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Colbert: Fired Up

Arcade Fire, aka "The Reflektors," played a new song on Colbert last night, after a Win and Will put-on interview, and now Stephen offers another tune as a Web exclusive:

New Charges Now Possible in Maryville Case

Monday update:  So a special prosecutor has indeed been named to probe the case and he promises a thorough review.  "I can also assure you that politics, connections or any other reason you can think of will not play a role in our review of this case. It will be the evidence, as it is in every case that we review," she said.

Saturday update:  NYT with first big story on the case tonight, but adds very little. Weak.  We do learn that the sheriff has taken out his web site--to prevent hacking.   

Friday updates:  Guest, an attorney, on Fox News:  The two Maryville girls were asking for it and also lying. Video.

Daisy Coleman pens first-person account of the night in question and aftermath:
"Days seemed to drag on as I watched my brother get bullied and my mom lose her job. Ultimately our house burned to the ground.  I couldn't go out in public, let alone school. I sat alone in my room, most days, pondering the worth of my life. I quit praying because if God were real, why would he do this?
I was suspended from the cheerleading squad and people told me that I was 'asking for it' and would 'get what was coming.'"


Thursday: In something of a surprise, Robert Rice, the prosecutor in the original Maryville, Mo. sexual assault case that's received so much attention this past week changed course late yesterday and announced he would seek a special prosecutor.   He had been claiming that he had dropped the case last year only because the mother of the girl, Daisy Coleman, then 14, had indicated she would not testify.   Since the mom and Daisy have said for several days now, on CNN and elsewhere,  that they had never stated that clearly (Rice disagrees) and are certainly willing to testify, the prosecutor wants to clear the way for that to happen.  The state's Lt. Gov. had urged this course and the local authorities had been under pressure from social media and Anonymous attention.  Stay tuned. 

AP Reporter and Editor Who Muffed Terry McAuliffe Story Lose Jobs

You remember that horrid incident a couple weeks back where the AP got a story terribly wrong about Terry McAuliffe, frontrunner in the current governor's race in Virginia.  I predicted at the time that the reporter, veteran Bob Lewis,  might well lose his job and it happened today apparently.  McAuliffe's team was quick to say they did not call for this and felt it was water under the bridge.  UPDATE:  An AP editor was also canned.

In the article, which the AP retracted less than two hours after it was published Oct. 9, Lewis reported McAuliffe may have “lied to a federal official” looking into the candidate’s investment ties with  known felon. As it turned out, the “T.M.” referenced in the documents did not stand for Terry McAuliffe.

Another School Shooting, This Time Nevada

Happened about six hours ago but details still slim.   Seems that kid in middle school fired on math   teacher, shot him dead, wounded two other students (at least one seriously), then died--self-inflicted or shot by cops.   School evacuated and it's over.  Motive unknown.  Some refer to teacher as hero but unclear why if true.   Name of shooter and victim not released.  

Update: Teachers' name released.  He was also in the National Guard.  Now witnesses say it started with the student shooting a classmate at or near a basketball court and the teacher came to investigate and was shot there.  

Update #2: Police now say kid used semi-automatic handgun, and then killed himself.  Remember this is middle school. Teacher had served tours in Afghanistan--then gunned down in a USA school for pre-teens.

Update #3: Witness  on CNN claims shooter was "nice kid" had complained about bullying, even during shooting asked, "Why are you making fun of me?"  Used parents' gun. 

Transcendent, in 40 Parts

Amazing afternoon today at New York's (largely) hidden gem, the Cloisters in upper Manhattan, a birthday pick by my lovely wife.  In the castle they presented their first ever contemporary art piece that has drawn raves:  an eleven-minute piece titled the "Forty Part Motet," featuring Tudor composer Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium.  Sound comes from a separate speaker for each of the 40 singers in the choir, arrayed in a large oval in an ancient chapel.  So you can sit inside the sound and let it wash over you--or stand in front of one of the speakers and listen to one of the singers come and go.  Visitors stand or sit and enter deep contemplation or reverie.  A short video here captures some of it.   If you're in NYC area, don't miss this.  And the Cloisters is (are) cool anyway.  Here's a video of when it was done in a different setting:

Hidden Truth About Public Opinion on Obamacare

One of the many disgraceful aspects of the media coverage of Obamacare--and criticism of it, and the Tea Party faction in general--is the rote depiction of the ACA as "unpopular" or "opposed by most Americans according to polls" because it goes too far or because people are happy with the health care system as is, and so on.  In other words, repeating the GOP line.

Now, those who have supported the law have long claimed that the simple bottom line poll numbers are misleading.  Yes, those numbers generally show that, say, 51% don't like the ACA and only 44% approve.   Yet, as we know (but perhaps most in the media fail to recognize), a lot of Dems and libs are unhappy, wisely, because the law doesn't go far enough, or that President Obama didn't fight for the public option or single payer or Medicare for all.   So how many of them are included in that "oppose" the ACA but from the left?

Polls have indicated there's a fair number but now there's a new one today that CNN actually took the trouble--at the end of its online report, true--to break out.  And, lo and behold, it turns out that fully 12% of those opposed feel the law doesn't so far enough.  So, as they note, that means that instead of just over 50% being against the law because it goes too far--the impression most in the media have left--at least 53% actually back the law or believe it should go further.  And the poll was taken amidst the current widespread complaints about the roll-out of the ACA sign up provisions.

The other numbers in the poll bear this out, as they show that the shutdown caused growing unpopularity for the GOP and John Boehner but Obama's standing remained the same.

Murder Charges for 'Bloody Sunday' Soldiers

This would be a shocker.  The Sunday Times of London reports that British troops or "paras"accused of doing the shooting that took the lives of 14 people in Derry in the infamous "Bloody Sunday" incident may actually end up having to face charges, three decades later.  Just last year it seemed like a miracle when the long-awaited report on the case finally condemned the killings and affirmed that none of the victims were armed.

I got especially interested in the episode a few years back after viewing the film Bloody Sunday, one of the great movies of the past decade--by then-unknown Paul Greengrass (James Nesbitt got an Oscar nomination and yes, the U2 song closes the film).  I followed the inquiry, read the excellent book by (and chatted with) Don Mullen, and more.  Here's a clip from the film:

A Staple in Stones' Repertoire?

If you're wondering where the Stones got chorus and vocal inflection for early hit "The Last Time."  Uncredited.  Then again, this is a traditional song and they only used part of it. But the Staples' rendition is fantastic in any case:

'NYT' Review Hits WikiLeaks Flick--Which Is Bombing

Update:  NYT on Sunday refers to it as a "bomb" and part of "weekend wreckage"--with equal bomb, that Stallone-Arnold S. flick.


Variety late Friday says the film is tanking, at the box office, with the 2nd worst Friday opening for any major film all year.  But it seems to be helping the Gibney doc, viewed by many reviewers as better.

A.O. Scott's review just posted and it's not exactly a rave, not a good sign for a movie that may be  box office (not to mention factually) challenged to begin with.  UPDATE: As more reviews pour in, Rotten Tomatoes has it with very poor 31% favorable rating.

This version of the WikiLeaks story, directed by Bill Condon from a script by Josh Singer, is a moderate snoozefest, undone by its timid, muddled efforts at fair-mindedness....

As we zoom from squatter apartments to newsrooms to government offices (where Laura Linney, Stanley Tucci and Anthony Mackie worry about their jobs and their diplomatic contacts), the picture grows fuzzier, and the vital questions it wants to raise about privacy, transparency and security grow muddier. 

