Washington Post: America's finest source for bad reporting (Palin "slashed" funds story)
The Washington Post recently published a blog post about Sarah Palin (in their words) "slash[ing]" funds to a non-profit group. Except, what they got from the state of Alaska alone was over three times what they got from all government sources combined in 2006. Let's take a look at the WaPo's "downstream", the three-eyed fish who gobble up what the WaPo sludges out.
First, there are several digg posts on the story. These link to the WaPo article; looking at the histories of who posted them is left as an exercise:
digg.com/political_opinion/Palin_Slashed_Funding_for_Teen_Moms (UPDATE: now has 1771 diggs, but is also marked as "May be Inaccurate")
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Slashed_Funding_for_Teen_Moms_That_s_gotta_hurt
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Slashed_Funding_for_Teen_Moms_2
Oddly enough, the last two were submitted in the same minute. These posts link to other sites:
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Slashed_Funding_to_Help_Teen_Moms
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_cut_1_1_million_in_assistance_for_teen_moms_in_need
digg.com/politics/Palin_personally_cut_funding_that_gave_unwed_mothers_a_place
digg.com/political_opinion/The_Issue_IS_Sarah_Palin_She_Cut_Support_for_Pregnant_Girls
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Palin_Opposes_Funding_for_Teen_Moms_ToTheCenter
Those last five link to:
dailykos.com/story/2008/9/2/19220/39740/973/583820 (typical airhead DK "reporting" that puts an even more partisan spin on the WaPo's spin)
rawstory.com/news/2008/Palin_cut_1.1_million_from_funding_0902.html (a bare rewrite of the WaPo story from Nick Langewis)
americablog.com/2008/09/palin-personally-cut-funding-that-gave.html (Joe Sudbay simply wraps the WaPo story with his brief commnets, such as "Sarah Palin apparently wants those unwed mothers out on the street.")
allspinzone.com/wp/2008/09/02/heres-where-the-issue-is-sarah-palin-cuts-support-for-pregnant-girls/ (braindead attempt at breezy commentary that discusses the WaPo story in a couple paragraphs but takes the WaPo's word for it)
tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=6991 (just a sploggish rewrite of the WaPo story)
Others discussing this include:
mahablog.com/2008/09/02/what-did-i-miss (mentions it in passing but completely takes WaPo's word for it)
slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/palin_to_teen_moms_drop_dead
(Dan Savage simply intros a WaPo excerpt with his own vile spin; post is titled "Palin to Teen Moms: Drop Dead")
UPDATE: These others are just as bad or worse than the ones above and all, of course, simply take the WaPo's word and none do any thinking or reporting:
salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/09/03/palin_slashed_teen_mom_funding (from Lynn Harris)
blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/03/palin-s-handling-of-other-people-s-pregnant-teens.aspx (from Michelle Cottle)
thinkprogress.org/2008/09/03/palin-mccain-mothers (from "Amanda")
truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20080902_palin_cut_funds_for_teen_moms
washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_09/014534.php (Steve Benen; links to Cottle instead of the WaPo)
jezebel.com/5044818/
ask-not-what-bristol-palin-can-do-for-you-ask-what-sarah-palin-can-do-for-your-pregnant-daughter (from "Jessica")
motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9554_palin_veto_teen_moms.html (from Jonathan Stein)
UPDATE 2: Isaac Fitzgerald and Tana Ganeva from AlterNet offer "8 More Shocking Revelations About Sarah Palin" (alternet.org/election08/97350). One of those "shocking" items is as bad as the posts above. It's got over 2600 diggs here, but it's also marked as "May be Inaccurate":
digg.com/politics/8_More_Shocking_Revelations_About_Sarah_Palin_2
UPDATE 3: As anyone familiar with his blogging could have been expecting, Matt Yglesias fell for the WaPo's tale too:
yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/palin_and_special_needs_children.php
Posted to Bloggage at 09:29 PM
WTH: Republican National Convention speaker from NCLR's Raza Development Fund?!
According to this schedule of the 2008 Republican National Convention, one of the speakers just now was Tommy Espinoza, president of the Raza Development Fund, Inc. The RDF is a project of the National Council of La Raza, and the NCLR is a far-left, ethnic nationalist group that funds extremists and gave an award to a vile racist.
