Category Archives: Media

Media

2014 Mummers Parade Online

2014 Mummers Parade update from Kristen Hatfield at PHL17

We will be streaming the parade live on our website around 9am on New Year’s Day. It will air locally on PHL17, but we will also have videos of the performances on our website following the parade.

Thanks,

Kristen Hatfield
PHL17 Creative Services Coordinator
5001 Wynnefield Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19131
215-883-3350
khatfield@phl17.com

UPDATE: 12/25/2013:

Here are the String Band and Fancy Brigade themes for the 2014 SugarHouse Casino Mummers Parade.  You can get more details and updates about the Parade on Steve Highsmith’s Blog.  The live stream of the parade will be available via this link on January 1st at 10am EST.

The String Bands

1. Woodland – “Legend of the Lamp”

2. Fralinger – “The Circus Comes to Clown”

3. Polish American -”It’s SNOW-Time”

4. Avalon – “The Fields Are Alive!”

5. Ferko – “FERKO is TOY-rific”

6. Uptown – “The Pillage People”

7. Original Trilby – “All For Mum And Mum For All”

8. South Philadelphia – “Invasion of Piracy”

9. Greater Overbrook –  “Show Boatin on Broad Street”

10. Aqua – “Aqua Shoots for the Stars”

11. Hegeman – “Hegeman’s Household Havoc”

12. Quaker City  -”California here we MUM”

13. Pennsport – “A Carnival in Venice”

14. Broomall – “Camping is in Tents”

15. Durning – “Wet Side Story”

16. Greater Kensington -”Proud to be A ‘Mum’-Merican”

17. Duffy – “No Strings Attached”

The Fancy Brigades

1. Spartans – “One Nation, Valley of the Drums”

2. Satin Slipper – “Adventure of Enchantment”

3. Golden Crown – “The Legend of Angkor Wat”

4. Saturnalian  – “Twisted Treats and Sinister Sweets”

5. Downtowners – “Beyond Wonderland: A Mad Hatters World”

6. Clevemore – “Oz”

7. S.P.Vikings – “The City of Steam”

8. B. M’s Shooting Stars – “Atlantis Guardians of the Deep”

9. Jokers – “Dead Men Tell No Tales-A Journey Into Blackbeard’s Realm”

10. Avenuers – “Polynesian Adventure”

11. Second Street Shooters – “The Dead Will Rise”

 

Read more: http://phl17.com/2013/12/20/2014-mummers-parade-band-themes/#ixzz2oUn04IiS

2008 Election, Media, Obamacare, Politics

The Grand Deception, If You Like . . . You Can Keep . . .

The American people are not deserving of what Obamacare is inflicting on them. It’s not their fault that they believed President Obama when he was running for President and trying to gain public support for the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and even after it was passed into law. This isn’t anywhere near a “read my lips, no new taxes” moment. This was the Grand Deception.

ObamaLyingSmall

It was nothing short of a Grand Deception because the administration knew that millions of Americans would be necessarily kicked off their plans because of the ACA as early as July 20, 2010. Yet, he decided to play “community organizer” on the honesty and integrity of the American people, and snooker them into accepting Obamacare on his words and promise.

Americans let the ACA pass was because they believed President Obama when he said, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period.” And “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period.” Which should tell you that for the most part, Americans were happy with the plans they had. And they didn’t have a watchdog media to warn and tell them what was in the law. There was no groundswell of opinion for up-ending the health insurance and health care industries.

Americans believed him because . . . he was the President. He’s still the President, only now they also know what he, democrat operatives in the party, and the media are capable of.

Sad truth is, with him and his acolytes, the end (even lying) justifies the means.

And this “We’re going to work with the employers to lower premiums by $2,500 per family per year.”

Media, Obamacare, Politics

Media Focuses On Politics Rather Than Obamacare

A prime example of how the media circles the wagons around this president, is this AP story that took two people to write.

julie_paceObama_presserNotice how AP writers Julie Pace and Nancy Benac make the story over the politics of it all. How this will hurt the administration, how republicans fell into a controversy with legs, etc.. Well Julie, Nancy, just because Solyndra, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS intimidation of political adversaries, EPA intimidation of political adversaries, and NSA domestic surveillance are not in your reporting doesn’t mean they didn’t happen and are not attached to this administration.

For the AP, it isn’t about how Obamacare (the law) is not doing what it was supposed to do or doing what it was promised to do. And, it isn’t about leaving seniors, and everyone for that matter, in the lurch with cancelled policies, higher premiums and deductibles, and a non-functioning website. Not to mention that there are millions of Americans that aren’t plugged into the Internet in the first place, like seniors, that need a health insurance policy. None of that.

