Tag Archives: Politics

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.

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Politics

End Is Near For Social Security

News Flash! ‘Social Security’ is running out of money. A better example of an oxymoron cannot be made when it comes to ‘Social Security.’ And Wall Street is not to blame. The blame lies in the robber barons on Capitol Hill.

For years, the Social Security trust fund has taken in more than it spent on benefits, resulting in a cushion of billions of dollars that the government could spend on other programs while giving the trust fund an IOU.

Emphasis added. Notice the assumption that spending money from your retirement fund is OK because, hey, you’re not retired yet. You don’t need it now. In the private sector, its called a felony. Now the biggest Ponzi scheme in the world is about to collapse. The fact that the Johnson administration was taking retirement money from individual citizens didn’t seem to bother anyone.

It was in the Johnson administration in the 60’s that politicians thought it was a shame that they couldn’t use that money for things like his ‘Great Society.’ And the Great Society got us Medicare, Medicaid, and the War (without an exit plan) on Poverty.  Since then, politicians in both parties became drunk on spending from this big pot of gold which is now almost empty. It provided the seed money to greatly expand government programs and entitlement programs to levels that would, long term, be unsustainable on their own.

Warnings that this time would come have been sounded by economists and The elephant in the room.conservatives for years. Efforts to reform Social Security, to reverse the trend  to insolvency, fell on deaf ears during the 16 years of Clinton and Bush. The spineless in Washington lack the will to fix it as it was originally intended to be.

But have no fear. The good news is President Obama doesn’t think it is a problem. Have you heard him or his teleprompter say that the Social Security system needs fixing yet? In fact, the bad news coming out today about Social Security is playing right into his hands.

There is no need to try to save Social Security. Individualism, the very concept of saving for your own future, is so last century. President Obama’s fix for Social Security is to simply continue nationalizing those industries that the country depends on. Soon, the news of collapse will be so intense that America will look to him to save us from peril. Enter Barack Obama and his teleprompter, and Americans will succumb to Obama’s new and improved socialist America. Of course he won’t call it that. But that’s what we’ll get.

Trying to save the Constitution and this country as we know it is just too much work when half the population, Washington, and the media no longer take it seriously.  That’s the way it seems after continuing barrages of bad economic news.  It is Rahm Emanual’s ‘rule one‘ on steroids. Taking advantage of a crisis is one thing. Prolonging chaos to keep the crisis going to advance an agenda is quite another.

link: Annual report due for Social Security and Medicare

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.

Organized Labor, Politics

Chicago Politics Spreads To Washington

2 Comments

President of the United States Barack Obama, is engineering his fix for Chrysler, another ‘private’ corporation. The ‘fix’ is giving a 55% majority ownership of the company to the United Auto Workers union by putting the labor union AHEAD of secured creditors in a ‘White House’ recovery plan. Secured creditors are people and companies who invested in Chrysler, and likely part of someone’s 401k. Under bankruptcy, the secured creditors are always FIRST on the list to recover what they can.

But that is not what happened.  What happened is Obama publicly chastised the few creditors that did not want to go along, and used his Chicago-style political tactics on them to play along with his bankruptcy plan.

A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration’s Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation.

Obama did prevail, ending up with them settling for 29 cents on the dollar out of $6.8 billion owned by Chrysler. The labor union that invested zero dollars into the company gets 55% ownership, and the investors get 29%.

Returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners. It is what he campaigned on.

Update 5/7/09: I’m just dying to call this The Lunch Counter effect, but I won’t. Rush’s podcast from yesterday echos the point.

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Media, Pensacola, Politics

Media Doesn't Care About The Constitution Either

7 Comments

I had a discussion with a local columnist, Reginald T. Dogan, over my amazement at the silence from the media in how our President is running roughshod over the U.S. Constitution.

Here’s the premise. The election is over, and what we are seeing is the fastest slide from freedom and free-market capitalism in history. Through legislation, this administration has trashed the very documents it is sworn to protect and defend. In less than 100 days, President Obama (the Constitutional lawyer) has managed to re-write the Constitution without laying a pen on it.

My question to him was simple. How can the administration be doing all of this with NOT ONE question from the media as to whether it is constitutional?

His answer was just as simple. He said, ‘nobody cares about the Constitution.’ To which I said, EXACTLY. After 233 years of constitutional government, this shift to expand government control by this administration isn’t news?

Surely the media sees this, likes it, and thinks nothing else of it. It’s Journalistic malpractice to watch this happen while half the country is either unaware or does not care. Whether they’re all idiots doesn’t matter. What should matter to the media, which has special protection under the Constitution, is to inform the people what this administration is doing, and to put it in the context of the last 233 years of our history. Not the last 100 days. Unfortunately for America, this shift to socialism isn’t Obama’s fix for our economic troubles. It is his plan.

Since ‘nobody cares about the Constitution’ any more, do you think the media would mind losing the constitutional protections given it?

related links: Obama’s First 100 Days | No Conflict Of Interest For Obama

MRIOTD, Politics

Specter Ends Charade, To Join Democrats

It was a long time coming. Way too long. But Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he is joining the D’s. To which I say, good. It’s about time. Now Pennsylvania can elect a republican who will vote like one.

The fact that Specter is running 15% behind his republican challenger doesn’t have anything to do with it. Right. He claims the republican party has moved too far to the right and has left him.

That explanation qualifies for the winner of the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day award. Today’s MRIOTD goes to Sen. Arlen Specter (Rino-PA)

The political consequence of this move means that, when Al Franken gets seated, Democrats would have a filibuster proof Senate and they can get everything they want without needing a single vote from the other side.

And that’s a good thing for Republicans. By the time 2012 comes around, Americans will have a better look at the change they got.

Economy, MRIOTD, Organized Labor, Politics

aSide Order

President Examines His 100 Days Himself

Tomorrow completes President Obama’s first 100 days in office. What happens on that day is that the news media focuses on his performance for those 100 days. Except for tomorrow. Tomorrow Barack is going to take care of this assessment and do it himself. He requested prime-time hours from the TV networks to put on his own campaign speech, and FOX is the only network that isn’t bending over.


President Delivers Chrysler To The UAW

GM Chairman (or is it BM Chairman?) and President of the United States Barack Obama, is engineering his fix for Chrysler. Another ‘private’ corporation. The fix is the quid pro quo for their unwavering financial support, giving majority ownership of the company, 55%, to the United Auto Workers union by putting the labor union AHEAD of secured creditors. Secured creditors are people who invested in the company. Under bankruptcy, the secured creditors are always FIRST on the list to recover what they can.

But that is not what happened.  And this is why the Obama administration doesn’t want them to declare bankruptcy. What happened is Obama publicly chastised the few creditors that did not want to go along, causing public pressure on them to play along. Obama forced them into taking less for their claim, that they paid for, and giving the remainder to the labor union, who paid nothing.

Returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners. It is what he campaigned on.


TOTUS Responds To POTUS

Feeling the need to respond to the tongue lashing he got yesterday from ‘Big Guy’ (the President), Barack’s teleprompter started up his own blog to discuss the incident where Barack lost his place and became speechless.

Here’s a portion of the transcript.

Big Guy: “In addition to John – sorry, the – I just noticed I jumped the gun here.”
TOTUS: “What? Why are you looking at those file cards? Who gave you those file cards? Ah crap.”
Big Guy: “Go ahead. Move it up.
TOTUS: “WT*! I am moving it up. When we get back to the office, we need to have a sit down …”