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.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday October 31 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
27 comments:
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Anemic Newspaper Circulation Numbers Due To Obsolete Strategies (NewsBusters) It's all about content. People don't like the Pravda model.
The latest newspaper circulation numbers, measuring copies sold from April through September of this year, show a 10.6 percent decline in daily newspaper sales, the first double-digit drop in circulation ever.
Newspaper readership is now at its lowest level since before World War II.
The biggest losers during this six-month period, as reported by NewsBusters's Tom Blumer, were the San Francisco Chronicle (down 25.8 percent daily), the Newark Star-Ledger (down 22.2 percent daily), and the Boston Globe (down 18.5 percent daily).
The New York Times's sales during the period fell to 927,861, the first time the paper sold less than 1 million copies in that time span in decades.
The Wall Street Journal saw a 0.6 percent increase in circulation, making it the most purchased newspaper in the country.
The Journal surpassed USA Today, whose circulation declined by over 17 percent.
The consensus among media commentators seems to be that many newspapers are making futile attempts to preserve an anachronistic revenue structure without actually changing the ways in which they do business.
Former newspaper executive Alan Mutter, who blogs at Newsosaur, insisted that the scramble to present a facade of a large readership is an attempt to preserve a failed advertising model.
Gibbs: Obama Has Spent "Close to 20Direct Hours" on Afghan War, "Quite a Bit of Time" Pondering
(Twenty whole hours in two months. I think he's spent more time on the golf links.)
At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.
Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.
PELOSICARE– “THE CROWN JEWEL OF SOCIALISM” (Gateway Pundit)
Rep. Michelle Bachman is calling all Americans to join her on the steps of the Capital Building in Washington DC on Thursday November 5th to stop “the Crown Jewel of Socialism” – the democrat’s bill to take over the US health care industry.
Bachman joined Hannity tonight to discuss this massive power grab. Bachman also announced that if this bill passes the Obama Administration will have taken over 48% of the private economy this year.
Why Liberal Journalists are Joining the Obama Administration’s Attack on Fox News (PAjamas MEdia)
While the Obama administration continues its war against its media critics, well-known liberal journalists — instead of defending freedom of the press — are joining the attack on a news network they despise as much as does the administration.
Gone is any seeming concern for the right of commentators to voice their own opinion, because mainstream liberal editorial writers are sure their opponents are both extremists and wrong.
Take, as our first example, Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of The Slate Group. Writing in last week’s Newsweek, Weisberg explained at the start that anyone who watches Fox News knows immediately that Anita Dunn’s charge that Fox has a “right-wing bias” is correct, since Fox always confirms “it with its coverage.”
Referring to Fox’s own reporting on the administration’s attacks on the network, he notes that Fox showed what he calls a “textbook example of a biased journalism.”
If it is true, it is hardly surprising, since the very network under attack might be expected to come to its own defense.....
Celebs, Lobbyists Among First White House Guests (I thought lobbyist weren't invited to the WH?) Fox News
Celebrities Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Denzel Washington, prominent Democratic fundraisers and heavyweights from the financial services and high-tech industries were among those landing visits with President Barack Obama or others at the White House during Obama's first months in office.
The White House late Friday afternoon released a partial list of people who have visited since Obama took office in January. It released roughly 480 records in response to questions about whether specific people visited.
The White House plans to start disclosing comprehensive visitor lists in coming months.
President Obama Alleged To Have Given White House Perks To Top Donors [40% Donors Get Jobs!] London Times
Senior Republicans demanded an investigation yesterday into reports that President Obama has given financial donors perks such as use of the White House cinema, golf games with the Commander-in-Chief and even the chance to shape policy.
The allegations that Mr Obama may have carried on the practice of rewarding top donors — Bill Clinton and George Bush were criticised for it — was also condemned by campaignfinance watchdogs.
They said that the President appeared to have reneged on his promise to change the culture in Washington.
The reports drew comparison to Mr Clinton’s controversial practice of allowing top donors to stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom, and Mr Bush’s offer of overnight stays in the White House and Camp David for those who raised more than $100,000 (£60,750).
Most troubling, said critics, was that Mr Obama appeared to have allowed those who made large donations to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, to have quarterly meetings with senior members of the Administration, twice-monthly conference calls and the ability “to contribute to shaping policy”.
Such a reward, outlined in internal DNC documents obtained by The Washington Times, would be given to donors in exchange for the maximum legal donation of $30,400, or willingness to raise $300,000 before the mid-term elections in November 2010.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, and Scott Thomas, former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission, both said that the “policy-shaping” perk was most worrying, because it gave the appearance of specific actions in return for money.
It also emerged that a number of top fundraisers who collected six-figure sums for Mr Obama’s presidential campaign, known as “bundlers”, had played golf....
Edmunds.com Fights Back After White House Attack (The Business Insider)
Last night we were shocked to see that The White House was using its blog to tear into car website Edmunds.com over some analysis it did of Cash-For-Clunkers.
