Monday, December 29, 2008

If you don't think bad news sells better check this out

Via the NYtimes.com:

One result is that, as the war claims fewer American lives, Iraq is fading from TV screens. The three network evening newscasts devoted 423 minutes to Iraq this year as of Dec. 19, compared with 1,888 minutes in 2007, said Andrew Tyndall, a television news consultant.

A drop of 78%.

Let me cynically point out that good Iraq war news didn't fit the "failed policies of the past" Obamedia playbook.

A Holiday without Kids

Yes it was a little more relaxed, but it was a lot less fun. Both daughters were away with their own lives this year and we spent the time with in-laws. I'd set the expectations bar so low it was easy to step over, though I did keep a keen eye on the clock to see if we had achieved the minimum allowable visitation time. Gotta get back and check on the dogs you know!
They probably felt the same way about us.

One daughter's friend, an officer in the Navy stayed with us on her way to Maine for a visit with another friend. It was great to see and talk to her but she had to suffer the fate of being the surrogate daughter for a day. She's a great human being and really has her head on straight about what's to be valued in life.

With the New Year coming up most folks will want to say a bitter sayonara to 2008 - but I look back fondly from a personal standpoint. Our first grandchild from one daughter and an engagement announcement from the other, bringing another great guy into the family. Both daughters achieved great things in their professional lives as well. 2008 wasn't so bad, except for how the media collapsed under the weight of it's own bias.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

2008 Not so good for Anthropogenic Global Warming Alarmists

Christopher Booker of the Telegraph thinks AGW is a big lie. He's right of course.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

My fear is that Obama's appointment of John Holdren as his "science advisor" bodes a full steam ahead Global Warming fear fest even as many climate science heavyweights are jumping off the bandwagon. Holdren is the one who helped the Danish Government nearly imprison Bjorn Lomborg, author of the Skeptical Environmentalist when he dared to defy the whole AGW gestapo.(via Powerlineblog.com) When the government is behind a scientific fearmaking steamroller like AGW, watch out. Research money skyrockets and facts get molded to fit the meme.
Al Gore = PT Barnum

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bush Has Doubled the number of neighborhood health care centers

As promised in his 2000 presidential campaign Bush added over 1200 neighborhood health care centers. Via NY Times:

In Mr. Bush’s first year in office, he proposed to open or expand 1,200 clinics over five years (mission accomplished) and to double the number of patients served (the increase has ended up closer to 60 percent). With the health centers now serving more than 16 million patients at 7,354 sites, the expansion has been the largest since the program’s origins in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty, federal officials said.



With President Bush also saving hundreds 0f thousands of lives by boosting our support for AIDS care and prevention in Africa it's apparent that GWB is a compassionate man.

Spinning POTUS fitness.

Michelle Malkin gets it right again with a piece on the fawning over BHO's fitness results. In the piece she quotes the Washington Post's front page man love from Eli Zaslow:

Sighed smitten reporter Eli Zaslow: “The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Drool cup to the newsroom, stat.

She goes on to point out that the LA Times printed an op ed piece from WaPo reporter Jonathan Chait who equated GW Bush's fitness regimen with creepiness:

Recounting how President Bush ran 3 1/2 miles a day and preached more cross-training to a federal judge, Chait fumed: “Am I the only person who finds this disturbing?…What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.”

As Michelle points out -

Fit Republican president = Selfish, indulgent, creepy fascist.
Fit Democratic president = Disciplined, health-conscious Adonis role model.


Read the whole thing, it foreshadows how the POTUS and POTUS elect have and will be comparatively referenced in all areas in the Main Stream media.

Seems fair to me.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost. Loser of the Week 122508

I have to agree with the great bloggers over at Powerlineblog.com on this one. Phillipe Sands, he of the dishonest effort Torture Team literally lies about his interview with Douglas Feith regarding treatment of POWs at Gitmo.

The Powerline guys give him dishonest journalist of the year. That'll get you, at the very least, our weekly award around here.

Monday, December 22, 2008

There's Talking and Then There's Doing

"Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates."

