Saturday on the River

Some random photos of the downtown air show last evening as the city wraps up "Memphis in May" with a performance by the Memphis Symphony and the Bar Kays.  It was warm, but the wind was blowing--and for once they got it done without any severe weather warnings...

 

There was a lot of police presence, even in the water.   But nobody was in a fighting mood.  People were just enjoying the freedom to come downtown, watch some airplanes and listen to some music and enjoy the beginning of summer, all courtesy of the sacrifices made by our fallen heroes. May those sacrifices never go in vain.

Side Tracks

Summer's here.. 

Back to Zero

This is the best article I've seen lately on the political games being played by Obama over gay marriage. An excerpt:

Newsweek editor Tina Brown—she of the “First Gay President” cover—described Obama’s reaction thusly, “He stumbled into it because of Joe Biden. The hero of the hour is Joe Biden, right?" Obama had a different take.

Asked about his inspiration, he cited not Joe Biden, but the Living Word. “When we think about our faith,” said Obama speaking for himself and Michelle, “the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated.”

For the record, Jesus summed up the Golden Rule thusly, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Given this understanding, Jesus implored his disciples to treat the marginalized, like, say, Mary Magdalene, with respect. He did not demand that they legalize prostitution. He certainly did not call them “bigots” if they hesitated.

He also mentions them using the "old school socialist exploitation of Christianity", which is really the girding underbelly of Obama's true ideology.  Oh, and not to keep harping on Biden, but he came out of the closet in late 2010, right after the mid-term shellacking.  So Obama didn't 'stumble on' anything due to Joe. 

Investigation Update

James Clapper, head of national intelligence, is supposed to be conducting an investigation into the leak of the gutsy Obama-approved CIA 'double agent' who uncovered underwear bomb 2.0 but turned out to be under the control of UK and Saudi Arabian intelligence.  The FBI is also investigating, but had to be 'urged' to include the White House in their sphere of investigation.

Chances are we probably won't hear much about this story again unless 1) a conservative turncoat in the administration or career conservative bureaucrat is fingered, or 2) an aircraft crash occurs.  And the first is more likely to draw coverage than the second.   

Even today's odd story about the French woman of Cameroon descent on a US Airways flight from Paris to Charlotte who claimed to have a surgical implant 'device' in her body didn't warrant any mention of the leak despite mention of AQAP.  By the way we've been told she's just a nut.  Might be true--but some additional confirmation would be nice. 

Speaking of leaks, Judicial Watch has obtained some documents in relation to some proposed football spiking.

Lockerbie Bomber Finally Departs

According to sources:

His son, Khaled al-Megrahi, confirmed that he died in Tripoli in a telephone interview but hung up before giving more details. Saad Nasser al-Megrahi, a relative and a member of the ruling National Transitional Council, said al-Megrahi's health had seriously deteriorated in recent days and he died of cancer-related complications.

This news saturated the net this morning likely due to the closure it may provide to the families of victims on Pan Am 103.  But the AP-generated story used by many sites contained, shall we say, some skeptism:

Al-Megrahi's lawyers also claimed that British and U.S. authorities tampered with evidence, disregarded witness statements and steered investigators away from suggestions the bombing was an Iranian-financed plot carried out by Palestinians to avenge the shooting down of a civilian Iranian airliner by a U.S. warship -- in which some 290 people were killed -- several months before the Lockerbie bombing. The judicial body, however, discounted theories of intentional misdirection.

Iran was certainly outraged at the time, but Gaddafi also had his reasons for revenge of course--Reagan's raid on his palace in 1986.  As with most of these events there are theories aplenty--others believe the CIA engineered the crash for some reason or another (this would have been the evil CIA of Reagan-Bush not the good CIA under Clinton and Obama, where glamorous blonds speak truth to power and mystery double agents penetrate AQAP).

None of the theories explain why Gaddafi was also blamed for the downing of UTA 772 a year later using the same methodology. However, it wouldn't be surprising if Megrahi was some kind of fall-guy, although it's a bit harder to imagine the Persians were involved that fast after the loss of Iran Air 655. It's just as believable to consider that Saddam Hussein was involved in some way relating to their mutual affection for Abu Nidal, after all one of the alleged bomb-makers was reputedly hiding in Iraq before the invasion:

Khala Khadar al Salahat, a member of ANO, surrendered to the First Marine Division in Baghdad on April 18, 2003. According to an August 25, 2002 report in the Sunday Times of London, a Palestinian source claimed that Salahat and Nidal had furnished Libyan agents the Semtex (plastic explosive) bomb that destroyed Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988. Among the 259 persons killed in the air and 11 killed on the ground were 35 American college students.

Everyone knows Abu Nidal committed suicide in Baghdad in 2002 by shooting himself in the head, several times, as the Iraqi Mukhabarat stood by and watched.

As to Megrahi there was one man who claimed to know the truth; a man who defected to the west as soon as the excrement began to hit the fan in Tripoli:

Former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil told Swedish newspaper Expressen that he had proof Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people, mostly Americans.

Whatever happened to that guy?

It's the Follow-Up, Stupid

CBS sets up their hit piece of Breitbart by couching them as birthers before getting to the money paragraphs:

The birthers made their presence felt once again on Thursday. A conservative reporter tracked down a 1991 promotional booklet from a literary agency in which Mr. Obama was listed as having been "born in Kenya." Conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge gave the report huge play, leading his site with it Thursday evening. He followed up Friday with a series of links tied to the story, including one asking, "How did the mainstream media miss this?"

