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.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Tuesday October 6 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
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White House Blames FOX News For Their Safe Schools Czar's Slimy Past that Includes Hiding Pedophilia From the Authorities (GatewayPundit)
Mmm... Mmm... Mmm... White house Spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed FOX News for the latest White House scandal:
"Its a shame. I hope people watch what they (FOX News) do."
Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings praised the founder of NAMBLA Harry Hay and hid statutory rape from authorities.
Another Dismal (Newspaper) Circulation Report Is on the Way (Poynter Online)
The most recent six-month period for measuring newspaper circulation ended last Wednesday. It takes a month or so to assemble the results, so watch for actual numbers around Halloween.
I'm sticking my neck out only a little in predicting they will be a veritable house of horrors.
Here's why this six-month period is likely be be even worse than the period ended March 31, which saw average losses of 7 percent daily and 5.3 percent Sunday compared to the same period in 2008:
This is the first six-month period likely to show the full effect of the recession on customers who have chosen to cancel subscriptions or buy the paper less frequently.
More people have lost their jobs (or are worried that they will) since the last reporting period, and there's no reason to expect a bounce-back in circulation before those people find new employment.
Many newspapers have raised their subscription and single-copy rates over the last year. In my view and that of other analysts, this is a healthy and necessary move to price the print product more realistically and wean papers away from a lopsided dependence on advertising.
Bloodbath at Conde Nast; 4 mags axed (New York Post)
Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said Monday he was shutting down four magazines, including the awarding winning Gourmet, parenthood title Cookie and two of the company’s bridal magazines, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride.
It was the biggest one-day bloodbath in the publishing company’s 100-year history. Hundreds of people will be tossed out of work.
The company said it would keep the Gourmet cookbooks and television programming but shut the monthly magazine. Bride’s, the last surviving bridal book, will move to monthly from six times a year. Industry sources had estimated that Conde Nast could lose $200 million this year.
Smoking gun E mail nails Democrats’ and GE “Pay to Play” scheme in Senate’s new Cap & Trade bill (The Collins Report)
This is an excerpt from a recently obtained internal E mail written by a gleeful GE executive.
“On climate change we were able to work closely with key authors of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives. If this bill is enacted into law it would benefit many GE businesses.”
“…benefit many GE businesses” becomes clearer by following the paper trail of “donations” from GEPAC the lobbying arm of General Electric Corporation.
GE/Democrat pay to play scheme Last year most of GEPAC’s contributions went to Democrats.
This year almost all of its cash bought Democrats. Over 24 months GEPAC “donated” 2.4 million dollars to Democrats. GEPAC greases every greedy Democrat they see.
In return the Democrats get Chris Matthews’ tingling leg and kid glove treatment from NBC news. Under the “radar”
GE, however, got two huge payoffs that have gone under the radar thus far. Folded into the new version of the Cap and Trade bill is Section 821(c) which requires the EPA set new standards for greenhouse gas emissions for “new aircraft and new engines used in new aircraft” by December 12, 2012.
Stossel rips 'Obamacare,' media (The times online)
MICHIGAN CITY | Broadcast journalist John Stossel wasted no time Sunday getting to the point as he opened the Sinai Forum at Elston Middle School in Michigan City.
..."A new bureaucracy was created but it didn't protect consumers," Stossel said.
He said he began to have a different mindset.
"I stopped seeing business as the problem and started seeing government as the problem," Stossel said.
In applying his thinking to health care, Stossel said "economic freedom," not "central planning," is what will make health care better in the United States.
"Government will make health care worse," he said. "It will be more expensive and we will have fewer choices. What makes a market work is when the individual pays for himself."
Stossel said President Barack Obama's "community rating" plan, which proposes all people pay the same for health care insurance, is "welfare."
Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill (CNSnews)
President Obama has spent some time in the past few months rebutting critics of the health care legislation being debated in Congress, and telling Americans what he insists it does or does not say about certain issues such as abortion and whether people will be able to keep their current health insurance plans.
But the president has only read “a decent part” of the legislation he is describing, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed yesterday.
When a reporter noted at Monday's press briefing that there had been some discussion on Capitol Hill about whether members of Congress would read the text of the health care bill before voting on it, and then asked Gibbs whether the president would read the bill himself before he signs it into law,
Gibbs said: “Well, I think he's read a decent part of the legislation that's been bandied around right now, and we should address this as with members of Congress when we have closer to a final piece of legislation.”
Ex-judge (Democrat)Herman Thomas on trial, accused of spanking inmates in underwear, sodomy and more (nydailynews.com)
He was once a revered judge, an African-American Democrat repeatedly elected in an Alabama county that was predominantly white and Republican.
But then came the scandal - and Herman Thomas' world turned upside down.
Thomas, former Alabama Circuit Court judge, stands accused of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations, AOL News reports. The trial starts on Monday.
The first charges against Thomas surfaced in 2001 when an inmate claimed that Thomas offered to help with the case in return for sex. Those charges were dismissed. But that wasn't nearly the end of it.
Inmates then began claiming that Thomas forced them to strip down to their underwear and then spanked them. Others claimed he forced them to perform sex acts.
French Govt: Free Newspapers For Young Adults! (Center For Media Research)
In France, in order to reverse the trend that, from one generation to the next, young people are less likely to read newspapers, free subscriptions (with strings) are being tried successfully.
According to the World Association of Newspapers' recent report on the French government's decision to give free, one-day-a-week newspaper subscriptions to every 18- to 24-year old in the country as a way to encourage newspaper reading and civic participation, the publishers say it works, though the free giveaway is not the only factor.
A recent shift in merchandising strategy by the world's largest retailer spells more trouble for DVD sales and the entertainment industry that depends on them for profits.
As part of a larger effort to clean up its aisles and appeal to higher-end shoppers, Wal-Mart is doing away with display cases to promote the latest hot movie titles.
The move comes as major film studios are reeling from declines in revenue from DVD sales as cash-strapped consumers turn to low-cost rental services and digital downloads for home movies.
"We think the new strategy implies Wal-Mart no longer sees DVDs and Blu-ray discs as traffic drivers," J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan said.
Hollywood Studios In Midst Of Their Own Horror Show [Starring B. Hussein Obama!] LATimes
The recent firings and hirings of studio executives at Disney, Universal and elsewhere point to a widespread corporate panic amid sharp declines in DVD sales (As much as %25).
Marc Shmuger, David Linde out at Universal Pictures Rich Ross named chairman of Walt Disney Studios By John Horn, Ben Fritz and Rachel Abramowitz October 6, 2009 Hollywood's biggest slasher story isn't playing at any theater near you.
It's hitting the industry's corporate suites, where the sacking of studio executives has reached epidemic level.
As evidenced by Disney's recent firing of its studio chief, Dick Cook, and Universal Pictures' dismissal Monday of chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Hollywood is in a state of panic-producing turmoil.
