Tag Archives: Twitter

May 21, 2013 · 8:04 AM

Oklahoma Senators Repeatedly Opposed Disaster Relief Funds

Jim Inhofe Tom Coburn

Undoubtedly, they’ll have a rapid “change of heart” now that this horrible devastation has it home…

The Huffington Post

As frantic rescue missions continued Monday in Oklahoma following the catastrophic tornadoes that ripped through the state, it appeared increasingly likely that residents who lost homes and businesses would turn to the federal government for emergency disaster aid. That could put the state’s two Republican senators in an awkward position.

Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn, both Republicans, are fiscal hawks who have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country. They also have opposed increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers federal disaster relief.

Late last year, Inhofe and Coburn both backed a plan to slash disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. In a December press release, Coburn complained that the Sandy Relief bill contained “wasteful spending,” and identified a series of items he objected to, including “$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies.”

Coburn spokesman John Hart on Monday evening confirmed that the senator will seek to ensure that any additional funding for tornado disaster relief in Oklahoma be offset by cuts to federal spending elsewhere in the budget. “That’s always been his position [to offset disaster aid],” Hart said. “He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort.” Those offsets were achieved in 1995 by tapping federal funds that had not yet been appropriated.

In 2011, both senators opposed legislation that would have granted necessary funding for FEMA when the agency was set to run out of money. Sending the funds to FEMA would have been “unconscionable,” Coburn said at the time.

Hart said Coburn had “never made parochial calculations” about Oklahoma’s disproportionate share of disaster funds, “as his voting record and campaign against earmarks demonstrates.” Hart added that Coburn, “makes no apologies for voting against disaster aid bills that are often poorly conceived and used to finance priorities that have little to do with disasters.”

A representative for Inhofe could not immediately be reached for comment. Inhofe earlier tweeted: “The devastation in Oklahoma is heartbreaking. Please join me and #PrayforOklahoma. Spread the word.”

Coburn also put out a message on Twitter, writing, “My thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma affected by the tragic tornado outbreak.”

Oklahoma currently ranks third in the nation after Texas and California in terms of total federal disaster and fire declarations, which kickstart the federal emergency relief funding process. Just last month, President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state following severe snowstorms.

And despite their voting record on disaster aid for other states, both Coburn and Inhofe appear to sing a different tune when it comes to such funding for Oklahoma.

In January of 2007, Coburn urged federal officials to speed disaster relief aid after the state faced a major ice storm.

A year later, in 2008, Inhofe lauded the fact that emergency relief from the Department of Housing and Urban Development would be given to 24 Oklahoma counties. “The impact of severe weather has been truly devastating to many Oklahoma communities across the state. I am pleased that the people whose lives have been affected by disastrous weather are getting much-needed federal assistance,” he said at the time.

The cost of the recovery effort for this week’s tornadoes is likely to be high. After a spate of tornadoes in the state in 1999, Oklahomans requested and received $67.8 million in federal relief funds.

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April 27, 2013 · 5:59 PM

7 Funniest Obama Jokes at White House Correspondents Dinner Last Year (2012) and 2 More from Previous years…

Tonight President Obama will once again attend the White House Correspondence Association dinner.  If you’ve never seen him on the daïs, cracking jokes I recommend that you view the videos below to see just how good he is.  The dinner will be broadcast on C-Span as well as major news and cable outlets tonight starting at 9:00 pm.  The POTUS usually starts his shtick at 10:00 pm.

(2012)

(2011)

(2009)

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April 26, 2013 · 2:36 PM

Student wrongly tied to Boston bombings found dead

This is a terrible tragedy.  The reports have been found to be true…

The Week

Rhode Island authorities confirmed Thursday that a body recovered this week from the Providence River is that of Sunil Tripathi, the missing Brown University student whom Reddit’s internet sleuths wrongly linked to the Boston Marathon bombing.

“We have confirmed the identity of the young man found in the water off India Point in Providence,” Dara Chadwick, a Rhode Island Department of Health spokesperson, said Thursday.

According to USA Today, the Brown crew team found his body Tuesday evening. It’s unclear exactly how or when Tripathi died — a medical examiner has yet to determine a cause of death — but there is currently no suspicion of foul play. His family has said he struggled with depression, according to NBC.

Tripathi, 22, had been missing since mid-March. Yet in the frantic digital vigilante search online for suspects following the Boston Marathon bombing, Sunil somehow emerged as a potential suspect.

