Politiks As Usual: In The News 11/12/12

Petraeus Resigns After Affair With Biographer Turned Up in FBI Probe

The Liberal Media Are More Powerful Than Ever

It’s Not The Economy, Stupid

Partial Recount in Tight Florida House Race Between West and Murphy

Philadelphia Came Out in Astronomical Numbers for Obama

Is the GOP Headed for the Boneyard?

‘Catholic Bishops’ Election Behavior Threatens Their Authority’

Newsweek Cover Compares Obama to Napoleon, Calls GOP 'Old,' 'White,' 'History'

Senators Propose Comprehensive Immigration Changes

A Message To Discouraged Christians

Vote Count Confirms Obama Win in Florida

Niall Ferguson Tells Liberal Critics To Stick It

TheDailyBeast.com:

First, duck the argument. Second, nitpick. Third, vilify. That’s what Niall Ferguson says liberal bloggers did after reading his Newsweek story on Obama’s record. Here, he offers a point-by-point defense of his argument.

The other day, a British friend asked me if there was anything about the United States I disliked. I was happily on vacation and couldn’t think of anything. But now I remember. I really can’t stand America’s liberal bloggers.

“We know no spectacle so ridiculous,” Lord Macaulay famously wrote, “as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.” But the spectacle of the American liberal blogosphere in one of its almost daily fits of righteous indignation is not so much ridiculous as faintly sinister. Why? Because what I have encountered since the publication of my Newsweek article criticizing President Obama looks suspiciously like an orchestrated attempt to discredit me.

My critics have three things in common. First, they wholly fail to respond to the central arguments of the piece. Second, they claim to be engaged in “fact checking,” whereas in nearly all cases they are merely offering alternative (often silly or skewed) interpretations of the facts. Third, they adopt a tone of outrage that would be appropriate only if I had argued that, say, women’s bodies can somehow prevent pregnancies in case of “legitimate rape.”

Their approach is highly effective, and I must remember it if I ever decide to organize an intellectual witch hunt. What makes it so irksome is that it simultaneously dodges the central thesis of my piece and at the same time seeks to brand me as a liar. The icing on the cake has been the attempt by some bloggers to demand that I be sacked not just by Newsweek but also by Harvard University, where I am a tenured professor. It is especially piquant to read these demands from people who would presumably defend academic freedom in the last ditch—provided it is the freedom to publish opinions in line with their own ideology.

***

Let me begin by restating my argument. President Obama should be judged on his record in office. In my view, he has not only failed to live up to the high expectations of those who voted for him, but also to the pledges he made in his inaugural address. (In order to be fair, I deliberately did not judge his performance against his campaign pledges.) The economy has performed less well than the White House led us to expect, despite a bigger increase in national debt than it led us to expect (exhibit 1).

Note, however, that I cut the president some slack on the economy. He inherited a bigger mess than most people appreciated back in November 2008. And forces beyond his control (Europe) have clearly dampened the recovery. Here’s what I wrote:

It was pretty hard to foresee what was going to happen to the economy in the years after 2008. Yet surely we can legitimately blame the president for the political mistakes of the past four years. After all, it’s the president’s job to run the executive branch effectively—to lead the nation. And here is where his failure has been greatest.

Notice, then, that my central critique of the president is not that the economy has underperformed, but that he has not been an effective leader of the executive branch. I go on to detail his well-documented difficulties in managing his team of economic advisers and his disastrous decision to leave it to his own party in Congress to define the terms of his stimulus, financial reform, and health-care reform. I also argue that he has consistently failed to address the crucial issue of long-term fiscal balance, with the result that the nation is now hurtling toward a fiscal cliff of tax hikes and drastic spending cuts.

The second part of my argument is that these failures of domestic leadership have fed into a failure of foreign policy. As commander in chief, President Obama has earned a relatively strong public reputation mainly thanks to a campaign of assassination that liberal bloggers would have excoriated if it had been conducted by his predecessor. His withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan will, in my view, prove to have been premature. More importantly, he has been indecisive in his responses to the revolutionary wave that has swept the Middle East since the Iranian “green” revolution of 2009. And, finally, he has been inconsistent and ineffective in his handling of the major strategic challenge of our times, the rise of China. (By the way, I base these judgments on a great many off-the-record conversations with influential policy-makers here and abroad. When a very senior military man asks you: “Have we any global strategy beyond just trying to hang on?,” you have a right to wonder if the answer might be “No.”)

