Conservatives: We Are Being Outworked And Out-Organized In Wisconsin Recall Campaigns
March 19, 2011 No Comment
WASHINGTON — Both national and Wisconsin-based Republican operatives tell the Huffington Post the party is being dramatically outworked and out-organized by Democrats in the recall campaigns being launched against state Senators. The operatives, who raised their concerns out of hope it would jar the GOP into assertiveness, argue complacency has taken over after Governor Scott Walker successfully shepherded his anti-collective bargaining bill into law. While the Wisconsin Democratic Party, with major assists from progressive groups and unions, has harnessed resentment towards the governor into a full-throttled effort to recall eight GOP Senators, neither the enthusiasm nor organizational acumen exists on the Republican side of the aisle. “It’s clear that Democrats and liberal organizations are engaging in an attempt to make recall more than a mere hypothetical possibility for some Wisconsin Republicans,” said Liz Mair, Vice President of Hynes Communications and former RNC Online Communications Director, who has followed closely the work of conservative groups in Wisconsin. “Even though Governor Walker acted to end the impasse, Republicans and conservatives should not be acting like this is done and dusted.” A conservative activist working inside the state on recall efforts was even more explicitly distraught. The Wisconsin Republican Party, the operative said, was not lending resources to the recall campaign groups had launched against Democratic Senators, in turn causing those groups to narrow their target list down from eight lawmakers to just three. “It would be nice if the Republican Party, operatives, etc, would step in with a little money,” said the activist, who asked to remain nameless lest he draw the GOP even further away from the recall effort. “But they are talking about doing radio and I’m not sure that gets you signatures.” “Sure, the first battle was won with the passing of the bill,” the activist added, “but the war is not won. If they come in and recall some of those state senators and none of the Democrats get knocked out, that’s not good for the republicans at all…it is a bit of a mystery to me. You would think they would want to make sure all these [recall] efforts are successful.” The data bears out the notion of a disparity. Reid Magney, a spokesman for the non-partisan Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, described the recall efforts by Democrats against Republican state Senators as more organized than their counterparts. Whereas GOP-run recalls registered at different times and originated from a random spattering of groups–a Utah-based conservative organization was forced to find a partner inside Wisconsin to make its petitions legally acceptable–all of the Democratic activity has run through the state party. “The recalls of Republicans [launched by Democrats] all came in on the same day, they are all organized by the same people, which is the Democratic party of Wisconsin. It’s not on the docs but it doesn’t have to be. The PO box is all the same,” said Magney. “The state GOP is not involved in the same way.” The funding differences, it appears, are even more drastic than the organizational. While Mair pleaded for conservative groups to “raise and spend money in order ensure that those who pushed reform through aren’t turfed out,” Democratic organizations claim to be swimming in a historic pool of funds. Democracy for America, the group started by Howard Dean following his failed 2004 election, said it has raised nearly $800,000 to run ads and help with the recall campaign, which communications director Levana Layendecker described as “unprecedented for a non-election year issue.” In addition, 2,500 volunteers have signed up with DFA to help gather signatures. The group, with 25,000 members in Wisconsin alone, expects that number to only grow. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has nearly 25,000 Wisconsin members its mobilizing as well, is pouring massive resources into an ad campaign to keep momentum behind the recall efforts. Their efforts include a new spot focusing on three GOP state senators (Alberta Darling, Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper). Union groups, while legally prohibited from working with the Democratic Party on the recount, have still pushed to keep the issue front and center, as have a host of other progressive institutions. “I think that the governor really did wake a sleeping giant,” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org. “People feel that what happened was not just a horrible attack but the courage of regular people standing up and getting in the way. That was what electrified folks. It was the first time we had seen anything like that.”
