Tag Archives: Media

Economy, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Commercial Progressive Talk-Radio Takes A Dive

Following the same footsteps as Air America Radio a few years ago, commercial Progressive or Liberal (same thing) talk radio disappears in markets replete with their disciples, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Well, except for NPR that, so far, taxpayers are forced to subsidize.

2014 will mark the beginning of a massive change for liberal talk radio across the country. In New York, WWRL 1600 AM will flip to Spanish-language music and talk, throwing Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Alan Colmes off the air. In Los Angeles, KTLK 1150 will be dumping Stephanie Miller, Rhodes, Bill Press and David Cruz off the air in favor of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. In San Francisco, KNEW 960 will leave Miller, Hartmann, and Mike Malloy without a radio home in the market.

hand-tapping-morse-code-on-an-antique-telegraph-machineWith listener participation down to friends, relatives, and employees, they are moving to the free, as in no commercial sponsorship required, media on the internet (short wave & smoke signals) like the wildly popular (somewhere behind Al Sharpton) Pensacola-based Ring of Fire radio show. The progressive show run by lawyers Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who recently disabled reader comments from their website, and bans conservatives from commenting on their Facebook page. And, they don’t take phone calls on the fly either. They can’t. If they did, they’d be forced into defending their indefensible talking points.

This kind of ‘protecting the bubble’ censorship is not exclusive to the Ring of Fire show. It is indicative about why they can’t hold a broad audience. Except for their lemmings that do listen, their angry and derogatory tone does not attract sponsors or a broad spectrum of listeners. Mike Malloy, in the show that bears his name, is a prime example. Unlike Papantonio, Malloy will take calls. But he didn’t like one he got from me over a subject that we will be talking about again soon. Extending unemployment benefits. Malloy didn’t want to hear that Republicans wanted to extend unemployment benefits if Congress would cut an equal amount from somewhere else in the budget, like the PayGo law required. Instead, he suggested that “right-wingers” practice self mutilation instead of calling his show. See Liberals And Speech, Part 3, Right-Wingers, Cut Your Hand Off for details and the full audio.

Seems Malloy was prophetic 25 seconds into this clip, “let’s see if he calls this program if we’re still on the air.”

Link: Liberal Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014

Media, Obamacare, Politics

PolitiFact Caught By The Facts

It seems our old friend and spinmeister Angie Drobnic Holan got caught in another whopper. Once again about Obamacare. Here comes an article that details PolitiFact’s record on Obamacare and how her ratings on “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” went from “True” (before the election) to the “Lie of the Year” after Obama was re-elected.

Link: Pants On Fire: PolitiFact Tries To Hide That It Rated ‘True’ in 2008 Obamacare’s ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Promise

Media, Pensacola, Politics

Commercial Liberal Talk Radio Takes A Dive

Following the same footsteps as Air America Radio a few years ago, commercial Progressive or Liberal (same thing) talk radio disappears in markets replete with their disciples, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Well, except for NPR that, so far, taxpayers are forced to subsidize.

2014 will mark the beginning of a massive change for liberal talk radio across the country. In New York, WWRL 1600 AM will flip to Spanish-language music and talk, throwing Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Alan Colmes off the air. In Los Angeles, KTLK 1150 will be dumping Stephanie Miller, Rhodes, Bill Press and David Cruz off the air in favor of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. In San Francisco, KNEW 960 will leave Miller, Hartmann, and Mike Malloy without a radio home in the market.

hand-tapping-morse-code-on-an-antique-telegraph-machineWith listener participation down to friends, relatives, and employees, they are moving to the free, as in no commercial sponsorship required, media on the internet (short wave & smoke signals) like the wildly popular (somewhere behind Al Sharpton) Pensacola-based Ring of Fire radio show. The progressive show run by lawyers Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who recently disabled reader comments from their website, and bans conservatives from commenting on their Facebook page. And, they don’t take phone calls on the fly either. They can’t. If they did, they’d be forced into defending their indefensible talking points.

