Archive for April, 2009

Iran Sentences Roxana Saberi to 8 Years in Prison

By Brad Porter | Related entries in News

Roxana Saberi, journalist for BBC and NPR, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison in Iran for allegedly spying for the U.S. If you haven’t followed the case: Saberi, an Iranian-American freelance journalist (and former Miss North Dakota) has been in Iran working for the past six years. Some months ago she was arrested [...]

April 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Quote Of The Day – Intelligence

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law, Quotes, The War On Terrorism, Torture

[...] imagine if an American operative out of uniform were captured by the Iranians tomorrow. Imagine he were put into a coffin for hours with no light and barely enough air to breathe, imagine if he were then removed and smashed against a plywood wall by a towel tied around his neck thirty times, imagine [...]

April 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 13 Comments »

Gallup: Obama’s Approval 63% In First Quarter

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Obama, Polls

Those are the numbers for now… So how does this compare historically? Obama’s 63% first-quarter average matches the historical average of 63% for elected presidents’ first quarters since 1953. However, it is the fourth highest for a newly elected president since that time, and the highest since Jimmy Carter’s 69% in 1977. The historical first-quarter [...]

April 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Geraldo Rivera Talks Protest Comparisons

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Immigration, Media, Video

Can he get away with commentary like this? Let’s hope so… Listen, I’ve never been a fan of Rivera’s, but he brings up an important basis of comparison when talking about Tea Parties and media coverage. Basically, Fox News is “wondering” why other news orgs didn’t cover the Tea Parties as much as they did, [...]

April 18th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

Are the Tea Parties Getting a Bum Rap?

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Conservatism, Fiscal Responsibility, Media

Mona Charen of National Review Online notes that major media outside of Fox News either ignored the tax day tea parties or took an adversarial tone in reporting on them. Charen rightly notes that part of the problem is that Fox News promoted and actively participated in the events, giving other news outlets the excuse [...]

April 17th, 2009 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Why Wasn’t There More Coverage Of Tea Parties?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Media, Video

That’s what Fox News is dishonestly “wondering” these days, and I think we all know why: because protests are news, but not of so much importance that you spend entire weeks covering them. Remember how much coverage the immigration rallies got last year? About a day’s worth. And that’s how organization’s covered the Tea Parties. [...]

April 17th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Quote Of The Day – Torture

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in History, Law, Torture

“The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.” – [...]

April 16th, 2009 | Permalink| 38 Comments »

Torture Memos Released. No Prosecutions For CIA Waterboarders.

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law, The War On Terrorism, Torture, Transparency

This could anger a lot of folks on the left, but I think it’s an incredibly dangerous precedent to prosecute folks for following orders. More from AP: WASHINGTON -Attorney General Eric Holder says the government won’t prosecute CIA officials for using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics on terror suspects. The decision comes as the [...]

April 16th, 2009 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

Did You Know About Mexico?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Immigration, Mexico

With Obama visiting Mexico today, I thought it would be topical to share some pretty shocking stats/facts about the country. GlobalPost has 10 factoids and here are the first 3… A recent U.S. government report suggests that “Two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.” Mexico has [...]

April 16th, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Tea Parties Draw 250,000+ Across The Country

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Conservatives

Nate Silver compiles the numbers and makes a pretty good educated guess…as he often does… based on news accounts of 306 “Tea Party” protests in different cities across the country yesterday, I get a cumulative attendance of 262,025, with a fair number of (probably mostly smaller) events still unaccounted for. These figures, wherever possible, are [...]

April 16th, 2009 | Permalink| 19 Comments »