Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
September 29, 2013

'Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been
exploiting its huge collections of data to create
sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social
connections that can identify their associates, their
locations at certain times, their traveling
companions and other personal information,
according to newly disclosed documents and
interviews with officials.

'The spy agency began allowing the analysis of
phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to
examine Americans' networks of associations for
foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials
lifted restrictions on the practice, according to
documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the
former N.S.A. contractor.

'... The agency can augment the communications
data with material from public, commercial and
other sources, including bank codes, insurance
information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests,
voter registration rolls and GPS location
information, as well as property records and
unspecified tax data, according to the documents.
They do not indicate any restrictions on the use of
such "enrichment" data, and several former senior
Obama administration officials said the agency drew
on it for both Americans and foreigners.'

New York Times
September 29, 2013

Toon of the Day

Oversight
Matt Wuerker
 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day
September 30, 2013

'If only the president's health reform had been a
simple, easy-to-understand expansion of Medicare.
If only it had at least included an option to buy into
Medicare, the so-called public option. All that is a
lament for another day. But the back story of
Obama's declining popularity, public confusion over
the Affordable Care, and Obama's fall in the
approval ratings suggest that a battle that should be
an easy win for Democrats could end up as a
political draw, with Democrats ending up sacrificing
other core goals in order to save Obamacare.

'Hanging tough against the right's goofy
opportunism -- and not just on the Affordable Care
Act -- will prevent that outcome. Heaven knows, the
president should have learned that lesson by now.
The Republicans are split between the far fringe and
conservatives who still have some tenuous grip on
reality. Those divisions can and should be
exploited.'

Columnist Robert Kuttner,
co-editor of 'The American Prospect'
Huffington Post
September 30, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Not Stupid
Jeff Danziger
 

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day
October 1, 2013

'Netanyahu's speech was tired, bothersome and
boring. In contrast to the Iranian President Hassan
Rohani's sophisticated PR campaign, which led to
his taking the UN by storm, Netanyahu sounded like
an old, scratchy vinyl record. Not only did he fail to
come up with a new effect that would call world
attention to the Iranian nuclear threat, such as last
year's cartoon, the prime minister failed to offer any
new pertinent information.

'Netanyahu's associates nicknamed his address the
"fact speech" or the "truth speech." Well, yes:
Netanyahu heaped piles of data and facts. He quoted
articles from the New York Times as well as from
Rohani's memoirs, and mentioned every crime
Tehran committed throughout the years.

'Most of the facts were, in fact, founded, but that
underlined the failure of his address. The Western
powers have no shortage of intelligence as to moves
inside Iran. The leaders of the United States,
Britain, France, Germany and other Israeli allies are
not naive children in need of an introduction to the
history of the Iranian nuclear program. Instead of
bringing them closer to a common strategy, the
address might have antagonized them.'

Barak Ravid, diplomatic correspondent
for Haaretz newspaper.
Haaretz (Israel)
October 1, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

An Offering
Jen Sorensen
 

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day
October 2, 2013

'This time is different. What is at stake in this
government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party
minority is nothing less than the principle upon
which our democracy is based: majority rule.
President Obama must not give in to this hostage
taking - not just because Obamacare is at stake,
but because the future of how we govern ourselves
is at stake. '

Columnist Thomas Friedman
New York Times
October 2, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Breaking Bad
Signe Wilkinson
 

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day
October 3, 2013

'Again and again, she returns to this: "Our urban
schools are in trouble because of concentrated
poverty and racial segregation," which make for a
"toxic mix." Public schooling in itself, she
emphasizes, is "in a crisis only so far as society is
and only so far as this new narrative of crisis has
destabilized it."

'In her zeal to deconstruct that narrative, Ravitch
takes on almost all the well-known private-sector
leaders and political officials - among them Arne
Duncan, Joel Klein, Bill Gates, Wendy Kopp and
Michelle Rhee - who have given their
encouragement, or barrels of their money, to the
privatizing drive. It isn't likely they'll be sending her
bouquets. Those, on the other hand, who have
grown increasingly alarmed at seeing public
education bartered off piece by piece, and seeing
schools and teachers thrown into a state of siege,
will be grateful for this cri de coeur - a fearless
book, a manifesto and a call to battle.'

Jonathan Kozol, former fourth-grade teacher and
author of "Savage Inequalities," "The Shame of the
Nation" and, most recently, "Fire in the Ashes".'
Review of "Reign Of Error, The Hoax of the
Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's
Public Schools" by Diane Ravitch

New York Times
September 26, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Cliffward
Ingram Pinn
Financial Times
 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day
October 4, 2013

'...the whole thing, the hostage taking and the
Grand Bargain scam, depends on Wall Street
believing that in the end President Obama will cave.
Both the House Republican extremists and the Wall
Street scam artists believe that they can run this
dangerous, destructive game with no risk because
the president will in the end give the House
Republicans some version of what both the House
Republicans and the Wall Street crowd want
because he is afraid of the possibility of a default on
the nation’s debts..

'But if the president stands firm, and makes clear he
works for the American people and has sworn an
oath to defend the Constitution, he will quickly
separate the House hostage-takers from the Wall
Street con men. And then this whole unnecessary,
profoundly destructive cycle of events that was set
in motion in 2011 will come to an end.

'And that’s why people need to tell the president,
“stand tall, we are with you. No negotiating with
hostage-takers. Not about the Affordable Care Act,
not about the Grand Bargain and certainly not
about cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid,
or more giveaways for big corporations that
outsource jobs. You won the election. You must
defend democracy and you must stand up for the
99%, and that means no more rewarding hostage-
takers.” And if the Wall Street geniuses come back
to the White House in a panic, the president should
send them down the street to the House
Republicans. The bankers know the way there.'

Damon Silvers
AFL-CIO Now
October 4, 2013
 

Toon of the Day

Cruzing
Nike Anderson
 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day
October 5, 2013

'You really have to call Cruz, I'm not even joking about that.
That’s really what you have to do, because he’s the one that
set up the strategy, he’s the one that got us into this mess,
and so we've got to know what the next move is.'

Devin Nunes, Republican of California,
a supporter of House Speaker John
Boehner, when asked what the House
was doing, referring to Senator Ted
Cruz of Texas, the rightwing Republican
and key figure in  the “Defund
Obamacare” movement.

New York Times
October 5,. 2013
 

Toon of the Day

At the Circus
Dave Granlund