Are they paid to be there or just victims of DC public schools? Your guess is as good as mine. This is from our pal Michelle Fields at The Daily Caller:
A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school in Pakistan’s volatile Swat Valley on Tuesday and shot and wounded a 14-year-old activist known for championing the education of girls and publicizing atrocities committed by the Taliban, officials said.
The attack in the city of Mingora targeted 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who is widely respected for her work to promote the schooling of girls — something that the Taliban strongly opposes. She was nominated last year for the International Children’s Peace Prize.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling Malala’s work “obscenity.”
“This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter,” said Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan by telephone. “We have carried out this attack.”
This is very educational and important, a must see.
Logan: Our way of life is under attack. I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand that there is a major lie being propagated,” Logan said about the administration touting the weakening of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Not only were our guys murdered, they were raped and sodomized. The Obama Administration doesn’t like American mercenary companies so some of the bodyguards hired were Libyans. It was those body guards who gave up the locations of our peoples secret safe house. Be sure to see our previous post : Everything you need to know about how Obama lied about the embassy attacks in two minutes (video) – LINK
Representative Trey Gowdy (SC):
Congressman Jason Chaffetz – Politics is being used to make security decisions and not security:
Jake Tapper to White House: Wasn’t it Obama who shot from the hip and not Romney?
Here are the highlights of the House Oversight Committee today:
ISSA OPENING STATEMENT – “The Security Failures of Benghazi”
Lt. Col. Wood: “On the Ground Truth” about Security in Libya Before 9/11 Attack
Benghazi Libya Attack: State Department’s Charlene R. Lamb Opening Statement
Benghazi Attack: Ambassador Patrick Kennedy Opening Statement
LIBYA HEARING: Nordstrom Refuses Oversight Staff, Given Guidelines by Own Agency
Chaffetz: US Security Experts Actually IN Libya Didn’t Get Resources They Needed & Asked For…
Rep. Burton During the Oversight Committee Hearing On Diplomatic Security in Libya (Part 1) where a State Department Official Refuses to Admit that the Attack was done by Terrorists:
Lets hope he keeps this promise, but even so, his plan, even if it becomes law, might not be bold enough to help solve the economic, fiscal and finance problems we are facing today.
This is as comon as an example of “liberal media corruption” as any. This is not how I was taught to behave in a hard news interview when I went to J-School. Some might ask, are too many journalists just this stupid?
UPDATES – Not only were our guys murdered, they were raped and sodomized. The Obama Administration doesn’t like American mercenary companies so they hired Libyan’s to act as bodyguards. It was those body guards who gave up the locations of our peoples secret safe house. Videos from the White House Press Room and the House Oversight Committee highlights can be seen HERE.
This ad is spot on accurate, and only leaves out a couple of points. Think about this, not only was security not beefed up at our embassies on 9/11, but there are credible, yet disputed reports from forces on the ground that they were not given live ammunition at several of the embassy posts.
OK so let me get this straight. The White House released secret methods while coordinated with Sony Pictures in the making of the film “Zero Dark Thirty” about the killing of Osama bin Laden….and that won’t inflame the Islamic world at all…but a tiny film trailer from a Coptic Christian is the cause of the world’s unrest?
So why lie? Ironically the Obama Administration has put itself into a “Mission Accomplished” moment. They say that “We got bin Laden”, “Al-Qaeda is dead – finished”, after we finished Iraq that was it etc. Well they have overplayed that card so the news of coordinated Al-Qaeda attacks against our embassies on 9/11 when they were in essence ordered to essentially stand down by the refusal to allow extra security and safety measures does not bode well politically.
Remember this Lie? White House: This is not a case of protests directed at the United States … and in the video below not only was the White House lying because now it was out that not only did they know what the truth was with 24 hours, they were warned in advance. In the video they also lie and said that they took appropriate measure to give extra security on 9/11. Now we know those requested measures were denied:
Judge Jeanine Pirro: Obama White House Lied About Embassy Attacks for Two Weeks:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. security officer twice asked his State Department superiors for more security agents for the American mission in Benghazi months before an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but he got no response.
