Showing posts with label AIPAC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AIPAC. Show all posts

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Ten days after Obama's speech, no Florida Democrat in U.S. House has sponsored Obama Jobs Bill -Wilson, DWS, Deutsch, Hastings, Castor...

Ten days after President Obama's speech -"pass this bill now"- no South Florida Democrat in U.S. House has sponsored his American Jobs Act -Wilson, DWS, Hastings, Deutsch, Castor...
In fact, not a single Democratic House member from Florida has done that.

Though I'm against it, you'd think the fact that some of South Florida's biggest big-mouths are playing coy thus far might be something that someone at the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel might've noticed, or maybe someone at one of the local TV stations.

FL-17's Frederica Wilson, who, unfortunately, is my rep in Washington, says she supports it,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/08/congresswoman-frederica-wilson-supports-american-jobs-act yet despite all her bombast about wanting jobs at those Congressional Black Caucus sponsored events that got so much attention, even while she did NOT, she STILL hasn't bothered to sign up as a sponsor.
Hmm-m... guess she's too busy.
Or something.

But while Rep. Wilson and her local pro-Big Government pals in Congress were doing whatever they were doing -NFL Fantasy Drafts?- since nobody else was using it, Texas Republican Louis Gohmert decided to fill the vacuum and is using use the title American Jobs Act of 2011 for his own bill, HR 2911.

Yes, the early bird does indeed get the worm.

But then this lack of enterprise journalism is hardly surprising, given where we live.
Weeks after the fact, NONE of those same news entities have yet seen fit to mention publicly that Wilson's trip to Israel a month ago came courtesy of AIPAC.

Something I told you here back on August 11th in my post titled , "Next year in Jerusalem" is right now for FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson, courtesy of AIPAC. But that's bad news for Americans, esp. her constituents,

Yes, that's where we live... the outer edge of the news universe: South Florida.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Biggest journalistic scandal re Rep. Andre Carson's comments in Miami is So. FL reporters snoozing while news 'breaks' right in front of them!; Rep. Frederica Wilson, outlier at her own meeting, lets jobs meeting degenerate

WISH-TV News, Indianapolis video: Andre Carson's remarks create tea party stir

Since I know that nobody else will mention it to you, the biggest journalism scandal involving Rep. Andre Carson's ridiculous comments about Tea Party supporters at a Congressional Black Caucus Job Fair/Town Hall meeting last week in Miami, is that there was not a single representative of a South Florida news organization that was there who reported on it the day it happened.
Or the next day.
Or the day after that.
Or...
And neither did any other reporter or columnist or editor who wasn't actually there, but heard about it later.
Until Wednesday, nine days later, it was like it NEVER happened.
The Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Channel 4 (WFOR-TV) - a CBS O&O, Channel 6 (WTVJ-TV) -an NBC O&O, Channel 7 (WSVN-TV) -Fox affiliate, and Channel 10 (WPLG-TV) -ABC affiliate (Post-Newsweek) ALL ignored it or never knew about it.
Which is worse?
As I write this:
Channel 4 still has ZERO.
Channel 6 still has ZERO.
Channel 7 posted an AP story out of Indy at 10:45 p.m. Thursday
articles/politics/21005253405445/
Channel 10 posted a story by Deirdre Walsh of CNN on Wednesday morning.
29038364/detail.html
Later on Wednesday they posted a wire service video of Herman Cain responding to Carson's remarks
29039774/index.html
On Wednesday morning they also posted another CNN video of Rick Perry, updated Thursday
morning -that doesn't work.
politics/29044236/detail.html
That's it for Channel 10.
The Miami Herald's first mention of the controversy -at events they had one of their own reporters at!- was Wednesday around Noon when they posted an AP story out of Indy.
2011/08/31/2383788/fla-lawmaker-carson-comments-reprehensible.html
Six hours later they ran an eight-sentence AP story out of Indy.
2011/08/31/2384346/ind-lawmakers-lynching-reference.html
That's it for the Miami Herald.

