Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 5:53pm.
BuzzFlash Guest Commentary
By Dee Evans
So, Sarah Palin using crib notes in the palm of her hand during a Question and Answer segment on live television is no big deal. When did that happen???
I was completely astonished to hear Chuck Todd of MSNBC tell Andrea Mitchell this morning, “well, we’ve all used notes.” Well Chuck, I have news for you.
Submitted by whynowwhyme on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 4:22pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph
FOX continues to deny, despite all available evidence, that it did anything to promote the Tea Party movement. Still, FOX's latest pundit, Sarah Palin, delivered the main speech on Saturday night (an appearance for which she was paid $100,000) one that revealed Palin as not only a liar and misinformer but also reinforced the hypocrisy in her criticism of President Obama. Palin, in a speech delivered from prepared remarks, complained about the president's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, occasionally known as the underwear bomber, claiming that he "lawyered up" and would not provide further information. Reports from FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair suggested quite the contrary. According to them, Abdulmutallab has and continues to provide valuable intelligence, even after the US granted him the same constitutional rights Palin worried would protect him too well. Another invalid concern of Palin's had to do with what she perceived as President Obama's inability or unwillingness to use the term "war." Hardly an original accusation, Palin's sentiments echoed those of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Neither apparently did the research to recognize President's use of the terms more than half a dozen times throughout his State of the Union speech, an especially troubling lack of attention paid by someone FOX bothered to bring in to analyze the speech before and after its delivery.
Submitted by meg on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 1:31pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White I imagine commentators all around the nation are looking at the Illinois lieutenant governor's race and shaking their heads, saying, "Only in Chicago could a guy who dates and threatens prostitutes, takes illegally-obtained steroids and tries to sexually assault his ex-wife win the Democratic nomination." But I request a revision. The phrase should be, "Only in America." The truth is, the disgraced Scott Lee Cohen, who used the Superbowl as a cloak of darkness under which to announce he's pulling out of the November elections, is fundamentally no different than Carly Fiorina or Michael Bloomberg. Their only real qualification for office is their money. In a bizarre and painful-to-watch press conference at a bar on Chicago's far northeast side last night, Cohen announced his withdrawal, as his pre-adolescent son sat sobbing into the microphones lined up in front of his father. The sad fact is that this whole ugly scene could've been avoided.
Submitted by whynowwhyme on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 12:29pm.
BUZZFLASH DISCUSSION Besides the biggest news of the weekend (the Saints' victory in the Super Bowl), a number of major political events occurred, as well. For one, our readers know that the former-governor-turned-FOX-pundit Sarah Palin delivered a speech at a Tea Party convention for a sum speculated around $100K. Speaking of the movement, she said, "This is much bigger than a -- than a hockey mom from Wasilla. It's much bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter. It's -- it is the people's movement, it's about the people, and I'm proud to be a part of this." Besides that dig at the president, she added that she sensed Americans had grown frustrated because President Obama "expects us to sit down and shut up and accept" his policies. As to what those policies might be, Palin could only cite a disdain for his "general personality."
Of course, the biggest policy debate of this past year has been that of healthcare reform. Hours before the Super Bowl's kickoff, President Obama extended an offer to Republicans to participate in a bipartisan effort to create and pass some kind of healthcare reform. Given the opposition voiced by Palin, one that mentions policy disputes in passing but ultimately devolves into unsubstantiated character attacks, along with the Tea Party movement that the GOP seeks to harness, what kinds of results do you think we can expect to have from such a healthcare summit? And what effects do you feel that televising the discussions, as President Obama seeks to do like he did with his appearance at the GOP retreat, will have on the outcomes? Will the GOP have to finally cast aside Palin, whose populist policies include helicopter hunting?
Submitted by mark karlin on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 7:56am.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG By Mark Karlin When a Super Bowl political issue such as healthcare reform drags out for more than a year, to most Americans it looks like gridlock. Given President Obama's rational Zen leadership and Rahm Emanuel's shortsighted self-enclosed view of Congress and the American "center," the President and the nation would have been better served, it appears, by Obama throwing the long ball of "Medicare for All." BuzzFlash has advocated government administered universal health coverage for years, and particularly the phrase "Medicare for All." Sure, it probably wouldn't have passed the Senate the first time around, but it would have been quick, decisive, and bold. That's what Americans want in a Super Bowl quarterback, and despite all the polling on self-identified political labels ("conservative," "liberal," etc.) that's what they want in a president.
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 4:49am.
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
When, at the first and probably last National Tea Party Convention, the rather unstable Andrew Breitbart introduced the even more unstable and thus more prosperous Sarah Palin as "the first person to tell us about the death panel," you knew we were in for some first-rate analysis ... say, from the seventeenth century.
Politicians, she said, sounding very much like Increase Mather, should "start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again."
Now that's one helluva platform: Sarah Palin as the Great Conjurer, seeking, principally through prayer, to spare us from financial meltdowns, unemployment, natural disasters and Indian attacks.
Read More
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 5:11pm.
BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
By Michael Winship
George Washington’s birthday is approaching and with it will come the attendant mythology: hatchet and cherry tree, wooden teeth, throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River – or the Rappahannock.
Of course, as the old joke goes, a dollar went a lot further then.
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 9:54am.
BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
By Danny Schechter
As TV Tunes Out, There Still Isn’t Much Good News In The Bad News
As predicted and feared, the media coverage from Haiti has shrunk at the very time that people there are facing their most serious challenges---how to survive the aftermath of a disaster which has become a permanent feature of their environment.
It’s not just the physical destruction, and rehabilitation challenges for people who have lost family members and limbs.
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 8:54am.
BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
By Nikolas Kozloff
In the wake of Scott Brown’s electoral victory in Massachusetts, establishment pundits have been fretting about the new political landscape. During a recent discussion on the PBS News Hour, New York Times columnist David Brooks worried that populism was coming into vogue. The political zeitgeist, he said, was turning a lot of people into Ron Paul.
“A lot of serious people suddenly think, oh, if I bash the Fed, I can go home and say, oh, I told those Wall Street types,” Brooks declared. “I think it is incredibly irresponsible,” he added. Responding to Brooks, co-panelist Mark Shields sounded the alarm. The Democrats were urging the White House to become more populist, he said, and sought to distance themselves from the excesses of Wall Street. “Now it's every man for himself,” Shields declared, as if we were in the midst of the sinking of the Titanic.
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