Nicolas Kristof takes his own kind to the woodshed in this NYT op-ed. Read the whole thing.

via Don Surber

Which explains why Dick Cheney can give away $6 million in one year to charities (75% of his income) while his predecessor could not even give away $1,000 one year and why his successor averaged $369 a year in such donations (0.25% of income).

I think we all could do more.

A Baghdad Christmas Celebration

Replete with Santa, celebrated by Muslims and Christians alike. It's been decades since this was attempted publicly.

Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. "All Iraqis are Christian today!" he says.

Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. "Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism," he says, "and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties."


All military men and women should be very proud of what they've helped bring to Iraq. It is a shame that as part of the election campaign the last 2 years that it was necessary to belittle our efforts and portray the efforts in Iraq as "failed policies" . They're anything but that.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Now THAT's vetting a candidate!


Mother of Palin daughter's boyfriend arrested. Associated Press headline this morning. Tell me ONE time the parent-of- a- candidate's- daughter's-boyfriend was ever mentioned in a news story. Now that's going the extra mile. If the sister of the dog groomer of one of the Palin's neighbors Siberian Huskies has an unpaid parking ticket she'd better watch out.

Are the Democrats that fearful that Palin is going to be around with a little juice the next time we vote for President? It's going to take some doing to come up with a negative story a week to keep Palin's persona in the villain column. But given what they did to Palin this time around I won't question their talented imaginations.

We now know more about the Mother of Palin's Daughter's Boyfriend than we do about the President Elect's brother who lives in a hut and his aunt who was an illegal immigrant in Boston just weeks ago.

Seems fair to me.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Man Made Global Warming Taking Lots of Hits

Al Gore has done a disservice to mankind and made millions for himself in the process in linking human generated CO2 to the flooding of North America and the death of the planet. His disciples have swooned over his panic-inciting slide show and billions of research dollars have been granted to people to prove he's right. Well he's wrong and horror of horrors even the Main Stream Media is starting to pull back the curtain.

A second CNN meterologist is putting his job on the line....

“If we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were probably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous time for mankind,” Lehr said. “If go back to the Revolutionary War 300 years ago, it was very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period and now we’re back into a cooling cycle.”

Lehr suggested the earth is presently entering a cooling cycle – a result of nature, not man.

“The last 10 years have been quite cool,” Lehr continued. “And right now, I think we’re going into cooling rather than warming and that should be a much greater concern for humankind. But, all we can do is adapt. It is the sun that does it, not man.”


And Save the Planet Gore is more interested in saving for his retirement as he earns a minimum of $175,000 per speaking engagement. He earns enough to buy a 100 foot boat and jets around the world to all his lucrative speaking engagements.

According to Bloomberg.com

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore left the White House seven years ago with less than $2 million in assets, including a Virginia home and the family farm in Tennessee. Now he's making enough to put $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.

Yes, by all means we need to reduce the use of fossil fuels (mainly because of carcinogenic pollutants and the fact that it is a finite source)however, man-made global warming proponents are wrong and they need to quit stealing the hundreds of millions in research money that could be going to more badly needed areas of study.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost - Loser of the Week 121808

The winner is ...........dumb roll please..... Katie Couric. Our favorite female nightly news Obama lapdog asks this brilliant question (J School students cover your ears) " What do you think of the people who question the qualifications of Caroline Kennedy for Senator?"

Yup. Not what do you think of: Caroline Kennedy, her qualities, etc BUT "What do you think of the PEOPLE WHO QUESTION HER QUALIFICATIONS???"

Katie clearly thinks they should be shot. They are idiots to question giving a Senate seat to a woman who has run for nothing except maybe a Frisbee at the Kennedy compound beach in Hyannis, right Katie?

I understand her followup question was to be "When did you stop beating your wife?".

Katie Couric. Jourtegrity Lost - Loser of the Week.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Maybe the Chicago Newspapers are Getting it

And the hits just keep on coming. Chicago Sun-Times laying the smack down on the new Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. Holder, of the "Marc Rich is perfectly pardonable, Mr Clinton" apparently isn't that keen on pointing out his fiduciary relationship with Blagojevich regarding casinoes in Illinois.

