Fox Bashed in Its Own Live Interview with Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

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This Is NOT The Response Fox News Expected When This Interview Started

Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Ricks was brought on to talk Benghazi. His response caused the interview to be ended immediately. Watch:

http://youtu.be/PbUz3pIPmTY

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IMDB Top 250 in 2-1/2 Minutes

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http://youtu.be/U0x9HtYgVqA

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Praising New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

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Duty Before Party

NOV. 20, 2012

The New Jersey coastline was a shambles, hundreds of thousands of houses in the state were dark and cold, and entire towns were largely homeless. The state needed federal help, and Gov. Chris Christie did what he had to do to get it, including praising President Obama for delivering aid and comfort. For that, he was pilloried by a Republican Party that places blind loyalty above emergency.

A report in The Times on Tuesday by Michael Barbaro showed just how low Republican leaders sank in the final week of the presidential campaign. Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast eight days before Election Day, and all the party could see was a Republican governor praising a Democratic president. When the president visited New Jersey, Mr. Christie had the temerity to describe him as “outstanding” and “incredibly supportive.”

Republicans don’t forget that kind of thing, said Douglas Gross, a party operative in Iowa. “The presumption is that Republicans can’t count on him,” Mr. Gross said. At the Republican Governors Association meeting last week, Pat McCrory, the governor-elect of North Carolina, told Mr. Christie: “People keep asking me why you were so nice to the president.” He added, “I tell them you are doing your job,” but the message was conveyed.

It wasn’t just the praise for the president, though, that seemed to bother Mr. Romney’s supporters. For years, the party’s loudest activists have tried to delegitimize Mr. Obama, questioning his birthplace and his patriotism, even calling him a socialist and saying outright that he was in over his head.

How could you stand so close to Mr. Obama on the tarmac, one donor to Mr. Romney asked, suggesting that physical proximity to the president was out of line. How could you have boarded the presidential helicopter for a tour of the shore? Apparently party leaders and donors really expected Mr. Christie to refuse to meet the president at a time when his state was suffering. They wanted him to reflect their own pettiness — so obvious in the last four years — and shun the hand dispensing federal aid.

We have previously been critical of some of Mr. Christie’s shortsighted actions as governor, but it was hard not to admire him for standing up to his party’s worst elements and putting his state first.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/opinion/duty-before-party-for-gov-chris-christie.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121121

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Mitt Romney – A Terrible Presidential Candidate

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Anybody Notice a Pattern?

By Gail Collins

NOV 16, 2012

It appears that Mitt Romney was a terrible presidential candidate.

O.K., some people have known that ever since the story broke about strapping his dog on the car roof. But now we seem to be reaching a consensus.

First, there was that matter of losing the election. Then this week Romney told some of his donors that while he was pursuing the “big issues,” President Obama had purchased the support of blacks, Hispanics and young people with goodies like college loans and health care reform. College-age women, Romney claimed, traded their votes for “free contraceptives.”

Show them a birth control pill and they’ll follow you anywhere.

Romney said all this in a private conference call, so he couldn’t have suspected that it would wind up in the media. There is no precedent whatsoever for reporters getting hold of remarks presidential candidates make to private groups about the inherent greediness of American voters.

Nevertheless, quite a few Republicans thought it was a bad idea to insult the integrity of American youth and minorities at a moment when everybody agreed that the electoral future belonged to American youth and minorities.

“Romney, take responsibility for being flawed candidate, w/delusional campaign w/no vision,” tweeted Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist.

“I don’t want to rebut him point by point. I would just say to you, I don’t believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don’t want to work,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

Florida is flooded with potential Republican presidential candidates, the top two being Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush. That’s reasonable — except, have you noticed that things in Florida always have a tendency to get a little weird? Is it an accident that the woman at the center of the Petraeus scandal — the one with the financial troubles and the glamorous twin — is from Tampa? This week former Gov. Charlie Crist officially repudiated reports in a London paper that he and the twin used to date.

For Republicans, the mood after the election was so bad that — I know you will be shocked to hear this — a Republican Party official in Texas advocated leaving the Union. “We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity,” wrote Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party. “But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity.” (To be fair, you can’t judge an entire state by one county political official. Although Bud Kennedy, a columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that Morrison had once been chosen to help screen public school textbooks for the State Board of Education.)

Romney supporters couldn’t believe that they had lost fairly. The Maine Republican chairman was breathlessly reporting that “dozens, dozens of black people” had mysteriously shown up to vote in rural areas.

