http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts988
---

Fox News again accused of airing misleading video

For the second time in just over a week, Fox News is coming under fire for misusing old news footage. The latest flap is leading some people to charge that the cable news network is intentionally misleading its audience, while Fox claims a "production error."

Wednesday's incident occurred when Fox News host Gregg Jarrett mentioned that a Sarah Palin appearance and book signing in Grand Rapids, Michigan had a massive turnout. As footage rolled of a smiling and waving Palin amidst a throng of fans, Jarrett noted that the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand-new book,'' adding that the images being shown were "some of the pictures just coming in to us.... The lines earlier had formed this morning."

However, the video used in the segment was from a 2008 McCain/Palin campaign rally. In response to the minor uproar that arose after clips of Jarrett's report hit the Internet, Fox senior vice-president of news Michael Clemente issued an initial statement saying, "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video."

On Thursday afternoon, Fox News issued an on-air apology delivered by host Jane Skinner:

Yesterday we told you about Sarah Palin kicking off her book tour and then we spoke to Sean Hannity about an interview that he did with former Governor Palin. When introducing the segment we showed you footage of people lining up in Michigan for a book signing that evening. In the tease before the segment, the tease to commercial, we told you how those people were already lining up to meet Palin. The problem is we didn't show you the video we were actually referencing. Instead we mistakenly aired what's called "file tape" of Sarah Palin. We didn't mean to mislead anybody in that tease. It was a mistake, and for that we apologize.
The current mishap comes on the heels of a controversy sparked last week when footage from a conservative rally held over the summer was played on "Hannity" during a segment on a more recent rally. During the clip, host Sean Hannity marveled over the large turnout for a Washington, DC protest. The Daily Show later pointed out that there seemed to be some inconsistencies with the video shown on Hannity's show, namely that the atmospheric conditions seemed to vary from shot to shot. Hannity later apologized on the air for what he called "an inadvertent mistake."

Barely a week into Palin’s blitz to promote “Going Rogue,” media coverage is becoming its own story. Fox News rival MSNBC caught heat last week for using altered images of Sarah Palin on the air, for which they later apologized. On Wednesday, Yahoo! News reported Newsweek’s defense of their latest controversial cover, which Palin herself blasted as “sexist.”

-- Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog
---

Will some

The link

Texas' gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages

AUSTIN — Texans: Are you really married?

Maybe not.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.

The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by voters, declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

"This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Architects of the amendment included the clause to ban same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. But Radnofsky, who was a member of the powerhouse Vinson & Elkins law firm in Houston for 27 years until retiring in 2006, says the wording of Subsection B effectively "eliminates marriage in Texas," including common-law marriages.

She calls it a "massive mistake" and blames the current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, for allowing the language to become part of the Texas Constitution. Radnofsky called on Abbott to acknowledge the wording as an error and consider an apology. She also said that another constitutional amendment may be necessary to reverse the problem.

"You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says," said Radnofsky, who will be at Texas Christian University today as part of a five-city tour to kick off her campaign.

'Entirely constitutional’

Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland said the attorney general stands behind the 4-year-old amendment.

"The Texas Constitution and the marriage statute are entirely constitutional," Strickland said without commenting further on Radnofsky’s statements. "We will continue to defend both in court."

A conservative leader whose organization helped draft the amendment dismissed Radnofsky’s position, saying it was similar to scare tactics opponents unsuccessfully used against the proposal in 2005.

"It’s a silly argument," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano. Any lawsuit based on the wording of Subsection B, he said, would have "about one chance in a trillion" of being successful.

Shackelford said the clause was designed to be broad enough to prevent the creation of domestic partnerships, civil unions or other arrangements that would give same-sex couples many of the benefits of marriage.

Radnofsky acknowledged that the clause is not likely to result in an overnight dismantling of marriages in Texas. But she said the wording opens the door to legal claims involving spousal rights, insurance claims, inheritance and a host other marriage-related issues.

"This breeds unneeded arguments, lawsuits and expense which could have been avoided by good lawyering," Radnofsky said. "Yes, I believe the clear language of B bans all marriages, and this is indeed a huge mistake."

In October, Dallas District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that the same-sex-marriage ban is unconstitutional because it stands in the way of gay divorce. Abbott is appealing the ruling, which came in a divorce petition involving two men who were married in Massachusetts in 2006.

Massive error?

Radnofsky, the Democratic nominee in the Senate race against Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2006, said she voted against the amendment but didn’t realize the legal implications until she began poring over the Texas Constitution to prepare for the attorney general’s race. She said she holds Abbott and his office responsible for not catching an "error of massive proportions."

