This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday August 24 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
60 comments:
Anonymous
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“Obama fatigue has set in” - No shit? ---- -The thrill is gone for Obama and the media- By: Chris Stirewalt Excerpts: Reporters who traveled with the Obama campaign tell horror stories about the organization — [dishonesty, rudeness and abysmal access.] But those reporters still served up the glowing coverage
Conversely, Obama making a hash out of health care provides plenty of good copy for the White House press corps. And because [Obama fatigue has set] in with the reading and viewing public, skeptical stories match the national mood.
Some are still in the tank for Obama. But many [liberal reporters] think the president is blowing the Left’s big chance. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
PRESIDENT Obama and congressional Democrats are now fixing their gun sights on health insurers, but their broader, underlying goals remain unchanged: socializing costs and extending Washington's control of the health-care sector. This takes what Obama told Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth" a step further. Because not only do the reforms redistribute wealth by shifting costs; they also put government in charge of spending even more of the nation's money.
Slate Replaces Newspaper Roundup With News Updates (The New York Times)
Slate is retiring “Today’s Papers,” one of the original aggregators of the Web, 12 years after it started its beloved once-a-day summary of the nation’s news pages.
In its place comes a new recap of the news, one that acknowledges that the news cycle has, well, sped up quite considerably since “Today’s Papers” started in 1997. That is why the “Slatest,” the name of the new feature that comes online Monday morning, will collect the world’s news three times a day.
David Plotz, editor of the online magazine Slate, very superlatively calls it a “very fast, very intelligent, very witty news aggregation feature.”
The new feature will succeed both “Today’s Papers” and its companion, “Other Magazines.” In an interview, Mr. Plotz said that when “Today’s Papers” was introduced in the early days of the Web, it met a need “our readers hadn’t even known they had.”
For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists.
They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up.
But it didn't matter. The story refused to die.
The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.
In the 10 days after Palin warned on Facebook of an America "in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel,' "
The Washington Post mentioned the phrase 18 times, the New York Times 16 times, and network and cable news at least 154 times (many daytime news shows are not transcribed).
While there is legitimate debate about the legislation's funding for voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions, the former Alaska governor's claim that government panels would make euthanasia decisions was clearly debunked.
The Weinstein Co.'s World War II film "Inglourious Basterds" was a hit at the domestic box office this weekend, grossing $37.6 million. But that still may not be enough to give the studio the boost it needs to climb out of its current financial troubles.
The company co-owns the $65 million film with Universal Pictures, so it will only reap half the profits -- a symptom of the studio's financial troubles and the reason that even a hit like "Inglourious Basterds" may not be enough to save them.
One of the last independent studios still standing in Hollywood, Weinstein Co. has struggled to stay afloat in recent months -- after producing a string of bombs such as "Miss Potter" and "Who's Your Caddy" -- in a harsh Hollywood climate where financing has dried up and home-video sales have sunk.
The publisher of Reader's Digest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of a prearranged restructuring plan approved by most of its lenders.
Readers Digest Association Inc. announced last week that it planned to restructure through bankruptcy. The privately held publisher of the popular monthly magazine said the filing only affects its U.S. operations
Under its pre-negotiated bankruptcy plan, senior lenders led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. would swap a significant amount of their $1.6 billion in debt for about a 92.5% equity stake in the reorganized company. The plan would cut the company's debt to $550 million from $2.2 billion. The company's board and senior management would get a 7.5% stake.
WGA reports plunge in earnings Guild hit by recession, writer's strike (Variety)
Hollywood scribes are feeling the double-whammy of the recession and pre-strike stockpiling.
The Writers Guild of America West, in its annual report to members, disclosed that earnings plunged nearly 18% to $801.4 million for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Guild-covered earnings had set a record in the previous year at $976.3 million.
"This change from the prior year was attributable to the effects on our industry of the general economic slowdown and to the strike to achieve the 2008 minimum basic agreement, which had accelerated some feature film income into 2007 and reduced the length of the 2007-2008 television season," the guild noted in the report.
The report details that feature scribes have taken the biggest hit because of the ramp up that preceded the 2007 contract wrangling, which included the Nov. 5, 2007-Feb. 12, 2008 work stoppage. The drop in scribe earnings has also significantly hurt the guild's financial fortunes.
The report was sent to the 8,000 WGA West members earlier this summer and recently posted on the guild's website.
The WGA noted the number of writers reporting income declined 9.7% to 4,163. TV employment declined 11.2% to 2,929 slots while earnings for TV scribes declined 3.1% to $437.5 million. Feature film employment declined 14% to 1,716 slots. Film earnings, which had surged 19.5% in the prior fiscal year, declined a whopping 30.7% to $361 million.
The pronounced fall in film earnings wasn't a surprise since the WGA had warned last year that the jump in feature earnings wasn't going to last.
FPL goes to bat today for 30% rate increase (Bradenton Herald)
TALLAHASSEE — When Florida’s largest electric utility goes to state regulators today to ask for permission to dramatically raise rates, it will have recent history, powerful supporters and financial clout on its side.
[snip]
Missing from the discussion will be a previously powerful consumer voice, the AARP, which says it can’t afford to hire a lawyer this time to speak on behalf of the utility’s customers.
Obama's Plan to Desecrate 9/11 (The American Spectator)
The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.
This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign.
The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.
The administration's plans were outlined in an Aug. 11 White House-sponsored teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group's senior vice president of strategic partnerships and programs.
5:35: Palin's statement of Aug. 7: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Unions budget up to $15 million for August campaign (The Hill)
Labor unions and liberal advocacy groups will spend between $10 million and $20 million this month to twist lawmakers’ arms over the stalled healthcare reform effort in Congress.
Much of the grassroots activity and television ads will be aimed at persuading centrist Democrats and Republicans to support the creation of a robust government-run health insurance program.
Many centrists have balked at the cost of pending healthcare proposals and are reluctant to embrace government competition in the insurance markets.
The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are planning a massive dual offensive on healthcare reform and labor law reform in August, budgeting $10 to $15 million on the effort, according to a senior labor official.
The labor unions’ advocacy will consist of mass mailings, running phone banks and distributing policy fliers at worksites. “This is expensive stuff,” said Gerald Shea, Assistant to the President for Governmental Affairs at the AFL-CIO, who provided a rough estimate of the cost of August activities.
Shea said the effort would be conducted by the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions and would focus on healthcare reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.
PRESIDENT Obama and con gressional Democrats are now fixing their gun sights on health insurers, but their broader, underlying goals remain unchanged: socializing costs and extending Washington's control of the health-care sector.
This takes what Obama told Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth" a step further. Because not only do the reforms redistribute wealth by shifting costs; they also put government in charge of spending even more of the nation's money.
