WINGS OF JUSTICE

Those who helped Haiti earthquake victims

As bad as things are in the United States and other First World countries, and they certainly aren't good, especially here in the United States, we do have a basic human understanding that things could be worse.

This sentiment is clear after seeing the outpouring of love, concern, and support for those in Haiti who have suffered terribly after the devastating earthquake last week.

Food, water, shelter, medicine -- you name it, Haitians need it. And people have responded with kindness, sending money, resources, whatever they need.

In our modern world, you can even text your financial support. So far, the Red Cross text donations have passed $21 million. This total is all the more amazing given that Haiti doesn't usually get into the headlines, unless something bad or tragic happens.  

While giving has been easier to do than ever before -- picking up your cellphone doesn't even require you to get up off the couch -- finding the right outlet proved more difficult.

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

The Note

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

Journalists are supposed to be good as math, but this stereotype can be taken to ridiculous extremes. In math, 2 is not more than 6 and 14 is more than 10.

As we saw, the MSM dropped the pretense of understanding mathematics and went on to hype the Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan retirements as a brash statement of Democratic predictions for the 2010 elections.

But no one stepped up to grab the idiotic spotlight more than ABC's The Note with its headline: "Democrats are Dropping Like Flies."

FreeDictionary.com defines the phrase "drop like flies" as "rapidly collapse, die, or drop out in large numbers."

According to The Note, 2 is a large number. Yet, while there are two Democratic senators not running for re-election, there are six Republican senators not running. Florida (Mel Martinez), Missouri (Kit Bond), Ohio (George Voinovich), New Hampshire (Judd Gregg), Kansas (Sam Brownback), and Kentucky (Jim Bunning).

The original article from ABC notes Democratic Governor Bill Ritter (CO) and Dorgan's retirement, but this was before Dodd's announcement. So one retiring U.S. senator from the Democratic Party requires a headline about "dropping like flies." (DLF)

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Jasper Schuringa

Whether there be full-body scanners, bomb-sniffing dogs, or airline passengers traveling naked, there may never be enough to keep us totally safe from terrorism.

But one mitigating factor that is often overlooked in helping prevent terrorism attacks from happening is simple human involvement. Such human involvement occurred in the bombing attempt on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight on Christmas Day.

The primary instigator of that human involvement was Jasper Schuringa of Amsterdam.

During the flight, Schuringa heard a pop. "When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake," Schuringa said.

Schuringa said he jumped over seats and crossed the aisle. When Schuringa reached the alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, he pulled a syringe from the terror suspect that was stuck inside the pants.

With the syringe activating the process, instead of an explosion, there was a fire. Schuringa began extinguishing the fire with his hands.

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

Tribune Company

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

_{Are these the new faces of political discourse?}

So what happens when you put a shock jock in charge of a long-established journalism company? Try Jerry Springer vs. Bill Cunningham on TV in sound bite political "discourse."

The Tribune Company is producing a TV pilot mixing the worst of "Crossfire" and Americans' inability to think beyond 60-90 seconds on a topic.

The show is being portrayed as a political version of ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption," where sports topics get a few minutes for discussion.

You can almost imagine how it would go: "Should President Obama close the prison at Guantánamo Bay?" Sum up each position and have a discussion, but you better hurry; 60-90 seconds is a short time when two personalities are each trying to get their say and be somewhat coherent.

How much would you as the viewer learn about the topic in 60-90 seconds? At least with "Crossfire," there were a few minutes of shouting back and forth on each topic.

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Ben Pavone

For those who have been upset over reduction in credit card limits or increases in interest rates, meet Ben Pavone.

Ben Pavone is a lawyer in San Diego who got hit with both by Bank of America, a bank that has been under a significant cloud for some time now.

Pavone's interest rate went up to 27.99%, and his credit limit went down just above his balance.

So what is Pavone doing about it? He's not paying Bank of America any money on the card, and has threatened to sue Bank of America if they damage his credit rating as a result.

You can hear the applause from miles away.

"For the record, I have a perfect payment history and I have a nearly perfect payment record on my credit... I have no doubt that you will mark my credit in light of this default, but if you do, I will sue you. I am eager to argue to a court that your interest rates are unfair within the meaning of various state and federal statutes, and anxious to point out that you 'had' to cut my credit limit from $32,000 down to $30,000 at the same time you were borrowing billions from the federal government and paid your executive bonuses in full."

The bank's explanation for doing what it did? "Economic trends."

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

John King

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

One new expression that found its way into the 2009 lexicon was "You lie." Unfortunately, for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), he used it in a case (President Obama) where there wasn't a lie.

It would be nice to hear the phrase "You lie" when there is a lie, especially when the lie is as egregious as the one told by Mary Matalin.

Matalin wasn't the first one to tell the "Bush inherited 9/11" lie, but it was the first time in a non-Fox "News" setting, where CNN's John King should have been paying more attention.