To recap: Edmunds.com says the program was a gigantic waste with little effect. The White House disagrees.
Anyway, Edmunds is sticking by its analysis, and it put out the following press release:
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — October 29, 2009 — Today the Department of Transportation and White House chose to respond to an analysis Edmunds.com released Wednesday that looked at auto sales this year and what sales volumes would have been had the popular Cash for Clunkers program never existed.
At issue is one point of the analysis showing the taxpayer cost for every incremental vehicle sold was $24,000.
To be clear, Edmunds.com is not disputing the government's statements regarding total voucher applications, vehicles sold or voucher values.
The key question is how many of these sales would have occurred anyway.
Apparently, the $24,000 figure caught many by surprise. It shouldn't have.
The truth is that consumer incentive programs are always hugely expensive when calculated by incremental sales — always in the tens of thousands of dollars. Cash for Clunkers was no exception.
Fisker Automotive Buying Closed GM Plant To Produce Plug-in Hybrids (with help from fed government) Triple Pundit
General Motors (GM) closed its Wilmington, Delaware plant in July, leaving 550 active employees out of work, and another 500 laid-off hourly workers without the hope of being called back to work.
Vehicle manufacturing used to be Delaware’s second largest private employer. Perhaps it will be again. Fisker Automotive announced on October 27 it signed a letter of intent to buy the plant for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period.
Economic Recovery: The White House says it "created or saved" 650,000 to 1 million jobs through its stimulus. Maybe so, but only if you count the jobs that never existed in the first place.
The administration's claim is as laughable as any in recent memory.
There is no actual count of jobs; it's all based on phony math.
While it was at it, it could just as well have said 2 million or 3 or 4.
No question, this has been a hard recession in terms of jobs. Since it began in December 2007, we've lost 7.2 million of them — 4.1 million this year alone — despite a promise that passage of the $787 billion stimulus would yield 3.5 million new ones by the end of 2010
Knowing the number was unreachable, the White House's ever-eager-to-please economists came up with a guess — one that can serve as a down payment on the 3.5 million jobs they need to show by 2011.
$160,000 Per Stimulus Job? White House Calls That 'Calculator Abuse' (ABC News)
Posting its results late this afternoon at Recovery.gov, the White House claimed 640,329 jobs have been created or saved because of the $159 billion in stimulus funds allocated as of Sept. 30.
Officials acknowledged the numbers were not exact, saying that states and localities that reported the numbers have made mistakes.
In recent days, the Recovery Act board has been reviewing all the numbers, with many inaccurate ones having been posted. California's San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission received $5 million in stimulus funds to hire workers to build addition train track for the Union Pacific Railroad in an economically tarnished spot of the Golden State.
Brian Schmidt, director of planning and programming for the commission said that his staff originally reported to the Obama administration that the stimulus money saved 250 jobs.
Then, realizing they had mistakenly double credited, they later changed that to 125 jobs. Tuesday, they updated it again to 74 jobs.
VP Joe Biden admitted the Stimulus information provided by the government is not 100% accurate:
Biden: “Making this amount of information available to the public, in this level of detail, this quickly, is quite simply something that has never happened before in the federal government.
*** And so, folks, this is an unprecedented undertaking … and we know, we know that it’s not 100% accurate.
This has never been attempted before, and that further updates and corrections are going to be needed. But we are pleased, we’re pleased to make this information available publicly and so promptly ...”
Once again, we learn the government can’t provide accurate information about the money it spends.
But, hey, it’s fast! So tell me again how the government is going to provide health care for Americans.
@ Newspaper Death Watch: Media-watchers are interpreting yesterday’s horrifying Audit Bureau of Control audit numbers that show newspaper circulation falling at an accelerating rate.
Alan Mutter takes calculator in hand and figures that readership is at historic lows. “Newspaper circulation now is lower than the 41.1 million papers sold in 1940, the earliest date for which records are published,” he writes. In those days about 31 percent of the population read a newspaper. Today, it’s less than 13%.
Mutter’s analysis draws quite a few comments, several of whom quibble with his math. Martin Langeveld cites figures that are even more alarming than Mutter’s: In 1940, publishers distributed 118 newspaper copies for every 100 households. Today, the equivalent number is 33 copies per 100 households, down from 53 per 100 less than a decade ago.
Washington Post Column: Subsidize Journalists(Newsbusters)
It's bad enough we have to bailout banks and auto manufacturers or spread around subsidies for wasteful, inefficient forms of energy like ethanol and morally apprehensible institutions like ACORN and Planned Parenthood.
However, now a couple of the wizards of smart that have managed to land a spot in the editorial pages of The Washington Post are lobbying for journalism subsidies.
snip
"Saving newspapers may be impossible," Nichols and McChesney wrote. "But we can save journalism.
Step one is to begin debating ways for enlightened public subsidies to provide a competitive and independent digital news media.
