Video- President Obama interviewed by Indonesian press

Via Ben.

Gasp! Another Obama secret off the record lunch with ...

By GottaLaff



That extremist zealot, Prez O. He's so clearly biased, constantly conducting clandestine meetings with evildoers like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and... wait, what? What's this?!

There was a secret off-the-record briefing that included... David Brooks? Disguised as a lunch? Why, I oughta...

And hey, how'd Josh Marshall sneak in? Isn't he a lefty liberal progressive commie ::dun-dun-dun-n-n!:: blogger?

Yes, shockingly, it's true. Today President Obama lunched with, per ABC News:

-Mike Allen, Politico
-David Brooks, New York Times
-Chris Cillizzaa, Washington Post
-Gail Collins, New York Times
-Howard Fineman, Newsweek
-David Gergen, CNN
-Mara Liasson, NPR and Fox News Channel
-Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo.
-John Meacham, Newsweek
-Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
-Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times.

David Brooks is said to be courted regularly by the White House.

Ooo, I hope Davey liked the dozen long-stemmed roses and See's Special Ultra Deluxe Assorted Romantic Chocolates for Budding Lovers.

The inclusion of Josh Marshall, meanwhile, represents the White House's continued effort to reach out to the blogosphere.

Hey Paddy, have you noticed anyone over there reaching out to us yet? No? Me neither. Sigh.

VIDEO: Students rap a Journalist's Oath; Fox missed this class

By GottaLaff

Dear ClusterFox, Take lessons from these students, if that's even possible:

A group project performed for an ethics course at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

The assignment was to come up with a journalist's oath.

Never mind what I said at the top, Fox would just accuse them of indoctrination.

Note: The fun doesn't start until about 45 seconds in.

H/t: Hippie_Cyndi

Video- FOX's Greta Van Susteren Throws Glenn Beck Under The Fox News Bus

Well here's a thought from a commenter at YouTube that seems rather on the point-

I think this is real purpose of the whitehouse challenging Fox News. It makes real reporters question their own reporting and distance themselves from the far right. Even if they aren't biased it keeps them conscious of bias slipping in.

VIDEO--Even After North Korea Frees Americans, Bolton Says Clinton Trip Was Mistake

By GottaLaff



Black is white, up is down, smart is stupid, Rushpublics are sane:

On CNN this afternoon, nonproliferation expert and Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione explained why Clinton’s trip is not rewarding bad behavior:

CIRINCIONE: The Obama administration seems to have played North Korea just about right — largely ignoring them for the first eight months, not rewarding their bad behavior, not reacting to their provocative statements or actions and now after about two months of relatively quiet, moderate North Korean behavior and the involvement of China…you now send in a real power player to hopefully negotiate the release of the journalists…and help reset U.S.-North Korean relations, refreezing that nuclear program and if things work out we could see the beginning again of the dismantlement of that nuclear program.

VIDEO ADDED-- BREAKING: U.S. Journalists held in N. Korea pardoned

By GottaLaff

Please note: Blog title changed to reflect video added (apologies for MoJo exposure):

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

CNN is reporting that the two journalists have been given a special pardon from L'il Kim himself. I'll find the link.

Seems L'il Kim wanted to save face, and by pardoning them, he wasn't admitting much, meaning, wouldn't say they were innocent of charges. Former Clinton likely worked a deal in advance of the trip, CNN is saying, because this couldn't have happened so quickly otherwise.

We don't know when they will be released, what their condition is, or where they've been.

UPDATE: Here's the link.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean media say leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release during the visit of former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Another journalist joins the ObamAdministration

By GottaLaff

Talk about a promotion:

Roberta Baskin [...] a correspondent for "NOW with Bill Moyers" on PBS, CBS's "48 Hours" and ABC's "20/20," is joining the Dept. of Health & Human Services in an advisory role.

WaPo reports Baskin is "at least the 13th former journalist now doing work for the Obama administration [...]"

