ABC, CBS, NBC, Obama and 350 Bottles of $300 Champagne
In their new book--Collusion:
How the Media Stole the 2012 Election and How to Stop Them From Doing it in
2016—Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell and Director
of Media Analysis Tim Graham argue that part of the narrative the liberal media
developed to define Republican candidate Mitt Romney in voters’ minds was that
he was a “tool of the uber-rich.”
At the same time, the media generally ignored Obama’s hobnobbing and high-dollar fundraising with the elites of the entertainment industry—both in Hollywood and Manhattan.
“Liberals are the elites, and they have been for many, many generations,” Bozell said in an interview with CNSNews.com, when asked about Obama’s entertainment-industry fundraising.
“Barack Obama is worth millions and millions of dollars now, he will make hundreds of millions” after he leaves office, said Bozell. “He’s not a man of the people. He’s about as elitist as they get.”
“Liberal journalists hate the idea that super-rich capitalists are the ‘ultimate arbiters’ of the country’s direction—but not so for super-rich actors and fashion magazine editors,” Bozell and Graham write in Collusion.
Bozell and Graham write that when Obama visited Manhattan in September to appear on the David Letterman show and attend a fundraiser hosted by Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z, the New York Times posted a story online but not in its print edition.
The story reported some populist things Obama said on the Letterman show: “My expectation is, if you want to be president, you’ve got to work for everybody, not just for some.” Obama also said: “What I think people want to make sure of is, you’re not writing off a big chunk of the country.”
From there, Obama went on to the $40,000-per-ticket fundraiser at Jay-Z's nightclub, which featured a 350-bottle tower of $300-per-bottle champagne. "ABC, CBS, and NBC never mentioned this clash of opulence and 'populism,'' write Bozell and Graham.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/abc-cbs-nbc-obama-and-350-bottles-300-champagne#sthash.Hi6LvJdw.dpuf
Pentagon Spends $81K on TVs for Gitmo While Civilian Workers Are Furloughed
The Army’s Expeditionary Contracting Command (ECC) procured a $62,125 contract for television/DVD player combos on May 30. The award went to Intech, Inc., a Government Services Administration (GSA) approved vendor.
A second contract, announced on July 11, allots $18,981.25 for TV sets and TV mounts. This award was given to Digital Plaza Direct, the “electronics company of choice for all federal and local government purchasers.”
In all, the Army spent $81,106.25 in 42 days on television equipment for the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel warned just a day before the second TV purchase that sequestration will cause “serious damage” to the military.
"If the cuts continue, the Department will have to make sharp cuts with far-reaching consequences, including limiting combat power, reducing readiness and undermining the national security interests of the United States," Hagel said in a letter to the Senate Armed Forces Committee on July 10.
Furloughs for the Pentagon began on Monday July 9, when 650,000 civilian workers were forced to take the first of 11 days off without pay, one a week through September.
Guantanamo Bay, however, is not cutting back. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the detention center also is looking to hire seminar instructors to teach terrorists watercolor painting, Adobe Photoshop and Arabic calligraphy, among other things.
In addition, the Pentagon has asked for $450 million to maintain and “upgrade” the detention facility.
It is not clear whether the televisions are for the 166 terrorist detainees housed at the prison, but the Guantanamo Bay facility does have a “Detainee Library” that offers 2,415 DVDs for inmates to check out.
The ECC told CNSNews.com that it could not answer questions regarding the contracts and to contact the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay (JTF-GTMO) for more information.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/pentagon-spends-81k-tvs-gitmo-while-civilian-workers-are-furloughed#sthash.aQu15k6I.dpuf
$990K Federal Grant to Teach High School
Students In Los Angeles How To Promote Obamacare
Thousands of high school students in the Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD), including those who scored below average on their
eighth grade reading and math tests, will soon be encouraged to learn how to
sell Obamacare to their families under a $43 million federal grant.
Of that amount, $37 million will be given to 48 organizations for outreach and education programs, including a $990,000 grant to LAUSD to produce “teens trained to be messengers to family members” about Obamacare.
