Saturday, September 7, 2013

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Sept. 7 & 8, 2013


Listening to Pandora...

 Enjoy the newsbites - found within the comments section!

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12 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/07/us-syria-crisis-attack-idUSBRE98603A20130907

With the United States threatening to attack Syria, U.S. and allied intelligence services are still trying to work out who ordered the poison gas attack on rebel-held neighborhoods near Damascus.

* STILL TRYING TO WORK OUT...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

No direct link to President Bashar al-Assad or his inner circle has been publicly demonstrated, and some U.S. sources say intelligence experts are not sure whether the Syrian leader knew of the attack before it was launched or was only informed about it afterward.

* BUT LET'S ATTACK SYRIA ANYWAY... OH... AND BY THE WAY... OUR POLICY IS NOT... REPEAT... NOT... REGIME CHANGE.

(*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* READ THE FULL ARTICLE FOR YOURSELVES, FOLKS.

(*STILL...SHAKING...MY...HEAD*)

September 7, 2013 at 9:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/05/obama-to-engage-putin-on-syria-strike-at-g-20-summit/

As he touched down in St. Petersburg on Thursday morning, President Obama greeted his host Vladimir Putin with a handshake and a smile.

* HMM... I'D HEARD THERE WAS NO SMILE. (*SHRUG*)

But the cordial greeting belies the tinderbox the two leaders are sitting on, as they posture and deliberate over a potential U.S. strike on Syria - one of Russia's closest Mideast allies.

Putin escalated concerns about the fallout from any strike when he indicated in an interview published Wednesday that his country could send Syria and its neighbors in the region the components of a missile shield if the U.S. attacks.

* PUTIN ESCALATED...?!?! (*LAUGHING*)

U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified this week that the Russians might even replace any military assets the U.S. destroys in a strike. The warnings raise the possibility of a supposedly "limited" strike on Syria turning into a proxy tit-for-tat between Russia and the U.S.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., went further during a hearing on Syria on Wednesday, pressing military officials on what the U.S. would do "if Russia decided to strike at us in that theater." "We can certainly say that Russia would have options to strike us in that theater in retaliation for us striking their ally," he warned.

Dempsey declined to engage in that discussion, saying only that "Russia has capabilities that range from the asymmetric, including cyber, all the way up through strategic nuclear weapons. And again, it wouldn't be helpful in this setting to speculate about that."

* NOT HELPFUL...? TO DISCUSS REALITY...??? (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Secretary of State John Kerry, though, said the Russians have made clear they don't intend to go to war over a strike on Syria.

* EVEN ASSUMING KERRY BELIEVES WHAT HE'S SAYING... WHAT IF THE RUSSIANS ARE LYING? WHAT IF THEY'RE TELLING THE TRUTH NOW BUT LATER CHANGE THEIR MIND BASED UPON SOME UNFORESEEN CONTINGENCY?

Perhaps more likely is that Putin's government would continue to aid and prop up the Assad regime, undermining any gains made by a U.S. strike. "Putin will live up to what he says," Fox News military analyst retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters said." If we destroy Syrian military technology, Putin will replace it."

China warns that any military action against Syria will push up oil prices and hurt the world economy. Speaking in St. Petersburg Thursday, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said that "Military action would have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price - it will cause a hike in the oil price," before citing estimates that a $10 rise in oil prices could push down global growth by 0.25%. Guangyao also urged a U.N.-negotiated solution to the chemical weapons standoff. Like Russia, China is a major arms supplier to Syria and holds veto power over any Security Council resolution.

Putin has been among the loudest critics on the international stage of Obama's push for a military strike in Syria. He reportedly blasted the push on Wednesday as an "act of aggression." He has said in recent interviews that a strike would be illegal if the United Nations does not support it.

* AND IT WOULD BE! HEY... THIS DOESN'T MEAN ONE CAN'T BELIEVE THE U.S. IS ABOVE INTERNATIONAL LAW - I MYSELF BELIEVE THAT SOMETIMES VITAL NATIONAL INTERESTS SUPERSEDE ABIDING BY INTERNATIONAL LAW - BUT SINCE WHEN IS THAT THE POSITION OF DEMOCRATS... OF LIBERALS... OF OBAMA...???

September 7, 2013 at 9:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/06/Black-unemployment-leaps-to13-percent

While there was all kinds of bad news for everyone in the August employment and jobs numbers released Friday, the news was especially bad for black Americans.

* I QUICKLY "BINGED" THE SEARCH TERM "BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT" UNDER NEWS AND DIDN'T FIND A NYT OR WP STORY... (*SHRUG*)

Out of every group listed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report report (age, gender, race, etc.) the unemployment rate among blacks increased the most – almost a full half-point, from 12.6% to 13%.

(*SIGH*)

This news is in line with a report released earlier this week that showed black homeownership levels are at an eighteen year low.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

After five years of the first black president...

* SECOND! DON'T FORGET... BILL CLINTON WAS "THE FIRST" BLACK PRESIDENT!

(*GRIN*) (*SNORT*)

...[and] fifty years into the War on Poverty, and trillions of taxpayer dollars wasted, by every relevant economic measurement the gap between whites and blacks is just as bad as it always was.

September 7, 2013 at 9:40 AM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/06/201376/retired-justice-sandra-day-oconnor.html#.Uist0n_fLXQ

* THE HEADLINE:

Retired [Supreme Court] Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in Boise, laments 'alarming degree of public ignorance'

* THE STORY:

Two-thirds of Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told the crowd that packed into a Boise State ballroom to hear her Thursday.

* BUT IT'S WORSE THAN THAT; OF THOSE WHO CAN NAME A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE - EVEN OF THOSE WHO CAN NAME ALL NINE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES - WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THAT GROUP MISTAKES THE HIGH COURT'S CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE? HELL... WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN LAWYERS - INCLUDING JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS - VIEW THE CONSTITUTION AS A DOCUMENT TO UPHOLD AS OPPOSED TO A DOCUMENT TO GET AROUND?!

* YEAH, FOLKS... PONDER THAT...

About one-third can name the three branches of government. Fewer than one-fifth of high school seniors can explain how citizen participation benefits democracy.

"Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name," she said.

* DECLARATION... OF INDEPENDENCE...

* DECLARING... INDEPENDENCE...

O'Connor touted civics education during her keynote address at the "Transforming America: Women and Leadership in the 21st Century" conference, put on by the Andrus Center for Public Policy. She also described being a female lawyer in the 1950s, and challenged her listeners to help the next generation of leaders reach their goals.

* WHATEVER THAT MEANS... (*SHRUG*)

"The more I read and the more I listen, the more apparent it is that our society suffers from an alarming degree of public ignorance," O'Connor said.

* YA THINK...?!?!

That ignorance starts in the earliest years of a child's schooling, she said, but often continues all the way through college and graduate school.

* AND YET MOST PEOPLE I KNOW - WHITE MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE - VIEW THEMSELVES AS INTELLIGENT AND WELL-EDUCATED. (THE PROBLEM BEING THAT MANY OF THEM ARE WRONG... AND THEN OF COURSE ONCE WE GET INTO NON-MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION... WELL... IT'S PRETTY MUCH A DISASTER.)

O'Connor argued that learning about citizenship is just as important for American children as learning multiplication or how to write their names. "We have to ensure that our citizens are well informed and prepared to face tough challenges," she said. "If there is a single child not learning about civics or not being exposed to what they must do as citizens, then all our lives are poorer for that."

* I AGREE!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

September 7, 2013 at 12:35 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

To combat what she sees as a dangerous lack of civics in schools, O'Connor founded icivics.org, a website for educators and students. The site uses games, lesson plans and activities to make learning about government and citizenship less boring.

* OK... (ADDED IT TO MY BOOKMARKS; I'LL CHECK IT OUT LATER!)

