- Bill Maher tells Occupy Wall Street to “get a job,” and says:

“As I watch them on the news now I find myself almost agreeing with Newt Gingrich. Like, you know what – get a job…Now it’s just a bunch of douchebags who think throwing a chair through the Starbucks window is going to bring on the revolution.”

- Apparently, Hot Topic is all out of Che shirts, so a bored Daily Kos decides to spend its time bullying … a food pantry:

I just got off of the phone with someone at Paul’s Pantry (the third person I was connected to). We spoke for awhile, but ultimately it came down to a few things (1) he said that they have the right to refuse to send their truck anywhere; (2) he refuses to send their truck to an organization that “kills babies” and isn’t supported by 90% of Paul’s Pantry’s donors; and (3) the office is more than willing to accept the donations if they are brought directly there. He seemed most uncomfortable with their truck being seen near Planned Parenthood’s office because of the optics and feels that PP is trying to pick a fight since this has been their position for over 12 years. I told him to expect more calls. ..”

Let’s shower this POS with our calls. I have left a message. So should all of you. Maybe this is a distraction, but much is at stake-a woman’s right to choose. [my emphasis]

A group of progressives who don’t donate to this charity found out that a food pantry would rather keep itself free of Planned Parenthood’s politics, so they decide to bully the private entity. Hysterical progressives don’t care that the charity may risk losing donations if their van is spotted at a Planned Parenthood. They don’t offer to make up for the funds, either, and they fail to encourage readers to donate. What is their big contribution to society? Tantrums? They haven’t done an ounce to serve others as Paul’s Pantry yet these narcissistic space savers have the audacity to politicize everything from breast cancer to food for the needy. Keep it up, Daily Kos.

- Occupiers reportedly threw bricks at cops and urine ad media over the weekend. Protesters in NYC upped the ante:

In New York City, Occupy protesters allegedly urinated on a cross inside a Brooklyn church.

“An occupier peed inside the building and the pee came into contact with a cross,” wrote Rabbi Chaim Gruber in a note to the New York Post.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has a history of participants urinating and defecating in public.

The group has also been accused of desecrating West Park Presbyterian Church. The pastor ordered 60 protesters to leave the sanctuary after someone stole a bronze lid from the $12,500 baptismal font.

“It was like pissing on the 99 percent,” an angry Rev. Bob Brashear told the New York Post.

(more…)

“…most notably no one in the press was leaving.”

Ed. Note: It’s not clear if the video above was taken at the same protest referenced in the article below.

WPRO:

More than 50 protestors were arrested from the Occupy Boston movement last night after refusing to obey police and move from a protest site. 

WPRO’s digital reporter Bob Plain was among one of those arrested and charged with unlawful assembly. “They actually warned everyone, ‘you have 2 minutes to get out of here, you have one minute to get out of here,’ no one was leaving-most notably no one in the press was leaving,” Plain told the WPRO Morning News with Tara Granahan and Andrew Gobeil. …

The protestors are part of the national Occupy Wall Street effort and they are camped out at Dewey Square. When protestors moved from Dewey Square to a site along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a local conservancy group called in complaints. The group stated they had just planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the Greenway and they feared that the plants would be damaged or destroyed.

(more…)

Today is election day in Massachusetts, for what could be the most important and ironic political race of the last 100 years: A country swerving out of control; helmed by a supermajority Democratic machine that might just be slammed back on the rails by a one-party Democratic state, that in any other time but this one, is of the bluest kind.

I am a friend, political addict, and a newcomer citizen journalist for Andrew Breitbart.  I looked at this race weeks ago, and I knew if Scott Brown won, it would make history and literally upend the political landscape of the US and the world.

I had stumbled into the citizen journalist role via an unintended run-in with ACORN in Los Angeles, and followed up with a piece on the interesting nepotistic habits of Senator Max Baucus.  But this was bigger, and I knew it. (more…)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs faced pointed questions from two reporters during a briefing on Wednesday regarding President Obama’s about-face on transparency in the health care bill debate. A sampling:

Reporter: During the campaign, the president on numerous occasions said words to the effect of, quoting one, “All of this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public.” Do you agree that the president is breaking an explicit campaign promise?

Watching Gibbs dodge and weave with answers varying from “we covered this yesterday” to “the president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible”  is at once nauseating and fascinating. Not only did he not answer the question — what, be honest and lose his job? — but his deameanor implied that answering such questions is beneath his dignity and not worthy of the time. I’ve noticed this on more than one occasion.

Certainly it’s the press secretary’s job to make his boss look good – but it’s a reporter’s job to play devil’s advocate. Why did only two reporters in the room press Gibbs on the transparency issue? George W. Bush was constantly criticized for being too secretive – and yet here we have a direct promise of transparency being broken, and only a couple of reporters dare to ask why. Perhaps they’re worried about being denied access if they ask questions that are too probing, as happened during the campaign. (more…)

If you’re like me, you’re tired of being lied to.

That’s what got me started in media criticism.  I would read the Los Angeles Times every day and shout at the newspaper’s reporters and editors over my cornflakes.  “This isn’t true and you know it!” I’d yell.

Of course, nobody over there was listening.  But they listen to me now… sometimes.

Back in February 2003, I started writing my blog, primarily as an outlet for my frustration at the bias, omissions, and distortions I found in the L.A. Times on an almost daily basis.

Since then, I’ve managed to get the editors’ attention a few times.

During the Iraq war, I questioned an L.A. Times report that a U.S. airstrike in Ramadi had “pulverized” 15 homes and killed 30 civilians.  My military and other local sources denied the report.  Based on my post, the editors backed off their initial claims.

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