Also, we should greatly expand funding for public and community media, and establish policies that help convert dying daily newspapers into post-corporate low-profit news operations that realize the potential of the Internet.
If we do so, journalism and democracy will not just survive. They will flourish."
snip
Getting government more involved in the media - either through regulations or outright funding - would have horrible long-term consequences," the report argues.
Newspapers across the country, and liberal networks from coast to coast teeter on the edge of total bankruptcy, epic failure and inglorious extinction due to their lousy business sense, their utter contempt for their customers, and their total idiocy about free markets.
And as they finally come to the realization that their incompetence, stupidity and utter obnoxiousness is about to make the lose their jobs, they turn to the one thing they think will save them from their richly-deserved oblivion: a Democrat government take-over.
Yes, we all knew it. The liberal media are sell-outs, propaganists, shills and whores to the Democrat party.
And now they're starting to say it out loud. They're starting to actually vocalize what Conservatives have been warning you about for decades - that they want to totally surrender their media networks to Democrats in exchange for taxpayer money a'la PBS.
Remember the NEA telephone conference call that encouraged artists to help promote Obama Administration policies?
Judicial Watch has released FOIA-released correspondence between the White House and former NEA communications director Yosi Sergant … and it leads to the
White House: “The documents consist of internal NEA correspondence, including emails involving disgraced former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant, who resigned over the scandal, and former actor and current Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Kalpen Modi.
The emails newly document detailed White House involvement in the controversial conference call. (The Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, also was represented during the call.)”
Here are excerpts from 4 emails listed at the JW website:
• August 10, 2009, 10:23 am: Email from Yosi Sergant to Kalpen Modi: “[The call is] organized by me…I’d ask you to come on and give the exact spiel you gave on Saturday. Walk them through the WH Arts Policy. They won’t know it. Then I will take them into United We Serve and the NEA.”
• August 10, 2009, 10:29 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Oy. This would be awesome to be a part of. Let me know if you think it’s going long, or maybe I can get someone from here to do it if I can’t because of the Social Security mtg.”
• August 10, 2009, 11:04 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Let me see if we can move Social Sec by a few mins. Agreed, it would be great to be on the call and helpful for us also.”
• August 10, 2009, 1:37 pm: Email from Yosi Sergant to Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: “We have an important call at 2pm for UWS (United We Serve) and the Arts with my peeps. Indie producers around the country. Kal can’t join the call. Any chance you can hop on for 5 minutes and intro with Nellie and I?”
Schultz [16% Of O'Reilly Audience] Mocks Dennis Miller's Ratings NewsBusters
If you were a cable TV host whose audience size is obliterated by O'Reilly's, buried by Beck's, hammered by Hannity's and slam-dunked by Susteren's, would you really go around mocking someone else's ratings?
Appparently yes, if you're Ed Schultz. The host of the miniscule MSNBC program went out of his way this evening to belittle the ratings of Dennis Miller's radio show . .
MSNBC: Rush Limbaugh is “a Racist, Pill-Poppin’ Radio Guy” NewsRealBlog.com
When MSNBC gave Ed Schultz a nightly segment entitled "Psycho Talk," it was apparently in obedience to the truth in advertising laws.
On Thursday night, the low-rated host of "The Ed Show" used that segment -- which is supposed to highlight over-the-top rhetoric from conservatives -- to call Rush Limbaugh "a racist, pill-poppin' radio guy."
Schultz was outraged that Rep. Steve King, R-IA, had asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to apologize to Rush Limbaugh for denying Rush partial ownership of the St. Louis Rams while allowing Jennifer Lopez and Fergie to become co-owners of the Miami Dolphins after worse (read: actual) offenses.
“Turn Back the Clock” journalists === Nearly half of all newspaper journalists believe their newsrooms are moving too slowly into the digital age, according to a report by Northwestern University’s Media Management Center (MMC). While the majority of the 3,800 respondents still work in print, only 6% were characterized as “Turn Back the Clock” journalists who wish digital would just go away. Half of the respondents would be happy to work in digital as much as in print and 12% are true digital enthusiasts. Surprisingly for an industry that’s experiencing so much turmoil, 77% said they’re satisfied with their jobs and two in three say they expect to be working in the news business two years from now. http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Sanchez sisters eyed by House ethics panel for alleged collusion (Democrats)Washington Post
A document from the House ethics committee lists an examination into whether the chamber's rules were violated when Rep. Linda T. Sanchez put three legislative aides to her fellow-congresswoman sister on her payroll after an embezzlement scheme had left Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office short of funds.
The document, a July tracking report obtained by The Washington Post, says that the sisters, both California Democrats, "shared transferred staff from one office to another after embezzlement," and that a meeting between lawyers for the ethics committee and the congresswomen had taken place June 1. The document also says that lawyers for the congresswomen had submitted a letter with "additional information" on June 19.
