Josh Skaller Goes After Bloomberg For His 400,000 Jobs Claim

Chances are if you live in New York you have received anywhere from one to a dozen pieces of campaign literature in the mail from Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Nearly all of them make the claim that if we re-elect him to a (unethically manufactured) third term then he will miraculously save or create 400,000 jobs. Even in NYC, that is a big eye-catching number. Yet so far the only jobs that have come from that number are the printers, pollsters and campaign staff of Michael Bloomberg that have been espousing the number.

I am tired of the Mayor getting away with making claims of being our city's savior while his Executive budget says the exact opposite. My fellow Democracy for New York City organizer Josh Skaller, who happens to be running for Bill de Blasio's current City Council seat is sick of Bloomberg's propaganda too:

“The truth is clear. Bloomberg’s so-called plan is glossy smoke and very expensive mirrors,” Skaller said. “He is re-selling the ideas we have all supported in the past and offering few new ones. When I join the City Council, the City will take clear and transparent actions to fix our economy by generating new ideas, creating good jobs, and becoming the center of America’s new green economy.[...]

“The Mayor’s Executive Budget cannot stretch the truth, or investors who have taken out municipal bonds can sue the City for fraud. But Bloomberg’s glossy campaign mail is bound by no such constraints - and the numbers they use represent the fuzziest math.

“According to the Executive Budget issued May 1, 2009, New York City is projected to lose 328,000 jobs between August 2008 and the third quarter of 2010. Employment will be flat until 2012. The peak period for these projected job losses? The second quarter of 2009 - also known as now. So where is the leadership that Mayor Bloomberg would like us to believe in? What is the rationale for a third term in office?

The truth is there is no rationale. Bloomberg is spending millions to drill a false sense of security in his Administration when there is no reason to feel safe (unless you are a developer or just plain rich). Whenever someone tries to confront the Mayor on the disconnect between his message and the facts, he blows a fuse.

As City Hall News reports, there are no details and no specifics for Bloomberg's claim. As I'm sure his cadre of consultants have told him, just keep drilling meaningless and empty numbers into the heads of voters and he'll coast to victory. Unfortunately for those highly paid politicos, the more we hear from people like Josh Skaller, the less people are going to believe the distortions and half-truths that come out of the Bloomberg campaign.

Moyers: Media Is Responsible For Our Demise

Who better to critique the traditional media than one of it's preeminent icons, Bill Moyers? He penned an excellent article this week describing how our fourth estate is turning into a fifth column for those that wish to subvert democracy. While journalists can do good work from time to time, he lays the blame on the corporate media giants that willfully turn what is supposed to be an investigative arm of democracy into profitable ventures and nothing more. The article nails the problem of media in our society squarely on its head, especially by using examples like this.

From In These Times:

The new owner of the Tribune Company, real estate mogul Sam Zell, recently toured his new property Los Angeles Times, telling employees in the newsroom that the challenge is this: How do we get somebody 126 years old to get it up? “Well,” said Zell, “I’m your Viagra.”

He told his journalists that he didn’t have an editorial agenda or a perspective about newspapers’ roles as civic institutions. “I’m a businessman,” he said. “All what matters in the end is the bottom line.”

Zell then told Wall Street analysts that to save money he intends to eliminate 500 pages of news a week across all of the Tribune Company’s 12 papers. That can mean eliminating some 82 editorial pages every week just from the Los Angeles Times. What will he use to replace reporters and editors? He says to the Wall Street analysts, “I’ll use maps, graphics, lists, rankings and stats.” Sounds as if Zell has confused Viagra with Lunesta.

Moyers can tell the tragic story with wit and charm, though the problem is if enough people read this article to see the nightmare in the media that surrounds them. We are sinking fast thanks to these greedy multi-national corporations and the only way to stop them is if we scream loud enough and take back our fourth estate from their clutches.

McCain Went Right Along With War Propaganda

It is so good to see that the DNC gets its best material for attack ads against McCain directly from the "Straight Talk Express."

Dana Perino Caught Lying About Pentagon's Fifth Column

I may only be in my twenties, but out of all the White House Press Secretaries I've seen, Dana Perino is one of the worst. It has to be hard for her to continually spew the Bush Administration's garbage day in, day out. Unfortunately for her, if you tell enough lies, the dam holding back the truth will eventually spring a leak. One leak that Eric Brewer of RawStory found concerns the Pentagon's once-secret program to spread their propaganda about the war throughout the media.

From RawStory:

I had repeated my question as she walked away from the podium, "Did the White House know about the program?" And on her way out of the room, Perino answered, "I just said: no."

(I just rechecked my own tape recording of the briefing, and that is what she said. I apologize profusely for leaving this crucial detail out of my earlier article.)

Of course, in her earlier answer, she really hadn't just said no—she'd said only, "I didn't know." But her denial of White House knowledge during that parting shot is very interesting, for reasons that Greenwald points out in the same post I linked to above: Glenn publishes emails from Pentagon officials dealing with the military analyst program that refer to weekly meetings with "karl," to having the analysts briefed by Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and even to getting the analysts "in with potus" himself (that's POTUS, or the President of the United States). As Glenn sums up, rather understatedly I believe:

So in the process of discussing how to keep "their" TV military analysts "on message" regarding claims about the Iraq war, they talked about efforts to have both Stephen Hadley and Bush himself speak with the analysts -- proposals that had been discussed with "karl" (which, clearly, in this case, means Rove). That means Perino's denial was false and that the White House had at least some knowledge of and involvement in this propaganda program.

Uh oh. Dana has denied something that is clearly true. And it's looking more and more as if the legal opinion that she expressed about the Pentagon's propaganda program, "I don't think that that should be against the law," is just whistling in the dark.

Uh oh is right. This is another incident in the history of the Bush Administration where the law was willfully broken. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes not. The terrible thing is that none of them are in jail for it, where they belong.

Pentagon Propaganda Machine Caught In The Act

Most of what the Pentagon says to the press is propaganda, but sometimes its hard to tell when they are just trying to be boastful or purposefully deceitful. The Pentagon Propaganda story has been deliberatively hidden by the traditional media and for good reason (because they played along and are culpable for bowing down for the Pentagon). Now via a special document dump, there is at least one email proving that something fishy is going on.

From ThinkProgress:

In a Feb. 16, 2006 email exchange, Pentagon media staffers discussed coordinating with the Heritage Foundation to identify someone to speak about detainee treatment at Gitmo. An anonymous employee suggested retired Army Sergeant Major Steve Short because “he seems to be on message and very articulate.”

Pentagon public affairs official Allison Barber responded by warning that the DoD could not officially “endorse” one particular speaker over another. “Important to remember that heritage can invite anyone to present and that we don’t really have an opinion on anyone,” Barber wrote.

The anonymous author then suggested he or she might lie and pretend not to have ever heard of Short:

Just two weeks after this email exchange — on March 1, 2006 — Short was invited by Heritage to participate on a panel entitled “GITMO: What You Read Vs. What You See.” And he was indeed “on message.”

Surely that is just a coincidence. Short wouldn't deliberatively lie to his faithful choir at the Heritage Foundation, would he? And there is no way that the press would follow their lead like a little puppy does its new friend that pours food into the kibble tray, right?

Sigh.

Reliable Sources Covers The Pentagon Propaganda Story....Sort Of

To be fair to Howard Kurtz, he did discuss the military's propaganda effort story on Reliable Sources this week. Unfortunately though we have one former military official turned TV analyst and an ex-Pentagon spokesman. Perhaps Kurtz should have given equal time to.....gee I don't know, maybe an unbiased opinion for this segment?

NY Times Uncovers Massive Propaganda Effort By The Pentagon

Why am I not surprised?

What Tony Snow And I Have Learned From Fox News

I got to admit, Tony Snow is right when he said that we have a lot to learn from his former workplace, Fox News. That is where it ends though for agreement's sake. Watching Fox News (occasionally) and hearing about them through various websites has taught me that the cable news channel is a behemoth of right wing propaganda. For Tony, they taught him to be an expert liar when he left to go work at the White House. So when he gave an interview with Condé Nast, he was spot on.

From Condé Nast:

On his alma mater, Fox News: "There's perceived bias on the part of Fox because they don't treat conservatives as knuckle-dragging morons....I think the rap on Fox having a bias is an unfair one. My sense is rather than grousing with a winning formula, people ought to learn from them."

Well Tony, I still believe that conservatives by and large are still knuckle-dragging morons though there are some exceptions I presume. Studies show that people that get their news from Fox are actually dumber than the rest of us when it comes to current events. Even Rupert Murdoch thinks so.

As for Tony's knowledge of the facts, well it seems he doesn't know much either. I think I'll stick with my slew of blogs and newspapers, thanks anyway.

