MSNBCs Wolffe Suggests Obama Reasonable & Grownup, GOP Irresponsible Children
July 24, 2011 No Comment
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty Sunday accused President Barack Obama of “hiding in the basement” instead of speaking to the American people directly about his plan to raise the debt ceiling. “As important as the debt ceiling is, the other issues of whether we’re going to fix the spending problems of the country also deserve attention, and if not now, when?” Pawlenty told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “He’s ducking, he’s bobbing, he’s weaving, he’s not leading leading, and that’s not the kind of president we need. And that’s why he needs to be removed from office.” “We should say that apparently with Speaker Boehner, he has talked about some of these reforms,” Crowley noted. “In hiding,” Pawlenty interrupted. “If you’re the leader of the of the free world, would you please come to the microphone and quit hiding in the basement about your proposals and come on up and address the American people? Is he chicken?” “Is he?” Crowley pressed. “I love Paul Ryan, but we should not have to have a congressman from Wisconsin leading the debate on the nation’s financial challenges in one of the most historically moments in the country’s history. The president should be standing out courageously and leading on these issues specifically, and you can’t find him,” Pawlenty said. “If we wanted to do it in private, we can go down to the VFW basement. I can go have a beer with my neighbor over that. He’s the president. Come on out of the basement and come out to the lawn of the White House to the microphone and tell us your plan on entitlement reform and he won’t do it because he doesn’t have the courage to do it.” But Obama has spoken to the American people about the need to raise the debt ceiling in a series of interviews and press conferences in recent days. “President Obama has been spending more time in the White House briefing room that a C-Span cameraman the past couple of weeks,” Mediate’s Tommy Christopher observed Sunday. And the White House has presented the public with the same proposal to raise the debt ceiling as past administrations. “Our very strong view is that the debt limit should be passed as a clean, standalone bill,” Office of Management and Budget director Jack Lew told Bloomberg TV in April. “It has always been a straight up or down vote,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said Thursday . “The new leadership in the House has decided that they want to add some budget cuts or other considerations to this vote, because that is their preference, and they are the leadership, so we are in this quagmire.” “The problem here is that there are two issues tied together that shouldn’t be,” Christopher opined. “If Republicans want to see a ‘plan’ to avoid a default, here it is: raise the goddam debt ceiling. Is that specific enough?”
Continue reading …CBS’s Schieffer Mimics Obama, Proposes Republicans ‘the Party that Can’t Say Yes to Anything?’
July 24, 2011 No Comment
Adopting the spin of President Barack Obama — who on Friday insisted “one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is: Can they say yes to anything?” – on Sunday’s Face the Nation CBS’s Bob Schieffer demanded of Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl: “Is there a problem for Republicans that might emerge as just the party of no? The party that can't say yes to anything?” Kyl delivered a fine retort, pointing out the Republican-controlled House has “said yes to something and gotten strongly criticized,” the Cut, Cap and Balance plan as well as the Ryan budget which “the President, a lot of his folks came out and savaged it. But they've never put on a budget on the table. So twice Republicans have said yes. The only thing we haven't said yes to is job-killing tax increases.” (Over on NBC’s Meet the Press , Andrea Mitchell sputtered about even having a debt ceiling and the incompetence of conservatives for pledging to not raise taxes. “I don't understand how 236 members, by the way, sign a pledge of no taxes before they even start coming in to compromise,” Mitchell sniped toward the end of the roundtable, before fretting: Why do we have a debt ceiling? We’re the only major industrial country that does. Can we just get rid of the thing? Only Denmark has a debt ceiling.) Earlier on Face the Nation , Schieffer condescendingly wondered: Do you think that Republicans – particularly those in the freshman class over in the House – understand just how serious this debt limit crisis is? Because so many of them ran for and were elected on a platform of I promise no way no how will I ever raise taxes. Schieffer acknowledged “the Democrats are having a hard time, a lot of them, with talking about reforming Social Security and Medicare,” yet he failed to press either White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley or Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, his two Democratic guests, about actually committing to any adjustment in entitlement programs. He did, however, push Kyl on “revenues,” asking: “Republicans, as you point out, are having a hard time with anything that looks like a tax increase. Could you tell me something that Republicans would be willing to compromise on in the way of revenues?” Last week : CBS’s Bob Schieffer touted how President Obama has made “concessions” but, he sputtered, “I don't hear any concessions from people on the other side. They just say no taxes, and that’s their negotiating posture.” He demanded of Senator Marco Rubio: “Can you have meaningful reform here without increasing revenues in some way?” From the July 24 Face the Nation: BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you this, Senator. Do you think that Republicans – particularly those in the freshman class over in the House – understand just how serious this debt limit crisis is? Because so many of them ran for and were elected on a platform of I promise no way no how will I ever raise taxes. So that puts them in a really tough spot. Do you think they understand what might happen if you can't raise this debt limit here? SENATOR JON KYL: Part of the problem, as you point out, is if you look at the public opinion surveys the majority of Americans don't want us to raise the debt ceiling. What the Republican leadership has said, look, it's got to be raised but perhaps we can satisfy the large majority of American public by accompanying that with large deductions in spending. Spending is our problem here. If we can show them that we can substantially reduce spending then maybe we can go ahead and make this debt ceiling extension without too much political repercussion. SCHIEFFER: Is there a problem for Republicans that might emerge as just the party of no? The party that can't say yes to anything? Do you see that as a political problem? KYL: Bob, I would just put it the other way. The first thing I pointed out was that twice Congress has passed something. They've said yes to something and gotten strongly criticized. Did you know, when the Ryan budget was passed, the President, a lot of his folks came out and savaged it. But they've never put on a budget on the table. So twice Republicans have said yes. The only thing we haven't said yes to is job-killing tax increases. SCHIEFFER: The Democrats are having a hard time, a lot of them, with talking about reforming Social Security and Medicare. Republicans, as you point out, are having a hard time with anything that looks like a tax increase. Could you tell me something that Republicans would be willing to compromise on in the way of revenues? I know you want to bring the tax rates down by eliminating some of the deductions. What would be some of the deductions that you might get Republicans to go along with? KYL: Let me just back up one stage. I was part of the so-called Biden talks. We agreed to at least $150 billion in increased revenues. Now they weren't tax increases but they were user fees, user fee increases, sale of assets and so on. So it's not as if we're against revenues. It's just we don't like to see the tax increases but on the tax side we have uniformly said we need tax reform. And the President, we believe, is correct when he said on the corporate tax rate, for example, in order to be more competitive around the world we need to bring our corporate rate down. We're by far and away the highest in the world. We could do that by eliminating some of the deductions and credits and then with that savings reducing the rate. So that's the way we would prefer to deal with that. SCHIEFFER: Say, for example, would you be willing to eliminate the deduction on mortgage interest rates? KYL: Well, I'll listen to my constituents on that. They'll have a lot to say about it. I think it can be reduced somewhat but that's something that is very important to a lot of Americans…
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Political views, we’re not so sure. But he’d certainly help the White House get in touch with its emotions. That’s right, the man who gained viral fame by shedding tears at the sight of a double rainbow wants to be your next Commander-in-Chief. Paul “Bear” Vasquez is that man, who currently lives in a mobile
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Nafissatou Diallo, whose identity has been protected until she decided to speak, wants the former IMF boss to ‘go to jail’ The hotel worker allegedly attacked by Dominique Strauss-Kahn has spoken out for the first time, revealing her identity and detailing her alleged attack. Nafissatou Diallo, whose identity had been protected until she decided to speak, gave interviews to Newsweek magazine and ABC news detailing her alleged attack by the former International Monetary Fund boss. The case against Strauss-Kahn appeared close to collapse last month after Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said Diallo had lied about her background. In the Newsweek interview, Diallo, 32, stands by her account of the attack and criticises the former French presidential hopeful. “I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money,” she said. Diallo said she hoped God punishes him. “We are poor, but we are good,” she said. “I don’t think about money.” According to Diallo, she entered Strauss-Kahn’s room in the Sofitel New York hotel on the morning of 14 May to find him naked. “Oh, my God,” Diallo said. “I’m so sorry.” “You don’t have to be sorry,” she claims he said. She claims he then attacked her, grabbing her breasts. He was like “a crazy man to me”, she said. Diallo said she was afraid of losing her job and of hurting Strauss-Kahn, 62, who is shorter than the 5ft 10in cleaner. She goes on to recount in graphic detail the alleged attack. “I push him. I get up. I wanted to scare him. I said, ‘Look, there is my supervisor right there.’ But he said there was nobody out there, and nobody was going to hear.” After a struggle she said Strauss-Kahn forced her to have oral sex. Strauss-Kahn’s semen was found in the hotel room and on Diallo’s uniform but his lawyers have denied that a forced sexual encounter took place. They have also questioned Diallo’s links to Amara Tarawally, a convicted drug dealer who put money in accounts owned by Diallo. The New York Times reported US authorities had recorded Diallo telling Tarawally words to the effect of, “Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing.” But Newsweek reports prosecutors did not have a full transcript of the call, which had been conducted in a dialect of Fulani, Diallo’s language. The actual words are somewhat different, sources told Newsweek. Guinean Diallo has also been accused of lying about her past in order to get a US visa, and of fiddling her taxes. In an interview with ABC to be aired this week, Diallo acknowledged “mistakes” but said they should not stop Vance’s office from going forward. “God is my witness I’m telling the truth. From my heart. God knows that. And he knows that,” she said. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, William Taylor, told Newsweek: “What disgusts me is an effort to pressure the prosecutors with street theatre, and that is fundamentally wrong.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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• Markit household finance index drops to two-and-a-half-year low • Hometrack reports widening divide in housing market A sustained decline in living standards, soaring inflation and worries about job prospects sent the UK’s main index of household finances down last month to its lowest level since the depths of the recession, adding to concerns that the chancellor, George Osborne, needs to make greater efforts to boost the economy. The Markit household finance index dropped to its lowest level for two and a half years, marking eight months of falling consumer confidence . A survey of the housing market also painted a gloomy picture, with only 8% of postcodes posting a small rise, all of them in London. Hometrack, the property data company, noted a widening north-south and east-west divide, with a 0.3% rise in prices across the south-east and East Anglia, compared with a 0.6% decline in the south-west. Vince Cable, the business secretary, highlighted the growing alarm in cabinet at the poor state of the economy when he said that growth was so worryingly weak that the Bank of England should undertake another round of monetary expansion through quantitative easing. Cable believes that without further action Britain could wait many years for a recovery after being locked into a long L-shaped recession. “There is a genuine problem with demand, especially consumer demand,” he said, speaking ahead of Tuesday’s second-quarter UK growth estimates, which are likely to show minimal or no growth, way below what the Treasury needs if it is to meet its three-times downgraded 1.7% growth forecast for this year. A year ago the Office for Budget Responsibility was forecasting 2.3%. Cable was careful to follow Osborne’s argument that looser monetary policy is preferable to a U-turn on tax increases and spending cuts. Speaking on the BBC, Cable said: “If there is a sustained period of weakness of demand, the right approach to that is not for the government to relax its fiscal discipline. We have to keep that going. “It is about the Bank of England pursuing policies of low interest rates, which also help keep our exchange rate down and help exports, but also using expansion, quantitative easing in more imaginative ways, not just in acquiring government securities.” Osborne appeared to rely on deregulation and promised corporation tax as his chief weapon to combat stagnation. He told the Sunday Telegraph he wanted to do away “with very high rates of tax that only damage growth and enterprise”. His remarks reflect frustration that public spending has not been cut as planned, leaving the deficit higher than forecast. In another sign of cabinet nerves, Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, spoke of “icebergs” facing the UK economy, which he said were “probably the worst in the lifetime of anyone now living”. Clarke, a past chancellor of the exchequer, said that it might take another two to four years for the economy to recover. The minutes of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee have shown board members increasingly willing to try more quantitative easing if inflation falls and the economy is not growing. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, warned that unless the UK economy grew by 0.8%, Osborne’s borrowing would rise above current forecasts. “Simply to be on track for his plans, the economy’s got to grow by 0.8%,” he said. “I don’t hear many people in the City who think that’s going to work. If it doesn’t work, it undermines his credibility.” A study of wages over the past 30 years found that the bottom half of earners have seen their share of GDP fall by a quarter, at the same time as the share going to the top 1% of earners increased by half. The report, Missing Out, by the thinktank Resolution Foundation said that of each £100 of GDP, only £12 is paid as wages to the bottom half of earners, down from £16 in 1977. In comparison, £3 is paid to the top 1% of earners, up from £2 in 1977. The report said: “The largest factor explaining the declining fortunes of the bottom half of earners is the growing gap between the best and worst paid. Inequality has increased in all sectors – from finance to retail – resulting in a wage squeeze for ordinary workers.” Consumer spending Economics Housing market Vince Cable George Osborne Kenneth Clarke Ed Balls Quantitative easing Interest rates Tax and spending Bank of England Patrick Wintour Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media By now, there’s no question in anyone’s mind that the tragic Norway shootings are the work of a right-wing extremist who appears to at least have been influenced by web sites like StormFront.org, among others. But watch these Fox talkers avoid it completely, even in the beginning, where they open up by asking if this can “really be compared to the Oklahoma City bombings.” Not only do they deny it, they manage to turn everything on its head to portray the guy as someone with a deep fear of Islamic extremists. By far, the most intellectually dishonest and insidious part of this report is the characterization of Anders Behring Breivik as a “domestic extremist.” I defy anyone here to explain exactly what the hell a domestic extremist is. Seriously. Taking apart this silly video step by step, let’s begin with who they decided to put on as an “analyst”. Fox News “correspondent” Catherine Herridge, author of the book ” The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits “. Just to give you a flavor of her thought processes, here’s a small snippet from her book from a section recording her thoughts during the KSM tribunal: So Janet fixes the sketch to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s satisfaction. Within minutes, the sketch is carried to our live shot position on the tarmac about 50 yards from the courthouse. It is filmed by the pool TV crew and then broadcast to millions. Later in the evening, I sit on the equipment box near the live shot position. The sun is dropping like a red, hot ball into the Cuban hills. “Who’s in control,” I say under my breath. “Us or the terrorists?” There you go. Typical Fox News them-or-us thinking, resplendent with lots of fear of the brown guys. Now, on to the transcript: ANCHOR: Many comparisons made to the Oklahoma City bombing. Are they valid? HERRIDGE: Well, I think they are valid. I spoke with a US official last night in Oslo and I said “Hey, is this Oklahoma City comparison appropriate” and they said absolutely because on the face of it, based on what we know from the investigation, it’s a case of domestic extremism and there do not appear to be any known links to an outside terrorist group. We’ve had a series of arrests this morning but it really does appear to be an act that was driven by a single suspect or lone wolf operative , Dave. DAVE: And it’s this guy, Anders Brevik who was not hiding his extremism, he had this video online, he was very active in social media. How was this missed and is that the takeaway? … Can someone please tell me what a “domestic extremist” is other than a euphemism for Fox News avoiding their responsibility to report the truth to their viewers? As Dave pointed out yesterday , this is part of the reason these people get away with what they do. As you can see, the host is getting away with blaming social media, Norway’s law enforcement authorities for not monitoring social media more closely for people like this, and just about everything but coming out with the truth: Brevik was not a “domestic extremist.” He is a radical right-wing cultural warrior who has been influenced by many different people, including Tim Phillips, director of Freedomworks , apparently. Herridge, instead of discussing the fundamental problem here, spends an inordinate amount of time blaming the Internet for his views. There is some truth to what she says. It’s easy to turn social media, blogs, and other content into an echo chamber which then magnifies anger and hate. Just have a look at Andrew Breitbart’s timeline sometime for an example. He specializes in that kind of tactic. Still, it’s beside the point. The point here is that Brevik espoused extreme right-wing political positions and acted on them to inflict political mayhem on his countrymen. Let’s not forget that he didn’t just target a random group of people. He chose to target the youth movement of the current political party in power, which is further evidence of just how far he was willing to go to eradicate opposition. Unfortunately, deluded Fox News viewers will just go on thinking he was some sort of amorphous ‘extremist’ deluded by social media. Business as usual.
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The LA Galaxy star may seek an ambassadorial role rather than coach when his playing career comes to an end The sun is beating down on the Home Depot Centre, the grinding routine of training is over for another day and David Beckham is making his way to the side of the pitch, looking every inch the modern‑day American superstar. Outside, on Avalon Boulevard, there are already photographers gathering, just as they do every day when Beckham has
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Click here to view this media Sen. Dick Durbin warned Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation that if the Congress did not come to some sort of agreement on raising the debt limit by today, Sunday, they’re risking hitting a tipping point where the bond markets start reacting. Durbin also warned against just doing a short term extension and putting us through all of this dangerous nonsense again in a few months. DURBIN: Well, we absolutely do not want to default, but this notion that we’re going to replay this movie in four or five months, that we’re going to face this whole thing all over again, the American economy is too fragile at this point in recovery for us to allow that to happen. We’ve been warned, not by political advisers. I hear the Republicans, they want to make this a campaign issue. Ignore the political advisers for a moment. Listen to the economists who are telling us, all of us together, do not lurch from one five month period to another when it comes to the credit rating of the United States of America. Not at this moment in history. It’s going to hurt us. It’s going to stall our recovery. And I might say to Speaker Boehner, he should remember six words. If you break it, you own it. […] Tim Geithner, our Secretary of the Treasury, has warned us that at some moment, there’s a tipping point here. These political negotiations will go on too long and people will start paying the price. And it won’t just be the politicians. It’s going to be the average working family in America, the average business that’ll face this new burden from this failure to reach an agreement that they are all going to sense and feel. They’re going to see in their savings a reduction in value, I’m afraid if we don’t extend the debt ceiling. That’s why it’s critical for us to reach an agreement today. I’m wondering if they’ve already messed around for too long because the market downturn could start when the Asian markets open up this evening.
Continue reading …Fox Business correspondent Gasparino falsley claims network has covered Murdoch scandal ‘very seriously’
July 24, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Fox Business Network senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino insisted Sunday that the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network had provided adequate coverage of the scandal involving their parent company News Corp. “It’s a story, we’ve been covering it a lot,” Gasparino told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour. “Thank God I cover Wall Street. I don’t have to report on my boss.” “If you look at this from a purely business standpoint, you know, the market — I think the stock fell to $13 a share. Nineteen was the high. After Rupert Murdoch spoke [to Parliament], it went up to $17 a share. When they heard his explanation, they believed him. Confidence was returning back to the company.” “Actually, the coverage on Fox and The Wall Street Journal of the story has been embarrassing for journalism,” The Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington pointed out. “Editorials in The Wall Street Journal — forget Fox, nobody really expects Fox to do this seriously…” “Fox has covered this very seriously, Arianna,” Gasparino objected. ” The Wall Street Journal ‘s editorial is whitewashing what is a very serious scandal that we have not seen the end of,” Huffington continued. “I think we have covered this well. We have straight news reporters that have covered this all day,” Gasparino claimed. In fact, the Pew Research Center found that Fox News’ coverage of the Murdoch scandal trailed far behind CNN and MSNBC between July 6 and July 15. Fox News had devoted less than 30 minutes to the story, while CNN and MSNBC each devoted over 140 minutes.
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