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.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday September 27 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
30 comments:
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Revisiting An Old-Fashioned Newspaper: We’re Not Missing Much (BigGovernment.com)
There are still these things called newspapers out there. Yeah, I was surprised too – I gave up hardcopy papers way back when dissent was still patriotic.
But out for a Sunday lunch at one of our favorite places in lovely Manhattan Beach, I noticed the front section of the Los Angeles Times lying forlornly on a counter between the napkins and the hot sauce.
Someone had left it behind. The price being right, I decided to see what I’ve been missing. The first thing I found was a long story on how the conservative movement is struggling to prove that it is not infused with racism.
I was unaware of that the burden of proof is upon the accused to demonstrate its innocence, but then I remembered what I was reading.
The banner picture of Joe Wilson summed up the way the article would combine dubious preconceptions with the lamest kind of liberal conventional wisdom and ignorance of the most basic elements of the conservative movement.
I never got the memo on racism – and I had thought I was on the vast right-wing conspiracy email list – so I was unaware of the turmoil and self-examination within the movement that the Times uncovered.
NBC to Anti-ACORN Group: "Bite Me, Jew Boy!" (BigGovernment.com)
Apparently NBC “Dateline” producer Jane Stone or someone else who has access to her Blackberry has a problem with groups that oppose ACORN and with an ethnocultural minority.
When Stone received an email urging Congress to defund ACORN from Alex Rosenwald, director of media outreach for Americans for Limited Government, the following sentence came back to Rosenwald from Stone’s account: “Bite me, Jew Boy!”
This Uber-liberal, jew-hating NBC Producer TEACHES JOURNALISM at NYU...If ever want to know what happened to an unbiased media, we now have even MORE proof...
NBC changes story over Dateline producer's "Bite me Jew boy" email
Last night I noted the Big Government report that NBC Dateline producer and NYU journalism institute faculty member Jane Stone had sent a text message to Alex Rosenwald of Americans for Limited Government in response to a press release critical of ACORN.
The text Rosenwald received from Stone's Blackberry was "Bite me, Jew boy".
Initially, Stone denied that she sent any text. Now she and her NBC overlords are claiming that she DID send a text message, but that it didn't contain the offending comment.
Thus, they are claiming that Rosenwald is lying. Americans for Limited Government is standing their ground.
This could get interesting. What ALG needs to do is release a copy of the email with the headers.
Matt Vadum has all the updates on this story over at Big Government.
Energy 92.7 Runs Out of Gas (Highly Touted Gay Radio Station Fails in San Francisco) (NBC)
Eventually everyone's energy wanes and the aptly named dance radio station has officially run out of steam.
San Francisco-based Energy 92.7 confirmed rumors that the station is going off the air on its Facebook page Thursday.
No reason was given for the closure but a farewell party (with possible answers) will take place at The Lookout in San Francisco's Castro district Friday night at 5 p.m.
"Dear fans, we just got the word. 7pm is the end of Energy 92.7," the station told its fans on Facebook. "Thank you all for your support. You have been the greatest listeners a radio station could ever have! We love you. Keep dancing."
The radio station was sold this summer for $6.5 million after being bought for $33.7 million five years earlier.
The gay friendly pure dance station's website is still up but an option to stream audio live leads to a broken link.
Crawford says Time Warner will sell magazine unit (Yahoo Finance)
Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX - News) will eventually sell the Time Inc magazine unit and could buy holdings in its core entertainment category, Gordon Crawford, managing director of its largest shareholder, said during a presentation this week.
"Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they're just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks," said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.
snip
Time Warner declined to comment on Saturday.
Time Inc's magazines include popular titles such as People and Sports Illustrated. In the second quarter, revenue at Time Inc publishing, the largest U.S. magazine publisher, fell 22 percent to $915 million due to a 26percent decline in advertising revenue.
U.S. publishers planning to erect pay walls may want to take note of a new poll that found only 5% of newspaper site readers in the United Kingdom would be willing to pay for interactive content.
