Baltimore Sun's savvy TV critic David Zurawik zeroes-in on Beltway political class & MSM's tacit agreement on unethical conduct and asks rhetorical question: "Is it wrong for CNN's Paul Begala to ask me to give money to Al Franken?" Yes, let me count the ways...but let's not forget to throw Stephanie Cutter on the fire, too; @davidzurawik

Is it wrong for CNN's Paul Begala to ask me to give money to Al Franken? http://t.co/RDGxAD4JoV
— David Zurawik (@davidzurawik) November 4, 2013

Baltimore Sun
Z on TV blog
Was it wrong for CNN's Paul Begala to ask me to give Al Franken money?
To me, this is how the channel's news identity is demeaned by mixing politics, money and media
By David Zurawik The Baltimore Sun
6:58 a.m. EST, November 4, 2013

Maybe it's just me, but a fundraising letter I received from CNN's Paul Begala last week struck me as emblematic of what's wrong when media are mixed with money and politics -- as they increasingly are these days at cable TV news channels in Washington.

Here's the letter. And you tell me if this is appropriate for someone listed as "commentator" at CNN -- someone who also appears on the channel's website under the heading "Anchors/Reporters" as Begala does

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-cnn-paul-begala-money-fund-raising-20131031,0,6011421.story

As for Stephanie Cutter, well, she merely proves that the sort of unethical behavior we've been force-fed by America's Mainstream Media and been forced to expect from certain Democratic Party & GOP consultants and strategists is not a Male-Only preserve:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/09/cnn-lowered-its-ethical-standards-make-things-easier-newt-gingrich/69959/

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/09/obama-guys-were-too-afraid-demote-stephanie-cutter/69384/

Fox News Channel
White House getting advice on Syria from former Obama campaign advisers 
By Ed Henry
Published September 03, 2013 FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/03/white-house-getting-advice-on-syria-from-former-obama-campaign-advisers/

Sure, why not get advice from people who don't actually know anything original about the country or speak French and Arabic, and who only know what other people have told them or what they've read.
Just like your neighbor or the person who hands you your coffee at Panera Bread.

My recollections of September are that President Obama's policy on Syria was a disaster from beginning to end and something that everyone, regardless of political ideology, agreed upon on from coast-to-coast.
You remember, the policy that even the Washington Post's Editorial Board strongly criticized and which I mentioned last Tuesday, here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.be/2013/10/obamas-bad-foreign-policy-from-start.html

The one time in five years that Obama really brought the country together -in opposition to his own policies.

Sure, of course, that result is to be expected when you've got such great consultants and advisors.
Just don't say anything bad about Valerie Jarrett and her lack of knowledge or else...

-----
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/

re Obamacare "tech surge" at The White House to fix broken Ocare website: I posit educated guess why West Wing is being so secretive re identities of this Nerd Squad A-Team meets Mission Impossible: Saving Obamacare 2.0. That answer is "optics"

CNN

Pundits' prescriptions for what ails healthcare CNN contributor Ryan Lizza and A.B. Stoddard from The Hill give Brooke Baldwin their RX for the Administration's healthcare woes. October 30th, 2013 06:32 PM ET 

http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/30/pundits-prescriptions-for-what-ails-healthcare/

Somewhat out of the blue Thursday, while reading some tweets of some of the people I religiously follow, I got to wondering if I'd actually stumbled across at least one of the reasons why the White House is being so secretive as to the identities of this Nerd Squad A-Team 
meets Mission Impossible - Saving Obamacare 2.0

Given the condescension that has come out of the WH over the past 5 years on a whole host of policy and political issues involving gender and identity politics, often greatly amplified by their echo chamber of sycophants in the Beltway press corps, especially among younger female reporters and producers, isn't it likely that seeing concrete facts or photos that confirm that the Obamacare rescue crew is largely composed of not just men but the dreaded White Men would just be too much of a PR buzzkill and "optics" problem for Team Obama to publicly countenance?

Instead of wholesome, free spirit, All-American girl-next-door and savvy computer nerd poster girl Angela Bennett (Sanda Bullock) in The Net, it's sixty-something year old Dads and Uncles with computer super-powers far beyond the ken of most normal mortals coming to the rescue.

Note what happens at 0:42.
Someone has hacked into a cabinet member's personal medical file. 

Just wondering...

