News Roundup for 2/1/12

Helpless victims

-Headline of the Day-
"Obama's Enemies List."

David and Charles Koch have it so bad. Here they are, innocently trying to buy states like Wisconsin and using their vast fortunes to whip up 'bagger frenzies, and all they get for their trouble is misery.

OK, so not misery so much as well-earned criticism.

But never mind that. Dave and Chuck have taken to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to decry the White House's shameless prejudice against meddling gazillionaires.

OK, so not them personally, but their lawyer. Things like speaking to the public -- even through the filter of print -- are entirely beneath them. But this so-called "President" Obama has been talking smack about them and they're not going to stand for it. Enough is enough. They're just people like everyone else -- except when they get a bug up their collective ass, they can hire former Solicitor General Theodore Olson to write them an op-ed in the freakin' Wall Street Journal. I'm sure their butlers hold the page up for them to read it, so they don't get newsprint ink on their hands. Otherwise, they're just folks.

Of course, some people don't see them that way. Some people insist on being distracted by reality.

"On issues ranging from climate change to health reform to tax policy to corporate regulation, in venues far and wide from Congress to state legislatures to Tea Party rallies to every foot of nearly every campaign trail, the Kochs have become an omnipresent force in right-wing politics, and a big factor in the polarization of the country," writes Ed Kilgore. "With the collapse of campaign finance rules, their ability to wield influence with little or no accountability is becoming almost unlimited. Even if you agree with them on every conceivable issue, the idea that they are cowering victims of the big-bad-bullies in the White House has to make you just burst out in derisive laughter. If I, God forbid, were a Koch Brother I’d fire Olson instantly for making me look so weak and feckless."

Olson begins his piece with a question. And it's a question I'm more than willing to answer.

"How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president's re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?" he asks, in all apparent seriousness.

Is this for the bonus round? Because it's way too easy: I'd feel like George Soros or every goddam Hollywood liberal or celebrity who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq.

Victim card rejected. (Wall Street Journal)


-The trouble with Februaries in years divisible by four-



But there's also the Summer Olympics this year, so it's all good. (TruthDig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Gay Activists Glitter Bomb Romney, He Calls It 'Confetti' To Celebrate Florida Victory."

Hey, when life gives you lemons, you lie about it and say it's lemonade, right? (ThinkProgress)

News Roundup for 10/14/11

George Soros (Reuters file photo)

-Headline of the Day-
"Reuters's Dizzying Changes to Its Soros-Occupy Wall Street Story."

Yesterday, Reuters posted a story about how it looked like shadowy gazillionare and source of all evil George Soros was behind all of this Occupy Wall Street business. Their evidence? Soros once gave money to a group that gave money to a group involved with OWS -- so that sounds super-solid already, right?

And it turns out that Soros gave money to the group that gave money back in 2009 and 2007 -- long before OWS was anybody's idea for anything. At this point, the reporting hinges on "if you squint real hard and drink a lot of vodka and ignore the fact that time exists, it kind of looks like maybe its possible that George Soros had maybe something to do with all this. Maybe."

So not everyone was sold on this and people started pointing out that this was really shitty reporting. At this point, Reuters changed the story to "Soros: not a funder of Wall Street protests." No, really. Apparently good reporting now involves the process of elimination. Look for the big, widely distributed story that Lexx Luthor isn't behind this thing either.

But the fixed story is not the only version that Reuters is distributing -- they also feature the unfixed story, in case that's what you like better.

So, if you live in the real world, then you can learn that George Soros has been ruled out as the mastermind behind the 99-percenters. If you're a Tea Party nutjob who blames George Soros every time it rains, then the uncorrected version is the one for you.

And through it all, the story has been updated and rewritten to death, when the most obvious solution would be a retraction. "Reuters cannot -- must not -- get a reputation as a right-wing media outlet," writes Reuters' own blogger Felix Salmon. "We have to report the news as impartially as we can. In this case, there was no story, and nothing to report. Inventing a tenuous and intellectually-dishonest link between Soros and OWS might get us traffic from Matt Drudge -- but that’s traffic which, frankly, we don’t particularly value or care for."

If that's the case, maybe leaving an uncorrected version of the story up for wingnut blogs to link to isn't the wisest decision ever. (Atlantic Wire)


-Wall Street reconsiders this "too big to fail" stuff-


Click to embiggen

Why do citizens have a monopoly on the citizenry? (DailyKos)


-Bonus HotD-
"Moody's Economist Says GOP Jobs Bill Would 'Likely Push The Economy Back Into Recession.'"

Which is weird, because that's exactly what it did when it was called "Bush's economic plan." (ThinkProgress)

Stories to Watch: 10/13/11

Sorry for the late headlines, but for some reason a windows update was sucking up all my CPU power. Never did that before. I couldn't get anything to work, so I decided to let the updater run its course while I got something to eat. Seems to be working fine. Now here's the [somewhat abbreviated] news...


A Reuters story trying to tie the 99-percenters to George Soros is so weak that even a Reuters blogger can't get behind it.


A Wall Street CEO writes a very strange op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that seems to blame President Obama for ungrateful panhandlers.