The officer, Eric Nordstrom, who was based in Tripoli until about two months before the September attack, said a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi “artificially low,” according to a memo summarizing his comments to a congressional committee that was obtained by Reuters.
Nordstrom also argued for more U.S. security in Libya by citing a chronology of over 200 security incidents there from militia gunfights to bomb attacks between June 2011 and July 2012. Forty-eight of the incidents were in Benghazi.
A brief summary of Nordstrom’s October 1 interview with the Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was contained in a memo prepared by the committee’s minority Democratic staff.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee leaders today sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking why requests for more protection were denied to the U.S. mission in Libya by Washington officials prior to the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The denials came after repeated attacks and security threats to U.S. personnel.
“Based on information provided to the Committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012. It was clearly never, as Administration officials once insisted, the result of a popular protest,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and subcommittee chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, write. “In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.”
The letter outlines 13 security threats over the six months prior to the attack.
“Put together, these events indicated a clear pattern of security threats that could only be reasonably interpreted to justify increased security for U.S. personnel and facilities in Benghazi,” the chairmen write.
The Committee indicated it intends to convene a hearing in Washington on Wednesday October 10, 2012, on the security failures that preceded the attack.
Aside from our own coverage of Egypt and Libya be sure to see these related stories:
President Obama Skipped His Intel Brief the Day After the U.S. Ambassador to Libya was Murdered by Terrorists – LINK
Cheney: Obama Administration “Involved In A Cover Up” Of Libya Attack – LINK
This happens every time. If you punish economic behavior you get less of it. Maryland and New York have lost revenue after they passed “soak the rich” tax schemes and the result is that those who migtht have paid the tax either fled the state, simply decided to do business elsewhere, or decided to not engage in any behavior that is taxable. Spain went down the same road. Class warfare rhetoric undermines confidence with job creators, risk takers, investors, and small businesses.
It is much like we said in our previous post, “Those with even the most rudimentary understanding of economics understands this and yet new university trained leftist academics keep causing these same problems and keep expecting a different result”.
Always remember, wealth goes where it is treated well.
Spain’s corporate tax take has tumbled by almost two thirds from pre-crisis levels as small businesses fail and a growing number of big corporations seek profits abroad to compensate for the prolonged downturn at home.
In 2010, 30 of Spain’s 35 blue chip companies had subsidiaries in territories considered tax havens, according to the latest report by Spain’s Observation Group for Social Corporate Responsibility.
The organization, which is partially subsidized by the Labor Ministry, put the number at 18 before Spain’s economic crisis began.
“Not only tax reasons justify this trend, but also the internationalization of Spanish groups and the search for new markets, especially in the context of the crisis seen in Spain,” said Josep Serrano, Senior Manager of Transfer Pricing & International Tax at Deloitte in Spain.
The use of subsidiaries in tax havens to reduce tax bills has been a rising global trend in recent decades, tax campaigners said.
This is the product of radicalized leftists that have so much influence on campus. Why does the Democratic Leadership actively go out of the way to conceal just how far to the left they are?
Government spends money for political reasons, cronyismn etc. That is why government spending tends not to create wealth or have much velocity because the money is not spent in the way that will do the most economic good.
Many politicians tend to spin or dissemble, but in the case of this group from Chicago, the lies are so stark that it is a simple case of calculated aggression.
[Madison, Wisc…] At least 30 Wisconsin municipalities failed to send absentee ballots to military voters before the 45 day deadline, according to former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, and he’s demanding the Government Accountability Board address the problem immediately.
As reported by the website WisPolitics.com, Principi sent a letter to the GAB on Monday pointing out the failure to meet the 45 day deadline is in violation of Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act.
“This violation is particularly unsettling in light of the fact that, only six months ago, a federal court entered a consent decree against Wisconsin and the Government Accountability Board for similar violations of military voting rights,” wrote Principi.
Principi cited a study by the Military Postal Service Agency, which found less than 45 days is not enough time to ensure service members can receive, complete and return in time.
“Your office’s violations therefore may deprive service members of their fundamental right to vote,” he wrote.
This comes on top of a report by the MacIver News Service that the Federal Voter Assistance Program was providing Wisconsin service members the incorrect deadline for when their ballots must be received by for the general election.
Dearborn Overseas Primary Ballots Coming in Despite Late Sendout: Dearborn is one of 70 municipalities included in a federal lawsuit for sending absentee ballots out past the June 23 deadline – LINK.
California counties miss deadline to send ballots to overseas, military voters – LINK.
Election clerks once again miss federal absentee ballot deadline: More than three dozen local election clerks appear to have missed a federally mandated deadline for sending out absentee ballots to military voters – LINK.
Obama Administration Sues To Stop Military From Voting (video) – LINK
Editor’s Note – This very writer has written on this subject several times both here and on my former college blog (LINK – LINK). During 2008-09 I was one of the very few who was not surprised in the least to see Obama appoint several arch antisemites such as Samantha Power and Robert Malley. Why was this writer not surprised? Because Obama came from radicalized leftist academia and antisemitism among university leftists is fashion at most large universities. Obama hung out with Frank Marshall Davis, Bill Ayers, and Obama’s own mother was an academic who specialized in “critical theory” which is Marxism on steroids. Obama even says in his own book that Marxist academics are who he sought out to associate with.
A new, 18-minute mini-documentary follows the journey of Irina, a 23-year-old liberal, Jewish New Yorker who voted for Obama in 2008. Yet as her connection to Israel has grown, and she has learned more about the President’s policies across the Middle East and towards Israel in particular, Irina has come to realize that “when the chips are down,” the President may not “have Israel’s back” as he says.
The short film features:
Exclusive interviews with leading journalists and politicians in Israel
(Bloomberg, London Times, Jerusalem Post, etc.)
Clips from longtime Democratic supporters including: Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Florida Republican Rep. Allen West defended his skepticism surrounding the September non-farm payrolls report in an interview on CNBC early this afternoon. The so called “objective reporter” from NBC’s cable channel, Tyler Mathisen, got rather testy with Allen West and tried to interrupt him so he could not explain his point of view. West would have none of Mathisen’s nonsense. Mathisen is on the verge of becoming unhinged during much of the interview skin to a Chris Mathews meltdown.
Here is the exchange:
MATHISEN: “You are alleging specifically that the president is engaging in a cover-up of the data. You are saying that the administration is actively manipulating that data. Correct?”
WEST: “Well, absolutely. Look at what happened with our GDP numbers. Fourth-quarter GDP numbers last year were 3 percent…”
MATHISEN: “Do you have any basis on which you say that? Do you have any basis on which you say that? Any source? Anyone that has come to you and said, ‘This is the case?’ I mean, do you realize how difficult it would be for someone to pull off that kind of conspiracy, given the number of people in the labor department, given the number of surveyors out there, one of whom would probably say, ‘Wait a minute! That’s not the right number!'”
WEST: “Well, if you would stop yelling in my ear and allow me to answer your questions, maybe we could get to the bottom of this. When you look at the GDP numbers — which have gone from 4.1 percent, then it went to 1.9 percent, then it was at 1.7 percent. It got revised down just about a month ago to 1.3 percent. We’ve got numbers that are all over the place. And we don’t understand the direction this economy is going. … I don’t see these numbers that people are talking about, and I don’t see how they can come back later in this month and say they’re revising the numbers from July and August. So I’m very questionable with what we do see out of this administration, because the numbers don’t add up.
Obama 2002 speech: “Rich people are all for non-violence”, unless they are perpetrating it.
We often talk about how President Obama has the mindset of a radicalized leftist university academic’ this video is one more example of many. Where was the media to vet him in 2008?
Wow, so much BS in this debate there is not enough time to hope to respond to it all in a timely manner.
