Category Archives: Media

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Remembering 9/11

Reflecting back on the 9/11 attack is easy for me, because I’ve never forgotten it or the aftermath. The prayers and sympathy for the victims and their families goes without saying.

I remember vividly how that horrific attack galvanized America as one unit focused on helping the victims and, at the same time, finally fighting back at those who had been killing Americans for years.

Our enemy had a good day. Aside from killing innocent Americans, they hurt our economy so badly that it took years to recover.

Feeling eerily uncomfortable with pro-American unity in both political parties, Sen. Ted Kennedy must have felt his party was threatened to minority party status for decades unless he could do something to stop it. Sadly, I remember how America’s unity ended when Sen. Ted Kennedy made the false accusation that the Bush administration believed Saddam Hussein had “planned the 9/11 attack.” I remember how quickly the political Left ate that up, buttressed by a willing media. It was the ‘lion of the senate’ who politicized what was called the ‘war on terror.’ For that strategy alone, Ted Kennedy deserves credit for being the one person most responsible for prolonging the war to a tenth anniversary, and counting. That’s what I remember.

The reason I’ll never forget it goes to survival. Because the people in charge of the war on terror now, all Ted Kennedy acolytes, want to give the enemy our constitutional protections, lowering the bar to a criminal matter. They want to scrap the ‘war on terror’ and the most effective parts of the ‘Patriot Act,’ calling it an ‘overseas contingency operation.’ And we have Ted Kennedy to thank for it.

There’s a saying, “what goes around comes around.” This applies to Sen. Ted Kennedy too. He went from the lion of the senate to a maggot in hell. A small consolation in the fight that continues to this day.

Link: Schneider: Tell us what you remember, why you will never forget

Economy, Media, Politics

Phony Unemployment Numbers

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a drop in the unemployment rate from 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent.  And that 117,000 jobs were added.

The BLS also noted that there were 38,000 fewer people working in July than in the previous month. So how can it be that the unemployment rate ‘dropped?’

It dropped because the bean counters in Washington have reduced the pool of workers enough to cause the percentage change go in one direction when what is measured is actually going in the opposite direction. The BLS calls this “seasonally adjusted” as modified by the “civilian labor force participation rate.”

[scribd id=61861912 key=key-2inwl0ufhv0awdanz1ti mode=list]

Look what the rate is if Washington used the same method of tracking unemployment that you and I use. Beginning with the active labor force as big as it was when Obama was inaugurated, the unemployment rate would be 11.7%.

If the unemployment rate goes up but is not reported, did it really happen?

Link: Jobs report shows some ugly truths  |  Bureau of Labor Statistics

2012 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

Obamanomics Is Expanding

Updated 8/7/2011. Now that all the stimulus money has played its course, look around for signs of success. And also look for President Obama to ask for either another “stimulus” package or a QE3, or both. But that’s beside the point.

The point is the economic genius of our president, media malpractice, and how well the two go together.

Obamanomics began from a “social justice” footing. Simply put, social justice is a statist belief that the government must manage society in a way that guarantees outcome under the pretense of fairness.  I don’t believe that is in the Constitution, but Obama doesn’t preserve, protect, or defend it anyway. He really wants to be America’s new founding father.

He manages society through taxation, taking money from those who have it (regardless of whether they have been born) and give it to those who want it. The fact that the recipients might want to keep the checks coming by voting to keep them in office is just an unintended? consequence.

While Americans that have lost their jobs are in the unemployment line, President Obama is working hard to keep his own. Having been to 37 fundraisers up to this point in time, it is clear where his focus is. Bush and Clinton had 10 and 7 respectively for the same length of time in their first term.

But now, Obamanomics has a new twist. The fact that there is no job creation going on is not because of the president’s policies or his class warfare, wealth envy, or anti-business tendencies. PBS and Obama blame it on businesses for not hiring people. Here is a quote from a short PBS article that took two people to write.

However, it’s been clear for months that President Obama’s ability to enact job-creating policies has been significantly restricted by politics and the business community’s refusal to hire in the face of depressed consumer demand.

Restricted by politics? Not hardly. Obama got all the stimulus and major policies he asked for. Neither PBS nor President Obama and his advisers understand free-market economics. Businesses don’t hire people so that someone will have a job. They hire people when they believe they would lose business if they did not hire. They hire people so that they can make money. Or to put it another way, businesses don’t hire people when business is down and there is no prospect of business getting better any time soon. But in Obamanomics, businesses should hire people so they will have a job.

So this is why taxpayers have to continue to fund PBS?

But wait, there’s more. Remember the first stimulus package? All that shovel ready stuff, rebuilding the nation’s roads and infrastructure. He sold it to the American people on the pretense that that’s what it was going to be used for. And they bought it. Now we know it was nothing more than a slush fund to give to state governments to support the public-sector union wages and pension plans. Knowing full well that that money would come back to the Democratic party in 2010 like it did.

