April 2011

Yesterday’s outbreak of tornados that ripped through the south and left 173 people dead, with more deaths expected, is being called one of the deadliest outbreaks in American history. You wouldn’t know this though listening to MSNBC or FOX. Instead they are focused on other issues, like the royal wedding and the birth certificate.

We have large towns in ruins, lives destroyed and millions, if not billions, of dollars in damage and our cable news doesn’t give a damn. This is a disgrace.

What’s even worse is while working on this post and having Morning Joe on, Joe Scarborough was talking about how the media is ignoring things like Afghanistan and then said if the President would stop talking about the birther issue then people might move on. Does Joe realize that he is part of the media? Does he also realize that the President addressed it once, yesterday, and that was only after the media spent the past several weeks fixated on the issue? You do realize that you are part of the media – don’t you?

But why would the media take any responsibility at all? Yesterday the President even called out the media for their obsession with the birther stuff and that upset Jake Tapper:

This morning the White House decided it was time to take a Hiroshima style offensive tactic against the lunatics on the right and release President Obama’s birth certificate.

In 2008, in response to media inquiries, the President’s campaign requested his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The state sent the campaign the President’s birth certificate, the same legal documentation provided to all Hawaiians as proof of birth in state, and the campaign immediately posted it on the internet. That birth certificate can be seen here (PDF).

When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.

Finally we are starting to see some new ads come out from the left exposing the Republican’s quest to destroy Medicare. The first one is coming from Americans United for Change, in which they are targeting certain Republican members of the House who are supporting the Ryan Plan. Here’s the ad, which will air in the districts of Steve King (R-IA), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Chip Cravaack (R-MN)  and Paul Ryan himself:

Then the DCCC comes out with a new web ad, expanding the field. In “Broken Promises: House Republicans Vote To End Medicare”, the DCCC seizes on the Republicans shredding their “Seniors’ Bill of Rights”

Hopefully this is the start of the left showing more spine and countering the hypocrisy and ideological destruction of America the GOP is bringing down. All we need now is a larger audience for these ads – hopefully one of a national scale.

Following the explosive news yesterday of Apple mobile devices recording their users every move (for background see here and here), Senator Al Franken is upset and demanding answers from Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

Franken expressed special concern for iPhone and iPad users who are minors, writing that an "estimated 13% of the 108 million iPhones and 19 Million iPad devices sold are used by individuals under the age of 18."

Among Franken's specific questions to Jobs are:

• Why did Apple choose to initiate tracking this data in its iOS 4 operating system?
• Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?
• Does Apple believe this conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy?

TPM has Franken’s full letter. It’s great to see a member of Congress take this kind of privacy breach serious. Hopefully more will soon, but in the mean time, I suggest everyone stay clear of Apple products.