Julian Assange Exposed: Good Or Evil? (Interview Videos)

Paranoid, Anarchic... Is WikiLeaks Boss A Force For Good Or Chaos?



Just imagine that D-Day is only weeks away.

Months of secrecy and disinformation have succeeded in confusing the Germans about when or where the inevitable invasion will come.

Then an anarchist activist, insisting that in a democracy everyone has the right to know everything, publishes the secret plans for Operation Overlord.

Inconceivable then, but today that is precisely what WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, would do in a similar situation.

In the past, it has released documents relating to Swiss banks, the Church of Scientology, corruption in the Kenyan government, British climate change scientists and even a video taken by a U.S. Apache gunship as it machine-gunned civilians, including two journalists, in Iraq.

Assange - who describes himself as an 'information activist' - insists he is performing an important public duty.

And there is no doubt that WikiLeaks can help to expose dictators and keep democracies honest.

But as his fame and self belief grows, is Assange allowing his unreasoning hatred of authority to colour his approach to vitally important national security judgments?

He says that of the 90,000 documents released this week, WikiLeaks looked at only 2,000 of them.

If that's the case, then he couldn't possibly have known how much information which could endanger U.S. and British soldiers they contained.

Although Assange claims to be driven by the desire for freedom, his attitude - profoundly paranoid and politically anarchist - has more to do with his dysfunctional personal history than any political principle.

Born in Australia in 1971, to two peace activists who met at a demonstration against the Vietnam War, Assange had an unstable childhood.

He is variously reported as having been home schooled or having attended 35 different educational establishments, but there's no doubt that his mother, convinced that she was being stalked by a vengeful former lover, moved home constantly.

By the time Assange was 16, he had developed an obsession with computers.

He appears to have been part of an early group of hackers who named themselves International Subversives and broke into a series of U.S. computer networks including Nasa and the Department of Defence.

As a result, he was pursued by the Australian Federal Police.

Although the prosecution ended with a small fine, Assange had a breakdown and briefly checked himself into hospital. The lead investigator, Ken Day, said recently: 'I think he acted on the belief that everyone should know everything.'

At around this time Assange split up with his girlfriend, with whom he had a child, and then pursued a long and unsuccessful custody battle which further embittered him towards authority. By the end, his mother says, the strain had turned his hair from brown to white.

In the Nineties he founded Wiki-Leaks, a group whose organisation and technology owe more to the hi-tech security services it sees as its enemies than to the anarchist movement from which it springs.

It has no offices and no paid employees.

Key members - except for the increasingly high-profile Assange - are usually known by code letters. Anyone sending information to its website is directed to a computer in Sweden, then bounced to another internet server in Belgium, before the material is finally downloaded at other locations, a process designed to conceal the origin of the leaks from intelligence agencies.

All this computer expertise can also be used the other way round; the leaked U.S. military material was originally encrypted and had to be decoded over many months by Assange and other volunteer codebreakers.

Assange himself is convinced that he is under surveillance by U.S. spies, and won't travel to America for fear of arrest by the government.

He lives a bizarre peripatetic life, with no house and few belongings, moving in recent years between Tanzania, Belgium, Iceland, Sweden and many other countries, given lodging and help by like-minded activists.

His only luggage is a blue backpack containing mobile phones, computer hard drives and a large collection of socks.

But for all the otherworldliness of Assange and his disciples, he ruthlessly manipulates the conventional media that he claims to despise in order to obtain maximum publicity, carefully editing the video footage of the shooting by an American helicopter of Iraqi civilians to achieve maximum impact and choosing a title - Collateral Murder - which encouraged viewers to prejudge the material they saw.

His critics says he's motivated by a desire for personal publicity - he says his aim is 'maximum political impact'.

Assange's supporters invite comparison with the so-called Pentagon Papers in the early Seventies - exposing presidential double dealing on the Vietnam War - but those were published by the New York Times and the Washington Post only after careful consideration of the implications.

Assange, by contrast, makes no such ethical judgments.

Pressed on whether his actions risk harming the innocent - soldiers on active service for example - he says, in a scary echo of the kind of the language used by the military that he despises, that 'collateral damage' is inevitable, and concedes that WikiLeaks might end up with 'blood on our hands'.

Would we be so understanding about the activities of a man if he were exposing facts about a war that we all believed to be just - and not the moral and military disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Also troubling is his essential hypocrisy.

Assange claims to believe in making available every piece of information about the military operations, to ensure that the powerful are accountable for their actions.

But he himself operates amid a cult of secrecy, with no accountability to anyone.

There is no doubt that the eccentric Assange has made himself a powerful force in the world today, but whether he is a force for good remains to be seen.


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Sources: CNN, Daily Mail, ITN News, RT News, Youtube, Google Maps

Barbara Bush vs Sarah Palin: "I Hope She'll Stay In Alaska"

George, Barbara Bush: "Palin Stay Home; We're No Political Dynasty"


Jeb Bush would make a good president, but the former Florida governor has no intention of running for the Oval Office in 2012, according to his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

The elder Bush made the comment in an exclusive interview to be broadcast Monday night on "Larry King Live."

