Saturday Morning

The NY Times commiserates with its readers:

Shifting Reports on Libya Killings May Cost Obama

By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s shifting accounts of the fatal attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, have left President Obama suddenly exposed on national security and foreign policy, a field where he had enjoyed a seemingly unassailable advantage over Mitt Romney in the presidential race.

Hard to imagine - the Admiistration failed to anticipate terrorist attacks on the anniversary of 9/11,then misled the public about their failure, and this is news?

Unfortunately, this is not just partisan hackery the Times can pooh-pooh:

But the questions are likely to come not just from partisan Republicans. The Benghazi attack calls into question the accuracy of intelligence-gathering and whether vulnerable American personnel overseas are receiving adequate protection. Even allies of the president like Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have petitioned the White House for more information about how the government protects diplomatic installations abroad.

But not to worry- the Times won't be trying too hard to knock down Team Obama's spin. For example, here is this howler, reported without rebuttal:

White House officials dispute that the press secretary, Jay Carney, cited the anti-Muhammad video as the cause of the attack in Benghazi.

If the Times had a subscription to "WhiteHouse.gov" they would be able to find the transcript of this Sept 14 press briefing by Mr. Carney:

MR. CARNEY:  In terms of the security at the Benghazi facility or post, I would have to refer you to the State Department for specifics about what security was there.  There was a security presence.  It was unfortunately not enough to resist the attacks that we saw and resulted in the tragic loss of life.  But there was security.

It is also the case that in reaction to this the President has ordered that we review all of our security arrangements for embassy facilities and other diplomatic facilities around the world.  But in terms of the specific security that was in place at Benghazi, I’d have to refer you to the State Department.

Q    Wouldn’t it seem logical that the anniversary of 9/11 would be a time that you would want to have extra security around diplomats and military posts?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, as you know, we are very vigilant around anniversaries like 9/11.  The President is always briefed and brought up to speed on all the precautions being taken.  But let’s be --

Q    But saying you’re very vigilant and being very vigilant are different things.

MR. CARNEY:  Jake, let’s be clear, these protests were in reaction to a video that had spread to the region --

Q    At Benghazi?  What happened at Benghazi --

MR. CARNEY:  We certainly don't know.  We don't know otherwise.  We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack.  The unrest we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive.  And while the violence is reprehensible and unjustified, it is not a reaction to the 9/11 anniversary that we know of, or to U.S. policy.

Q    But the group around the Benghazi post was well armed.  It was a well-coordinated attack.  Do you think it was a spontaneous protest against a movie?

MR. CARNEY:  Look, this is obviously under investigation, and I don’t have –

Q    But your operating assumption is that that was in response to the video, in Benghazi?  I just want to clear that up.  That’s the framework?  That’s the operating assumption? 

MR. CARNEY:  Look, it’s not an assumption --

Q    Because there are administration officials who don’t -- who dispute that, who say that it looks like this was something other than a protest.

MR. CARNEY:  I think there has been news reports on this, Jake, even in the press, which some of it has been speculative.  What I’m telling you is this is under investigation.  The unrest around the region has been in response to this video.  We do not, at this moment, have information to suggest or to tell you that would indicate that any of this unrest was preplanned. 

What is true about Libya is that -- well, a couple of things.  One, is it’s one of the more pro-American countries in the region.  Two, it is a very new government; it is a country that has just come out of a revolution and a lot of turmoil, and there are certainly a lot of armed groups.  So the fact that there are weapons in the region and the new government is not -- is still building up its capacities in terms of security and its ability to ensure the security of facilities, is not necessarily reflective of anything except for the remarkable transformation that’s been going on in the region.

Well, Mr. Carney stuck to the line that it is under investigation, but to claim that he did not cite the movie as a possible cause is a long stretch. But not too long for the Times to ignore it.

 

 

Comments

[Frau Perverser]

Our McClathy paper was desperate for fillers today and brought a beefy article about Ben Nye including a photo of him with the preezy--who was *not* bowing to the science guy. I learned that in addition to demeaning people of faith, Ben is a mechanical engineer.

[Clarice]

Well, Rick, It's hard for me to imagine there won't be newspapers. On the other hand, were I a network executive I'd scratch the news divisions. Why pay millions to dunderheads to read Fenton handouts and AP blather?
Either run a real news operation--which they do not--or can it and go with the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo at the old news hour.

[Frau Perverser]

McClatchy...but no one cares.

Jane, my favorite, always tries to tease out hints about Clarice's Pieces the day before. I like to wait for the surprise. It must be like opening presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day.

[Clarice]

Frau, how nice..

