TheNutcracker
TheNutcracker's JournalThrasher gets testy at his FSU interview
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2014/09/15/thrasher-meeting-fsu-community-today/15654969/Update: Thrasher endures testy forum at FSU
Well-connected state Sen. John Thrasher, one of four finalists to be Florida State University's next president, will have a day-long series of forums today with the campus community.
Update: 4:31 p.m.
John Thrasher is tough to rattle.
A powerful state senator, Thrasher is eager to be Florida State University's next president even though he's the only non-academic among the four finalists. He endured two testy forums Monday afternoon with FSU faculty and students, and appeared no worse for wear.
Pressed on a range of issues, from his opinions on climate change and evolution to past votes in the Legislature, Thrasher reiterated his love for his alma mater and what he would focus on during his first 100 days on the job: the $1 billion capital campaign and improving salaries for professors.
"We love Florida State; we care about it," Thrasher told an audience of about 200 in the Turnbull Center conference room. "I know that's not a reason to be the president of the university, but I think it's important to care. I think we've gotten to a point where we have a number of people who would make a good president at Florida State."
Thrasher has been a lightning rod for criticism almost since FSU President Eric Barron accepted the same position at Penn State University on Feb. 17. Some faculty support him, but many others have objected to his presence when the job description clearly states that the university wants its next leader to have a background in academia – which Thrasher does not.
FSU's Faculty Senate last week approved a resolution calling for the Board of Trustees to select an academician, and a similar-sounding petition started Sunday morning by the faculty union had collected close to 1,000 signatures by Monday evening.
One member of the audience, identified only as Amanda, asked Thrasher why he was the only candidate to have inspired protests. She said her question was addressing the "elephant in the room."
"I hope it hasn't impacted people on campus in a negative way. I hope students are still studying. I hope professors are still teaching, I hope researchers are still doing their research," Thrasher said. "I'm a human being. There are certain things that have been said that I would like to not have been said. It goes with the territory."
Monday's forums, which concluded with a reception, were the first of four this week. Michele Wheatly, a former provost at West Virginia University, will follow a similar schedule Tuesday. Colorado State University Chancellor Michael Martin is on campus Wednesday, with University of Alabama-Birmingham vice president Richard Marchase here Friday.
The search committee meets next Monday to decide if any of the four do not deserve to be forwarded to the Board of Trustees, which will meet Sept. 23 to pick FSU's next president.
Florida Senator John Thrasher meets with FSU faculty in a Monday afternoon forum. He is the first of the final four candidates for president to go through the on campus meetings.
Jennifer Proffitt asks Florida Senator John Thrasher a question as he meets with FSU faculty in a Monday afternoon forum. He is the first of the final four candidates for president to go through the on campus meetings.
Former FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte, the first to nominate Thrasher despite their political differences, was on hand Monday to support the legislator who chaired the trustees during D'Alemberte's final two years as president.
College of Communication professor Andy Opel pressed Thrasher on climate change, asking him if believed it is real. "Do you accept the science behind it," Opel said.
Like Gov. Rick Scott, whose reelection campaign Thrasher co-chairs, Thrasher declined to give a specific response. At that point, two students in the front row appeared to Thrasher to be laughing at his answer.
He threatened to leave, saying he "would not be heckled."
"I just wanted to get their attention," Thrasher said after the faculty forum. "It wasn't that bad a deal. I respect them and they ought to give me the same respect."
The next person to pose a question, law professor Mark Seidenfeld, asked Thrasher if he believed in evolution.
"I have a great faith in my life that has guided me in my life in a lot of things I believe in," Thrasher said.
Some of the encounters elicited laughter from both Thrasher and many in the audience. Oceanographer Jeff Chanton began by telling Thrasher that the adjective "powerful" appears before his name so often in stories that he sometimes wonders if it's Thrasher's first name.
"I almost feel like people are afraid to not make you president," Chanton said. "What would happen to us if we don't select you president?"
Thrasher assured Chanton that FSU will be just fine no matter who the trustees choose next week.
"Nothing bad's going to happen to Florida Satte," Thrasher said. "I think more good can happen to Florida State if I become president."
Update: 2:19 p.m.
Influential state Sen. John Thrasher, one of four finalists to be Florida State's next president, was met with testy crowds during a forum with faculty today.