RELATED:  Academics predict economy will drive a Romney victory

'Newsweek' Cover Story: Obama's Got To Go

Considering Newsweek's notorious liberal bent, this cover and article is quite a shocker. Too bad for all the Obama stans out there, everything Niall Ferguson writes here is true...just look it up:

I was a good loser four years ago. “In the grand scheme of history,” I wrote the day after Barack Obama’s election as president, “four decades is not an especially long time. Yet in that brief period America has gone from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the apotheosis of Barack Obama. You would not be human if you failed to acknowledge this as a cause for great rejoicing.”

Despite having been—full disclosure—an adviser to John McCain, I acknowledged his opponent’s remarkable qualities: his soaring oratory, his cool, hard-to-ruffle temperament, and his near faultless campaign organization.

Yet the question confronting the country nearly four years later is not who was the better candidate four years ago. It is whether the winner has delivered on his promises. And the sad truth is that he has not.

In his inaugural address, Obama promised “not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.” He promised to “build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” He promised to “restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.” And he promised to “transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Unfortunately the president’s scorecard on every single one of those bold pledges is pitiful.

RELATED: ‘Newsweek’ cover story: Obama’s got to go

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/30/12

Electoral College Tie Possible In Obama-Romney Race

Scalia Opens Door For Gun-Control Legislation, Extends Slow Burning Debate

Dick Cheney: John McCain Made A Mistake Choosing Sarah Palin For VP In 2008

Chicago Values And The Fruit of Islam

Catholic Business Owners Score Win Against ObamaCare Mandate

Mitt Romney Captures Jerusalem

2012 Campaign Very Different Than Kerry vs. Bush 

Can It Be Un-American To Be A Christian?

Pope Names 'Father of Proposition 8' Archbishop of San Francisco

Sports Media Launches Olympic-Sized Blitz from Left

Newsweek Cover Story: 'Mitt Romney: A Candidate With a Serious Wimp Problem'

Cantor: Pelosi Remarks About Jews 'Patronizing and Deeply Insulting'

Hey, Boston: Leave Chick-fil-A Alone

Obama’s Team Taking Gamble Going Negative

Newsweek Calls Obama "The First Gay President"

HotAir.com:

Are you kidding me? I get that Andrew Sullivan is a man with an agenda and I completely support his right to make his opinions heard. I also understand that Newsweek – like any other publication – is in business to make a profit and that frequently involves pushing the envelope in terms of catching the public’s attention. But at what point is too much simply too much? When is the shark definitively jumped and the daily bread burned past any reasonable definition of being toast? Ladies and gentlemen, this would be that point.

Politico “explains.”

“‘Let the games begin,” Tina Brown said last week after Time Magazine released its controversial breastfeeding cover.

Brown, whose tenure as editor at Newsweek has seen an array of controversial covers, will respond with the above, pegged to Andrew Sullivan’s piece on Obama’s support for same-sex marriage: “The First Gay President.”

The poster that comes from this is going to sell millions. Take that to the bank.

I’m not such a political neophyte as to suggest that this is unique in politics, but the bold faced, brazen machinations and ham handed plotting which have characterized this “evolution” in the President’s position on the subject at hand are rather breathtaking. And I’m not saying that people don’t actually “evolve” in their positions, beliefs or ideology. I know that my own attitudes and beliefs in my twenties were a far cry – in some instances at least – from where I stand in my fifties. Very few of us spring out of the halls of high school fully formed with all of the opinions we’ll hold until the grave.

But these evolutions generally take place over a long period of time, as exposure to new people and different ideas are examined and experimented with. Some are kept, others are rejected. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has gone in the course of less than a decade from full throated support of gay marriage to full opposition on religious grounds, back to full support. Are we really supposed to be buying this?

Apparently Mr. Sullivan thinks so. And Newsweek is more than happy to jump on board with a cover which will probably go down as one of the most ridiculed and satirized efforts in the history of magazine publication. (But I wouldn’t mind a piece of the sales from the poster, though.) Yeesh.

RELATED:  Is Obama the 'first gay president' as Newsweek proclaims?

Megyn Kelly: Is Newsweek Obligated To Put An ‘Actual Journalist’ On Its Cover Instead Of Andrew Sullivan

Mediaite.com:

Newsweek (and Tina Brown)’s decision to put Andrew Sullivan’s provocative essay (and an even more provocative headline) on the cover was purely about getting people to talk about Newsweek. That was the theory put forth by a Fox News panel during a segment dedicated to…talking about Newsweek. But, as Megyn Kelly proposed at the start, has Newsweek and the mainstream media “crossed a line in trying to get the President reelected?”


