Keith Olbermann Suspended By MSNBC

MSNBC/AP

The Associated Press has reported that prime-time host Keith Olbermann has been suspended by MSNBC because he contributed to three Democratic candidates' campaigns during this election season.

In general, it is always a very scary situation that brings up a lot of ethical questions when a journalist wants to take an active part in politics - due to the hope that journalists would be objective without publicly portraying their own personal biases while apart of a news outlet - news outlets such as MSNBC have their own specifics within the contract.

The AP article explains what NBC News contract entails:

"NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president — effectively a ban. Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations."

Olbermann has made NBC aware that he donated $2,400 to the campaigns of Jack Conway, Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.

It is interesting to note that Fox News is all for letting their hosts donate to politics - Sean Hannity is very open with his donations & News Corp (Fox's parent company) donated $1 million last summer to the Republican Governor's Association (Fox still claims not to have any conservative bias).

Jon Stewart says it best when he interviewed Fox's Chris Wallace and called MSNBC a "double-A ball" in comparison to Fox:

"You can't defeat Fox by becoming what they say you are. The only way you can defeat them is by an earned credibility, not an earned partisanship. They're making a mistake by becoming an equivalent to Fox rather than a brand new journalistic organization."

This is a quite controversial matter that will definitely be reported on more in depth in posts to come.

Drunk Giants Fan Blows Horn In BART Passenger's Face

This is one of those "what would you do if" situations. On Monday, after the Giants World Series win and the City of San Francisco's period of total celebration insanity, some guy with a horn called a vuvuzela (made famous during the World Cup Soccer matches of this year), decided to blow it right in the face of an unexpecting BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) passenger with a totally dour expression on his face.

The dude got up to him and just fired it off in his face. The quick expectation was that BART Passenger would get up and fight the Drunk Giants fan, but fortunately that didn't happen.

The Drunk Giants fan took pitty on the BART Passenger and gave him a hug.

Still, it was too wild, and exemplary of the kind of post-World Series night it was in San Francisco.

President Obama Retained The Senate; President Clinton Did Not

Lost in the media analysis of the 2010 Midterm Elections is the fact that President Obama managed to maintain Democratic control of the Senate. Many, like CNN and even MSNBC analysts have talked as if President Obama, like Democratic President Clinton before him, lost both the House and the Senate. Not so.

In fact, given that the economic conditions of 2010 are far worse than they were in 1996, Obama really came out smelling like a rose. Then, the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.75 percent; now it's far larger at 9.6 percent. With that, the Republican gains such that the U.S. House of Representative is majority Republican, 235 to 196, but the Senate remains in Democratic hands, even with the Alaska election votes still being counted.

With this, President Obama has a better foundation from which to work with than Clinton did. Republicans should be careful not to overplay their hand, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did that already, stating his objective was to get Obama out of the White House. What Senator McConnell doesn't count on is the backlash that's already started against him.

McConnell's ability to grasp complex economic legislation has been questioned, and more blogger attacks will come. Republicans can't rest; Democrats are on the march. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough is totally wrong; Obama has more power than ever.

Mitch McConnell's Ability To Understand Economic Legislation Questioned

Kentucky Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said he's determined to make President Obama a one-term President, has demonstrated so poor a grasp of economic issues that one elected official observed he "either doesn't understand or chooses not to."   This was during deliberations in April of 2010 on what became the most extensive set of financial reforms in America.

A set of changes that seemed to be too much for Senator McConnell to grasp.

The person who said that was Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner.  In April, Senator Mitch McConnell said the Senate financial-regulation bill meant "endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks," according to Ezra Klein of The Washington Post. But Warner didn't stop there:

"It appears that the Republican leader either doesn't understand or chooses not to understand the basic underlying premise of what this bill puts in place. Resolution, will be so painful for any company. No rational management team would ever choose resolution. It means shareholders wiped out. Management wiped out. Your firm is going away. At least in bankruptcy, there was some chance that some of your equity would've been retained and you could come out in some form on the other side of the process. The resolution that Corker and I have tried to create means the death of the company. The institution is gone."

McConnell doesn't get that the Senate financial-regulation bill solved problem of banks that fell into a category of "large, interconnected non-bank financial firm." Before the law, such banks had only two options: obtain outside capital or funding from the US government or file for bankruptcy.

Now, the bill provides for the government to actually dissolve such banks in a way that avoids use of taxpayer funds. It's not that funds will not be provided, but only on a case by case basis; it's not a bailout program. If anything, it's a bad bank clearout program.

Mitch McConnell doesn't get that.  Instead he's worked to stop financial reform.  It's not that he doesn't agree with it, he's just not able to understand it.

