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.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday November 13 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
27 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Layoffs at Newsweek (Politico.com)
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham informed staff today that about a dozen positions would be eliminated due to the "economic climate in publishing."
Meacham, in a memo obtained by POLITICO, noted that the magazine has taken a different direction this year, and despite the layoffs claimed that it "continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers."
Full memo from Meacham after the jump.
To the Staff From Jon Meacham
This has been a tough day for the magazine. Because the economic climate in publishing has become ever more difficult, we have been compelled by business considerations to eliminate about a dozen positions.
We are parting company with colleagues who have done much to serve the magazine and its readers. As much as we would like it to be otherwise, market conditions mean that we are going to have to do our work with fewer people.
I have no spin to offer. I will say this, though: our new magazine and website have been well received by readers.
The different direction we undertook earlier this year continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers while we, like so many other organizations, seek new sources of revenue in order to fulfill our mission.
Our situation is not unique. But we will keep working as hard as we can to find solutions that are. In the meantime, thanks to you all for the work you have done and will do. To those who are leaving, we will miss you, and we wish you the very best.
All they need are three staff members. One to rewrite the Obama administration/Media Matters/Center for American Progress handouts. One to proof reader and one to decide what handout to publish.
Newsweek has been in a Communist propaganda death spiral since at least the first Clinton campaign.
I canceled my subscription when Eleanor Clift and the other usual suspects came out of the closet back then.
Meacham's bias is mind-boggling, along with that of staffers like Joke Klein, Jonathan Alter-Reality, etc.
New York Times News Service To Cut Jobs and Relocate (to NON-union shop) ny times| (So they don’t hate capitalism?)
The New York Times News Service will lay off at least 25 editorial employees next year and will move the editing of the service to a Florida newspaper owned by The New York Times Company, the newspaper and the Newspaper Guild said Thursday...
The plan for the news service calls for The Gainesville Sun, whose newsroom is not unionized and has lower salaries, to take over editing and page design. Ms. McNulty said new jobs would be created at The Sun to handle the work.
Seven months later: What's happened to Seattle P-I Journalists (safetynetseattle.blogspot) Almost 25,000 print journalists have lost their jobs in the last 12months.
In March, Hearst closed the 146-year-old Post-Intelligencer newspaper and dumped 140 of us onto the street in the depths of the recession.
Instead of filing stories, we filed for unemployment. Instead of interviewing politicians, we took classes in How to Interview for a Job. Instead of rushing to cover the next story, we became the story.
Almost 25,000 print journalists have lost their jobs in the last 12months. Reporters who kept an eye on those with power and money. Who showed up at school board meetings and city council hearings. Who filed public disclosure requests and wrote stories about uncomfortable truths. Losing our jobs -- and for many us our careers -- isn’t just personal.
The public is losing too.(How so?) Here’s what I found by surveying my former P-I colleagues recently. Seventy-one of the 140 who lost their jobs responded:
• 23 have new fulltime jobs for an employer, half working in journalism and the rest in corporate or nonprofit communications, business, etc.
• 3 are working part-time for an employer and 6 started their own businesses
• 18 are freelancing (blogs, photography) or working on journalism start-ups (Post-Globe, InvestigateWest) and collecting unemployment
• 14 are in school, including 10 who are also on unemployment. Studies include education, web design, marketing, paralegal, art
• 4 said a combination of unemployment/jobhunting/parenting while two retired and one has a journalism fellowship These statistics do not include the 18 or so former P-I staff working at the online Seattle P-I.
Moor: Newspapers Not Evolving Enough for Digital Demand (Editor and Publisher)
NEW YORK Anthony Moor, who is leaving his post as top Web editor at the Dallas Morning News to head Yahoo's local news division, said part of the reason for the change is that newspaper online sites are not utilizing the growing medium quickly enough.
"I have wanted to work for a forward-leaning digital company for a long time," said Moor, who has been deputy managing editor/digital for two years at the News. "Part of this is recognition that newspapers have limited resources, they are saddled with legitimate legacy businesses that they have to focus on first. I am a digital guy and the digital world is evolving rapidly. I don't want to have to wait for the traditional news industry to catch up."
Moor will take the position of lead local editor at Yahoo's Sunnyvale, Ca. location south of San Francisco. Moor, who has previously run Web sites at the Orlando Sentinel and The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., spent 12 years in San Francisco as a television news reporter.
"They have asked me to build a network of local editors to upgrade and improve the local content experience for Yahoo front page users," Moor, 49, said of his new bosses. "This is the number one Web site in the world. The reason I got into the business was to help chart the development of digital news and Yahoo is doing that."
Moor, who will stay in Dallas until Thanksgiving, plans
Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use (Alertnet.org) (Miami Herald deeply saddened)
Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
* Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
* Most other economic activities to be reduced
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt "extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union.
In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine.
Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year.
"The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers.
"Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population," according to another distributed by the light industry sector.
Dems Do the Impossible: US Unemployment Rate Now Tops Europe
OpenMarket.org reported today that the US unemployment rate has finally topped Europe.
Unemployment is now higher in the U.S. than in Europe, reports the Washington Post.
“The official U.S. unemployment rate, reported last Friday, now stands at 10.2 percent,” compared to “9.7 percent” in Europe. This is the highest rate in more than 26years, and marks a huge change from the recent past, in which unemployment was double the American rate in much of Europe.
Unemployment is at 10 percent in France, which refused to adopt a U.S.-style stimulus package, and only 7.6 percent in Germany, which adopted a stimulus package that was smaller relative to its economy than ours was. (Countries that refused to adopt big stimulus packages have fared better than those that imitated President Obama. And the biggest-spending countries have suffered worst in the recession.)