It's starting to look like Change We Can Deceive In.

Is Blago the Bad Guy here?

He is undoubtedly a bad guy. But is he the baddest guy? Turns out Rahm (don't get between me and my bone) Emmanuel spoke 21 times to Blago about getting the Senate seat for Valerie Jarrett (Obama's closest female confidant). I suspect Blago said "what, you're telling me who and when??" I suspect Blago got ticked and began spouting to anyone who would listen that this "f'ing Senate seat is worth more than just appreciation!!"

I think it got to be a macho thing between Emmanuel and Blago. Rahm in his new role as king of the world pushed too hard and Blago puffed out his chest. Obama probably had no direct part in this but Emmanuel got his marching orders from somewhere. I'm sure the 21 phone calls weren't Rahm asking for advice on a great steak house in ChiTown. Emmanuel will either take the fall, or get severely reprimanded by Obama and take his medicine apologizing all over the Sunday talk shows. By New Year's Eve either Rahm will be gone or he'll be severely defanged for awhile.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Top ten people responsible for the economic collapse.

US News and World Report's James Pethokoukis names names. My favorite is number 7

Barney Frank. This is a quote, from 2003, that the Massachusetts Democrat would like to have back: "These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'' Turns out that the two government-sponsored entities were walking farther and farther out onto thin financial ice. And as late as last year, Frank wanted Fannie and Freddie to take on even more subprime risk. Washington and Wall Street have to share the blame for the financial crisis.

If you only got your news from the leftist dailies and blue journalism cable news shows you'd think Democrat Barney was a brilliant economic strategist.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Gutless Shoe Thrower

Gutless because he threw and ran. Talentless because he couldn't hit the mark from 12 feet with two projectiles. But irony of ironies - he would be dead today if he threw even one shoe at Saddam Hussein.

The Global Warming Scamarama Moves On

The emperor has no clothes. The elephant is in the room. Now one must understand (according to AP, our neutral newsservice of record) that cold is actually hot. I'm beginning to understand how so many people voted for Obama's line of nothingness.

Don Surber has it right.

Rahm, Rahm, Rahm, Rahm, Rahm he ran

Obama's sidekick Rahm Emmanuel knew something about Blago and the pay for play scheme. But he ain't talking. He's got a family you know...

Blago, Rangel, Dodd and now Richardson

Democrats. Liberals. The heroes of American politics. Not.

Oh how the dam of suppressed stories has burst forth from the Main Stream media now that the election is over and the One got sent over the top to victory.

Obama's Secretary of Commerce nominee, Bill Richardson apparently has a boatload of tainted campaign contributions from a Wall Street advising concern. There's a little investigating going on.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Let's say this was McCain's or Palin's head speechwriter


None of the feminists I know have told me how horribly sexist this picture is and how the guys in the photo should be strung up by their twig and berries and left to die. Why is this so? Because Jon Favreau is Obama's speechwriter and Obama is god. And of course, because the MSM hasn't made anything of it. This royally pisses me off. The whole thing about feminists is that they are....sorry....hypocrites.
Bill Clinton was the world's biggest chauvinist, ruining the lives of several women and cheating on his wife and embarrassing his daughter. Not a word from feminists. John Edwards cheats on his under-cancer-care wife, lies to and about his mistress and may have a love child. Not a word from feminists. Obama, for crissakes, calls the female reporters in the reporting pool "sweetie". Mum's the word. And Sarah Palin, who has probably made more strides for women in the past three months than Caroline Kennedy (somehow fit to be a Senator!) has in her lifetime, is unfit to run for Vice President.
Well thank goodness at least one woman gets it. Former press secretary for Clinton (of all people) Dee Dee Myers is outraged enough to tell all in Vanity Fair. Read it, she's right on.

"Imagine how different the reaction would be if an important aide to John McCain had been caught in similar picture featuring Michelle Obama?"

