The Obama Administration has found itself in yet another scandal this week after it was revealed that law enforcement officials had obtained records for the telephone lines of journalists at the Associated Press. From the NYTimes:

The A.P. said that the Justice Department informed it on Friday that law enforcement officials had obtained the records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones. It said the records were seized without notice sometime this year.

The organization was not told the reason for the seizure. But the timing and the specific journalistic targets strongly suggested they are related to a continuing government investigation into the leaking of information a year ago about the Central Intelligence Agency’s disruption of a Yemen-based terrorist plot to bomb an airliner.

Gary Pruitt, the president and chief executive of The A.P was not amused and wrote to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr calling the seizure a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into its operations and told him that “there can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters.” He continued: “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the news gathering activities undertaken by The A.P. during a two-month period, provide a road map to A.P.’s news gathering operations, and disclose information about A.P.’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”

A Justice Department spokesman said that the agency was “always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws.” The JD’s reference to the ‘public interest’ referred to the complicated CIA operation in Yemen that was attempting to thwart a plot by Al-Qaeda to attack a US bound airliner. From the Huff Post:

On May 7, 2012, AP reporters Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, citing anonymous sources, reported that the CIA had thwarted a plot by an al-Qaeda affiliate to “destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.”

The AP acknowledged then that it had agreed with the White House and CIA requests “not to publish” its story “immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way.” But “once officials said those concerns were allayed,” the news organization went ahead with its story rather than wait for the Obama administration’s official announcement.

It was later revealed that the “would-be bomber” was actually a U.S. spy planted in the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. On May 18, U.S. and allied officials suggested to Reuters that the leak to the AP had forced the end of an “operation which they hoped could have continued for weeks or longer.”

Regardless of public safety threats, media freedom advocates are maintaining that the ability of the press to maintain confidential relationships with their sources should be protected at all costs.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released the following statement:

“The media’s purpose is to keep the public informed and it should be free to do so without the threat of unwarranted surveillance. The Attorney General must explain the Justice Department’s actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again…..

Obtaining a broad range of telephone records in order to ferret out a government leaker is an unacceptable abuse of power. Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy, and that freedom often depends on confidential communications between reporters and their sources.”

And the Newspaper Association of America issued a statement saying:

“Today we learned of the Justice Department’s  unprecedented wholesale seizure of confidential telephone records from the Associated Press. These actions shock the American conscience and violate the critical freedom of the press protected by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

The Obama Administration’s record on civil liberties is becoming increasingly worrying - the NDAA, the Material Strikes Law and drone strike policy all point to a general disregard for basic constitutional rights, and make it difficult to argue that Obama is any better than the Bush Administration in this regard. Government attacks on press freedom is nothing new – the Bush Administration launched broad initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources, but this is no excuse.

Obama was elected in part to put a stop to the egregious abuses of executive power by the Bush Administration. Instead, it appears to be upping the ante.

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Public Policy Polling asked a selection of Republicans and Democrats what they thought about the so called scandal in Benghazi and found some entertaining interesting results:

41 percent of Republicans say they consider this to be the “biggest political scandal in American history” compared to only 43 percent who disagree. Only 10 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of independents agreed.

Of the 41 percent of Republicans who consider Benghazi to be the worst political scandal in American history, 39 percent are unaware that Benghazi is located in Libya. 10 percent said it’s in Egypt, 9 percent in Iran, 6 percent in Cuba, 5 percent in Syria, 4 percent in Iraq, and 1 percent each in North Korea and Liberia, with 4 percent unwilling to venture a guess.

While this is quite funny, it should be remembered that America has developed a nasty habit of attacking a) the wrong country and b) places most of its citizens couldn’t find on a map.

So watch out Slovakia. Republicans are still pissed about Monica Lewinksy. Or was that in Sweden?

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In any given episode of a Glenn Beck show, you can be assured of hearing something hilarious. Lately, Beck has been jumping up and down about non-existent Boston Bombing conspiracies, comparing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to a Nazi, and claiming the suicide of a potential mass shooter at Houston airport was akin to the fire at the German Reichstag in 1933.