A “broader measure of U.S. unemployment,” including discouraged workers, puts U.S. unemployment at 17.5 percent, reports the New York Times.
As the Post notes, “For many on the left, the lament for years has been: Why can’t America be more like Europe? Why can’t rustic Americans be more like sophisticated Europeans?
The sentiment has resurfaced in recent months as the health-care debate has raged on — why can’t the American health-care system be more like Europe’s?”
Well, America is now more like Europe when it comes to unemployment. But not when it comes to social benefits and protections. The American Left knows how to import Europe’s failures, but not its successes.
But, don’t for one minute think that this bunch is through destroying the economy...
The dems still have their health care bill and cap-and-tax legislation to ram through Congress.
Pelosi On Jailtime For Those Who Refuse to Buy Obamacare:
“The Legislation Is Very Fair In This Respect” (GatewayPundit)
Speaker Pelosi was confronted by a local reporter on the legality of jailing Obamacare evaders during a presss conference in Seattle: Here is part of the exchange:
KOMO News reporter Shomari Stone: Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail who don’t buy health insurance?
Pelosi:...The legislation is very fair in this respect.
From the video: According to Committee On Ways & Means Republicans Ranking Member, Dave Camp, “the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.
The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bills new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.”
Thousands of family doctors 'being paid not to give out antibiotics' (The Telegraph U.K.)
Around half of all health care trusts are running incentive schemes to reduce the number of the drugs prescribed, with many of them set up in the last 12 months.
The figures were released just days after GPs were told to stop handing out so many antibiotics for coughs and colds, for which they are useless.
But doctors questioned whether they should receive a bonus for good practice, which many consider an essential part of their jobs.
Others warned that the incentive could skew medical priorities and leave some patients without the drugs they need.
NY Times Whitewashes Columbia Professor's Racial Assault (JamieWearingFool)
Only the New York Times could manage to avoid the obvious when reporting on the assault charges against Columbia professor Lionel McIntyre.
Yes, they actually mention deep in the story that McIntyre like to engage in "race" discussions, but why do they avoid mentioning the fact McIntyre is black and he beat up a white woman?
A Columbia University professor has been charged with assault and harassment after an another Columbia employee accused him of punching her in the eye at a Morningside Heights bar Friday night.
The professor, Lionel McIntyre, 59, was arrested on Monday, three days after the confrontation. According to a police report, Professor McIntyre and Camille Davis, a theater production manager in the university’s School of the Arts, were having a discussion that “escalated in a verbal dispute,” and Mr. McIntyre punched Ms. Davis in the eye.
The encounter happened in Toast, a popular, noisy bar and restaurant on Broadway north of campus, where the chatter often runs to current events and politics. Professor McIntyre liked to engage fellow patrons on the subject of race, according to one regular customer, Daniel Morgan, who considers himself a close acquaintance of both Professor McIntyre and Ms. Davis.
A Columbia spokesman, Robert Hornsby, declined to say whether Professor McIntyre was suspended. “The university is not offering any comment,” he said. That's it. No mention of the race of the suspect or the victim.
Do you suppose if a white Columbia professor punched out a black woman the race would not be mentioned?
What happened to "All the news that's fit to print"? Has it become "all the news that's fit to print unless it makes liberals look bad"?
Over at Inside Higher Ed, they also studiously avoid mentioning the race of the perp and victim.
Again, let's consider if the roles were reversed:
You suppose there would be more coverage given to the story that what we can locate? Apparently this "hate crime" didn't manage to make it onto any New York television broadcasts and racial healer Al Sharpton hasn't weighed in.
There haven't been any offers from the White House to host a beer summit, so I guess McIntyre isn't buddies with the president.
But know this much: If the roles were reversed there would be saturation coverage of this story nationwide and the perpetrator would have already been fired and charged with a hate crime. Don't you just love double standards?
Perry County Alabama: a perfect Democrat plantation celebrates Obama Election Day with voter fraud (The Collins Report )
Perry is one of Alabama’s poorest counties, yet the Black run local government has added Barack Obama Day as its FIFTEENTH paid holiday.
It’s always party time in Perry where workers get an extra three weeks off.
The event is actually a five day celebration of gratitude to the hero who would “change” their lives.
No touch with reality Perry’s 11,000 residents have suffered miserably under Obama. They can lie to themselves about “Hope and Change” but they’re still hoping for change to arrive.
While America has a 10.2% unemployment rate, Perry’s is 18%. It has lost 6% of its jobs recently.
A “People’s Paradise” ready for voter fraud. A voter fraud investigation by Alabama’s Attorney General developed allegations that absentee ballots were being sold for $40.00 each.
Perry is at the center the probe. In a June 2008 Democrat primary the statewide turnout was 16%. Perry’s turnout was 50% which was amazing considering 25% of the county is under 18. One quarter of Perry’s votes were absentee ballots. The phrase “voter fraud” comes to mind.
Can anyone argue that all of this is not connected? Perry County is a classic Democrat plantation. There is no hope and certainly no change in Perry.
Obama & Google (a love story) Obama relies on Google execs for tech and economic advice (money.cnn)
Obama and his team have done little to disguise their mistrust of big business -- except when it comes to one very large, very influential technology company.
Google executives, led by CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are scary smart and supremely self-confident (much like the President himself), and despite their company's growing power, they depict themselves as advocates for consumers.
"What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down," Obama told Google employees during a 2007visit to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
U.S. Posts $176.36 Billion Deficit for October (2.112 Trillion Annualized)(Online.wsj.com)
WASHINGTON -- The federal government kicked off fiscal year 2010 by posting its widest-ever October budget deficit, the Treasury Department said Thursday.