Remember how Michael Bloomberg said the Wall Street protesters could stay as long as they wanted? Yeah, that was bullshit. He's trying to run them out again.


Americans support Occupy Wall Street and oppose the Tea Party. This is a fact the 'baggers don't seem to like much.


Can we all stop pretending that Paul Ryan is some sort of economic genius now?


Finally, Ron Paul's got the mange or something.

Related articles

• This Week In Occupy Wall Street Signs (huffingtonpost.com)
• Why Liberals Should Welcome Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
• Mayor Bloomberg Needs To Keep His Word, Let Occupy Wall Street Stay in Liberty Plaza (treehugger.com)

Stories to Watch: 7/10/11

I kind of want to grill out tonight, but it's supposed to rain. Should I risk it? I just might. Now here's the news...


Not content with taking away workers' rights in Wisconsin, Gov. Walker also decides to steal their pensions.


More of the GOP"s idea of "shared sacrifice"; Boehner wants to scale back spending cuts in order to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. We can give up less in order to pay for a free ride for Wall Street types, because that's fair. Steve Benen detects a lack of leadership on the speaker's part.


The White House responds to the news with a statement saying, "[W]e cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree." expect whiny cries of "SOCIALISM!" any second now.


Proof that conservative blogger Don Surber is a dumbass: he sees the Bachmann pledge story as an attempt by commies and the Administration and George Soros to sabotage her campaign. Buddy, if there's one person the left wants running against Obama, it's Shelly Bachmann. I wouldn't be surprised if some lefties are donating to her.


High levels of cesium -- 4.6 times normal -- have been detected in beef from Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. This as reports come in that the country has been hit by another major quake.


Finally, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell restates his belief that stopping an Obama reelection is the "single most important thing we want to achieve." Not jobs, not the economy, but politics. I repeat what I said last week; if you think the GOP is working for you and you aren't a billionaire, then you're a chump.

Related articles

• Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul Forge Tentative Relationship (huffingtonpost.com)
• McConnell says 'a big deal' is off the table (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads (huffingtonpost.com)
• Quake jolts northeast Japan, no reports of damage (windsorstar.com)

Stories to Watch: 4/19/11

Weather is insane here. It's been switching all day between rain, sleet, and snow. There's thunder and lightning to boot. But the worst is that the snow has accumulated. It's out there right now. Covering the lawn. Out in the open. In broad daylight. Seemingly unashamed. Now here's the news...


New York Times columnist David Brooks has an especially dumb one out today. Turns out that Donald Trump is doing well among GOP voters because Americans really like assholes. No seriously. If you don't believe me, check it out. That's his argument in a nutshell.

In the same piece, Brooks transforms soft-spoken George Soros into "an abrasive rich man" and "a straight-talking, obnoxious blowhard," simply because he couldn't think of a lefty counterweight to "George Steinbrenner, Ross Perot, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Bobby Knight, [and] Howard Stern." The whole thing is Broderism run amok.


***
Crazyassed bullshit Republicans believe, item #5,347,291: Half of Iowa Republicans are birthers.


Latest "Donald Trump is a commie" news: Trump's book The Art of the Deal called Reagan a "con man." He also refuses to release his tax returns -- which is going to be kind of illegal if his hoax goes into the filing-to-run stage.


Stuff everyone knows, confirmed. Iraq was just a war for oil.


Wisconsin Republicans facing recalls now number four, Democrats number zero. A fifth may be in the works.


Finally, a McClatchy-Marist poll finds that Republican plans to gut Medicare are really unpopular -- even among teabaggers. Teagan Goddard wonders, "Did Republicans just walk off a cliff?"

Stories to Watch: 3/17/11

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker must turn over thousands of emails in a lawsuit settlement reached with the Associated Press and Madison weekly The Isthmus. At issue was confirmation of Walker's claim that emails to him from constituents were wildly in favor of his union busting -- something that would be at odds with polling. There may be some unrelated nuggets in there though, so keep your eyes peeled for follow-ups to this one.


House Republicans vote to defund NPR -- a pointless move that will go absolutely nowhere in the Senate -- but not before Rep. Anthony Weiner made them all look like fools. Not much of a challenge really, but still, not something you see every day.


Donald Trump goes birther. It seems he's got the message -- in order to be a real GOP candidate, you've got to be a crackpot.


Cracks between the Tea Party and GOP leadership widen.


Andrew Sullivan identifies the key paragraph in the New York Times' announcement of their new paywall -- i.e., it's only a paywall if you're lazy.


In wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis, President Obama says that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of nuke plants in the US. Personally, I think we should always be doing a comprehensive review of nuclear safety. Go through every plant in the nation and, when you're finished, go back to the top of the list and start again. If we're going to be messing around with this stuff, we ought to at least pretend we take it seriously.


A new O'Keefe video proves that George Soros gave money to NPR and this is the worst thing ever! Personally, I think he just wanted the tote bag and a copy of David Sedaris' latest book. Stiil it's a huge scoop -- if you define "scoop" as "stuff that's public record and everyone already knows."


Finally and as was expected, the UN Security Council backs a no-fly zone for Libya.