Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 190

Another Parody of Apple....Parodies

The folks at Funny or Die know it's easy and popular to make a parody of a new Apple product rollout so they...make a parody of that.


The New Apple iPad Announcement Parody - watch more funny videos

Reporter Charges 'Epic Media Failure' on Iraq Rape Case

Remarkable and extensive story just posted by Washington Monthly catching up with the sensational Jamie Lee Jones rape case in Iraq.   You remember, the one where KBR worker was allegedly gang-raped then tossed in a shipping container by KBR.  She received massive media coverage, from 20/20 and Maddow to the film Hot Coffee, and helped spark a very valuable law introduced by Sen. Al Franken.

For most people, that's where the story stops.   Hot Coffee still shows on HBO and none of the media programs have revisited or admitted any errors.  But now Stephanie Mencimer brings you up to date, and a lot of people may not like it.   Read the piece yourself and then weigh in.

Mencimer, who covered the case early and often for her main outlet, Mother Jones, admits she was among those in the media who (in her view now) got it all wrong.  In fact, she labels it "an epic media failure."  After much research, she does not believe  Jones' claims, which were also dismissed by a jury--she was even ordered to pay KBR's legal expenses.  And Mencimer  strongly hits fellow reporters and TV hostgs for not doing their own mea culpas, or even discussing this with her for the story (Jones herself does talk to her at length).    Here's one excerpt but you really need to read the whole thing and make up your own mind.

In June 2012, I attended the Washington, D.C., premier of Hot Coffee, along with Al Franken. During the event, producer Susan Saladoff informed the audience that the Jones trial was under way. Since I was unable to cover the trial in person, the dates had slipped my mind. But as I walked out of the theater and listened to people fuming about the injustice heaped on Jones and ticking off the damning evidence—the shipping container, the lost rape kit, etc.—I decided to look at the trial records to see what sort of smoking guns Jones’s lawyers had come up with.

As it turned out, I found smoking guns, but not of the sort I was expecting. The next morning, I started looking through the filings posted online on PACER, the federal judiciary’s Web site. There I found expert witness reports filed by KBR, psychological evaluations of Jones conducted by workers’ comp companies, medical records, and much of what later came out at trial about her many previous rape claims and complicated mental health history. The trial record was so at odds with Jones’s public story that I was simply dumbfounded.

At the same time, she certainly wouldn’t have been the first deeply flawed individual to change the law for the better.

This Crud's for You

If a beer commercial aimed at young folks was forced to be honest.

HRW and AI Report on Drone Strikes

You may have read about one of the other today but two major orgs released their first reports today  "targeted killing" in Pakistan and Yemen, so here's a valuable  Just Security summary of both.   No surprise, they reveal civilian deaths beyond what is admitted by U.S., and "unlawful" use of drones (though they can also aid "compliance").    For starters:

HRW concluded that two of the strikes violated international law (pp. 54, 67), four may have (pp. 30, 39, 43, 60), and none of the six appeared to have complied with Obama’s May 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance (p. 89).  AI reviewed all 45 reported Pakistan strikes between January 2012-August 2013, and investigated nine in detail.  AI’s legal findings include that “evidence indicates” that an October 2012 strike unlawfully killed a grandmother and injured eight children (p. 23), and AI had “serious concerns” that a July 2012 strike that killed 18 and injured 22 (p. 24) may have been a war crime or extrajudicial execution (p. 27).  AI also investigated a number of strikes on apparent rescuers (those who came to the scene of a first strike to help the wounded), which it concluded may have been illegal (pp. 28-30).  Neither report seeks to assess the total number or rate of civilian casualties for all strikes. 

Here's today's NYT story on the AI report and how the strikes have terrorized village.  New song by Simeon Peebler, "Don't Cross That Red Line."

Colbert: Fired Up

Arcade Fire, aka "The Reflektors," played a new song on Colbert last night, after a Win and Will put-on interview, and now Stephen offers another tune as a Web exclusive:

AP Reporter and Editor Who Muffed Terry McAuliffe Story Lose Jobs

You remember that horrid incident a couple weeks back where the AP got a story terribly wrong about Terry McAuliffe, frontrunner in the current governor's race in Virginia.  I predicted at the time that the reporter, veteran Bob Lewis,  might well lose his job and it happened today apparently.  McAuliffe's team was quick to say they did not call for this and felt it was water under the bridge.  UPDATE:  An AP editor was also canned.