Of course, the Times is part of the story--but that's an old, and long, story.    See my two books on WikiLeaks and Manning over on the right rail of this blog.

Your Daily USA Child Gun Tragedy

Today's example from gun nutty Fayetteville, NC, where a girl, 2, shoots and kills herself with loaded handgun. "According to police, the girl's father was inside the home at the time of the shooting. No one else inside the home was injured." Police say it was an "accident."  No, not really, right?

Over the Alps

When we did a flyover some October a few years back.

Saturday Night Music Pick

Not much remembered Sam Cooke album cut (which Springsteen sort of "borrowed" not too long ago), fantastic "Meet Me at Mary's Place" (his old gospel group the Soul Stirrers backing).  Below that, the other side of Saturday night, hanging with your gal or guy.   If you're late to Sam Cooke--you have quite an adventure awating you, going back, especially, to the early gospel years.  

A Heart Needs a 'Homeland'?

Rolling Stone writer IDs 7 ways to save Homeland, now stinking in its 3rd season (after sinking in its 2nd).   It's true, Brody needed to die at the end of season one.  I gave up on it last week.  So will miss the fun if Carrie does sleep with Quinn.  Oh, Mandy, you gave without taking!

Bird Brains Bigger Than Little Betty's?

Nick Kristof's Sunday column, just up, recalls his days as a farm boy, arguing, in the wake of the latest salmonella outbreak, that geese are more moral than humans and chickens smarter at math than the average toddler--on the way to declaring that we treat our farm birds too cruelly in how they are raised and slaughtered and maybe we should not eat them at all.

Look, farmbirds are not Einsteins. But evidence is mounting that they’re smarter than we have assumed, and just because they don’t have big brown eyes doesn’t mean that they should be condemned to spend their lives jammed into tiny cages in stinking, fetid barns, with bodies of dead birds sometimes left rotting beside live ones.

Roll Over, Beethoven: Movie Coming to NYC!

Tickets went on sale today for Kerry Candaele's new film Following the Ninth (I am associate producer) which will screen in NYC at the wonderful Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center in Lincoln Center on October 29, after playing in several  cities on the West Coast, where it has drawn raves.   Seating is limited so order tickets today.  It will then have a regular run for a week (or longer) at the Quad in the Village starting November 1.  I'll be appearing with director Kerry Candaele for one or more of those nights, and there will be other guests.   See great trailer below.

A reminder that I have written a book with Kerry, now in print and e-book editions:   Journeys With Beethoven: Following the Ninth, and Beyond, published by Sinclair Books.   It's just $3.99 for the e-book and $11.99 for print. 

Both the book and the film follow the Ninth Symphony and its enormous cultural and political influence around the world today.  So they take us from Chile during the Pinochet years, to China's Tiananman Square uprising,  to Japan (for their annual mass singing of the "Ode to Joy") and to Germany (with Leonard Bernstein for the fall of the Wall), plus Billy Bragg and his re-writing the "Ode to Joy"--and playing it for the Queen.

In the "Beyond" section of the book I explore my own obsessive "travels" with Ludwig, as a longtime rock 'n roller, in recent years, via concerts and movies and CDs -- but also through new "Beethoven delivery systems" (YouTube, web forums, Twitter, etc.)  I also interview at length pianist Jeremy Denk, who recently won a MacArthur genius award. 

In any case, it's a totally unique book on Beethoven--a Beethoven for our time, at last.  Again, e-book here and print here.  And here's Kerry's trailer:

Patti, the Notorious Mr. Brooks, and 'CBGB'

Wild:  Patti Smith in 1979 clip from children's show singing (after brief interview) "You Light Up My Life" with the composer Joe Brooks at the piano. Yes, that Joe Brooks--charged a few years ago with numerous felonies related to him luring women to his apartment via Craig'sList and then sexually assaulting them.  He committed suicide before trial started.

BTW, I saw that widely-panned CBGB film last night because son of a friend (who once appeared in a school play directed by my son) plays Tom Verlaine, and very well.  Among the howlers:  They Patti Smith singing "Because the Night" as an unknown in 1974, when she was already a star when the tune (written with Springsteen) was released in 1978.  

Japanese Newsreel Footage on Effects of A-Bomb Seized by U.S. 68 Years Ago

In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan 68 years ago, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams. In addition, for many years, all but a handful of newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited not only in the United States, but also in occupied Japan.

Meanwhile, the American public only got to see the same black and white images: a mushroom cloud, battered buildings, a devastated landscape. The true human costs–a full airing of the bomb’s effects on people –were kept hidden. The writer Mary McCarthy declared that Hiroshima had already fallen into “a hole in history.”  The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for 25 years, and the U.S. military film remained hidden for more than three decades. (The story is told in full in my book Atomic Cover-up.)

In fact, the Japanese footage might have disappeared forever if the newsreel team had not hidden one print from the Americans in a ceiling. The color U.S. military footage was not shown anywhere until the early 1980s, and has never been fully aired. It rests today at the National Archives in College Park, Md. When that footage finally emerged, I spoke with and corresponded with the man at the center of this drama: Lt. Col. (Ret.) Daniel A. McGovern, who directed the U.S. military film-makers in 1945-1946, managed the Japanese footage, and then kept watch on all of the top-secret material for decades.

McGovern observed that, "The main reason it was classified was...because of the horror, the devastation." I also met and interviewed one top member of his military crew, who had fought for years to get the footage aired widely in America, and interviewed some of the hibakusha who appear in the footage.  Those accounts form the center of Atomic Cover-Up.   You can read about that a view some of the color footage here.  But let's focus on tjhe Japanese newsreel footage for the moment.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb over the center of Hiroshima, killing at least 70,000 civilians instantly and perhaps 70,000 more in the months to follow. Three days later, it exploded another atomic bomb over Nagasaki, killing 40,000 immediately and dooming tens of thousands of others. Within days, Japan had surrendered, and the U.S. readied plans to occupy the defeated country -- and documenting the first atomic catastrophe. But the Japanese also wanted to study it.

Within days of the second atomic attack, officials at the Tokyo-based newsreel company Nippon Eigasha discussed shooting film in the two stricken cities. In early September, just after the Japanese surrender, and as the American occupation began, director Ito Sueo set off for Nagasaki. There his crew filmed the utter destruction near ground zero and scenes in hospitals of the badly burned and those suffering from the lingering effects of radiation. On Sept. 15, another crew headed for Hiroshima.

When the first rushes came back to Tokyo, Iwasaki Akira, the chief producer (and well-known film writer), felt "every frame burned into my brain," he later said. At this point, the American public knew little about human conditions and radiation effects in the atomic cities. Newspaper photographs of victims were non-existent, or censored. Life magazine would later observe that for years "the world...knew only the physical facts of atomic destruction."

On October 24, 1945, a Japanese cameraman in Nagasaki was ordered to stop shooting by an American military policeman. His film, and then the rest of the 26,000 feet of Nippon Eisasha footage, was confiscated by the U.S. General Headquarters (GHQ). An order soon arrived banning all further filming. At this point Lt. Daniel McGovern took charge.

In early September 1945, McGovern had become one of the first Americans to arrive in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was a director with the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, organized by the Army the previous November to study the effects of the air campaign against Germany, and now Japan.

As he made plans to shoot the official American record, McGovern learned about the seizure of the Japanese footage. He felt it would be a waste to not take advantage of the newsreel footage, noting in a letter to his superiors that "the conditions under which it was taken will not be duplicated, until another atomic bomb is released under combat conditions." McGovern proposed hiring some of the Japanese crew to shoot more footage and edit and "caption" the material, so it would have "scientific value."

