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.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday October 29 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
27 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Time Inc. will be serving layoffs for holidays (New York Post)
Time Inc. is bracing for another round of cutbacks. Sources say the layoffs will be most severe in the division that includes Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Time and Money, and will be carried out before the Thanksgiving break.
Since many of the old-line titles at Time Inc. are covered by union contracts with the Newspaper Guild, the company will likely have to offer voluntary buyout options as part of the downsizing.
Time is running out if it hopes to complete the layoffs and write off the costs in the fourth quarter.
snip
Time Inc. axed about 600 people last year, and is down to about 9,000 employees worldwide. The guessing game inside the company says that this round of cuts will not be as deep as a year ago. But, as one insider said, "It changes week to week and nothing is final yet."
Condé cuts
At 4 Times Square, the Condé Nast carnage, which began on Oct. 5 with the axing of 180 people and closing of four magazines, stretched into its fourth week.
Staffers were laid off from the edit side at Details and the business side at Teen Vogue.
At Details, Executive Editor Greg Williams was among two people let go by Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres.
Laura McKeown, the publisher of Teen Vogue, delivered the bad news to six members of the business staff. The total number of people axed at Condé Nast this year has now surpassed 450 people.
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann October Ratings Down 63% vs. 2008 (TV by the Numbers) (Gee, I can’t possibly imagine why. Must Be that darn economy, huh Melanie?)
With lots of cable news shows, the feast of the 2008 election has lead to famine in 2009.
Countdown with Keith Olberman’s ratings are in the famine range as well, with October year over year ratings down 53% in the cable news target adults 25-54 demo, and down 53% in average viewership.
Although I don’t have a trend chart, October is also Olbermann’s lowest rated month so far in 2009 in both 25-54 and average viewers.
Hannah Giles Challenges the Media ACORN Watch (Patterico)
Hannah Giles notices what the media won’t:
• Baltimore –“Why no mention of the toddlers that were in the room while James and I were being counseled on how to manage our underage prostitution ring?”
• San Bernardino – “The content of this video was largely ignored except for the part where Tresa Kaelke mentions she shot her husband.
What about when she told us not to educate our sex-slaves because they won’t want to work for us? Or when we talked about making more money off clients who are permitted to physically abuse the girls?
What about the whole transport-the-girls-in-a-school-bus-to-avoid-suspicion discussion?”
• Washington, DC – “Why were we counseled by ACORN during a first time homebuyer’s seminar, while 30-40 other first time homebuyers sat crammed in a hot room?”
Giles has more questions at the link, along with her challenge to the press corp to investigate these stories.
Fishbowl DC had it first, then Mediaite confirmed it independently. Thus dies one of the sweetest, easiest sources of bloggy material we’ve had in ages. RIP.
The good news? These truces never last. Eventually Beck will accuse The One of being a Bilderberger or something and we’ll be playing the feud once again, oh yes.
Details of the meeting and terms of any agreement are still emerging, but we hear the meeting was to come to a “truce” between both sides – a point first reported by FishbowlDC.
Mediaite hears the meeting was between FNC Senior Vice President Michael Clemente and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in Gibbs’ office at the White House.
Clemente then met with the FNC D.C. bureau. The lame White House spin on this started early today with declarations of satisfaction in U.S. News notwithstanding (a) that Fox’s ratings have leaped since war broke out and (b) even dependable lefties like Thomas Frank have taken to scolding the White House for mishandling a useful demagogic opportunity.
Quote: A senior Obama adviser says that, even though the West Wing has been roundly criticized by both adversaries and some allies for blasting Fox as an arm of the Republican Party and not a real news organization, administration insiders are pleased with how things stand.
UPDATE (PATTERICO) I guess the White House wasn’t kidding about the battlefield terminology:
“White House strategists say they have no second thoughts about taking on Fox News in the biggest media feud of President Obama’s administration.
A senior Obama adviser says that, even though the West Wing has been roundly criticized by both adversaries and some allies for blasting Fox as an arm of the Republican Party and not a real news organization, administration insiders are pleased with how things stand.
***
One drawback, which even Obama aides concede, is that Fox is using the quarrel with the White House as a public-relations tool to stir up its own support among conservatives and to boost ratings.
