Tag Archives: Media

2010 Election, Politics

It's Not Out Of Touch, It's Ignoring

Today President Obama’s made his last (well, one can only hope) push for government-run health care and health insurance from The White House. Standing in front of the tackiest gold drapery fit for a king. Or at least someone who probably thinks he is a king.

That’s the setting. Here’s the setup.

  • For most of the last 10 months, there has been a groundswell of Americans that are completely turned off with a government-run solution to health care-turned health insurance ‘reform,’ also known as a ‘public option.’  That groundswell has a name. Tea Parties. It is  comprised of Americans that think the government is getting too big, spending too much, borrowing too much, taxing too much, and becoming ever more intrusive in the lives of Americans, trampling on liberty and freedom. Obamacare does all of that.
  • Adding hubris to audacity, Obamacare was developed entirely without any input from Republicans. It is a Democratic plan.
  • Despite the window dressing of today’s ‘concessions,’ Obamacare is still fundamentally a Democratic Party plan. The ‘for show’ summit last week did not start at square one. It started at square two.
  • In the most recent election cycle, people in three states made their preferences known by voting Republicans in, and Democrats out. Including in Massachusetts, a liberal Mecca. They made their preferences known at town hall meetings all over the country.
  • The public’s negative opinion of Obamacare has caused the President’s poll ratings to fall, and fall, to record lows.
  • The negative opinion of Obamacare has caused the President to lose support of Democrats in Congress and the Senate to a point in the Senate that has fallen below the 60 votes needed to affirm the will of the people, as is the current rules in the Senate.

You would think that the President may have noticed the displeasure of Americans with his agenda. It is impossible for him not to have noticed. What is happening now is he is flat-0ut ignoring the will of the people.

His statement today is illustrative of a person who thinks he is a king or dictator instead of someone who does the people’s business. He is doing his own business. Democrat’s business.

In The White House today, President Obama said “I do not know how this plays politically (oh really? see above), but I know it’s right.” Translation;  America, I know what is best for you. You’re just too stupid to realize it. He is speaking of using a simple majority ‘reconciliation’ vote for this legislation if he has to, to force Obamacare down America’s collective throat. Something he said he would never do.

The same attitude is prevalent in other Democrat party faithfuls like Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). Tonight on the Larry King show, speaking about Obamacare, Grayson says “It’s what America needs, it’s what America deserves.” Notice he didn’t say it’s what America wants. Sorry Mr. Grayson, America has done nothing to deserve Obamacare.

2010 Election, Media, Politics

Obama: Shouldn't Pass Health Care Without 60 Votes

Blatant hypocrisy from Obama is no longer newsworthy. Correction, it has never been newsworthy. Remember, for Progressives and their willing accomplices in the media,  the end justifies the means. That, and the media watchdog is dead.

OBAMA 2007: You gotta break out of what I call the sort of 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics. Maybe you eke out a victory with 50-plus-one but you can’t govern. You know, you get Air Force One and a lot of nice perks as president but you can’t — you can’t deliver on health — we’re not going to pass universal health care with a — with a 50-plus-one strategy.

OBAMA 2007: The bottom line is is that our health care plans are similar. The question, once again, is: Who can get it done? Who can build a movement for change? This is an area where we’re going to have to have a 60% majority in the Senate and the House in order to actually get a bill to my desk. We’re going to have to have a majority to get a bill to my desk that is not just a 50-plus-one majority.

OBAMA 2006: Those big-ticket items, fixing our health care system. You know, one of the arguments that sometimes I get with, uhh, my fellow progressives and — and some of these have — have flashed up in the blog communities on occasion — is this notion that we should function sort of like Karl Rove, where we — we identify our core base, we throw ’em red meat, we get a 50-plus-one, uhhh, victory. See, Karl Rove doesn’t need a broad consensus because he doesn’t believe in government. If we want to transform the country, though, that requires a — a sizable majority.

OBAMA 2005: A change in the Senate rules that really, uh, I think would change the character of the Senate, uh, forever. [snip] Uhhh, and what I worry about would be th-th-that you essentially still have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply majoritarian, uhhh, absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the Founders intended.

OBAMA 2004: My understanding of the Senate is is that you need 60 votes to get something significant to happen, which means that Democrats and have to ask the question: Do we have the will to move an American agenda forward, not a Democratic or Republican agenda forward?

link: Flashback: Barack Obama Said Democrats Shouldn’t Pass Health Care Without 60 Votes in Senate

Economy, Energy, Media, Politics, United Nations

Investing In Global Warming, Cap And Trade

Hardly a week goes by lately where news comes out that adds to the doubt about ‘man made’ global warming. From incomplete and manipulated data, to selective science of hand-picking tree samples, to lost or destroyed supporting data, and lately to statements of Phil Jones.

