Category Archives: Media

Economy, Media, Pensacola, Politics, Venezuela

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Alfonzo Rachel’s Zo Nation on the Economy

Chavez Trims 4 Day TV Anniversary Special In Half

The hemisphere’s idiot, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is not having a good week. According to all the government controlled media hype about Chavez’s special 10th anniversary Chavez-a-thon, the planned 4-day TV special was quietly and mysteriously cut in half.

For the second consecutive day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has cancelled his TV show Alo Presidente. In the end, his four-day TV anniversary extravaganza was reduced to a handful of transmissions over just two days.

And on an unrelated related matter, have you noticed fewer Citgo gas stations around town? Hip Hip Horay! One can only hope that the Citgo employees are able to find employment at a real American oil company.

Hardin, Montana, A Place To Hold Guantanamo Terrorists

Never mind the mis-use of the ‘redneck‘ moniker, but you have to consider the source. The British media apparently is confused between the ‘wild west’ and rednecks. On the flip-side, would you have known of this if it weren’t for the foreign media? That aside, there is a town in America that wants to keep the detainees in their new prison, which is vacant. What?

I’d much prefer that GITMO and its residents stay right where they are. However, the idea of  solving a logistical problem and providing an economic stimulus in one fell swoop does sound interesting.

Judiciary, Media, Politics, Supreme Court

It's The Supreme Court, Not Oprah

Sonia Sotomayor’s life story is one thing. It’s a picture perfect American success story. That is, in the America that she grew up in.

Take away the liberal heart-string tugging of her life’s story as a qualification to the Supreme Court, and what you have is a judge whose decisions have been overturned 60% of the time. A judge that upheld racial discrimination in a case now in the Supreme Court, where it is anticipated she will be overturned again.

It is not right-wing spin to say that her version of justice is not ‘blind.’ It’s just that you won’t see it put that way in the mainstream media. An automatic dis-qualifier for anywhere in the judiciary, let alone the Supreme Court.

President Obama picked an ideological soulmate with his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. His idea of the U.S. Constitution seems to be in line with hers. Being overturned 60% of the time turns out to be a resume enhancement for an Obama Supreme Court nominee.

Which begs the question. Will future generations of Americans have the same opportunities that she had in an Obama-remade America?

related link: Why did George H.W. Bush pick Sotomayor for the courts?

audio, in his own words: What Obama thinks of the Supreme Court, and the Constitution

Media, Politics

Press Conference Post Mortem

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Nearly a month ago, April 29th, President Obama held his second televised press conference marking his first 100 days. There were thirteen questions given and answered.

What surprised me, well not really, was how challenging the press conference really was.  It was anything but challenging.

One question was most penetrating ‘what has surprised, troubled, enchanted, and humbled you about the Oval Office?’

Another was about Chrysler Corporation.

Is bankruptcy the only option for Chrysler, and what about plant closings announced by GM? Obama says he’s more hopeful now than a month ago that there will be a deal that “maintains a viable Chrysler auto company.”

In less than a month, look at the difference between what he said then and what he has done to Chrysler, their secured creditors, and the UAW.

What is noteworthy about this press conference is what the President was not asked.

  • The country is currently in an economic upheaval. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on turning the economy around. After all that ‘economic stimulus,’ why is the GDP shrinking and is it a sign that the stimulus is not working? Was Not Asked!
  • The fact that you inherited a national debt to the tune of $1.3 trillion dollars when you took office 100 days ago, and have made the case that that kind of debt is the wrong path for the country, how is it that increasing that debt to over $10 trillion dollars in ten years is the right path for the country? Was Not Asked!
  • Judging from criticisms of the previous administration for more than doubling the size of government spending and government bureaucracy, how will a budget four times that size and with 8,000 plus earmarks in it help our economic recovery? Was Not Asked!
  • Health care is a hot political issue and an important part of your presidential campaign platform. Beyond the list of problems of health care in general, what is your national health care plan and how does it differ from that which Secretary Clinton tried in the early 90’s? Was Not Asked!

For this being only his second press conference, with so much that has happened since his last one, do you think that the media lived up to its ‘watchdog’ status? Is the media serving you well when out of 13 questions posed, none of them included the four most obvious ones?

related link: Watchdog No More

Economy, Media, Politics

As California Goes . . .