Her statement above addresses the issue of media bias and feminist hypocrisy all rolled into one.

Monday, December 8, 2008

When you bail out a sinking boat it's still sinking until you plug the hole


It seems all too obvious that the bailout for the Big 3 automakers is about to transpire. Somewhere on the order of $25 to $35 billion dollars will be made available with $25 billion already sent Detroit's way as of September for "retooling". That is, to make the auto megagiants more capable of creating green/hybrid cars. The current monies are meant to be a bridge loan, to get them through next spring. Then what? More monies, more bridges?


If Detroit's automakers weren't smart enough to foresee the need for smaller, more efficient cars on their own, why should we believe they have the good sense to make their companies leaner and more profitable? The phrase "throwing good money after bad" never had a more appropriate application than this travesty. Bloated, short-sighted and arrogant companies such as these burdened by poorly negotiated union contracts that make it nearly impossible to compete with foreign manufacturers need to be allowed to suffer the free market consequences of bad management.


This is the nature of capitalism and it has worked well when left to "the invisible hand". My very tiny company has made it through two previous recessions by making good judgements about costs, customer needs and service and there's not a single Ivy League MBA on the staff!

You can bet the Big 3 has tons of them.

Chart courtesy of heritage.org.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Jourtegrity Lost in real numbers

dThe numbers from the Center for Media and Public Affairs regarding the bias shown by the electronic news media during the election cycle released today didn't even include the two biggest offenders; CNN and MSNBC.

"President-elect Barack Obama received 68% positive evaluations on the network evening news shows during the general election. His treatment was twice as favorable as John McCain’s 33% positive and Sarah Palin’s 34% positive evaluations."

How can we believe what we hear/see on the network news if they're willing to "manage" their newscasts to fit their political agendas? It's simple. We can't.

Tougher still, is to get this message out when the perpetrators of the crime control the means of communications to the masses.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

An Eight Year President

It strikes me that the moves Barack Obama is making in naming his cabinet and reversing many campaign promises (see Change entries 1-8 below) are the moves of a President and a party that wants to stay in power for 8 years, not 4. Obama did not win a mandate. 53% to 47% is not a mandate, 60% to 40% or better, would have been. Many would argue with the media providing cover, with Republicans in disfavor, and with the gift of a collapsed economy just before the election - any democrat would have won with a margin of 15% by just getting out of bed!

Sorry Huff Po-ites, Kos Kids and MoveOn folks - though you may have provided the margin of victory for Barry, he's going to leave you behind. Change We Need, Change We Can Believe In, was all smoke and mirrors. Puppeteer Rahm is in charge now and the Democrat mega powers funded by big business don't want to rock the boat. Middle class, schmiddle class - about all the lefties might get is a center left Supreme Court justice, a $1.50 minimum wage increase, and modified immigration amnesty.

Pretty close to what McCain would have been all about, or for that matter - a third Bush term.

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Part 8

Obama, after promising during his campaign (to deafening cheers) that he would impart severe windfall profits taxes on George "failed policies of the past" Bush's buddies - the oil companies, says...oh, nevermind.

Is this guy ever going to keep a campaign promise? It truly is at the laughable stage now. And of course the media isn't holding his feet to the fire on any of this. Maybe this has something to do with it.

Were I a Barack Obama supporter I would feel duped...again.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Justice....Almost

I guess the only thing better than the deer getting some revenge would have been for it to get away. My relatives in Upstate NY all hunt deer and they're very respectful and eat the deer meat and so on, but I was backing the deer in this story.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Parts 5,6&7

So you think the young, lefty vote will turn out for BHO next time?

Iraq war proponent Hillary Clinton is named Secretary of State.

Bush appointee William Gates is named Secretary of Defense.