The Sun-Sentinel's first mention of the controversy was in a Broward Politics blog post Wednesday morning that focused on Rep. Allen West, who represents part of Broward.
com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/08/congressman_allen_west_may_quit_congressional_black_caucus.html
Later Wednesday, they posted a 7:52 p.m. AP story.
news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-congressman-lynching-comment,0,497192.story
That's it for the Sun-Sentinel.
It's not for nothing that I have joked here in the past that if Fidel Castro dies overnight, esp. a Friday night/Saturday morning, the Miami Herald will be completely scooped and be the last media organization in South Florida to report it.
Like they were on the Japanese tsunmai...
And the 2010 Polish air disaster in Belarus...
And the Moscow Metro bombings...
And...
Rather incredibly, nobody down here among South Florida's largely sleep-walking professional press corps seems the least bit chagrined that they got totally scooped on what has turned out to be a a national news story, nor do they seem to be the least bit interested in asking any questions of Rep. Frederica Wilson, whose FL-17 CD this all happened in, and who hosted the events last week that have echoed across the country this week, no thanks to the local press corps.
Apparently, there's no extant videotape or audio of Wilson's demeanor or comments during or after Carson's heated uncivil rhetoric.
Pity!
But then again, consider the lack of an appropriate follow-up story about Wilson's recent trip to Israel -along with dozens of her colleagues- that was paid for by AIPAC, as I mentioned here on the blog recently when it happened, a congressional gravy train which was first reported by the Washington Post, whom I cited.
Yet not a single South Florida-based news organization, of the less-than-a handfu who even mentioned the trip, felt the need to mention that salient fact, in their mentions of the trip tells you plenty about how dreadful serious news coverage in South Florida in the year 2011 is.
(Oh, in case you forgot, I live in FL-17.)
Weeks later, that fact is, in fact, still missing: no postscripts.
Down here, they just don't believe in them.
Context may be king elsewhere, but not in South Florida.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

"Next year in Jerusalem" is right now for FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson, courtesy of AIPAC. But that's bad news for Americans, esp. her constituents


"Next year in Jerusalem" is right now for FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson, courtesy of AIPAC. But that's bad news for Americans, esp. her constituents.

The very constituents that she ought to be meeting with in-person right now during the summer recess. In places like ocean-side Hallandale Beach, for instance.
A city in the FL-17 CD that she never had a public event at before last August's primary.

Some of you out there in the South Florida part of the blogosphere may've seen this telling little bombshell in the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog earlier in the week:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson in Israel
By Anthony Man August 8, 2011 01:25 PM

Notice what it doesn't say?

Correct, who's paying for Wilson's trip.
Only THE most obvious and important question one could ask.

Somehow, and for whatever reason, THAT answer didn't seem important enough for Anthony Man to include in the small post, that over 72 hours later, still has not drawn a single reader comment.

Assuming he didn't first find out about it from a press release from her office, which is entirely likely given how rarely Rep. Wilson's name ever appears in the Broward Politics blog, this is par for the course here in South Florida as far as the press digging for information goes, and Man in particular.

Actually, her own press release about the trip neglects to mention AIPAC also:

Somehow I have a strong feeling that the source of the trip's funding would've come up in the blog post if it had something to do with an oil company PAC for instance, or one representing almost any other corporate interest.

(For the record, I disregard almost everything Anthony Man writes, in large part because over the years I've found so much of what he has written or said on public policy TV shows to be factually incorrect, lacking crucial context, completely unpersuasive, or, as if that wasn't enough, when it comes to the dreaded Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, he's seemed like her trained pet poodle.
Her Boswell.

What Man has written about this FL-20 House member -who has never run in a non-gerrymandered CD and never faced a competitive opponent in a general election, a most-charmed situation!- seems so over-the-top that it was embarrassing to read.
Not unlike Alex Leary's recent story in the St. Pete Times that I commented on recently.)

I first learned about the departure of nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Congress for Israel in The Washington Post on Tuesday and wondered how in the world that could possibly be a good idea for either American public policy, esp. foreign policy, or, their own constituents suffering the slings and arrows of Obama's economic malaise.

Does Rep. Wilson really think going to Israel for the first time is more important than meeting with her constituents?
"Asked and answered, your honor."

Washington Post
House members travel to Israel, courtesy of AIPAC lobby, not taxpayers
By Al Kamen
Published: August 9, 2011

A record 81 House members, about a fifth of the chamber, are spending a week in Israel this month, courtesy of a foundation set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.
Read the rest of the article at

I hadn't had time to read the Broward Politics blog on Monday due to being so busy, but even if I had, which article tells you more?
The Post didn't neglect to discover the source of the funding, they put it right there in the headline so nobody could miss it.
As I have here, too.

The next day, my daily Morning Brief email from Foreign Policy magazine arrived and one of the posts there made all the points I made in my head and planned on sharing here -better than me.