Video stores, union reps rally against buck-a-night DVD kiosks like Redbox Yahoo! (Tech News)
The $1 movie rentals available through DVD kiosks like Redbox could spell "disaster" for the film and video industries—or at least, that's the argument of representatives for video stores and Hollywood unions, who want movie lovers to dump Redbox and return to their corner "mom-and-pop" DVD rental outlets.
Video Business reports that the Video Buyers Group, a trade organization for some 1,700 independent brick-and-mortar video stores, is prepping an ad campaign that'll paint Redbox as a threat to the film industry as we know it.
Why? Because its $1-a-night rental rate is "generating less revenue" for Hollywood studios than the $3-$5/night prices charged by the average video store, according to Video Business.
Indeed, the New York Times quotes Video Buyers Group president Ted Engen as saying that "those machines"—think Redbox and its ilk—"are to the video industry what the Internet was to the music business—disaster."
Also on the attack against DVD kiosks: Gary Cook of UA Local 87, the union that represents movie studio plumbers: "It's going to kill the industry," Cook warned the Times.
U.S. Media Revenue Set for Historic 2009 Decline (Adage)
Just how tough has the media space become? The nation's top 100 media companies eked out 0.8% revenue growth in 2008 -- and the reported revenue for top media firms in the first half of this year fell 4.3% from a year ago, according to Ad Age's analysis.
So not only was last year's Media 100 revenue growth the lowest since 1991, this year it's on track to show the first decline since Ad Age began ranking top media firms in 1981.
Remarkably, 11 of last year's Media 100 firms have plunged into bankruptcy reorganization, overwhelmed in most cases by shrinking revenue and debt loads taken on during the blind optimism of the boom. Print media dominate the bankruptcy list: six newspaper companies, two magazine publishers and two yellow-pages publishers.
That points to the momentum going toward digital-media firms, right? Not so fast.
[Snip]
If you factor out cable systems/satellite TV, Media 100 revenue in 2008 shows a decline of 2.2%. Numbers in 2009 are far worse:
Reported revenue for major media companies through the first half of 2009, excluding cable systems/satellite TV, was down 8.3%from a year ago, according to the Ad Age DataCenter.
[Snip]
Sector performance varies widely in the Media 100. The biggest losers are no surprise:
newspapers, where revenue plunged 13.5% in 2008. Magazines did better, with revenue falling 6.9%. Revenue for broadcast TV (including networks and local stations) dropped 4.6%.
How to sell news on the web: A checklist (Newsosaur) [McClacthy, don’t read, and charge big bucks for web access so you can file Chapter 11 sooner!]
Publishers groping with the question of when, whether and how to charge for interactive content often raise the issue of what they could sell, if indeed they ever decided to try. Here’s a quick checklist to see if you are ready:
1. You cannot charge for such commoditized content as world, national, business, sports and entertainment news. (Translation: McClatchy’s daily DNC talking points and AP cut and paste drivel)
2. You might be able to charge for local coverage, if it is sufficiently intensive, comprehensive and exclusive to make to make it required reading for residents of the targeted community. (McClatchy: pimping for local democrats and tax increases for fellow travelling Marxists is not what the article is talking about)
3. In the business-to-business realm, you probably can charge users for exclusive information that helps them make money, avoid losing money or, ideally, both at the same time. (No one believes McCclatchy is pro business...see Sacramento Bee’s market penetration statistics and consult Melonee Sill)
4. You probably can charge consumers for two things: (a) exclusive entertainment content and (b) authoritative information that helps them hang on to more of their money. (This does not mean Sunday Coupons, or being the first Pravda style paper to print DNC talking points or stories that would make only I.P. Stone, oh so very proud)
Astute readers will note that much of the information publishers would like to sell does not fall into any of the above categories.
This suggests that newspapers and broadcasters who are keen on peddling content need to focus on creating saleable product before they begin trying to charge for it. (Ruh-Ro)
snip
The opportunity seems to be bigger for B2B than B2C content, but operators of the websites of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times already knew that. (2x Ruh-ro)
Top execs pushed out at Universal Pictures (Marketwatch.com)
The chairman of Universal Pictures Marc Shmuger and David Linde, have been ousted from the studio, in the latest sign that parent General Electric Co. has tired of disappointing results at much of its NBC Universal entertainment arm.
snip
The year has been marked by a number of duds for Universal, including "Land of the Lost" starring Will Ferrell, a remake of the 1970s television show for youngsters, and "Funny People" starring Adam Sandler. "Land Of the Lost" took in just $49.2 million domestically, while "Funny People" scraped up $51.9 million.
A weak theatrical slate usually means lackluster home-video sales in the coming months. This is a period in which DVD sales are sliding in general, so a lack of good buzz going into the video cycle is a particularly bad sign
Obama distractions sideline Afghan plan (Too busy golfing and playing for life and death issues) Wash Times
The president was vacationing in Martha's Vineyard on Aug. 30 when Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sent Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates a war assessment in which he said more U.S. troops - and a new U.S. strategy - are urgently needed to defeat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama promptly went to Camp David for a five-day vacation (he's talked to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan just once since Gen. McChrystal urged swift action). Forty-three U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan in the past 30 days.
In the past month, the president has found the time to play golf - four times. He's had links legend Arnold Palmer and other top golfers over to the White House.
He's shot some hoops with friends and yukked it up with hockey's Pittsburgh Penguins.
He's celebrated Ramadan at the White House, eulogized newsman Walter Cronkite in New York City, attended several fundraisers (including Thursday afternoon's luncheon), appeared on David Letterman's late-night show (one of eight interviews), delivered two speeches to AFL-CIO rallies and dropped by the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial for a visit with his wife and daughters.
George Will: Obama Went to Copenhagen to Speak About Himself
On Sunday, ABC's George Will uttered an inconvenient truth about Barack Obama that his adoring media have been ignoring since he first threw his hat into the presidential ring in February 2007: his rhetoric is filled with constant references to himself.
To prove the point on the most recent installment of "This Week," Will counted the number of times Mr. and Mrs. Obama used the words "I" and "me" during their speeches in Copenhagen Friday.
The numbers are shocking making it likely in Will's view that the word "vain" is going to eventually attach itself to Obama
What's alarming is whether it indicates a belief on the part of the President which is that there is no problem that will not melt before the sunshine of his charm.
And this is evidence again that it's not so. The President and First Lady went to Copenhagen and gave little speeches about themselves.
She, Mrs. Obama, used the first-person singular pronoun in some form or another, "I" or "me", sixteen, 34 times in sixteen paragraphs. He used it 23 times in thirteen paragraphs.
It was all about them, and the danger is an adjective sooner or later attaches to presidents.
...The Japanese guy talked about Japan. The Spanish guy talked about Spain. The Brazilian guy talked about Brazil. Obama talked about himself. After his wife talked about herself.
Between the two of them, they used up a decade’s worth of “I” and “me.” For variety, they switched into “mine” and “myself.”
Their messages to the International Olympic Committee were narcissistically adolescent.