Of course, as this was a segment in which a cable news program discusses a news competitor, the customary discrediting had to be done before the conversation could get started in earnest. Ok, lets see. Kelly joked that only four people read Newsweek and then asked if the magazine had “some obligation to pu an actual journalist” on its cover. Ooh, burn, Andrew! Who’s dumb now?!


Ok, where were we?


Kelly then asked if Newsweek was obligated to tell readers that Sullivan was a former TrigTruther. Radio host Leslie Marshall pointed out that the audience has the ability to Google the columnist, but Kelly argued that most people think of Newsweek as straight reporting. The National Review‘s Rich Lowry claimed that the magazine hasn’t been for a long time and is now “the house organ of the Obama Administration.”


Kelly worried that older people like her mom and step dad wouldn’t know that. Well, lets hope they were watching the show today. No one could come out of this segment without realizing just how purely evil Newsweek truly is.


Of course, news outlets dissing other news outlets makes up for about 95% of the daily cable news output, so this segment wasn’t anything new. The most fun moment came right at the top as we got to watch Kelly continue to trash her show’s new music choices.


I don’t know what it is but, whether you’re writing for a magazine or anchoring a newscast, I’ve always found self deprecation more charming than full on attacks.


UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has responded to the Fox News segment. In a blog post entitled “How Scared is Fox?”, Sullivan challenges the cable network to have him on to defend his piece.


“What I want to know is why they cannot invite the author of an essay to debate it, rather than two random individuals (including Rich “Starbursts” Lowry) to discuss. Surely that’s only fair – unless, of course, I am on a blacklist.


So this is an open challenge to Fox News. If you want to trash my work, have me on to defend it. Any time, Megyn. Any time. What are you afraid of?


Apart from the truth, that is. ”

RELATED: Sarah Palin slams Newsweek for giving ‘conspiracy kook writer’ Andrew Sullivan cover story

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/8/11

Slain Navy SEALs Had Targeted Known Taliban Leader, Officials Say

Congress Has Chance To Pass Bills That Would Create Jobs

Timothy Geithner: S&P Showed Terrible Judgment, Obama Sticking By

Schooling Matt Damon

New Obamacare Violations Of Personal Liberty

Producers Pick Lesbian Kiss, R-Rated Movies As Teen Choice Award Nominees

Rick Perry At Prayer Rally: 'Father, Our Heart Breaks For America'

Canadian Lutherans Struggle Over 'Gay' Marriage

Newsweek Puts Picture Of Michele Bachmann On Cover That Makes Her Look Crazy

Obama: Time For An Apology

An Interracial Fix For Black Marriage

Newsweek's Biased Reporting On New Black Panther Voter Intimidation, Megyn Kelly Speaks On Eric Holder

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/5/10

Democrats Resist GOP Bid To Nationalize Election

Critics Press Obama On Afghan Deadline

Obama's War On The Traditional Family

Our Problems Not In The Atmosphere, But On The Earth

USA Today Touts Atheist Summer Camp

Conservatives Are More Than Twice As Likely As Liberals To Be Strongly Patriotic

Pastor Angered That NAACP Backs Pot Legalization

John McCain: Michael Steele Must Assess His Future 


Newsweek: Sexist Treatment Of Republican Women Is Sarah Palin's Fault


Top 20 Photos From The Gulf That Obama Doesn't Want You To See

Yet Another Terrorist Tie To Obama White House

Sarah Palin Calls Out Liberal Newsweek For The Failure That It Is

Yawn, Another hit-piece from the Citizen-Sarah-obsessed Left. They can't beat her so they have to continue to smear and insult:

These Christians seek a power that allows them to formally acquiesce to male authority and conservative theology, even as they assume increasingly visible roles in their families, their churches, their communities, and the world.

Palin shows them a path through this thicket of contradictions. “Within these circles, there is very much an ideal Christian woman model,” explains Griffith. “It’s an image that blends this kind of submissive, pretty, aw-shucks demeanor with a fiery power, a spiritual warfare.” Palin may say she’s a pugnacious jock primed to take on the big boys, but her family, beauty-queen figure, and glossy hair are her calling cards.