Details of the LAUSD grant include “outreach calls” to families and “adult-student class presentations.” (See Outreeach and Education Grant Program.pdf)
“The goal of the grant program is to increase awareness about the new benefits, to educate targeted audiences about the subsidy programs available to them and to motivate consumers and small businesses to be part of obtaining health insurance,” said a May 14 Covered California press release. (See Covered California.pdf)
“2,500 juniors and seniors, all volunteers, will be trained to share information about Covered California Health Plans with relatives and neighbors that are part of the population eligible to enroll. These student helpers also have expressed interest in health careers. Many come from homes of limited English speakers, including Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and Armenian. Teenage helpers speak approximately 30 different languages. Bilingual students help bridge the communications gap,” Covered California officer Larry Hicks told CNSnews.com.
Hicks said the voluntary after-school program hopes to attract 2,500 students between 16 and 18 years of age over a three-semester time period. The number will only reflect about 3.4 percent of all 11th and 12th grade students in the LAUSD, he added.
But LAUSD already has its hands full teaching basic reading and math to students attending its 900 schools and 187 public charter schools
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” 44 percent of LAUSD eighth graders tested below average in reading (See LAUSD reading 2011.pdf) and 51 percent scored below average in math (See LAUSD math 2011.pdf) in 2011.
Other schools receiving outreach and education grants from Covered California are California State University Los Angeles, University Auxiliary Services (UAS) and University of Southern California (USC)
California State will receive a $1,250,000 grant from Covered California for student orientation and faculty events, including “student welcome packets” that promote Obamacare.
USC will receive $500,000 for student tables/booths and informational sessions. All grants are for the purpose of promoting and educating Californians on health coverage provided by the Covered California health care exchange.
“We are excited to build on our partnerships with organizations that have trusted relationships in diverse communities throughout the state,” said Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California in the May 14 press release announcing the grants.
“Together, we can significantly strengthen our effort to ensure as many Californians as possible are aware of and are enrolled in the new health insurance options this fall for coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2014.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/990k-federal-grant-teach-high-school-students-los-angeles-how-promote-obamacare#sthash.dvZX2qHn.dpuf
NIH Spends $3 Million To Study Health Risks of
Dating Mexican Prostitutes
Just how dangerous is it to your health to shack up with a
Mexican hooker? That’s the question at the heart of a five-year, $3,029,663 study
by researchers at the University
of California San Diego
funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Based on previous research, UCSD scientists have been able to determine conclusively that the “non-commercial male partners” of Mexican prostitutes are very likely to pick up and spread their partners’ sexually-transmitted diseases, and may in fact be “significant drivers of HIV/STI acquisition and/or their re-infection.”
Begun in 2009, the Mexican prostitute study has already been receiving federal funding of over half a million dollars annually, and the $3 million price tag does not include the as-of-yet undetermined 2014 grant for the study’s final year.
According to the description on the NIH website, “The overall goal of this study is to study the context and epidemiology of HIV, STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and associated risk behaviors among high risk female sex workers (FSWs) and their non-commercial male partners.”
“FSWs in our setting are more than twice as likely to engage in unprotected sex with their main non-commercial partner; half of these partners have concurrent partnerships and one third are IDUs [intravenous drug users]” the abstract noted.
The multi-million-dollar study has four specific goals:
1. To identify “patterns” between the couples’ drug use and unsafe sexual activity;
2. To determine the prevalence of HIV and other STIs among study subjects;
3. To predict STI prevalence among Mexican prostitutes and their significant others; and
4. To learn how to convince las prostitutas y sus amantes to engage in safer sex practices.
But the scientists say they still need to figure out the exact processes behind the spread of STIs among this demographic – a question they hope the present research will resolve.
The researchers claim that what they learn about the private love lives of Mexican prostitutes will help them “curtail HIV transmission among FSWs and their partners in other resource-constrained settings.”
Reseasrchers, including project leader Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of UCSD's Division of Global Public Health, could not be reached for comment.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/nih-spends-3-million-study-health-risks-dating-mexican-prostitutes#sthash.EfvKJ7b7.dpuf
$487K Study of Viking Textiles During Little Ice
Age To ‘Mitigate Climate Change’
The taxpayer-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) has
awarded a $487,049 grant
to a Brown University
archaeologist for her “three-year study exploring gender, textiles and society
in Iceland
from the Viking Age (ca. 874-1050) until the early 19th century.”
