He Forgot Who The Enemy is
It took liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to remind supposed nonpartisan journalist and MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews who the enemy is on a recent show. When Warren began droning on about Republicans destroying the middle class with trickle-down Reaganomics, now 30 years in the rear-view mirror, Matthews cut in with his own spiel on crumbling infrastructure and underwater cities. Then, apparently, he forgot himself for a moment and said, "I don't hear you getting it done. The Democrats control the U.S. Senate. Democrats control the White House. When are you going to do what you said you would like to do?"
Warren, whose name Democrats would love to throw in for the 2016 presidential nomination if Hillary Clinton declines, demanded the news show host "stop this" and "think about it." Their real adversaries, she said, are Republicans who "say exactly the same thing. They say there is not enough money" when Democrats push spending for "education, bridges and power grids" or "research."
There was no report if Matthews required treatment for his unbiased moment.
Something In Common With Congress
The days of Walter Cronkite are over.
A recent Gallup survey found that public confidence in television news is at an all-time low. Only 18 percent of Americans surveyed said they had either "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the medium.
That percentage was the lowest since the question was first asked in 1993, worse than that in 2012 when a combined 21 percent said they had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in television news.
When the annual question was first posed in 1993, President Bill Clinton's first year in office, 46 percent said they had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence. Through the rest of his administration and his finding of contempt of court for lying under oath, through the Bush administration and its wars and the beginning of the financial crisis, and then through the Obama years and its myriad of scandals, the positive percentage has fallen by more than half.
What You Didn't Read
An Associated Press news story, carried by the Times Free Press last week, fawned over the fact four former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs paid lip service to the dangers of climate change during a Senate hearing to which they were invited by Democrats to testify about the Obama administration's energy policies.
What the story didn't say was what happened when the four were asked by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., if they thought President Obama was correct when he said in 2012 that the "temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted, even 10 years ago," and then added in 2013, "We also know that the climate is warming faster than anybody anticipated five or 10 years ago."
"So, I would ask each of our former administrators if any of you agree that that's an accurate statement on the climate," Sessions said. "So if you do, raise your hand."
None of the four did.
"Thank you," said Sessions. "The record will reflect no one raised their hand."
Who's Suppressing The Vote?
Delray Beach, Fla., resident Bob Hiering received an interesting piece of mail not long before the 2012 presidential election. Labeled with the logos of the supervisor of elections of Palm Beach County, the letter questioned his citizenship and ability to vote. It, further, called for him to provide personal information to elections officials or be disqualified from voting. The most curious aspect of the seemingly official mail was that it was postmarked from Seattle.
Hiering turned over the letter to authorities, but he wasn't alone. Some 200 Florida residents, all with ties to the Republican Party, got a similar letter. In time, state and federal agencies got involved.
Recently, James Webb Baker Jr. of Seattle pleaded guilty to identification fraud and intimidation of voters in the matter after admitting to federal investigators he was behind it. He faces a maximum of six years in prison and up to $350,000 in fines.
He told officials he wanted to intimidate and interfere with GOP recipients' right to vote.
While Baker was found out, Hiering wondered how many got letters and just didn't fool with voting. They wouldn't have changed an Obama win to a Romney win, but it does make you wonder how many other such shenanigans are lurking out there.