Tag Archives: Media

Media, Politics

Useful Idiots And Fundamental Change

Transformational change is happening before our eyes. What began as a country governed by the rule of law is morphing into a country governed by men. We all need to be reminded of the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  From Thomas  Sowell’s latest article entitled Degeneration of Democracy . . .

A democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive. In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power— versus the rule of law and the preservation of freedom— are the “useful idiots” of our time. But useful to whom?

Let me qualify Mr. Sowell’s statement  ‘few people seem to be concerned about it.’ Few people in power and the so-called media watchdog don’t seem to be concerned about it.

Continue reading Useful Idiots And Fundamental Change →

Iran, Media, Politics

Blogger Flees Iran, To London

The blogger who sent the image of a dying protester, Neda Agha-Solta,  around the world a year ago has just arrived in London after fleeing Iran via Turkey.

Neda Agha-Soltan
Sayeed Valadbaygi helped make Neda Agha-Solta a symbol of the protest movement through a film of her death on street of Tehran.

Sayeed Valadbaygi thinks the UN sanctions are not enough. Ahmadinejad and his colleagues should be ostracised by all governments, he believes.

“We need change in Iran,” he said. “We want a proper system of government, elected by the people, for the people. I want to breathe, to speak freely. I want to be able to walk down a street holding my girlfriend’s hand.”

The United States ought to be doing whatever it can to help Sayeed and the opposition movement in Iran. It is unfortunate for the cause of freedom and human rights that we have a president with no guts to help. On the international stage, it’s called voting ‘present,’ just like he did when he was a U.S. senator.

Link: Blogger Sayeed Valadbaygi who alerted world to Iran’s brutal crackdown flees to London – Times Online.

Media, Politics, Venezuela

Chavez To Jail TV Station Owner

Not to be upstaged by President Obama’s taking over of one industry after another, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (the hemisphere’s idiot) has put out arrest warrants for the owner and his son of the last TV station in the country that ‘takes a critical line’ against Chavez and his regime.

Red flag moment!

We now know that, for all practical purposes, this administration’s definition of the word ‘bailout’ has become synonymous with the terms ‘takeover’ or ‘nationalize.’

We also know the propensity for President Obama to mimic the actions of Hugo Chavez.

Understand now what the Hugo Chavez version of reinventing the media means. Given free reign, don’t think for a New York minute that Obama woudn’t just love to control the media like his socialist soulmate Hugo. Why, to a Progressive, what could be better than a high-paying, Cadillac benefit, union job like that?

Link: TV channel owner ordered arrested in Venezuela

Media, Politics

‘Reinventing’ The Media

Lost in the Gulf Oil Disaster news last week was the probing in Washington of ways to prop up the legacy news media. Since the word ‘bailout’ has become a hot button among Americans, the administration has come up with a more benign word to describe it. They call it reinventing the media, which is nothing more than a money shift from you to the media via more taxes.

Taxing internet websites and the technology used to access them. What?

As this article explains, the sending up of trial balloons for policy issues or potential legislation is used to test the waters for public acceptance. And to see what form of deception is needed in order to screw the public and do something they don’t want anyway.

For now, the idea of the gadget tax has been dropped. But has the motive behind it?

Despite the retreat on the electronics tax, it appears Mr. Leibowitz and his staff have not abandoned the opinion that the problems facing journalism can and should be solved by government – even if the exact form this control would take is open to negotiation. As the Obama administration has demonstrated its willingness to ignore negative public opinion in order to expand government involvement in areas such as health care, it is important for Congress to step in and deflate the FTC’s latest trial balloon. Government subsidies will destroy, not save, journalism.

Does funding the press, in any way shape manner or form, fall within the scope of responsibility of the federal government?

Link: EDITORIAL: FTC dodges Drudge Tax questions – Washington Times.

Media, Politics

Limbaugh Gets Married, Again

1 Comment

Well, I wish him luck. Better luck than the previous three. What is most amusing is all the hoopla that the Left is making over the fact that Rush got Elton John to play at his wedding.