Update: 12/29/2013

This kind of ‘protecting the bubble’ censorship is not exclusive to the Ring of Fire show. It is indicative about why they can’t hold a broad audience. Except for their lemmings that do listen, their angry and derogatory tone does not attract sponsors or a broad spectrum of listeners. Mike Malloy, in the show that bears his name, is a prime example. Unlike Papantonio, Malloy will take calls. But he didn’t like one he got from me over a subject that we will be talking about again, unemployment benefits. Malloy didn’t want to hear that Republicans wanted to extend unemployment benefits if they would cut an equal amount from somewhere else in the budget, like the PayGo law required. Instead, he suggested that “right-wingers” practice self mutilation instead of calling his show. See Liberals And Speech, Part 3, Right-Wingers, Cut Your Hand Off for details and the full audio.

Seems Malloy was prophetic 25 seconds into this clip, “let’s see if he calls this program if we’re still on the air.”

 

Link: Liberal Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014

Economy, Media, Politics

Obama’s Pay Raise For Military

You’ll have to look far and wide for a media report that explains the details behind the one percent pay raise that Obama gave to the military in the budget he signed today.

What  happened was, the House passed its version of the fiscal 2014 Defense authorization bill in June, which included a 1.8 percent pay increase for troops. The formula for determining service members’ annual pay increase is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index and the growth in private-sector wages; for 2014, that turns out to be 1.8 percent. But under the law (Title 37, Chapter 19, Section 1009) the president has the authority to set an alternate pay raise for military personnel, citing a national emergency or fiscal concerns, if Congress doesn’t pass legislation adjusting the amount or canceling it.

So one would think, what with food stamps going to active military personnel and families having shot up 400 percent, that the Commander In Chief wouldn’t be cutting the modest 1.8 percent. But he did.

All the major media outlets use this template:

  • ABC: The comprehensive defense bill Obama signed will give military personnel a 1 percent pay raise.
  •    AP: The comprehensive defense bill Obama signed will give military personnel a 1 percent pay raise.
  • USA Today: Military personnel receive a 1% raise under the bill.

Now if there were a Republican in The White House, first of all, there wouldn’t be a cut. At the very least, the military would have gotten the 1.8 percent increase based on the standard formula. But for argument’s sake, play along. If there were a Republican in the White House that did what Obama just did, the media would be screaming at the top of their lungs, front page above the fold, ‘President cuts military pay 80 percent,” and “President slashes military pay by 80 percent.”

This is a first. The media is actually calling an increase, an increase. After all, one percent is one percent more than zero. In all other circumstances where the Republican party can be demonized, that one percent increase is called a cut. A cut from the 1.8 percent increase that the House passed.

Yet another blatant example of the media covering for their president. At the expense of our troops no less.

Link: 2014 Military Pay Raise Guaranteed

 

Media, Religion

No Push Back To Duck Commander From . . .

Doesn’t look like the second shoe is going to drop on the GLAAD-produced controversy. So far, there has been no push back coming from adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, and the swindlers.

So why would A&E react the way they did when their own public statement responding to GLAAD was that Phil Robertson’s statement was his own and had nothing to do with their network or their TV show? (It’s a rhetorical question.)

2014 Election, 2016 Election, Gun Control, Media, Politics, Race Relations

Tea Party-Like Uprising In Chicago

Having felt the heat long enough, Chicagoans are finally seeing the light. Rev. Al Sharpton went to Chicago to discuss gun violence. But the people had something to say that the he never anticipated and, not surprisingly, the media is not covering.

Here are a few choice quotes from the video:

  • “We don’t have a gangs, guns (and) drugs problem. We have a nepotism, cronyism and patronage problem.”
  • “I would call a serious town meeting, like the town meetings Republicans would call … they call it a Tea Party.
  • “we have been trained to vote in a specific manner… we need to start looking at the manner in which our elected officials have been voting… if they have not voted in a manner that is beneficial to you, yours, and your community, then you need to start voting them out.”
  • “This (meeting) was a signal sent to City Hall, to the fifth floor (this is apparently Chicagoans’ term for the Mayor’s office and the “powers that be” in City Hall — Ed.), who sent no one down here to make sure that the city he (p)resides over.” (The apparent reference is to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.)
  • “We’re asking the President of the United States: Let us, the grass roots people, not these name-brand blue-ribbon Negroes … (to) stop giving these evil people our money.”

http://youtu.be/Jzo9lCBYzA4

All I can add to this is, welcome brothers and sisters. Voting differently is the way out of the malaise, the crime, and government dependency.