In the hour-long interview, Bush and his wife, Barbara, discussed their lives and their relationship with another son -- former President George W. Bush. While the Bushes spoke with obvious pride of their family and accomplishments, they rejected talk of a Bush political dynasty, even when reminded that they are one of only two father-son presidential families in American history.

Asked if Jeb was thinking about running for president in 2012, his father responded: "I don't think he is. In fact, I know he's not."

"But would he be a good president? Absolutely," Bush continued. "And don't just take that from a father's prejudice view. I mean, he's a good man, he performed as governor, he's well-spoken, he's not an extremist, he's not a wild guy that attributes bad motives to those that disagree with him, and he's good. And people that know him and hear him say the same thing. I think the bottom line is, he just doesn't want to try, doesn't want to do it."

Both Bushes mentioned former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as a possible Republican contender for a likely race against incumbent President Barack Obama two years from now.

"He's a reasonable guy," George Bush said of Romney. "He's a Conservative fellow, that's good. But no, I think he'd be a good president, a very good president."

Barbara Bush also mentioned Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour as a possible GOP contender, and made clear that she doesn't favor former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the running.

"I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful," Barbara Bush said of Palin. "And she's very happy in Alaska, and I hope she'll stay there."

Both Bushes agreed that a woman president is a certainty for the United States, with George Bush saying: "That's what they call a 'gimme' in golf, I think. It's going to happen. I don't know who, or when, but I would say fairly soon."

The former president seemed uncertain when asked about the conservative Tea Party movement, which has taken the Republican establishment by storm.

"I don't know what it really is," Bush said. "Some of the ideas make a lot of sense. But ... I noticed in the paper today they were talking about what the Tea Party would do to get the Republicans in Congress to do something. Well, these people have all been elected whether they're Tea Partiers or not. So I'm confused by it, frankly."

But, he quickly added, "I think it's all right."

The former first couple also talked about George W. Bush's new book, "Decision Points," which details some of the crucial moments of his eight years as president.

"I loved the book," Barbara Bush said. "I thought it was very frank. He's not trying to write a biography, he's trying to tell how it is in the White House."

Her husband agreed that it was "good" and "from the heart."

"I think he's done a good job selling the darn thing, he's been out there all over the place," the former president said.

History will be kind to his son "because he's a man of principle, did what he said he was going to do, kept our country safe in the first time we were really attacked" on September 11, 2001, Bush said.

In particular, he praised one of his son's most controversial decisions -- to invade Iraq in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

"Saddam Hussein is no longer around, and that in itself makes it the right thing," Bush said. "Now, do you worry about the large loss? Of course, you do. But I think he made a courageous decision, proper decision, and we forget that Congress and many people in the press wanted to bring down Saddam Hussein, and George stepped up to the plate and did something about it."

At the same time, the former president acknowledged that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a main reason for the invasion, "was a great disappointment" to his son.

"But that doesn't mean that the mission itself isn't worthwhile," Bush said.

The Bushes also discussed rarely mentioned events in their lives -- the loss of a daughter to leukemia as well as a later miscarriage -- which are included in George W. Bush's new book.

"He wanted to point out -- barely a child -- but he wanted to point out how close we were," Barbara Bush said of her son, who asked her permission to include the miscarriage story in his book. "And I must say, he was the cutest guy you ever saw. Just 14, no socks on, drove me to the hospital like a grown-up man and paced the hall and some woman said, 'Don't worry, your wife will be fine.' "

While the Bushes have undergone some physical problems in recent years -- Barbara Bush revealed in the interview she has recovered from heart troubles and a perforated ulcer, while George Bush said he has leg problems -- the former president made clear that he intends to skydive once more on his 90th birthday in 2014.

"It's all set," he said. "We go with the Golden Knights and they've committed to it."


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

6 Best Television Walk-Offs In Media History (Videos)

Bill O'Reilly & The Top Five Television Walk-Offs


1.) Recently on "The View", Bill O'Reilly did a wonderful thing. His opinions about the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" pissed off Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg to the point where they felt the need to remove themselves from the set and his presence, in front of a live studio audience. Barbara Walters immediately called her co-hosts out for their thin skin, but the reality is, great drama makes for great TV. Behar and Goldberg did everyone a favor, including Bill O'Reilly, who gets to keep his reputation as a hot-headed button-pusher.

What made this so special, as you're about to see, is that it's usually the guests who storm out of interviews, not the hosts. At any rate, the whole thing reminded us of some other memorable moments in TV Walk-off history.

2.) Dr. Jan Adams walks off Larry King Live: We begin with the man who supposedly helped kill Kanye West’s mom. Remember that? She died as a result of complications resulting from surgery, and the man responsible, Dr. Jan Adams, went on Larry King to defend himself until he suspiciously loses the urge out of respect to the family.

