Category Archives: Media

Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama’s New Low Profile

President Obama, never one to duck an issue, is appearing to take on a more adult posture at problem solving. From not being the first to the microphone anymore to that of letting others deal with it. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer calls it staying above the fray. The media calls it keeping a low profile. I call it ducking when it is politically expedient to duck.

Ever ready to jump in front of the news, as in the Cambridge, Mass incident between black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white Cambridge, Mass. police Sgt. James Crowley, who “acted stupidly,” and inject himself into the business of the state of Wisconsin by saying it is “an assault on unions,” President Obama missed his golden opportunity at Friday’s news conference to make a statement about the goings on in the Wisconsin state house. After all, it consumed the news media all week/month long, culminating in the passage of the budget repair bill that state Democrats fled the state for. The protests were orchestrated in part by Obama’s Organizing for America and other union bullies. Bullying is OK when it works for BIG LABOR you know.

One take on why Obama failed to talk about it was that the polls suggest that the public does not support it or that he should not be involved in a state issue. Or both. To be sure, if he thought he could make hay out of it, he would have brought it up. If he thought it would hurt his chances of re-election, he might stay ‘above the fray.’ But what is the excuse of the press corps to not ask one question about it? To think that there was no collusion between the press corps and the administration requires a suspension of dis-belief. If not just good old-fashioned Chicago style threats to intimidate the press corps from asking about it. Fact is, no one did.

The Left can’t be too happy with Obama’s new low profile either. They expect him to be in Madison with the demonstrators. Like he said he would do when he was in campaign mode. Try this question that was not asked. Mr. President, critics in your own party are frustrated that another campaign promise seems to have gone by the wayside. What do you say to those who want you to go to Madison and show your solidarity with the labor union? (like you said you would do during your campaign?) The latter part is pure fantasy that he would ever be put on that spot. You know if he was an R, that’s the way the question would have been delivered. But I digress.

Here’s Rush Limbaugh’s take on it . . .

All right. It’s official. There were no questions on Wisconsin asked of the regime at the press conference today. Now, come on, folks, please. It’s only been the rallying cry of the Democrat Party. We’ve only had Obama joining the debate saying we shouldn’t vilify or denigrate public sector union people, they’re our neighbors and so forth. He got involved. It’s his website, Organizing for America, that organized all of the spittle-flecked protesters that were out there. Not one question. Not one statement made by Obama. Again, let me tell you what this means. I’ll explain it by doing it the opposite way. Had there been questions and had there been answers, had Obama made a statement, it would have meant that the polling data was clearly on his side, that the Republicans were really taking it in the shorts in the polls, and that it was a golden opportunity to hammer this whole business of destroying collective bargaining rights for unions.

If they had polling data that suggests that the Democrats won big in this thing that would have been 90% of the content of this presser. And it didn’t even come up.

The president and his handlers certainly have their hands full, both here and abroad. Makes me wonder who has the tougher job? Obama acting as President of the United States or his handlers trying to make an empty suit look as though there is something in it?

Link:  On high-profile issues, Obama keeps a low profile

 

Economy, Media, Politics

‘Two Americas’ And Oil

Remember those ‘two Americas’ that John (the Breck girl) Edwards was talking about in the 2004 presidential campaign? The rising prices of crude oil, now north of $104 per barrel, and gas at the pump north of $3.50 (and 9/10) a gallon, and rising by about a dime a week got the attention of the New York Times with this front page analysis.

The highlights . . .

 

  • Rising Gas Cost Finds the Nation Better Prepared.
  • The increase in energy prices is beginning to resemble the rise in 2008. But this time, the American economy may be better prepared for higher fuel costs.
  • While the latest surge in energy prices is likely to cause some pain and slow the recovery from the recession, economists say the spike is unlikely to derail the rebound unless prices rise a lot further.
  • One big reason is that consumers and businesses have learned lessons from the last oil shock. … Industries like airlines and trucking, which are most severely affected by fuel prices, have passed on their higher costs almost immediately instead of waiting for the price increases to hammer profits.
  • And much of the rest of the United States economy is far less dependent on oil than it used to be.