The $176.36 billion gap is more than $20 billion wider than the shortfall recorded in October 2008, driven up by lower tax receipts, stimulus-related revenue reductions and consistently high government outlays.
Treasury's monthly budget statement shows receipts were $135.33 billion in October, down 18% from a year earlier and at the lowest level since October 2002. Meanwhile, outlays were $311.69 billion, down 3% from a year earlier and at their second-highest monthly level on record.
So the US government spent 2.3 times what it took in. How many months could your family do that? Right. Try never. This is a runaway freight train and we’ve got to pull the brakes on this beast!
An internal memo from the Republican staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee claims that ACORN has serious financial problems and may be “ready to file for bankruptcy.”
But ACORN officials are dismissing the memo as a partisan slap, asserting that the housing and community organizing group remains fully operational.
Brian Kettenring, the Deputy Director of National Operations for ACORN, says the bankruptcy claims by Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the committee, are inaccurate.
Ratner Family Ties: ACORN and Justice Department Plot Thickens (Big Government)
Following the courageous expose by two young investigative journalists released on the pages of this very blog, there were widespread calls for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the criminal enterprise that is ACORN.
One would think there would be swift, decisive action from the administration that promised to be the most transparent in history.
Despite the urging of some in congress and action on the regional level, and an internal investigation into funding, terrorist sympathizer U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee a criminal investigation of ACORN.
There’s no evidence that any internal investigation is ongoing or making any progress since a 2008request from Indiana’s Secretary of State.
Instead, President Obama’s political arm is attempting to dismiss it as a “fear campaign” while ACORN insinuates that it is racist. Yes, they are still playing that card.
More of the article:
What’s Holder’s hold-up? One major factor of course is that ACORN serves as a taxpayer-funded Democrat army.
As with unions, it behooves Democrats to ignore corruption amongst the ranks of the powerful forces that elect them.
What appears on the surface to be mere political payback for a job well done is in fact much more insidious. One family’s involvement with ACORN and the Obama administration is of particular interest and elucidates the complicated web of connections and cash behind ACORN and this President.
Meet the Ratners.
Bruce Ratner is a New York real estate developer who has given thousands of dollars to Democrats including President Obama. His philanthropy also includes having bailed out ACORN with $1.5 million to pay off their embezzlement debt, a decision he stands by despite ACORN’s recent prostitution scandal and a Congressional report detailing the systemic criminal elements in the organization.
CNN to Lou Dobbs: Don't Let the Door Hit You....(NewsRealBlog.com)
Lou Dobbs's departure from CNN has turned into a cause for celebration -- at CNN. Network president Jonathan Klein dismissively called Lou's program "advocacy journalism" in an otherwise respectful tribute.
But Politico.com quotes an anonymous network source: "I think it's safe to say that he won't be missed among the rank-and-file employees at the network," said a CNN staffer.
"The Dobbs show has existed in its own little universe for the last several years, in many ways cut off from the rest of the editorial process at CNN. Most people will be left wondering what this means for the primetime lineup and whether Klein can now deliver on his 'down the middle' mantra."
"Down the middle"? Presumably, Anderson Cooper is now free to slander tea party protesters as perverts, while Wolf Blitzer's team investigates Saturday Night Live skits (wrongly) with no counterpart to the Right.
Or the center. CNN viewers will not forget that network allowed (or encouraged?) Susan Roesgen to antagonize tea party protesters on camera, gave Christiane Amanpour six hours to compare Rev. John Hagee to Osama bin Laden, and broadcast Soledad O'Brien asking if President Bush was "slow to respond" to Hurricane Katrina because "pictures of mostly black people were on TV" -- among a litany of other, daily left-wing outrages.
The bloom was off CNN's "unbiased" rose long ago. This video illustrates the bias of CNN's reporters when they're not on the air....
Need a job? McDonald's has an opening at Guantanamo (From McClatchy's very own Carol “would you like a hot poker up your ass” Rosenberg.)
Out of work and willing to relocate? McDonald's is advertising for an assistant manager for its sole franchise in Cuba — serving up burgers and fries that sometimes feed detainees at the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay.
The help wanted ad popped up recently at the McVirginia.com careers Web site featuring the Golden Arches, a headline "Find a Career @ McDonald's" and this enticement: "Enjoy the perks."
It didn't specify salary but said, "Candidates must have restaurant management experience, possess a valid United States passport and be willing to relocate to Cuba."
Other incentives include half your rent paid and, potentially, tax-free status for year-round residents.
Porkulus job numbers “wildly exaggerated” Boston Globe ? (Hot Air)
And yes, that’s a direct quote from the Boston Globe’s news section, not an editorial — and frankly, I’m not sure which would have been more surprising.
It seems that the brush with death on Morrissey Boulevard has sharpened the objectivity of the Globe, which is still owned by the New York Times, at least enough to add Massachusetts to the states discovering that the Obama administration’s claims of jobs “saved or created” are fraudulent:
While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated.
Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
That lead has appeared in almost that exact form in every newspaper that has bothered to check on Obama’s numbers.
Associated Press Says Obama Presidency Has Caused "Malaise" (Welcome Back Carter)
With a choice of words that will surely drive Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod to apoplectic profanity, the Associated Press writes tonight that their boss, President Barack Obama, is foundering in the latest AP-GfK Poll and uses the dreaded Carter era term "malaise" to describe the public's mood.
The AP lede tells the story: "The euphoria of 2008 is over: America is in a funk. Elected last November on a wave of optimism, President Barack Obama now finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country...perhaps most striking for this novice commander in chief, more people have lost confidence in Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last month.
Overall, there's a public malaise about the state of the nation. While Obama's approval rating is 54%, that marks a twenty point drop since he assumed office in January.