Foreign Policy
How the World Is Really Run blog
The congress is in session, it turns out … in Israel
Posted By David Rothkopf
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 11:44 AM

This week's reports that 20 percent of the U.S. Congress will be visiting Israel this month are stunning. Eighty-one members of Congress -- two thirds of them Republicans, 47 of them freshmen -- apparently think it is more important to be visiting Israel than it is to be at home dealing with the worst economic crisis in modern memory. America's economy is in flames and these guys are taking lobbyist-funded trips to what, watch Israelis take to the streets to protest the high-cost of living in that country?

Read the rest of the post at:


I acknowledge that it sounds petty but I'd love for someone with a TV camera rolling to ask Rep. Wilson what she thinks of the success or failure so far of Operation New Dawn.

No, it's true, I don't think very highly of Rep. Wilson, and I don't think this cipher in Congress that represents the people in my part of Hallandale Beach would know what that operation is, that is, without prompting.
But it hardly matters.

Frederica Wilson will fight tooth-and-nail over the next year to make sure that she can keep this cushy, no heavy-lifting (or thinking) job of hers that pays $174k a year, and will do anything she can to make sure that the FL-17 congressional district remains nice and gerrymandered so that she NEVER has to run against a competitive candidate in a general election and can stay in office as long as SHE wants.

More soon on what's happening with congressional redistricting and whom I'd love to see run against Wilson next year in a new, more logically-drawn CD that more accurately represents the interests of this area of south Broward and northeast Miami-Dade counties.

And while I'm at it, let me just state that it sure would be nice if a single legitimate reporter or columnist in South Florida reported on what group former City of Miami City Manager Tony Crapp, Jr. is working for now in the redistricting battle on behalf of his new bosses at
Why is nobody asking or reporting on this?

I feel like I'm pulling teeth sometimes.

-----
See also:
Foreign Policy magazine: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/

The Crespo-Gram Report: http://www.crespogram.com/

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

4/21/09 NY Times: U.S. Rep. Jane Harman Said to Have Agreed to Aid pro-Israel Lobbyists Under Investigation for Espionage

New York Times
Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
By Neil A. Lewis and Mark Mazzetti

April 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — One of the leading House Democrats on intelligence matters was overheard on telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency agreeing to seek lenient treatment from the Bush administration for two pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage, current and former government officials say.

The lawmaker, Representative Jane Harman of California, became the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee after the 2002 election and had ambitions to be its chairwoman when the party gained control of the House in 2006. One official who has seen transcripts of several wiretapped calls said she appeared to agree to intercede in exchange for help in persuading party leaders to give her the powerful post.

One of the very few members of Congress with broad access to the most sensitive intelligence information, including aspects of the Bush administration’s wiretapping that were disclosed in December 2005, Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers who were listening in on conversations during an investigation, three current or former senior officials said. It is not clear exactly when the wiretaps occurred; they were first reported by Congressional Quarterly on its Web site.

The official with access to the transcripts said someone seeking help for the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group, was recorded asking Ms. Harman, a longtime supporter of its efforts, to intervene with the Justice Department. She responded, the official recounted, by saying she would have more influence with a White House official she did not identify.

In return, the caller promised her that a wealthy California donor — the media mogul Haim Saban — would threaten to withhold campaign contributions to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was expected to become House speaker after the 2006 election, if she did not select Ms. Harman for the intelligence post.

Ms. Harman denied Monday having ever spoken to anyone in the Justice Department about Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former analysts for Aipac. Her office issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Harman has never contacted the Justice Department about its prosecution of present or former Aipac employees.”

The statement did not, however, address whether Ms. Harman had contacted anyone at the White House or had participated in phone calls in which she was asked to intervene in exchange for help in being named chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.

David Szady, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former top counterintelligence official who ran the investigation of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, said in an interview Monday that he was confident Ms. Harman had never intervened. “In all my dealings with her, she was always professional and never tried to intervene or get in the way of any investigation,” Mr. Szady said.

The officials who were familiar with the transcripts, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue involved intelligence matters, also said they knew of no evidence that Ms. Harman had intervened in the case.

One of the officials said he was familiar with the transcript of “at least one phone call” in which Ms. Harman discussed weighing in with the department on the investigation of the Aipac officials and her possible chairwomanship of the Intelligence Committee. (She did not get the post.) He identified the California donor as Mr. Saban, a vocal supporter of Israel who turned the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a global franchise.

The CQ article, citing unnamed present and former national security officials, said a preliminary review was halted by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales because he wanted Ms. Harman’s support in dissuading The New York Times from running an article disclosing a program of wiretapping without warrants conducted by the National Security Agency.

Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement Monday that Ms. Harman called Philip Taubman, then the Washington bureau chief of The Times, in October or November of 2004. Mr. Keller said she spoke to Mr. Taubman — apparently at the request of Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then the N.S.A. director — and urged that The Times not publish the article.

“She did not speak to me,” Mr. Keller said, “and I don’t remember her being a significant factor in my decision.”

Shortly before the article was published more than a year later, in December 2005, Mr. Taubman met with a group of Congressional leaders familiar with the eavesdropping program, including Ms. Harman. They all argued that The Times should not publish.

The former officials who spoke to The Times did not know about Mr. Gonzales’s reported role nor about Ms. Harman’s contacts with The Times. Aides to Mr. Gonzales declined to comment.

A spokesman for Mr. Saban did not return telephone calls. A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi said the speaker had no comment.

The possibility that Ms. Harman might be under investigation surfaced in news reports in 2006. The CQ report provided new details, including quotations attributed to the transcripts of one of Ms. Harman’s conversations. Ms. Harman, CQ said, told the person who requested her aid that she would “waddle in” to the matter, “if you think it would make a difference.” Before ending the call, CQ reported, Ms. Harman said, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

It is unclear when this conversation was supposed to have taken place, but Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were fired from Aipac in March 2005 and indicted a few weeks later. They were charged with violating the World War I-era Espionage Act when they shared with colleagues, journalists and Israeli Embassy officials information about Iran and Iraq they had learned from talking to high-level United States policy makers.

The trial of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman seems on track to begin in June in Alexandria, Va.

David Johnston and James Risen contributed reporting.

--------------------------------

For more info, see also

For a Top Democrat, Further Climb Seems Out, Oct. 24, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/us/politics/24intel.html

Next Chairman for Intelligence Opposed War, Dec. 2, 2006

No Catfight, Just Politics, Dec 23, 2006

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DA1131F930A15751C1A9609C8B63


Also see the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at

The Brookings Institution: http://www.brookings.edu/saban.aspx


The first time I met Neil Lewis was in the lobby of the New York Times

Washington bureau and I accidentally called him by the wrong name,

and he didn't give me a hard time about it.

(I thought he was Newsweek's Joe Klein.)


A few days later, her was on C-SPAN's Washington Journal for about

45 minutes to an hour and the error only magnified in my head as he

deftly answered questions and raised some of his own!


A really nice guy and it goes without saying, VERY smart, savvy and

well-connected.


Not mentioned above, of course, but well worth remembering,

is that one of the dumber arguments that occurred over the past

five years was when President Bush decided to name

U.S. Rep. and House Intelligence Committe Chair Porter Goss

of Naples as CIA Director, a lot of liberal Democrats roundly

criticized Ranking Democrat Harman for being so pro-Goss.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/porter_j_goss/index.html?scp=2&sq=Porter%20Goss&st=cse


Like who else would Bush pick that would also be:

a.) instantly acceptable to the Beltway's national security crowd,

b.) have the advantage of knowing all the players intimately, and

c.) being easy to confirm, and, for good measure,

d.) been a CIA agent himself in the past?


It would be hard to make the case that Goss wasn't the perfect

candidate at the time.

That it didn't only proves the value of the Robert Burns poem:

"Best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley."

(South Beach Hoosier trivia: One of my favorite all-time films is the original 1939 Lewis Milestone-directed Of Mice and Men, starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., which I've only seen about thirty times. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/ The opening scenes just grab you from the word go, and you are immediately caught up in the crazy drama of George and Lennie running to catch a moving train and stay one step ahead of the law, with Aaron Copland's great music just sweeping you up in case you stumble. The scene of the two of them them pulling the train coach door shut, only to reveal the original line of Robert Burns poetic genius, from whence the title comes, is sheer magic! In my opinion, it's one of the best and most-stylized film scenes ever shot.

Not that I didn't really enjoy the 1992 version with John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and charter SBH favorite, Sherilyn Fenn, too. I absolutely adore Sherilyn Fenn, who STILL makes me dizzy when I watch Chiller specifically to see her in Twin Peaks repeats, along with repeats of her great Law & Order episodes. See http://www.flickr.com/search/?q="Sherilyn+Fenn"&m=text)

-----------------------------------------

Before I forget re Harman, see Wiretapping Rep Harman

by CQ Columnist & National Security Editor Jeff Stein.

http://innovation.cq.com/liveonline/54/landing