Obama’s tax cuts for small businesses aren’t tax cuts at all, they are tax credits meaning that if you jump through government hoop A & B – and then meet stipulation circumstance A, B, C and D – you get a tax credit. Well that doesn’t work because people aren’t doing when is best for their business or the economy, they are doing what government wants. These “tax cuts” are so targeted only a few get them. This is no different from government picking winners and losers. Economic growth happens when people have money AND freedom.
Actually Mitt lowering the rates and cleaning up the deductions has been done before, Reagan did it and it worked. Remember Kemp/Roth in 1981 followed up with TEFRA in 1986? Romney needed to hit the mortgage collapse out of the park and he just didn’t. He needs me on his communications team to show him how. This is not difficult.
Romney – I will eliminate any program I have to borrow money from China to keep going that are not working and important. I hope and wish.
Obama talked about going after some wasteful over duplicated education programs – he went after education programs alright, like the working and very successful DC voucher program…. all to make the teachers union happy (and screwed the kids).
I liked Romney’s “I have five boys” comment – nicest way to call out a lie I have ever heard 😉
Well the stock in those who make small planes will now drop due to that comment Obama. That will cost jobs just in the coming weeks. Mark me.
Obama says Social Security is structurally sound. Like heck it is. Social Security does not even try to grow a pot of money to prefund people’s retirement.
Romney’s point on Medicare is right on. OK Romney now boot that voucher talking point out of the park – you had better….and he didn’t. It is Medicare part D expanded because Part D came in 40% under budget, gives more choice and works. It is not just a voucher system.
Romney hits Obama on his unelected board making decisions about your care in Obamacare – FINALLY! Survey’s of Small Businesses show that ObamaCare is scrapping hiring plans – WHAM – Go MITT!
Romney – government as well as private studies show that millions of people will lose their employer based insurance as a result of ObamaCare – that is true. Obama is pretending like that problem doesn’t exist.
Obama is a broken record “Romney just wants to help the rich”…
Veteran Communications Strategist Lisa Marie Cashman – They are both trying to be too civil.
ME – They are both trying to remember their talking points and get them out, it is better to use such minutia for rebuttals and comebacks. Dear Mitt, please go watch Reagan’s debate with Carter. Thanks.
Cashman – They are both reaching to meet the middle. The independent and enrolled votes are equally important; however Obamacare restricts growth. I wish Romney would hit the tack on the medical devices tax and the real estate tax.
Obama – The IPAB (ObamaCare panel) by law cannot tell doctors what to do – But the ObamaCare board can do is say what they will pay for. And they can say that doctors have to jump through every hoop they wish or they will not get paid on any of their patients…and if they are not paid for the care will not be given. Nice try Barack.
Romney – $90 billion for failed green jobs programs would have hired 2 million teachers – ZAP!!
Mitt – Education funds should follow the child. (Obama – they should follow the teachers’s UNIONS).
The problems with “federal support” in education Obama is that such support comes with thousands of strings attached that pick winners and losers and that make for political agendas and make everything more expensive overall. Race to the Top has been a bureaucratic nightmare.
Mitt, meeting with Democrat leaders in Congress will not be like meeting legislators in your state. The likes of Pelosi and Reid are far more partisan and radical than anyone you face in state government. So either the current Dem Leadership will have to be swept away or you will have to defeat them.
Our friend CSteven Tucker of the Insurance Tips & Advice Blog says – NOT ONE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR OBAMACARE & The Senate has BLOCKED more than 30 GOP proposals. He wouldn’t know working together if it slapped him…
So true Steven. The Republicans were locked out of the room and we didn’t get many of the details of what was in ObamaCare until after it was passed.
Final thoughts – Well “hope and change” vs Romney won’t work. It sold when he faced a non existent Bush domestic policy in his second term vs McCain. But now Obama has a record to defend. Obama has used one office to run for the next and/or used tricks to get his serious opponents tossed off the ballot in Illinois. So he is not used to having to have a record to defend and tonight it showed.
