Who Is Campbell Brown?

Campbell Brown is a shill for some truly despicable people who want to destroy unions and public education. 

http://www.esquire.com/_mobile/blogs/politics/The_Campbell_Brown_Moment?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_79275630

"Brown and her shadowy network of supporters got a big win out in California with the Vergara decision. (Scott Lemieux explained how bizarre that decision really was.) Now, they've brought their carnival of magic tricks and misdirection to New York. Remarkably, or not so remarkably, she's managed to find some disgracefully triangulating Democratic operatives to shill for the con, searching undoubtedly for their own "Sister Souljah moment." Former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs is on board, as is, as we have seen, super-lawyer David Boies. In fact, working through Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the administration has shown a deplorable level of enthusiasm for the snake-oil that is being sold here. (Duncan, who may be a worse cabinet appointee than Tim Geithner, was fulsome in his praise of the Vergara decision.) Now that the playing field has moved east, expect to hear more from Campbell Brown about how she and her unnamed benefactors are really only in it for the kids, and about how they can barely leave their homes for fear of mobs of angry math teachers, who have protractors, dammit, and they know how to use them, and enough well-funded cries of imaginary martyrdom to gag a hundred Nixons. This is about political power, and that is all it's about, and Campbell Brown is the spokesperson for grifters and mountebanks, and that's all she is. Not that it matters, because Campbell Brown is Good On TV, and that's what's most important. The only thing her Partners For Educational Justice care less about than education, is justice."

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention once again her husband is loyal Bushie Dan Senor.

NYT Public Editor: NYT Screwed Up Perlstein Coverage

The Perlstein book smears were obvious even to a layman, and the major media, like the Times, that enabled those smears should be ashamed. 

Kudos to the Public Editor for addressing the issue, but this never should have happened. 

Thanks for Nothing

"Yes, the claim was "out there" but so are smears of all kinds as well as claims that the earth is flat and that climate change is unfounded. This one comes from the author of a book on the same subject with an opposing political orientation. By taking it seriously, The Times conferred a legitimacy on the accusation it would not otherwise have had. And while it is true that Mr. Perlstein and his publisher were given plenty of opportunity to respond, that doesn't help much. It's as if The Times is saying: Here's an accusation; here's a denial; and, heck, we don't really know. We're staying out of it. Readers frequently complain to me about this he said, she said false equivalency — and for good reason. So I'm with the critics. The Times article amplified a damaging accusation of plagiarism without establishing its validity and doing so in a way that is transparent to the reader. The standard has to be higher."

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/08/12/thanks-for-nothing-2/

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The Real Campbell Brown …

Is a shill for the right wing and a Republican.  And if course get husband is the right wing GOP operator Dan Senor. 

The travesty is the way these people present themselves as non-partisan or Democrats to fool people about their objectives. 

Groups Slam Campbell Brown's Republican Registration

""The Real Campbell Brown has trouble telling the truth, and now she's been caught in another lie. She's a Republican with close ties to conservative Wall Street leaders, and has zero credibility on education. In my more than 10 years of advocating for equitable education funding, she's been silent. I've never heard her fight to improve public schools or help vulnerable kids," Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education, told the Observer. The two groups are behind the "Real Campbell Brown" campaign, an aggressive operation aimed at highlighting Ms. Campbell's ties to conservative causes in an otherwise liberal, overwhelmingly Democratic city. Ms. Brown, who the city Board of Elections database shows is registered as a Republican, said through a spokesperson that she is a "lifelong independent" who has registered as a Democrat and a Republican in the past to vote in city primaries, and has given political donations only to Democrats. The spokesperson also said Ms. Brown is now not registered in a party, a fact that could not be immediately and independently confirmed."

http://observer.com/2014/08/groups-slam-campbell-browns-republican-registration/

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Gambling Our Way To Prosperity!

NJ edition. While this highlights one of the failures of Chris Christie, there is a more important broader point. 

As more and more casinos pop up around the region, they are going to cannibalize existing casinos. These are not sure fire investments. And they are a terrible use of public funds. 

Doesn't anyone in power have better economic development ideas than casinos and sports stadiums or Xanadu?

Heckuva Job

"ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel says it will shut down in September after failing to find a buyer in bankruptcy court. The company announced the move Tuesday, saying it would close its doors Sept. 10. The $2.4 billion casino opened just over two years ago, and never turned a profit."

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2014/08/heckuva-job.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FbRuz+%28Eschaton%29

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Even The Liberal New York Times

Your occasional reminder that the NYT enabled the Bush torture regime for many years. 

In addition, of course, to enabling the Iraq war and suppressing its own domestic spying reporting until after the 2004 election.  And that's what passes for a "liberal" paper in our glorious republic. 

Speaking of journamalism

Speaking of journamalism by digby Last week I noted that the New York Times has belatedly changed their policy and is now calling torture by it's true name --- torture. But FAIR has some interestin…

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/speaking-of-journamalism.html

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Wanker of the Year

Torture apologist, closet Republican and alleged journalist Ron Fournier. 

Both the torture AND the lying must be punished. 

The Village and mortal sin (Yes, torture *is* patriotic)

"I'd like to see a poll with this question: "Do you believe it it worse that the government tortured people or that they lied about torturing people?" I don't know how the American people would respond to that. But I know what is worse: the fucking torture is worse. "

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-village-and-mortal-sin-yes-torture.html

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The CIA and The Culture of Impunity, Part Infinity

When will anyone be held accountable for the repeated lies and coverups?  When will anyone be prosecuted for the illegal torture?

Failure to prosecute obvious war crimes is rotting our society and culture from within. 

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So what's in the Torture Report? Well, I can't quote from it, because the intelligence community and the White House have done such a good job of delaying its public release (although a redacted version is widely rumored to be coming soon). But by all accounts, the report not only discloses abuse that was more brutal, systematic and widespread than generally recognized, but also chronicles how the people most intimately involved in the torture regime lied to others inside the CIA, lied to Justice Department lawyers, and lied to the public; how they lied about what they were doing, they lied to make it sound like it accomplished something, and afterwards, they lied some more. Brennan reportedly told Feinstein and intelligence committee vice chairman Saxby Chambliss on Tuesday that he was sorry. But it's hardly the first time he's been caught in the act. There was, for instance, that time in June 2011, when he was President Obama's counter-terrorism advisor, that he asserted that over the previous year there had not been a single collateral death from drone strikes. (He later amended that to say there was no "credible evidence" of such deaths.) But there was indeed ample and credible evidence. (Just as one example, a March 2011 CIA drone attack in Pakistan killed some 50 people, including tribal elders who were gathered for a tribal conclave.) Brennan's erstwhile boss, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, famously lied when he assured the Senate intelligence committee that the government wasn't collecting data on Americans in bulk when, as it turns out, it was. Lying, of course, has always been a problem in Washington. But especially after the 9/11 terror attacks, the Bush-Cheney regime took lying to new post-Nixon heights. Maybe even pre-Nixon. When I sat down to write my last "White House Watch" column for the Washington Post, what struck me most about the Bush years were the lies. The most consequential, of course, were the lies about the war. The most telling were the lies to cover up the lies about the war. And the most grotesque were the lies about torture. The other thing is that there were no consequences. No one got in trouble for lying. The only semi-casualty was Scooter Libby, briefly convicted of lying while obstructing the investigation into vice president Cheney's lies.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/31/lying/

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