O'Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981, just two years after she was named to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

* BY...???

She still remembers the shock of the phone call from President Ronald Reagan.

* ACTUALLY IT WASN'T THE GREATEST PICK IN THE WORLD... BUT AT THE TIME...

(*SHRUG*)

O'Connor served on the high court until retiring in 2006. Initially viewed as a conservative, she became regarded as the decisive swing vote in many cases.

* AS I WAS SAYING ABOVE...

(*SHRUG*)

O'Connor acknowledged that many of the women and men who came to Thursday's conference were already in leadership roles, whether in their job, the classroom, or at home. Those people need to take the lead again and create a better education for the next generation of leaders, she said. "Everyone is going to grow up to be a citizen," she said. "Democracy is not a spectator sport."

* FAIR ENOUGH... BUT DON'T FORGET, FOLKS, WE'RE NOT A "DEMOCRACY," RATHER, AMERICA IS (OR AT LEAST WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE) A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC UNDER THE RULE OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW WHICH LIMITS THE POWER TO GOVERNMENT AND (SUPPOSEDLY) PROTECTS THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF AMERICANS EVEN IF A MAJORITY OF THEIR FELLOW CITIZENS DON’T WANT THESE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS TO BE PROTECTED.

Edit Szanto traveled from Twin Falls with a group of her College of Southern Idaho colleagues for the conference. She called O'Connor's speech inspiring. "I loved it," said Szanto, who works in student services. "It was very interesting to hear her perspective and her story."

* STUDENT SERVICES...???

O'Connor might be right about the lack of civic education in K-12 schools, Szanto said, but she believes CSI works to engage students to be productive citizens.

Rachel Jones, a criminal justice master's student at Boise State, said her area of study made her want to attend O'Connor's talk. Like Szanto, Jones thought that civics education improves - or at least appears to - at the college level. But even the classes offered on the subject at Boise State were not mandatory, she said. "The classes are available, but they're not required," she said. "You can seek them out."

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

September 7, 2013 at 12:35 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323623304579060692417802108.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

European Union foreign ministers said on Saturday there appeared to be "strong evidence"...

* "APPEARED TO BE."

* WELL... LET'S SEE IT.

(*SHRUG*)

...that Syria's government was behind the alleged use of chemical weapons against rebels and urged a "clear and strong" response.

* MEANING...??? (AND BTW... WHICH EUROPEAN UNION FOREIGN MINISTERS...??? NAMES...? THE COUNTRIES THEY REPRESENT...???)

However, the ministers said they hoped that United Nations inspectors sent to investigate last month's attack would be allowed to present their report before any action was taken.

* AND THEN...??? IF A "CLEAR AND STRONG RESPONSE" IS CALLED FOR, SHOULDN'T THE U.N. BE THE BODY AUTHORIZING SAID RESPONSE?

France and Denmark are among the EU governments who say they could join U.S. led strikes.

* I'VE GOT A BETTER IDEA: LET THE VIKINGS AND THE FROGS TAKE ON ASSAD IF THEY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SYRIA.

(*SHRUG*)

The EU statement, the bloc's strongest since the alleged chemical attack, could prove a boost for the Obama administration as it seeks to show the U.S. has international backing for action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

* "BACKING."

* SO... WE DO THE WORK... WE TAKE THE RISKS... AND IN TURN WE'RE... er... "BACKED."

* NOPE! BACK TO MY BETTER IDEA - WHICHEVER COUNTRIES HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SYRIA AND ASSAD AND CHOOSE TO "DEAL" WITH THEIR PROBLEM BY WAGING WAR AGAINST ASSAD'S SYRIAN REGIME... GO TO IT KIDS AND GOOD LUCK!

Still, there was no explicit support for the idea of military strikes in the EU's statement.

* BUT... BUT... BUT... THE VIKINGS... THE FROGS... AND THE UNNAMED "OTHERS" WHO ARE "AMONG THE EU GOVERNMENTS..."

