Posts Tagged ‘New York Times’
Frank Rich Is (Still) Great
Frank Rich has delivered another great piece in this Sunday’s New York Times. The op-ed takes a harsh look at McCain’s recent campaign suspension and what McCain’s behavior might mean to the country. Full piece here.
Opening with this barn burner, Rich comes flying out of the gate and never looks back:
WHAT we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House.
Moving on to:
When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign.
By the time he arrived, there already was a bipartisan agreement in principle. It collapsed hours later at the meeting convened by the president in the Cabinet Room. Rather than help try to resuscitate Wall Street’s bloodied bulls, McCain was determined to be the bull in Washington’s legislative china shop, running around town and playing both sides of his divided party against Congress’s middle. Once others eventually forged a path out of the wreckage, he’d inflate, if not outright fictionalize, his own role in cleaning up the mess his mischief helped make. Or so he hoped, until his ignominious retreat.
And this gem:
Yet even as he huffed and puffed about being a “leader,” McCain took no action and felt no urgency. As his Congressional colleagues worked tirelessly in Washington, he malingered in New York. He checked out the suffering on Main Street (or perhaps High Street) by conferring with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the Hillary-turned-McCain supporter best known for her fabulous London digs and her diatribes against Obama’s elitism. McCain also found time to have a well-publicized chat with one of those celebrities he so disdains, Bono, and to give a self-promoting public speech at the Clinton Global Initiative.
There was no suspension of his campaign. His surrogates and ads remained on television. Huffington Post bloggers, working the phones, couldn’t find a single McCain campaign office that had gone on hiatus. This “suspension” ruse was an exact replay of McCain’s self-righteous “suspension” of the G.O.P. convention as Hurricane Gustav arrived on Labor Day. “We will put aside our political hats and put on our American hats,” he declared then, solemnly pledging that conventioneers would help those in need. But as anyone in the Twin Cities could see, the assembled put on their party hats instead, piling into the lobbyists’ bacchanals earlier than scheduled, albeit on the down-low.
The only way to do the thing justice is to read the whole piece here.
Update On: Bitch, Bitch, Bitch– Oh, And it’s Good.
Couple days ago we talked about how McCain’s camp was crying their eyes out over accurate reporting by the New York Times, by claiming it wasn’t even a “journalistic organization.” (See: here.)
Well, turns out it is a journalistic organization after all— and McCain’s not going to like it any better. The original piece that prompted the McCain camp tantrum was about campaign manager Rick Davis’ ties to Freddie Mac as a lobbyist. (You know McCain’s team is run by lobbyists, right?)
Outraged and shocked by the factual article examining Davis’ ties to Freddie prompted this outburst by McCain himself:
“My campaign manager has stopped that, has had nothing to do with it since and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”
Turns out that was just a lie.
Being journalists, the NYT looked into McCain’s claim, and guess what? Davis’ firm was being paid by Freddie Mac right through last month— to the tune of $15,000 a month! (How much do you make a month?) I wonder, what’s Freddie get for their monthly $15k deposit to McCain’s campaign manager?
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch
Big time war hero and his “pitbull” sidekick are doing what all war heroes and pitbulls do, crying like little bitches. (Wait, something’s wrong here. Can you tell what it is?).
Anyhow, the war hero and the pitbull, who are going to follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell (but not to Pakistan, which is kinda the same thing) are crying like little girls today that the New York Times is a “pro-Obama advocacy organization.”
Oh and yeah, apparently the New York Times is “not”, as far as McCain-World is concerned ” a journalistic organization.” Which I’m sure comes as news to the hundreds of journalists who work there.
Seems the NYT is incurring the wrath of the cry-baby campaign because it has the nerve to— gasp!— tell the truth. Not very “journalistic” of them at all. Truth telling! Where the fuck do these assholes get off!
Yikes. Krugman Hates “The Plan”
Allow me to summarize what Paul Krugman has to say about the proposed Bush bailout: It Sucks.
Among his points: That a $700 “bailout” basically consists of the government buying up $700 billion dollars in bad assets (i.e., mortgage back securities). Krugman believes that while that may, emphasis “may”, break the cycle of deleveraging going on on Wall Street, that the real solution is to provide more capital to the system. Under this idea if we are to be providing capital to Wall Street we should get an “ownership” share so that if the plan does work the gains don’t just go to the people who made this mess in the first place.
Interesting point.
Full article here.
Problems is, see this post, here.
Uh-Oh.
I guess it was inevitable. People are starting to fiddle with the proposed bailout plan of capitalism. The Times is reporting this morning that Democrats, Republicans, and even financial companies are all beginning to lobby for what they want out of the upcoming bailout. Half of it doesn’t sound half bad: Oversight of the Treasury Dept., guarantees that any profits from the new program go directly back to the Treasury, etc.
Problems is, markets, all markets, are tenuous at best right now. If there is even the slightest hint that the Administration and Congress cannot make a deal, or even that a deal may be delayed due to squabbling, it could be devastating to market confidence.
