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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Jul 14, 2008 11:39:50 GMT -5
Well... if it weren't for the fact that false rumors about Obama have persisted despite repeated debunking, I'd actually find it funny. After the fact, it's like we the public can laugh at ourselves for ever thinking such things. But at present, I feel that this is only going to fuel the imaginations of people who continue to believe the rumors, who will glance at the cover and interpret it as confirming these beliefs, rather than looking at it more closely and realizing that the cover is actually mocking those beliefs. What I find amusing, and also painful, is that the same person can think "Obama is a Muslim" and "Obama has a crazy preacher" and not realize that only one of those things can likely be true. Yet they manage to keep both "facts" in their brains and keep them from mingling.... Um, yeah...
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Post by Michelle on Jul 14, 2008 13:31:04 GMT -5
Well... if it weren't for the fact that false rumors about Obama have persisted despite repeated debunking, I'd actually find it funny. After the fact, it's like we the public can laugh at ourselves for ever thinking such things. But at present, I feel that this is only going to fuel the imaginations of people who continue to believe the rumors, who will glance at the cover and interpret it as confirming these beliefs, rather than looking at it more closely and realizing that the cover is actually mocking those beliefs. What I find amusing, and also painful, is that the same person can think "Obama is a Muslim" and "Obama has a crazy preacher" and not realize that only one of those things can likely be true. Yet they manage to keep both "facts" in their brains and keep them from mingling.... And that same person writes letters to the editor of my local paper on a weekly basis. Scary.
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Post by Sara on Jul 23, 2008 12:19:34 GMT -5
The next time someone complains about the so-called liberal media in your hearing, direct 'em to this story:McCain Falsely Claims The Surge ‘Began The Anbar Awakening,’ But CBS Edits It Out
During an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), CBS Evening News host Katie Couric noted that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said recently that “there might have been improved security [in Iraq] even without the surge” and asked McCain, “What’s your response to that?”
After first calling Obama’s claim “a false depiction of what actually happened,” McCain proceeded to falsely claim that the surge “began the Anbar awakening“:
McCAIN: I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.
But in a puzzling move, the CBS Evening News did not actually televise McCain’s false claim tonight. As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reported, “CBS curiously, to say the least, left it on the edit room floor. It aired Katie Couric’s question, but in response, it inserted part of McCain’s answer to another question instead.”
CBS’s full interview with McCain (with video) appears online. CNN aired the portion that CBS edited out. Watch it:
In fact, the Sunni revolt against Al-Qaida in Iraq’s Anbar province — commonly referred to as “The Awakening” — “began” long before Bush even announced his “surge” policy in January 2007. As the New York Times noted in April 2007:
The turnabout began last September [2006], when a federation of tribes in the Ramadi area came together as the Anbar Salvation Council to oppose the fundamentalist militants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
But also, President Bush himself noted this fact in a speech to the Naval War College in June, 2007:
Last September [2006], Anbar was all over the news. It was held up as an example of America’s failure in Iraq. The papers cited a leaked intelligence report that was pessimistic about our prospects there. […]
About the same time some folks were writing off Anbar, our troops were methodically clearing Anbar’s capital city of Ramadi of terrorists, and winning the trust of the local population. In parallel with these efforts, a group of tribal sheiks launched a movement called “The Awakening” — and began cooperating with American and Iraqi forces.
Spencer Ackerman notes that the colonel McCain cited is “now a one-star general” and had explained the “Awakening” to a reporter in September 2006 “before it even had a name.” “For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is either a lie or professional malpractice,” added Ackerman.
UpdateThe Jed Report does a side-by-side video showing the original CBS interview and the parts that CBS left out.
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Post by Karen on Jul 23, 2008 13:50:59 GMT -5
The next time someone complains about the so-called liberal media in your hearing, direct 'em to this story:<snip> [/color][/quote] Yeah. I think the Liberal Media is gone. Big Media is controlling the news content now, and has been for a while. Scary.
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Jul 28, 2008 11:51:16 GMT -5
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Post by Anne, Old S'cubie Cat on Jul 28, 2008 12:39:54 GMT -5
Julia, yes. Too sad for words.
Okay. A silly.
There's a nasty 527 ad attacking Obama, which says that he's worse than a flip-flopper, he can hold two positions at once.
I was ranting at Elder Daughter about it, and there it was on TV.
Elder Daughter's response: "Oh, I get it. Obama is Schroedinger's Cat."
Anne, hee
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Post by Onjel on Jul 28, 2008 13:47:33 GMT -5
Just for a little levity. . .
Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.
