Inspector General: Clinton Emails Had Intel from Most Secretive, Classified Programs
Posted: January 19, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: ABC News, Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, CNN, David Petraeus, Fox News Channel, Jack Keane, Republican Party (United States), Stanley A. McChrystal 1 Comment
FBI investigation into Clinton expands beyond emails.
Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne report: Hillary Clinton’s emails on her unsecured, homebrew server contained intelligence from the U.S. government’s most secretive and highly classified programs, according to an unclassified letter from a top inspector general to senior lawmakers.
“According to court documents, former CIA Director David Petraeus was prosecuted for sharing intelligence from special access programs with his biographer and mistress Paula Broadwell. At the heart of his prosecution was a non-disclosure agreement where Petraeus agreed to protect these closely held government programs.”
Fox News exclusively obtained the unclassified letter, sent Jan. 14 from Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III. It laid out the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” additional classified emails — including specific intelligence known as “special access programs” (SAP).
That indicates a level of classification beyond even “top secret,” the label previously given to two emails found on her server, and brings even more scrutiny to the presidential candidate’s handling of the government’s closely held secrets.
“To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one [intelligence community] element. These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the IC element to be at the confidential, secret, and top secret/sap levels,” said the IG letter to lawmakers with oversight of the intelligence community and State Department. “According to the declarant, these documents contain information derived from classified IC element sources.”
Intelligence from a “special access program,” or SAP, is even more sensitive than that designated as “top secret” – as were two emails identified last summer in a random sample pulled from Clinton’s private server she used as secretary of state. Access to a SAP is 
restricted to those with a “need-to-know” because exposure of the intelligence would likely reveal the source, putting a method of intelligence collection — or a human asset — at risk. Currently, some 1,340 emails designated “classified” have been found on Clinton’s server, though the Democratic presidential candidate insists the information was not classified at the time.
[Read the full story here, at Fox News]
“There is absolutely no way that one could not recognize SAP material,” a former senior law enforcement with decades of experience investigating violations of SAP procedures told Fox News. “It is the most sensitive of the sensitive.”
Executive Order 13526 — called “Classified National Security Information” and signed Dec. 29, 2009 — sets out the legal framework for establishing special access programs. The order says the programs can only be authorized by the president, “the Secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Director of National Intelligence, or the principal deputy of each.”
The programs are created when “the vulnerability of, or threat to, specific information is exceptional,” and “the number of persons who ordinarily will have access will be reasonably small and commensurate with the objective of providing enhanced protection for the information involved,” it states. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Big Shakeup’ in Iowa Poll: Cruz Soars to Lead
Posted: December 12, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Anthony Scaramucci, Carly Fiorina, Frank Luntz, Iowa, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Republican Party (United States), Scott Walker (politician), Ted Cruz Leave a comment
Seven weeks from the caucuses, Ted Cruz is crushing it in Iowa.
The anti-establishment congressional agitator has made a rapid ascent into the lead in the GOP presidential race here, with a 21 percentage-point leap that smashes records for upsurges in recent Iowa caucuses history.
Donald Trump, now 10 points below Cruz, was in a pique about not being front-runner even before the Iowa Poll results were announced Saturday evening. He wasted no time in tearing into Cruz — and the poll — during an Iowa stop Friday night.
Ben Carson, another “Washington outsider” candidate, has plunged 15 points from his perch at the front of the pack in October. He’s now in third place.
[Read the full story here, at demoinesregister.com‘
“Big shakeup,” said J. Ann Selzer, pollster for The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll. “This is a sudden move into a commanding position for Cruz.”
Cruz, a Texas U.S. senator famous for defying party leaders and using government shutdown tactics to hold up funding for the Obamacare health care law and abortion provider Planned Parenthood, was the favorite of 10 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers in the last Iowa Poll in October. He’s now at 31 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
ECHO CHAMBER: Trump Gets 25 Times More Media Mentions than GOP Field COMBINED
Posted: December 11, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Associated Press, Attack ad, Ben Carson, Buzzfeed, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Fox News Channel, journalism, media, Media bias, news, Republican Party (United States), Scott Walker (singer), The New Analytics Company Leave a comment
Chris Stirewalt reports: Just how much is the news media shaping the GOP primary race? In the past three 
days, Donald Trump’s name has been mentioned 25 times more than the rest of the Republican field combined.
The data gurus at The New Analytics Company measure “scrub” television, radio, print, internet and social media for mentions of the 2016 candidates to produce scores for each candidate that we bring you each week in The Edge.
But given this week’s absolute media meltdown over Donald Trump’s plan to refuse entry to the United States any Muslim from any country, there’s really no comparison.
So here’s a slightly different, ahem, angle on The Edge: On Monday, the day before he proposed the religious test for entry, there were 19,355 unique mentions of Trump across all media in the U.S. Way more than his rivals, but within a measurable range.
His average for the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was 64,638 mentions, a 234 percent increase in the size of his already huge media footprint. The combined score of every other candidate combined added up to the paltry average of 2,566 mentions over the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
Noonan: ‘Jumping on anyone who publicly expressed a religious feeling after the San Bernardino massacre. Where are we heading?’
Posted: December 4, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, Think Tank | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, PEGGY NOONAN, Prayer, Rand Paul, Republican Party (United States), Ted Cruz, WSJ Leave a comment
The San Bernardino massacre and “prayer shaming.”
Peggy Noonan writes: What gets you about what happened in San Bernardino is the shattering sameness of it. Once and not so long ago such atrocities, whatever their cause, whether the work of schizophrenics or jihadists, constituted a signal and exceptional moment. Now they’re more like this week’s shooting. We are not becoming blasé but increasingly inured. And, of course, armed up.
“This managed to enrage the progressive left. You can take your prayers and stuff ’em. The answer and the only answer to this tragedy is gun control, and if you’re not for it you’re not allowed to be part of the conversation.”
You can see a coarsening in how we respond and react on social media. No one feels ashamed to exploit the tragedy for political purposes even while it is happening.
“All this immediately won a name: ‘prayer shaming.'”
We are all free to say what we think, and must be, for without this freedom we will no longer be America. More on that below. But you always hope what is said will be constructive, helpful, maybe even at some point heartening. You have a responsibility as an adult to do your best in this area.
“Wow. You might think he was aiming this at President Obama, who when he was a popular president with an overwhelmingly Democratic House and Senate did not prioritize gun control.”
But as soon as the story broke Wednesday afternoon, and while it was still going on, there were accusations and bitter words flung all over the Internet. The weirdest argument came almost immediately. A person named Chris Murphy, who is a U.S. senator representing Connecticut, sent out what struck me as the most manipulative message of recent political history.
“But it was clearly aimed at all those Republicans and religious people who were praying, saying they were praying, and implicitly asking you to pray, rather than doing what they should do, which is supporting the senator’s cause.”