3.) Carrie Prejean walks off Larry King Live: Another classic moment in King’s repertoire. No matter how batty the soon-to-be-retired host comes off, every so often he’ll encounter a guest that makes him seem machete-sharp. Disgraced beauty queen Carrie Prejean was one such guest. Here, she refuses to talk about the terms of a settlement, and after King pesters her, she calls him “inappropriate.” What happens next is talk show awkwardness at its peak.

4.) Andrew Dice Clay storms off CNN: It’s hard to watch this clip just once. The quickness with which things fall apart is startling. When a CNN host infers that washed-up comedian Andrew Dice Clay is a washed-up comedian, he snaps, giving his greatest performance in years.

5.) In the name of Xenu, Tommy Davis abandons his Nightline interview: If Scientology has an image problem, flacks like Tommy Davis are the reason why (and maybe this guy). During this interview with professional provoker Martin Bashir, Davis strips off his mic and walks out after Bashir won’t let talk of Xenu, volcanoes, and spaceships drop.

6.) The Bee Gees show off their sense of humor on a British chat show: If the title of this video wasn’t “Clive Anderson chat show bust up with Bee Gees 1996,” it would be impossible to predict what goes down in the final moments of what seems like a routine interview. Sure, the host Clive Anderson took a few jabs at the group’s expense, but isn’t that what happens on talk shows? After Barry Gibb storms off, his brother Maurice is left there alone to wonder with the rest of us: What just happened?


Sources: ABC, Black Book Mag.com, CNN, NY Daily News, The View, Youtube

Bart Stupak Rejects Randy Neugebauer's Apology??

The "Baby Killer" drama continues. On Larry King Live, pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak told Wolf Blitzer that he isn't falling for Rep. Randy Neugebauer's apology for shouting at him on the House floor Sunday. Nor does he buy the somewhat dubious explanation that Neugebauer really said, "It's a baby killer."








Sources: The Daily Beast, CNN, Larry King Live, Youtube

Gov. Paterson's Aide Under Scrutiny; More Dirty, Racist Attacks

Paterson Aide’s Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny


David W. Johnson has worked for Gov. David A. Paterson for much of his adult life. He began as a young, ambitious intern from Harlem when Mr. Paterson was a state legislator. He rose to be Mr. Paterson’s driver, serving as a kind of protector and scheduler.

In recent months, however, Mr. Johnson’s ascent has been striking: he is now one of the most senior people in the governor’s administration, paid $132,000. He is described as Mr. Paterson’s closest confidant, a man with a designated room for his overnight stays in the Executive Mansion, and a broadening role in areas like campaign strategy, government initiatives and the management of the governor’s staff.

A review of Mr. Johnson’s rise and his history, undertaken after he emerged as perhaps the man closest to the state’s chief executive, shows that he was twice arrested on felony drug charges as a teenager, including a charge of selling cocaine to an undercover officer in Harlem.

The examination of his background, based on interviews and records, shows he has at least one other arrest, for misdemeanor assault in the 1990s, although there is very little publicly available about that case.

In a statement, Mr. Paterson noted how long ago the drug arrests had happened. “David Johnson has demonstrated, over the course of his adult life, that people can change their personal circumstances and achieve success when given a second chance,” he said. “I will not turn my back on someone because of mistakes made as a teenager.”

Mr. Johnson, 37, has also on three occasions been involved in altercations with women, two of which led to calls to the police. As recently as October, the police responded to a complaint of harassment at a Bronx address of a woman involved with him. It is unclear if the altercation was verbal or physical or both, but the case is listed as closed.

In 2001, when Mr. Paterson was a state senator, Mr. Johnson, according to a person who was present, punched a girlfriend outside the senator’s Harlem office. No arrest resulted, and Mr. Johnson, through a spokesman for the governor, said that he never touched the woman, that she had come to the office inappropriately and that she had been asked to leave by others. He declined recent requests for interviews.

The woman involved, who insisted on anonymity, said in a recent interview that Mr. Johnson had gotten violent with her in the episode. She said she did not file a formal report, but said she had filed an earlier domestic violence complaint to the police about Mr. Johnson. She declined to offer evidence of that.

A spokesman for Mr. Paterson said Mr. Johnson underwent a standard background check by the State Police in 2008, which found no criminal record. Regarding the October incident, the spokesman, Peter E. Kauffmann, said, “The governor looked into the matter, and the complaint has been withdrawn.” He said Mr. Paterson planned no further inquiry into Mr. Johnson’s history.

Mr. Paterson has made domestic violence a key issue in his career; when he was lieutenant governor, it was among his signature causes. In 2008, just a few months after taking office as governor, he signed a major expansion of New York’s domestic violence law to allow judges to issue civil protection orders against people in dating relationships, in addition to those who are married.

Last October, two weeks before the episode involving Mr. Johnson and the Bronx woman, Mr. Paterson opened a campaign to raise awareness about domestic violence, gathering with advocates for a lighting ceremony at the Empire State Building.

He has also become increasingly vocal in his criticism of former Senator Hiram Monserrate, who was convicted of misdemeanor assault last fall for dragging his companion down the hallway of his apartment building. On Friday, the governor praised the Senate’s move to expel Mr. Monserrate and spoke at length about the pressures that victims of domestic violence face from their batterers.

