Reviews are in. Not good for "the Juan".

Juan Williams' victory lap: On the Media - latimes.com: James Rainey, LA Times media critic, points out that Williams career at nPR was in a death spiral well before he was fired:

"Williams had already become an ineffective and diminished figure at NPR well before the firing — a fact that got lost in all the hoo-hah last year. He would blame that on executives who thwarted him mostly, in his opinion, because of their displeasure that he had gone to work as a commentator for the conservative standard-bearer, Fox. He argues in 'Muzzled' that NPR's news bosses demanded liberal orthodoxy and wouldn't tolerate dissent.

But many of his co-workers at the radio network had been displeased with Williams for some time. There were editors and reporters who didn't like to work with him, because they felt he often wasn't adequately prepared for the subjects of the day. Williams wanted to be more pundit than reporter, they believed, desiring to bring something like the wide-open rat-a-tat-tat of the cable bazaar to the staid academy that is public radio."

Major nPR Underwriter's criminal behavior.

How long will nPR ignore the story?

ProPublica Catches Ally Financial Making It Up : CJR:

"ProPublica has a terrific report today nailing Ally Financial (the former GMAC) for faking mortgage documents in order to foreclose on a homeowner.

Paul Kiel gets hold of internal documents that show Ally (ProPublica refers to it throughout as GMAC for some reason) wanted to foreclose on a mortgage originated by Ameriquest, but couldn’t find the paperwork showing that it really owned the loan. So it just made one up"

A reminder, . . .

NPR's top Washington reporter has been working for FOX News for more than eleven years now, . . .

The Firing of Juan Williams: NPR Got It Right | CPB Ombudsman Report:

"I have commented here before that one of the questions frequently asked of me as CPB's Ombudsman is why NPR allows Juan Williams and Mara Liaison to appear regularly on Fox News. I have never had a good answer for that, but always believed that the credibility they bring to Fox was acquired and paid for by the regular reporting and research they do for NPR."

Same As It Ever was, . . .

NPR's policy of "No Right Wing Talking Point Left Behind" since 2000, continues. Per Dean Banker at CEPR:

Tell NPR, It's a Debt Ceiling Crisis, Not a Debt Crisis | Beat the Press

"NPR misrepresented the nature of the crisis in a comment introducing a Morning Edition segment on the pending default of Jefferson County, Alabama. It referred to the country suffering a debt crisis. This is not accurate.

The problem is one of Congress refusing to raise the debt ceiling. This would be comparable to someone losing their checkbook even if they had still had $20,000 in their account. They may face a problem getting money out of their account until they get more checks (or learn on-line banking), but there is no problem of a lack of a funds."

Well, that didn't take very long, less than 24 hours.

"After initially telling reporters that it's "fine with me" if states like New York legalize same-sex unions through their own legislature, Perry is pulling a 180 and calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment.

Perry, who is flirting with a presidential bid, clarified his position to Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in an interview.

"I probably needed to add a few words after that 'it's fine with me' and that it's fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue," he said. "Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn't changed."

Rick Perry Flip Flops On Gay Marriage, Backs Federal Ban | TPMDC

Once again, Gov. Good Hair demonstrates he'll say anything to get elected.

The Deficit is Obama's Fault

okHere's the party of "Personal Responsibility" after voting for the biggest contributors to the debt — the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts, and President Bush’s Medicare prescription drug plan — which helped to double the debt over the past decade:

GOP Leaders Voted For Three Of The Biggest Debt Drivers, Costing $3.4 Trillion | ThinkProgress

"a Bloomberg News analysis shows, these initiatives added $3.4 trillion to the nation’s accumulated debt and to its current annual budget deficit of $1.5 trillion. [...]

There’s plenty of blame to go around,” for the debt, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that advocates for balanced budgets. “If there had been no Barack Obama, we would still be bumping up against the debt limit."

Birthers and bigots and crooks - Oh My!

SC Tea Party Leaders Arrested For Selling Pirated Computer Software | TPMMuckraker

"A Tea Party (or Tea P-Arrrrrr!-ty) leader in South Carolina was arrested Tuesday for allegedly selling pirated versions of Microsoft software, Photoshop, and the Rosetta Stone language programs.

Anthony and Michael Trinca, 61 and 23 respectively, were arrested after a witness claimed that in May he purchased six copies of Rosetta Stone from Anthony Trinca through Craigslist for $125 each, but then discovered they were fake when tried to resell two of them. After refunding his own customers, the victim said he tried to get his money back from Trinca, who refused."