More important, the percentage of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track is up five points from last month to a solid majority of 56%.
Obama is also steadily losing support for his handling of the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan. With official unemployment at 10.2%and no improvement in sight going in to the holiday season, the federal budget blown out and Obama seen as incapable of making a command decision on Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter era cardigan sweaters may make a fashion comeback at the Obama White House. Wait, they already have thanks to Michelle Obama.
Apple's Rejection of iPhone App Showing Political Caricatures Rankles Creator (Fox News)
A conservative filmmaker in Hollywood thought he had developed a worthwhile iPhone app: a telephone directory listing every U.S. senator and congressman, with caricatures of the legislators drawn by an artist.
But Apple apparently didn't see the value, and the computer behemoth said a cartoon drawing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was part of the reason why.
The filmmaker, Ray Griggs, told FoxNews.com that his small firm, RG Entertainment, received a rejection letter from Apple this week calling the caricatures "objectionable."
He added that he has received several e-mails suggesting that Apple stock owned by Pelosi's husband may have played a factor in the decision.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, when questioned about the application, said "this is the first I’ve heard of this." He declined to comment further.
Apple didn't return repeated phone calls and e-mails seeking comment for this story. RG has developed other apps for the iPhone that Apple has accepted.
Today I received a phone call from my friend, Gary H., who said that ACORN was staging a protest outside the Fox News studios in West Los Angeles. I called someone at the Fox News bureau to find out that there were no protesters there, but quickly realized ACORN had gotten that wrong too. They were protesting in front of FOX Television Center, the home of local affiliate KTTV.
***** snip *****
As we headed back to our cars, Gary H. was shaking. I asked if he was OK. He said he had to play me the audio of one of the protesters that he recorded before we got there. We decided to go to a restaurant to have lunch to listen to the interview.
We did. And it’s amazing. The woman on the tape proudly confesses to things that are unethical, illegal or both. You’ll hear it tomorrow.
In short, the ACORN story is far from over. There are more videos to come next week. You’ve seen the Baltimore story, the Philadelphia story, the New York story.
“Looks as though the President forgot something...again”
There is a must-see photo at Lucianne.com taken at the Veterans Day ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. See the ‘Debt President’ at his sorry best. The military men salute, a civilian has his hand over his heart, and Ofumble has his hands covering his nonexistent whatsits. A picture is worth a trillion words from TOTUS, and says it all again!
Bumper sticker: Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot I’ll keep my guns, freedom and money. You keep the change Obama Bin Lyin. --- Stickers Leave Firefighter In Hot Water WFSB-TV [Hartford, CT
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Firefighter Mike Di’Giacomo said his SUV is banned from in the firehouse because the bumper stickers he has on it, displays his political views. Di’Giacomo said he has never run into a problem like this in the 10 years he has been with the department. The bumper stickers read: Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot I’ll keep my guns, freedom and money. You keep the change Obama Bin Lyin.
Consider, for a moment, a tale of two countries. Both have suffered a severe recession and lost jobs as a result — but not on the same scale. In Country A, employment has fallen more than 5 percent, and the unemployment rate has more than doubled. In Country B, employment has fallen only half a percent, and unemployment is only slightly higher than it was before the crisis.
Don’t you think Country A might have something to learn from Country B?
This story isn’t hypothetical. Country A is the United States, where stocks are up, G.D.P. is rising, but the terrible employment situation just keeps getting worse. Country B is Germany, which took a hit to its G.D.P. when world trade collapsed, but has been remarkably successful at avoiding mass job losses. Germany’s jobs miracle hasn’t received much attention in this country — but it’s real, it’s striking, and it raises serious questions about whether the U.S. government is doing the right things to fight unemployment.
Here in America, the philosophy behind jobs policy can be summarized as “if you grow it, they will come.” That is, we don’t really have a jobs policy: we have a G.D.P. policy. The theory is that by stimulating overall spending we can make G.D.P. grow faster, and this will induce companies to stop firing and resume hiring.
The alternative would be policies that address the job issue more directly. We could, for example, have New-Deal-style employment programs. Perhaps such a thing is politically impossible now — Glenn Beck would describe anything like the Works Progress Administration as a plan to recruit pro-Obama brownshirts — but we should note, for the record, that at their peak, the W.P.A. and the Civilian Conservation Corps employed millions of Americans, at relatively low cost to the budget.
Alternatively, or in addition, we could have policies that support private-sector employment. Such policies could range from labor rules that discourage firing to financial incentives for companies that either add workers or reduce hours to avoid layoffs.
And that’s what the Germans have done. Germany came into the Great Recession with strong employment protection legislation. This has been supplemented with a “short-time work scheme,” which provides subsidies to employers who reduce workers’ hours rather than laying them off. These measures didn’t prevent a nasty recession, but Germany got through the recession with remarkably few job losses.
27 comments:
Layoffs at Newsweek (Politico.com)
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham informed staff today that about a dozen positions would be eliminated due to the "economic climate in publishing."
Meacham, in a memo obtained by POLITICO, noted that the magazine has taken a different direction this year, and despite the layoffs claimed that it "continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers."
Full memo from Meacham after the jump.
To the Staff
From Jon Meacham
This has been a tough day for the magazine. Because the economic climate in publishing has become ever more difficult, we have been compelled by business considerations to eliminate about a dozen positions.
We are parting company with colleagues who have done much to serve the magazine and its readers. As much as we would like it to be otherwise, market conditions mean that we are going to have to do our work with fewer people.
I have no spin to offer. I will say this, though: our new magazine and website have been well received by readers.