Sure, that’s pretty crazy, but it’s nothing compared to some of the other stuff he’s said over the years. Beck specializes in a unique brand of creative thinking where completely unrelated events can be strung together to form a completely alternative reality that only he understands.

In homage to Beck’s madness, we went back in history to find the craziest stuff he’s ever said. There were many, many other quotes that could have made the top 5, but the following 5 nuggets of sheer lunacy were, in our opinion, the very best:

1. “I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. … No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus — band — Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I’d kill Michael Moore,’ and then I’d see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I’d realize, ‘Oh, you wouldn’t kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn’t choke him to death.’ And you know, well, I’m not sure.” –responding to the question “What would people do for $50 million?”, The Glenn Beck Program, May 17, 2005

2. “Al Gore’s not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization…And you must silence all dissenting voices. That’s what Hitler did. That’s what Al Gore, the U.N., and everybody on the global warming bandwagon [are doing].” – The Glenn Beck Program, May 1, 2007

3. ”You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one – I can’t speak for you, but I’m on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show.” – The Glenn Beck Program,  Nov. 6, 2006

4. “The violent left is coming to our streets, all of our streets, to smash, to tear down, to kill, to bankrupt, to destroy. It is will be global in its nature and global in its scope” - Values Voter Summit, Novemer 10 2008 

5. When you watch Barack Obama, you can just see he is angry….No matter how much power he has amassed, no matter how many friends in the media he has, Americans know. And if they reject it this time, if they’re so dead inside – that’s a possibility – if they’re so dead inside that they can no longer see the difference between good and evil, we have to be destroyed because we will be a remarkable evil on this planet.” - The Glenn Beck Program, 5 November 2012

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A cheeky and rather drunk guide from the Singita Game Reserve at Kruger National Park in South Africa thought it would be fun to charge at an elephant roughly 90 times his own size. The elephant got a bit of a fright and ran off, and the man returned to his friends a hero. The video was uploaded onto youtube, and the world reacted with horror at the ‘cruelty’ of the act. Some comments on the video:

“This makes me sick…disgusting behavior by all involved”

“What he did was unnecessary and cruel and monumentally stupid.”

“i hope that guy gets charged by an elephant and dies next time!”

“disgusting. revoltiong. these crack heads are a disgrace to mankind”

Wildlife advocates are demanding the man be charged  and the Singita Game reserve has fired the man involved, releasing the following statement:

We have conducted a thorough investigation into the content of this video and the appropriate disciplinary measures have been taken to address this incident. The guide involved in the confrontation is no longer employed by Singita and further disciplinary procedures are in progress with regard to others involved.

Some perspective here. Firstly, the man is clearly an idiot and shouldn’t be allowed near wildlife for his own safety. The reserve made the right decision in getting rid of him. But was this an act of ‘disgusting cruelty’? Given he didn’t touch the elephant, it’s a bit of a stretch. Sure, the elephant got a little alarmed, but don’t pigeons do the same when you stomp your foot at them in the park?

Also, it was kinda funny…

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Tom Friedman, The New York Time’s meaningless columnist in chief published one of his best pieces yet last week – a true testament to his ability to regurgitate banal pseudo intellectual garbage week after week. The ludicrously highly paid Friedman churns out articles on the modern world that string baffling metaphors together, sequencing them to give the impression of coherence while laughing all the way to the bank.

In an article titled ‘This Ain’t Yoghurt’, Friedman tackles the crisis in Syria, using his typical arsenal of childish analogies and implied comparisons to make an incredibly simplistic point that he could have tweeted in 40 characters or less.

The argument, as far as I can deduce, goes something like this:

One of Friedman’s Arab friends told him a proverb about eating hot soup and getting your tongue burnt (apparently you’ll always blow on your yoghurt afterwards).

Friedman then equates this with America invading Iraq and Afghanistan (tongue burnt) and the conflict in Syria (which ‘ain’t yoghurt’, but hot soup again).

Friedman draws comparison between the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Arab Spring, concluding eventually that they aren’t similar at all.