As soon as the FBI released the first photos of the suspects, now known to be Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, posters on Reddit and 4Chan raced to identify the two men. A leading theory soon emerged that Tripathi, given his recent disappearance, had snuck off to prepare for the attack. That speculation rapidly spread to Twitter, where Tripathi’s name became a trending topic. One Twitter user erroneously claimed that someone on the Boston Police Department scanner — itself an unreliable source of information — specifically named him as a suspect. Soon, news crews descended on his parents’ home looking for answers.

Except that Tripathi was completely innocent. The only evidence against him, it turned out, was that he’d gone missing at an inopportune time. As the New Yorker‘s Amy Davidson put it, those internet investigators had simply “looked at that video and saw who and what they may have wanted to see.”

The family, already grief-stricken at Tripathi’s disappearance, shut down a Facebook pageestablished to aid their search when speculation about his involvement in Boston, as well as a lot of ugly hatred, spread there. They released a statement proclaiming his innocence.

“The last eighteen hours have generated tremendous and painful attention — on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, as well as from television media inquiries— linking Sunil to the video stills released by the FBI yesterday afternoon,” they said. “Unequivocally, we have known that neither individual suspected as responsible for the incident in Boston was Sunil.”

On Monday, a Reddit moderator apologized to Tripathi’s family for allowing the hive mind to run so wildly out of control. “This event shows exactly why the no personal information until confirmation rule is in place,” the apology read. “Out of respect for Tripathi and his family, I ask that users here please remove any and all links about him. Thank you.”

In response to news of Tripathi’s body being found, his family issued the following statement Thursday through their reactivated Facebook page.

On April 23, our beloved Sunil was discovered in the waters off India Point Park in Providence, Rhode Island.

As we carry indescribable grief, we also feel incredible gratitude. To each one of you–from our hometown to many distant lands–we extend our thanks for the words of encouragement, for your thoughts, for your hands, for your prayers, and for the love you have so generously shared.

Your compassionate spirit is felt by Sunil and by all of us.

This last month has changed our lives forever, and we hope it will change yours too. Take care of one another. Be gentle, be compassionate. Be open to letting someone in when it is you who is faltering. Lend your hand. We need it. The world needs it.

With love,

The Tripathi Family

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April 22, 2013 · 4:36 AM

Media Criticizes New York Post, CNN For Boston Marathon Bombings Coverage


The Huffington Post

The media — most notably, The New York Post and CNN — came under fire on Sunday for mistakes it made during coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.

On Wednesday, CNN and other outlets erroneously reported that an arrest had been made in the bombings. The New York Post was also hotly criticized for inaccurate reporting. It sparked even more controversy when it splashed pictures of two innocent men with the headline “BAG MEN: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.”

Viewers wondered what CNN’s Howard Kurtz would say about his own network’s coverage of the bombings on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources.” Kurtz did address CNN’s erroneous reporting, as well as John King’s controversial “dark-skinned male” comments.

“CNN owned up to the mistake, took responsibility,” Kurtz said about the network’s false claim about an arrest. “I think that was a good thing.”

Not everyone was satisfied by Kurtz’s commentary. The Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor blasted Kurtz for hitting Fox News over making the same mistake that CNN did and for criticizing NBC News’ Pete Williams. Williams had been commended for getting the news right and first throughout the manhunt on Friday. On Sunday, Kurtz pointed out that Williams had said a body had been found in the boat where the bombing suspect was hiding.

“Howard Kurtz is trying to cheap shot NBC’s Pete Williams,” Poor tweeted. “This is beyond the pale…” Other viewers echoed Poor’s criticism on Twitter.

Over on ABC News, New Yorker editor David Remnick ripped the Post for its controversial front page, calling it “outrageous” and “more pernicious” than CNN’s mistake.

“This is slapping on the front page of a newspaper with a wide circulation something not confirmed at all and it harms people’s lives,” Remnick said about the front page, which inaccurately tied 17-year old Salah Barhoun to the bombings.

He also responded to Murdoch’s defense of the cover, saying, “That’s a lousy excuse. It appeared on the front page of his newspaper for all to see, and it hurts that kid’s life.”

Earlier this week, The Post had also been criticized for falsely tying the bombings to a “Saudi national” who had no connection to the events, and reported that many more people had died than was true. Meanwhile, CNN bore the brunt of the blame for its inaccurate reporting, which was also disseminated by The Boston Globe, Fox News and the Associated Press.

