Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

Mahmoud and Dick, together at last

2009-07-03T12:52:00.003-04:00

Apparently, the government of Iran is waterboarding detainees. From the Huffpo's Jason Linkins comes the sad irony:

[h/t; The Daily Dish] From ABC News' Lara Setrakian, comes this tweet:

Tehrani source close to those detained says some have been beaten heavily and waterboarded with hot water #iranelection

In my younger years, I would simply expect this news to be greeted with universal outrage, knowing that the techniques being described had long been deemed to be well across the Bridge Too Far. Now that I've lived through the Bush administration, however, I am forced to contemplate the possibility that Iran is merely taking legitimate steps to obtain critical information in their nations' vital national security interests. One mustn't preclude the possibility that many of those being waterboarded are privy to information about "time bombs" that may, at this moment, be "ticking." ...

Thanks, Dick.

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan tries for balance (I'll leave it to you to decide if he succeeds.)

More on Ayatollah Khameini's application of The Cheney Method here.

I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger... Debbie Rowe wants the kids

2009-07-02T19:07:00.004-04:00

The lady with the Jay Leno Chin, who has alternately described herself as merely a "vessel" and a "thoroughbred," for the production of Michael Jackson's progeny; who said she merely "offered her womb to Michael as a gift" (and for the gift of money for herself,) and who has said that she has no relationship with the children she served as surrogate mother for, and that she doesn't want to see them, now says, totally coincidentally a day after Jackson's will was released, and perhaps after figuring out exactly how much money is on the table, says she wants "her" children. Debbie Rowe is apparently willing to separate Paris and Prince Jackson from their younger brother and the only family they know, and take them from their grandmother ... because...?

Rowe would apparently have a strong legal case, if not a moral one, even though she may be no more the biological mother of those children than Jackson was the biological father (though he actually was a parent to them, unlike, say ... her...) and we could even see the surrogate mother of the third child, "Blanket," come forward for her piece of the action ... I mean the love of her child ... too. Well, if it's headed to court, here are a few alleged Debbie Rowe statements the court might want to take into consideration:

On her maternal instincts and parenting ability:

""I was just the vessel. It wasn't Michael's sperm. Just like I stick the sperm up my horse, this is what they did to me. I was his thoroughbred."....

"I know I will never see them again. I was never cut out to be a mother - I was no good. I don't want these children in my life. My children are my animals now."

On her rent-a-womb:

"I offered him my womb - it was a gift. It was something I did to keep him happy."
"I got paid for it, and I've moved on. I know I will never see my children again."

And this:

"I was never a good mother, I never felt any attachment to them. It was a better feeling giving them to him than it was keeping them as my own.

So what changed, Debbie dear? Well ... maybe it's this, as reported by TMZ:

We've learned who's getting what in Michael Jackson's trust. Here's how it breaks down.

Katherine Jackson will get 40% of the assets.
Michael's 3 kids will get another 40%.
And the remaining 20% goes to several children's charities. We're told the charities have not been designated yet and are not specified in the trust.

What's 40% of $1 billion? I'll bet Debbie's done the math ... and would it be too much to create a charity called The Deborah Jean Rowe Foundation, like, yesteray???

Care to vote on whether she should get custody of the money ... I mean the kids? Here you go!

Flashback: Debbie before she gave birth to their second child, pretends to be really married to Michael, but admits their "friendship is more important." Now, of course, she's blabbing to anyone who'll talk to her that their marriage was a sham (not to mention outing Jackson as not the kids' bio father.)

Flashback 2: Debbie defends giving up custody of her kids back in 2003, adding: "my kids don't call me mom because I don't want them to." Watch:

Plus: will the nanny also enter the custody sweepstakes?

Ah, dying rich!

HELP on the way?

2009-07-02T14:11:00.002-04:00

when you want something done right, get Teddy Kennedy to do it. It seems Kennedy has swooped in and delivered a health care plan with a public option that has the support of all 13 Democrats on the relevant Senate committee, called HELP. The cost of the bill is also way down: from $1 trillion for the previous try, to $611 billion, with 97 percent of Americans covered. Nice. It's called the Affordable Health Choices Act. Read it for yourself here. The committee members are as follows. As you'll see, the committee doesn't include any of the Democrat Refusniks. The Republican side: not so much (includes the cranky old man himself, John Sydney McCain.)

Democrats by Rank:

Edward Kennedy (MA) - Chairman
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA)
Kay Hagan (NC)
Jeff Merkley (OR)

Republicans by Rank:

Michael B. Enzi (WY) - Ranking member
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
John McCain (AZ)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)
Pat Roberts (KS)

Meanwhile, in another corner of neocon crazyland...

2009-07-02T13:49:00.002-04:00

John Bolton sees the Iran uprising as a chance to "explain" to our little brown friends how wonderful an Israeli airstrike would be! It wouldn't be the first time ... this month even ... that Bombs Away Bolton has tried to turn the Green Revolution into a turkey shoot. I think the appropriate response is laughter... or an intervention at the Washington Post.

