Newsbusters busts CBS, then plays advocacy games themselves
Topic: Dumb Press Tricks

A great example of how twisted news coverage is getting on both sides of the health care debate.

Newsbusters.org caught CBS lying about that "Harvard Medical" study which turned out to be from a pro-single payer group; too bad, because that was the lead to an otherwise not very objectionable news segment (it's really too bad when you have to pat CBS on the back for only lying ONCE on a story, but that's how it's been since the 1968 Tet Offensive).

Then Newsbusters went overboard, not content with exposing the blatant lie, and started playing right-wing advocate themselves.  That wouldn't be so bad, but they gave a really good impression of being soulless bastards.

You really can't trust packaged news on the heatlhcare beat - everyone's got an agenda.  As sorry as it sounds, you have to find the people who lie the least, and double-check everything they tell you.

A Tale of Two Houses -and Snopes.com
Topic: ...Those Who Will Not See

AARP - spending retirees' money to gut their healthcare
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: ...Those Who Will Not See

AARP has just bought an immense amount of ad space on the Internet to claim that "special interests" are "trying to block health care reform."

Someone at AARP is smoking fry-daddies.  Since when does it fairly represent the nation's retired to divert billions a year from Medicare, on which most elderly Americans depend for medical care?   As it is, Medicare so poorly funds elderly people's medical care that many physicians won't accept Medicare patients.  

Where, exactly, is the money the Democrats insist can be SAVED from Medicare to make this granddaddy of all pork barrel spending bills work?

I'm retired.  I was considering joining AARP.  I'm not considering that any more.  If AARP wants my dues, they can stop whoring themselves to the Democratic Party and represent their members better.

John Brunner, prophet?
I was re-reading the late John Brunner's science-fiction novel Stand on Zanzibar today and noticed that his record as a predictor is actually not bad. He wrote this novel in 1968, and apparently did a great deal of homework in the physical, biological and social sciences while writing - and it shows.

I took a few minutes to draw up lists of things John Brunner predicted would happen in his novel by 2010:

predictions made by John Brunner in Stand on Zanzibar (1968, Ballantine, New York):

predictions which have been realized:
- widespread use of genetic engineering in consumer and industrial products;
- extensive mapping of the human genome;
- use of genetic engineering techniques to confer un-natural colors to mammals (glow-in-the-dark mice in real life; in the book, it was red, purple and green dogs, among other things);
- use of commercial airliners for commuting to and from work;
- widespread use of international satellite television networks for news and entertainment (CNN, Sky News, al-Jazeera in real life; Engrelay Satelserv and Reuters VideoAsia in the book);
- “designer” (illicit) drugs with chemical structure and pharmaceutical properties unknown at the time the book was written;
- reversion of Indonesia (referred to as “Yatakang” in the book) to right-wing or centrist government;
- supercomputers so densely constructed as to require cooling by liquid helium (Crays in real life, Shalmaneser in the book);
- widespread online access to reference information from home and libraries through the telephone network;
- widespread change of sexual and family relationship norms and mores in industrialized societies;
- local restaurants which accept orders through the telephone/computer network and deliver to your home;
- China eclipsing Russia as a military threat to the United States;
- widespread adoption of military weapons and tactics (“SWAT” teams) by local police forces to deal with riots and other forms of violent public disorder;
- multinational corporations with resources exceeding those of many small nations;
- widespread commission of mass murder for little or no discernible motive by irrational individuals;
- widespread dissemination of formulas for explosives, poisons, incendiaries and other means of mass destruction by pamphlet, circular, magazine and online information services;
- widespread online access to literature;
- widespread online access to pornography;
- acts of mass destruction - terrorism - committed as political or religious protest;
- presence on American soil of organized bands of terrorist saboteurs;
- economic and political integration of Europe as a "super state";
- screening potential parents for genetically transmissible diseases or defects;
- majority rule in South Africa;
- hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell technology usable in automobiles;
- military side arms which can fire very small missiles with explosive warheads (the US Army’s OICW assault rifle/dialable range 20mm grenade launcher in real life, the “kazow” in the book);
- a technology for mining some metals from the bottom of the sea which has problems with profitability;
- Territorial expansion of China into the Western Pacific (in real life, this is evidenced by the construction of military bases by China in the disputed Spratly and Paracel island chains);
- widespread use of atomic clock standards in clocks and watches;