Well guess what? Pretend all that infrastructure rebuilding never happened. Because in reality, it didn’t. That’s why President Obama will be hitting up the American people for more money to ostensibly do the same thing that he asked Americans to pay for a couple years ago. You know, back when unemployment was in the 6-7 percent range.

We also need to give more opportunities to all those construction workers out there who lost their jobs when the housing boom went bust. We could put them to work right now, by giving loans to private companies that want to repair our roads and our bridges and our airports, rebuilding our infrastructure. We have workers who need jobs and a country that needs rebuilding; an infrastructure bank would help us put them together.

The administration is counting on the short memory of the dumb masses and outlets like PBS to dutifully carry their water. Short of admitting they have it all wrong, they are left with no other choice.

Link: With Debt Deal Done, Obama Turns to Re-election Campaign  |  With debt deal done, Obama sees need now for new spending on bridges, roads, unemployment  |  Huffington: Nobody Believes Obama’s Top Priority Is Jobs; It’s Getting Re-Elected  |  I Will Not Rest

Iran, Media, Middle East, War On Terror

Iraq Down, Iran Up

Guess whats been happening in Iraq and Iran? Haven’t you heard?

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says Iran is increasingly being involved in supporting attacks on the U.S. military in Iraq.

During a surprise visit to Baghdad on July 11, Panetta blamed Iran for the spike in Shi’ite militia attacks on the U.S. military. Panetta said the U.S. military would act without Iraq Army approval to stop what he termed the Iranian campaign against American troops, Middle East Newsline reported.

In June, 14 American soldiers were killed in the deadliest month for the U.S. military since 2008 amid what officials said marked intensified Iranian training of Shi’ite proxies.

And Iraq is facing the prospect of secession by its minority Sunni community. The Iraq government “has lost control over much of the Sunni community,” particularly in the western province of Anbar.

Looks like the ‘debt ceiling’ and ‘default’ hysteria has succeeded in keeping the new trouble in the Middle East from being reported. And there is no one in the Obama administration, including the Commander-in-Chief himself, talking about it.

Economy, Media, Politics

Government Overestimating Growth

Well who knew that the Bureau of Economic Analysis would not be dealing straight with the folks when they come out with their economic reporting? After month after month of the administration telling us we are in recovery mode, the folks are still asking ‘where are the jobs?’

Turns out, not only is this a jobless recovery, but a recovery-less recovery too! Looking around, you don’t need Ezra Klein writing in the Washington Post to tell you that. But he did . . .

The economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the second quarter of this year. What wasn’t expected is that the BEA would go back and admit it’s been overestimating growth for the past three years. “For 2007-2010, real GDP decreased at an average annual rate of 0.3 percent; in the previously published estimates, real GDP had increased at an average annual rate of less than 0.1 percent.” {emphasis added}

Keep a sharp eye out to see if the rest of the legacy media jumps on this story. But don’t hold your breath.

Economy, Media, Politics, War On Terror

Putting Country Over Party

1 Comment

Listening to the storyline of Democrats in the House of Representatives over the budget and debt ceiling debate, you might think there is some message coordination going on.

If you want a government that does not spend more than it has, you must be a terrorist. If you reject the growth in government and government policies that are not economically sustainable, then you must be a terrorist. Jeff Foxworthy could do a bit on this.

Referring to an opinion piece in Politico by William Yeomans, Rush said . . .

It has become commonplace to call the Tea Party faction in the House ‘hostage takers.’ But they have now become full-blown terrorists. They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals.” This is William Yeomans writing. Mr. Yeomans, what in the name of Sam Hill do you think Barack Obama is?

Look at this array of examples of how the elected Democrats portray Republicans, and tea party folks specifically. Below are some quotes from the house floor . . .

STENY HOYER: (rotunda noise) The Republicans are holding hostage the credit of the United States of America.

DEBBIE “BLABBERMOUTH” SCHULTZ: …our Republican colleagues to hold our economy hostage.

DINGY HARRY: The Republican Party is holding our economy hostage.

CHUCK-U SCHUMER: (rotunda noise) It didn’t say, “Hold America hostage.”

LOUISE SLAUGHTER: …hold the debt ceiling hostage.

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE: One party is holding the country hostage.

JOHN OLVER: The debt limit has never before been held hostage.

BARBARA LEE: Republicans are holding our economy hostage.

EARL BLUMENAUER: …willing to take hostage the debt ceiling.

JASON ALTMIRE: Stop holding America’s credit rating hostage.

ROSA DeLAURO: The Republican majority continues to hold the American economy hostage.

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Let’s not hold the entire American economy hostage.

JOHN LARSON: …ideological HOSTAGE situation…

LLOYD DOGGETT: The only belt they’re really tightening is right around the neck of those hostages.