“This seemed like a classic case of a woman who was intimidated, who didn’t really understand what her independence could be, and was victimized,” he said of the Monserrate case, adding, “The reality is that it’s really just a prelude to another attack, in many instances.”




Part of Inner Circle

Mr. Johnson’s increasing prominence, and Mr. Paterson’s reliance on him, have worried some veteran aides to the governor, who themselves are trying to assist Mr. Paterson as he faces an enormous fiscal crisis and a daunting election effort. They would not speak by name, but more than four current or former officials expressed concern that Mr. Johnson and another aide, a former state trooper, had become the governor’s innermost circle and were simply not best equipped to help him tackle the multiple challenges facing him.

Some heads of significant government agencies have said they feel they have to go through Mr. Johnson, often known as D. J., to get to the governor. And several current and former administration officials said that Mr. Johnson’s dressing down of the governor’s Washington office in September contributed to the departure of several seasoned people from the office.

“I started getting messages from D. J. telling me to call certain players in my industry,” said one former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the governor.

Mr. Johnson, the official said, started to manage administration press conferences, dictating the order and seating of speakers and calling agencies to request they draft statements on particular issues.

“We were all quite surprised about D. J. taking more of a policy role,” another former official said. “It seemed like it was a long way to come in a short period of time for a guy who had been the governor’s wing man.”

Recently, the role evolved further, as Mr. Johnson began shaping campaign strategy.

Bill Lynch, one of the governor’s longtime political strategists, said that he talked campaign strategy with Mr. Johnson and that it had been Mr. Johnson’s idea to hold a series of community conversations in New York City late last year.

Asked what made Mr. Johnson qualified to be involved in campaign strategy, Mr. Lynch said: “I don’t know much about his history other than his working for the governor. But as far as I’m concerned, his instincts on these campaign things are good, if not damn near perfect.”

Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, a Harlem Democrat, said of Mr. Johnson: “I look at him as a gatekeeper. I actually think he’s done pretty well.

“He’s been with David for years. He is a good filter for David. David trusts him. And his influence has grown.”

Mr. Paterson first hired Mr. Johnson as an intern in 1999. His role, according to a co-worker from those days, was to be an advance man and to perform constituent services. He worked only about 10 hours a week but was considered “gung-ho,” the co-worker said, always volunteering to attend town-hall-style meetings and the like. He graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2002.

“He wanted to be in the mix,” the co-worker said, “and because he was from Harlem, he had a natural connection with people there.”

An Imposing Figure

Mr. Johnson, the colleague said, was also valued because of the imposing figure he cast. At 6-foot-7, with a booming voice, he made Mr. Paterson, who is legally blind, feel secure, and so he was often scheduled to travel with him.

Mr. Johnson also helped keep people in line on those occasions when a troublesome constituent threatened to raise a ruckus in the Harlem office.

“Every now and then it was good to have a big guy in the office,” the colleague said.

Mr. Johnson eventually became Mr. Paterson’s driver, and at that point their relationship was further cemented.

“When you’re going back and forth to Albany a few times a week, once you get past Exit 17, you’re spending a lot of time alone with the other person in that car and you’re going to talk,” the colleague said.

Mr. Johnson’s first known arrest was in 1989 when he was 16; he was handled as a youthful offender, and the records sealed.

Two years later, when he was 18, he was arrested on drug charges, this time after selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer, according to people with knowledge of the episode.

The arrest by a 23rd Precinct officer occurred on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 107th Street, about a block from his mother’s apartment. It led to his indictment five days later on a single count of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree with intent to sell, a felony for which he could have received up to 25 years in prison, the people with knowledge of the episode said.

Three months later, he pleaded guilty to a lesser felony, attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, a felony with a maximum of 15 years; he was sentenced to five years of probation, which a law enforcement official said he completed without incident. Mr. Johnson was treated as a youthful offender, and the records of the case were sealed.

Mr. Johnson’s disputed encounters with women came to involve at least one senior aide to Mr. Paterson in 2001. Woody Pascal, then Mr. Paterson’s chief of staff, interrupted the altercation between Mr. Johnson and the woman who was then his girlfriend outside the Harlem office. Mr. Pascal said he offered the woman counseling.

“Mr. Johnson and a companion had some kind of dispute, and I broke it up,” Mr. Pascal said in an interview. “I sent Mr. Johnson in one direction, and I counseled her, and that was the end of the dispute.”

The police were not called.

The woman said Mr. Pascal “handled it all.”

She said she had filed a police report against Mr. Johnson for domestic violence before the episode outside Mr. Paterson’s office, but nothing ever happened to him.

“It was a long time ago,” she said. “They didn’t take things as seriously back then.”

Mr. Paterson’s office encouraged The New York Times to speak to Deneane Brown, a woman it said had been present for the episode.