Full story here.
Frank Rich Reminds Me: McCain is a Lying Scumbag
Another excerpt from Frank rich today:
The twin-pronged strategy of truculence and propaganda that sold Bush and his war could yet work for McCain. Even now his campaign has kept the “filter” from learning the very basics about his fitness to serve as president — his finances and his health. The McCain multihousehold’s multimillion-dollar mother lode is buried in Cindy McCain’s still-unreleased complete tax returns. John McCain’s full medical records, our sole index to the odds of an imminent Palin presidency, also remain locked away. The McCain campaign instead invited 20 chosen reporters to speed-read through 1,173 pages of medical history for a mere three hours on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. No photocopying was permitted.
I’m like, “Oh yeah he still hasn’t released his medical records or financial records.” Could you imagine if the Obama’s hadn’t either. Rush Limbaugh, in a drug induced haze, would be claiming that they are hiding money from their sales of crack cocaine to kindergartners.
McCain sucks.
Frank Rich is Great
As always, read this. Lemme just go ahead and put in the link one more time, so you don’t miss it: HERE’S THE LINK TO FRANK RICH’S COLUMN.
Excerpt:
That’s why the main thrust of the McCain campaign has been to cover up his history of economic malpractice.
McCain has largely pulled it off so far, under the guidance of Steve Schmidt, a Karl Rove protégé. A Rovian political strategy by definition means all slime, all the time. But the more crucial Rove game plan is to envelop the entire presidential race in a thick fog of truthiness. All campaigns, Obama’s included, engage in false attacks. But McCain, Sarah Palin and their surrogates keep repeating the same lies over and over not just to smear their opponents and not just to mask their own record. Their larger aim is to construct a bogus alternative reality so relentless it can overwhelm any haphazard journalistic stabs at puncturing it.
When a McCain spokesman told Politico a week ago that “we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say” about the campaign’s incessant fictions, he was channeling a famous Bush dictum of 2003: “Somehow you just got to go over the heads of the filter.” In Bush’s case, the lies lobbed over the heads of the press were to sell the war in Iraq. That propaganda blitz, devised by a secret White House Iraq Group that included Rove, was a triumph. In mere months, Americans came to believe thatSaddam Hussein had aided the 9/11 attacks and even that Iraqis were among the hijackers. A largely cowed press failed to set the record straight.
Just as the Bushies once flogged uranium from Africa, so Palin ceaselessly repeats her discredited claim that she said “no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. Nothing is too small or sacred for the McCain campaign to lie about. It was even caught (by The Christian Science Monitor) peddling an imaginary encounter between Cindy McCain and Mother Teresa when McCain was adopting her daughter in Bangladesh.
If you doubt that the big lies are sticking, look at the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. Half of voters now believe in the daily McCain refrain that Obama will raise their taxes. In fact, Obama proposes raising taxes only on the 1.9 percent of households that make more than $250,000 a year and cutting them for nearly everyone else.
New York Times Rooting Against America?
Take a look at the front page of today’s New York Times:
Do you see? They’re not even “reporting” on bad news, now they’re speculating on the “possibility” of bad news. What isn’t there enough actual bad news in the world today, that they have to start guessing about the possibility of future bad news?
Could those ass-munching jerkoffs on the right-wing be right? Is the finest newspaper in all of America, perhaps the world, anti-American? In these perilous times how the fuck could they possibly dare place such an irresponsible headline on the front page of their Sunday edition?
WE, the American tax payers, each and every one of us, are putting up nearly a trillion dollars to rescue capitalism and the American way, and the New York Times is already saying “What if it doesn’t work?” before it even goes into effect!
If only these spineless ass-wiipes had feautred this kind of story PRIOR to the Iraq war, maybe we coulda all saved a trillion dollars, not mention over 4,000 American lives. But no. As I said maybe they really do hate America.
“But Will It Work?” Are they fucking kidding me? Want an example of how irresponsible that is? Try this:
- George Bush, Collie Molesting Drunkard?
- The USA, freedom hating assholes?
- Russia, commie loving fucktards?
See, you can put a question mark over anything God damn thing you want and call it “a story” or “journalism”— It don’t fucking make it so (‘cept the one about George Bush. I’m pretty sure he does molest collies). The front fucking page of the fucking New York Times is for FACTS, not idle spectulation— especially when the fate of our nation hangs in the balance.
Bambi Taking Off The Gloves?
The New York Times is reporting this morning that Barack Obama is planning to “sharpen his attacks on John McCain“, saying:
Senator Barack Obama will intensify his assault against Senator John McCain, with new television advertisements and more forceful attacks by the candidate and surrogates beginning Friday morning, as he confronts an invigorated Republican presidential ticket and increasing nervousness in the Democratic ranks.
Is this weak-ass ad it? Lord help ’em if Obama thinks this stupid shit will resonate. It’s an ad that makes fun of how old McCain is, by taking us back to 1982! Via the Way Back Machine Barry&Co. show us what life was like in this scary, pre-historic era.