And they can do it via a "public option" or heavy insurance regulation and mandates.
Follow along: Obama is now blasting insurers, claiming they "do nothing to improve care and everything to improve their profits." Imagine: companies looking to make a buck!
"Obama’s Spending Plans Will Nearly Double the National Debt--White House Leaked the News Late on Friday" Monday, August 24, 2009
SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - In news leaked late Friday to the Reuters news agency, the White House conceded that the national debt will increase by $9 trillion over the next ten years, nearly doubling a national debt that now stands at $11.67 trillion."
Friday polls shows highest numbers ever opposing ObamaCare. Desperate Dems are resorting to bullying. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) sent letters to 50 health insurers, demanding to know how much they spend on salaries and junkets.....
Democratic talking points now stress the need to bash insurance companies to save ObamaCare.
Obama is trashing Republicans for not being "bipartisan" -- though his biggest problem is skeptical Democrats.
Senate Dems are scheming to use parliamentary tricks to get it passed.
Better they ditch desperate moves -- and try to figure out what the opposition is trying to tell them.
Gibbels is so out of joint and crabby these days because the Clown in Chief blames the media for his present problems. The poor little fellow has to face the softball questions of the 99% leftist press, way too often. Gibby is especially putout with Major Garrett of Fox News. The nerve of the man asking questions he didn’t want to answer. E-mails? What E-mails?
Obama holiday in Martha’s Vineyard overshadowed by healthcare protests (Times Online U.K.)
Barack Obama began a family holiday on Martha’s Vineyard yesterday, taking care to duck a politically risky photo op of his arrival on the wealthy summer retreat lampooned as a “liberal lido”.
The White House allowed cameras to record the Obama family’s arrival in Air Force One at Otis Air Force Base on nearby Cape Cod, but refused to permit coverage of the Obamas landing by helicopter on the island.
A group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights has spent $150,000to run TV ads entitled “Surf’s Up” in Martha’s Vineyard and Boston opposing Mr Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.
“large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states.” Did the media show us the large groups outside, or just the fawning robots inside the pretend tent? ==== Obama poll numbers take no rest from falling President begins week of a family vacation THE WASHINGTON TIMES By Matthew Mosk and Christina Bellantoni President Obama set out for a weeklong family vacation Sunday facing the first stiff headwind of his presidency, with public polls showing his popularity has dipped as he has attempted an overhaul of the nation's ailing health care system. A series of national surveys has confirmed what was becoming clear as large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states.
Must be nice to fly to NY and Paris for dates and then to a $20 Million Marthas Vineyard house for vacation while 6 million people are out of work because of you.
The thrill is gone for Obama and the media (The Washington Examiner)
There’s nothing like a summer vacation to rekindle a romance. So maybe a week on Martha’s Vineyard can bring back some of the magic between the Obama administration and the media.
Before White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left town, he tried to clarify President Barack Obama’s comment that “everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.” Gibbs explained to reporters that what the president meant was that they were a bunch of bed wetters who made too much out of the implosion of the White House health care strategy.
Gibbs has grown more sardonic and patronizing as the summer wears on and Obama’s poll numbers wilt.
The press secretary has lectured reporters on the nature of their jobs — apparently to defend the administration against “misinformation” rather than asking impertinent questions like “How will you pay for it?”
When asked recently about the administration’s endless evasions on the public option, Gibbs instead opted to define a monopoly.
“If you had one place to eat lunch before you came to the briefing, do you think it would be cheap?” Gibbs demanded of CNN’s Ed Henry.
Henry should have asked Gibbs to define monopsony: a market in which one buyer is so large that it can control suppliers and ruin competitors. Henry could then explain he’d rather pay too much for the sandwich he wanted than have to eat at a government chow line opened across the street to encourage “competition.”
Gibbs is so crabby because, incredibly, the administration blames the media for the president’s problems.
It tried blaming Republicans, but the GOP is too far out of power. When the leader of the free world is complaining about a posting on the former governor of Alaska’s Facebook page, he’s got problems.
In what would be a historic defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic party, the poll suggested that the DPJ was likely to secure more than 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house election on August 30.
The LDP’s presence could shrink to a little more than 100 seats in the house, compared with its 300 seats now, the poll suggested.
Georgia’s only corn ethanol plant could be running out of gas.
First United Ethanol LLC has limited liquidity and could slip into the arms of bankruptcy protection, the company warns in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(If only there was some sort of mineral that we could dig from the ground and use to create gasoline. But alas, America has no such thing, even 200 miles away from her shores.)
Letter: Health care debate reveals political goals (The Island Packet)
The hubbub raised by the proposed health care plan is something to behold.
One interesting aspect is that the community organizer supreme, President Barack Obama, is upset that members of the middle class, not ACORN or the Service Workers Employees Union or illegal immigrants, are the ones getting organized.
Despite all the rhetoric, those groups, along with the trial lawyers and the environmental whackos, are his constituency. The health care and cap-and-trade bills show his intentions.
You will not see anywhere in the health care bill any tax on the generous health care plans the unions have. Their health care benefits put even Congress' to shame.
You don't hear a whisper about tort reform even though the insurance costs that doctors must absorb are outrageous, $200,000 for neurosurgeons, $23,000 for my doctor.
It also costs an estimated $200 billion a year for all the extra tests the doctors must prescribe just to cover themselves from rapacious trial lawyers.
The other unstated political purpose for "Obamacare" is to lock in the illegal immigrants and the poor, which is a very powerful voting group.
The cap-and-trade bill is very simple:
pay back the environmentalists. Don't build nuclear plants, don't drill for domestic oil and kill coal as a fuel.
These are three real options to give us real independence, but then Al Gore won't get any richer.
The deal with Obama is that once one reads between the lines, it is very scary.
Obama pleads for privacy on his vacation Yahoo! News
CHILMARK, Mass. – President Barack Obama and his family began a weeklong vacation on this Massachusetts island with a message to the reporters who have crowded the New England villages: Chill out and don't expect much.
Pleading for privacy, the White House said Obama would have no public events while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard with his family and close friends. Aides also asked that the journalists not take pictures of the Obamas' two young daughters, age 8 and 11, when they aren't with the president.
(So, Obama can get all the privacy he wants, but Sarah Palin's family was viciously attacked and never left alone for one second. The liberals are so full of double-standards and contradictions.)
The daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.
Forty-one percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12.
Milestone: Local online tops traditional. (InsideRadio.com)
For the first time, digital media use exceeds that of radio, newspaper, television and other traditional media among small and medium-sized businesses.
BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study shows 77% of local businesses are doing some form of digital marketing. At the same time, traditional media usage slips to 69%.
Kelsey Group director of research Steve Marshall has been tracing the trend of digital replacing traditional media and the latest data is an “indicator of the broad shift to online platforms.”
