7/29/2010

Here is everything wrong with journalism

And you wonder why magazines like Time and Newsweek are reporting subscription losses. In addition, newspapers are not doing so well. People are tired of hearing the point of view of liberal reporters. This listserv does a good job about revealing how they think.

Liberal journalists suggest government censor Fox News
By Jonathan Strong - The Daily Caller 12:01 AM 07/21/2010

If you were in the presence of a man having a heart attack, how would you respond? As he clutched his chest in desperation and pain, would you call 911? Would you try to save him from dying? Of course you would.

But if that man was Rush Limbaugh, and you were Sarah Spitz, a producer for National Public Radio (update: Spitz was a producer for NPR affiliate KCRW for the show Left, Right & Center), that isn’t what you’d do at all.

In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”


Spitz’s hatred for Limbaugh seems intemperate, even imbalanced. On Journolist, where conservatives are regarded not as opponents but as enemies, it barely raised an eyebrow.

In the summer of 2009, agitated citizens from across the country flocked to town hall meetings to berate lawmakers who had declared support for President Obama’s health care bill. For most people, the protests seemed like an exercise in participatory democracy, rowdy as some of them became.

On Journolist, the question was whether the protestors were garden-variety fascists or actual Nazis.

“You know, at the risk of violating Godwin’s law, is anyone starting to see parallels here between the teabaggers and their tactics and the rise of the Brownshirts?” asked Bloomberg’s Ryan Donmoyer. “Esp. Now that it’s getting violent? Reminds me of the Beer Hall fracases of the 1920s.”

Richard Yeselson, a researcher for an organized labor group who also writes for liberal magazines, agreed. “They want a deficit driven militarist/heterosexist/herrenvolk state,” Yeselson wrote. “This is core of the Bush/Cheney base transmorgrified into an even more explicitly racialized/anti-cosmopolitan constituency. Why? Um, because the president is a black guy named Barack Hussein Obama. But it’s all the same old nuts in the same old bins with some new labels: the gun nuts, the anti tax nuts, the religious nuts, the homophobes, the anti-feminists, the anti-abortion lunatics, the racist/confederate crackpots, the anti-immigration whackos (who feel Bush betrayed them) the pathological government haters (which subsumes some of the othercategories, like the gun nuts and the anti-tax nuts).”

“I’m not saying these guys are capital F-fascists,” added blogger Lindsay Beyerstein, “but they don’t want limited government. Their desired end looks more like a corporate state than a rugged individualist paradise. The rank and file wants a state that will reach into the intimate of citizens when it comes to sex, reproductive freedom, censorship, and rampant incarceration in the name of law and order.”

On Journolist, there was rarely such thing as an honorable political disagreement between the left and right, though there were many disagreements on the left. In the view of many who’ve posted to the list-serv, conservatives aren’t simply wrong, they are evil. And while journalists are trained never to presume motive, Journolist members tend to assume that the other side is acting out of the darkest and most dishonorable motives.

When the writer Victor Davis Hanson wrote an article about immigration for National Review, for example, blogger Ed Kilgore didn’t even bother to grapple with Hanson’s arguments. Instead Kilgore dismissed Hanson’s piece out of hand as “the kind of Old White Guy cultural reaction that is at the heart of the Tea Party Movement. It’s very close in spirit to the classic 1970s racist tome, The Camp of the Saints, where White Guys struggle to make up their minds whether to go out and murder brown people or just give up.”

The very existence of Fox News, meanwhile, sends Journolisters into paroxysms of rage. When Howell Raines charged that the network had a conservative bias, the members of Journolist discussed whether the federal government should shut the channel down.

“I am genuinely scared” of Fox, wrote Guardian columnist Daniel Davies, because it “shows you that a genuinely shameless and unethical media organization *cannot* be controlled by any form of peer pressure or self-regulation, and nor can it be successfully cold-shouldered or ostracized. In order to have even a semblance of control, you need a tough legal framework.” Davies, a Brit, frequently argued the United States needed stricter libel laws.