Republican Jim Jones, proponent of the Iraq war named as National Security Advisor.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Populist candidate and his small donor myth

Not even scratching the surface regarding the donor fraud suspicions, an independent organization has determined that Barack Obama received exactly 1 percent more in small donor donations than George "failed policies of the past" Bush did in 2004. The popular media meme was that Obama - the people's candidate - received over half his money from small donors. More lies folks, from our horrificly in-the-bag for the democrats Main Stream media. As all this information comes in after the election you wonder if the duped Obama voters get it. Ah what's the difference, their main source for news, the MSM, certainly won't being sharing it. And HuffPo and MoveOn ain't bringin' the noise about it either.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Not in the NYT, WaPo, LAT or BosGlobe

Here's a story that is very telling about how things are going in Iraq and you won't find it in the typical Democrat/Obama talking points press.

Apparently eighteen females in northern Iraq associated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq suicide bombing cells turned themselves into Coalition forces on Nov. 26.

Americans think we have a free press. We have a press that declares it presents "all the news that's fit to print".

I don't think my fellow Democrat and liberal friends are stupid, but they sure are gullible.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

No mercy for Chuck Turner

The FBI photographed Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner allegedly taking a $1000 bribe. The man is in some serious trouble with the Feds. He'll probably go down. You begin to wonder if these FBI stings are entrapment and whether the guy should be cut some slack. But then I remembered this story that absolutely made my blood boil at the time.

Turner called a press conference to unveil some photos he had discovered that proved US military men were raping Iraqi women. Pretty far reaching stuff for a city councilor but Chuck's always been a grandstander. The Boston Globe, eager to put the Bush administration and American military men in as bad a light as possible, jumped on the story and even allowed the photos to be held up by Turner in their photo of the press conference. Of course, the Globe never vetted the facts in the case and guess what? - all the photos were fake and were taken from a pornographic website.

I hope Chuck loses his job for the $1000 bribe, but he should have lost it long ago for this vile trick he played on the men and women who have served honorably in Iraq.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Part 4

President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise - to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans - as part of his economic recovery strategy, two aides said on Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081123/pl_nm/us_usa_obama_taxes

If I had voted for Obama based on the promises he made I'd begin to think I was duped by a classic chicken-in-every-pot politician. I'd begin to wonder if he got his name "The One" based on the number of campaign promises he will actually keep.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Part 3

I think it was Dionne Warwick who sang..."Promises, promises this is where those promises promises end.." First it was Obama supporters helping take down Prop 8 and now this. I'm not sure that Obama is going to win the gay vote in the next election.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

A Republican who gets it

Doug Bennett is running a (hold your hat there GOPers) "grassroots" campaign for a City Council seat in the city of Boston. Of course a Republican winning a political office in Massachusetts these days is as likely as your 401K allowing you to retire before you hit 80. Undaunted however, he's knocked on 26,000 doors since May and the election isn't until next November. He calls, sends letters and has face to face meetings with potential voters.

Repubs have the reputation of staying at arms length from the hoi poloi - preferring brie and Chardonnay to Cheez Whiz and a beer, but it appears giving the recent drubbing at the polls, a new approach may be needed. Doug here may be on to something. If you feel that the media is likely to pull a Palin on you, get out there and meet the peeps. Could work.

It's a year away, but we're going to keep an eye on this guy.

My voters are more stupid than yours

Isn't that what the trailing candidate is hoping for when asking for a recount? After all, the only votes that can be caught at this point are for the voter who didn't fill out their ballot correctly. An errant pencil mark that might show a stupid (can't think of a kinder word) voter didn't fill in the correct bubble. And then it becomes a fight over what was the voter's intent (holy crap are we a nanny state or what?) . Anyway, surprise, surprise early recounting shows that - ding - yup Al Franken's voters are more stupid than Norm Coleman's.

Coleman fans (I'm one) don't despair just yet. Turns out most of the typical Republican counties come late in the count - December 1st - 3rd.


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A Divorce of Convenience

You read it here first. My whacked out theory surrounding the vetting of Hillary for Secretary of State goes like this.

