Wednesday, February 16, 2011

TVNewser: The day Jane Velez-Mitchell went to work wearing two different shoes

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The day Jane Velez-Mitchell went to work wearing two different shoes
HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell talks about the three miracles in her life, including going vegan: "No matter how many stupid things I say here, I know I'm a winner because at the end of the day I haven't killed anything to get through this day." Velez-Mitchell also opens up about her unlikely inspiration for coming out [...]
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/jane-velez-mitchell-part-iii_b50895

Rosen Apologizes for Logan Remarks: 'A man should never joke about women being abused or harassed'
FishbowlDC's Betsy Rothstein interviewed journalist Nir Rosen about the offensive Tweets he sent yesterday about CBS' Lara Logan — after she was assaulted in Egypt. Rosen tweeted that Logan was trying "to outdo Anderson" — referring to the attack on CNN's Anderson Cooper in Egypt on Feb. 2. Rosen told Rothstein, "I feel like when [...]
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/rosen-apologizes-for-logan-remarks-a-man-should-never-joke-about-women-being-abused-or-harassed_b53352

Rosen Apologizes for Logan Remarks: ‘A man should never joke about women being abused or harassed ’

By Molly Stark Dean on February 16, 2011 2:07 PM

FishbowlDC’s Betsy Rothstein interviewed journalist Nir Rosen about the offensive Tweets he sent yesterday about CBS’ Lara Logan — after she was assaulted in Egypt. Rosen tweeted that Logan was trying “to outdo Anderson” — referring to the attack on CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Egypt on Feb. 2.

Rosen told Rothstein, “I feel like when you have done something so offensive and stupid, even trying to explain it seems like you are justifying it and what you say will be taken out of context.”

Rosen will be on “Anderson Cooper 360″ tonight.

Newsmax: Obama Wants 1,054 IRS Agents for Obamacare

Even Democrats Savaging Obama on Budget

Sen. Scott Brown: I Was Sexually Abused as a Child

IRS: We Need 1,054 Agents, $359 Million to Cope With Obamacare

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TimesWatch Tracker: Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest

Sunday Front Page: Clarence Thomas Caught in Quiet-Gate Controversy!
News you can use: "The anniversary will probably be observed in silence. A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument."

Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest
The "advocacy group" battling "conservatives" and Justice Clarence Thomas: "...Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” over the weekend of the retreat. The event is organized by Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita, Kan., to finance conservative causes."

Calmes Again Compliments Obama's Budget; Times Bashed Bush's Budgets
Jackie Calmes again suggests Obama's budget for fiscal year 2012 threaded the needle just right between spending cuts and increases, downplaying his lack of leadership on deficit-cutting: "With this year's deficit projected to hit a record, $1.6 trillion, he laid out a path for bringing down annual deficits to more sustainable levels over the rest of the decade."

Jackie Calmes: Behold Obama's Budgetary Brilliance
Reporter Jackie Calmes defends Obama's lack of budgetary leadership as clever strategy: "...President Obama has not opted for the bold, comprehensive approach to reining in the fast-growing federal debt....[reflecting] a White House calculation: that 'now' is too soon for the nation's political system....Plenty of people here in both parties, even deficit hawks among nonpartisan budget analysts, agree with that White House logic."

'Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down' - Will Your Home Survive Global Warming?
Reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal rushes in where scientific consensus fears to tread: "Global warming is most likely responsible, at least in part, for the rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events - like floods, storms and droughts - since warmer surface temperatures tend to produce more violent weather patterns, scientists say."

Deborah Solomon Gives Up 'Q&A' Slot; Showed Blatant Hostility Toward Conservatives
Peter Baker's respectful interview with Donald Rumsfeld in the Times Sunday Magazine makes quite a contrast with Deborah Solomon's aggressive and hostile approach toward conservatives like William F. Buckley and Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Sunday Front Page: Clarence Thomas Caught in Quiet-Gate Controversy!

Besides the drumbeat of criticism of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over his speaking engagements in front of conservative groups, the Times updated another traditional line of Thomas criticism on Sunday’s front page: He doesn’t speak during Supreme Court arguments (as if that would make the Times any less dismissive of his conservative philosophy). The latest iteration of the criticism is headlined “ No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence,” from Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak. And this time, the Times has figures to back up its fascinating premise.