Print out their remarks, circle the first-person pronouns in red, connect them with red lines, and you’ll have a diagram of DNA.
It was as if they thought they were taping a segment of “Entertainment Tonight.”
Some delegations brought substance, ours brought star power. Show up, shake a few hands, sign a few 8-by-10 glossies, pose for some pictures, tell a personal anecdote, thank everyone for supporting ACORN, get back on the jet.
It would have been the Entitlement Olympics. Instead of “Higher, Farther, Faster” the motto would be “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.”
And you could see that in the faces of the crowds gathered in Chicago. When word came that Obama-nation had been eliminated in the first round, you saw not disappointment, but disbelief.
They were incredulous. For the first time in life, the silver platter was bare.
It was as unbelievable and unexpected as a bouncing welfare check.
Dammit, we had a right to those Olympics. Didn’t we chant “Yes we can!” enough? Didn’t we denounce the Bush years enough? Doesn’t the IOC know that this is our generation?
Are they a bunch of racists? Didn’t they care about Michelle’s dad?
That was her pitch. Show up in expensive clothes, glad hand everybody, and talk about herself.
She stood before the IOC and gave her talk from last year’s Democratic National Convention.
She talked about the hard times in whatever side of Chicago she’s from, how her dad worked every day and, sadly, came down with a degenerative disease.
Then she asked them to join her dream by putting the Olympics in his neighborhood.
1. I’m sorry about your father. 2. That’s your best shot?
Can Barack Obama argue his way out of a paper bag?
That's the question eminences of his party will be milling after his defeat Friday at the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen.
Obama put his worldwide popularity and the full weight of the office of the presidency of the United States behind Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
He surprised the world by losing on the first round of balloting. That hurt his credibility at a time when he could least afford it.
[Snip]
It will be hard to distract from this traumatic loss for a president who was touted for his ability to convince people of things.
He got lily-white Iowans to vote for him over a party favorite. He managed to nimbly sidestep the Jeremiah Wright debacle. Here was an antiwar candidate who convinced voters to trust him on economic matters.
Obama's past successes only makes his stumbles now more puzzling.
The inarticulate George W. Bush convinced Congress to cut taxes and launch two wars. Professor Obama is having a much harder time of it. He was getting knocked around on the world stage before Friday and his domestic agenda is in deep trouble.
The president is struggling to deliver on the legislative priorities of organized labor or environmental groups. The more he speechifies in favor of health care reform -- in stage-managed town hall meetings, on Sunday morning talk shows, before a joint session of Congress -- the further it slips from his grasp.
[Snip]
Does anybody seriously doubt that Mitt Romney, Obama's most likely Republican challenger in 2012, would have failed to bring the Games home?
They are spinning this because they know the media will soon be talking about the LIAR MICHELLE.
Michelle said that she sat on her dad’s lap rooting for Nadia, Olga and Carl Lewis.
Carl Lewis is obviously black and was her “race card”...she needed to play...
BEST part...Michelle would have been 20 years old sitting on her daddy’s lap.
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says (NOLA.com)
An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Caldwell.
The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds."
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Lewis said the new accusation about the embezzlement is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have a chance to review the subpoena.
Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to Acorn International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books.
Those subpoenas were focused on possible Acorn violations of state employee tax law, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act.
The AG had made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.
But Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the alleged embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue.
SNIP
"Current high ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million," the new subpoena says.
Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are facing pressure from Republicans to distance themselves from the Service Employees International Union as a result of its ties to Acorn.
Republicans in Kansas, Virginia and Illinois in recent weeks have called on union-backed Democrats to return SEIU campaign contributions, citing the close connection between the union and the community organizing group, whose full name is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Acorn has been under fire in the past month after secretly recorded videos showed Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants. Acorn has called the actions unacceptable and has fired the workers involved.
Chrysler to Suspend Jeep Production (GubMint Motors)online.wsj.com
DETROIT -- Chrysler Group LLC will suspend production of its popular Jeep Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited vehicles due to a shortage in parts from an unidentified supplier.
Chrysler will idle its Toledo Supplier Park facility in Ohio for one week starting Monday, the company said Friday without disclosing more details.
Remember "cash for clunkers," the program that subsidized Americans to the tune of nearly $3 billion to buy a new car and destroy an old one?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared in August that, "This is the one stimulus program that seems to be working better than just about any other program."
If that's true, heaven help the other programs. Last week U.S. automakers reported that new car sales for September, the first month since the clunker program expired, sank by 25% from a year earlier.
Sales at GM and Chrysler fell by 45% and 42%, respectively. Ford was down about 5%. Some 700,000 cars were sold in the summer under the program as buyers received up to $4,500 to buy a new car they would probably have purchased anyway, so all the program seems to have done is steal those sales from the future. Exactly as critics predicted.
NAACP Spearheads Voter Drive in Prisons (news max)
PORTLAND, Maine -- Inmates at Maine's prisons have been busy registering to vote.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says it registered an estimated 200 or more inmates last week.
The NAACP says the effort is the first time there's been a systemwide initiative to register inmates across an entire state. Maine is one of two states that allows felons to vote while in prison. Vermont is the other.
Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the NAACP chapter in Portland, says the organization will lead another registration drive next summer at county jails, as well as state prisons.
WASHINGTON -- President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet -- and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message.
In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.
A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.
OOPS! A crowd of 150 doctors gathers in the Rose Garden to support the health-care overhaul -- as White House staffers scramble to hand out camera-ready white coats to those who forgot their own.
The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image.
But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses.
So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area...
In early July, following the very first month after Chrysler LLC emerged from bankruptcy, the Associated Press, in an unbylined report about changes in the company's board, saved this little nugget for the last of its eight paragraphs:
Chrysler's poor June performance also casts doubt on whether the U.S. government's $7 billion allocation will be enough to get the automaker through the U.S. sales slump, which is projected to last into next year.
Those doubts are growing. In a report on Chrysler's just-announced management shakeup, AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin began their report by ringing the alarm:
With sales down sharply and pressure to start generating cash before government loans run out, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne shook up his executive team Monday, replacing two of his brand managers after just four months and splitting Dodge into car and truck units.
Obama is radical, that is why he surrounds himself with radicals. == Obama Administration Defiantly Defends Another Radical Appointee
Creators Syndicate Inc. by David Limbaugh
I continue to be amazed at the naiveté of people who keep giving President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt concerning his radical appointments, saying his administration isn't doing its job in vetting the appointees. When will they wake up to the reality that Obama is deliberately picking people, such as Kevin Jennings, who share his radical values? (Snip) '';Had they vetted Obama, they would have realized that he is Van Jones.''
More sleaze please, Letterman isn't telling the whole story?? Why would that surprise anyone? ===== Lawyer for Letterman's accused blackmailer Joe Halderman says Dave's not telling 'full story'
New York Daily News Richard Huff & Corky Siemaszko
If CBS producer Robert (Joe) Halderman intended to blackmail David Letterman about the funnyman's sex life, he would have demanded cash, his lawyer said yesterday."Here's a guy who is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, who has dealt with cops and wiretaps and undercover investigations virtually his entire life," defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said of Halderman on CBS' "Early Show," one of the morning shows he hit. "There was a $2...