“I agree,” said Michael Scherer of Time Magazine. Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”

Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggested that the federal government simply yank Fox off the air. “I hate to open this can of worms,” he wrote, “but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”

And so a debate ensued. Time’s Scherer, who had seemed to express support for increased regulation of Fox, suddenly appeared to have qualms: “Do you really want the political parties/white house picking which media operations are news operations and which are a less respectable hybrid of news and political advocacy?”

But Zasloff stuck to his position. “I think that they are doing that anyway; they leak to whom they want to for political purposes,” he wrote. “If this means that some White House reporters don’t get a press pass for the press secretary’s daily briefing and that this means that they actually have to, you know, do some reporting and analysis instead of repeating press releases, then I’ll take that risk.”

Scherer seemed alarmed. “So we would have press briefings in which only media organizations that are deemed by the briefer to be acceptable are invited to attend?”

John Judis, a senior editor at the New Republic, came down on Zasloff’s side, the side of censorship. “Pre-Fox,” he wrote, “I’d say Scherer’s questions made sense as a question of principle. Now it is only tactical.”

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/21/liberal-journalists-suggest-government-shut-down-fox-news/print/#ixzz0v63xInGq

TANCREDO: The case for impeachment

TANCREDO: The case for impeachment
Obama has violated his oath of office over immigration

John Kerry...Do as I say, not as I do!

Gleeful GOP: John Kerry sinks Dems
Hope boat tax flap has voters jumping ship

7/28/2010

Exellence in government....NJ Gov. Chris Christie

We need more people like this. His honesty is sorely needed!















Hollywood comes out to boycott Arizona

Rage Against the Machine, Michael Moore Lead Arizona Boycott

Oh no! Hollywood idiot liberals are boycotting Arizona because of the illegal immigration law! Here is the result of how the boycott is going...

Arizona Hotels Thriving Despite Boycotts Over Immigration Law

Just goes to show you how effective Hollywood idiot liberals are! In regards to Michael Moore, it's safe to assume the state's donut supply is available to all still.

Arizona immigration law...home grown protests

"hundreds of Los Angeles union members and activists are planning a bus caravan to Phoenix on Thursday" Let's see, union idiots are sent from another state to protest a law that was voted on, and supported by a majority of people in another state. That is so...useful! I am saddened that these people rushing to Arizona to protest cannot see their futility and stupidity.

L.A. union members, activists to caravan to Arizona to protest immigration law

More than 550 people representing 32 unions plan to travel in 11 buses for a rally at the state Capitol and a vigil with local groups on the day the law is set to take effect.

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
July 28, 2010

As a judge weighs whether to halt Arizona's controversial immigration law, hundreds of Los Angeles union members and activists are planning a bus caravan to Phoenix on Thursday — the day the law is set to take effect.

More than 550 people plan to ride on 11 buses to Arizona to stage a protest and launch a partnership with Arizona groups to boost voter registration. During the one-day trip, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, participants will meet with Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, march to the state Capitol and hold a vigil. The participants represent 32 unions.

SB 1070, signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer in April and supported by a majority of Arizona residents, makes it a state crime to lack immigration documents and requires police to determine the immigration status of people they lawfully stop and subsequently suspect are in the country illegally.

"As Californians and Angelenos, we want to see how we can help not only defeat this specific law but also to help the Latino community be more active in the political process," said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the labor federation. "Hopefully it will motivate some to go out and register to vote."

That is what happened in 1994 after California voters passed Proposition 187, which sought to restrict services from illegal immigrants before being struck down by the courts. More than one million California Latinos became citizens and voter registration spiked. Already, several groups in Arizona are registering voters and trying to increase Latino voter participation in an effort to shift the political landscape and stop any more anti-illegal immigrant laws from passing.

The caravan is just one of many activities planned Thursday. Immigration activists have declared it a "national day of action," with events planned in several cities to protest implementation of the Arizona law. They include a march across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, a vigil outside a detention center in Georgia and a unity event in Chicago featuring faith, community and political leaders, along with 200 children. Chicago leaders also plan to deliver 2,000 letters to Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts asking him to move the baseball team's spring training from Arizona to Florida.

