March 30, 2009 News Corp

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CNN's Don Lemon talked to David Sirota and Leonard Pitts about the decline of the newspaper industry in the United States. While I think it was a good discussion and agree with the majority of what was said in it, I'd have to take Don Lemon to task for this statement:

LEMON: If you look at blogs and all of the things, most of the stuff is gotten from newspapers anyway. The other things that -- usually the things that don't come from newspapers turn out not to be on the factual side once it's on the Internet.

While it is true there's a lot of junk out there, that's a pretty broad statement from Lemon and simply not based on facts. For instance, TPM is doing original reporting online, including some real investigative journalism, and Bradblog has been investigating voter fraud and doing original reporting and digging into matters the mainstream media won't cover for some time now. That's just two that immediately come to mind. While I agree that we won't see anything on the Internet that can take the place of the local investigative journalism that our newspapers provide, you can't say that everything that's not from a newspaper online isn't factual.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Countdown's Worst Person with winners Charles E.F. Millard, Bill Kristol and Glenn Beck.

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Fox News Sunday decided to use its "Power Player of the Week" segment to let everyone know just how great the conservative movement is still doing in this country. Their proof? The Heritage Foundation is picking up lots of new membership.

Does anyone think Fox News would ever do a similar piece on a liberal think tank? Or would they rather settle for letting Bill O'Reilly go stalk their members instead?

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From The McLaughlin Group March 27, 2009.

McLaughlin: Question. Are these bailouts sufficient to restore the economy I ask you Monica?

Crowley: No because you put out a consecutive list of companies, institutions, sectors that have required some money over the last couple of months. In just about every single one of those cases there was a redundancy there. AIG coming back. The auto industry coming back. What we have poured into all of these sectors has not nearly been enough and it will not be enough. This is like spitting into the ocean. It's not going to be enough to restore the economy and if we keep going down the path of having the government jackboot on the private sector, the private sector which will be the engine of this growth (crosstalk).

Clift: The government jackboot on the private sector...uh the private sector had its jackboots on American taxpayers for a good long while and we had companies like AIG basically operating like a hedge fund selling a little insurance on the side. And it is totally appropriate that we now try to get a handle on the new financial world that is...it's a titanic struggle between the Treasury Department and the financial community and who's going to run the economy.

It evolves into one of the typical shout fests The McLaughlin Group is known for. All but John McLaughlin and Monica Crowley on the panel agree that there needs to be some government regulation over these investment companies and hedge funds.

McLaughlin and Crowley both think the free market should rule at all times. Circumstances be damned and let the buyer beware. Crowley also said that the FDIC didn't do its job. Later in the show Eleanor Clift pointed out the flaw in that argument, as in they didn't have jurisdiction or they may have come in already and seized some of these companies. Somehow I doubt that will stop Crowley from repeating the line the next time she's on Fox News.

Paul Krugman yesterday on ABC's This Week, reacting to the song Hey Paul Krugman (A song, A plea).

Quite the week for the Nobel laureate too, as he becomes the MSM's new darling and the loyal opposition to the Obama administration's economic recovery plans. That Paul Krugman is filling the void when no credible republican could be found is quite telling.

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox's Chris Wallace that this is the wrong time to make changes to the military controversial 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. "I think the president and I feel like we've got a lot on our plates right now, and let's push that one down the road a little bit," he said.

In January, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs didn't give a time frame when he told reporters that President Obama planned to end the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. Gates indicated that he would follow the law when it is changed. "We will follow the law whatever it is," said Gates.

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Gen. David Petraeus told CNN's John King that the military didn't order torture while Bush was president. "Was the line crossed? Did you do things which you fundamentally thought were wrong and immoral? " asked King.

"We certainly did not. There were incidents that did and we learned hard lessons from Abu Ghraib and we believe we took corrective measures in the wake of that," said Petraeus.

The General also said that he "wouldn't necessarily agree" with former Vice President Cheney's assertion that President Obama's terrorism policies were putting the country at greater risk.

John Amato:

When Gen. Petraeus says there is a good debate going on about "values," is he saying that under George Bush and Dick Cheney there was no such debate? Was it a veiled swipe at them?

And he did not wholeheartedly support President Obama against the charge from Cheney, who said we are less safer now. He should have been unequivocal in his support for his new commander in chief and said categorically that we are safe.

He's a political animal now that was created by the Bush administration to shift the failure of the Iraq war away from #43 to a general in the military, which was to squash as much criticism as they could from the media. Rove and Co. knew that the media would shy away from leveling tough criticism at the feet of a military man.

CNN transcript:

KING: Do you believe the president of the United States has made Americans less safe?

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I do. He is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: General Petraeus, you served in the Bush administration under Vice President Cheney and President Bush. You're now serving in the Obama administration. Are the American people less safe because of this new president, as Vice President Cheney says?

PETRAEUS: Well, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, John. I think that, in fact, there is a good debate going on about the importance of values in all that we do. I think that, if one violates the values that we hold so dear, that we...

KING: You mean torture?

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From Headzup the Week in Cartoons.

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Bill Sammon on Fox News Sunday is now worried about the expansion of Presidential powers. This coming from one of the biggest Bush cheerleaders on the planet.

Wallace: Let me ask you about that. I mean with all the craziness that we've had about derivatives and credit default swaps, isn't there a role for the government to play to step in and say here are the rules of the road, here are some standards?

Sammon: Well that's it. There is a role. And I think Juan and Bill are making this into an all or nothing. In other words you're either going to have no regulation or all pervasive regulation as Nina has described. I think conservatives are right to be concerned that Obama is using this as a pretext for a wide power grab. Never waste a good crisis seems to be the motto of this administration and I think the fear is that a) you can't, I think conservatives feel you can't trust this administration to, to grab that much governmental authority where you regulating not just banks but insurance companies and hedge funds and a whole host of financial institutions. And b) and perhaps more importantly, can you trust future administrations to do this. Who knows who's going to be in power in the future. And you're going to give this broad authority that you'll never get back.

Yeah gee Bill you're right. You never know who might be President in the future. It could be someone who decides to invade other countries that aren't a threat to us or spy on us, or think torture is legal...or...oh never mind. Too late for that. Project much Mr. Sammon? And heaven forbid anyone regulate these industries that have driven our economy into a ditch. The horror of doing that! Hey let's just keep everything the way it is now. What could possibly go wrong?