Drudge Retort: Lee_the_agent's blog

MOON BLAST! What was it...really?

lee_the_agent — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:14:55 -0400

Do you believe it was a 'meteor'? Why?

5 Major Scandals The Media Isn't Obsessing About

lee_the_agent — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:53:19 -0400

This week, the national media has focused on the three different scandals surrounding the White House, devoting hours of coverage to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly targeting conservative groups applying for tax exempt status, the talking points Susan Rice used in the aftermath of the attacks in Benghazi, and the Justice Department's subpoena of phone records from the Associated Press as part of an investigation into a national security leak. The around-the-clock coverage comes even as a new Gallup poll finds that interest in the ongoing controversies is "lower comparable to major news stores in the past."

And while these stories raise serious concerns about money in politics, embassy security, and freedom of the press, they aren't the only problems impacting the American people. Here are five big stories the media isn't obsessing about:

4 Things We Should Remember When Arguing About Politics

lee_the_agent — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:05:35 -0400

Political discourse in America has reached levels of douchebaggery previously only theorized about but never observed, like conversational dark matter. We're in a whole new world of hating people based solely on their opinions on a few key issues, and since this is unexplored territory, our conversations about politics are usually only a couple notches beyond the "hold your breath until the other person agrees with you and/or you die" technique.

But it's the 21st century. We have access to the entirety of collective human knowledge in our back pockets at all times. We have taken pictures of the deepest corners of space. We have three different goddamn TV shows about bidding on abandoned storage units. We as a society should have moved beyond figuratively (and literally, probably, knowing you ((bleep)) ) ((bleep)) in our hands and throwing it at each other whenever someone brings up the deficit.

Father of Fish Sticks Dies

lee_the_agent — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:33:27 -0400

Parents might not recognize E. Robert Kinney by name, but they owe him a debt of gratitude for popularizing what might be the only kind of fish their kids will eat. The former General Mills CEO passed away May 2 at the age of 96. At what was then Gorton-Pew Fisheries in the 1950s, Kinney helped transform a challenging protein into a crunchy vehicle for tartar sauce kids could eat with their fingers. Kinney rose through the ranks at General Mills, becoming president and COO in 1973, then CEO in 1977. When he retired at the end of 1981, General Mills was a $5 billion dollar business, up from $1 billion when he arrived.

Cesca: Bush's 13 Benghazis

lee_the_agent — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:54:25 -0400

Bob Cesca: The Republican inquisition over the attacks against Americans in Benghazi has never really gone away ... [I]t appears as if no one, including and especially the traditional press, intends to ask any of these obnoxious, opportunistic liars about why they're so obsessed by this one attack yet they entirely ignored the dozen-plus consulate/embassy attacks that occurred when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were allegedly "keeping us safe."

Redskins Owner: ‘We'll Never Change the Name'

lee_the_agent — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:54:47 -0400

"We will never change the name of the team. As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it's all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.

"We'll never change the name. It's that simple. NEVER -- you can use caps.

Demoted Diplomat Testifies on Benghazi

lee_the_agent — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:16 -0400

New York Times: A veteran diplomat gave a riveting minute-by-minute account on Wednesday of the lethal terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11 and described its contentious aftermath at a charged Congressional hearing that reflected the weighty political stakes perceived by both parties. During a chaotic night at the American Embassy in Tripoli, hundreds of miles away, the diplomat, Gregory Hicks, got what he called "the saddest phone call I've ever had in my life" informing him that Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was dead and that he was now the highest-ranking American in Libya. If the testimony did not fundamentally challenge the facts and timeline of the Benghazi attack and the administration's response to it, it vividly illustrated the anxiety of top State Department officials about how the events would be publicly portrayed.

Obama 'On Verge' Of Backing FBI Plan To Tap Web Users

lee_the_agent — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:42:37 -0400

Albert Gidari Jr., who represents technology companies on law enforcement matters, criticized that proposed procedure. He argued that if the United States started imposing fines on foreign Internet firms, it would encourage other countries, some of which may be looking for political dissidents, to penalize American companies if they refused to turn over users' information.

"We'll look a lot more like China than America after this," Mr. Gidari said.

US Hired al-Qaida-Linked Group to Defend Benghazi Mission

lee_the_agent — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:27:18 -0400

The Libyan militia group that the State Department hired to defend its embattled diplomatic mission in Benghazi had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for some months before the deadly attack.

That organization, the February 17th Martyrs Brigade, was paid by the U.S. government to provide security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. But there is no indication the Martyrs Brigade fulfilled its commitment to defend the mission on Sept. 11, when it came under attack.

Florida Tries Report-Your-Neighbor Hotline

lee_the_agent — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:41:50 -0400

A new police program in Palm Beach County, Fla., will encourage citizens to report their neighbors, friends or family members if they fear they could harm themselves or others. The program, funded by $1 million in state funds, is intended in part to help stop the next Newtown- or Aurora-style massacre before it happens. "We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he's gonna shoot him," said county Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. "What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, 'Hey, is everything OK?'"

The Beer-Drinkingest State in the U.S. is ...

lee_the_agent — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:33:50 -0400

Americans drank an estimated 6.3 billion gallons of beer last year and New Hampshire led the nation in per capita consumption, according to the Beer Institute. New Hampshire ranked No. 1 for the most per capita consumption with its 977,774 citizens drinking 43 gallons each. At the bottom of the list was Connecticut, with each citizen drinking just 21.8 gallons.

Mission Accomplished, 10 Years Later

lee_the_agent — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:53:14 -0400

The Nation: Today marks the tenth anniversary of Mission Accomplished Day, or as it might better be known, Mission (Not) Accomplished Day. Sadly, it comes amid another upheaval in sectarian violence in Iraq -- two days ago the New York Times warned of a new "civil war" there -- and a week after the attempts at Bush revisionism upon the opening of his library. We're also seeing aspects of the run-up to the Iraq invasion playing out in the fresh, perhaps overheated, claims of chemical weapons in Syria. In my favorite antiwar song of this war, "Shock and Awe," Neil Young moaned: "Back in the days of Mission Accomplished/ our chief was landing on the deck/ The sun was setting/ behind a golden photo op." But as Neil added elsewhere in the tune: "History is a cruel judge of overconfidence."

Taibbi: Everything is Rigged

lee_the_agent — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:33:15 -0400

Matt Taibbi: You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three -- and perhaps as many as 16 -- of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history -- MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets." That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess.

Unemployment Fraud Costs US Taxpayers $3.3 Billion

lee_the_agent — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:38:22 -0400

"It's likely that with bad economic times, the chances for fraud like this rise," said Yuzhe Zhang, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the report's co-authors. "People are struggling economically. I think the fraud problem is going to get worse."

Rand Paul: Kill Robbers with Drones

lee_the_agent — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:33:18 -0400

Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) concerns over the domestic use of drones do not extend to some situations, apparently. He said on Fox Business Network, "I've never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him. But it's different if they want to come fly over your hot tub or your yard just because they want to do surveillance on everyone and they want to watch your activities."