Ms. Brown, who now works for the State Department of Housing and Community Renewal, said she saw a brief part of what she described as a heated argument, or lover’s spat, but no violence. She said she had remained friends with Mr. Johnson.

“If there had been anything violent, I’m trained in domestic violence, so I would have had a duty to file a report,” she said.

Deemed a Dating Dispute

Asked last week about the episode, Mr. Paterson said he was not aware of it. But the governor recalled a separate episode involving Mr. Johnson and a woman, which he said also occurred in 2001, where the police were called.

In Mr. Paterson’s description, Mr. Johnson was having a dispute with a woman he was dating, and he visited her home. When he arrived, the police were there and spoke to him.

He said Mr. Johnson told him of the episode when Mr. Paterson was about to become lieutenant governor on Jan. 1, 2007, because his staff members would be subject to background checks.

“I asked him, Was there an arrest? ‘No.’ Was there a complaint? ‘No,’ ” Mr. Paterson recalled. “There was nothing. So it just sounded to me like an argument between two people.”

The governor said he was aware that Mr. Johnson might have had another problematic encounter with a girlfriend last October in the Bronx. He described it, essentially, as a bad breakup.

Interviews with people who have been briefed on the police report indicate that the police responded at 9:50 p.m. on Halloween night, and that the dispute involved the woman’s costume and whether Mr. Johnson had torn it off her or menaced her further. Mr. Johnson was gone, the interviews suggest, by the time the police arrived.

The woman, in a brief interview this month, said that there had been an incident and that she had not seen Mr. Johnson since. She would not comment further.

Asked whether Mr. Johnson’s history had been considered before his most recent promotion, to director of executive services — he received a raise of $23,850 — Mr. Paterson said: “Obviously, it was a breakup. They know a number of people in common, and it just sounded like breakups you hear about all the time.”

Mr. Paterson also said that Mr. Johnson had grown significantly over the years and that he did not believe that Mr. Johnson had problems with women.

“In D. J.’s case, other than, you know, that he had broken up with a few women that he went out with, I have not found him to be that kind of person,” the governor said.

Referring to the October episode, he added: “I think in anybody’s history, you can come up with a couple incidents where they acted improperly. And this may, and I accentuate may, have been one of them.”


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Sources: NY Times, CNN, Google Maps

Gov. Paterson Disses Harold Ford; Taunts Cuomo

David Paterson Fights Back


In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove, New York’s beleaguered governor takes the gloves off—dismissing Harold Ford and taunting Andrew Cuomo.


After a week of fighting off rumors that he was quitting his job over a bombshell New York Times story rife with allegations about his private life, the Times has denied that such a story is in the works, and New York Governor David Paterson is full of beans.

“The quickest way to get 150 percent effort out of me is when I’m attacked or under pressure,” Paterson said Tuesday afternoon in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, when I asked him if he feels energized when he’s up against the wall. “People have told me that, but when you’re in the middle of it, you don’t really know,” he added.

As for New York’s first lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, who has also been drawn into the fray, “Michelle is probably even better than me,” he said, noting that his wife has been married once before. “She once told me, ‘If I could get through my divorce, I can get through anything!’ ”

In a wide-ranging phone conversation, Paterson also dismissed the prospective Senate candidacy of Harold Ford Jr., and taunted his still-undeclared Democratic primary opponent, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, suggesting Cuomo is “afraid.”

“He’s in the candidate protection program,” the governor said dryly. “He doesn’t talk about anything. I hear he made a comment about the Super Bowl the other day, but he was talking about last year’s Super Bowl. He doesn’t talk about anything current.” Warming to his theme, Paterson continued: “Political strategy tells me that’s a very smart thing to do, and everyone pats him on the back for it.

My question is, fine, it’s politically smart, but when you are that afraid, that political, what are you going to do if you get elected? Now you have to deal with the legislature. What’s this new openness and transparency? What’s going to change in Albany if everybody is political and the whole process is failing right now because it’s overly politicized?”

The Cuomo campaign-in-waiting declined to respond to Paterson’s swipe.

Regarding former Tennessee congressman Ford’s prospective primary race against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, whom Paterson appointed last year to replace Hillary Clinton, the governor clarified remarks he made last week that were interpreted as supportive of Ford (he’s “worthy,” Paterson had said) and a slight against Gillibrand.

“I just don’t think Harold Ford knows the issues of this state, the problems of this state,” Paterson told me. “He’s not even close to her or in her orbit.”

The governor acknowledged that last week’s media frenzy—sparked by unsubstantiated claims in the tabloids and various blogs about alleged canoodling in closets and restaurants —has knocked his underdog campaign off stride and temporarily hurt his fundraising efforts against the cash-rich Cuomo.

“Toward the end of last week, things started to get back on track when no one denied my understanding that the Times did not ask me about these problems,” Paterson said, referring to a 90-minute interview session he had with Times Albany reporter Danny Hakim last week. In a remarkable column on Sunday about a story that has yet to be published, Times public editor Clark Hoyt supported the governor’s assertion that it wouldn’t contain seamy anecdotes of the sort splashed by the New York Post.

“We’ve made a few [fundraising] calls where there’s kind of a wait-and-see thing because these rumors are swirling,” Paterson said. “And their effectiveness is not in their accuracy but in the anxiety they produce—not only for me, but for people in this tough economy who don’t want to put money into something they don’t think is working. I’m no different than anyone else. I understand the distraction. That’s why the rumors were hatched.”

Hatched perhaps by the Cuomo campaign?

“I don’t know that,” Paterson said, noting that nearly two years ago, when he as lieutenant governor replaced disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, “there was some hysteria, right before I came into office, over a crazy story about me being pulled over while driving a car. It was Albany-based. Now I don’t think Andrew had anything to do with that.”







Gov. Paterson: "Somebody Is After Me"



Those lurid rumors flying around about New York Gov. David Paterson? "None of this is true. It's a flat-out lie," he said in a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Larry King on Thursday night.

Since word of an imminent New York Times story electrified New York political and media circles last week, Paterson has been on the defensive. But day after day, the putative piece has failed to appear -- allowing gossip and conjecture to flourish.

Sex? Drugs? Graft? Theories about the article's focus have taken on lives of their own.

Asked whether the onslaught of rumors means "somebody (is) after you," Paterson was blunt. "Clearly somebody is. ... I won't kid you. I think I have thought about who might be after me."

He declined to name the suspects, but he encouraged the media to turn its focus from the whispers to the whisperers.

"Maybe those in the media might investigate why the sources are saying what they're saying."

During the sit-down, Paterson also knocked the Times for its handling of the frenzy.

"The human decency, if not journalists' ethics, I think would compel an organization when they see a person being slandered for over two weeks now ... to clear the air and at least say that the charges that are being made are not in the perimeters of our investigation."

Absent a public clarification, the governor pleaded for the Times to publish its piece at once, "so I could be out of my misery."

It's not clear whether the governor will get his wish. He said that New York Times Albany Bureau Chief Danny Hakim, whom he identified as the writer of the article, told him he was not sure when it would run.

Paterson also blamed some of his plight on the fresh memory of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal, saying that his predecessor's dalliances conditioned the public to assume sexual misbehavior in the governor's office: "I think people have still a sort of sensitivity to that, to the point that people would tend to believe anything they hear these days." He added, "I think that's victimized me."

At one point, King teed up an opportunity for Paterson to say that the Times article will vindicate him, but the governor didn't swing.

King said: "And you're positive that nothing of this is ever going to come forward and prove true?" Paterson replied: "Asked and answered."

On the question of drug use, Paterson opted not to issue a new denial, telling King he had "denied that just the other day." Similarly, he turned down the host's offer to rebut the charges against him "one by one," saying, "I've already denied these charges in several media outlets."

He cited the need to deprive the rumors of momentum for his reluctance to engage in specific denials.

Between the accusations and deflections, the governor squeezed in a few jokes. Echoing a quip he made earlier in the week that "the only way I will be leaving office before (my term ends) is in a box," Paterson told King, if "you hear I've resigned, it means you're invited to my funeral."

The gallows humor continued later with a timely reference to former President Bill Clinton's heart episode. "I hope he comes on your show tomorrow to dispel the latest rumor, denying that I had anything to do with his heart condition," he told King.


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Sources: The Daily Beast, CNN, Google Maps

Michelle Obama On Larry King Live: Childhood Obesity, Health Care, etc.,

First Lady: Childhood Obesity Fight Is About Fitness, Not Looks


Michelle Obama says her call for the country to fight childhood obesity isn't about physical appearances, but rather quality of life.

"Teachers are seeing the challenges that kids with weight issues are having -- not being able to participate in gym, feeling a little more sluggish," the first lady told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday. "It's not about weight ... it's about fitness and it's about overall nutrition."

Obama earlier Tuesday introduced the "Let's Move" campaign, which aims to reduce childhood obesity in the United States within a generation. Obama asked parents, teachers, physicians, coaches and kids to get involved and suggested they look at the new Let's Move Web site for helpful tips, strategies and updates on beating obesity in children.

The first lady, during the "Larry King Live" interview, said a doctor got her own family to take a hard look at its exercise and eating habits, even though she thought she already was doing everything she could to promote healthy lifestyles for her own grade-school daughters.

The family, while her husband was campaigning, was eating too much fast food, she said. A pediatrician "saw a little uptick in the kids' [body mass index], and he kind of pulled me aside," she said.

"I was shocked at first because I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do, and I hadn't noticed any changes in my kids, so it was a little bit shocking and a little disorienting," Obama said. "But I went home, and it was kind of a wake-up call, and we made some changes even with busy schedules."

The changes, she said, included smaller portion sizes, more cooked meals, a dessert ban on weekdays and substituting sugary drinks with milk, water and fresh-squeezed juices. "The point is that small changes made a difference," she said.

That interview aired hours after she announced the Let's Move initiative at the White House. The program focuses on what families, communities and the public and private sectors can do to help fight childhood obesity, which she and health experts have termed an epidemic in the United States.

"There are more and more kids with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure today than ever before. Things we used to see only in adults," she said at the White House.

From more farmers markets to increasing physical activity in schools or expanding and modernizing the President's Physical Fitness Challenge, the first lady said the Obama administration will partner with public health professionals and private companies to address the obesity issue.

"About one-third of our children are overweight or obese. None of us want that for our country," she said. "It's time to get moving."

Mayors, doctors, members of the Cabinet, and leaders in sports, entertainment and business joined the first lady for the announcement.

Former NFL player Tiki Barber introduced several speakers, including a pediatrician, an urban farmer and mayors from Mississippi and Massachusetts.

President Obama signed a memorandum earlier Tuesday morning establishing a federal task force to tackle childhood obesity, calling it "one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country."

"We think that this has enormous promise in improving the health of our children, in giving support to parents to make the kinds of healthy choices that oftentimes are very difficult," he said.

The task force, according to the memorandum, will have 90 days to craft a plan encouraging "optimal coordination" between the federal government and both the private and nonprofit sectors. Several Cabinet members, including the secretaries of Interior, Agriculture and Health and Human Services, will serve on the task force to complement Michelle Obama's public awareness effort.

In the weeks leading up to the announcement, the first lady urged America's parents to turn off the television, drink more water and serve smaller portions to curb the growing public health problem.

She stressed that parents need the tools to make it easier to understand how to help their kids stay healthy. She said many parents know certain foods are bad for their kids, but don't know the solutions.

"They feel like the deck is stacked against them. They feel guilty," she said. "We need to help them."

The administration, in partnership with public health professionals and private companies, will address these issues in several ways:

First, according to Obama, package labels should be easier to read.

By the end of the year, the Food and Drug Administration will begin working with retailers and manufacturers to adopt new nutritionally sound and consumer friendly front-of-package labeling to provide 65 million parents in America and other caregivers with easy access to the information they need to make healthy choices for their children.

The average soda contains 110 calories, yet many kids drink one or more a day. In an effort to make kids and parents more aware of these calories, the American Beverage Association has voluntarily committed to put calorie labels on the front of its cans, bottles, vending and fountain machines within two years. The label will reflect total calories per container, up to 20 ounces and 12-ounce serving size in multiserve containers.

School lunches also will play a big role.

According to the White House, on school days, many American children consume more than half their daily calories at school, and more than 30 million of these kids participate in the National School Lunch Program.

With this program, students will have access to healthier food in schools through several initiatives:

• The Obama administration is requesting an investment of an additional $10 billion over 10 years, starting in 2011, to improve the quality of the school lunch and breakfast programs, increase the number of kids participating and ensure that schools have the resources they need to make program changes.

• With the money, more fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods and low-fat dairy products will be served in school cafeterias.

• Major school food suppliers are to decrease the sugar, fat and salt in school meals over 10 years, and also increase whole grains and produce served within 10 years.

Obama also set an ambitious goal to eliminate food deserts, which are areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food.

"Let's move to ensure all our families have access to healthy, affordable food in their communities," she said. "We're making a commitment to completely eliminating food deserts in America. And we plan to do that within seven years."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest applauded Obama for taking on childhood obesity.

The "first lady has the clout and visibility to change that and mobilize the nation's resources to address the problem," the nonprofit health advocacy group said.

Obama encouraged doctors and parents to work together to help kids stay healthy.

In this initiative, the American Academy of Pediatrics will educate its members about obesity to make sure pediatricians regularly measure a child's body mass index and identify a weight problem early. If a child is getting heavy, the physician can write an official prescription for healthy, active living.

Body mass index is a number -- calculated from height, weight, age and gender -- that measures body fat.

On Tuesday, Dr. Judith Palfrey, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said there are ways to encourage activity -- like making charts recording children's TV time and having children set jump-roping, running and fitness goals.

"This is a long-term commitment to our children's health," she said. "It will take a concerted effort among all of us -- the whole nation -- to create healthier communities for our children. We must take on this challenge."

The number of overweight children ages 6 to 19 has tripled since 1970, a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study found.

Obama concluded her statements quoting President Franklin Roosevelt.

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."


Sources: CNN, Larry King Live, Let's Move.gov

Joe Jackson: Dr. Murray Is "Fall Guy", Michael's Death A Conspiracy

Joe Jackson: Dr. Murray is "Just a Fall Guy," My Son was Murdered


Joe Jackson, father of the King of Pop, told CNN's Larry King Monday night he believes Dr. Conrad Murray is "just a fall guy," and that there are other people involved in Michael Jackson's death.

"He got off too easy in court today," Joe Jackson told Larry King. "I'm looking for justice and justice to me would be the murder charge."

Joe Jackson told CNN, if Murray was interrogated enough, "he would come clean and tell everything he knows."

Joe Jackson also alluded to a vague conspiracy to kill his son. Speaking of his planned concert tour before his death, Joe Jackson told King, "He couldn't do all those shows back-to-back. Even his kids say that he had told them that he would be murdered."