Now things are calmer — perhaps because, if they want to, Republicans can just blame everything on Romney’s poor campaign skills. Really terrible skills! Maybe the worst presidential candidate in American history! Well, possibly not worse than Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who got only 8 percent of the electoral vote against Thomas Jefferson. But Thomas Jefferson had the Louisiana Purchase. If Barack Obama had bought Manitoba, Republicans would have understood his winning.

And actually not quite as bad as John McCain, who got fewer electoral votes when he lost in 2008 than Romney just got. But at least McCain has gone on to provide service to the country in the Senate, such as his current attempts to warn the nation that we haven’t been told enough about what happened during the tragic attack on Benghazi.

McCain was so desperate to sound the alarm that he missed a classified briefing on Benghazi to hold a press conference complaining that he had not been given enough information. Which clearly he hadn’t. He knew nothing! Nothing whatsoever! And what was the administration going to do about that?

“It is essential for the Congress to conduct its own independent assessment,” said the senator, demanding that Congress form a special committee to look into Libya. This would be a double benefit, helping to inform all the members who missed their normal committee briefings while also addressing the continuing national crisis over the shortage of congressional committees.

Afterward, McCain was his normal even-tempered self. (“Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me if I can or not?”) But you did have to wonder. McCain. Then Romney. Now, all these guys from Florida and Paul Ryan, who when last heard from was blaming his ticket’s defeat on the “urban” vote.

Somewhere, there’s a right-wing Michael Dukakis waiting for the phone to ring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/collins-anybody-notice-a-pattern.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121117

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Mary Matalin’s Vitriolic Post-Election Hissy Fit

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Republican strategist/commentator Mary Matalin (married to Democratic strategist James Carville) posted this nasty tirade to the National Review. Welcome to Camp Coulter, Mary … You lost my respect as well as many others'.

 

 

Mendacity and Malice Won

By Mary Matalin

November 7, 2012 2:23 P.M

What happened? A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform. Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division.

Mitt Romney distinguished himself and conservatism with a grounded, courageous, forward-thinking problem-solving reform agenda for a nation ready to renew and starved for leadership and maturity. He is a man of integrity and character, as is his whole family. And unlike in the 1996 and 2008 Republican campaigns, which — though led by men of great personal integrity — were marked by dead-end policy prescriptions, Romney/Ryan laid a durable philosophical and policy foundation for the next generation of conservative leadership.

Unfortunately and unfortuitously, forces of nature bookended the general election: Our convention was compromised by one weather disaster and our momentum stalled by another. Two human hurricanes also radically altered the political atmosphere: Bill Clinton’s unique windbaggery constituted a campaign updraft, while Chris Christie’s deplorable and gratuitous gas-baggery infused the campaign with a toxic political pollution.

We live to fight again. See St. Paul from today.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/332941/mendacity-and-malice-won-mary-matalin

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Jail the Gays – A Christmas Gift to the People of Uganda

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In its infinite wisdom the Ugandan parliament has removed the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in the “watered down” version of its antigay legislation. Ugandan gays should be rejoicing at the prospect of merely facing jail (possibly a life sentence) rather than being put to death for being gay. (There really should be a sarcasm font.) Articles from the BBC and International Business Times:

^^^

Uganda ‘set to pass anti-gay law’

Nov. 13, 2012

Uganda will pass a new law against homosexuality by the end of 2012 as a “Christmas gift” to its advocates, the speaker of parliament has said.

The AP news agency quoted Rebecca Kadaga as saying that Ugandans were “demanding” the law.

Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda, but the bill which is before parliament proposes tougher sentences for people convicted.

Foreign donors have threatened to cut aid if gay rights are not respected.

The bill, tabled by MP David Bahati, proposes jail terms for homosexual acts, including a life sentence in certain circumstances.

It prohibits the “promotion” of gay rights and calls for the punishment of anyone who “funds or sponsors homosexuality” or “abets homosexuality”.

[emphasis added]

But a clause which calls for the death penalty against people found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a “serial offender” – is to be dropped, Mr Bahati has said.

Diplomatic spat

The bill was strongly condemned last year by Western leaders, including US President Barack I who described it as “odious”.

International donors have threatened to cut off aid to Uganda if the country does not do more to protect the rights of gay people.

Ms Kadaga said she hoped the bill, first tabled in 2009 and now before a parliamentary committee, would be passed by the end of the year, Reuters news agency reports.

