Not the Sharpest Tool in Shed

You may remember Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) as the guy who thought he'd stumped the Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary about the origins of oil. Now he's picked up the story about the EPA economist who's picked up climate science as a hobby but couldn't[...]

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t_tool_in_shed.php

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Biden in Iraq

…with Stephanopoulos in tow. From the White House: Vice President Biden in Iraq to Meet with Iraqi Leaders and Visit U.S. Troops Vice President Biden has arrived in Iraq to visit U.S. troops and to meet with Iraqi leaders, including President[...]

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http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/07/02/biden-in-iraq/

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Lamenting Polarization With Bernie, Smerky And
Irv

I really didn?t have a lot to say about the passing of local radio personality Irv Homer (pictured) last week except for a brief mention at the end of another post, but intrepid Philadelphia Daily News columnist Michael Smerconish had some words on the subject in his column today.

Homer held court on radio station WWDB in these parts, among other employment locations. And it was not uncommon for us in the Doomsy household to put the station on in the morning (we?re talking about the late ?90s here) for news with Gil Gross and Pat Farnack, with Irv coming on at midday. After that, the lineup often changed, with a pair of talkers named Jay and Hilarie (?) followed by Kent Voss and Dr. Jim (God rest him). So basically, I can vouch for Smerky here when he says that Homer went back and forth between conservative and liberal viewpoints, being true to what he was, and that was a libertarian.

All of that went up in smoke the day before the 2000 presidential election, when Beasley Broadcasting bought the station and changed the format (one of many times) to all-80s hits (or, as I always tell the missus, you just can?t get enough of A Flock Of Seagulls ? and I always wondered about the timing of that change).

And I probably would not have another word to say about any of this were it not for the fact that Smerky then used this as an excuse to note his recent conversation with one Bernard Goldberg (former CBS News correspondent and pathological liar), in which he tells us?

"What we have in this country is we have people who hang on every word" that people like Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann say, Goldberg told me. The problem with that, he continued, is that "regular folks have now confused cable television with real life." They think America really is as divided as a split-screen TV - far from the truth, Goldberg noted.

And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Listeners and viewers become so dependent on the labels and ideology that they block out any personality or any show that doesn't fit neatly into one box or the other. Politicians and candidates for office play the game to get their name in the paper or on the on-screen graphic.

The shame of it is that these 24/7 split-screen kerfuffles serve only to shut down the important debates the country could be having on the important issues of the day. The end result is the snuffing out of nonpartisanship in this country.

Cue the tinny-sounding violin someone, please (as if either Goldberg OR Smerky would have a clue about ?regular folks?).

Gee, I wonder if the reason why Goldberg lumped in K.O. with Flush Limbore here is that Olbermann busted Goldberg on taking a question from Charlie Rose to Tom Brokaw in an interview the former conducted with the latter, taking a completely different answer from Brokaw to another question and clipping the quote to boot, and putting them both together to make it sound like Brokaw was agreeing with Rose that ?there?s a lot we don?t know? about Obama here?

Also, how sad is it that Goldberg ducked an interview with CNN?s Howard Kurtz, of all people, here after Goldberg accused Kurtz of ?being in the tank? for Obama?

And for more Bernard Goldberg nonsense, here is his claim that ?left wingers? ?threw Oreo cookies? at RNC chairman Michael Steele, and here is another bogus charge that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama, when they were running for president last year, condemned the ?General Betray Us? MoveOn ad.

And as far as Goldberg?s book about the 100 people who are supposedly ?screwing up America? (from 2005, with new Minnesota Senator Al Franken at number 37, I believe), this review from The Boston Globe tells us as follows?

In a similar vein, if Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Byrd of Virginia are ''screwing up America," hasn't Representative Tom DeLay (R-Texas) contributed at least a little? What about Representative Dan Burton (R-Indiana), the far-right conspiracy buff who once shot a pumpkin in his backyard to reenact the supposed murder of Clinton aide Vince Foster -- and has joined forces with the loony left to propagate the dangerous canard that vaccines cause autism?

And if Goldberg is going to throw the book at leftist academics, writers, and pundits who were quick to blame America for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it's odd that evangelical ministers Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who asserted that we brought it on ourselves by angering God with secularism, feminism, abortion, and gay rights, are let off the hook.