They should hire Glenn Beck, make him Secretary of the Dept. of Lunatics, and lock him in the White House basement until 2016.

Lunch with President Obama: Insights

By GottaLaff

A few journalists lunched with Prez O today, and here's what they learned:

• Obama's goals include helping the American people better understand the connection between different ailing sectors; the crisis in financial institutions, for example, to the reluctance of small businesses to hire new workers because, perhaps, the credit crunch is limiting their ability to expand.
• The president is mindful of the criticism he has been too negative in talking about the economy. But he believes being realistic is the best way to keep credibility with the American people.
  
• The White House team, from the top down, believed speed was critical to getting stimulus funds into the economy. The price they knew they would pay, however, is that without any significant Republican support, the debate played straight into the enduring divide between Democrats and Republicans over spending and the role of government.
• One of the officials acknowledged there are many credible voices who take issue with the administration's approach, and noted in dealing with the stress on the financial system and other early decisions, Obama was making a series of "judgment calls" mindful of the fact that any time one acts so quickly it is inevitable some mistakes will be made. The president's take is that if 98 percent of a program is a success, and the need was urgent, then the 2 percent that goes awry is an acceptable tradeoff.
• He believes it is realistic, based on current economic projections, to pledge to cut the record annual federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term. [There's much more, go look]
• Look for education as a potential issue on which Obama will reach out for bipartisanship that was missing from the stimulus debate.
• He loves "Slumdog Millionaire".
• He enjoys the "baubles" that come with the presidency -- Air Force One, Marine One and Camp David, for example. But he already finds the "bubble" too restricting and wishes it was easier to just take a walk, or attend his daughters' school and sporting events.
• He cherishes family dinner in the White House, where "thorns and roses" is now the favorite family game. Each family member describes the day's highlight, or rose, and the day's worst moment, the thorn. We were told after describing one particularly challenging day at the White House, Malia Obama had this to say to her father the president: "You have a really thorny job."

How does he do it all? And let's hope he always manages to pop that bubble. It's only been a month and he's already well aware that it's easy to succumb.

What am I saying? Michelle will keep him in line.

D.C. Reporters Planning Bureau 'Sleepovers' for Inaugural

Am I a horrid person for immediately thinking evil things?

NEW YORK With the strictest security ever for a presidential inauguration, the largest one-day crowd of visitors likely in Washington history, and 24-hour Internet coverage leading the way, numerous D.C. reporters are planning to camp out in their offices the night before Barack Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20.

"I am 57 years old and this is my first slumber party," said Jack Torry of the Columbus Dispatch, who said at least a dozen others in the Cox Bureau, where he leases space, are planning to stay. "We've got popcorn, sleeping bags and people will be bringing beer Monday night. It will be a real slumber party."

Rick Sanchez takes on Joe The Plumber

h/t Athenae.

'Modesto Bee' Reporter Eyewitness To Shoes Tossed at Bush

By GottaLaff

Paddy posted the videos here. Now we have an eyewitness account:

First I saw President Bush duck to avoid a fast-moving black object – a shoe.

Then I realized one of the reporters behind me was shouting and, in a way, reloading, with a second shoe. Off it went, just as fast as the first.

I couldn't believe he had time to get a second one off.

When one is motivated, there is no limit as to what one can do.

A dog pile emerged on my left with Iraqis in blue suits wrestling with the shoe-hurler, Iraqi journalist Muntathar al Zaidi. Zaidi was moaning and moaning. He kept fighting and moaning while the Iraqis in the suits hauled him out of the room, and even then we could still hear him.

Bush laughed – or tried to laugh it off.

"That's what happens in free societies when people try to draw attention to themselves," Bush said.

Yes, Iraqis are free: Free to bury their dead, free to get ethnically cleansed, free to try to clean up the mess we made, free to uncover our cover-ups...

I'm sure there are some Americans who'd love to toss a shoe at Bush.