Rumor has it, “The ‘Debt President’ usually chooses his czars from his parole board rolodex, and leaves the vetting to ACORN. However, this time Mickey Mouse was a close runner-up for the Safe Schools Czar job. Mickey Singing, ‘It’s a small world after all’, mmm, mmm, mmm, impressed the Bam, but the old men singing, ‘Young Blood’, well, Kevin Jennings brought home the gold with his clever use of a choir wearing ankle monitors.
Meet the Obama whiners. “They did it” is the new administration’s credo when things go wrong. Most often, the culprit for disappointment in Obama’s hope-and-change agenda remains George W. Bush — a sort of modern-day fallen angel Azael, whose wickedness is persistent and omnipresent. Nine months after his departure, the former president insidiously still has his hand in almost everything that seems to plague Barack Obama’s utopian plans.
“George did it, George did it,” is getting way past tiresome. Obama needs to man up. He is acting like a whiney brat that didn’t get his nappy. Can we say nappy?
Bill O'Reilly has been nailing GE for a long time. The fringe media would not cover the story. They spent their time trying to destroy O'Reilly instead of digging for the truth.
Who would have thought CNN fact checks anything? - CNN Fact Checks Last Saturday's SNL Obama-Razzing Skit
NewsBusters by Kathleen McKinley
Can one even imagine CNN fact checking any of the skits SNL on President Bush or Sarah Palin?? Heaven forbid SNL finally make fun of President Obama. CNN couldn't help themselves. They actually fact checked the jokes.
CNN has snits over skits now, but gleefully attributed jokes by Tina Fey as actual quotes from Sarah Palin. Those jokes were repeated by the MSM as fact. That sort of drumbeat/echo of dishonest quotes was as bad as yellow journalism gets, IMHO.
Editor & Publisher has a gushing story about how many married couples work in the Sac Bee newsroom - 10 percent of the total staff. It didn't go unnoticed during the rounds of layoffs - none of these suck-up drones were on the hit list and many of them are managers. The staff jokes about it as "job security."
The truth is, the IOC were not impressed with Pee Wee, or his Sasquatch wife, and that’s a wrap to the Olympic $$$$$ escapade paid for by the little people. This Hopey-Changey stuff is getting on my nerves.
Whine, whine, whine, “Anti-Americanism.” The Democrats and the liberal press tried to blame President Bush for one of their Olympic failure excuses, but anyone that has traveled to Europe knows the EU has heaped scorn on US tourists for decades, literally decades. The countries that used to be run by liberals had a liberal press to further their socialism, and anti-American propaganda. Now a new wind blows in Europe. The snake oil salesman is not easily selling snake oil to an awakened people. Obama was dissed in Europe, only the media decided it was not important enough to report to US citizens.
Re: "married couples work in the Sac Bee newsroom" - Even Rhonda Lokeman had the sense to leave the KC Red Scar to avoid nepotism complaints. Married couples in the same workplace causes fairness suspicion among employees, and is troublesome on many levels, from my observations.
Anony 12:22: I'm thinking Human Resources 101 may say either keep both of the married couple or layoff both. If you keep one and layoff the other, HR and the newsroom bosses have an instant morale problem on staff. It's very unfair to non-marrieds in the Sac Bee newsroom.
Sacramento Bee used to have a strict no married couples in the newsroom policy to avoid the obvious conflicts of interests and charges of unfair treatment. Not sure why they ever abandoned that policy.
Here's the solution to SacBee married couples in the newsroom: layoff one of each couple. Problem solved, budget gets balanced, morale takes a big spike upward. The retained half of the couples gets pissed and quits. Now they've got the low body count they want for online only.
Obama acted haughtily to every European Head of State. The EU liberal media wants the people there to idolize Obama, but the people are seeing through his line of bullshit, perhaps more so than USA citizens. As European countries toss out socialism, so goes their liberal media, just as it is happening in the US. The biased fringe media selected news they wanted known, but the internet will leave scandals no place to hide.
Obama is showing the amateur that he is and the public's trust has evaporated. Too bad, he did sound credible in the beginning but then so did Jimmy Carter.
The obvious question about the married Sac Bee employees is, does one spouse oversee the other? That is a no, no, but even still, the layoffs should not have a hint that married couples were somehow rewarded for being a twosome. Which also brings to mind, if one spouse was laid off, the other might be unhappy about that, and damage morale even more. As stated before, this couple thing is troubling on many levels.
Speaking of the Sac Bee, how is Melanie Sill hanging in there? How she got her job in the first place is a wonder, but how she keeps it, is an even bigger wonder to me.
There was zero talent to promote inside, so Sill got the job. She's still got it because there's still no talent to replace her - in the entire chain. McClatchy really needs to go outside newspaper newsrooms and bring in a modern thinker who can move these relics into the future.
I've been getting up to four phone calls a days since the weekend from Las Vegas number (702) 553-0512 - guy says he's calling from the Tri-City Herald (WA) promotions department and tries to get me to sign up for a subscription. Saying no or asking them to take me off their call list does no good; they just keep calling.
Turns out the number back traces to the Crossfire Marketing Group, a third-party boiler room that does marketing for energy companies and newspapers.
Here's an interesting article on Crossfire Marketing, ironically from the McClatchy-Tribune Regional News: http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/oh/2009/18/articles/persistent_telemarketers_press_gas_contracts_and.html
And, more information and contact info for the Crossfire company officers, those fine corporate citizens:
www.crossfire1.com
Mickey Gross, CEO mgross@crossfire1.com 909-944-3617
Crossfire Marketing Group 9007 Arrow Route Suite 250 Rancho Cucamonga, CA. 91730 askusnow@crossfire1.com
Telephone: 877-887-8111 Fax: 909-483-0112
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White House Blames FOX News For Their Safe Schools Czar's Slimy Past that Includes Hiding Pedophilia From the Authorities (GatewayPundit)
Mmm... Mmm... Mmm...
White house Spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed FOX News for the latest White House scandal:
"Its a shame. I hope people watch what they (FOX News) do."
Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings praised the founder of NAMBLA Harry Hay and hid statutory rape from authorities.
The White House says FOX News is to blame.
Another Dismal (Newspaper) Circulation Report Is on the Way (Poynter Online)
The most recent six-month period for measuring newspaper circulation ended last Wednesday.
It takes a month or so to assemble the results, so watch for actual numbers around Halloween.
I'm sticking my neck out only a little in predicting they will be a veritable house of horrors.
Here's why this six-month period is likely be be even worse than the period ended March 31, which saw average losses of 7 percent daily and 5.3 percent Sunday compared to the same period in 2008:
This is the first six-month period likely to show the full effect of the recession on customers who have chosen to cancel subscriptions or buy the paper less frequently.