Friedman uses a birth metaphor about Syria being Iraq’s twin and needing a midwife to become a blooming democracy.

Friedman then expresses hope Arabs can “transition from Saddam to Jefferson without getting stuck in Khomeini or Hobbes” and argues for an Arab Nelson Mandela figure to fix all their problems (or a midwife).

Friedman then concludes that none of this is possible and the only way to solve the problem is to “occupy the entire country, secure the borders, disarm all the militias and midwife a transition to democracy”.

Friedman then says this is not possible and doesn’t want America to get heavily involved  (remember, this ain’t yoghurt).

Friedman finally concludes that we must wait until everyone is exhausted from fighting to send the midwives back in.

If you are scratching your head at all of this, don’t worry. Friedman’s piece makes about as much sense as standard Glenn Beck rant on Obama’s closet Communism. It’s not that Friedman doesn’t get it – if you mine through the nonsense, he clearly sees Syria is screwed and US intervention won’t do much. He just packages his thoughts in a series of garbled paragraphs that any half decent English teacher would dismiss as bullshit from the 9th grade upwards. Friedman clearly prides himself on being able to distill complicated events into easily digestible nuggets of prose – hence his relentless use of metaphors – which makes reading him all the funnier. It’s like watching a mal-coordinated tennis player serving the ball into the net over and over again while strutting infront of the crowd to remind them of his athletic prowess.

And while Friedman’s columns are a genuine source of comedy (see Matt Taibbi for some epic takedowns) , they should also be a cause for serious concern. The New York Times is a respected paper and Friedman has an enormous platform to spread his musings on foreign policy and current affairs. This means hundreds of thousands of people get to see the world through Friedman’s dangerously simplistic eyes.

In Friedman’s world, incredibly complex events can be turned into neat parables to give his readers dinner party talking points. And while they might go down a treat after a few glasses of wine, his readers should be wary that upon closer inspection, a Friedman distillation might not be as clever as it sounds. As Taibbi points out, “Thomas Friedman does not get [metaphors] right even by accident. It’s not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It’s that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it’s absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius.”

Want to talk about slavery? Here’s a Friedmanesque metaphor: “Slavery was the Walmart of its day, arguing against workers rights while offering slaves benefits”. World War Two?: “Hitler was the big bad wolf trying to turn Europe into sheep for him to lead”. [Editors note: these are made up Tom Friedman metaphors]

There are only two rules for a Tom Friedman metaphor: 1. They must be childishly simple. 2. They must not make sense if you examine them closely.

So while Friedman’s “This Ain’t Yoghurt” piece kind of makes sense if you boil it down its core argument (Syria is buggered and we shouldn’t go anywhere near it until the fighting stops), you have to wade through a litany of stupid metaphors and analogies about midwives refereeing countries that are like post Soviet Union Eastern Europe but aren’t, imagining non existent Arab Nelson Mandelas and yogurt that is actually hot soup.

Thanks Tom. It’s all perfectly clear now.

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Last Friday, the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald took on Bill Maher over the supposedly ‘unique’ danger of Islam on Maher’s show ‘Real Time’ on HBO. Maher has long contended that Islam is an inherently violent religion that poses a greater threat than all other religions.

Greenwald took it to Maher on Friday, and to be frank, made Maher look pretty silly. Maher argued that whenever Muslims are given political freedom, they choose theocracy and extremism. Greenwald pointed out that US involvement in the Middle East is the driving force behind extremism, and that other religions are equally ‘dangerous’ when it comes to promoting violent and oppressive policies (Israel’s occupation of Gaza being a good example).

Greenwald posted this clip blog with the major exchanges:

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The above footage is of the world’s first 3 dimensional printed gun. Reports the Guardian:

The world’s first gun made almost entirely by a 3D plastic printer has been successfully fired in Texas.

The successful test of the plastic handgun, which was built by Defense Distributed using an $8,000 3D printer, came after a year of development. The company, which is run by 25-year-old Cody Wilson, now plans to publish the blueprints for the gun online.