“They’re still at it,” says a senior Obama aide, who adds that White House officials don’t expect to fire another shot in the battle unless Fox strikes first.”
Maybe after they viewed Valerie Jarrett’s interview on CNN they had a change of heart – even CNN took issue with her inane and childish tantrums against Fox.
It doesn’t matter what they say at this point – they’ve shown the world (and our enemies) how weak and feckless they truly are.
This is a prelude as to how President Icarus will handle both Iraq and Afghanistan. Declare victory (”we made our point”) and walk away.
Fox is first and foremost, a business. And businesses are in the business of making money. They’ve been handed a PR dream on a silver platter and Fox is simply, and happily, making the most of the WH gift that just keeps on giving.
Of Course. Michelle Obama Wins Woman of Year Award From Glamour Mag
Well if Barack can win a Men’s Health Award for “Top Fittest Male” (while smoking), a Grammy for spoken word, and a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing...
Then it’s only fair that Michelle takes home a prize or two as well.
Glamour Magazine features First Lady Michelle Obama on the cover of their Women of the Year issue that pays tribute to courageous and inspiring women who are changing the world.
Are things really getting better? (Even CNN can't hide the truth any more)
CNN The economy is forecast to have grown in the last three months by the largest amount since the summer of 2007, but there are signs that things are still getting worse.
I get it, if a tree falls on a CNN stage, does it make a sound?
Boeing chooses South Carolina for second 787 plant
(Dow Jones)--Boeing Co. on Wednesday announced it would build a second final assembly line for its troubled 787 Dreamliner jet in South Carolina, a move that spurns the powerful aircraft machinists' union that had been negotiating with Boeing to locate the work at the current factory near Seattle.
Boeing has been laying the groundwork for a new factory in South Carolina for months and could begin construction at a facility it owns in North Charleston, S.C., as early as Nov. 2. The factory is expected to be operational by July 2011.
1.5M Exodus From NYS Largest In US (Sweetness-light)
Buried on page A22 of today’s Wall Street Journal:
An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else.
That wisdom is getting an update this week from a study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy that shows middle-class people leaving the state in droves.
Between 2000 and 2008, the Empire State had a net domestic outflow of more than 1.5 million, the biggest exodus of any state, with most hailing from New York City.
The departures also have perilous budget consequences, since they tend to include residents who are better off than those arriving.
Statewide, departing families have income levels 13% higher than those moving in, while in New York County (home of Manhattan) the differential was even more severe.
Those moving elsewhere had an average income of $93,264, some 28%higher than the $72,726 earned by those coming in.
In 2006 alone, that swap meant the state lost $4.3 billion in taxpayer income. Add that up from 2001 through 2008, and it translates into annual net income losses somewhere near $30 billion.
'Means of Desperation': Should US Newspapers Get State Aid? (Der Spiegel Germany)
Times have never before been this bad for US newspapers. Within six months, they have seen their circulation drop, on average, by 10.6 percent.
Now experts are calling for a radical solution: state aid. But protests are already mounting -- even inside the industry itself.
Every year, the first order of business for new students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism is to assemble in the "World Room."
This historic hall on Broadway Avenue is named after the New York World, the old newspaper published by the school's founder, Joseph Pulitzer. It's the same room where the school announces the annual Pulitzer prizes. Aspiring reporters enter it with awe and dread.
The school's dean then likes to welcome them with a stern, yet encouraging lecture about the future of their profession and their somber legacy -- a pep talk to prepare them for their role as the "Fourth Estate" of American democracy.
One wonders what kind of message dean Nicholas Lemann is giving his students these days, as US media are struggling through their most existential crisis yet.
Shouldn't he recommend they look for a different line of work?
Lemann laughs. "What I tell them is that journalism isn't going away but is reconstituting itself in a pretty fundamental way," he tells SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview.
"From the standpoint of a student who wants to be a fulltime, employed reporter and find an entry-level job, things aren't so bad right now."
Aren't they? The most recent circulation figures released for US newspapers are worse than ever.
Average daily circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, dropped 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008 -- much faster than the 7.1 percent decline in the October-March period.