Legal reporter Neil Lewis wrote a story about it for the December 17, 2000 Week in Review. Former Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse devoted her March 11, 2010 column to Thomas’s long silence. Some excerpts from Liptak's front-page contribution to this vital topic:

The anniversary will probably be observed in silence.

A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument.

If he is true to form, Justice Thomas will spend the arguments as he always does: leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, whispering to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, consulting papers and looking a little irritated and a little bored. He will ask no questions.

In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much less five, without speaking at least once during arguments, according to Timothy R. Johnson, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. Justice Thomas’s epic silence on the bench is just one part of his enigmatic and contradictory persona. He is guarded in public but gregarious in private. He avoids elite universities but speaks frequently to students at regional and religious schools. In those settings, he rarely dwells on legal topics but is happy to discuss a favorite movie, like “Saving Private Ryan.”

Here’s Liptak uncovering Quiet-Gate.

Justice Thomas has given various and shifting reasons for declining to participate in oral arguments, the court’s most public ceremony.

He has said, for instance, that he is self-conscious about the way he speaks. In his memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” he wrote that he had been teased about the dialect he grew up speaking in rural Georgia. He never asked questions in college or law school, he wrote, and he was intimidated by some fellow students.

Elsewhere, he has said that he is silent out of simple courtesy.

Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest

The Times went after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas again in Tuesday’s report by Eric Lichtblau, “ Court Is Asked to Clarify Thomas’s Ties to a Retreat.”

Discrepancies in reports about an appearance by Justice Clarence Thomas at a political retreat for wealthy conservatives three years ago have prompted new questions to the Supreme Court from a group that advocates changing campaign finance laws.

When questions were first raised about the retreat last month, a court spokeswoman said Justice Thomas had made a “brief drop-by” at the event in Palm Springs, Calif., in January 2008 and had given a talk.

In his financial disclosure report for that year, however, Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” over the weekend of the retreat. The event is organized byCharles and David Koch, brothers who have used millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita, Kan., to finance conservative causes.

Despite all the free publicity the Times has given to Common Cause’s recent conflict-of-interest complaints against Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia, the paper has yet to report on the vulgar and racist remarks about Thomas (“String him up”) made by Common Cause-affiliated protesters and caught on video January 30 outside a resort in which the Koch brothers had organized a conservative meeting. Lichtblau himself even covered the protest, in flattering fashion.

Also note Lichtblau’s labeling disparity: While the Federalist Society is “conservative,” and the Koch brothers “finance conservative causes,” their leftist opponents at Common Cause are twice considered merely an “advocacy group.”

Arn Pearson, a vice president at the advocacy group Common Cause, said the two statements appeared at odds. His group sent a letter to the Supreme Court on Monday asking for “further clarification” as to whether the justice spent four days at the retreat for the entire event or was there only briefly.

....

Common Cause maintains that Justice Thomas should have disqualified himself from last year’s landmark campaign finance ruling in the Citizens United case, partly because of his ties to the Koch brothers.

In a petition filed with the Justice Department last month, the advocacy group said past appearances at the Koch brothers’ retreat by Justice Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia, along with the conservative political work of Justice Thomas’s wife, had created a possible perception of bias in hearing the case.

The Citizens United decision, with Justice Thomas’s support, freed corporations to engage in direct political spending with little public disclosure. The Koch brothers have been among the main beneficiaries, political analysts say.

And which “political analysts” would those be?

Calmes Again Compliments Obama's Budget; Times Bashed Bush's Budgets

Jackie Calmes again made approving noises over Obama’s budget proposal for the fiscal year 2012 on Tuesday's front page: “Obama’s Budget Focuses On Path To Rein In Deficit.” As she did yesterday, Calmes treated the Obama budget as just right in its balance of spending cuts and increases (as opposed to the “Republican plan for immediate deep spending cuts”) and gave him a pass for putting off the tough choices.

With President Obama’s release on Monday of a budget for next year and House action this week on a Republican plan for immediate deep spending cuts, the nation is getting its clearest view since the president took office of the parties’ competing visions of the role of government, the urgency of addressing the deficit and the best path to long-term economic success.