About the same time, McGovern was ordered by General Douglas MacArthur on January 1, 1946 to document the results of the U.S. air campaign in more than 20 Japanese cities. His crew would shoot exclusively in color film, Kodachrome and Technicolor, rarely used at the time even in Hollywood.

While all this was going on, the Japanese newsreel team was completing its work of editing and labeling their black and white footage into a rough cut of just under three hours. At this point, several members of the Japanese team took the courageous step of ordering from the lab a duplicate of the footage they had shot before the Americans took over the project. Director Ito later said: "The four of us agreed to be ready for 10 years of hard labor in case of being discovered." One incomplete, silent print would reside in a ceiling until the Occupation ended in 1952.

The negative of the finished Japanese film, nearly 15,000 feet of footage on 19 reels, was sent off to the U.S. in early May 1946. The Japanese were also ordered to include in this shipment all photographs and related material. The footage would be labeled SECRET and not emerge from the shadows for more than 20 years.

During this period, McGovern was looking after both the Japanese and the American footage. Fearful that the Japanese film might get lost forever in the military/government bureaucracy, he secretly made a 16 mm print and deposited it in the U.S. Air Force Central Film Depository at Wright-Patterson. There it remained out of sight, and generally out of mind.  On Sept. 12, 1967, the Air Force transferred the Japanese footage to the National Archives Audio Visual Branch in Washington, with the film "not to be released without approval of DOD (Department of Defense)."

Then, one morning in the summer of 1968, Erik Barnouw, author of landmark histories of film and broadcasting, opened his mail to discover a clipping from a Tokyo newspaper sent by a friend. It indicated that the U.S. had finally shipped to Japan a copy of black and white newsreel footage shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese had negotiated with the State Department for its return. From the Pentagon, Barnouw learned that the original nitrate film had been quietly turned over to the National Archives and went to take a look.

Soon Barnouw realized that, despite its marginal film quality, "enough of the footage was unforgettable in its implications, and historic in its importance, to warrant duplicating all of it," he later wrote. Attempting to create a subtle, quiet, even poetic, black and white film, he and his associates cut it from 160 to 16 minutes, with a montage of human effects clustered near the end for impact.

Barnouw arranged a screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and invited the press. A throng turned out and sat in respectful silence at its finish. "Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945" proved to be a sketchy but quite moving document of the aftermath of the bombing, captured in grainy but often startling black and white images: shadows of objects or people burned into walls, ruins of schools, miles of razed landscape viewed from the roof of a building.

 In the weeks ahead, however, none of the (then) three TV networks expressed interest in airing it. "Only NBC thought it might use the film," Barnouw later wrote, "if it could find a 'news hook.' We dared not speculate what kind of event this might call for." But then an article appeared in Parade magazine, and an editorial in the Boston Globe blasted the networks, saying that everyone in the country should see this film: "Television has brought the sight of war into America's sitting rooms from Vietnam. Surely it can find 16 minutes of prime time to show Americans what the first A-bombs, puny by today's weapons, did to people and property 25 years ago."

This at last pushed public television into the void. What was then called National Educational Television (NET) agreed to show the documentary on August 3, 1970, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of dropping the bomb. "I feel that classifying all of this filmed material was a misuse of the secrecy system since none of it had any military or national security aspect at all," Barnouw told me. "The reason must have been -- that if the public had seen it and Congressmen had seen it -- it would have been much harder to appropriate money for more bombs."

The Barnouw film first (below), then my trailer for my book on the color U.S. footage.

The Know-Nothing Parties

All you need to know about the viral cluelessness--so damaging to the country--of GOPers and especially Tea Partiers is revealed starkly in a new Bloomberg poll.  Think about the ramifications of this (as we've just seen):

Two-thirds of regular Republicans believe the federal budget deficit has grown this year and 93 percent of Tea Party Republicans agree.

Both are wrong; the budget deficit is projected to fall this year from $1.1 trillion to $642 billion.

Van the Man With a Plan

I posted here earlier this week about the new Van Morrison five disc set of alt-takes and outtakes for his classic Moondance album.  Now Twitter friend Ray @Radlein points me to something I have somehow missed despite my Van fandom for lo these many decades:  To fulfill and get out of his contract with Bang records in '67 he recorded over 30 one-minute "songs" in a session that took less than an hour and was a goof from start to finish.  Songs had titles like "Do You Want a Danish" (he rhymes sandwich with danish) and "You Say France and I Whistle."   And the pointed, "Big Royalty Check."  Here's perhaps the greatest of them all, the immortal "Ringworm."

New Details on Sandy Hook Shooting

Hartford Courant just now with sad, haunting details, from what was found in Lanza's room to what happened when one pupil shouted for his friends to escape.  Six did, but he was shot down.

When the shooting started, school janitor Rick Thorne ran through the school warning teachers to close their doors and then used a master key to lock many of the doors for them. The state police SWAT team that was clearing the school after the shooting had to get the key from Thorne to open some of the rooms. The key was so worn from use that morning it snapped in one of the doors.

A source with knowledge of the probe said that when Lanza drove to the Sandy Hook Elementary School he parked his car in a way that could have set him up to ambush responding police officers. He parked with the passenger's side facing a small brick wall near the front entrance. His shotgun was left leaning against the passenger's side door.

The spot gave him potentially a perfect line of sight to shoot at unsuspecting police driving down the long driveway, around a curve and into his line of fire. It also provided him cover since the school and woods were behind him.

Colbert, Zinging Again

One of the (few) comic highlights of the U.S. war in Iraq was Stephen Colbert's infamous demolition of President Bush, to his face, at that White House Correspondents Dinner.   Stephen is still in form at such events, as he proved last night at NY's annual Al Smith Dinner, which brings together top politicos, Catholics and media.  Some juicy barbs directed at everyone from his friend the Cardinal to Andrew Cuomo.  Examples:  On Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: “Tiny, tiny man. The real reason he doesn’t want drink cups larger than 16 ounces is because he’s afraid he might drown in one.”  On Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker who lost the Democratic primary for mayor: “New York City is the only place in the world where the lesbian candidate is too conservative.”

The Truthiness of Mr. Paul

Jill Lawrence of The National Journal on how Rand Paul doesn't let the facts get in his way. 

Rand Paul was talking with University of Louisville medical students when one of them tossed him a softball. "The majority of med students here today have a comprehensive exam tomorrow. I'm just wondering if you have any last-minute advice."

"Actually, I do," said the ophthalmologist-turned-senator, who stays sharp (and keeps his license) by doing pro bono eye surgeries during congressional breaks. "I never, ever cheated. I don't condone cheating. But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important."

He went on to describe studying for a pathology test with friends in the library. "We spread the rumor that we knew what was on the test and it was definitely going to be all about the liver," he said. "We tried to trick all of our competing students into over-studying for the liver" and not studying much else.

"So, that's my advice," he concluded. "Misinformation works."

But that's just for starters.

'Experts' Wrong Again?

We heard so much blather for weeks from national security "experts," pundits and GOPers and Dems alike that "surely" Edward Snowden had either turned over NSA files to the Russkies or had them seized off laptops from him.   Tonight James Risen at NYT reports:  Snowden says there weren't even any files to seize when he arrived in Moscow.

Mr. Snowden said he gave all of the classified documents he had obtained to journalists he met in Hong Kong, before flying to Moscow, and did not keep any copies for himself. He did not take the files to Russia “because it wouldn’t serve the public interest,” he said.