    A fascinating and in-depth analysis of the high gas prices that took the combined efforts of five reporters. So you know it must be complete and comprehensive.

    Harken back to the high gas prices under the Bush administration which, according to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was blamed on the Bush administration and the fact that there were ‘two oil men in The White House.’ Today, it is apparent from the New York Times that the cost of crude and gas have nothing whatsoever to do with Washington.

    There’s your ‘other’ America.

    Link: U.S. Economy Is Better Prepared for Rising Gas Costs | ‘Two oil men’ to blame for high gas prices, Pelosi says

    Media, Organized Labor, Politics

    Tea Partier Makes Bomb Threat

    A person associated with the Tea Party was arrested today after calling in a bomb threat to a fundraiser for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Miami Beach on Friday.

    No wait! Correction!

    There was a bomb threat, but it wasn’t at Wasserman Schultz’s fundraiser where President Obama was the ‘special guest.’ No, this bomb threat was made by far Left protester Patrick J. Knauf, 43, of Eau Claire. And he made it last Wednesday at an aviation business in Eau Claire just hours after Governor Scott Walker spoke there. According to police, he had been protesting Governor Scott Walker all week.

    What? You mean you hadn’t heard about it in the media? Wonder why?

    H/T Black & Right

    Link: BOMB THREAT at Scott Walker News Conference–Leftist Protester Arrested!

    Economy, Media, Organized Labor, Politics

    Mt. Obama’s Arrogance And Audacity Is In Your Face

    In what would otherwise hands-down qualify for the M.R.I.O.T.D. award, what President Obama said today about congress continuing to fund what he deems as his government goes way beyond ridiculous into the absurd.

    In a statement Wednesday, the president called for immediate budget negotiations between Congress and the White House, with Vice President Biden, Chief of Staff William Daley and Budget Director Jack Lew playing a role.

    “I’m pleased that Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together and passed a plan that will cut spending and keep the government running for the next two weeks,” he said. “But we cannot keep doing business this way. Living with the threat of a shutdown every few weeks is not responsible, and it puts our economic progress in jeopardy.”

    Mt. [sic] Obama said a long term agreement “should cut spending and reduce deficits without damaging economic growth or gutting investments in education, research and development that will create jobs and secure our future.”

    “This agreement should be bipartisan, it should be free of any party’s social or political agenda, and it should be reached without delay,” he added.

    President Obama must be suffering from an early onset of Alzheimer’s or that’s not tobacco in his cigarettes, because this entire issue of pressing for CR’s to avoid a government shutdown was caused by him. His lack of leadership in pressing his Democrat-controlled congress last summer to propose a 2011 budget is why we are where we are today. He is really the one to talk about not being responsible, and of putting ‘economic progress’ in jeopardy. Do you see any economic progress?

    Calling for a meeting with Joe BFD Biden, William Chicago Daley, and new Budget Director Jack Lew about his budget mess is his way of making an empty suit look like there’s something in it. Calling meetings and committees to ostensibly solve problems is no substitute for leadership. You can be assured that the media will not notice.

    All this, and then some, could have been avoided if congress and the president had done their job last year. But it is no accident that a 2011 budget was not submitted last year. Had he submitted a budget that included doubling the size of government like he has done and increasing the debt like he has done and is planning to do, the mid-term elections would have included a new majority party in the senate as well.

    To be fair, there are a couple possibilities for why there was no 2011 budget. One is gross incompetence on the part of the president and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives under Speaker Pelosi. The other is that it was a political calculation to not have one, which would have shown Obama’s cards for what he had in store in 2011. I’d go with the latter. Unrestrained by a budget, spending like there’s no tomorrow to prop up Big Labor and kill the economy by burdening future generations with debt becomes much easier.

    Neither possibility is good. Not for them or America. You might expect it of a community organizer, but not the President of the United States. Which one works for you?

    Link: Obama signs bill to head off government shutdown

    Media, Organized Labor, Politics

    The Lawless Regime Has A Partner

    You may have heard that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have decided not to enforce the Defense Of Marriage Act, DOMA.