Smith,
a research scientist at Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology, has been collaborating with other universities and
archaeological laboratories in the U.S.,
as well as museums in Iceland.
Her
research “will document and analyze women’s roles and women’s involvement in
textile production” in order to “shed new light on women’s power within
Icelandic households at different levels of the social system, providing a
valuable contribution to social archaeological research in the North Atlantic,”
according to the grant abstract.
“Women
were also in charge of transforming cloth into clothing and, through that
process, produced the most essential items of daily life – clothing, blankets,
tents, and other utilitarian items – that buffered Icelanders against a
changing climate and often-severe conditions during the Little Ice Age,”
principal investigator Michele Smith said in the grant abstract.
The
continuing grant was first awarded by NSF on July 1, 2010 and will end on June
30, 2014.
“By
exploring the decisions that women made in transforming textiles – both
domestic and imported – into clothing, this project will investigate the roles
they played in establishing and changing markers of individual, family,
regional, and national identity as well as decisions they may have made when
facing increasing global climate cooling in the North
Atlantic.”
West
noted that “this research provides information about a relatively unknown
historical phenomenon,” specifically “the historical roles of women in the
economy of the North Atlantic over a
1,000-year period.”
When
contacted by CNSNews with questions about the relevance of Smith’s research,
West noted that congressional legislation supports activities to “Initiate
and support specific scientific and engineering activities in connection with
matters relating to international cooperation, national security and the
effects of scientific and technological applications upon society.”
“The
National Science Foundation’s mission
and charter, as spelled out in its organic act, is to support fundamental
research that adds to the knowledge base of specific disciplines,” said West.
“While some NSF-supported research may, in some cases, have immediate benefits
to economic activity, this is not the foundation’s role, as defined by
congressional mandate,” he noted.
This
project was “evaluated and supported as a result of a thorough examination of
its intellectual merit and broader impacts in the NSF merit-review process,”
West added.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/487k-study-viking-textiles-during-little-ice-age-mitigate-climate-change-1#sthash.in0moQCE.dpuf
State Department to Spend $95,000 Teaching
Haitian Inmates How to Sew
The State Department through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is planning to spend $95,000 to provide vocational training to Haitian inmates in textile production and assembly.
“The applicant should demonstrate an ability to conduct job training on clothing production (including skills such as sewing, tailoring, and/or clothing assembly) within individual prisons in Haiti’s Ouest Department. This training should be hands-on and allow prisoners to get real practice working with textile materials,” the grant said.
The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) specifically targeted the textile industry, “which is projected to grow in Haiti as the Caracol industrial park and other textile-export businesses commence operations in the upcoming years,” the grant explained.
The grant is intended to reduce prisoner recidivism rates by providing inmates with “skills they can use directly after their release, which will facilitate their entry into the job market,” the grant announcement said.
Haiti’s prisons are severely overcrowded, and conditions are “hazardous” for inmates with the current prison population exceeding the intended capacity by 5,487 inmates, the grant explained.
“Women, men, juveniles, and serious/petty offenders are not separated consistently across the system. Many inmates are held in pre-trial detention, but are not separated from convicted felons,” it said.
The grant recipient is expected to include Department of Prison Administration (DAP) personnel in the program “through a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, so that DAP will be able to provide this vocational training independently in the future.”
“Inmates targeted for participation should be convicted prisoners with remaining sentences between 2-5 years, with higher priority on those with less time remaining. This will give the program continuity through prisoners who continue to participate and facilitate training for others, but also in that acquired skills will still be relevant upon prisoners’ release in a medium-term timeframe,” the grant said.
The grant recipient is also expected to work with prison personnel so that trained inmates can “produce uniforms for Haiti’s prison population,” so that prison officials can tell the difference between inmates and civilians.
“Having standardized uniforms is important for DAP because corrections officers cannot differentiate between inmates and civilians. Differences in inmates’ street clothes can prompt discrimination in how they are treated by corrections officers, or can incite theft from other inmates,” the grant said.
“The recipient should demonstrate the ability to procure necessary materials and work with newly-trained inmates to create uniforms for the DAP,” the grant added.