[Frau Perverser]

"the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo"

Clarice, you may have come up with a fab new version of the "Beverly Hillbillies."

[RichatUF]

JiB-

Sorry I mentioned it.

Rick-

Please don't report back until after October 9th. A lot of those Obamaphone grifters don't know about registration cutoffs and don't realize they have to re-register after being evicted.

HA. I was curious when and how it got started. Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the point of departure and the actual fund the Universal Service Fund (formerly a dog's breakfest of other programs) was up and running in 1999. It is also supported by various state programs and is a subsidy for both high cost rural areas and low income urban areas. Plauged by "waste, fraud, and abuse", it has been refomed numerous times (each time it seems qualifications were loosened and promotion of the program increased((to the point that those participating in the free lunch program can qualify))) and the Obama Administration has finally cracked the safe (it's a 7.5 billion dollar line item) and is transfering it to the Connect America Fund (because under "universial access" broadband services are now included).

Yea!!!

It would be more entertaining to watch paint dry. Or listen to me talk about how much I dislike my tattoo that I got when I was 19 and in the army.

[Janet]

It is odd how quick the Obama administration was to blame some obscure, tacky video. It had to have been tagged already. Like them having so much info on the 9-11 hijackers so quickly.
and why make Rice come out & lie to everyone? Is the UN Ambassador an expert on State Dept. decisions & Embassy security?

[Frau Perverser]

Milledgeville meets Malibu!

[Sara]

Speaking of the "Beverly Hillbillies," I saw a blurb, I think it was yesterday, that it has been 50 years since it first aired.

[Captain Hate]

It's hard to be original; that's why when I come up with something to the satisfaction of the crowd here I feel a sense of accomplishment.

The Morning Monolith here is rumored to be reduced to publishing three times a week; this on the heels of massive capital expenditures in new facilities. They didn't ask my opinion of the wisdom of those investments...

[Rick Ballard]

"It's hard for me to imagine"

Clarice,

I don't believe it. Think about Kodak for a moment - better yet, try and find a new 78 or a 4-track or an 8-track. I run into very few people more conservative than I am and I can imagine a world without newspapers quite easily.

Maybe not subscribing to one for the past five years helps...

[Clarice]

Well, I know something will change, but local merchants need a way to reach people; weddings and births and deaths need a place to be announced in; meetings and legal notices need to be publicized.

It's true my neighborhood free paper provides me with far more usable and information than the WaPo does, but its reach is very small.

Even if the dead tree format goes and we get the "news" online, someone has to do that and the established press (attenuated as it is and will continue to be) seems the likely candidate.

[RichatUF]

It had to have been tagged already.

It was screened on Egyptian State television on or about 8 September 2012. Isn't there some embassy functionary whose job is to do nothing but watch local programming and read the local press and write up a summary?

[Clarice]

Oh, frau, what a dreadful thought. Forget I ever put those things together in the same sentence, please.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Well, I know something will change, but local merchants need a way to reach people; weddings and births and deaths need a place to be announced in; meetings and legal notices need to be publicized.--

The return of the town crier?

Boehner will have something to do once he's out of congress anyway.

[Frau Perverser]

The Goracle left us with an eternal tax on our telephone bills and carpy, useless Gore crappers.

Sorry, Clarice, but I will split with you if the show takes off.

Off to read. Nite all.

[Clarice]

Nite, frau!

[narciso]

There was apparently a cable, along those lines, Rich, sent out on September 8th, the day the El Nas
segment aired, however it apparently was not cc to Tripoli, for what it was worth.

The way this meme, echoed around the worlRd, seems to validate what I thought at the time, was
Robert Ferrigno's explanation of the backstory of his Islamist dystopian take on America, where a series of nuclear attacks were blamed on Mossad.

[Clarice]

Very funny, Iggy.
Nytol.

[RichatUF]

narciso-

The MSM were plagerizing whatever talking points they were given. Still unbelievable that it isn't more of a scandal (but then again the Cole bombing wasn't a scandal either). Also worried what those Code Pinkos running around Afghansitan have planned, and if it turns out the way I expect, what the administration response is going to be.

It would have been a great night to go out and drink, heavily, and not wake up til noon tomorrow.

[Jim Ryan]

He's going to give me a free phone and a free colonoscopy? I'm voting Obama.

I don't know why I had an ideological preoccupation with limited government and fiscal sanity.

[daddy]

"Look! Squirrel!"