George Sure Likes To Gossip....

If there is one thing that is certain about Iran, there is a lot of talk going on about the country and what the Bush Administration might or might not do with the regional power in the Middle East. The saber-rattling has grown increasingly strong over the last few months and it made al-Arabiya ask our President if it means he will provoke a war with Iran. George calls it "baseless gossip" but whenever he says one thing, he generally means another.

From RawStory:

The al-Arabiya questioned asks Bush about reports in the Arabic press which have alleged the United States has detailed plans to strike military sites in Iran.

"There are some leaking to the press and particularly the Arabic press," the questioner asks. "Is it true that you've issued orders Mr President to your senior generals in the American military to prepare for a major and precise strike that could happen in the middle of January or February."

"Empty propaganda," Bush replied. "Ah, evidently there is a lot of gossip in parts of the country... the world, that's trying to scare people about me personally, my country, and what we stand for. That kind of gossip is just what it is. It's gossip. It's, uh, baseless gossip."

Uh, uhhhhh, uh, I call bullshit Mr. President. There is no reason to believe what you say in an interview with any media outlet, whether it is based in the Middle East or here at home. I'd rather (and yet unfortunately) trust the journalism of a pulitzer-prize winning Sy Hersh over you any day of the week.

The only propaganda being waged is by his neo-con friends and others out there that want to see us go into another war that would stretch our military even thinner than it is now. I am not alone in saying that it could make our armed forces pass their breaking point. Instead of going after the military junta in Burma, we choose to fight a losing battle in Iraq while threatening another conflict next door in Iran.

That is sheer lunacy George.

Petraeus Was Wearing Fraudulent Medals

It seems like everyone outside the liberal left was mortified (who doesn't care about the consequences of war more) at MoveOn's "Petraeus or Betray Us" ad. How could we criticize a general....that was in Iraq, OMFG. There was no way Bush could be using him for political purposes, this guy said that no one influenced his report and we must believe him no matter what. So tell me this, if any soldier wore fraudulent medals before Congress or anywhere in public, would you still believe anything that came out of his mouth? Here's what happened....

From DailyKos:

Let me break this down for you:

• To get the valor medal, General Petraeus had to be under enemy fire.
• He is described to have been under enemy fire in the battle for Najaf.
• The only incident of enemy fire reported near General Petraeus was on March 30th.

The descriptions of that event by the two separate journalists match perfectly - one mortar round hit between 40 and 50 meters away from Generals Petraeus and Wallace as they read a map on the hood of a Humvee. They acted nonchalant.

The event is described in this article penned by Gregg Zoroya and Steve Komarow. It describes one mortar round hitting at the above distance. Komarow was embedded with V Corps, General Wallace's command.

Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Rick Atkinson was so close he dove between two trucks when the round hit. He stood up quickly and got back to reporting. We must all now depend on Atkinson to stick by his reporting as the Swiftboat is thrown into hard reverse.

Embedded with the 101st Airborne "at the elbow" of General Petraeus - a person he knew well - Atkinson describes the event in his book In The Company Of Soldiers. He was Petraeus's constant companion during this time. If there was another event in Najaf, Atkinson would have described it. And we have no reason to disbelieve his account of events of March 30.

Then there is the Army story. It was apparently passed around to troops to demonstrate the esprit de corps and fighting spirit of the general officers. It is so bad, so irreconcilable with Atkinson's detailed description of events, that when I read it I thought I was hallucinating. So, I asked a friendly librarian to read the two descriptions and compare them. Librarians are dignified people, but as she read, her jaw literally dropped. When she was finished she almost started crying.

The whole diary is fantastic, so I recommend you read all of it. Basically the army fabricated a story to get the General an award he did not deserve. That is atrocious. They may be little pieces of cloth or metallic objects, but those medals signify so much more than the material they are made of. They represent bravery, courage and giving 110% or more. Petraeus should be ashamed, and no one should be able to take his words at face value.

Katie Couric: If CBS Doesn't Work Out, The White House Could Be A Good Gig

Every time I read something about or from Katie Couric I just want to cringe. Her latest gambit is reporting from Iraq during the week before the Petraeus report (not the one that was already finished, the doctored version presented by the White House). Amazingly enough, her words are strangely similar to those coming from the Grand Poobah's mouth when he visited Anbar province a couple of days ago.

From WCBS-TV:

"We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability," Couric said Tuesday. "I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda."

(snip)

"The spike in police has really been significant," Couric said. "The incidents in Iraq have gone down dramatically."

Katie says that if only we restore basic services, everything will be just peachy in Iraq. Wow, Bush's surge must really be working. The only problem is that little things like reality get in the way of Bush's claims and Couric's "reporting." Both of them probably tune out reports like this one, showing the fear in the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

Who reads the Washington Post anyways, right? Certainly not the President with hand fed clippings by whoever is left at the White House. Who knows where Katie gets her information....I'm thinking they brought along a teleprompter for her short visit over there.

Hey Katie, Tony Snow is leaving his spot in the Bush Administration next week....you know you could certainly beat out Dana Perino for his position.

Rep. Moran Compares Bush To Lenin

Lenin is known as one of the most influential leaders the 20th century had under its belt and now George Bush can get an honorable mention next to the communist icon. Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) compared the two in regards to how both utilized the tool of propaganda to conform the masses. The Virginian Representative voiced his frustrations today about the troubles he faces dealing with the Administration over Guantanamo Bay.

From RawStory:

"This administration, I've never seen an organization that learned the lessons of Lenin as clearly as these guys," said Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) in a Thursday interview. "These guys must tack up Lenin's philosophy on their bedstand every night. Particularly when Lenin suggested if you say something often enough, with enough conviction, everybody will believe it."

Moran was referring to the tactics being used by the Bush administration to fight moves in Congress to close Guantanamo Bay. The Congressman, who has served his Virginia district since 1991, sits on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, which decides the Pentagon's annual budgets. Moran has been tasked by the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), with devising a plan to shutter Guantanamo Bay.

The congressman spoke to RAW STORY in the Rayburn Room off the floor of the House of Representatives. He had just successfully advanced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill that would require Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to report on how every detainee at Guantanamo Bay could be transferred away from the controversial base. Passing on a close 220-208 vote, the amendment could be an early indicator of the difficulties that may be faced in the broader effort to close the base for good.

Moran is also pissed off at Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The comment about doubling Guantanamo may have been meant to get applause from the sycophantic audience, but it does not work in reality. Sixty thousand prisoners are now housed in Iraqi and American detention centers in the chaotic country over there, and there is no way they would all fit in Guantanamo.

After going after Bush again for not closing the facility, he wrapped up the interview by saying that all of these prisoners could be tried in American courts. Unfortunately they are kept locked up for years without trial in Cuba and Iraq with no end in sight. Moran pointed out the Moussaoui case where he was given a trial and it allowed the rule of law to succeed. The process showed that America does have great ideals that would show us in a better light, if only they were followed by the President and his band of crooks.

AP Gets It Wrong, No Danger For Dems Denying Fox News

I did a double take when the headline flashed that the Democratic candidates' courageous stand against the propaganda network could be dangerous for both sides. That is absolutely wrong. There is only one side that should be scared, the ideologues at Fox News Channel. Many people that have been paying attention can easily see the bias in their reporting and the obvious slant in their news. Plenty of reports have shown that people who get their news solely from FNC are misinformed on the issues and tend to vote heavily for Republicans.

The idea that boycotting Fox is dangerous for Dems is ridiculous. First off the AP gets its 'evidence' from Ed Rollins, a GOP goon, and Ellis Henican, a Fox News and Newsday contributor that fills in for the left, yet is paid by Rupert Murdoch's ventures. The way the article puts the issue into context seems to come right out of the GOP playbook.

From the article:

The reaction to former President Clinton's confrontation last September with Fox Sunday-morning host Chris Wallace taught many Democrats there was political ground to be gained in fighting with Fox.

The risk to this strategy is it could make the candidates look like, well, weenies.

Weenies?? No, I'm sorry, a weenie is one that cowers from debating the facts, sending our troops into harms way because of deceptive propaganda and especially those that act as the President's cheerleaders (Fox primarily, others included as well). The author then for some reason shows that Fox does indeed have a bias, or at least that they do not conduct themselves with true journalistic integrity.

A feud against Fox might not be the best long-term plan, either. People there have been known to hold a grudge.

To be fair, the AP does give both sides of the debate, but it is clear on how they view the issue. Instead of calling Democratic candidates weenies, they might want to look at those that stand on principals. Such as calling for a real fight against climate change, fixing the economy and helping all Americans live a better life than what we have had to endure under the Bush Administration