Facebook Used As A Weapon?

During the run-up to an “almost” attack against Syria via the US and what appears as a forming coalition, the amount false and misleading memes and posting from Syrian loyalist operatives was stifling.  I personally recall working to calm the angst of a few Facebook friends who bought into false meme messages, edited video tape and posts that were so ridiculous they appeared insane. Fear is fear and a war weary America was fertile ground and ripe for manipulation.

Apparently, Assad loyalist are very adept at manipulating social media. It appears Facebook is a targeted weapon as indispensable as Assad’s past use of chemical weapons.  The following piece from Tech Dirt is based on a The Atlantic article speaks volumes Facebook’s Terms of Service. The social networking company policies not only offends millions of progressives in the United States, the policies may also serve one of the world’s most undesirable despots. 
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Free Speech

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Feb 6th 2014 

When Facebook’s Terms Of Service Decide What Kind Of ‘Speech’ Is Okay, Activists Get Silenced (via Techdirt)

The Atlantic is covering the fact that Syrian loyalists have been able to abuse Facebook’s “abuse” policy to make various Syrian opposition Facebook pages disappear based on very questionable means. A number of activist pages have simply been wiped…

Obama Executive Orders; Yet Another Chain Email! GOP Operatives Are Busy

Re- Blog from Politifact Dot Com

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

Says President Barack Obama has issued upwards of 1,000 executive orders, more than any modern president.

Chain email on Sunday, February 2nd, 2014 in a chain email forwarded by readers

Chain email claims Barack Obama has signed 1,000 executive orders to grab power from Congress

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President Barack Obama signs an executive memorandum instructing the government to avoid discriminating against job applicants among America’s long-term unemployed, at the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2014. (New York Times)

In his State of the Union address last month, President Barack Obama said he doesn’t intend to wait if Congress doesn’t move forward on his priorities in 2014.

“I’m eager to work with all of you,” Obama said Jan. 28. “But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

That means using his executive office — “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he has taken to saying lately — to accomplish his agenda, if necessary.

Republicans have lashed out in response, insisting Obama is overstepping his authority. Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Steve King, R-Iowa, even threatened to sue the president.

We also saw an old chain email resurface claiming that Obama has already issued more executive orders than any of his predecessors. It first gained attention in the fall of 2012.

“This president is determined to take control away from the House and Senate,” the email says, while providing a tally of presidential executive orders from Teddy Roosevelt to Obama. The email claims Obama issued 923 executive orders in his first 3.5 years and “More than 1000+ and counting executive orders in six years.”

It goes on to list a handful of examples of Obama’s alleged work. (Read the chain email in its entirety.)

As we dug into its claims, we found that pretty much everything about this email is wrong. And most of it was already debunked more than a year ago by our good friends at FactCheck.org.

But several readers sent it to us again, and since the issue of executive authority has become newsworthy of late, we thought this deserved an update.

By the numbers

The tradition of executive orders dates back to our first president, George Washington, though it was used sparingly through the first 100 years of the union.

Executive orders are official actions taken by the president directing the federal government and bureaucracies. They carry the power of law, but can be revoked or amended by future administrations and are limited in scope. For example, Obama cannot use executive orders to raise the minimum wage for the entire country, but he can (and plans to) raise the minimum wage for workers hired under new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour.

The process picked up under Ulysses S. Grant, who issued 217 executive orders, nearly 140 more than his predecessor Andrew Johnson, who himself almost doubled Abraham Lincoln, the previous record holder.

After Grant, it became commonplace for presidents to issue more than 100 executive orders. In fact, four presidents have eclipsed 1,000 executive orders: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Notice Obama is absent from that list.)

Franklin Roosevelt holds the record with 3,522 executive orders during his 12-plus years in office.

But according to the chain email, FDR used his pen infrequently and issued a paltry 11 executive orders — another inaccuracy.

Here’s the incorrect tallies of presidential executive orders in the chain email versus the actual numbers, provided by the University of California Santa Barbara The American Presidency Project.

President	Executive orders according to chain email (false)	Actual number of executive orders
Franklin Roosevelt	11	3,522
Harry Truman	7	907
Dwight Eisenhower	2	484
John F. Kennedy	4	214
Lyndon Johnson	4	325
Richard Nixon	1	346
Gerald Ford	3	169
Jimmy Carter	3	320
Ronald Reagan	5	381
George H.W. Bush	3	166
Bill Clinton	15	364
George W. Bush	62	291
Barack Obama	1000+	168*

*As of Jan. 20, 2014

It’s obvious the chain email is way off. Not only is Obama far from the most prolific user of executive orders, at this point he’s not even on pace to surpass President George W. Bush’s total. In fact, unless he picks up speed, Obama will likely sign fewer executive orders than any two-term president since the start of the 20th century.