    Jeff Lord at American Spectator has a funny piece today. Sarah Palin’s new attorney general, Mark Levin, has just decided that Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional. They’re just gonna decide not to defend abortion anymore, it’s silly, they’re just gonna effectively pretend it doesn’t exist. Can you imagine the outcry?

    Very extraordinary, and particularly from a liberty point of view. There’s a pattern of abuse here. Obama is encouraging lawlessness in Arizona. In fact, he is suing Arizona for defending their own sovereignty against the illegal alien invasion. He is encouraging lawlessness in Wisconsin. He is undermining state governments everywhere he can, particularly if they’re battleground states, which Wisconsin is. He’s ordering his Justice Department not to defend a federal law. Nobody has said the law is unconstitutional other than Obama and Holder, and they don’t have the power to do that. Obama is ignoring court orders he doesn’t like, such as drilling moratorium laws in the Gulf of Mexico, and, of course, DOMA. He is ignoring judge Vinson’s ruling that the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) is unconstitutional.

    Let’s not forget Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency. Which is in effect legislating now when it comes to carbon dioxide, imposing rules on citizens that Congress has not passed. In fact, rules that Congress has refused to pass.  Then there is Obama’s use of Czars simply to bypass cabinet offices, accountable to no one, and they’ve never been confirmed to anything by anyone.

    Alexis de Tocqueville referred to this as soft tyranny. What is soft tyranny? Obama using executive orders, regulations, and now withholding the defense of laws he doesn’t like to run the government out of his office.

    The only comments in the media are whether this will hurt Obama’s poll numbers. If there were an R behind his name instead of a D, the media would be talking impeachment.  What we are witnessing here is a deterioration of our society, our norms, our systems. Ignoring the oath he was sworn to uphold is no trivial matter. And by not calling the president out on it, the media is playing the part of the enabler. The willing accomplice.

     

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

    City Voting On Union Representation Today

    1 Comment

    You won’t find this in the local paper. A search in the Pensacola News Journal (a trade union shop) comes up empty for an organizing attempt of city employees. The only place I saw it mentioned is in a local blog called Progressive Pensacola.

    The literature from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has a catchy phrase. ‘AFSCME – We make FLORIDA happen.’ I have another take on it. It’s more like ‘We help make FLORIDA broke!’

    On Progressive Pensacola, City employees voting on union Thursday.

    Now there’s a really bad idea. Unions, aside from being useless nowadays, only spell more costs for the city. And consequently, more costs for the taxpayers that currently pay their wages and benefits. As if we are flush with cash. If working for the city is so bad, why are applicants falling over themselves trying to get a job with the city? The high demand and desirability of getting a city job seems to belie the need, as far as employees are concerned, for a union. On the other hand, it’s not hard to understand why AFSCME would not want to get more dues paying members.  They are a business and an industry just like any other.

    This move, like all union attempts to raid and then soak an employer, serve only to take your money, if you are one of the employees, and give some of it to the union. And increase the cost of whatever it is that is produced. Which is ultimately paid for by you, the consumer. But you are rich. You can pay it, right?

    In general, labor unions had a useful purpose 50, 60, 70 years ago. But since then, employers got the message and don’t treat their employees like indentured servants. Instead, that’s what the unions intend to make of their members.

    Consequently, they have contributed to their own demise. Because of their efforts and due diligence in improving working conditions and employee relations decades ago, employers nowadays got the message. Due to their successes decades ago, they have made themselves obsolete today.

    But BIG LABOR does not care that unemployment is high. And that their collective bargaining, combined with their spending employee’s money on political campaigns, mostly to save their sorry underfunded benefit packages has caused states and cities all over the country to look at insolvency, if not another government bailout. Are you ready for another government bailout? Andy Stern and Barack Obama are.

    Let’s be thankful that the city can employ as many people as they can right now. Raise the cost more and see if layoffs don’t occur.

    So who benefits? Not the employees. Not the taxpayers. Just the labor union.