The background is that Republican presidential contestants responded online to the shootings with the only helpful thing you can say—or do, frankly, from faraway—when a story like this occurs. “Praying for the victims, their families & the San Bernardino first responders,” said Jeb Bush. Mike Huckabee said he was “praying.” John Kasich: “My thoughts & prayers go out to those impacted.”
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
This managed to enrage the progressive left. You can take your prayers and stuff ’em. The answer and the only answer to this tragedy is gun control, and if you’re not for it you’re not allowed to be part of the conversation. “Please shut up and slink away,” tweeted a reporter. Another: “Your thoughts and prayers don’t mean a damn thing.” A reporter at the Huffington Post damned public officials’ “useless thoughts and prayers.” Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos: “How many dead people did those thoughts and prayers bring back to the life?”
Mollie Hemingway of the Federalist noted that all these denunciations were literally coming in while victims of the shooting were sending out requests for prayer.
[Read Mollie Hemingway article “The Left Prays After San Bernardino Shooting, To Its God Of Government“]
Journalists, bloggers, contrarians and citizens jumped into the fray. Then the U.S. senator, Chris Murphy, came forward rather menacingly. “Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing—again.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] REASON TV: The 3 Best and Worst Moments of Last Night’s GOP Debate
Posted: November 11, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, GOP, GOP Debates, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Mackinac Island, Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, media, news, Rand Paul, Reason.tv, Republican Party (United States), Ted Cruz, video Leave a comment
After the chaos of October’s CNBC debate, the newly culled Republican field met last night in Milwaukee to focus on ideas. But were the Fox Business moderators able to get straight answers from the candidates on important issues?
Reason TV sucked out the hot air and drilled down to the substance. Watch the video above for The 3 Best and Worst Moments of the GOP Debate.
Third Best Moment: America Shouldn’t Police the World
Rand Paul finally came out of his debate hibernation to cast a shadow on the GOP’s war hawk faction. The Kentucky senator countered Marco Rubio’s assertions that he is a “committed isolationist” by pointing out that it’s not very conservative to increase government spending on the military, as Rubio wants. True isolationism, according to the Senator, comes from the other candidates’ threats to cut off dialogue with Russia, Iran, or other perceived enemies, a step that Reagan did not take even during the height of the Cold War.
Third Worst Moment: More Bombs and Boots
Aside from Donald Trump, who paid lip service to limited foreign intervention mostly to needle Jeb Bush, the rest of the field launched a barrage of promises to keep the bombs flowing and the boots grounded, no matter the lives lost or the money spent. From creating no-fly zones in Iraq and Syria to arming every militia from Kurdistan to Ukraine, the ideas on parade offered no respite from the arrogance and fear tactics of the past two administrations.
Second Best Moment: Fewer, Simpler Taxes
The Republicans presented plans that generally simplify the tax code and reduce rates. While the extent and nature of the proposals varied, the candidates focused on the way the current complexity of the code favors wealthy, politically connected organizations—which are uniquely able to hire the army of lawyers necessary to wade through it all, and to lobby Congress to insert favorable provisions.
Second Worst Moment: Immigrants Are Taking Our Jobs
Unfortunately, that bit of sanity was balanced out by a fresh round of crazy about immigrants. After Donald Trump’s usual wall schtick, Ted Cruz described immigration as an “economic calamity” for Americans, despite the evidence that immigration increases the standard of living for all. He even suggested that journalists don’t cover this calamity because they don’t face job insecurity or competition from foreign workers.
Best Moment: Big Government Creates Crony Capitalism
The best moment of the night came with the Republicans’ forceful arguments against crony capitalism and the growth in government that fuels it. Citing everything from Obamacare to Solyndra, the candidates pitched an end to government that picks winners and losers, systemically hurting the poor and the vulnerable while helping the rich and the well-connected.
Worst Moment: Leadership Means Abandoning All Reason
Finally, batting cleanup with the worst facepalm of the debate was Ohio governor John Kasich, whose vision of presidential leadership is to abandon all principle and reason during times of crisis. In response to everything from water crises to bank failures, Kasich believes that it is the job of the executive to do something in the heat of the moment, before rational reflection and the better part of human nature emerge to spoil the party. According to Kasich, “Philosophy doesn’t work when you run something.”
Go to https://reason.com/reasontv/2015/11/1… for links, downloadable versions, and more. And don’t forget to subscribe to Reason TV’s YouTube channel for notifications when new material goes live.
The Bush Dilemma: Too Much Supply, Not Enough Demand
Posted: November 4, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, White House | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Joe Biden, Marco Rubio, Quinnipiac University, Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, Republican Party (United States) 1 Comment
Jeb Bush’s support among Republicans nationally has plummeted to the low single digits in the latest Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday, as the former Florida governor’s campaign seeks to hit refresh with its “Jeb Can Fix It” tour.
Donald Trump and Ben Carson, meanwhile, continued to lead the field, with Carson outperforming Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general-election matchup.
In the latest poll, conducted after last week’s third GOP debate in which Bush delivered a mediocre performance, just 4 percent of Republican and independent Republican-leaning voters said they would support Bush in their state’s primary. In the September survey, Bush earned 10 percent, trailing Trump, Carson and Carly Fiorina. And in terms of favorability, no one polled lower than Bush, at a net-negative of 33 points. Just 25 percent of all registered voters surveyed said they had a positive opinion of him, while 58 percent said they had a negative one.
For its part, the Bush campaign has tried to manage expectations among the media.
“FYI political press corps. Jeb’s going to have a few weeks of bad polls,” campaign communications director Tim Miller tweeted Monday. “Comebacks take time, we recognize and are prepared for that.”
[Read the full story here, at POLITICO]
Trump earned 24 percent from Republican voters this time, while Carson moved into a virtual tie at 23 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio jumped into third place with 14 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 13 percent. Other candidates took in 3 percent or less support, with 9 percent undecided.
Among Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters, Clinton bested Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to the tune of 53 percent to 35 percent, a 10-point jump for both from the same poll in September. Read the rest of this entry »
RNC Shakes Up Staff to Calm GOP Campaigns’ Growing Frustrations Over Debates
Posted: November 1, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Debate, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Drudge Report, GOP, Jake Tapper, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee, Republican Party (United States), Ted Cruz Leave a comment
“Last week was a debacle and we’re adding Sean, an experienced federal election attorney, to this team because of what happened. He has significant political relationships and will be a huge asset as we seek the best possible format for the candidates. He is going to take the leading role for the debates moving forward.”
— Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and spokesman
Priebus has elevated Sean Cairncross, the chief operating officer of the RNC and its former chief counsel, to be the GOP’s new lead debate negotiator and organizer.
[Read the full text here, at The Washington Post]
The move effectively gives the debate responsibilities currently held by Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and spokesman, to Cairncross. Spicer, a confidant of Priebus, will remain in his role but will work in a supplementary position when it comes to arranging the debates.
Priebus’s decision, which was detailed in an e-mail that the RNC sent to campaigns Sunday before a private summit of aides to 2016 candidates, was shared by a Republican presidential campaign aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal the document. That gathering was held at a hotel in the Washington suburbs and attended by advisers to several campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Fiorina Responds to The View: ‘I Am Tired of Being Insulted by Liberal Feminists’
Posted: November 1, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Conservative Women, Double Standard, GOP, Hewlett-Packard, Hillary Clinton, Liberal Orthodoxy, Liberals, media, Media bias, news, Republican Party (United States), Television, The view, Whoopi Goldberg Leave a comment
“There is nothing more threatening to the liberal media in general, and Hillary Clinton in particular, than a conservative woman. So of course there’s a double standard.”
Carly Fiorina responded to being mocked by the hosts of The View on Fox News Sunday this morning by saying conservative women are a big threat to liberals.
“And conservative women from Sarah Palin to Michele Bachmann to Carly Fiorina are long used to this. It will not stop me. It will not scare me and maybe, the ladies of ‘The View,’ if I come back on again, let’s see if they have the guts to say that to my face.”
Read more: dailycaller
CNBC’s GOP Debate Scores 14 Million Viewers, CNN’s, 23.1 Million, Fox News, 24 Million
Posted: October 29, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, CNBC, CNN, Debate, Donald Trump, Fox News Channel, Ratings, Republican Party (United States), Ross Perot, Variety Magazine Leave a comment
Brian Sternberg reports: CNBC said its Wednesday-night telecast of a debate among Republican candidates for U.S. President lured an average of 14 million viewers, making it the most-watched broadcast on the NBCUniversal-owned cable outlet in its history.
CNBC’s audience for the telecast was significantly lower than the crowds lured by Fox News Channel and CNN for similar events. A Republican debate broadcast in August by Fox News attracted an average of 24 million viewers, while a Republican debate broadcast in September by CNN won an average of 23.1 million viewers.
For CNBC, however, the numbers were meaningful. The network said its broadcast of the debate was the most-watched night in network history in all key demos. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] The Kelly File: Republican Debaters Unite Against Common Enemy: Moderators
Posted: October 29, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Carly Fiorina, CNBC, Donald Trump, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News Channel, Howard Kurtz, media, Megyn Kelly, Menstruation, news, Oregon, Republican Party presidential primaries, video Leave a comment
Chris Stirewalt and Howard Kurtz break down the CNBC GOP debate on ‘The Kelly File’Watch Chris Stirewalt, Howard Kurtz, and Megyn Kelly talk about Elections, Presidential Primaries, and Republicans on Mediabuzz and The Kelly File.
Byron York: At CNN, a Double Standard for Dem, GOP Debates
Posted: October 14, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Anderson Cooper, Bernie Sanders, Brian Stelter, Byron York, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Donald Wuerl, Fox News Sunday, Hillary Clinton, Jake Tapper, Rand Paul, Republican Party (United States), Thomas Rosica Leave a comment
Byron York writes: Before the Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library Sept. 16, CNN promised to stage what it called “actual debating.”
“Is one of the goals for you … to spur more actual debating?” CNN’s Brian Stelter asked debate moderator Jake Tapper a few days before the event. Stelter pointed to a moment in the August Fox News debate in which two candidates, Chris Christie and Rand Paul, had an extended and heated — and illuminating — exchange with each other.*
“That was my favorite moment from the debate,” Tapper said. “Let’s have as many of those as possible. So, yes, what the team and I have been doing is trying to craft questions that, in most cases, pit candidates against the other, specific candidates on the stage, on issues where they disagree, whether it’s policy or politics or leadership. Let’s actually have them discuss and debate.”
“I don’t think this is a debate where you’ll have candidates attack each other; we’ve not seen this on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders has been very clear. He’s not going to go after Hillary Clinton by name. He’s not going to criticize her. And I see no reason that Hillary Clinton would do that with any of the candidates.”
— Anderson Cooper
That was then. Now, another CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper, will be moderating a debate, this time among Democrats, and he says there will be none of that raucous “actual debating” this time around.
[Read the full text here, at the Washington Examiner]
Leave the slugfest to the Republicans. The Democratic debate will be a serious discussion of the issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Byron York: Have Republicans Hit Rock Bottom? No, It Could Actually Get a Lot Worse
Posted: October 9, 2015 Filed under: Politics, Think Tank, White House | Tags: California, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Eric Cantor, Jeb Bush, Leaders of the United States House of Representatives, Marco Rubio, Primary election, Republican Party (United States), Virginia 1 Comment
Byron York writes: Yes, the House Republican conference is stunned and confused after the withdrawal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the speaker’s race. But is it any more stunned and confused than it was exactly two years ago, when the government was partially shut down amid bitter House GOP infighting over Obamacare? Or a year ago, when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suffered a mind-blowing defeat in a GOP primary election?
“Things could get worse. There’s certainly no reason to believe they will get better anytime soon.”
The fact is, the chaos plaguing Republicans in the House has been building for a long time. It’s no wonder some GOP lawmakers are reportedly weeping in the Capitol.
Not long after announcing his withdrawal, McCarthy was asked by National Review Online whether House Republicans are, at the moment, ungovernable. “I don’t know,” he said. “Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Media Propping Up ‘Old and Sick’ Hillary: Full Alex Jones Matt Drudge Interview
Posted: October 7, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Alex Jones, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Brain, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Drudge Report, Fox News Channel, Hillary Clinton, Megyn Kelly, Republican Party (United States), Saturday Night Live 2 Comments
Elliot Smilowitz reports: Media kingpin Matt Drudge on Tuesday railed against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s health and her politics, saying he was worried the nation would end up “with Hillary’s brain in the Oval Office in a jar.”
Drudge slammed the media for propping up Clinton’s candidacy.
“She’s not a contender. They’re making her a contender with these propped up Saturday Night Live things. It’s like a head on a stick,” he said, chiding NBC for “giving her endless hours of airtime.”
The media mogul cited Clinton’s hypothyroidism as cause for concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Europe’s Migrant Crisis Is Simply Muslim History vs. Western Fantasy
Posted: September 29, 2015 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Politics, War Room | Tags: 1948 Palestinian exodus, Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Genocide, Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, Islam, Islamism, Jihadism, Middle East, Muslim world, Ottoman Empire, PJ Media, Terrorism, Turkey, United States 1 Comment
Progressive Europe erased or rewrote its own history. Now they can’t recognize an invasion by people to whom history is everything.
PJ Media, by Raymond Ibrahim, September 29, 2015:
The world as understood by Islamic nations varies wildly from the Western nations’ understanding of the world. Whereas Muslims see the world through the lens of history, the West has jettisoned or rewritten history to suit its ideologies.
This dichotomy of Muslim and Western thinking is evident everywhere. When the Islamic State declared that it will “conquer Rome” and “break its crosses,” few in the West realized that those are the verbatim words and goals of Islam’s founder and his companions as recorded in Muslim sources — words and goals that prompted over a thousand years of jihad on Europe.
Most recently, the Islamic State released a map of the areas it plans on expanding into over the next five years. Not only are Mideast and Asian regions included, but the map includes European lands: Portugal, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, parts of Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Armenia, Georgia, Crete, and Cyprus.
The reason for this is simple. According to Islamic law, once a country has been conquered (or “opened,” as the euphemistic Arabic words it), it becomes Islamic in perpetuity.
This, incidentally, is the real reason Muslims despise Israel. The motivation is not sympathy for the Palestinians — if it was, neighboring Arab nations would’ve absorbed them long ago, just as they would be absorbing all of today’s Muslim refugees. No, Israel is hated because the descendants of “apes and pigs” — according to the Koran — dare to rule land that was once “opened” by jihad and therefore must be returned to Islam. (Read more about Islam’s “How Dare You?” phenomenon to understand the source of Islamic rage.)
All of the aforementioned European nations are seen as being currently “occupied” by Christian “infidels” and in need of “liberation.” This is why jihadi organizations refer to terrorist attacks on such countries as “defensive jihads.”One rarely hears about Islamic designs on European nations because they are large and blocked together, altogether distant from the Muslim world. Conversely, tiny Israel is in the heart of the Islamic world, hence it has received most of the jihadi attention: it was a more realistic conquest. But now that the “caliphate” has been reborn and is expanding before a paralytic West, dreams of reconquering portions of Europe — if not through jihad, then through migration — are becoming more plausible, perhaps more so than conquering Israel. Read the rest of this entry »
Bill Rohrbach, An Executive Who Worked With Carly Fiorina: ‘Her Critics Are Dead Wrong’
Posted: September 28, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Anchor baby, AT&T, Bill Rohrbach, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Ericsson, Fortune, Hillary Clinton, Illegal immigration, Internet, Lucent, Republican Party (United States), United States Leave a comment
An exec who worked with the GOP candidate at AT&T and Lucent defends Fiorina’s leadership and business record.
Bill Rohrbach writes: I first met Carly Fiorina when we were both working at AT&T. I began reporting directly to her in 1991, when she was heading up of worldwide strategy and I held a similar role for the company’s European division. That arrangement lasted until 1993—though we continued to work together on and off until she left Lucent in 1999.
“I’m here to tell you that Fiorina’s detractors, including Donald Trump, couldn’t be more wrong in their assessment of her leadership. Fiorina was bright, insightful, and dedicated to growing our company and developing relationships with employees and customers.”
I’m here to tell you that Fiorina’s detractors, including Donald Trump, couldn’t be more wrong in their assessment of her leadership. Fiorina was bright, insightful, and dedicated to growing our company and developing relationships with employees and customers. There is a reason she rose from a secretary to a CEO – Fiorina is the real deal.
“There is a reason she rose from a secretary to a CEO – Fiorina is the real deal.”
In 1984, the giant conglomerate that was the Bell System restructured into multiple divisions, including the newly formed Network Systems, which served the equipment needs of telephone operating companies. Most of these carriers were former Bell System companies—but they were free to purchase their products from any supplier. In other words, Network Systems needed to be competitive in order to remain viable.
Unfortunately, Network Systems was struggling and losing U.S. market share. One reason for this slide: The company’s products were simply not competitive with other suppliers.
Under the old Bell System, products had been designed by Bell Laboratories, manufactured by Western Electric and purchased by the Bell Operating Telcos. And while this vertical integration model produced the most advanced network in the world—as well as significant profits—for AT&T prior to the restructuring, Network Systems needed a new approach if it was going to continue to compete. Read the rest of this entry »
Help Wanted: Throw Condoms, Get Paid
Posted: September 28, 2015 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, CNN, Debate, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood, Republican Party (United States), The New York Times 1 Comment
Planned Parenthood Paid Condom-Throwers at Carly Fiorina
Planned Parenthood paid some of its supporters who threw condoms at GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and at her supporters during an Iowa Hawkeye tailgate on Saturday.
The payments were briefly mentioned in a story by the New York Times. “On Saturday, women wearing pink, some of whom were paid by Planned Parenthood, protested Mrs. Fiorina at a campaign appearance in Iowa, throwing condoms and chanting, ‘Women are watching, and we vote,’” reported the New York Times….(read more)
Source: Breitbart.com
Carly Fiorina: ‘I Don’t Think The Washington Post Has a Lot of Credibility Here’
Posted: September 27, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Carly Fiorina, Debate, Donald Trump, Hewlett-Packard, Planned Parenthood, Republican Party (United States), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, The Daily Caller, The Washington Post, Tough Choices: A Memoir Leave a comment
Chuck Todd: A Washington Post editorial this morning is calling it a full-fledged falsehood, Miss Fiorina. They said that it doesn’t excuse your mistruths. They said that you they understand that you have a deeply held belief on abortion but that you’re exaggerating this specific claim.
Carly Fiorina: No. Well, first of all, The Washington Post also claims that I’m lying about being a secretary, so let’s get real. I mean, I don’t even know how to deal with that. I was a secretary. Part-time to put myself through college and full-time after I graduated. The Washington Post gave me three Pinocchio’s for claiming that I was a secretary. So honestly, I don’t think The Washington Post has a lot of credibility here. This is not about being pro-life or pro-choice. It is certainly not about birth control. it is not even about women’s health. It is about the character of our nation. No one can deny this is happening because it is happening.
Source: The Daily Caller
OH YES SHE DID: Carly Fiorina Tops Hillary Clinton in Head-to-Head Matchup: Poll
Posted: September 24, 2015 Filed under: Politics, White House | Tags: Carly Fiorina, CNN, Donald Trump, Florida, Hewlett-Packard, Hillary Clinton, Jake Tapper, Jeb Bush, Republican Party (United States), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Leave a comment
Latest Quinnipiac University Poll Not Good News for Hillary.
Carly Fiorina tops Hillary Rodham Clinton in a head-to-head general election matchup, according to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday morning that also found the former Hewlett-Packard CEO easily outperformed GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in last week’s debate.
Still, Mr. Trump continues to lead the Republican pack with 25 percent support, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 17 percent and Ms. Fiorina at 12 percent.
Two Floridians, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, are next with 10 percent and 9 percent support, respectively.
Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, holds a commanding lead in the Democratic primary, with 43 percent support, well ahead of Sen. Bernard Sanders at 25 percent and Vice President Joseph R. Biden at 10 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Fiorina’s Candidacy Should Scare Democrats
Posted: September 22, 2015 Filed under: Politics, Think Tank, White House | Tags: American Broadcasting Company, Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Hewlett-Packard, Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood, Republican Party (United States), Young Conservatives Leave a comment
Marc A. Thiessen
writes: In the wake of her stellar performance at the CNN debate, Carly Fiorina has shot to second place in the polls, and her ascent raises a possibility that should terrify Democrats: The GOP might just nominate a passionate, articulate pro-life woman as its standard-bearer in 2016.
If that happens, Democrats can say goodbye to their beloved “war on women” rhetoric.
Consider: Hillary Clinton recently compared pro-life Republican presidential candidates to terrorists. “I take it a little personal when they go after women,” Clinton smirked. “Extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups . . . But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be president of the United States.”
[Read the full text here, at AEI.org]
That line won’t work so well if the Republican running for president of the United States is a woman.
Neither will Clinton’s oft-repeated complaint that Republicans trying to defund Planned Parenthood want to eliminate access to breast cancer screening. “I would like these Republican candidates to look the mom in the eye who caught her breast cancer early because she was able to get a screening for cancer,” Clinton said.
Fiorina does not have to look that mom in the eye — because she is that mom. “I’m a breast cancer survivor,” she told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend. “Of course we should be funding those things. But I find it fascinating that Democrats will never support taxpayer funding, for example, for a women’s health center right next door to a Planned Parenthood [clinic] that would provide all those same services and also provide women an alternative to abortion.”
Boom.
Fiorina argues persuasively that it is Democrats, not Republicans, who are “extreme” when it comes to abortion. Speaking at the Susan B. Anthony List dinner this year, Fiorina described how “women come up to me and say, ‘I agree with Republicans on so many things, but I just can’t support this extreme pro-life platform of the Republican Party.’ And the way I answer that always is to say, ‘Well, I can respect that. Have you ever read the Democratic Party platform? Well, here’s what it says: Any abortion, at any time, at any point in a woman’s pregnancy, for any reason, to be paid for by taxpayers. . . . Do you agree with that?’ Nobody agrees with that! Even people who think they are pro-choice don’t agree with that.” Read the rest of this entry »
Matt Drudge: ‘A Prayer for Those Locked Up in Cruel Cuba This Morning for Dissent, as Pope Basks in Glow of Adulation from Masses’
Posted: September 20, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, War Room | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Catholic Church, Cuba, Cubans, Drudge Report, Havana, Politics of Cuba, Pope, Pope Francis, United States 2 Comments
Stephen K. Bannon & Ezra Dulis write: Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report sent a message Sunday morning excoriating Pope Francis during his trip to Cuba, depicting the head of the Catholic Church alongside Raul Castro and suggesting Francis would rather ignore the plight of political dissidents than endanger his warm welcome from the Castro regime.
A prayer for those locked up in cruel Cuba this morning for dissent, as pope basks in glow of adulation from masses.. pic.twitter.com/H3y78zonDA
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) September 20, 2015
Activists have criticized the Pope for failing to plan any meetings with Cuban political dissidents during his visit to the Communist Caribbean nation–while the government flagrantly and contemporaneously persecutes its Catholics. Just last week, the government violently arrested more than 50 protesters, mostly women, after attending Sunday mass….(read more)
Source: Breitbart
‘CLOWN NEWS NETWORK’: New York Daily News Cover for September 17, 2015
Posted: September 17, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Carly Fiorina, CNN, Donald Trump, GOP, media, New York, New York Daily News, news, Newspaper, NYC, Presidential Debate, Tabloid Leave a comment
‘Fact-Checker’ Challenge: Publish Planned Parenthood Videos that Prove Fiorina ‘Lied’
Posted: September 17, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, CNN, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Planned Parenthood, Ted Cruz, The New York Times, The Washington Post Leave a comment
John Nolte 
writes:
…As an example, the prominent fact checkers at the left-wing Washington Post, Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, attacked Fiorina with this word salad of misinformation:
“As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”
— business executive Carly Fiorina
Fiorina might have trouble finding this video to show to Clinton. No video has surfaced showing the scene Fiorina describes taking place inside a Planned Parenthood facility.
But the third episode of secretly taped videos by the Center for Medical Progress includes a disturbing interview with a technician at a biotechnology company that had partnered with Planned Parenthood affiliates in California to purchase aborted fetus parts.
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway has done the yeoman’s work of dismantling these dishonest and dissembling attacks. Here’s the rub:
As for Fiorina’s quote, she is likely referring to the entirety of the 10 videos, including the seventh video released by the Center for Medical Progress. Watch the full video for yourself. It does, in fact, show a fully formed fetus, heart beating and legs kicking. And it shows this while Holly O’Donnell, a former organ harvester who worked for StemExpress at a Planned Parenthood affiliate, graphically discuss the harvesting of a brain from a baby whose heart was beating.
Like the rest of the lying media (CNN, Politico, Vox, PolitiFact, etc.), rather than back up their claim that Fiorina lied with the documentation of the segments of actual videos in question, the Washington Post refuse to. Read the rest of this entry »
DRUDGE Readers Completely Misunderstood Poll Question ‘Who Won 2nd GOP Debate?’, Answered ‘Who Is Your Favorite Candidate?’
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: 2016 Presidential Campaign, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, CNN, Dasich, Donald Trump, Drudge Report, GOP, GOP Debate, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, media, Mike Huckabee, news, Poll, Rand Paul, Republican, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz Leave a comment
A Speechwriter’s Analysis: How Donald Trump’s Language Works For Him
Posted: September 15, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank, White House | Tags: Barton Swaim, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Language, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, New Hampshire, Rand Paul, Republican Party (United States), Scott Walker (politician), Ted Cruz, The Washington Post Leave a comment
It’s not just what Trump says; it’s how he says it.
Barton Swaim worked for the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford (R), from 2007 to 2010. He is author of “The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics.”
Barton Swaim writes: every political commentator in America has now written at least one piece attempting to explain the mystery of Donald Trump’s appeal. Most have dealt with the man’s demeanor, his talent for attracting media coverage and his disdain for party and
intellectual elites. Some of these I find cogent.
The thing I find most distinctive about Trump, though — and perhaps it’s at least a component of his success so far — is the structure of his language.
[Check out Barton Swaim’s book “The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics” at Amazon.com]
Everybody senses that Trump doesn’t speak like other politicians. But how is his speech different, exactly? Is it just the swagger, the dismissive tone and clipped accent? Maybe in part. Trump does seem emotionally engaged in a way none of his competitors do; he is perpetually annoyed — exasperated that things aren’t as they should be — but somehow also good-humored about it. (Chris Christie and John Kasich seem perpetually annoyed, too, but there is nothing funny or cheerful about their versions.)
To get at what makes Trump’s language different, take a look at the shape of his sentences. They don’t work the way modern political rhetoric does — they work the way punchlines work: short (sometimes very short) with the most important words at the end.
“Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end.”
That’s rare among modern politicians, and not simply because they lack Trump’s showmanship or comedic gifts. It’s rare because most successful modern politicians are habitually careful with their language. They are keenly aware of the ways in which any word they speak may be interpreted or misinterpreted by journalists and partisan groups and constituencies and demographic groups.
“Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively where to put the emphasis in each one.“
And so in important situations — situations in which they know a lot depends on what they say or don’t say — their language takes on (at least) two peculiar characteristics. First, their syntax tends to abstraction. They speak less about particular things and people — bills, countries, identifiable officials — and more about “legislation” and “the international community” and “officials” and “industry” and “Washington” and “government.”
[Read the full story here, at The Washington Post]
Second, their sentences take on a higher number of subordinate clauses and qualifying phrases — “over the last several years,” “in general,” “in effect,” “what people are telling me,” and so on. This is the kind of language you use when you’re aware that your words might be misinterpreted or used against you.
“Politicians are frequently too careful with their language, and this conscientiousness can begin to sound like deceit or cowardice. When they rely too heavily on abstractions, when they avoid concrete nouns, when all their statements seem always hedged by qualifying phrases, they sound like politicians, in the worst sense of the word.”
When used well, it conveys competence and assures listeners that the speaker thinks coherent thoughts and holds reasonable positions. It suggests that the speaker cares about the truth of his claims. But politicians are frequently too careful with their language, and this conscientiousness can begin to sound like deceit or cowardice. When they rely too heavily on abstractions, when they avoid concrete nouns, when all their statements seem always hedged by qualifying phrases, they sound like politicians, in the worst sense of the word. To my ear, anyway, Hillary Clinton sounds this way almost all the time. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Secretly’? This Word Doesn’t Mean What John Heilemann Thinks It Means
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Heilemann, Mark Halperin, Republican Party (United States) Leave a comment
John Heilemann writes: If the vice president does decide to run against Hillary Clinton, the benefits of landing Robert Wolf would be many….(read more)
Source: Bloomberg Politics
What Could Go Wrong? CNN Announces Presidential Debate Next Wednesday
Posted: September 10, 2015 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Hewlett-Packard, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Republican Party (United States), Ted Cruz 3 Comments
The stage is set for the CNN Reagan Library Debate next week in California, with Carly Fiorina joining 10 other leading Republican presidential candidates at 8 p.m. ET. (Photo: CNN)
…The candidates scheduled to face off Wednesday at the Reagan Presidential Library include former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. She didn’t qualify for the first debate, but a polling bump and a big lobbying push persuaded CNN to broaden its participation criteria.
Other participants include businessman Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich….(more)
Source: Q13 FOX News
[VIDEO] Is There a Wrong Side of History?
Posted: August 24, 2015 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank, White House | Tags: African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968), Anti-Democratic, Barack Obama, Carly Fiorina, Debate, Democracy, Egypt, Jonah Goldberg, Karl Marx, Marxism, National Review, Prager University, propaganda, Republican Party (United States), Socialism, Undemocratic Leave a commentAre you on the wrong side or the right side of history? Is there even a “wrong side” or a “right side”? What do those terms mean and why do politicians and pundits use them? Nationally syndicated columnist and best-selling author Jonah Goldberg explains.
You can support Prager University by clicking here. Free videos are great, but to continue producing high-quality content, even small contributions are greater. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] This is the Mia Love that Republicans Have Been Waiting For
Posted: August 20, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Abortion, Bill Clinton, Carly Fiorina, CNN, Don Lemon, Donald Trump, Fox Business Network, Hewlett-Packard, Jeb Bush, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Mia Love, Planned Parenthood, Republican Party (United States), The Washington Examiner, The Washington Post, White House Leave a commentAmber Phillips writes: “It’s absolutely horrific,” Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) told Lou Dobbs on his Fox Business show Wednesday night when asked for her reaction to leaked Planned Parenthood videos showing officials talking about selling fetal tissue. “I get a little emotional.”
And she did, right then and there.
“We’ve got to do everything we can … to make sure that we don’t allow this to happen.”
Early on in the six-minute interview, Love wiped a tear from her eye as she said: “This is not about a right or left issues; this is about right or wrong.” And she choked up when Dobbs went into detail on how many abortions are conducted.
“We’ve got to do everything we can … to make sure that we don’t allow this to happen,” Love said, tears rolling down her cheek.
Love wears many firsts. The first black female Republican elected to Congress. The first African American to be elected to Congress from Utah. And on Wednesday night, she potentially added another: The first time since her 2014 election she has shown why Republicans should legitimately be excited about her star rising. Read the rest of this entry »
Trump: Super-Hot with Ineligible Voters
Posted: August 14, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz Leave a comment
39.4 percent of Trump’s Social Audience is Eligible to Vote.
Abigail Tracy writes: Despite the fact that earlier this week presidential hopeful Donald Trump made his way to the top of the extensive GOP field in an Iowa poll as the first choice of 22 percent of those surveyed, a study of Trump’s social media audience found that the polarizing businessman’s position might be weaker than polls indicate.
The study, conducted by audience analytics company Macromeasures, found that Trump trails his GOP rivals in a handful of crucial metrics in terms of his social media following. Macromeasures compared Trump’s social audience to those of Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina.
The most glaring discovery was that of Trump’s audience, a mere 39.4 percent were actually eligible to vote—the lowest of any GOP candidate analyzed. To put this in perspective, 95.7 percent of Fiorina’s audience could cast a ballot. On top of that, Trump only received 0.9 percent of social media activity (defined by hashtag use) coming out of the key, early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to Macromeasures’ findings. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Carly Fiorina: ‘Climate Change Can’t Be Stopped by America Acting Alone’
Posted: August 12, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Carly Fiorina, David French, Democratic Party (United States), Earth, Global warming, Hillary Clinton, Katie Couric, Renewable energy commercialization, Republican Party (United States), Scientific consensus, Scientific opinion on climate change, Ted Cruz Leave a comment
The Left doesn’t seriously dispute the notion that American regulations aren’t going to save the planet, but they justify the demand for American sacrifice by essentially ascribing a mystical power to our national policies.
David French
writes:
“…whether climate-change regulations will have any meaningful impact on the climate? Climate-change activists constantly say that “we have to start somewhere.” But what if in fact we’re starting nowhere? What if we’re asking Americans to sacrifice to no purpose? What if America can’t stop climate change?
[Follow David French on Twitter]
That’s Carly Fiorina’s argument, and it may represent the best, and most easily defensible, path forward to consensus. Here she is, like Ted Cruz, making her case to Katie Couric:
The short version of Fiorina’s argument is this: If the scientific consensus is that man-made climate change is real, there is also consensus that America, acting alone, cannot stop it. Indeed, the Chinese are only too happy to watch us constrict our economy as they capture the market in clean coal.
Climate science today is a veritable cornucopia of unanswered questions. Photo: Corbis
“Nations, as the saying goes, do not have friends, only interests. Our geopolitical competitors will not sacrifice their strategic interests for the sake of combating global warming. Nor will developing nations sacrifice their economies, or their people’s lives, by restraining their own economic growth.”
California enacts regulations that will make no difference in global climate. The Obama administration enacts regulations that will make no difference in global climate. Yet Americans are asked to pay the price for — to take one example — climate regulations that, by 2030, would only save the world the equivalent of slightly over 13 days of Chinese emissions. We’ve already been made to pay the price for the veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline when even the State Department declared that it would have “negligible impact” on the environment.
[Read the full text here, at National Review Online]
[Also see – ‘None of this will have Any Meaningful Effect on the Planet’s Climate’]
[More – Obama’s Last Shot – Climate Change – And Why It’s Doomed To Fail]
[More – Why The Left Needs Climate Change]
The Left doesn’t seriously dispute the notion that American regulations aren’t going to save the planet, but they justify the demand for American sacrifice by essentially ascribing a mystical power to our national policies — as if our decision to fall on our own sword will so move India and China and the rest of the developing world (which has a lot of fossil fuels left to burn to lift its people out of poverty) that they’ll essentially have their own “come to Jesus” movement in defiance of national interest and centuries of national political culture. “America leads,” they proclaim. “The world laughs,” is the proper response. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Electric: The Carly Florina Interview that Attached a Car Battery to Chris Matthews’ Balls and Delivered a Heart-Stopping Payload
Posted: August 7, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Benghazi, Bill Clinton, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Chris Matthews, CNN, Debate, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Facebook, Fox News Channel, Hewlett-Packard, Hillary Clinton, MSNBC, Planned Parenthood, Republican Party (United States), Twitter Leave a commentNorvell Rose writes: In the early Republican presidential debate on Thursday — the one dubbed by some as the “happy hour” debate or the pre-game show at the “kids’ table” — there was one candidate of the seven on the Fox News stage who was singled out by many observers and analysts as the clear winner. That contender was the lone woman in the GOP group — the presidential hopeful who’s said to be very impressive in person on the campaign trail, but who hasn’t yet managed to show well in national polling — the former head of HP, Carly Fiorina.
[Read the full text here, at WesternJournalism.com]
While all seven of the so-called “lower tier” candidates handled themselves well and could be credited with respectable showings, it was Fiorina who dazzled the pundits and the people with her clear-eyed confidence and quick command of the issues. Analysts praised her performance after the 5 p.m. debate and social media was abuzz — some might say ablaze — with kudos for Carly. Read the rest of this entry »
FIORINAMAGEDDON
Posted: August 6, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Fox News, GOP, media, news, Phil Graham, Presidential Debates, Rick Perry, Twitter Leave a comment
‘This Pretty Much Sums it Up’
Ken Gardner @kesgardner via Twitter
Donald Trump: World’s Greatest Troll
Posted: July 21, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Bloomberg Television, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Culture War, Donald Trump, Facial recognition system, Google, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Republican Party (United States), Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz Leave a comment
Trolls operate on the principle that negative attention is better than none. In fact, the troll may feed off the negative attention, claiming it makes him a victim and proves that everyone is out to get him.
Nate Silver writes:
…There’s a notion that Donald Trump’s recent rise in Republican polls is a media-driven creation. That explanation isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s incomplete. It skims over the complex interactions between the media, the public and the candidates, which can produce booms and busts of attention. And it ignores how skilled trolls like Trump can exploit the process to their benefit.
Let’s look at some data. In the chart below, I’ve tracked how media coverage has been divided among the Republican candidates over roughly the past month (the data covers June 14 through July 12), according to article counts on Google News. In turn, I’ve shown the share of Google searches for each candidate over the same period. The data was provided to FiveThirtyEight by Google but should closely match what you’ll get by searching on Google Trends or Google News yourself.
“Trump has taken trolling to the next level by being willing to offend members of his own party. Ordinarily, this would be a counterproductive strategy. In a 16-candidate field, however, you can be in first place with 15 or 20 percent of the vote — even if the other 80 or 85 percent of voters hate your guts.”
Even before his imbecilic comments about Sen. John McCain this weekend, which came too recently to be included in this data, Trump was receiving far more media attention than any other Republican. Based on Google News, 46 percent of the media coverage of the GOP campaign over the past month was directed toward Trump, more than for Jeb Bush (13 percent), Chris Christie (9 percent), Scott Walker (8 percent), Bobby Jindal (6 percent), Ted Cruz (4 percent) and Marco Rubio (4 percent) combined.
“Trolls are skilled at taking advantage of this landscape and making the news cycle feed on its own tail, accelerating the feedback loop and producing particularly large bounces and busts in the polls.”
And yet, the public is perhaps even more obsessed with Trump. Among the GOP candidates, he represented 62 percent of the Google search traffic over the past month, having been searched for more than six times as often as second-place Bush.
So if the press were going purely by public demand, there might be even more Trump coverage. Instead, the amount of press coverage that each candidate has received has been modulated by the media’s perception of how likely each is to win the nomination….(read more)
“The public is perhaps even more obsessed with Trump. Among the GOP candidates, he represented 62 percent of the Google search traffic over the past month, having been searched for more than six times as often as second-place Bush.”
But a regression analysis — you can read the gory details in the footnotes3— suggests that press attention both leads and lags public attention to the candidates. This makes a lot of sense. The public can take cues from the media about which candidates to pay attention to. But the media also gets a lot of feedback from the public. Or to put it more cynically: If Trump-related stories are piling up lots of pageviews and Trump-related TV segments get good ratings, then guess what? You’re probably going to see more of them.4
This creates the possibility of a feedback loop….(read more)
…So if these spikes are media-driven, they seem to be driven by some particularly modern features of the media landscape. Social media allows candidates to make news without the filter of the press. It may also encourage groupthink among and between reporters and readers, however. And access to real-time traffic statistics can mean that everyone is writing the same “takes” and chasing the same eyeballs at once. Is the tyranny of the Twitter mob better or worse than the “Boys on the Bus” model of a group of (mostly white, male, upper-middle-class, left-of-center) reporters deigning to determine what’s news and what isn’t? I don’t know, but it’s certainly different. And it seems to be producing a higher velocity of movement in the polls and in the tenor of media coverage. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Is America Ready for a Female, Socialist, or Evangelical President?
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Americans, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Carly Fiorina, Democratic Party (United States), Economic inequality, Hillary Clinton, Iowa, New Hampshire, United States, Vermont Leave a commentA new poll shows that America is prejudiced against few candidates. The vast majority of American voters are ready for a female president. The fewest will vote for a socialist. Does this mean Sen. Bernie Sanders should abandon his presidential ambitions? Find out.