It?s also funny how we never heard the whining from Smerky and his pals about America being as ?divided as a split-screen TV? when the Repugs just about wrecked our country when they were in charge from 2001 through 2006, isn?t it?

And it?s sad that Irv Homer can no longer ?take to the mic? once more to say those very words, which I?m quite sure he would.

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2009/07/lamenting-polarization-with-bernie.h
tml

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Red Pill blogs in the American Matrix

Never has so much accurate and impartial information been so thoroughly ignored by the general public as in the current econmic downturn. There are numerous sites on the Internet that have been accurately predicting the steady decline of the world[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/xqECvvOGR5Q/red-pill-blogs-in-the-ne
w-american-matrix

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Is Rush Limbaugh trying to encourage a military
coup against Obama UPDATED

One of the problems with trying to track the flood of wingnuttery emitted daily by Rush Limbaugh is that there's so much of it, and it's so ceaseless, that one becomes overwhelmed trying to keep up with it. But there's been a thread in his commentary this past week that's particularly dangerous, and it needs calling out.

It began on Monday, after the military coup in Honduras. Limbaugh went on the air and said this:

Limbaugh: So we've got hell breaking loose in Honduras. You know what we learned about Honduras? We learned the Obama administration tried to stop the coup. Now what was -- the coup was what many of you wish would happen here, without the military.

The next day, describing Obama talking to troops about the withdrawal from Iraq, he described the president thus:

"This is a guy who sought their defeat."

And then yesterday, he expanded on these thoughts even further:

This is Barack Obama, who led from the United States Senate his party into doing everything he could to ensure the defeat of the U.S. military. ... This party was doing everything it could to impugn and dishonor the military.

This thread of commentary clearly is pushing toward a single thought -- to push people in the armed forces into seeing Obama as a usurper and traitor, just like the Honduran president, and toward the idea that a similar military-based removal of him from office might be justified.

Keep in that Limbaugh is the only pundit still broadcast daily on Armed Services Radio, so our men and women in uniform are getting fed this garbage on a daily basis. (And Wes Clark was right: It is well past time to take him off.)

Limbaugh in fact is picking up on sentiments already circulating on the right. Larisa Alexandrovna at AtLargely picked up on the chatter going on at various right-wing blogs after Honduras coup, pointing in particular to the Gateway Pundit's commenters, who posted such items as the following:

We've seen a steady drumbeat of fearmongering from the right since Obama's election. But now we're treading into truly dangerous, insurrectionary territory.

UPDATE: Today Limbaugh added to the litany in a much more explicit fashion:

Limbaugh: And if we had any good luck, Honduras would send some people here and help us get our government back.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rush-limbaugh-trying-encourage-milit

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Is Rush Limbaugh trying to encourage a military
coup against Obama

One of the problems with trying to track the flood of wingnuttery emitted daily by Rush Limbaugh is that there's so much of it, and it's so ceaseless, that one becomes overwhelmed trying to keep up with it. But there's been a thread in his commentary this past week that's particularly dangerous, and it needs calling out.

It began on Monday, after the military coup in Honduras. Limbaugh went on the air and said this:

Limbaugh: So we've got hell breaking loose in Honduras. You know what we learned about Honduras? We learned the Obama administration tried to stop the coup. Now what was -- the coup was what many of you wish would happen here, without the military.

The next day, describing Obama talking to troops about the withdrawal from Iraq, he described the president thus:

"This is a guy who sought their defeat."

And then yesterday, he expanded on these thoughts even further:

This is Barack Obama, who led from the United States Senate his party into doing everything he could to ensure the defeat of the U.S. military. ... This party was doing everything it could to impugn and dishonor the military.

This thread of commentary clearly is pushing toward a single thought -- to push people in the armed forces into seeing Obama as a usurper and traitor, just like the Honduran president, and toward the idea that a similar military-based removal of him from office might be justified.

Keep in that Limbaugh is the only pundit still broadcast daily on Armed Services Radio, so our men and women in uniform are getting fed this garbage on a daily basis. (And Wes Clark was right: It is well past time to take him off.)