The different direction we undertook earlier this year continues to appear promising in terms of building and retaining an engaged audience that we hope will be attractive to advertisers while we, like so many other organizations, seek new sources of revenue in order to fulfill our mission.
Our situation is not unique. But we will keep working as hard as we can to find solutions that are.
In the meantime, thanks to you all for the work you have done and will do. To those who are leaving, we will miss you, and we wish you the very best.
Poor fella. The weekly production of his so-called “news” magazine has left the Spinmeister “all spun out”.
Maybe they should just get it over with and officially change the title to “Obamaweek,”
All they need are three staff members. One to rewrite the Obama administration/Media Matters/Center for American Progress handouts. One to proof reader and one to decide what handout to publish.
Newsweek has been in a Communist propaganda death spiral since at least the first Clinton campaign.
I canceled my subscription when Eleanor Clift and the other usual suspects came out of the closet back then.
Meacham's bias is mind-boggling, along with that of staffers like Joke Klein, Jonathan Alter-Reality, etc.
I wish the "magazine" a slow, painful death.
New York Times News Service To Cut Jobs and Relocate (to NON-union shop) ny times| (So they don’t hate capitalism?)
The New York Times News Service will lay off at least 25 editorial employees next year and will move the editing of the service to a Florida newspaper owned by The New York Times Company, the newspaper and the Newspaper Guild said Thursday...
The plan for the news service calls for The Gainesville Sun, whose newsroom is not unionized and has lower salaries, to take over editing and page design. Ms. McNulty said new jobs would be created at The Sun to handle the work.
So the Times is moving to a right to work state. Hilarious.
The union zombies who spew liberal propaganda at the NY Slimes have been pawned.
Seven months later: What's happened to Seattle P-I Journalists (safetynetseattle.blogspot)
Almost 25,000 print journalists have lost their jobs in the last 12months.
In March, Hearst closed the 146-year-old Post-Intelligencer newspaper and dumped 140 of us onto the street in the depths of the recession.
Instead of filing stories, we filed for unemployment. Instead of interviewing politicians, we took classes in How to Interview for a Job. Instead of rushing to cover the next story, we became the story.
Almost 25,000 print journalists have lost their jobs in the last 12months. Reporters who kept an eye on those with power and money. Who showed up at school board meetings and city council hearings. Who filed public disclosure requests and wrote stories about uncomfortable truths. Losing our jobs -- and for many us our careers -- isn’t just personal.
The public is losing too.(How so?)
Here’s what I found by surveying my former P-I colleagues recently. Seventy-one of the 140 who lost their jobs responded:
• 23 have new fulltime jobs for an employer, half working in journalism and the rest in corporate or nonprofit communications, business, etc.
• 3 are working part-time for an employer and 6 started their own businesses
• 18 are freelancing (blogs, photography) or working on journalism start-ups (Post-Globe, InvestigateWest) and collecting unemployment
• 14 are in school, including 10 who are also on unemployment. Studies include education, web design, marketing, paralegal, art
• 4 said a combination of unemployment/jobhunting/parenting while two retired and one has a journalism fellowship
These statistics do not include the 18 or so former P-I staff working at the online Seattle P-I.
Moor: Newspapers Not Evolving Enough for Digital Demand (Editor and Publisher)
NEW YORK Anthony Moor, who is leaving his post as top Web editor at the Dallas Morning News to head Yahoo's local news division, said part of the reason for the change is that newspaper online sites are not utilizing the growing medium quickly enough.
"I have wanted to work for a forward-leaning digital company for a long time," said Moor, who has been deputy managing editor/digital for two years at the News. "Part of this is recognition that newspapers have limited resources, they are saddled with legitimate legacy businesses that they have to focus on first. I am a digital guy and the digital world is evolving rapidly. I don't want to have to wait for the traditional news industry to catch up."
Moor will take the position of lead local editor at Yahoo's Sunnyvale, Ca. location south of San Francisco. Moor, who has previously run Web sites at the Orlando Sentinel and The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., spent 12 years in San Francisco as a television news reporter.
"They have asked me to build a network of local editors to upgrade and improve the local content experience for Yahoo front page users," Moor, 49, said of his new bosses. "This is the number one Web site in the world. The reason I got into the business was to help chart the development of digital news and Yahoo is doing that."
Moor, who will stay in Dallas until Thanksgiving, plans
Cuba orders extreme measures to cut energy use (Alertnet.org) (Miami Herald deeply saddened)
Cuba's energy situation termed "critical"
* Some factories, workshops to be closed through December
* Most other economic activities to be reduced
HAVANA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cuba has ordered all state enterprises to adopt "extreme measures" to cut energy usage through the end of the year in hopes of avoiding the dreaded blackouts that plagued the country following the 1991 collapse of its then-top ally, the Soviet Union.
In documents seen by Reuters, government officials have been warned that the island is facing a "critical" energy shortage that requires the closing of non-essential factories and workshops and the shutting down of air conditioners and refrigerators not needed to preserve food and medicine.
Cuba has cut government spending and slashed imports after being hit hard by the global financial crisis and the cost of recovering from three hurricanes that struck last year.
"The energy situation we face is critical and if we do not adopt extreme measures we will have to revert to planned blackouts affecting the population," said a recently circulated message from the Council of Ministers.
"Company directors will analyze the activities that will be stopped and others reduced, leaving only those that guarantee exports, substitution of imports and basic services for the population," according to another distributed by the light industry sector.
Dems Do the Impossible: US Unemployment Rate Now Tops Europe
OpenMarket.org reported today that the US unemployment rate has finally topped Europe.
Unemployment is now higher in the U.S. than in Europe, reports the Washington Post.