I guess it is because John is a flaming liberal, by US standards, and Limbaugh is the polar opposite. Missing in their hysteria and another chance to use his name in hopes of maybe riling up the lemmings, is the possibility that Rush or his bride happen to like his music.  Along the same line, they apparently don’t figure the possibility that John likes to play music for a price. It is good old-fashioned free-market capitalism at work. Not only that, but you could figure on Rush doing something rather spectacular at his wedding and for his bride. I’d take Elton John over a DJ any day.

Rush didn’t play the piano, and John didn’t talk politics. Gee, I guess it’s just too bad that a good time was had by all.

Media, Politics

Helen Thomas Retires

Whether she retired or was fired really doesn’t matter. Her take on Israel is not new and everyone she works with knows it. Still calling Israel Palestine, she may as well be the spokesperson for Hamas or correspondent for Al Jazeera.

Hello there my pretty! One thing about Helen that always amazed me. She’s the only famous person I know that could play the wicked witch of the west without much makeup.

Media, Politics, United Nations

Hold Turkey Responsible, Not Israel

The ‘rush to judgment’ that the United Nations has made, portraying Israel as the bad guy by enforcing the blockade is stunning. Equally as stunning is the lack of support for Israel from Washington over this incident. Or the sinking of a S. Korean Navy vessel, or Iran’s nuclear bomb ambitions, or . . .

For those in the media whose memory seems to be as short as the combined length of the beards of binLaden’s wives, Hamas is at war with Israel. Hamas has been found to re-arm itself in shipments of humanitarian aid. The reason for the blockade is to insure that only humanitarian aid goes to Gaza. Israel is all for them getting the humanitarian aid they need and seeing to it that they get it. Especially since they know, as does the administration and the UN, that Hamas controls and runs Gaza and use aid as a weapon against their own people.

This ‘Freedom Flotilla’ was not about delivering aid. It was about starting a PR campaign to make Israel the bad guy. Terrorists were on board. The ship was under the Turkish flag. The ship refused to stop to be inspected, thereby provoking what took place afterward. That was the plan and Turkey knew it. People delivering humanitarian aid don’t arm themselves with clubs, knives, and guns to use against the Israeli soldiers there to insure that only aide is delivered. And the don’t have camera crews from Al Jazeera on board.

The Free Gaza Movement announced its intention to breach Israel’s barricade of Gaza – requiring it to violate Israel’s territorial waters.

The rubber is hitting the road Mr. President. A leadership moment is needed. Recall our Ambassador to Turkey in protest. And get off the anti-Israel bandwagon in the useless United Nations. Use your bully pulpit to call a spade a spade.

Link: Turkey Responsible for Flotilla Deaths

Energy, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Obama’s Buck, Cutting Coast Guard Oil Response Center

He said many times over the last few weeks, that the buck stops with him regarding the mitigation of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak and protecting our shores and wetlands from oil contamination.

So while we hear the administration pumping its chest about fixing this problem and how responsible it is and how it was on top of this situation ‘from day 1,’ this news seems to put his whole case for their leadership and experience in oil industry regulation right in the toilet.

Three months before the massive BP oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration proposed downsizing the Coast Guard national coordination center for oil spill responses, prompting its senior officers to warn that the agency’s readiness for catastrophic events would be weakened.

Have you heard that on pMSNBC? Apparently it snuck by editors at the Washington Post.

Accidents happen, “but what you’re seeing here is the government is not properly set up to deal with this kind of issue,” said Robbin Laird, a defense consultant who has worked on Coast Guard issues.

And this . . .

President Obama’s $10.1 billion spending plan for the Coast Guard would scale back funding and active-duty personnel by 3 percent. As part of a proposal to cut 1,100 military personnel, it would decommission the National Strike Force Coordination Center in Elizabeth City, N.C., and reorganize parts of it elsewhere.

The center serves as the national command for the Coast Guard activity responsible for sending technical experts and specialized equipment such as pumps and chemical dispersant monitors to support on-scene commanders.

Are we feeling confident that this administration knows how to protect us? Is Obama’s lack of executive experience beginning to show yet?

WaPo Link: Obama plans to cut Coast Guard personnel

Immigration, Media, Politics

Reading Is Fundamental, Unless . . .