Latest budget deficit total for California now is $24 billion. I don’t know how this got out, it is from AP, but it is also over 50% correct in why California is where it is today. Writer Juliet Williams says . . .

The gap has two primary causes: The state has been living beyond its means for years by spending generously on all sorts of programs that the voters, the politicians and the special interests wanted. And the recession has hammered California’s economy.

As one industry after another becomes a target for government intervention by an administration that sees nothing wrong with that, could states be far behind? But that’s beside the point. The point is, you can expect the same results nationally to the administration’s economic model as what California is facing today with theirs. Only worse.

There’s a lot of truth to the lore that as California goes, so goes the nation. I’m old enough to remember when the bikini came out in Hollywood and on California’s beaches. That was good. Liberating. Just ask any teenage boy.

As for the ‘over 50% correct’ comment. Williams errs by putting the voters first, when in reality it should be last, after politicians and special interests.

It was California voters that tried on many occasions to reign in Sacramento’s feelgood spending. And it was the 9th Circus Court of Appeals that overturned the voters time after time, in favor of politicians and special interests and against the voters.  But blaming the voters, you know, those stupid voters, for not knowing whats best for them is, in this case, a deflection of guilt to the wrong party. On second thought, now I see why this article got out. Never miss an opportunity to blame the voters.

Media, Politics

Watchdog No More

The ‘news‘ that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is making of herself over being briefed on CIA enhanced interrogation might seem to you like this is the first time you’ve heard of it. That’s because it is.

This issue came up in 2007 when the Democrats began turning up the heat on Bush and his ‘torture’ camp at Club Gitmo. And by turning up the heat, I mean politicizing the war effort. They have done the same in every area of the prosecution of the war including methods of espionage. The New York Times, the newspaper of choice for al Qaeda, took the pleasure in publishing how the NSA’s tracking of financial transactions were effective in locating and identifying terrorists.

Back then, the bullseye was Bush and Cheney. The media never mentioned the fact that Democrats in oversight positions, including Nancy Pelosi, then ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also approved the same methods in 2002 that today she is calling torture.

Two years later, the media is giving it some notice only because Nancy Pelosi called the CIA liars. What has changed from 2007 to today? Barack Obama’s campaign was in full torture mode and running against Bush who, by the way, was not in the race. And that’s where the media put the ink. What else happened is that Obama beat out Hillary Clinton over war issues. By comparison, Hillary was a hawk. And Obama beat John McCain, Democrats’ favorite Republican.

Not on the basis of this one example, but in the cumulative, it could be argued that had the media done its job two years ago and reported on how Obama and Pelosi were politicizing the war, and did it every time he did so, we may have had ‘President Hillary Clinton’ today. Or the other democrat, McCain. But not Barack Obama.

More than one precedent was set on November 4th, 2008. The other one was the media’s successful campaign in picking the candidates for both sides and also in helping to elect Barack Obama. What happened was the media watchdog died. The media has assumed another role.

Media, Politics

Californians Get No Respect

Reporting on California voters’ response to higher taxes and bigger government with a resounding NO yesterday, the arrogance of the LA Times just drips from the page. Try this for a headline.

California voters exercise their power — and that’s the problem

Problem? You call this journalism?

It gets funnier, or worse, when they recount several attempts by Californians to govern themselves as ‘periodic voter revolts.’

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state’s fiscal debacle.

By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

It is just a shame that the lack of respect for Californians that the LA Times demonstrates, and in such a politically biased way, will go unnoticed. Well, maybe except for their subscribers. They’ve noticed.

But have no fear. Or rather, maybe a little fear is healthy in the short term. The $21 billion question is, is California next on the bailout list? Should they be on the bailout list?

2008 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

Obama: My Economic Policies Are Unsustainable

In an effort to be the Harry Houdini of Washington, after voting for the very policies that he is deriding, President Obama is pulling another one over on the media and the American people.  Speaking at a town-hall  meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque, his message was clear.

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Becoming the greatest show (fraud?) on earth, our President is deriding the very policies that he ran on , proposed, voted for, and coerced Congress into passing, while accepting zero responsibility for any of  it. Ta da!