[RichatUF]

narciso-

There was apparently a cable, along those lines, Rich, sent out on September 8th, the day the El Nas
segment aired, however it apparently was not cc to Tripoli, for what it was worth.

ooops. It may have helped, but then again, protests sprung up all over the world. That wiki on the project was pretty good thanks for the link. Curiouser and curiouser that the guy was found out within hours and the first thing he dribbled out of his mouth was "It is the work of the Jews". Maybe he should have stuck to cooking meth.

[narciso]

Well the Revenge season premier will be on tomorrow, so there's that to look forward to.

[RichatUF]

I don't have a television. Would have probably destroyed it if I had one.

Was wondering if zombie has anything about the film (clip, working draft(the pre Egyptian airing)) and the different posters etc? Does Hezebollah have a presence in LA?

[narciso]

Well that's curious, because L.A.it is to the Iranian diaspora, what Little Havana is to the Cuban one, so it's possible, in fact there was an episode of the Closer, that focused on this point,

[Rick Ballard]

WaPo runs actuall poll results.

The North Carolina numbers are unsurprising. North Carolina does not belong on the battleground list.

Eeyores will focus on Iowa - Good Lord, look at that disparity in a battleground state. Please note the 5.7% lead by Democrats in 2010 resulted in Grassley winning with 65%, Branstad pulling 55% for his win and the total GOP House vote being 54%. Also note the Iowa early vote started on 9/27. North Carolina is just absentee ballots returned but note absentee ballots requested by Republicans run 51/28 over Democrats.

This should be fun to watch as the "suddenly tightening" schtick plays out in the MFM.

[OldTimer]

Black pastor boldly urges Black Christians to leave the democrat party..

See Video:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/27/Black-Bishop-Rips-Dem-Party

[narciso]

This is the alchemy, that passes for economic wisdom in my fishwrap;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/29/3026283/obama-romney-take-different-tacks.html

[narciso]

Another part of the scam, it's a matter of when he will rejoin the fight,

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/09/29/last-western-detainee-leaves-gitmo/

OTOH, his brother AbdulRahman actually turned out to be useful to interrogators.

[daddy]

That's an impressive Minister you linked to Old Timer.

"Black pastors are going to have to answer whether they serve Jesus or the Democratic Party."

I think we know who he is talking about.

[Mark Folkestad]

Completely off-topic, but PD and his wife are dropping by my neighborhood on their way back to Madison after Sunday services, and we will be having Mongolian barbecue at Genghis Grill. About the only trouble we're likely to get into is teasing the wait staff by pronouncing Genghis in the manner of John Effing Kerry.

[RichatUF]

For those that can't get their fix early enough. Clarice's Pieces:

But she was hardly the only world class mythomaniac from Harvard law school on the podium at that Convention, the theme of which was Obama the bold slayer of Bin Laden and destroyer of Al Qaeda, the experienced and aggressive counter terrorist expert. After all, his domestic policies, are so bad they were hardly anything about which to spike the ball so the brain trust picked international anti-terrorist hero theme.

And it just gets better. Matt even comes in for a coda-the sort of bit that will make everyone sleep better at night.

[RichatUF]

that-> whom? -> who?

coffee. that is what I need. lots and lots of coffee.

[peter]

Mythomaniac. What an awesome word to describe Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama.

[Clarice]

Thanks, peter. You need lots of synonyms for liar to describe these folks..saying liar liar liar all the time makes for boring reading.

[sbw]

Rick Ballard: "I can imagine a world without newspapers quite easily."

No you can’t. You can imagine quite easily a world without entertainment periodicals that push information and opinion as if they were news.

[Extraneus]

local merchants need a way to reach people; weddings and births and deaths need a place to be announced in; meetings and legal notices need to be publicized.

This could all be done on Craigslist. No middle-men needed.

Excellent piece, Clarice.

[sbw]

Clarice, I admire those who write clear and compelling prose. Yay for you!

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Clarice,

Today's Pieces is just wonderful. What a great way to wake up!

BTW I voted in the LW poll on Friday.

[Clarice]

Thanks, all.

[centralcal]

Good morning. Drinking my coffee, read Sunday Pieces - love the coinage of "mythomaniac." It is now my well established Sunday morning routine and I so look forward to it.

Like your new JOM name too, Jane - "mock the media!"

[Janet]

Wonderful Pieces, Clarice.

more from LI on Warren & her TX law license.

Warren & Obama are 2 peas in a pod. Imagine if this kind of digging had been done to Obama before it was all hidden....
Watching what Warren is doing now might give some insight into what Obama's team did.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Another excellent distillation of the week's events, Clarice.

And I'm going to steal that word.