-Lily Tomlin
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Post by Sue on Aug 1, 2008 15:21:57 GMT -5
Okay, this is disturbing. www.newsweek.com/id/149009Quote: "The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning "The Dark Side," and Philippe Sands's "Torture Team," it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's "24," Jack Bauer. This fictional counterterrorism agent—a man never at a loss for something to do with an electrode—has his fingerprints all over U.S. interrogation policy. As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution." It's a one page article in Newsweek. Worth reading the rest of it.
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Aug 2, 2008 0:16:40 GMT -5
Okay, this is disturbing. www.newsweek.com/id/149009Quote: "The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning "The Dark Side," and Philippe Sands's "Torture Team," it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's "24," Jack Bauer. This fictional counterterrorism agent—a man never at a loss for something to do with an electrode—has his fingerprints all over U.S. interrogation policy. As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution." It's a one page article in Newsweek. Worth reading the rest of it. It's also damned scary- even worse than the time I realised that the Washington State Attorney General was quoting wikipedia in support of a legal position which had been appealed to the US Supreme Court and his side lost... Julia, Jack Bauer is not a source of settled law.
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Post by Sue on Aug 2, 2008 8:33:36 GMT -5
Okay, this is disturbing. www.newsweek.com/id/149009Quote: "The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning "The Dark Side," and Philippe Sands's "Torture Team," it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's "24," Jack Bauer. This fictional counterterrorism agent—a man never at a loss for something to do with an electrode—has his fingerprints all over U.S. interrogation policy. As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution." It's a one page article in Newsweek. Worth reading the rest of it. It's also damned scary- even worse than the time I realised that the Washington State Attorney General was quoting wikipedia in support of a legal position which had been appealed to the US Supreme Court and his side lost... Julia, Jack Bauer is not a source of settled law. One of the major points of the article is that, even with his fictional context, Jack knows he is operating outside the law, understands the consequences and (in general) his behavior is not condoned (at least officially) by other governmental officials. How can that possibly translate into governmental policy.
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Post by Karen on Aug 12, 2008 9:07:44 GMT -5
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Post by Onjel on Aug 12, 2008 9:48:35 GMT -5
I watched the video. Just for starters, I'm not saying that there isn't some truth in what Alex Jones was saying about censorship and the proposed changes to the structure of the internet, (how much, I don't know) but I did google and visit the two sites repeatedly referred to as being censored: "Infowars.com and Prisonnation.com". I was not censored in any way, being able to pull the two sites on a search and then to access them. Just sayin'. ;D
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Aug 13, 2008 11:54:50 GMT -5
I watched the video. Just for starters, I'm not saying that there isn't some truth in what Alex Jones was saying about censorship and the proposed changes to the structure of the internet, (how much, I don't know) but I did google and visit the two sites repeatedly referred to as being censored: "Infowars.com and Prisonnation.com". I was not censored in any way, being able to pull the two sites on a search and then to access them. Just sayin'. ;D I think he said that they were censored in the UK. And net neutrality is a hugely important issue, but I don't think it merits this "panic now" attitude he was trying to inspire, which seemed like it was more designed to keep people listening to him (and he wasn't actually saying that much, just constantly repeating the same couple sentences over 5 minutes) rather than inspire social change. Also, that music was freakin' annoying.
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Post by Sue on Aug 15, 2008 14:31:49 GMT -5
For those who might be interested: Rick Warren (author of "The Purpose Driven Life") will be interviewing both Obama and McCain (separately) one hour each: news.yahoo.com/story/csm/20080815/ts_csm/awarren;_ylt=Ai.eDoL2yAVKpa3XrmQqNalh24cA A few short quotes: On Saturday, pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," will do what no one else has yet accomplished: bring the presumptive GOP and Democratic presidential nominees onto the same stage to discuss their views. The event, back-to-back one-hour interviews at Mr. Warren's California megachurch, will be broadcast live on CNN and streamed on the Web. Warren personally invited the two candidates – "friends of mine" – via their cellphones. His event at the Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, Calif., – the nation's fourth-largest church – has among its aims "helping the Church regain credibility and encouraging our society to return to civility." "This is a critical time for our nation, and the American people deserve to hear both candidates speak from the heart – without interruption – in a civil and thoughtful format absent the partisan 'gotcha' questions that typically produce heat instead of light," Warren said on announcing the event, called a Saddleback Civil Forum. His questions will focus on how the candidates lead and make decisions and will cover five topics: leadership, stewardship, worldview, compassion issues, and their vision for America.
