Hillary Takes Vows of Poverty and Chastity

Gotta love the Boston Globe headline on this story that reads “Clinton vows 'vigilance' in accepting funds”. Don’t expect to see a Globe headline reading “Romney vows vigilance in choosing campaign coordinators”. When Hillary gets in a jam it is her earnest promise of improvement that makes the Globe headline. A snippet:

…Hillary Clinton said yesterday that her presidential campaign will be more careful about scrutinizing donors. Norman Hsu, who has donated large sums to numerous Democrats including Clinton and Barack Obama, has been wanted by California authorities for 15 years in connection with a fraud case.

Of course we should trust the lady’s good intentions. But somehow I don’t. As Hillary herself says, ”if you find a turtle on a fence post, it didn't get there by accident”.

And the headline to that Globe story, “Clinton vows 'vigilance' in accepting funds” sounds familiar. Haven’t we heard that line somewhere before? Yes we have, but it involved that other Clinton administration. Finally, the Globe story reports:

Clinton's campaign said Wednesday that it will give $23,000 it received from Hsu to charity.

But Ed Morrissey cited an LA Times story yesterday and noted:

“The amounts add up to $92,100 going directly to Clinton. She's giving up $23,000.”

Is Ed right? Of course the Globe story was technically correct, regardless. It did not report that the $23,000 was the full amount Hillary received. The story reported only that the Clinton campaign will give $23,000 it received from Hsu to charity. The Globe story also said:

Clinton also told the Globe that the campaign would return any of the contributions that Hsu raised from other donors if they turned out to be tainted.

Tainted donors? Exactly how are they “tainted”? Actually I think in all their verbal gymnastics the Globe meant the tainting to apply to the donations rather than the donors. Does this mysterious language refer to the $92,000 that Ed Morrissey reported so much more clearly yesterday? Your guess is as good as mine. The Globe does not say. This wording is probably what columnist Mark Steyn once called:

“…the sound of the genteel Victorian matron discreetly draping chintz over the provocative piano legs of the story”.

Steyn was referring to a story in the Boston Globe, of course.

"Advocates"

Boston Globe headlines that contain the word “advocates” are found above stories that are nothing but the result of a few phone calls to the usual suspects, mostly from the radical left. This article, headlined “Advocates criticize federal roundups”, is a superb illustration of the genre. It begins:

Advocates for immigrants accused federal officials yesterday of rounding up regular undocumented immigrants and possibly some legal residents, in addition to alleged gang members in raids in several local communities, sparking fear and mistrust that could deter immigrants from reporting crimes in the future.

That sentence is a wonder of composition. First because it coins the new term “regular undocumented immigrants”. This differentiates those who have broken only immigration laws from those who have broken many other laws besides. Second, because the claim made about the effects is a laugh. Surely the gangs have far more persuasive methods of “deterring immigrants from reporting crimes” than do federal agents, and unlike ICE agents, the gangsters are in the neighborhood 24/7. If they suspect you are a snitch, you indeed have reason for “fear and mistrust”.

The rest of this article so perfectly fits the mold of the Globe providing a voice to the outraged that it is pretty news-free. This kind of sob story newspaper article is like catnip for bloggers. They just can’t resist poking fun at it. See Media Farm and Michael Graham who had fun at the expense of this story.

Not in My Manse

Globe columnist Tom Keane:

A COAL MINE collapse in Utah killed six workers, with another three dead after a second collapse buried a group of rescuers. Opponents of Cape Wind, the embattled wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, said that while they regretted the loss of life, it was better that than forcing beachfront property owners on Cape Cod to look at tiny windmills on the distant horizon.

This would be funnier, except that it is too close to the truth.

Irony, dude

A Boston Globe editorial today (entitled “Poetry, dude”) begins and ends with howlers. Here is the beginning:

NEW MEDIA and ancient media are hooking up.

Hooking up indeed. In the Globe's view, 26 year old Viacom subsidiary MTV Networks with their new mtvU video channel targeting college students is a manifestation of new media. Maybe they actually do wear bow ties over on Morrissey Boulevard.

The editorial goes on to praise the video channel for its inclusion of poetry (a very ancient medium, agreed). It concludes with these words, apparently unaware of the irony:

Baby boomers can worry a little less: All culture is not being lost in the iPod era.

Thanks, baby boomers, for your dedicated service as the worried guardians of culture.

Blessed Assurance

Before the Yankees and Red Sox began this week’s 3-game series, Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote:

We are here, and the Bronx is not burning, and the only thing we know for sure is that this once "crucial" three-game series is all about the Yankees.

Right again, Dan. Your words were prophetic. With two games now lost out of two, and one of them to the 45 year old Clemens, I feel a need for a shot of that ancient medium, poetry.

Assurance

The danger not an inch outside
Behind the porthole’s slab of glass
And double ring of fitted brass
I trust feels properly defied.

— Robert Frost

Waiting for Deval's Creative Leadership

In an online discussion about casinos at Boston.com participant working_for_change wrote:

There must be more efficient ways to address education, public safety, and provision of essential services than having 351 different school systems, police departments, fire departments, departments of public works, sanitation services, assessing departments, property tax collectors, etc. If economies of scale can be realized by consolidating insurance coverage, they must also be available elsewhere. The overlay of state government expenses on top of local fiefdoms is just icing on the cake.

Do you suppose? Or should we simply open a few casinos to get at most 2% more state revenue?

We citizens are waiting breathlessly while our creative enlightened and ultra-progressive chief executive with the wonderful life story ponders this choice.

Renee Loth Picks Mitt (and picks on him, too)

In a Boston Globe online chat forum, Globe editorial page editor Renee Loth writes:

I think Romney will actually be the GOP nominee, regardless of his flip flopping and the wariness movement conservatives seem to have about Mormons. Why? Because all politics is relative. And relative to the rest of the field Romney looks pretty good. Who else is there? All the other candidates on the GOP side have their own serious downsides, and Mitt is rich, slick, articulate, handsome, well-known in New Hampshire -- and a new, fresh face.

