Monday, April 23, 2012

Really, really sloppy aggregating by Slate

[Updated at bottom]

"US Airways Will Take Over American Airlines" says the headline over at Slate V.

This is, of course, nothing more than a future possibility. As the video itself says, American "may be taken over" by US Airways. That's technically correct, though still perhaps pushing it a bit.

The flurry of news from the last few days comes from US Airways' announcement Friday that it reached a deal with three of the AA unions regarding how a merger would work (this is all somewhat theoretical). American says it has no intentions of merging. US Air is trying to push American while it's in a tenuous situation. Who knows what will actually happen.

As usual, Slate will probably not pay much of any price for such a gaffe.

Update: 17 minutes after I emailed Slate V, they wrote back to say they've changed it (headline is now: "US Airways May Take Over American Airlines"). Good for them for being responsive.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Sounds like a good tactic to me

From Greg Sargent today, re campaigns to get President Obama to issue an executive order banning LGBT discrimination by federal contractors:
GetEQUAL’s managing director, Heather Cronk, tells me that in the next few weeks, the group will start staging actions against Obama For America offices throughout the country. The actions will begin with small gestures and will escalate over time.
Candidate Obama had pledged to issue a policy banning such discrimination by contractors; the White House recently said it has no plans to issue an executive order instituting such a policy. The White House subsequently said it "hasn't taken any options off the table."

Campaign offices seem like a sitting duck. If this works, other movements/campaigns will be left wondering why they didn't do it.

The case against the NYT case against Ayatollah Khamenei

Juan Cole says that the two premises in James Risen's Iran front-pager on Saturday are basically wrong.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Joe Nocera wrote a very good column

Since I'm always saying Joe Nocera is stupid, I thought I should note that he has a wonderful column this morning, "How To Prevent Oil Spills."

Friday, April 13, 2012

Juan Cole says sanctions on Iran are a pretty bad idea

Juan Cole: Why Washington’s Iran Policy Could Lead to Global Disaster; What History Should Teach Us About Blockading Iran

This seems probably right. I mean, not definitely. But likely. No?

Texting Guy Almost Runs Into A Bear

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

99 Percent Spring and Occupy

From Jason Cherkis and Ryan Grim: "99 Percent Spring: Occupy-Style Tactics Adopted By MoveOn, Labor Unions For Teaching."

I think they're probably about right in this article. You could say that MoveOn et al are "coopting" Occupy, or you could say that Occupy has effectively coopted MoveOn et al, pushing it left in tactics and orientation toward the administration.

Monday, April 09, 2012

The NYT welfare reform article, in perspective

Jason DeParle's welfare article atop the Sunday NYT's front page, looking at the effects of welfare reform during the current economic downturn, is certainly useful reading. And it's notable that a decade and a half in,  some triumphalism is finally gone. Just over 5 years ago, at the 10-year anniversary of welfare reform, the media coverage was pretty triumphant. The NYT article then was somewhat nuanced, but also pretty positive in overall theme. And some of the other media were just over the top.

Today, new facts on the ground, and their effects in a post-welfare-reform system -- not unanticipated by the left -- are forcing a different look.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

New Orleans cops sentenced for Katrina shootings

Making national headlines this afternoon, i.e. Bloomberg:
Four New Orleans police officers were sentenced to 38 to 65 years in prison for convictions including violating the civil rights of two people killed a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
Remember that just a few years ago, no one had even heard of the Danziger Bridge shootings. Right now, it's leading NYTimes.com.

Time to quote my favorite poetry on this. Rebecca Solnit, writing in The Nation, upon the 5-year anniversary of the storm:
The widely told initial version of Hurricane Katrina was a lie and a slander, based on rumors and racism, and it's been falling apart steadily ever since. For the past two years an antithetical version has been overtaking it, one that tells the real story of who went crazy and who was in danger in the days after the hurricane. It has gained more ground than I ever imagined it would, and the history books may yet get this one right.
Developing...

Hispanic vs. Latino

I was looking back at a 2009 post by Philip Corbett of the NYT. He points out that surveys show that about half of Latino or Hispanic people identify with a specific country more than those two words. And between those two words? A Pew survey in 2008 found that 36% preferred Hispanic, 21% preferred Latino, and the rest had no preference.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Whole Foods to stop sale of some of the worst (ecologically speaking) fish

For a while now they've had labeling of fish based on ecological factors, but they still sell the ones that are 'red' (this is a gross simplification of the whole thing, but you get the point). Now they've announced they're going to stop selling those ecologically bad ones (AP, Carl Safina). It's pretty good news. And each time one store moves, it puts a little more pressure on the others.