More people have lost their jobs (or are worried that they will) since the last reporting period, and there's no reason to expect a bounce-back in circulation before those people find new employment.
Many newspapers have raised their subscription and single-copy rates over the last year. In my view and that of other analysts, this is a healthy and necessary move to price the print product more realistically and wean papers away from a lopsided dependence on advertising.
Bloodbath at Conde Nast; 4 mags axed (New York Post)
Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said Monday he was shutting down four magazines, including the awarding winning Gourmet, parenthood title Cookie and two of the company’s bridal magazines, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride.
It was the biggest one-day bloodbath in the publishing company’s 100-year history.
Hundreds of people will be tossed out of work.
The company said it would keep the Gourmet cookbooks and television programming but shut the monthly magazine. Bride’s, the last surviving bridal book, will move to monthly from six times a year.
Industry sources had estimated that Conde Nast could lose $200 million this year.
Smoking gun E mail nails Democrats’ and GE “Pay to Play” scheme in Senate’s new Cap & Trade bill (The Collins Report)
This is an excerpt from a recently obtained internal E mail written by a gleeful GE executive.
“On climate change we were able to work closely with key authors of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives. If this bill is enacted into law it would benefit many GE businesses.”
“…benefit many GE businesses” becomes clearer by following the paper trail of “donations” from GEPAC the lobbying arm of General Electric Corporation.
GE/Democrat pay to play scheme Last year most of GEPAC’s contributions went to Democrats.
This year almost all of its cash bought Democrats. Over 24 months GEPAC “donated” 2.4 million dollars to Democrats. GEPAC greases every greedy Democrat they see.
In return the Democrats get Chris Matthews’ tingling leg and kid glove treatment from NBC news.
Under the “radar”
GE, however, got two huge payoffs that have gone under the radar thus far. Folded into the new version of the Cap and Trade bill is Section 821(c) which requires the EPA set new standards for greenhouse gas emissions for “new aircraft and new engines used in new aircraft” by December 12, 2012.
Stossel rips 'Obamacare,' media
(The times online)
MICHIGAN CITY | Broadcast journalist John Stossel wasted no time Sunday getting to the point as he opened the Sinai Forum at Elston Middle School in Michigan City.
..."A new bureaucracy was created but it didn't protect consumers," Stossel said.
He said he began to have a different mindset.
"I stopped seeing business as the problem and started seeing government as the problem," Stossel said.
In applying his thinking to health care, Stossel said "economic freedom," not "central planning," is what will make health care better in the United States.
"Government will make health care worse," he said. "It will be more expensive and we will have fewer choices. What makes a market work is when the individual pays for himself."
Stossel said President Barack Obama's "community rating" plan, which proposes all people pay the same for health care insurance, is "welfare."
Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill (CNSnews)
President Obama has spent some time in the past few months rebutting critics of the health care legislation being debated in Congress, and telling Americans what he insists it does or does not say about certain issues such as abortion and whether people will be able to keep their current health insurance plans.
But the president has only read “a decent part” of the legislation he is describing, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed yesterday.
When a reporter noted at Monday's press briefing that there had been some discussion on Capitol Hill about whether members of Congress would read the text of the health care bill before voting on it, and then asked Gibbs whether the president would read the bill himself before he signs it into law,
Gibbs said: “Well, I think he's read a decent part of the legislation that's been bandied around right now, and we should address this as with members of Congress when we have closer to a final piece of legislation.”
Ex-judge (Democrat)Herman Thomas on trial, accused of spanking inmates in underwear, sodomy and more (nydailynews.com)
He was once a revered judge, an African-American Democrat repeatedly elected in an Alabama county that was predominantly white and Republican.
But then came the scandal - and Herman Thomas' world turned upside down.
Thomas, former Alabama Circuit Court judge, stands accused of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations, AOL News reports. The trial starts on Monday.
The first charges against Thomas surfaced in 2001 when an inmate claimed that Thomas offered to help with the case in return for sex. Those charges were dismissed. But that wasn't nearly the end of it.
Inmates then began claiming that Thomas forced them to strip down to their underwear and then spanked them. Others claimed he forced them to perform sex acts.
French Govt: Free Newspapers For Young Adults! (Center For Media Research)
In France, in order to reverse the trend that, from one generation to the next, young people are less likely to read newspapers, free subscriptions (with strings) are being tried successfully.
According to the World Association of Newspapers' recent report on the French government's decision to give free, one-day-a-week newspaper subscriptions to every 18- to 24-year old in the country as a way to encourage newspaper reading and civic participation, the publishers say it works, though the free giveaway is not the only factor.
Wal-Mart Scales Back DVD Displays (WSJ)
A recent shift in merchandising strategy by the world's largest retailer spells more trouble for DVD sales and the entertainment industry that depends on them for profits.
As part of a larger effort to clean up its aisles and appeal to higher-end shoppers, Wal-Mart is doing away with display cases to promote the latest hot movie titles.
The move comes as major film studios are reeling from declines in revenue from DVD sales as cash-strapped consumers turn to low-cost rental services and digital downloads for home movies.
"We think the new strategy implies Wal-Mart no longer sees DVDs and Blu-ray discs as traffic drivers," J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan said.
Hollywood Studios In Midst Of Their Own Horror Show [Starring B. Hussein Obama!] LATimes
The recent firings and hirings of studio executives at Disney, Universal and elsewhere point to a widespread corporate panic amid sharp declines in DVD sales (As much as %25).
Marc Shmuger, David Linde out at Universal Pictures Rich Ross named chairman of Walt Disney Studios
By John Horn, Ben Fritz and Rachel Abramowitz October 6, 2009
Hollywood's biggest slasher story isn't playing at any theater near you.
It's hitting the industry's corporate suites, where the sacking of studio executives has reached epidemic level.
As evidenced by Disney's recent firing of its studio chief, Dick Cook, and Universal Pictures' dismissal Monday of chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Hollywood is in a state of panic-producing turmoil.
Video stores, union reps rally against buck-a-night DVD kiosks like Redbox Yahoo! (Tech News)
The $1 movie rentals available through DVD kiosks like Redbox could spell "disaster" for the film and video industries—or at least, that's the argument of representatives for video stores and Hollywood unions, who want movie lovers to dump Redbox and return to their corner "mom-and-pop" DVD rental outlets.
Video Business reports that the Video Buyers Group, a trade organization for some 1,700 independent brick-and-mortar video stores, is prepping an ad campaign that'll paint Redbox as a threat to the film industry as we know it.
Why? Because its $1-a-night rental rate is "generating less revenue" for Hollywood studios than the $3-$5/night prices charged by the average video store, according to Video Business.
Indeed, the New York Times quotes Video Buyers Group president Ted Engen as saying that "those machines"—think Redbox and its ilk—"are to the video industry what the Internet was to the music business—disaster."
