Casting Spells

Yemen: Another Obama Foreign Policy Success!
The evacuation of 125 United States Special Operations advisers from Yemen in the past two days is the latest blow to the Obama administration’s counterterrorism campaign, which is already struggling with significant setbacks in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the volatile region, American officials said Sunday. (New York Times, 3/23/2015)

“This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.” President B. Hussein Obama


Practices
But they did show that Mrs. Clinton’s top aides at times corresponded with her about State Department matters from their personal email accounts, raising questions about her recent assertions that she made it her practice to email aides at their government addresses so the messages would be preserved, in compliance with federal record-keeping regulations. (New York Times, 3/23/2015)

Reminding us - once again - of the late William Safire's depiction of Hillary Clinton as a "congenital liar."


No Conflicts Here
When Mr. Mezvinsky and his partners began raising money in 2011 for a new hedge fund firm, Eaglevale Partners, a number of investors in the firm were longtime supporters of the Clintons, according to interviews and financial documents reviewed by The New York Times. Tens of millions of dollars raised by Eaglevale can be attributed to investors with some relationship or link to the Clintons.
...
Mr. Mezvinsky is a Stanford graduate who is the child of political parents himself. His father, Edward M. Mezvinsky, was a two-term member of Congress from Iowa, and his mother, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, served a term in Congress from Pennsylvania. (New York Times, 3/23/2015)

First, a reminder to all that the Clinton's son-in-law is a hedge fund executive. How Hillary is going to square this with the Elizabeth Warren-Bernie Sanders wing of the Democrat party is anyone's guess.

And then there is the small matter of Edward M. Mezvinsky. What is the New York Times forgetting to tell us? Thinking..... Oh, that's right! It's this:

His father, Ed Mezvinsky, was a two-term Democratic congressman, representing Iowa’s first congressional district from 1973 to 1977. But in 2002, the former congressman pleaded guilty to swindling more than $10 million from family and friends in a Ponzi-esque scheme. (abcnews.com, 9/27/2014)

Perhaps the New York Times did not know this. Or - and it pains us to even think this - Times reporters knew it and simply chose to omit it because they are dishonest journalists. 


Coffee Black
Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, said in a letter to employees on Sunday that baristas would no longer be encouraged to write the phrase “Race Together” on customers’ coffee cups, drawing to a close a widely derided component of the company’s plan to promote a discussion on racial issues. (New York Times, 3/23/2015)

Sources say that Starbucks intends shortly to roll out a new communication campaign in which baristas will ask customers to rate the job performance of President Obama on a scale of 1 (high) to 10 (low). All customers who rate him 5 or below will be given a free latte. 


We Can Breathe (Again)
Giving implicit credence to the named sources who described Michael Brown as having his hands up as he was fired on by Officer Darren Wilson, I criticized the use of unnamed sources who offered opposing information: They said that the officer had reason to fear Mr. Brown. I even went so far as to call those unnamed sources “ghosts” because readers had so little ability to evaluate their identity and credibility... But I want to go further now and say that what I wrote was substantially flawed. (Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor, New York Times, 3/23/2015)

The New York Times confesses. Too bad they do not put it on the front page...as they did the initial slander. 


Wordy
“We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region,” Mr. Obama said in the interview, which was taped Friday. (Wall Street Journal, 3/23/2015)

Obama on Netanyahu. 

And we took Obama at this word when he said that we could keep our health insurance....