Of course, when you smack them with a bit of truth, they don't know what to do with themselves:

Politiks As Usual: In The News 4/19/10

Poll Finds Nearly 8 In 10 Don't Trust Big Government

Toyota To Agree To $16.4M Government Fine

Judge Rules National Day Of Prayer Unconstitutional

Henry Waxman Cancels ObamaCare Meeting

Tom Coburn, Nancy Pelosi, And The Likeability Factor

Light Reaction To 2nd Gay Episcopalian Bishop Cheers Newsweek

Advocates Push For Stillborn Birth Certificates

Eric Holder: Miranda Warnings For Terrorists Won't Harm Interrogations

Bill Clinton: Criticize, Don't Demonize Officeholders, Dems Will Keep House & Senate

Press Corps Airs Grievances To White House

Is Obama Using Israel As Scapegoat For His Foreign Policy Failures?

"Christian" Singer Jennifer Knapp Comes Out As Lesbian

Is The Congressional Black Caucus Dying Of Neglect?

Senator James Inhofe Calls For EPA Probe Of Scientists' Climate Change E-mails

FOXNews.com:

The Senate's top global warming skeptic on Tuesday said he will ask the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general to probe the use of climate change data now at the center of an international inquiry for an endangerment finding that gives the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases.

Sen James Inhofe, R-Okla., said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's decision to rely on information from the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change to institute the endangerment finding is

"The EPA accepted the IPCC's erroneous claims wholesale, without doing its own independent review," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said about

"So EPA's endangerment finding rests on bad science," Inhofe said at a Tuesday morning hearing.

Good job by Senator Inhofe. These leftwing scientists have been caught out there time and time again with with lies and hyperbole on "climate change", yet their enablers in the liberal media refuse to call them out. But we're talking matters critical to the future of humanity (much less taxpayers pockets) in the harsh glare of intense global scrutiny and scientists have a responsibility for accuracy & integrity. In other words, they need to face the music.

Oh, and good question: Where is Al Gore?

Magazines Worship Of Obama Equats To Circulations Plummet

Mediadecoder.com:

Magazines’ newsstand sales plummeted in the last six months of 2009, and subscriptions dropped as well.

Newsstand sales for the 472 consumer titles in the United States measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations declined 9.1 percent, to 39.3 million, in the last half of 2009 versus the same period a year earlier, the organization reported this morning. That follows an 11.12 percent decline from July through December 2007 compared to July through December 2008.

Some of the well-known titles with dramatic single-copy declines included W, down 41.7 percent to about 25,000 for an average issue; Newsweek, down 41.3 percent to about 62,000 (Newsweek had decreased the number of copies on sale, noted a spokesman); SmartMoney, down 37 percent to about 26,000; Time, down 34.9 percent to about 90,000; Good Housekeeping, down 30.7 percent to 395,000; and Redbook, down 30.1 percent to 126,000.

Newsstand sales tend to be driven by the economy and are a more timely indicator of a magazine’s vitality than subscriptions, which tend to lag and which can be driven by heavy discounting. While newsstand sales are a small percentage of most magazines’ circulation, they are a profitable part of it — publishers typically charge only a fraction of the newsstand price for a subscription copy.

Overall circulation, including subscriptions, fell 2.23 percent.

When you consider that left-wing cable news channels who worship Barry like MSNBC have also suffered from a huge decline in ratings of late, blaming the economy comes off as a very convenient excuse.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 11/23/09

U.S. Envoy Criticizes Coverage Of Obama China Visit

Senate Dems Suggest They're Open To Altering Health Care Bill

Rep. Patrick Kennedy Banned From Receiving Communion Over Abortion Support

Senate To Put Off Climate Bill Until Spring

Sodom In The Nation's Capital

Hoffman Loses Final Tally Of NY-23 Race: Alleges ACORN Tampering

Newsweek: Ft Hood Happened Because Muslims Aren't 'Comfortable'

Liberal Group Condemned For Attacking Prayer Vigil

Global WarmingGate: What Does It Mean?

While Americans Are Out Of Work, Obama To Fine Employers With Illegal Workers

Religious Leaders Call For Civil Disobedience If Laws Don't Respect Christian Faith

Sarah Palin Photographer Breached Contract With Sale To Newsweek

DailyFinance.com:

What on earth was Sarah Palin thinking when she posed in a pair of teeny-tiny gym shorts for a photograph that ended up on the cover of Newsweek -- a cover she has called "sexist"? Perhaps she was thinking that her image would only appear in the magazine she was posing for, Runner's World, and nowhere else, at least not for months and months. If so, she had good reason -- since, as DailyFinance has learned, the photographer who shot the picture violated his contract by reselling them to Newsweek. That photographer, Brian Adams, could not immediately be reached, and his agent, Kelly Price, declined to comment, saying, "I keep all of my clients' business private."