"What's Happened To Obama?" It's Simple, We Figured Him Out! (Ben Stein!)[They ignored = MSM Intentionally ignored]
Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?
Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:
The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008.
They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.
They ignored his anti-white writings in his books.
They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.
They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student.
They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.
The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.
Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth.
Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East , way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.
The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.
Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.
The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.
2 (more DEMOCRATS) political consultants face evasion charges: Feds allege they didn't pay tax on proceeds (But it’s not corruption when Democrats do it) Philadelphia Enquirer
For years, Philadelphia candidates for judicial seats and other offices have written checks to a New Jersey-based firm called Dan Silo Consultants.
Insiders knew that there was no Dan Silo. It was the name used by Pete Truman, a former Philadelphia ward leader and elected official who brokered the support of an alliance of African-American ward leaders in return for some handsome consulting fees.
Yesterday Truman, 74, was charged with filing a false tax return, failing to report consulting income estimated by federal authorities at $700,000 between 2001 and 2007.
Also charged with filing a false return was Chester Fulton, 53, another political consultant who collected fees for field work, mostly in North Philadelphia.
The U.S. Attorneys' Office estimated that Fulton made more than $500,000 in fees between 2001 and 2007.
"The government takes tax fraud seriously, and will prosecute it regardless how people earn their income," Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen said last night.
Larry Langford (DEMOCRAT) found guilty on all 60 counts (Birmingham News Blog)
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA--Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial.
Langford was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre.
Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co.
Report: Cash for Clunkers was a lemon (Christian Science Monitor)
American taxpayers paid a lot of cash for those clunkers: $24,000 for each new car sold, according to a study released Wednesday.
The government could have done almost as well by just giving away cars for free, instead of creating an elaborate incentive program, according to an analysis by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif.
... to look at how many people purchased cars that otherwise wouldn’t have been bought. The firm says that number is about 125,000 cars. By that measure, the government spent $24,000 to generate each sale of a new car.
In all, the government spent $3 billion on a program that provided cash toward 690,000 car purchases –about $4,348 per car. That makes 565,000 people who got as much as $4,500 to buy a car they would have bought anyway, according to the Edmunds analysis.
The analysis may dampen views about the effectiveness of a one of the most visible pieces of President Obama’s $787 economic stimulus package, designed to save jobs across the US.
US Airways cutting 1,000 jobs, reducing flying(AP)
Struggling US Airways said on Wednesday it will cut some 1,000 jobs next year, shift nearly all of its flying to its three hubs and Washington, and suspend several international routes.
Donors got access to bowling alley, WH movies, Messina [Report: W.H. Gave Donors VIP Access] (POLITICO)
Donors got access to bowling alley, WH movies, Messina It turns out that the White House-complex bowling alley might be the new Lincoln Bedroom.
[Getting Dem pushback on the lede -- the argument being that the perks weren't part of a formal fundraising program like the Clintons' Lincoln bedroom arrangement.]
Matthew Mosk of the Washington Times sifts the records and finds that President Obama's high-rolling donors got access to a ten-pin alley, the White House movie theater and the Oval.
The big shots were also treated to an in-person West Coast briefing on health care reform by Jim Messina, one of Obama's point men on the Hill.
During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.
High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.
(UK) Doctors engaged in ‘slow euthanasia’ for patients with terminal illnesses (The Times UK)
Patients with terminal illness are being heavily sedated by doctors before their deaths in a form of “slow euthanasia”, research suggests.
A poll of nearly 3,000 doctors found that almost one in five had administered infusions of drugs to keep patients unconscious for hours or days at a time.
In appropriate doses, sedatives and strong painkillers are considered a valuable way of easing the pain and anxiety of patients who are dying with conditions such as cancer.
But 18.7 per cent of British doctors polled said they used drugs to invoke “continuous deep sedation” in a dying patient, a practice which in other countries is seen as an alternative to legalised euthanasia.
US Senator, MSNBC Libs Admit: "Opt Out Public Option" Is A Scam (Boston Herald)
If you’re familiar with this column, you won’t be surprised that last Tuesday night I appeared on a cable news show where the host ranted about how Sen. Harry Reid’s “opt-out” plan is a scam to foist the public option - and eventually socialized medicine - on the American people.