predictions from Stand on Zanzibar which have not yet been realized (the book’s set in 2010, so Brunner still has some time):
-eugenic legislation to coercively prevent birth of children with genetically transmitted or somatic defects, including state-mandated sterilization and abortion;
- widespread legalization/”decriminaliztion” of marijuana and other psychedelic drugs;
- self-aware computer(s);
- a subculture of people who commit sabotage of public transportation, water mains, other parts of the “infrastructure” as a hobby;
- widespread use of hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell technology in automobiles;
- commercial power generation by nuclear fusion
- inhabited bases for scientific research on the Moon
- orbital weapons platforms (as far as we know);
- rapid transit by electrically accelerated trains in evacuated tunnels;
- “pocket nukes” using less stable fissile materials than do standard nuclear weapons;
- outlawing of tobacco altogether in the US and other industrialized nations;
- Puerto Rico requesting and being granted US statehood;
- Request for by and granting of US statehood to the Sulu archipelago in the Phillipine Islands;
- Outbreak of open hostilities between the US and the People’s Republic of China in the Pacific;
- covering of Manhattan Island by a large, single geodesic dome;
- elimination of internal-combustion engines and most personally-owned vehicles nationwide in US.

This list is not exhaustive or definitive by any means, just a way of starting a discussion and honoring the memory of John Brunner; whether one agreed with his politics or not (I didn't, particularly), his contribution to futurism and science fiction is undoubted.

GM About to Invest $1 Billion of the Bailout in BRAZIL
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Dumb Congressional Tricks

While Congress is getting ready to give the Big Three $15 billion dollars, GM is going to invest a billion dollars in BRAZIL!

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=320909&CategoryId=12396

"General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program

By Russ Dallen
Latin American Herald Tribune staff

General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."

"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.

Meanwhile, he cut the company's revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.

GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil "is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take" with regard to possible layoffs.

For Ardila, the injection in Brazil's automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo "has already begun to revive sales," which fell by 12% in October.

The executive said that the company will operate a "conservative" scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more "optimistic" that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.

This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year."

The reason for this bailout is supposed to be revival of the AMERICAN car industry.  Instead, we're paying money to revive a GM operation in a country that doesn't even like the US. 

Brazil's government supports Hugo Chavez, the Communist dictator of Venezuela, and says "me, too" when Chavez talks about waging war against us.

Do you think those people will hesitate to nationalize that GM plant in Brazil?  I don't.  They'll do it just to humiliate us.  And we should make GM cancel that transfer of American tax money to a hostile regime as a condition of the Big Three Bailout.

I remember the wave of nationalizations of US-owned businesses overseas - and now, the taxpayers of the USA are so badly off that we have to give foreigners whose government is openly hostile to ours a billion dollars.  It's time to cut that out.  Then we need to reconsider whether or not we can afford to prop up the United Nations.

"We'll Put That Flag Up... " - Blag's 501(c)(4): Is This How Democrat Issues Advocacy Works?
Mood:  irritated
Topic: The Audacity of Obama

Reading the criminal complaint against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and his flunky John Harris, I was struck by something.

From "CRIMINAL COMPLAINT - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, and JOHN HARRIS"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/acrobat/2008-12/43789434.pdf

"105. Later on November 11, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with Advisor A.  Advisor A indicated that he will stay “on top” of getting the Senate Candidate 5 information leaked to the particular Sun Times columnist. ROD BLAGOJEVICH again raised the idea of the 501(c)(4) organization and asked whether “they” (believed be the President-elect and his associates) can get Warren Buffett and others to put $10, $12, or $15 million into the organization. Advisor A responded that “they” should be able to find a way to fund the organization. Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH returned to the issue of the 501(c)(4) organization and noted that he is looking for “$10, $15, $20 million in an organization like that.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that when he is “no longer Governor” he could go over to the organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “[Senate Candidate 6]” (Senate Candidate 6, based on other intercepted conversations, is believed to be a wealthy person from Illinois) “could raise me money like that for a Senate seat.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked, “if I get [Senate Candidate 6] to do something like that, is it worth giving him the Senate seat?” Advisor A responded that it would be hard to put Senate Candidate 6 in the Senate seat. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that it would be better than putting Senate Candidate 1 in the Senate and not getting anything back. Later in the conversation, ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Advisor A again discussed the possibility of a 501(c)(4) organization, and ROD BLAGOJEVICH again noted that “[Senate Candidate 6]” could “do it.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Advisor A discussed who might be close to Senate Candidate 6 to talk with him about the issue, because ROD BLAGOJEVICH did not “want to be the one to ask something like that.” Advisor A agreed to find out who is close to Senate Candidate 6.

106. On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with JOHN HARRIS. ROD BLAGOJEVICH noted that CNN is reporting that Senate Candidate 1 does not want the open Senate seat. HARRIS said he thought that is just a tactic. ROD BLAGOJEVICH raised the issue of the 501(c)(4) organization and that contributors and others can put “10 to 15 million in it so I can advocate health care and other issues I care about and help them, while I stay as Governor, she’s (believed to be Senate Candidate 1) a Senator.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH noted that the President-elect can ask Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and others for money for the organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH states he will ask “[Senate Candidate 6]” to help fund it as well. HARRIS said that funding the 501(c)(4) would be a lot easier for the President-elect than appointing ROD BLAGOJEVICH to a position. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said, “They could say ‘hey, we get [Senate Candidate 1]. Let’s help this guy have a 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization. Let’s fund it to the level that he’s asked for and then we’ll get [Senate Candidate 1].’” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that he will control the 501(c)(4) organization through a board of directors while he is Governor, and then a position in the 501(c)(4) would be waiting for him when he was no longer Governor.

107. On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with Advisor B. ROD BLAGOJEVICH discussed with Advisor B his idea for a 501(c)(4) organization. Advisor B stated that he likes the idea, but liked the Change to Win option better because, according to Advisor B, from the President-elect’s perspective, there would be fewer “fingerprints” on the President-elect’s involvement with Change to Win because Change to Win already has an existing stream of revenue and, therefore, “you won’t have stories in four years that they bought you off.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that he likes the 501(c)(4) idea because he knows it will be there in two years when he is no longer Governor, whereas Change to Win might not be.

108. On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with one of his Washington D.C.-based advisors. ROD BLAGOJEVICH explained the 501(c)(4) organization idea to the advisor, and that “[the President-elect] gets these Warren Buffett types to [fund it].” The advisor asked ROD BLAGOJEVICH if the 501(c)(4) is a real effort or just a vehicle to help ROD BLAGOJEVICH. ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that it is a real effort but also a place for ROD BLAGOJEVICH to go when he is no longer Governor. The advisor said he likes the Change to Win idea better, and notes that it is more likely to happen because it is one step removed from the President-elect."

But the most interesting thing was this conversation between Blagejovich and the representative of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU):

109. On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with SEIU Official, who was in Washington, D.C. Prior intercepted phone conversations indicate that approximately a week before this call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH met with SEIU Official to discuss the vacant Senate seat, and ROD BLAGOJEVICH understood that SEIU Official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1’s interest in the Senate seat. During the conversation with SEIU Official on November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH informed SEIU Official that he had heard the President-elect wanted persons other than Senate Candidate 1 to be considered for the Senate seat. SEIU Official stated that he would find out if Senate Candidate 1 wanted SEIU Official to keep pushing her for Senator with ROD BLAGOJEVICH.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “one thing I’d be interested in” is a 501(c)(4) organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH explained the 501(c)(4) idea to SEIU Official and said that the 501(c)(4) could help “our new Senator [Senate Candidate 1].” SEIU Official agreed to “put that flag up and see where it goes.”

Just how did Governor Blagojevich understand that the "SEIU Official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1’s interest in the Senate seat?"

Remember, "Senate Candidate 1" was President-Elect Obama's choice for the seat he is vacating.  Was the SEIU providing that vital arm's length between Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich? 

How many 501(c)(4) organizations out there are run as pay-me's to guys like Rod Blagojevich who can't live on a salary of $177,000 (of course, as liberal bloggers like to say about the fine people of the UAW, "that includes pension, Medicaid, Social Security withholding.... ")?

How big a sewer is Democratic Party issues advocacy, anyway?  I can't believe that a bozo like Rod Blagojevich had an original idea in his life - he has to have heard or known another guy who found a way not to actually work and still make several hundred thousand dollars a year.  I think we know where he got the idea of trading political favors for lucrative employment for his wife....