“The official U.S. unemployment rate, reported last Friday, now stands at 10.2 percent,” compared to “9.7 percent” in Europe. This is the highest rate in more than 26years, and marks a huge change from the recent past, in which unemployment was double the American rate in much of Europe.
Unemployment is at 10 percent in France, which refused to adopt a U.S.-style stimulus package, and only 7.6 percent in Germany, which adopted a stimulus package that was smaller relative to its economy than ours was. (Countries that refused to adopt big stimulus packages have fared better than those that imitated President Obama. And the biggest-spending countries have suffered worst in the recession.)
A “broader measure of U.S. unemployment,” including discouraged workers, puts U.S. unemployment at 17.5 percent, reports the New York Times.
As the Post notes, “For many on the left, the lament for years has been: Why can’t America be more like Europe? Why can’t rustic Americans be more like sophisticated Europeans?
The sentiment has resurfaced in recent months as the health-care debate has raged on — why can’t the American health-care system be more like Europe’s?”
Well, America is now more like Europe when it comes to unemployment. But not when it comes to social benefits and protections. The American Left knows how to import Europe’s failures, but not its successes.
But, don’t for one minute think that this bunch is through destroying the economy...
The dems still have their health care bill and cap-and-tax legislation to ram through Congress.
Pelosi On Jailtime For Those Who Refuse to Buy Obamacare:
“The Legislation Is Very Fair In This Respect” (GatewayPundit)
Speaker Pelosi was confronted by a local reporter on the legality of jailing Obamacare evaders during a presss conference in Seattle:
Here is part of the exchange:
KOMO News reporter Shomari Stone: Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail who don’t buy health insurance?
Pelosi:...The legislation is very fair in this respect.
From the video:
According to Committee On Ways & Means Republicans Ranking Member, Dave Camp, “the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.
The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bills new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.”
Thousands of family doctors 'being paid not to give out antibiotics'
(The Telegraph U.K.)
Around half of all health care trusts are running incentive schemes to reduce the number of the drugs prescribed, with many of them set up in the last 12 months.
The figures were released just days after GPs were told to stop handing out so many antibiotics for coughs and colds, for which they are useless.
But doctors questioned whether they should receive a bonus for good practice, which many consider an essential part of their jobs.
Others warned that the incentive could skew medical priorities and leave some patients without the drugs they need.
NY Times Whitewashes Columbia Professor's Racial Assault (JamieWearingFool)
Only the New York Times could manage to avoid the obvious when reporting on the assault charges against Columbia professor Lionel McIntyre.
Yes, they actually mention deep in the story that McIntyre like to engage in "race" discussions, but why do they avoid mentioning the fact McIntyre is black and he beat up a white woman?
A Columbia University professor has been charged with assault and harassment after an another Columbia employee accused him of punching her in the eye at a Morningside Heights bar Friday night.
The professor, Lionel McIntyre, 59, was arrested on Monday, three days after the confrontation. According to a police report, Professor McIntyre and Camille Davis, a theater production manager in the university’s School of the Arts, were having a discussion that “escalated in a verbal dispute,” and Mr. McIntyre punched Ms. Davis in the eye.
The encounter happened in Toast, a popular, noisy bar and restaurant on Broadway north of campus, where the chatter often runs to current events and politics. Professor McIntyre liked to engage fellow patrons on the subject of race, according to one regular customer, Daniel Morgan, who considers himself a close acquaintance of both Professor McIntyre and Ms. Davis.
A Columbia spokesman, Robert Hornsby, declined to say whether Professor McIntyre was suspended. “The university is not offering any comment,” he said.
That's it. No mention of the race of the suspect or the victim.
Do you suppose if a white Columbia professor punched out a black woman the race would not be mentioned?
What happened to "All the news that's fit to print"? Has it become "all the news that's fit to print unless it makes liberals look bad"?
Over at Inside Higher Ed, they also studiously avoid mentioning the race of the perp and victim.
Again, let's consider if the roles were reversed:
You suppose there would be more coverage given to the story that what we can locate? Apparently this "hate crime" didn't manage to make it onto any New York television broadcasts and racial healer Al Sharpton hasn't weighed in.
There haven't been any offers from the White House to host a beer summit, so I guess McIntyre isn't buddies with the president.
But know this much: If the roles were reversed there would be saturation coverage of this story nationwide and the perpetrator would have already been fired and charged with a hate crime. Don't you just love double standards?
Perry County Alabama: a perfect Democrat plantation celebrates Obama Election Day with voter fraud (The Collins Report )
Perry is one of Alabama’s poorest counties, yet the Black run local government has added Barack Obama Day as its FIFTEENTH paid holiday.
It’s always party time in Perry where workers get an extra three weeks off.
The event is actually a five day celebration of gratitude to the hero who would “change” their lives.
No touch with reality
Perry’s 11,000 residents have suffered miserably under Obama. They can lie to themselves about “Hope and Change” but they’re still hoping for change to arrive.
While America has a 10.2% unemployment rate, Perry’s is 18%. It has lost 6% of its jobs recently.
A “People’s Paradise” ready for voter fraud. A voter fraud investigation by Alabama’s Attorney General developed allegations that absentee ballots were being sold for $40.00 each.
Perry is at the center the probe. In a June 2008 Democrat primary the statewide turnout was 16%. Perry’s turnout was 50% which was amazing considering 25% of the county is under 18. One quarter of Perry’s votes were absentee ballots. The phrase “voter fraud” comes to mind.
Can anyone argue that all of this is not connected? Perry County is a classic Democrat plantation. There is no hope and certainly no change in Perry.
Obama & Google (a love story) Obama relies on Google execs for tech and economic advice (money.cnn)
Obama and his team have done little to disguise their mistrust of big business -- except when it comes to one very large, very influential technology company.