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April 13, 2013 · 9:14 AM

GOP Congressman’s Bumper Sticker: ‘If Babies Had Guns, They Wouldn’t Be Aborted’

Disturbing tweet of the day…

Where is the logic in the above tweet. All I see is more hysterical, irrational and frankly, dumb rhetoric from an ill-informed GOP politician.

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April 12, 2013 · 9:04 AM

Friday Blog Roundup – 4-12-2013

Will Clinton’s Agenda Survive?
The Hillary Effect has spread across the globe. But how well will it last without Hil..

McCain Slams Coulter’s Death Joke
They’re at it again–  Ann Coulter and Meghan McCain are in a Twitter war. The reason ..

Where has Mitch McConnell gone?
I’m not entirely sure I buy this. The premise is that Senate Minority Leader Mitch M..

Here’s What You Need to Bust the NRA
To bust them as blood-gargling psychopaths. In recent years 38% of the 16,000,000 an..

Senators to add high-tech visas, dispute details
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators finalizing a massive immigration bill are arguing over pl..

5 Things Republicans Should Like in Obama’s Budget
The Week finds “plenty of items in Obama’s budget that many liberal commentators and.

Chelsea Clinton: Myths About the Millennial Generation
They’re all about money and mobile phones, right? Wrong

Obama’s budget and the put-up-or-shut-up challenge
As promised, President Obama sent Congress his budget for the 2014 fiscal year this ..

The NRA’s Slippery Slope Strategy To Fight Background Checks
The NRA’s Slippery Slope Strategy To Fight Background Checks

“Gang of Eight” reaches immigration deal. But will GOP take it?
At the beginning of the week, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said he was optimisti..

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April 5, 2013 · 12:20 PM

Anonymous Turns Kim Jong-Un Into A Pig; North Korea Is Not Impressed (VIDEO)

Anonymous is beginning to get my attention.

Actually they first got my attention when they claimed to have hacked Karl Rove’s “Get Out The Vote” operation.  Those guys are fearless…

Addicting Info

Just as we thought U.S. relations with North Korea couldn’t get any worse, Anonymous comes along and hacks Kim Jong-un’s Twitter and Flickr Accounts. As Alexander Abad Santos succinctly puts it in the headline for his article on AtlanticWire, “Anonymous Can’t Stop North Korea, but They Can Turn Kim Jong-un into a Pig.” And so they did, by hacking into North Korea’s propaganda Web site, http://www.uriminzokkiri.com, and its related social media outlets. (NOTE: At the time of this writing, the http://www.uriminzokkiri.com  site was unavailable)

One can only imagine how The Onion’s “Sexiest Man of the Year” reacted when he logged onto Twitter and saw THIS:

Or, when he logged onto his Flickr account and saw THIS!:

Image hacked on North Korea propaganda outlet’s Flickr account.

In keeping with tradition, the folks from the AnonKorea cell of Anonymous also uploaded a video press release (shown below) to YouTube announcing their exploits. First, they issue a greeting, and make it clear that they loathe the U.S. government as much as they loathe the North Korean government :

Hello, citizens of the world. We are Anonymous North Korean government is increasingly becoming a threat to peace and freedom. Don’t misunderstand us: As well we disagree with the USA government too – these guys are crooks, USA is a threat to world peace too, and direct democracy (or any kind of democracy) doesn’t exist there. The American government is a target and enemy of Anonymous as well! (transcription sic)

Then, AnonKorea and friends make the following demands:

  • N.K. government to stop making nukes and nuke-threats
  • Kim Jong-un to resign
  • It’s time to install a free direct democracy in North Korea
  • Uncensored internet access for all the citizens!

Ummmm …. like that’ll ever happen. I hate sounding so skeptical, because I’m an admirer of the folks from Anonymous. Although their hacking is against the law, a warm flame of hope burns within my cold, shriveled heart every time I hear about them hacking some other evil organization. After all, this is one of the few effective tools for civil disobedience, the few tools ordinary citizens (or at least ordinary computer whiz kids) have left — in the United States, as well as in North Korea.

Yet, I can’t help but wonder what AnonKorea hopes to accomplish with this latest stunt. Get the entire staff of Uriminzokkiri.Com tortured and killed for letting this happen? Does the pint-sized potentate of Pyongyang really care that some of his people may have caught a fleeting glimpse of him as a pig, with Mickey Mouse’s face emblazoned on his paunchy stomach? Adam Taylor fromBusiness Insider shares my skepticism.