Mission accomplished. Meanwhile . . .

Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.

Rush . . .

This is the guy who has just saddled us with $11 trillion in budget deficits for the next ten years, warning that his own policies have wrecked the US economy and that they cannot be continued.  He threw himself under the bus.  We can’t continue Obamaism.  Just barely over a hundred days into his administration, Obama has condemned his own administration, and nobody in the Drive-By Media gets this.

[t]he president of the United States, after a mere 100-plus days, has just thrown his own administration, all of his policies, under the bus, just condemned them, just ripped them to shreds. I mean he has been more forcefully critical of his own policies than he ever was of George W. Bush.

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Economy, Energy, Media, Politics

Obama:Forget The Facts, Listen To Me

If it is not in the mainstream media, did it really happen? Take this week’s summit with health care CEO’s on Monday for example.

The president said Monday that six major health care organizations had pledged to “cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”

But three days later, The New York Times reported that those organizations said they never committed to specific annual cuts, just to cut spending gradually, and that the president’s description has their members up in arms.

Today, President Obama’s address to the nation repeats his script from Monday, saying with a straight face that he had a $2 trillion pledge from these health care organizations. Words, just words. Even though they were lying words, he says them so well.

Today’s performance also shows two things about President Obama. He doesn’t mind lying to the American people, and he still is in campaign mode. Just like his Democrat predecessor.

I hate to sound like a broken record when it comes to Obama and what motivates him, but until the media takes on that responsibility I’ll be happy to oblige. And it is what motivates him that he is careful not to let you see.

related links:

Media, Politics

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Pelosi attacks CIA, claims it deceives Congress

Today marks a high point for the Obama administration and the ‘war on terror,’ as I still refer to it. Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a public statement that the CIA misleads Congress. She said this in trying to lie her way out of having any knowledge of waterboarding being used. It’s a defense we’ve all heard before. They lied. Or he lied. bla bla bla

Way to go Madam Speaker. You don’t know how much of a morale boost that gave the agency. After trying to ruin the careers of anyone who ever worked in the Bush administration that had anything to do with waterboarding, including the CIA, I’m sure they are saying right now, ‘thank you, may I have another.’

If President Obama is the Commander in Chief that he took the oath to be, he better make a statement in support of the intelligence agency, unequivocally.

Her accusation is preposterous, and provable no matter how she spins it. She’s a lying fool that needs to pass the gavel to Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, this video will at least make you laugh.

The case for closed primaries

Who doesn’t like the idea of republicans nominating Republicans? KOS writer Markos Moulitsas, that’s who. Writing about Gov. Crist’s chances in winning the Senate seat of retiring Mel Martinez, Moulitsas says . . .

That is, if he makes it out of his primary. Like Pennsylvania, Florida’s primary is closed, giving the state’s conservative activists an outsized voice in determining their nominee. And like Pennsylvania’s Specter, Crist is seen as an apostate for supporting and campaigning for President Obama’s stimulus bill.

I happen to agree with his assessment that Crist becoming Senator isn’t a sure thing. People with memories saw him vote for the Obama Porkulus Bill and talk out of two sides of his mouth when it comes to oil and Florida. What they see is another Arlen Specter, only younger.

The downright fear that Markos holds for people who are conservative is worth noting. It’s not Republicans, it’s conservatives. Obviously, he prefers allowing democrats to have a say in who republicans choose to represent them. John McCain couldn’t have done it without them and the media behind him. It confirms my theory that conservatism is the antidote to liberalism.

If conservatism is dead, like the Left likes to claim, then what’s all the hostility and fear? A good rule of thumb about liberals is this, when they start attacking you and not your ideas, you know your are effective.  It is cause to make a conservative feel proud.

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Democrat Leaders On Waterboarding, Is It Enough?

More specifically, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) were briefed on the extreme interrogation technique. Back then, it was fine. In fact, they wanted to know if there was anything more they could do to break the terrorists to give up information. Today it’s a different story. Today it is torture. Something we need to investigate.

For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

“The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough,” said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Now, the Obama administration is in a quandary. Their far left base is still calling for the heads of Bush and Cheney.  How to investigate the Bush administration over waterboarding at GITMO without including leaders of his own party?

The media didn’t make much of it then either.