Espinoza's speech followed a video tribute to Abraham Lincoln, but since it preceded a video tribute to George H. W. Bush and a remote video feed featuring our own wonderful president George W. Bush, I guess it all fits together.
Posted to Politics at 06:20 PM
Paul Kane/WaPo's reporting skills are on par with DailyKos (Sarah Palin veto)
[See the updates, it gets a lot worse: what Paul Kane describes as a "slash[ing]" of funds to a non-profit was over a threefold increase from all the government funds they received in 2006.]Paul Kane of the Washington Post should consider a career as a DailyKos diarist, as he offers "Palin Slashed Funding for Teen Moms" (link):
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.As for why he should consider joining DailyKos instead, Kane didn't endeavor to find out why she did that. And, of course, there are many explanations.
After the legislature passed a spending bill in April, Palin went through the measure reducing and eliminating funds for programs she opposed. Inking her initials on the legislation -- "SP" -- Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers.
One explanation is that Palin is a sociopath who wants teen moms to suffer. However, I believe that explanation can be discarded.
So, we have to search further, and notably, Kane didn't contact the campaign for an explanation. Perhaps she believes that private rather than state monies should be used? Perhaps, if that's the reason, her beliefs are correct; did Kane endeavor to find out whether that could be correct? Perhaps she thought it would discourage teen pregnancies? Perhaps she doesn't come with the set of assumptions Kane obviously has that there must be a state program for everything? Perhaps she has evidence that Covenant House misspends money? Perhaps there are other programs available? All those possibilities Kane does not even broach.
Please contact the WaPo's ombudsman: ombudsman *at* washpost.com
UPDATE: It's even worse than I suspected. According to their site (covenanthouseak.org/involved.htm), "Approximately 90% of our funding comes from the generous donations of friends like you". And, according to this state document (PDF link), they were only to get $155,000 in 2007. It's not clear whether that was their only source of state funding, and their executive director wasn't available.
UPDATE 2: The $3.9 million was part of a grant for a facilities expansion; see this PDF (you might need to change the extension to "PDF" after downloading).
And, Covenant House's IRS Form 990 (link) shows the funds that Paul Kane describes as "slashed" was over a threefold increase from the government funds they received from all sources in 2006 (FY2006 ending 12/31/06). In 2006, they received:
Contributions $1,667,796
Government Grants $1,194,788
Program Services $0
Investments $67,947
Special Events $271,980
Sales $0
Other $11,139
Total Revenue $3,213,650
Note that they also get money from the feds, including on the facilities expansion.
Please use the address above to send a message to the WaPo about their "reporting".
UPDATE 3: This post earlier said it was "almost a fourfold", but I changed it to "over a threefold" to be mathematically precise. Also, there's a round-up of those sites that simply followed the WaPo's lead without even considering they might be wrong here.
UPDATE 4: A comment (not the post) at corrects Matt Yglesias with this (yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/palin_and_special_needs_children.php#comment-629796):
If you bother looking at the documents, you can see that one program, the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy Program is included in the budget for 2007 but not in 2008. This accounts for nearly all of the discrepancy. You could also see, with a simple search, that the same program is still funded in 2008 (pdf), just on a separate program sheet (in fact, funding was increased, by the governor, by about 50%).
Posted to Politics at 04:19 PM
NCLR, LULAC, MALDEF, NALEO, SVREP send letter to John McCain about immigration
John McCain is too corrupt to stand up to the far-left and those who support illegal immigration, prefering instead - like Bush - to court those who will never support him. Now, some of those groups [1] have sent him an angry letter (PDF link):
On behalf of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, composed of 26 leading national Hispanic organizations, we write to urge you to lead your party's platform away from the deportation and detention path that deprives newcomers and the nation of immigrants' positive economic and societal contributions.
Translation:
We want race-based power, and any form of immigration enforcement impedes our power-grasping. While we support enforcement and "reform" and we don't want open borders, we don't really support any enforcement at all and we more or less want somthing like an open border.
Back to their letter:
The Republican Party Platform language regarding immigration repudiates your efforts to provide a legal opportunity for immigrants who have lived steady, productive and crimefree lives in the United States to come forward, pay a fine, and demonstrate they are learning English. The platform language would split families, make our communities less secure by placing federal responsibilities to enforce immigration law on local police thereby harming police/community relations, and close the door to higher education to young people who have been raised here and graduated from local schools and whose parents or themselves paid local and state taxes. It also wades into the divisive English Only debate but fails to emphasize the importance of more English language classes for adults and youth.
