Faux News’ Lauren Ashburn Says It’s Not Fair to Blame Faux News for Misinformation

From the "You've got to be kidding, right!?" Department:

Lauren Ashburn says it's not Faux News that spread misinformation but paid contributors and that Faux News is therefore free of blame…

 

Move over “You didn’t build that.” It’s time for “Faux News didn’t say that.”

Faux News apparently feels the same way about the quality of their on-air programming as many big corporations do about the quality of their manufactured products. In other words, people have no right to question their ingredients. No matter how substandard or even harmful they may be.

Lauren Ashburn, who, with Howard Kurtz, co-hosts MediaBuzz (Sundays 11AM-12PM/ET) “to discuss the state of the news media and the media’s shaping of current events and their role in politics, culture, business, technology and sports,” said that, “it’s just not fair” to blame Faux News for misinformation presented on their programming:

(Speaking of misinformation and media buzz, there have been some questions about Ashburn’s own credentials, though I am certain none of that is the fault of Faux News either. They can hardly be blamed for what they tell you on air.)

That’s right. Faux News is not responsible for its own content. The buck stops…nowhere.

Specifically, Ashburn was whining about fallout from her network’s recent miscue surrounding the capture of Benghazi suspect Ahmet Abu Khattala. You’ll remember that Khattala was inconveniently and suspiciously captured on June 17.

For no reason I can discern other than because Obama is black and it was a Tuesday, Faux News immediately suggested the timing of the capture was almighty convenient for Hilary Clinton, coinciding as it did with the release of her new book, Hard Choices (published June 10) and book tour (which also kicked off June 10 at the Union Square Barnes & Noble store in New York City).

Justin Baragona discussed Faux News’ reaction to Khattala’s capture on June 17:

Over at Faux News, the network both downplayed the news and provided commentary suggesting this was either a distraction or a way to help Hillary Clinton’s book sales. On Faux News’ panel discussion show Outnumbered, contributors Kennedy (of MTV infamy) and Peter Hegseth both suggested that Clinton’s book tour and potential 2016 Presidential run provided the impetus for Khattala’s capture and this news being broken now. Faux News anchor Jon Scott also questioned the timing of the capture and wondered if the United States could have brought in Khattala at any time but decided to wait for the most politically advantageous moment.

So even a Faux News anchor isn’t responsible for what he says on-air? Then who is? And don’t forget Dimbulb:

Of course, El Lushbo had to chime in and offer his two cents. Lush Dimbulb not only claimed that the timing was peculiar, but that Obama would make Khattala claim that the anti-mulsim video that sparked protests across the Middle East was the cause of the Benghazi attacks, therefore ‘vindicating’ the administration.

Ashburn’s defense of Faux News strains credulity almost as much as Faux News itself:

[T]he more outlandish the comments, the more the websites are going to say ‘oh my gosh, Faux News said this, and they made this point,’ and it’s funny because Faux News didn’t say that, those individual contributors said that. It’s just not fair to do that.

Ashburn has some peculiar ideas about fairness. Besides the presentation of her own credentials, there is her disturbing fixation with President Obama shopping habits.

You seriously have to question the acumen of a person who turns President Obama’s purchase of pink sweaters for his daughters into an accusation, saying Obama has “got to learn to take his lumps.”

I do think Ashburn forgot the saying about people living in glass houses.

I absolutely do not think it is Obama who has to learn to take his lumps, but clearly, Faux News (and by extension, Lauren Ashburn), ever so sensitive to criticism of the shoddy quality of its content.

Back in December 2013, Dave Weigel at Slate opined that Ashburn “has almost nothing to say about anything.” He is right that she has nothing meaningful to say, but consider if you will that she works for a network that questions why anyone would bother to tell the truth about anything when it can just as easily make up outrageous lies instead.

And look, it is hardly surprising that a network that prefers lies to facts would shy away from taking responsibility for those lies when, inevitably, they are questioned.

Ashburn’s complaint that her network not be held responsible for the content it airs not only contrasts unfavorably with our president’s willingness to accept personal responsibility, but it is yet another nail in Faux News’ self-made reality bubble, which can more reasonably be thought of as a coffin full of angry old white people eager to embrace irrelevance as the price of doing business.

The truth be told

Homeowners found real-life Goldilocks asleep on their couch

A 19-year-old woman accused of breaking into a Florida home, taking a shower, changing into the homeowner's pajamas, making herself some food and falling asleep on the couch is facing charges of burglary, theft and criminal mischief. According to the St. Augustine Beach police, Chancy Layton entered the home at St. Augustine Beach at around 9:30pm on Friday.