And only now do they admit how wildly unpopular Obamacare is and always has been with most of America. Wouldn’t be surprised if Julie Pace, Chief White House Correspondent at the AP, gets a W-2 from The White House.

Link: For Obama, health care woes may have staying power

Media, Obamacare, Politics

Dems Join Ranks Of Terrorists, Hostage Takers

All of a week after several weeks of calling House and Senate Republicans hostage takers and terrorists for wanting to save Americans from the terribly flawed Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, six senate Democrats (up for re-election) are strapping on their bomb vests and calling for delay and/or repairing as KKK_democratswell. And oh yeah, they’re racists too. The only reason they don’t want it to go into effect is because Obama is Black.

It is instructive to note the emphasis that the media puts on this move. It’s not about the poor people who won’t have insurance, it’s about how it will affect the Democrats politically.

As Democrats began to fret about the political consequences ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, the administration late Wednesday said it was granting what amounts to a six-week filing extension. The March 31 deadline for having insurance became the new deadline for applying for it.

You will recall that the bills that the House proposed a few weeks ago to end the government shutdown were defeated for a lack of six Democrat senators who stood with their party instead of the American people. Today, they’re claiming to be defending the American people.

Link: Democrats Want ‘Obamacare’ Deadlines Moved Back

 

Media, Politics

Alias Tweet, Fired! Alias Email, That’s Cool

A White House national security staffer gets fired for making unflattering tweets under an alias.

But not former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer during Operation Fast and Furious, and recently confirmed Labor Secretary Tom Perez during his time as a DOJ Civil Rights Attorney, or the IRS’ Lois Lerner for using private and alias email accounts for conducting government business out of reach of the FOIA. That’s different. What?

What’s different about this is that this lawless administration has one overriding principle. The end justifies the means. But this principle is not unique to the administration. In all fairness, it is a belief shared by most Liberals, Progressives, and the media.

Skirting the law or lying to the folks just doesn’t matter and the media will circle the wagon by not reporting it for what it is. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. You’ll save $2,500 a year on your policy. This will be the most open and transparent administration. The ACA will actually decrease the debt, or I won’t sign it. The list goes on but, you get the idea.

Link: White House Aide Fired Over Twitter Account

Media, Obamacare, Politics

HEALTHCARE.GOV Website Developer Was Fired By Canada

“Oh no”, says Barack. Those pesky bloggers are at it again. In other words, doing the job that the lamestream media just won’t do.

Did you know . . . The Canadian government fired the parent company of CGI Federal, CGI Group, Inc, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, last year for poor performance.

The Canadian firm that was paid $634 million dollars without a bidding process, to build the Obamacare website and other computing services, was fired by Canada for failing to meet three years of deadlines as the developer of Canada’s online medical registry.

Let that sink in for a moment. Now ponder why the Obama administration would give Serge Godin, among Canada’s richest 100 citizens, and his wife, the owners of CGI Group, Inc. over a half billion of taxpayer dollars to a Canadian company that was fired for failing to do the job that Obama expects them to do?

According to Open Secrets, CGI Federal alone has contributed $1,020,000 from 2008 to 2013 to the DNC.

So let the investigations begin. Beginning with this question, is Serge Godin a big-time Obama campaign bundler? And let’s include Nina Freeman in this too, an employee of his, who is involved in distributing the money. And while we’re at it, we better subpoena Toni Townes-Whitley. (see update below)

Link: Canadian officials fired IT firm behind troubled Obamacare website

Update 10/22/2013, and needing no further setup. Well, except for the fact that once the news breaks, the lamestream media plays catch-up . . . Report: Healthcare website failed test ahead of rollout 

Update 10/28/2013, the lobbying donations don’t even tell the complete story as to why CGI Federal might get a no bid and open contract. Come to find out that a Princeton University classmate of First Lady Michelle Obama, Toni Townes-Whitley, lives in the neighborhood (Fairfax Station, Va) and is a Senior Vice President at CGI Federal. I can hear the Church Lady now, “Isn’t that special?”

Economy, Media, Obamacare, Politics, Race Relations

Then There’s Obama’s Economic Recovery Recession

There’s a reason the news has been consumed by things like the debt ceiling, continuing resolutions, and Obamacare. They can be easily demagogued and republicans can, and will, be blamed for all of it by the administration and the compliant media.

When it comes to the economy and related numbers, income is down, poverty is up.  It’s no longer possible to blame Bush for it. This is Obama’s failed economy. No one else’s.