A group of graduate assistants heckled Thrasher from the front row of a meeting with faculty at the Turnbull Center.
"Thrasher interview with FSU faculty turning combative. VERY COMBATIVE," tweeted Tampa Bay Times reporter Tia Mitchell. "He just threatened to walk out."
Thrasher was asked about his positions on climate change and evolution. Regarding evolution, Thrasher told faculty he has a "great faith" that guides him, according to Mitchell.
Thrasher is the first of the finalists to go before staff, faculty and students in separate forums today, followed by a reception. All events take place at the Turnbull Center.
Thrasher told the crowd his priorities during his first 100 days as president would be the university's capital campaign, faculty salaries, graduate assistant issues and a listening tour.
Original Story:
Well-connected state Sen. John Thrasher, one of four finalists to be Florida State University's next president, will have a day-long series of forums today with the campus community.
Thrasher is the first of the finalists to go before staff, faculty and students in separate forums, followed by a reception. All events take place at the Turnbull Center.
FSU is moving quickly toward hiring a president. The FSU Board of Trustees has scheduled a Sept. 23 meeting to decide on which of the four finalists will be FSU's next CEO.
Thrasher, a Republican from St. Augustine who chairs Florida Gov. Rick Scott's reelection campaign, is the only non-academic among the finalists. Faculty and students on the search committee have been united in their opposition to advancing him this far. Michele Wheatly, a former provost at West Virgnia University, Michael Martin, chancellor of the Colorado State University System, and Richard Marchase, a vice president for research at the University of Alabama-Birmingham will be on campus Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
Politically Connected: Ties Link Embattled Government Bank, Well-Heeled Consultants
Source: The Daily Signal - Economy
Clients of a high-powered Washington consulting firm appear to have benefited from the outfit’s ties to the Export-Import Bank and the Obama administration, which wants to save the embattled federal agency.
Critics long have faulted the Export-Import Bank for helping politically connected companies secure taxpayer-backed financing. And the consultants at Albright Stonebridge Group, which is headed by a former U.S. secretary of state and bills itself as the “premier strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm,” pride themselves on making worldwide connections. The firm’s chairman and one of its namesakes is Madeleine Albright, who served as secretary of state during the Clinton administration.
Among other roles, Albright Stonebridge Group helps clients with government relations and crafts messaging plans for businesses. It is not, however, a registered lobbying firm, according to records at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that tracks how money and lobbying affect politics.
Carol Browner works as a senior counselor at ASG and previously served as a senior principal there. A member of the Obama-Biden transition’s advisory board, Browner was appointed to Ex-Im’s advisory committee for fiscal 2013. She was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration and, under President Obama, directed the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy from 2009 to 2011.
more at link....
Read more: http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/16/politically-connected-ties-link-embattled-government-bank-well-heeled-consultants/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKTNZKXonjHpfsX56eQuW6e%2BlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DT8ZrI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D
Who's Paying the Pro-War Pundits? - The Nation
http://m.thenation.com/article/181601-whos-paying-pro-war-punditsLee Fang on September 12, 2014 - 3:40PM ET
If you read enough news and watch enough cable television about the threat of the Islamic State, the radical Sunni Muslim militia group better known simply as ISIS, you will inevitably encounter a parade of retired generals demanding an increased US military presence in the region. They will say that our government should deploy, as retired General Anthony Zinni demanded, up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to battle ISIS. Or as in retired General Jack Keane's case, they will make more vague demands, such as for "offensive" air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region.
But what you won't learn from media coverage of ISIS is that many of these former Pentagon officials have skin in the game as paid directors and advisers to some of the largest military contractors in the world. Ramping up America's military presence in Iraq and directly entering the war in Syria, along with greater military spending more broadly, is a debatable solution to a complex political and sectarian conflict. But those goals do unquestionably benefit one player in this saga: America's defense industry.
Keane is a great example of this phenomenon. His think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which he oversees along with neoconservative partisans Liz Cheney and William Kristol, has provided the data on ISIS used for multiple stories by The New York Times, the BBC and other leading outlets.