“Budgets should include costs for both administration of training and the materials needed to produce the uniforms; however, INL will procure cloth for the uniforms separately and provide this commodity directly to DAP,” the grant added.
“Recipient will also coordinate with DAP to use sewing machines already in the prison facilities, which DAP will be responsible for. The applicant will be responsible for all other materials necessary and these can be charged to the grant,” it said.
The grant is for one award of at least $40,000 and up to $95,000. The award may be extended up to two years based on the bureau’s “program priorities, good performance on the award, and pending funding availability.”
The grant was announced on June 3 and the deadline for applications was July 3.
CNSNews.com contacted the State Department with questions about the grant, but the department did not reply by press time.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/state-department-spend-95000-teaching-haitian-inmates-how-sew-0#sthash.P3LZ04Hx.dpuf
N.J. school board members and others lied to get free lunch for their kids, state comptroller says
An investigation into New Jersey’s school lunch program by the Office of the State Comptroller found “widespread fraud” among district employees and their families, who allegedly lied about their income so their kids could eat for free.The investigation, which officials said was sparked by a series of reports by The Star-Ledger into similar lunch program abuses in the Elizabeth Board of Education, found false information on lunch program applications submitted from the households of 40 school district employees — as well as six elected school board members in Pleasantville, Newark and Paterson.
Officials in the districts could not be immediately reached for comment.
Overall, state Comptroller Matthew Boxer said his office was referring for criminal prosecution the names of 109 public employees, their spouses or family members who provided false information about their income on free lunch applications. The total amount of under-reported income was $13 million.
"What we learned in this investigation is that because of the way this program is structured, there is minimal oversight, resulting in people frequently lying on program applications about income amounts," said Boxer. "In short the free lunch program has been compromised by widespread fraud."
The comptroller said dozens of public employees appear to have lied about their income in order to take advantage of a school program designed to help families in need.
Among them was an unnamed member of the Pleasantville school board who allegedly under-reported her household income on her school lunch application by an average of approximately $59,000 for each of the three years the auditors reviewed. She told investigators she did not include her own income on the applications because she was not the person receiving the free lunch.
She added that her income “is none of (the school district’s) damn business.”
The comptroller’s office also found she had failed to file state income tax returns for multiple years.
None of those referred to the Division of Criminal Justice for possible prosecution were identified.
The National School Lunch Program offers state and federal reimbursements to provide free or greatly reduced-cost breakfast and lunch to children of needy families who meet income-eligibility requirements.
During the 2011-2012 school year, the federal government provided $212 million in lunch program reimbursements to school districts in New Jersey. State taxpayers paid another $5.5 million to support the program.
While abuses in the program has fiscal consequences, a major impact involves distribution of state aid, critics say. School funding formulas are based in part on the number of children getting free lunch — the more kids in a district deemed at the poverty level, the more money that may be allocated to a school. Officials said that formula creates a powerful incentive for districts to either enroll ineligible applicants, or look the other way when fraud is suspected.
State and federal officials, however, say there is scant auditing. Boxer said his office found that that the vast majority of free lunch applications are never reviewed for accuracy.
“We took on this project because we were concerned about the ability of public employees to use their knowledge of the workings of the free lunch program to improperly obtain benefits,” Boxer stated. “Those who know the rules of the program have a greater opportunity to submit a fraudulent application and avoid any scrutiny.”
In Elizabeth, the president of the school board, Marie L. Munn, was indicted after The Star-Ledger found that her kids were getting subsidized meals despite a family income far exceeding eligibility limits set by the federal government.
Munn later acknowledged her family did not qualify for the program, admitting she had filled out the applications for the lunch program without including her husband’s salary. She claimed she had been unaware her children were receiving free meals at school until she was contacted by a reporter, blaming the oversight on “misunderstandings and financial complications.”
Following the charges, the Elizabeth board said it would cross-check payroll information against the applications of all employees seeking free or low-cost meals for their children.
Earlier this year, another Elizabeth board member and two attorneys for the district were charged by the attorney general’s office in a scheme to cover up additional fraudulent applications for free lunches, after those records were subpoenaed by the state.
In the report issued today, Boxer — citing the ongoing investigation by the attorney general — did not look further into Elizabeth. But 15 other districts were examined.