Unless it works against your spin, lying, and mis-characterization of Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement law SB1070 and the subsequent amendment to it HB2162.

That is exactly what the president, the attorney general, the director of homeland security AND the president of Mexico have done. Oh, and let me also include Congressional Democrats who gave the standing O to Calderon when, before a joint session of Congress, he said the Arizona law was racial profiling. Quick to pass judgment, quick to demonize, quick to inflame Latinos and further divide America for purely political purposes, none of these people whose responsibility it is to know the truth, utter the truth.

Liberals like videos. It’s easier than having to read things like the stimulus bill or the health care bill, or even these 17 pages of Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement bill.  Here’s exactly what I’m talking about.

Having perfected lying to the American people, aided and abetted by the willing accomplices in the media, I think we have reached the most dishonest and arrogant administration in American history. When you understand that we are saddled with a group-thought process where the end justifies the means, lying about what you’re doing and what you want to do is no big deal. Hell, it’s expected. Progressives and Liberals have to lie about what they want to do because what they want to do would never be approved if put to a vote.

Start anywhere you want to find a lie: health care reform will cost us less, there will be better care, the stimulus bill will create jobs, GM has paid off May I see your ID?their loan, they don’t want to take over the auto industry, no tax increases for people earning less than $250,000, we need to live within our means and pass this $195 billion dollar bill that is 30% ‘paid’ for, we now have ‘pay-go’ so we’ll no longer be spending money we don’t have,  and if you live in Arizona and you take your kids to buy an ice cream cone and walk down the street with them, you’re going to be harassed by the police.

Today’s reading assignment: Arizona’s bill SB1070, and amendment HB2162.

2010 Election, Economy, Florida, Media, Pensacola, Politics

BP’s $25 Million For Florida’s Panhandle

Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA-FL) visited the Florida Panhandle a few times since the Deepwater Horizon incident. Hearing from residents and industry leaders about how the already weak economy is worsening because of the bad publicity, BP officials agreed to support an advertising fund to help offset the economic damage with an advertising effort to promote business in the Panhandle.

So far, and according to RicksBlog . . .

State Senator Don Gaetz says that, as of Friday, May 21, BP has not given Florida the $25-million block grant for tourism advertising that BP CEO Tony Hayward promised Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday.

According to State Senator Don Gaetz . . .

state officials are still negotiating a ‘memorandum of understanding’, which must be completed prior to receiving the funds.”

Well, that’s how it started. From there it has gone to a gimme-fest by politicos all over the state. Developing a memorandum of understanding over the $25 million seems only prudent. Especially when you have people like Kendrick Meek showboating for $100 million.

Aside from all that, take a peek at how the Panhandle is going to be ‘promoted.’ No, take a long look at it, and a peek is all you’ll see. Links to the proposed ads as produced by VisitFlorida.com are here:

Link to spots: http://www.2150.tv/getpass.html

password: visitflorida (case sensitive)

There are currently 2 versions of the spot – a general Florida version and a more Northwest Florida oriented spot.

Take a look at those ads. If that’s what they call focused on the Panhandle, I think we need to look to another ad agency with a more effective message. VisitFlorida.com’s website is nothing but a glorified Yahoo travel site. You’re lucky to find beach shots with sugar-white sands, and no mention of the timeliness of the ads and the beautiful conditions that exist in this part of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.

But you will find this . . .

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Update

There continue to be no confirmed oil sightings associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Florida’s shores at this time.

The great majority of the hotels/motels are inland. There is no evidence there of any emphasis placed on fighting the negative impression created by the news media and environmentalists.

Considering both ads, if I had to put a percentage to it, as for how much of it is ‘focused’ on the Panhandle and how much of it is generic to Florida, I’d give the Panhandle less than ten percent. And if you don’t live in the area, like 100 percent of the target audience, you wouldn’t recognize anything to do with the Panhandle. It’s a sham.

It seems apparent that Charlie Crist and Alex Sink care more about getting the money to promote Florida than the Panhandle. The place where Florida’s economy is most severely impacted.

Give money to Crist and Sink, and you can kiss it good-bye. Especially in this political season. All the Panhandle is left with is hope. Nothing has changed.