But a spokeswoman for Runner's World confirms that Adams's contract contained a clause stipulating that his photos of Palin would be under embargo for a period of one year following publication -- meaning until August 2010. "Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with its cover image," the spokeswoman said. "It was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's stock agency, without Runner's World's knowledge or permission." The spokeswoman declined to say whether Runner's World intends to respond to Adams's breach of contract with legal action.

But while Newsweek's use of the photo violated the embargo, it's not clear to what extent Adams is at fault. A source with knowledge of the situation says multiple outlets, including Time, approached Runner's World after the photos first appeared on its website in July to inquire about obtaining the reuse rights. Those who inquired were forwarded to Adams. Editors at the magazine were aware of negotiations to resell the pictures, and were primarily concerned to see that Runner's World received prominent credit, says the source. In the event, Newsweek credited Runner's World right on its cover. Another source says there is some disagreement over whether the exclusivity clause in Adams's contract is meant to cover all magazines or only titles that compete with Runner's World. Meanwhile, a post on Adams's blog seems to suggest he didn't know about the resale to Newsweek until after Price concluded it.

Figures that a leftist rag like TIME would attempt to smear Palin by trying to purchase that photo too. I hope the photographer and Newsweek get their asses sued.

RELATED: Palin Angered By 'Sexist' Newsweek Cover

Sarah Palin Gives Oprah Highest Ratings In Two Years

"Yawn"....Newsweek Retreads The Leftwing Hate For Sarah Palin

AssociatedContent.com:

The Sarah Palin Newsweek cover shows the former Governor of Alaska is in very nice dark shorts and a tight, red top with nice hair, a nice smile, and an American flag nearby. The Sarah Palin Newsweek cover is a declaration of war.

Mind, the original photo ran on the cover of Runners World and contains a small flag with a blue star, representing Sarah Palin's son who is now serving his country in the Middle East. The blue star flag is obscured by the caption: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?"

The accompanying articles are what one might expect. Sarah Palin is both an air head and a crazed demagogue who will surely sink the GOP is nominated and the country if elected. But the "problem" in this case is not the one stated, but the one deeply felt in newsrooms and political salons across the country.

First, let's look at the choice of the Sarah Palin Newsweek cover. The message is pretty clear. No one who aspires to be a world leader has any business looking like that. Women world leaders need to be old and dowdy, like Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, or Angela Merkel. The simply cannot look as stunning as Sarah Palin, so stunning that she seems to drive people like David Letterman and Chris Matthews quite mad.

The idea that Sarah Palin is just too good looking to be President has more to do with the sexual insecurities of liberals than it does with Sarah Palin.

Mind, male politicians can get away with being good looking. People swooned over JFK's good looks and there are women who dream of being rogered six ways from Sunday by Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. Even the most liberal women, while hating George W. Bush, acknowledged that he looks like the Marlboro Man.

Rampant sexism in the liberal media? As Governor Palin would say, you betcha.

What's funny is how liberals still don't get how continuing to insult and smear Sarah Palin not only legitimizes her, but makes her even more popular. Her new book will become a best-seller and she owes plenty of thanks to liberals for making that happen. Whether it's Maureen Dowd at the Times, the left-wing Huffington Post and the majority of left-wing bloggers, liberals just can't stop talking about Sarah Palin--a woman whose popularity has been diminished greatly within the her own party thanks in part to her shenanigans of late: quitting the governorship of Alaska midway and now all the slams being hurled at the John McCain camp in lieu of last year's presidential campaign. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Tim Romney are the current front-runners for the GOP nomination for President in 2012, Sarah Palin is 4th in most polls. But who cares? Thanks to liberal obsession with everything Citizen Sarah says and does, regardless if Palin never even runs for President, she'll still never have to worry being irrelevant anytime soon.

Prolonged Aid To Unemployed Is Running Out

Scary:

Over the coming months, as many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits, ending what for some has been a last bulwark against foreclosures and destitution.

Because of emergency extensions already enacted by Congress, laid-off workers in nearly half the states can collect benefits for up to 79 weeks, the longest period since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s. But unemployment in this recession has proved to be especially tenacious, and a wave of job-seekers is using up even this prolonged aid.

Tens of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year, according to new projections by the National Employment Law Project, a private research group. Unemployment insurance is now a lifeline for nine million Americans, with payments averaging just over $300 per week, varying by state and work history. While many recipients find new jobs before exhausting their benefits, large numbers in the current recession have been unable to find work for a year or more.

To think the idiots at Newsweek say that the recession is over.