Those districts were: Bayonne, Egg Harbor Township, Essex County Vocational Technical Schools, Linden, Long Branch, Millville, Newark, Paterson, Pemberton, Pennsauken, Pleasantville, Toms River, Trenton, Union City and Winslow Township. The comptroller found problems with some applications in all the districts but Egg Harbor.
In its 23-page report, the comptroller’s office concluded that “fraud in the school lunch program is widespread and the vast majority of applications never receive a proper review.”
A member of the Newark Board of Education under-reported her household income by an average $22,300 a year, telling investigators that a school secretary told her it did not matter if she listed her net or gross income. She also did not report the child support payments she had received some years.
"What we found are people who work for the government, lying to the government about how much the government is paying them, all for a benefit that is designed to help those in need. And the false information was not nickel and dime amounts," Boxer said at a press conference.
Some of the improper reporting appeared to result from a misunderstanding of the rules. Many of those flagged by the investigation, for example, said that they reported their net income instead of gross income, as required by the application form itself. Others failed to list the income of their spouse or other members of their household.
In Bayonne, 71 applications were verified as eligible despite missing necessary information, such as pay stubs.
But the investigation also found examples of school districts failing to remove ineligible applicants, even after they submitted documents that showed they did not qualify for the program.
A Paterson school district nurse, for example, remained enrolled in the free lunch program even after the pay stub she submitted demonstrated she had significantly under-reported her earnings and did not meet the income requirements. She told investigators she thought the district was extending her a courtesy because she was an employee.
According to Boxer, the under-reported income in the 109 cases his office referred for prosecution exceeded $13 million over the three-year period that was reviewed.
A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie said the report demonstrated how systemic abuse really is in the program.
"When you have school board members and public school employees blatantly falsifying income and eligibility, it stands to reason that no one feels the need to be honest," said spokesman Michael Drewniak. "The system is lawless when school districts turn a blind eye to fraud — and in some instances promote it — in a federal program that doesn’t even permit sufficient follow-up investigation of applicants."
He said every public employee who lied about their income in order to get a free lunch to which they were not entitled should be fired and prosecuted.
"Moreover, the state must revisit how it dispenses aid to school districts and ensure funding levels are based upon true need and performance-based standards, rather than a formula based on fraud, corruption and waste," he said.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said the lunch program is among the best anti-poverty efforts in the nation. "To see it subject to such abuse is infuriating," she said. "I am deeply disturbed by the findings, and fully expect the Department of Agriculture and school districts to implement the reform recommendations to ensure this program is used only by those who truly need it."
The agriculture department, which administers the program, had no immediate comment.
Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren) said the report reinforces the need to reform the state's school funding formula.
"Since the initial reports of fraud in Elizabeth were released two years ago, I have repeatedly called for a larger scale investigation to uncover the extent of school lunch program fraud in New Jersey," said Doherty. "It seemed likely that the abuses found in Elizabeth were occurring all over the place, which the comptroller's new report confirms."
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/07/school_board_members_and_others_lied_to_get_free_lunch_for_their_kids_state_comptroller_says.html#incart_m-rpt-1
By Hook, Crook, or Comic Book
Mexico continues to encourage its citizens to migrate to the U.S., even though it doesn’t need to.
There
are many strange elements in the current debate over illegal
immigration, but none stranger than the general failure to discuss the
role of Mexico.
Are millions of Mexican citizens still trying to cross the U.S. border illegally because there is dismal economic growth and a shortage of jobs in Mexico?
Not any more. In terms of the economy, Mexico has rarely done better, and the United States rarely worse.
The
Mexican unemployment rate is currently below 5 percent. North of the
border, it remains stuck at over 7 percent for the 53rd consecutive
month of the Obama presidency. The American gross domestic product has
been growing at a rate of less than 2 percent annually. In contrast, a
booming Mexico almost doubled that in 2012, with its GDP growing at a robust clip of nearly 4 percent.
Is elemental hunger forcing millions of Mexicans to flee north, as it may have in the past?
Not necessarily. According to a recent United Nations study, an estimated 70 percent of Mexico’s
citizens are overweight and suffer from the same health problems caused
by poor diet and lack of exercise shared by those in other, more
affluent Western societies.