(*HEADACHE*)

* FOLKS... THE DOUBLE-TALK... NOT A GOOD SIGN!

"We were unanimous in condemning in the strongest terms this horrific attack. Information from a wide variety of sources confirms the existence of such an attack and seems to indicate strong evidence that the Syrian regime is responsible for this attack," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

* AND THE RUSSIANS ISSUED A 100 PAGE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION... WHERE'S THE EU's 100 PAGE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION...???

"In the face of this cynical use of chemical weapons, the international community cannot remain idle. A clear and strong response is crucial to make clear that such crimes are unacceptable and that there will be no impunity."

* TELL IT TO THE U.N.!

After Saturday's meeting, Germany's foreign minister confirmed that his government would sign a U.S.-backed statement that came out of this week's Group of 20 leaders meeting calling for a "strong international response" to the attack.

* AGAIN... THINK OF THE DOUBLE-TALK YOU'VE READ JUST IN THIS SINGLE ARTICLE! "STRONG INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE." SUCH AS...???

Only 11 countries signed the statement when it was published at the St. Petersburg, Russia, meeting on Friday.

* HOW MANY COUNTRIES ARE THERE IN THE WORLD...??? (196!)

"After we saw this excellent and very wise position of the European Union the chancellor and myself, we decided of course that we support now the G20 statement," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said after the meeting.

* THEN YOU AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE PAY FOR IT... AND YOU AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE BLEED FOR IT.

(*SHRUG*)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was "very important" that Germany now backed the St. Petersburg statement, allowing the EU to stand united on Syria.

* UMM... ENGLAND...?!?!

September 7, 2013 at 4:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323734304578543613292394192.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

By now even the Obama Administration has recognized that the natural gas drilling boom has led to more high-wage jobs, more secure energy supplies and lower manufacturing costs. But one of the biggest benefits from fracking and other new drilling technologies is often overlooked: the windfall to American consumers, especially the poor.

A new study by the Colorado-based energy broker Mercator Energy quantifies the multibillion-dollar annual savings to American households through lower utility bills from the fall in natural gas prices.

From 2003-08, shortly before the fracking revolution took hold, the price of natural gas averaged about $7.20 per million BTUs.

By 2012 after new drilling operations exploded across the U.S. from West Texas to Pennsylvania to North Dakota, the increase in natural gas production had slashed the price to $2.80 per million BTUs.

Mercator examined Department of Energy data on natural gas usage to find out how this 61% price decline translated into lower home-heating and electricity bills.

According to the federal Energy Information Administration, American households use about 7.4 billion MMBTUs for home heating and residential electricity each year. Thanks to the lower price for natural gas, families saved roughly $32.5 billion in 2012. (That's 7.4 billion MMBTUs of residential use of natural gas times the $4.40 reduction in price.) The windfall to all U.S. natural gas consumers — industrial and residential — was closer to $110 billion.

Mercator's most notable finding is that the income group helped the most by this bonanza is the poor because energy is a big component of their family budgets.

Data from the annual report of the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap) show that poor households spend four times more of their income on home energy (10.4%) than do non-poor households (2.6%). That same report says that roughly 40 million households, or 36% of U.S. households, are eligible for Liheap. Though the poor on average spend less overall on heating and electricity, lower natural gas prices have still shaved about $10 billion a year from the utility bills of poor families.

To put it another way, fracking is a much more effective anti-poverty program than is Liheap.

In 2012, Liheap provided roughly $3.5 billion to about nine million low-income households to subsidize their home-heating costs. New drilling technologies saved poor households almost three times more.

* PLUS... (KEEP READING!)

Low gas prices benefit nearly all poor households, while Liheap helps fewer than one in four.

(*SINCERE APPLAUSE*)

These energy savings are especially impressive compared to what residents of other industrialized nations are paying. The natural gas price this summer increased to about $3.70 per million BTUs, but that compares to the roughly $10 that consumers pay in Spain or $13 in China.