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Watching video clips of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the aftermath are well, shocking, even to a media-overstimulated world. It almost needs a disclaimer. “These are not disaster-movie special effects. This is real.” For everyone in public life, the reaction should be one of horror and sorrow. But in recent years, the definition of “public life” has expanded dramatically with the rise of social and electronic media. It now includes a class of people that has no class. Dan Turner, the allegedly savvy press secretary for Gov. Haley Barbour, resigned after sending an e-mail news digest with a joke referring to the Otis Redding hit “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” to which he added “Not a big hit in Japan right now.” Idiot. Some found themselves ticketed by the Tweet Police. Those forced to clean up their Twitter mess included rapper 50 Cent, who joked that the earthquake forced him to relocate “all my hoes from L.A., Hawaii and Japan.” He — or more likely his agent — tweeted in apology: “Some of my tweets are ignorant. I do it for shock value.” Alec Sulkin, a writer for the Fox cartoon “Family Guy,” one of Hollywood’s most offensive TV programs, proved just how offensive he could be on Twitter. “If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, google ‘Pearl Harbor death toll.’” Even he apologized: “Yesterday death toll = 200. Today = 10 thousand. I am sorry for my insensitive tweet. It's gone.” But it was shrill-voiced comedian Gilbert Gottfried that made national news. He was fired Monday as the quacking voice of the duck mascot of insurance giant Aflac after tweeting Japan jokes such as “They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.” Since the only thing the Aflac duck says is a quacking “Aflac” in varying degrees of duck distress, most Americans have probably never connected this series of vocal performances to Gottfried. It could also be argued that even with nearly 80,000 Twitter followers, not very many people saw Gottfried’s tweets. But the tasteless tweets are particularly problematic for Aflac. It does 75 percent of its business in Japan. Surely, Gottfried wasn’t expecting the negative repercussions. After all, why wouldn’t he be free to misbehave on Twitter the same way he does on television? Are we to think Twitter has greater standards of decency then does the Idiot Box? Gottfried’s been doing the duck voice since 2000. In 2009, Gottfried appeared on a Joan Rivers roast on Comedy Central and cracked that Robin Quivers, the Howard Stern sidekick, was “proud” of being molested by her father and “won't shut up about it…Oh, the shame that poor man must have felt having to hide the fact that his molestation standards were so low!” Where was Aflac then? The obvious answer is that thousands hadn’t died. Still, that didn’t disturb the sensibilities of anyone in Aflac Land? Predictably, some of Gottfried’s tasteless-comedian pals aren’t coming to his defense. Gottfried removed his Twitter jokes, but has since posted comedian Lisa Lampanelli joking, “Some said ‘too soon’ but in his defense, Tokyo IS 13 hrs ahead of us!” Does anyone think Gottfried isn’t already returning to form? Gottfried posted this to his Twitter followers. “Been reading your tweets. More than a few of you have said, ‘F— 'em if they can't take a joke.’ Yup, those are true Gilbert Gottfried fans.” Does this sound like a man apologetic for his actions? On ABC’s “The View,” Joy Behar won the prize for the most ridiculous Gottfried defense. When Sherri Shepherd asked who in Japan was feeling better for these mean-spirited jokes, Behar replied: “Maybe people who just need relief from the terror of it all. I don't know, but I mean, I'm sure people in concentration camps made jokes about each other, about the Nazis, about their situation. That's the way people relieve stress.” Don’t feel too bad for Gottfried, and don’t applaud Aflac, either. He has a new book coming out in April with the transgender-joke title “Rubber Balls and Liquor.” Publishers Weekly promises “[Oral sex] and masturbation jokes punctuate a mix of memoir, angst-ridden anecdotes, and observational humor…and his fans will eagerly skip ahead to a chapter titled ‘Too Soon’ about his now famous Friars Club performance two weeks after 9/11.” That’s when he made a joke about a direct flight into the Empire State Building. Thousands died in New York, too – but apparently not enough thousands for Aflac to fire him back then. Or was it just that the dead were Americans?
Continue reading …Beautiful Earth’s NYC solar powered EV charger follows the sun to Brooklyn Bridge Park
March 19, 2011 No Comment
The solar-powered, green and white Beautiful Earth Group EV charging station, which once found its shipping container internals filled with a Mini E , is no longer. Well, it’s no longer where it was, anyway. It’s now somewhere completely different , a place that happens to be just down the road, a land known by many as Brooklyn. It’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, specifically, and Better Earth has donated the thing to the facilities department there. It’ll be used to charge up the service vehicles that patrol the place, apparently including a pair of GEM and Toro Workman EVs that look like they might have been Photoshopped into the promotional picture above. The presumably non-digitally-manipulated ones will all be recharged using the charging station’s 24 solar cells, generating 5.6kW and, ultimately, saving the world. Or, at least, the Park. Beautiful Earth’s NYC solar powered EV charger follows the sun to Brooklyn Bridge Park originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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I usually love filling out official forms, but the questions on the new census seem designed to do our heads in. It must be some kind of government conspiracy, I tell you Now, I must be honest with you and confess that there is usually absolutely nothing in