“What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of the materials onward?” he added.

And there's much more in the interview on his stop in Hong Kong and feelings about the Chinese. 

Scahill on Joining New Greenwald Venture

His first in-depth interview about it, from Germany.  UPDATE  And an interesting piece at Reuters by reporter who worked for, and its turns out, with, Pierre Omidyar on his Honolulu news project.  Revealing.

Bizarre Episode After Historic Vote

UPDATE:  Naturally the woman talks to a Fox reporter.  Says the "holy spirit" made her do it.   Look for her to get own Fox show next week.

In an email to Fox's Chad Pergram, Reidy explained that Holy Spirit instructed her to deliver the outburst: "For the past two and a half weeks, the Holy Spirit has been waking me up in the middle of the night and preparing me (through my reluctance and doubt) to deliver a message in the House Chamber. That is what I did last night." Her husband Dan said in a separate email, “My wife is a sweet, level-headed wonderful woman of God. I am proud of her." 

Earlier:  After the House finally voted to end the shutdown tonight, a longtime staffer, who had been acting as a stenographer of the proceedings, tooks to the dais an started shouting into the microphone about this not being a nation under God, and never was, and something about he Freemasons, and so on, before being dragged away.  This link has text, video and audio.  Her name is Dianne Reidy and she is now being interviewed by police.  Vid and audio below.

Deeper Into the Mystic

I've written twice previously about the upcoming (now here) five-disc package related to the classic 1970 Van Morrison album, Moondance.  Yes, it's overblown, with so many alt takes, but can there really be too much Van the Man?  (He says, yes, as he has disassociated himself from this project.) Anyway, what's new and exciting is that Rolling Stone today gives you one of the disc, with 11 cuts, and you can listen here now, along with the latest rundown.  There's even "take 22" of "Moondance." And don't miss one of my faves, "I've Been Working," with extra funk, different lyrics, a vocal that sounds like Van from "T.B. Sheets" era.

Beyond Panda Cam

Yes, everyone's happy that it's back at National Zoo, post-shutdown, but there are plenty of other unusual cams out there not at the mercy of GOP crazies.   So, first, from California (in contrast to the cute pandas)--a Shark lagoon.  Then, from Germany--inside a honey bee hive, black and white but still sweet.

Live streaming video by Ustream
Live streaming video by Ustream

Cats Sleeping in Doggie Beds

There's a metaphor here somewhere, or just laugh:

Cats Stealing Dog Beds

The News Is Out, All Over Town: You Win Again

The Nation breaks with what it calls the Beltway "consensus" in declaring in an editorial that the GOP actually, on important levels, "won" the showdown, even if not in the polls.  Or as I tweeted: "Can kicked down road hits boy on way to Head Start this morning."

Surrender? Any more “victories” like this and Democrats will end up paying tribute into the GOP’s coffers.

This debate started in 2011 when the president accepted that he couldn’t get support for jobs programs and instead called for “balanced” deficit reduction that included tax increases on corporations and the wealthy and spending cuts. In response, Republicans threatened to default on America’s debts, forcing through the Budget Control Act, which cut nearly $1 trillion in spending over ten years with no tax increases and exacted another trillion in cuts either by agreement of a “supercommittee” or, failing that, automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over ten years. Now the Republicans’ “surrender” locks in that sequester while pushing for further reductions to basic safety net programs—all while tax increases remain off the table and the threat of default is still pointed at the country’s head. Tea Party zealots may have lost their bid to torpedo healthcare reform, but the right continues to set the terms of the debate.

Friedman's Wurst

I was going to take my own rip at Tom Friedman's horrid (is that redundant?) column today but never got around to it and now Bob Kuttner has done it, and better.  In fact, he calls it Friedman's worst ever--as if such a thing is possible.  There are so many points to contest but just one:  I had to laugh with Friedman blaming us senior or near-senior Boomers for mooching off young folks with super-generous Social Security payments.   Funny, I remember contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to SS over the past 40 years.  My son, age 26, to mention one example, has contributed a few thousand.  And he's funding me in years to come?

Anyway, something from Kuttner, on Friedman's friend and billionaire star of his column:

Some seniors, of course—Mr. Drukenmiller’s cohort—are making out like bandits. Here’s a variant on a Bill Gates joke: Stanley Druckenmiller and I walk into a bar. On average, we’re billionaires. But the average retired American is not the one described in the Friedman column.

Contrary to this sort of propaganda, the economic-injustice problem in America is not about generations. It’s about class. Specifically, Stanley Druckenmiller’s class. But Druckenmiller, approvingly quoted by Friedman, blames the diminished horizons of the young on “current spending on my generation” as if he had anything whatever in common with the people reliant on Social Security.

Four Beethoven

The wonderful New York pianist Lisa Yui is featured in DVD/Blu-Ray playing three of Beethoven's most famous piano sonatas (plus one from earlier in his career) that's coming in December, and she's just posted a trailer (below) plus, even, a behind-the-scenes video including "bloopers."  I can vouch that the DVD, which includes commentary,  will be terrific because I hosted her playing the same program here in Nyack a few months back.

Greenwald Exits 'Guardian'

Wednesday Updates:  Pierre Omidyar just out with his own statement.  Among other things:
"I developed an interest in supporting independent journalists in a way that leverages their work to the greatest extent possible, all in support of the public interest. And, I want to find ways to convert mainstream readers into engaged citizens. I think there’s more that can be done in this space, and I’m eager to explore the possibilities."

 Jay Rosen just interviewed Omidyar, and here's one except:  

His interest in launching a new kind of news organization, capable of sustaining investigative work and having an effect with it, intensified throughout the summer as news from the Snowden files continued to pour forth.

Attempts to meet with Greenwald to discuss these plans and to find out more about how he operates were unsuccessful until this month. When they finally were able to talk, Omidyar learned that Greenwald, his collaborator Laura Poitras, and The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill had been planning to form their own journalism venture. Their ideas and Omidyar’s ideas tracked so well with each other that on October 5 they decided to “join forces” (his term). This is the news that leaked yesterday. But there is more.

Omidyar believes that if independent, ferocious, investigative journalism isn’t brought to the attention of general audiences it can never have the effect that actually creates a check on power. Therefore the new entity — they have a name but they’re not releasing it, so I will just call it NewCo — will have to serve the interest of all kinds of news consumers. It cannot be a niche product. It will have to cover sports, business, entertainment, technology: everything that users demand.

At the core of Newco will be a different plan for how to build a large news organization. It resembles what I called in an earlier post “the personal franchise model” in news. You start with individual journalists who have their own reputations, deep subject matter expertise, clear points of view, an independent and outsider spirit, a dedicated online following, and their own way of working. The idea is to attract these people to NewCo, or find young journalists capable of working in this way, and then support them well.

The usually reliable Mike Calderone at Huff Post claims he's confirmed Scahill and Poitras will indeed be joining Greenwald in the new venture. 

Tuesday Updates:  Wash Post claims the new outlet is seeking to hire Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill.   They have not commented.

Reuters with this scoop on man behind the offer:  "Glenn Greenwald, who has made headlines around the world with his reporting on U.S. electronic surveillance programs, is leaving the Guardian newspaper to join a new media venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, according to people familiar with the matter."

Earlier: Glenn in this case is sort of a victim of a leak. News about him leaving the Guardian, apparently on okay terms, got out before he had a chance to decide how he would describe the new media venture he is starting or joining.  What this means about the future of further Snowden stories we do not know.

Greenwald declined to comment on the precise scale of the new venture or on its budget, but he said it would be “a very well-funded… very substantial new media outlet.” He said the source of funding will be public when the venture is officially announced.

“My role, aside from reporting and writing for it, is to create the entire journalism unit from the ground up by recruiting the journalists and editors who share the same journalistic ethos and shaping the whole thing — but especially the political journalism part — in the image of the journalism I respect most,” he said.

Greenwald will continue to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he said, and would bring some staff to Rio, but the new organization’s main hubs will be New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, he said.

Throw the Bums Out (Except My Rep)

Another laughable Rasmussen poll "finds" that 78% of American favor getting rid of the entire Congress right now.  Of course they do--except, if tradition holds, their own pathetic congress member, who they will (again) re-elect, perhaps by a wide margin.  In other words:  They mainly want to get rid of the guys they don't like.   Their own fella of gal? Not so much.

Vote the Rock

Nominees announced for next year's induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame (with several no-brainers for a change, including Nirvana).  Fans can vote, probably fruitlessly.  I don't really care but its fun to hear the arguments so go for it.  

Tea Party Drafting Palin to Run for Senate

They claim she's just crazy enough for Alaska to do it.  Just got this email from the Tea Party Leadership Fund, with as usual the accent on Fund.  (Note:  My ebook on the Obama-Romney 2012 race here.) 

Today, we're another step closer to drafting Sarah Palin to run for US Senate!

A brand new poll released today by your Tea Party Leadership Fund shows Palin with a clear path to the Republican nomination.

It has been a busy week for our strategists at The Tea Party Leadership Fund.

We just received the results, and I wanted to make sure you would be the first to hear about it.

So, what did we find? Sarah leads the field of potential Republican nominees, but her advantage is small.

According to the memo drafted by our pollsters, Sarah's lead is not quite two percent over the others in the GOP field--good news, but a clear sign that we have lots of work to do.

Ted Fucking Yoho

An epic Charles P. Pierce rant today over the utter absurdity and evil in the shutdown/debt ceiling debate, in which his targets range from Tea Partiers to Blue Dog Dems to Chris Matthews and Andrew Sullivan, and more.  Concludes with this:  "This means all of you who went along for the ride on torture, and on Iraq, and who hid under the bed after 9/11. This is how the power came to rest with Ted Yoho, who is a fool and a know-nothing. This is how historical inevitability is created. This is how its momentum becomes unstoppable. This is how the wreckage piles up."

"Government is the problem," said Saint Reagan in his first inaugural. And everybody, all of you sorry bastards, cheered, and made completely predictable the moment in which the power of the government would come to reside in...

Ted fking Yoho.

A guy who should be a minor annoyance at zoning board meetings in Florida is suddenly capable of helping to bring down the financial stability of the world. A guy who should be railing at his local drive-time talk-jock is giving quotes to The New York Times about the essential dismantling of the institutions of self-government.

Ted fking Yoho.

It's his world now. We just live in it.

Two Girls Charged With Felonies in Bullying Case

Even as we focus on the Maryville, Mo. sexual assaults, comes word that two girls, 12 and 14, have been charged with felonies related to the suicide of classmate after a year of bullying.  One girl has taken "credit" for the suicide on Facebook and laughed about it.

The Facebook post, Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County said, was so offensive that he decided to move forward with the arrest immediately rather than continue to gather evidence. With a probable cause affidavit in hand, he sent his deputies Monday night to arrest two girls, calling them the “primary harassers.” The first, a 14-year-old, is the one who posted the comment Saturday, he said. The second is her friend, and Rebecca’s former best friend, a 12-year-old.

Both were charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony and will be processed through the juvenile court system. Neither had an arrest record. The older girl was taken into custody in the juvenile wing of the Polk County Jail. The younger girl, who the police said expressed remorse, was released to her parents under house arrest.

Another 'Steubenville' in Missouri?

Update #3  Anderson Cooper with another CNN report, with both girls and moms.  Sheriff confirms the boys confessed and agrees a sexual assault took place.  Daisy says she attempted suicide "numerous" times.  CNN's Tuchman tries to interview the prosecutor Robert Rice but not allowed.  Melinda Coleman says prosecutor wanted her to say that her daughter wouldn't press charges to get him off the hook, but she says she didn't agree to that.  More news on the Lt. Gov. calling for case to be re-opened.

Update #2  Daisy Coleman and the second girl in the case both on Erin Burnett show on CNN, with their moms.   Daisy says that, yes, she was at one time nervous about going ahead with trial because she might face underage drinking charge--but felt that was okay because at least the perp would also suffer.  Her mother again claims prosecutor covering up now.

Then the local sheriff hits state Lt. Gov. for saying the case was "disappointing" and should be looked at again.  Sheriff says:  "No doubt in my mind that everyone would be vindicated from outrageous charges" being leveled now if it was re-opened.  Says their work was "flawless."  Burnett asks about report that shows they inspected iPhone that had, or once had, video on it, plus photos, texts, and wonders where it is now.  He doesn't say but  claims never saw video. 

Buzzfeed story on Justice4Daisy movement and video of girl and mother on CNN with Erin Burnett last night.

 In a surprising response--that is, that they responded at all--the college now attended by the accused young man in the case replied to numerous posts about the case on the school's Facebook page with this reply there:  The university is required to allow all qualified and eligible students to pursue an education. The university is strongly committed to continuing to create a safe and supportive campus environment free from harassment and hostility. Read about the resources available to the UCM community. http://bit.ly/1bRusVP

The local Maryville paper has re-posted all of its stories on the case.  Note how they repeatedly refer to neither girl being "physically injured."   Apparently two footballers who were also at party were suspended.  The father of one of them then erected two large signs calling the school board chief the "anti-christ" and a "Hitler." 

Tuesday Update #1:  Interviews with the two girls or their parents may air tonight on CNN (Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett).   As promised, Anonymous already at work.  Hacktivists took down the county Web site last night and #OpMaryville announced via statement.  After others called for action to re-open case, via Reddit and elsewhere, Facebook account of accused perp was IDed, then taken down, as were those of friends.   L.A. Times with update.  Rally to re-open case planned for Oct. 22.  Anonymous video.  They claim the girl, Daisy Coleman, 15, backs their efforts.

Don't know if accurate, but after a Maryville restaurant was IDed as either owned by the alleged perp's family or that he or the second boy worked there (take your pick), people started posting nasty or darkly humorous "reviews" of the eatery at Yelp.  Note: The K.C. Star published the victim's name with full permission of family, which seeks justice.  Today the family of the 13-year-old girl also in the case gave okay for use of her name, now that more "believe" in her story.   The Star in editorial calls for a grand jury to be convened.

Prosecutor, pressed in recent days,  and local sheriff claim the Coleman family refused to cooperate fully and this torpedoed their case. The family denies this.

Monday:
Truly shocking story in the KC Star on a case that seems to follow a pattern: young girl gets mixed up with older (football) player, trusts him as they drink to excess, and then gets sexually assaulted (or, in his view, have consensual sex).  In this case, she gets dumped on her doorstep for two hours, passed out in 22 degree temps.  An iPhone likely captured some of this on video and is passed around.  Town folk side with the football player.  The girl's mom loses her job.  Charges are dropped, unlike in Steubenville,  even though authorities believe they had a strong case.  The boy is well-connected, the girl is not.  (Oh, on same night, a girl, 13, seems to have sex with a boy, 15.)  The family moves out of town, then their old house burns down for some reason.  The girl, who had been a cheerleader and beauty queen and got mainly A's in school,  tries to commit suicide twice.  Read it and weep.  Earlier story with photos.