The literary agent responsible for the listing released a statement in the wake of the story reading in part, "This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii."

But that, of course, was not going to placate those eager to seize on the 1991 listing as a smoking gun proving their theory. Interestingly, the website that posted it, Breitbart.com, seemed uncomfortable with putting it into the world - it said in a note above the article that it "has never advocated the narrative of 'Birtherism,'" arguing that the listing is evidence "not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times."

Indeed, Breitbart's reporters were recently blasted by some of the hard-core birthers for not getting on the train.   But in the world of elite media reporters such as Mr. Montopoli everyone on the right is a closet racist/birther, meaning the mere mention of a flyer showing Barack Obama as being born in Kenya qualifies the producer of said story as a crackpot.  And of course once a story can be labeled 'birtherism' there's no need to pursue it any further.

Edward R Murrow must be spinning in his grave.  A true reporter would have seen the Breitbart story, said "that's interesting"; seen the follow-up comment/statement from the literary agent and said "that's interesting, too', then picked up the phone.   They were not afraid of the truth because they kept their own dogs out of the fight. 

In other words, instead of mocking Breitbart's journalism and trying to turn them into birthers the CBS reporter could have called the literary agent--and certainly the White House--and asked some questions.  Here are just a few suggestions from a hack blogger to get things started; surely an elite reporter could think of a few more.  For instance,  to the agent:

"how often did you put out a bio on a writer and not let the writer see it first? Was it common to do your own 'fact checking' rather than just asking the writer?

Where did you do the fact checking and why/how do think you got it wrong?"

Why wasn't the flyer corrected until 2007?

Such a reporter might call the White House press office and say,

"Could you tell us if Obama himself remembers the bio and if so, did he get to approve it before it went to press?" 

It's almost as if some are afraid to ask.  Think of how much more powerful Mr. Montopoli's piece on Breitbart would have been had he been able to pop out a few of those secondary, drill-down questions/answers, ie, "we talked to Ms so-so and she said it was common for new authors to not be involved in their bios, etc".  As it was he appeared to be filing his report from Chicago HQs. 

In other words, it's about the follow-up!   Our modern advocates have lost track of that concept, a simple premise that says you don't immediately believe a press release or take a canned statement as gospel.  You don't blindly believe a politician without checking their story--and checking doesn't mean asking their press officer or Media Matters and declaring, "case closed, you crazy wingers".  They used to know this. 

The reporter even mocked the 'vetting' charge Brietbart made.   So yeah sorry Jack, not to bust your bubble but this kind of crap is exactly what you can expect from the Breitbart story, nothing more.  The only wildcard is whether Breitbart has something else in the can waiting to trickle out.  Their namesake was pretty good at that--he had learned their game.

White vs Indian

It's been pointed out on the web already.. now we learn that certain fine educational establishments once celebrated diversity by considering Elizabeth Warren a "person of color".  The same intelligensia probably believes George Zimmerman is whiter.  Does anyone really need to point out the preposterousness?

Yet here we go again--in a story MSNBC is heralding about Martin being shot at "an intermediate range" (they don't define intermediate) the writer actually penned the following:

But after questions about possible racial motivation for the slaying – Martin was black; Zimmerman is a white man of Hispanic heritage – a special prosecutor took over the case and, on April 11, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. He was released on April 23 on a $150,000 bond and has been out of the public eye since then.

Bold to back up what Tom Maguire points out--some lefty memes never die.  Even now Warren is saying she's still proud of her "Native American" (not American Indian, as they prefer) heritage.

MORE  5/17/12

The New York Times is out with information sure to run tingles up a few legs in the higher educational warrens of America:

After years of speculation, estimates and projections, the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data made public on Thursday, while minorities — including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history.

So the Census folks don't count White Hispanics as white, preferring to count them as minorities. The media will of course make a big deal out of this 'tipping point' without realizing the irony.

KENYAN?   5/17/12

Breitbart has the scoop, of course the answer is that it was a mistake.  The person who edited the circular says it was a "fact checking error".  That will probably satisfy the elite media and who knows, maybe it was an error. But perhaps the question should be asked, "where did the initial facts come from"? In her statement Goderich says Obama had nothing to do with his own bio, the remainder of which looks legit. So where did the erroneous info originate? Of course anyone who asks will be labeled a birther, so there ya go. Oddly enough the Breitbart piece anticipated this response and mentioned Goderich:

According to the booklet itself, the text was edited by Miriam Goderich, who has since become Dystel's partner at Dystel & Goderich, an agency founded in 1994. Breitbart News attempted to reach Goderich by telephone several times over several days. Her calls are screened by an automated service that requires callers to state their name and company, which we did. She never answered

Ms. Dystel remains dummied up, and why not--probably a big payoff coming for her one day.  But since this is a blog we can simply be dummies by WAGing aimlessly, so here goes.  The evidence O was born in Hawaii is sufficient sans pure fraud, which is something Hillary would have exploited had it been there.  But the lockdown on grades, transcripts and other literary accomplishments has always been strange, especially for a man who prides himself on such accomplishments.  Did those people in Minnesota Iowa get prosecuted for sneaking a peak at Obama's student loan records because it was illegal, or because they looked at the wrong person?  The woman in Ohio who went after personal records on Joe the Plumber got off much easier--and is now back working for the state again, of course that wasn't a federal matter.     

Maybe if there's any there there it's more about academic exaggerations with the birth cert being a convenient red herring.   Or maybe this is just another attempt to feed the conservative press information to change the narrative off the economy.  Romney was out today insisting that Rev Wright is a non-story.