People, this is not "The West Wing."   Barack Obama has brought the politics of his father's homeland to us.

Obama's End Run Around Congress - Call It a Stimulus Package!
Mood:  down
Topic: Treason, Democrat style

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/obamas_end_run_around_congress.html  shows one way Barack Obama could get everything he's been promising his liberal friends in sotto voce discussions - all those drastic expansions of Federal spending.

Obama could call his outsize shopping list a "stimulus package," then demand that Congress pass it right after the Inauguration.  And when our tax cuts expire in 2010, suddenly we're all going to see our tax rates go up.  Can't expect all of this good Federal managing of our lives for free, can we?  

Gee, we'll get Everything Corps (free non-parental consent abortions for minors at Planned Parenthood!), our First and Second Amendment rights abridged to an extent unheard of, a "civilian national security corps" funded like the Armed Forces and a tax hike, all for the price of a dirty election in 2008.  

Don't know about you, but I think we've crossed more than one frontier with the election of Barack Obama. 

Hitler promised Germany a lot of public works projects and cradle-to-grave government management of their lives, too.  They wound up with a tyranny in the bargain - because Hitler, like Obama, had a mean temper and couldn't stand it when people criticized him out loud. 

And Obama already has two people on the Federal Communications Commission - Copps and Adelstein - who want to give him a license to control political speech on the air.  They call it the "Fairness Doctrine," but it's always been used by Democrats who wanted to tell radio station managers, news editors and political commentators to shut the Hell up. And it took Ronald Reagan to rid us of it.

Change for Sale - Obama's Senate Seat Up for Auction
Topic: The Audacity of Obama
If you needed more proof that Obama comes from a swamp of political corruption known as the Illinois Democratic Party -

"Ill. Gov. charged in Obama successor probe
By MIKE ROBINSON,

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of what federal prosecutors called a "political corruption crime spree."

Prosecutors did not accuse Obama himself of any wrongdoing.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in an attempt to strong-arm the newspaper into firing editorial writers who had criticized him.

The 51-year-old Democrat was also accused of engaging in pay-to-play politics — that is, doling out jobs, contracts and appointments in return for campaign contributions.

"We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree, and we wanted to stop it," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, calling the charges against Blagojevich "a truly new low." He added: "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

Federal investigators bugged the governor's campaign offices and tapped his home phone, capturing conversations laced with profanity and tough-guy talk from the governor. Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant said even seasoned investigators were stunned by what they heard, particularly since the governor had known for three years was under investigation for alleged hiring fraud..."

And when you can stun an FBI agent, you've really done something. But read on, it gets worse for the Donkey Party:

"The charges do not identify by name any of the political figures under consideration for the Senate seat, calling them only "Candidate 1," "Candidate 2," and so on. However, those being considered for the post include: Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez; Illinois Senate President Emil Jones; and Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth.

The scandal leaves the Senate seat in limbo. In Washington, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said the state should hold a special election to fill the seat instead of letting Blagojevich pick someone. "No appointment by this governor, under these circumstances, could produce a credible replacement," Durbin said."

Understatement of the Year, Senator Durbin. And thanks for pitching the louse under the bus for us - something Obama didn't do. Why is that, anyway?

"The FBI said in court papers that the governor was intercepted on wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell the Senate seat for campaign cash or plum jobs for himself or his wife, Patti. He spoke of landing a job with a nonprofit foundation or a union-affiliated group, and even held out the possibility of a Cabinet appointment or ambassadorship for himself.

"I've got this thing and it's (expletive) golden," he said of his authority to appoint Obama's replacement, "and I'm just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I'm not gonna do it."

Blagojevich also wins the Richard M. Nixon Expletives in Oratory Award for 2008.

"Blagojevich also considered appointing himself to the Senate seat, telling his deputy governor that if "they're not going to offer me anything of value, I might as well take it," prosecutors said.

He said becoming a senator might remake his image for a possible presidential run in 2016, according to court papers. And he allegedly said that he would have access to greater resources if he were indicted while in the Senate."

Like Congressional immunity?

"Prosecutors said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees."

Another thing Barack Obama was allowed to skate on by the so-called mainstream press when it was Michelle's turn to take bribes by proxy to the tune of a couple of hundred grand a year.

"In court papers, the FBI said Blagojevich expressed frustration at being "stuck" as governor. "I want to make money," the governor, whose salary is $177,412, was quoted as saying in one conversation."