So Half a Million Iraqis Did Die, After All

Remember, a few years back, when a couple of studies (including one published by prestigious Lancet) that found hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the years after the U.S. invasion were derided, even mocked, by most media and many expert commentators?  They pointed to reputable counts of those killed in the conflict, placing the number at "only" about 100,000.  When WikiLeaks released its Iraq War Logs, documented deaths shot up another 10,000 or so.

Now it turns out the early studies were probably correct.  What they perhaps got wrong was not the number of fatalities but the cause--almost half were related to the war but not directly caused by the weapons of war.  But: a half million died in any case.  So, sadly, my book on the media and the war, So Wrong for So Long, had it right.

From NBC just now:

About a half million Iraqi people died during the eight-year war in that country, and among those casualties roughly four in 10 perished due to Iraq's decimated infrastructure — from crippled health-care and power systems to interruptions in water and food supplies, according to a study released Tuesday.

U.S. researchers hired Iraqi physicians to go door-to-door at randomly selected homes in 100 Iraqi neighborhoods to ask families what members died between 2003 and 2011 and how they lost their lives, the report states. Among non-violent deaths tied to the war, the most common cause was heart attacks or cardiovascular conditions, followed by infant or childhood deaths other than injuries, chronic illnesses and cancer.

'The Blobs'--True-Life Horror Story?

Jellyfish are often deadly, and taking over the planet--it says here.   Predators and almost impossible to kill.  Now they are gumming up power plants and ruining fishing in some areas.  No joke!

'Saddest' Story of the Month

NYT now admits it published a thoroughly bogus story last month on "the saddest high school in New York," which a study IDed--based on tweets, which should have raised alarms to begin with--as the fine Hunter College High in Manhattan.  After protests, the director now says that his data was based mainly a SINGLE tweeter located somewhat south of the school.

LAX Iced

Four more dry ice "bombs" found at L.A. Airport overnight, two exploded, outside terminal and close to planes.  Rather troubling.   One had exploded Sunday night.

Detectives late Monday were investigating how four dry ice bombs -- two of which exploded -- were placed in restricted areas at Los Angeles International Airport.

A dry ice bomb exploded Monday about 8:30 p.m. in a section accessible only to employees near the gate of the Tom Bradley International Terminal, law enforcement authorities said.

Two similar devices were found in the area. All three were bottles with dry ice inside, according to LAX police.

The devices appeared to be outside the terminal near planes, according to television news footage.

Serious Questions Over Medal of Honor Winner's Account

Well, this will set off some kind of shitstorm.  In a piece posted tonight, one of the top reporters in the country Jonathan Landay of McClatchy (see his writing on the run-up to the Iraq war and much since) questions the account of the bloody U.S. vs. Taliban battle that won Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, 25,  a Medal of Honor. Landay was at the scene of the battle as an embedded reporter.  See another recent Landay piece on the "lost" Medal of Honor nomination for a Meyer colleague who is now critical of him.

But videos shot by Army medevac helicopter crewmen show no Taliban in that vicinity or anywhere else on the floor of the Ganjgal Valley at the time and location of the “swarm.” The videos also conflict with the version of the incident in Marine Corps and White House accounts of how Meyer, now 25, of Columbia, Ky., came to be awarded the nation’s highest military decoration for gallantry.

The videos add to the findings of an ongoing McClatchy investigation that determined that crucial parts of Meyer’s memoir were untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated, as were the Marine Corps and White House accounts of how he helped extract casualties from the valley under fire. The White House and Marine Corps have defended the accuracy of their accounts of Meyer’s actions. The Marine Corps declined to comment on the videos.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/14/205341/videos-contradict-medal-of-honor.html#storylink=cpy

Into the Woods

I guess I knew actor James Woods was that rare breed of conservative in Hollywood but didn't know he was quite this right-wing.  After all he rose to acclaim--and got an Oscar nod--in one of his early films, Salvador, directed by...Oliver Stone, a film that changed Stone's political outlook for good.  (Fine flick, by the way.)  But check out his verified Twitter feed for his failings against Obama and Obamacare just in the past week.

New Feature: This Day in the Obama-Romney Race

One year ago the race for the White House reached its final month with Mitt Romney looking like a plausible winner, despite his "47% blunder"--thanks to President Obama's stumble in their first debate.  So, starting this week, I will post an excerpt from my ebook,  Tricks, Lies, and Videotape (just $2.99) which collects my daily campaign items from The Nation and from this blog, in a unique day-by-day tracking of the race.  

From October 14, 2012

David Brooks is at it again. Three weeks ago, in the wake of the release of the “47% video,” Brooks wrote a column directing scathing criticism at Romney. He accused Romney of not understanding, among other things, “America” and “the social contract” and other matters almost as bad. He said he doesn’t even ‘know much” about this country. He was totally out of touch with our “culture.” He even called him Thurston Howell Romney.
   You could not imagine that, given those essential faults, that there’s any way Brooks could still consider Romney a valid candidate for president and, with a heavy heart, would have to drop his support.
   No such luck.
   Instead, within days of facing those brutal truths, Brooks was back in apology, and then booster, mode (and he has never renounced his fanboy affection for Paul Ryan). It’s as if Paul Krugman accused Obama of being “anti-American” and then returned to writing love notes as if afflicted with amnesia.
   Well, we might expect more from Krugman, but this is really no surprise coming from Brooks. Witness his treatment of Sarah Palin in 2008. He would come to call her (aptly, as most of us recognized during that campaign) “a joke” and only qualified to be a TV “talk show host.” But when it really counted, during the 2008 campaign when there was a very real chance she’d become vice president, he trimmed his sails in his Times column.


From October 12, 2012:
  
As I expected, the vice president easily topped Paul Ryan on points, substance, and ready-to-lead.  Ryan looked shallow, sometimes intimidated, often out of his depth.  As a few tweeted, “He had his Eddie Munster face on too long.”  But Biden--apparently not learning from Obama’s lack of respect for the split screen--repeatedly appeared on camera betraying disrespect for him opponent, not just smiling (as some of his defenders claimed) but openly scoffing, mocking, butting in.  It’s true: Ryan’s blatant lies deserved scorn, but Biden should have left that to verbal thrusts only.  He threw away a chance for a knockout, while still winning the nod from the judges, for sure.
    As for the pundits and cable channels: MSNBC predictably went big for Biden, Fox even more so for Ryan—with one analyst after another hitting Biden for his “demeanor” and “buffoonery.” Karl Rove tweeted that Biden was “unhinged.” Many analysts at CNN said Ryan “held his own.” Gloria Borger somehow called Ryan “fluent” in foreign policy. This despite the fact that Biden, like Clint Eastwood, was talking to an empty chair all night.
    Now to what really matters, the polls: The key “instant poll” from CBS, among 500 undecided voters, found Biden wins 50 percent to 31 percent. (Romney had won easily last week over Obama.) Asked whom they could relate to, Biden won; he also was seen as more ready to be president. Some 85 percent said Biden knowledgeable and 75 percent said the same of Ryan.
    CNN called it a draw. I had warned during debate Ryan would do better than you might think, since he was getting killed on substance, due to Biden’s “laughing” etc.


