April 10, 2008: LA Times publishes Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama. This story goes over the going away party of Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian scholar (and dinner companion of Barack Obama) whose comments critical comments on Israel over the years have stirred various contreversies.
During this going away party, according to the LA Times story, poetry was read accusing Israel of terrorism, while others compared "Zionist settlers" to Osama Bin Laden. To put it plainly, there was plenty of Jew bashing going on that night.
On the second page of this story, the LA Times writes "The Event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times". No mention of a confidential source.
From October 24 to 28, there are multiple stories of various news agencies requesting a copy of this tape. All requests were denied without any mention of a confidential source.
On October 28, Ben Smith of Politico, gave the times the benefit of the doubt as he wrote:
Critics have suggested that the Times is witholding the video for political reasons, but there are other possibilities: competitive reasons, or simply out of tradition. In the mechanics of reporting, there's another possibility as well. The video may have been given to the paper on the condition it not be released, or releasing it could compromise its source.
This is the first mention of a confidential source, speculated by a reporter from a different news agency.
October 29: The Times makes a first mention that the tape was obtained from a confidential source on the condition it would not be released. The story actually says this was originally mentioned on the 28th, but after a thorough search I did not find any mention of this prior to the 29th. Hopefully The Times will send Mr. Smith a thank you card for inadvertently providing the idea of a confidential source.
Calling this BS is an understatement. Let's see the tape, because I'm sure if this had John McCain (or Sarah Palin) on it, it would have been out on the front pages back in April.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Next 18 Days for Joe the Plumber
Earlier this week Joe Six Pack from Main Street transformed from a mythical symbol into Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Ohio. The only “surprise” is that Joe didn’t have a man-crush on Obama like the media does, and certainly wasn’t chanting change and hope.
“Your new tax plan is going to tax me more isn’t it?”
Those twelve words, followed by Obama’s response of spreading the wealth may have a greater impact on this election as the Ponytail Guy did in 1992 (GHW Bush vs. BJ Clinton) when he asked the presidential candidates to “treat us as your children” and to promise to “meet our needs.”
Rather than try to argue ideology and attempt to explain why Obama feels that taxing certain economic levels is necessary, the media and the Obama Campaign is going to go after this guy. Until Election Day (and who knows how much longer) Joe is going to be called a Republic plant. They’re going to question his plumbing licenses and tax returns. If they can, they’ll bring out unhappy ex-girlfriends from high school or anything else they can do to turn Joe the Plumber into some monster who us peasants on Main Street can’t relate to.
But behind all of this vilifying, the truth is still there. Obama wants to take money from those who earned it, and give it to those who haven’t. He’s using this fictitious number of $250,000 as a point of envy, so those of us making 30k, 50k, or 100k look up to those mean rich people making 250,000 and say “yeah, they should pay up more”.
Let’s not fall for it. No one is going to prosper by punishing those with wealth. Economies grow when jobs are created, not when money is transferred from one party to another without the exchange goods or services in return. Economies grow when the government gets out of the way of people trying to succeed.
Thanks Joe, I hope I’m wrong about their plans for you.
“Your new tax plan is going to tax me more isn’t it?”
Those twelve words, followed by Obama’s response of spreading the wealth may have a greater impact on this election as the Ponytail Guy did in 1992 (GHW Bush vs. BJ Clinton) when he asked the presidential candidates to “treat us as your children” and to promise to “meet our needs.”
Rather than try to argue ideology and attempt to explain why Obama feels that taxing certain economic levels is necessary, the media and the Obama Campaign is going to go after this guy. Until Election Day (and who knows how much longer) Joe is going to be called a Republic plant. They’re going to question his plumbing licenses and tax returns. If they can, they’ll bring out unhappy ex-girlfriends from high school or anything else they can do to turn Joe the Plumber into some monster who us peasants on Main Street can’t relate to.
But behind all of this vilifying, the truth is still there. Obama wants to take money from those who earned it, and give it to those who haven’t. He’s using this fictitious number of $250,000 as a point of envy, so those of us making 30k, 50k, or 100k look up to those mean rich people making 250,000 and say “yeah, they should pay up more”.
Let’s not fall for it. No one is going to prosper by punishing those with wealth. Economies grow when jobs are created, not when money is transferred from one party to another without the exchange goods or services in return. Economies grow when the government gets out of the way of people trying to succeed.
Thanks Joe, I hope I’m wrong about their plans for you.
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