In a Harris Interactive Poll conducted for PaidContent:UK, researchers found that 74% of respondents simply would go to other sites if they were required to pay for access to the news they now get for free.
As for the balance of the respondents, 8% said they would take advantage of any free headlines on the news sites and 12%said they were unsure. The poll was published here this week.
The other interesting finding in the poll is how little readers are willing to spend to read the news. Fully 72% of respondents said they would not want to pay more than £10per year, or $1.33 per month in U.S. dollars.
Warner Bros. Records cuts staffers Senior VP of sales Dave Stein among terminated
Warner Bros. Records thinned its ranks this week, with 10-13 staffers exiting.
Sources said senior VP of sales Dave Stein, who spent more than 25 years at the Burbank-based company, was among those terminated.
Longtime senior VP of legal and business affairs Susan Genco ankled the label this week. Insiders characterized her exit as voluntary.
snip
Rhino Records, WMG's catalog division, took brunt of the layoffs on Thursday (Daily Variety, Sept. 25). Roughly 20% of the company's staff was eliminated. Several sources claimed 38 jobs were lost;
in some cases, entire departments were shuttered, while others were left with skeletal staffing. However, Rhino still plans to produce physical releases, sources added.
In the latest indication of the shrinking market for compact discs, Warner Music Group's catalog arm Rhino Records laid off between 30 and 40 staffers on Thursday.
Job losses came in all departments, including A&R, marketing, promotion and publicity.
A statement from Rhino cited a "fundamental transformation of the physical new release and catalog business" as a reason for the cuts.
Company said Rhino will evolve into an entity that "handles WMG's global digital catalog initiatives, film, TV, vidgame and commercial licensing, and name and likeness representation for legendary artists."
Move comes as sales of physical recorded music continues to decline steeply.
Rhino has long been considered the industry standard for boxed set retrospectives, but demand for such high-ticket items has been strangled by the music market slump and shift to digital sales.
Future of newspapers brings few to hearing (Washington Times.com)
Judging from the turnout Thursday by members of the Joint Economic Committee for a hearing titled "The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy," lawmakers are not too keen to help an industry that is often critical of Capitol Hill.
Just 3 of the 20 House and Senate members showed up for the hearing, which the Democratic chairman left early to vote on a House bill, putting the ranking Republican in charge.
But after Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, returned, she emphatically declared what the hearing was most definitely not about.
"I want to be very clear: This is not about bailouts. No one's talking about bailouts. We're through with bailouts," the chairman said to the two other committee members who bothered to show up.
The issue is dicey and raises a fundamental question: While the Bill of Rights guarantees a free press, should the government seek to aid an industry that acts as a watchdog over the federal bureaucracy?
"We don't believe direct governmental financing is appropriate for an industry whose core mission is news gathering, analysis and dissemination, often involving that very same government," John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, said at Thursday's hearing.
Capitol Hill Switchboard Illegally Being Used to Push Obamacare? Will Old Media Notice? (newsbusters)
Well, this certainly can't be legal… can it? If you call one of the numbers that leads you to the switchboard for Congress, the number you'd call to be put through to your Congressman or Senator's office, you get a short message selling Obama's healthcare policies before being transferred to the switchboard operator.
This should be the sort of story the Old Media would investigate fully. But will it?
How can this even be legal? After all, this isn't the Democrat Party hotline we are talking about here.
It is the main phone number representing all of Congress, not just Obama and his nationalized healthcare policies.
I repeat, this is the phone number for all of Congress, not an activist's number to sell Democrats and their policies.
Tuning In Too Late (Public Editor Spanks NYT on ignoring ACORN story) New York Times
ON Sept. 12, an Associated Press article inside The Times reported that the Census Bureau had severed its ties to Acorn, the community organizing group. Robert Groves, the census director, was quoted as saying that Acorn, one of thousands of unpaid organizations promoting the 2010 census, had become “a distraction.”
What the article didn’t say — but what followers of Fox News and conservative commentators already knew — was that a video sting had caught Acorn workers counseling a bogus prostitute and pimp on how to set up a brothel staffed by under-age girls, avoid detection and cheat on taxes.
snip
But for days, as more videos were posted and government authorities rushed to distance themselves from Acorn, The Times stood still.
Its slow reflexes — closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser — suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs.
Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire. But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.
NEA Update: Yosi Sergant Resigns; UPDATE: L.A. Times Has Been Silent on Sergant All Year PATTERICO
Yosi Sergant, the former NEA communications director who was demoted after revelations about a controversial conference call with artists, has resigned:
“His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately,” NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said in an e-mail.
Sergant, a public relations professional from Los Angeles, had come to Washington to work in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House.
He moved to the NEA in May and was reassigned from his post as communications director two weeks ago after coming under fire from conservative Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck.
The talk show host accused Sergant of arranging an August conference call with the Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a service initiative of the administration, to recruit artists to create works in support of Obama policies.” Another one under the bus.
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I guess according to the L.A. Times, Yosi Sergant is not a story now and has not been a story at any point this year: This never happened, gentlemen.
AP: Guantanamo Might Not Close by January (Friday Night News Dump) (Fox news)
The White House is acknowledging for the first time that it might not be able to meet President Obama's January deadline for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
He knew it was never going to happen. Just like he knows the health care bill will never be deficit neutral. Just like he knows a penalty assessed by the IRS for not carrying government approved insurance is a tax.
Just like he knows Cap and Trade will be a tax across the board on every American costing the average family well over $1000 a year. Just words... just speeches. Just more lies.
The White House and NEA continue to stonewall about scandal Washington Times
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to "leverage" government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration's legislative agenda.
This is the short version of the Obama administration's position:
Nothing bad happened. The rogue employee who didn't do anything bad has been relieved of his duties (and has now resigned).
In an effort to make sure that the same "nothing bad" never happens again, the administration has distributed a memo and provided some new training on how not to do "nothing bad."
The facts are simple and public.
During the transition, President Obama's top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing.
After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama's legislative agenda.
An NEA grants official, Mario Garcia Durham, was at one such meeting for which the attendee list is public.
French President Tells Obama “We Live In The Real World”
You know its bad when the French are tougher then the United States....what a change:
Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”
“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions.
North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.
“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community?
More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.
The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.
“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.
Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”
Minnesota Poll: Obama's support declines sharply (MN) Star Tribune)
President Obama's once-robust support in Minnesota has dwindled sharply as he confronts a sluggish economy and significant unease about a health care overhaul that has split Democrats and Republicans in Congress, according to the latest Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.
Barack Obama -- Too foolish even for the Washington Post (Power Line)
There's little the Washington Post news staff won't do to shill for President Obama, but his speech yesterday to the U.N. proved that even the Post has its limits.
Reporters Dan Balz and Michael Shear leave it late, until most readers have no doubt stopped reading, before offering this gem of an understatement about the prospects for the rest of the world heeding Obama's abject appeal for "global cooperation":
Part of Obama's success on these fronts will be determined as much [sic] by the steadiness of his leadership and the respect he is able to command as by his appeals for cooperation. You think?
Having thus ventured into the unfamiliar realm of skepticism about Obama, Balz and Shear can scarcely contain themselves.
They proceed to describe Obama's unsteadiness regarding Afghanistan and then dismiss the administration's pretext it:
They cite a new set of conditions, including the messy aftermath of the recent election in Afghanistan, as a cause for reassessment.
The election certified rather than exposed what administration officials have long known -- that President Hamid Karzai is an unreliable partner in the battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Kirk Asks President Obama to Withdraw Administration's Request to Provide $400,000 to Libya (Trading Markets)
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today urged President Obama to withdraw his Administration's request to provide $400,000 to Libya's Qaddafi Foundation, just weeks after they celebrated the release of a terrorist responsible for the murders of 189 Americans.