She told investigating officers she was told by a male friend that the house was empty and she could enter through an unlocked door on the balcony and stay there. Layton said when the homeowners came home at about 2:30am, she got scared and ran out of the home, leaving her purse and passport behind. The homeowners were equally shocked. "Not what I expected to see when I walked into my house. We just stood there a bit, looking at each other, like, 'What do we do?'" Cheryl Petocz said.
"There was lots of bottles of wine that she drank. She was clearly not in a clear state. I told her I was calling police. As soon as I said that, she grabbed few things and ran out the house, out the back door." The arrest report says that when Layton was spotted by a St. Johns County deputy one block away, she was very apologetic and wished to return the clothes to the homeowner. The report says Layton began to have trouble breathing and was transported to Flagler Hospital for treatment.
There, officers learned from Layton's mother that she was suicidal. Layton told officers she went to the home to "escape," be alone and not have to sleep outside. When Layton was medically cleared at the hospital, she was booked into the St. Johns County jail. She promised to seek medical help to work on her issues, posted a $8,000 bond and was released. Layton told police that the male friend, who she only knew as Jeremy, got to the house before she did, broke the back door, stole two bottles of wine and left the balcony door open for her to enter. Police are now trying to find "Jeremy," who would also face charges in this case.

Woman allegedly shoplifted out of sympathy for friend

A 43-year-old Florida woman who was allegedly caught during a retail theft told police that she did it because she felt sorry for a friend.

Peggy Sue Holm from Crestview, entered Walmart on June 10 and picked up five items worth $91.64, according to the arrest report.
She then put the items in her purse and exited the store, failing to pay for the items.
Holm told officers that she took the items because she was feeling sorry for a friend and didn't have the money to pay for them, the report said. Holm is charged with retail theft. Her next scheduled court date is July 8.

Robbery suspect lost 'bet' that victim didn't have a gun

Police in Jackson, Mississippi, are investigating a shooting that happened on Friday morning. The incident began at about 6:30am at the Motel 6 off Interstate 55 and ended at the Pines Apartments on Watkins Drive, police said.

Police say they received a call from Alton Lindsey, who said a man walked up to him while he was at his truck at the motel and asked for a cigarette. Lindsey told him he didn't have one, according to Jackson Police Department spokeswoman Colendula Green.

YouTube link.

"As the unknown male walked away, he turned around and pointed a weapon toward the complainant and advised the complainant that he bet he did not have that, which he was directing toward the weapon he was holding in his hand," Green said. At that point Lindsey pulled out his weapon and began firing shots.
"He pulled a gun on him and my boss pulled his little pistol out and I guess he shot him in the chest," said Lindsey's coworker, Christopher Atwood, who was also staying at the motel. The man then drove off and police caught up with him at the apartment complex, investigators said. The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where police said he was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Man arrested after mistaking car for alien spaceship

An Arizona man was arrested after police say he followed a couple around Bryant harassing and threatening them because he thought the car was a spaceship and the driver was an alien. The driver of the car was nervous enough to call police and feel threatened to the point he considered the concealed carry weapon he had with him.

The man arrested was James Bushart, 44. When police stopped Bushart, he was found with meth, a pipe used to smoke meth and charged with DWI and Disorderly Conduct. According to the police report, the officer conducting the traffic stop and field sobriety test says he was shaky and talking to himself throughout.
What the victim, Jay Ward, seems to think caused the problem was the car he was driving; a Plymouth Prowler. He says Bushart followed he and his girlfriend around Bryant, at one point pulling in front of them at a stop, all the while making threatening gestures and demanding the "alien take his spaceship back to where they came from." "That was my biggest problem with what was going on was how upset he was. I guess in reference to the vehicle was the only thing I could think," Jay explained.

YouTube link. Original news video.

"I was a little upset about that mostly because I also had a passenger with me that was concerned for her safety as well." According to the police report Bushart claimed he was curious about the car because "it looked like a futuristic machine." At one point he also told police that "he was a very big deal and had 100,000 Asian flowers." The victim here says he's glad it didn't escalate any more than having to call police.

Man arrested for setting his truck on fire after it became stuck in mud

A Texas man was arrested on Wednesday for arson of a vehicle after he allegedly set his own truck on fire after it became stuck in the mud in a farmer’s field.

Jack Austin, 49, was driving his Ford Ranger through a field in Downsville in the early morning hours of May 19 when it became stuck, said McLennan County Sheriff’s Detective Joseph Scaramucci. Austin then left on foot and stole a backhoe from a construction store down the road, Scaramucci said.
He reportedly drove the backhoe down to get his truck, cutting a fence and then the backhoe got stuck in the mud. Austin walked back over to the truck, covered it in gas and set it on fire, according to Scaramucci. He reportedly told officers he was high on methamphetamine at the time of the incident.
“It’s not illegal to light your own truck on fire, but it is illegal light your truck on fire on someone else’s property,” Scaramucci said. “Especially if you’re reckless about whether or not it will cause damage to someone else’s property.” Austin was arrested and later released from McLennan County Jail on a $75,000 bond. Scaramucci said additional charges may be filed, pending further investigation.

Man blamed theft of neighbor's underwear on diet pills, marijuana, alcohol, and Red Bull

Detectives have arrested a Florida man who accessed his neighbor's adjoining apartment through the ceiling to steal items. 33-year-old Michael Hearns has been charged with burglary.