Mr. Obama used his budget for the fiscal year 2012 and beyond to make the case for selectively cutting spending while increasing resources in areas like education and clean energy initiatives that hold the potential for long-term payoffs in economic growth. With this year’s deficit projected to hit a record, $1.6 trillion, he laid out a path for bringing down annual deficits to more sustainable levels over the rest of the decade.

Republicans said it was not nearly enough to address chronic fiscal imbalances and reduce the role of the federal government in the economy and society.

Neither party has put forward specific proposals to begin grappling with the most pressing long-term budget problem: the huge costs in the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs as the population ages and medical costs rise, a bill that could overwhelm the government and crimp the economy if not addressed.

“We’re doing things that are the most painful and of least long-term economic value because we’re not willing to do the things that everybody, at least privately, agrees are necessary,” said Vin Weber, a Republican Party strategist and former congressman.

Nonetheless, with his budget, Mr. Obama was pivoting from the emphasis in his first two years on costly efforts to revive the economy. He said his plan would reduce the total projected deficits over the next decade by $1.1 trillion, or about 10 percent.

His budget, for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, would cut spending for an array of domestic programs, including community services and environmental protection, and reduce the Pentagon’s previously proposed budget by $78 billion over five years. At the same time, it would make room for spending increases for education, infrastructure, clean energy, innovation, as well as research.

By contrast, President Bush’s budget proposals for the fiscal years 2005 and 2006, with their own mix of spending priorities, were criticized in the Times both for being “austere” and, conversely, for failing to reign in the “record-high deficit.” Reporters Edmund Andrews and David Rosenbaum insisted of Bush’s $2.57 trillion budget proposal for 2006:

By any measure, the new budget is austere. It calls for deep cuts next year in almost every category of domestic spending outside the mandatory entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are based on laws adopted in previous years.

And in her February 3, 2004 report on Bush’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2005, Elisabeth Bumiller declared it dead on arrival and wondered if Bush could survive the "cuts to popular programs" (left unnamed) in his $2.4 trillion budget:

Mr. Bush's calculation is that voters will care far more about protecting the nation from another terrorist attack than about cuts to popular programs, or, for that matter, the record-high deficit....Like his State of the Union address, Mr. Bush's budget calls for no big new domestic programs and in fact forces him to cut so deeply that even his Republican allies in Congress called it politically impractical and said restorations were inevitable.

Bumiller got that from a budget proposal that actually increased discretionary spending outside of the military and domestic security by 0.5 percent.

You can follow Times Watch on Twitter.

Jackie Calmes: Behold Obama's Budgetary Brilliance

Washington reporter Jackie Calmes evidently approves of Obama’s budget in her Monday morning story before the document’s official release: “ A Cautious Approach Seeking Bipartisan Appeal.”

Calmes has been a big booster of Obama’s stimulus package, insisting that no reputable economist can deny its success.

Calmes gave Obama credit on Monday morning for his “characteristic caution” (a phrase that provides the big-spending president a false patina of moderation), while the print edition text box implied Obama got the mix just right, like Goldilocks: “Analysts agree President Obama’s budget should be bolder, but not yet.”

With the budget he is to unveil Monday, President Obama has not opted for the bold, comprehensive approach to reining in the fast-growing federal debt that his own fiscal commission has said is needed, now.

That decision partly reflects Mr. Obama’s characteristic caution, but also a White House calculation: that “now” is too soon for the nation’s political system. And that boldness could backfire -- wounding not just a president facing re-election next year but also the prospects for bipartisan agreement on the very tax and spending-cut proposals that all sides realize are needed to truly stem the projected red ink in a nation confronting high health care costs and an aging population.

Plenty of people here in both parties, even deficit hawks among nonpartisan budget analysts, agree with that White House logic.

Those fierce “deficit hawks” include liberal Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad.

Calmes played defense for Obama’s lack of budgetary leadership:

With Republicans newly in control of the House and holding a bigger minority in the Senate, these people argue, the party needs time to at least try to push its own ambitious agenda for reducing government with the deepest spending cuts in memory. To compromise too soon would enrage the Republicans’ political base, in particular Tea Party activists who fueled the party’s election gains in November.