(According to the Mercator analysis, if natural gas prices were that high in the U.S., average home heating bills for millions of Americans would be almost 75% higher.)

You'd think that good liberal egalitarians would welcome these financial savings to poor households. Yet most green groups, in particular the Sierra Club, continue to oppose fracking and are using lawsuits and political lobbying to stop it.

Rich Hollywood types like Matt Damon propagandize against it.

No one is doing more to increase income inequality in America than the affluent environmentalists who oppose natural gas drilling.

September 7, 2013 at 11:39 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/petraeus-calls-on-congress-to-back-white-house-on-syria-96413.html

Retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus...

* YA GOTTA LUV POLITICO! HAD PETRAEUS COME OUT AGAINST OBAMA HE WOULD NO DOUBT HAVE BEEN REFERRED TO NOT AS "RETIRED" ARMY GEN. DAVID H. PETRAEUS, BUT AS "DISGRACED FORMER" ARMY GEN. DAVID H. PETRAEUS.

* IN ANY CASE... I MENTION THIS JUST AS AN ASIDE. (CONTINUE READING...)

...former CIA director under President Barack Obama, called strongly Saturday for Congress to back the White House on Syria, declaring that military action against the regime is “necessary” to deter “Iran, North Korea and other would-be aggressors.”

* OH, PLEASE! DETER IRAN FROM WHAT...??? AS TO NORTH KOREA... COM'ON... THEY SUNK A SOUTH KOREAN DESTROYER NOT SO LONG AGO AND SHELLED SOUTH KOREAN TERRITORY. WE DID NOTHING. WE ARE A PAPER TIGER AGAINST ANY NATION ARMED WITH MUCH MORE THAN ROCKS AND SPEARS. FRANKLY, OUR ACTIONS SHOW US TO BE LITTLE MORE THAN A BULLY.

* OH... AND BACK TO PETRAEUS... (*PAUSE*)... THE LEFT WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG - HE IS GENERAL "BETRAYUS."

September 7, 2013 at 11:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10293591/Syrias-rebels-and-soldiers-agree-military-strikes-will-change-nothing.html

Syria's rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers agree on next to nothing. They've killed each other by the tens of thousands in a war mired in stalemate. But they're now agreed on one thing. The military strike America is preparing will not change anything.

* SO WHY THE FUCK...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

(*FEELING MY BLOOD PRESSURE SHOOT THROUGH THE ROOF*)

For the rebels, the attack will be too little, too late; a strike so long delayed that it will destroy only empty buildings and broken warplanes. For the government and its troops, it would be a petulant volley of Western frustration...

(*SHRUG*)

(*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)

There are reports that a military radar system has been dismantled at Damascus International Airport; that missiles, tanks and aircraft have already been hidden; that Intelligence and Defence buildings have been emptied of vital computers.

(The Information Ministry has a new satellite television set-up in case the State Broadcasting building is attacked.)

On Mount Qassioun, the hilltop overlooking Damascus, there are few soldiers to be seen, which is odd, because it is the site of huge military bases and of the artillery positions that have pounded suburbs like Daraya and Ghouta, where hundreds died in the chemical weapons attack. One army commander trained in missiles at Mount Qassioun's base told me the Americans might hit the mountain but the soldiers and the key equipment would be deep inside; the cruise missiles would not penetrate.

Around the swimming pools of the rich areas of Damascus, the middle class and business leaders, or at least those of them who haven't chosen to flee, predict the unintended consequences of an American raid: If it destroys enough of the planes, airfields, helicopters and equipment that has given Assad a clear military advantage over the rebels, they say, America might give al-Qaeda linked groups the opening they need to push on to the capital and take down the whole regime. Many Christians and Sunnis, as well as Assad's key Alawite supporters, are concerned that the secular Syria they remember may be destroyed by an Islamist offensive on the back of American missiles.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

An educated young commander, his English good, is genuinely puzzled. "How can it be", he asks me, "that America is going to fight us, on the side of al-Qaeda? How can America be against a secular country and for Islamists who kill their prisoners and dump their bodies in a well?"