Mexico is a severe critic of U.S.
immigration policy, often damning Americans as ruthlessly insensitive
for trying to close our border. The Mexican government has gone so far
as to join lawsuits against individual American states to force
relaxation of our border enforcement. Former Mexican president Felipe
Calderón sharply criticized the United States for trying to “criminalize migration.”
Is Mexico, then, a model of immigration tolerance?
Far from it.
Until 2011, when it passed reforms, Mexico had among the most draconian immigration laws in the world. Guatemala has criticized Mexico for initiating construction of a fence along its southern border.
Mexico has zero tolerance for illegal immigrants who seek to work in Mexico, happen to break Mexican law, or go on public assistance — and zero tolerance for any citizens who aid them.
In
Mexico, legal immigration is aimed at privileging new arrivals who have
skill sets that will aid the Mexican economy and, according to the
country’s immigration law, who have the “necessary funds for their
sustenance” — while denying entry to those who are not healthy or would
upset the “equilibrium of the national demographics.” Translated, this
apparently means that Mexico tries to withhold legal residency from those who do not look like Mexicans or do not have the skills needed to make money.
If the United States were to treat Mexican nationals in the same way that Mexico treats Central American nationals, there would be humanitarian outrage.
In 2005, the Mexican government published a Guide for the Mexican Migrant
— in comic-book form. The pictographic manual instructed the country’s
own citizens on how best to cross illegally into, and stay within, the United States. Did Mexico assume that its departing citizens were both largely illiterate and unworried about violating the laws of a foreign country?
Yet Mexico
counts on these expatriate poor to send back well over $20 billion in
remittances annually – currently the third-largest source of foreign
exchange for Mexico.
Remittances
from America fill a void that the Mexican government has created by not
extending the sort of housing, education, or welfare help to its own
citizens that America provides to foreign residents.
In
truth, many thousands of Mexicans flee northward not necessarily
because there are no jobs at home, or because they are starving there. America
offers them far more upward mobility and social justice than does their
own homeland. And for all the immigration rhetoric about race and
class, millions of Mexicans vote with their feet to enjoy the far
greater cultural tolerance found in the U.S.
Indigenous people make up a large part of the most recent wave of Mexican arrivals. Those who leave provinces like Oaxaca or Chiapas apparently find the English-speaking, multi-racial U.S. a fairer place than the hierarchical and often racially stratified society of Mexico.
People should be a nation’s greatest resource. Fairly or not, Mexico
has long been seen to view its own citizens in rather cynical terms as a
valuable export commodity, akin to oil and food. When they are young
and healthy, Mexican expatriates are expected to scrimp, save, and
support their poorer relatives back in Mexico. When these Mexican expats are ill and aged, then the U.S should pick up the tab for their care.
The current problem for Mexico is that the U.S. might soon deal with illegal immigration in the way Mexico
does. But for now, to the extent that Mexican citizens can potentially
make, rather than cost, Mexico money, there is little reason for our
southern neighbor to discourage them from leaving the country — by hook,
crook, or comic book.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353701/hook-crook-or-comic-book-victor-davis-hanson
Thinking Through "This Town"
Rarely do I devote an entire, three-hour radio show to one guest.Favorite novelists --like Alex Berenson, C.J. Box, Daniel Silva, Brad Thor and the late Vince Flynn—have regularly been welcomed for two-hour chats. The opportunity to do long-form interviews is one of the great aspects of talk radio. Both Silva and Thor were on this week in fact, and the transcripts of the interviews with them about their new best-selling thrillers --The English Girl and Hidden Order respectively-- are at the Transcripts page over at HughHewitt.com.
In the last six months, only twice have I given a show wholly over to one person: To Jake Tapper, to discuss his moving book about one American outpost in a far corner of Afghanistan The Outpost, and to William Dalrymple to review his wonderful work Return of A King, also about an Afghan war, though one that began in 1839.
Great books about the war that we are in and the people and the land in which it is waged get time from me because so much of the rest of media ignores the war even as the MSM goes wall-to-wall and round-the-clock on stories like the Zimmerman trial.