But you might be surprised to learn I was on MSNBC at the time. With a host who is a self-described “progressive” and hard-core supporter of ObamaCare.
I was on “The Ed Show”, hosted by the painfully earnest “Big Ed” Schultz, doing my part as the “token right-wing nut.”
(That’s the unofficial MSNBC euphemism for people whose favorite political philosopher isn’t Chairman Mao).
I was prepared to argue that Reid’s “opt-out public option” was a fake, a fig leaf to provide cover for wavering moderates so they could give President Barack Obama what he and the far left really want - a government-run program that would inevitably lead to a European-style single-payer system.
But before I could make my case, Big Ed made it for me. “Harry Reid has given Senate Democrats all the cover they need!” he screamed - Ed always screams - at the camera.
“This is great move by the Democrats. This is calling out Senate moderates who aren’t too sure about the public option.
It’s great move by Harry Reid to put it this way. And it is the first step to single payer. That’s what we progressives want. This is just taking the road to get there.”
When the camera turned my way, all I had to say was “Amen.”
Because there it was, Team Obama’s entire con, laid out for all to see. And it wasn’t exposed by Glenn Beck or a investigative reporter from The Wall Street Journal.
New Poll: Americans Don’t Believe Obama and Congress Share Their Priorities on Health Care (NRO)
Data from the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll present a problem for President Obama and congressional Democrats as they try to sell their health-care plan:
Americans do not believe Obama and Congress are paying sufficient attention to the cost issue, which is a top public concern.
As this chart shows, while Americans are essentially split on what Obama and Congress should be most focused on addressing, they are not split on what the proposed health-care plan actually is addressing.
Some 38 percent of Americans say the plan should be most focused on health-care costs, and only 13 percent say the president’s plan is most focused on this issue.
Elsewhere in the poll, a plurality (43 percent) of Americans say the current health-care plan focuses too much on “one goal over the other,” with 32 percent saying it is focused too much on covering the uninsured and only 8 percent saying there is too much focus on reducing costs.
Concern over controlling costs has appeared in other polling (see, for example, Resurgent Republic); indeed, nearly twice as many voters saying controlling costs (44percent) is more important than covering the uninsured (23 percent).
On 'Hate Crimes Day,' Remembering Media Blackout of Jesse Dirkhising's Death (NewsBusters)
On a day in which media liberals will celebrate President Obama for signing a bill against "hate crimes" against gays and lesbians, a bill named for Matthew Shepard, it might be time again to remember the name of Jesse Dirkhising, who died ten years ago this fall to a national media blackout. Here's Brent Bozell from 1999:
When Matthew Shepard died on October 12, 1998 at the age of 21, five days after getting into a pickup truck with two goons who beat him mercilessly, he had already become a huge national news story that continues today.
It made the cover of Time magazine with the headline "The War Over Gays," with reporters predictably using the occasion to blame religious conservatives and call for hate-crime laws and other gay-left agenda items.
But when Jesse Dirkhising died on September 26 at the age of 13 from suffocation after being bound, gagged with underwear in his mouth, blindfolded, taped to the bed, and sodomized by one gay man while another gay man watched, the national media said nothing, even after The Washington Times exposed the untold story.
In this modern media age, when lurid murders, especially of children, dance in the dreams of ratings-obsessed network producers (can you say JonBenet?), why would this story go untold?
Had Jesse Dirkhising been shot inside his Arkansas school, he would have been an immediate national news story.
Had he been openly gay and his attackers heterosexual, the crime would have led all the networks.
But no liberal media outlet would dare be the first to tell a grisly murder story which has as its villains two gay men.
So Olbermann is the latest far left nutjob to get creamed in the ratings. I think the writing is on the wall for liberals and their mainstram media products - it ain't workin'.
Today, October 29, I received a card in the mail about benefit meetings at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that happened October 19. Way to go, bucketheads.
27 comments:
Time Inc. will be serving layoffs for holidays (New York Post)
Time Inc. is bracing for another round of cutbacks. Sources say the layoffs will be most severe in the division that includes Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Time and Money, and will be carried out before the Thanksgiving break.
Since many of the old-line titles at Time Inc. are covered by union contracts with the Newspaper Guild, the company will likely have to offer voluntary buyout options as part of the downsizing.