The Obama administration filed a challenge to the law and argued in court last week that the federal government has the ultimate authority to implement immigration law and policy. The same day, immigrant rights groups argued that the law would lead to racial profiling and harassment of Latinos. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton did not say whether she would stop the law or when she would issue a ruling.

Meanwhile, Arizona is gearing up for Thursday, with officers receiving training and Phoenix officials planning for demonstrations. There also will be protests throughout California, including in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Redlands.

Some who signed up for Thursday's bus caravan said they felt compelled to go to Arizona to show their opposition to the law and their support for immigrants.

"I look at things in a historical context," said Carlos Leon, 47, a detention officer with the Los Angeles County Probation Department who decided that he needed to speak up for the oppressed.

Leon said he believes the law is unjust and will result in people being questioned about their status based on their looks.

Even though his family has been in the United States for generations, Leon said he is still subjected to stereotypes. If the law goes into effect, he said he believes it will lead to more stereotyping and more fear among Latinos.

Rob Robbins, 71, a home care worker in Long Beach, said he grew up black in segregated Alabama in the 1940s and '50s and sees parallels between the racism of that time and now.

"Anytime I see signs of that coming alive in our country, it rises my indignation," he said. "SB 1070 basically says you are guilty because of how you look. That, to me, is not American."

Robbins said having so many illegal immigrants in the United States is a problem, but Arizona's law isn't the solution.

"We have borders in this country for a purpose," he said. "That is where the problem is, and that is where the problem should be dealt with."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0728-arizona-activists-20100728,0,5491368,print.story

7/25/2010

Reid to Netroots: "We're Going To Have a Public Option"

Completely delusional...

LAS VEGAS -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeking to console liberal activists who were disappointed by the final version of the national health care law, assured them that there would eventually be a public option.

"We're going to have a public option," Reid said. "It's just a question of when."

Reid's general comments reflected the same overall message to progressives that President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered earlier today. It essentially boils down to: We've done a lot of stuff, but we still have a lot of unfinished business, so campaign for us again.

During a question and answer session, Reid also argued against "fear tactics of those who say Social Security is going broke. It's not."

This is part of a strategy I described earlier this week, with Democrats renewing the spectre of Social Security cuts to use as an issue to use against Republicans.

"Social Security is the most successful social program in the history of the world," he said.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/24/reid-to-netroots-were-going-to

7/18/2010

Govt. nationalization of 401K

Disturbing stuff, seeing how government handling of Social Security is a joke. 401K and Roth IRAs (to name a few) are the direct result of a hedge against the broken Social Security system...and now big government socialists was to nationalize that. This is something to keep in mind as a basis for Obama's big government financial industry schemes.

Part 1


Part 2

7/16/2010

Town Hall meeting in CA...Dem reply to the DOJ Black Panther issue

CA Democrat Brad Sherman is "simply not aware of that case." Further, in this interview the discussion is fairly interesting. Kirsten Powers, and NY Post columnist who stuck up for the DOJ, had a pretty weak stance. Apparently Megyn Kelly is not to be messed with!

7/12/2010

Oh no! Those racist tea party elements!


If anyone with a brain does their research, a few with those stupid signs Michelle Obama is yapping about are Lyndon LaRouche supporters. Lyndon LaRouche is similar to a cult leader with a rabid (and stupid) following.

Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party


While the progressive Marx loving dopes in the white house associate the Tea Party movement as racists, the DOJ, Administration, and Obama loving press corps are surprisingly silent silent on this...



It all started with this...




I am sure his mother is so proud! I wonder if you can hire Samir Shabaz to rant at parties and what not, he'd be much more entertaining than a clown or a pony!

Dem. Congressman throws a hissy fit when you ask for the truth

So you question a Dem. congressman to acknowledge the congressional budget offices own data on the cost of Obama-care and you get “Do Not Accuse Me Of Not Saying The Truth!” Just another example of the uselessness of big government liberals suckling on the administrations tit, and throwing a fit when they are told they are 5 years old, and have to stop it.

