respublica

Words to avoid online

Because a news outlet submitted a Freedom of Information Act, we now know that the Department of Homeland Security had to release a list of keywords it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

Some words are what you might expect, others, well, if you were a blogger and used the words tornado, lightning, interstate...well you may have been monitored. Uh oh. I use the word interstate a lot while whining about road construction and traffic jams.

This is quite unbelieveable. The lists of words according to category are found at the end of the linked story. And, it took a British news outlet to publish this.

These are the times which stretch our credibility

The political reporting world has lost its mind these days, maybe no one writing about politics is really interested in the issues which could make a difference. So we end up with endless discussions about odd stuff. Here are some of the stories being parsed and hashed over this week:

Elizabeth Warren, running against Scott Brown for senator of Massachusetts, put herself in a tight spot by claiming "minority status as a Native American" and was then hired by Harvard as part of their "minority hire" program. 

Someone at ABC News wanted to learn what the deal was with a shirt Ann Romney was wearing during an appearance on CBS Morning Show and set to work investigating. She found the shirt cost almost $1000 and the general media and twitter has been going crazy ever since. Oh, if only these people were as shocked by the cost of Mrs. Obama's clothes we might take this seriously. But no they are not. 

Vanity Fair weighs in on a new book by David Maraniss titled:  Barack Obama: The Story. What is new? Obama ate at the Seinfeld diner while at Columbia! "He was trying to find his place in the whirl of humanity, while at the same time refining the literary riffs that filled up page after page of his journals." Also and not surprising "Obama was the central character in his letters, in a self-conscious way, with variations on the theme of his search for purpose and self-identity."

Starting with this book, the hunt for actual real life Obama former girlfriends is on. The debate this week is over his comment that a girl friend mentioned in his own book was actually a composite of several women. Or something.

Senator Inhofe bought a stunt plane and said, "When I can no longer fly an airplane upside down, I'll quit."

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart interviews Senator Tom Coburn on the economy and does most of the talking.

Polls

Not that I like hearing about polls everyday, I don't and normally I ignore them. But this struck me this morning.

There's a Gallup Poll out which has Romney leading Obama 47-45. There's a CNN poll which claims that Obama leads Romney with women by 16 points. Lots of MSM types are really pushing the women angle but if all this is true (at least today) then 

Per the media: "Romney has a woman problem. Look at the poll!"   But, by the same token and not mentioned, if Romney still leads Obama, doesn't Obama have a man problem?

 

Media and Potus

The Belleville paper has an editorial today which is actually a reprint of an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. The BND headlines the editorial content: Over-Protecting POTUS?

The LA Times editorial contends that the president's secret service detail keeps demonstrators far away from the president so he does not have to hear shouts of criticism. The SS has long claimed they keep the President far enough away from people when he travels so as to be out of gunshot range.

It's tricky. Are people kept far enough away that the pres only hears friendly voices or is it truly a safety issue. 

Good questions and ones that will be decided by the courts.

But this also brought to mind a Tweet over the weekend by Rory Cooper who wrote about how Saturday Night Live skits fall short on their comedy when it comes to the current president which goes hand in hand with a column in the NYT's by Maureen Dowd who spoke of how comedians can't find much funny in Obama anymore.

"When SNL speaks truth to power, it can be funny. Sadly they've just been in the power protecting business for 3 years."

Along with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert I'd add.  Funny how they can get their humor mojo on when it comes anyone but the president.

Two different ways of protecting a president.

Five! One!

KSDK Channel 5 in St. Louis will be at Christ Community Lutheran School (CCLS) in Webster Groves today filming the Kindergarteners doing the Five One hand motions. 

As our grandson Christian is in that kindergarten, we're sort of excited to see how this all works out. The station normally broadcasts the school kids at the end of the 5 o'clock news program. 

Tune in!

Well darn. I guess they don't broadcast the kids the day the film them.

New York Times going to the dogs

Since Jill Abramson took over as executive editor of the New York Times last November, stories about dogs have increases by 45 percent.

Some find the emphasis on dog stories too much but I think it's great, it leaves less room in the paper for constant republican bashing or rather, democratic pandering.

Clay v Carnahan

This is interesting. A front page P-D story about Rep Lacy Clay's "cozy relationship with the rent to own industries". What's stunning is the paper running a critical piece on a local democrat, what on earth does this mean?

I'd venture a guess that with the coming redistricting and the loss of Russ Carnahan's congressional district and the good possibility that he will run against Clay in the dem primary, the Post has already chosen sides. And it looks like they prefer Carnahan.

Normally the P-D is pretty good at ignoring problems with democrats, so by taking Clay to task over his accepting campaign money from the rent to own people, is very telling.

So Carnahan it is. Hopefully one day the paper's reporters will tell us why Carnahan is a good candidate because it has been impossible to tell from his past congressional history.

And then there's this

Media Matters for America, discussed in a post below, has “opposition research team” to target its political enemies. Included in the list of targets are right-leaning websites, conservative think tanks, prominent financiers and donors, and more than a dozen specific Fox News Channel and News Corporation employees.

Further: an internal MMFA memo states: “We will conduct extensive public records searches and compile opposition books on individuals,” declares the memo, likely written in late 2009. Investigations, it says, “will focus on the backgrounds, connections, operations and political and financial activities of the individuals.”

A list of their preliminary targets are found here.  Isn't it interesting that they're researching to get the goods on someone who supports someone other than Obama, other journalists. Take down anyone who might report something negative on the president in an election year.  All with the approval of the same president.

This non profit, tax exempt group is supplying administration talking points to media and the media is using them without any question. Media who will not go along, are being targeted.  Take away their tax exempt status as a first step.

Finally a move to take on the media

Republicans and conservatives have fussed for years about the obvious liberal/democratic bias coming from news outlets and reporters.  The only argument democrats have is Fox News! Fox News! Or, Faux News! Big deal, one place that isn't overtly passing along the democratic message without question.  

But this election year it appears as though there will be more than just grousing, some right wing news people are fighting back and hope to expose as much of the bias as possible.  At CPAC this past weekend Andrew Breitbart laid down the gauntlet, "this time around Obama will be vetted". If you think this is an underhanded, lousy threat think again. The media was never curious about Obama like they are curious about his opponents. 

Then yesterday Tucker Carlson wrote the first in a series about Media Matters for America, a supposedly a non-profit tax exempt organization in the business of watching the media.  What they do in reality is work in tandom with the democrats and the current White House to influence media to their side. It's more than MSNBC, but MSNBC seems to be one of their most willing partners.  

It's about time.  Watch for the backlash from media who've been a part of taking talking points from Media Matters, they'll be looking for ways to destroy Carlson and others who might want to report on the political partisanship nature of a non-profit tax exempt group which should be neutral.  

And, the Obama team has created a website andTwitter hashtag this morning called #TruthTeam which asks for tweets "to help communicate a positive message about the President’s record of keeping his word." Some funny ones have shown up.

Paranoid or what?

According to a story in the New York Times " the Obama administration has brought more prosecutions against current or former government officials for providing classified information to the media than every previous administration combined."

If this statement doesn't set you back on your heels you need to read it again.  And this is not coming from your everyday conservative media outlet, it's the New York Times one of Obama's former best friends. This is the stuff that movies are made of and which we watch while thinking, "nah, this is a good story but it sure doesn't happen in real life, it couldn't, the press always guards their sources to the point of going to jail."

Well think again.