Wednesday, November 30, 2011
JUST LIKE Tea Parties!
It's actually sooo hard to distinguish them!
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness Wednesday to arrest or drive out some of the longest-lasting protesters since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country...Because that looks good on job applications...
Opamago Cascini, 29, said the night had been a blast and he was willing to get arrested.
"It's easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk," Cascini said...
Police used a cherry picker to pluck five men from trees. Two others were in a tree house — one wore a crown and another taunted police with an American flag...Ha ha, yeah, I remember when Sarah Palin did that!
"We acknowledge the fact that we are going to have to leave this space .... but in another sense this has been our home for almost two months and no one wants to see their home taken away from them," Philadelphia protestor Bri Barton, 22, said before police began clearing out the camp...But in a much more real sense, you're unlawfully taking over a public space that belongs to all of us and, frankly, 99% of us weren't thrilled that you took our space away from us.
Before police arrived in large numbers, protesters were upbeat and the mood was almost festive. A protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street. A woman showed off the reindeer antlers she had mounted on her gas mask.Brings a tear to the eye, don't it?
Some were smoking pot, some were carrying gas masks, others wore hoodies and had bandanas around their faces...
Two men who constructed an elaborate tree house lashed bamboo sticks together with twine to push away any ladder police might use to evict them.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Rex's "Truth Goggles" Column Riddled With Deception
So on Sunday Rex rolled out the old deception wagon again to lie to Times Union readers. In a surprising twist, his lies this time are in a column about truthiness.
He begins his mindless pandering to the left by essentially comparing anyone that believes in conservative principles to be as stupid as some woman that had cement injected into her fanny. Nice.
At the MIT Media Lab, a graduate student named Dan Schultz is creating what he calls "truth goggles." These aren't goggles in the actual sense of the word, like those 3D glasses at the movies. It's software.
If it works, it will detect untruthful phrases in what's printed -- like, it might highlight "SuperGlue can enhance your figure!" in this column, if you're reading it digitally. It would "know" the active ingredients of SuperGlue and the deleterious effects they could have on blood flow.
Ah, Rex dreams, if only we could apply "truth goggles" to conservative principles, we'd all be devoted sucklers at the teats of big government in no time. Alas, he sees, too many Americans are dumb asses that don't know enough to see that conservative positions are all bullspit.
It's the failure of Americans to be curious and to look unblinking at facts that underlies a lot of our civic malaise. We're predisposed to settle for easy answers. We're easy marks for the sloganeers, eager consumers of ever-so-simple solutions to problems of immense complexity.
Unfortunately for Rex, doggone it, there just isn't room in his column for "ever-so-simple solutions" and "sloganeers" peddling things like "Hope and Change!" and "We are the ones we've been waiting for!" and how an inexperienced politician will control the oceans.
So we believe we can fix the economy by cutting spending and government regulation;
Rex, you see, portrays this as a laughable lie, believable only to idiots that don't know any better...despite the way the Carter economy was "fixed" under Reagan doing those exact things. Would the "truth goggles" point that out?
we can fight terrorism by talking tough,
I see Rex's straw man is back, even Democrats don't actually make any such claim.
and shut down the Occupy protests by telling the participants to take a bath and get a job.
That poor straw man...here he takes a double-handful of straw and crams it into liberal bogeyman Newt Gingrich's mouth - the intent is not that this would "shut down the Occupy protests" but would what these people need to do to get a job and pay their bills...I bet Rex is secretly hoping those truth goggles never get turned on his paper!
We'll fix public schools by squeezing their funding and avoid the evil of sexual abuse of children by looking the other way.
At this point I'm afraid I don't even know what Rex is talking about as these idiotic statements don't remotely match any claims by anyone that I've ever seen, heard, or even heard of before.
It took two clicks of my computer to learn that Sen. John Kerry had not been fully truthful when he claimed last week that the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction study had concluded we need $2 trillion of new revenues to balance the budget. It was even easier to learn why Mitt Romney's TV spot targeting President Obama's economic policies was clearly intentionally deceitful.
Really? Notice how slyly Rex indicates that he was able to find proof that Kerry had lied, whereas it was "easier" to learn, not that the ad was deceitful, but that it was "intentionally deceitful". Really, Rex? What website did you go to for this in less than "two clicks" of your computer? I guess I missed it when the ad creators gave an interview and said they'd "intentionally" made a "deceitful" ad...in fact, I could almost see how Rex is being "intentionally deceitful" about finding any such thing by 'clicking his computer'. Oh, but that's OK if you don't believe him...it's just because YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!