7/07/2010

After lawsuit, AFL-CIO says government must cut ties with Arizona cops

I need to ask, why would a labor union give a crap about the Arizona law? This has nothing to do with safe working conditions or collective wage and benefit negotiating. This has everything to do with their Marxist agenda and support for Amnesty for illegals.

After lawsuit, AFL-CIO says government must cut ties with Arizona cops
By Jordan Fabian - 07/06/10 05:28 PM ET

The nation's largest labor group on Tuesday doubled down on its claim that the federal government should cut ties with Arizona law enforcement in the wake of its lawsuit against the state.

The Department of Justice filed a suit Tuesday in Arizona court against the state challenging its controversial immigration law, also known at SB 1070. The AFL-CIO praised the administration's decision in a release, but said that it did not go far enough.

In May, the group urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to eliminate cooperative programs with the state's law enforcement agencies. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka repeated that claim Tuesday, saying it could provide a more immediate solution.

"The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security can — and should — revoke the authority that the Department has delegated to Arizona under the 287(g) program," he said. "Without that authority, Arizona will not be able to implement misguided laws such as SB1070."

The 287(g) program is a partnership between federal and local law enforcement officials that provides federal training for local agents to enforce immigration laws. DHS officials have said that the agreements would actually be more beneficial to local authorities, such as Arizona, because they could receive federal training for which the Arizona law does not provide.

The statement is a sign that pressure on the administration from both sides could continue throughout the legal proceedings.

Republicans and Arizona Democrats have both criticized the lawsuit, saying that the state is enforcing federal immigration laws that have been neglected by federal law enforcement.

Napolitano said in a statement Tuesday that her department will continue to enforce existing laws.

“We are actively working with members of Congress from both parties to comprehensively reform our immigration system at the federal level because this challenge cannot be solved by a patchwork of inconsistent state laws, of which this is one," she said. "While this bipartisan effort to reform our immigration system progresses, the Department of Homeland Security will continue to enforce the laws on the books by enhancing border security and removing criminal aliens from this country."
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/107331-after-lawsuit-afl-cio-says-government-must-cut-ties-with-arizona-cops

7/05/2010

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: Barack Obama: The great jobs killer

As former President Ronald Reagan might have said, "Obama, there you go again."

The current occupant of the White House claims to know how to create jobs. He claims jobs have been created. But so far the score is Great Obama Depression 2.2 million lost jobs, Obama 0 -- a blowout.

Obama is as hopeless, helpless, clueless and bankrupt of good ideas as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in late September. This "community organizer" knows as much about private-sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics.

It's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as "tax cuts" even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money).

As far as the taxpayers -- the people who actually take risks with our own money to create small businesses and jobs and pay most of the taxes -- we require protection under the Endangered Species Act.

You won't find proof of the damage Obama is doing on Wall Street, but rather on Main Street. My friends are all part of the economic engine of America: Small business. Small business creates 75 percent of new jobs (and a majority of all jobs). I called one friend who was a wealthy restaurant owner. He says business is off by 60 percent. He's drowning in debt. He won't last much longer. His wealth is gone.

I called another friend in the business of home improvement. He says business is off 90 percent from two years ago. My contractor just filed personal bankruptcy. She won't be building any more homes. The hair salon where I've had my hair cut for years closed earlier this year. Bankrupt. But here's the clincher -- ESPN Zone just closed all their restaurants across the country. If they can't make it selling cheap food and overpriced beer with 100 big screens blaring every sporting event on the planet to a sports-crazed society, we are all in deep, deep trouble.

I've polled all my friends who own small businesses -- many of them in the Internet and high-tech fields. They all agree that in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to avoid employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors or part-time employees provided by temp agencies.

The days of jobs in the private sector with big salaries, full benefits, and pensions are over. We've all seen where those kinds of jobs get you as a business owner -- in Bankruptcy Court or surviving on government welfare like GM and Chrysler. Or in the case of government itself -- completely insolvent, but surviving by ripping off taxpayers and fraudulently running printing presses at the Fed all day and night to print money by the trillions.

Unfortunately, small businesses don't have the power to impose taxes or print money. So unlike government, we'll just have to cut employees and run lean and mean.

It has now become clear that, outside of the burgeoning field of Census takers, there will be no major increase in new jobs for years to come. Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson's first movie "Mad Max." Without a printing press in Obama's world, you're just plain out of luck.

The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion-dollar corporate handouts (neatly named "stimulus") may have kept big business in the money for the past 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real canary in the coal mine.

My small business-owning friends aren't creating one job. Not one. They are shedding jobs. They are learning to do more with fewer employees. They are creating high-tech businesses that don't need employees. And many business owners are making plans to leave the country. In a high-tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere, Obama has a problem. His one-trick pony -- raise taxes, raise taxes, raising taxes -- is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.

So who is going to pay Obama's taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama's jobs? Not his voters -- they've never created a job in their lives.

So what is Obama going to do? Maybe he can get Pamela Anderson on the line.

Wayne Allyn Root, a former vice presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, writes from Henderson. His column appears every other week.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/barack-obama--the-great-jobs-killer-97758294.html

7/01/2010

National debt soars to highest level since WWII

National debt soars to highest level since WWII

The ACLU, protecting the civil liberties of Americans

Well, if you define American as being an illegal alien, then yes.

As Holiday Weekend Approaches, ACLU Affiliates Issue Alerts To Individuals Traveling To Arizona

Arizona Racial Profiling Law Threatens Civil Liberties

NEW YORK – In response to civil liberties threats caused by the recent passage of Arizona's racial profiling law, state-based American Civil Liberties Union affiliates across the country are issuing travel alerts informing individuals of their rights when stopped by law enforcement when traveling in Arizona. The unconstitutional law, known as SB 1070, requires law enforcement agents to demand "papers" from people they stop who they suspect are not authorized to be in the U.S. If individuals are unable to prove to officers that they are permitted to be in the U.S., they may be subject to warrantless arrest without any probable cause that they have committed a crime.

Although the law is not scheduled to go into effect until July 29, the ACLU is concerned that some law enforcement officers are already beginning to act on provisions of the law. Moreover, there has been a history of rampant racial profiling by law enforcement in Arizona, especially in Maricopa County, as well as a stated anti-immigrant policy of "attrition through enforcement" by Arizona lawmakers meant to create a hostile enough environment for Latinos and other people of color that they voluntarily leave the state.

"ACLU affiliates across the country are issuing these alerts because it is imperative that individuals understand their rights before traveling in Arizona," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Under Arizona's racial profiling law, people who look 'foreign' are more likely to be stopped for minor infractions and then asked for their 'papers' if police believe, based on their appearance or accent, that they could be in the country unlawfully. We hope the alerts provide people with some measure of protection from illegal harassment from law enforcement and inform them of their rights should they encounter it."

In addition to the travel alerts, the ACLU has made available in English and Spanish materials on individuals' rights if stopped by law enforcement in Arizona or other states as a result of SB 1070 or for any other reason. The materials include a downloadable card with instructions – applicable in any state – on coping with vehicle stops and questioning by police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or the FBI, as well as a Frequently Asked Questions document about SB 1070.

The ACLU and other leading civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the Arizona law in May, but until the law is struck down, the ACLU affiliates warn that individuals traveling in Arizona must be aware of their rights if stopped there.

The following ACLU affiliates are issuing travel alerts today and have provided information on their respective websites: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Northern California, Southern California, San Diego & Imperial Counties, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas and Western Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Eastern Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Materials informing individuals of their rights when stopped by law enforcement and more information about the Arizona law, including an ACLU video and slide show, can be found at: www.aclu.org/what-happens-arizona-stops-arizona

Materials informing individuals of their rights when stopped by law enforcement optimized for mobile devices is available at: mobile.aclu.org

More information about the ACLU’s lawsuit, including information on co-counsel and plaintiffs, can be found at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/aclu-and-civil-rights-groups-file-legal-challenge-arizona-racial-pr
Published on American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org)
Source URL: http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/holiday-weekend-approaches-aclu-affiliates-issue-alerts-individuals