Taylor first mentions that these hacks haven’t really accomplished very much towards freeing North Korea:

These attacks do make Kim Jong-un’s regime look silly to the outside world, but  given that he looks pretty ridiculous already, that’s an extremely minor victory. Internally, most North Koreans will never know about these attacks as they cannot access the Internet.

He also writes that the demands are unrealistic and “ridiculous” and that the workers and “lower-ranking officials” who were unfortunate enough to have these “cyber attacks” occur on their watch are probably in deep trouble now:

While the attacks don’t appear to be devastating to North Korea, they are  embarrassing. The North Korean elite will want answers, and will probably want  people punished.

U.S. relations with North Korea seem caught in a downward death spiral as Kim Jong-un grows increasingly bellicose. In early February, North Korea conducted illegal nuclear tests and released a bizarre propaganda video with a sleeping man dreaming of a nuclear attack on the United States, accompanied by the bizarrely inappropriate 1980′s peace ballad, “We Are The World.” Then, not to be outdone, last week the U.S. flew some F-22 stealth bombers from a base in Missouri to Osan, South Korea to participate in military drills with our neighbors. After much urging from the U.S., China gave naughty North Korea a little spanking and stepped up their inspections for Pyongyang-bound cargo. Nonetheless, Kim Jong-un essentially declared war on the United States by “beginning the process of preparing its missiles for an attack,” as reported by my AI colleague, Nathaniel Downes.

Continue reading…

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April 3, 2013 · 11:35 AM

Obama’s trash-talkers

Personally, I’m glad these fellows are no longer affiliated with the White House.  This way they can speak their mind without negative ramifications that might affect their former boss, President Barack Obama.  

Politico

A week after leaving the White House earlier this year, David Plouffe took to his new Twitter account to announce that he thinks Karl Rove’s credibility is shot and his understanding of the electorate is “stupefyingly” dumb.

Tommy Vietor, another Obama ex-White House veteran, hit Twitter to offer his own measured critique about a tweet by Sen. John McCain concerning a new documentary on the Benghazi attacks —“disgusting, shameless,” Vietor said.

And former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau evidently didn’t think much about a tweet from columnist Ron Fournier of National Journal that compared White House aide Dan Pfeiffer to Rush Limbaugh. “You’re joking, right?” Favreau tweeted in response. “Otherwise, you’ve just won the Nobel Prize of False Equivalence.”

Twitter is aflame these days with high-ranking former Obama aides. Liberated from any official constraints, overflowing with opinions and no small measure of old resentments at political foes and the news media, they are letting the world know what they really think — and seemingly enjoying themselves to no end while doing so.

In the process, they are offering an unequaled window into the culture of the Obama West Wing. The brash, argumentative, sarcastic, often humorous, never-in-doubt ethos long familiar to reporters and other Washington operatives can now be followed by everyone in real time.

The Twitter alumni network has a distinctly male cast — it also includes Jon Lovett, Bill Burton, Ben LaBolt and even David Axelrod — and their frat-house banter serves a dual purpose for the Obama White House. It is an influential surrogate group, shaping the national debate while offering a relief valve for the pent-up frustrations of current administration officials.

“Twitter offers a window into the internal frustrations of an administration and the arguments people make on the inside. So it’s not surprising that people coming out of this White House are skeptical of Washington, Congress and the media,” Lovett, a former White House speechwriter, told POLITICO. “If there was Twitter when John Adams was president, ex-John Adams staffers would probably have let loose on Thomas Jefferson.”

But of course, there wasn’t Twitter when John Adams was president, nor was Twitter an influential medium during the tenure of President George W. Bush. President Obama’s aides are the first to leave a White House in the age of social media. Where former administration staffers took their newfound freedom to cable news or the pages of an inside-the-White-House tell-all, Obama staffers are voicing their grievances — and building their post-White House brands — through social media.

Peter Baker, a New York Times White House correspondent who has covered the past three administrations, said in an interview that much of what he is reading from the Obamaites has a familiar ring. The message is “about scoring points. … There’s no break between elections any more: When you read these feeds, you feel like you’re in September or October of an even-numbered year, not the spring of an odd-numbered year. They’re jabbing each other over perceived slights and sins. It’s all about jousting.”

“For the first couple weeks there was a feeling of being unleashed,” Favreau told POLITICO. “Tommy and I were at an airport waiting for a flight, and we were both in a Twitter fight with someone. After about an hour, we looked up from ours phones and said, ‘We have to stop.’”

