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10022. Dubai Vol - 6/9/2010 6:03:32 AM Poor Helen Thomas; that'll teach her to have two mimosas and shoot her mouth off.
Seriously, kids, she's Lebanese. What on earth do you expect her opinion to be? Of course having an opinion and being stupid enough to say it out loud are two different things.
Go back to Germany and Poland? Really? Sure, as a crazy old lady you are welcome to think that. To sit front row center at White House press briefings and say that? Not so much.
And I'm sorry, but saying that we should tolerate bigotry on the part of Helen Thomas because the right wing are a bunch of bigots and Rush is their voice? No. Just no. 10023. thoughtful - 6/9/2010 2:41:49 PM First of all she did not say it from the front row of the white house press briefing. Second, her reporting has never revealed her personal sentiments, thus she has been doing her job well and did it extremely well for many decades. Third, like it or not there are bigots in this world. They have the right to speak their bigotry...otherwise how will we know who they are? That doesn't mean we have to like what they are saying. But if rush can be an idiot and a racist all the time and keep his job then why should the standards be more stringent for helen who not only has a far greater track record than rush ever did, but who, given her position, has far less influence in the world than rush does. 10024. vonKreedon - 6/9/2010 4:08:44 PM I think that Helen's statement was easily reason enough for Hearst to fire her. Come on, telling the citizens of Israel that they should go back to where they came from? And that the places they should go are Germany and Poland? It's one thing to say that Israel needs to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, or that there needs to be a one state solution in Palestine, or even that the UN resolution legitimizing the state of Israel was a mistake, but it is purely anti-semetic to say that the citizens of Israel are all outsiders and should all return to the scene of the Shoah.
Yes, Rush et al say as bad on a variety of fronts and it is their meat and potatoes, but I'm really not going to take Rush's ethics as my benchmark in evaluating journalists. 10025. arkymalarky - 6/9/2010 6:40:42 PM There's a whole lot of space between tolerating it and allowing it to override 50 years of respected service where opinions have been allowed, even offensive ones. I think a 90 year old in those circumstances should be able to atone for that remark without losing everything. 50 years vs a bad statement for which she apologized is hardly an equivalent exchange. 10026. vonKreedon - 6/9/2010 8:34:06 PM Her statement, irregardless of subsequent apology, was offensive and incendiary enough to make her completely ineffective as a journalist going forward and so she was, IMO, appropriately retired. If Hearst had kept her on she would have been the story rather than covering a story. 10027. arkymalarky - 6/10/2010 4:41:32 AM I think we need to remember some important context here: the woman is 90 freakin years old! For anyone who saw tonight, Jon Stewart, as usual, gets it and expresses his insights better than anyone out there, imho. 10028. wabbit - 6/10/2010 2:20:39 PM Was she even still a journalist? I thought she had been moved to op-ed. 10029. thoughtful - 6/10/2010 2:47:31 PM Apparently she joined hearst newspapers as a columnist after upi was taken over by the moonies.
From wikipedia: Since leaving UPI, Thomas has been more likely to air her personal views. In a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomas quipped, "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, ‘Who do I hate today?’" 10030. judithathome - 6/10/2010 6:53:32 PM And that the places they should go are Germany and Poland?
Not that it matters but she also said "Or to America"...of course, the part that's getting all publicity and creating such high dudgeon is the Germany and Poland part. 10031. thoughtful - 6/10/2010 7:35:56 PM This oil spill is unbelievable and I can't believe how a bright guy like obama is missing perhaps the best opportunity of his presidency to change this country.
If I were czarina, I'd 1) change whatever laws, add whatever liability protections, etc in place to get exxon and shell in there to help out bp...this is not just a bp problem but an industry problem and it is in all their interests to fix this thing as fast as possible.
Aside: what's this bs about needing a new ship? you mean to tell me they aren't anticipating the amount of oil captured and lining up ships to take care of it????
2) I'd have the biggest wpa program going so there is not one person unemployed all along the gulf coast...if you have a boat, get out there and clean or spread booms or whatever...if you don't have a boat, hit the beaches and start cleaning up tar balls and birds and whatever else. This would not only boost the economy but help minimize the damage from this spill
3) i'd put a $1/gallon tax on petroleum based fuels to start getting the price of petrol products somewhere near the actual cost of acquiring them
And i'm sick of hearing all this bs about how this would be different in 200' water vs 5000' water. Rachel maddow had a nice comparison with the undersea well blowout that happened 30 years ago and guess what...they tried all the same things...top kill, containment, etc. and the only thing that worked was drilling a relief well....that'll be the same now.
Idiots.
And obama should be in there cleaning house not just on the mms and energy side, but on all the regulatory bodies...clean out all the bush leftovers who don't believe govt can do any good and get in qualified thoughtful people who don't spend their days downloading porn.
This is just another example of a missed opportunity by this guy...so disappointing. 10032. vonKreedon - 6/11/2010 3:24:38 PM Thoughtful - Yeah, Obama's response, or more accurately dearth of response, has been very dissapointing and very much a missed opportunity, one in a series of dissapointing missed opportunities. 10033. arkymalarky - 6/11/2010 8:21:11 PM We know at least one person who died and at least two who are missing. Albert Pike is a fav for people here. It's Mose and SIL's fav and Bob's and most of our friends. 10034. wabbit - 6/11/2010 11:49:37 PM News reports say 16 known dead so far, but no real way of knowing how many folks were in the area. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for a bit and not make things even worse. 10035. arkymalarky - 6/13/2010 1:52:20 AM IThe person who died was the wife of Bob's colleague who's fam is from our tiny town and has known Bob's fam all their lives. He and his two kids escaped. That is a beaqutiful place, and lots of people go there every year. It's going to be hard for them to go back for a while. 10036. judithathome - 6/13/2010 6:40:00 PM Arky, I had no idea what went on in Arkansas until just now...I've stopped watching news and weather and everything connected to "reality", I guess...
I know we pass Caddo or the turnoff to it on our way to your place...so sorry to hear about Bob's colleague's wife. What type of weather did y'all get out your way?
I guess the reason I was so in the dark about is because it was hot and humid here but we got NOTHING in the way of bad weather...I ususally can at least warn you when it comes here first.... 10037. arkymalarky - 6/13/2010 6:58:15 PM Just a lot of rain. It evidently fell a whole lot in just the right areas to flood that spot suddenly. If we have time we'll drive by there on the highway. It isn't very far from here and it is a gorgeous place. 10038. arkymalarky - 6/13/2010 6:58:50 PM When y'all come over, that is. 10039. judithathome - 6/14/2010 6:56:52 PM Well, I heard 20 people, as of today, lost their lives in the flooding...wow. 10040. iiibbb - 6/15/2010 1:53:38 PM Armageddon 10041. judithathome - 6/16/2010 5:04:20 PM Here's an interesting perspective on what the oil spill would do if it happened in YOUR hometown:
http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/
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