From October 11, 2012:

Veep as in Bleep? New York magazine imagines what the Biden-Ryan debate tonight would be like if it was created by the f-bombing folks behind Veep on HBO.   A few highlights:

Ryan on the last four years ..."You have put this office in a salad spinner of fuck."

Biden on Medicare vouchers ..."It's like trying to use a croissant for a fucking dildo. It doesn't do the job and it makes a fucking mess."

Ryan on the 47 percent ..."I've met some real people, okay? And I've got to tell you, a lot of them are fucking idiots."

Biden on Ryan's muscles ..."You know, I can see right through your shirt. Is it designed that way?"

Ryan on Biden's age ..."We need somebody who's plugged in. The only thing Joe's plugged into is his fucking piss bag."

Biden on his psyche ..."I'm a political leper and an emotional time bomb, so here's an idea, let's put me onstage."


From October 10, 2012:

I was pleased to see Jon Stewart last night run in its entirety (it’s only about sixty seconds) my favorite FDR video clip, which I have promoted for some time as an Obama must-see and must-use, in ads. Now the clip takes on new urgency in the wake of the Obama flop in the first debate.
   The president clearly needs a new debate coach, and even from his grave Franklin D. Roosevelt is the best around. He could even give Bill Clinton a few lessons.  Stewart, after running the clip, noted that, oh, that Roosevelt guy won a race or two (or four).
   Here’s the clip. Of course, FDR’s jibes could be used almost word-for-word to shoot down empty GOP promises about not cutting favored programs, slashing taxes and somehow balancing the budget.  
   But there’s another FDR clip that today’s Democrat in the White House ought to screen a few times. You may have read about the fairly famous Roosevelt invitation (from a 1936 speech in Madison Square Garden) to his more over-the-top critics: “I welcome their hatred.” But what else did he say in that speech?
   Check it out here.  Note the key line: “Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.”
   Then there’s this (not in the clip but in the same speech): “For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away…. Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.”
   And more today: "Mr. Romney’s Neighborhood" from Jimmy Fallon. A beautiful day.  Dog strapped to trolley.  A visit to the Land of Imagination, where Romney and Ryan "get their facts." And a visitor at the door, Mr. Obama.

From October 9, 2012:

Despite the blatant racism on display at various Birther and Tea Party rallies—at protests embraced by many in the GOP and Fox News—we have often been told that the numbers of such adherents is very, very low. Or even, that racism is dead in America since, as Will Cain of The Blaze told Bill Maher last Friday with a straight face, the U.S. elected a black president.
   On the other hand, how do you explain that Birtherism was never a “fringe” faction within the GOP? In fact, all manner of polls have shown that actually at least half of Republicans embrace or once embraced the meme that Obama was not born in America. The latest poll I saw still pegged that “fringe” at an unhealthy 40 percent of all Republicans.
   One of the great mainstream media fails of the past two years, right up to the GOP convention, was ignoring Birtherism as a near-majority view in the modern GOP—and refusing to probe what that means.
   I’m reminded of all this today by the the shocking (except, it’s not) story out of Morgan Hill, California, courtesy of a local TV report. It seems one fine fella has erected a chair in front of his home along with a teleprompter, perhaps in homage to Clint Eastwood. So far so good. But with this twist: on the chair are two watermelons, and hanging from it is a noose. Nearby a go-back-to-Kenya sign.
   Oh, one more thing: Another sign, “Mitt Romney for President.”
    Is this the quote of the week, if not year? A neighbor says that the chair and watermelon are okay but maybe “the noose is a little over the edge.”  The homeowner, in the video, says the “display speaks for itself” and he had no problem if images were circulated widely.  Strange fruit, indeed.
   Of course, this is not to say that most Romney backers are out and out racists. But it would be nice if the media, belatedly, explored the remaining strength of Birtherism—and what it reveals.

From October 8, 2012: 

A new Gallup poll out today, based purely on what voters believe in the post-debate period, finds the race for the White House tied at 47%–47%. Just a few days ago Gallup gave Obama a 6% lead and found a 54% approval rating. Why the plunge? Gallup found Romney’s win in the debate—or, if you will, Obama’s flop—the worst in its recorded history. Of those who watched, Romney won by 72 to 20.
   This is an even wider margin than the instant polls indicated, and perhaps reflects more folks being affected by the media coverage, which kicked in at full-Romney-win throttle. Even most Democrats said Romney won (no surprise there—even SNL noted MSNBC libs’ shaken reaction).
   Also troubling for Dems: part of the Gallup poll was taken in the aftermath of Friday’s good jobs numbers.
   Gallup’s daily tracker (actually a seven-day average) as of yesterday still gave President Obama a 3 point lead.  There was a bit of good news: Some other polls suggest that Romney’s ‘bounce” may be over and settling in at about a 3% gain, as Nate Silver at The New York Times calculated.
   Perhaps more troubling in all this is that many polls in swing states suddenly find Romney gaining or taking the lead. Wisconsin and even Ohio (which the GOP was seemingly about to write off) appear to be back in play. And just as bad, or worse: Obama’s debate performance appears to be dragging down Dems in key Senate contests. Some polls, for example, show Senator Sherrod Brown’s lead over his amazingly callow challenger in Ohio now very surmountable. And expect more bad news this week in Missouri and Virginia and elsewhere as polls emerge—unless the jobs numbers report cools that trend.
   The bottom line is: Five days ago, Obama appeared to be cruising to victory, with ever-widening leads in most of the swing states. If the debates, or world events, did not produce a bombshell, there was little chance he would lose. And the jobs numbers report proved much better than expected (even if the right-wingers cried “conspiracy”).
   Now, it’s all up for grabs again—including Democratic control of the Senate. Already, outright anger toward Obama for fumbling the debate so badly has been expressed by some supporters on the left, and surely this will explode if it turns out to be the negative turning point in the entire campaign. Of course, this is very premature. Joe Biden may whip Paul Ryan, and Obama will surely do better in the two remaining debates with his opponent. But perhaps the damage has been done.
   What I fault Obama for is not lack of preparation on facts—he had them at his command—but seemingly lackadaisical planning on how to rebut Romney to his face. And even more damaging (given the media’s obsession with style), and quite inconceivable: his lack of attention to how he’d look in the now-common split-screen coverage, and his refusal to craft and deliver a strong closing statement. The Romney camp, fearing a powerful Obama closer, had tried in advance to eliminate any final statements in this debate.
   Meanwhile, media coverage of the first debate is getting increasing attention. I will just mention for now Paul Krugman’s reaction, as expressed on a Sunday morning show yesterday. Like me, Krugman has roasted Obama’s debate performance but also hits the media’s lack of focus on the many Romney lies in the debate. A more honest and balanced media response to the debate would have been: Romney wins on style, Obama on truth-telling. Yes, Obama deserved to take a hit in the polls, but it would have been less pronounced if Romney’s mendacity had received equal play.

Spooky Halloween for Sure

This week's New Yorker and those scary Repubs.  Tombstones read "Health Care" and "Gun Control." The Nixon and Reagan masks in parades seem almost benign now.

The First Attack Ads on the Screen: Courtesy Irving Thalberg!

The election season uproar over negative campaign ads will return next year for sure.  But it may surprise most people to learn that the first attack ads on the screen date back well before TVs were in any homes.  Yes, it happened in 1934,  with faux newsreels produced by MGM's saintly Irving Thalberg to defeat the Democratic nominee for governor of California--none other than ex-socialist writer Upton Sinclair (who swept the Democratic primary on August 28 leading one of the great mass movements,  End Poverty in California).