Last month, when Scotland freed Abel Baset Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi greeted him with a hero's welcome. Qaddafi's son, Saif, was involved in the negotiation for Megrahi's release and accompanied the terrorist back to Libya.
Despite the U.S. Administration's strong condemnation of Megrahi's release, the State Department notified Congress on September 15, 2009, of its intent to provide $200,000 to Saif Qaddafi's foundation (Qaddafi Development Foundation) and another $200,000 expected to go to an organization run by Muammar Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha (Wa'ettasemo) and the UNDP, where she serves as goodwill ambassador for Libya.
The dead end kids (Effects of raising minimum wage, 52.2% unemployment)The New York Post “Dude this aint the change we voted for!”
The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept.
-- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long.
Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.
Big media MIA again. Sarkozy mocks Obama and the fringe media mostly ignores it. Some bloggers say the scant news that was reported is being removed from network news sites. The media is downplaying the statement because it shows how naive and shallow Obama is. The whole world swoons for O’Barry, or maybe not? --------- Sarkozy Mocks Obama at UN Security Council: Hello, Big Media?
Mich. stares down 2nd govt. shutdown in 3 years [Run into the ground for 50 years by DEMOCRATS] AP
Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days.
The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall.
Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.
Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 (see trends).
♫ What ya gonna do .. ♫ What ya gonna do Barry? _____________ *Iran test-fires short-range missiles* My Way News By NASSER KARIMI
Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, told reporters Iran tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday's drill in a desert in central Iran. In the clip, men could be heard [shouting "Allahu Akbar"] as the missiles were launched.
(“Allahu Akbar". In the Islamic world, is said instead outward applause”)
Pesky questions, pesky, pesky questions. --- Unanswered questions from the NEA Public not quite sure how this works: Political activist has to leave NEA because he "didn't do anything wrong."
It looks like someone showed the NEA how to play the angles. The NEA must have the ACORN playbook memorized, but they probably will shitcan targeting the Department of Housing for Prostitutes! === Behind the curtain of Obama's arts policy Culture Monster Blog Excerpt: The idea, Lynch says, is to [weave the arts into the upcoming administration’s broad stimulus package], with a dollars-and-cents focus that embraces improved access for artists to unemployment and health benefits, as well as culturally targeted use of [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants] -- through the well-known [Community Development Block Grant program] -- and giving public art projects an increased role via the [Department of Transportation]. The recommendations, which can be read in full here, also target programs in the [commerce] and [agriculture departments]. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/obama-arts-poli.html
It is time to de-fund the NEA just like ACORN, until they can prove their is the corruption does not run deeper than the recent illegal actions from the White House. Firing one person does not “Drain the swamp” as the Botox Twit likes to say.
Remember this- “During the transition, President Obama's top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing. After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama's legislative agenda.”
A moment of silence please...It will be one year tomorrow that McClatchy laid off the production crew at the Modesto Bee...
Now break out the party favors 'cause McClatchy is going down... They freed us slaves and we may be having a difficult time of it, but at least we don't have to mope around looking over our shoulders waiting for the next shoe to drop!
Free at last Free at last Than God I'm free at last.
30 comments:
Revisiting An Old-Fashioned Newspaper: We’re Not Missing Much (BigGovernment.com)
There are still these things called newspapers out there. Yeah, I was surprised too – I gave up hardcopy papers way back when dissent was still patriotic.
But out for a Sunday lunch at one of our favorite places in lovely Manhattan Beach, I noticed the front section of the Los Angeles Times lying forlornly on a counter between the napkins and the hot sauce.
Someone had left it behind. The price being right, I decided to see what I’ve been missing.
The first thing I found was a long story on how the conservative movement is struggling to prove that it is not infused with racism.
I was unaware of that the burden of proof is upon the accused to demonstrate its innocence, but then I remembered what I was reading.
