Lobenthal.com

Boehlert’s tweet almost says it all, though you should still read the entire article.

Tweet to wit:

“A or B? Peggy Noonan either knows nothing abt American politics (Mon: Mitt’s surging!), or she plays dumb on purpose for her GOP readers”

How does the so-called “mainstream” media enable right-wing demagoguery committed by equally-euphemistically-named “pundits”?

I’ll pass you over to Eric Boehlert at Media Matters for America

Elena Tchernichova’s memoir, co-written by yours truly, takes you on an eventful ride from Leningrad 1939 to today’s Russian Federation.   And makes a few stops along the way in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Verona, Salzburg, et.al.

In the Guardian Glenn Greenwald cannot help but

“fantasize about what a stellar press corps we would have if they devoted a tiny fraction of this energy to dissecting non-sex political scandals.”

While Laura Gottesdiener at alternet.org reminds us that Petraeus

“built and presided over arguably the most invasive spying apparatus ever created in the history of humanity.”

I still don’t have land line service and may not for weeks according to Verizon.  That’s the legacy of Sandy in relatively coastal areas downtown.   Call me on my cell or email if you want to reach me.

Timothy Geithner played the president and the country false by agitating for a pivot to deficit reduction while the economy remained in near-depression doldrums.

Could President Obama be insensitive enough, as well as just plain clueless enough to consider nominating Erskine Bowles to replace Geithner?

It does smell like a “plant,” you know, Bowles’s partisans floating a rumor as a strategy of wish fulfillment. On the other hand, Obama’s belief in Bowles’ s cred as a financial savant has been preposterous all  along.

Dean Baker at nationofchange.org certainly has Bowles’s number: Bowles

“gives us a real trifecta. He used his position as co-chair of President Obama’s deficit commission to protect Wall Street. He pockets millions as part of a corrupt system of corporate governance that allows CEOs to rip-off the companies they run. And he wants to reduce Social Security benefits for seniors who are already living on the edge. In short, he is a true hero of the Washington establishment. ”

And Paul Krugman was right to sound the alarm again yesterday in the NY Times.

Michael Hastings describes in buzzfeed.com how the media got prostrate over David Petraeus and helped him dupe the country for a long, long time.

This is really rich.  One of the prime architects and enablers of one of the greatest and most catastrophic frauds ever perpetuated on the American people, and the world—I certainly do mean Condoleeza Rice–actually feels free to stand up in public, without an ounce of contrition (nor, of course, of credibility) totally, astoundingly indictment-free, (but the Code Pink ladies sure had the right idea at the Republican convention) and pose as a voice of wisdom and moderation.

At this point, the New York Times editorial of August 30, 2012 warrants flagging.  At the convention Rice was indeed, or should have been to sentient people

“a reminder of the colossal errors and deceptions of George W. Bush’s administration. She was a central player in the decision to invade Iraq and the peddling of fantasies about weapons of mass destruction. She barely mentioned Iraq in her speech and spoke not at all about Afghanistan. She was particularly ludicrous when she talked about keeping America strong at home so it could be strong globally, since she was part of the team that fought two wars off the books and entirely on borrowed money.

“Ms. Rice said the United States has lost its ‘exceptionalism,’ but she never gave the slightest clue what she meant by that — a return to President Bush’s policy of preventive and unnecessary war?”

But of course, most of the “mainstream” commercial media is right by her side, with her all the way.  And a television “news” show like CBS This Morning, which legitimizes her, has no one but itself to blame when the public tunes out.

In a way, the hurricane drove home the way that environmental disasters don’t discriminate – a lot of fabulous lofts downtown didn’t have power.  And yet, of course, it’s those with the least resources whose suffering is intensified.

For Alternet.com, Laura Gottesdiener reports on “Tens of Thousands Left to Freeze in Public Housing.”

From Talkingpointsmemo.com:

“A Hart Research study sponsored by the AFL-CIO found wait times were disproportionately longer for Democrats and Democratic-leaning demographics by huge magins in 2012. For example, 16 percent of Obama voters reporter lines longer than 30 minutes, versus just 9 percent of Romney voters.”