Tech experts enlisted to help fix Obamacare website 
By CNN Staff 
updated 4:17 PM EDT, Thu October 31, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/31/us/obamacare-website-experts/index.html

Even The Drudge Report is now sleeping on weekends! Today's deadly al-Shabab terrorist attack at #WestgateMall in Nairobi is more proof, as if needed, that on Saturdays, in the year 2013, just like the past 15, the U.S. News Media has left the building and only the JV team is manning HQ -and that includes Fox News, which should've been airing Sky News' coverage but didn't. Heaven forbid something bad or important actually happens on a Saturday and we need to know the actual details

Channel Four News video: Kenya attack: Al Shabaab claims responsibility
Story at: http://www.channel4.com/news/kenya-nairobi-mall-shooting-gunmen-killed-shopping

Latest harrowing ITV video at: http://www.itv.com/news/story/2013-09-21/gunmen-open-fire-in-kenya-mall-nairobi/

http://www.itv.com/news/

Gunmen Open Fire In Kenyan Shopping Mall http://t.co/iYivMgoFeV
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 21, 2013

Sky News hasn't updated this tweet in over seven hours even as more and more people have died in the terrorist attack. 
NOT impressive.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews

Hero of the day, a police officer carries a baby to safety on the barrel of his gun #WestgateMall attack. pic.twitter.com/doHvCezH6U
— Mohammed Hersi. (@hersimohammed) September 21, 2013

Keep up with tweets at: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WestgateMall&src=hash&f=realtime

Toll has gone from 20 dead to 25 to 30 within a few hours.

Sky News is still sticking with 22 dead.

Witnesses say people were executed on scene.

Terrorists yelled out beforehand, "Muslims get out, we are here to rescue you."

Similarities to Mumbai attack already being made.

I've been watching and listening to SkyNews LIVE for hours at:

http://news.sky.com/templates/watch-live

So should you.

Disappointingly, but in keeping what I and many other have seen and commented on privately, even The Drudge Report has had nothing about this incident many, many hours after-the-fact.

That only adds fuel to the, first, speculation, and now, common belief, among myself and people I know throughout the country in the media that despite the record numbers of readers going to that website, the people who are actually physically manning the Drudge Report on weekends, whoever they are, are NOT doing as good a job as readers were used to, and came to expect on weekends years ago.
Boring stories stay up far too long -sometimes 3-4 days- and stories that ought to be up stay unposted after even lamestream media has them.
What the hell is going on? 

As I've detailed here on the blog more than a few times before, contemporaneously, largely as a result of MSNBC and CNN continually sleeping on the job while breaking news was happening around the world overnight -while I was awake and listening to the BBC or Sveriges Radio or watching the morning TV shows on SVT and TV4 in Sweden- Fox News Channel is what I usually turn to first when some Breaking News happens, but today they are TOTALLY f-ing missing the boat.

Watching them today is painful, like watching portfolio videotapes of some once-cute girl doing Community College TV newscasts in Oklahoma, circa 1987.
Why, why, why???

You have a family relationship with Sky News -you are the younger, dumber and more shallow brother in case you forgot- and yet Fox News is refusing to use any of those amazing resources, including video of the situation and reporters in the area.
Why?
What are you waiting for, an invitation?

We have a huge country where real news is happening all the time and yet Fox News is doing another story with three guests about funding Obamacare? Really???
Can you you please stop kicking Obama and contemplating your navel and your ass for just a couple of hours?
It's embarrassing for me as a regular Fox News viewer to see this disregard for viewers intelligence and be served up this swill.

And at 2 pm, as I just flipped the TV back to Fox from a college football game, they give us a tan John Boehner, the soon to be ex-Speaker of the House because of what a horrendous job he's been doing the past two years.
(It's a reflection of how much everyone within the House GOP either hates or dislikes Eric Cantor that he can't push over a push-over like Boehner that is barely coherent at times.)
Is everyone in New York today inside a TV studio sleeping?

Also, I've wanted to say this for quite a few days and since i haven't seen anyone else say it anywhere -that I've seen- let me be clear.
IF hundreds of people were missing from New York City's Upper West Side after a flood there, you better believe the national news coverage would've been a lot more intense, professional and lengthy than what we saw in Colorado this past week, which many NY and DC-based news organizations treated like another bus in India or Bangladesh that went off the side of a mountain and killed all aboard.
Colorado, they still consider you "flyover country," even if they come visit you to go skiing.