According to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, victim Jennifer Lopez, not the celebrity, and her son heard sounds coming from the attic in their Bradenton apartment last week and later noticed tools and undergarments missing.
The son also noticed neighbor Hearns on his balcony shaking dust off himself. Lopez then called the sheriff's office. Investigators contacted Hearns, where he admitted to climbing through the attic and taking whatever he could reach through the ceiling.
Hearns also admitted that he crashed through his own ceiling upon returning to his apartment. He blamed the incident on diet pills, marijuana, alcohol, and Red Bull, but admits he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Retro Photos

Street Food vs Restaurant Food

Is Street Food Safer Than Restaurant Food?

Getting your kabob on wheels is just as safe -- or safer -- as buying it at the kabob shop, suggests a survey of safety inspections in major cities.

Cold and Brown Fat

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The Gory New York City Riot that Shaped American Medicine

Medical doctors didn’t always get the respect they do today, because today they undergo many years of expensive and difficult training and then go on to save lives and/or make us feel better. Neither was the case a couple of hundred years ago. Oh sure, there were some very educated physicians, but many doctors in training were seen as not much more than grave robbers.

In the closing years of the 18th century, New York was home to only one medical school: Columbia College. At the time, those looking to practice medicine didn’t have to graduate from a professional school, and this led to some students attending private, not-for-credit classes at New York Hospital, taught by Richard Bayley, a Connecticut-born doctor who had studied in London with the famous Scottish surgeon John Hunter. Anatomical dissections were a central component of these classes, and medical training in general, but they were offensive, even seen as sacrilegious, to early New Yorkers. In the winter of 1788, the city was abuzz with newspaper stories about medical students robbing graves to get bodies for dissection, mostly from the potter’s field and the cemetery reserved for the city’s blacks, known as the Negroes Burial Ground. While some of those reports may have been based on rumor, they pointed to an underlying truth: with no regulated source of bodies for dissection, the medical students had taken matters into their hands and begun plundering the local graveyards.

The riot that ensued led to the deaths of up to 20 people. And it wasn’t the only one, as people in other cities were fed up with medical training that involved stolen corpses. Read about the riot, and the reforms that followed, at Smithsonian.

Health News

Autism-Pesticide Link Found in Calif. Study

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Booze and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Where's the Line?

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Ziggy

Images Of The Medieval City

What did medieval cities look like? Or more precisely, how did medieval people depict cities? Here are 15 images from the Middle Ages that show how the urban world looked like.

A Mysterious Law That Predicts The Size Of The World's Biggest Cities

Back in 1949, American linguist George Kingsley Zipf noticed something odd about how often people use words in a given language. If he ranked the words in order of popularity, a striking pattern emerged. The number one ranked word was always used twice as often as the second rank word, and three times as often as the third rank. He called this a rank vs. frequency rule, and found that it could also be used to describe income distributions in any given country, with the richest person making twice as much money as the next richest, and so forth.
Later dubbed Zipf's law, the rank vs. frequency rule also works if you apply it to the sizes of cities. The city with the largest population in any country is generally twice as large as the next-biggest, and so on. Incredibly, Zipf's law for cities has held true for every country in the world, for the past century.

The Depressing Industrial City Of Norilsk

Norilsk is an industrial city located in Krasnoyarsk Krai, in Russia, with a population of 170,000. Norilsk is almost cut off from the world. The only way to leave Norilsk is to travel 2,000 km down the Yenisei River or by air.
The city was founded in 1935, as a slave labor camp, and later as a settlement for those working in mining and metallurgic operation. Norilsk contains the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex, producing more than 20 percent of the world's nickel, 50 percent of its palladium, more than 10 percent of its cobalt, and 3 percent of its copper.

The Magnificent Wreck Of SS American Star

When SS American Star ran aground off Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands in 1994, the magnificent ocean liner, which was once hailed the most beautiful ship ever to fly the US flag, quickly became one of the world's most recognizable shipwrecks.

China’s Supercaves

Southern China has the world’s largest area of karst topography, where you’ll find hundreds of huge caves. Caver Andy Eavis first explored the caves of China in 1982. He went back in 2013, with a team of cavers from all over the world armed with the latest technology in order to map the caves of Guilin in the Guangxi region of southern China, including some of the biggest underground chambers in the world. Read about the laser-scanning expedition at National Geographic.
Then take a look through the caves yourself, with the 3D model created from the team’s laser scan.

North Pole Drift

Satellite Swarm Spots North Pole Drift

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Martian Dust

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Daily Comic Relief

Man who needed 80 stitches after trying to move alligator from road says he's learned his lesson

A man left needing 80 stitches after he and two friends tried to tackle an 11-foot alligator which was blocking a road in Sulphur, Louisiana, says he's learned his lesson.

"I've always been the kind of guy who learns the hard way," said Glen Bonin. Bonin and three of his friends tried to move the alligator out of the way on Prater Road just south of Sulphur.

Raw footage.

YouTube link.

"(We) took our shirts off, threw it on his (the gator's) face, and we were going to come from behind it and jump on it... in the process of doing that, it spun around and grabbed my hand seconds before we jumped on it," Bonin said. The alligator then snapped at Bonin, biting his hand and sending him into a daze.