Phil Jones was forced to step down as director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit after a series of leaked emails and other documents suggested that the data supporting global warming theories had been “cooked” and that opposing theories were being suppressed.

But this was not the end of the revelations.

“Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.

“And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.”

What do you mean ‘statistically significant‘ you ask? According to Phil Jones . . .

This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level.

And associating climate change to man-made global warming, there’s this question to Jones . . .

“How confident are you that warming has taken place and that humans are mainly responsible?”

Jones: “I’m 100 percent confident that the climate has warmed. As to the second question, I would go along with IPCC Chapter 9 – there’s evidence that most of the warming since the 1950s is due to human activity.”

OK fine. And we now know all about their data and record keeping problems.

So what’s the point? The whole point of this ‘man-made’ global warming hysteria is to execute a transfer of wealth through whatever way possible, under the pretense that we can adjust the global thermostat as well as sea-level. It’s is a political movement that has turned into a near religion with environmentalists.

Then there’s this gem about rising sea levels . . .

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

Whether it by by the United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol, and more locally, the administration’s Cap & Trade legislation, all of these schemes are designed to move money from our side of the earth to the other, with the side benefit of depressing our economy and raising prices even further. I mean it just makes sense. If you’re a slip and fall lawyer, you go after the money. In the global scale, the ‘richest’ nation in the world is right here. And for anyone who was in Copenhagen, you saw who the evil one was. It was the United States, and it was capitalism.

In light of what is now known, we are starting to see signs in the US of hopping off this man-made global warming bandwagon. But not everyone.

Know who is heavily invested in this scheme? Al Gore. He probably has the most to lose when the cap and trade and carbon credit trading schemes fall through. Starting with a company he and another investor started called Generation Investment Management LLP. I’m all for capitalism, and according to Al Gore and the media, he’s just putting his money where his mouth is. The reason capitalism works is because there is risk taking. When the market demands it, entrepreneurs will provide. Responding to the market, or not, determines who wins and who looses. Gore’s company is an associate member of the Chicago Climate Exchange. A carbon credit trading exchange. (Available right now at $.10/share. Their stock fell 33% after the Copenhagen global warming festival in December.) How much Gore has invested varies from guesstimates from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars. Suffice it to say, if things go the way he hopes they will, he’ll make George Soros’ wealth look like small change.

So yesterday, either in denial or a last ditch attempt to saves his investments, or both, Al Gore opines in the New York Times ‘We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change.’ The first sentence of his opinion piece says it all . . .

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

Right. The sky is falling. On him. Then, from high on the mountain, not far from the burning bush, Gore ends with this. From Rick Moran at American Thinker.

Finally, this bit of weirdness that shows Gore for what he is; a megalomaniac:

From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption. After all has been said and so little done, the truth about the climate crisis – inconvenient as ever – must still be faced.

Al Gore sees himself as a redeemer – as Jesus Christ. And where is there room in a democratic republic for someone who thinks that the rule of law should be an “instrument of redemption?”

Who else has put their money where their mouth is? Well, in a more muted and covert kind of way, the BBC has. They have $12.5 billion of their pension funds invested in companies whose future depends on the success of the whole man-made global warming movement and subsequent laws and regulations.

Just something to keep in mind the next time you see an article about a man-made global warming ‘crisis.’

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Obama Signs To Extend Patriot Act

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Due to expire today unless approved by Congress and signed by President Obama, the extension of the Patriot Act was approved by the House, the Senate, and signed by the President Saturday, Feb 27, 2010. Well alright!

Let’s not let our guard down and scrap the best tool in the toolbox to fight terrorism where it counts most. Within our own borders.

I’m so proud of my President today. It shows it is still possible for him to put the country’s interests ahead of what he ran on as a candidate. I must be more proud of the signing than the President though, because The White House didn’t put news of the signing into law on its website. Maybe hoping his base won’t notice?

In what could (but it won’t) be characterized in the media as a welcome sign of bi-partisanship, the House voted 319 to 97 in favor of the measure. Unwilling to put their name to it, the Senate passed it on a voice vote Wednesday night.

Stand back and watch the fur fly when Obama’s political Left base finds out about it. Like it or not, believe it or not, we are at war. It was the right thing, and the adult thing, to do.

Link: Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act | Senate votes to extend Patriot Act

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

Farid Khavari Interview, Florida Gubernatorial Candidate

Tampa community radio station WMNF 88.5 FM did their due diligence last week by informing their listeners on a candidate running for governor of the State of Florida. They broadcast a telephone interview with Dr. Farid Khavari in Miami.

There are two audio links below. The first one contains the interview. The show begins with listener comments about a previous show about oil drilling in Florida. The Khavari interview begins about 5 minutes into the show. The second link starts with the listener comments about the Khavari interview.