Crazed wingers hoping Osama bin Laden can save America

2009-07-02T12:07:00.004-04:00

... by attacking us, preferably with a "major weapon." Seriously. You know, when you get called out by people at the Free Republic and Little Green Footballs, you know you're on the wrong track. Here's crazy Glenn Beck and his Fox News guest, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit (seriously...) and self-described "lifelong Republican," Michael Sheuer, who appears to have been driven mad by the revocation of Bush-era rendition, torture and domestic spying policies. (And note how Beck does his best to channel Osama's thoughts):

And here's Jon Stewart's take:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Osama bin Laden Needs to Attack America

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jason Jones in Iran

Tip of the hat: Stephen Colbert, motivating the GOP through hunger

2009-07-02T12:00:00.003-04:00

He serves a Republican state representative who wants to withhold food from needy children ... by recommending that she stop being served. Enjoy:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jeff Goldblum

Crunch!

Leave him, Jenny. Leave him now.

2009-07-02T01:23:00.001-04:00

When your husband calls somebody other than you his "soul mate," and talks openly about having the fall back in love with you? It's time to admit it's over. (Just ask any of Rudy Giuliani's former wives, including the one who was dumped on television...) Meanwhile, the freshness date has clearly expired on Mark Sanford's political future. Or has it...?

New Florida polls, same as the old Florida polls

2009-07-02T00:33:00.006-04:00

The news out of the latest Mason-Dixon poll is essentially status quo:

Nobody really knows who Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek are ... but at least they're not Michael Arth and Corinne Brown. Sink fares best among the members of the vaunted Democratic "unity slate" (gagging ...) posting 24% favorable ratings, just 9% unfavorable, 28% neutral and 39% "Alex who???" Meek gets 11% favorable, 5% unfavorable, 22% neutral and a whopping 62% "you want me to sign what? And who are you again...???" Their would-be primary challengers (stop laughing!) don't do as well. Hell, I'm a political junkie and I'm with the 93% who have no earthly idea who Arth is, and while Corinne's dunnos are a percentage point lower than Kendrick's, her unfavorables outweigh the love by nearly three to one (15% vs. 4%.)

Out of the handful of Republicans who know who Marco Rubio is, and the 100 percent who know who Charlie Crist is, they like to two about equally. Crist still crushes Rubio in a head-to-head when you factor all Republicans in (51% to 23% with 26% undecided,) but in what is perhaps the only interesting news in the poll, when you factor in Republicans who know both candidates, Crist and Rubio are essentially tied, 33% to 31% with 36% undecided. That should provide a kernel of hope to Rubio: though 48% of those polled have no idea who he is and the percentage who have formed no opinion about him equals his favorers (23% and 24% respectively,) he seems to have some room for growth -- if his Club for Growth and RedState.com winger friends can raise enough dough to buy him some name recognition outside Miami and those god-awful tea parties...

Bill McCollum has managed to leave barely any impression on Floridians, even after 10 terms in Congress in two different districts, two runs for governor and his current stint as attorney general. McCollum, who might as well change his middle name to Whatever, is 6 points ahead of Alex Sink, but that's small consolation since, to reiterate point one, not a lot of peole know who she is. McCollum has the highest "neutral" ratings of any of the somewhat known candidates, at 45%. Sad, since he's been swimming in Florida's political bloodstream longer than anybody running. Still, at 13%, McCollum's unfavorables are remarkably low for a guy whose crowning achievement was being a member of the Clinton impeachment brigade. The key factor for Sink is women -- if she can improve her name ID, and do better than her current margin of error lead over Bland Bill with women voters, she should be in pretty good shape.

Florida is still not a blue state (I keep telling my Democratic friends this, but they don't believe me. I think it's the Obama Uphoria.) The large share of the state that leans independent, still seems to favor Republicans over Democrats. Indies in this poll favored McCollum over Sink (41% to 27%), Crist over Meek (47% to 23%.) Democrats will have to change that if they mean to win.

Floridians like Charlie Crist, but not as much as the media says they do. Crist gets a 49 percent favorable rating in this poll, a far cry from his 60 percent plus approval ratings in other polls. Still, with the GOP brand being currently flushed down the toilet by people like Sarah "It Came From Wasila" Palin, John "The Homewrecker" Ensign and Mark "TMI" Sanford, Crist's rating, and the fact that at least for now, he would grab an incredible 28% of Democrats if he faces Kendrick Meek, and 34% if for some reason Kendrick quites the race to become ambassador to Haiti and Corinne Brown gets the nomination by default, makes him practically a GOP Jonas Brother.

Nobody cares about the other cabinet races. The undecideds are in the 70s for the most part, and none of the candidates has a dime's worth of name I.D. Wow, sure wish we had an exciting main event primary going on on the Democratic side, so voters would tune in and maybe check out the other races ... oops, never mind!

Care to read the polls for yourself? Here you go, you political nerd, you!

Florida Cabinet Poll
Florida Senate poll

Would you pay $500,000 for a Michael Jackson photo?

2009-06-30T17:07:00.004-04:00

OK Magazine did, in the latest sign of old media desperation. Says MediaBistro:

Money-hemorrhaging OK!, on the verge of being closed by owner Richard Desmond, reportedly paid $500,000 for a photo of Michael Jackson being whisked to the hospital. The decision was the head honcho's call, so he only has himself to blame if the strategy to sell more magazines backfires...

If this is the photo, somebody better tell Desmond it has already leaked ... for free ... all over the net

The next celebrity death: VIBE Magazine

2009-06-30T16:55:00.002-04:00

Can't say I'll miss it, but the death of VIBE, which was founded by Quincy Jones in 1992, and then sold to others and turned into a really wide teen magazine, must be dutifully acknowledged.