Judging the acts

That’s not the only part where the chain email invokes an alternate reality. It also lists 14 executive orders Obama signed that allegedly usurp traditional executive powers, including things like seizing control of the media, railroads, waterways and correctional institutions. The email invited us to “Feel free to verify the ‘executive orders’ at will.”

When we looked up the specific executive order numbers that the chain email mentioned, we found that they were all signed by other presidents. Also, those order numbers matched up with executive orders on either entirely different topics or orders that were much more limited in scope. Here’s the rundown: 

Executive order number	What the chain email claims it does	What it actually does	Who actually signed it
No. 10990	Allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.	Created the Federal Safety Council in the Department of Labor to improve workplace safety for federal workers and civilian contractors	Kennedy
No. 10995	Allows the government to seize and control the communication media.	Assigned telecommunications management functions	Kennedy
No. 10997	Allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of the Interior	Kennedy
No. 10998	Allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Agriculture	Kennedy
No. 11000	Allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Labor	Kennedy
No. 11001	Allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.	Kennedy
No. 11002	Designates the registration of all persons. Postmaster General to operate a national registration.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Postmaster General	Kennedy
No. 11003	Allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.	Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency	Kennedy
No. 11004	Allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.	Assigned certain emergency preparedness functions to the Housing and Home Finance Administrator	Kennedy
No. 11005	Allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Interstate Commerce Commission	Kennedy
No. 11049	Assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period.	Directs Secretary of Commerce to help president decide which public works projects to fund through Public Works Acceleration Act	Kennedy
No. 11051	Specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.	Prescribed responsibilities of the Office of Emergency Planning in the Executive Office of the President	Kennedy
No. 11310	Grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.	Assigned emergency preparedness functions to the Attorney General	Johnson
No. 11921	Allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. Financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.	Adjusted emergency preparedness assignments to organizational and functional changes in Federal departments and agencies	Ford

As you can see by the table, none of these executive orders were signed by Obama. The first executive order Obama ever signed was No. 13489, far later than even the most recent executive order listed in the email (they count up).

Many of the executive orders listed above deal with the Defense Protection Act passed by Congress in 1950 and reauthorized repeatedly since then. According to the Congressional Research Service, the act says “authorities can be used across the federal government to shape the domestic industrial base so that, when called upon, it is capable of providing essential materials and goods needed for the national defense.”

Obama has signed subsequent executive orders similar to the ones issued by Kennedy, Johnson and Ford that deal with emergency preparation, but they don’t create a state of martial law, like the email implies. The Congressional Research Service even said in 2000 that the Defense Protection Act “has nothing whatever to deal with martial law.”

Our ruling

The chain email said Obama has issued more than 1,000 executive orders. That’s not even close. As of Jan. 20, 2014, he was at 168. The email also infers that Obama has far surpassed his predecessors in using his executive powers. That, too, is way off. FDR signed off on more than 3,500 executive orders, and, in fact, Obama is on pace to issue fewer executive orders than any two-term president since 1900.

As for the 14 executive orders highlighted in the email? Obama didn’t issue any of them. They came from Kennedy, Johnson and Ford. Almost all of them have been revoked.

Overall, the statements in this email seem to be completely made up. So we rate its claims Pants on Fire!

DL Hughley Gets A Call From A Racist! Limbaugh Must Have Been Off The Air

We are revisiting the General Mills Cheerios commercials due to an embed posted at the bottom of this piece. Of course, you know our thoughts on American racism (racism period) and you probably agree. Thus, we are synced in contempt for all things bigoted and racist. Unfortunately, the nation remains infested with people who simply refuse to accept their perception of their conferred privilege as a dying ideology.

We post because we continue to read and hear people on the poli/social Right, Libertarians and conservative Independents yelp about how  people would ” quit throwing out the race card.”  We continue to read about some in Right-wing media who claim there is not white racism. They posit negative perceptions and concern from whites from some phantom “angry black people” syndrome.  We offer example from a person who is a Fox News contributor and an employee of a Christian radio network. 

Sandy Rios, of American Family Radio

“I think the racist garbage coming from the — uh, a lot of blacks right now who are just filled with bitterness and rage is just amazing to me,” Rios said. “It is racism, I am seeing it constantly here in D.C., you know, I think — and it’s causing white citizens to become more racist than they ever were.”

Right Wing Watch (Sandy Rios)

Now a look from the dark side of US racism. 

Storm Front

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In 2013 (mid year) General Mills via its Cheerios Brand and marketing management developed and ran an advertisement that hit the television ad world comparable to Soviet Union Sputnik hitting the world in the late 1950s.  The ad was a 30 second spot that featured a interracial family with a daughter as its Leading Lady and Best Supporting actor.

