Wonder What It Looks Like When Journalists Let the Powerful Massage Quotes?

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 13, 2012 · 6:03 PM PDT

2012/09/13 · 18:03

In July, we learned from the New York Times that campaign and government stenographers have accepted the practice of manipulating quotes on behalf of Important People. Specifically, an official gives an interview, the reporter emails the quotes they intend to use back to that official, who cleans up the quote. The Times tells us that reporters believe nothing of substance is lost in the process. We are also told that reporters complain about this practice, but it appears they are too obsessed with access to say No, and too lazy to write articles that offer legitimate analysis (instead of propagandistic quotes from 'insiders').

Today, thanks to Talking Points Memo, we get to see this practice in action.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 20, 2012 · 2:32 PM PDT

2012/03/20 · 14:32

Looking at this photo, one starts to wonder if there are any good people in the NYPD.

There are.

This is what happens when they stop staring like fools and instead say No.

Adrian Schoolcraft says he isn't exactly sure when, but at some point he had decided that it was important to document the orders that he was given that he thought were out of line. He recorded roll calls where officers were constantly being told to do more stop-and-frisks, even though it's illegal to stop a random person on the street and frisk them without reasonable suspicion. In December 2008, a sergeant tells officers to stop-and-frisk quote, "anybody walking around, no matter what the explanation is." He recorded Stephen Mauriello, the commander the 81st precinct-- and the person Adrian Schoolcraft says really brought the hammer down for higher numbers-- ordering the officers to arrest everyone they see. This happens in a couple of recordings, like this one from Halloween 2008.
Any roving bands-- you hear me-- roving bands more than two or three people--I want them stopped -- cuffed -- throw them in here, run some warrants. You're on a foot post? Fuck it. Take the first guy you've got and lock them all up. Boom....

--Ira Glass, This American Life

What do we call that back here on planet Earth? Kidnapping.

2020adam for Shock Doctrine Watch

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 26, 2011 · 11:58 PM PDT

2011/09/26 · 23:58

This is a test of the Shock Doctrine Alert System. If this had been an actual Shock Doctrine event, you would not be reading this.

The Police Department’s concerns came up against a perhaps milder reality on Saturday, when their efforts to maintain crowd control suddenly escalated: protesters were corralled by police officers who put up orange mesh netting; the police forcibly arrested some participants; and a deputy inspector used pepper spray on four women who were on the sidewalk, behind the orange netting.
The police’s actions suggested the flip side of a force trained to fight terrorism, in a city whose police commissioner acknowledges the ownership of a gun big enough to take down a plane, but that may appear less nimble in dealing with the likes of the Wall Street protesters. So even as the members of Occupy Wall Street seem unorganized and, at times, uninformed, their continued presence creates a vexing problem for the Police Department.

[Emphasis mine] Read More

What Didn't The President Like?

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 02, 2011 · 3:41 PM PDT

2011/08/02 · 15:41

Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required -- on entitlement reform and tax reform -- right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process.

Sounds like a bit of a process complaint, sir. Anything about the substance of this deal you dislike?

Now, this process has been messy; it’s taken far too long. I've been concerned about the impact that it has had on business confidence and consumer confidence and the economy as a whole over the last month.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday July 30, 2011 · 7:07 PM PDT

2011/07/30 · 19:07

Senator Reid's Debt Ceiling Bill sure makes for some interesting reading. In a proposal full of plans to have someone else slash the budget later, this beautiful nugget certainly stands out:

a graduate or professional student shall not be eligible to receive a Federal Direct [Subsidized] Stafford loan

Well that's odd. I thought Republicans want to screw students. And I thought Democrats were proud to have fortified the student loan system by eliminating private middlemen.

Am I missing something here? Despite imposing sacrifice on students, Senator Reid's bill - supported by the President and a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate - makes no 'balancing' effort to raise revenue.

Instead, it relies on gimmicks like another debt commission, savings from winding down wars that the President has promised to continue, and a 'balanced' anti-fraud effort that splits its focus between tax enforcement and Medicare fraud on the one hand, and increased reviews of SSI disability recipients and unemployment benefit recipients, on the other hand.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 23, 2011 · 1:34 AM PDT

2011/06/23 · 01:34

I've promised myself to write something in this space every third day, both to force myself to write and to force myself to have something to write.

Tonight, I'm working on branding my smaller business. I can't figure out what else to call a one-man business that, I hope, will never grow larger than this second bedroom and won't cost much more than this computer and the programs (mostly) already on it.

I'm trying to create a full image that is ready to go when the first business cards are handed out. I've worked on having a single visual style, so now it's a matter of having a fully functional website up and running - if a page says "under construction" or "more soon!", the business isn't ready to go.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 19, 2011 · 2:07 AM PDT

2011/06/19 · 02:07

How dare you, ninety miles from my country,
last forty five years,
with a different form of government

How dare you haven’t allowed
American corporations to buy you out.