On Wednesday, though, I devoted all but the last three minute segment of the program to a conversation with New York Times Magazine's national correspondent Mark Leibovich whose new book, This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral --Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-- in America's Gilded Capital, a work that is almost completely silent about the war.
That's not the fault of Leibovich. He set out to convey what Washington D.C. in the Obama years is concerned about, and he did so with extraordinary accuracy and flawless reporting.
But since President Obama's Washington isn't really interested in the war, a book about the Obama years won't have much about the war in it. Accuracy is accuracy. Most of the subjects of This Town would probably wished they'd spent more time in earnest conversation about the war with Leibovich or at least within earshot of him.
Which is why I wanted to spend so much time with Leibovich and bring as much attention as possible to his book, which is indeed a very, very accurate depiction of a national capital divorced from the realities of the country and especially of the war it oversees from a very great distance, physically and increasingly emotionally.
Most of the considerable buzz about This Town has been about its gossipy side, which is at times both hilarious and brutal, the subject matter both pathetic and very ugly when it isn’t endearing. It is possible that "Eleanor Rigby" is the theme song of most of the lives chronicled in This Town.
That's the sad part of the book.
The "make you angry" part is the neglect of the genuine sacrifices of the military in the war by almost everyone inside "the Club" that runs "This Town.".
Imagine a book about D.C. during the six years that ran from 1939 to 1945. Wait, there is one: Washington Goes To War by the late David Brinkley, which came out in 1999. Different sort of book. Different sort of era. That wartime America is very different from this wartime America.
Don't get me wrong. I greatly enjoyed Leibovich's book, though when finished with it I felt like the guy who got brushed but not bitten by the Great White while swimming just a few yards from shore. I met Mark in Tampa Bay during the GOP convention last year, and had a couple of chats with him, not realizing this was like talking to the Tony Soprano of the chattering class. Good guy then. Better guy on the radio. But a lot of folks aren't feeling that way towards Leibovich right now, and not because he got their portraits wrong, but because he got them so completely right. High definition TV meets ugly, vain, wholly self-absorbed D.C.
Leibovich is in fact a fantastic reporter of what is actually going on in Obama’s D.C., but the subject matter is so appalling as to leave most readers looking for a shower. Here's the short summary, but read the whole interview when the transcript is posted and then read the whole book:
Almost everyone who stays in D.C. after leaving elected or appointed office "cashes in." This is not surprising, nor is it per se corrupt. Every time I bring a new client into my law firm on the west coast who first sought me out because of my radio show, books or columns, I am doing the same thing that the "formers" described by Leibovich do every day, though in a very different place and for very different reasons. Every professional services firm seeks to make use of the visibility of its highest profile members in attracting new business.
What is different about the "professionals" of D.C., these "formers," what is in fact stunning, is the enormity of the influence operation inside the Beltway, how all-consuming it is, and what it is aimed at.
There are law firms and accounting firms everywhere because there are transactions to be documented, law suits to be answered and tax returns to be filed everywhere.
There are lobbying/public affairs firms only where government nests, however, and the biggest government of them all has the most gargantuan lobbying-influence operation surrounding it. K Street is the Rocky Mountain range of influence peddlers, and the supporting base camps to those who climb those heights are vast and populated with fascinating creatures, most especially the Manhattan-Beltway media elite, which is the real core subject of This Town.
It’s. All. About. The. Media. The book and the town…everything. You might have thought it was about the Constitution, or freedom, or something to do with the monuments, but in reality, it is all about the media.
The influence that is being peddled is only secondarily about the legislation and the regulations. It is primarily about the overall media envelope which is shaping the public opinion which is truly shaping the legislation and regulations.
It is all about the awful term, the "narrative."
This is hard to explain without the benefit of 300 pages of story-telling, so read the interview and the book if you want to understand. Be warned that the disease is deep and perhaps not even possible to cure. Because the "shaping the narrative" has grown to dominate all other concerns, constant attention to the media doing the shaping is the key aim of the influence peddlers.
The legislation is poorly written, the regulations incomprehensible when not delayed and the litigation around them both endless, all because the substance is almost wholly secondary to the process, the drafting of the various deals turned over to legions of administrative state minions while the next round of narrative shaping commences.
From Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1, verse 2: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
9/11 changed it for a bit. It will take something far worse to change it again, but that “far worse thing” is getting nearer and nearer because of the awful self-absorption, systemic mediocrity and searing contempt for the voters that is at the heart of This Town.
This Town should be read far and wide, and especially among the Tea Party people. It is Exhibit One in their bill of particulars, the real proof from an insider's insider that their worst fears about the Beltway are all true.
No, not the conspiracy theories. Rather, the idea that the elites just don't care. They don't. Not in the least. On to Aspen, and Davos and then back to D.C. Until the real game changer arrives, tiny little parts of which were en route from the Castro brothers to the Norks for trans-shipment back to the mullahs.
The Club may have missed that story. That's the story. That's the bottom line of This Town.
http://townhall.com/columnists/hughhewitt/2013/07/18/thinking-through-this-town-n1643579/page/full
Serious New Questions on Obama Labor Nominee
A surprising development on Wednesday has raised new questions about President Obama's nominee to be the new Labor Secretary.
Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez is one of the nominees over whom Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just staged his filibuster fight. As a result of the deal Reid worked out with Republican Senators, Perez was supposed to get a confirmation vote today. He cleared a procedural vote in the Senate yesterday as six Republicans broke ranks to vote him through.
Perez has faced questions about his misleading congressional testimony about his involvement in a quid pro quo deal with the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, that resulted in the dismissal of a Supreme Court case and taxpayers giving up a claim worth almost $200 million. He has refused to turn over private emails that he used to conduct Justice Department business and has refused to testify before the House despite a congressional subpoena. But apparently, that's not all.
Now, David Weber, a lawyer representing current and former employees of the Civil Rights Division, which Perez oversaw, has sent out a press release accusing Perez of "substantial misconduct." The employees, who are claiming whistleblower status, met with the staffs of Republican and Democratic Senators and turned over evidence of "disparate impact discrimination under the leadership of Mr. Perez." This is significant because "disparate impact" is Perez's favored legal theory—he has used it to pursue numerous businesses and other defendants in federal discrimination lawsuits.
The whistleblowers claim that Perez and his senior staff "began a widespread campaign" of discriminatory treatment against disabled employees as well as other employees "based on race; gender; age; and/or parental status." The employees who opposed this discrimination were "subjected to an exceptionally hostile work environment and unlawful retaliation." The whistleblowers include African-American, Hispanic, and female employees.
What is most startling in the allegations is the reason given for the discrimination: "the Perez actions were directed at preserving the positions of political appointees who have 'burrowed' into [the] Civil Rights Division through Perez's patronage."
"Burrowing in" is the term used in Washington to describe political appointees who have been placed in protected, career-bureaucrat, civil service positions—so they cannot be fired when an administration is over and the President leaves office, as happens to all other political appointees. Apparently, the fiscal constraints placed on his division through the budget crisis led to Perez directing his staff to "constructively terminate career staff in order to protect the political appointees from a Reduction in Force."
The press release also says that there are 10 other DOJ civil rights officials who "have come forward as witnesses and provided corroborating information supporting these allegations."
Attorney David Weber minces no words in saying that while Perez "has been nominated to be the protector of the American workforce," his clients have told Congress that Perez "rampantly discriminates against its own workforce, and retaliates against those brave enough to raise their hand."
The claims made by these whistleblowers against Perez and his senior management are extremely serious. Weber asks that Congress investigate and "hold Mr. Perez' nomination pending investigation." He also asks Attorney General Eric Holder to "take immediate steps to curtail the discrimination and retaliation."
Holder has been saying a great deal in the last week about the Justice Department's investigation of George Zimmerman for possible civil rights violations. It sounds like he needs to redirect that investigation into his own Civil Rights Division.
If the Senate now goes ahead with a vote on Perez's confirmation before it has investigated these shocking claims, it will have ignored its "advise and consent" role that requires it to review in-depth the qualifications—and character—of senior executive branch officers.
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/07/18/morning-bell-serious-new-questions-on-obama-labor-nominee/?roi=echo3-16291136408-13735282-33f717eb227c8a0fa426e9f9a0e23881&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
No comments:
Post a Comment