Great article that describes the large swath of the white male population which is seething uncontrollable anger.
Archives for November 2013
Open Thread: The BenghazAIEEE! Pitch
Before ‘pitch’ meant ‘to sell a story’, it was proverbially a substance that stuck to and befouled anything — or anyone — it touched. Back in a time where one’s reputation was a commodity as precious and fragile as a maiden’s virginity, my grandmothers warned me to avoid any contact with schoolmates reputed to be of dubious character, because “pitch sticks”.
To those who fling it as well as those at whom it is flung, perhaps. A couple of weeks ago, at the height of the 60 Minutes unraveling, Gawker announced that “Lara Logan’s Husband Was a Propagandist for the U.S. Military”:
Everyone wants to know: Why did CBS correspondent Lara Logan trust Dylan Davies, the now-discredited security contractor, and the story he told 60 Minutes about the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya? It’s truly mystifying—unless, that is, you know about her last significant lapse in professional judgement involving a security contractor.
Many people know that in 2008 Logan married Joseph W. Burkett, a defense contractor she met while stationed in Baghdad to cover the Iraq War for CBS News. Logan and Burkett were both married to other people when they became involved, and the story of their war-zone love affair—complete with reports of a brawl between Burkett and CNN’s Michael Ware, another rival for Logan’s affections—lit up the tabloids at the time.
What most people don’t know, however, is the nature of Burkett’s work in Iraq. He was an employee of the Lincoln Group, a now-shuttered “strategic communications and public relations firm” hired by the Department of Defense in 2005 to plant positive stories written by American soldiers in Baghdad newspapers during the Iraq War…
CBS News never saw fit to disclose that one of its star war correspondents became romantically involved with a man who was paid by the U.S. government to manipulate civilian public opinion about the disastrous war in Iraq. Nor has Burkett’s background ever been reported in much detail…
The story has now percolated upwards in the Very Serious Media ecosystem to the point where Newsweek, wrapped in the rags of its old-media credibility, has decided to just-raise-questions about “Lara Logan’s Mystery Man” — not her discredited on-air ‘source’, but her spouse:
… [O]thers who claim to have known Burkett in Baghdad paint a starkly different portrait of the former enlisted man… According to a source intimately familiar with his family, Burkett routinely implied, without foundation, that he was a key player in classified operations in Iraq.
“He’s what we call a puffer – he puffs himself up,” said the source, on condition of anonymity. He alluded to top-secret work, but he didn’t make as much money as a truck driver over there. He had some kind of miniscule position… he was kind of an errand person or something like that.”…
Shades of Mr. Valerie Plame, Scooter!
The State Department and CIA have conducted extensive internal investigations that, to unbiased observers, persuasively debunk charges of an orchestrated cover-up of the events in Benghazi…
So — what was the point of this semi-demi-hemi-quasi ratfvcking? Whose reputation was supposed to be permanently fouled here? Logan? Seems like an offseason waste of a potentially valuable ‘resource’. CBS? The Twenty-Sever-Percenters didn’t trust the ‘lamestream media’ even before Libya. President Obama? Again, awful lot of effort when the putative audience doesn’t need it and his defenders, quite correctly, won’t believe it. Hillary Clinton? Ditto, squared. Darrell Issa? That guy has gleefully wallowed in so much pitch he’s waterproof. Grandstanding Lindsey Graham?…
Kill at Will bill moves forward in Ohio
Weapon industry lobbyists drafted a stand your ground law for Ohio. It passed the lower chamber in this state last week:
Opponents including black legislators, youth and church groups decried the dangers of an Ohio “stand your ground” self-defense proposal on Wednesday, as the expansive gun measure cleared the state House. Protesters at one point interrupted the lengthy debate, their shouts gaveled down by House Speaker William Batchelder, before the measure passed on a 62-27 vote. It now goes to the Senate.
Under current law, residents need not retreat before using force if they are lawfully in their homes, vehicles or the vehicle of an immediate family member. The measure would expand the circumstances where the use of force trumps the duty to retreat to public settings, such as stores and streets.
Industry lobbyists (both paid and the volunteers) will say that they are making only minor changes to self defense laws, but that is not true. This is what the changes to long-standing Ohio self-defense law actually look like. The traditional definition of self-defense is lined-thru and the new definition of self defense follows the part that lobbyists deleted:
Sec. 2901.09.
(A) As used in this section, “residence” and “vehicle” have the same meanings as in section 2901.05 of the Revised Code.(B) For purposes of any section of the Revised Code that sets forth a criminal offense, a person
who lawfully is in that person’s residence has no duty to retreat before using force in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of that person’s residence, and a person who lawfully is an occupant of that person’s vehicle or who lawfully is an occupant in a vehicle owned by an immediate family member of the personhas no duty to retreat before using force in self-defense or defense of another if that person is in a place that the person lawfully has a right to be.
The bill also lowers the standards across the board to where we’ll now issue concealed carry licenses to just about anyone who shows up and also allow these newly-licensed gun enthusiasts to patrol just about anywhere with only 4 hours of training. Apparently 12 hours of training before they appoint themselves as roving fake-police in “stores and streets” was too much of a burden for them:
Eliminate the requirement that a person reside in Ohio to receive or renew a concealed handgun license;
Eliminate the current 12-hour training requirement, substituting a minimum of four training hours in the safe handling and use of a firearm;
The Buckeye Firearms Foundation pushed the Stand Your Ground law in Ohio, along with the reduced training requirement. This weapon industry lobby group are famous for raising money to buy George Zimmerman some additional firepower after Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed 17 year old:
Zimmerman is the brave gunslinger who has been the victim of a truly remarkable (and, frankly, completely unbelievable) series of unprovoked attacks by the following people: his former girlfriend, a law enforcement official, a 17 year old boy, his wife and/or his elderly father-in-law and, most recently, another of his girlfriends.
By Neptune’s Beard…
…here’s an open thread. I’m trying to decide what to throw on the grill for today’s NFL viewing, which features the 2-8 Bucs of Tampa Bay vs the 6-4 Lions of Detroit at 1 PM.
I was thinking brisket sounds good, but I thought of it way too late. Not looking forward to fighting the panicking hordes of Thanksgiving food shoppers at the supermarket. I’m waiting for the absurd ban on beer purchases to expire (no beer until 11 AM on Sunday because Jesus), then I’ll duck in and out as quickly as humanly possible.
What are y’all up to today?
Access Denied
Here’s yesterday’s White House photo of the day, taken on November 21, designed to address the current bout of whining from the White House Press Corpse about access to Obama for photo-ops. I’m all for meaningful press access to the President, but that’s never what these guys complain about. They’re butthurt because the official White House photographer gets to take pictures in more places than they do:
“Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties,” the news organizations said in the letter. “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the Executive Branch of government.”
Here are some of the events they are complaining about:
Just last month, he said, the White House kept photographers away from a White House meeting between the president and Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani student who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for speaking out in support of the right of girls to go to school. She met with Obama and his wife, Michelle, and their 15-year-old daughter, Malia.
The letter cites seven recent instances of newsworthy meetings from which independent photographers were excluded, including the one with Malala. Among the others were meetings with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in July and Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-Ariz) in September.
Because what the world needs is a 15 year-old girl facing a gagglefuck of White House paparazzi, and yet another picture of Mr and Mrs John McCain.
Sunday Garden Chat: Autumn Leavings
From faithful commentor Marvel:
Here in the Willamette Valley, we’re squaring away the last of our Fall chores. The days alternate between cold & drizzly and sunny & brisk (often during the same day).
We’ve pulled up the last of the root veggies — a few small bites out of some I had harvested recently motivated quick action on our part. The carrots, beets & parsnips are presently resting safe & sound in a few oversized crispers. BTW: Beneath the carrots & beets in the photo, you can see the tyfon (a stubble turnip) cover crop we’ve been using for the last several years in an attempt to convert a barren, clay-y space (“Area 51”) into a patch of productive soil — I think it’ll be ready for planting this Spring.
The purple cabbage and green cauliflower are glorious (they’re several beds removed from the one the field mice found) — we don’t intend to share these lovely gems with our furry neighbors, so they’ll be off to chilled storage this week.
The kales & garlic are happy in their 6-mil poly cloaks and the tender stuff (herbs, lettuce, spinach, chard & assorted bonsai) will wait out Winter in the greenhouse.
Have a warm & wonderful thanksgiving!
Unless I hear from some warm-weather commentors (or indoor gardeners with photos to share) this may be the last Garden Chat until we can start talking about seed catalogs next March. Maybe I should solicit pet stories to fill in the Sunday-morning gap?
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Breaking: An Agreement with Iran
Congratulations to Sec John Kerry and Pres Obama on what could become a truly historic step toward a safer world.
— Al Gore (@algore) November 24, 2013
Per the Washington Post:
GENEVA — Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on a historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, diplomats confirmed.
The deal was reached after four days of marathon bargaining and an eleventh-hour intervention by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and China, the sources said….
The deal, intended as a first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials familiar with the details. It halts the installation of new centrifuges used to enrich uranium and caps the amount and type of enriched uranium that Iran is allowed to produce…
The agreement is a long-sought victory for the Obama administration, which from its earliest days made the Iranian nuclear program one of its top foreign policy priorities. The administration, helped by its overseas allies as well as Congress, achieved unprecedented success in imposing harsh economic sanctions that cut Iran’s oil exports in half and decimated the country’s currency. It was hoping to quickly finalize an agreement in the face of threats by Congress to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran….
More at the link, including a roundup of early tweet response. (Ralph Reed is a terrible excuse for a human being, even as Repub godsbotherers go.)