And, the reasoning goes, were Mr. Obama to propose a drastic debt-reduction plan as an invitation to Republicans to join him at the bargaining table -- a plan with the kind of far-reaching tax changes and spending cuts for the military, Medicare and Social Security that a bipartisan majority of his fiscal commission recommended in December -- he would most likely get an immediate “no, thanks” from Republican leaders, perhaps poisoning prospects for bipartisan talks for the foreseeable future. In fact, all three House Republican leaders on that commission opposed its majority report.

The headline in The Hill newspaper online was not as forgiving: “Obama budget falls far short of debt commission savings plan.”

'Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down' - Will Your Home Survive Global Warming?

For the Sunday Week in Review, reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal filed yet another credulous report on the dangers of global warming, finding a unique apocalyptic angle: “ Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down – Most buildings – ice rinks, stadiums and homes – were built with specific weather conditions in mind. Will they survive climate change?”

Rosenthal showed an even more cataclysmic outlook in a December 14, 2009 piece on glaciers in the Andes mountain range in South America:

A World Bank report concluded last year that climate change would eliminate many glaciers in the Andes within 20 years, threatening the existence of nearly 100 million people.

From Rosenthal’s Sunday morning jeremiad:

Under the weight of record snows, roofs across the Northeast have been buckling this winter, raining debris on children skating in ice rinks, crushing cows and tractors in farmers’ barns and even flattening a garage full of antique cars. In December, nearly 18 inches of new heavy snow brought down the roof of the Metrodome in Minneapolis, forcing the Vikings to temporarily relocate to Detroit.

Why? Rosenthal knows. She found certainty in an issue that is actually subject to heated scientific debate:

....The litany of extreme weather events has often left local officials scrambling to respond to each new crisis, looking -- by turns pathetic and heroic -- like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike, trying to fend off nature’s monumental forces.

Global warming is most likely responsible, at least in part, for the rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events -- like floods, storms and droughts -- since warmer surface temperatures tend to produce more violent weather patterns, scientists say. And the damage these events have caused is a sign that the safety factors that engineers, architects and planners have previously built into structures are becoming inadequate for the changing climate.

After several paragraphs of environmental fearmongering, Rosenthal eventually admitted that no one really knows the future impact of “climate change.”

Widely varying predictions about climate change make it especially hard for engineers to build for the future -- or for insurers to guard against weather-related losses. Indeed, scientists do not entirely understand the complex ways in which warmer temperatures influence weather.

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2010 had tied for the warmest year on record in terms of land and sea surface temperatures. At the simplest level, a warmer ocean surface means more evaporation into the atmosphere -- and all that extra water has to come down somewhere, probably accounting for more frequent and severe storms. But it is not easy to predict which places will suffer snow or rain and which will experience drought.

Deborah Solomon Gives Up 'Q&A' Slot; Showed Blatant Hostility Toward Conservatives

Upon first skimming the New York Times Sunday Magazine “Q&A” with Donald Rumsfeld, I steeled myself for reporter Deborah Solomon’s usual hostility. Finding instead neutral questions designed to invite substantive responses from the subject, I rubbed my eyes and checked the byline.

Sure enough, Solomon’s announced retirement as section contributor had come to pass, with reporter Peter Baker taking over interviewing duties (at least this week).

Some of Solomon’s low-light interviews include a hostile one she conducted with conservative icon William F. Buckley, especially compared to the fawning one she gave racially inflammatory Al Sharpton the very next week.

A couple of the questions Solomon asked Buckley for the July 11, 2004 edition of the magazine:

You have made so many offensive comments over the years. Do you regret any of them?

It's not fair to blame the press. Some of your most inflammatory comments have been made in your essays and columns. In the 50's, you famously claimed that whites were culturally superior to African-Americans.

By contrast, while interviewing Sharpton, Solomon not only ignored Sharpton’s inflammatory history, but invited him to accuse another black personality -- Bill Cosby -- of racism!

I wonder how you feel about Bill Cosby's recent comment that too many African-Americans speak ungrammatical English and fail to rear their children properly. Does that strike you as racist?" It takes chutzpah to ask Sharpton (he of "white interloper" fame) if someone else is using racist language.