The firm says nearly four of every ten advertising and promotional dollars goes to digital, doubling last year’s level. Ability to track lead sources by counting clicks or emails is the biggest motivator.
The shift comes as local advertisers hold their marketing dollars tighter in hand. According to the study, they decreased spending on advertising and promotion over the last year by 24%from $2.7 billion to $2.1 billion.
BIA chief economist Mark Fratrik says, “There is some promise for radio and television stations." He says many companies are already selling their station site as well as new city-based online destinations using their existing brand names and ability to cross-promote.
Globe staff’s fate may hinge on buyer (Bostonherald.com)
As the New York Times [NYT] Co. edges closer to possibly unloading The Boston Globe, staffers at the paper are wondering what a sale might mean for them.
According to a leading New York media analyst, the answer depends on which of the two buyers reportedly in the running wins control of the paper.
“A private-equity group is more prone to re-examine the cost structure, if the (newspaper) business stays lousy,” said Edward Atorino of the Benchmark Co.
“But a family group or single buyer with lot of money may have a totally different view. They may subsidize the paper indefinitely because they want to make it work.”
The Globe reported last week that two of three groups that have submitted bids for the Times Co.’s New England Media Group, which includes the Globe, have been invited to tour the operations in early September.
Extra! Extra! FTC Announces Revised Schedule for Workshop: "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?"
The Federal Trade Commission today announced December 1 and 2, 2009, as the dates on which it will begin a series of workshops titled "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" The workshops previously were scheduled to begin on September 15, 2009.
The workshops will bring competition, consumer protection, and First Amendment perspectives to bear on the financial, technological, and other challenges facing the news industry as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet for free news and information, advertisers increasingly move their ads onto online sites and reduce advertising buys as a result of the recession, and news organizations struggle with large debt that was taken on when times were better.
Several large daily newspapers across the country have declared bankruptcy in the past year, and others have imposed significant cuts in staff and other expenditures to lower their costs dramatically, although some smaller community newspapers may continue to have local monopolies.
News magazines also have seen significant drop-offs in advertising revenues, despite relatively stable circulation numbers.
Broadcast television news and radio news broadcasts have lost audience shares over the past decade, while cable and Internet audiences have grown.
The news media and the practice of journalism are in transition, as evidenced by multiple innovative models for journalism that have emerged in the past few years.
Obama opposed healthcare reform before he was for it One News Now ^ Chad Groening "winning the election is just the start." -- And, don’t we know it in spades? Impeach Obama
F.T.C. to Assess Business of News This is nothing more than a bunch of bureaucrats in search of relevancy.
The Federal Trade Commission -- one of the more worthless of the alphabet soup agencies in Dee Cee (which is saying a lot) -- has ignored the news monopoly for decades.
Now that the Media Moguls are getting a little competition, which the FTC is supposed to foster, there really isn't much they can do at the hearing except "hear."
Unions must think that the economic downturn didn’t hit Mercury Marine, their employer. The unions seem to think thuggery is the tactic to use, it helped them win the election, didn‘t it? How dumb must these brainwashed union clones be? *** Mercury Marine union in Wis. rejects concessions Mercury Marine moving to OK (8000 jobs lost) AP FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Union workers at Mercury Marine put their jobs at risk Sunday when they rejected a package of wage and benefit concessions the boat engine maker [snip] Mercury will move production to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma, over the next three years. Via - FreeRepublic.com
Nearly one-in-four New Mexicans receives health care assistance from the state or federal government, including Medicare that covers older Americans and Medicaid that covers children, poor adults, and the disabled.
Medicaid is New Mexico’s largest health care program and it accounts for 11% of state spending. New Mexico’s Medicaid program faces a budget shortfall of up to $300M in the next two years that will result in reductions in coverage, payments to providers, and/or services:
“Options range from reducing or eliminating benefits, such as dental care for poor adults, to lowering the reimbursement rates for doctors and other providers, according to New Mexico Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde.
If drastic cost-cutting becomes necessary, she said, the state might need to scrap entire portions of Medicaid, such as a program to help low-income workers with insurance coverage, or revamp Medicaid to provide a minimum amount of services.
“We know there is going to be some cost containment. The only question is how much,” Hyde said in an interview last week.”
The future may be even bleaker due to increases in Medicaid enrollment as unemployment rises, as well as the loss of federal stimulus money in 2012. There are varied views on how to solve the shortfall:
SNIP
Reduced services, limits on payments to health care providers, onerous bureaucracy, and increased taxes … it could be a preview of ObamaCare.
Re: Is Obama overexposed? I won‘t watch him, period. If his lips are moving, he’s lying. Obama will feel the outrage of regular Americans. The leftist elites can’t stop the flood of people that will soon despise him. The Halfrican will keep his pet sheep, but forget the false ‘Unifier’ in chief remaining popular with wide sections of voters. Nothing that he does will return his former bedazzled voters. The liberal media has lost their clot, who believes them? Obie has created the perfect storm of exodus from his brand of socialism.
What Our President Has Done For Us In 7 Months: In only 7 months, he:
1. Offended the Queen of England.
2. Bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.
3. Praised the Marxist Daniel Ortega.
4. Kissed Hugo Chavez on the cheek.
5. Endorsed the Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia.
6. Announced we would meet with Iranians with no pre-conditions.
7. Gave away billions to AIG without pre-conditions.
8. Expanded the bailouts, with no expectation of real benefits.
9. Insulted everyone who has ever loved a Special Olympian.
10. Doubled our national debt.
11. Announced a termination of the space defense system the day after the North Koreans launched an ICBM.
12. Despite the urgings of his own CIA director and the prior 4 CIA directors, released information on intelligence gathering.
13. Accepted without public comment the fact that five of his cabinet members cheated on their taxes and two others withdrew after they couldn't take the heat.
14. Appointed a Homeland Security Chief who quickly identified as "dangers to the nation", groups including veterans of the military, and opponents to abortion on demand, and who ordered that the word "terrorism" no longer be used, but instead referred to such acts as "man made disasters".
15. Circled the globe so he could openly apologize for America's greatness.
16. Told Mexicans the violence in their country was because of us.
17. Politicized the census by moving it into the White House from its Department of Commerce origins and hiring ACORN to oversee it.
18. Appointed as Attorney General the man who orchestrated the forced removal and expulsion from America to Cuba of a nine-year old child whose mother died trying to bring him to a life of freedom in the United States.
19. Salutes as heroes three Navy SEALS who took down three terrorists who threatened one American life and the next day announces members of the Bush administration will likely stand trial for "torturing" a terrorist who had played a part in killing 3000 Americans by pouring water up their nose.
20. Flew Air Force One over New York City causing panic at a cost of $400,000 to get a photo you can make with Photo Shop for less than a dollar.