How dare you continue this arrogance
that says that you will never succumb to us.

Don’t you know who we are?

Don’t you know who these corporations are?

Don’t you know your life would be better if you could drink Coca Cola every day?

Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY 16)
The War on Democracy

War Powers Resolution: The Text

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 19, 2011 · 1:19 AM PDT

2011/06/19 · 01:19

Found in Title 50, Chapter 33 of the US Code.
Thanks to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.

§ 1541. Purpose and policy

(a) Congressional declaration
It is the purpose of this chapter to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities or in such situations.
(b) Congressional legislative power under necessary and proper clause
Under article I, section 8, of the Constitution, it is specifically provided that the Congress shall have the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution, not only its own powers but also all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer hereof.

(c) Presidential executive power as Commander-in-Chief; limitation
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to

(1) a declaration of war,
(2) specific statutory authorization, or
(3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 09, 2011 · 1:26 AM PDT

2011/06/09 · 01:26

This:

The State Department and USAID now spend about $320 million a month in Afghanistan, for a total of $18.8 billion over the course of the war so far. That makes Afghanistan the single largest recipient of American aid, ahead even of Iraq. Even so, the aid figures are dwarfed by American military spending in the country.

And what might that military spending amount to?

The United States currently spends about $10 billion a month in Afghanistan and has 100,000 troops there.

Well that's quite a lot of money. But troops cost more than State Department employees, right? I'm sure there are somewhere around that many nation builders there too, right? After all, that's what we're there to do.

The State Department and Agency for International Development, known as USAID, now have about 1,300 civilian employees and contractors in Afghanistan, up from 531 in January 2009.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday May 12, 2011 · 12:11 AM PDT

2011/05/12 · 00:11

And the President isn't going to apologize for it, nor will he repudiate the zombie lies that Mr Simpson continues to spew.

A quick look at the other Presidential appointments to his commission shows that the President was not interested in appointing people who have made any kind of deep commitment to saving the social safety net without hurting the American People it was created to protect.

Alice Rivlin's own deficit reduction proposal (in concert with Pete Domenici) includes a national sales tax, payroll tax holiday, lower corporate and top individual tax rates, spending freezes, and a more generously implemented version of Paul Ryan's Medicare phase-out.

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 09, 2011 · 11:15 PM PST

2011/03/09 · 23:15

Maybe he's staring at the ceiling. We haven't heard anything about his glasses, so I assume he has those at night. In January, they took them away for a few nights (but left him with his underwear... strange).

He could be sleeping, but it's got to be cold. No clothing whatsoever. A single, abrasive blanket. The only pillow, built into the mattress. It's probably not consistently quiet or dark, either, and he's unable to curl up against the wall or cover his head.

I can't sleep without a pillow between my legs and the ability to adjust my head pillow when it gets too warm. I'd be fine with the naked part, but if I get cold at night, my body can't warm up without another blanket. So I'd be staring at the ceiling. Which is awful, knowing that when I am prodded alive again at 5 am, I won't be allowed to sleep for another 15 hours.

Poll

0 votes Show Results

0 votes Vote Now!

why i defected to apple

2020adam

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 04, 2011 · 2:32 AM PST

2011/03/04 · 02:32

before elementary school, DOS was running in our house. our soundblaster sound card came with a talking parrot demo that let you test out the microphone. the most intense graphics were a black and yellow circle that would zip across the screen, leaving a trail of dashes while flight of the bumble bee played in MIDI. dad corrected me when i called the 5 1/4-inch disk a "floppy disk", while calling the newer 3 1/2-inch disk a "hard disk". first we were on prodigy. then aol. then compuserve. then aol bought compuserve, so we went for the wide open internet. i still remember telling my dad not to switch from windows 3.1 to windows 95 (i was right). our compaq running an intel 386 carried us for more years than it should've. after that, we tried hp, gateway, then settled with dell.

the control panel was my basement. full of all sorts of tools that could fix the many problems that inevitably arose during the operation of a windows machine.

everything you could ever want to do with the computer was somewhere in there. you just had to find it.

Poll

17 votes Show Results

pc? mac?

17 votes Vote Now!

pc? mac?

4 votes

mac

9 votes

linux

2 votes

other

2 votes

none

0 votes

Newer
Older

RSS

Wonder What It Looks Like When Journalists Let the Powerful Massage Quotes?

Meet Adrian Schoolcraft. Meet the Real NYPD.

Testing. 1-2-3. Testing.

What Didn't The President Like?

Democrats Propose Screwing Grad Students

Branding a Smaller Business.

Why the Cuban Embargo?

War Powers Resolution: The Text

Why we're failing in Afghanistan

Alan Simpson's Appointment Wasn't A Mistake

Right Now

why i defected to apple