharing for one another and towards a form of – for want of a better phrase – aggressive narcissism. Dr Nathan DeWall and fellows of the University of Kentucky used the lyrical content of the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1980 to 2007 as the basis for their results, and claim that the rampant spread of ego-pop is in keeping with the broader social trends of the much fretted-about 16-24 age group. Of course, this study was restricted to the US, where a man who refers to himself as “The Donald” is somehow polling credibly for the Republican presidential nomination, but what of our own sceptred isle? A look into the lyrical content of this week’s UK top 40 broadly suggests a similar movement towards narcissism, though there are some notable caveats. Firstly, it must be noted that the American artists currently occupying the top spots across the pond are largely dominant here, with only the likes of Birdy, Adele, Jessie J, Starboy Nathan and Katy B breaking up the J-Lo-led hegemony. Equally, R&B and hip-hop have a near universal presence in the chart – that’s J-Lo again – skewing the subject matter somewhat. One suspects that a study taken during the “landfill indie” boom of the mid-noughties would have resulted in less talk of poppin’ Cristal and more weeping uncontrollably at sunsets. Still, suggestions that pop has descended entirely into shrill self-aggrandisement do seem off the mark. A quick run-through of the lyrics of this week’s top 40 show that the words used most frequently are: Like, Tonight, Got, Wanna and Dollar. Not only does this bear out DeWall’s theory, they would make a fairly typical lyric. There are, however, a decent smattering of socially conscious tracks dotted around the chart, touching on topics as varied as feminism (Beyoncé’s Run The World), gay and lesbian rights (Lady Gaga’s Born This Way), and just being accepted for who you really are (Loser Like Me, by the ever-present cast of Glee). Even the bone-headed Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO smuggles a message of boozy amicability in among the braggadocio. What’s more, the displays of narcissism present in modern pop tend to be as carefully manufactured as the messages of love and solidarity. The Black Eyed Peas, currently at No 13 with Just Can’t Get Enough, vacillate so frequently between self-centredness (My Humps) and We Are The World-apeing calls for global group hugs (I Gotta Feeling, Where Is The Love) that it’s hard to imagine anyone taking either of their personas entirely seriously. And Lady Gaga receives more press coverage for the manner in which she promotes and publicises her songs than for the actual music itself. Narcissism may be on the rise, but it’s probably fake. Let’s hope that proves some consolation. Pop and rock guardian.co.uk
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Quick-cook polenta is one of the great standbys of the store cupboard. But it needs a bit of embellishment to show off its best side Of all the dry store cupboard ingredients, quick-cook polenta makes the fastest meal. But remember that polenta needs plenty of enhancements – butter, cheese, olive oil – to turn on its soft and soothing charm. Grilled green polenta (V) This rich dish needs a simple, sharp salad. Later in the year, try diced tomatoes very lightly dressed with olive oil and red-wine vinegar instead of this rocket salad. Serves six. 40g basil 20g parsley 20g rocket 10g tarragon 1 clove garlic, crushed 70ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing 600ml water 150g quick-cook polenta 70g parmesan (or other mature hard cheese), grated 70g unsalted butter Salt and black pepper 100g ricotta For the salad 100g rocket 250g cherry tomatoes, halved ½ small red onion, thinly sliced 4 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp lemon juice Put all the herbs, the crushed garlic and the olive oil in a food processor, blitz to a paste and set aside. In a large pan, bring the water to a
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Lost in the moral maze surrounding Osama bin Laden’s death? John Ford’s classic western will show you the way As a certain someone once said: there’s an old poster out west … actually, forgive me. There’s an old poster by my desk, as I type this, for a movie that would have been at the forefront of my mind this week even were I not staring at a picture of Jimmy Stewart holding a pistol and looking rather troubled . If you haven’t seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , then consider yourself immensely lucky, because you have the most wonderful treat ahead of you. The gazillions who know and love the John Ford classic, though, will be familiar with the story, set in a frontier town menaced by the outlaw Liberty Valance. Our principals are the grizzled cowboy John Wayne and