Also on the attack against DVD kiosks: Gary Cook of UA Local 87, the union that represents movie studio plumbers: "It's going to kill the industry," Cook warned the Times.
U.S. Media Revenue Set for Historic 2009 Decline (Adage)
Just how tough has the media space become? The nation's top 100 media companies eked out 0.8% revenue growth in 2008 -- and the reported revenue for top media firms in the first half of this year fell 4.3% from a year ago, according to Ad Age's analysis.
So not only was last year's Media 100 revenue growth the lowest since 1991, this year it's on track to show the first decline since Ad Age began ranking top media firms in 1981.
Remarkably, 11 of last year's Media 100 firms have plunged into bankruptcy reorganization, overwhelmed in most cases by shrinking revenue and debt loads taken on during the blind optimism of the boom. Print media dominate the bankruptcy list: six newspaper companies, two magazine publishers and two yellow-pages publishers.
That points to the momentum going toward digital-media firms, right? Not so fast.
[Snip]
If you factor out cable systems/satellite TV, Media 100 revenue in 2008 shows a decline of 2.2%. Numbers in 2009 are far worse:
Reported revenue for major media companies through the first half of 2009, excluding cable systems/satellite TV, was down 8.3%from a year ago, according to the Ad Age DataCenter.
[Snip]
Sector performance varies widely in the Media 100. The biggest losers are no surprise:
newspapers, where revenue plunged 13.5% in 2008. Magazines did better, with revenue falling 6.9%. Revenue for broadcast TV (including networks and local stations) dropped 4.6%.
How to sell news on the web: A checklist (Newsosaur) [McClacthy, don’t read, and charge big bucks for web access so you can file Chapter 11 sooner!]
Publishers groping with the question of when, whether and how to charge for interactive content often raise the issue of what they could sell, if indeed they ever decided to try. Here’s a quick checklist to see if you are ready:
1. You cannot charge for such commoditized content as world, national, business, sports and entertainment news. (Translation: McClatchy’s daily DNC talking points and AP cut and paste drivel)
2. You might be able to charge for local coverage, if it is sufficiently intensive, comprehensive and exclusive to make to make it required reading for residents of the targeted community. (McClatchy: pimping for local democrats and tax increases for fellow travelling Marxists is not what the article is talking about)
3. In the business-to-business realm, you probably can charge users for exclusive information that helps them make money, avoid losing money or, ideally, both at the same time. (No one believes McCclatchy is pro business...see Sacramento Bee’s market penetration statistics and consult Melonee Sill)
4. You probably can charge consumers for two things: (a) exclusive entertainment content and (b) authoritative information that helps them hang on to more of their money. (This does not mean Sunday Coupons, or being the first Pravda style paper to print DNC talking points or stories that would make only I.P. Stone, oh so very proud)
Astute readers will note that much of the information publishers would like to sell does not fall into any of the above categories.
This suggests that newspapers and broadcasters who are keen on peddling content need to focus on creating saleable product before they begin trying to charge for it. (Ruh-Ro)
snip
The opportunity seems to be bigger for B2B than B2C content, but operators of the websites of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times already knew that. (2x Ruh-ro)
Top execs pushed out at Universal Pictures (Marketwatch.com)
The chairman of Universal Pictures Marc Shmuger and David Linde, have been ousted from the studio, in the latest sign that parent General Electric Co. has tired of disappointing results at much of its NBC Universal entertainment arm.
snip
The year has been marked by a number of duds for Universal, including "Land of the Lost" starring Will Ferrell, a remake of the 1970s television show for youngsters, and "Funny People" starring Adam Sandler. "Land Of the Lost" took in just $49.2 million domestically, while "Funny People" scraped up $51.9 million.
A weak theatrical slate usually means lackluster home-video sales in the coming months. This is a period in which DVD sales are sliding in general, so a lack of good buzz going into the video cycle is a particularly bad sign
Obama distractions sideline Afghan plan (Too busy golfing and playing for life and death issues) Wash Times
The president was vacationing in Martha's Vineyard on Aug. 30 when Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sent Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates a war assessment in which he said more U.S. troops - and a new U.S. strategy - are urgently needed to defeat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama promptly went to Camp David for a five-day vacation (he's talked to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan just once since Gen. McChrystal urged swift action). Forty-three U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan in the past 30 days.
In the past month, the president has found the time to play golf - four times. He's had links legend Arnold Palmer and other top golfers over to the White House.
He's shot some hoops with friends and yukked it up with hockey's Pittsburgh Penguins.
He's celebrated Ramadan at the White House, eulogized newsman Walter Cronkite in New York City, attended several fundraisers (including Thursday afternoon's luncheon), appeared on David Letterman's late-night show (one of eight interviews), delivered two speeches to AFL-CIO rallies and dropped by the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial for a visit with his wife and daughters.
George Will: Obama Went to Copenhagen to Speak About Himself
On Sunday, ABC's George Will uttered an inconvenient truth about Barack Obama that his adoring media have been ignoring since he first threw his hat into the presidential ring in February 2007: his rhetoric is filled with constant references to himself.
To prove the point on the most recent installment of "This Week," Will counted the number of times Mr. and Mrs. Obama used the words "I" and "me" during their speeches in Copenhagen Friday.
The numbers are shocking making it likely in Will's view that the word "vain" is going to eventually attach itself to Obama
What's alarming is whether it indicates a belief on the part of the President which is that there is no problem that will not melt before the sunshine of his charm.
And this is evidence again that it's not so. The President and First Lady went to Copenhagen and gave little speeches about themselves.
She, Mrs. Obama, used the first-person singular pronoun in some form or another, "I" or "me", sixteen, 34 times in sixteen paragraphs. He used it 23 times in thirteen paragraphs.
It was all about them, and the danger is an adjective sooner or later attaches to presidents.
OBAMA -- THE HERO OF COPENHAGEN
boblonsberry.com
...The Japanese guy talked about Japan. The Spanish guy talked about Spain. The Brazilian guy talked about Brazil. Obama talked about himself. After his wife talked about herself.
Between the two of them, they used up a decade’s worth of “I” and “me.” For variety, they switched into “mine” and “myself.”
Their messages to the International Olympic Committee were narcissistically adolescent.
Print out their remarks, circle the first-person pronouns in red, connect them with red lines, and you’ll have a diagram of DNA.
It was as if they thought they were taping a segment of “Entertainment Tonight.”
Some delegations brought substance, ours brought star power. Show up, shake a few hands, sign a few 8-by-10 glossies, pose for some pictures, tell a personal anecdote, thank everyone for supporting ACORN, get back on the jet.
It would have been the Entitlement Olympics. Instead of “Higher, Farther, Faster” the motto would be “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.”
And you could see that in the faces of the crowds gathered in Chicago. When word came that Obama-nation had been eliminated in the first round, you saw not disappointment, but disbelief.
They were incredulous. For the first time in life, the silver platter was bare.
It was as unbelievable and unexpected as a bouncing welfare check.