Oh well, hurricane season isn't over yet here in South Florida! 
And we all know how the people in New York at the TV networks root for us to get hit hard by one so they can fly in and do stories where they can 'act' like brave journalists facing the elements!
Just saying...

The Amnesiac Among Us. American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer, and his recent return to Sweden, where he once lived -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but (supposedly) can't speak English any longer, is the riddle of the year; Talar ni engelska? Nej!

CNN YouTube Channel video: CNN correspondent Paula Newton reports on the American Navy veteran, apparently suffering from amnesia, who has flown to Sweden looking for answers about his past. Uploaded August 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/YqphppDQaaM
Article at: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/health/amnesia-swedish

The Amnesiac Among Us: American Michael Boatwright is the most curious man I've read about all summer. His recent return to Sweden from the U.S. -STILL with no memory- looking for answers about who he really is, or even why he suddenly started speaking fluent Swedish, but can't speak English any longer, is the mystery of the year

As you might imagine, Boatwright has been the subject of intense fascination and curiosity this summer in the hyper-competitive Swedish press, with literally everyone having a pet theory of their own about what "really happened" to him that would explain his loss of memory.
Or, his purported inability to speak English.
Talar ni engelska? Nej! 

Some people, with nothing to base it on, have spun theories about him possibly having accidentally killed someone and wanting to repress the memory and or go to a country that doesn't expedite if the suspect can get capital punishment, or even the usual -when in doubt-
blame the CIA theories, except how could someone like this possibly be in a position to help the CIA or anyone, since despite his having been in both Japan and China, he did not have jobs where he'd run into the kinds of people operatives deal with.
Plus, his life seems to have become quite unmanageable, a bad sign of spycraft..

Much of that thinking about criminal motivations has to do I think with both the need to make something that's likely very simple, much more complex, and the long-lasting effect in Sweden of so many American police procedurals on Swedish TV, where American-made programming dominates at all hours of the day.
('Smallville' came on at 6 a.m. on my trip in January. Or was it 5 a.m.?)


Aftonbladet TV video: ”Svensken” försökte ta sitt liv – i Kina. ("The Swede" attempted suicide - in China). 
By Magnus Sundholm, July 29, 2013
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article17206906.ab

The British press really loves the story, too, in part, because of the mystery angle, just dangling there like low-hanging fruit.
Like the Swedish media, they want to figure it out and either explain it or expose him, whichever the truth points to via tangible evidence

See also: Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/28/transient-global-amnesia-what-total-memory-loss-is-like.html
-----
The Daily Mail
Who am I?! American who woke up one day and could only speak Swedish goes to Europe in an attempt to regain his memories
Michael Boatwright woke up in a Palm Springs Motel 6 in February with no memory of his past life
The former English teacher woke able to only speak Swedish
His doctors said that his amnesia could have been caused by 'massive emotional trauma'
A worldwide search for friends and relatives was launched by his doctors
He has returned to Sweden to meet an old girlfriend who he hopes will be able to kick-start his forgotten life
By James Nye
PUBLISHED: 19:06 EST, 21 August 2013 
UPDATED: 02:50 EST, 22 August 2013

The U.S. Navy veteran discovered unconscious in a Californian motel in February, who awoke with total amnesia and only able to speak Swedish, has flown to Sweden in a bid to rebuild his life.

Michael Boatwright, 61, was reunited in Gothenburg on Tuesday with Ewa Espling, an old flame who he has not seen in almost 30 years and hopes spending time with her might trigger an avalanche of lost memories.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2399474/American-woke-speak-Swedish-goes-Europe-regain-memory.html

As you can see, over a dozen hits at some of the most-popular media sites in Sweden:
http://sok.aftonbladet.se/?q=Michael+Boatwright

http://www.svt.se/search/?q=Michael+Boatwright

http://www.tv4.se/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Michael+Boatwright

Benghazi -What really happened? "The Truth About Benghazi" - Videos from CNN's better-late-than-never Benghazi special examining the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate that killed four Americans; U.S. Mainstream Media's suck-up of White House narrative and hands-off attitude towards Hillary Clinton looks even worse in retrospect as more facts emerge and cover-up falls apart

CNN video: Benghazi timeline: "We are under attack"