21. Sent his National Defense Advisor to Europe to assure Europe that the US will no longer treat Israel in a special manner and they might be on their own with the Muslims.
22. Began the process of nationalizing the Auto Industry.
23 Announced that for all intent and purposes, the Health Insurance Industry will be nationalized.
24. Proved in two weeks he couldn't even manage a "Cash For Clunkers" program. but wants to manage every Americans' healthcare.
25. Proved he doesn't have the worldwide respect or balls to prevent the unconditional release of the man who murdered 259 Americans at Lockerbie!
And just think -- only 1292 days to go, if we have anything left.
Appointed tax cheaters to his Cabinet Distributes erroneous National debt information Spammed unsolicited misinformation Sends union thugs to break up citizen meetings Appointing unaccountable "czars" Nationalizing Chrysler and GM Firing the CEO of GM Breaks contract law at will Intimidating private citizens Attempting to nationalize health care Lied about E-mail involvement Working to destroy the insurance industry Effectively nationalized banks === This is in seven months, he must be stopped. Vote the bums out.
Mercury Marine Moving Work to Oklahoma After Union Rejects Contract (WBAY)
In a statement the company the said, "Following the union's vote, the company will consolidate much of its Fond du Lac, Wisconsin manufacturing operations with its existing operations in an expanded Stillwater, Oklahoma, facility."
Mercury Marine is Fond du Lac's largest employer, with 2,000 workers, and community leaders have expressed fears losing the plant would affect even more jobs countywide.
(The "union" flexes its muscle and ... POOF! ... 2 percent of the entire population of Fond du Lac, WI becomes unemployed.)
(Interviewed one of the union members on tv last night after the vote and they said they’d make more on unemployment than the new offer.)
Shortly after the Group of 20 summit concluded in London in April, Nicolas Sarkozy blurted out to a small group of advisers a question that weighed on him as he watched President Obama glad-hand his way through the gathering: "Est-il faible?" (Is he weak?) Sarkozy did not answer his own blunt query...
10B aimed at union retirees (another taxpayer union bailout on the way)Detroit Free Press
WASHINGTON -- Antilabor forces say it's welfare for the UAW and Democrats' union allies.
Labor supporters say it falls short of what's needed as tens of thousands of union members are pushed into early retirement as employers cut back health care coverage.
They're both talking about a $10-billion provision tucked deep inside thousands of pages of health care overhaul bills that could help the UAW's retiree health-care plan and other union-backed plans.
As I watch B Hussein O’s popularity take a nosedive, I realize that as people get to know the real Hussein, the more they don’t like, or trust him. That’s the problem with being a fraud, the shadow president, Soros, let the curtain drop too soon. Click your red heels Barry, you’re not in Kansas now.
The leftists are so scared of Sarah Palin. That is the main reason the liberal MSM has tried to destroy her. The things they have foamed at the mouth about have no validity, and they knew it. It is a sad commentary about an industry that is in it’s dying stages. One has to wonder if the results seems worth it to them now, as Obama and the Democrats self-destruct right before our eyes. They have planned this liberal take over for years, and Obama seemed like the puppet of choice. He could read a teleprompter, and women would faint at his readings, no less! Liberals ruin everything they touch.
The AFL-CIO and SEIU goon leaders can endorse and pony-up member dues all they want to support ObamaCare, but the members are still saying "no way!" Union leadership and the membership are miles apart. If don't want my dues paying for Obama propaganda!
The unions have begun to look like a bunch of ignorant goons to a lot of people. Why should we bail them out after they have literally ruined a company? Union school teachers have ruin the public school system as well. I hope they get the comeuppance they deserve, and not on taxpayer’s money. This Obama bailout for unions stinks!
Unions are dying in this country and union leadership is looking to Obama to fatten their member rolls. Problem is, there's no way high-paying union jobs are ever going to rebound in this country - not with so many illegals who work cheap. The unions have also lost the public relations battle by being paid goons for the Dems and for bankrupting states like California. This is their last hurrah in America.
Ah, the Liberalis Dementius (Barking Moon Bat) has appeared in the (9:00) twilight hours to sound his echo location only to find that his chirps and tweets fall on deaf ears.
Obamanation...Who actually put finger to keyboard and really wrote the health care bill??? Are there any names to go with the mindless meanderings of liberal politicos? So this "Health care" bill has an anonymous author, pushed ahead by a chain smoking president, endorsed by an Obese surgeon general...Get the drift???
And Soros is a BIG crook who was found guilty in France for insider trading is getting a huge chunk of change for his oil dealings...Mr. philanthropist, successful speculator,international financier. Just because he has a lot of $$$ people think he is a genius. Sorry Soros is a cheat and has lawyers to help him evade (avoid) paying his fair share of taxes. Is it a coincidence that Obama backer George Soros repositioned himself in Petrobras to get dividends just a few days before Obama committed $2 billion in loans and guarantees for Petrobras’ offshore operations? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Another Obamanation!
O.K. Fresh Prince of D.C. your second hundred days in office have been worse than your first...Your are now the official poster boy for "In Denial".
Everybody call your congress "person", representative, dog catcher etc. and really let them know how you feel!
60 comments:
“Obama fatigue has set in” -
No shit?
----
-The thrill is gone for Obama and the media-
By: Chris Stirewalt
Excerpts:
Reporters who traveled with the Obama campaign tell horror stories about the organization — [dishonesty, rudeness and abysmal access.] But those reporters still served up the glowing coverage
Conversely, Obama making a hash out of health care provides plenty of good copy for the White House press corps. And because [Obama fatigue has set] in with the reading and viewing public, skeptical stories match the national mood.
Some are still in the tank for Obama. But many [liberal reporters] think the president is blowing the Left’s big chance.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
U.S. military says force in Afghanistan isn't big enough-
Obama's Viet Nam looms.
@Lucianne.com
Code Pinkers' alert. They will be right on this as soon as they return from the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.
O's Insurance Scam
New York Post, by Adam Brodsky
PRESIDENT Obama and congressional Democrats are now fixing their gun sights on health insurers, but their broader, underlying goals remain unchanged: socializing costs and extending Washington's control of the health-care sector. This takes what Obama told Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth" a step further. Because not only do the reforms redistribute wealth by shifting costs; they also put government in charge of spending even more of the nation's money.
New pet names for Øbama-
Zero, Zip, Zippy,
or ZZZ for short.
Too hilarious.
Slate Replaces Newspaper Roundup With News Updates (The New York Times)
Slate is retiring “Today’s Papers,” one of the original aggregators of the Web, 12 years after it started its beloved once-a-day summary of the nation’s news pages.