    Economy, Media, Politics

    No Federal Budget For 2011

    12 Comments

    As far as running any enterprise goes, let alone the country, making a budget is something you do. Where the country is concerned, the 2011 budget was due last October. That is to say, before the mid-term election.  President Obama gets an F for failing to do his job. There is no budget and no plans to make one. The talk now is about the 2012 budget. The president intends on flying by the seat of his big-spending pants with continuing resolutions for the rest of the year.

    I’m not making excuses for the community organizer, but the fact is that had he submitted a budget that included doubling the size of government like he has done and increasing the debt like he is planning to do, the mid-term elections would have included a new majority party in the senate as well.

    Is there no one left to hold this statist of a president to account?

    Egypt, Iran, Media, Middle East, Politics

    Who Toppled A Dictator?

    Only president I know that toppled a dictator recently was George Bush taking down Saddam Hussein. At that time, the same protesters that took to the streets in Egypt these last two weeks were the same ones that protested the taking down of Saddam Hussein in favor of a democracy. And they were joined by most Democrats and the media.

    Today, however, it’s a totally different picture. Today some of the media, like a University of West Florida professor (I’m still trying to find out her name)  that was interviewed by the Florida News Network as an ‘expert’ on Egypt and the Middle East, are trying to attach the overthrow of Mubarak to President Obama. Giving him ‘credit’ for Mubarak’s ouster. As if Obama had anything to do with it. She said it regains America’s trust in President Obama. Well isn’t this rich? Obviously, Obama has lost whatever trust and respect he may have had, as evidenced by this so-called expert, and as confirmed by Oprah yesterday. And for any number of reasons, not the least of which was his and his advisors’ handling of the uprising in Egypt.

    And while we’re on the topic of toppling dictators, lets see what side Obama supports this time in Iran. Young people (same as in Egypt) there want to demonstrate in Iran again, this time to support the democracy push in Egypt, but the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad are warning them not do take to the streets. Will President Obama come down on the side of the youths wanting democracy, or on the dictator’s side like he did in 2009?

    “I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran’s affairs,” Mr Obama said.

    Link: Demonstrations not encouraged in Iran

    Egypt, Media, Middle East, Politics

    Oh Wait, It Gets Worse

    Since yesterday’s embarrassment, apparently numb to his impish behavior on the world stage, President Obama felt it necessary to amp it up even more. Too bad he doesn’t treat America’s enemies with the same audacity as our allies.

    On this audition for Saturday Night Live, here is AP’s account of what President Obama said . . .

    Without naming Mubarak directly, Obama issued a written statement on Thursday night in which he criticized the leader for a lack of clarity and direction. That assessment came after Mubarak surprised those protesting in Egypt’s streets by saying, in a broadly watched speech, that he would shift powers to his vice president but remain in charge of the country. {emphasis added}

    Isn’t it odd (not really) that the AP doesn’t see the irony? Here is what he said . . .

    Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world.

    If our president is going to criticize Egypt’s president for not putting out a clear message, and for not listening to his citizens, lets at least recognize that in that respect they are twins with one difference. One of them knows what he’s doing.

    Link:  Losing Patience, Obama Challenges Egypt’s Leaders

    Egypt, Media, Middle East, Politics

    Obama Uses Google To Politicize Egypt’s Uprising

    While searching for the transcript of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s statement today, which turned out not to be his resignation, I came upon one of the Obama administration’s targeted Google ads in the story of Mubarak’s statement. Which does show perfectly well where our president’s priorities are. Instead of Egypt, they seem to be more in salvaging his radical agenda and poll numbers. 

    How does the Obama administration buy ad space on Google to undermine the will of the people? Look at this screensave on the Times of India website.

    Official Obama Website : www.BarackObama.com – Barack Obama needs your help to change Washington. Sign up today!

    Just another crisis that he is not letting go to waste.

    Responding to Obama’s several statements about Egypt, without naming him,  Mubarak said . . .

    “I am not embarrassed to listen to the youth of my country and respond to them,” he said. But he added that he would never “accept diktats from abroad” – referring to increasing international pressure for him to quit.

    Which makes this post even more relevant: Should The President Resign?

    Link: Defiant Mubarak refuses to resign