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The former US secretary of state helped bring peace to Bosnia, tried to achieve a Middle East settlement and railed against nuclear weapons The former US secretary of state Warren Christopher, who helped bring peace to Bosnia and negotiated for the release of American hostages in Iran, has died at the age of 85. Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner, said Christopher died at his home in Los Angeles on Friday due to complications from bladder and kidney cancer. As the top American statesman under Bill Clinton, Christopher was a behind-the-scenes negotiator. Often called the “stealth” secretary of state, Christopher was known for his understated, self-effacing manner. He had taken the job in January 1993 at the age of 68 and clocked up 704,487 air miles travelling the world. A loyal Democrat and meticulous lawyer, Christopher told the Associated Press his proudest accomplishments included a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and the extension of curbs on the proliferation of weapons technology. He also tried to promote peace in the Middle East, tirelessly travelling to the region. Christopher made more than 20 trips to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel. He was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove 1.8 million people from their homes. However, some critics said the administration had moved too slowly against the ethnic violence. Christopher gave top priority to supporting reform in Russia and expanding US economic ties to Asia and supervised the contested Florida recount for Al Gore after the 2000 presidential election, While Christopher often preferred a role out of the spotlight, he made news as deputy secretary of state in President Jimmy Carter’s administration, conducting the tedious negotiations that gained the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages in Iran. Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. “The best public servant I ever knew,” Carter wrote in his memoirs. Christopher chaired a commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles police department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating by police of motorist Rodney King in 1991. President Bill Clinton said at the time of Christopher’s resignation from the White House that he “left the mark of his hand on history.” As Clinton considered a successor, Christopher offered the criteria he would apply if the choice was up to him. “It would be somebody who has the capacity to provide forceful leadership, someone who has great tenacity, someone who has endurance and a lot of stamina,” he said. Christopher overcame sleep deprivation, difficult negotiations with the likes of the late Syrian president Hafez Assad and nagging ulcers to keep his eye on American interests. Always crisp, modest and polite, he drove home an agreement in his last year on the job to halt fighting in Lebanon between Israel and extremist Shi’ite guerrillas. “We have achieved the goal of our mission, which was to achieve an agreement that will save lives and end the suffering of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border,” Christopher said in Jerusalem after his successful week-long mission. Madeleine Albright stepped in for Clinton’s second term and Christopher returned to his law firm of O’Melveny & Myers with Clinton’s “deep gratitude” for his service and with the president’s playful description of Christopher as “the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork”. Although critics complained that the Clinton administration’s foreign policy lacked dramatic initiatives, the poised and cautious Christopher indicated he was pleased with the results, especially with what he called the “triple play” of a Nafta trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the expansion of US economic ties to Pacific Rim nations and the Gatt accord on international tariffs and trade. “Taking it overall, we’ve done very well on the major issues,” he said at a news conference in 1993, during which he also cited US support for economic and political reform in Russia and the “partnership for peace” proposal to expand the involvement of former Communist adversaries in Nato. Christopher looked back with gratitude on how far he had come from a childhood in Scranton, North Dakota, marked by bitter winters and modest circumstances. His father was a bank cashier who fell ill, and the family moved to southern California during the Depression. After his father’s death, his mother supported the family of five children as a sales clerk. An ensign in the US navy reserves, he was called up to active duty during the second world war and served in the Pacific. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1945 and, after attending Stanford Law School, served as a clerk to supreme court justice William O Douglas in 1949 and 1950. In the late 1960s, he was a deputy attorney general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson. In 2008, Christopher was co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that studied the recurring question of who, under US law, should decide when the country goes to war. It proposed that the president be required to inform congress of any plans to engage in “significant armed conflict” lasting longer than a week. As a successful Los Angeles lawyer, Christopher had a seven-figure income and a beach house in fashionable Santa Barbara. He is survived by his wife Marie, and had four children in two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen. United States Bill Clinton US foreign policy guardian.co.uk