On May 19, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that the ethics committee was examining the employee transfer. The paper reported that the panel was investigating an agreement in which Linda Sanchez put three aides from her sister's office on her payroll in 2006 shortly after discovering that one of Loretta Sanchez's employees had stolen money from the office.
That employee, Caroline Valdez, later pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to charges that she embezzled from $5,000 to $10,000 from the office.
NAACP CHOOSES OBAMA’S FORMER PASTOR AS PRINCIPAL SPEAKER (NAACP welcomes anti-Americans, radicals, bigots and racists into its "big tent.") The Last Crusade
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is drawing criticism for selecting President Barrack Obama’s former pastor as the principal speaker at an awards dinner in Maryland.
Perry Ealim, a black businessman who is scheduled to receive an award at the November 20 event, says many of his friends and associates refuse to attend the dinner because Rev. Jeremiah Wright is going to be the speaker.
"I am happy for your honor, however, I cannot support an organization that would have a racist/bigot such as Mr. Wright as (its) speaker," one of Mr. Ealim's friends wrote to him.
But a member of the Anne Arundel County chapter of the NAACP, which is hosting the dinner, says that Mr. Wright is widely respected in the black community and that his appearance at the podium is certain to make the event a success.
“The man’s an icon to many of us,” the spokesman said.
The Rev. Wright is the former minister of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where Mr. and Mrs. Obama were longtime members. In the wake of 9/11, Mr. Wright proclaimed from the pulpit:
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers (CBS calls Obama a Liar? Oh the irony)
When Katie Couric and the folks at CBS start doubting what the Administration says about how effective February's economic stimulus package was, you know President Obama is in trouble.
-Deal in Senate on Protecting News Sources- New York Times By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, leading Senate Democrats and a coalition of news organizations have reached tentative agreement on legislation providing greater protections against the fining or imprisonment of reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources.
Under the deal, made public Friday, federal judges could quash subpoenas demanding testimony or information from reporters if the judges determined that the public interest in news gathering outweighed the need to uncover the source of a leak, including, in some circumstances, unauthorized disclosure of classified government information.
Protection under the so-called shield law would also be extended to unpaid bloggers engaged in gathering and disseminating news.
The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global leftwing assault on the freedom of information. Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control. The one thing leftists just can't bear is criticism.. Via: Lucianne.com
USA Today’s reliance on hotel distribution - no longer a good deal. ---- "USA Today has defied the industry circulation trends with minimal losses for the last two years, but that’s all about to come to an end. The newspaper is expecting circulation to drop 17%, the largest decline in its 27-year history. That translates into a loss of nearly 400,000 daily copies. The losses are apparently due to USA Today’s reliance on hotel distribution. Cutbacks in business travel, combined with Marriott’s decision to discontinue automatic deliveries to its guests, created a potent double whammy"
California: UCI can’t find jobs governor says stimulus created Orange County Register (CA)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says Congress’ federal stimulus program has saved or created 8,356 jobs in the University of California system, a claim that comes as a surprise at UC Irvine, Orange County’s largest employer.
“We can’t figure out where the governor’s office got the data to support saying 34,000 jobs have been saved in the CSU and UC systems. No such data has been forwarded by our campus to the state,” said Cathy Lawhon, director of media relations at UCI.
“Basically, the state cut to the UC system was $815 million. The stimulus money totaled about $700 million, which didn’t quite make up the difference. And what remains to be seen is, since that $700 million was a one-time shot in the arm, what happens in the next fiscal year?
“It is accurate to say we (UCI) have laid off several dozen people.”
White House Gears Up for Disappointing Election Day (ABC News)
With Democrats poised to lose the governor's race in Virginia, and to possibly lose the governor's race in New Jersey and a special election for a House seat in New York, the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance.
"Whatever the results are I don't think they portend a lot in dealing with the future," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday, pointing to the fact that Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races in 2001 despite a very popular President Bush, with Republicans picking up seats in Congress in 2002.
"I think we continue to take the long view on what's going on in Washington and throughout the country," Gibbs said.
President Obama will appear at campaign rallies in New Jersey Sunday to help the struggling and unpopular incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, who polls show is in a statistical dead heat with the Republican nominee, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.
On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden will appear at a campaign rally in Watertown, NY, to help the Democratic candidate in the special election for that New York House seat, Bill Owens, who is in a tight race with Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
First, the meltdown of the stimulous opposition was ignored.
Then, the teaparty protests were marginalized by derogatory jokes and minimal coverage.
Next, the fourth of July protest was disbaraged and ignored. The town halls came next, and again, ignored while sending out goons to intimidate, so we went to Washington to the tune of 2 million.
Nobody listened. The day I await to see bagdad gibbs speaking on is Nov 5 2010.
27 comments:
Anemic Newspaper Circulation Numbers Due To Obsolete Strategies
(NewsBusters) It's all about content. People don't like the Pravda model.
The latest newspaper circulation numbers, measuring copies sold from April through September of this year, show a 10.6 percent decline in daily newspaper sales, the first double-digit drop in circulation ever.