John King: Why Benghazi matters
By John King, CNN Chief National Correspondent
updated 1:23 PM EDT, Wed August 7, 2013
Additional information and videos at:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/06/politics/king-benghazi/index.html


CNN video: Political fallout from Benghazi attack

"The Truth about #Benghazi": Why didn't the U.S. military respond in time in Benghazi? @JohnKingCNN reports. http://t.co/B1l4ZfdSvu @CNN
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) August 7, 2013

CNN video: Why didn't the U.S. military respond in time in Benghazi


CNN video: Paying the political price for Benghazi

Recent Benghazi-related news

I'll take 'phony scandal' for a thousand, Alex: Jeopardy clue features Benghazi [photo] http://t.co/Jz0mXTP4Lk
— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) August 5, 2013

For the record, @BarackObama - when you're forced to close a record amount of embassies, your enemy isn't "on the run," you are.
— Brad Thor (@BradThor) August 5, 2013

@JaeCreitch @USATODAY I try to be respectful of others' opinions, but the sheer Liberal disregard of #Benghazi sickens me in a visceral way.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 4, 2013

NEW COLUMN just went up. CNN Finds Benghazi Terrorist Suspect; FBI Doesn't Lv a comment. RT pls. http://t.co/nqHWOLfv9N
— Bernard Goldberg (@BernardGoldberg) August 5, 2013

The key to #BENGAZHI atrocity being solved may now lie with the press. Even running dogs like our Lib press may turn on Obama for Pulitzers.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 3, 2013

Threat closes US embassies in Muslim world on Sunday: http://t.co/Kpbbiyuxuu -CC
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 2, 2013

Now includes video story: Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

http://t.co/EFU5TDVYtA

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 1, 2013

Now includes video story: Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack http://t.co/EFU5TDVYtA
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 1, 2013

CIA is polygraphing operatives regularly, in an "unprecedented" attempt to keep Benghazi secrets, sources tell CNN, @DrewGriffinCNN reports
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) August 1, 2013

Mounting public anger & criticism of Obama & Hillary's dithering foreign policy failures in aftermath of Cairo & Benghazi attacks; Facts finally starting to penetrate MSM's pro-Obama narrative and defense shield on this story even while ABC's "World News With Diane Sawyer" lays one egg-after-another

publiusforum video: CNN's Nic Robertson Interviews Brother of Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in Cairo on September 10, 2011. Uploaded September 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/tPszLCEyu-I
Story at: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/13/Cairo-Riots-Were-Not-Over-Offensive-American-Movie-Freedom-of-Blind-Sheik-The-Goal

*FYI: CIA Director David Petraeus will be meeting with House Intelligence Committee members this morning*

Though it's the newscast that I always watch and prefer, Thursday night's "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" was one of the worst in quite some time, more noteworthy for what they neglected to say than anything they actually reported -never a good sign.

This case of collective hysterical amnesia at the alphabet network seemed especially curious in light of interesting news reports that emerged over the course of the day that only gathered steam as the day went on, as they made even more preposterous many of the Mainstream Media's claims of the day before and that morning's daily newspapers.
The facts simply wouldn't cooperate and fit their assumptions. 

These were all "facts" that that you reasonably expected to see mentioned at some point in a national newscast when the subject of the riots and murder in Benghazi and Cairo came up
and yet...

Yes, sometimes even when Diane Sawyer is standing right there in the middle of it, the absence of evidence is evidence itself, and so is the refusal of her news program to mention these inconvenient facts when it goes against the Mainstream Media narrative of that morning.

Here's just a small list of what WASN'T mentioned on Thursday night's "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" http://abcnews.go.com/WN/

1.) Libyan government announced that organized and heavily-armed groups used the so-called film protests as a cover to stage coordinated attacks.
Yes, the rocket-propelled grenades are always a tip-off that civic discourse is not at the top of someone's agenda.

[And why so much reluctance by ABC News and the rest of the Mainstream Media in the U.S. to mention how often variations of "Osama, we are with you" was heard a week at the protests one week  after the DNC mentioned Osama Bin Laden 21 times with respect to their famous hunter Obama practically killing Bin Laden himself. 

TV and print reporters in other countries who speak Arabic and who are there on the ground are mentioning it, so why aren't U.S. reporters mentioning how often the words "Osama" and "Obama" are mentioned in the same sentence, and not in a positive light?
Speaking of speaking the language of the place you are reporting from, how's Barbara Raddatz's Arabic? 
Perhaps Paul Ryan will ask her at the October 11th Vice-Presidential debate she is moderating. 