Needless to say, it's virtually impossible for an illegal alien to lead a "crimefree" life, but I guess that depends on how they choose to define "crime". Apparently it doesn't include things like using forged documents, identity theft, and the like.
The "learning English" parts of at least McCain-Kennedy were full of holes; they didn't have to learn it first they just needed to sign up.
It's not the "platform language" that "would split families", it's those who've made the conscious decision to come here illegally that did that.
If our laws were enforced, there would be fewer illegal aliens and thus their concerns about "harming police/community relations" would approach irrelevance.
They complain about closing the door to illegal alien students, without acknowledging that every college slot or discount given to an illegal alien is one that's taken away from a U.S. citizen. Obviously, they don't care that Americans are harmed by their policies.
And, the RNC platform says:
We support English as the official language in our nation... ...To ensure that all students will have access to the mainstream of American life, we support the English First approach and oppose divisive programs that limit students’ future potential. All students must be literate in English, our common language, to participate in the promise of America.
That's definitely stronger than I would have given the GOP credit for, but I suspect that part of the letter writers' complaints conceern the implied opposition to bilingual education.
Related:
100+ Hispanic groups send letter supporting illegal immigration, opposing raids
[1] The signatories are (see if you spot a common theme in each group's name):
* League of United Latin American Citizens
* Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
* National Council of La Raza
* National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (relatively minor link to Mexican government)
* Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (leader attended "revolution in the U.S." conference in Venezuala)
* American GI Forum
* Dominican American National Roundtable
* Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
* Hispanic Federation
* Hispanic National Bar Association
* Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
* National Association of Hispanic Publications
* National Hispanic Council on Aging
* National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts
* National Hispanic Media Council
* National Hispanic Medical Association
* National Institute for Latino Policy
* U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
* U. S. Hispanic Leadership Institute
Posted to Immigration2008a at 01:26 PM
Miguel Bustillo,Richard Fausset/LAT confused about legal vs. illegal workers (Howard Industries raid)
Last week, Howard Industries in Louisiana was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement; as the raid was happening the legal workers at the plant reportedly cheered ICE, and the raid was initiated by a complaint from a union worker.Needless to say, such cannot stand to those who support illegal immigration. Thus, we find Miguel Bustillo and Richard Fausset from the Los Angeles Times offering "Immigrant raid divides a Mississippi town" (link), which includes this subhed:
Many black and white residents of Laurel applaud the crackdown; it sends fear through the Latino community. Political change may end such raids.The LAT is trying their best to racialize this issue, as well as trying to emotionalize it and make those who aren't familiar with the details of immigration feel sympathy for illegal workers. As discussed below, the last sentence shows that the LAT has been trying to fool people. Continuing with the article:
But helicopters were not what shocked [Fabiola Pena, the go-to illegal alien featured in a couple stories] the most on her last, fateful day at Howard Industries, the largest employer in this small Southern town. It was the black co-workers who clapped and cheered, Pena said, as she and hundreds of other Latino immigrant laborers were arrested and hauled away.So, basically she's saying that the black workers were lazy. Thank goodness she's not a Republican, or she'd end up being more than deported. And, it's interesting to see presumed "progressives" supporting Dickensian work hours, considering that that's one of the things yesteryear's "progressives" fought against.
"They said we took their jobs, but I was working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.," said Pena a day after the raid last week that resulted in the arrest of nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants. "I didn't see them working like us."
As for the Los Angeles Times trying to fool people:
But the raids might not have much of a future after the swearing-in of Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, both of whom have staked out moderate-to-liberal stances on immigration reform.One of the selling points of that "reform" is that it includes stepped-up enforcement. Yet, here the Los Angeles Times is telling us that "reform" now wouldn't include so much enforcement. Either "reform" includes magic powers, or the LAT has been trying to fool people.
If the next president decides to curtail or end raids similar to the one at the Howard Industries, it will not sit well with many residents of Laurel. The raid was welcomed by a number of native-born residents in this manufacturing hub of about 25,000 people that has been transformed in recent years by the influx of Latino workers, many of whom are undocumented.