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Post by Sue on Aug 16, 2008 23:08:20 GMT -5
For those who might be interested: Rick Warren (author of "The Purpose Driven Life") will be interviewing both Obama and McCain (separately) one hour each: news.yahoo.com/story/csm/20080815/ts_csm/awarren;_ylt=Ai.eDoL2yAVKpa3XrmQqNalh24cA A few short quotes: On Saturday, pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," will do what no one else has yet accomplished: bring the presumptive GOP and Democratic presidential nominees onto the same stage to discuss their views. The event, back-to-back one-hour interviews at Mr. Warren's California megachurch, will be broadcast live on CNN and streamed on the Web. Warren personally invited the two candidates – "friends of mine" – via their cellphones. His event at the Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, Calif., – the nation's fourth-largest church – has among its aims "helping the Church regain credibility and encouraging our society to return to civility." "This is a critical time for our nation, and the American people deserve to hear both candidates speak from the heart – without interruption – in a civil and thoughtful format absent the partisan 'gotcha' questions that typically produce heat instead of light," Warren said on announcing the event, called a Saddleback Civil Forum. His questions will focus on how the candidates lead and make decisions and will cover five topics: leadership, stewardship, worldview, compassion issues, and their vision for America. Well, missed bits due to having to watch some Olympic swimming as well, but I wrote this to my siblings. It hardly covers everything but to sum up: I thought those 3 hours (Rick Warren did one hour with each candidate and CNN did a followup hour with it's commentators) was easily the most informative 3 hours of politics I've watched in forever. Now, some of that is because, in general, I don't stay very long with the debates. I get frustrated with the questions, the evasions, the "answers" aka canned political speeches, the sound bites. I really liked the format and the non-confrontationalness. If you get the chance, try to find it on the internet, or on a repeat. I don't much think many votes would be switched, but if you didn't know much about either guy this would be helpful. What I wrote my sibs: (Hardly covers it all, but maybe someone else watched and this will get the ball rolling): I found the CNN thing fascinating. I think Rick Warren did a HUGE favor to the evangelical/Christian community---simply by being NOT Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or James Dobson. I really liked the format and the informality and the wide range of questions. Warren didn't really press either of them if they dodged or wimped out, but he did succeed in the "civil conversation" concept. I also watched the full hour of commentary afterwards and found it also fascinating. The commentators seemed to think that McCain had done himself a great deal of good with his core constituents. He was repeatedly described as "straight, blunt, short answers" and Obama as "nuanced."
My mind wasn't changed at all. If anything I became even more of an Obama supporter. I LIKE "nuanced." I think the world is a complicated place and you can't just say "no! or yes!" to almost anything globally without any qualifications (nuances). Whether it's wise to attempt to convey that to the American public, I don't know...... I didn't so much think McCain was a straight talker as that he turned the questions as much as possible into opportunities for personal anecdotes, many of them about being a POW, and also into forums about being tough on terrorism. But I'm guessing that his supporters may have seen Obama's answers as less than straightforward because of the "nuance" thing. And I suspect that none of the 12% of Americans who believe Obama is a Muslim were much swayed because either a) they don't watch CNN or b) they just assume he's lying anyway. Sigh. They were each asked about evil. McCain: "We have to DEFEAT it! And I can promise you that I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of Hell to capture him and punish him. And I know how to do it." (loud applause). [See, I saw that as simplistic and promising what you may not be able to deliver and besides, catching Bin Laden isn't really going to FIX all/the greatest evils in the world."] Obama: "Evil exists. We see it in Darfur, we see it in parent's who abuse their children.... We have to confront it--wherever and whenever we encounter it. But we, as individuals, will never be able to erase all evil from the world. That's God's battle. And we have to confront evil with a certain amount of humility. Because there has been evil done in the name of attempting to do "good". .... All true, but possibly not a big vote getter. They also showed a post program interview that Obama had with a CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) reporter asking about ads that accused him of voting against some bill while he was a state senator in Illinois about treating babies.....something. Clearly there is an ad which says he was for allowing babies to die by withholding medical treatment (maybe victims of late term abortion???). He said it was a LIE (his voice and face said it was a low down dirty lie.) He explained what the bill really intended and that IL already had a perfectly good law in place ensuring that any/every baby would always be treated.... apparently he voted in line with the entire medical association from Illinois. He got pretty worked about a commercial that accused him "and all the doctors in IL" of wanting to withhold medical treatment from babies!!!!!!!!! Basically said "you'd have to be a complete and total idiot to believe that any feeling HUMAN being" would condone such a thing. He said it's necessary to confront such lies, but it's tough to confront such lies without getting down to the level as those who are spreading them. Anyway. If you knew nothing about either guy I think this was one of the best 2 hours I've seen and would allow you to differentiate between them on substance, style, personality, etc. And some would choose A, for fair reasons; while others would choose B; also for valid reasons. There really is a choice, it's a decent choice, neither man is the devil or stupid; and neither are their supporters. Props to Rick Warren for pulling this off and good on CNN for televising it.
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