In its place comes a new recap of the news, one that acknowledges that the news cycle has, well, sped up quite considerably since “Today’s Papers” started in 1997. That is why the “Slatest,” the name of the new feature that comes online Monday morning, will collect the world’s news three times a day.
David Plotz, editor of the online magazine Slate, very superlatively calls it a “very fast, very intelligent, very witty news aggregation feature.”
The new feature will succeed both “Today’s Papers” and its companion, “Other Magazines.” In an interview, Mr. Plotz said that when “Today’s Papers” was introduced in the early days of the Web, it met a need “our readers hadn’t even known they had.”
Journalists, Left Out of The Debate
(WaPo)
For once, mainstream journalists did not retreat to the studied neutrality of quoting dueling antagonists.
They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up.
But it didn't matter. The story refused to die.
The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.
In the 10 days after Palin warned on Facebook of an America "in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel,' "
The Washington Post mentioned the phrase 18 times, the New York Times 16 times, and network and cable news at least 154 times (many daytime news shows are not transcribed).
While there is legitimate debate about the legislation's funding for voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions, the former Alaska governor's claim that government panels would make euthanasia decisions was clearly debunked.
Sarah Palin never said anything about euthanasia. She never used the word. She talked about rationing.
Weinstein Co. Struggles Despite 'Inglourious' Success
The Weinstein Co.'s World War II film "Inglourious Basterds" was a hit at the domestic box office this weekend, grossing $37.6 million. But that still may not be enough to give the studio the boost it needs to climb out of its current financial troubles.
The company co-owns the $65 million film with Universal Pictures, so it will only reap half the profits -- a symptom of the studio's financial troubles and the reason that even a hit like "Inglourious Basterds" may not be enough to save them.
One of the last independent studios still standing in Hollywood, Weinstein Co. has struggled to stay afloat in recent months -- after producing a string of bombs such as "Miss Potter" and "Who's Your Caddy" -- in a harsh Hollywood climate where financing has dried up and home-video sales have sunk.
Reader's Digest Files Chapter 11 Protection Paperwork WSJ
The publisher of Reader's Digest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of a prearranged restructuring plan approved by most of its lenders.
Readers Digest Association Inc. announced last week that it planned to restructure through bankruptcy. The privately held publisher of the popular monthly magazine said the filing only affects its U.S. operations
Under its pre-negotiated bankruptcy plan, senior lenders led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. would swap a significant amount of their $1.6 billion in debt for about a 92.5% equity stake in the reorganized company. The plan would cut the company's debt to $550 million from $2.2 billion. The company's board and senior management would get a 7.5% stake.
WGA reports plunge in earnings
Guild hit by recession, writer's strike (Variety)
Hollywood scribes are feeling the double-whammy of the recession and pre-strike stockpiling.
The Writers Guild of America West, in its annual report to members, disclosed that earnings plunged nearly 18% to $801.4 million for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Guild-covered earnings had set a record in the previous year at $976.3 million.
"This change from the prior year was attributable to the effects on our industry of the general economic slowdown and to the strike to achieve the 2008 minimum basic agreement, which had accelerated some feature film income into 2007 and reduced the length of the 2007-2008 television season," the guild noted in the report.
The report details that feature scribes have taken the biggest hit because of the ramp up that preceded the 2007 contract wrangling, which included the Nov. 5, 2007-Feb. 12, 2008 work stoppage. The drop in scribe earnings has also significantly hurt the guild's financial fortunes.
The report was sent to the 8,000 WGA West members earlier this summer and recently posted on the guild's website.
The WGA noted the number of writers reporting income declined 9.7% to 4,163. TV employment declined 11.2% to 2,929 slots while earnings for TV scribes declined 3.1% to $437.5 million. Feature film employment declined 14% to 1,716 slots. Film earnings, which had surged 19.5% in the prior fiscal year, declined a whopping 30.7% to $361 million.
The pronounced fall in film earnings wasn't a surprise since the WGA had warned last year that the jump in feature earnings wasn't going to last.
FPL goes to bat today for 30% rate increase (Bradenton Herald)
TALLAHASSEE — When Florida’s largest electric utility goes to state regulators today to ask for permission to dramatically raise rates, it will have recent history, powerful supporters and financial clout on its side.
[snip]
Missing from the discussion will be a previously powerful consumer voice, the AARP, which says it can’t afford to hire a lawyer this time to speak on behalf of the utility’s customers.
Obama's Plan to Desecrate 9/11
(The American Spectator)
The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.
This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign.
The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.
The administration's plans were outlined in an Aug. 11 White House-sponsored teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group's senior vice president of strategic partnerships and programs.
National Day of Service?
Sounds like a holiday fit for the USSR or Nazi Germany.
In fact, Martin Luther King Day in January has, in recent years, been designated as an unofficial “day of service.”
Why not just stick with that?
Sadly, it’s accurate. I read that he’s going to give a big speech on Sept. 11 about things like Americorps and new “youth volunteer” programs.
5:35: Palin's statement of Aug. 7: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
He signed this in April, yet this is the first I've heard of it, McCLATCHY.
I suppose others who usually don't pay attention to politics haven't heard it at all, McCLATCHY.
Unions budget up to $15 million for August campaign (The Hill)
Labor unions and liberal advocacy groups will spend between $10 million and $20 million this month to twist lawmakers’ arms over the stalled healthcare reform effort in Congress.
Much of the grassroots activity and television ads will be aimed at persuading centrist Democrats and Republicans to support the creation of a robust government-run health insurance program.
Many centrists have balked at the cost of pending healthcare proposals and are reluctant to embrace government competition in the insurance markets.
The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are planning a massive dual offensive on healthcare reform and labor law reform in August, budgeting $10 to $15 million on the effort, according to a senior labor official.
The labor unions’ advocacy will consist of mass mailings, running phone banks and distributing policy fliers at worksites.
“This is expensive stuff,” said Gerald Shea, Assistant to the President for Governmental Affairs at the AFL-CIO, who provided a rough estimate of the cost of August activities.
Shea said the effort would be conducted by the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions and would focus on healthcare reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.
O'S INSURANCE SCAM: GOV'T WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION (NY Post)
PRESIDENT Obama and con gressional Democrats are now fixing their gun sights on health insurers, but their broader, underlying goals remain unchanged: socializing costs and extending Washington's control of the health-care sector.
This takes what Obama told Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth" a step further. Because not only do the reforms redistribute wealth by shifting costs; they also put government in charge of spending even more of the nation's money.
And they can do it via a "public option" or heavy insurance regulation and mandates.
Follow along: Obama is now blasting insurers, claiming they "do nothing to improve care and everything to improve their profits." Imagine: companies looking to make a buck!
"Obama’s Spending Plans Will Nearly Double the National Debt--White House Leaked the News Late on Friday" Monday, August 24, 2009
SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - In news leaked late Friday to the Reuters news agency, the White House conceded that the national debt will increase by $9 trillion over the next ten years, nearly doubling a national debt that now stands at $11.67 trillion."
OBAMACARE ON LIFE SUPPORT (NY POST)
Friday polls shows highest numbers ever opposing ObamaCare. Desperate Dems are resorting to bullying. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) sent letters to 50 health insurers, demanding to know how much they spend on salaries and junkets.....
Democratic talking points now stress the need to bash insurance companies to save ObamaCare.
Obama is trashing Republicans for not being "bipartisan" -- though his biggest problem is skeptical Democrats.
Senate Dems are scheming to use parliamentary tricks to get it passed.
Better they ditch desperate moves -- and try to figure out what the opposition is trying to tell them.
Gibbels is so out of joint and crabby these days because the Clown in Chief blames the media for his present problems. The poor little fellow has to face the softball questions of the 99% leftist press, way too often. Gibby is especially putout with Major Garrett of Fox News. The nerve of the man asking questions he didn’t want to answer.
E-mails? What E-mails?
Bwhahahahaha
Obama holiday in Martha’s Vineyard overshadowed by healthcare protests
(Times Online U.K.)
Barack Obama began a family holiday on Martha’s Vineyard yesterday, taking care to duck a politically risky photo op of his arrival on the wealthy summer retreat lampooned as a “liberal lido”.
The White House allowed cameras to record the Obama family’s arrival in Air Force One at Otis Air Force Base on nearby Cape Cod, but refused to permit coverage of the Obamas landing by helicopter on the island.
A group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights has spent $150,000to run TV ads entitled “Surf’s Up” in Martha’s Vineyard and Boston opposing Mr Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.
“large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states.” Did the media show us the large groups outside, or just the fawning robots inside the pretend tent?
====
Obama poll numbers take no rest from falling
President begins week of a family vacation
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
By Matthew Mosk and Christina Bellantoni
President Obama set out for a weeklong family vacation Sunday facing the first stiff headwind of his presidency, with public polls showing his popularity has dipped as he has attempted an overhaul of the nation's ailing health care system.
A series of national surveys has confirmed what was becoming clear as large groups of protesters rallied outside the speeches and town-hall events the president hosted last week in Western states.
Must be nice to fly to NY and Paris for dates and then to a $20 Million Marthas Vineyard house for vacation while 6 million people are out of work because of you.
Very compassionate.
The thrill is gone for Obama and the media (The Washington Examiner)
There’s nothing like a summer vacation to rekindle a romance. So maybe a week on Martha’s Vineyard can bring back some of the magic between the Obama administration and the media.
Before White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left town, he tried to clarify President Barack Obama’s comment that “everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.” Gibbs explained to reporters that what the president meant was that they were a bunch of bed wetters who made too much out of the implosion of the White House health care strategy.
Gibbs has grown more sardonic and patronizing as the summer wears on and Obama’s poll numbers wilt.
The press secretary has lectured reporters on the nature of their jobs — apparently to defend the administration against “misinformation” rather than asking impertinent questions like “How will you pay for it?”
When asked recently about the administration’s endless evasions on the public option, Gibbs instead opted to define a monopoly.
“If you had one place to eat lunch before you came to the briefing, do you think it would be cheap?” Gibbs demanded of CNN’s Ed Henry.
Henry should have asked Gibbs to define monopsony: a market in which one buyer is so large that it can control suppliers and ruin competitors. Henry could then explain he’d rather pay too much for the sandwich he wanted than have to eat at a government chow line opened across the street to encourage “competition.”
Gibbs is so crabby because, incredibly, the administration blames the media for the president’s problems.
It tried blaming Republicans, but the GOP is too far out of power. When the leader of the free world is complaining about a posting on the former governor of Alaska’s Facebook page, he’s got problems.
Japan’s LDP faces crushing defeat, says poll (FT)
In what would be a historic defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic party, the poll suggested that the DPJ was likely to secure more than 300 of the 480 seats in the lower house election on August 30.
The LDP’s presence could shrink to a little more than 100 seats in the house, compared with its 300 seats now, the poll suggested.
196M Georgia ethanol plant facing bankruptcy (bizjournals.com)
Georgia’s only corn ethanol plant could be running out of gas.
First United Ethanol LLC has limited liquidity and could slip into the arms of bankruptcy protection, the company warns in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(If only there was some sort of mineral that we could dig from the ground and use to create gasoline. But alas, America has no such thing, even 200 miles away from her shores.)
After seven months of Barry Soetoro (aka) Barack Obama in office, We can all see Russia from our house!
Letter: Health care debate reveals political goals (The Island Packet)
The hubbub raised by the proposed health care plan is something to behold.
One interesting aspect is that the community organizer supreme, President Barack Obama, is upset that members of the middle class, not ACORN or the Service Workers Employees Union or illegal immigrants, are the ones getting organized.
Despite all the rhetoric, those groups, along with the trial lawyers and the environmental whackos, are his constituency. The health care and cap-and-trade bills show his intentions.
You will not see anywhere in the health care bill any tax on the generous health care plans the unions have. Their health care benefits put even Congress' to shame.
You don't hear a whisper about tort reform even though the insurance costs that doctors must absorb are outrageous, $200,000 for neurosurgeons, $23,000 for my doctor.
It also costs an estimated $200 billion a year for all the extra tests the doctors must prescribe just to cover themselves from rapacious trial lawyers.
The other unstated political purpose for "Obamacare" is to lock in the illegal immigrants and the poor, which is a very powerful voting group.
The cap-and-trade bill is very simple:
pay back the environmentalists. Don't build nuclear plants, don't drill for domestic oil and kill coal as a fuel.
These are three real options to give us real independence, but then Al Gore won't get any richer.
The deal with Obama is that once one reads between the lines, it is very scary.
Obama pleads for privacy on his vacation Yahoo! News
CHILMARK, Mass. – President Barack Obama and his family began a weeklong vacation on this Massachusetts island with a message to the reporters who have crowded the New England villages: Chill out and don't expect much.
Pleading for privacy, the White House said Obama would have no public events while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard with his family and close friends. Aides also asked that the journalists not take pictures of the Obamas' two young daughters, age 8 and 11, when they aren't with the president.
(So, Obama can get all the privacy he wants, but Sarah Palin's family was viciously attacked and never left alone for one second. The liberals are so full of double-standards and contradictions.)
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll 8/24: still -12;
The daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.
Forty-one percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12.
Milestone: Local online tops traditional. (InsideRadio.com)
For the first time, digital media use exceeds that of radio, newspaper, television and other traditional media among small and medium-sized businesses.
BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study shows 77% of local businesses are doing some form of digital marketing. At the same time, traditional media usage slips to 69%.