News video.

YouTube link.

"It felt like someone was pulling my arm out. I thought I was about to lose something. It felt like it lasted forever," Bonin said. "Hopefully with therapy I'll be able to straighten out my ring finger and pinky a little bit," Bonin added. Officials with the enforcement division of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries stress that if you come into contact with an alligator or any wildlife, do not try to handle it on your own. Instead, call local law enforcement or the local LDWF office.

'Pocket Sauropods'

Sauropods are best known for being the largest dinosaurs ever to roam Earth. But a new study of these ancient creatures focuses on a surprising fact: Some sauropods were actually quite small.

The conclusion is based on the discovery of the fossil remains of the smaller-than-average sauropod dubbed Europasaurus holgeri in 2006 in a quarry in northern Germany.The specimens were approximately 20 feet (6 meters) long and are believed to have supported dinosaurs weighing less than a ton each. While these dimensions may seem large by today's standards — the animals were bigger than the average horse — they belonged to animals that were significantly smaller than other sauropods.

Scientists originally thought the fossils may have belonged to juvenile dinosaurs. But the new study determined that the fossils actually belonged to adult dwarf dinosaurs, said lead researcher Martin Sander, a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the Steinmann Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology at the University of Bonn in Germany.

The dwarfism exhibited in this rare discovery of sauropod fossils is a result of what's known as island or insular dwarfism. This gradual shrinking of a large species over several generations has also affected other animals — like elephants and hippopotamuses — living in isolated and cramped quarters.

This particular group of sauropods, Europasaurus holgeri, lived about 150 million years ago in what is now Europe. But during the Late Jurassic period, Europe was submerged in a shallow sea, and most of the animals that lived there inhabited small islands. Over time, Europasaurus evolved to better survive in its island habitat by shrinking, the researchers said.

To make their case, the researchers focused on the details of the anatomy of these diminutive dinosaur specimens. They found that, in the case of Europasaurus, two different sizes of dwarf dinosaurs — a small dwarf and a large dwarf — evolved during the Late Jurassic, Sander told Live Science in an email.

"Bone microstructure tells us that the largest of the two kinds of Europasaurus was fully grown," Sander said. "To find this out, we had to grind samples of Europasaurus bones into thin slices, about one-twentieth of a millimeter in thickness."

At this thickness, Sander explained, the bone becomes translucent and can be studied with a microscope, allowing researchers to examine the bones' microstructure. The researchers also examined the shapes of the skull bones to determine each specimen's morphological ontogenetic stage (MOS), or where that animal is over the course of its development.

Sander said both the MOS and the specimen's microstructure help researchers determine how old a dinosaur was when it died.

Once the researchers determined that the specimens they were studying did, indeed, belong to the dwarf dinosaur Europasaurus and not juvenile sauropods, one important question remained: How did Europasaurus get so small?

"To be a dwarf as a dinosaur, your ancestors have to have been giants," Sander said. "In the case of Europasaurus, this is not difficult to check because, with very few exceptions, all of those long-necked sauropods were giants. The question then becomes how to shrink your dinosaur."

Sander said there were two ways dinosaurs could shrink over the course of evolution: Either a dinosaur could stop growing earlier than its ancestor — after five years instead of 20, for instance — or a dinosaur could grow for the same time period (say 20 years), but did so more slowly, at half the speed.

In both cases, a dinosaur would end up being significantly smaller than its ancestor, Sander said. In the case of Europasaurus, both processes seem to have been at work. However, his team was not able to determine which process was dominant.

Another mystery left unresolved by the University of Bonn study is that of the origins of the two different "forms" of Europasaurus — what Sander refers to as "a small dwarf and a large dwarf." These two sizes of Europasaurus could represent an instance of sexual dimorphism, Sander said, in which males and females of the species are formed or sized differently. However, scientists aren't ruling out another possibility: that the fossils from the 2006 discovery represent two distinct Europasaurus species, separated either by time or by distance.

The study was published recently in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Why Do Koalas Hug Trees?

Everyone has seen a picture like this at least once, sometimes in a random way. The koala leans forward and in an almost loving way, hugs the tree trunk.
Have you ever wondered why does this happen though? Scientists, led by researchers from the University of Melbourne have discovered the reasoning behind this unusual hugging act of these cute animals.

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Gorillas Protected From Oil Drilling in African Park

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Ticks Packing More than One Disease in Single Bite

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Was the Prehistoric Sloth as Cute as It Is Today?

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The Daily Drift

Still a better band than One Direction ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

For those interested: In World Cup play Spain bested Australia 3-0: the Netherlands bested Chile 2-0: Brazil bested Cameroon 4-1 and Mexico bested Croatia 3-1 in play on the twelfth day of the tourney.

Fairy ... !