The banner picture of Joe Wilson summed up the way the article would combine dubious preconceptions with the lamest kind of liberal conventional wisdom and ignorance of the most basic elements of the conservative movement.
I never got the memo on racism – and I had thought I was on the vast right-wing conspiracy email list – so I was unaware of the turmoil and self-examination within the movement that the Times uncovered.
NBC to Anti-ACORN Group: "Bite Me, Jew Boy!" (BigGovernment.com)
Apparently NBC “Dateline” producer Jane Stone or someone else who has access to her Blackberry has a problem with groups that oppose ACORN and with an ethnocultural minority.
When Stone received an email urging Congress to defund ACORN from Alex Rosenwald, director of media outreach for Americans for Limited Government, the following sentence came back to Rosenwald from Stone’s account: “Bite me, Jew Boy!”
This Uber-liberal, jew-hating NBC Producer TEACHES JOURNALISM at NYU...If ever want to know what happened to an unbiased media, we now have even MORE proof...
NBC changes story over Dateline producer's "Bite me Jew boy" email
Last night I noted the Big Government report that NBC Dateline producer and NYU journalism institute faculty member Jane Stone had sent a text message to Alex Rosenwald of Americans for Limited Government in response to a press release critical of ACORN.
The text Rosenwald received from Stone's Blackberry was "Bite me, Jew boy".
Initially, Stone denied that she sent any text. Now she and her NBC overlords are claiming that she DID send a text message, but that it didn't contain the offending comment.
Thus, they are claiming that Rosenwald is lying. Americans for Limited Government is standing their ground.
This could get interesting. What ALG needs to do is release a copy of the email with the headers.
Matt Vadum has all the updates on this story over at Big Government.
Energy 92.7 Runs Out of Gas (Highly Touted Gay Radio Station Fails in San Francisco) (NBC)
Eventually everyone's energy wanes and the aptly named dance radio station has officially run out of steam.
San Francisco-based Energy 92.7 confirmed rumors that the station is going off the air on its Facebook page Thursday.
No reason was given for the closure but a farewell party (with possible answers) will take place at The Lookout in San Francisco's Castro district Friday night at 5 p.m.
"Dear fans, we just got the word. 7pm is the end of Energy 92.7," the station told its fans on Facebook. "Thank you all for your support. You have been the greatest listeners a radio station could ever have! We love you. Keep dancing."
The radio station was sold this summer for $6.5 million after being bought for $33.7 million five years earlier.
The gay friendly pure dance station's website is still up but an option to stream audio live leads to a broken link.
Crawford says Time Warner will sell magazine unit (Yahoo Finance)
Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX - News) will eventually sell the Time Inc magazine unit and could buy holdings in its core entertainment category, Gordon Crawford, managing director of its largest shareholder, said during a presentation this week.
"Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they're just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks," said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.
snip
Time Warner declined to comment on Saturday.
Time Inc's magazines include popular titles such as People and Sports Illustrated. In the second quarter, revenue at Time Inc publishing, the largest U.S. magazine publisher, fell 22 percent to $915 million due to a 26percent decline in advertising revenue.
Only 5% in UK would pay for web news
U.S. publishers planning to erect pay walls may want to take note of a new poll that found only 5% of newspaper site readers in the United Kingdom would be willing to pay for interactive content.
In a Harris Interactive Poll conducted for PaidContent:UK, researchers found that 74% of respondents simply would go to other sites if they were required to pay for access to the news they now get for free.
As for the balance of the respondents, 8% said they would take advantage of any free headlines on the news sites and 12%said they were unsure. The poll was published here this week.
The other interesting finding in the poll is how little readers are willing to spend to read the news. Fully 72% of respondents said they would not want to pay more than £10per year, or $1.33 per month in U.S. dollars.
Warner Bros. Records cuts staffers
Senior VP of sales Dave Stein among terminated
Warner Bros. Records thinned its ranks this week, with 10-13 staffers exiting.
