October 1, 2014

Sister of accused Boston Marathon bombers pleads not guilty to bomb threat

Source: Reuters

The sister of the accused Boston Marathon bombers pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges she made a threatening phone call to a woman, telling her she could “put a bomb where you live.”

Aliana Tsarnaev, 24, sister of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was arraigned on two counts of aggravated harassment in the second degree, a misdemeanor, in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

She was later released on $5,000 bail, under condition that she have no contact with the alleged victim. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of up to a year in jail.

Wearing a light brown head scarf and a black abaya, or floor-length cloak, she was accompanied by her husband and her attorney in the New York City courtroom. She remained silent throughout the hearing, clasping her hands together.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/sister-of-accused-boston-marathon-bombers-pleads-not-guilty-to-bomb-threat/

October 1, 2014

How Gary Hart Became the First Political Sex Scandal Casualty

Lloyd Grove

In a new book on the 1987 scandal that wrecked Gary Hart’s presidential chances, Matt Bai argues that the episode marks the moment when political reporting went tabloid.

If Matt Bai becomes the instrument of redemption for former senator Gary Hart, best known as the central figure in a sex scandal that sank his front-running presidential campaign and provided endless fodder for the late-night comics, he’s probably just in time.

Hart—who, according to Bai’s new book, All the Truth Is Out, has struggled to find a purpose in life since his descent into tabloid hell a quarter-century ago—turns 78 in November.

It will surely come as a welcome balm to a failed statesman in his twilight years that a widely respected political journalist—and a wonderful writer to boot—has re-examined the senator’s stretch on the spit and basically signed on to his theory of the ordeal: namely, that Hart was the first victim of a political news media that had finally, in the spring of 1987, succumbed to the mob-pleasing temptation to display entertainment over serious reporting, gossip and trivialization over policy and substance, and take “character” simply to mean “character flaws.”

Woe to the Republic, Bai argues, that visionary if imperfect leaders like Hart aren’t permitted to put their talents to the benefit of the people because of a cheap, tawdry media barrier that is every bit as impassable as the Berlin Wall once was. “The Week Politics Went Tabloid” is Bai’s bold subtitle, suggesting that Hart’s nightmare was a transformational moment. (Bai’s argument is somewhat undercut by the fact that 15 years later, in an even less hospitable media environment, Bill Clinton survived a much tougher scandal—not only the Whitewater business and the Gennifer Flowers tapes but allegations of draft-dodging and lying about it—and went on to win two terms in the White House. Of course, maybe Clinton, who even post-Lewinsky ranks as one of the country’s most admired public figures, wasn’t as fine a president as Gary Hart would have been.)

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/01/how-gary-hart-became-the-first-political-sex-scandal-casualty.html

October 1, 2014

Boston Herald: Sorry If We Offended With Obama-Watermelon Cartoon

By AHIZA GARCIA Published OCTOBER 1, 2014, 10:25 AM EDT

The editors of The Boston Herald issued an apology of sorts Wednesday, saying they "sincerely regret if we inadvertently offended anyone" with a political cartoon that trafficked in racial stereotypes, according to a tweet from a news anchor at WBZ.

The cartoon by renowned cartoonist Jerry Holbert and printed in Wednesday's newspaper was accompanied by the caption: "White House Invader Got Farther Than Originally Thought." It showed President Obama brushing his teeth while the uninvited guest sat in the tub over his shoulder. As the intruder sudsed up, he asked Obama whether he'd "tried the new watermelon flavored toothpaste."

Here's the tweet via WBZ's Joe Mathieu about the paper's apology:

The Boston herald did not immiedately return calls seeking comment.

###

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boston-herald-obama-intruder-racist

October 1, 2014

Snotty Scotty Brown Missed All Six Committee Hearings On Border Security

By DANIEL STRAUSS Published OCTOBER 1, 2014, 10:20 AM EDT

From all the attack ads former Sen. Scott Brown (R) has run against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) one border security, you would think think Brown, now running for Senate in New Hampshire, had made it a habit of attending every Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing on the border he could. But it turns out that despite being a member of that committee, he missed all six hearings on border security that he could attend, according to The Washington Post.

Brown missed five hearing since 2011 and he missed one hearing a year earlier, The Post reported, citing public records and congressional transcripts. Four of those missed meetings were full committee hearings and the other two were meetings as part of the subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Senators regularly miss committee hearings often because of conflicting committee hearings or scheduling conflicts. But Brown's focus on border security on the campaign trail might cause someone to think that border security topics were his primary issue in the Senate.

Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Guyton, in response to questions from the Post about him missing the committee meetings, instead pointed to an interview Brown did with the Boston Herald where he discussed the threat of the Islamic State.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-brown-border-security-committee-hearings

October 1, 2014

PA Gov. Corbett: I Wish I'd Gotten A Porn Email — Then They'd Have Stopped

By DANIEL STRAUSS Published OCTOBER 1, 2014, 9:57 AM EDT

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R), during a gubernatorial debate against Democrat Tom Wolf on Wednesday, reportedly said he wished he had received the first of a series of pornographic emails that were circulated among staff when he was attorney general.

He said that if he had received the first email the following emails would have stopped quickly.

Corbett's comment on Wednesday were in reference to a series of emails that Attorney General Kathleen Kane revealed to local journalists recently. Those emails included sexually explicit content and were circulated on state computers by staffers under Corbett during his time as attorney general.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-corbett-pornographic-emails-attorney-general

October 1, 2014

‘Morning Joe’ Piles On The ‘Politically Correct’ Secret Service

By CATHERINE THOMPSON Published OCTOBER 1, 2014, 9:40 AM EDT

Some of the male panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" wondered Wednesday whether Secret Service director Julia Pierson hadn't been dismissed over recent revelations of serious security lapses because of her gender.

Panelist Donny Deutsch, acknowledging that he wasn't exactly taking a "delicate" approach to the subject, said that promoting women into positions of authority shouldn't be prioritized over competence.

"We need to be careful that we are never, ever throwing the baby out with the bath water as far as the best person always has to get the job," he said. "As we kind of go through her resume, you go 'Obviously, coming off the prostitute scandal, okay, yeah, women on top makes sense, good for the brand, if you will.' But the brand doesn’t work if it’s not competent."

"In positions of national security, quota second, competency first," he added.

more + video
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/morning-joe-politically-correct-secret-service