The interview: RadioActivity for 2/16/10
Listener comments: RadioActivity for 2/17/10

As Dr. Khavari explains his plans, his platform, you can also find it in writing on his website. You won’t find any smoke and mirrors there. You will find smoke and mirrors on the websites of his challengers, Alex Sink and Bill McCollum.

Links:

Note: Those within reach of Pensacola may pick up a Khavari for Governor campaign data sheet and bumper sticker at Philly’s, 3900 Creighton Road.

2010 Election, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Khavari For Governor – Press Release

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Below is a press release from the Khavari For Governor of the State of Florida Campaign, because you’re likely to not see it anywhere else in the Panhandle. That, and because he is the only candidate from either party who has a plan for Floridians.  Press release follows . . .

There is hope for Florida Democrats, despite Alex Sink

Miami, FL Feb. 16 —  Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink’s candidacy for governor in 2010 has many Democrats worried. Polls show her 10 points or more behind the leading Republican candidate, state Attorney General Bill McCollum. After months of campaigning, it is becoming clear to Florida Dems that Sink has no message and no plan to lift Florida out of its economic mess.  Voters look at her lackluster performance as CFO, and many assume that the next occupant of the governor’s mansion will be a Republican.

However, more Democrats are turning to the number two Democratic candidate in the primary race, noted economist Farid Khavari. Khavari’s plan to create 1,000,000 new private sector jobs in Florida, without subsidies, is winning support from Democrats and Republicans alike. His plan to create a state-owned bank has gained national acclaim, and candidates in other states are jumping on the public banking bandwagon.

“Many Democrats are outraged that the state party leadership anointed Sink as the favored  candidate without any input from the local chapters,” said Khavari. “The Democratic Party of Florida has thrown over $1.2 million in support behind Sink, making her look like a champion fundraiser. In Florida, the media only pay attention to which candidates have raised the most money, not where it came from. The Party is not supposed to support any candidate until after the primary.

“But people from all parties are disgusted with crony politics,” Khavari continued. “They have gotten sick and tired of politicians who look after the interests of banks and insurance companies, while neglecting the people.  We have a different approach. We’ll never get – or take–  a dime from a bank or an insurance company, but our plans will help millions of Floridians get jobs and achieve real financial security, without higher taxes.”

Noting Sink’s focus on counting paper clips while over a million Floridians are out of work and 800,000 Florida homes are in foreclosure, Khavari said, “As CFO, Alex Sink stood by while the State Board of Administration lost tens of billions of dollars. McCollum is also responsible, along with Charlie Crist.
The only people who profited from the SBA in the past three years are investment bankers who sold so-called securities to the geniuses at the SBA.” Sink, McCollum and Crist are the three trustees of the SBA, which handles state retirement funds and other funds from about 1,000 government-related entities.  “Ignorance, neglect, or corruption?” asked Khavari. “The results are the same. We can’t afford crony politics any more.”

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is an economist and author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

related link: Pensacola News Journal, related story of how to get off of the grid

Daniel Nocera, the MIT Ph.D. who enthralled a standing-room only IHMC audience last week with his matter-of-fact confidence that he and his research colleagues have solved the world’s energy problem.

Note: Dr. Khavari wrote the book on it, Towards a Zero-Cost Economy

Not to make this a ‘who invented the internet’ discussion, self chest-pounding is not important here. Forget that. But isn’t it good that we have a candidate running for Governor of the State of Florida who is not only knowledgeable about the technology, but knows how to incorporate it in Florida’s economy?

Examiner: Dr. Farid Khavari just what Dems ordered for Florida governor?

Economy, Media, Politics

Democrat Governors Want "New Strategy"

Democrat governors at the National Governors Association’s weekend meeting, are troubled about President Barack Obama’s track record on responding to Republican political attacks and urged him to better connect with anxious voters. Some calling for ‘a new election-year strategy focused on the economy.’

A new strategy? Focused on the economy? The truth finally comes out. Despite what the administration said all last year, and the media dutifully repeated, the focus never was about reviving the economy. Contrary to what candidate Obama said to get elected, that turning the economy around, fixing the home mortgage crisis, and creating jobs was going to be his top priority, once in office that priority quickly shifted to a takeover of health care .

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered this advice to Obama: “Rapidly decide what we’re doing on health care and then move to jobs and the economy.”

Bad advise Governor Bill. Democrats’ best chance of saving their political butt is to drop their version of health care. Recognize the fact that the folks (after 70 years) still don’t like it. Stop attacking businesses, and do something to promote economic activity outside of government deficit spending. Do something to help in the private sector, where money is made and jobs, permanent jobs, are created.

Unfortunately, the governors showed no regrets for the huge debt incurred with little to no results. Gov. Richardson, I think that’s Obama’s problem.

Not taking responsibility for anything he messes up is another. Community organizers like to form commissions. Takes the heat off of them, puts it elsewhere. Obama doesn’t need a commission to tell him how not to spend money he does not have. All he needs to do is what we have to do. Look in the checkbook. If you see red, don’t spend, don’t borrow, and don’t steal.