Word was broken early this afternoon by the Web site dailyfinance.com and spread to other music and media news sites. The spokeswoman, Tracy Nguyen, said the Vibe staff would be formally notified in a meeting at 2 p.m. She said she did not know how many people would be laid off as a result of the closure.

The closure of Vibe leaves just one large-circulation music magazine, The Source, focusing on hip-hop and R&B. The Source has had its own troubles, going through a bankruptcy and emerging under new ownership last year. A rock-focused magazine, Blender, folded last year.

In a memo to staff members announcing the closure, Steve Aaron, chief of the Vibe Media Group, wrote that for months, the company tried in vain to either find new investors or “to restructure the huge debt on our small company.”

“The print advertising collapse hit Vibe hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business,” he wrote.

What these and other articles don't say, is that VIBE and other print magazines like it, have essentially been rendered obsolete by the Internet, as sites like Bossip, TMZ, Livesteez and on and on, can break entertainment news in an instant, and keep fans constantly supplied with dirt. The same death knell that newspapers are hearing is clanging in the heads of magazines, which don't even have newspapers' essentiality and news bureaus to keep them relevant. It's time for media to adapt or die.

Goodbye, Norman.

2009-06-30T16:23:00.004-04:00

... and it only took a ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court (and about of million dollars of the NRSC's hard-begged money.) So can we get this guy off the news cycle already? Per politico, the White House is nothing short of slap happy:

"I look forward to working with Senator-Elect Franken to build a new foundation for growth and prosperity by lowering health care costs and investing in the kind of clean energy jobs and industries that will help America lead in the 21st century." (4:14 p.m.)
MORE: A senior aide said there was a lot of joy filling the White House today upon hearing the Franken news.

"It's a new beginning," the aide said. (4:12 p.m.)

Yep. And now let's bring on the Franken Senate funny. (Okay, he probably won't be funny...) BTW check out the video of Coleman's concession: is it me, or does he talk like Elmer Fudd?

Pimps in the pulpit, volume XXIV

2009-06-30T15:06:00.004-04:00

LiveSteez tells the truth (hat tip to Bossip.com)

Mainstream politicians and Black community leaders are demanding a better accounting of the “return on investment” offered by churches to the communities that fund them. Meanwhile, legions of faithful churchgoers defend their pastors and accuse their detractors of applying a double standard that ignores the largesse of wealthy, white televangelists, while underplaying the economic development and social service functions provided by the Black Church.

“The church has gotten caught up in materialism and greed, a lifestyle. Many ministers today want to live like celebrities and they want to be treated like celebrities. In other words, instead of the church standing with the community, the church has become self-serving. It has strayed away from its mission” according to Dr.Love Henry Whelchel, professor of church history at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Amen. BTW I don't know what "Black community leaders" they're talking about, because I haven't heard a soul (so to speak) speak out on this one, except the guy who wrote "Pimps in the Pulpit," but he didn't even get famous enough talking about it to become a regular commentator on cable news. There are intermittent complaints form some quarters of Black media, especially the Black blogosphere, but the complaints haven't altered the behavior of Black pastors, who seem to be in a headlong competition to be the biggest baller on the block, rather than the greatest advocate for the often economically deprived communities they're supposed to serve. So what is LiveSteez going to do about it?

LiveSteez’s investigative series will take a forensic editorial approach to quantifying the return to Black America for the $350 billion in tax-favored donations it has given to the Black Church, examining the arguments on both sides of the pulpit. In this series we will seek answers and advisory to the following questions:

- How often and how much do church leaders take advantage of the faith of poor black people?

-We will investigate and indentify the churches they are showing a strong return on investment that goes beyond inspiration.

- What does the black community have to show for the $350 billion in tax free dollars?

- Expert analysis on what could potentially be done with such a huge amount of money and how it could improve the state of our communities.

- Why do some church leaders refuse to participate in the Grassley congressional Investigation, which requested the financial records of several mega-churches.

Go get 'em, Steez. One other thing I'd like to see is what ever happened to all that Faith Based money the Bush administration doled out to try and buy support from church folk.

And nothing for dad

2009-06-30T14:41:00.004-04:00

Talk about "crying on the inside!" Michael gets last licks on dad.

The WSJ writes extensively about Michael Jackson's assets, and his debts. And apparently, while his father Joe has creepily asserted that there is no will, apparently there is, and he ain't in it:

According to The Wall Street Journal, that version of his will might not include any provisions for his father. He did, however, leave about $1 billion to his mother, Katherine Jackson, his three children and a few charities.

The lawyer representing Michael’s parents, L. Londell McMillan, said the Jacksons thought Michael had died without a valid will. Two earlier drafts of the letter have surfaced since his passing on June 25.

Michael‘s lawyer, John Branca, uncovered the document from 2002, and he may file it with the Los Angeles Superior Court as soon as Thursday. This would effectively end any dispute over what document counts as his last will and testament.
Say the folks at Bossip.com (probably speaking for the Entire World):
Joe Jackson is the main reason Michael’s life was so tragic. The fact that he left his father out of the will comes as no surprise since Joe helped create the troubled man we all watched change before our very eyes. Pops is doin’ too much right now anyways. He doesn’t deserve a dime of Michael’s money.