[Clarice]

I only regret that I neglected to link to some of Legal Insurrections posts on her for those unfamiliar with the issue. Wild Bill Jacobson has done a heroic job. (I do not use "an" before words beginning with an "h" unless they are silent h's.I don't care what that rule is.)

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Lest anyone has any doubt why Obama named the owner of Univision's wife to an ambassadorship last week :

The Obama administration clearly hoped that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General report on Operation Fast and Furious would be the last word on the scandal. which has been tied to hundreds of deaths in Mexico and the murders of two American law-enforcement officials. However, a new report from Univision to be broadcast tomorrow, previewed here by ABC News, may put the issue back on the front pages. One source called Univision’s findings the “holy grail” that Congressional investigators have been seeking:

Perhaps it didn't work.

[rse]

Clarice-do you ever feel like you are writing in part to try to reach the reflex Jewish "but I have always voted Democratic. It is part of who I am" voters? To pierce the bubble that if they do that again instinctively this time, other parts they also take for granted are at risk? Not at the margin but just going Poof?

I thought you did a first rate job of getting at what Fundamental Transformation is costing us at the foreign policy level.

I was chasing down this systems thinking/systems dynamics training for teachers and students yesterday and what the trophy districts were describing struck me as the kind of Dialectical exercises that would have been occurring in Warsaw or Moscow universities in the 60s. If that was the function, it is unlikely that is not being celebrated as a feature not a bug somewhere. Bingo.

Nothing like the Chinese. Or American universities. Multiple statements. Including one from that seminal year of 1987 on what a nice bridge philosophy it makes.

Intentional insurrection thus is an understatement. And so much tracks back to the Windy City and has for more than a century.

I cannot think of any group less likely to be on board with a reversion to pre-literate minds. At least that is my experience in the South. Of rejecting the science of the Enlightenment in favor of experience science unifying the natural and social sciences.

It would be a lot easier for people to recognize what they are actually dealing with these days if the Principals and Supers wore Mao outfits. The khakis and high heels are a distraction from what is really going on in the West.

"You mean things have changed since I was in school? Apart from tuition being so much higher? Isn't the I-Pad just another way to access the textbook?"

[Clarice]

Perhaps not, Jane. I can't imagine this report is helpful to the Won's Hispanic outreach program.

[Janet]

Muslim Violence is our new Law -

"We are no longer led by revolutionary believers in the freedom of man, but by revolutionary believers in the submission of man to the higher principles that make their utopian sandcastles possible."

[Patriot4Freedom]

Might the Sunday Pieces be destined to become an "instant classic" ?
Coming up with the word "mythomaniac" - that was a stroke of genius !

[Patriot4Freedom]

btw, I scored 100% - with a record time - for the "states" game . . .

I just used ALL of Obama's 57 states !

[Clarice]

rse, I don't think those people read AT much. No, all I do is pay attention to what's hot on the IT and try to put it into a cohesive weekly narrative. There's so much good stuff out there but most people haven't the time to keep following daily blog posts and need to see these developments in a more traditional, easier to read format..

[Clarice]

Patriot "mythomaniac" is, I believe, an already extant if rarely used word.

[Jim Eagle]

Another welcome Sunday with Clarice. Terrific insights and wonderful wordsmithing.

I love the Mythamaniac phrasing as in, Barack Obama is a myth in his own mind. Replacing "legend" comes so easy when discussing him and Warren.

Now off to church. Frederick is serving.

[Captain Hate]

Mythomaniac is indeed a word (from an online search; I'm too lazy to look it up in my dead tree OED) which Clerice uses very effectively. The English language is fertile enough to communicate accurately and creatively despite the attempts of the Pitzer staff to reduce it to incomprehension and dadaesque obfuscation.

[Captain Hate]

It would help if I spelled Clarice correctly.

[Donald]

Janet, it would be pretty awesome if Romney would ask Obama what or means. He's gonna have the opportunity and he needs to do it.

[MarkO]

Another hit, Clarice.

[sbw]

rse, “Student Achievement” is a committee of Gov. Cuomo’s NY Education Reform Commission. The committee is chaired by Geoffrey Canada, who will be speaking in Utica next month.

His visit prompted me to write these concerns I might get an opportunity to ask him:

What do you want students to achieve? Independent judgment? Sense of community? Ability to defend themselves against words? Character? If so, inculcating someone else’s platitudes passed off as “civic virtures” would undermine your goal.

You might trust yourself to correctly select what students require, but can you trust your successors? How can you assure stakeholders will know how to revalidate what is taught so they will be prepared to defend against education being hijacked?

Your thoughts?

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Perhaps not, Jane. I can't imagine this report is helpful to the Won's Hispanic outreach program.