Time is running out if it hopes to complete the layoffs and write off the costs in the fourth quarter.
snip
Time Inc. axed about 600 people last year, and is down to about 9,000 employees worldwide. The guessing game inside the company says that this round of cuts will not be as deep as a year ago. But, as one insider said, "It changes week to week and nothing is final yet."
Condé cuts
At 4 Times Square, the Condé Nast carnage, which began on Oct. 5 with the axing of 180 people and closing of four magazines, stretched into its fourth week.
Staffers were laid off from the edit side at Details and the business side at Teen Vogue.
At Details, Executive Editor Greg Williams was among two people let go by Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres.
Laura McKeown, the publisher of Teen Vogue, delivered the bad news to six members of the business staff. The total number of people axed at Condé Nast this year has now surpassed 450 people.
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann October Ratings Down 63% vs. 2008 (TV by the Numbers) (Gee, I can’t possibly imagine why. Must Be that darn economy, huh Melanie?)
With lots of cable news shows, the feast of the 2008 election has lead to famine in 2009.
Countdown with Keith Olberman’s ratings are in the famine range as well, with October year over year ratings down 53% in the cable news target adults 25-54 demo, and down 53% in average viewership.
Although I don’t have a trend chart, October is also Olbermann’s lowest rated month so far in 2009 in both 25-54 and average viewers.
Hannah Giles Challenges the Media ACORN Watch (Patterico)
Hannah Giles notices what the media won’t:
• Baltimore –“Why no mention of the toddlers that were in the room while James and I were being counseled on how to manage our underage prostitution ring?”
• San Bernardino – “The content of this video was largely ignored except for the part where Tresa Kaelke mentions she shot her husband.
What about when she told us not to educate our sex-slaves because they won’t want to work for us? Or when we talked about making more money off clients who are permitted to physically abuse the girls?
What about the whole transport-the-girls-in-a-school-bus-to-avoid-suspicion discussion?”
• Washington, DC – “Why were we counseled by ACORN during a first time homebuyer’s seminar, while 30-40 other first time homebuyers sat crammed in a hot room?”
Giles has more questions at the link, along with her challenge to the press corp to investigate these stories.
Truce: White House, Fox News end feud (Hot Air)
Fishbowl DC had it first, then Mediaite confirmed it independently. Thus dies one of the sweetest, easiest sources of bloggy material we’ve had in ages. RIP.
The good news? These truces never last. Eventually Beck will accuse The One of being a Bilderberger or something and we’ll be playing the feud once again, oh yes.
Details of the meeting and terms of any agreement are still emerging, but we hear the meeting was to come to a “truce” between both sides – a point first reported by FishbowlDC.
Mediaite hears the meeting was between FNC Senior Vice President Michael Clemente and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in Gibbs’ office at the White House.
Clemente then met with the FNC D.C. bureau. The lame White House spin on this started early today with declarations of satisfaction in U.S. News notwithstanding (a) that Fox’s ratings have leaped since war broke out and (b) even dependable lefties like Thomas Frank have taken to scolding the White House for mishandling a useful demagogic opportunity.
Quote: A senior Obama adviser says that, even though the West Wing has been roundly criticized by both adversaries and some allies for blasting Fox as an arm of the Republican Party and not a real news organization, administration insiders are pleased with how things stand.
UPDATE (PATTERICO) I guess the White House wasn’t kidding about the battlefield terminology:
“White House strategists say they have no second thoughts about taking on Fox News in the biggest media feud of President Obama’s administration.
A senior Obama adviser says that, even though the West Wing has been roundly criticized by both adversaries and some allies for blasting Fox as an arm of the Republican Party and not a real news organization, administration insiders are pleased with how things stand.
***
One drawback, which even Obama aides concede, is that Fox is using the quarrel with the White House as a public-relations tool to stir up its own support among conservatives and to boost ratings.
“They’re still at it,” says a senior Obama aide, who adds that White House officials don’t expect to fire another shot in the battle unless Fox strikes first.”
Maybe after they viewed Valerie Jarrett’s interview on CNN they had a change of heart – even CNN took issue with her inane and childish tantrums against Fox.