Amen. Now, if Katherine can just keep Jackson's kids away from him...

Meanwhile, in ghastly news, there will apparently be a public viewing:

Celebrity website TMZ.com claims the Jacksons will take the body to Neverland, his fantasy ranch in southern California, on Thursday.
They will hold a wake on Friday or Saturday ahead of a burial at an undecided time and place, according to TMZ.

And from the TMZ's mouth:

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ upwards of a 30 car motorcade -- including Jackson's body -- will be traveling from Los Angeles to Neverland at 10 AM on Thursday.

TMZ also has what it calls exclusives about the search warrants issued for Jackson's rented house, and an alleged search for needles... And then there's this: TMZ claims the LAPD wants to talk to another Jackson doc about drugs he may have supplied the King of Pop. And this isn't just any doctor: it's the same guy Us Magazine claims is the father of Michael's two oldest children. Says TMZ:

We've learned the LAPD wants to talk to Michael Jackson's longtime dermatologist
Arnold Klein about drugs he may have prescribed or given Michael Jackson.

We're told Klein has already gotten a lawyer but as far as we know the LAPD has not spoken with him.

Jackson apparently had been frequenting Klein's office. Maybe he was sharing parenting stories???

A wise Italian judge?

2009-06-30T12:54:00.003-04:00

A writer on Tapped makes a darned good point about intellectual honesty in the Ricci/Sotomayor debate. The right has been attacking Sotomayor for supposedly threatening to take her ethnic background into account on the bench, even though there's exactly zero evidence that she has ever done so. Meanwhile:

Of course, there is another justice who testified to how his ethnic background affected his jurisprudence, and that was Samuel Alito. Testifying in front of the Senate during his confirmation hearing, Alito said:
When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.
Frank Ricci, the plaintiff in that case, is Italian American, just like Samuel Alito. Was Alito thinking about "people in his own family" who "suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background" when he cast his vote in the Ricci case? Was his ruling and concurrent opinion affected by his "taking that into account" as he says he does in such cases?

There's no way to know. But what I find interesting is that no one's even asking the question

Hm. And Scalia is Italian, too. The conclusion is pretty damning:

In our national conversation, bias is something people of color and women have toward white men, not the other way around, history be damned. This isn't a new phenomenon either, based on some sort of (nonexistent) "reversal of fortune" for white men in society--they asked the same questions of Thurgood Marshall that they're now asking of Sotomayor.

Michael Jackson: you are NOT the father

2009-06-30T12:14:00.005-04:00

The Michael Jackson saga just gets weirder and weirder. From TMZ and Us Weekly comes the not exactly shocking allegation that Jackson was not the biological father of his children. But the new, kind of shocking allegation is that Debbie Rowe, who was Michael's second wife, is not the mother, either (which would explain why she seems to have no interest in getting custody of the kids.) Firt, TMZ:

We've learned Michael Jackson was not the biological father of any of his children. And Debbie Rowe is not the biological mother of the two kids she bore for Michael. All three children were conceived in vitro -- outside the womb.

Multiple sources deeply connected to the births tell us Michael was not the sperm donor for any of his kids. Debbie's eggs were not used. She was merely the surrogate, and paid well for her services in the births of Michael Jr. and Paris.

In the case of Prince Michael II (the youngest), we're told the surrogate was never told of the identity of the "receiving parent" -- Michael Jackson. Three days after Prince was born at Grossmont Hospital in San Diego County, Jackson's lawyer came to the hospital to pick the baby up and deliver him to Michael.

We do not know if Jackson chose the sperm or egg donors or if he even knew who they were.

TMZ goes on to add that under California law, Rowe could still be the presumed parent of the two oldest kids. Meanwhile, Us Magazine takes it even further, saying they know the real father of the oldest children, Paris and Prince, is:

Though Michael Jackson was wed to Prince and Paris' mother, Debbie Rowe, their biological father is Arnold Klein, Jackson's L.A.-based dermatologist and Rowe's former boss, multiple sources confirm to the new issue of Us Weekly.

"He is the dad," says a Jackson insider. "He and Debbie signed an agreement saying they would never reveal the truth."

That would explain this rather bizarre statement attributed to Ms. Rowe, who gushed about volunteering to carry Jackson's children years ago:

In an astonishing interview Debbie - mother of Prince, 12, and Paris, 11 - said she was artificially inseminated by an anonymous donor.

And she told how, despite Jackson's death, she does not WANT custody of the children and NEVER expects to see them again.

EXCERPTS:
Debbie (who lives on a farm surrounded by animals) said, ""I was just the vessel. It wasn't Michael's sperm. Just like I stick the sperm up my horse, this is what they did to me. I was his thoroughbred."....

After Debbie gave birth to second child Paris, she couldn't have kids again, "The delivery was so hard. My insides were all torn up and I was barren. When he knew I couldn't have any more babies he didn't want anything to do with me."

Debbie says she will not fight for custody of Prince Michael or Paris, "I know I will never see them again. I was never cut out to be a mother - I was no good. I don't want these children in my life. My children are my animals now."

The interview, with "News of the World" was supposedly done in 2004. However, the link to the supposed story is not working as of this post (and the one on the Huffpo.) The reporter who says he conducted the interview reminds readers at Showbiz411.com that Rose is also the person credited with providing the testimony in 2005 that probably kept Michael Jackson out of jail.