Google executives, led by CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are scary smart and supremely self-confident (much like the President himself), and despite their company's growing power, they depict themselves as advocates for consumers.
"What we shared is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up, not from the top down," Obama told Google employees during a 2007visit to its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
U.S. Posts $176.36 Billion Deficit for October (2.112 Trillion Annualized)(Online.wsj.com)
WASHINGTON -- The federal government kicked off fiscal year 2010 by posting its widest-ever October budget deficit, the Treasury Department said Thursday.
The $176.36 billion gap is more than $20 billion wider than the shortfall recorded in October 2008, driven up by lower tax receipts, stimulus-related revenue reductions and consistently high government outlays.
Treasury's monthly budget statement shows receipts were $135.33 billion in October, down 18% from a year earlier and at the lowest level since October 2002. Meanwhile, outlays were $311.69 billion, down 3% from a year earlier and at their second-highest monthly level on record.
So the US government spent 2.3 times what it took in. How many months could your family do that? Right. Try never. This is a runaway freight train and we’ve got to pull the brakes on this beast!
GOP claims ACORN in financial trouble (Politico)
An internal memo from the Republican staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee claims that ACORN has serious financial problems and may be “ready to file for bankruptcy.”
But ACORN officials are dismissing the memo as a partisan slap, asserting that the housing and community organizing group remains fully operational.
Brian Kettenring, the Deputy Director of National Operations for ACORN, says the bankruptcy claims by Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the committee, are inaccurate.
Ratner Family Ties: ACORN and Justice Department Plot Thickens
(Big Government)
Following the courageous expose by two young investigative journalists released on the pages of this very blog, there were widespread calls for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the criminal enterprise that is ACORN.
One would think there would be swift, decisive action from the administration that promised to be the most transparent in history.
Despite the urging of some in congress and action on the regional level, and an internal investigation into funding, terrorist sympathizer U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee a criminal investigation of ACORN.
There’s no evidence that any internal investigation is ongoing or making any progress since a 2008request from Indiana’s Secretary of State.
Instead, President Obama’s political arm is attempting to dismiss it as a “fear campaign” while ACORN insinuates that it is racist. Yes, they are still playing that card.
More of the article:
What’s Holder’s hold-up? One major factor of course is that ACORN serves as a taxpayer-funded Democrat army.
As with unions, it behooves Democrats to ignore corruption amongst the ranks of the powerful forces that elect them.
What appears on the surface to be mere political payback for a job well done is in fact much more insidious. One family’s involvement with ACORN and the Obama administration is of particular interest and elucidates the complicated web of connections and cash behind ACORN and this President.
Meet the Ratners.
Bruce Ratner is a New York real estate developer who has given thousands of dollars to Democrats including President Obama. His philanthropy also includes having bailed out ACORN with $1.5 million to pay off their embezzlement debt, a decision he stands by despite ACORN’s recent prostitution scandal and a Congressional report detailing the systemic criminal elements in the organization.
CNN to Lou Dobbs: Don't Let the Door Hit You....(NewsRealBlog.com)
Lou Dobbs's departure from CNN has turned into a cause for celebration -- at CNN. Network president Jonathan Klein dismissively called Lou's program "advocacy journalism" in an otherwise respectful tribute.
But Politico.com quotes an anonymous network source:
"I think it's safe to say that he won't be missed among the rank-and-file employees at the network," said a CNN staffer.
"The Dobbs show has existed in its own little universe for the last several years, in many ways cut off from the rest of the editorial process at CNN. Most people will be left wondering what this means for the primetime lineup and whether Klein can now deliver on his 'down the middle' mantra."
"Down the middle"? Presumably, Anderson Cooper is now free to slander tea party protesters as perverts, while Wolf Blitzer's team investigates Saturday Night Live skits (wrongly) with no counterpart to the Right.
Or the center. CNN viewers will not forget that network allowed (or encouraged?) Susan Roesgen to antagonize tea party protesters on camera, gave Christiane Amanpour six hours to compare Rev. John Hagee to Osama bin Laden, and broadcast Soledad O'Brien asking if President Bush was "slow to respond" to Hurricane Katrina because "pictures of mostly black people were on TV" -- among a litany of other, daily left-wing outrages.
The bloom was off CNN's "unbiased" rose long ago. This video illustrates the bias of CNN's reporters when they're not on the air....
Need a job? McDonald's has an opening at Guantanamo (From McClatchy's very own Carol “would you like a hot poker up your ass” Rosenberg.)
Out of work and willing to relocate? McDonald's is advertising for an assistant manager for its sole franchise in Cuba — serving up burgers and fries that sometimes feed detainees at the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay.
The help wanted ad popped up recently at the McVirginia.com careers Web site featuring the Golden Arches, a headline "Find a Career @ McDonald's" and this enticement: "Enjoy the perks."
It didn't specify salary but said, "Candidates must have restaurant management experience, possess a valid United States passport and be willing to relocate to Cuba."
Other incentives include half your rent paid and, potentially, tax-free status for year-round residents.
Porkulus job numbers “wildly exaggerated” Boston Globe ?
(Hot Air)
And yes, that’s a direct quote from the Boston Globe’s news section, not an editorial — and frankly, I’m not sure which would have been more surprising.
It seems that the brush with death on Morrissey Boulevard has sharpened the objectivity of the Globe, which is still owned by the New York Times, at least enough to add Massachusetts to the states discovering that the Obama administration’s claims of jobs “saved or created” are fraudulent:
While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated.
Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
That lead has appeared in almost that exact form in every newspaper that has bothered to check on Obama’s numbers.