“Ugandans want that law as a Christmas gift. They have asked for it and we’ll give them that gift,” Ms Kadaga is quoted as saying.

Last month, Ms Kadaga was involved in a row with Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird over gay rights at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Quebec.

When Mr Bairn warned Uganda not to trample on people’s human rights, Ms Kadaga replied: “If homosexuality is a value for the people of Canada they should not seek to force Uganda to embrace it. We are not a colony or a protectorate of Canada.”

She received a rapturous welcome from several hundred anti-gay activists, including religious leaders, at Uganda’s Entebbe airport when she returned from her trip.

In June, Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo said 38 non-governmental rganizations which he accused of promoting homosexuality would be banned.

Clare Byarugaba, the co-ordinator of Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said the group would challenge the law in the constitutional court, Reuters reports.

“The international community supports us and we also believe in the constitution of our country which protects the rights and freedoms of everyone,” she is quoted as saying.

Correspondents say many Ugandans are deeply conservative, and say homosexuality is against their religious and cultural beliefs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20318436

^^^

Uganda Revives ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill With Revisions

The speaker has been trying to get the Anti-Homosexuality bill passed since 2009, when it was introduced by David Bahati, a backbench lawmaker in President Yoweri Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement party.

The measure was called “odious” by U.S. President Barack I, and criticized by most of Europe. European countries threatened to withhold foreign aid from Uganda if the bill that at first called for the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality” was passed.

The first draft never made it to the debating floor, but now Kadaga has revived an amended bill.

“They said I should stop the debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, but I assured them there is no way I can block a private member’s bill,” The Daily Monitor quoted Kadaga saying when spoke to religious leaders and journalists at Entebbe International Airport at the end of October.

“I will not accept to be intimidated or directed by any government in the world on matters of homosexuality,” she said.

“I was surprised when colleagues came and thanked me, saying that’s what they have always wanted to say but they had never gotten the courage to. That when it came to me that I had spoken for the whole of Africa, for the Arab world and Asians,” Kadaga said.

The death sentence clause has been taken out, along one with forcing Ugandans to report homosexuals to authorities in the “watered-own” second draft, Bahati told Reuters.

When asked about pro-gay-rights countries denying Ugandans entry visas and aid, Kadaga responded they could keep their money and visas.

The new bill prohibits the “promotion” of gay rights and punish anyone who “funds or sponsors homosexuality” or “abets homosexuality.”

The rise of the evangelical church in Uganda, with American church funding, is partly responsible for the anti-gay movement in the country.

“Would you accept that a thief should be licensed, that a prostitute should be licensed? There is no difference between a thief, a robber, a prostitute and a homosexual,” said Pastor Joseph Serwadda, a supporter of the “Kill the Gays” Bill. 

[emphasis added]

http://www.ibtimes.com/uganda-revives-kill-gays-bill-revisions-872930

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From Toms River, NJ: Sandy Survivor Bids Farewell

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Amazing story of survival after Toms River man leaves ‘farewell’ note

by Ron Recinto

Nov. 5, 2012

(WOBM)

A Toms River, N.J., man who didn't think he would survive Sandy's storm surge, broke into a stranger's house and left a farewell note asking her to "tell my Dad I love him."

Thankfully the letter writer, identified only as Mike, was reunited with his father, Tony. And both will have a lifetime to retell his tale of survival.

So will Christine Treglia, who found this unsettling note when she returned home, which she had evacuated before the storm:

Who ever reads this I'm DIEING — I'm 28 yrs old my name is Mike. I had to break in to your house. I took blankets off the couch. I have hypothermia. I didn't take any thing. A wave thru me out of my house down the block. I don't think I'm going to make it. The water outside is 10ft deep at least. There's no res[c]ue.

Tell my dad I love him and I tryed get[t]ing out. His number is ###-###-#### his name is Tony. I hope u can read this I'm in the dark. I took a black jacket too. Goodbye. God all mighty help me.

Treglia posted this response on Facebook along with a link to the story about the note:

"This was my house that Mike found refuge in. We found this letter and 2 others in our home along with "help me" signs posted to our windows. We called immediately and were so relieved that Mike was safe and made his way home."

In an interview with Justin Lewis of WOBM radio, Mike, who still seemed amazed by his ordeal, shared the story behind his frantic note.

He said he was at his home in the Green Island community of Toms River when his kitchen was swept away, so he walked out of his house and was swept up in the current. He said he was pulled a half-mile into the bay and then spent about four hours trying to swim back home.

