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