Sources said senior VP of sales Dave Stein, who spent more than 25 years at the Burbank-based company, was among those terminated.
Longtime senior VP of legal and business affairs Susan Genco ankled the label this week. Insiders characterized her exit as voluntary.
snip
Rhino Records, WMG's catalog division, took brunt of the layoffs on Thursday (Daily Variety, Sept. 25). Roughly 20% of the company's staff was eliminated. Several sources claimed 38 jobs were lost;
in some cases, entire departments were shuttered, while others were left with skeletal staffing.
However, Rhino still plans to produce physical releases, sources added.
Rhino Records lays off 30-40
In the latest indication of the shrinking market for compact discs, Warner Music Group's catalog arm Rhino Records laid off between 30 and 40 staffers on Thursday.
Job losses came in all departments, including A&R, marketing, promotion and publicity.
A statement from Rhino cited a "fundamental transformation of the physical new release and catalog business" as a reason for the cuts.
Company said Rhino will evolve into an entity that "handles WMG's global digital catalog initiatives, film, TV, vidgame and commercial licensing, and name and likeness representation for legendary artists."
Move comes as sales of physical recorded music continues to decline steeply.
Rhino has long been considered the industry standard for boxed set retrospectives, but demand for such high-ticket items has been strangled by the music market slump and shift to digital sales.
Future of newspapers brings few to hearing (Washington Times.com)
Judging from the turnout Thursday by members of the Joint Economic Committee for a hearing titled "The Future of Newspapers: The Impact on the Economy and Democracy," lawmakers are not too keen to help an industry that is often critical of Capitol Hill.
Just 3 of the 20 House and Senate members showed up for the hearing, which the Democratic chairman left early to vote on a House bill, putting the ranking Republican in charge.
But after Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, returned, she emphatically declared what the hearing was most definitely not about.
"I want to be very clear: This is not about bailouts. No one's talking about bailouts. We're through with bailouts," the chairman said to the two other committee members who bothered to show up.
The issue is dicey and raises a fundamental question: While the Bill of Rights guarantees a free press, should the government seek to aid an industry that acts as a watchdog over the federal bureaucracy?
"We don't believe direct governmental financing is appropriate for an industry whose core mission is news gathering, analysis and dissemination, often involving that very same government," John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, said at Thursday's hearing.
Capitol Hill Switchboard Illegally Being Used to Push Obamacare? Will Old Media Notice? (newsbusters)
Well, this certainly can't be legal… can it? If you call one of the numbers that leads you to the switchboard for Congress, the number you'd call to be put through to your Congressman or Senator's office, you get a short message selling Obama's healthcare policies before being transferred to the switchboard operator.
This should be the sort of story the Old Media would investigate fully. But will it?
How can this even be legal? After all, this isn't the Democrat Party hotline we are talking about here.
It is the main phone number representing all of Congress, not just Obama and his nationalized healthcare policies.
I repeat, this is the phone number for all of Congress, not an activist's number to sell Democrats and their policies.
Tuning In Too Late (Public Editor Spanks NYT on ignoring ACORN story)
New York Times
ON Sept. 12, an Associated Press article inside The Times reported that the Census Bureau had severed its ties to Acorn, the community organizing group. Robert Groves, the census director, was quoted as saying that Acorn, one of thousands of unpaid organizations promoting the 2010 census, had become “a distraction.”
What the article didn’t say — but what followers of Fox News and conservative commentators already knew — was that a video sting had caught Acorn workers counseling a bogus prostitute and pimp on how to set up a brothel staffed by under-age girls, avoid detection and cheat on taxes.
snip
But for days, as more videos were posted and government authorities rushed to distance themselves from Acorn, The Times stood still.
Its slow reflexes — closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser — suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs.
Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire. But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.
NEA Update: Yosi Sergant Resigns; UPDATE: L.A. Times Has Been Silent on Sergant All Year PATTERICO
Yosi Sergant, the former NEA communications director who was demoted after revelations about a controversial conference call with artists, has resigned:
“His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately,” NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said in an e-mail.