Kelsey Group director of research Steve Marshall has been tracing the trend of digital replacing traditional media and the latest data is an “indicator of the broad shift to online platforms.”
The firm says nearly four of every ten advertising and promotional dollars goes to digital, doubling last year’s level. Ability to track lead sources by counting clicks or emails is the biggest motivator.
The shift comes as local advertisers hold their marketing dollars tighter in hand. According to the study, they decreased spending on advertising and promotion over the last year by 24%from $2.7 billion to $2.1 billion.
BIA chief economist Mark Fratrik says, “There is some promise for radio and television stations." He says many companies are already selling their station site as well as new city-based online destinations using their existing brand names and ability to cross-promote.
Globe staff’s fate may hinge on buyer (Bostonherald.com)
As the New York Times [NYT] Co. edges closer to possibly unloading The Boston Globe, staffers at the paper are wondering what a sale might mean for them.
According to a leading New York media analyst, the answer depends on which of the two buyers reportedly in the running wins control of the paper.
“A private-equity group is more prone to re-examine the cost structure, if the (newspaper) business stays lousy,” said Edward Atorino of the Benchmark Co.
“But a family group or single buyer with lot of money may have a totally different view. They may subsidize the paper indefinitely because they want to make it work.”
The Globe reported last week that two of three groups that have submitted bids for the Times Co.’s New England Media Group, which includes the Globe, have been invited to tour the operations in early September.
Long form journalism on the Web is "not working," TIME.com Managing Editor
Long form journalism, a staple of magazines like Time, is not working, says Josh Tyrangiel, Managing Editor of TIME.com.
In this third part of my chat with Josh, he explains how stories are written and edited for the Web.
He says that some 95 percent of content on his site is created exclusively for the Web.
He says that a a lot of the magazine content published on the Web site does not do "too great" online. Some of it is "just too long," he says.
Extra! Extra! FTC Announces Revised Schedule for Workshop: "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?"
The Federal Trade Commission today announced December 1 and 2, 2009, as the dates on which it will begin a series of workshops titled "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" The workshops previously were scheduled to begin on September 15, 2009.
The workshops will bring competition, consumer protection, and First Amendment perspectives to bear on the financial, technological, and other challenges facing the news industry as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet for free news and information, advertisers increasingly move their ads onto online sites and reduce advertising buys as a result of the recession, and news organizations struggle with large debt that was taken on when times were better.
Several large daily newspapers across the country have declared bankruptcy in the past year, and others have imposed significant cuts in staff and other expenditures to lower their costs dramatically, although some smaller community newspapers may continue to have local monopolies.
News magazines also have seen significant drop-offs in advertising revenues, despite relatively stable circulation numbers.
Broadcast television news and radio news broadcasts have lost audience shares over the past decade, while cable and Internet audiences have grown.
The news media and the practice of journalism are in transition, as evidenced by multiple innovative models for journalism that have emerged in the past few years.
Obama opposed healthcare reform before he was for it
One News Now ^ Chad Groening
"winning the election is just the start."
--
And, don’t we know it in spades?
Impeach Obama
F.T.C. to Assess Business of News
This is nothing more than a bunch of bureaucrats in search of relevancy.
The Federal Trade Commission -- one of the more worthless of the alphabet soup agencies in Dee Cee (which is saying a lot) -- has ignored the news monopoly for decades.
Now that the Media Moguls are getting a little competition, which the FTC is supposed to foster, there really isn't much they can do at the hearing except "hear."
Unions must think that the economic downturn didn’t hit Mercury Marine, their employer. The unions seem to think thuggery is the tactic to use, it helped them win the election, didn‘t it? How dumb must these brainwashed union clones be?
***
Mercury Marine union in Wis. rejects concessions Mercury Marine moving to OK (8000 jobs lost)
AP
FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Union workers at Mercury Marine put their jobs at risk Sunday when they rejected a package of wage and benefit concessions the boat engine maker [snip] Mercury will move production to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma, over the next three years.
Via - FreeRepublic.com
New Mexico Faces Medicaid Cuts
PATTERICO
Nearly one-in-four New Mexicans receives health care assistance from the state or federal government, including Medicare that covers older Americans and Medicaid that covers children, poor adults, and the disabled.
Medicaid is New Mexico’s largest health care program and it accounts for 11% of state spending. New Mexico’s Medicaid program faces a budget shortfall of up to $300M in the next two years that will result in reductions in coverage, payments to providers, and/or services:
“Options range from reducing or eliminating benefits, such as dental care for poor adults, to lowering the reimbursement rates for doctors and other providers, according to New Mexico Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde.
If drastic cost-cutting becomes necessary, she said, the state might need to scrap entire portions of Medicaid, such as a program to help low-income workers with insurance coverage, or revamp Medicaid to provide a minimum amount of services.
“We know there is going to be some cost containment. The only question is how much,” Hyde said in an interview last week.”
The future may be even bleaker due to increases in Medicaid enrollment as unemployment rises, as well as the loss of federal stimulus money in 2012. There are varied views on how to solve the shortfall:
SNIP
Reduced services, limits on payments to health care providers, onerous bureaucracy, and increased taxes … it could be a preview of ObamaCare.
Re: Is Obama overexposed? I won‘t watch him, period. If his lips are moving, he’s lying. Obama will feel the outrage of regular Americans. The leftist elites can’t stop the flood of people that will soon despise him. The Halfrican will keep his pet sheep, but forget the false ‘Unifier’ in chief remaining popular with wide sections of voters. Nothing that he does will return his former bedazzled voters. The liberal media has lost their clot, who believes them? Obie has created the perfect storm of exodus from his brand of socialism.
What Our President Has Done For Us In 7 Months: In only 7 months, he:
1. Offended the Queen of England.
2. Bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.
3. Praised the Marxist Daniel Ortega.
4. Kissed Hugo Chavez on the cheek.
5. Endorsed the Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia.
6. Announced we would meet with Iranians with no pre-conditions.
7. Gave away billions to AIG without pre-conditions.
8. Expanded the bailouts, with no expectation of real benefits.
9. Insulted everyone who has ever loved a Special Olympian.
10. Doubled our national debt.
11. Announced a termination of the space defense system the day after the North Koreans launched an ICBM.
12. Despite the urgings of his own CIA director and the prior 4 CIA directors, released information on intelligence gathering.
13. Accepted without public comment the fact that five of his cabinet members cheated on their taxes and two others withdrew after they couldn't take the heat.
14. Appointed a Homeland Security Chief who quickly identified as "dangers to the nation", groups including veterans of the military, and opponents to abortion on demand, and who ordered that the word "terrorism" no longer be used, but instead referred to such acts as "man made disasters".