It doesn’t matter what they say at this point – they’ve shown the world (and our enemies) how weak and feckless they truly are.
This is a prelude as to how President Icarus will handle both Iraq and Afghanistan. Declare victory (”we made our point”) and walk away.
Fox is first and foremost, a business. And businesses are in the business of making money. They’ve been handed a PR dream on a silver platter and Fox is simply, and happily, making the most of the WH gift that just keeps on giving.
Of Course. Michelle Obama Wins Woman of Year Award From Glamour Mag
Well if Barack can win a Men’s Health Award for “Top Fittest Male” (while smoking), a Grammy for spoken word, and a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing...
Then it’s only fair that Michelle takes home a prize or two as well.
Glamour Magazine features First Lady Michelle Obama on the cover of their Women of the Year issue that pays tribute to courageous and inspiring women who are changing the world.
Are things really getting better? (Even CNN can't hide the truth any more)
CNN The economy is forecast to have grown in the last three months by the largest amount since the summer of 2007, but there are signs that things are still getting worse.
I get it, if a tree falls on a CNN stage, does it make a sound?
Boeing chooses South Carolina for second 787 plant
(Dow Jones)--Boeing Co. on Wednesday announced it would build a second final assembly line for its troubled 787 Dreamliner jet in South Carolina, a move that spurns the powerful aircraft machinists' union that had been negotiating with Boeing to locate the work at the current factory near Seattle.
Boeing has been laying the groundwork for a new factory in South Carolina for months and could begin construction at a facility it owns in North Charleston, S.C., as early as Nov. 2. The factory is expected to be operational by July 2011.
1.5M Exodus From NYS Largest In US (Sweetness-light)
Buried on page A22 of today’s Wall Street Journal:
An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else.
That wisdom is getting an update this week from a study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy that shows middle-class people leaving the state in droves.
Between 2000 and 2008, the Empire State had a net domestic outflow of more than 1.5 million, the biggest exodus of any state, with most hailing from New York City.
The departures also have perilous budget consequences, since they tend to include residents who are better off than those arriving.
Statewide, departing families have income levels 13% higher than those moving in, while in New York County (home of Manhattan) the differential was even more severe.
Those moving elsewhere had an average income of $93,264, some 28%higher than the $72,726 earned by those coming in.
In 2006 alone, that swap meant the state lost $4.3 billion in taxpayer income. Add that up from 2001 through 2008, and it translates into annual net income losses somewhere near $30 billion.
(They need to build the walls higher.)
'Means of Desperation': Should US Newspapers Get State Aid? (Der Spiegel Germany)
Times have never before been this bad for US newspapers. Within six months, they have seen their circulation drop, on average, by 10.6 percent.
Now experts are calling for a radical solution: state aid. But protests are already mounting -- even inside the industry itself.
Every year, the first order of business for new students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism is to assemble in the "World Room."
This historic hall on Broadway Avenue is named after the New York World, the old newspaper published by the school's founder, Joseph Pulitzer. It's the same room where the school announces the annual Pulitzer prizes. Aspiring reporters enter it with awe and dread.
The school's dean then likes to welcome them with a stern, yet encouraging lecture about the future of their profession and their somber legacy -- a pep talk to prepare them for their role as the "Fourth Estate" of American democracy.
One wonders what kind of message dean Nicholas Lemann is giving his students these days, as US media are struggling through their most existential crisis yet.
Shouldn't he recommend they look for a different line of work?
Lemann laughs. "What I tell them is that journalism isn't going away but is reconstituting itself in a pretty fundamental way," he tells SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview.
"From the standpoint of a student who wants to be a fulltime, employed reporter and find an entry-level job, things aren't so bad right now."
Aren't they? The most recent circulation figures released for US newspapers are worse than ever.
Average daily circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, dropped 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month span in 2008 -- much faster than the 7.1 percent decline in the October-March period.
"What's Happened To Obama?" It's Simple, We Figured Him Out! (Ben Stein!)[They ignored = MSM Intentionally ignored]
Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?
Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:
The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008.
They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.
They ignored his anti-white writings in his books.
They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.
They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student.
They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.
The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.
Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth.
Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East , way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.
The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.
Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.
The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.
2 (more DEMOCRATS) political consultants face evasion charges: Feds allege they didn't pay tax on proceeds (But it’s not corruption when Democrats do it) Philadelphia Enquirer
For years, Philadelphia candidates for judicial seats and other offices have written checks to a New Jersey-based firm called Dan Silo Consultants.
Insiders knew that there was no Dan Silo. It was the name used by Pete Truman, a former Philadelphia ward leader and elected official who brokered the support of an alliance of African-American ward leaders in return for some handsome consulting fees.
Yesterday Truman, 74, was charged with filing a false tax return, failing to report consulting income estimated by federal authorities at $700,000 between 2001 and 2007.
Also charged with filing a false return was Chester Fulton, 53, another political consultant who collected fees for field work, mostly in North Philadelphia.
The U.S. Attorneys' Office estimated that Fulton made more than $500,000 in fees between 2001 and 2007.
"The government takes tax fraud seriously, and will prosecute it regardless how people earn their income," Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen said last night.
Larry Langford (DEMOCRAT) found guilty on all 60 counts (Birmingham News Blog)
TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA--Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial.
Langford was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre.
Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co.
Report: Cash for Clunkers was a lemon (Christian Science Monitor)
American taxpayers paid a lot of cash for those clunkers: $24,000 for each new car sold, according to a study released Wednesday.
The government could have done almost as well by just giving away cars for free, instead of creating an elaborate incentive program, according to an analysis by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif.
... to look at how many people purchased cars that otherwise wouldn’t have been bought. The firm says that number is about 125,000 cars. By that measure, the government spent $24,000 to generate each sale of a new car.
In all, the government spent $3 billion on a program that provided cash toward 690,000 car purchases –about $4,348 per car. That makes 565,000 people who got as much as $4,500 to buy a car they would have bought anyway, according to the Edmunds analysis.
The analysis may dampen views about the effectiveness of a one of the most visible pieces of President Obama’s $787 economic stimulus package, designed to save jobs across the US.
US Airways cutting 1,000 jobs, reducing flying(AP)
Struggling US Airways said on Wednesday it will cut some 1,000 jobs next year, shift nearly all of its flying to its three hubs and Washington, and suspend several international routes.
Donors got access to bowling alley, WH movies, Messina [Report: W.H. Gave Donors VIP Access] (POLITICO)
Donors got access to bowling alley, WH movies, Messina
It turns out that the White House-complex bowling alley might be the new Lincoln Bedroom.
[Getting Dem pushback on the lede -- the argument being that the perks weren't part of a formal fundraising program like the Clintons' Lincoln bedroom arrangement.]
Matthew Mosk of the Washington Times sifts the records and finds that President Obama's high-rolling donors got access to a ten-pin alley, the White House movie theater and the Oval.
The big shots were also treated to an in-person West Coast briefing on health care reform by Jim Messina, one of Obama's point men on the Hill.
During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.
High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.
(UK) Doctors engaged in ‘slow euthanasia’ for patients with terminal illnesses (The Times UK)
Patients with terminal illness are being heavily sedated by doctors before their deaths in a form of “slow euthanasia”, research suggests.
A poll of nearly 3,000 doctors found that almost one in five had administered infusions of drugs to keep patients unconscious for hours or days at a time.
In appropriate doses, sedatives and strong painkillers are considered a valuable way of easing the pain and anxiety of patients who are dying with conditions such as cancer.
But 18.7 per cent of British doctors polled said they used drugs to invoke “continuous deep sedation” in a dying patient, a practice which in other countries is seen as an alternative to legalised euthanasia.
US Senator, MSNBC Libs Admit: "Opt Out Public Option" Is A Scam (Boston Herald)
If you’re familiar with this column, you won’t be surprised that last Tuesday night I appeared on a cable news show where the host ranted about how Sen. Harry Reid’s “opt-out” plan is a scam to foist the public option - and eventually socialized medicine - on the American people.
But you might be surprised to learn I was on MSNBC at the time. With a host who is a self-described “progressive” and hard-core supporter of ObamaCare.
I was on “The Ed Show”, hosted by the painfully earnest “Big Ed” Schultz, doing my part as the “token right-wing nut.”