"Well, the current took me to somewhere, which I didn't even know where I was, and it threw me back into the bay. And I tried to swim back to my house for some reason," Mike said. "You know, sometimes you don't think."

He said he ended up across the bay at "some lady's house."

"She had towels on the couch. I just wrapped my body with the towels. ... I was so thirsty because I drank so much salt water. I didn't think I was gonna make it."

He penned the note in the dark.

"I just wanted to have that note to tell my father I tried. You know, I wasn't a baby about it. I tried, I did my thing." Mike told WOBM.

"I was swimming for so long. ... I was so cold, I thought I was just going to freeze right there," he said, "But that lady, I felt like for some reason, she knew someone was going to be in that house. She had these wool blankets all over the place. And I just wrapped myself in them."

After a few hours inside in the dark, Mike ventured back out into the waters.

"In the street there was about eight feet of water, and I'm like, I ain't dying like this, after all this, I ain't dying like this."

He said he was picked up by someone named Frank on a personal watercraft. Frank took in Mike and warmed him by a gas stove and gave him hot chocolate.

On Facebook, "Frank" Vicendese  of Green Island writes of Mike, "He was very thankful to be alive and warm, also very emotional after warming up by my stove after it started to sink in what happened."

Mike's journey took him to a friend's house in Kettle Creek, and then his dad came and picked him up. "I told my dad when I got home, you follow me" wherever I go, he said.

Mike says in his conversation with Treglia he apologized for entering her home and said, "There was money on the table, I didn't take nothing. I just took something that would keep me warm."

Treglia did not respond to a request for an interview.

Some people on social media have called Mike's survival a miracle.

He may not believe he stole anything during his ordeal. But certainly he was given a most valuable gift—his life.

To be honest with you, I'm afraid of the dark now. I was in the dark for so long with at least 15 to 20 foot waves that with the bay crashing over me. I couldn't even breathe.

I told my dad when I got home, you follow me everywhere you go.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/amazing-story-survival-toms-river-man-leaves-farewell-165046433.html

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Shell-Shocked on Election Day

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Romney Adviser Says Romney & Campaign Team Shocked By Loss

Boston, Mass. (CBS) -- Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.

Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.

But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.

After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.

"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."

They just couldn't believe they had been so wrong. And maybe they weren't: There was Karl Rove on Fox saying Ohio wasn't settled, so campaign aides decided to wait. They didn't want to have to withdraw their concession, like Al Gore did in 2000, and they thought maybe the suburbs of Columbus and Cincinnati, which hadn't been reported, could make a difference.

But then came Colorado for the president and Florida also was looking tougher than anyone had imagined.

"We just felt, 'where's our path?'" said a senior adviser. "There wasn't one."

Romney then said what they knew: it was over.

His personal assistant, Garrett Jackson, called his counterpart on Mr. Obama's staff, Marvin Nicholson. "Is your boss available?" Jackson asked.

Romney was stoic as he talked the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Running mate Paul Ryan seemed genuinely shocked, the adviser said. Ryan's wife Janna also was shaken and cried softly.

"There's nothing worse than when you think you're going to win, and you don't," said another adviser. "It was like a sucker punch."

Their emotion was visible on their faces when they walked on stage after Romney finished his remarks, which Romney had hastily composed, knowing he had to say something.

Both wives looked stricken, and Ryan himself seemed grim. They all were thrust on that stage without understanding what had just happened.

"He was shellshocked," one adviser said of Romney.

Romney and his campaign had gone into the evening confident they had a good path to victory, for emotional and intellectual reasons. The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.

They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time - poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney.

As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney. That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.

Those assumptions drove their campaign strategy: their internal polling showed them leading in key states, so they decided to make a play for a broad victory: go to places like Pennsylvania while also playing it safe in the last two weeks.

Those assessments were wrong.

They made three key miscalculations, in part because this race bucked historical trends:

1. They misread turnout. They expected it to be between 2004 and 2008 levels, with a plus-2 or plus-3 Democratic electorate, instead of plus-7 as it was in 2008. Their assumptions were wrong on both sides: The president's base turned out and Romney's did not. More African-Americans voted in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida than in 2008. And fewer Republicans did: Romney got just over 2 million fewer votes than John McCain.