Dammit, we had a right to those Olympics. Didn’t we chant “Yes we can!” enough? Didn’t we denounce the Bush years enough? Doesn’t the IOC know that this is our generation?
Are they a bunch of racists?
Didn’t they care about Michelle’s dad?
That was her pitch. Show up in expensive clothes, glad hand everybody, and talk about herself.
She stood before the IOC and gave her talk from last year’s Democratic National Convention.
She talked about the hard times in whatever side of Chicago she’s from, how her dad worked every day and, sadly, came down with a degenerative disease.
Then she asked them to join her dream by putting the Olympics in his neighborhood.
1. I’m sorry about your father. 2. That’s your best shot?
Paper Bag 1, Obama 0 (American Spectator)
Can Barack Obama argue his way out of a paper bag?
That's the question eminences of his party will be milling after his defeat Friday at the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen.
Obama put his worldwide popularity and the full weight of the office of the presidency of the United States behind Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
He surprised the world by losing on the first round of balloting. That hurt his credibility at a time when he could least afford it.
[Snip]
It will be hard to distract from this traumatic loss for a president who was touted for his ability to convince people of things.
He got lily-white Iowans to vote for him over a party favorite. He managed to nimbly sidestep the Jeremiah Wright debacle. Here was an antiwar candidate who convinced voters to trust him on economic matters.
Obama's past successes only makes his stumbles now more puzzling.
The inarticulate George W. Bush convinced Congress to cut taxes and launch two wars. Professor Obama is having a much harder time of it. He was getting knocked around on the world stage before Friday and his domestic agenda is in deep trouble.
The president is struggling to deliver on the legislative priorities of organized labor or environmental groups. The more he speechifies in favor of health care reform -- in stage-managed town hall meetings, on Sunday morning talk shows, before a joint session of Congress -- the further it slips from his grasp.
[Snip]
Does anybody seriously doubt that Mitt Romney, Obama's most likely Republican challenger in 2012, would have failed to bring the Games home?
They are spinning this because they know the media will soon be talking about the LIAR MICHELLE.
Michelle said that she sat on her dad’s lap rooting for Nadia, Olga
and Carl Lewis.
Carl Lewis is obviously black and was her “race card”...she needed to play...
BEST part...Michelle would have been 20 years old sitting on her daddy’s lap.
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says (NOLA.com)
An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Caldwell.
The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds."
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Lewis said the new accusation about the embezzlement is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have a chance to review the subpoena.
Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to Acorn International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books.
Those subpoenas were focused on possible Acorn violations of state employee tax law, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act.
The AG had made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.
But Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the alleged embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue.
SNIP
"Current high ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million," the new subpoena says.
Acorn Woes Hit Union, Democrats (WSJ)
Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states are facing pressure from Republicans to distance themselves from the Service Employees International Union as a result of its ties to Acorn.
Republicans in Kansas, Virginia and Illinois in recent weeks have called on union-backed Democrats to return SEIU campaign contributions, citing the close connection between the union and the community organizing group, whose full name is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Acorn has been under fire in the past month after secretly recorded videos showed Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants. Acorn has called the actions unacceptable and has fired the workers involved.
Chrysler to Suspend Jeep Production (GubMint Motors)online.wsj.com
DETROIT -- Chrysler Group LLC will suspend production of its popular Jeep Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited vehicles due to a shortage in parts from an unidentified supplier.
Chrysler will idle its Toledo Supplier Park facility in Ohio for one week starting Monday, the company said Friday without disclosing more details.
Clunkers in Practice (WSJ)
One of Washington's all-time dumb ideas.
Remember "cash for clunkers," the program that subsidized Americans to the tune of nearly $3 billion to buy a new car and destroy an old one?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared in August that, "This is the one stimulus program that seems to be working better than just about any other program."
If that's true, heaven help the other programs. Last week U.S. automakers reported that new car sales for September, the first month since the clunker program expired, sank by 25% from a year earlier.
Sales at GM and Chrysler fell by 45% and 42%, respectively. Ford was down about 5%. Some 700,000 cars were sold in the summer under the program as buyers received up to $4,500 to buy a new car they would probably have purchased anyway, so all the program seems to have done is steal those sales from the future. Exactly as critics predicted.
NAACP Spearheads Voter Drive in Prisons (news max)
PORTLAND, Maine -- Inmates at Maine's prisons have been busy registering to vote.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says it registered an estimated 200 or more inmates last week.
The NAACP says the effort is the first time there's been a systemwide initiative to register inmates across an entire state. Maine is one of two states that allows felons to vote while in prison. Vermont is the other.
Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the NAACP chapter in Portland, says the organization will lead another registration drive next summer at county jails, as well as state prisons.
White House's botched 'op' (New York Post)
WASHINGTON -- President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet -- and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message.
In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.
A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress.
OOPS! A crowd of 150 doctors gathers in the Rose Garden to support the health-care overhaul -- as White House staffers scramble to hand out camera-ready white coats to those who forgot their own.
The physicians, all invited guests, were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image.
But some docs apparently forgot, failing to meet the White House dress code by showing up in business suits or dresses.
So the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area...
Chrysler 'May Not Make It Another Year'
In early July, following the very first month after Chrysler LLC emerged from bankruptcy, the Associated Press, in an unbylined report about changes in the company's board, saved this little nugget for the last of its eight paragraphs:
Chrysler's poor June performance also casts doubt on whether the U.S. government's $7 billion allocation will be enough to get the automaker through the U.S. sales slump, which is projected to last into next year.
Those doubts are growing. In a report on Chrysler's just-announced management shakeup, AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin began their report by ringing the alarm:
With sales down sharply and pressure to start generating cash before government loans run out, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne shook up his executive team Monday, replacing two of his brand managers after just four months and splitting Dodge into car and truck units.
"Don't tug on Superman's cape,
it makes him deaf."
"McChrystal 'isolated' after speaking out on troop plan
Note to General: Don't tug on Superman's cape,
it makes him deaf."
From the clever Lucianne staff
Obama is radical, that is why he surrounds himself with radicals.
==
Obama Administration Defiantly
Defends Another Radical Appointee
Creators Syndicate Inc.
by David Limbaugh
I continue to be amazed at the naiveté of people who keep giving President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt concerning his radical appointments, saying his administration isn't doing its job in vetting the appointees. When will they wake up to the reality that Obama is deliberately picking people, such as Kevin Jennings, who share his radical values? (Snip) '';Had they vetted Obama, they would have realized that he is Van Jones.''
More sleaze please, Letterman isn't telling the whole story?? Why would that surprise anyone?
=====
Lawyer for Letterman's accused
blackmailer Joe Halderman says
Dave's not telling 'full story'
New York Daily News
Richard Huff & Corky Siemaszko
If CBS producer Robert (Joe) Halderman intended to blackmail David Letterman about the funnyman's sex life, he would have demanded cash, his lawyer said yesterday."Here's a guy who is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, who has dealt with cops and wiretaps and undercover investigations virtually his entire life," defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said of Halderman on CBS' "Early Show," one of the morning shows he hit. "There was a $2...