the idealist newcomer Jimmy Stewart. A lefty lawyer beginning his political career, Stewart takes a frightful kicking from the start, but sticks with his programme of social reforms for the town – you may be on the point of spotting the analogy – working to improve education and even racial equality. Of Liberty Valance, he insists to John Wayne: “I don’t want to kill him. I just want to put him in jail.” Who’d have thunk it, then, that the person who should face down the outlaw in a duel is not John Wayne, but Jimmy Stewart. And who’d have thunk it even more that it is the bookish idealist who kills Liberty Valance with a single shot, in a piece of good fortune he can scarcely believe. Needless to say he becomes the town hero, and gets Wayne’s gal. It is only subsequently that Wayne tells him that the shot that killed Valance in the so-called duel was in fact fired by him, from across the street. Not the fairest of fights, you might be thinking – but in the Duke’s mind, the end justified the means. He urges Stewart to run for office and live up to the status this misattributed act has bestowed upon him – which Stewart duly does, becoming the state’s first governor and then a senator. Yet weighed down by the moral compromise on which his success is based, he finally confesses all to a local newsman when he returns from Washington for John Wayne’s funeral. Now he has learned the truth about Liberty Valance’s death, does the reporter debunk the myth? Please. He burns his notes, uttering the immortal line: “This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” And so to Barack Obama, who will forever be The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden, with all the inevitable moral grey areas the title implies. Admittedly, the facts about Bin Laden’s shooting have been corrected rather sooner than those concerning the death of Liberty Valance. At this rate, it will emerge by Monday that the al-Qaida chief was naked, with his hands up, and shrieking, “Not the face! I’ll tell you everything!” when he was gunned down. But whilst it might appear that the ineptitude of the White House communications department is rivalled only by that of the Pakistani security services, those first golden hours of mythmaking have shaped the narrative that will endure in American consciousness. The legend has become fact. For my own part, despite considering myself a liberal, I must confess my tears have struggled to liquefy over the manner of the unarmed Osama’s dispatch. It’s not that my bleeding heart is all out of type A, nor am I summoning the cartographers, having finally discovered the outer limit of my liberal sensibilities. But it has been a while since I’ve had to make imperfect sense out of this type of moral muddle without the aid of West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. This extraordinary tale really is made for Sorkin, that most brilliant poet of liberal realpolitik, in whose hands its moral complexities and compromises would stay lodged in the public consciousness far longer than the current mudslinging between the CIA, Pakistan, the military and the international lawyers could ever guarantee. Channel-hopping only a few hours before the White House announced Bin Laden’s killing, I happened to stumble upon the Sorkin-scripted movie A Few Good Men, and watch for the umpteenth time Jack Nicholson’s terrible bastard of a colonel deliver that horribly convincing post-moral speech about why Tom Cruise’s college boy lawyer can’t handle the truth. That movie ends with Colonel Jessep facing trial, quite rightly, and it is difficult to disagree in theory that the Bin Laden story should have ended in a courtroom too – though what the al-Qaida Nuremberg would look like is anyone’s guess. Rather than taking place post-conflict, it would involve trying one’s enemy in an information war, while that war is still ongoing. (Incidentally, can you remember a single thing from Saddam’s trial? I’m ashamed to say all that sticks in my mind is the thought of the trapdoor opening at his hanging.) Indeed, as far as The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden goes, one can’t overlook that its Liberty Valance precursor was a story about the end of frontier – the creation of civil democracy out of a land of vigilantism and wild west brute force. Given that we are supposed to live in that civil democracy today, I know it would have been better – or perhaps righter – to have brought Osama to trial. But I can also see how it was never going to work out that way. And I do hope that Aaron Sorkin is the man to create enduring cinematic magic out of that Gordian knot. Osama bin Laden Obama administration Barack Obama John Ford James Stewart John Wayne US politics United States Marina Hyde guardian.co.uk
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