No need to do that, I can answer that question for you.
ABC News reporter Barbara Raddatz, like so many other American A-list reporters routinely go to countries where they don't speak the language -like Arabic- and have to be totally dependent on others to explain what in the hell is going on. 
So, why do we need to hear from her then? 
Good question.

But ABC News doesn't care that she doesn't actually understand what is being said all around here while she is supposed to be reporting. 
To them, the most important thing is that she's there -is showing the ABC flag.
That's NOT the most-important thing to me -facts are. 
(She was in washington on Thursday night)] 


2.) Why nothing at all about this f-ed up situation with Larry Schwartz at the U.S. embassy in Cairo? Guess they were too busy trying to find another Republican in DC to criticize Romney.
Anonymously, of course.

Foreign Policy magazine
The Cable blog
Inside the public relations disaster at the Cairo embassy
Posted By Josh Rogin
September 12, 2012 - 8:48 p.m.

One staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was responsible for the statement and tweets Tuesday that have become grist for the presidential campaign, and that staffer ignored explicit State Department instructions not to issue the statement, one U.S. official close to the issue told The Cable.

Two additional administration officials confirmed the details of this account when contacted late Wednesday by The Cable.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/12/inside_the_public_relations_disaster_at_the_cairo_embassy

3.) All Thursday morning and afternoon, credible reports emerged that despite what President Obama said about the Libyan security forces helping transport Ambassador Christopher Stevens to another building per their protocol, credible stories that members of the Libyan security forces had in fact signaled to the armed organized groups that were there to storm the consulate that the move was taking place.
The groups already knew that Stevens would be moved, they just weren't sure where.
Once they knew, it was easy to fire their rockets right at him.

It was literally like he was herded into the scene of his death.
This was not mentioned at all on ABC's newscast 

Uh-oh! Mira!
Here's something finally penetrating the MSM's invisible force field
Notice that this is being given a 6:45 am time stamp, even though I heard this yesterday before 1 p.m.

CBS News

September 14, 2012 5:23 AM
Official: Libyan insiders may have aided assault
Updated 6:45 a.m. ET

(CBA/AP) BENGHAZI, Libya — Heavily armed militants used a protest of an anti-Islam film as a cover and may have had help from inside Libyan security in their deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate, a senior Libyan official said Thursday.

As Libya announced the first four arrests, the clearest picture yet emerged of a two-pronged assault, with militants screaming "God is great!" as they scaled the consulate's outer walls and descended on the compound's main building.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57512847/official-libyan-insiders-may-have-aided-assault/

4.) Surprise! Reports throughout the day emerged that U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson wouldn't allow U.S. Marines guarding the embassy compound to carry live ammunition.
http://nation.time.com/2012/09/13/whats-worse-no-marines-or-possibly-unarmed-marines/

With all their resources and personnel, how is ABC News unable to either confirm or deny this story by 6:30 p.m. Eastern? 
Or mention that she was in Washington at the time?
Really, how can that be?

If it turns out to be true, like you, I can hardly wait to hear the future interviews with the Marines and their leaders back in Washington on the fact that the very people most-responsible for the safety of U.S. personnel were reduced to playing the role of Barney Fife, who, lovable as he was, famously, wasn't allowed to have a loaded gun while he was on-duty in Mayberry.
And as if I even have to mention it, Ambassador Ann Patterson's name was never spoken on-air Thursday. Again.
Hmm-m...

Honestly, what is it about female U.S. Ambassadors posted to the creepy patriarchal Middle East, and their own feelings of protocol and or inadequacy, that actually cause them to threaten U.S.lives thru their queer policy pronouncements?

If true, unfortunately, Anne Patterson's bad decision-making will remind many of us that after the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, the last year of the Clinton Administration, the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, imposed all sorts of rules on the U.S. officials sent to investigate the bombing that took place on her watch.
She seemed to be the very stereotype of a spiteful feminist who wanted to keep men at a distance even though they were the ones who had any power on the block she lived on.
Instead of letting common sense prevail, she said that allowing so many FBI and CIA agents -read assertive men- would send the 'wrong signals' about who really ran U.S. foreign policy.

She forgot that it wasn't her. 
She was the worker bee who works for us, not the other way around.