Rumor has it, “The ‘Debt President’ usually chooses his czars from his parole board rolodex, and leaves the vetting to ACORN. However, this time Mickey Mouse was a close runner-up for the Safe Schools Czar job. Mickey Singing, ‘It’s a small world after all’, mmm, mmm, mmm, impressed the Bam, but the old men singing, ‘Young Blood’, well, Kevin Jennings brought home the gold with his clever use of a choir wearing ankle monitors.
"Today's BlogTruth: Michelle Malkin - out o' the park
The $5 million ACORN embezzlement figure is not new — and the NYT knows it"
The Buck Passes Here
National Review Online
by Victor Davis Hanson
Meet the Obama whiners. “They did it” is the new administration’s credo when things go wrong. Most often, the culprit for disappointment in Obama’s hope-and-change agenda remains George W. Bush — a sort of modern-day fallen angel Azael, whose wickedness is persistent and omnipresent. Nine months after his departure, the former president insidiously still has his hand in almost everything that seems to plague Barack Obama’s utopian plans.
“George did it, George did it,” is getting way past tiresome. Obama needs to man up. He is acting like a whiney brat that didn’t get his nappy. Can we say nappy?
Bill O'Reilly has been nailing GE for a long time. The fringe media would not cover the story. They spent their time trying to destroy O'Reilly instead of digging for the truth.
Who would have thought CNN fact checks anything?
-
CNN Fact Checks Last
Saturday's SNL Obama-Razzing Skit
NewsBusters
by Kathleen McKinley
Can one even imagine CNN fact checking any of the skits SNL on President Bush or Sarah Palin?? Heaven forbid SNL finally make fun of President Obama. CNN couldn't help themselves. They actually fact checked the jokes.
Obama blows Olympic bid - maybe the IOC doesn’t understand Affirmative Action?
CNN has snits over skits now, but gleefully attributed jokes by Tina Fey as actual quotes from Sarah Palin. Those jokes were repeated by the MSM as fact. That sort of drumbeat/echo of dishonest quotes was as bad as yellow journalism gets, IMHO.
Editor & Publisher has a gushing story about how many married couples work in the Sac Bee newsroom - 10 percent of the total staff. It didn't go unnoticed during the rounds of layoffs - none of these suck-up drones were on the hit list and many of them are managers. The staff jokes about it as "job security."
The truth is, the IOC were not impressed with Pee Wee, or his Sasquatch wife, and that’s a wrap to the Olympic $$$$$ escapade paid for by the little people. This Hopey-Changey stuff is getting on my nerves.
Maybe if Michelle told the IOC that she was sitting on Roman Polanski's lap watching Carl Lewis run, they would have believed her.
Whine, whine, whine, “Anti-Americanism.” The Democrats and the liberal press tried to blame President Bush for one of their Olympic failure excuses, but anyone that has traveled to Europe knows the EU has heaped scorn on US tourists for decades, literally decades. The countries that used to be run by liberals had a liberal press to further their socialism, and anti-American propaganda. Now a new wind blows in Europe. The snake oil salesman is not easily selling snake oil to an awakened people. Obama was dissed in Europe, only the media decided it was not important enough to report to US citizens.
Re: "married couples work in the Sac Bee newsroom" - Even Rhonda Lokeman had the sense to leave the KC Red Scar to avoid nepotism complaints. Married couples in the same workplace causes fairness suspicion among employees, and is troublesome on many levels, from my observations.
Anony 12:22: I'm thinking Human Resources 101 may say either keep both of the married couple or layoff both. If you keep one and layoff the other, HR and the newsroom bosses have an instant morale problem on staff. It's very unfair to non-marrieds in the Sac Bee newsroom.
Sacramento Bee used to have a strict no married couples in the newsroom policy to avoid the obvious conflicts of interests and charges of unfair treatment. Not sure why they ever abandoned that policy.
Here's the solution to SacBee married couples in the newsroom: layoff one of each couple. Problem solved, budget gets balanced, morale takes a big spike upward. The retained half of the couples gets pissed and quits. Now they've got the low body count they want for online only.
Obama acted haughtily to every European Head of State. The EU liberal media wants the people there to idolize Obama, but the people are seeing through his line of bullshit, perhaps more so than USA citizens. As European countries toss out socialism, so goes their liberal media, just as it is happening in the US. The biased fringe media selected news they wanted known, but the internet will leave scandals no place to hide.
Obama is showing the amateur that he is and the public's trust has evaporated. Too bad, he did sound credible in the beginning but then so did Jimmy Carter.
The obvious question about the married Sac Bee employees is, does one spouse oversee the other? That is a no, no, but even still, the layoffs should not have a hint that married couples were somehow rewarded for being a twosome. Which also brings to mind, if one spouse was laid off, the other might be unhappy about that, and damage morale even more. As stated before, this couple thing is troubling on many levels.
Speaking of the Sac Bee, how is Melanie Sill hanging in there? How she got her job in the first place is a wonder, but how she keeps it, is an even bigger wonder to me.
There was zero talent to promote inside, so Sill got the job. She's still got it because there's still no talent to replace her - in the entire chain. McClatchy really needs to go outside newspaper newsrooms and bring in a modern thinker who can move these relics into the future.
I've been getting up to four phone calls a days since the weekend from Las Vegas number (702) 553-0512 - guy says he's calling from the Tri-City Herald (WA) promotions department and tries to get me to sign up for a subscription. Saying no or asking them to take me off their call list does no good; they just keep calling.
Turns out the number back traces to the Crossfire Marketing Group, a third-party boiler room that does marketing for energy companies and newspapers.
Here's an interesting article on Crossfire Marketing, ironically from the McClatchy-Tribune Regional News: http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/oh/2009/18/articles/persistent_telemarketers_press_gas_contracts_and.html
And, more information and contact info for the Crossfire company officers, those fine corporate citizens:
www.crossfire1.com
Mickey Gross, CEO mgross@crossfire1.com
909-944-3617
Crossfire Marketing Group
9007 Arrow Route Suite 250
Rancho Cucamonga, CA. 91730
askusnow@crossfire1.com
Telephone: 877-887-8111
Fax: 909-483-0112
John Sheppard - jsheppard@crossfire1.com Crossfire Newspaper Group, Inc.
1300 Weathervane Ln #326
Akron, OH 44313
888-279-9414
330-836-1552
330-835-5850
Cellphone: 330-289-1277
Crossfire1.com is registered to:
JONES BOYS
jbup01@aol.com
9087 Arrow Route Suite 140
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
909-944-5180
Crossfiremarketinggroup.com is registered to:
mickey@jones-boys.com
yourcallcenterservice.net is registered to:
Quadrant - In Touch Marketing
Anatola Cefail subscriptions@itmgservices.net
727-736-1458
Fax: 727-736-1507
1940 Rainbow Dr.
Clearwater, FL 33765
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