The leftwing Sinclair threat inspired GOPers and business interests to invent the modern political campaign--run by a new breed of "campaign consultant" and advertising experts.   It's all detailed in my award-winning Random House book (and now ebook) "The Campaign of the Century" and you can watch some of the Thalberg newsreels in video below:

American Officer Found Hanged in Egyptian Cell

Just out from Agence France-Presse:

Cairo — An American found hanged in his police cell in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya on Sunday was believed to have committed suicide, Egyptian security officials said. They said the body of James Henry, 55, who told authorities he was a retired officer, was found at noon at Ismailiya Awal police station. Henry had been detained in August for violating a curfew imposed because of the latest wave of political unrest sweeping Egypt.

He was stopped on the road between El-Arish and Rafah in North Sinai and told authorities he was on his way to the Gaza Strip.

Officials told AFP that a US embassy delegation had visited Henry in his cell last week.

His death comes a day after he was told authorities were extending his preventative detention by a further 30 days.

If At First You Don't Secede....

The great Garry Wills (until recently quite the moderate) with eye-opener at NYRB comparing certain aspects of today's revolting GOP to what happened before the Civil War.  Basically, a form of secession already taking place. UPDATE:  Below this, watch Bill Moyers on the same theme.

The presiding spirit of this neo-secessionism is a resistance to majority rule. We see this in the Senate, where a Democratic majority is resisted at every turn by automatic recourses to the filibuster. We see it in the attempt to repeal the seventeenth amendment, which allows a majority of voters to choose a state’s senators. The repealers want that choice to go back to the state legislatures, where they rule thanks to anti-majority gerrymandering.

The Old South went from virtual to actual secession only when the addition of non-slave Western states threatened their disproportionate hold on the Congress and the Court (which had been Southern in makeup when ruling on Dred Scott). It is difficult to conjecture what will happen if the modern virtual seceders do not get their way. Their anti-government rhetoric is reaching new intensity. Some would clearly rather ruin than be ruled by a “foreign-born Muslim.” What will the Republicans who are not fanatics, only cowards, do in that case?

Krugman on Lyin' Ryan, a Year Later

Just over a year since Paul Ryan fully revealed himself as 1) callow and 2) hollow in the vice-presidential debate, Paul Krugman at his blog reviews Lyin' Ryan's "compromise" proposal to end the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis this week. 

What Ryan offered was billed as a compromise; I do not think that word means what they think it means. It involved reducing the harshness of the sequester — which Republicans and Democrats both want — in return for Medicare and/or Social Security cuts, which only Republicans want. Oh, and it only postponed the debt ceiling crisis, setting the stage for further extortion attempts.

So: you give me something, I give you nothing, and I don’t threaten your wife and kids until next week. Compromise!

UPDATE   Paul also took on Peggy Noonan on TV today when she argued that the GOP shutdown was more or less "business as usual." Excerpt:

“That never happened,” Krugman shot back. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. All of the the alleged former examples, if you actually look at them, they turn out to be either — there was a budget deal that included a debt ceiling raise but the debt ceiling was not a hostage. Or once — once — [former Speaker] Tip O’Neill held up the debt ceiling for one day more as symbolism.”

A Film 'Miracle'

Just back from seeing movie you might have heard about, Wadjda, the first by a female director in Saudi Arabia and it's great.  You may have seen the director on The Daily Show last month, talking about needing to shoot some of the street scenes with her giving directions--from a van, as she would not  have been allowed doing that in the open.  The film itself is a humanist, feminist, gem about a little girl's attempt to buy and ride a bike (very frowned on) and also her mom losing her husband to a second wife.  And a  final miracle--the Saudis have picked it as their entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award.  It surely deserves a nomination.  Trailer:

Two of the Most Talented (and Prettiest)

I've written in the past about the strong friendship between Muhammad Ali and Sam Cooke.  Now here's a photo I've never seen from the pair in March 1964, just before Ali knocked out Liston in Miami (and met the Beatles).  Sam singing in a Miami club that week was immortalized in the opening of the Will Smith Ali film--and in one of the greatest live albums ever, Live at the Harlem Square Club.   Sam died a few months later.   The photo is part of a gallery of guy who shot many of the greats of the era.

Friday Cat Blogging

A blogging tradition, with a different twist. Zoe in hiding. (photo by B. Bedway)

Update:  Zoe featured at Yves Smith's popular Naked Capitalism today.  

Just Another Day in Gun Nutty USA

Saturday Update:   No shock, police reveal shooter was gun nut with "anti-government bias."  Note: They're everywhere.

Earlier: And few places are nuttier than "almost a haven, West Virginia."  Guy with AK-47 and Glock shot up federal building today, making mistake of starting from the parking lot (genius).  Police arrived and shot him dead after he fired off a couple dozen rounds but didn't hit anyone.  Just now IDed as a former police officer who exited in 2000 and lived in local trailer court. Update: Witness says he also fired at YMCA.  No motive revealed as yet.

AP: Too Much Hemp

Must be one of the great AP corrections today:

In an Oct. 10 story about protesters dumping bags of cash in a Senate office building, The Associated Press misidentified in the headlines the people who were protesting and arrested. The protesters were critics of seed giant Monsanto and its role in genetically modified food production. They were not hemp activists.

When Cheney Tried to Run 'Scooter' Over Bush

Peter Baker has a book coming up on the Bush-Cheney team and NYT has a lengthy excerpt this Sunday in its magazine on the veep's push for a full pardon for Scooter Libby over his conviction in the Plame case. You know, leaking name of CIA operative and lying about it.  No biggie.  They've just posted it online.  One bit:

Burck figured that Libby assumed his account would never be contradicted, because prosecutors could not force reporters to violate vows of confidentiality to their sources. “I think also that Libby was concerned,” Burck said. “Because he took to heart what you said back then: that you would fire anybody that you knew was involved in this. I just think he didn’t think it was worth falling on the sword.”

Bush did not seem convinced. “I think he still thinks he was protecting Cheney,” the president said. If that was the case, then Cheney was seeking forgiveness for the man who had sacrificed himself on his behalf.

So Bush had to do what he dreaded--after a final talk with Dick and tell him, no. Then he still fretted about until he left office.  By the way, in the excerpt you'll see Libby claiming over and over that he is innocent so you'll have to refresh your memory about how guilty he really was.  Also: he never served  a day in prison--for Bush had commuted his sentence.

Favorite Piece for Fall

My favorite piece of American classical music is Ives' "Alcotts" movement from his Concord Sonata, which revolves around opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  Here it's played live recently by new MacArthur genius winner Jeremy Denk.  Jeremy's also written another piece for The New Yorker this week.  And I interviewed him for my Beethoven book.

Will Obama Threaten to Bomb Rebels

Human Rights Watch, which probes and condemns atrocities on all sides, with report today on recent one by our Syrian rebel allies, a "crime against humanity."   Among the dead:  many  women and kids.

In a coordinated attack, numerous rebel groups fought off a small garrison of government troops and swept into the villages, killing 190 people, according to a Human Rights Watch report to be released on Friday. At least 67 of the dead appeared to have been shot or stabbed while unarmed or fleeing, including 48 women and 11 children, the report said. More than 200 civilians are still being held hostage.

Maybe He Let Everyone See the Big Board

Bulletin from AP just now:  "WASHINGTON — Air Force general in charge of nuclear missiles to be fired Friday over ‘loss of trust’."  A little more now here.

Just two days the deputy commander,  a top Navy admiral, in the nuclear program was fired after gambling probe.