Hoboken Mayor: 
Christie Team Shook Us Down for Sandy Relief

On MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki” this morning, Hoboken, NJ, mayor Dawn Zimmer offered an extraordinary account of her dealings with the administration of Governor Chris Christie concerning federal Hurricane Sandy relief aid.

Like, was the relief money being held hostage?

She described an effort by top state officials–the lieutenant governor and a cabinet member–to coerce Hoboken’s city government into fast-tracking approval of a proposed redevelopment project by withholding Sandy aid from the government and residents of her city.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Shuddup unless you wanna a pair of cement shoes and get dumped for a swim in the River!

That project, she was told, was “very important to the governor.”

Got it.

If she worked to get it approved, “the money would start flowing to you.”

Like in “Evita” where the money starts rolling in? That was my fave number describing how the people in Argentina were skrewed.

It just so happens that the proposed project in question is situated on three blocks of land owned by the Rockefeller Group, a client of the law firm of Wolff & Samson.

Swell. No problem there.

That firm was founded by Christie confidante David Samson, a former state attorney general who Christie tapped to head his transition team in 2009.

Christie founded it, and we never knew it was losted, Wasn’t it fortunate that Christie already knew Dave?

He doesn’t have to look into his background...The governor already knows Dave’s pure as the driven snow.

In 2011 the governor appointed Samson to become the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he remains today.

We’re fortunate to have Samson. Seems he’s the only one who will do.

Life of the Aqua Buddha
The Aqua Buddha lived in the Kentucky backwoods and hunted bear, deer and bison, like real men did in those days.

He then discovered marijuana, took a bong hit, and fell asleep.

Senator Rand Paul, R-KY, denies an incident while in a haze of marijuana smoke, where a female classmate was kidnapped and forced to bow down to his god, "Aqua Buddha." 

Paul maintains his ignorance of the incident saying he didn't remember the woman at the crux of the story.

"I wish I had a great story; I don't remember anything about the story," Paul told Ingraham Wednesday morning. "We were kind of nerds," Paul said, explaining his college demeanor.

Paul has since retaliated with a religiously focused ad of his own, and appeared so upset at a debate between the two candidates that he didn't even offer his hand to Conway at the end of proceedings.

He said shortly thereafter that he was considering canceling the final debate, though he told Ingraham Wednesday that he might go through with the event.

US Plummets in
Global Press Freedom Rankings

By Josh Stearns, Free Press

Wednesday, February 12, 2014–According to a new report from Reporters Without Borders, there was a profound erosion of press freedom in the United States in 2013.

After a year of attacks on whistleblowers and digital journalists and revelations about mass surveillance, the United States plunged 13 spots in the group’s global press freedom rankings to number 46.

Reporters Without Borders writes that the U.S. faced “one of the most significant declines” in the world last year.

Even the United Kingdom, whose sustained campaign to criminalize the Guardian’s reporters and intimidate journalists has made headlines around the world, dropped only three spots, to number 33.*

The U.S. fell as many spots as Paraguay, where “the pressure on journalists to censor themselves keeps on mounting.”

Citing the Justice Department’s aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers, including its secret seizure of Associated Press phone records, the authors write that “freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices.

Investigative journalism often suffers as a result.”

The threats facing newsgathering in the U.S. are felt by both longstanding journalists like New York Times national security reporter James Risen, who may serve jail time for refusing to reveal a source, and non-traditional digital journalists like Barrett Brown.

Brown is a freelance journalist who has reported extensively on private intelligence firms and government contractors.

He now faces more than 100 years in jail for linking to stolen documents as part of his reporting, even though he had no involvement in the actual theft.

The United States’ new press freedom ranking comes on the heels of a new and dangerous campaign against Glenn Greenwald and other journalists who have reported on the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

In recent weeks, high-ranking members of the intelligence community and members of Congress have called NSA journalists “accomplices” to Snowden’s leaks, and accused them of trafficking in stolen goods.

And as Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation points out, these comments are only the most recent in a long line of attacks.

In 2012, after a series of high-profile journalist arrests at Occupy protests, the United States dropped 27 places in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, landing in 47th place.

The following year saw some progress as the U.S. climbed back up to 33rd place, but the last year has erased those gains.

The Reporters Without Borders study makes it clear that the struggles for freedom of expression and freedom of the press are global in scope, and deeply connected across borders.

“Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example,” the authors write.

Our press freedom ranking is important not just as a measure of the democratic health of our press, but also because hostility toward the press at home can legitimize threats to journalists abroad.

We have to work in our communities and in Washington to fight for policies that protect all acts of journalism.

*It’s worth noting, as many have on Twitter, that the ranking of the U.S. versus the U.K. raises some questions.

The threats to journalists and the intimidation of sources in the U.S. are deeply troubling, as is the impact of mass surveillance on press freedom.

However, the U.K.’s surveillance efforts mirror those of the U.S. and the U.K. government’s response to the Guardian’s reporting on these issues has been far more aggressive.

Since publishing the first reports on Edward Snowden’s leaks, British authorities have placed the Guardian under immense pressure, forcing it to move its NSA reporting almost entirely to its U.S. headquarters.

Under threat of legal action, Guardian journalists were forced to destroy computers containing the Snowden documents.

Using an anti-terrorism statute, authorities detained journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner and seized his electronics at Heathrow Airport.

And Parliament dragged Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger in to testify on his patriotism and love of country.

We should be concerned about press freedom in both the U.S. and the U.K. regardless of what the numbers say, and understand how intertwined anti-press freedom efforts are in both countries.