Sergant, a public relations professional from Los Angeles, had come to Washington to work in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House.
He moved to the NEA in May and was reassigned from his post as communications director two weeks ago after coming under fire from conservative Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck.
The talk show host accused Sergant of arranging an August conference call with the Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a service initiative of the administration, to recruit artists to create works in support of Obama policies.” Another one under the bus.
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I guess according to the L.A. Times, Yosi Sergant is not a story now and has not been a story at any point this year: This never happened, gentlemen.
AP: Guantanamo Might Not Close by January (Friday Night News Dump)
(Fox news)
The White House is acknowledging for the first time that it might not be able to meet President Obama's January deadline for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
He knew it was never going to happen. Just like he knows the health care bill will never be deficit neutral. Just like he knows a penalty assessed by the IRS for not carrying government approved insurance is a tax.
Just like he knows Cap and Trade will be a tax across the board on every American costing the average family well over $1000 a year.
Just words... just speeches. Just more lies.
The White House and NEA continue to stonewall about scandal
Washington Times
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to "leverage" government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration's legislative agenda.
This is the short version of the Obama administration's position:
Nothing bad happened. The rogue employee who didn't do anything bad has been relieved of his duties (and has now resigned).
In an effort to make sure that the same "nothing bad" never happens again, the administration has distributed a memo and provided some new training on how not to do "nothing bad."
The facts are simple and public.
During the transition, President Obama's top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing.
After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama's legislative agenda.
An NEA grants official, Mario Garcia Durham, was at one such meeting for which the attendee list is public.
French President Tells Obama “We Live In The Real World”
You know its bad when the French are tougher then the United States....what a change:
Sarkozy: “We live in the real world, not the virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”
“President Obama dreams of a world without weapons … but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.
“Iran since 2005 has flouted five security council resolutions.
North Korea has been defying council resolutions since 1993.
“I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community?
More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map,” he continued, referring to Israel.
The sharp-tongued French leader even implied that Mr Obama’s resolution 1887 had used up valuable diplomatic energy.
“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce our own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.
Mr Sarkozy has previously called the US president’s disarmament crusade “naive.”
Obama pushed the Sunday talk show ratings down (The Charleston Daily Mail)
The numbers are in for President Obama’s carpet-bombing of the Sunday TV talk shows. Obama drew fewer viewers than the shows normally draw.
Minnesota Poll: Obama's support declines sharply (MN) Star Tribune)
President Obama's once-robust support in Minnesota has dwindled sharply as he confronts a sluggish economy and significant unease about a health care overhaul that has split Democrats and Republicans in Congress, according to the latest Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.
Barack Obama -- Too foolish even for the Washington Post (Power Line)
There's little the Washington Post news staff won't do to shill for President Obama, but his speech yesterday to the U.N. proved that even the Post has its limits.
Reporters Dan Balz and Michael Shear leave it late, until most readers have no doubt stopped reading, before offering this gem of an understatement about the prospects for the rest of the world heeding Obama's abject appeal for "global cooperation":
Part of Obama's success on these fronts will be determined as much [sic] by the steadiness of his leadership and the respect he is able to command as by his appeals for cooperation. You think?
Having thus ventured into the unfamiliar realm of skepticism about Obama, Balz and Shear can scarcely contain themselves.
They proceed to describe Obama's unsteadiness regarding Afghanistan and then dismiss the administration's pretext it:
They cite a new set of conditions, including the messy aftermath of the recent election in Afghanistan, as a cause for reassessment.
The election certified rather than exposed what administration officials have long known -- that President Hamid Karzai is an unreliable partner in the battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Kirk Asks President Obama to Withdraw Administration's Request to Provide $400,000 to Libya
(Trading Markets)
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today urged President Obama to withdraw his Administration's request to provide $400,000 to Libya's Qaddafi Foundation, just weeks after they celebrated the release of a terrorist responsible for the murders of 189 Americans.