The site has lots of MJ updates, including a report that Jackson did indeed name his mother, Katherine, his kids' guardian in his will, and an allegation (based on unnamed sources) that Jackson was spending $48,000 a month on prescription drugs.

And News of the World goes into excruciating detail about the day Michael died, as only a British tabloid can.

Shameless self-promotion: Joy on 'Issues' June 26

2009-06-30T11:56:00.003-04:00

Viewer's note: I'm not sure what was going on in my head this episode, but I clearly had Venezuela on the brain. I think Hugo Chavez put a hex on me ... So kids, the word of the day is "Argentina."

How business gets done in Miami-Dade

2009-06-29T23:16:00.004-04:00

Three stories over the last few days illustrate some of the reasons so many people are totally fed up with South Florida politics and governance. From the Miami Herald this weekend, a tale of how influence is traded -- carefully:

The two-year corruption probe of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones yielded no criminal charges, but it did offer a rare glimpse of influence at work behind the scenes at Miami City Hall.

Witnesses told investigators how developers hired -- and fired -- consultants to curry favor with Spence-Jones when crucial votes were on the line, records show. Spence-Jones asked a developer to hire a former campaign staffer, and tried to steer another consultant to the firm, witnesses said.

Beyond the commissioner's role, the papers spotlight how private companies try to win votes by deploying the right mix of politically-connected consultants -- while treading gingerly around lobbying laws.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office dropped its probe of the development deals last month, after investigators said they could find no evidence that Spence-Jones received any money or traded her vote for favors.

... Confounded by contradictory witnesses, the investigation unfolded like a children's game of telephone, with the whispers often leading back to one man: former City Manager Joe Arriola. In the spring of 2007, he recommended a Spence-Jones ally for a consulting job with a builder -- then called prosecutors weeks later with his suspicions of possible kickbacks.

''You know, you have no proof of this, but those are the rumors,'' Arriola told Assistant State Attorney Joe Centorino in an August 2007 interview, explaining why he came forward.

Over the course of the investigation, prosecutors chased vague rumors of payoffs and cronyism dating back to Spence-Jones' days as a City Hall staffer, the records show. Most tips were dead ends. Some leads were left unexplored.

''There were many inconsistencies -- which is code name for lies,'' said Spence-Jones attorney Richard Alayon.

So did the commissioner do anything wrong? Well, she didn't get caught doing anything wrong, so technically: no. then again, I'm sure it's not easy to get people to talk, even to prosecutors, when their bread and butter is city contracts. If you strike at the king (or queen) and miss, they're liable to apply the guillotine to your head at their next available opportunity. Financially speaking, of course ... But the overall theme of "pay for play" politics -- the all-encompassing search for government "contracts" and for financial gain, often with not a dime going to actually improve the community the money was ostensibly earmarked for, is way, way too familiar, particularly in the Black community, which is hurting like hell in Miami-Dade. You just get the feeling that's the way things are done around here, and that it will never change. That's depressing as hell, and it will also be true if the residents of that county don't stand up and start fighting for themselves, even if that means fighting their own Black "leaders." Read the rest here (pdf). If you're at all familiar with Miami politics, the names will be familiar.

The second story is about one of Commissioner Spence Jones' mentors, former Commissioner Barbara Carey Shuler, who left office a few years ago without ever being charge with a crime:

A confidant of former Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler has told prosecutors that he delivered cash payoffs to her from a prominent developer during the late 1990s, according to a newly released report.
Antonio Junior, 51, made the revelations to Miami-Dade public corruption prosecutors last fall -- too late to levy any possible criminal charges against Carey-Shuler because the statute of limitations had long run out, state attorney's office spokesman Ed Griffith said.
According to the report:
• Junior, a longtime Miami International Airport businessman, admitted to repeatedly accepting cash from late developer Lowell Dunn starting in 1997, with instructions to pay Carey-Shuler for her support of Dunn's projects. Junior said he gave the commissioner much of the cash -- including part of $30,000 Dunn gave him in the restroom of a Design District restaurant.
• Junior also said he funneled money to the commissioner after he landed -- with her help -- a piece of a controversial $25 million county contract to build the Martin Luther King county office building in the heart of Liberty City in 1999. The payments continued until about 2003, he said.
• Junior said his payments from the MLK deal to Carey-Shuler started when she began scribbling dollar amounts on small notes. Junior said he purchased so many money orders for Carey-Shuler that postal employees knew him on sight.
Junior detailed his relationship with Carey-Shuler in interviews with assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs and investigator Robert Fielder late last year, just before pleading guilty to his role in an unrelated racketeering scheme at MIA. Their report was recently released at the request of The Miami Herald.

Ah, the good old statute of limitations ... Read the rest of that story here. And if you care to read more about the airport case in which Junior was implicated, here's a story from the Miami New Times back in 2005.

Now, a lot of folks in the Black community in South Florida are going to dismiss both of these stories as just further evidence that the Miami Herald hates Black elected officials, and is determined to take them down, one by one (you often here that from supporters of the late Art Teele, who famously believed that the Herald was out to get him.) And Carey-Shuler remains both popular and influential in Black Miami. That too, is the way things work 'round here.