Both sides had a lot of emotional investment in this debate and now that investment is being vented. All in all this debate was not a game changer. Both sides got facts wrong, but Obama was in the larger truth deficit. In the area of “non-verbals” Romney was the clear winner. He was more energized and assertive and as a result he looked more presidential because he came into the debate with a better posture.
…because this is the critical issue of our time? What kind of radicalized whack job sues to do something like this? What kind of radicalized whack job attorney actually takes a lawsuit to do this? I will tell you; it is the kind of person who is radicalized by our public schools and universities.
A school district in Rhode Island has ended the traditional father-daughter dance because the longtime tradition violated the state’s gender discrimination law.
Judith Lundsten, an assistant school superintendent in Cranston, tells Fox News the move came in response to a complaint from a single mother after her daughter wasn’t allowed to attend a father-daughter dance.
“The parent felt it was not appropriate and filed a complaint with the ACLU,” she said.
The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the district demanding that all father-daughter and mother-son events be cancelled.
Lundsten said school attorneys found while federal gender discrimination laws exempt such events, Rhode Island’s does not.
“At this point, the law states that we cannot have these gender-specific type activities,” Lundsten told Fox News. “
[Editor’s Note – Bila is one of the best in the business, so naturally her advice is about as solid as any can be, but even so we would like to add a little to it:
The press likes to steer the debate format to 30 or 60 second answers. This favors Democrats because one can spew several lies in such a time, and one cannot respond to such lies with specifics in the same time frame, and since almost every major progressive thinker has written that deception is a valid political tactic it is a problem. Republicans should resist or insist on rules that do not have time limits that are too short. The elite media also likes such short times because it helps create sound bites, gaffes and promotes emotionally charged drama that helps media ratings but is bad for the country.
Debate moderators, such as Gwen Ifel and George Stephanopoulos are entrenched Democratic Party hired guns, who get hired by networks because, well because of just that reason; they will ask questions that will steer the debate about non-issues (like birth control), and will steer the debate away from Obama’s record, don’t let them get away with it. It is appropriate and necessary to take a reporter to task for not doing an ethical job so if that means calling them out and humiliating then Newt style, than by all means do so.]
Tonight, voters across the country will tune in to the first 2012 presidential debate. President Obama and Governor Romney will take the stage at the University of Denver to debate domestic policy from 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET. This is an incredibly important night for Romney, a chance for him to define himself to voters still on the fence and an opportunity to draw a clear, bold contrast between his vision and that of our President.
To be blunt, Romney must have a successful night. In order to make that happen, there are a few things I think he needs to do.
Communications Strategist Jedediah Bila
Governor Romney, here’s my advice:
1) Clearly articulate the discrepancy between Obama’s 2008 campaign promises and what he delivered as President. What did Obama say the unemployment rate would be if his stimulus was passed? Remember when Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was unpatriotic? Where was his leadership on tax reform and responsible budgeting? Was entertaining lobbyists part of his plan to change business as usual in Washington? The list goes on and on. People need to be reminded that what they voted for in 2008 is not what they received.
2) Dismantle Obama’s supposed allegiance to the middle class. What about Obamacare’s tax hikes on the middle class? Heritage reminds us: “Obamacare imposes a penalty—or tax increase—on Americans who do not purchase health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that most of those paying these taxes are middle-class individuals and families making less than 500 percent of the federal poverty level: $59,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a family of four. Three million lower-income and middle-class Americans will pay an estimated $2 billion in these ‘mandate taxes.’”
What about middle-class coal workers suffering at the hands of Obama’s overregulation? Perhaps some Americans weren’t paying attention when Senator Obama talked about bankrupting the coal industry in 2008. Remind them in light of coal plant closures in 2012.
Keep in mind that Obama will present his allegiance to the middle class within the larger context of his class-warfare strategy of imposing tax hikes on small business owners and other hard-working Americans he broadly labels “millionaires and billionaires.” Never–ever–be afraid to tackle class warfare. Let President Obama pit Americans against each other; be the leader who unites us under policies that benefit all.