Link: Sharpton Holds Chicago ‘Town Hall’ on Gun Violence, ‘Tea ‘Party’ Rhetoric Breaks Out; Local Media Mum

Media, Religion, Whiners

GLAAD’s Faux Outrage

Jumping at the chance to be offended, the gay activists at GLAAD mobilized to barrage A&E with complaints. They said this kind of discrimination will not be tolerated. What? The only person being discriminated against is Phil Robertson on Duck Dynasty who, thanks to them, has lost his job. Not only that, but they said (they lied) that Phil compared homosexuality to bestiality. He did not. But in typical Liberal fashion, they make up what they have to in order to attack someone who doesn’t think like they do. Phil was not speaking for or representing GLADD’s agenda. He represented himself only, and honestly answered questions he was asked about his personal beliefs. Seems like it is GLADD that has no tolerance for straight people who happen to be religious.

If GLAAD really speaks for all gays, how does it figure that two percent of the population have no tolerance for the other 98 percent?

hairyAss
Does nothing for me. You?

Phil Robertson, patriarch of the family on the TV show, merely responded to a question (from a lefty magazine writer) about what is sinful to him. Knowing he and his whole family don’t hide their religion on the TV show or in person, Drew Magary no doubt knew he would hear something that would be sensational to him and his ilk. And the 67 yr. old Phil Robertson told the truth about his personal belief and experience.

Can’t imagine why the object of homosexual behavior is so vile, as the GLAADites whine. It is what it is. Men don’t have vaginas. They use their (clinical name) anus for sexual penetration. So if that sounds vile to you, maybe you’re not as gay as you think? Or a teeny bit ashamed? I don’t know. Someone please enlighten me on what is offensive or vile about that statement. Aside from it being just one man’s opinion of what sin is. Your mileage may vary. In his story, Magary doesn’t print the question that provoked this response, but it seems clear that it had something to do with homosexual behavior. (A note to Magary on what prompted his response has not been responded to.)

“It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

“Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong,” Phil says. “Sin becomes fine.”

Question:What, in your mind, is sinful?

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

This is where the hetero bashers (GLAAD) put words in to Phil’s answer that don’t exist. Answering to “what is sinful” to him, Phil lists a lot, starting with homosexual behavior, and including other sinful acts, bestiality, heterosexual sins, and non-sexual sins.

Now, if Drew Magary wanted a story about the man, he could have done that by simply saying that Phil is a religious man and holds the common beliefs of his faith, that homosexual behavior is a sin. Instead, he prints what seems to be Phil just trying to explain to a lay person (Magary) why he feels the way he does. But obviously, that’s not the message, or mission, Magary wanted or was on.

That A&E succumbed to all the moral and religious intolerance of groups like GLAAD and fired Phil, while at the same time they admit in their own statement that his words had nothing to do with A&E, shows their moral compass, or lack thereof.

Economy, Fair Tax, Media, Politics

Spreading The Wealth Gone Wild

Where President Clinton built wealth-spreading into the tax code, President Obama put it into overdrive by adding “social justice” to it with the addition of the non-affordable Affordable Care Act. A nationalized health care scheme that requires the young and healthy to pay for the old and infirm. The consequences are surprising, and getting worse.

In a random act of journalism, CNBC reporter Jane Wells gives the striking details of a CBO report released last week entitled The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010. (Table 3, Page 13) In personal income taxes it boils down to this, the rich don’t pay most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes. The upper two quintiles, or 40% of taxpayers, pay 106% of all personal income taxes. For the lower 40%, their “taxes” are a revenue stream.