Story three is a simpler tale -- of what looks for all the world like greed, and county collusion in screwing the little guy on behalf of a rich golden goose. It's long, published recently in Aviation Week, but well worth the read. Here's a clip:

The Miami-Dade County Airport and Seaport Committee meets once a month on Thursday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Present on April 16, 2009, was attorney Willie Gary, a famed trial lawyer whose victories in the courtroom (one of which, against Disney, brought in $240 million, according to a press release) provide him with the wherewithal to travel the world in a Boeing Business Jet named "Wings of Justice II."

On this day, Gary graciously sought a few moments of the committee's time in the interest of saving them some money. "These five minutes could save years of litigation," he said, along with "millions of dollars." His press release, issued later that day, upped the ante, citing "billion-dollar litigation."

Gary told committee chairman Dorrin De Rolle and the assembled commissioners, "Nobody needs this kind of fight" by way of informing them that a fight was what they would get. He was there representing his client, "Opa-Locka Flightline . . . the only African-American owned and operated FBO in the nation." He was there because his client was "not being treated fairly, plain and simple." Gary noted that if an airport receives federal funds, the law says there can be no discrimination. "We don't come seeking special privilege, but there should be no discrimination or favoritism, and that's the case we bring today," Gary said. "We must all operate under one set of rules."

What's at stake here are a group of vendors currently leasing space at the airport, and a big, well-off company, the Adler Group, run by a wealthy real estated developer named Michael Adler, who along with his company, is a major, major Democratic Party donor. The county gave Adler's company, AA Acquisitions, a 240-acre, 70-year lease at Opa-locka airport by the county, essentially making him the new landlord. Now, Adler wants the existing tenants out, so he can do some big time development at the airport, and the article alleges AA (with the county's blessing, or at least wihtout their resistance) is using rather ... let's say creative ... tactics to force them out. Of course, the deal means big money to the county at a time of economic hardship -- big, as in hundreds of millions of dollars. It's a sad story, and one in which it's doubtful the little guys will win.

Jim Greer's grovely pay-for-play gambit

2009-06-29T16:37:00.005-04:00

Jim Greer likes Black people? Fo shizzle, my nizzle.

How do you make the head of the Florida Republican Party look like an idiot? Well ... let's ask the proprieters of certain Black media outlets:

Florida Republican leaders are trying to capture ground they've historically ceded to the Democratic Party — the black news media.

Friday, managers of black-owned newspapers and radio outlets told Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer there's a simple way to get more attention for conservative issues and candidates: money.

"At the end of the day, it's about money. If you buy advertising, you're more likely to get coverage," said Johnny Hunter, president of the Florida Association of Black Owned Media and publisher of Sarasota's Tempo News.

Greer invited black-media news executives from across the state to a downtown Orlando hotel to hash out how the party can make inroads in the black community, which traditionally votes Democratic.

And of course, when confronted with what amounts to a blatant pay-for-play scheme, which is both unethical from a journalistic standpoint and just plain stupid, since Black people aren't dim enough to suddenly start supporting the party of "take that bone out of your nose and call me back" Rush Limbaugh because they read a few "positive stories" bought in their local papers by the GOP, Greer and his African American Republican Leadership Council chair state Rep. Jennifer Carroll stood up and walked the hell out of the room, saying they may be Republicans, but he's not that dumb ... right ...?

... Carroll, who helped lead the discussion, told members of the black media that they can benefit as much as the GOP from increased coverage.

"You're in business to make money, and you should look at avenues to increase your revenue if you can," she said.

Oh ... Of course, the case that was made to Greer and company was somewhat subtle:

All of the media representatives seemed to push for more advertising and agreed that the Republican Party and its candidates would receive more coverage if they bought ads.

They did not all agree about whether advertising would lead to positive news stories or endorsements, though some hinted that failing to buy advertising could bring negative editorials.

But at least Greer didn't make a horse's ass out of himself ... (gulp)

Greer promised that the party would stop ignoring black media. He said that mainstream newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and Tallahassee Democrat cover the party's issues regardless of whether they advertise, but the party chairman nevertheless seemed willing to accept the quid-pro-quo arrangement.

"When I hear that when we advertise, the paper will be more likely to disseminate Republican issues, am I hearing right?" Greer asked. "I don't understand the legitimacy of disseminating information and having a tie-in to revenue — but I get it."

Oh dear...

Mr. Greer, you seem like a nice guy, so let me give you some advice, okay? And this from a Democrat, no less. Stop. Just stop. Not only is this story, which appeared in the Orlando Sentinel over the weekend, embarrassing for those Black media outlets (which I assume are mostly newspapers since there are only a handful of black-owned radio stations in Florida) and who should be ashamed of themselves for basically trying to hustle political parties for cash, it's also humiliating for you.

If you really think buying news coverage in Black papers will get you anything other than a bill, you don't know very many Black people. And I wouldn't go by those Black Republicans who are telling you that the GOP has a serious chance of gaining ground with black voters any time soon. Charlie Crist's 18-plus percent of the Black vote pretty much was unique to him, because he sounded, and continues to sound, basically like a Democrat. Short of recruiting more Charlies, which your party bosses won't do in the name of ideological purity, you guys are pretty much out of gas.

Meanwhile, we in the Black community need to have a serious internal conversation about our media -- including how Black-targeted, but not Black-owned radio and cable TV portrays, and fails to inform us, and why our media moguls, from Cathy Hughes to Bob Johnson, seem to have little interest in educating and edifying their customers, or giving them a strong political voice (as opposed to slapstick comedy and booty music.) Black newspapers are unfortunately suffering the swine flu while larger, better financed white papers just have the flu. But hustling political parties doesn't strike me as the best way to gain respect, especially when major Black media outlets have yet to develop a strong web presence, for instance, and when others are signaling that they need to be compensated to report the news. If something the Republican party is doing is newsworthy, any Black media outlet worth a damn will reported, regardless of ad revenue. If the GOP has been methodically refusing to advertise in Black outlets, do correct it. But this quid pro quo business is no way for either side to further its interests.

That said, do the Democrats have a problem with taking black voters and media for granted? Absolutely. Will that help Republicans going forward? Maybe. But it isn't how much money you buy in Black newspapers. It's the policies, stupid, and the people your party puts forward as spokesmen and leaders. Cheat sheet: most of them are jerks. And those about 14 times for Bill McCollum.

So there it is, Jim. Good luck. And I won't even charge you for writing this.

Katherine Jackson files for gets custody

2009-06-29T13:40:00.005-04:00

... of all three of Michael Jackson's kids. Upside: she's their grandmother, and I'm sure they love her very much, and she'll provide some measure of stability for the oddly raised threesome. Downside, she's married to this guy:

Scary stuff. And Joe, who pointedly, does not appear to be named in the custody order, has surrounded himself with the cast-offs of Black American leadership: the politically neutered (but still publicity-hungry) Revs Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Well that should help him with his new record label venture that he chose to hawk on the BET Awards red carpet.

UPDATE: Joe Jackson cries on the inside, or so he just said on CNN. Poor Don Lemon. How does he keep from cursing? This blogger asks: is Joe Jackson high, or what?

... Meanwhille, Jackson's increasingly famous -- for the wrong reasons -- doctor, Conrad Murray, denies injecting the King of Pop with Demerol before his death.

UPDATE: in case you missed it (because like me, you're engaged in a permanent boycott of BET,) the Janet Jackson moment at the BET Awards:

Fox News: creaky old media giant?

2009-06-29T12:42:00.002-04:00

Neilsen's next generation ratings system finds that while the Fox "News" Channel has more old, grumpy, computer illiterate viewers, CNN (especially) and MSNBC beat them handily when it comes to people who get their news online, rather than just "through the teevee..." Fox's response? Snark:

Fox, of course, views CNN's emphasis on a newfangled measurement as a mark of its failure to secure the old-fashioned ratings advertisers care about. "Apparently the sheer embarrassment of getting beat by both Headline News and MSNBC along with the continued implosion of Campbell Brown and Anderson Cooper has led CNN to its latest act of desperation," says a Fox News spokesman. "We wish Jack well in continuing to defend their battle for fourth place."

Keep entertaining the masses, guys, even as the masses you're reaching head off into America's nursing homes.

News blast: Billy Mays dead, Madoff sentenced, white firefighters prevail

2009-06-29T12:11:00.008-04:00

The celebrity deaths are coming fast and furious, folks. Loud, exuberant Pitchman Bill Mays has died at age 50 of an apparent pulminary embalism. (Medical examiner press conference just wrapped up in Tampa.) Apparently he hit his head during a plane's hard landing, but the medical examiner says the bump on the head was not the cause.

In even bigger news ...

Bernie Madoff gets 150 years, after a morning of angry testimony from his victims. Bye, Bernie!

A weekend coup shakes up Honduras, before that country's president could hold a referendum that would bust the country's term limits. From the Economist:

THE scene was reminiscent of many in the 20th century, when military coups against democratic governments were sadly common across much of Latin America. At dawn on Sunday June 28th a group of soldiers barged into the residence of Manuel Zelaya, Honduras’s president, disarmed his guards, dragged him to an air base and flew him to exile in San José, Costa Rica. The army silenced the state television station, cut electricity supplies and the bus services in the capital, Tegucigalpa, and sent tanks and planes to patrol the city. “I was brutally taken out of my house and kidnapped by hooded soldiers who pointed high-calibre rifles at me,” said Mr Zelaya. “But until the next elections, I will continue to be the president of Honduras. Only the people can remove me.”

The toppling of Mr Zelaya took the region by surprise. Honduras, although small, poor and ravaged by corruption and violent gangs, has seemed a more solid democracy than, for example, neighbouring Guatemala. Mr Zelaya, a Liberal, alienated the leaders of the country’s main political parties last year by joining the leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, an alliance led by Venezuela’s populist president, Hugo Chávez. Yet Mr Zelaya’s policies have been only mildly social-democratic, such as an increase in the minimum wage.

The Bolivian government reacts strongly to the coup, and for good reason ...

Back here in the States, a group of white firefighters have prevailed in the New Haven promotions case. The Supreme Court ruled for Frank Ricci and 19 other firemen, saying the city was wrong to throw out a test that would have led to promotions for them, but none for African-American firefighters who also passed the test, but not with a high enough score. Somewhere out there, Pat Buchanan is mourning the loss of a 2010 election issue. Justice Kennedy was the swing vote:

The court ruled that New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the AP says. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.” Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent.