3) Be bold in drawing a distinction between your vision and that of Obama (as reflected through his policies these last four years). If this is going to be a choice election, the choice needs to be abundantly clear. Part of outlining that distinction is a willingness to get specific. Voters have little patience for ambiguity at this point, particularly those disheartened Independents who fell for ‘hope’ and ‘change’ in 2008. When asked a specific question, give very specific answers–numbers, facts, figures, policy outlines, cost, and benefits. Details inspire voter confidence in you and your vision.
4) Delivery matters. Leave talking points, affected tones, rigidity, and timidity behind. Instead, bring to the stage realness, empathy for the plight of struggling Americans, fearlessness with respect to tackling Obama’s failed policies and this country’s challenges, and confidence about both your policy and your ability to execute it.
You have been painted by the opposition as out of touch, detached, and unable to connect with voters. The only person who can prove that caricature wrong is you. Remember that Ronald Reagan didn’t just get elected because people believed he was the guy who could fix things; he also got elected because underneath all of that political talk, voters saw a real person who connected with them. In the 2008 vice-presidential debate, Sarah Palin reminded voters of that element by focusing her attention not on Biden or the moderators, but right through the camera’s lens on the American people. Remember to talk directly tovoters, and it will make all the difference.
Most importantly, recall that Obama has a tendency to get defensive and arrogant when challenged. Be his opposite. Welcome the challenges and refute the President’s claims with a down-to-earth, fact-filled rebuttal. Always remember that arrogance does not equal confidence. Confidence inspires voters; arrogance conveys that you think you’re smarter than the rest of us. Confidence is appealing; arrogance is not.
5) Finally, own the Bain Capital argument, the tax return argument, and any other petty distraction put forth by Obama to draw the curtain over the unemployment numbers, ballooning debt and deficit, overregulation, and the rest of his policy disasters.
Mitt, you have a choice: Either own the narrative or President Obama will. It’s up to you.
It is good to see Republicans talking about elite media bias and actively taking strategy to counter it. It is important to make examples of elite media reporters by name when they decide to behave like state run media.
It’s hard to compete with someone who gets Nobel Prizes and Grammy Awards just for showing up at the office. In running against someone as highly praised as Barack Obama, Mitt Romney has his work cut out for him. As his supporters point out, Wednesday night’s presidential debate offers the Republican candidate a chance to present his plan for prosperity directly to the country. He needs to take it.
On Sunday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie explained the importance of the debate to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “Let’s face it, George, there’s been a lot of filtering going on,” the Republican chief executive said to the former Democratic aide. “This is the first moment when the American people are going to be able to see these two guys side by side laying out their vision unfiltered. And I think that’s going to be a powerful moment for Mitt Romney.”
The Media Research Center (MRC) on Tuesday documented the purported impartiality of Mr. Stephanopoulos‘ debate analysis since he joined ABC in 1997. According to MRC, the anchor of “This Week” and “Good Morning America” declared the Democratic candidate the winner in eight of the nine general election presidential debates.
Over on “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace mentioned two stories this week that struck him about media bias. He held up the Washington Post from Wednesday and pointed to the lead story, “Ohio, Florida Give Obama an Edge,” and the sidebar, “For Obama, the Buckeye State May be a Bull’s-eye.” The Fox News anchor noted that his wife had said to him, “I guess the race is over according to The Washington Post.”
He then showed the cover of Time magazine this week, which has Mr. Romney in a church stained-glass window, and noted that with just five weeks before the election, the magazine was focused on the candidate’s religion instead of his economic or foreign policies.
Mr. Wallace also asked his guest, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, whether he thinks “the mainstream media is carrying water for Barack Obama.” The Wisconsin Republican replied, “I think it kind of goes without saying that there’s definitely a media bias. … I’m a conservative person, I’m used to media bias. We expected media bias going into this.”