The end of the last paragraph uses a stock device: an influx of illegal labor transformed an incipient ghost town. The rest of the article contains similar stock devices, such as someone saying the illegal aliens were just there to work, and so forth.
For an example of what Los Angeles Times would be if they weren't such wimps, see the Socialist Worker's "ICE brings panic to a Mississippi town" (link).
Posted to Immigration2008a at 12:36 PM
Horrors: Jake Tapper says Sarah Palin was member of "fringe" party (Alaskan Independence Party)
On the one hand, it seems that the John McCain campaign didn't do their due diligence - in a GOP, mainstream sense - on vice presidential pick Sarah Palin. On the other hand, Jake Tapper's attempt to break news isn't as bad as the "news" recently coming from DailyKos, as he breathlessly lets us know that (link):Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.Oh, horrors! Here's their platform, and I'll bet if you lived in Alaska it wouldn't seem so "fringe", unless your point of reference is the Beltway establishment. While I'm sure some of their members are indeed "fringe", their platform isn't all that extreme. It's not like they're running around in robes, supporting race-based irredentism, consorting with foreign countries, supporting illegal activity in order to gain race-based power, or supporting giving the UN their own army or things like that. Those would be, in the eyes of hacks like Tapper, not just acceptable but admirable.
And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."
And, it's not like the article has endeavored to find out the extent to which Palin supported their platform, nor does he provide a then-current copy of their platform. And, it's not like their ideas don't deserve serious consideration rather than being smeared as Tapper does, even if someone disagrees with some or all of their ideas.
UPDATE: As it turns out, while her husband might have been and might still be a member, Sarah Palin was never a card-carrying member (link):
In recent press reports, Lynette Clark, the AIP's chairman, has been quoted as saying Palin was at an AIP convention in 1994 and was an official party member at the time. Other sources within the party tell Mother Jones that the only way to become a member of the AIP is to register to vote with the AIP. Yet the state of Alaska released records confirming what the McCain-Palin campaign had maintained: Palin never registered as an AIP member.
Posted to Politics at 05:43 PM
Going to Ronstock '08? Read these important tips! (Ron Paul, Rally for the Republic)
I have some very important tips for Ron Paul supporters who are going to "Ronstock '08" in Minneapolis, aka the Rally for the Republic. That's the competing event to the Republican National Convention (held in St. Paul) where RP's supporters will attempt to, in the words of the Associated Press, spread their message that's:
anti-war, anti-government regulation, anti-immigration, anti-taxes, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-outsourcing, pro-individual liberty, pro-civil liberties and pro-Paul
Here are my helpful tips:
1. Bring along a variety of clothing options; the weather might change rapidly this time of year. Make sure and bring your raingear!
2. Fly a blimp. That was a wonderful success that spawned the Ron Paul rEVOLution, and it's sure to captivate all onlookers! Rest assured: the MSM and the GOP won't make fun of you for that.
3. Be nice to the MSM and to GOP delegates. Don't get into arguments.
4. Consider dressing up in a Revolutionary War costume and even conducting a parade dressed in period costumes. Passersby will be enthralled and will wonder what's going on! Don't worry: no one will ridicule you at all.
And, here are things you should not do:
1. Do not under any circumstances do anything that would actually be effective such as trying to ask McCain or his surrogates tough questions about his policies or his associates (or this guy) on video tape and then uploading their answers to Youtube. DO NOT DO THAT! That would be mean. It would be the only thing that Ron Paul supporters have ever done that would be effective and that would strike back at the MSM and the Beltway establishment, but it wouldn't be nice to try to discredit McCain over his policies. His weakest point is immigration, so DO NOT try to take advantage of that to make him look bad.
Thankfully, based on their history, I'm absolutely certain that Ron Paul supporters will not do that.
Posted to Politics at 03:43 PM
Ask John McCain about the impacts of amnesty ("comprehensive immigration reform")
Here's a question you're urged to ask John McCain at one of his public events. Make sure and videotape the question and the answer, and then upload it to Youtube and other sites. If anyone asks this I can provide follow-ups, and of course feel free to adapt it to your speaking style or remove parts of the first paragraph as necessary:
Senator McCain: the immigration "reform" you support will give a great deal of political power to groups on the far-left (ACLU, SPLC), racial power groups (NCLR, LULAC, MALDEF), the Democrats, the Mexican government, and others. And, all those groups currently fight against almost all forms of immigration enforcement, whether through law suits, the media, or other means.