AP: Democrats worried about Obama track record.

Media, Pensacola

How Independent Is The News Media?

Not to belabor the point that there is a bias in news reporting because in a general sense that notion isn’t even debatable. But what do you call it when news is not published, not printed?

Rather than call that a bias, it seems to me to be a matter of independence. Left talkers like Mike Papantonio say that the media is owned by the political Right. Ridiculous I know, but that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

So here’s an example of bias by omission, where a news media outlet doesn’t print a legitimate news story, when on the same subject and with the same players, the news story was front page, above the fold, and front cover.

Speaking of the debut of Air America Radio host Mike Papantonio and his Ring of Fire radio program. In January 2004 it was big news in the Pensacola News Journal, front page, above the fold. In the Independent, another local weekly paper it earned a front cover. Two of them in fact. Including a spot on ABC’s WEAR-TV

In 2007, AAR filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The PNJ printed a 2 column inch AP syndicated blurb. Nothing else. It was portrayed by the Independent as entering its Golden Age. Later in 2007, Independent publisher Rick Outzen credited AAR as being a good thing. Providing a ‘refreshing voice’ for talk radio. He also said this . . .

News media should give perspective to the news. More voices are better. Then the public will truly be informed.

So last month, when Air America filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, liquidating all remaining assets, did you even know? Not if you depend on the Pensacola News Journal and the Independent for your news and information.

I know it shouldn’t be the case, but do you think that online sponsorship and advertising dollars has a deleterious effect on a publisher’s independence when it comes to reporting the news? Specifically these publishers?

Seems like Papantonio has caught on to the same game that he accuses the political Right of doing because his advertising ‘investments’ in the PNJ and the Independent seem to have payed off.

Judiciary, Media, Politics, War On Terror

Why Civilian Trials For Terrorists?

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To understand why President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder chose to try five of the worst terrorists in New York City, putting the brakes on their military tribunal process in which they already plead guilty, all you need to know is where he came from.

That, plus the sensationalism of having the opportunity to put the previous administration on trial is a ‘crisis’ too good to pass up. Especially after Obama said on this matter, that he was going to look forward and not backward.

Holder said he was going to speed up justice for these detainees. He didn’t say it was his friends in the al-Qaeda bar that caused the trial delays he now criticizes.

Holder is a partner in a law firm, Covington & Burling, which has been representing 18 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. You may have seen a picture of one of the other lawyers at C & B, David Remes. A natural defense attorney for the panty bomber don’t you think?

Where are the conflict of interest concerns? Not to mention the increased security risk the administration is putting upon New Yorkers. Not to mention the world stage that this dog squeeze will be put on, using their new found freedom to resume their jihad in a media that will be hanging on their every word.

The motivation is purely political. Obama ran on closing Club Gitmo without a plan on how he was going to do it. To fulfill this promise, who better to do that than Eric Holder, a lawyer in a law firm with a track record of attempting to criminalize the prosecution of the war by the Bush administration. He and Holder both enhanced these terrorists’ defense when they said that they deserve the same protection of our judicial system and Constitution afforded to U.S. citizens. They enhance their defense when they both said publicly that these enemy combatants were tortured. And in a civilian criminal trial, they enhanced their defense because they were not Mirandized.

Remember this. They all had already plead guilty in the military tribunal court system. Rather than let that play out, Holder resurrected it in favor of a show trial.  Reckless behavior for a Commander in Chief don’t you think?

Populating the Justice Department with terrorist defense lawyers is one thing. But what about people with direct ties to terrorists and loony radical groups?

Having heard an earful from New Yorkers, including Mayor Bloomberg and the Democratic Senators, Obama is looking for a way to back peddle, a way to save face. The only right thing to do here is to leave it all under the purview of the military court system and to send the panty bomber to Club Gitmo to face his fate as well. Watching this dance between the American people and his far-left base will be a show in and of itself. Not one I’ll take any enjoyment in seeing.

The President has not shown himself to be on the side of the American people when it comes to the war on terror. If Americans are left with no other alternative than the ballot box to make a correction, I’m confident that they will.

Links:

Fairness Doctrine, Media, Politics, Venezuela

Hugo Chavez Takes Cable Channel Off The Air

It is by design that Americans are guided and protected by a Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately for the people of Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the hemisphere’s idiot, feels no such responsibility to freedom of speech in his country.

It is just a bit ironic that some in our country feel that freedom of speech is not as important as being  fair. In fact, some in the Executive branch feel that enemy combatants should have constitutional protections while denying constitutional protections of U.S. citizens when it comes to freedom of speech. They are cut from the same mold as Chavez.

Link: Hugo Chavez takes channel off air after it refuses to televise speech – Telegraph.