September 8, 2013 at 12:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/357898/benghazi-whistleblower-ive-been-punished-speaking-out-andrew-johnson

Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya who testified before Congress about the 9/11 attacks on an American diplomatic facility earlier this year, believes he has been “punished” for speaking out about the Obama administration’s response the night of the attack.

* NON-RESPONSE IS MORE LIKE IT!

Hicks said he believes at least two of the Americans lost that night could have been saved if the United States had responded in time.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* AT... LEAST...

“I don’t know why I was punished,” Hicks said in an interview with ABC’s This Week. “I don’t know why I was shunted aside, put in a closet if you will.”

Hick said he will continue to talk about the attacks because “the American people need to have the story” of what took place that night and the four Americans who were lost in the attacks “should be remembered.”

* I WISH MORE AMERICANS CARED. EVEN YOU... MY READERS... DO ANY OF YOU BEYOND ODM REALLY CARE?

(*SHRUG*)

Hicks believes that former Navy SEALS Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, who died eight hours after the initial attack on the diplomatic mission, could have been saved.

* AT... LEAST...

* AT LEAST WOODS AND DOHERTY...

While Hicks still remains on staff at the State Department, he has not been reassigned to a post since being called back from Libya. In a statement to This Week, the State Department said Hicks was not removed from Libya as a result of the statements he has made about the Benghazi attacks and it is working on reassigning him.

September 8, 2013 at 5:06 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-wallace-to-obama-chief-of-staff-where-are-the-benghazi-arrests/

Following up on multiple questions regarding the proposed Syrian intervention and its fate in Congress, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace invoked the approaching one year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and asked White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough why the perpetrators had not been brought to justice.

Wallace was especially interested in why the U.S. had not arrested Ahmed Abu Khattala, who has been charged with the crime but not arrested, despite having given interviews to several news outlets.

“Why is it that reporters seems to be able to find this guy, who the government is charging with involvement in Benghazi, but law enforcement can’t find him?” Wallace asked. “It’s been a year, sir.”

* IT'S... BEEN... A... YEAR...

You know what the United States does?” McDonough said. “We track every lead until we find and can accomplish what we do.”

* UH-HUH...

“Not to belabor it,” Wallace said, “but why can AP find him, why can the New York Times find him, and not our government?”

* GOOD... F--KING... QUESTION...!!!

“The United States government does what it says, and we will do what we say in this instance, as we do in every other instance,” McDonough replied.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

September 8, 2013 at 5:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/09/08/national-media-completely-ignore-ny-man-left-brain-dead-attacker-shou#ixzz2eJXkG1V0

NewsBusters asked Saturday if the media will report a New York man becoming brain dead as a result of an unprovoked attacked by a man saying "I hate white people."

So far with the exception of local New York coverage, the answer is a resounding "No."

Analyses of Google News, LexisNexis, and closed-caption transcripts found absolutely no national reporting of Jeffrey Babbitt, the 62-year-old retired train conductor now in a coma at Bellevue Hospital.

Not one word on ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or NBC.

Potentially even more curious, the largest newspaper in New York, the New York Times, appears to have not reported this attack despite it occurring in its own backyard.

If Babbitt were black, and his assailant shouted "I hate black people" before inflicting what appears will be a death blow, would America's media be so disinterested? Or would this be headline news much like what we saw with Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman?

Sadly, we all know the answer as our media have once again shown that they are only interested in white on black hate crimes.

The other variety just don't fit the agenda.

** Update: It turns out the New York Times did report this matter at its website Friday and in print Saturday. Unfortunately, the name of the assailant was wrong and the article didn't include Babbitt's. That's why it appeared this event had gone unreported.

Readers are advised the errant report was a total of 152 words buried on page 21.

I guess that's the importance the Times gives to black on white hate crimes.

September 8, 2013 at 9:09 PM

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