New York Times Columnist Charles Blow / Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, Views On Poverty

Secular Talk

Recently, New York Times columnist Charles Blow quoted the president speaking at Georgetown University about the poor:

“And I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction,” said the President.

“And, look, it’s still being propagated. I mean, I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu — they will find folks who make me mad. I don’t know where they find them. [Laughter.] They’re like, I don’t want to work, I just want a free Obama phone [laughter]…”

The columnist also criticized Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly for calling poor people “lazy.”

O’Reilly then gave his opinion of Blow’s column on his TV show The O’Reilly Factor.

Below is a quote from Media Matters that was cited by Blow in his column. Media Matters states the quote is from 2004 from O’Reilly’s radio show The Radio Factor.

O’Reilly: “Reagan was not a confrontational guy, didn’t like confrontation, much rather be your pal … doesn’t want to get involved with the really nasty stuff, the tough stuff, and that’s what racial politics is — nasty and tough. … It’s hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell ’em they’re irresponsible and lazy. And who’s gonna wanna do that? Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen.”

Are poor people lazy? What about the “working poor?” Are people who work full-time for low wages lazy? Are there times – during an economic downturn, for example – when people are forced to accept low wages?

Article from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/opinion/charles-blow-the-president-fox-news-the-poor.html?_r=0

Are Democrats Finally Showing Some Spine With Funding Homeland Security?

Majority Report

Republicans caved in on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter of Majority Report discuss whether Democrats are now “showing spine.”

The New York Times:

“The fight over funding the Department of Homeland Security that began with Republicans thundering about a lawless president abusing power to change immigration policy ended with a quiet capitulation Tuesday when the House voted to fund the agency and avert a partial shutdown.”

Did Hillary Clinton Use Personal Email For Government Business?

MSNBC

The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton only used a personal email account as Sec. of State which may have broken federal regulations that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

The Times states that Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. “Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.”

Two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. “All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department,” according to the Times.

More here

Updated title

Hillary Clinton Reportedly Seeks The Favor Of Elizabeth Warren: NYT

Hillary Rodham Clinton held a private, one-on-one meeting with Senator Elizabeth Warren in December at Mrs. Clinton’s Washington home.  It was a move by the Democrats’ leading 2016 contender to cultivate the increasingly influential senator and leader of the party’s left-wing economic populist movement.

The two met at Whitehaven, the Clintons’ Northwest Washington home, without aides and at Mrs. Clinton’s invitation, according to the New York Times.

Mrs. Clinton reportedly asked for policy ideas and suggestions from Ms. Warren, according to a Democrat briefed on the meeting.   Mrs. Clinton, who has been seeking advice from a range of scholars, advocates and officials, did not ask Ms. Warren to consider endorsing her likely presidential candidacy.

Aides to Mrs. Clinton did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and aides to Ms. Warren could not be reached, according to the NYT.

The conversation occurred at a moment when Ms. Warren’s clout has become increasingly evident.  After the November election, Senator Harry Reid, then still the Majority Leader, appointed Ms. Warren, a to a leadership role in the Senate.

She led a high-profile effort to strip a spending bill of rules sought by large banks.  Also, a patchwork of liberal groups began a movement to draft her into the presidential race.

Who Was David Carr?

New York Times media critic David Carr recently died. MSNBC takes a look at a big week for big media.

Carr died after he “collapsed in the newsroom” on Thursday, according to the Times. He was then taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Carr wrote the best-selling book Night Of The Gun.

The news comes one day after the death of revered 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon in a livery car crash in Manhattan Wednesday night, and caps a week that has affected the journalism industry.

On Tuesday, NBC announced it would suspend anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay after revelations that he claimed to have been on board a Chinook helicopter that went down during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Earlier this week, the host of The Daily Show John Stewert announced he would be leaving the program.

Mark Halperin, author and managing editor of Bloomberg Politics, tweeted, “In Latin, we’d call David Carr ‘sui generis.’ In English, we’d call him an American original. In my gut, I’d call him irreplaceable.”

MSNBC

NYT Op-Ed: Birth Control And The Pope

In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, Frank Bruni writes about what the confessors at his mother’s Catholic church would tell her about birth control.

“’Forgive me, Father,’ she’d say time and again, in church after church, to confessor after confessor. ‘I use contraception.’”

“She never met a priest who didn’t respond with some version of the following, and I’m paraphrasing…

“’Of course you do. You’re sane. Ignore Rome. Forget about the pope. There’s La-La Land, and then there’s the real world, in which you are clearly living. Say three Hail Marys because it can never hurt, and be on your way.’”

On the papal airplane, en route from the Philippines back to Italy, the pope reflected on the relationship between third-world poverty and extra-large families.

He told reporters that Catholics needn’t feel compelled to breed “like rabbits.”

Rev. James Keenan, a moral theologian at Boston College, said “He’s wildly practical.”

“Keenan stated that while he didn’t hear, in the pope’s reference to rabbits, any clear challenge to traditional teaching, he heard a change in emphasis…

“I don’t remember, ever, a pope saying to Catholics that they should be mindful of how many children they’re having,” states Keenan, adding that Francis’s statement was significant for that reason. “Did he intend it to be? I have no idea. When he says things, you don’t know if they’re off the cuff or not, because he’s so out there. He’s exciting that way.”

Bruni points out that at sometimes the pope sounds traditional, “like any old pope,” but at other times the pope sounds like the parish priests encountered by his mother.

NYT Letter Emphasizes Role Of Pakistan In Helping Afghanistan

A letter to the International New York Times emphasizes the importance of Pakistan in helping Afghanistan. It also mentions the low volume of trade between Iran and Afghanistan due to the American sanctions on Iran.

“America has finally ended its prolonged war in Afghanistan. The American withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, does not mean that US interests in the region will wane. America wants a prosperous, peaceful and stable Afghanistan and knows that after its withdrawal from the region, a war of influence will break out among Pakistan, Iran and India.

“The Afghan state is seeking the holistic support of neighbours to fight terrorist elements, to ensure the continuity of democracy in the country and the stability of its economy. America wants to give a special role to Pakistan to carry out counterterrorism exercises in the region, as it appreciates serious efforts made by Pakistan against terrorism. Americans also know that the presence of India in Afghanistan will damage peace efforts, something which the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, also made clear during the Saarc summit and other forums when he said that ‘Afghanistan will not let its lands be used for proxy war.’

“Pakistan and Iran can play important role in post-Nato Afghanistan for peace and stability of the country as Pakistan has great influence in the Pashtun-dominated areas of southern Afghanistan while Iran enjoys influence in the Tajik and Uzbek populated areas in western Afghanistan.

“But Pakistan-Iran bilateral relations are not ideal due to certain factors, such as the suspended Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, activities of drug mafia near the Pakistan-Iran border, cross-border raids by militants near the Balochistan border and the low trade volume due to American sanctions on Iran. Without resolving these issues, Pakistan and Iran cannot work on mutual defence practices in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s armed forces are making serious efforts to defeat and eradicate terrorism and extremism from the country, their endeavours backed by Afghanistan’s intelligence.

“The new Afghan president aimed to confront security dilemmas faced by Pakistan and Afghanistan during his recent visit to Islamabad. President Ghani wants to bolster security and defence ties with Pakistan, including cooperation in training and border management.

“He is also seeking Pakistan’s help in talks with the Taliban to avoid any instability in post-Nato Afghanistan. Improved bilateral ties with Afghanistan will help Pakistan defeat the TTP and other terrorists who have shelters in Afghan territory. Afghanistan’s recent handover of prominent senior commander of the TTP, Latif Mehsud to the Pakistan government and Afghan military’s operation against the TTP in Kunar are the initial benefits enjoyed by Pakistan which is the result of improving relations between the neighbours.”

http://tribune.com.pk/story/815766/afghanistan-after-us-withdrawal/

New York Times Calls For Dick Cheney Torture Investigation

According to Yahoo News, in response to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s blistering report on the CIA’s brutal handling of prisoners after 9/11, the New York Times is calling for a criminal investigation of former Vice President Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush administration for conspiring to commit torture and other crimes prohibited by federal and international laws.

“Americans have known about many of these acts for years,” the Times editorial board stated on Monday.

“But the 524-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report erases any lingering doubt about their depravity and illegality.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney refused to call some of the CIA’s actions with prisoners – including involuntary rectal feeding – torture.

In its editorial, the Times said the “sadistic” techniques outlined in the committee’s report “are, simply, crimes. They are prohibited by federal law, which defines torture as the intentional infliction of ‘severe physical or mental pain or suffering.’

“They are also banned by the Convention Against Torture, the international treaty that the United States ratified in 1994 and that requires prosecution of any acts of torture.”

“It is no wonder that today’s blinkered apologists are desperate to call these acts anything but torture, which they clearly were,” the Times continued. “As the report reveals, these claims fail for a simple reason: C.I.A. officials admitted at the time that what they intended to do was illegal.”

The paper criticized the president for failing “to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects.”

The Times: “No amount of legal pretzel logic can justify the behavior detailed in the report. Indeed, it is impossible to read it and conclude that no one can be held accountable. At the very least, Mr. Obama needs to authorize a full and independent criminal investigation.”

The Times’ editorial board is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Cheney, David Addington, Cheney’s former chief of staff, former CIA Director George Tenet, as well as John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the lawyers “who drafted what became known as the torture memos”; Jose Rodriguez Jr., the CIA official “who ordered the destruction of the videotapes”, the psychologists who devised the torture regimen, and any CIA employees who carried it out.

Mitch McConnell Says He Wants Compromise. What About Ted Cruz?

According to the New York Times, the soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled that he wanted to find compromise on key issues and make the Senate “work again” by changing the rules in the chamber.

Let’s look at what Ted Cruz had to say.

Sam Seder video.