Associated Press Says Obama Presidency Has Caused "Malaise" (Welcome Back Carter)
With a choice of words that will surely drive Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod to apoplectic profanity, the Associated Press writes tonight that their boss, President Barack Obama, is foundering in the latest AP-GfK Poll and uses the dreaded Carter era term "malaise" to describe the public's mood.
The AP lede tells the story:
"The euphoria of 2008 is over: America is in a funk. Elected last November on a wave of optimism, President Barack Obama now finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country...perhaps most striking for this novice commander in chief, more people have lost confidence in Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last month.
Overall, there's a public malaise about the state of the nation.
While Obama's approval rating is 54%, that marks a twenty point drop since he assumed office in January.
More important, the percentage of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track is up five points from last month to a solid majority of 56%.
Obama is also steadily losing support for his handling of the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan.
With official unemployment at 10.2%and no improvement in sight going in to the holiday season, the federal budget blown out and Obama seen as incapable of making a command decision on Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter era cardigan sweaters may make a fashion comeback at the Obama White House. Wait, they already have thanks to Michelle Obama.
Apple's Rejection of iPhone App Showing Political Caricatures Rankles Creator (Fox News)
A conservative filmmaker in Hollywood thought he had developed a worthwhile iPhone app: a telephone directory listing every U.S. senator and congressman, with caricatures of the legislators drawn by an artist.
But Apple apparently didn't see the value, and the computer behemoth said a cartoon drawing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was part of the reason why.
The filmmaker, Ray Griggs, told FoxNews.com that his small firm, RG Entertainment, received a rejection letter from Apple this week calling the caricatures "objectionable."
He added that he has received several e-mails suggesting that Apple stock owned by Pelosi's husband may have played a factor in the decision.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, when questioned about the application, said "this is the first I’ve heard of this." He declined to comment further.
Apple didn't return repeated phone calls and e-mails seeking comment for this story. RG has developed other apps for the iPhone that Apple has accepted.
ACORN: The LA Story, Part 1
BigGovernment.com
Today I received a phone call from my friend, Gary H., who said that ACORN was staging a protest outside the Fox News studios in West Los Angeles. I called someone at the Fox News bureau to find out that there were no protesters there, but quickly realized ACORN had gotten that wrong too. They were protesting in front of FOX Television Center, the home of local affiliate KTTV.
***** snip *****
As we headed back to our cars, Gary H. was shaking. I asked if he was OK. He said he had to play me the audio of one of the protesters that he recorded before we got there. We decided to go to a restaurant to have lunch to listen to the interview.
We did. And it’s amazing. The woman on the tape proudly confesses to things that are unethical, illegal or both. You’ll hear it tomorrow.
In short, the ACORN story is far from over. There are more videos to come next week. You’ve seen the Baltimore story, the Philadelphia story, the New York story.
Now you will know about the LA story.
Mine shaft gap!
“Looks as though the President forgot something...again”
There is a must-see photo at Lucianne.com taken at the Veterans Day ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. See the ‘Debt President’ at his sorry best. The military men salute, a civilian has his hand over his heart, and Ofumble has his hands covering his nonexistent whatsits. A picture is worth a trillion words from TOTUS, and says it all again!
Bumper sticker: Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot I’ll keep my guns, freedom and money. You keep the change Obama Bin Lyin.
---
Stickers Leave Firefighter In Hot Water
WFSB-TV [Hartford, CT
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Firefighter Mike Di’Giacomo said his SUV is banned from in the firehouse because the bumper stickers he has on it, displays his political views. Di’Giacomo said he has never run into a problem like this in the 10 years he has been with the department. The bumper stickers read: Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot I’ll keep my guns, freedom and money. You keep the change Obama Bin Lyin.
Free to Lose
Consider, for a moment, a tale of two countries. Both have suffered a severe recession and lost jobs as a result — but not on the same scale. In Country A, employment has fallen more than 5 percent, and the unemployment rate has more than doubled. In Country B, employment has fallen only half a percent, and unemployment is only slightly higher than it was before the crisis.
Don’t you think Country A might have something to learn from Country B?
This story isn’t hypothetical. Country A is the United States, where stocks are up, G.D.P. is rising, but the terrible employment situation just keeps getting worse. Country B is Germany, which took a hit to its G.D.P. when world trade collapsed, but has been remarkably successful at avoiding mass job losses. Germany’s jobs miracle hasn’t received much attention in this country — but it’s real, it’s striking, and it raises serious questions about whether the U.S. government is doing the right things to fight unemployment.
Here in America, the philosophy behind jobs policy can be summarized as “if you grow it, they will come.” That is, we don’t really have a jobs policy: we have a G.D.P. policy. The theory is that by stimulating overall spending we can make G.D.P. grow faster, and this will induce companies to stop firing and resume hiring.
The alternative would be policies that address the job issue more directly. We could, for example, have New-Deal-style employment programs. Perhaps such a thing is politically impossible now — Glenn Beck would describe anything like the Works Progress Administration as a plan to recruit pro-Obama brownshirts — but we should note, for the record, that at their peak, the W.P.A. and the Civilian Conservation Corps employed millions of Americans, at relatively low cost to the budget.
Alternatively, or in addition, we could have policies that support private-sector employment. Such policies could range from labor rules that discourage firing to financial incentives for companies that either add workers or reduce hours to avoid layoffs.
And that’s what the Germans have done. Germany came into the Great Recession with strong employment protection legislation. This has been supplemented with a “short-time work scheme,” which provides subsidies to employers who reduce workers’ hours rather than laying them off. These measures didn’t prevent a nasty recession, but Germany got through the recession with remarkably few job losses.
www.nytimes.com
Paul Krugman
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