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• Rebel jet shot down over Benghazi • Shelling of rebel stronghold continues • Leaders meeting to put no-fly zone into force • Read the latest summary of today’s events • Read our latest news story on Libya 11.29am: Pro-Gaddafi snipers have killed two people in Misrata, Reuters reports. A resident, called Saadoun, told the news agency: “We have two people dead this morning … because there are snipers on some houses and they are shooting people, they are shooting whoever they see.” 11.26am: More on the situation in Benghazi where Gaddafi’s troops have entered the city and are fighting rebel forces. One witness told Reuters they saw a blast near the rebel national council building that was barricaded by concrete blocks. Six 4×4 pick-ups mounted with machine guns were moved to the Benghazi seafront. But the relatively light arms of rebel forces have proved a poor match for Gaddafi’s heavy firepower. Standing next to his Benghazi home, Hassan Marouf, 58, said: “Europe and America have sold us out. We have been hearing bombing all night, and they have been doing nothing. Why?” “We have no one to help us but God. Us men are not afraid to die, but I have women and children inside and they are crying and in tears. help us,” he said. 11.00am: Pro-Gaddafi forces have fired four or five artillery shells at the Misrata but remain on the outskirts of the rebel-held city, a resident has told Reuters: “They [Gaddafi's forces] bombed the town with four or five artillery shells in the early hours today. The situation is relatively calm now. But they are still on the outskirts of the town, and water to Misrata is still cut off.” A doctor in the city, Libya’s third largest, earlier told AP that it came under sustained assault well after the announcement of a cease-fire by Gaddafi’s regime. The doctor said Gaddafi’s snipers were on rooftops and his forces were searching homes for rebels. He had counted 25 dead since Friday morning: “The shelling is continuing, and they are using flashlights to perform surgery. We don’t have anesthetic to put our patients down.” 10.51am: A rebel leader in Benghazi has appealed to the international community to stop the bombardment of the city by Gaddafi’s forces. Mustafa Abdul Jalil told Al Jazeera television: “Now there is a bombardment by artillery and rockets on all districts of Benghazi. There will be a catastrophe if the international community does not implement the resolutions of the UN security council. “We appeal to the international community, to the all the free world, to stop this tyranny from exterminating civilians.” Another rebel spokesman, Khalid al-Sayeh, told Reuters that Gaddafi’s forces had “entered Benghazi from the west”: “Where are the Western powers? They said they could strike within hours.” 10.35am: AP has more details of the letters Gaddafi has sent to the UN and the US. In the letter to France, the UK and the UN secretary general, he claimed the UN resolution authorising international military intervention in Libya was “invalid” and they would “regret” enforcing it. “Libya is not for you, Libya is for the Libyans,” he wrote. In the other letter, sent to US President Barack Obama, Gaddafi defended his decision to attack rebel cities: “If you found them taking over American cities by the force of arms, tell me what you would do.” 10.29am: Gaddafi has again warned against military intervention in Libya, describing any such act as “clear aggression”, Reuters reports. “This is injustice, this is clear aggression. You will regret it if you take a step towards interfering in our internal affairs,” Gaddafi wrote in a letter to France, Britain and the United Nations, according to a spokesman for his regime. The spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, also said Gaddafi had warned the US in a separate letter that he and all Libyans were “prepared to die” to defend the country. 10.19am: Here’s an interview with Chris McGreal about the fighting in Benghazi, including the shooting down of a fighter jet, which “the rebels now concede it was their only plane”. He adds there is currently “sporadic but fairly intense fighting” in the south west of the city where Gaddafi’s forces have broken through. There are also reports of fighting in the north of the city. 9.45am: My colleague Chris McGreal has just called in from Benghazi about the plane shot down over the city: “Some of the rebels say it’s their plane. It might have been their only plane that was shot down by Gaddafi’s forces.” He has been down to the frontline of the fighting in the south west of the city where Gaddafi’s forces have seized control of the university. We’ll have more details on this soon. 9.30am: Gaddafi’s propaganda war continues on Saturday with the Libyan state news agency claiming his forces are under attack by “al-Qaida gangs” near Benghazi. The Jana news agency report, which contradicts other media reports showing pro-Gaddafi forces attacking the rebel stronghold, states: “Al-Qaida gangs are attacking units of the armed forces which are stationary west of Benghazi.” It is worth noting that pro-Gaddafi officials describe all the rebels as belonging to al-Qaida. 