(That’s the unofficial MSNBC euphemism for people whose favorite political philosopher isn’t Chairman Mao).
I was prepared to argue that Reid’s “opt-out public option” was a fake, a fig leaf to provide cover for wavering moderates so they could give President Barack Obama what he and the far left really want - a government-run program that would inevitably lead to a European-style single-payer system.
But before I could make my case, Big Ed made it for me.
“Harry Reid has given Senate Democrats all the cover they need!” he screamed - Ed always screams - at the camera.
“This is great move by the Democrats. This is calling out Senate moderates who aren’t too sure about the public option.
It’s great move by Harry Reid to put it this way. And it is the first step to single payer. That’s what we progressives want. This is just taking the road to get there.”
When the camera turned my way, all I had to say was “Amen.”
Because there it was, Team Obama’s entire con, laid out for all to see. And it wasn’t exposed by Glenn Beck or a investigative reporter from The Wall Street Journal.
New Poll: Americans Don’t Believe Obama and Congress Share Their Priorities on Health Care (NRO)
Data from the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll present a problem for President Obama and congressional Democrats as they try to sell their health-care plan:
Americans do not believe Obama and Congress are paying sufficient attention to the cost issue, which is a top public concern.
As this chart shows, while Americans are essentially split on what Obama and Congress should be most focused on addressing, they are not split on what the proposed health-care plan actually is addressing.
Some 38 percent of Americans say the plan should be most focused on health-care costs, and only 13 percent say the president’s plan is most focused on this issue.
Elsewhere in the poll, a plurality (43 percent) of Americans say the current health-care plan focuses too much on “one goal over the other,” with 32 percent saying it is focused too much on covering the uninsured and only 8 percent saying there is too much focus on reducing costs.
Concern over controlling costs has appeared in other polling (see, for example, Resurgent Republic); indeed, nearly twice as many voters saying controlling costs (44percent) is more important than covering the uninsured (23 percent).
On 'Hate Crimes Day,' Remembering Media Blackout of Jesse Dirkhising's Death (NewsBusters)
On a day in which media liberals will celebrate President Obama for signing a bill against "hate crimes" against gays and lesbians, a bill named for Matthew Shepard, it might be time again to remember the name of Jesse Dirkhising, who died ten years ago this fall to a national media blackout. Here's Brent Bozell from 1999:
When Matthew Shepard died on October 12, 1998 at the age of 21, five days after getting into a pickup truck with two goons who beat him mercilessly, he had already become a huge national news story that continues today.
It made the cover of Time magazine with the headline "The War Over Gays," with reporters predictably using the occasion to blame religious conservatives and call for hate-crime laws and other gay-left agenda items.
But when Jesse Dirkhising died on September 26 at the age of 13 from suffocation after being bound, gagged with underwear in his mouth, blindfolded, taped to the bed, and sodomized by one gay man while another gay man watched, the national media said nothing, even after The Washington Times exposed the untold story.
In this modern media age, when lurid murders, especially of children, dance in the dreams of ratings-obsessed network producers (can you say JonBenet?), why would this story go untold?
Had Jesse Dirkhising been shot inside his Arkansas school, he would have been an immediate national news story.
Had he been openly gay and his attackers heterosexual, the crime would have led all the networks.
But no liberal media outlet would dare be the first to tell a grisly murder story which has as its villains two gay men.
So Olbermann is the latest far left nutjob to get creamed in the ratings. I think the writing is on the wall for liberals and their mainstram media products - it ain't workin'.
Today, October 29, I received a card in the mail about benefit meetings at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that happened October 19. Way to go, bucketheads.
There's been a major explosion at a fuel depot near the Infosys facility that handles the outsourced financials for some of the McClatchy properties.
Word is that the offshore employees were in the building working when the explosion took place and had to be evacuated.
The video and pictures show a pretty significant event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO19pueKYQA
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aXVaYLyg7cv4
2:45 I can't get the links to work in Firefox... any other links?
Bloomberg Article:
http://tinyurl.com/ykx4cyu
Youtube Video:
http://tinyurl.com/ykxq876
you can just do a google search for jaipur and fire.
there are some internal emails if anyone is brave enough to post them.
4:07, 4:12 thanks
Post a Comment