"Whoever vetted the language in B must have been asleep at the wheel," she said.

Abbott, a former state Supreme Court justice who was elected attorney general in 2002, has not indicated whether he will seek re-election and is known to be interested in running for lieutenant governor. Ted Cruz, who served as solicitor general under Abbott, is running for attorney general in the Republican primary.

Radnofsky, who has not yet drawn a Democratic opponent, is scheduled to appear at the Tarrant County Young Democrats Gubernatorial Forum at 6:30 tonight at TCU.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/ap_on_en_ot/us_palin_book_fact_check

Edit: Adding to the pot: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-odd-lies-of-sarah-palin-a-roundup.html#more

http://www.guldskum.dk/

Today, I met with a Dane to get some Swedish soda for an American whom I am flying to Holland to meet... in Germany.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/10/willingham.texas.execution.probe/index.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/07/willingham.texas.execution.probe/index.html

Those are two different links, though they may not look it.

I wuz there:


An Hour with Cruxshadows DragonCon 2009

Dashelle | MySpace Video

Dear city government of Copenhagen,

please go fuck yourself. HARD!

Regards,
Jacob.

So, it seems Glenn Beck no longer raped and murdered a girl in 1990.

http://domainnamewire.com/2009/11/06/after-winning-case-man-hands-domain-name-to-glenn-beck/

I promise, my next post won't be Daily Show related.:p

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Incidentally, isn't it time we stopped speculating whether or not Glenn Beck raped a murdered a girl in 1990?

...contradicting what he said during the Bush administration with what he's saying now that Obama is in office.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2009 - Local Election Results
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

About time Fox News admitted what we all have know for quite some time - that Fox News isn't News:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
For Fox Sake!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

( Read more... )

http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html

Article about freedom of the press. Denmark Denmark, Finland, Irland [sic], Norway and Sweden are the best. Obama has managed to get the US into the top 20... by not being Bush. :p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_India#British_response

"Then in 1876 a huge famine broke out in Madras. Lord Lytton's administration believed that 'market forces alone would suffice to feed the starving Indians'. Beatty Balfour wrote in her book, Lord Lytton's Indian Administration that:

In the despatch addressed to the Duke of Buckingham, in which the Viceroy announced his intention of visiting the famine districts of Madras and Mysores, the general principles for the management of famine affairs were once more laid down. After stating that the Government of India, with approval of Her Majesty’s Government, were resolved to avert death by starvation by the employment of all means available, the Viceroy first expressed his conviction that ‘absolute non-interference with the operations of private commercial enterprise must be the foundation of their present famine policy.’ This on the ground that ‘free and abundant trade cannot co-exist with Government importation’ and that more food will reach the famine stricken districts if private enterprise is left to itself (beyond receiving every possible facility and information from the government) than if it were paralysed by Government competition.

The results of such thinking proved fatal (some 5.5 million starved ) and so such a policy was abandoned. Lord Lytton established the Famine Insurance Grant, a system in which, in times of financial surplus, Rs. 1,500,000 would be applied to famine relief works. The results of this were that the British prematurely assumed that the problem of famine had been solved forever which made future British viceroys complacent (which proved disastrous in 1896). Lord Curzon tried to alleviate the famine, he spent Rs. 68,000,000 (about £10,000,000) to try and reduce the effects of the famine and, at its peak, 4.5 million people were on famine relief. However, Curzon did state that:

Any government which imperiled the financial position of India in the interests of prodigal philanthropy would be open to serious criticism; but any government which by indiscriminate alms-giving weakened the fiber and demoralized the self-reliance of the population, would be guilty of a public crime."

I saw something about this on TV, part of a program about the history of Britain. Apparently, Brtish journalists brought home pictures of Indians starving to death in front of filled granaries guarded by soldiers. The English administrations' dedication to capitalism meant that they didn't want to release the surplus grain and rice from other areas in India, because it would depress prices.

So, yeah, 5.5 million starved to death in a single year due to adherence to capitalist ideology...

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

See, THIS is why you don't tumble around in an actual fight...

( Read more... )

The Bible has a liberal bias and must be edited!
Conservative Bible Project
Makes sense, really, they keep trying to edit the liberal bias out of reality. :p

Money.
Mo' money.
Even mo' money.
Licorice.
Batman: the Dark Knight.
Gift certificate for an external hard drive + some DVDs.
Space Marine Drop Pod.
Home-made Amazon gift certificate for some Stephen Fry and/or Henry Rollins stuff.