Agreed.

No wonder the Boston Globe taken the time to stake out Romney’s house and has been so biased against his candidacy in their reporting! They believe he will be the nominee.

Oh, excuse me. I forgot that the Globe editorial and news departments are kept separate. The Globe newsroom' is full of professional journalists whose reporting of Mitt Romney is never influenced by political or personal animus.

And where do I sign to buy that bridge you were selling me?

Two Appetizers

Two small appetizers are all there is in this cafeteria for today’s meal:

First Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center writes about allocation of resources to health care. He had discussions with health care leaders of Nordic countries recently:

In essence, this appropriation by the parliament is a politically derived decision, just as it would be for any appropriation for a program of important national priority, and it therefore competes with other worthy national programs for resources… The managers of the Nordic hospital systems, once their single annual appropriation is handed down, make important decisions about what services to offer to the public and what services not to offer. They also respond to appropriation levels by determining service quality levels. In the face of inevitable limitations on the ability of the nation hospital system to offer all services demanded by the public, a growing parallel system is emerging, in which private practitioners offer elective therapies and procedures outside of those supported by the national system.

Second, John Hinderaker at Power Line blog posts on Bill Moyers. In the post, Moyers rants on video about Karl Rove’s duplicity. The irony is that 40 years ago Moyers himself served as LBJ’s version of Karl Rove. The difference was that a personality like LBJ could never tolerate another star personality near him, even for a moment

There comes a time, it seems to me, when a man has been so utterly discredited as a hateful ignoramus that, not only should he be shunned by all people of good will, he should even be cut off from taxpayer subsidies. Is there anything--anything at all--that is too low for PBS to countenance?

No, but you can be sure that Moyers’ rants will be swept under the carpet when PBS is programming for pledge time.

No Notification to Readers on Censorship

According to Editor & Publisher, at least 25 of the 200 newspapers that run the Opus comic strip refused to run the August 26 strip. Judging from Google News it appears that not one of the 25 explained their decision to their readers beforehand or on the day the strip was supposed to run.

E&P says the content also includes what Washington Post Writers Group Editorial Director/General Manager Alan Shearer described as "a sex joke a little stronger than we normally see."

Hmmm. I don’t recall any complaints about the above Berkeley Breathed sex joke, though it had nothing to do with Islam.

Berkeley Breathed Buried in Boston Burkha

The Boston Globe has thrown a burkha over the comic strip ‘Opus’ that was scheduled to run last Sunday. Apparently the comic strip was judged potentially offensive to Islam. Funny, I can’t recall the Globe showing similar deference to other religions, especially in its editorial cartoons. Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed says on his website that many other papers have refused to run it and will not run his strip for next Sunday either. These papers include the Washington Post. Universal Hub says:

…we can all say for sure that the world is a better place today because of the protection the Globe affords us on the comic pages. Thank you, Boston Globe, for your brave stand against potentially offensive humor!

A comic strip pokes fun at a man who is learning how to kow-tow to radical Islam, but is censored by liberal newspaper editors, who have already mastered this skill.

Who are they protecting from ridicule?

Here is the link to the full-size comic, which appears above.

The Globe's Selective Investigations

Glen Marshall, the “tribal leader” of the Mashpee Wampanoags, announced in a Boston Globe interview Friday that he was temporarily stepping aside “so I can deal with the mental and physical issues I'm facing". Issues? The Friday Globe story points out that claims of Marshall’s decorated service in Vietnam are lies, and that the tribal leader was convicted of rape in Massachusetts in 1981. That’s not all.

Marshall also said he had been convicted for cocaine possession, lied about working as a police officer, and had allowed his supporters to lie about prestigious military decorations. Marshall said he intended to resume his duties as chairman but would not say when.

When? My guess would be whenever it suits Marshall’s deep-pocketed partners, who need a government-certified cigar store Indian to front for their billion dollar casino. While Marshall is off to some diluted form of celebrity rehab, what the Globe does not tell its readers is how this story came to light. Dan Kennedy at Media Nation does. Media Nation has good summaries of the emergence of this story here and here:

In reading the coverage since yesterday morning, I haven't found one solitary reference in the mainstream media to Peter Kenney's work. Is it really that difficult to credit a blogger? He had a good chunk of the story out there last Monday, and reporters are still working off his leads. Yes, the media had to do their own reporting and verify everything. But it seems to me that Kenney is a crucial part of this story, and he should have gotten a mention.

The Globe has had plenty of time, Dan, to “do their own reporting and verify everything”. The Globe has used Glenn Marshall as a source, subject, or author in 23 stories during 2007 (through August 19). They have allowed Marshall to write for their Op Ed page this month. But it seems they never actually checked his background.

Excuse my prejudice, but it is evident that the Globe has deep curiosity and plenty of skepticism regarding certain former governors who are Republican and Mormon. But the same skepticism somehow has disappeared when the source is a “native American leader”.

Sure Romney was the Governor and is now a candidate for president. That certainly is a more important story. But Marshall has been at the center of the question of casino gambling in Massachusetts, which is the biggest state-wide story of 2007.

If the Globe had resources to spend months staking out Mitt Romney’s house to keep track of his groundskeepers, if the Globe could develop a video montage of Mitt’s hairstyles over 4 decades, why didn’t couldn’t they make a single phone call to the Boston Police and find out if Glenn Marshall had a rap sheet?

The claims of one man are treated with disrespect and deep skepticism and researched to the bone while those of another man are respected and even blindly accepted. The doubted man is white and a member of an unpopular religion, while the more credible man is (he claims!) a native American.

Isn’t this the very essence of bias?

And when this biased negligence blows up in their face, the Globe provides neither background nor credit to the other papers or the blogger who outed this piece of the truth in the first place. Simply despicable. The height of media arrogance.

Here is a list of the Globe stories during 2007 that referenced, interviewed, or were authored by Glenn Marshall.

1.A tribe in mourning; First Wampanoag to die in Iraq is laid to rest in Mashpee; [3 Edition]
Ryan Haggerty
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Aug 19, 2007. p.B.1
2.One sovereign Indian nation; [3 Edition]
Glenn Marshall.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Aug 18, 2007. p.A.11

3.Middleborough goes 'all in' - Town OK's casino by 2-to-1 vote; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy; Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 29, 2007. p.A.1

4.Nearby towns invited to discuss casino; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 22, 2007. p.6

5.Sweetened casino deal gains ground - Middleborough Town Meeting to vote on pact; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy; Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 21, 2007. p.A.1

6.Menino asks tribe to build Hub casino -; Envisions Wampanoag resort at Suffolk Downs; [3 Edition]
Donovan Slack and Sean P. Murphy GLOBE STAFF - Correspondent Mark Robins contributed to this report..
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 13, 2007. p.A.1

7.Wampanoag balk at town's casino demands; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy; Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 12, 2007. p.A.1

8.Tribe seeks a total of 625 acres for casino -; Buffer zone is proposed; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 8, 2007. p.3

9.Tribe seeks more land for casino -; Most would be a buffer, group's spokesman says; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jul 8, 2007. p.1

10.Casino backers mount offensive - Firefighters offer support for project; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 28, 2007. p.1

11.Casino backers mount own offensive - Middleborough firefighters join police, others in voicing support for resort; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 28, 2007. p.5

12.Casino plan requires OK by Middleborough Town Meeting; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 26, 2007. p.B.6

13.Lawyer to advise town on casino; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 14, 2007. p.B.10

14.Listen to all sides of casino debate; [3 Edition]
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 10, 2007. p.9

15.Wampanoags join with Mohegan Sun developers; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Jun 7, 2007. p.B.5

16.Police unions support having a casino in town; [1 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
May 31, 2007. p.GS.1

17.Casino plan gets mixed reception; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
May 27, 2007. p.1

18.Casino proposal gets mixed reception - Tribal leader outlines plans; [3 Edition]
Christine Wallgren.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
May 27, 2007. p.GS.7

19.New Bedford pitches for casino - Mayor meets again with tribal leaders; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
May 22, 2007. p.B.1

20.Tribe's land bid may lead to casino; [3 Edition]
Sean P. Murphy.
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Apr 28, 2007. p.B.1

21.NEW ENGLAND IN BRIEF; [1 Edition]
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Feb 18, 2007. p.B.2

22.NEW ENGLAND IN BRIEF; [3 Edition]
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Feb 18, 2007. p.B.2

23.Mashpee tribe wins federal recognition; Status likely to fuel push for a casino; [3 Edition]
Andrew Ryan
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass. (0743-1791)
Feb 16, 2007. p.B.8

A Little Clinton Nostalgia

“So don’t take this security argument, they are doing it to us again. If you’re paying attention you saw two weeks ago, Karl Rove, in a room like this, telling the National Republican Committee ‘here’s your game plan folks. Here’s how we’re going to win.’ We’re going to win by getting everybody scared again. Contrary to Franklin Roosevelt who had nothing to fear but fear itself, this crowd is all we got is fear and we’re going to keep playing the fear card.”

Senator Hillary Clinton, February 8, 2006,
quoted by her own US Senate web site.

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world. So I think I'm the best of the Democrats to deal with that, as well."

Senator Hillary Clinton, Aug 23, 2006,
quoted by the Washington Post

But the curious will have to read about this in the Washington Post’s article. The Boston Globe has only a little gloss over story on this intra-party controversy, entitled “Clinton words on terror surprise some”.

"Some" again.

The Globe in Pinstripes?

The newer, whiter, Globe website design

As of today the Boston Globe website (and Boston.com) have taken on a new more paper-like look. The NY Times website also made very similar design changes recently. I like it, but can "Globe Select" be far behind?

Imagine charging people to read James Carroll's Bush-obsessed rants. Bet they will try it.

UPDATE: I thought it was a feature, but it must have been a bug. A day later the Globe website is back to blue.

No Quota for Conservatives

A bit of anecdotal evidence about how far academia tilts toward the political left is provided by a story and graph (above) in today’s Boston Globe about local academic donations to the various 2008 presidential campaigns.

When donations from seven other Boston-area universities and colleges, plus the University of Massachusetts system, are added, individuals gave about $462,000 in the first half of the year, with 86 percent going to Democrats, according to an analysis provided to the Globe yesterday.

When local colleges gush about their “diversity” they are apparently referring more to their colleague’s gender or race than to their ideas. Politically they appear to be as diverse as the Massachusetts legislature.

The article includes this tasty tidbit from Clinton donor (and media quote engine) Alan Dershowitz concerning the Democrat's choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:

"At dinner tables we have tactical arguments. Is America more racist or more sexist?"

Sounds like a typical campus debate.

Would you hire this manager?

Today’s Boston Globe has a pretty self-incriminating profile of Deval Patrick’s former chief of staff, Joan Wallace-Benjamin:

All went smoothly before inauguration day, according to Wallace-Benjamin. Once in office, however, there was no road map for moving forward. Four days later came the first newspaper story questioning whether Patrick was living up to his campaign promises. The criticism grew harsher, she says. "Three months later, I wasn't loving the environment. Not because of the hits we took in the press, frivolous or deserving. But because the job was very operational in ways I wasn't used to. I could do it, but I'm more an outward-facing communicator than internal manager." Not like [TV's West Wing Chief of Staff Leo] McGarry, in other words, a master at managing delicate egos behind closed drapes? "Right, right," Wallace-Benjamin says, nodding. "I was the ego everyone was managing for the past 20 years."

Did anybody read this lady her Miranda rights before she gave this interview?

Wallace-Benjamin is now the (outward-facing) CEO of the Home for Little Wanderers. Hopefully somebody else there is doing any inward-facing work required to actually manage their operation.

Hat Tip: Deval Patrick Watch

Do Tell

Lisa Wangsness pens a marvelous “but paragraph” in today’s installment of the Boston Globe’s long-running “Piss on Mitt” series. She writes:

But some of Romney's critics and political foes -- all strong supporters of the state's healthcare law -- say he is resorting to tricks used by candidates trying to put the best spin on their records: accentuating the positive, deleting difficult details, and taking too much credit.

How truly shocking that any candidate might behave like this! Thanks, Lisa, for reporting this startling and disturbing new charge.

Some News Banned in Boston

The Boston Globe blogs today note Mitt Romney’s new radio ad on immigration. The tone of Globe reporter Foon Rhee’s post is very adversarial, but rather than go into that note that readers of the Globe would have no idea why the issue of illegal immigration suddenly seems to be on the front pages (of other papers at least). You would never know if you read only the Globe.

The reason for the latest spurt of immigration discussion is the fact that 2 of the 3 adult suspects in the recent gangland triple murder in Newark are illegal immigrants. The Globe has limited its coverage of this story to 3 AP stories that it ran on August 9, on August 18, and on August 21. But the Globe’s parent paper – not known as a Republican stronghold – ran a story on Sunday August 19 focused on the illegal immigration aspect of the murders. Here are the key excerpts from the Times story (emphasis mine):

[the suspect] Mr. Carranza was first arrested in October 2006, in West Orange, N.J., on aggravated assault charges after a bar fight, and again twice earlier this year on charges that he raped a child in his care. After the October arrest, he was freed on $20,000 bail. After the second arrest, in Orange, N.J., bail was set at $150,000, and Mr. Carranza was freed after posting it through a bondsman. Arrested again in May, in Newark, on additional sexual assault charges in the child rape case, bail was set at $300,000 but then lowered to $150,000, which Mr. Carranza had already posted.

In neither case did the arresting officers report Mr. Carranza’s immigration status to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center that acts as a liaison with local officers. Neither did the prosecutors who were handling the two cases; their policy is to contact the immigration service only when cases are completed…

It was only after his arrest on murder charges on Aug. 9 that Mr. Carranza’s immigration status was reported. After an employee in the Essex County Sheriff’s Office learned that Mr. Carranza’s Social Security number was fake, the immigration service issued a “detainer,” which gave federal agents the right to hold Mr. Carranza if and when local officials set him free…

In the New York City area, some leaders — including the mayor of Morristown, N.J. — have embraced a federal program known as 287 (g). The program, named for a section of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act, allows local officers to be deputized as immigration agents. In other cities, mayors have moved in the opposite direction, formally declaring that local officials, including the police, will not ask about immigration status. In Newark, the Municipal Council has adopted a nonbinding resolution that commits the city to being a “sanctuary” for immigrants.

A follow-up Times story published today, the NJ prosecutor does a superb back-pedal from the sanctuary stance:

At a news conference that was held before Mr. Tancredo’s[campaign speech in Newark], Paula T. Dow, the Essex County prosecutor, whose office was one of several law enforcement agencies that failed to examine Mr. Carranza’s immigration status, shifted the blame to the federal authorities. Officials in Ms. Dow’s office had said their policy was to not notify immigration officials until suspects were convicted, which they believed was the officials’ preference. Ms. Dow also pointed out that an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been stationed in the county jail since March and that Mr. Carranza had been held there in May. “They would have an opportunity to perhaps take action,” Ms. Dow said, referring to Mr. Carranza.

Columnist Mark Steyn also wrote on Sunday about the ethics of granting sanctuary to non-citizens the likes of Mr. Carranza in a column entitled “Speaking of sanctuary, where's ours?”:

Like Los Angeles, New York and untold others, Newark has formally erased the distinction between U.S. citizens and the armies of the undocumented. This is the active collusion by multiple cities and states in the subversion of U.S. sovereignty. In Newark, N.J., it means an illegal-immigrant child rapist is free to murder on a Saturday night.

And this “287(g)” program, doesn’t that ring a bell here in Massachusetts? Indeed, just days after taking office Governor Deval Patrick rescinded the agreement based on the same law made by the Romney administration that would have trained 30 State Troopers in deportation procedures to assist the federal ICE. Instead, Patrick authorized this training only for 12 correctional officers at two state prisons. Unless illegal immigrants are convicted felons serving time here, Massachusetts will not to cooperate with the ICE or initiate the deportation process against them.

The Mr. Carranzas of this country can truly find sanctuary in New Jersey, Massachusetts and in many other states. That fact is what gives the issue of illegal immigration such power to motivate the electorate.

Whiz Rules: The Vast Difference Between Blogging and Professional Journalism

(No agenda here, folks. Just professional journalists at work.)

Bloggers and blog readers take notice! Here is how top-notch professional journalists show their mastery of the craft.

Not content with putting Mitt Romney’s home under surveillance for several months and interviewing former employees of his grounds-keeping firm in Central America, last Sunday the Boston Globe newsroom broke new ground in its initiative to “Piss On Mitt” lest too many poorly informed Americans be fooled through ignorance into the terrible mistake of voting for him. Thanks to a front page story in the Sunday Globe, readers learn these shocking facts in this week’s Romney exposé, “Life with Romney: Gee whiz rules”:

Romney often sounds as if he has stepped out of a time machine from 1950s suburban America, golly-ing and gosh-ing his way across the nation, letting out the occasional "Holy cow!" after something really shocks him.

Of course John Kerry was known to cause his audiences pain by constructing long, complex, multi-claused, and deeply nuanced answers to yes-or-no questions. But you would scour the Globe stacks in vain looking for any stories focusing on Kerry’s difficulties with the English language. But to get to the bottom of Mitt’s important language issue, the Globe will dig deeper. The content (such as it is) of this article is provided by interviews:

David Gergen – who says that authenticity is critical for a candidate and Romney does not seem to be acting

Tagg Romney – (Mitt’s son) who says “That, unfortunately is the way he talks on a regular basis”

Matt Romney – (also a son) who says he has never heard his father swear except “damn or hell once or twice”.

And of course, to find some Mitt-bashers even more reliable than Boston Globe reporters, the newsroom turns to academia (after all, otherwise they might end up with a positive Romney story, you know):

Mary E. Stuckey – Professor of communication and political science at Georgia State, who sees subterfuge:

…adopting a 1950s image could help Romney counter his opponents' contention that he is a flip-flopper who holds no true convictions.

Steven Keller, professor of political communication at George Washington University, who sees poor acting and a bad fashion sense

…the language seems to fit Romney's image -- an old-fashioned guy who looks old-fashioned with his "almost-a-pompadour hairdo," and who "seems to be espousing old-fashioned values."

Finally Professor Geoffrey Nunberg, of Berkeley (and of the always unbiased NPR). Nunberg is named by the Globe as the author of a book entitled “Talking Right”. Somehow the Globe does not also give the book’s subtitle (space considerations, no doubt) which is:

How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show

In Romney, Nunberg sees phoniness and condescension:

…[Nunberg] does not buy the "Happy Days" presentation. "He's the son of a governor who went to Harvard Law and Harvard Business School, who ran a leveraged buyout firm -- who talks like Jimmy Stewart," he said. "It's condescending, because it implies listeners are going to be taken in by that sort of thing. It doesn't impute a very high level of intelligence to Republican voters."

Listen carefully, Globe readers, lest you too be tricked by the wily Romney! Remember, Berkeley professors are certain to be experts on Republican voters!

To top it off, just in case readers do not get the point (or bother to read this worthless article), the Globe puts the illustration above on its front page. Again, you will look in vain for a similarly cartoonish treatment of 2004 candidate Kerry.

There you have it, folks. No agenda for the Boston Globe! No sir! Just hard-working professional journalists piecing together the facts and digging out the hidden aspects of Republican political duplicity. Duplicity that otherwise might remain unreported and lost in academic papers from places like Berkeley.

Look at truly professional first-rate journalism, you unwashed bloggers, and marvel!

Kumbaya! Left and Right Together!

The hauteur of the editorialists at the Boston Globe is doing a fine job of infuriating the far left of the blogosphere. It isn’t just right-wing knuckle dragging blogs like this one that are disgusted with the arrogance shown by the Boston Globe editorial cloister. No doubt the self-satisfied souls on Morrissey Boulevard will say that fact indicates “balance” rather simply arrogance. Wrong.

Here are 2 examples from just today:

First, Susan Madrak at Huffington Post, responding to a Globe editorial critical of bloggers in the Democratic ‘Netroots’:

Oh really, Boston Globe? You mean the way establishment commentators are given well-paying speaking engagements in front of special interest groups they cover all the time -- but insist they're still "journalists"? [ Here is an example of what Susan is talking about - Ed.] I don't recall your fine publication writing about that, even once. (Or, come to think of it, neither does your parent company, The New York Times.)…for you to hand down these pronouncements from on high shows your fundamental misunderstanding of what it is we do: We are advocates. We're also journalists. And it's all out in the open, critiqued on a regular basis by our own community. We're activists, you see. And we're quite transparent about it. Unlike the people who work for almost every major media organization who seem so inclined to, shall we say, shape the news they write. So since you don't seem to understand what we do, or how we do it, why don't you just worry about cleaning up your own profession, and we'll take care of ours?

This blog as also suggested that the Boston Globe should “Please Mind Your Own Crumbling Business”. Whadaya know. A point of agreement across the political spectrum.

Second is Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake, whose questions to Globe columnist Ellen Goodman were put off (as were those of right-wing blogess Michelle Malkin, who was treated to the same arrogant response). Jane writes:

I’d have my ass summarily handed to me in a bold and public fashion if I tried to fob off statistics with some obvious flaws that I based my entire thesis upon and then refused to produce them when asked.

But Jane, you are just an uppity blogger, not a columnist for (genuflect, please!) the Boston Globe.

Who Knew?

Dissing Democrats worrying about Hillary Clinton’s electability, Joan Vennochi shows her slip – Freudian, that is:

The "worried" include Congressional Democrats and representatives of the party's far left. Ideological disagreement over the Iraq war accounts for some of the hostility, along with the envy and resentment that drives a lot of Democratic Party politics.

Envy and resentment? I thought Democrats were the ones who did everything “for the children”!

Small Margin of Victory

The difference between losing to a walk-off home run and winning by an over-the wall catch is only the reach of a little boy’s arm. Walpole’s Little League team appeared on “SportsCenter” last night and on the front page of the Boston Globe today. They deserved it. The pictures are irresistible.

Amazing Verbal Contortions

A Boston Globe article last week noted a change in medical practices for late term abortions as a result of the recent US Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Act. Physicians now inject the fetus with lethal drugs while in the womb to avoid the possibility of delivering a live fetus.

The Globe article explains the change in language that is marvelously Orwellian:

The banned method involves partially delivering a live fetus, then intentionally causing its death. Even before it was banned, the procedure was exceedingly rare, accounting for a fraction of 1 percent of all abortions.

Instead, doctors typically cause the fetus's death surgically while it is still inside the womb and then remove it.

“Cause the fetus’s death surgically”? How does such surgery contrast with the "intentionally causing" of death attributed by the Globe to the banned procedure?

As an exercise, here is how the Globe would report other deaths if it showed equal deference:

In Roxbury:

… “gunshots caused the victim’s death ballistically”

In Iraq:

…”US soldiers caused the insurgent’s death militarily”

In the Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapse:

…”gravity acting on the ceiling caused the passenger’s death kinetically”

In the case of Albert DeSalvo (the Boston Strangler):

“…caused the victim’s death asphyxiationally”

For those who are curious to read detailed reports of what the Globe glosses over as “intentionally causing its death”, see this post.

I intend no judgment or pain to those who have had late term abortions. Sincerely, may you arrive at peace. But the Globe’s amazing verbal contortions to avoid describing this procedure are simply laughable.

D'Alessandro Writes of the Loan Sharks

David D'Alessandro, the former CEO of Boston-based John Hancock Financial Services, writes in today's Boston Globe:

My dad was a gambling addict...it begins. A little at a time. Credit cards hit their maximums, school tuition payments are delayed, children are told they cannot afford a better college, refinanced and second mortgages increase family debts and often foreclosures. Increased stress about money shortages can cause domestic violence, divorces, and even suicide. Addicts steal from family members and friends. Lies and deceit become a way of life. And the victims are not just the gamblers, but everyone around them.

I know firsthand.

And concludes:

I have faith in Deval Patrick. While untested, he strikes me as a man of courage.

He won the governorship based on a slogan "Together We Can."

Does that mean: Together We Can prey on the weak and vulnerable, destroy more families, mortgage our future, and sell out to the special-interest profiteers? Or does it mean: Together We Can follow Massachusetts's tradition of being a caring, unique, and independent community that doesn't solve its problems by following the easiest path?

We will soon see what the slogan stands for.

Indeed we will.

His column is powerful stuff. Read the whole thing.

Malkin Meets Boston Globe Arrogance

Uber-blogger Michelle Malkin skewers Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman for her column last week (“E-male”) alleging male hegemony in the blogosphere. Michelle asked for a copy of a spreadsheet Goodman cited in the column and was put on hold via email:

I’m on vacation but if you remind me after labor day, I’ll see if she wants me to pass along her name, etc…cheers

Says Michelle:

The results of the spreadsheet are good enough to publicize in her column, but we’re not able to look at the data ourselves until Ellen Goodman is good and ready to share what she has seen and cited….Typical MSM gatekeeper arrogance.

Quite correct, Michelle, but you are a very disrespectful and ungrateful person for daring to question the veracity of facts reported on the Globe Op Ed page. As a person of minority (and a woman, too!) you should show more respect for liberal media arrogance.

Gender Neutrality Puritans

Ken Blanchard from the blog “South Dakota Politics” recently vacationed in Boston and brought back a lot of nice stock tourist photos which he has posted on his blog. Ken also was amused by reading the letters section of the Boston Globe. He wrote a post entitled “Language Lynched by Gender Neutral Puritanism” in response to one Globe letter criticizing reporter Susan Milligan for using the word “manning” in an article. This word is not sufficiently gender neutral for some tastes. Ken notes:

But i[the root “man”] has a second derivation, almost as old, from the Latin root for hand, as in the words manual and manipulate. So to man a ship, for example, may mean to supply the boat with a number of Y Chromosomes, or simply with a number of deck hands (chromosome neutral). Trying to eradicate the three letters man from the English language cuts modern language off from its etymological roots, which does serious damage to our self-understanding.

Damage to self understanding is no reason to stand in the way of our journey toward the sole progressive world view, Ken.

Fashion Disguised as News

Jeff Jacoby has an excellent Boston Globe column today entitled “Hot tempers on global warming”. He focuses on Newsweek magazine’s propaganda cover story on global warming, and contrasts it with the magazine’s equally dire predictions of global cooling 30 years ago, when global chillin’ was the all rage among the nascent environmental movement.

"On global cooling," [author Meacham] writes, "there was never anything even remotely approaching the current scientific consensus that the world is growing warmer because of the emission of greenhouse gases."

Really? Newsweek took rather a different line in 1975. Then, the magazine reported that scientists were "almost unanimous" in believing that the looming Big Chill would mean a decline in food production, with some warning that "the resulting famines could be catastrophic." Moreover, it said, "the evidence in support of these predictions" -- everything from shrinking growing seasons to increased North American snow cover -- had "begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it." Yet Meacham, quoting none of this, simply brushes aside the 1975 report as "alarmist" and "discredited." Today, he assures his readers, Newsweek's climate-change anxieties rest "on the safest of scientific ground."

Typical. Newsweek is a fashion magazine that covers fashionable views rather than fashionable clothes. Jeff deserves credit for getting through 9 pages of it. He notes:

Anthropogenic global warming is a scientific hypothesis, not an article of religious or ideological dogma…Smearing those who buck the "scientific consensus" as traitors, toadies, or enemies of humankind may be emotionally satisfying and even professionally lucrative. It is also indefensible, hyperbolic bullying. That the bullies are sure they are doing the right thing is not a point in their defense.

UPDATE: Below is a copy of the 1975 Newsweek article. Click to see it in a larger size.

Symptom of Psychosis

It is entirely predictable. As the clear and cooler sunny days of late August begin, in Boston the natives of Red Sox Nation will hear footsteps behind them, look over their shoulders and worry. Because to them what matters is not where they are in the standings, but where they are relative to the Yankees.

Today’s Boston Globe has a long story complete with an interactive graphic to prove it.

I’m a lifelong Tiger fan, and to me this seems very much like a symptom of psychosis. Probably PTSD.

We're First in Something

Today’s Boston Globe reports that Outsidein ranks Boston as the bloggiest city in the US.

Nevah woulda guessed.

Duty Calls

(very) Light posting until Monday.

Trolling for minnows?

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has indicted the firm that sold epoxy glue to the Big Dig. She did so in a big press conference that gets a huge front page spread in today’s Boston Globe. Excerpt:

"The only reason that our company has been indicted is that, unlike others implicated in this tragedy, we don't have enough money to buy our way out," said [indicted company president Jeffrey] Powers, noting that the company sold just $1,287.60 worth of epoxy for use in the connector ceiling.

Out of a $15 Billion project is Coakley really prosecuting a guy who sold the Big Dig $1,287 worth of glue?

Hell, the Big Dig contractors likely spent more money than that on dinners at Locke-Ober – every week.

Call them "nationals"

What to call them? Illegal immigrants? Illegal aliens? Undocumented immigrants? Undocumented workers? The Boston Globe avoids using any of these terms to describe those charged in Chelsea yesterday by federal agents. Here is how the Globe story begins:

Twenty-seven Brazilian nationals were arrested in a supermarket parking lot yesterday in connection with three identity-fraud rings that offered workers' permits and green cards to illegal immigrants for thousands of dollars, federal authorities said.

Seven of those arrested are facing criminal charges, along with an eighth person, who is a fugitive, according to the US attorney's office. All 27 detainees are in this country illegally and eventually will face deportation to Brazil, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

If you are an illegal immigrant who gets arrested by federal agents and charged with identity fraud, the Globe will refer to you as a “national” or a “detainee”. But if you are an illegal immigrant who spends a bundle for false documentation from these parasitic crooks and get caught in the same raid, the Globe will also refer to you as an “illegal immigrant”. Go figure.

Deval Patrick Claims Executive Privilege

Governor Deval Patrick is using the executive privilege page from the Bush administration’s playbook.

He has refused to make public the background reports on casino gambling that he is reviewing, reports the Boston Globe today:

Governor Deval Patrick and his administration are fighting to keep secret the completed studies that the governor is reviewing…In a letter to the Globe this week, O'Connell's general counsel, Gregory P. Bialecki, cited an exception to the state Public Records Law to justify withholding the records….The so-called "deliberative process" exception to the public records law has limited application, according to state Secretary of State William F. Galvin's website. The exception applies to "interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters relating to policy positions being developed by the agency, but this subclause shall not apply to reasonably completed factual studies or reports on which the development of such policy positions has been or may be based," according to "A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law," published by Galvin's office.

“Together We Can” decide by ourselves what is best for you!

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Globe’s editorial poo-bahs to become outraged over this. Their instant outrage over executive privilege is reserved for Republicans.

Hat Tip: Deval Patrick Watch

Romney Traction = "Threat"

Today’s Boston Globe Op Ed page recycles a 2-day old Washington Post column by E.J. Dionne. The column notes candidate Mitt Romney’s growing strength in Iowa.

The original Washington Post version of the column was entitled “For Romney, Traction in Iowa”.

The Boston Globe version of the same column is entitled “The Romney threat”.

I think the Globe is projecting!

Excerpts:

Sunday's Republican debate on ABC's "This Week" suggested what has been obvious to many of the party's professionals: Of all the candidates, Romney has the most comprehensive strategy not only to win the Republican presidential nomination, but also to position himself for next year's election…

Still, when he was asked about healthcare, Romney rebuked conservative orthodoxy: He insisted that "tax exemptions" were not enough to cover the uninsured because "the people that don't have insurance aren't paying taxes." As a rule, Republicans don't think much about people too poor to pay a lot in taxes. It's another reason why Romney could pose a serious danger not only to Giuliani, McCain, and Thompson, but also to the Democrats.

"Victimizing Hardworking Families"

A classic example of DNC party line propaganda in the Boston Globe today, written by Marcella Bombardieri, a certified master of the art. She writes a story on the mortgage credit crisis in today’s Boston Globe.

The article’s 1^st paragraph:

As the mortgage crisis deepens, causing stock market jitters and forcing middle class families out of their homes, the Democratic presidential contenders are seizing on the issue, a tailor-made opportunity for them to accuse Republicans of letting rapacious, unregulated companies victimize hardworking families.

The article’s last paragraph:

"I really don't think it's a party-specific problem or an administration-specific problem," [Lauren E. Willis, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who studies predatory lending] said. "It is a problem in general."

Marcella’s philosophy for writing about the "progressively challenged" seems to be “First lynch them all, and let God sort them out.”

Wagstaff discovers the "but paragraph"

Jeremy Wagstaff is the author of the technology column “Loose Wire” (subscription required), which appears in the Wall Street Journal. Jeremy’s latest blog post (“Enough Mainstream Silliness, Please: The Social Web Works”)lambastes the Boston Globe for a snooty attitude toward the value of online resources that came through clearly in an article last Sunday about social networking for financial planning written by Globe science and technology reporter Carolyn Y. Johnson. The Globe story dismissed the possible contributions of the online world in this fine example of a Boston Globe “but paragraph”:

The wisdom of the crowd may be a fine way to discover the most amusing YouTube video, but Wikipedia has been vilified for inaccuracies, and the online world hardly has a reputation as a trustworthy source.

In disgust, Jeremy writes:

In one short sentence the writer manages to dismiss

• YouTube as a mere site for "amusing" videos
• the "wisdom of the crowd" as a mere mechanism for finding stuff
• Wikipedia as apparently the mere butt of vilifiers, and
• the online world as, basically, untrustworthy.

Sources? Examples? A measure of balance? Er, none…So, come on, mainstream journalists. The time is past for sniffy, unsubstantiated asides about things like Wikipedia. The social web has already established itself and proved itself. It ain't perfect, but neither are we.

Jeremy, didn’t you know that the “but paragraph” is regarded as a high literary form in the Globe newsroom?

Forget the Media Show! YouTube Has the Real Story

Lisa Wangsness, a political reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote a Globe blog post about an off-air exchange between Mitt Romney and Iowa talk show host Jan Mickelson. The exchange was captured on video and posted to YouTube. Wangsness describes it as “heated” and links to this 10-minute video (which I watched) but the more popular video of the same interview is located here.

I don’t know if I would call the exchange “heated”. Adamant, though. Perhaps spending 18 months working with arrogant windy talk radio hosts is excellent preparation for dealing with Congress.

What is most striking to me about the video is simply that the off-air discussion with the candidate is of higher quality and more interactive than the on-air discussion, during which Mickelson switches to a more extreme show-biz mode and goes on, and on, and on. I never listen to talk radio, and watching this video provides me with anecdotal evidence that this is a wise choice.

UPDATE: The post has become a story in today's Globe, headlined "Romney loses cool with radio talk-show host in Iowa". I wouldn't say so, but thanks to YouTube, everyone who cares can watch and judge for themselves.

James Carroll's Logical Disconnection

James Carroll publishes a navel-gazing lament in today’s Boston Globe entitled “American disconnection”. This column epitomizes the whines of aging (yet still clueless) 1960s flower children:

…the largest experience of being cut off from what matters of which I am aware involves the American crisis in the Middle East…The American myth is that such concern gives form to the political process, never more so than during a presidential election. But there, too, as the candidate debates steadily show, the defining note is one of ineffectual detachment.

Substitute "Vietnam" for "Middle East" above, and sure enough James has recycled his exact same words and emotions from 40 years ago. Poor, poor, James. Perhaps someday he will be blessedly lucky enough to actually live in a democracy!

For those who wish a line-by-line dissection of Carroll’s whine, see Mark Finkelstein over at Newsbusters.

Link Love From the Tarmac

I’m marooned in an airport today but others have done good blogging work on the subject of the Boston Globe:

First: The Eisenthal Report has a post entitled “Does Diversity Reduce Social Capital?” concerning a Globe article on a recent study of the effects of community diversity. The study found that more diverse communities had less community engagement but greater prosperity.

Second: Sol notes an ironic paragraph in a Globe editorial that claims bi-partisan support exists for a long-term US military presence in the Middle East. The Globe (of course) did not specify which countries they were talking about. Did they mean Kuwait?

Third: The Arizona Blog "Of Arms and the Law" notes with surprise that an in-depth Globe story on the 8-year-old boy who was killed by an (illegal) handgun dismissed the liberal and reflexive call for gun control and focused on the sadly pathological family situation as the root cause, which even an intensive social service focus could not overcome.

Time to show some consistency?

Rev. Eugene Robinson is the gay Episcopalian whose ordination as bishop of New Hampshire has sparked a near-schism in the (US) Episcopal Church and in the global Anglican Communion.

A story in today’s Boston Globe reports that Robinson has now endorsed one candidate for president in the next US election – Barack Obama. The story reads:

The public endorsement of Obama could set off even more uneasiness within the church, which has not been overtly involved in electoral politics.

No doubt. Will the Globe editorial board now vent it’s spleen over separation of church from politics? When a few Catholic bishops made noises in 2004 about denying the sacrament of communion to John Kerry, the Globe editors sternly warned them:

The church and its leaders have every right to join in political debate as long as they don't effectively endorse specific candidates, jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.

Gene Robinson has placed himself much farther into politics than did these bishops. Will the Globe editors show consistency and give Robinson the same tongue lashing that would be applied if the endorser was a Catholic bishop like Cardinal Sean O’Malley?

New All-Bran Promotion: Pump and Dump?

Whoever at Kellogg's gave the OK to this ad for their All-Bran cereal may soon lose their job, but they certainly have a bright future in advertising.

"Do it. Feel it."

Indeed.

New Gold Rush: Just Like The Old One

In today’s Boston Globe Scott Harshbarger rebukes the Globe's hasty editorial endorsement of casinos and fittingly calls the feverish pursuit of casinos “the new gold rush”. The “old gold rush” must be the Massachusetts State Lottery.

What's the rush? Why are we trying to resolve in just a couple of months a complex, multi-year, billion-dollar deal proposed by a major international financier? The details of the project are not defined…What is the reason for the change now? Each time we have new leaders in state government, the casino forces try to pounce…Finally, every state that has consumed the casino Kool-aid still has tax problems, education funding issues, economic development issues. In other words, promises are made, but promises are cheap, and often not kept.

Those with long memories may recall that when proposed the Massachusetts State Lottery was supposed to become the sugar daddy for state education funding. The lottery has grown to a $4B annual business, but schools and state colleges remain as strapped for funds as ever.

Gubernatorial non sequitur

Governor Deval Patrick has raised the state borrowing cap. This news was not only left of the front page of the Boston Globe, but relegated to an AP story rather than one written by the Globe itself. A quote from the AP story:

"Our public assets have endured a long period of neglect that has put many of them in serious need of repair," Patrick said. "We must begin reversing that pattern." Patrick made the announcement ahead of the release of his five-year capital plan, which is typically used to pay for bigger projects outside the regular state operating budget. The governor has already proposed some ambitious, big-ticket projects, including a $1.4 billion commuter rail line from Boston to Fall River and New Bedford.

The reporter apparently didn’t ask the Governor how borrowing $1.4 billion for a new commuter rail line would not contribute further to the neglect of existing transportation assets.

Arguing A Good Case Very Poorly

Even when arguing sensibly that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should use unexpectedly large tax revenues to build up the state’s stabilization fund, the Boston Globe editors can’t help but insult the electorate:

Revenues dropped by more than $2.4 billion between 2001 and 2002, and stayed flat for the next year, in part because of an income tax cut imprudently approved by voters in 2000.

Perhaps (just perhaps), these voters believed the real center of impudence was Beacon Hill, where our one-party state is ruled by virtually unaccountable politicians who view the voter’s personal income as merely one potential “income source” for their own favorite earmarks. Seeing this voter behavior as impudent rather than as a response to our corps of nauseating Beacon Hill hacks – that is liberal arrogance at its very finest.