Keane has appeared on Fox News at least nine times over the last two months to promote the idea that the best way to stop ISIS is through military action—in particular, through air strikes deep into ISIS-held territory. In one of the only congressional hearings about ISIS over the summer, Keane was there to testify and call for more American military engagement. On Wednesday evening, Keane declared President Obama's speech on defeating ISIS insufficient, arguing that a bolder strategy is necessary. "I truly believe we need to put special operation forces in there," he told host Megyn Kelly.
Left unsaid during his media appearances (and left unmentioned on his congressional witness disclosure form) are Keane's other gigs: as special adviser to Academi, the contractor formerly known as Blackwater; as a board member to tank and aircraft manufacturer General Dynamics; a "venture partner" to SCP Partners, an investment firm that partners with defense contractors, including XVionics, an "operations management decision support system" company used in Air Force drone training; and as president of his own consulting firm, GSI LLC.
more at link above....
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Maybe THEY should pay for it? As of today, no one has said how we'll pay for this escalation of war.
Go Bernie! Sanders for President for sure! He nailed it. Ate Chuch Todd for brunch!
And Chuck Todd could not even handle him. Bernie did call out the anger on both sides and included the media in the public's displeasure. He ate Chuck Todd for Brunch!
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I am the adding the NBC video a helpful poster added below. It was not available at the time I posted the thread. I was so excited by what I heard, and the roasting of Todd, I could not wait!
enjoy! If we have his back, he'll be the next president of the U.S.A.
Will Boner and the rest tell us how we will pay for this "escalation" in the war on terror??
Or, will we just hear about it later in the form of turning Soc. Sec. into a Wall Street shit fund?
Or, by turning Medicare into a 6K yearly voucher?
Or, that we no longer have the money to fund education the way we really should?
Or, that 1 in 3 instead of 4 U.S. children will now go to bed hungry?
Or, that we must cut medical research?
Anything but taxing corporations like Exxon Mobil who garner over 10 billion in quarterly profits?
The only time Boner's congress stays at work, is when he asks "how we gonna pay for it"?
It doesn't matter if you support this new "escalation" or not. It's about our money and what these bastards tell us LATER what we must sacrifice. When policy really will help us, he wants to know how we are going to pay for it. When ideas are discussed? He closes shop and goes home.
I, want to know how we will pay for this war, that Nelson and Rubio say will probably take YEARS! What will they take from us in the name of the War on Terror?????????
Thanks, I had to ask all of this, as we head into midterms, over "who will keep us safe"? Later, they will tell the little people, we have to cut things, to pay for it. Please don't forget their past tactics!
Can we discuss this and rec so the media will at least ask this question? How will we pay for this?
U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data
Source: Washington Post
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/YLCS8G/WTOJ3H/7E9RF8/BMI4OSR/L94M0W/82/h
National/global news alert • Thu., Sep. 11, 2014 4:26 pm
U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data
The U.S threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user data that the company believed was unconstitutional, according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the NSA’s controversial Prism program.
Read more: http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/YLCS8G/WTOJ3H/7E9RF8/BMI4OSR/L94M0W/82/h
Floridians, watch out for caterpillars covered in venom
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/2014/09/01/caterpillar-puss-venom-poison-florida/14943463/At first glance it may look harmless.
A fat, furry caterpillar that likes to make its homes in several types of trees in Florida. But a warning: all that fur is covered in venom.
"It's the pain. It is instant and immediate and it's very intense," said Dr. Glenn Hardesty, Emergency Room physician.
Dr. Hardesty describes the pain from a puss caterpillar from first hand experience as worse than that from a sting from a bee, a jellyfish, even a scorpion. And it can also cause vomiting, convulsions and a drop in blood pressure.
"During certain times of the year, they become more prevalent and we are in a time of year they become more prevalent," Hardesty said.
Meaning your chances of an encounter are higher.
Reports of people getting stung-- who end up at the E.R. -- are on the rise.
Doctors say try to look around for them when you're working outdoors. Though they are known to fall out of trees.
And, just as important, talk to your children who may be tempted to pick one up.
According to the Florida Poison Information Center, some people experience severe reactions to the poison released by the spines and require medical attention. Others experience only an itching or burning sensation.
The center recommends placing scotch tape over the affected area and strip off repeatedly to remove spines or applying ice packs to reduce the stinging sensation, and follow with a paste of baking soda and water.
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