And in an interview with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for the August 31, 2008 magazine, she callously asked:

If the Republican Party bills itself as the party of family values, what should we make of the fact that you rejected the name your parents gave you, their political affiliation and their religion?

You can follow Times Watch on Twitter.

TimesWatch Tracker: Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest

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MRC Alert: ABC Highlights Victims of Obama's Budget Plan, CBS Touts New Spending as 'Investments'

A daily compilation edited by Brent H. Baker, CyberAlert items are drawn from daily BiasAlert posts and distributed by the Media Research Center's News Analysis Division, the leader since 1987 in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.

Support the MRC's work with a donation - it's fast, free and secure!

Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Wednesday February 16, 2011 @ 08:56 AM EST

1. ABC Highlights Victims of Obama's Budget Plan, CBS Touts New Spending as 'Investments'
The three nightly news broadcasts on Monday touted Barack Obama's new spending as "investments," highlighted victims of the White House's cuts and ignored key facts about the President's 2012 budget. Evening News reporter Chip Reid used the preferred White House language, asserting, "But the President unveiled his budget at a technology school to highlight new investments, especially in education and innovation, including funding for 100,000 new math and science teachers, $32 billion for biomedical innovation and a doubling of funding for green energy research."

2. CNN's Malveaux Endorses Reporter's Question from the Left to Obama
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux complimented a media colleague on Tuesday's Newsroom who hit President Obama from the left that morning. April Ryan cited the liberal Congressional Black Caucus's criticism of Obama's proposed budget, that "rebuilding our economy on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans is something that is...not acceptable." Malveaux stated that Ryan "brought up a very good point." Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, twice raised Mr. Obama's past as a community organizer in her two questions to the President during his 11 am press conference.

3. WaPo, Boston Globe, Others Laughably Trumpet Obama Budget's 'Deep' Cuts to 'Rein in Deficits'
With the unveiling of Obama's 2012 budget, some newspapers around the country framed the $3.7 trillion proposal as a serious attempt to slash the federal deficit. The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Daily Herald, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the DC Express, couched the administration's massive budget as a fiscally responsible plan that makes "deep" and "big" cuts to "rein in deficits."

4. ABC News Frets Over PBS Cuts: 'Big Bird on the Chopping Block?'
The ABCNews.com website on Tuesday used the Sesame Street character Big Bird to worry about potential Republican cuts to PBS. Next to a picture of the forlorn puppet and some concerned children, a graphic alerted, "Big Bird on the Chopping Block?" The article, by Huma Khan, discussed the efforts by the House GOP to cut of funding to PBS, but didn't feature a single quote from any such Republican.

5. NY Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest
The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau on the "advocacy group" battling "conservatives" and Justice Clarence Thomas: "...Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of 'transportation, meals and accommodations' over the weekend of the retreat. The event is organized by Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita, Kan., to finance conservative causes." Yet the Times has avoided covering the violent and racist things said at a Common Cause-affiliated protest of the Koch brothers.

6. Chris Matthews Questions Sanity of 'Zany' CPAC Attendees
On Monday's Hardball Chris Matthews, who devoted much of last week's shows to Egypt, got caught up on some conservative bashing as he mocked those who attended CPAC as "zany" and likened the conference to a "carnival act." The MSNBC host, joined by fellow liberals David Corn of Mother Jones magazine and Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, led the show by describing the event as a "right wing jamboree that puts the zany in the same room as the zanier."

7. Harvard Professor Slams Obama's Handling of Egypt; 'Morning Joe' Panel Dumbfounded
For about ten minutes on MSNBC Monday, Harvard History professor Niall Ferguson offered a articulate, detailed, and biting indictment of President Obama's handling of the crisis Egypt – and those disagreeing on the usually Obama-friendly Morning Joe panel could offer little of substance in response. Co-host Mika Brzezinski began the segment reading Ferguson's latest column – which is the latest Newsweek magazine cover story – and asked him to expound on Egypt, saying that "it actually seems like it went pretty damn well."