JAMES CLYBURN: Holding the American economy hostage.

JESSE JACKSON, JR.: This President is being treated differently!

SPEAKER PRO-TEM: (gavel banging)

JACKSON: No other President has been stuck up, shook down, or held hostage!

 Limbaugh continues . . .

We’re not holding anybody hostage. We are the hostages! We are equal time. We are paying the ransom all the time. We are the hostages. Our country has been kidnapped, and you’re asking a ransom from us in the form of higher taxes and less liberty and less freedom each and every day — and you dare to write pieces calling us terrorists! We don’t fly jet planes into buildings. We’re not killing people. We’re not putting people out of work. We’re not taking their money. We’re not destroying their savings. We’re not taking over the oil companies. We’re not taking over the car companies. We are not the ones in the process of destroying the U.S. healthcare system.

Bottom line. We’ve seen and heard this kind of rhetoric from Democrats before. It is still name-calling, only now we are being compared to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda.

Limbaugh continues . . .

I don’t want to hear any more crap from Democrats about “civility.” I don’t want to be preached to one more time by these holier-than-thou, better-than-everybody-else, smarter-than-everybody-else craven villains about “civility.” I have to tell you, folks (and I know that I am not alone): I am mad as all get out. The Democrats and their cohorts and the Drive-Bys have collectively ratcheted up this divisive, uncivil, reactionary language to trash the Tea Party — and, by extension, conservatives. We’re not terrorists! We’re not killing people. We are Americans who disagree with you! We’re Americans who disagree with statism. We are Americans who disagree with socialism, communism and liberalism.

Consideringstand-by-country what the Obama administration has done to “remake America,” you and I, the American people, are the real hostages. Ironically, it is the tea party people who have followed Obama’s advice to “put country over party.”

Link: Media Reality Check: During Debt Talks, Liberal Media Savaged Tea Party as Ignorant, Irrational Terrorists

Media

New York Times Reports 2nd Qtr Loss

A sign of the Times? Perhaps. The New York Times reported a second quarter net loss of $119.7 million for 2011. The same quarter last year turned in a profit of $60.8 million.

Online subscriptions are up, the paper says. Since there are no LY figures for online subscriptions, it couldn’t be anything but ‘up.’ The Times started a subscription scheme for their online version in March 2011.

Link: Editor & Publisher

Economy, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Liberal Translation

2 Comments

There are a couple of things going on in Washington. I mean besides class warfare and wealth envy from Democrats and the Progressive talkers out there.

From now on, instead of increasing taxes, the term to use (in Obamaspeak) is increasing revenue. After all, who doesn’t want more revenue? Fact is, they just can’t sell their plan if they have to be honest about what they want to do, which is raise taxes, on millionaires and billionaires. Translation, mostly small business owners.

Next is the debt ceiling debate and the way President Obama is lying about it and its effects on social security checks in a few weeks.

The deception that Obama counts on is that the dumb masses will equate, like he suggests, that if he doesn’t get the debt ceiling increased, and if he doesn’t get to raise taxes, then Social Security, Medicare, and Military checks might not be paid. And as Ed Shultz and Mike Papantonio and their callers suggest, the Republicans want old people to just get sick and die, and will leave soldiers oversease stuck there with no ammo, food, or a way home.

One of the Liberal callers to the Ed & Pap show actually told Ed Shultz that the two, debt limit and SS payments were not related. Shultz passed that on as a big oh hum. Without comment. How could he comment? After all, it was only yesterday that President Obama told America that those checks might not be cut if he doesn’t get to raise taxes and increase the national debt. The fear the President spews has no limit. It’s amazing to me how Ed Shultz missed such a contradiction.

As you might suspect, there is no connection with all of those obligations and the debt ceiling. Not now, and not next month either. Those obligations are already made and are separate from the over $14 Trillion in national debt. Truth is, the country is currently pulling in enough tax revenue to cover current recipients for now and at lease another decade. Truth is, it is the out-of-control government expansion, government spending, and government policies like Obamacare that is causing the FUD factor to prevail in all business decisions and a double dip recession to . . . flourish.

Fairness Doctrine, Media, Politics

Administration Avoiding FOX?

That’s not news. That’s just the way it is. Only now there are emails that substantiate what everyone to the right or Arlen Specter always knew.

—”According to one October 22, 2009, email exchange between Dag Vega, Director of Broadcast Media on the White House staff, to Jenni LeCompte, then-Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Treasury Department, Vega informs LeCompte that ‘…we’d prefer if you skip Fox please.'”

Of course you don’t want to explain yourself to the FOX viewers or get questions that you’d rather not have to answer. This administration is as transparent as they want to be. In a way, their political survival depends on the dumb masses.

Link: Washington Whispers: E-mails Show Obama Effort to Blackball Fox