In case you forgot or never knew the exact details, Bodine was the stick-up-her-ass PC U.S. Ambassador to Yemen who tried to thwart the Cole investigation and famously took steps to revoke the visa of FBI Special Agent John O'Neill, the FBI's leading expert on al Qaeda and on-scene commander in Yemen after he arrived from New York with his team of counter-terrorism agents.

Yes, really.

Among so many other things that seem contrary to U.S. interests, Bodine famously intervened and prevented his re-entry into Yemen after he'd flown back to New York for Thanksgiving 2000. 

O'Neill, of course, died ten months later in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers

See PBS's Frontline "The Man Who Knew" 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/

PBS FRONTLINE: The Man Who Knew - Parts 5 of 8
http://youtu.be/s7T5gAD1SSI

Here is what PBS says on their Frontline website about that situation in October of 2000.

I usually would not put so much of that here, but it's important that you see what part of her decision-making rings familiar today, considering Patterson's orders.

Arriving in Yemen, O'Neill finds challenging field conditions. His agents confront 102-degree heat and a cramped, unsecured hotel for their quarters. O'Neill soon finds himself clashing with Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, who is concerned about the number of FBI agents and military personnel flooding into the country after the bombing. O'Neill argues that the FBI needs resources to thoroughly investigate the attack. Bodine has different priorities, including maintaining good relations with Yemen. "I had to act as a cultural interpreter. They have endured first British colonialism, and then the Soviets. These people have only had foreigners telling them what to do. Now O'Neill and his men were coming in, doing essentially the same thing," Bodine later told Britain's The Sunday Times.

As relations between the two sour, the number of topics they disagree on multiplies. O'Neill wants a heavily-armed security presence; Bodine wants the agents to be unarmed. O'Neill wants to have direct access to Yemeni officials; Bodine feels she should supervise encounters. As O'Neill starts to seek support from Barry Mawn and other FBI officials back in the U.S., the cables sent by Bodine to the State Department become increasingly critical of O'Neill. It reaches the point where Louis Freeh and Janet Reno become personally involved in the dispute.

Meanwhile...
CNN IGNORES REAL GOAL OF CAIRO RIOTS: FREEDOM OF BLIND SHEIK

by WARNER TODD HUSTON  

14 Sep 2012, 2:47 AM PDT

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/13/Cairo-Riots-Were-Not-Over-Offensive-American-Movie-Freedom-of-Blind-Sheik-The-Goal

-----

See also http://www.longwarjournal.org/

MSNBC's coverage of RNC is a marriage-made-in-heaven of Political Correctness & Ethnic Politics. If Mainstream Media's PC Police there deem it racist to say "Chicago," what does it mean NOW if you say "Chicago deep-dish"? Or, how many times can MSNBC jump-the-shark?

Speakmymind02 video:  Paranoid political correctness runs the roost when head rooster Chris Matthews is around, clucking his wild theories that for years have become increasingly creepy and offensive.
Chris Matthews: “They keep saying Chicago, by the way, you noticed?”
John Heilemann: “Well, there’s a lot of black people in Chicago”
These sort of cringe-inspiring PC moments are painful even when you didn't see them LIVE, but then that's MSNBC's problem in a nutshell: hardly anyone's watching their RNC  coverage, as they are being whipped by not only Fox News, but even pitiful CNN, with FNC beating them by a factor of more than 4.1:1. Only the party faithful turn there -the shut-ins getting their Liberal religion via cathode ray. Uploaded August 29, 2012. http://youtu.be/BW7nPFR0Oq8

MSNBC's coverage of RNC is a marriage-made-in-heaven of Political Correctness & Ethnic Politics. If Mainstream Media's PC Police deem it racist to say "Chicago," what does it mean NOW if you say "Chicago deep-dish"? Or, how many times can MSNBC jump-the-shark?

Having lived in Chicago during the mid-1980's, as well as Evanston and Wilmette, I can confirm that little bit of Breaking News knowledge imparted by jump-the-shark journo John Heilemann of New York Magazine -Chicago does indeed have many Blacks.
And many Poles, Eastern European/Russian Jews and tons of Mexicans, too.
Imagine that?