Try as they might, there are some out there that tout it as a resounding success. Like MSNBC’s Ed Shultz. He can’t believe that only 45% of Americans believe Obama’s handling of he economy is good! And that was a month ago.

“It amazes me that people don’t love Obama…It just amazes me he can’t get above 50 percent when it comes to a favorable view of the economy.”

Ed then touts how the stock market is going through the roof and how Obama has been “hands off” on Wall Street. Oh really? The stock market has been artificially pumped up for years with the Quantitative Easing from Federal Reserve. Printing trillions of dollars that is not going to main street. It’s being used on Wall Street, and, is a major contributor to the widening gap in income between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of us. And that’s why any hint that the QE printing presses will be cut back causes the stock market to come down off its QE high. While Ed Shultz is touting this great stock market, and  how wonderful the economy’s doing, here comes Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve saying, “Oh, no it’s not, and if we don’t continue to pump $1 trillion a year into it, it’s gonna plunge.”

On Main Street, the picture is not any better. In fact, it’s much worse.

According to the Census report, the high point for median household income in the United States was back in 1999 ($56,080). It almost got back to that level in 2007 ($55,627), but ever since then there has been a steady decline. The following figures come directly from the report, and as you can see, median household income has fallen every single year for the past five years…

  • 2007: $55,627
  • 2008: $53,644
  • 2009: $53,285
  • 2010: $51,892
  • 2011: $51,100
  • 2012: $51,017

You also didn’t know that there are six counties in America where the median income is over twice the national median.  Four of those counties are suburban Washington.  The median income in those counties is it $101,000. And now that Obama has exempted them from the Healthcare Exchanges, making you pay 75% of their health insurance policy, the political class is doing just fine.

The new Census report also revealed that 46.5 million Americans are living in poverty. During the four years that marked President Barack Obama’s first term in office, the real median income of American households dropped by $2,627 and the number of people on poverty increased by about 6,667,000, according to data released by the Census Bureau.

Right now, one out of every five households in the United States is on food stamps. Keep in mind too that the increased cost and fines associated with Obamacare have not been fully realized yet. That will only make things worse. There are lots of troubling signs as we get ready to head into the fall season…

  • -Total mortgage activity has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since October 2008.
  • -One of the largest furniture manufacturers in America was just forced into bankruptcy.
  • -According to the Wall Street Journal, the 2013 holiday shopping season is already being projected to be the worst that we have seen since 2009.

Oh but it doesn’t stop there. The administration will say that two million jobs were created last year? What kind?  Lower paying and part-time jobs primarily in the service ObamaUnemploymentMathindustries, some of which are second and third jobs people are taking just to make ends meet. The sad fact is that over two million jobs have been lost from the entire labor force since Obama took office. Counting unemployment the way it used to be counted, the rate would be well over 14 percent, known as the U-6 by the BLS.

But those falling median income numbers still don’t tell the whole story. Breaking it down by ethnicity, you’ll see that the strongest voting block for Democrats is hurting the most, and by far.

“The median income for non-Hispanic White households was $57,009, and it was $33,321 for Black households,” which is falling, after nearly five years of the first Black president. Black unemployment remains the highest in the country, Black median income at the lowest.  Teen Black unemployment is unacceptably, almost criminally high. With results like this, it is puzzling why the Black population votes by 93% every four years for the Democrat candidate. Under both White and Black Democrat presidents, it should be obvious that Obama’s skin color didn’t improve their circumstances one iota. In fact, they got worse. The promises are always there. They’re fighting for you. Bla Bla Bla. Have the Democrats fulfilled their promise? Are you gaining, or losing? That’s the only question you need to ask yourself. And the answer, no mater the color of your skin, is losing. At best, it’s time to realize which party can help your situation. At worst, you can ask yourself, “What do I have to lose?”

Economy, Media, Obamacare, Politics

Obamacare And The Separation Of Powers

Let’s not pretend to be so shocked that the House of Representatives wants to fund the government, but not Obamacare. The latest iteration of House Republicans obamacare-you-lie-obama-politics-1341488584negotiating with themselves has melted down to merely extending the same exemptions that Obama illegally gave businesses (until after the mid-term elections) to you and me. Ordinary citizens without the deep pockets.

Obama and his believers in the media will say, hey, it’s the law. You have to fund it. Well, the ACA may be the law, for now, but it is anything but normal.