Today is - International Fairy Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and Ananindeau, Brazil

L'ancienne-Lorette, Provost, Toronto and Ottawa, Canada

Ayacucho and Lima, Peru

Col. Bosgues De Las Lomas, Mexico

Europe

Ryazan, Vladivostok and Rostov-Na-Donu, Russia

Madrid, Spain

Treviso and Caivano, Italy

Brussels, Belgium

Helsingborg, Sweden

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Reykjavik, Iceland

Dublin, Ireland

Manchester and London, England

Rouen and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Nokia, Finland

Naxos, Greece

Zielona, Poland

Ruse, Bulgaria

Teixoso, Portugal

Baar, Switzerland

Bucharest, Romania

Chisinau, Moldova

Asia

Bikaner, Panta, Pune, New Delhi, Chennai, Delhi, Rajkot, Guwahati and Kolkata, India

Seoul and Seongnam, Korea

Bangkok, Renu Nakhon and Prachin Buri, Thailand

Holon, Israel

Thimphu, Bhutan

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tehran and Tabriz, Iran

Medan, Indonesia

Africa 

Cape Town, South Africa

The Pacific

Quaipo, Philippines

Sydney and Saint Clair, Australia

Today in History

1314		Scottish forces, led by Robert the Bruce, win an overwhelming victory against English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn.
1340		The English fleet defeats the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
1497		Explorer John Cabot lands in North America in present-day Canada.
1509		Henry VIII is crowned King of England.
1664		The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, is founded.
1647		Margaret Brent, demands a voice and a vote for herself in the Maryland colonial assembly.
1675		King Philip's War begins.
1812		Napoleon crosses the Nieman River and invades Russia.
1859		At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army, led by Napoleon III, defeats the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I.
1861		Federal gunboats attack Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
1862		U.S. intervention saves the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
1896		Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Harvard University.
1910		The Japanese army invades Korea.
1913		Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1931		The Soviet Union and Afghanistan sign a treaty of neutrality.
1940		France signs an armistice with Italy.
1941		President Franklin Roosevelt pledges all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1943		Royal Air Force Bombers hammer Muelheim, Germany, in a drive to cripple the Ruhr industrial base.
1948		The Soviet Union begins the Berlin Blockade, America responds with the Berlin Airlift.
1953		John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announce their engagement.
1955		Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1964		The Federal Trade Commission announces that, starting in 1965, cigarette makers must include warning labels about the harmful effects of smoking.
1970		The U.S. Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Non Sequitur

No One In Washington Is Fighting As Hard To Strengthen Families as President Obama

An integral part of strong families is the ability to take time out of a busy life of work to care for loved ones ...

A regular refrain from repugicans is asserting they are the only advocates for families in America, and yet every aspect of their never-changing agenda is working against what they claim is the backbone of a strong America. Whether it is opposing decent wages, gender pay equity, affordable healthcare, or slashing education budgets, eliminating pensions, and withholding assistance for struggling Americans, there is no area of family life that is not adversely affected by repugican policies. An integral part of strong families is the ability to take time out of a busy life of work to care for loved ones, regardless of age, when the need arises, and there is no-one in Washington fighting to strengthen families as hard as President Obama.

During his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Obama spent time promoting a White House Summit on Working Families scheduled for Monday between business leaders and workers to discuss challenges working parents face every day, and how the two sides can address them together. One thing was immediately clear listening to the President; he is fervent in his support for families and addressed why America’s workplace standards lag in comparison to the rest of the developed world and are ultimately detriment to working families, business, and the nation’s economy.

The President noted that “Only three countries in the world don’t offer paid maternity leave. Three. And the United States is one of them. It’s time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.” The President also pointed out that only three states in America offer workers maternity or family need time and said it was time for all Americans to be able to “afford” to care for a family member in need. Many employers do not even give unpaid time off to care for a new baby or ailing family member, which is why the President’s carefully worded “be able to ‘afford’ to care for a family member” will not please repugicans in Congress or state legislatures.

President Obama also noted that “most working families I know can’t afford thousands a year for childcare that leaves parents scrambling just to make sure their kids are safe while they’re at work – forget about high-quality early childhood education that helps kids succeed in life.” He also addressed workers’ ability to work from home if a child is sick, or take time to make parent-teacher conferences that most workers want, but can hardly afford it even if their employers are “generous” and offer unpaid time off. The President cited studies that demonstrated paid leave makes workers more productive and reduces turnover and absenteeism that is good for business.

In fact, the study the President cited, “The Economics of Paid and Unpaid Leave,” investigated the three states that mandate businesses provide maternity and family leave and discovered that there is no downside to providing what all but three countries in the developed world offer. The survey of 253 businesses affected by California’s paid family leave initiative found that “the vast majority of businesses, well over 90%, reported either positive or no noticeable effects on profitability, turnover, or morale.” Obviously, most workers relish the idea of not facing economic ruin for taking time off of work to care for a new baby or an ailing parent, so the report focused on the cost and benefits of paid family leave programs from an employer perspective. The consensus is that besides the positive effects on long-term productivity, recruitment, retention, and employee motivation were greatly enhanced by offering something nearly every developed nation on Earth provides their workforce.