15. Circled the globe so he could openly apologize for America's greatness.
16. Told Mexicans the violence in their country was because of us.
17. Politicized the census by moving it into the White House from its Department of Commerce origins and hiring ACORN to oversee it.
18. Appointed as Attorney General the man who orchestrated the forced removal and expulsion from America to Cuba of a nine-year old child whose mother died trying to bring him to a life of freedom in the United States.
19. Salutes as heroes three Navy SEALS who took down three terrorists who threatened one American life and the next day announces members of the Bush administration will likely stand trial for "torturing" a terrorist who had played a part in killing 3000 Americans by pouring water up their nose.
20. Flew Air Force One over New York City causing panic at a cost of $400,000 to get a photo you can make with Photo Shop for less than a dollar.
21. Sent his National Defense Advisor to Europe to assure Europe that the US will no longer treat Israel in a special manner and they might be on their own with the Muslims.
22. Began the process of nationalizing the Auto Industry.
23 Announced that for all intent and purposes, the Health Insurance Industry will be nationalized.
24. Proved in two weeks he couldn't even manage a "Cash For Clunkers" program. but wants to manage every Americans' healthcare.
25. Proved he doesn't have the worldwide respect or balls to prevent the unconditional release of the man who murdered 259 Americans at Lockerbie!
And just think -- only 1292 days to go, if we have anything left.
What has the Czar-like Zippy done for us lately?
Appointed tax cheaters to his Cabinet
Distributes erroneous National debt information
Spammed unsolicited misinformation
Sends union thugs to break up citizen meetings
Appointing unaccountable "czars"
Nationalizing Chrysler and GM
Firing the CEO of GM
Breaks contract law at will
Intimidating private citizens
Attempting to nationalize health care
Lied about E-mail involvement
Working to destroy the insurance industry
Effectively nationalized banks
===
This is in seven months, he must be stopped.
Vote the bums out.
Mercury Marine Moving Work to Oklahoma After Union Rejects Contract (WBAY)
In a statement the company the said, "Following the union's vote, the company will consolidate much of its Fond du Lac, Wisconsin manufacturing operations with its existing operations in an expanded Stillwater, Oklahoma, facility."
Mercury Marine is Fond du Lac's largest employer, with 2,000 workers, and community leaders have expressed fears losing the plant would affect even more jobs countywide.
(The "union" flexes its muscle and ... POOF! ... 2 percent of the entire population of Fond du Lac, WI becomes unemployed.)
(Interviewed one of the union members on tv last night after the vote and they said they’d make more on unemployment than the new offer.)
'Is He Weak?' (Washington Post)
Shortly after the Group of 20 summit concluded in London in April, Nicolas Sarkozy blurted out to a small group of advisers a question that weighed on him as he watched President Obama glad-hand his way through the gathering: "Est-il faible?" (Is he weak?) Sarkozy did not answer his own blunt query...
10B aimed at union retirees (another taxpayer union bailout on the way)Detroit Free Press
WASHINGTON -- Antilabor forces say it's welfare for the UAW and Democrats' union allies.
Labor supporters say it falls short of what's needed as tens of thousands of union members are pushed into early retirement as employers cut back health care coverage.
They're both talking about a $10-billion provision tucked deep inside thousands of pages of health care overhaul bills that could help the UAW's retiree health-care plan and other union-backed plans.
As I watch B Hussein O’s popularity take a nosedive, I realize that as people get to know the real Hussein, the more they don’t like, or trust him. That’s the problem with being a fraud, the shadow president, Soros, let the curtain drop too soon. Click your red heels Barry, you’re not in Kansas now.
The leftists are so scared of Sarah Palin. That is the main reason the liberal MSM has tried to destroy her. The things they have foamed at the mouth about have no validity, and they knew it. It is a sad commentary about an industry that is in it’s dying stages. One has to wonder if the results seems worth it to them now, as Obama and the Democrats self-destruct right before our eyes. They have planned this liberal take over for years, and Obama seemed like the puppet of choice. He could read a teleprompter, and women would faint at his readings, no less! Liberals ruin everything they touch.
The AFL-CIO and SEIU goon leaders can endorse and pony-up member dues all they want to support ObamaCare, but the members are still saying "no way!" Union leadership and the membership are miles apart. If don't want my dues paying for Obama propaganda!
The unions have begun to look like a bunch of ignorant goons to a lot of people. Why should we bail them out after they have literally ruined a company? Union school teachers have ruin the public school system as well. I hope they get the comeuppance they deserve, and not on taxpayer’s money. This Obama bailout for unions stinks!
I would not buy Obama's GM cars.
Or Pelosi's wine!
Unions are dying in this country and union leadership is looking to Obama to fatten their member rolls. Problem is, there's no way high-paying union jobs are ever going to rebound in this country - not with so many illegals who work cheap. The unions have also lost the public relations battle by being paid goons for the Dems and for bankrupting states like California. This is their last hurrah in America.
Yesterday on the Swastikas thread, there is a photo of a senior holding a sign that says:
91 Years Old and
Still Alive
(Just to piss Obama Off!!)
Now that is seriously funny.
Why do gay trolls always manage to inject their little fetishists into their rants?
Didn't know you were into the pee thing, but I guess that would be why we call you Tinker Bell in chat.
Glad you could put in an appearance. I don't know what we'd do without you.
9:00 post deleted due to violating the rules.
LOL! That must have been a, "Juicy" one.
Ah, the Liberalis Dementius (Barking Moon Bat) has appeared in the (9:00) twilight hours to sound his echo location only to find that his chirps and tweets fall on deaf ears.
Here is a picture of a moon bat!!!
http://www.californiaconservative.org/images/moonbat.jpg
and...
http://media.photobucket.com/image/moon%20bat/tiredoflaundry/zot/special-moonbat.jpg
Obamanation...Who actually put finger to keyboard and really wrote the health care bill??? Are there any names to go with the mindless meanderings of liberal politicos?
So this "Health care" bill has an anonymous author, pushed ahead by a chain smoking president, endorsed by an Obese surgeon general...Get the drift???
And Soros is a BIG crook who was found guilty in France for insider trading is getting a huge chunk of change for his oil dealings...Mr. philanthropist, successful speculator,international financier. Just because he has a lot of $$$ people think he is a genius. Sorry Soros is a cheat and has lawyers to help him evade (avoid) paying his fair share of taxes. Is it a coincidence that Obama backer George Soros repositioned himself in Petrobras to get dividends just a few days before Obama committed $2 billion in loans and guarantees for Petrobras’ offshore operations? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Another Obamanation!
O.K. Fresh Prince of D.C. your second hundred days in office have been worse than your first...Your are now the official poster boy for "In Denial".
Everybody call your congress "person", representative, dog catcher etc. and really let them know how you feel!
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