Beginning with its origination. This law was written to the exclusion of all Republican lawmakers. Mistake #1. Who’s surprised that the country is divided on this? This law was not voted on and approved by the House. Instead, it was “deemed passed” by then Speaker Pelosi (D-CA). Mistake #2. Who’s surprised that the country is divided on this? This law is not performing as it was promised when “sold” to the American people, from the quality of care, keep your doctor, keep your plan, lower cost, no increase in national debt. The opposite is proving to be true about this bill. “Legal” or otherwise. Who’s surprised that the country is divided on this? Mistake #3. There is no budget here to debate over. Obama hasn’t had a budget to abide by since Bush’s last one. During all of Obama’s years, he and congress have been flying by the seat of their pants (where their brains are), and have been operating on CR’s ever since.

As for the Supreme Court ruling on it. That was only about whether the Federal Government can force you to pay for it. Contrary to all of Obama’s and the supporters of the ACA’s arguments up to that point, the Supremes said, with the aid of Chief Justice Roberts, that Congress has the power to tax, so it was a tax. Obama’s lawyers argued all along that it was not a tax, but was a penalty, a fine. Roberts had to change their argument in order to declare it constitutional. Whether the Constitution permits the Federal Government to force citizens to buy a product was not addressed.

Since Obama and Reid have said they’re not willing to talk or negotiate with the House leadership, the House has only one recourse left to them under the Constitution. And that is, the House controls the purse. Not funding the disaster is all that is left. On this, the House must stand their ground. If for no other reason than to force The White House and the Senate to abide by the Constitution as our founders intended.

It’s not the House’s fault that Obama and Reid can’t live with this separation of powers that the founding fathers designed. It’s up to Obama and Reid to not only comply with the Constitution, but to embrace it. Negotiate, and come up with a mutual resolution. Not to demagogue the House with its “my way or the highway” approach. That’s a dictatorship, not a constitutional republic.

Economy, Florida, Media, Obamacare, Politics, Whiners

Barack Obama, Governing By Tantrum

1 Comment

President Obama certainly is enjoying HIS government shutdown. To be sure, it is his and Senate majority leader Harry Reed’s government shutdown.obama-always-a-cry-baby

Beginning with how he despises America so much as to smother it in debt and unaffordable so-called entitlement programs while breaking and selectively enforcing laws, some of which (Obamacare) are of his own making.

And now, in response to Republicans in the House to wanting to put an end to this reckless and lawless administration, to return the country within the bounds of the constitution and fiscal sanity, President Obama is governing by his temper tantrum. Described by one Park Ranger succinctly, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

No surprise here! It’s what community organizers do.

Things like this is what our childish and vindictive President is responsible for . . .

  • Blocking access by WWII veterans (and everyone else) to the WWII Memorial.
  • Blocking access to roadside view parking to Mount Rushmore.
  • Blocking access to the Matrin Luther King Jr. Memorial. An unstaffed, open at all times Memorial.
  • Blocking access and evicting people (senior citizens) from their private residences around Lake Mead.
  • Blocking access to the parking lots at Mt. Vernon. The home of George Washington, is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. But the parking lots are jointly owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association and the Park Service.
  • Blocking access and use of the Ocean. 1,100 square miles of Florida Bay. The area between the southern tip of Florida and the Florida Keys is a prime fishing area.
  • Shutting down the Amber Alert website. During the shutdown, they have a link pointing to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) “to serve in a clearinghouse capacity for the AMBER Alert program and to aid in the dissemination of AMBER Alert information.”
  • They did not shut down Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move website.
  • The golf course at Andrews AFB, where Obama plays, remains open.

This is the tyrant you were warned about. This is what you get when a media refuses to vet a presidential candidate. You elected a community organizer. You got a community organizer. Only on a national level.

Economy, Florida, Media, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics

Big Labor Paid Protestors At WWII Memorial

15_dollar_protestor
Hey, I got paid $15. Yipee!

In yet another example of just how morally bankrupt the Democrat party machine is, they have astroturf  protestors show up to protest at the WWII memorial, posing as federal employees.

Embarrassed by all the media attention given to the Honor Flights that were met with barrier fencing, and not letting a crisis go to waste, an organization called the “Good Jobs Nation,” an activist group largely financed by unions, including the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Farm Workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers, were paid $15 each to pose as federal employees protesting the government shutdown for the media crowd that was already there.

Not a word about it in the New York Times.

The Times did have one article saying how the Honor Flights were now being allowed. Thanks to a guy named Jeff Miller. I’m presuming it is my representative Jeff Miller (R-FL1), but you’d never know it from the New York Times article.

Jeff Miller, the co-founder of the Honor Flight Network, which flies veterans to Washington to see the memorial built in their honor, welcomed the news.

Links: Democrats Pay Union Members to Protest World War II Vets  |  World War II Memorial Will Stay Open to Veterans