June 13, 2013

The NSA director should read DU more often

The NSA director just said that the "recent public disclosure" (same thing as Glenn Greenwald's recent bombshell arciel) of NSA leak program has caused "great harm" to the nation's security.

But Keith Alexander may not have been briefed on the recent DU revelation that Greenwald's "breaking" news wasn't breaking at all, since we all knew it. It was "nothing more than recycled outrage".

Mr. Alexander should browse the internet more often.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/snowden-wants-people-of-hong-kong-to-decide-my-fate/2013/06/12/a69e94ee-d370-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html?hpid=z1

June 13, 2013

CNN's Anderson Cooper: I've found no evidence to Peter King's allegation against Glenn Greenwald

The Republican said Greenwald threatened to reveal identities of CIA agents, therefore should be prosecuted. Cooper has not been able to find evidence of it.
If anyone here has evidence please post:

https://twitter.com/andersoncooper/status/344962026323443713

June 12, 2013

David Paleologos continues to be a pollster, despite embarrassing himself last year

Poll buffs should remember that David Paleologos, the clown in charge of the Suffolk poll, said a month before the elections that he was going to stop polling Florida, NC and Virginia because it was clear that Romney would defeat Obama there.

Obama ended up winning Virginia and Florida, and Romney's 2% showed that he should have continued to poll this state, as it was close.

Now Paleologos is saying that Markey is in trouble because Obama's scandals:
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2013/06/suffolk_poll_obama_scandals_are_hurting_markey

It is no surprise that the conservative Boston Herald is the newspaper carrying this story above.

Some people have no sense of shame.

June 11, 2013

Washington Post has a poll about Internet Surveillance

I know how we all love to participate in polls so I thought you would like to partiipate in this one.

Please vote and comment if you wish.

"Cast your vote on whether you think the fight against terrorism justifies such surveillance and explain your answer in the comments."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/make-your-case-internet-surveillance/2013/06/10/f12ada1e-d1fd-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_page.html

June 11, 2013

AP journalist criticized for claiming George Zimmerman disobeyed 9-11 dispatcher's orders

In an AP article appearing in the Washington Post, AP's Mike Schneider (@MikeSchneiderAP) reported today that

"Zimmerman called 911, got out of his vehicle and followed Martin behind the townhomes despite being told not to by a police dispatcher. “These a------s, they always get away,” Zimmerman said on the call. Zimmerman, who had a concealed weapons permit, was armed."

As media critic Bob Somerby points out,

"Oof. Plainly, Schneider conveys the impression that Zimmerman disobeyed that police dispatcher at some point and in some manner. It sounds like the dispatcher told Zimmerman not to get out of his vehicle.

Plainly, that last claim isn’t true. Zimmerman was already out of his truck and following Trayvon Martin when the dispatcher made the statement in question."

Link


He (Somerby) further pointed out that unlike Schneider, a Sunday NY Times piece by Lizette Alvarez did get it right, by saying the prosecution "will argue" that Zimmerman disobeyed 9-11 dispatcher, while the defense "will argue" that he did not, instead of flatly stating that the prosecution's version is the correct one. NY Times, 6-9-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/us/with-zimmerman-trial-to-open-emotions-still-raw.html?ref=todayspaper

June 11, 2013

Politifact criticized for not fact-checking journalists

With very rare exceptions, the fact-checking website Politifact.com does not criticize journalists.

Progressive media critic Bob Somerby notes today:

Politifact is willing to fact-check (almost) everyone!

In recent days and weeks, they’ve been willing to fact-check Barack Obama—and even Jimmy Carter! They’ve fact-checked Chief Justice Roberts and Republican senator Tom Coburn—and a little-known physics professor at the University of Rhode Island.

They’ve been willing to fact-check Jay Carney—and they’re even willing to fact-check “Bloggers.” For the most recent post in their “Bloggers” series, just scope this post right here...

...

"The one group you won’t see on their list is the powerful people at Fox—along with those at MSNBC and CNN."

It's worth noting that Politifact is part of a newspaper (Tampa Bay Times).

Read: http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/06/politifact-fact-checks-almost-everyone.html

June 10, 2013

CNN: "Zimmerman is Hispanic; Martin was African-American"

Today CNN writes about the George Zimmerman trial and describes him in the 4th paragraph as "Zimmerman is Hispanic; Martin was African-American."

I don't have a problem with this, as it balances out the many people on the Internets who call Zimmerman "white" while getting mad when someone points out he is also half Peruvian, or "Hispanic."

Read the entire story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/justice/florida-zimmerman-trial/index.html

June 10, 2013

Pistorius' GF Reeva Steenkamp believed the police was not well prepared to respond to robberies

A letter written by Oscar Pistorius' deceased girlfriend five years ago is good news for the defense.

Steenkamp wrote to a newspaper, expressing the following worries: "Oscar Pistorius trial defence team set to use Reeva Steenkamp's letter about her burglary fears. She said,

“The police are grossly short-staffed and are struggling to keep up with the everyday robbing. “It is therefore my suggestion that we, as a community, start at home and with our own security."

This answers a question that people who believe in Pistorius' guilt often ask: Why didn't Pistorius call the police? All Pistorius has to say is that he was aware of his girlfriend's feelings about police regarding robberies.

The good news keep coming for Oscar Pistorius. Read the entire news piece from Mirror UK here:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/oscar-pistorius-trial-defence-team-1941092

June 9, 2013

Wow. Glenn Greenwald has gotten 10,000 new Twitter followers in the past 3 days or so

I remember seeing 142,000 as the number of Twitter members following @ggreenwald 3 days ago. Now it's 152,116.

I'm glad to see that social media is giving real journalists the opportunity to be heard en masse by the American public and everyone in the world.

We just did not have access to this type of journalism before the Internet became widely popular. We were stuck with Maureen Dowd writing about blowjobs and George Will making things up. The Guardian discovered Greenwald thanks to his Salon blog.

Long live the Internet.

June 7, 2013

Cute little Democratic family