The significance of this case now is that the conservative members of the court have reversed Judge Sonia Sotomayor, their very likely soon-to-be colleague. The right will make hay. It's what they do. But the real issue will continue to be affirmative action, and Frank Ricci has become the issue's new poster boy.

A military coup in Iran?

2009-06-29T11:49:00.003-04:00

Protests resumed in Iran over the weekend.

Witnesses at the scene tell The Associated Press that some protesters claimed they suffered broken arms or legs in Sunday's clashes around the Ghoba Mosque.

They say some young demonstrators screamed at police and then attacked them after the officers allegedly beat an elderly woman.

Meanwhile, Former CIA agent Bob Baer thinks so. He says it appears that Iran's Revolutionary Guard, of whom Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a former member, has taken over control of the country from the mullahs. Wouldn't that make Ayatollah Khamenei more of a captive than a leader? Watch:

Interesting, but Baer also admitted that the U.S., and he, have no clue what's going on in Iran. And he previously postulated that Ahmadinejad might have actually won the election. So a grain of salt may be in order. But Baer made a very good point about the Western prism and bias when looking at what's going on in Iran when he wrote this for TIME on June 16th:

Most of the demonstrations and rioting I've seen in the news are taking place in north Tehran, around Tehran University and in public places like Azadi Square. These are, for the most part, areas where the educated and well-off live — Iran's liberal middle class. These are also the same neighborhoods that little doubt voted for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rival, who now claims that the election was stolen. But I have yet to see any pictures from south Tehran, where the poor live. Or from other Iranian slums.

... Some facts about Iran's election will hopefully emerge in the coming weeks, with perhaps even credible evidence that the election was rigged. But until then, we need to add a caveat to everything we hear and see coming out of Tehran. For too many years now, the Western media have looked at Iran through the narrow prism of Iran's liberal middle class — an intelligentsia that is addicted to the Internet and American music and is more ready to talk to the Western press, including people with money to buy tickets to Paris or Los Angeles. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a terrific book, but does it represent the real Iran?

Meanwhile in Tehrah, Mahmoud does his best O.J., vowing to find Neda Soltan's "real killer":

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, asked a top judge Monday to investigate the killing of Neda Agha Soltan, who became an icon of Iran's ragtag opposition after gruesome video of her bleeding to death on a Tehran street was circulated worldwide.

Ahmadinejad's Web site said Soltan was slain by "unknown agents and in a suspicious" way, convincing him that "enemies of the nation" were responsible.

The regime has implicated protesters and even foreign intelligence agents in Soltan's death. But an Iranian doctor who said he tried to save her told the BBC last week she apparently was shot by a member of the volunteer Basij militia. Protesters spotted an armed member of the militia on a motorcycle, and stopped and disarmed him, Dr. Arash Hejazi said.

And after warnings from the EU, Iran has released 5 British Embassy staffers. Four staffers, however, remain detained.

As usual, Nico Pitney has the most comprehensive compilation of news from Iran.

The Sanfords: more depressing than John and Kate

2009-06-29T11:40:00.004-04:00

"For most Christians, at some point in your marriage, if you're married long enough, you do it because that's what we're called to do _ out of obedience instead of out of passion. And I think that's where Mark and Jenny are right now."

That's Warren "Cubby" Culbertson, friend and "spiritual advisor" to SC Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife Jenny. What he describes has got to be the saddest commentary on marriage I've ever heard, and I certainly hope it's not true "for most Christians" (if so, time to become a Buddhist!) Still, it's one more aspect of the TMI that's dripping all over this case (including this wrenching tell-all to the AP by Jenny Sanford.) Jeez, this marriage is becoming a more uncomfortable reality show than "John and Kate Plus 8" (and an un-pretty version of Brad, Jen and Angelina...)

Washington Bitchy: Nico Pitney smacks down Milbank

2009-06-29T00:42:00.002-04:00

Mr. Washington Sketchy himself, WaPo king of snark Dana Milbank, takes one to the thorax from HuffPo blog reporter Nico Pitney, who went one-on-three on CNN's Reliable Sources. Milbank got called out for his whingeing over Pitney's Iran question at Barack Obama's recent presser, including getting called out on his past, gushing coverage of George W. Bush. Watch, and learn:

Afterwards Pitney says Milbank called him names under his breath. Pouty journalism at its best -- hating on new media because they can't BE new media.

Downcast in Tehran

2009-06-28T03:45:00.004-04:00

A New York Times story says a spirit of depression is setting in in Iran, as hope for change dwindles.

“People are depressed, and they feel they have been lied to, robbed of their rights and now are being insulted,” said Nassim, a 56-year-old hairdresser. “It is not just a lie; it’s a huge one. And it doesn’t end.”

Still, if this Guardian piece is right, there may be reasons for some hope that the blood-soaked Khamenei's days of ruling may be numbered (and his little friend, too ...) Meanwhile, President Obama praises Mousavi, and Ahmadinejad just won't stop talking. And is the neocon strategy working? Obama is apparently moving to fund dissident groups in Iran, just like Dubya. Confused yet? Like the Michael Jackson song says: you are not alone. (Post-Newsweek gives yet another neocon -- Saul Singer -- a platform to demand what the neocons have always demanded: no negotiations with Iran. Well, at least he didn't call for an invasion...)