8. FNC's O'Reilly Calls Out ABC and NBC for 'Big Omission' of Planned Parenthood Video Sting
On Friday's O'Reilly Factor, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly held ABC and NBC News to account for failing to cover the recent Planned Parenthood video stings conducted by the pro-life organization Live Action: "Fox News and CNN covered the...tapes extensively and CBS News did as well...However NBC and ABC News both ignored the situation....it was a pretty big omission." O'Reilly challenged two liberal political science professors on the lack of coverage and the reasoning behind it. Speaking to Dr. Caroline Heldman of Occidental College and Dr. Mark Sawyer of UCLA, O'Reilly cited the Media Research Center's reporting of ABC and NBC's silence on the issue.

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Church Foreclosures Surge, Seen as 'Next Wave' in Crisis

Fox News| The Wall Street Journal January 25, 2011

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/25/churches-end-nigh/?intcmp=prn_baynote-js_Church_Foreclosures_Surge_Seen_as_Next_Wave_in_Crisis

ROSEVILLE, Calif.—Residential and commercial real-estate owners aren't the only ones losing their properties to foreclosure. The past few years have seen a rapid acceleration in the number of churches losing their sanctuaries because they can't pay the mortgage.

Just as homeowners borrowed too much or built too big during boom times, many churches did the same and now are struggling as their congregations shrink and collections fall owing to rising unemployment and a weak economy.

Since 2008, nearly 200 religious facilities have been foreclosed on by banks, up from eight during the previous two years and virtually none in the decade before that, according to real-estate services firm CoStar Group, Inc. Analysts and bankers say hundreds of additional churches face financial struggles so severe they could face foreclosure or bankruptcy in the near future.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/25/churches-end-nigh/?intcmp=prn_baynote-js_Church_Foreclosures_Surge_Seen_as_Next_Wave_in_Crisis

20110125 Fox WSJ Church Foreclosures Surge

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Lara Logan's Egypt Interrogation Tell-All: "The Army Is Not on the Peoples' Side. The Army Is on Its Own Side."

February 11, 2011 at 11:47AM by Foster Kamer

A LONG NIGHT IN CAIRO /// "We were detained by the Egyptian army. Arrested, detained, and interrogated. Blindfolded, handcuffed, taken at gunpoint, our driver beaten. It's the regime that arrested us."

Lara Logan has, so far, not been declared insane. This despite arriving in Cairo today, just as President Mubarak was leaving, just a week after her driver was beaten there and she — a CBS News reporter, one of America's most visible foreign correspondents — was detained and interrogated in secret along with her crew, by the army, in an undisclosed location, and told to leave the country, post-haste. Because Mubarak was about to step down, and chaos would break out anew. And yet, a voice comes on in the background over the phone Thursday night: an airline pilot reminding Logan and her fellow passengers that they're in for what should be a smooth, overnight flight to Egypt... http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/lara-logan-egypt-5219471

Photo Credit: CBS (Logan); Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty (army officer)

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recent articles on the Baltimore Orioles spring training in the Sarasota herald-Tribune

http://www.heraldtribune.com/

February 15, 2011 http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2011/02/recent-articles-on-baltimore-orioles.html

Orioles have 3-hour workout

Though Ed Smith Stadium and the back fields are undergoing renovations, the camp had a familiar feel to Jeremy Guthrie, the team's projected Opening Day starter. Published February 15, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110215/ARTICLE/102151048

Orioles' fans flee cold for dose of spring training

Combination of new facility, tough Northeast weather and Orioles' fans cause for optimism Published February 15, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110215/ARTICLE/102151051

Baseball a welcome break from snow, cold

Heads tilted downward afforded them a sight both unique and welcomed. Grass. Looking up, another vision for the sore-eyed. Blue skies. "I haven't seen a sky without a cloud in years," said Frank Humphreys of Parkville, Md. "We talked to our son...Published February 15, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110215/ARTICLE/110219853

New-look Orioles are ready for camp

The optimism the Baltimore Orioles derived from their fine performance last year under manager Buck Showalter was enhanced by a productive offseason during which the team addressed virtually every need. So, can anyone blame Showalter and the Orioles...Published February 13, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110213/ARTICLE/102131041