Last month, when Scotland freed Abel Baset Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi greeted him with a hero's welcome. Qaddafi's son, Saif, was involved in the negotiation for Megrahi's release and accompanied the terrorist back to Libya.
Despite the U.S. Administration's strong condemnation of Megrahi's release, the State Department notified Congress on September 15, 2009, of its intent to provide $200,000 to Saif Qaddafi's foundation (Qaddafi Development Foundation) and another $200,000 expected to go to an organization run by Muammar Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha (Wa'ettasemo) and the UNDP, where she serves as goodwill ambassador for Libya.
The dead end kids (Effects of raising minimum wage, 52.2% unemployment)The New York Post
“Dude this aint the change we voted for!”
The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept.
-- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long.
Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.
Big media MIA again. Sarkozy mocks Obama and the fringe media mostly ignores it. Some bloggers say the scant news that was reported is being removed from network news sites. The media is downplaying the statement because it shows how naive and shallow Obama is. The whole world swoons for O’Barry, or maybe not?
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Sarkozy Mocks Obama at UN Security Council: Hello, Big Media?
Article at Big Government
by Maura Flynn
Mich. stares down 2nd govt. shutdown in 3 years [Run into the ground for 50 years by DEMOCRATS]
AP
Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days.
The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall.
Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol.
“Republicans and Democrats have agreed on is tapping up to $1.5 billion in federal recovery dollars to fill part of the $2.8 billion budget gap.”
When you cant run a state properly, steal from people in other states!
Obama's Approvals fall
Rasmussen Reports -10
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.
Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 (see trends).
♫ What ya gonna do .. ♫
What ya gonna do Barry?
_____________
*Iran test-fires short-range missiles*
My Way News
By NASSER KARIMI
Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, told reporters Iran tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday's drill in a desert in central Iran. In the clip, men could be heard [shouting "Allahu Akbar"] as the missiles were launched.
(“Allahu Akbar". In the Islamic world, is said instead outward applause”)
Obama's Approvals fall
Rasmussen Reports -10
Pelosi responds:
*Blink,*Blink*,*Blinkity-*Blink*Blink**
Pesky questions, pesky, pesky questions.
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Unanswered questions from the NEA
Public not quite sure how this works: Political activist has to leave NEA because he "didn't do anything wrong."
via - Lucianne.com
It looks like someone showed the NEA how to play the angles. The NEA must have the ACORN playbook memorized, but they probably will shitcan targeting the Department of Housing for Prostitutes!
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Behind the curtain of Obama's arts policy
Culture Monster Blog
Excerpt:
The idea, Lynch says, is to [weave the arts into the upcoming administration’s broad stimulus package], with a dollars-and-cents focus that embraces improved access for artists to unemployment and health benefits, as well as culturally targeted use of [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants] -- through the well-known [Community Development Block Grant program] -- and giving public art projects an increased role via the [Department of Transportation]. The recommendations, which can be read in full here, also target programs in the [commerce] and [agriculture departments].
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/obama-arts-poli.html
It is time to de-fund the NEA just like ACORN, until they can prove their is the corruption does not run deeper than the recent illegal actions from the White House. Firing one person does not “Drain the swamp” as the Botox Twit likes to say.
Remember this-
“During the transition, President Obama's top arts adviser made it clear that his ambition was for the arts to become an integral part of the West Wing. After the inauguration, meetings of artists and political activists at the White House explicitly discussed how to keep the arts community in campaign mode to back Mr. Obama's legislative agenda.”
A moment of silence please...It will be one year tomorrow that McClatchy laid off the production crew at the Modesto Bee...
Now break out the party favors 'cause McClatchy is going down...
They freed us slaves and we may be having a difficult time of it, but at least we don't have to mope around looking over our shoulders waiting for the next shoe to drop!
Free at last
Free at last
Than God I'm free at last.
Anyone have any reunion plans?
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