Truer words were never spoken. But on to the first-hand account. If you ever feel lonely, and really, really need some human contact, try visiting the prime minister's house:

We made our way to the prime minister's house, getting searched as we entered his compound, searched as we walked into a holding room before going into the house and then searched again before going in the gate. We saw American soldiers, but no Secret Service.

The Secret Service showed up and we got searched again.

Is that a shoe you're hiding, or are you just happy to see me?

Oddly enough, one of the Iraqi government delegates gathered the correspondents and told us not to ask questions. "If you want to embarrass the prime minister, ask a question," he said. Ok, that kind of defeats the purpose of bringing together the entire Iraqi press.

So much for more of that Iraqi freedom Bush loves to tout. As he did at this event.

Still, the Iraqis were having a blast, taking pictures of themselves at the table and lecterns where Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki would speak. The mood was positively jovial. Some joked about smartass comments they'd like to ask the president, like "Is the mission accomplished now?"

Oh, those wacky zany commenters! They must have been some of our 3 million TPC readers.

Out comes Maliki and Bush. Maliki praises Bush for sticking with Iraq for all this time. Bush returns the favor, praising Maliki. [...]

Hands leap, especially among the Iraqi press who have never had a chance to ask a question to the American president who shaped their lives for the past five years.

That's when the shoes started flying.

"This is a kiss of goodbye, you dog," Zaidi shouted. [...]

Maliki and other Iraqi officials looked like they were fuming, probably in no small part because the spectacle went on and on with Zaidi's moans.

Hammed had Zaidi's name and affiliation before he hit the ground. [...]

As it ended, a couple Iraqi security guards in suits took away two more Iraqi journalists because one of them called Zaidi's protest "courageous." Hammed bravely stood up for the journalists. Talking to a friend just isn't a crime. They were released a few minutes later after some American officials intervened on their behalf.

Freedom of American intervention. Isn't liberation swell?

The press conference was not aired live. Few political events are here.

Many of the broadcast reporters feared the Iraqi government would take their cameras and tapes. They expect that things will be tougher for them next time they cover one of Maliki's events.

"This will have consequences for us," one reporter told us.

That's a shame. All the Iraqi reporters in the front row apologized to Bush. It was a reporter who yanked Zaidi to the ground before Iraqi or American guards could reach him.

Interestingly, the Iraqi press came in by bus but had to walk out in the cold night. [...]

Zaidi's TV station is pushing for his release. "Any action taken against Muntathar will remind us of the actions and behaviors taken by the reign of the dictator and the violence, the random arrests, the mass graves and confiscations of freedom from the people," the board of Baghdadiyah TV said.

Zaidi's got sole.

VIDEOS- Man Throws Shoes At Bush

You've got to give him credit for good reflexes. As someone else commented, how the hell did the guy get to throw two? Where the hell was the Secret Service? The Fox report below says that Dana Perino got a black eye in the melee. Hope they're better prepared in the future. Oh, and it turns out the guy was an Iraqi journalist.

AP Photog Hussein Receives Press Freedom Award

Sweet, sweet in yer face wingers. They've been beating the Bilal Hussein drum for quite a while now.

Speaking by video link from the Middle East, AP photographer Bilal Hussein thanked the committee and others who pressed for his release during his two years and four days under U.S. military detention in which he was held without formal charges. He vowed to "forge ahead" with his work.

"I will not hesitate to put out the truth," he told more than 500 people attending the awards dinner.

In a separate video clip made for the ceremony, Hussein described the pressures of chronicling both sides of the conflict during some of the fiercest street battles of the Iraq war — images that were part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo package in 2005.

"A journalist does not take sides," he said. "That's why he is the enemy of all."

Hussein was taken into U.S. military custody in April 2006 in the western city of Ramadi. He was released shortly after his second anniversary in U.S. hands after two Iraqi judicial amnesty committees ruled that there would be no trial on any of the accusations raised again Hussein.