By luck or Buck, O's on rise

SARASOTA He'll be fair, but fiery. He'll teach, accepting the physical errors that accompany any athletic endeavor, but woe is the Oriole who lets his mind turn to mush. Because William Nathaniel "Buck'' Showalter won't tolerate it. He's too modest...Published February 10, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110210/COLUMNIST/102101067

Let it snow, baseball set for spring

The regular season opens Thursday, March 31.Published February 9, 2011 http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110209/ARTICLE/102091038

LABELS: SPORTS BALTIMORE ORIOLES, SPORTS BALTIMORE ORIOLES 2010 SPRING TRAINING, SPORTS BALTIMORE ORIOLES 2011 SPRING TRAINING, SPORTS BASEBALL

20110215 HerTrib Orioles spring training articles

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Westminster Maryland Online http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/ http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/

February 15, 2011 CBS News' Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Separated From Her Crew And Brutally Assaulted on Day Mubarak Stepped Down

February 15, 2011

CBS News' Lara Logan Assaulted During Egypt Protests

CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Separated From Her Crew And Brutally Assaulted on Day Mubarak Stepped Down

(CBSNews) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/15/60minutes/main20032070.shtml

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/15/60minutes/main20032070.shtml

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Biting the source that feeds you - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

Biting the source that feeds you BY EDWARD WASSERMAN WWW.EDWARDWASSERMAN.COM http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/14/v-fullstory/2062773/biting-the-source-that-feeds-you.html

It’s the climax of the 1975 hit Three Days of the Condor. On a Manhattan sidewalk fugitive CIA analyst Robert Redford, having outgunned his assassins, confronts his double-dealing boss, who demands he join the sinister plot to control the world’s oil. No way, Redford says, he’s already blown the whistle. And the camera pans across the street where a truckload of newsprint is being delivered – to The New York Times. Game over.

Ahh, Hollywood. But what really happens when you’re a major league whistleblower? Say you’ve acquired sensitive documents of huge public importance, very hush-hush. Although it’s bound to annoy powerful people and may expose you to reprisal, you deliver them to the world’s mightiest news media, including The New York Times, which use them in sensational articles that have worldwide impact.

The Condor’s triumphant fourth day? Well, no. Sure you’ve handed over official secrets of global significance at considerable personal risk. That’s not enough. You’ve also got to be charming. Make sure your clothes are laundered and wrinkle-free. You may be living out of a backpack and pulling impossible hours culling data, but don’t forget to bathe regularly. And even if one of the organizations you’ve given this material to violates the conditions you set, don’t you dare get angry.

And know this: That every conversation you have with the reporters you’re working with, every snarky comment they make about you, every detail of your collaboration, may be used in a high-profile account of the whole affair that will portray you as a peevish, contemptuous, slouching, disheveled, foul-smelling, paranoid, self-serving, manipulative, volatile ideologue... http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/14/v-fullstory/2062773/biting-the-source-that-feeds-you.html

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/) http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

SpringTrainingOnline.com: Vintage postcard: “St. Petersburg’s New and Modern Baseball Field, St. Petersburg, Florida.”

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Westminster Maryland Online http://www.westminstermarylandonline.net/ http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/

Byron York - In Hawaii, a dispiriting glimpse of one-party rule

Byron York - In Hawaii, a dispiriting glimpse of one-party rule
HONOLULU - In Hawaii, there are 25 members of the state Senate. Twenty-four are Democrats. And then there is Sam Slom.
Slom, the lone Senate Republican in the state of President Obama's birth, has represented East Honolulu since 1996. He hasn't always been the only GOP senator; in the last session, there were two. But Republicans fared poorly at the polls in November, and Slom was left alone.
Which means that Democratic bills to increase state spending, to impose new regulations and mandates and to create new government departments are often passed on votes of 24-1. "I represent a point of view that would not be represented," the conservative Slom says, "even if it's just one voice."
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Sara A. Carter - U.S. officials fear other revolutions won't be bloodless
Inspired by the regime collapses in Egypt and Tunisia, opposition groups in Yemen, Iran, Bahrain, Libya and Algeria are trying to seize what may be a fleeting moment of freedom. But in some of those countries the chances of relatively bloodless revolutions are small, U.S. officials fear. That was evident Monday as groups clashed with security forces attempting to clamp down on protests in several Islamic cities. Four days of protests against longtime Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh have led to violent confrontations, including the death of a protestor over the weekend. Protesters marched for the first time to the presidential palace Sunday. On Monday, the anti-government groups fought with pro-government protesters outside Sanaa University.
The United States would like to buttress the government in Yemen, an ally in the Gulf and a bulwark against a virulent al Qaeda cell that would flourish in the chaos of a government collapse. But even a new counterterrorism program announced by Pentagon officials Monday to train Yemeni forces against al Qaeda may prove too little too late, a Yemeni diplomat told The Washington Examiner.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Susan Ferrechio - 2012? 2011 still needs budget