Politicians are pretty slick when it comes to manipulating the tax code. Which is why we must get rid of it and replace it with something that can’t be used as a tool for class warfare and social engineering. The FairTax is the best alternative, for everybody. But I digress.

Remember the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997? The tax code becomes a vehicle for spending programs.

Wielding the tax hammer for social engineering increases public debt. Lesson not learned here is that money doesn’t grow on trees and, stop increasing the spending. But it’s OK if you can use the tax code to buy votes. What? This is where the class envy/class warfare tactic, as connected to the tax code, was taken to a higher level.

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 made additional changes to the tax code providing a modest tax cut. The centerpiece of the 1997 Act was a significant new tax benefit to certain families with children through the Per Child Tax credit. The truly significant feature of this tax relief, however, was that the credit was refundable for many lower-income families. That is, in many cases the family paid a “negative” income tax, or received a credit in excess of their pre-credit tax liability. Though the tax system had provided for individual tax credits before, such as the Earned Income Tax credit, the Per Child Tax credit began a new trend in federal tax policy. Previously tax relief was generally given in the form of lower tax rates or increased deductions or exemptions. The 1997 Act really launched the modern proliferation of individual tax credits and especially refundable credits that are in essence spending programs operating through the tax system.

“There’s no difference at all in terms of the effects on the federal deficit,” says Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center. “It’s perfectly equivalent. It’s just easier to say, ‘I cut your taxes’ as opposed to ‘I created a new federal program to send money to people.’”

Links: The rich do not pay the most taxes, they pay ALL the taxes  |  Happy Tax-The-Rich Day

 

Media, Pensacola, Politics

Is It Circling The Wagons Or End Of Print Media?

Time was that the local daily newspaper, Pensacola News Journal, published letters to the editor on a daily basis. Why is that?

One reason would be that the people have been beaten down, lost all hope, if not their job, under this lawless and oppressive administration, have thrown in the towel and have given up speaking up.

Another would be that the paper feels a need to protect the Obama administration by not publishing letters perhaps overwhelmingly negative, if not informative.

There is one more possible reason. It could be an economic one. Maybe, with shrinking subscriber revenue, they can’t afford the paper to print the letters on? After several reporters and executives have already accepted early retirement or been laid off, maybe what we’re seeing is the evolution of the devolution of print media, and the people’s voice is the next casualty?

Europe, Media, Politics, Religion

Croatia Defines Marriage As Man+Woman

The banner proclaims ‘Marriage equals woman plus men, everything else is something different’

Croats voted overwhelmingly in favor of defining marriage in the constitution as a “union of man and woman” on Sunday. Croatia now shares its constitutional definition of marriage with Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia.

Almost 66 percent of those who voted in the referendum in the new European Union member endorsed the initiative, launched by the Catholic group “In the Name of the Family”, according to preliminary results on Sunday night. Turnout was 37 percent. The vote was not surprising given that 90 percent of Croatia is Roman Catholic.

Current law in Croatia states that marriage is between a man and woman. The point of the constitutional referendum was to insure that no laws would or could change that definition, short of a constitutional amendment which would need a two-thirds vote, 66 percent. Despite the overwhelming majority of the effort to put it in the constitution, the Croatian government was opposed to it but will comply with the referendum. The government will be making laws to grant equal rights to same-sex couples instead of changing or expanding the definition of the word. It is also considering changes to the constitutional referendum process to restrict the ability for the public to start changes to it.

It is instructive to see the liberal bias in the news reporting of the referendum. More than just defining the meaning of the word in the constitution, there are headlines like “Same-sex marriage ban divides Croatia” and “Croatians Vote Against Same-Sex Marriage.” Choosing automatic victim status, in true liberal fashion, Croatians didn’t vote for the normal definition of marriage, they voted against gays. There was no same-sex marriage ban. In Croatia, same-sex marriage isn’t now and never has been legal. And if anything, the referendum united Croatia on what marriage is. It didn’t divide it.

Link: Croats set constitutional bar to same-sex marriage