Continue reading here…

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April 1, 2013 · 4:11 PM

15 People Who Think Google [Was] Honoring Hugo Chávez

Yep, they really thought that…

BuzzFeed

Hugo Chávez was the socialist president of Venezuela; Cesar Chavez was a labor leader and civil rights activist. See the difference?

Some conservatives outraged over Google’s choice to feature a Cesar Chavez doodle instead of something Easter-related were especially angry because they mistook Cesar Chavez for the far more polarizing Hugo Chávez. March 31 is Cesar Chavez Day, not the late Hugo Chávez’s 86th birthday, as some have claimed.

It didn’t help that conservative Twitter watchdogs Twitchy, led by Michelle Malkin, misidentified the Google doodle in question as Hugo.

Here’s Michelle Malkin tweeting a link to the post.

The headline was changed a few hours before Malkin tweeted the link.

The headline was changed a few hours before Malkin tweeted the link.

But the hyperlink remains the same.

But the hyperlink remains the same.

Several people apparently missed the correction.

Several people apparently missed the correction.

1.

According to google, Hugo Chavez’s 86th birthday is more important than Easter#reallynow

2.

On resurrection Sunday Google scum bags honored Hugo Chavez a murderer and Dictator human waste… Great job Google Hell is hot DYK

3.

Happy Easter to all. Hallelujah, He has risen! Very sad to see Google honoring Hugo Chavez today and not the Savior of all mankind.

4.

So, on Easter Google chooses to honor Hugo Chavez. How does that make you feel?

5.

It appears that Google views Hugo Chavez more important than Easter according to their #Google artwork today #Easter

6.

I love how Google is honoring Hugo Chavez on their homepage. On Easter. #wow

7.

Our Savior has arisen and #Google wants to honor #HugoChavez sad very sad…

8.

Hugo Chavez being honored on google today, I guess tomorrow it will be Jim Carrey!

9.

Google chooses Hugo Chavez over Jesus Christ today… Have you chosen something or someone over Jesus Christ?

10.

#Google you people r pathetic excuse for American. Dishoring this day & offending you users with this Hugo Chavez crap! How dare you? Losers

11.

#Google, I get that maybe your company doesn’t celebrate #Easter, but Hugo Chavez on your search page? A least put an American flag!

12.

Google is trusting on Hugo Chavez to be their Savior & Redeemer. LOST!

13.

@YoungCons Google’s home pages is Hugo Chavez on Easter. wow just wow…#reasonsihateliberals

14.

So on Easter Sunday, google has a picture of Hugo chavez up???? That doesn’t make sense

15.

Why is google commemorating Hugo Chavez…appalling

For people still confused about the difference between Hugo Chávez and Cesar Chavez, try Google. Or Bing!
Correction: Michelle Malkin’s tweet came after “Hugo Chávez” had been changed to “Cesar Chavez.” An earlier version of this post misstated the timing. (3/31)

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March 26, 2013 · 12:10 AM

George Zimmerman’s Brother: ‘Black Teens’ Are Killers

This is unfortunate because Robert Zimmerman has decided to paint all Black teens with a broad brush, totally disregarding the teens who excel in high school and college.  There are Black teens who can’t go to college but will work hard to achieve their goals.  I am proud to say my four boys fit both examples.

Stereotyping all Black males is what has gotten the police chief at the 40th precinct in the Bronx in hot water over his stop and frisk policies.

Think Progress

Rob Zimmerman

Since he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year, George Zimmerman has been trying to convince the public that he was not acting simply out of racist aggression but because Martin attacked him. Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr, is not helping his cause. On Saturday, Zimmerman went on a Twitter tirade against “black teens,” equating the boy killed by his brother with De’Marquise Elkins, the 17-year-old suspect in the murder of a Georgia infant.

Zimmerman tweeted the photo at Michael Moore, the NAACP, the NRA, and a Breitbart.com editor. He followed it up with another comparison between the two, tweeting “Teen to West: “Do you want me to shoot your baby?” #TrayvonMartin to #GeorgeZimmerman: You’re gonna die tonight Motherf**ker.”

In case the reason for his comparison of the two young black men was unclear, Zimmerman later tweeted:

Trayvon Martin was unarmed when Zimmerman allegedly followed him and shot him. He had no criminal record. Zimmerman had a history of calling the police to report suspicious black individuals, one as young as 7-9 years old. By his brother’s logic, this frequent suspicion of black people was not due to prejudice but because black people pose a genuine and constant threat to everyone around them.

Zimmerman’s trial is scheduled for June 10.

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