If "reform" passes, which of these do you think is more likely:
1. Those groups will support "reform"-mandated enforcement.
2. Those groups will use their greatly increased political power to even more effectively fight against immigration enforcement.
Posted to Immigration2008a at 03:39 PM
Erin Carlyle/OC Register's Issue Blog: why wasn't my comment approved?
The Orange County Register operates an "Issue Blog", and yesterday Erin Carlyle offered 'WSJ editorial writer attacks illegal immigration "myths"' (peekURL.com/z6xhh1s) all about the thoughts of open borders (literally) advocate Jason Riley. I left the comment that's in the extended entry; it hasn't appeared but four others have. I sent an email asking why it wasn't approved and I haven't heard back. I also tried to submit it again and Wordpress told me that a duplicate comment had been detected. Now, I know as well as anyone else that technical issues can arise, and due to the link in the comment (left without the http part however) it might have been put into their spam folder, but hopefully my follow-up email could have caused them to root around in that folder and approve it. I also don't think it's that groundbreaking a comment, but I'm just wondering.
Continue reading "Erin Carlyle/OC Register's Issue Blog: why wasn't my comment approved?"
Posted to Bloggage at 03:20 PM
Todd Palin, husband of Sarah Palin, and I share common, sacred bond
Todd Palin - the husband of John McCain's vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin - and I share a common bond.
Todd (as I call him) is part native Alaskan, that is, part Eskimo.
Distant relations of mine are also part Eskimo.
Todd understands the trials and tribulations of those distant relations of mine. I don't know what those trials and tribulations are because I've only seen those relations in photographs, but I'm sure they are several.
While I am not part Eskimo, they are. And, when I look at Todd, I see them. They are me, and I am they. Todd and I share a common bond. Todd is one of us, and I am one of Todd's.
Therefore, I shall vote for McCain, and thereby vote for Sarah, and thereby vote for my brother Todd.
If you don't share that common, sacred bond that I and Todd share, maybe this will work.
UPDATE: Why does Heather MacDonald hate my brother Todd? (link)
Posted to WackyHumor at 08:44 PM
Shipley Do-Nut president pleads guilty (hiring illegal aliens, light sentence)
From this:The sudden guilty plea to charges of hiring illegal immigrants by the president of Shipley Do-Nuts — one of Houston's most well-known institutions — is likely to send a strong message to employers about the pitfalls of hiring undocumented workers.Despite what the DOJ and the article says, six months probation and a relatively small fine aren't going to send a message to other employers. If the company is fined a large amount that might send a message, but they might also get off with something far less than half a million.
...On Thursday, prosecutors announced that Lawrence Shipley III — the grandson of Shipley Do-Nuts' founder — was placed on probation for six months and fined $6,000 after pleading to a misdemeanor charge of allowing illegal immigrants to be hired.
Three Shipley managers were also charged Thursday for employing undocumented workers.
Next week, the doughnut company itself is scheduled to enter a guilty plea to a felony conspiracy charge and could be fined up to $500,000.
Posted to Immigration2008a at 05:28 PM
Digg Katie Couric Digging the Conventions
Perky Katie Couric is going to be attending the Republican National Convention next week, and she's looking for questions she can ask. Now, I'm not expecting much of anything, but I did leave four suggestions for her, and so can you. Leave a comment here:
digg.com/2008_us_elections/Katie_Diggs_the_Conventions_Part_II
Please make your questions as specific as possible; asking general questions - or asking questions that are already answered on McCain's website - will simply generate a stock response. And, even if you don't have a question, please digg that up to try to get it on their front page.
5:41PM UPDATE: The four questions I posted have the following number of diggs: 0, -6, -6, and -3. As a consequence, the last three aren't immediately visible and Katie or her helpers will need to click "Show" to see them. If they even bother.
Meanwhile, the following question - from someone in Norway and thus presumably not even eligible to vote - has 22 diggs:
Was nominating Sarah Palin for the VP position a political move to try and gain more female voters by adding another historical factor to this falls election, or was it purely for her policies?
Anyone can guess within a 99% probability of being accurate McCain's answer to that question.
I posted about this to FreeRepublic and got the expected result: link.
Posted to Politics at 11:32 AM