As Congress and President Obama clash over the 2012 budget, they do so without having ever signed into law a spending plan for the current fiscal year. Seven months remain in fiscal 2011, and so far the government has been funded by a series of stopgap measures that maintain spending mostly at 2010 levels. In fact, government operations for the rest of the year could be funded by similar temporary measures if Democrats and Republicans can't agree on a budget. Read More

Brian Hughes - Obama proposes $3.7 trillion budget for 2012

President Obama on Monday sent Congress a $3.7 trillion budget reliant on a host of cuts to programs championed by his liberal base, a shift in funding that would be used to pay off historically high government investments in education, public transportation and energy. However, the president's professed "down payment" on the towering national debt did little to appease deficit hawks, who said Obama was sidestepping his obligation to tackle soaring entitlement costs. Read More

Susan Ferrechio - GOP: Obama not serious about cutting deficit

President Obama's $3.7 trillion spending proposal for 2012 was for the most part embraced by Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill Monday despite a five-year spending freeze and $30 billion in reductions. Read More

Mark Tapscott - Ethanol industry buys a top seed and three key politicians
Food prices here in America and around the world are rising quickly in great part due to the growing demands for corn to make ethanol in order to satisfy government mandates for its use.
Besides higher food prices, however, this form of government bureaucrats picking winners and losers in the energy market is having another unexpected consequence - boosting genetically modified food. Syngenta, a Swiss-based firm, recently got the go-ahead for sales of its genetically modified corn seeds.
Ethanol companies are cheered by the news because the genetically modified seeds are far better suited for growing corn destined to be refined into fuel instead of food. Critics worry that the two radically different strands of corn will inevitably get mixed up on the food chain, with unpredictable health and nutritional results.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Philip Suderman - Fun with math: 2012 proposed budget edition
The New York Times has an interactive graph up of the $3.17 trillion proposed governmental budget up on their website. Some of the more interesting numbers:
* $808.04 billion in mandatory spending for the Social Security Administration (which the CBO has stated, barring any reforms, is permanently set to give out more money than it is taking in).
* $474.15 billion for interest on Public Debt -- not the principal, just the interest.
* $11.57 billion for the Federal Communications Commission, which is best known for making sure that people don't curse on television.
* $6.95 billion for the Railroad Retirement Board, a Social Security-style program for railroad workers.
* $1.31 billion for Agricultural Marketing Services. Not only does the government subsidize agriculture, they pay for advertisements telling telling you how good those subsidized veggies are for you.
Feel free to find your own interesting ways the government is spending money.
BONUS: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of the United States is 309,050,816, which means that if the $3.7 trillion dollar passes as stands, on average, each individual is responsible for $11,972 for this years budget.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

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Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sunday Front Page: Clarence Thomas Caught in Quiet-Gate Controversy!

Times Again Promotes Common Cause's Anti-Thomas Crusade, Skips Racism at CC Protest

Calmes Again Compliments Obama's Budget; Times Bashed Bush's Budgets

Jackie Calmes: Behold Obama's Budgetary Brilliance

'Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down' - Will Your Home Survive Global Warming?

Deborah Solomon Gives Up 'Q&A' Slot; Showed Blatant Hostility Toward Conservatives

Lara Logan's Egypt Interrogation Tell-All: "The Army Is Not on the Peoples' Side. The Army Is on Its Own Side."

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Biting the source that feeds you BY EDWARD WASSERMAN WWW.EDWARDWASSERMAN.COM http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/14/v-fullstory/2062773/biting-the-source-that-feeds-you.html