Newspaper readership is now at its lowest level since before World War II.
The biggest losers during this six-month period, as reported by NewsBusters's Tom Blumer, were the San Francisco Chronicle (down 25.8 percent daily), the Newark Star-Ledger (down 22.2 percent daily), and the Boston Globe (down 18.5 percent daily).
The New York Times's sales during the period fell to 927,861, the first time the paper sold less than 1 million copies in that time span in decades.
The Wall Street Journal saw a 0.6 percent increase in circulation, making it the most purchased newspaper in the country.
The Journal surpassed USA Today, whose circulation declined by over 17 percent.
The consensus among media commentators seems to be that many newspapers are making futile attempts to preserve an anachronistic revenue structure without actually changing the ways in which they do business.
Former newspaper executive Alan Mutter, who blogs at Newsosaur, insisted that the scramble to present a facade of a large readership is an attempt to preserve a failed advertising model.
Gibbs: Obama Has Spent "Close to 20Direct Hours" on Afghan War, "Quite a Bit of Time" Pondering
(Twenty whole hours in two months. I think he's spent more time on the golf links.)
At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.
Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.
PELOSICARE– “THE CROWN JEWEL OF SOCIALISM” (Gateway Pundit)
Rep. Michelle Bachman is calling all Americans to join her on the steps of the Capital Building in Washington DC on Thursday November 5th to stop “the Crown Jewel of Socialism” – the democrat’s bill to take over the US health care industry.
Bachman joined Hannity tonight to discuss this massive power grab.
Bachman also announced that if this bill passes the Obama Administration will have taken over 48% of the private economy this year.
Speaking of lying and socialists
'Conservative' Chirac to Go On Trial (From the Liars at the NY Times) (JamieWearing Fool)
It's about time this weasel was held to account.
I've got to laugh, though, how the New York Times call him a conservative.
Why Liberal Journalists are Joining the Obama Administration’s Attack on Fox News (PAjamas MEdia)
While the Obama administration continues its war against its media critics, well-known liberal journalists — instead of defending freedom of the press — are joining the attack on a news network they despise as much as does the administration.
Gone is any seeming concern for the right of commentators to voice their own opinion, because mainstream liberal editorial writers are sure their opponents are both extremists and wrong.
Take, as our first example, Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of The Slate Group. Writing in last week’s Newsweek, Weisberg explained at the start that anyone who watches Fox News knows immediately that Anita Dunn’s charge that Fox has a “right-wing bias” is correct, since Fox always confirms “it with its coverage.”
Referring to Fox’s own reporting on the administration’s attacks on the network, he notes that Fox showed what he calls a “textbook example of a biased journalism.”
If it is true, it is hardly surprising, since the very network under attack might be expected to come to its own defense.....
Celebs, Lobbyists Among First White House Guests (I thought lobbyist weren't invited to the WH?) Fox News
Celebrities Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Denzel Washington, prominent Democratic fundraisers and heavyweights from the financial services and high-tech industries were among those landing visits with President Barack Obama or others at the White House during Obama's first months in office.
The White House late Friday afternoon released a partial list of people who have visited since Obama took office in January. It released roughly 480 records in response to questions about whether specific people visited.
The White House plans to start disclosing comprehensive visitor lists in coming months.
President Obama Alleged To Have Given White House Perks To Top Donors [40% Donors Get Jobs!]
London Times
Senior Republicans demanded an investigation yesterday into reports that President Obama has given financial donors perks such as use of the White House cinema, golf games with the Commander-in-Chief and even the chance to shape policy.
The allegations that Mr Obama may have carried on the practice of rewarding top donors — Bill Clinton and George Bush were criticised for it — was also condemned by campaignfinance watchdogs.
They said that the President appeared to have reneged on his promise to change the culture in Washington.
The reports drew comparison to Mr Clinton’s controversial practice of allowing top donors to stay overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom, and Mr Bush’s offer of overnight stays in the White House and Camp David for those who raised more than $100,000 (£60,750).
Most troubling, said critics, was that Mr Obama appeared to have allowed those who made large donations to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, to have quarterly meetings with senior members of the Administration, twice-monthly conference calls and the ability “to contribute to shaping policy”.
Such a reward, outlined in internal DNC documents obtained by The Washington Times, would be given to donors in exchange for the maximum legal donation of $30,400, or willingness to raise $300,000 before the mid-term elections in November 2010.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, and Scott Thomas, former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission, both said that the “policy-shaping” perk was most worrying, because it gave the appearance of specific actions in return for money.
It also emerged that a number of top fundraisers who collected six-figure sums for Mr Obama’s presidential campaign, known as “bundlers”, had played golf....
Edmunds.com Fights Back After White House Attack (The Business Insider)
Last night we were shocked to see that The White House was using its blog to tear into car website Edmunds.com over some analysis it did of Cash-For-Clunkers.
To recap: Edmunds.com says the program was a gigantic waste with little effect. The White House disagrees.
Anyway, Edmunds is sticking by its analysis, and it put out the following press release:
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — October 29, 2009 — Today the Department of Transportation and White House chose to respond to an analysis Edmunds.com released Wednesday that looked at auto sales this year and what sales volumes would have been had the popular Cash for Clunkers program never existed.
At issue is one point of the analysis showing the taxpayer cost for every incremental vehicle sold was $24,000.
To be clear, Edmunds.com is not disputing the government's statements regarding total voucher applications, vehicles sold or voucher values.
The key question is how many of these sales would have occurred anyway.
Apparently, the $24,000 figure caught many by surprise. It shouldn't have.
The truth is that consumer incentive programs are always hugely expensive when calculated by incremental sales — always in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Cash for Clunkers was no exception.
Fisker Automotive Buying Closed GM Plant To Produce Plug-in Hybrids (with help from fed government) Triple Pundit
General Motors (GM) closed its Wilmington, Delaware plant in July, leaving 550 active employees out of work, and another 500 laid-off hourly workers without the hope of being called back to work.
Vehicle manufacturing used to be Delaware’s second largest private employer. Perhaps it will be again. Fisker Automotive announced on October 27 it signed a letter of intent to buy the plant for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period.
Phantom Jobs (Investors.com)
Economic Recovery: The White House says it "created or saved" 650,000 to 1 million jobs through its stimulus. Maybe so, but only if you count the jobs that never existed in the first place.
The administration's claim is as laughable as any in recent memory.
There is no actual count of jobs; it's all based on phony math.
While it was at it, it could just as well have said 2 million or 3 or 4.
No question, this has been a hard recession in terms of jobs. Since it began in December 2007, we've lost 7.2 million of them — 4.1 million this year alone — despite a promise that passage of the $787 billion stimulus would yield 3.5 million new ones by the end of 2010
Knowing the number was unreachable, the White House's ever-eager-to-please economists came up with a guess — one that can serve as a down payment on the 3.5 million jobs they need to show by 2011.
$160,000 Per Stimulus Job? White House Calls That 'Calculator Abuse' (ABC News)
Posting its results late this afternoon at Recovery.gov, the White House claimed 640,329 jobs have been created or saved because of the $159 billion in stimulus funds allocated as of Sept. 30.
Officials acknowledged the numbers were not exact, saying that states and localities that reported the numbers have made mistakes.
In recent days, the Recovery Act board has been reviewing all the numbers, with many inaccurate ones having been posted. California's San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission received $5 million in stimulus funds to hire workers to build addition train track for the Union Pacific Railroad in an economically tarnished spot of the Golden State.
Brian Schmidt, director of planning and programming for the commission said that his staff originally reported to the Obama administration that the stimulus money saved 250 jobs.
Then, realizing they had mistakenly double credited, they later changed that to 125 jobs. Tuesday, they updated it again to 74 jobs.
Say It Again, Joe (Patterico)
VP Joe Biden admitted the Stimulus information provided by the government is not 100% accurate:
Biden: “Making this amount of information available to the public, in this level of detail, this quickly, is quite simply something that has never happened before in the federal government.
*** And so, folks, this is an unprecedented undertaking … and we know, we know that it’s not 100% accurate.
This has never been attempted before, and that further updates and corrections are going to be needed. But we are pleased, we’re pleased to make this information available publicly and so promptly ...”
Once again, we learn the government can’t provide accurate information about the money it spends.
But, hey, it’s fast!
So tell me again how the government is going to provide health care for Americans.
@ Newspaper Death Watch:
Media-watchers are interpreting yesterday’s horrifying Audit Bureau of Control audit numbers that show newspaper circulation falling at an accelerating rate.
Alan Mutter takes calculator in hand and figures that readership is at historic lows. “Newspaper circulation now is lower than the 41.1 million papers sold in 1940, the earliest date for which records are published,” he writes. In those days about 31 percent of the population read a newspaper. Today, it’s less than 13%.
Mutter’s analysis draws quite a few comments, several of whom quibble with his math. Martin Langeveld cites figures that are even more alarming than Mutter’s: In 1940, publishers distributed 118 newspaper copies for every 100 households. Today, the equivalent number is 33 copies per 100 households, down from 53 per 100 less than a decade ago.
Washington Post Column: Subsidize Journalists(Newsbusters)
It's bad enough we have to bailout banks and auto manufacturers or spread around subsidies for wasteful, inefficient forms of energy like ethanol and morally apprehensible institutions like ACORN and Planned Parenthood.
However, now a couple of the wizards of smart that have managed to land a spot in the editorial pages of The Washington Post are lobbying for journalism subsidies.
snip
"Saving newspapers may be impossible," Nichols and McChesney wrote. "But we can save journalism.
Step one is to begin debating ways for enlightened public subsidies to provide a competitive and independent digital news media.
Also, we should greatly expand funding for public and community media, and establish policies that help convert dying daily newspapers into post-corporate low-profit news operations that realize the potential of the Internet.
If we do so, journalism and democracy will not just survive. They will flourish."
snip
Getting government more involved in the media - either through regulations or outright funding - would have horrible long-term consequences," the report argues.
Newspapers across the country, and liberal networks from coast to coast teeter on the edge of total bankruptcy, epic failure and inglorious extinction due to their lousy business sense, their utter contempt for their customers, and their total idiocy about free markets.
And as they finally come to the realization that their incompetence, stupidity and utter obnoxiousness is about to make the lose their jobs, they turn to the one thing they think will save them from their richly-deserved oblivion: a Democrat government take-over.
Yes, we all knew it. The liberal media are sell-outs, propaganists, shills and whores to the Democrat party.
And now they're starting to say it out loud. They're starting to actually vocalize what Conservatives have been warning you about for decades - that they want to totally surrender their media networks to Democrats in exchange for taxpayer money a'la PBS.
Buffy and the Peeps (Patterico)
Remember the NEA telephone conference call that encouraged artists to help promote Obama Administration policies?
Judicial Watch has released FOIA-released correspondence between the White House and former NEA communications director Yosi Sergant … and it leads to the
White House: “The documents consist of internal NEA correspondence, including emails involving disgraced former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant, who resigned over the scandal, and former actor and current Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Kalpen Modi.
The emails newly document detailed White House involvement in the controversial conference call. (The Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, also was represented during the call.)”
Here are excerpts from 4 emails listed at the JW website:
• August 10, 2009, 10:23 am: Email from Yosi Sergant to Kalpen Modi: “[The call is] organized by me…I’d ask you to come on and give the exact spiel you gave on Saturday. Walk them through the WH Arts Policy. They won’t know it. Then I will take them into United We Serve and the NEA.”
• August 10, 2009, 10:29 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Oy. This would be awesome to be a part of. Let me know if you think it’s going long, or maybe I can get someone from here to do it if I can’t because of the Social Security mtg.”
• August 10, 2009, 11:04 am: Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Let me see if we can move Social Sec by a few mins. Agreed, it would be great to be on the call and helpful for us also.”
• August 10, 2009, 1:37 pm: Email from Yosi Sergant to Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: “We have an important call at 2pm for UWS (United We Serve) and the Arts with my peeps. Indie producers around the country. Kal can’t join the call. Any chance you can hop on for 5 minutes and intro with Nellie and I?”
More at the Judicial Watch link.
Schultz [16% Of O'Reilly Audience] Mocks Dennis Miller's Ratings
NewsBusters
If you were a cable TV host whose audience size is obliterated by O'Reilly's, buried by Beck's, hammered by Hannity's and slam-dunked by Susteren's, would you really go around mocking someone else's ratings?
Appparently yes, if you're Ed Schultz. The host of the miniscule MSNBC program went out of his way this evening to belittle the ratings of Dennis Miller's radio show . .
MSNBC: Rush Limbaugh is “a Racist, Pill-Poppin’ Radio Guy”
NewsRealBlog.com
When MSNBC gave Ed Schultz a nightly segment entitled "Psycho Talk," it was apparently in obedience to the truth in advertising laws.
On Thursday night, the low-rated host of "The Ed Show" used that segment -- which is supposed to highlight over-the-top rhetoric from conservatives -- to call Rush Limbaugh "a racist, pill-poppin' radio guy."
Schultz was outraged that Rep. Steve King, R-IA, had asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to apologize to Rush Limbaugh for denying Rush partial ownership of the St. Louis Rams while allowing Jennifer Lopez and Fergie to become co-owners of the Miami Dolphins after worse (read: actual) offenses.
“Turn Back the Clock” journalists
===
Nearly half of all newspaper journalists believe their newsrooms are moving too slowly into the digital age, according to a report by Northwestern University’s Media Management Center (MMC). While the majority of the 3,800 respondents still work in print, only 6% were characterized as “Turn Back the Clock” journalists who wish digital would just go away. Half of the respondents would be happy to work in digital as much as in print and 12% are true digital enthusiasts. Surprisingly for an industry that’s experiencing so much turmoil, 77% said they’re satisfied with their jobs and two in three say they expect to be working in the news business two years from now.
http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Sanchez sisters eyed by House ethics panel for alleged collusion (Democrats)Washington Post
A document from the House ethics committee lists an examination into whether the chamber's rules were violated when Rep. Linda T. Sanchez put three legislative aides to her fellow-congresswoman sister on her payroll after an embezzlement scheme had left Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office short of funds.
The document, a July tracking report obtained by The Washington Post, says that the sisters, both California Democrats, "shared transferred staff from one office to another after embezzlement," and that a meeting between lawyers for the ethics committee and the congresswomen had taken place June 1. The document also says that lawyers for the congresswomen had submitted a letter with "additional information" on June 19.