9.16am: This is David Batty, I’ll be taking over the live blog until Saturday evening. AP has more on the fighter plane shot down in Benghazi. One of its reporters saw the plane “go down in flames and heard the sound of artillery and crackling gunfire in the distance”: The fighting galvanized the people of Benghazi, with young men collecting bottles to make Molotov cocktails. Some residents dragged bed frames and metal scraps into the streets to make roadblocks. “Where is France, where is Nato?” cried a 50-year-old woman in Benghazi. “It’s too late.” Government spokesman Ibrahim Musa denied that a government plane had gone down. He also denied government forces shelled any Libyan towns on Saturday, saying the rebels are the ones breaking the cease fire by attacking military forces. “Our armed forces continue to retreat and hide, but the rebels keep shelling us and provoking us,” Musa told AP. 8.57am: Hello, this is Warren Murray opening our latest live blog coverage of Libya, where clashes are continuing despite the regime declaring a ceasefire under threat of a no-fly zone backed by the UN. Overnight there were patchy reports of shelling and explosions around Benghazi and the situation ramped up significantly with confirmation that a fighter plane has been shot down over the city. Here’s a summary of the latest developments: • A fighter plane has been shot down over Benghazi. Video and photos showed the jet flying over the city, then bursting into flames and plunging into the suburbs, with the pilot apparently ejecting. • Loud explosions have been heard in the opposition stronghold , with those on the ground saying government forces have been shelling the rebels. Rebels said they had been forced to pull back as Libyan jets bombed the road to Benghazi airport and the city’s outskirts. • In response the Libyan regime has denied any involvement , saying its entire air force has been grounded and it is respecting its self-imposed ceasefire. • The next stage of the international response is to be co-ordinated at an emergency conference in Paris within a few hours . David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, Hillary Clinton and Arab leaders are among those gathering to give final approval for a no-fly zone. There is a sense that jets will be streaking out to Libya as soon as the group gives the nod. We’ll have all the latest news as it develops. Libya Muammar Gaddafi US foreign policy United Nations Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Warren Murray David Batty guardian.co.uk
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WASHINGTON — As Western powers and Arab allies prepared to meet today for an emergency summit on Libya, President Barack Obama pledged to support a U.N.-backed military campaign against Moammar Gadhafi but said that he wouldn’t send troops to Libyan soil or take over the operation. Obama’s comments, a day after the U.N. Security Council authorized Great Britain and France to launch airstrikes to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, signaled a circumscribed U.S. role in the troubled North African nation and came after a meeting with members of Congress, some of whom have voiced reservations about U.S. involvement. In Libya, Gadhafi announced a cease-fire, but there were…
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Mayor Villaraigosa Announces New Emergency Preparedness Directives for Los Angeles, Part 3 Squad 2 and 2A Reflector TV – Calgary, Alberta – Training with the Calgary Fire Department WorldSpinnerUs says: [ Fire Department Location:ca ] Later that day, as media attention intensified, prosecutors inquire… – http://wo-s.us/o5w
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In the name of oil, Obama only sees Libya – RT 110318 Gadhafi Claims Cease-Fire in Libya as US, Other Powers Prep No-Fly Zone Barry Soetoro Declares War On Libya Without Congressional Approval Weasel Zippers » Blog Archive » Obama's Libya Briefing to Congress … Obama’s Libya Briefing to Congress: “Involvement to be a Matter of Days, Not Weeks”. “I wouldn’t call it consultation as much as laying it out …” (The Cable) — President Barack Obama hosted 18 senior lawmakers at the White House on … Obama Speaks On Libya, Says U.S. Ready To Enforce Sanctions It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. Acert: It is better to remain silent and be thought a. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Acert/ obama-libya -speech-friday_n_837680_81242403.html … Weasel Zippers » Blog Archive » Obama's Libya Speech Sounds … Van Grungy on Obama’s Libya Briefing to Congress: “Involvement to be a Matter of Days, Not Weeks”; Van Grungy on France: Attack on Libya Will Begin Saturday After Summit Meeting; KafirCrusader on Raw Footage of the Tsunami Roaring into … President Obama's Libya remarks – American Banking News President Obama’s Libya remarks Mar. 18, 2011 (United Press International) — The following is a transcript of U.S. President Barack Obama’s statement on Libya… New Obama warning to Libya's Kadafi: Stop right now or allies will … Full text as the Democrat stresses it’s not the U.S. taking unilateral action maybe. epaulnet says: Canada Free Press: Wag the Libyan Dog http://t.co/tVOvFSi #Obama #Libya #War
Continue reading …Netflix is getting into the content biz, confirms ‘House of Cards’ will launch in late 2012
March 19, 2011 No Comment
The rumors are true, instead of simply offering old content from others, Netflix is jumping back into the content business by licensing David Fincher’s upcoming drama House of Cards for Watch Instantly streaming in the US and Canada before it airs anywhere else, or has even been produced. In a blog post and interview with AllThingsD , Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos justifies signing up for the series sight unseen by pointing out the popularity of the earlier BBC miniseries on which it is is based among Netflix members and the collective skills of both the director and lead actor Kevin Spacey. However, if you’re waiting around for fresh content to pop up on Watch Instantly don’t hold your breath, the 26 episode episode run produced by (interestingly, Netflix will neither produce nor own the show) Media Rights Capital isn’t due to arrive until late 2012. Continue reading Netflix is getting into the content biz, confirms ‘House of Cards’ will launch in late 2012 Netflix is getting into the content biz, confirms ‘House of Cards’ will launch in late 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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