Although the President cited the need for women in the workforce to have time to care for their families and still work, he specifically noted that men also care about “who’s watching their kids, rearranging their schedules to attend school functions, care for their aging parents, and spend time at home during their new baby’s first weeks in the world.” As the President spoke, it was apparent that not only is he deeply concerned with strengthening families, but that America’s archaic workplace standards “put us way behind the times,” does not contribute to worker satisfaction, and is not good for business.

As is their wont, repugicans claim giving workers any benefits is the death knell for businesses, and it is a pathetic excuse for their anti-worker policies at every level whether it is workplace safety, decent wages, or even unpaid sick leave. It is irrefutable that repugicans are American workers’ greatest enemy whether they oppose the minimum wage (forget raising it ), attempt to eliminate workplace safety regulations, rob workers’ pensions, destroy unions, or eliminate overtime pay. The concepts of mandatory paid maternity or family leave are, like mandatory paid vacations, policies repugicans will oppose en masse under the guise of protecting business profits. However, in the great majority of developed nations where paid vacations, paid sick leave, and paid maternity leave for fathers and mothers are mandatory, businesses are just as profitable as American business. Combined with minimum wages twice that of America, foreign businesses thrive despite repugican claims to the contrary.

The repugicans claim forcing women into perpetual birthing proves their devotion to families, but they have opposed something as family friendly as paid maternity leave after the baby is born to either take women out of the workforce, or deprive them of the all-important time with their newborns. California is the first state in the nation to mandate paid maternity leave and businesses are thriving and the benefit strengthens families as well as the bond between employer and employee.

Where repugicans are the antithesis of family friendly, President Obama is a champion of strong families and he is taking the necessary steps to correct the conditions repugicans have pushed over the past decades. Throughout the President’s tenure in the White House, he has advocated prosperity and opportunities for all Americans to succeed, and part of that success is predicated on strong working families that he said means “our economy grows best from the middle-out, and that “our country does better when everybody participates.” Integral to everyone participating are workplace policies that foster productivity and worker satisfaction, and as he has done since his first day in office, this President reiterated “that’s the America I’ll keep fighting for every day.” Unfortunately for Americans, repugicans have spent five years fighting against working American families just as stridently as the President fights for them and there is every reason to believe they will increase their attacks on working families in response to the President’s radio address.

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Dick Cheney Falls Apart and Admits That He Has No Answers On Iraq

When pressed on ABC’s This Week for a solution to the problems in Iraq, Dick Cheney’s Obama criticism fell apart as he couldn’t come up with an answer.

Transcript from ABC’s This Week:

KARL: — you made a big splash this week with an op-ed in “The Wall Street Journal” under the headline, “The Collapsing Obama Doctrine.” Some very harsh criticism of the president.

But what I didn’t read in your op-ed is what is your solution, your plan right now, for Iraq?

What would you be doing?

CHENEY: Well, first of all, Jon, I’d recognize that Iraq is not the whole problem. We’ve got a much bigger problem than just the current crisis in Iraq.

The Rand Corporation was out within the last week with a report that showed that there’s been a 58 percent increase in the number of groups like al Qaeda, Salafi jihadists. And it stretches from West Africa all across North Africa, East Africa, through the Middle East, all the way around to Indonesia, a doubling of the number of terrorists out there.

The first thing we have to do is recognize we’ve got a hell of a problem and it’s not just in Iraq. I worry about Pakistan. Just a couple of weeks ago in Pakistan, the Taliban, the same group that we just released five of the leaders of from Guantanamo, the Taliban raided Karachi Airport.

Why do I care about that?

Well, Pakistan is unique in that it has a significant inventory of nuclear weapons. We have evidence that the man who built the Pakistani program, AQ Khan, offered up recently and that was that the North Koreans have bribed Pakistani officials for sophisticated technology for enriching uranium and that the North Koreans now have some two — 2,000 centrifuges operating to enrich uranium.

We had North Korea try to provide Syria with a nuclear reactor.

The — the difficulty, the spread of the terrorist organizations is not recognized by the administration. The proliferation of nuclear capability and the possibility that it could fall into the hands of terrorists is not really being addressed at all.

And I appreciate the problems we’ve got in Iraq right now.

KARL: But — but…

CHENEY: But what I think we need is a broad strategy that lets us address this whole range of issues. And that involves reversing a number of the policies of…

KARL: But…

CHENEY: — the Obama administration.

KARL: But let me — let me ask you specifically on Iraq, because that — that’s the crisis confronting us right at this moment.

Would you in — would you take war — you know, air strikes against ISIS?

Would you move Special Forces into Iraq?

What would you do in Iraq?

CHENEY: Well, I — what we should have done in Iraq was…

KARL: No, no, what would you do now?

CHENEY: — leave behind a force — well, what I would do now, John, is, among other things, be realistic about the nature of the threat. When we’re arguing over 300 advisers when the request had been for 20,000 in order to do the job right, I’m not sure we’ve really addressed the problem.

I would definitely be helping the resistance up in Syria, in ISIS’ backyard, with training and weapons and so forth, in order to be able to do a more effective job on that end of the party.