Perhaps, then, Senator McConnell should step out of the decision-making process.   In the case of the passage of the Financial Reform Bill, McConnell led an attempted filibuster - it didn't work.  And all because he did not intellectually grasp what he was voting for.  

Sad way to represent the people of Kentucky.

Mitch McConnell: President Obama And Democrats Must Punch Him In The Mouth

Republican Kentucky Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (photo at left) is laying down a gauntlet and being disrespectful to the President of The United States, not to mention threatening to wreck Walgreens Health Care Reform-based business model, by stating not just that the GOP will work to block and ultimately repeal Health Care Reform, but work to make President Obama a one-term President, apparently at the expense of America.

Senator McConnell has went too far.

The only answer for Democrats and the President is to punch McConnell right in the mouth. To make him look so bad that his efforts are clouded. This is easy to do.

No, not actually hit Senator McConnell physically, but communicatively. Senator McConnell's not a perfect representative and Dems must reveal that. For example, try doing a Google search for "Mitch McConnell racist" and you'll find a treasure-trove of results.

For example, Senator McConnell refused to denounce Tea Party racism this year. According to Think Progress, McConnell was on CNN on July 18th, 2010, saying that he's "not interested in getting into that debate" in response to CNN’s State of the Union, host Candy Crowley asking the Senator about the NAACP’s resolution asking the Tea Party movement to condemn "racist elements" in its organization. Instead of saying the NAACP is right, McConnell backed off.

The result was what a number of observers called "the most racist election" in years.

What Democrats have to do is, every day, track all statements Mitch McConnell makes, and pounce on even the smallest statement.

 The Senator makes this easy to do.

For example, he says "we will stop the Liberal Onslaught" - how stupid. America had and has to increase spending because of the credit crunch, and we're not out of the woods at all. The money's not going to come from other places because the problem's Worldwide. The stimulus has been used in various countries, not just America. But Mitch McConnell's either too dense to see that or refuses to, and is willing to wreck the American economy.

Mitch McConnell must be stopped from doing that for the sake of this country.

Democratic forum managers, commenters, and bloggers, all unite.  The blog target: Senator Mitch McConnell.  The start date: now.

Oakland City News: Jane Brunner and Dan Lindheim On Police Positions

In a small press conference Thursday, Oakland Councilmember and City Council President Jane Brunner and Oakland City Administrator Dan Lindheim sat down to talk about the election and the status of Oakland Police staffing. Well, it was really all about Oakland Police staffing, and not so much about the ranked choice voting election.

Oakland Mayor-Elect Don Perata (which we can say because his 11 point first vote lead coupled with the first and second choices yet to be counted puts him closest to the needed 50 percent majority), said at his election party that his first action as Mayor of Oakland will be to reinstate the 80 police officer positions eliminated to trim Oakland's huge budget deficit. Here's the video containing Perata's comments at the 4:28 mark:



Don Perata's proposed action was met with some hesitation from new Oakland District 4 (Montclair - Oakland Hills) Councilmember Libby Schaaf, who said that she wasn't willing to rubber stamp Perata's intentions without knowing where the money to do it was going to come from. Here's the video with her comments:



Council President Brunner Agrees

In today's press conference, Council President Brunner echoed Schaaf's view. Brunner said "You know there's no money in the General Fund. I have had conversations with Perata about where else you could look for money in this system. It's probably the other funds. It's Redevelopment. Somebody's going to have to come up with something really creative. I don't know if he has a detailed plan at this point, but I don't think you can find $14 million out of $28 million. You may be able to find a few million. But we're all going to sit down right away."

Brunner said she wants to be careful not to call Perata the "Mayor" just yet because they're still counting votes.

Redevelopment Code And The Police

I pointed out that Section 33678 Subdivision (b) (C) of the California Health and Safety Code...

This:"(C) None of the funds are used for the purpose of paying for employee or contractual services of any local governmental agency unless these services are directly related to the purpose of Sections 33020 and 33021 and the powers established in this part."

Allows for the use of tax increment revenue for the provision of police services, but only if the redevelopment plan specifically points to its use. That means a redevelopment plan which doens't have such a provision must be rewritten. Lindheim said that using funds would not require rewriting of the plan, but here's where he's wrong. It does and the code really calls for this, just to keep yourself legally safe from attack.

I didn't attack him on the issue, because I wasn't there to do that, the quotes on the Perata statements were top priority. Plus, I can use this form to point out that if the City of Oakland's using tax increment revenue in a way that's legally unsafe, and it does seem so, it should stop doing so.

This is part one. Part two on Friday.

Eunice Sanborn is World's Oldest Woman

At 115 years old Eunice Sanborn is the world's oldest woman.

Sanborn was born July 20, 1895 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She has outlived three husbands and her only child, Dorothy. She will be in Guiness Book World Records as the world's oldest woman.

She currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida.