In late 1963, as recounted by Robert Caro in The Passage of Power, Dallas Times-Herald reporter Margaret Mayer was digging into the business practices of Johnson's Texas television station. After she sent the company a letter with routine questions, Johnson called the paper's managing editor, Albert Jackson, who supinely responded that Mayer shouldn't be doing such reporting and added, "I can assure you that it'll be stopped."
But LBJ didn't stop there. He threatened to sic the Federal Communications Commission on the television and radio stations the Times-Herald owned.
"Tell them ... that you don't want to be picking a fight with somebody like this," Johnson said in a secretly taped conversation. "We might want to ask [for] some of you-all's records up there. I imagine I could get that done."
LBJ and his best boy: Old Man Moyers.
The above is an incident, Bill doesn't rush to condemn, of course. But maybe Bill Moyers was too busy targeting gay men at that point in time? From The Advocate's "Bill Moyers, Gay-Baiter" back in February 2009:
These revelations once again remind us that empathy for the dignity of gay people does not always fall along partisan political lines. Whereas Barry Goldwater, one of the crucial figures in the birth of the conservative movement, could have easily exploited the Jenkins scandal in the presidential campaign, he refused to discuss it. In his memoir Goldwater wrote, "It was a sad time for Jenkins and his family. Winning isn't everything. Some things, like loyalty to friends, or lasting principle, are more important."
Goldwater, today remembered by most liberals as a fire-breathing Neanderthal, later became an outspoken opponent of the ban on gays in the military.
Contrast Goldwater's behavior to that of Moyers, who abused his power in office to hunt down and expose the gays in his midst. (Here it should be noted that rooting out gays in government wasn't the only dirty task Moyers conducted while working in the Johnson White House. He also oversaw the FBI's wiretapping of Martin Luther King and successfully prevented the civil rights activist from challenging Mississippi's all-white delegation to the Democratic National Convention in 1964. "You know you have only to call on us when a similar situation arises," he encouraged the FBI agent in charge of the domestic espionage.)
A cheap press hooker. That's all Bill Moyers is.
Spying was a concern when he did Bill Moyers Journal and Bully Boy Bush was in the office (for one of many examples, click here). And of course, the loss of privacy was a concern for Bill when he hosted NOW with Bill Moyers before that -- again, Bully Boy Bush was in office. There are many examples but this is my personal favorite. It's my favorite because the guest, Chuck Lewis, is from The Center for Public Integrity (he's the founder) which, under Barack, has demonstrated that they have no integrity at all. Today they hiss at Republicans -- even ones out of office -- while pretending they're covering news. Go to their crappy website today and you will not find any article calling Barack out for spying. But it did concern them, similar actions, when Bully Boy Bush was in the White House. I hope they get that the world is watching. There is no repairing the image when a Republican is next in the White House. They can consider changing their organization's name but how they behaved will always be known.
And if you visit Bill Moyers latest bad program, Moyers & Company, you'll find they've posted 8 blog posts under "What Matters Today" since Glenn Greenwald broke the news about Barack's spying on the American people and . . . not one of the 8 posts is about the spying. But we are informed that there will be a new episode this week:
Academic and political activist Lawrence Lessig will be in the studio this morning with Bill to discuss how a very exclusive, very wealthy group of Americans have used their money to purchase our political system — and the various ways in which we might take it back. Lessig is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Previously, he was a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center for Internet and Society.
Oh, thank goodness! Because we never knew inequality existed in America without Bill Moyers, right?
Wrong.
I used to think, even though highly partisan, he served a purpose. Then last week, on a campus, I overheard a young woman discussing an issue and getting everything wrong. Her friend told she was really smart and asked her where she learned all of that? "Bill Moyers." Poor thing. Every Justice Dept IG report rejects what she was saying. But she learned her falsehoods from Bill. She learned how to heap hate at the 'enemy,' the 'other,' from Bill as well.
I think if you're exploring the topic Bill is on Friday, I think you have to note that we had, post-Watergate, until 2008, publicly financed presidential runs in the general election (for the two major parties and any third party or independent candidate who could meet a near impossible threshold). Who ended that? Don't expect Bill Moyers to ever tell you but it was Barack.
The biggest issue right now is the spying. It's not just an American issue. As Lara Jakes (AP) notes, Barack will be meeting shortly with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel who has already made it clear she is outraged by the spying on German citizens. (Germany was the most targeted European country under Barack's spying.)
BBC News offers this morning "World media fume over secret US spying" -- noting blasts from India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But Bill Moyers isn't interested. The story is bigger than when Bully Boy Bush was in office and now has international dimensions -- even before you bring in whistle-blower Ed Snowden currently in Hong Kong. But Bill Moyers avoids it.
Because he's not a journalist. He's a partisan whore. FAIR used to rightly call out the 'revolving door' between the press and administrations. Now a Democrat's in office, so they play dumb. They played dumb when Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House too -- they'd call out Tony Snow or some other Republican and lament this revolving door and how it cheapens the press and destroys its integrity but then get breathless over the fact that the biggest partisan whore of all "Bill Moyers!" was joining them on CounterSpin (FAIR's radio program).
They never grasped that if it's wrong for one side to do, it's wrong for all sides.
A friend sent me his notes on yesterday's White House press briefing. He was surprised I hadn't included something in the snapshot. I'll note it today but I didn't know about it yesterday and the White House hadn't (and still hasn't this morning) posted the transcript from yesterday's press briefing. That's fairly common when Jay Carney gets a push back.
Here's some of Jay Carney -- the new Bill Moyers (meaning a supposed journalist who disgraces his name by doing a job no adult should do) -- babbles:
He [Barack] believes that with the oversight that exists and the implementation of the programs as they are implemented, that the balance is appropriately -- has been appropriately struck. But it is an appropriate topic for debate. Both now and going into the future because the kind of technological advances we have seen when it comes to communications will only continue. And this is a matter that is absolutely appropriate for public debate.
Really? This is appropriate for public debate? That's strange, Carney, because the public debate wouldn't be taking place were it not for Ed Snowden.
He won't speak of Snowden, he said prior to the above, because there's an ongoing investigation.
So the conversation that's "appropriate" and only happening because of Ed Snowden also requires a criminal investigation?
It's entirely appropriate for a program to exist to look at foreign data and foreign -- potential foreign terrorist. But there are procedures in place as the Director made clear, as the president made clear -- both at the congressional, executive and legisl -- and judicial levels -- that provide oversight of these programs.
I assume he means James Clapper but he might have been referring to NSA Director Keith Alexander.
But when pressed on the fact that many members of Congress are saying they weren't informed, Carney kept insisting that they had all been informed. And Carney insisted that the public debate on this was when there was 'debate' on the Patriot Act and on its renewal (despite promising to end the Patriot Act, as soon as the 2008 election was over, Barack pushed for renewal). There was little debate about the renewal but there was even less when it was rammed through Congress following 9-11.
It's amazing that Jay Carney this massive spying program Barack's ordered for the entire world is somehow 'discussed' by two brief points in recent history.
Jay Carney ought to take a hard look at where the road he's on ends -- Bill Moyerville. It's not a pretty destination. He could have been more.
You could have been more
Than a name on the door
On the thirty-third floor in the air
More than a credit card
Swimming pool in the backyard
While you still have the time
You could get away and find
A better life you know the grind
Is so ungrateful
Racing cars whiskey bars
No one cares who you really are
You're the keeper of the cards
Yes I know it gets hard
Keeping the wheels turning
-- "The Arrangement," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her Ladies of the Canyon album
Today's the day CBC's Q wish Jian Ghomeshi presents a rare interview with the legendary artist Joni:
[. . .] we present a feature interview with Canadian folk icon Joni Mitchell. Jian travelled to Los Angeles to interview her at her home. It was a wide-ranging conversation and we'll be devoting a full hour of Q to it on Tuesday, June 11. Joni Mitchell be honoured by the Luminato Festival with a tribute show in Toronto on June 18 and 19. But for now, click through for a photogallery of her remarkable career.
The program airs on CBC (and satellite radio -- and streams online) at 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM EST.
The following community sites -- plus The Diane Rehm Show, Jody Watley, Antiwar.com, Tavis Smiley, Ms. magazine's blog and Iraq Inquiry Digest -- updated last night and this morning:
Lastly, Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee and sits on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (and other committees but we cover the Veterans Affairs Committees in Congress). Her office notes:
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
Tuesday, June
11th, 2013 (202)
224-2834
TODAY: Murray to Press Secretary Hagel, General Dempsey
on WA State Military Installations, Mental Health Issues
Murray will
discuss importance of Washington’s major military installations for DoD’s
long-term strategic focus on Asia-Pacific Region
Murray will
continue push for completion of military-wide mental health
review
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S.
Senator Patty Murray will attend a hearing of the Senate Appropriations
Committee Subcommittee on Defense. At the hearing, Murray will question Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, on the ways they are working with military installations in Western
states as part of the military-wide shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific region.
Murray will also ask Secretary Hagel when he expects to deliver the
military-wide mental health review she asked former-Secretary Panetta to begin last
year. She will again stress the urgent
need to identify gaps in care and improvements that need to be made in how the
Department diagnoses the invisible wounds of war.
WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff
WHAT: Senator Murray will question Secretary
Hagel and General Dempsey on issues relating to the future role of WA state
military installations and urge
quick completion of the military-wide mental
health review she requested to examine the invisible wounds of war
WHEN: TODAY: Tuesday, June 11th,
2013
10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT
WHERE: Dirksen 192
###
Sean Coit
Press Secretary
Office of U.S. Senator Patty
Murray
202-224-2834
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq the atlantic howard kurtz the advocate joni mitchell cbc q with jian ghomeshi
the associated press
lara jakes
iraq iraq iraq iraq
iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraqiraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq
iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraqiraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq
iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq iraq