Limbaugh in fact is picking up on sentiments already circulating on the right. Larisa Alexandrovna at AtLargely picked up on the chatter going on at various right-wing blogs after Honduras coup, pointing in particular to the Gateway Pundit's commenters, who posted such items as the following:

We've seen a steady drumbeat of fearmongering from the right since Obama's election. But now we're treading into truly dangerous, insurrectionary territory.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rush-limbaugh-trying-encourage-milit

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US Session: Risk Aversion Boosts Demand for the
Dollar after Worse-Than-Expected Payroll Number

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Your Airline, Your FAA, And Terrorists: Perfect
Together!!

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090630_mo_harris.23327cea.html
Latest News
Aircraft Repair Jobs Sold To Foreign Workers, Resumes Not Important
02:12 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 1, 2009
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

Video July 1st, 2009
Byron Harris Reports.
Loophole Allows For Easy Immigration For Aircraft Mechanics
Immigration No Problem For Aircraft Mechanics
Congress Members React To FAA Revelations
News 8 Investigates: Airline Mechanics Who Can?t Read English
More On This Topic

Search Video: A News 8 investigation found that hundreds of aircraft mechanics have been brought into the United States to work at aircraft repair facilities.
Insiders say the companies that are importing the mechanics are so eager to save money, they?re overstating their qualifications. The result may be a threat to safety, abetted by lax enforcement of immigration law.

At daybreak any morning at San Antonio Aerospace, hundreds of workers amble through the gates for the day shift. They repair big jets like Airbuses, Boeing 757s and MD-11s. But, despite the fact that it?s a huge facility in the middle of the San Antonio International Airport, a large number of the mechanics are only temporary workers from foreign countries. News 8 found they?re from Mexico, the Philippines and Chile, among other places. They have been brought specifically to the United States to work for San Antonio Aerospace (SAA). News 8 followed a special bus San Antonio Aerospace, used to pick up foreign workers every morning. Workers riding on the bus were from the Philippines. The workers, who wouldn?t say how much money they make, are part of a stream of imported mechanics brought to this country at cut-rate wages, according to several sources familiar with the business.

Jada Williams used to work for one of the contracting companies, Aircraft Workers Worldwide (AWW), based in Daphne, Alabama. AWW supplied workers for two facilities, Mobile Aerospace Engineering (MAE) in Mobile, Alabama and San Antonio Aerospace, which are both controlled by ST Aerospace. San Antonio Aerospace is a division of ST Aerospace, the largest aircraft repair company in world.

?They?ve employed over 200 since I left,? said Williams, who said she was unfairly fired by the contractor last fall. ?And I know we had over a hundred when I was in there, just in Mobile.?
She said in San Antonio, AWW supplied 600 workers. The workers stay in the United States and come from various countries because of the different kinds of visas available in those places.

San Antonio Aerospace uses several contracting companies to supply it with workers. It can be a high-profit business for the contractors. They can make $3 to $12 an hour for every worker hired by SAA, contractors say.

The drive for profits is so big, Williams and other insiders said, that the contractors often falsify the qualifications of the imports.

?We had two,? she said. ?One of them was a female. She was about 16. It was a brother and a sister. One guy was a grocery bagger, one was a security guard in Puerto Rico. Their ages were between 18 and 22.?

Their ages are important because it takes years of experience or schooling to learn how to repair a big jet, experience they couldn?t have had.

?There had been padded resumes at SAA before,? said an administrator at another contractor. ?That?s why another contract house was kicked out (of SAA).?

One former SAA mechanic, who spent years learning his trade before being laid off, said foreign workers got their training on the job from the Americans they worked with.

?The more experienced mechanics, we would get paired up with either one or two of these guys,? he says. ?And they would watch us for a month or so. And that?s how they would get their training.? Williams is suing her former boss, Daniel Harding, for unlawful termination and racial discrimination. She has a computer full of company documents that were acquired accidentally when AWW got new computers for its office and gave her an old one. Spreadsheets, resumes and payrolls revealed many company practices, from interviews, to trips to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City for visas, charts marked the progress of Mexican workers to the United States. Documents also showed workers were charged $3,500 each by AWW to get into the United States.

Williams also has an e-mail trail from AWW president Harding to Moh Loong Loh, the President of San Antonio Aerospace. He described one candidate as having ? 25 percent English skills.?

Workers need English to communicate with their supervisors and to read repair manuals, so this is a key safety issue. American SAA workers said many imports cannot speak English at all.

In another e-mail, Harding described a group of imported workers from Mexico, just like a commodity.

?I hope to be able to bring increments no larger than ten at a time,? he wrote to Loh.

While this was happening, SAA former wokers said they got laid off.

WFAA-TV
The companies involved may face serious questions, said a former judge. ?I feel like we are being betrayed in our own country,? said one who was terminated. ?And I feel it is not right.?

?These big layoffs of 20 to 30 people would go out,? said the contract administrator. ?The very next Monday, 30 or 40 [imports] would be coming in.?

Williams said in Mobile the numbers were even bigger. She said she picked up a group of 60 people from Puerto Rico at Mobile Regional Airport last February. Since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, its residents are U.S citizens. For the contractors, this is a bonus because they can pay the Puerto Ricans low wages without having to deal with foreign immigration requirements.

When the FAA came to inspect San Antonio Aerospace, the company got a one-hour warning, said a former employee.

?And a lot of guys who were not able to read English, they would hide those guys or send them home for the evening,? the former employee said.

News 8 submitted written questions to both SAA in San Antonio and MAE in Mobile. The questions asked how many foreign workers they employ and what they are paid. The response from each said ?we are an equal opportunity employer.? Another question was whether AWW is owned by ST Aerospace. The terse answer was no, ?AWW is an independent contractor.?

AWW did not respond to questions. An attorney retained by the company and Daniel Hardin said ?Mr. Hardin is a responsible businessman who has greatly benefitted his community and his country.?

In Dallas, former judge David Finn, now in private practice, told News 8 that all the companies involved may face serious questions.
?Federal prosecutors would probably look at making false statements, material false statements,? he said. ?That?s a federal offense, a felony ... Mail fraud, wire fraud, there are any number of statues on the books that would apply to a situation like that.?

E-mail
bharris@wfaa.com

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http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com/2009/07/your-airline-your-faa-and-terrorists.ht
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Guest Post By Jonathan Guyer: When The Week in
Review is A Blast From the Past

(Credit: Jonathan Guyer)

Jonathan Guyer is a Program Associate for the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force.

-- Jonathan Guyer

Read The Full Article:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/07/guest_post_by_j_6/

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WaPo Killing the Blogger Ethics Panel Industry

Today's link-bait (it worked!) from Politico:

WashPost sells access, $25,000+
By: Mike Allen
July 2, 2009 08:04 AM EST

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

Thank you! Good day!

Really, what more do you need to know?

Here's some of the language of the offer:

"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders ...

"Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. ...

"Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 ... Hosts and Discussion Leaders ... Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post ... An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. ... A Washington Post Salon ... July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m."

This comes at remarkable time for the Post, really, with columnist Dana Milbank just having whispered to the Huffington Post's Nico Pitney that he was "such a dick" during their televised battle over newspaper versus blogger ethics.

Perhaps, for an extra ten grand, they'll bring Milbank into the salon, to whisper to you that, "you're such a rich dick."

The Post is already scrambling to walk this one back:

Kris Coratti, communications director of Washington Post Media, a division of The Washington Post Company, said: "The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication. It went out before it was properly vetted, and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are, which is meant to be an independent, policy-oriented event for newsmakers.

"As written, the newsroom could not participate in an event like this.  We do believe there is an opportunity to have a conferences and events business, and that The Post should be leading these conversations in Washington, big or small, while maintaining journalistic integrity. The newsroom will participate where appropriate."

Doesn't look much like anyone's buying it, so far. Instead, people just want to know who, if anyone, has agreed to pay, and which members of the administration, Congress, or the Post staff have agreed to go.

Really, how do you finesse your way out of this one? It's a huge black eye for the Post. And clearly there will be a financial price as well, with the paper also having written itself out of the once-lucrative Blogger Ethics Panel business from this point on.

UPDATE: More discussion in TomP's diary, here.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/NRMYumIyR1A/-WaPo-Killing-the-Blog
ger-Ethics-Panel-Industry

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