KING: The politics of the economy. Do the Republicans have that right? Deficits and maybe giving Congress too much control in writing this legislation? Is that a problem for this president? How has he been as a leader in his first year?

MATALIN: It's not just the deficits. It's the dud. It's incomprehensible. And it's the Bush fashion in perpetuity. Never gives a speech where he doesn't explicitly or implicitly look backwards.

I was there. We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history. And President Bush dealt with it. And within a year of his presidency at this comparable time, unemployment was at 5 percent. And we were creating jobs.

Matalin's answer drones on followed by a lengthy reply from her husband, James Carville, King comes back with the next question, like a robot reading from the teleprompter:

KING: You worked for George W. Bush. He was a governor when he came to the Oval Office. You worked for Bill Clinton. He was a governor beforehand. You worked for H.W. Bush before that. He was the vice president. This president came to office with zero executive experience. And one of the big questions was, how would he handle that role. The end of the first year?

In the Washington bubble, journalists are expected to ask questions and not even listen for the answers. The pundits, whom the journalists are friendly with on a social basis, get to spit out their answers unfiltered. They all walk off the set together happy and rich. For the rest of us, this leaves us without much faith in politics and even less regard for journalism.

To be fair, John King may have a bad memory. King might have thought, "Well, maybe Bush wasn't president when 9/11 happened. If I'm wrong, I'll look foolish for saying a Republican operative told a lie."

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Louise Slaughter

Finding someone who says "Start over on the health care bill" is pretty easy to find. But the stance is a little braver when one of those people is the Chair of the House Rules Committee.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has stood up, asked for the current health care reform bill to be defeated, and to start over from scratch.

Slaughter explained her view in an op-ed for CNN.com:

"But under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. That alternative will do almost nothing to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies. Is it any surprise that stock prices for some of those insurers are up recently?

I do not want to subsidize the private insurance market; the whole point of creating a government option is to bring prices down. Insisting on a government mandate to have insurance without a better alternative to the status quo is not true reform."

While there have been progressives who have stepped up to fight for the public option, few voices have rang louder from as high up in the House leadership as Rep. Slaughter.

There may not be much hope for getting something closer to the House version of the health care bill. For every Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman threatening to hold the bill hostage, there should be a Louise Slaughter on the other side.

Tom Coburn

Tom Coburn loves to brag about being a doctor as well as being a politician. But the more he performs on the Senate floor, the less he remembers about the operating floor.

Clearly, the doctor part was the furthest thing on his mind when Coburn announced on that Senate floor that he prayed that a senator wouldn't be able to make the vote.

"What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," Coburn said. "That's what they ought to pray."

The circumstances of Washington's recent snowstorm made it legitimately more difficult for Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), 92, to get to the Senate, especially given that if the Republicans had let the Democrats pass health care reform long before now, Sen. Byrd could be sitting by a fire.

Coburn's tackiness comes on the heels of Byrd's ongoing health problems this year and the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy earlier this year.

People across America are praying their elected representatives pay attention to their health care needs, and praying that their politicians won't suck up to the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Or at least to pray that one single Republican senator whose heart isn't Grinch-like -- "two sizes too small" -- will speak up for the people.

BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

John Harwood

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

John Harwood thinks liberals are on hallucinogenic drugs, but if his distorted perception had any resemblance in reality, in this health care debate, liberals wouldn't be able to afford those hallucinogenic drugs.

"So much of the commentary that I've heard has been really idiotic," Harwood said on MSNBC. "Liberals who want universal health care ought to be thanking Harry Reid for getting this done rather than talking about what's inadequate in the bill. I'm not saying the bill is a good bill. But if you're a liberal and you want universal coverage in this country, and think that you can do better, that Harry Reid can do better than he's done, or that the White House can do better, they ought to lay off the hallucinogenic drugs because we've had a vivid demonstration of the limits of political possibilities on this issue."

Harwood became a human pretzel in this exchange: he maintains that the bill isn't good, yet goes off strongly against those who don't like the bill. How liberals should get on their knees to thank Reid for putting together an underwhelming bill. Isn't the spirit of protest what America is supposed to be about?

Then there is the corporate media mentality that says liberals couldn't have come up with a better bill, as if Harwood would have any idea what liberals are capable of doing.

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Midge Hough

Celebrating the first holiday season after losing a loved one has to be a very difficult experience. But that experience can be amplified if you speak in front of a crowd about your loss, have people make fun of the deaths of your loved ones, and have the video broadcast all over YouTube.

Midge Hough had to go through that experience.

Hough got up to speak at a town hall meeting for Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL). Talking about losing your daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild is front of a gathering is courage in itself. Sometimes even saying it out loud makes it more painful.

If only Hough's problems ended there.

But as we all know, as Hough was telling her heartfelt story, she was heckled by the tea party protesters.  

As if that wasn't enough, Hough was also accused of being an Obama plant, and that she made up the story. Even if those rumors and speculation were confirmed as being false, while that may be a consolation, it doesn't make the hurt any better.