That poor bastard. I've got inoperable liver cancer and the Social Security Administration won't even give me a disability pension. I'll send the Governor some grocery store coupons so he and his wife can make ends meet.

"The head of the FBI's office in Chicago said he phoned Blagojevich at 6 a.m., telling him of a warrant for his arrest and that there were two FBI agents at his door of his Chicago home. Blagojevich's first comment was, "Is this a joke?" said agent Robert Grant.

Nothing in the court papers suggested Obama had any part in the discussions or knew of them — something Fitzgerald repeatedly made clear at Tuesday's news conference.

In fact, Blagojevich was overheard complaining at one that Obama's people are "not going to give me anything except appreciation." He added: "(Expletive) them."

But there's a reason for that particular piece of drama. Read on...

"The conversations took place between Election Day and as recently as last week. On the recordings, Blagojevich was clearly aware authorities might be listening, warning one person not to use the phone and saying, "The whole world is listening. You hear me?"

Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges. And Blagojevich's chief fundraiser goes on trial next year on obstruction charges."

So Blagojevich may have just been falling on his sword for the President-elect, putting more deposits in the Favor Bank. After all, if Obama's Attorney General decides that there's no case against Blagojevich after the Inauguration, the press sure isn't going to call him on it - or not much.

And a good way to make Obama grateful to Blagojevich would be to shout in a telephone you know the FBI is listening to that "Obama's people are "not going to give me anything except appreciation." Barack and Michelle might even forget that he said "Fuck them" right after that. You have to make these things plausible, after all.

But it's interesting that the people who helped put Barack Obama where he is seem to be either under indictment, convicted of bribery, or on the Feds' radar screen. And, of course, if being a Communist were still enough to get you on the Government's s--t list then Obama's friends from the old neighborhood, the old Annenberg Challenge guys, would also come under scrutiny.

A major test of Obama's integrity will be whether or not Tony Rezko and Rod Blagojevich get the Federal equivalent of a slap on the wrist after having been caught dislocating their shoulders to get their hands as deep in the cookie jar as possible.

"The court papers also outline Blagojevich conversations related to Tribune Co., which has been hoping for state aid in selling Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. Blagojevich was quoted as telling his chief of staff, John Harris, in a profanity-laced Nov. 4 conversation that Tribune executives should fire the editorial writers "and get us some editorial support."

Harris is later overheard telling the governor on Nov. 11 that an unnamed Tribune owner, presumably CEO Sam Zell, "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue."

What a stand-up guy. I hope after the folks at the Tribune who pushed this story get their Pulitzers, they can find a newspaper that values their integrity and guts a little more.

"Blagojevich was elected governor in 2003 as a reformer promising to clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess."

And created one to fill the vacuum. Illinois just doesn't seem complete without crooks in charge.

Obama's Tax Plan in Plain English - What Pulling That Lever Will Cost You
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: ...Those Who Will Not See

Ever wonder where all the money for those "middle-class" tax cuts Obama talks about will come from?

Here it is, broken down so that even we "small-town hicks who cling to guns and religion" can understand it:

 

Oh. 

That's not what he says in his TV ads, is it? 

 

The logo in the bottom right corner of the picture shows that this was broadcast by NBC News, based on data from the Wall Street Journal. This list of Obama's tax incrreases is no more "right-wing propaganda" than the documents from the Obama campaign which were used to compile it.

Tough break for those families who have a breadwinner pass away, only to find that President Obama sent IRS agents to the reading of the will for his 55% cut of the estate.  We finally got rid of the death tax, and Obama wants to re-impose it. 

Senator Russell Long (D, La.), chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation Committees, once described the process of finding money to run the government as "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree." 

I think he meant that when a government is living beyond its means - and ours is - taxes will have to be raised and collected.  Pandering to the delusion that the middle class won't suffer from this process as Barack Obama is doing is not only dishonest, it will destroy what little faith the people have in their government.

Obama is a liar, a bully (he has had people threatened who say bad things about him), a crook, and a long-time friend and colleague of people who hate America.

We don't need him.  

 

Barack Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" and Hitler's Gestapo - Scary Parallels
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Treason, Democrat style

What IS a Gestapo, anyway?

And why do some people say that Barack Obama is trying to make a new Gestapo in the United States of America?