In the article, which the AP retracted less than two hours after it was published Oct. 9, Lewis reported McAuliffe may have “lied to a federal official” looking into the candidate’s investment ties with  known felon. As it turned out, the “T.M.” referenced in the documents did not stand for Terry McAuliffe.

Another School Shooting, This Time Nevada

Happened about six hours ago but details still slim.   Seems that kid in middle school fired on math   teacher, shot him dead, wounded two other students (at least one seriously), then died--self-inflicted or shot by cops.   School evacuated and it's over.  Motive unknown.  Some refer to teacher as hero but unclear why if true.   Name of shooter and victim not released. Update: Teachers' name released.  He was also in the National Guard.  Now witnesses say it started with the student shooting a classmate at or near a basketball court and the teacher came to investigate and was shot there. Update #2: Police now say kid used semi-automatic handgun, and then killed himself.  Remember this is middle school. Teacher had served tours in Afghanistan--then gunned down in a USA school for pre-teens.

Transcendent, in 40 Parts

Amazing afternoon today at New York's (largely) hidden gem, the Cloisters in upper Manhattan, a birthday pick by my lovely wife.  In the castle they presented their first ever contemporary art piece that has drawn raves:  an eleven-minute piece titled the "Forty Part Motet," featuring Tudor composer Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium.  Sound comes from a separate speaker for each of the 40 singers in the choir, arrayed in a large oval in an ancient chapel.  So you can sit inside the sound and let it wash over you--or stand in front of one of the speakers and listen to one of the singers come and go.  Visitors stand or sit and enter deep contemplation or reverie.  A short video here captures some of it.   If you're in NYC area, don't miss this.  And the Cloisters is (are) cool anyway.  Here's a video of when it was done in a different setting:

Hidden Truth About Public Opinion on Obamacare

One of the many disgraceful aspects of the media coverage of Obamacare--and criticism of it, and the Tea Party faction in general--is the rote depiction of the ACA as "unpopular" or "opposed by most Americans according to polls" because it goes too far or because people are happy with the health care system as is, and so on.  In other words, repeating the GOP line.

Now, those who have supported the law have long claimed that the simple bottom line poll numbers are misleading.  Yes, those numbers generally show that, say, 51% don't like the ACA and only 44% approve.   Yet, as we know (but perhaps most in the media fail to recognize), a lot of Dems and libs are unhappy, wisely, because the law doesn't go far enough, or that President Obama didn't fight for the public option or single payer or Medicare for all.   So how many of them are included in that "oppose" the ACA but from the left?

Polls have indicated there's a fair number but now there's a new one today that CNN actually took the trouble--at the end of its online report, true--to break out.  And, lo and behold, it turns out that fully 12% of those opposed feel the law doesn't so far enough.  So, as they note, that means that instead of just over 50% being against the law because it goes too far--the impression most in the media have left--at least 53% actually back the law or believe it should go further.  And the poll was taken amidst the current widespread complaints about the roll-out of the ACA sign up provisions.

The other numbers in the poll bear this out, as they show that the shutdown caused growing unpopularity for the GOP and John Boehner but Obama's standing remained the same.

Murder Charges for 'Bloody Sunday' Soldiers

This would be a shocker.  The Sunday Times of London reports that British troops or "paras"accused of doing the shooting that took the lives of 14 people in Derry in the infamous "Bloody Sunday" incident may actually end up having to face charges, three decades later.  Just last year it seemed like a miracle when the long-awaited report on the case finally condemned the killings and affirmed that none of the victims were armed.

I got especially interested in the episode a few years back after viewing the film Bloody Sunday, one of the great movies of the past decade--by then-unknown Paul Greengrass (James Nesbitt got an Oscar nomination and yes, the U2 song closes the film).  I followed the inquiry, read the excellent book by (and chatted with) Don Mullen, and more.  Here's a clip from the film: