Talkers magazine, the leading industry magazine and newspaper for the talk radio business, awarded Rush Limbaugh with the coveted Freedom of Speech Award at the New Media Conference of Talkers Magazine in New York over the weekend.
Talkers . . .
Rush is now the first two-time recipient of the prestigious honor, for the massive attention he garnered in the mainstream press as a result of statements made on the air critical of the President of the United States and particular branches of the Federal government that went on to spark a national dialogue and debate — a process that reflects the very heart of the First Amendment.
Rush spoke about freedom of speech and talk radio in accepting the award. It was a fine 10 minute speech about our freedom of speech and instructive on how to be successful in talk radio. Something the Air America crowd would do good to listen to.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at her weekly press conference yesterday continued dodging questions about her accusations that the CIA lied to Congress about waterboarding terrorist detainees.
Pelosi was pressed by reporters on whether she continued to receive briefings and admitted that she is still receiving the CIA presentations. She refused to answer when this humble correspondent asked whether or not she believes intelligence professionals are still lying to her.
About that vacation in Mexico
Things got a bit out of hand over the weekend in Acapulco, Mexico, in the heart of the hotel district.
A military official says 15 gunmen and a soldier were killed in a two-hour shootout in the heart of Acapulco’s hotel zone.
The army colonel who led the battle against the gunmen says the shootout erupted when the military received a tip about the presence of armed men at a house in the hotel zone.
Tourism is out. Now, by default, illegal drug cartels in Mexico and illegal aliens in the United States seems to be what Mexico runs on.
Taser use to obtain DNA not unconstitutional
Opinions of what constitutes torture have been kicked around ever since waterboarding was used on 3 terrorists. That’s right, only 3 sorry human beings at Club Gitmo that did produce helpful information.
What would you call repeatedly tasing someone until they ‘volunteered’ to give a DNA sample? That’s what happened in Niagara Falls, NY.
Within minutes of writing about how poorly the Prius is selling in the US, the article from BusinessGreen.com also goes on to say how well the Prius and Toyota are doing in Japan . . .
However, while Toyota may be enjoying mainstream success in Japan, it is continuing to struggle in the US, where the company has been hit by the slump affecting the entire auto industry.
I came across this story that says Toyota’s sales for May were down 25% in Japan. Is this the new definition of success?
May 28, 2009, Toyota Motor Corp’s sales in Japan so far in May are down roughly 25 percent from the same period last year, President Katsuaki Watanabe said on Thursday.
As a consumer of news, when one source says sales are good, and the other one says sales are bad, it makes one question not only the value of the news out there but the level of trust in the source.
Naturally you have to consider the source. In this case, between a green website BusinessGreen.com and Reuters, I don’t know about you but I’m not feeling very trustworthy of either. The value of it is right up there with playing the wheels on the boardwalk. Put down your quarter dollar and spin the wheel. Then leave with a plastic toy made in China.
It’s fair to say that auto sales of any brand is down, and down significantly and for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is government intervention. Current economic conditions aside, the Prius and vehicles like it are not what the market demands. And for whatever demand there is, there is no demand to eliminate the SUV and American cars as we know them. That demand is coming from Washington, not the market.
Despite claims that Americans turning their backs on gas-guzzlers have contributed to the present dire straits faced by GM and others, Toyota’s latest sales figures point to a stagnant market for more efficient Japanese models as well.
Sales of the Prius in the US were down from 15,011 in May 2008 to just 10,091 for the same month this year. For the year to date, sales of the Prius in the US stand at 42,753 compared to 79,675 in 2008 – a drop of more than 45 per cent.
Markets don’t respond well to political direction. Markets are self-correcting when ‘allowed.’ That is to say, when they are not interfered with. Above everything else, markets don’t do well in an atmosphere of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. In light of the power grab the Obama administration has perpetrated over various industries and companies within his first 100 days, the only message Barack Obama is sending to business is watch out, you could be next.
Here’s an interesting bit of information about how environmentally-green mass-transportation is not simply ‘green’ by default. Written not by politicians, but by scientists, which probably qualifies them as card carrying extremists.
Its authors point out an array of factors that are often unknown to the public. These are hidden or displaced emissions that ramp up the simple “tailpipe” tally, which is based on how much carbon is spewed out by the fossil fuels used to make a trip.
Environmental engineers Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath at the University of California at Davis say that when these costs are included, a more complex and challenging picture emerges.
In some circumstances, for instance, it could be more eco-friendly to drive into a city — even in an SUV, the bete noire of green groups — rather than take a suburban train. It depends on seat occupancy and the underlying carbon cost of the mode of transport.
Which reminds me of a related subject, biofuels. Did you know that it is greener to burn our fossil fuels than to produce and burn biofuels?
The European Union held parliamentary elections over the weekend and the results indicate a rejection of socialism as they see it and of left-leaning parties in most member nations.
Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe’s largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere.
Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.
First projections by the European Union showed center-right parties would have the most seats – between 263 and 273 – in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were expected to get between 155 to 165 seats.
The EU seems to get it. They’ve seen it all before. Even more reason for the Obama administration to keep his socialist plans on the fast track. Before most Americans figure him out and what he is doing. The US media are not talking.
You can kind of tell when a media outlet doesn’t like what they’re seeing. Look how the left-leaning Telegraph.co.uk describes the victories. They get very creative in adjectives for the winners. Extremists, far-right, fringe parties, anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic immigrant party, anti-gipsy extremist, ultra-nationalist. See any bias there?
Far-Right parties and extremists made gains across Europe this weekend as protest votes and low turnouts marked the European parliament elections.
Support for centre-Left parties and governments crashed across the EU as fringe parties, not the Socialists, picked up protest votes while the centre-Right weathered the storm.
Anti-immigrant and far-right groups made significant gains in the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Denmark, Slovakia and Finland.
In Slovakia a low turnout of just 19.4 per cent propelled an anti-gipsy extremist ultra-nationalist into the parliament and Hungary’s far-Right Jobbik took three seats for the first time.
In France, Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-Right UMP group was the big winner, with 28 per cent of the vote, as the opposition Socialists suffered serious losses, plunging the already weak party into further disarray.
Can hardly wait to hear David Axelrod’s spin on the election results. It is the writing on his wall.
In an attempt to get his two employees back from a North Korean labor camp, vice president Al Gore (or Algore for you right wing extremists), President Obama might send former vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are facing a possible 12 years in a hard labor camp.
Of all the political discourse out there, Rahm Emanual’s ‘rule one‘ has received the least amount of attention, while the evidence of it abounds in spades. The synergy between the Obama administration and the social and political activist group ACORN deserves some exposure and scrutiny as well. It’s time we (the American people) had this examination and discussion.
“Never allow a crisis to go to waste, they are opportunities to do big things.” This is “rule one” as explained by President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on national television last fall.
What does that mean to you? Just look at what President Obama is doing, as opposed to what he is saying.
To me it means President Obama is not going to rebuild the economy until he first transforms it into his socialist version, complete with a “youth corps” that will include ACORN.
ACORN, you will recall, is the community activist group that he represented as a Chicago lawyer to expand the toxic sub-prime mortgages that started this economic mess. All in the name of “social justice.”
It means that plans to rebuild the economy come last, not first. That is rule one. Or to put it another way, “the chickens are coming home to roost.”
links:
H/T to the Pensacola News Journal for taking the risk of printing my letter to the editor on this subject.
The northward flow is down 13 percent for the first quarter of 2009. That should be good news for Californians, who are broke due in no small part to the impact of illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities.
The economic crisis, combined with a more fortified border, has led to what may be the first drop in the U.S. illegal-immigrant population in years.
There is nothing much to be optimistic about with a 13% decrease except for the direction it is going. Which is down. That’s a good thing. But it also means that there were 137,497 illegals that did enter the country in the first quarter. Down from 159,024 in 2008. I wonder how many of those were terrorists?
On the day that the government takeover of GM is complete, which President Obama explained as just temporarily helping out the auto industry, as ‘reluctant shareholders,’ leave it to a Russian citizen to put it all in its proper perspective. They have been there, done that.
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
In reality, its BM, Barack Motors
This morning, the President told the auto industry that they have to make the sacrifices, so that his children and their children and grandchildren can live in a country where we still make things. He fired GM’s president, replaced the board, put his advisers on it, dictated the kind of cars they are going to make, and he also said that he doesn’t want the government to run the company. What he said was exactly this . . .
The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions.
What? Just the most fundamental corporate decisions? Like who will be on your board of directors, what kind of car to make, and the mileage standard it must meet, the type of fuel it must run on, and where it will be made. It’s reassuring that he doesn’t want to run the company isn’t it?
And the change doesn’t stop there.
The nationalization of the auto industry, and giving ownership stake to the UAW over secured creditors.
President Obama’s Justice Department under Eric Holder, has dropped charges against some Black Panther members who were intimidating voters in Philadelphia. This, afterthe defendants failed to answer the suit, putting them in default. But instead of making arrests, the DOJ drops the charges. What was that noise about enforcing voting laws?
President Obama’s Justice Department under Eric Holder, just told the State of Georgia that they may not purge their voting rolls of dead people and illegal aliens.
Is it me or are things beginning to unravel? I can hardly wait to see what kind of cars that Obama, his auto industry advisers, and the UAW will produce. And, besides the government, who will buy them?
That this seismic shift from a free market capitalistic society to a socialist / Marxist type society is happening without comment from our media gives credence to the ”passive, hapless sheeple’ comment from the writer. If you were a frog in a pot of water, the heat has just been turned up. It’s time to get out. If you’re not a frog, then it’s time to speak up.
Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.
vice president Al Gore (or Algore for you right wing extremists), President Obama might send former vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are facing 