In order for Hillary to be offered the job - Bill's past and more importantly to my theory, his plans for the future are undergoing some incredible scrutiny. His contacts internationally, his charitable causes internationally and of course his sordid past may raise eyebrows as to Hillary's neutrality as Secretary of State. Apparently for her to be offered the job Bill will have to disengage from all his international activities including very lucrative international speaking engagements. Tens of millions of dollars and lots of fun for Bill are at stake. So....I predict that they will have a divorce of convenience to allow Bill to "continue with the important international charitible efforts and to provide the transparency necessary for Hillary to bring her talents as Secretary of State to the people of the United States" My quotes. Sounds crazy I know, but in this crazy new world can you deny the possibility?

Okay, I'm stepping away from the keyboard......

Monday, November 17, 2008

So you don't think the media had a powerful effect on this election

The video found at this web site and the accompanying Zogby poll data of over 500 Obama supporters is jaw dropping. I'm actually depressed over this.

Considering the power that the media has in this country we should all be concerned. Very concerned.

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket, Part 2

A hat tip to National Review Online


Here’s some change that supporters of President-elect Obama may not want to see: all of the policy commitments on specific issues have been removed from his transition Web site.
On Nov. 7, global health advocates noticed that some of the details of Obama’s “fight global poverty” statement had been removed. Specifically, the site no longer promised to fully fund debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries or provide the full U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Activists already were concerned, since boosting foreign aid was the one thing Obama mentioned during the campaign when asked what proposals he’d have to scale back due to the faltering economy...
By this morning, all of the issue-specific pages on the transition site had been removed from the agenda section. In its place, a statement that mentioned details but provided none at all: “The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies.”

A discovery that Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews et al will conveniently forget to mention.

Hate Bush all you want, but no one ever had to cleanse his websites or campaign papers of promises that he had made to get votes.

Apparently we weren't imagining things

Howard Kurtz of WaPo taking a stab at regaining some personal credibility with this article. Sorry, Howie, talking about it after the fact doesn't exonerate you or your pals.

Maybe it'll help you sleep better, though.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Franken win or Franken lose - I can't decide

Not because he has any redeeming qualties. He has none. But I wonder if Franken winning under what already appear to be very questionable pre recount tactics wouldn't be a good thing. The ACORN sympathetic Secretary of State has allowed for 5 different after election night "adjustments" to occur to Franken's total - all of which increase his total thereby reducing the 700 vote lead to 200 for incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.

If this is indicative as to how the Secretary of State is going to adjudicate any voter intent issues in the recount you can bet Norm Coleman is toast. This loss linked with the Stevens apparent loss in Alaska and we have the 60 vote filibuster proof Senate margin. This may be a good thing. I think the drunk with power Pres, HR and Senate will take us extremely far left. The pain won't last long, this wacked out government will guarantee a move back to the center and a big pick up for the Repubs in 2010.

Plus funnyman Franken will serve up some real moronic statements for us all to laugh at. That is if Barney Frank's latest act gets stale.

At least the WashPo is talking about it

The topic of this blog - journalistic integrity, is under siege and has been for awhile. You simply can no longer trust that you will get a balanced look at anything anymore in the Main Stream Media. For the second time now in the last two weeks the Washington Post has allowed their ombudsmen/women to take a retrospective look at the WaPo's coverage.

It isn't pretty. The annoying concept buried not so subtley in this article is that you just can't find quality conservative writers to balance out the overwhelming number of liberal writers. Journalism after all, it contends, draws people (liberals) who want to change the world. Presumably Republicans are drawn to money grubbing occupations and weekend security guard jobs at Gitmo.

The body of the article at least lists a number of incidences that have come into question. It is by no means a complete list and as expected, it is a list of the least offensive of blue journalism's biased missteps. The final comment by Deborah Howell suggests there is hope.

"One more factor will kick in soon. After Obama is inaugurated, he will be the authority the news media challenge. It happens in every administration."

