The press eats this propaganda up and spreads it like manure, where a thousand liberal fantasies bloom. No argumentation, no logic examinations, just channeling the emotion.
While the huckster in chief was peddling his snake oil to the yokels, the press slid in some rude observations about his nominee for Surgeon GeneralDr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.This is rude. Why must our press traffic in such trivialities, especially now when the American people need the facts on so many important issues?
But the full-figured African-American nominee is also under fire for being overweight in a nation where 34 percent of all Americans aged 20 and over are obese.
But every Honduran-focused blog that I was able to find (Pensieve, La Gringa's Blogcito, Honduras Living,) were telling a different story. In fact, at one point, the bloggers were trying to unite to send a message out to their readers to send a message to Obama to explain to him the "real situation" in Honduras.
The people there in the country are saying that the media is presenting a one-sided look at the situation and is actually filing a lot of information that is not entirely accurate.
To get some historic perspective on the region, I suggest Ryszard Kapuscinski's tragicomic "The Soccer War." It is a highly entertaining read. You will gain a much greater understanding from this book than you will from listening to all the so-called Latin American experts from Taco Bell U.
Obama Calls Deficit Spending Unsustainable!
President Obama was in Redneck Ron territory last week (I'm sure Ron was there to enthusiastically cheer him on!). The O'President made an amazing pronouncement, according to Bloomberg:
May 14 (Bloomberg) — 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.”
And in other news…
Eating too much causes obesity
Drug use causes irresponsible behavior and may lead to life on the street
Wars result in death and destruction
Does anyone else find it galling how this man can spout such statements as if he were a casual bystander making an observation on the passing scene? It chaps my hide even more that the press reports this with a straight face, never once even hinting that some of this debt just may be his fault.
US News Media: From attack dogs to lap dogs in 100 days
Robert Gibbs gave White House reporters a "strong A" Friday for their work over the first 100 days of the new administration.Note to press: Getting an 'A' from the White House means you're not doing your job.
-- Michael Calderone, Politico.com
I love it when the trained apes turn on their masters...WASHINGTON — The compromise economic stimulus plan agreed to by negotiators from the House of Representatives and the Senate is short on incentives to get consumers spending again and long on social goals that won't stimulate economic activity, according to a range of respected economists.
"I think (doing) nothing would have been better," said Ed Yardeni, an investment analyst who's usually an optimist, in an interview with McClatchy. He argued that the plan fails to provide the right incentives to spur spending.
If you love President Bush, as I do, please go read this article. Bush and the Bush Haters by J.R. Dunn is a fitting coda to the man's presidency. Dunn sums it all up nicely in this paragraph. Be sure to follow the links he provides concerning President Bush's rehabilitation. It's too bad it took his leaving the White House to see some positive commentary.It can be stated without fear of serious argument that no previous president has been treated as brutally, viciously, and unfairly as George W. Bush.
Bush 43 endured a deliberate and planned assault on everything he stood for, everything he was involved in, everything he tried to accomplish. Those who worked with him suffered nearly as much (and some even more -- at least one, Scooter Libby, was convicted on utterly specious charges in what amounts to a show trial).
His detractors were willing to risk the country's safety, its economic health, and the very balance of the democratic system of government in order to get at him. They were out to bring him down at all costs, or at the very least destroy his personal and presidential reputation. At this they have been half successful, at a high price for the country and its government.
Although everyone insists on doing so, it is impossible to judge Bush, his achievements, or his failings, without taking these attacks into account. Before any serious analysis of the Bush presidency can be made, some attempt to encompass the campaign against him must be carried out. I hope no one is holding his breath.
And as for the "worst president in history" himself, George W. Bush has exhibited nothing but his accustomed serenity. Despite the worst his enemies could throw at him, his rehabilitation has already begun (as can be seen here, here, here, and here). He will be viewed at last as a man who picked up the worst hand of cards dealt to any president since Roosevelt and who played it out better than anyone had a right to expect.Farewell, President Bush.
The 12-question, multiple-choice survey found questions regarding statements linked to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin were far more likely to be answered correctly by Obama voters than questions about statements associated with Obama and Vice-President–Elect Joe Biden.They could answer questions about McCain and Palin, even erroneous ones asking which candidate considered it a foreign policy credential to be able to see Russia from his or her house? Answer: Sara Palin, but not really. Actually, Tina Fey said it, but in the Messiah-induced press frenzy, little facts like that don't matter:
Ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, 86% correctly identified Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party, and 81% chose McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned. When asked which candidate said they could "see Russia from their house," 87% chose Palin, although the quote actually is attributed to Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey during her portrayal of Palin during the campaign.Obama Voters didn't do so well answering questions about their messiah and his sidekick, Palooka Joe:
83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot, and 88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry. Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.Nearly three quarters (72%) of Obama voters did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech, and nearly half (47%) did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President.
The criticism of this poll, and it is a valid one in the realm of statistical sampling, is the equivalency of the questions asked about the two tickets. Nonetheless, it calls our stinking press into question and it also highlights voter ignorance. Maybe the two are related. Hmmm...
“Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.I wouldn't be too proud of myself if I were the hoaxsters. Fooling the press isn't really that hard. They go after anti-Republican propaganda like a dog on its hind legs going after a dangling sausage.Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.
President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.The GOP target is so riddled it's more holes than paper. Time to shoot up a new target, but who'd a thunk the target would have a donkey on it?
I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.
I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time.
What happened here very clearly is that the controversy over Palin led to 37 million Americans tuning into a vice-presidential speech, something that is unprecedented, because they wanted to see for themselves. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves. The media has lost credibility with them.
Howie Kurtz at WaPo warns that the media is really getting mad at the McCain-Palin campaign. Indignant reporters accuse them of playing politics and spinning. How dare they! No campaign has ever done that before. News outlets are increasingly challenging false or questionable claims by the McCain campaign, whether it's the ad accusing Obama of supporting sex-ed for kindergartners (the Illinois legislation clearly describes "age-appropriate" programs) or Palin's repeated boast that she stopped the Bridge to Nowhere (after she had supported it, and after Congress had effectively killed the specific earmark).Wow. He reports news and defends his hero Obama all in one breath. What talent.
But Mom! Everybody does it!"We don't have a 'present' button as governor - we are expected to lead..." said Palin, who is in her first term as Alaska's governor.See how they blithely explain it away? It was only dozens of times out of thousands of votes... And anyway, everybody does it! Instead of calling out weasel lawmakers, like it did back in the day, the press covers for them!
Palin was referring to Obama's days in the Illinois Senate, when he voted "present" dozens of times among the thousands of votes he cast in his eight years there. The move is common among Illinois lawmakers, but has become a favorite Republican complaint about Obama.
She did not take questions from reporters.How dare Ms. Palin employ an Obama tactic!
Reuters went to bat for its candidate, hoping to give him a boost after the shellacking Mac gave him at Saddle Back last weekend. It probably felt more like Brokeback to the Senator from Chicago.The U.S. presidential election presents a sharp contrast between two types of patriotism: John McCain stands as a war hero. His rival Barack Obama calls Americans back to the can-do spirit of the nation's founders.When in the heck has Obama ever "called Americans back to the can-do spirit of the nation's founders"? On winning in Iraq? Lowering the price of gasoline? On encouraging Americans to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps? No, No and No. He does just the opposite. He's a community organizer turned senator peddling big government solutions and socialistic schemes like "economic justice." This opinion disguised as news also implies that John McCain is just standing there, like a marble war memorial statue, sword raised, not invoking the can-do spirit of our nation's founders. Do the Obama worshipers who wrote this really believe their own crap?
Black Americans have fought in all the country's wars but their loyalty has been questioned because many black leaders have criticized U.S. policies on race and some whites assume historic discrimination against them, which includes slavery, would have undermined their commitment to U.S. ideals.Whiteys are "bumper sticker patriots" who question the patriotism of blacks (the "real patriots.")
"Conservative whites look at them (blacks) as unpatriotic and yet if you look at the constitution and the history, the black community has been trying to make that constitution work for everybody," said Ronald Walters, professor of politics and government at the University of Maryland.
Walters contrasted what he called "bumper sticker patriotism" with what he said was a struggle many African Americans had engaged in to make the country a real democracy.
Two reporters working for Japan's Chunichi newspaper and Nippon Television Network were detained by police for two hours and beaten before being released, Kyodo English News said, citing the journalists' employers.Does anyone besides me find it funny that China is doing everything the left accuses President Bush of doing, but is receiving no criticism?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is just one more stupidly delusional international organization. Reporters aren't much better. Both groups are mad because the Chinese government has censored their internet access. "This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," Amnesty East Asia researcher Mark Allison said.The NY Times, a paper more sympathetic China's communist politburo than it is to the Bush Administration, blandly reported on the situation without a hint of criticism directed at China's dictatorial regime. The Toilet Paper of Record uttered not a peep as China cited terrorism concerns as an excuse for restricting freedoms. I guess the Times only gets upset at imaginary restrictions of freedom:
The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.
“For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet,” Mr. Rogge told Agence France-Presse just two weeks ago. (The commies lied. Imagine that! --Silverfiddle)Timesonline of London had the best take:
The 2008 Games will be held under the slogan “One World, One Dream”. As was only to be expected, the world and the dream will be defined by China. Hopes that the Olympics would change the People's Republic have been shown up as an illusion, just as the idea that economic progress would bring multiparty democracy on Western lines to China has been exploded by reality. The International Olympic Committee probably calculates that it has no alternative but to go along with all this. Now, as the Games reflect broader issues in China, the question is whether the IOC stands as a mirror for foreign governments' dealings with Beijing.Reminds me of an old saying: Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas...
Der Spiegel stands by its story, pointing out that the translating was done by Maliki's own guy. Here's what they and all reporters leave out: Arabic is much more difficult to translate than German or French. It is a very subtle language and its speakers often express themselves in flowery circumlocutions, stating what they wish reality was while downplaying unpleasant truths.But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."