Most worryingly, this is 100% legal:

The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 makes it illegal to manufacture in the US any firearm that is not detectable by walk-through metal detectors. To combat this, Wilson inserted a 6oz piece of steel into the body of his gun, making it legal.

So in a country where there are already 32,000 gun related deaths a year and roughly 300,000 privately owned firearms, the technology is now available to create deadly weapons on demand.

Not to point out the obvious, but isn’t this a bit troubling?

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Just when you thought Republican delusions had reached their limit, Dark Lord Dick Cheney re-emerges from the political wilderness to remind everyone how competent the Bush Administration was. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Cheney told the British paper that the non scandal in Benghazi would never had happened under his old boss:

‘When we were there, on our watch, we were always ready on 9/11, on the anniversary,’ he recalled. ‘We always anticipated they were coming for us, especially in that part of the world.’

‘I cannot understand why they weren’t ready to go,’ the former two-term vice president said of the Obama administration.

‘You’ve got units in the Defense Department that are superb. They practice for this contingency. And they didn’t have anybody in the area,’

It’s difficult not to get angry when reading this type of nonsense given the fact that 9/11 happened on their watch, and when Bush found out about it, he sat staring a ‘My Pet Goat’ FOR 7 MINUTES:

That’s real preparedness for you.

The politics being played with this are moving into unchartered territory in terms of delusion (for a thorough and completely unnecessary debunking of the garbage Republicans have been throwing at the President check out Kevin Drum’s piece in Mother Jones). What exactly would Cheney have the Obama Administration do? Attack Poland? Start a ‘War on Unpredictable Political Upheavals’?

Seriously.

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Steve Jobs: Not a fan of Fox News (Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com)

Steve Jobs may have been a despotic control freak who loathed regulation, but he saw Fox News for what it was – a massively insidious institution that was causing a huge amount of damage to American society. Jobs hated the network so much he personally ordered Apple ads to be removed from Fox News programming (via networkworld.com):

It’s now known that the late Steve Jobs backed up his harsh words by wisely withholding Apple’s advertising dollars, according to an upcoming book about the 2012 presidential campaign.

The book’s author, Jonathan Alter, a Bloomberg political columnist and contributor to MSNBC, tells of Jobs “personally ordering that Apple ads be removed from Fox News,” according to a blog post [1] in the New York Times over the weekend. Alter’s book, “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies,”  is scheduled to hit stores June 4.

Apparently, Jobs even told Murdoch over a dinner how bad he thought Fox had become:

“You’re blowing it with Fox News,” Jobs told him over dinner. “The axis today is not liberal and conservative, the axis is constructive-destructive, and you’ve cast your lot with the destructive people. Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society. You can be better, and this is going to be your legacy if you’re not careful.” Jobs said he thought Murdoch did not really like how far Fox had gone. “Rupert’s a builder, not a tearer-downer,” he said. “I’ve had some meetings with (Murdoch’s son) James, and I think he agrees with me. I can just tell.”

Fox is a gigantic media organization that has many businesses, but Jobs was absolutely right – Murdoch’s name is synonymous with Fox News and will be his lasting legacy. And it’s not a good one.

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Happy Monday everyone – I’m out of town at the moment so will be posting sporadically. Anyway, to kick your week off, Matt Taibbi is running a competition over on his blog to see who can come up with the best Thomas Friedman porn titles. It’s pretty damn funny:

How did we not see that Friedman’s whole career has been a series of porn titles? From The Golden Straitjacket to In Three Holes to My Special Sauce to The External Midwife to Hot, Flat and Crowded and, most obviously, Suck On This (which, as many readers noted, is a real porn movie), it’s almost like Friedman has been using his New York Times columns to send, across decades, coded battlefield commands to the worldwide army of porn producers. Which is just about the funniest thing imaginable.

Poor Friedman, the guy really can’t catch a break. There’s now a website dedicated to his meaningless columns that allows you to create your own article out of banal paragraphs he might write. Seriously, click ‘generate’ and you’ll be shocked by the outcome. They all read exactly like a Friedman New York Times column.

If the paper wanted to save some cash, it really could be a viable alternative….

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