On May 19, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that the ethics committee was examining the employee transfer. The paper reported that the panel was investigating an agreement in which Linda Sanchez put three aides from her sister's office on her payroll in 2006 shortly after discovering that one of Loretta Sanchez's employees had stolen money from the office.
That employee, Caroline Valdez, later pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to charges that she embezzled from $5,000 to $10,000 from the office.
NAACP CHOOSES OBAMA’S FORMER PASTOR AS PRINCIPAL SPEAKER (NAACP welcomes anti-Americans, radicals, bigots and racists into its "big tent.") The Last Crusade
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is drawing criticism for selecting President Barrack Obama’s former pastor as the principal speaker at an awards dinner in Maryland.
Perry Ealim, a black businessman who is scheduled to receive an award at the November 20 event, says many of his friends and associates refuse to attend the dinner because Rev. Jeremiah Wright is going to be the speaker.
"I am happy for your honor, however, I cannot support an organization that would have a racist/bigot such as Mr. Wright as (its) speaker," one of Mr. Ealim's friends wrote to him.
But a member of the Anne Arundel County chapter of the NAACP, which is hosting the dinner, says that Mr. Wright is widely respected in the black community and that his appearance at the podium is certain to make the event a success.
“The man’s an icon to many of us,” the spokesman said.
The Rev. Wright is the former minister of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago where Mr. and Mrs. Obama were longtime members.
In the wake of 9/11, Mr. Wright proclaimed from the pulpit:
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers (CBS calls Obama a Liar? Oh the irony)
When Katie Couric and the folks at CBS start doubting what the Administration says about how effective February's economic stimulus package was, you know President Obama is in trouble.
-Deal in Senate on Protecting News Sources-
New York Times
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, leading Senate Democrats and a coalition of news organizations have reached tentative agreement on legislation providing greater protections against the fining or imprisonment of reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources.
Under the deal, made public Friday, federal judges could quash subpoenas demanding testimony or information from reporters if the judges determined that the public interest in news gathering outweighed the need to uncover the source of a leak, including, in some circumstances, unauthorized disclosure of classified government information.
Protection under the so-called shield law would also be extended to unpaid bloggers engaged in gathering and disseminating news.
Crushing the media
New York Post
by Ralph Peters
The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global leftwing assault on the freedom of information. Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control. The one thing leftists just can't bear is criticism..
Via: Lucianne.com
USA Today’s reliance on hotel distribution - no longer a good deal.
----
"USA Today has defied the industry circulation trends with minimal losses for the last two years, but that’s all about to come to an end. The newspaper is expecting circulation to drop 17%, the largest decline in its 27-year history. That translates into a loss of nearly 400,000 daily copies. The losses are apparently due to USA Today’s reliance on hotel distribution. Cutbacks in business travel, combined with Marriott’s decision to discontinue automatic deliveries to its guests, created a potent double whammy"
California: UCI can’t find jobs governor says stimulus created
Orange County Register (CA)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says Congress’ federal stimulus program has saved or created 8,356 jobs in the University of California system, a claim that comes as a surprise at UC Irvine, Orange County’s largest employer.
“We can’t figure out where the governor’s office got the data to support saying 34,000 jobs have been saved in the CSU and UC systems. No such data has been forwarded by our campus to the state,” said Cathy Lawhon, director of media relations at UCI.
“Basically, the state cut to the UC system was $815 million. The stimulus money totaled about $700 million, which didn’t quite make up the difference. And what remains to be seen is, since that $700 million was a one-time shot in the arm, what happens in the next fiscal year?
“It is accurate to say we (UCI) have laid off several dozen people.”
Anon 7:16 Thank you. Great factual post.
White House Gears Up for Disappointing Election Day (ABC News)
With Democrats poised to lose the governor's race in Virginia, and to possibly lose the governor's race in New Jersey and a special election for a House seat in New York, the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance.
"Whatever the results are I don't think they portend a lot in dealing with the future," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday, pointing to the fact that Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races in 2001 despite a very popular President Bush, with Republicans picking up seats in Congress in 2002.
"I think we continue to take the long view on what's going on in Washington and throughout the country," Gibbs said.
President Obama will appear at campaign rallies in New Jersey Sunday to help the struggling and unpopular incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, who polls show is in a statistical dead heat with the Republican nominee, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.
On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden will appear at a campaign rally in Watertown, NY, to help the Democratic candidate in the special election for that New York House seat, Bill Owens, who is in a tight race with Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
First, the meltdown of the stimulous opposition was ignored.
Then, the teaparty protests were marginalized by derogatory jokes and minimal coverage.
Next, the fourth of July protest was disbaraged and ignored. The town halls came next, and again, ignored while sending out goons to intimidate, so we went to Washington to the tune of 2 million.
Nobody listened. The day I await to see bagdad gibbs speaking on is Nov 5 2010.
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