Doug Schoen was Bill Clinton’s pollster in the White House and Pat Caddell had the same position for Jimmy Carter. These are not “right wing” bloggers and pundits. These two men have been as in the center of Democratic Party politics as it gets for the last 35 years.
We have written about the incredible amounts of media bias that has been at a whole new level since 2008, and while that bias has been there since the 1960’s, it has never been as outrageous as it is today.
Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen with Megyn Kelly:
To see the entire video where Pat Caddell makes his case go HERE.
Here is the Gallup Poll that is referred to in the conversation:
September 21, 2012
U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High
Fewer Americans closely following political news now than in previous election years
by Lymari Morales
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust is up from the past few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in years prior to 2004.
The record distrust in the media, based on a survey conducted Sept. 6-9, 2012, also means that negativity toward the media is at an all-time high for a presidential election year. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases every election year compared with the year prior. The current gap between negative and positive views — 20 percentage points — is by far the highest Gallup has recorded since it began regularly asking the question in the 1990s. Trust in the media was much higher, and more positive than negative, in the years prior to 2004 — as high as 72% when Gallup asked this question three times in the 1970s.
This year’s decline in media trust is driven by independents and Republicans. The 31% and 26%, respectively, who express a great deal or fair amount of trust are record lows and are down significantly from last year. Republicans’ level of trust this year is similar to what they expressed in the fall of 2008, implying that they are especially critical of election coverage.
More broadly, Republicans continue to express the least trust in the media, while Democrats express the most. Independents’ trust fell below the majority level in 2004 and has continued to steadily decline.
Lyon also talks about how the Obama Administration abuses the Justice Department to frighten reporters.
Amber Lyon
And now CNN is threatening award winning reporter Amber Lyon for blowing the whistle.
Those who know journalism know that CNN International is a joke. It is biased and milk-toast government/corporate sponsored news. We have been aware of this for a number of years, but even so, you can imagine our surprise to see one of the biggest names at CNN go public saying just that. She also talks about how the Obama Administration is abusing the “Espionage Act” to go after reporters who report things they don’t like.
Of course government/corporate sponsored news is nothing new in the elite media:
ABC edited the film “The Path to 9/11” at the insistence of the Clinton’s and the Democratic Leadership and refuses to release the film on DVD (LINK – LINK – VIDEO)
NBC shut down the show “The Playboy Club” (which was more about Chicago politics than bunnies) under pressure from the White House and is not releasing shows to pay services,
The White House launched a profanity laced tirade against CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson for her very responsible coverage of the Justice Department Gun Running Scandal (VIDEO). CBS has now backed off of the story and prevented Atkinson from doing radio interviews for some time after her interview on Laura Ingraham.
Why didn’t CNN’s international arm air its own documentary on Bahrain’s Arab Spring repression?
A former CNN correspondent defies threats from her former employer to speak out about self-censorship at the network.
In late March 2011, as the Arab Spring was spreading, CNN sent a four-person crew to Bahrain to produce a one-hour documentary on the use of internet technologies and social media by democracy activists in the region. Featuring on-air investigative correspondent Amber Lyon, the CNN team had a very eventful eight-day stay in that small, US-backed kingdom.
By the time the CNN crew arrived, many of the sources who had agreed to speak to them were either in hiding or had disappeared. Regime opponents whom they interviewed suffered recriminations, as did ordinary citizens who worked with them as fixers. Leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was charged with crimes shortly after speaking to the CNN team. A doctor who gave the crew a tour of his village and arranged meetings with government opponents, Saeed Ayyad, had his house burned to the ground shortly after. Their local fixer was fired ten days after working with them.
The CNN crew itself was violently detained by regime agents in front of Rajab’s house. As they described it after returning to the US, “20 heavily-armed men”, whose faces were “covered with black ski masks”, “jumped from military vehicles”, and then “pointed machine guns at” the journalists, forcing them to the ground. The regime’s security forces seized their cameras and deleted their photos and video footage, and then detained and interrogated them for the next six hours.
So CNN spent $100,000 making this documentary and then refused to air it in spite of Lyon’s work earning awards. Then look at the lengths CNN went to to keep the story quiet – continue reading HERE.
The network is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between advertising and editorial.
Even so, the network’s relationships with governments must bear closer examination. CNNi has aggressively pursued a business strategy of extensive, multifaceted financial arrangements between the network and several of the most repressive regimes around the world which the network purports to cover. Its financial dealings with Bahrain are deep and longstanding.
CNNi’s pursuit of sponsorship revenue from the world’s regimes
CNNi’s pursuit of and reliance on revenue from Middle East regimes increased significantly after the 2008 financial crisis, which caused the network to suffer significant losses in corporate sponsorships. It thus pursued all-new, journalistically dubious ways to earn revenue from governments around the world. Bahrain has been one of the most aggressive government exploiters of the opportunities presented by CNNi.
These arrangements extend far beyond standard sponsorship agreements for advertising of the type most major media outlets feature. CNNi produces those programs in an arrangement it describes as “in association with” the government of a country, and offers regimes the ability to pay for specific programs about their country. These programs are then featured as part of CNNi’s so-called “Eye on” series (“Eye on Georgia“, “Eye on the Phillipines“, “Eye on Poland“), or “Marketplace Middle East“, all of which is designed to tout the positive economic, social and political features of that country.
The disclosure for such arrangements is often barely visible. This year, for instance, CNNi produced an “Eye on Lebanon” series, which that nation’s tourist minister boasted was intended “to market Lebanon as a tourism destination”. He said “his ministry was planning a large promotional campaign dubbed ‘Eye on Lebanon’ to feature on CNN network.”
Below is a video interview Alex Jones did with Amber Lyon. Now let us be clear – Alex Jones is NOT a reliable source of solid information as half of what he says is exaggerated or worse – with that said, listen to Amber in her own words explain what she witnessed:
[Editor’s Note – heaps of respect for Amber Lyon, and even though her eyes are opening she is still naive about a few things. Most of these “pro-democracy” protesters she talks about in the video are not pro-democracy at all, they are Muslim Brotherhood. In 1979 when Carter helped the current regime come to power they were all about Democracy….all about it until they took power and to think us they stormed our embassy and we had the Iranian hostage crisis.
The Muslim Brotherhood learned from this, they were all about “democracy” in Egypt until they got it and when the Muslim Brotherhood took power the “pro-democracy” people vanished. The same tactic was used to take over Lebanon and was also used in Libya. Once the brotherhood takes power, much like after the election in Gaza, after the election is over there is never another one; political opposition is dealt with most harshly.]
Mike Pence has said as much in letters to his colleagues several times. It is the lesson of 2006 and 2008. It is time for the governing to match the rhetoric, and now people are paying more attention. The GOP will either walk the walk or it will go the way of the Whigs.
“How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven & delivering hell before people catch on” – Thomas Sowell
I’m not the biggest fan of Eisenhower or Nixon, but they (and Reagan) are clearly preferable to this post-Reagan Republican Party. Those presidents won national majorities for a reason. They weren’t strict conservatives, but they certainly weren’t any less conservative than the Bushes, McCain, or Romney. They didn’t pretend they were going to abolish the welfare state — often, they didn’t even pretend they would cut the welfare state — unlike so many of today’s Republicans, who don’t follow through but do use their rhetoric to polarize. That gives us the worst of both worlds: big government plus the delusional sense within one party that it represents the antithesis of big government and may freely hate other Americans who don’t mouth the mantra. And what goes for big government goes for Judeo-Christian values, a strong national defense, and all the rest: the GOP’s rhetoric occupies a separate mental compartment from its actions, even as its voters and ideological apologists continue to believe that there is a profound moral difference between them and the rest of the country. It’s a losing strategy, and worse, it’s made the country ungovernable even as government grows.
“If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X
Political Arena 