Friday, April 10, 2015

BloggeRhythms

Reading today’s column by Thomas Joscelyn in weeklystandard.com/blogs, about the current status of the nuclear weapons deal with Iran is remindful of Jimmy Breslin’s book, “The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight,” published in 1969.
 
According to Amazon.com, the book is the story of Papa Baccala, a Brooklyn Mafia boss, and Kid Sally Palumbo, a would-be capo who "couldn't run a gas station at a profit even if he stole the customers' cars,” which is just about precisely how the current administration works.
 
As far as the Iranian situation is concerned, Mr. Joscelyn writes: “Beginning earlier this month and in the days since, Obama and his advisers have attempted to portray the negotiations as a major step forward. During an appearance in the Rose Garden on April 2, Obama said the U.S. and its allies have “reached a historic understanding with Iran.”
 
However, “Khamenei does not agree.“ Reportedly saying, “There was no need to take a position” on the supposed deal before today. The officials are saying that nothing has been done yet and nothing is obligatory. I neither agree nor disagree [with any deal].”
 
"What has been done so far does not guarantee an agreement, nor its contents, nor even that the negotiations will continue to the end," Khamenei elaborated.  
 
"I neither support nor oppose it," Khamenei reportedly said of the proposed deal. "Everything is in the details; it may be that the deceptive other side wants to restrict us in the details."
 
Mr. Joscelyn goes on to specify that, “When Obama announced that a “framework” for the deal was in place earlier this month, the administration released a fact sheet purportedly showing the agreed upon “parameters.” The White House said the terms outlined in the fact sheet “reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran.”
 
Khamenei, though, “would beg to differ,” as follows: “The White House put out a statement just a few hours after our negotiators finished their talks...this statement, which they called a 'fact sheet', was wrong on most of the issues," Khamenei said, according to Reuters. Khamenei added that the fact sheet, which doesn’t match Iran’s understanding, exposes America’s “devilish” intentions.
 
Mr. Jocelyn’s concluding comments say: ‘Obama administration officials, including the president, have said that they had work to do to conclude a deal. But Obama himself presented the “framework” as a “historic understanding” between the two sides.
 
“There is no evidence in Khamenei’s rhetoric that this is true.”
 
So, today’s conflicting status reports on the Iranian deal shed some light on the administration’s ideological makeup. Because, much like many others in the past, whose philosophy was based upon historical models such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, perhaps even Reagan, a model for the presidency exists today. And that example of leadership has turned out to be Jimmy Breslin’s Kid Sally Palumbo.
 
On another subject, the declining audiences drawn by the main-stream media is a frequent subject in these pages. On the other hand is the continually growing base relying on Drudge Report as a conduit to a wide variety of sources of current information.  
 
In that regard, some very interesting details were posted today by Hadas Gold in politico.com/blogs, as follows: “The Drudge Report is the leading source of referral traffic (excluding social media and search referrals) for many of the top news organizations in the country, according to a new report from the Drudge Report's advertising management firm Intermarkets.”
 
Statistically, “Drudge has 2 million daily unique visitors and around 700 million monthly page views, almost entirely from within the United States.”
 
What’s also most interesting is that while many on the left consider Drudge to be an anathema, While the The Daily Mail had 99 million referrals from Drudge last year, CNN.com had 64 million, The Washington Post 47 million and The New York Times 36 million. The AP's website is a big beneficiary from Drudge, receiving more than 50 percent of its traffic from the site.” Which means that, for whatever reason, opposing views get plenty of coverage for those seeking that kind of information.  
 
In 2014, Drudge Report.com was the No. 1 site of referral traffic to the Daily Mail, CNN, Fox News, Roll Call, Breitbart, The New York Times, National Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and POLITICO. Not bad for a guy who began The Drudge Report as an e-mail sent out to a few friends.
 
That’s it for today folks.
 
Adios

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