Latoya Jackson stated she will not rest until all individuals involved are "brought forth and justice is served," CNN reported. The King of Pop's sister also believed that "Michael was murdered and although he died at the hands of Dr. Conrad Murray, I believe Dr. Murray was a part of a much larger plan,"

Michael Jackson's death was ruled a homicide by the L.A. County Coroner. CNN reported he died from a combination of drugs, mainly propofol and lorazepam. The doctor was reportedly with Michael Jackson when he died. He remains out on bail and could face up to four years in jail if convicted.









Jackson's Doctor Charged With Manslaughter


Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop star's death last summer.

A criminal complaint filed earlier in the day alleged that Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson."

Murray turned himself in shortly before 4 p.m. at a branch courthouse near Los Angeles International Airport. He pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing before Judge Keith L. Schwartz.

The judge set bail at $75,000, despite arguments from prosecutor David Walgren that Murray is a flight risk.

The judge refused to suspend Murray's medical license as a term of his bond, but he did order him not to use any anesthesia on patients.

"I don't want you sedating people," Schwartz told Murray.

The involuntary manslaughter charge means that Murray caused Jackson's death by acting "without due caution and circumspection."

If convicted, Murray would face a maximum four-year prison sentence, according to prosecutors.

Members of Michael Jackson's family -- including his parents Joe and Katherine Jackson, sister La Toya Jackson, and brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Randy and Tito Jackson -- attended the hearing.

"Not enough," Jermaine Jackson said when asked what he thought of the charge.

"I don't like what happened," Joe Jackson said as he left the courthouse.

La Toya Jackson later issued a statement through a publicist.

"Michael was murdered and although he died at the hands of Dr. Conrad Murray, I believe Dr. Murray was a part of a much larger plan," her statement said. "There are other individuals involved and I will not rest and I will continue to fight until all of the proper individuals are brought forth and justice is served."

Her statement did not elaborate on what she meant in her reference to "a much larger plan."

Murray traveled to Los Angeles at the end of January from his home in Houston, Texas, in expectation of possible charges, his lawyer said.

He used part of his time last week to visit the pop star's resting place in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Murray, a cardiologist, was hired as Jackson's personal physician last spring as the singer prepared for comeback concerts in London, England.

The doctor told Los Angeles police that he was with Jackson at his $100,000-a-month rented Holmby Hills mansion through the early morning hours of June 25, 2009, in an effort to help the pop star fall asleep, according to a police affidavit.

He administered sleep aids, and after Jackson finally began sleeping in the late morning hours, Murray said, he left the bedroom for "about two minutes maximum," the affidavit says.

"Upon his return, Murray noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing," it says.

The doctor stayed with Jackson as an ambulance rushed him to UCLA Medical Center.

Efforts at CPR proved fruitless, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m.

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled Jackson's death a homicide, resulting from a combination of drugs, primarily propofol and lorazepam.

The coroner's statement said Jackson died from "acute propofol intoxication," but there were "other conditions contributing to death: benzodiazepine effect." Lorazepam and two other drugs Murray said he used are benzodiazepines.

The doctor told investigators he had given Jackson three anti-anxiety drugs to help him sleep in the hours before he stopped breathing, a police affidavit said.

Murray had been treating Jackson for insomnia for six weeks at the time of the singer's death. The doctor told investigators he gave Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol, the generic name for Diprivan, diluted with the anesthetic lidocaine every night via an intravenous drip.

The doctor told police he was worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to the drug and tried to wean him off it.

During the two nights before Jackson's death, Murray said, he put together combinations of other drugs that succeeded in helping Jackson sleep.

The full autopsy report, which was released Monday afternoon, included an analysis by an anesthesiology consultant of the use of propofol.

The consultant, Dr. Selma Calmes, concluded that the "standard of care for administering propofol was not met."

"There was no evidence of an infusion pump for control of an IV infusion. No monitors were found at the scene; a blood pressure cuff and portable pulse oximeter were recovered from a closet in the next room," Calmes wrote.

An oxygen tank was found near where Jackson slept, but it was empty when the coroner investigator checked it two weeks after Jackson died, Calmes said.

"Multiple opened bottles of propofol were found with small amounts of remaining drugs," Calmes said. "A used bottle should be discarded six hours after opening, to avoid possible bacterial growth."

"The level of propofol found on toxicology exam are similar to those found during general anesthesia for major surgery," Calmes said.

During such surgery, any patient would be "intubated and ventilated by an anesthesiologist," she said.

The consultant's report said that the level of lorazepam found in Jackson "would have accentuated the respiratory and cardiovascular depression from propofol."


Sources: CNN, CBS News

Richard Heene's Pre-Jail Interview With Larry King

Larry King, Richard Heene Interview Part I




Larry King, Richard Heene Interview Part II




New "Balloon Boy" Home video footage.




"You guys said we did this for the show".





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Carrie Prejean & Larry King Face Off..."Larry Your Being Inappropriate"

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Sources: MSNBC, CNN, Youtube, ScrapeTV, Google Maps