Note to Obama team: You’ve already got the youth vote! That’s the only demo that’s going to think 1982 was Sooo Long Ago. “Why 1982, I wasn’t even born yet! I can’t possibly vote for this man for president.”
McCain and his team of liars, swindlers and bullshiters are so fucking target rich, and Bambi takes us Back To The Future to 1982?
lame.
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Maureen Dowd’s List of Questions for Charlie Gibson
After snowmobiling, walking some picturesque trails, and maybe visiting the school where she grew up, Charlie Gibson might actually ask Sarah Palin some questions. Maureen Dowd has a pretty nice list:
What kind of budget-cutter makes a show of getting rid of the state plane, then turns around and bills taxpayers for the travel of her husband and kids between Juneau and Wasilla and sticks the state with a per-diem tab to stay in her own home?
Why was Sarah for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, and why was she for earmarks before she was against them? And doesn’t all this make her just as big a flip-flopper as John Kerry?
What kind of fiscal conservative raises taxes and increases budgets in both her jobs — as mayor and as governor?
When the phone rings at 3 a.m., will she call the Wasilla Assembly of God congregation and ask them to pray on a response, as she asked them to pray for a natural gas pipeline?
Does she really think Adam, Eve, Satan and the dinosaurs mingled on the earth 5,000 years ago?
Why put out a press release about her teenage daughter’s pregnancy and then spend the next few days attacking the press for covering that press release?
As Troopergate unfolds here — an inquiry into whether Palin inappropriately fired the commissioner of public safety for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law — it raises this question: Who else is on her enemies list and what might she do with the F.B.I.?
Does she want a federal ban on trans fat in restaurants and a ban on abortion and Harry Potter? And which books exactly would have landed on the literature bonfire if she had had her way with that Wasilla librarian?
New York Times Does Front Page Puff Piece on Palin
The national paper of record seems to have jumped on the Prom Queen express to Alaska and is using their front page to “report” on things such as white mochas, hockey moms, and get this: how “hockey in Alaska keeps kids on the straight and narrow”.
Did Jason Blair write this thing? Do they know anything about who the fuck Sarah Palin is and what kind of results her mothering skills have garnished?
Other totally sickening pieces of crap include this nugget:
To understand hockey in Alaska is to understand something about the Palin family dynamic: Athletic drive seems to be as much a family trait as church-going and salmon fishing.
If this is the “liberal” New York Times, it kinda makes you wonder what sort of sugar coated crap we’re gonna hear out of ABC and Charlie Gibson later this week.
Bambi Struggling to Make the Rent
The front page of today’s NYT lays it out: Obama is having trouble raising cash. As is well-known, Bambi & Co. backed out of public financing for the Fall Fight and are now kinda sorta having second thoughts about that. Seems the dough ain’t rollin’ in at the rate expected, and we all know the big-money Hillary people are sitting on their hands. We got the shitty hotel rooms at the convention, fuck him!
In addition to overestimating the Hillraiser’s love, seems Obama’s team didn’t really think about the fact that raising all that cash takes time. Instead being out on the trail extolling the benefits of Obama Love, the man himself is having to take precious time off the campaign to go around to rich folks begging for cash. Not good.
Richie Rich meanwhile is sitting on $84 million of tax payer money, plus he’s pimping out the prom queen in a major way to raise cash for the well-oiled RNC machine. The former beauty queen is expected to be doing the old white men of the GOP 35 times (in group sessions) over the next two months.
Things are getting interesting. Full piece here.
New York Times on Richie Rich and The Prom Queen
In today’s New York Times Frank Rich breaks down some basic truths about Grandpa Simpson and his beauty queen…
Excerpt:
She didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionateshare of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states). Though McCain claimed “she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard. As for her “executive experience” as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: “It’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.” Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same.
Whatever we do and don’t know about Palin’s character at this point, there is no ambiguity in what her ascent tells us about McCain’s character and potential presidency. He wanted to choose the pro-abortion-rights Joe Lieberman as his vice president. If he were still a true maverick, he would have done so. But instead he chose partisanship and politics over country.
As The New York Times reported last Tuesday, Palin was sloppily vetted, at best. McCain operatives and some of their press surrogates responded to this revelation by trying to discredit The Times article. After all, The Washington Post had cited McCain aides (including his campaign manager, Rick Davis) last weekend to assure us that Palin had a “full vetting process.” She had been subjected to “an F.B.I. background check,” we were told, and “the McCain camp had reviewed everything it could find on her.”
The Times had it right. The McCain campaign’s claims of a “full vetting process” for Palin were as much a lie as the biographical details they’ve invented for her. There was no F.B.I. background check. The Times found no evidence that a McCain representative spoke to anyone in the State Legislature or business community. Nor did anyone talk to the fired state public safety commissioner at the center of the Palin ethics investigation. No McCain researcher even bothered to consult the relevant back issues of the Wasilla paper. Apparently when McCain said in June that his vice presidential vetting process was basically “a Google,” he wasn’t joking.
Full piece here.
Gripedujour 