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

More global warming coverup

This is becoming a weekly occurence. First, it was "let's call it climate change" since the globe has been cooling for nine years. Then, the nonsense about polar bears when in fact their numbers have doubled since the beginning of the 20th century. With each passing day more and more prominent scientists are coming forward to cast doubt on the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Now, with literally hundreds of millions of research dollars doled out to various pseudo academic "research" organizations the need for findings to be pro global warming is getting greater. The pressure to find the next global warming scare meme is almost too much for these stressed out science warriors. Thus, the need to cheat the numbers would become inevitable. Turns out the "hottest October on record" is just another big lie. And the Arctic ice melting. More BS.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Stay out of my yard

Joe Wurzleberger aka Joe the Plumber will probably say this the next time a presidential candidate tries to engage him in a conversation in his own yard. Turns out if you "speak truth to power" as Joe did in asking Obama why his tax increases would be so punitive to small businessmen you become an anti-democrat villain who needs to be excoriated by the press as a n'er do well. Ohio, Joe's home state, apparently is filled with state officials sympathetic to Barack Obama and tried hard to do their part to embarass JTP by digging into his private life by illegally accessing his records - through six different state agencies! Never have so many (Ohio agencies, MSM, ACORN, illegal foreign donors) done so much, for one presidential candidate, illegally.

I hope he's worth it.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Obama will get my vote on this

Clinton for Secretary of State? Right on! I think she would be great. She's very knowledgeable, a high profile person (to show we take this stuff seriously) and can definitely play the hard ass when necessary. I'm all for it. This reminds me, however, of how very unfair the press was to Condi Rice - who is at least as bright as Clinton and was forceful when necessary. It is very difficult to carry yourself with respect and confidence (and be taken seriously) when your own press corps is sniping about you all the time. That was just one of the shameful injustices that the 4th Estate perpetrated on the Bush administration.

What one party government looks (and smells) like

Massachusetts, occasionally called Taxachusetts, also home of the Big Dig - a highway project that cost American taxpayers 16 Billion dollars .. leaks hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a month and its inferior construction caused a roof collapse that killed a commuter.. is all Democrat. Democrat Governor, both US senators Democrat, 10 of 10 US House Reps Democrat 154 of 160 state reps, 36 of 40 state senators. That puts it in the 95% Democrat category.

And it is rife with scandal. A state senator under investigation as a sexual predator, another state senator accused of stuffing bribe money into her uh, clothing. Speaker of the House suspected of illegal dealings with a software company. This list could go on and on. And believe me, it's only the tip of the iceberg. When one party controls the entire governmental workings of a state can you imagine what goes on behind closed doors? Unbridled greed and mismanagement of the citizens taxes is my guess. No checks and balances. It's no surprise that the governor is in panic mode trying to cut costs as a skyrocketing budget (increases 4 times the inflation rate the last two years) threatens to collapse the state economy.

Stay tuned. What happens here in Massachusetts will certainly start happening on a grand scale in a few months.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

$75 Billion more to make bad cars

Just heard this morning on the radio - will try for a link somewhere - that the average United Auto Worker earns $81 an hour (including salary and benefits) compared to non-union workers at some foreign manufacturers located here in the US of $31 an hour. Calculating an annual salary of $168,480 for the average union worker at the Big 3 auto makers and $64,480 for the non union worker. So Ford, Chrysler, and GM cars are about 3 times better than the foreign (built here) cars then, right? Well no, the inverse is true. I know let's give out $75 billion to the US auto makers for their inferior work and exhorbitantly overpaid workers. Without major union give backs this deal should not be done. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

You'd think Chris Matthews was writing for AP

As Chris Matthews is already in line as a journalist whose job is "to make this presidency work" maybe he can get a job with the AP on the side greasing the skids for more campaign promises that ain't gonna happen. We'll all feel better not getting a tax break if we know in advance that we really don't care about tax breaks. I believe it's called lowering expectations in the political biz. If expectations for this presidency get lowered any more we'll barely be able to see them (or remember them). Thanks Associated Press. Glad to see things haven't changed over there.

Please don't misunderstand

It may appear to the uninitiated that my goal is to undermine Barack Obama's presidency. That is absolutely untrue. I own stocks , I own a house, I have children and a grandchild that I want to be safe. Obama failing would not be healthy to me personally and certainly to our country as a whole. I want him to get it right.