How the @AP Reports on Two Female Presidential Candidates from Different Parties
Posted: June 14, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: #ReadyForHillary, 2016 Presidential Campaign, Associated Press, Carly Fiorina, Chairman, Democratic Party, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Illinois Republican Party, media, Media bias, news, Nomination, Pantsuit Report, Twitter Leave a comment
via LilMissSoulGlo on Twitter
THINK TANK: National Review Institute’s IDEAS Summit 2015 Streaming Guide
Posted: April 30, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Charles Krauthammer, Jeb Bush, John Fund, John Kasich, John Podhoretz, Jonah Goldberg, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, New Hampshire, Rand Paul, Rich Lowry, Rob Long, Ted Cruz Leave a comment
From our mailbox: Today, the National Review Institute, National Review‘s sister organization, opens it’s biennial Ideas Summit in Washington, D.C.
Special segments of the Summit will be LIVE streamed on the Corner for free — watch Rich Lowry
and Jeb Bush, Jim Geraghty and Marco Rubio, John Fund and Carly Fiorina, and Heather Higgins and Bobby Jindal discuss why the future is conservative, and more!
First live stream starts today at 4:25 p.m. EST with Jeb Bush. Don’t miss it!
Full schedule is below. Click on the event to watch.
Thursday, April 30
3:00 P.M. NRI Ideas Summit Livestream Event: Rich Lowry, Welcome Address
4:25 P.M. NRI Ideas Summit Livestream Event: A Conversation with Jeb Bush and Rich Lowry
5:15 P.M. NRI Ideas Summit Livestream Event: A Conversation with Paul Ryan and Eliana Johnson
8:30 P.M. NRI Ideas Summit Livestream Event: A Conversation with Ben Sasse and Larry Kudlow
9:20 P.M. NRI Ideas Summit Livestream Audio Event: The Night Owl Read the rest of this entry »
Former CEO Carly Fiorina is Disgusted with How CEOs Condemned Indiana’s #RFRA Law
Posted: April 4, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: Apple Inc, Carly Fiorina, China, Hewlett-Packard, Indiana, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Republican Party (United States), Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal, Twitter 1 Comment
Former CEO Carly Fiorina is disgusted with how CEOs condemned Indiana’s religious freedom law.
[VIDEO] White House’s Pay Gap for Women: Watch Valerie Jarrett’s Evasive Response When Confronted by Carly Fiorina
Posted: January 21, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Car Allowance Rebate System, Carly Fiorina, Democratic Party (United States), Equal pay for equal work, Harry Reid, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, State of the Union address, Valerie Jarrett, White House 2 CommentsNoah Rothman
writes: As part of President Barack Obama’s annual effort to provoke Republicans and cheer up disheartened Democrats, the president touched on a theme that he has deployed effectively in the past that is designed to inflame tensions between the genders: The idea that women are systematically discriminated against in the workplace….(read the full text here, at Hot Air)
“The average female employee at the White House earns about $78,400, while the average male employee earns about $88,600. That’s a gap of 13 percent – the same percentage as 2009, when the average woman made about $72,700 and the average man earned about $82,000…”
…By the administration’s own dubious calculations, the White House pays women less than their male counterparts in similar positions – a condition that persists long after it was first revealed by investigative reporters.
“…Women tend to hold more junior positions than men, and among White House leadership just 53 female officials make more than $100,000 compared to 87 males who do.”
— CBS News report from June 2014
White House advisor Valerie Jarrett was confronted over this disparity, and the hypocrisy associated with the president’s regular hectoring of others for a sin in which he also indulges, by potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Wednesday in an appearance on MSNBC.
“I’m also struck by the fact that the single greatest impediment to equal pay for equal work is the seniority system, which pays not on merit, not on performance, but on time and grade.”
— Carly Fiorina
Fiorina noted that, not only are there already anti-discrimination laws on the books and if women are truly being discriminated against, they have a legal recourse. Moreover, she added, the president is not leading on the issue because he cannot even address the pay disparity in his own White House based on the administration’s problematic calculations.
“And who is it that supports the seniority system? Unions. Government bureaucracies. The vast majority of constituencies that the Democratic Party represents and who supports the Democratic Party.”
— Carly Fiorina
“In the White House, women do earn equal pay for equal work,” Jarrett replied unconvincingly. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 
[VIDEO] Rich Lowry: Fiorina Cut Trump’s ‘Balls Off With the Precision of a Surgeon’
Posted: September 23, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Balls, Bill O'Reilly (political commentator), breitbart, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News Channel, Megyn Kelly, National Review, NRO, Republican Party (United States), Rich Lowry, Testicles, Twitter, United States, William F. Buckley Jr | Leave a commentIan Hatchet reports: National Review Editor and Fox News Contributor Rich Lowry stated that GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina cut other GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “balls off with the precision of a surgeon” on Wednesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“…look, Trump obviously attacks everyone, but she’s become a much bigger target. And I think part of what’s going on here, is that last debate…”
Lowry was asked if, as Trump had claimed, people said it was “sexist” to say Fiorina’s business career was a “disaster.”
[Read the full story here, at Breitbart]
He answered, “No, no one disputes that. And, look, Trump obviously attacks everyone, but she’s become a much bigger target. And I think part of what’s going on here, is that last debate. Let’s be honest. Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon, and he knows it, he knows it. He’s insulted and bullied his way to the top of the polls. No one was able to best him ever, except for this tough lady on that stage, and it must kill him. He must be simmering about it to this night.”
“…let’s be honest. Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon, and he knows it, he knows it. He’s insulted and bullied his way to the top of the polls. No one was able to best him ever, except for this tough lady on that stage, and it must kill him. He must be simmering about it to this night.”
— Rich Lowry
Host Megyn Kelly reacted by saying, “What did you just say?” And “You can’t say that.” Although, she laughed when her guest, Chris Salcedo, joked that Lowry needs to come out of his shell.
“What did you just say?” …You can’t say that.”
— Megyn Kelly
Lowry added that “all Trump does, more or less, is attack the other [Republican] candidates, and it’s been interpreted as strength and toughness. I think it’s becoming more and more clear that he’s just really thin-skinned, is part of this. And if I were Carly, the advice I would give her, laugh it off, shrug it off, take it very lightly, and stick to your business getting your message out there.”
“I think it’s becoming more and more clear that he’s just really thin-skinned, is part of this. And if I were Carly, the advice I would give her, laugh it off, shrug it off, take it very lightly, and stick to your business getting your message out there.”
— Rich Lowry
He concluded that the dispute between Trump and Fiorina shows that Fiorina is a real contender,continuing, “She is gaining on him, and she’s gaining on him in that outsider lane that we’ve talked about, and she’s gotten under his skin, clearly. Read the rest of this entry »
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