But I think at this point, there are no good, easy answers in Iraq. And, again, I think it’s very important to emphasize that the problem we’re faced with is a much broader one, that we need to — an administration to recognize the fact that we’ve got this huge problem, quit peddling the notion that they — they got core al Qaeda and therefore there’s no problem out there.
Dick Cheney tried to filibuster the question about what should have been done years ago, but when pushed his answer was an admission that he has got nothing. His only solution is to send American troops back into to spill more blood in Iraq. Cheney is advocating the same thing that he has always wanted. The former vice president wants the United States to take over Iraq.

Cheney’s criticisms fell apart when pressed by ABC’s Jon Karl for some real ideas about what the United States could be doing differently now. Cheney is stuck in the past and can’t get over the fact that combat troops left Iraq, but instead of blaming Obama, he should be blaming his former boss for signing the agreement to leave Iraq.

Cheney has nothing. He is as devoid of answers as he was when he was vice president. Dick Cheney is an angry that Obama has undone his legacy in Iraq, but he should be thanking the president for cleaning up the mess that the shrb left behind.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Dick Cheney was one of the repugicans who got the United States into Iraq, and nearly a dozen years later, Cheney still doesn’t have a solution for the problems that he caused.

Cheney has nothing to add to the discussion, which is another reason why the media needs to stop giving him airtime on Iraq.

For Reasons They Will Never Admit repugicans Are Responsible For The Attack on Benghazi

The repugicans are responsible for the attack on the Benghazi outpost for several reasons they will never admit, but that does not absolve them …

One of the things repugicans claim is their biggest problem with most Americans is that they do not take responsibility for their circumstances that forcing them to be held accountable would remedy. However, as is usually the case with any wingnut and particularly repugicans, the idea of accountability or responsibility is irrelevant when there are adverse consequences arising from their own actions or lack thereof. Disavowing their part in the current civil unrest in Iraq is a prime example of repugicans not taking any responsibility for creating the mess in Iraq when their great “war pretender” the shrub lied to launch a preemptive war of aggression that destabilized the country and the entire region. Of course, with an African American man in the White House, they have spent the past two weeks blaming everything going on in and around Iraq on President Obama as if he is responsible for the shrub repugicans creating sectarian violence or signing the agreement to withdraw American combat forces from the country in 2011.

It is almost a certainty that when repugicans begin blaming Democrats or President Obama for anything, it is  that they are the real culprits. For nearly two years, repugicans have spent no small amount of time and taxpayer dollars blaming the attack on the American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi Libya that claimed four American diplomats’ lives on the President and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The concept that the President and Mrs. Clinton are responsible for the Benghazi attack is beyond comprehension, even coming from repugicans, but as they ratcheted up their bizarre and false assertions, it became really obvious there was more at play than just repugican politics; they are covering up their responsibility for the deaths of four American diplomats.

The republicans are ultimately responsible for the attack on the Benghazi outpost for several reasons they will never admit, but that does not absolve them for their very substantial role in the diplomats’ deaths or eliminate the need for a special prosecutor to hold them accountable for inciting islamist militants to attack Americans. Taken on their own, any one of the reasons repugicans are responsible for the Benghazi attack is reasonable in any universe, but in their totality, there is no doubt whatsoever they, and not President Obama or Hillary Clinton, should be the focus of an investigation and subsequently held accountable for their guilt.

First, it is now a fact, right from the captured mastermind of the Benghazi attack’s mouth, that the attackers were driven by religious rage over an American-made anti-muslim video that “depicted the prophet muhammed, islam’s founder, as a homosexual, villainous child-molesting buffoon.” The repugicans rejected, out of hand, the idea the anti-islam video played any role in the Benghazi attack despite reporting in the New York Times the day after the attack that protesters were enraged over the slight to islam they first learned of from watching coverage of anti-American protests in Cairo Egypt. Now, it is true repugicans probably did not secretly fund the production of the anti-islam video, but they have incited anti-muslim sentiments in America over the past thirteen years beginning shortly after the terror attacks on 911 and continuing to this day.

If anyone believes repugicans and their wingnut masters at the anti-Heritage Fascade have not portrayed muslims as terrorists and sub-humans, they have been comatose over the past decade. On Monday, the day before the White House announced the suspect in the Benghazi attack had been captured by American special forces, the anti-Heritage Fascade hosted an islamic hate-fest documented in the Washington Post that focused on abusing a Pakistani muslim, Saga Ahmed, for suggesting that some attending the anti-Heritage conference readily stereotyped all muslims as violent and anti-American. Add to the perpetual muslim bashing the repugican predilection for military intervention in the internal affairs of muslim nations such as Iran, Syria, Libya, and once again Iraq that from a muslim, and many Americans’, point of view is just a reason to kill muslims as part of what the shrub called a “crusade” replete with American troops carrying weapons emblazoned with christian bible verses. There are also several repugican state legislatures passing absurd bans on what they call “barbaric” Sharia Law. It is little wonder that after a decade of defaming islam and muslims as sub-human monsters intent on killing good American christians in a holy war, that a devout evangelical did not appropriate funding to produce an anti-islam video that drove islamist militants to seek revenge and attack the nearest Americans at an embassy outpost lacking adequate security that is solely the fault of House repugicans.

Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, requested additional funding for embassy security early in 2011 to protect American diplomats working in muslim countries. The repugicans in the House rejected Mrs. Clinton’s request because as proud repugican Jason Chaffetz of Utah boasted upon being asked if he voted against increased embassy security funding, “Absolutely. Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country. When you’re in tough economic time, you have to make difficult choices how to prioritize this.” Not only did the repugican House not increase embassy security funding, they voted to cut $300-million from the U.S. embassy security budget as part of their priorities due to what they call “tough economic times. Remarkably, repugicans never prioritize prioritize funding anything whether it is for Veterans, food assistance, infrastructure repair, or embassy security and yet there is always money for tax cuts for the rich and corporations and subsidies for the oil, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industry; the things most important to repugicans.

The repugicans will never take any responsibility for their integral complicity in driving anti-muslim sentiments that led to the anti-islam video that incited the attack on Benghazi the captured islamist militant said enraged muslims after seeing protests against America in Cairo. He clearly admitted he and his militia sought retribution against the nearest American establishment; the Benghazi outpost. Instead of decrying the video’s role in driving the Benghazi attack, or repugicans’ role in withholding funding for embassy security, The repugicans covered their guilt by claiming President Obama and Hillary Clinton are responsible for murdering four American diplomats. Besides refusing to take responsibility for their role in the deaths of the Americans, repugicans are hypocrites for never investigating the shrub for the deaths of thousands of Americans on 911, or the deaths of Americans in any of the several attacks on American embassies around the Middle East due to the war of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There does need to be an in-depth investigation into the Benghazi attack, but the focus should be on repugicans for their significant thirteen-year role in inciting anti-muslim anger that drove the production of the video that led to anti-American rage and the attack that killed four Americans. The repugicans should also be held accountable for deliberately withholding funds for increased embassy security; particularly after then-Secretary of State Clinton requested help to protect American diplomats and then lying that tough economic times meant leaving Americans to die while the oil industry received millions in subsidies. It is time for Democrats to turn the tables on repugicans and lay out their case to the American people about why four Americans were killed and who is responsible.

It is true islamist militants attacked and killed four Americans in Benghazi, but without two wars of aggression to kill muslims, thirteen years of fear mongering leading a christian malcontent to produce a virulent anti-islam video, and repugicans withholding funding for embassy security, Americans would have never heard of Benghazi and four American diplomats would be alive. The repugicans may not have pulled the triggers or launched rocket-propelled grenades that killed Americans in Benghazi, but they are responsible for the Benghazi attack and for that they must be held to account for killing four American diplomats.

Captured Suspect Said Benghazi Attack Was Revenge For Anti-Islam Video

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the suspect captured by U.S. special forces on Tuesday for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attack, reportedly said he was motivated in part by the anti-Islam online video made in America, according to the New York Times.

"What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video," Times reporter David Kirkpatrick wrote in a story on Khattala on Tuesday.

True or not, Benghazi captive's claims make things interesting

The repugican Led House Passes an Unconstitutional Defense Spending Bill

Led by the repugican cabal, the House passed a defense spending bill today that violated the constitution separation of powers by stripping President Obama of his Commander in Chief authority.

By a vote of 340-73, the House passed a defense spending bill that includes a provision that forbids President Obama from moving any detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay for a year.

The problem with this piece of legislation is that it is not constitutional.

Before the House passed the bill, the White House had already labeled the GITMO provisions unconstitutional, “The Administration strongly objects to sections 8107, 8108, 8139, and 9015 of the bill, each of which would restrict the Executive Branch’s ability to manage the Guantánamo detainee population. The President has repeatedly objected to the inclusion of these or similar provisions in prior legislation and this year has reiterated his call to the Congress to lift such restrictions. As the President said in his State of the Union Address, “this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantánamo Bay.” Operating the detention facility at Guantánamo weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists. These provisions are unwarranted and threaten to interfere with the Executive Branch’s ability to determine the appropriate disposition of detainees and its flexibility to determine when and where to prosecute Guantánamo detainees based on the facts and circumstances of each case and our national security interests. Sections 8107, 8139, and 9015 would, moreover, violate constitutional separation-of-powers principles under certain circumstances.”

The White House is correct on this one. The repugicans have always tried to ignore this fact, but the GITMO detainees that were captured during armed conflict are prisoners of war. The House does not have the constitutional authority to forbid the president from doing anything with POWs. This is why, until now, congress has chosen to block President Obama’s efforts to close the prison by withholding funding.

The House of Representatives is limited to controlling the power of the purse, and congressional oversight. The repugicans who voted for this bill stepped way over the line, and violated the constitution. The repugicans sought no legislation to limit the shrub when he released or transferred 500 detainees from GITMO.

Instead of fighting President Obama to keep an abomination to international law open, Congress should do the right thing and appropriate the funds to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay once and for all.