While the vast majority of Americans accepted the ad as a reality of life Circa 2000 (post the 1960s by any measure) we also saw backlash from people who want a United States as it existed prior to President Truman desegregating the US military. Basically, via this screed and your memory, you may recognize millions who actually were very happy people when the United States had large geographic swaths that practiced Jim Crow. For that matter, the entire nation was a cesspool of oppression even if millions simply acquiesced via not responding to Jim Crow in an unacceptable manner and with mass protest against Jim Crow. The nation effectively enabled overwhelming oppression via their tolerance of bigotry and racism.

The online reaction to the original Cheerios ad received the following response from a Cheerios marketing executive. A marketing executive who refused to pull the advertisement.

ABC News 

Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios, said in a statement, “Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all.”

 The Denver Post 

“We felt like we were reflecting an American family,” Gibson said.

In May of last year, just after the original ad started its television run, The Denver Post Business Section ran a comprehensive piece about reaction to the piece; including the quote just above. The Denver Post piece drew my attention based on inclusion of similar ad campaigns.

Excerpt 

Cheerios is not the first brand to show a black and white couple with a biracial child. A TV commercial for Blockbuster recently featured a white mom, black dad and biracial son enjoying a rental on the couch. As far back as 2009, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and its “spread a little joy” campaign had a black man and white woman (no wedding bands) enjoying a bagel breakfast in bed.  

In another along those lines, a black woman is shown kissing a white man as the two stir a bit of Philadelphia Cream Cheese into a pasta sauce and kiss. 

Nina Barton, senior marketing director for Philadelphia Cream Cheese in Glenview, Ill., said in an email that the 140-year-old brand also believes its advertising “should reflect what American families look like today.” 

She added: “While we did receive comments, both positive and negative, in response to our national campaign, it didn’t influence our future casting decisions.” 

In the case of Cheerios, Ries said, the benefits outweigh the risks. 

“It’s important for brands to take risks in line with what their brand is about,” she said. “In this case Cheerios is the first food of children everywhere.”

http://player.theplatform.com/.... (radio segment; no video after  activating the link)

And, there-in is why we fight. If you are not fighting, then you enable!

Additional Source Information: 
Buzz Feed 

USA Today 

The Raw Story And The Koch "Errant" Document

There is little more satisfying than a peep inside a secretive community.  A society where people cloak themselves like the hooded and robed Ku Klux Klan (metaphorically only) to avoid scrutiny and revelation.

Now that someone in the Koch “army” drop a landmine via leaving behind their a “FOR EYES ONLY” document, scrutiny will ensue. Since, the document is also reported to have included a list of potential locations for future secret meetings. I am sure there will be “secret” meetings location changes. Let’s face it, the Koch’s surely do not want to end-up like Mitt Romney with his “47%” left for table busters and servers.

The Raw Story has published a piece on the “errant” document. A piece that includes a link to the donor’s list.

Enjoy!

Document exposes Papa John’s and other companies as secret Koch brother allies (via Raw Story )

The Koch brothers are well-known for their right-wing activism, but less has been known about the wealthy conservatives who fund their vast political operations. But a document left behind last week at the first donor gathering of 2014 at the Renaissance…

Quick Hit: The Afterwash Of The CBO Report

DEBUNKED

We started the week with a major tsunami for television and print media. The Congressional Budget Office had “let the cat out the bag” on ObamaCare (PPACA- AKA ACA) and the …”hope“... scratch that, with the report of labor force hours reduction to the tune of 2.3 million jobs.  For those who like quick hits, the story was debunked by Doug Elmendorf, director of the CBO, and laid squarely in the realm of family needs for medical coverage and the availability of the ACA will reduce the need for some parents (or heads of household) to work multiple jobs (for medical coverage).  Media with one exception (actually in reality two or three exceptions) jumped all over the story and in some cases with absolute glee.  

Others like CNN’s Carol Costello worked to set the record straight.  I have been very critical of Costello during a couple of past  interviews with the likes of Wayne Newton, but for a non-MSNBC personality, she availed herself very well. Linked

Since we mentioned MSNBC, let’s roll with a segment from Chris Hayes’s All In.

http://on.msnbc.com/1avFoYH

Now, you have to know we at the TPI as consistent. we will remain diligent in pointing-out the differences between competent news reporting (along with related story development) and that of Fox News.  

Watch and listen to Stuart Varney, Fox News Live, and his guest.  It is important to remember, Varney was railing to his viewers about the time Doug Elmendorf was responding to Congressional hearing questions and comment about the CBO report.

It is sad when facts to not work to alleviat rherotirc. It is even more sad when media rushs to press, posting an dbroadcas without verificaiton of data and associated intent.  Are we so competittive we foresake accuracy and veraicty to beat the competition. Here is nothing better than being ‘dead-on” correct while others mire themselves in raitings quicksand.  

We ask media if they are aware that, follwoig the path they are choosing means they will eventually drown in the quicksand with Fox News just below them?