But then it IS the country's third-largest city.
It should hardly be surprising to anyone who knows America's history and especially its immigration patterns of the past 150 years.
That very mixture of cultures is another reason that I would have liked to have seen them get the Olympics in 2009 for 2016 instead of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In case you recognized the name, yes, John Heilemann was the sub-subject of my August 22nd post, titled, Paul Ryan: Why he matters and needs to be unleashed on Obama and the Dems' treasure trove of bad ideas -he connects with smart, reasonable voters who see that under Obama, we're not just going the wrong direction on too many important issues, our margin of error is getting smaller everyday; DWS on thin ice with Obama HQ in Chicago but Sun-Sentinel is ignoring the story
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-why-he-matters-and-needs-to.html

I lived in the Chicago area while Harold Washington, Jr. was mayor.
Yes, a Black man as mayor almost thirty years ago.
(Not that he would have gotten any votes from any members of Chris Matthews own family if they had lived there then.)
So how come they didn't mention that when they said, if you pardon the expression, "Chicago"?

Probably because mentioning something so fundamental to the city and to its recent history would've proved inconvenient, and not part of the MSNBC paranoid Talking Points narrative, since even now, when you say Chicago, people all over the world think first of Al Capone and corruption and the bears and the Cubs and pizza, not racial politics.
But, apparently, based on what he himself says and does, that's the first thing that Chris Matthews thinks of. 

Everyone who lived there at the time knows that without the White reform element in Chicago, Washington wouldn't have been elected.
Just like Tom Bradley in Los Angeles and David Dinkins in New York.
You know, many, many years after a Black man was elected mayor of a big city that was NOT  on either media-centric coast, Carl Stokes in Cleveland.
Not that it makes the fact any less important.

But who cares about that sort of common knowledge and common sense when you can get paid to sit around and make up crazy nonsense on LIVE TV and posit that saying "Chicago" is racist, and have nobody slap you in the back of the head.
So does this mean that when I say "Chicago deep-dish" I've stepped beyond the pale?

Chris Matthews and MSNBC Now Claim the Word 'Chicago' Is Racist
By Rusty Weiss 
August 30, 2012 at 12:12 a.m.

Chris Matthews was on Hardball tonight covering the Republican National Convention with guests Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and John Heilemann of New York Magazine.  In what is seemingly the natural progression of things these days with Matthews, the subject of the 'otherization' of the President was being discussed.  Because, if you weren't aware already, Barack Obama is black, and any time a Republican chooses to discuss the failure that is his administration, the media will be there to quickly remind you that they only feel that way because of his skin color.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/08/30/chris_matthews_saying_chicago_is_racist.html

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2012/08/30/chris-matthews-and-msnbc-now-claim-word-chicago-racist#ixzz252qumTv7



The Daily Caller
The DC Trawler with Jim Treacher blog
Another thread snaps in Chris Matthews’ frayed tether to reality
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/30/another-thread-snaps-in-chris-matthews-frayed-tether-to-reality 

Delicious! CNN Piers Morgan punctures smug CNN afternoon anchorbabe Brooke Baldwin's ill-founded predicate in attack on Romney. Morgan: "He's only been saying what's been happening."; #London2012

No, the predictable -and unexpected- safety, security and logistics problems associated with London hosting something as huge as the 2012 Olympics have NOT exactly been a secret, as this front page Sunday story from The Daily Mail makes clear: Minister's Daughter in Olympic Safety Scandal. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177018/Claudia-Blunt-Ministers-daughter-exposes-Olympic-safety-scandal.html

Oh, dear! The cat is out of the bag. Just don't wake CNN's Brooke Baldwin, as she needs her beauty sleep.

Delicious! CNN Piers Morgan punctures smug CNN afternoon anchorbabe Brooke Baldwin's ill-founded predicate in attack on Mitt Romney. Morgan: "He's only been saying what's been happening."


Get it?

Romney's only been saying about logistics and security problems with the London 2012 Olympics what has been reported on the front pages of the British and Scottish newspapers for months!

They already know!

And it's been reported at the Drudge Report and on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News Channel newscasts for months, too.

That's why it's called "common knowledge!"

Taxi for Mr. Buckles -MPs savage G4S boss over Olympic chaos, The Guardian from last Wednesday, July 18, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jul/17/nick-buckles-g4s-olympic-chaos

So with so much being written, on the front page, something that a supposed-journalist like Baldwin should've known, or at least acted like she already knew was common knowledge, what gives with the dopey and smarmy attitude? 
Baldwin seems to be the last to know, the latest idiot who has a TV show.

(I'd planned on having some screenshots here of what took place around 2 p.m. on CNN but I'm having a problem downloading the photos from my videocamera.)

Jesus, that was so embarrassing, and really showed that left to their own devices, CNN's desire to go after Romney, who is clearly often his own worst enemy, when there's little rationale.

They do it because it's their natural instinct.

I'd forgotten why I didn't watch CNN during the day and Brooke Baldwin reminded me.

The real question is why Romney felt the need to say anything about it at all.
Oh, that's right, because NBC News Brian Williams asked him.
The same NBC that is airing the Olympics starting tomorrow.


Romney's comment should've been that he would mention his concerns or constructive suggestions to people who could actually do something about it, and that didn't include Brian Williams.


An hour after that 2 pm exchange with Morgan, yet another CNN host was brought on board to say something and Fareed Zakaria largely agreed with Morgan.
But then used that as an opportunity to attack the caliber of Romney's foreign policy people, including, surprisingly, Richard Armitage.


Hmm-m... I thought the Mainstream Media had voted that Armitage was a good guy because he was Colin Powell's top assistant under Bush 43, despite the fact that Armitage was the actual person who leaked the info about Valerie Plame
Powell acted ignorant about that publicly for months and months as people who were NOT involved, had their whole lives completely disrupted as they had to hire expensive defense attorneys during a government witch-hunt.


And lest you forget, one of the principal reasons that I've never liked Colin Powell and thought him a bit of a fraud is that despite all his tough talk about doing the right thing, when the opportunity presented itself, we never got any explanation from Powell on why he didn't publicly say that his assistant was the leaker.

Colin Powell didn't care about how much his secret affected those other Americans, he only cared about protecting his pal's identity. 
That's who Powell really is to me -an over-rated, aloof and self-absorbed person.

Not Breaking News: U.S. cablenets stay with taped programs rather than go LIVE from Paris as official results of 2012 French Presidential election are announced; watch election commentary LIVE from Paris at France24 or BFMTV

Not Breaking News: U.S. cablenets stay with taped programs rather than go LIVE from Paris as official results of 2012 French Presidential election are announced; watch election commentary LIVE from Paris at France24 or BFMTV


Final Ipsos poll via France24 at 8 p.m. in Paris: François Hollande 51.9 %, Nicolas Sarkozy 48.1%.


France24: Overall, 20.1 percent of French voters abstained from casting their ballots.
BFMTV says it was 81% participation.


Here's what the U.S. cable networks ran instead:


CNN - The Next List
MSNBC - Meet the Press (encore of NBC's telecast), which featured Tom Brokaw raising the complaint of voters that U.S. reporters are more than a bit full of themselves, and, that their being so keen on reporting on what George Clooney thinks at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, rather than DO THEIR JOBS, is one of the reasons.
Yes, the thin wall between serious news and Entertainment Tonight  
Fox News Channel - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (encore telecast)


Yes, with all the technology available to them, this is what we get from the Mainstream Media: nothing. C'est la vie!


You can watch the heated commentary LIVE in English via http://www.france24.com/en/aef_player_popup/france24_player#

Once you click the arrow, it'll work, but there's so much demand on the line now that every few minutes it slows down and requires refreshing, just like the LIVE blog.

Click the blue link in the bottom left marked Watch : FRANCE 24 live : SPECIAL

Or you can watch it in French via BFMTV at http://www.bfmtv.com/direct

Already, less than an hour after the official results were announced, many of the Socialist members who have appeared on TV are talking about the victory as something much larger than it is, esp, considering since it was not a legislative election.

(Those elections are next month.)

They sort of remind me of many of the young female thirty-something Democratic/GOP consultants we see too much of on TV in the U.S. all the time, who you'd really like to know what they've ever actually accomplished besides getting the attention of the show's male producers, because the facts don't seem to ever get in the way of what they say.
As becomes obvious when you listen.

Meanwhile, the Front National Le Pen supporters are crowing that they are the ones who really are responsible for Sarkozy's defeat and angling for more respect,

Sarkozy gave a very classy concession speech but at the beginning of it, one of the female reporters from France24 in Tulle, where Hollande supporters were celebrating, kept talking over Sarkozy for a bit before they killed her microphone.
Hollande has still not spoken as of 3:15 Eastern U.S.