My sarcasm got lost. I'm sure the appointment was an attempt to curtail the publication of this report.

Then again I'm a cynic.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--(I do not use "an" before words beginning with an "h" unless they are silent h's.I don't care what that rule is.)

Posted by: Clarice--

I'm no expert on this clarice but I think it's based on pronunciation more than spelling, no?
As somebody pointed out at a site I was looking at it's not just "H".
Virtually nobody writes and certainly nobody says "I am an European", even though it starts with a vowel, because it's pronounced like a consonant.

[Clarice]

any scholarly publications I've seen use an in front of every H word regardless of its pronunciation. Look up "An homage" , for example.

[Clarice]

I meant "An historic" and slipped in the editing.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

-any scholarly publications I've seen use an in front of every H word regardless of its pronunciation--

Scholars, what do they know?
Usually they're just trying to sound scholarly.

This site claims to be an authority on grammar rules and since they agree with me they must be reliable. :)

[rse]

sbw-I was off reading another false, duplicitous, and influential report where all the panelists were employed at the expense of taxpayers. They were explaining that employers needed to change to reflect the digital minds and interests of future employees that of course the schools were planning to reenforce instead of counteract.

Student achievement and growth are the two most common measures being adopted as we move into the era of formative assessments and Learning Trajectories of skills but also a great deal of desired focus on the affective--the values, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. Those are the drivers of future behavior, frequently at an unconscious level, and those are the primary targets of most of education going forward. Since Outcomes based Education, especially of the Transformational kind at the top of the William Spady/Spence Rogers pyramid (searching those names, terms, and ASCD will pull up numerous articles from the 90s for anyone interested) became notorious, growth and student achievement get you to same outcomes without it being readily apparent. As I have written it is broken up this time but still functions the same.

The report I just finished had Willard Daggett as their overly compensated speaker pushing same old vision with new names. He put up a Quadrant diagram that he said was his but any prof would validly accuse him of plagiarism of Webb's Depth of Knowledge I wrote about in the LUN. He wants everybody at level 4 too-the old complex life performances and real life problem solving in complex situations.

Daggett used to be a Vocational Ed director in Albany and his Intl Center is still based there so he will be the likely influence on Albany's definition of student achievement. http://www.jhf.org/Resources/PaperPdfs/ROOTS-%20Transforming%20Education%20Systems%20For%20The%2021st%20Century%20Learner.pdf

is the report. I suggest you look at it before meeting. Rigorous and relevant are two of the new 3 R's I have described. Daggett is not bright enough to develop his own ideas and seems to be parroting John Goodlad's push in this area.

That report makes it clear this ed reform is chasing the bottom 50% of students or bottom 75%. We are jettisoning are top students in this vision. The ones capable on tomorrow's innovation. We need them nurtured and not squandered on the altar of equity for all. The report also has a very dangerous view of what private sector employees exist for that could only come from those who live at taxpayer expense coupled with those who live of the non-taxed wealth of already created innovation now surviving as tax-free foundations.

How much real knowledge is there if only a few concepts are actually taught? How can a curriculum tied to the interests of the bottom 50% produce the knowledge needed for a so-called knowledge economy?

How much of the "learning" is social and emotional?

What constitutes intellectual learning in this vision? If it's systems thinking then much of the so-called knowledge is inconsistent with reality.

We really are playing a how to destroy a valuable civilization in 3 easy steps here. In part because we are taking advice from the wrong people who have huge conflicts of interests involved apart from the radical political agendas involved.

Canada I think means well but he is very involved with DFER. Whatever his actual intentions it is hard to imagine he is getting accurate info on where this is all going. Everyone just sees their sliver and accepts all the appeals to authority that are rampant in this area.

Hope that helps.

[Let 'em eat fake.]

Parallel paradigm.
Parent triggers.
It's our money,
And our kids.
=======

[sbw]

rse, thanks for the background.

[rse]

Except if the parent triggers get used to community organize the parents and the parents now have a vested interest in a school using a turnaround model. The problem is the school is using the Effective Schools template that is mostly behavioral and not knowledge. Standardized testing is going away because that model never does well on standardized tests and in the group project world there is nothing to prompt how weak an individual child actually remains.

Kim-I actually asked that exact question of the number 2 super who really runs the stte DOE. After hissing at me for the accurate insight into what student achievement meant in that reality of how CCSSI formative assessments work (i.e., group projects) she replied that they had always used the term Performance Assessment for that reason.

Parent triggers are like charters-a dangerous means of tying your hands unless you have a relevant Glossary of Terms and know where the poisons come from.