2. Independents. State polls showed Romney winning big among independents. Historically, any candidate polling that well among independents wins. But as it turned out, many of those independents were former Republicans who now self-identify as independents. The state polls weren't oversampling Democrats and undersampling Republicans - there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.

3. Undecided voters. The perception is they always break for the challenger, since people know the incumbent and would have decided already if they were backing him. Romney was counting on that trend to continue. Instead, exit polls show Mr. Obama won among people who made up their minds on Election Day and in the few days before the election. So maybe Romney, after running for six years, was in the same position as the incumbent.

The campaign before the election had expressed confidence in its calculations, and insisted the Obama campaign, with its own confidence and a completely different analysis, was wrong. In the end, it the other way around.

"They were right," a Romney campaign senior adviser said of the Obama campaign's assessments. "And if they were right, we lose."

Written By: Jan Crawford, CBS News

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article/253535/57/Adviser-Romney-ShellShocked-By-Loss

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Now That I’m Back

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Having been in the direct path of superstorm Sandy, I lost power for 4 days and regular Internet access for 10 days. It’s taking me a while to absorb all that has happened since that last weekend of October 2012. To cover all in one post would be unfair to these monumental events. For now a few blurbs.

^^^

Sandy

Frankenstorm, superstorm, hurricane, tropical cyclone Sandy – however it’ll be remembered – was the most devastating natural disaster I’ve lived through. And my partner Jorge & I weren’t nearly as bad off as so many others in New Jersey and the NYC metro area. Yeah, we lost power for 4 days – very strange living without electricity. But thanks to our apartment building’s backup generators we had hot & cold water, one elevator and power in the hallways.

Losing cable service for 10 days meant no TV or regular Internet access. I listened to more radio over those 10 days than the last 40 years put together, including the election returns. Jorge & I shared a wireless card with 3G/4G service – when available. Learned a couple of things about the wireless card (geek alert): 3G service is like not being on line at all; 4G is decent. 4G reception is impossible to get between 5-8 PM. On my desktop PC the default LAN had to be disabled as not to conflict with the LAN created by the card.

We take so much for granted in our daily lives that was simply unavailable during the storm. It takes a lot of adjustment and adaptability to get through such life-altering disruptions. I have studiously refrained from complaining about such inconveniences as millions were, are and will be far worse off. How do you adapt or adjust to losing your home and everything you own? The courage and fortitude of the people hit by Sandy will live forever in my memory.

^^^

The Utility Companies

We were lucky – only 4 days without power. As of today, 2 weeks later, there are still thousands without power. Most are at the mercy of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Long Island residents are demonstrating against LIPA as their only means of expressing rage against the utility’s abject failure to respond to the emergency. LIPA is always the worst culprit but other utilities aren’t far behind. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo mirrored my and others’ rage in one of his daily status briefings: Yes this was a brutal storm creating exigent circumstances for the utilities. But customers pay for service and part of that should be preparation for exactly such exigent circumstances. They weren’t and never have been. Storm after storm, year after year they’re not prepared and politicians do much blathering about accountability. Then it’s forgotten until the next time. And it just continues storm after storm. Is there no way to force utilities to be prepared with a better storm emergency strategy than one that leaves millions in the dark for lengthy periods of time? If Cuomo just fines them as has been done in the past it’s cheaper for the utilities to pay the fines rather than reform their preparedness procedures for when their services are most needed.

11/14/12 Update: LIPA CEO Michael Hervey tendered his resignation in the face of withering criticism of LIPA's response to superstorm Sandy outages.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/boss-ny-utility-panned-sandy-response-quits-17712250#.UKOcbofAdv4

^^^

The Election

Being such a political junkie I was amazed to find that Sandy threw me off track for the run up to Election Day. Those who know me also know that speaks volumes. The reelection of President Obama bolstered my faith in the American electorate which refused to buy Mitt Romney’s vague platitudes and promises. It took sophistication not to choose a guy running on the assumption that Obama was so despised it would be a cake walk to the White House. Americans rejected Republican obstructionism, electing more Democrats to the Senate as well as giving the president a 2nd term.

How did team Obama sneak up to crush team Romney despite polling showing such a close race? Two words: ground game. The Obama campaign micro-targeted districts in swing states, the voters in which came out in droves much to the shock of the Romney campaign. (See http://aboutnothing-doug.blogspot.com/2012/11/shell-shocked-on-election-day.html) Shock & disbelief for team Romney as team Obama proved itself to be one of the greatest campaign operations in American history.

Onward, upward and forward.

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