My concern is with the media and its unfettered bias towards all things Obama and Democrat. The fact that many of my posts reference Obama now and probably for awhile is because this period will likely bring about an avalanche of information that was withheld during the campaign or as the below entry suggests Obama promises that were never questioned and have now become lies.

I kept saying to myself who's going to pay attention to this bias after Obama wins? Who's going to hold the media's collective feet to the fire for their dereliction of duty? Certainly the media won't police itself and the new one party government will have no interest in doing so (check the entry below titled You can't make this stuff up).

And Chris Matthews has boldly and to his credit, frankly, admitted that he will not be soiling his hands uncovering any Obamuck during his slo-pitch SoftBall show. So campaign bias easily dovetails into post-election bias. Tra f'ing La La.

Change. Or is that just the jingling in your pocket Part 1

One of the loudest cheers that were always guaranteed as one of Obama's "rejecting the failed policies of the past" segments of his robo-speeches was "lobbyists will not find jobs in my white house". Oops.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

You can't make this stuff up

Let's see Obama is investigated in 14 states for ACORN voter registration fraud and somehow it goes away and he is also accused of misusing the election campaign system by not forcing his donors to identify themselves possibly accepting nearly 180 million illegally (much from foreign sources!) but....because he lied to Hillary and McCain about sticking to the campaign limitations he gets off Scot free. Only in Obamerica.

I worry for these people

My wife, my two daughters, all of my co-workers are staunch Obama supporters, and low and behold, their guy got in. He's my president too (or will be after President Bush gets belittled off the stage by the MSM). So I hope BO does well but I hope he can get a daily media gig somewhere before January 2oth so his peeps can hang on.

I will now stop pulling my hair out

Obama's not a bad guy. Cute kids, his wife seems nice enough - maybe she doesn't really have a chip on her shoulder. His lack of experience is my main problem with him and the fact that he's never had any kind of executive experience. Never had to balance a budget, fight with the firefighter's union, work with Democrats and Republicans on anything. McCain did not hold executive office either mind you, but he did work across the aisle - alot. Lots of legislation, no pork. Obama's got all the answers but only to the questions he wants asked. Or get off my plane, now. And there in lies the rub.

The reason this blog is entitled jourtegrity (my own made up name - if you believe the google search engine)is because Obama was never vetted by the Main Stream Media. We know who they are - CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, the major newspapers; New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and the weeklies; Time, Newsweek et al. Most egregious of them all is the Associated Press, a once neutral pipeline of journalistic daily boilerplate feeding hundreds of newspapers nationwide - but now a clear and shameful extension of the Democratic National Committee. I didn't forget Fox, they are members of the Main Stream Media also, and very powerful I might add, but they're simply too far in the tank the other way to take seriously.

So what has happened? I would call it a total collapse of journalistic integrity. The sellout began when Bush eeked out Gore for the 2000 election. The ink stained wretches and teeth whiteners were so incensed that they began bashing Bush and his administration incessantly for the last 8 years with a short break to feign support for a short period after 9-11. This set up the "3rd Bush Term" narrative for Obama to run against McCain. How could he win? We have been told daily that Bush is the Worst. President. Ever. Frankly, for McCain/Palin to come within 5% is an accomplishment of epic proportions

So, if you happened to be among the 47% of Americans who voted for McCain/Palin and you paid attention at all to the way this election was covered, you had to be pulling your hair out like I was. Truth is I was actually starting to drink more because of it (no, really!). And I've found that I've been a little depressed. I have degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science and was sure that what I was seeing was temporary, and held my faith that the tenets of fairness and neutrality, the holy grails of journalism, would win out. How could this many people be willing to collectively destroy a once proud profession? Still unbelievable to me but I'm hoping the parade of real journalists who can no longer stay quiet has begun.

The NYT had an article the other day that suggested that "so maybe we were a little biased, sorry". And as I predicted the positive stories about Iraq are rolling in - somehow just missing the election cycle.