Maybe you'd just like to believe what they tell you is true. That's almost understandable: The truth is much tougher to swallow.
--
I wonder what Rex makes of liberal 'news' hosts spouting lies like this garbage all the time: NBC's Gregory: Idea That Tax Hikes Hurt Economy 'One of the Falsehoods That's Peddled in Washington'
He begins his mindless pandering to the left by essentially comparing anyone that believes in conservative principles to be as stupid as some woman that had cement injected into her fanny. Nice.
At the MIT Media Lab, a graduate student named Dan Schultz is creating what he calls "truth goggles." These aren't goggles in the actual sense of the word, like those 3D glasses at the movies. It's software.
If it works, it will detect untruthful phrases in what's printed -- like, it might highlight "SuperGlue can enhance your figure!" in this column, if you're reading it digitally. It would "know" the active ingredients of SuperGlue and the deleterious effects they could have on blood flow.
Ah, Rex dreams, if only we could apply "truth goggles" to conservative principles, we'd all be devoted sucklers at the teats of big government in no time. Alas, he sees, too many Americans are dumb asses that don't know enough to see that conservative positions are all bullspit.
It's the failure of Americans to be curious and to look unblinking at facts that underlies a lot of our civic malaise. We're predisposed to settle for easy answers. We're easy marks for the sloganeers, eager consumers of ever-so-simple solutions to problems of immense complexity.
Unfortunately for Rex, doggone it, there just isn't room in his column for "ever-so-simple solutions" and "sloganeers" peddling things like "Hope and Change!" and "We are the ones we've been waiting for!" and how an inexperienced politician will control the oceans.
So we believe we can fix the economy by cutting spending and government regulation;
Rex, you see, portrays this as a laughable lie, believable only to idiots that don't know any better...despite the way the Carter economy was "fixed" under Reagan doing those exact things. Would the "truth goggles" point that out?
we can fight terrorism by talking tough,
I see Rex's straw man is back, even Democrats don't actually make any such claim.
and shut down the Occupy protests by telling the participants to take a bath and get a job.
That poor straw man...here he takes a double-handful of straw and crams it into liberal bogeyman Newt Gingrich's mouth - the intent is not that this would "shut down the Occupy protests" but would what these people need to do to get a job and pay their bills...I bet Rex is secretly hoping those truth goggles never get turned on his paper!
We'll fix public schools by squeezing their funding and avoid the evil of sexual abuse of children by looking the other way.
At this point I'm afraid I don't even know what Rex is talking about as these idiotic statements don't remotely match any claims by anyone that I've ever seen, heard, or even heard of before.
It took two clicks of my computer to learn that Sen. John Kerry had not been fully truthful when he claimed last week that the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction study had concluded we need $2 trillion of new revenues to balance the budget. It was even easier to learn why Mitt Romney's TV spot targeting President Obama's economic policies was clearly intentionally deceitful.
Really? Notice how slyly Rex indicates that he was able to find proof that Kerry had lied, whereas it was "easier" to learn, not that the ad was deceitful, but that it was "intentionally deceitful". Really, Rex? What website did you go to for this in less than "two clicks" of your computer? I guess I missed it when the ad creators gave an interview and said they'd "intentionally" made a "deceitful" ad...in fact, I could almost see how Rex is being "intentionally deceitful" about finding any such thing by 'clicking his computer'. Oh, but that's OK if you don't believe him...it's just because YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!
Maybe you'd just like to believe what they tell you is true. That's almost understandable: The truth is much tougher to swallow.
--
I wonder what Rex makes of liberal 'news' hosts spouting lies like this garbage all the time: NBC's Gregory: Idea That Tax Hikes Hurt Economy 'One of the Falsehoods That's Peddled in Washington'
GREGORY: But the notion, but the notion that tax cuts or tax increases somehow impact economic growth, we know historically that's simply not the case. President Clinton raised taxes during boom times. President Bush lowered taxes did not spur great job creation. Isn't that one of the falsehoods that's peddled in Washington?And, as Newsbusters notes, after the cuts under Bush that "did not spur great job creation", 8 MILLION jobs were created in America. "Isn't that one of the falsehoods that peddled in Washington?" Well, certainly on the news the untrue "facts" Gregory is spewing are peddled.
GROVER NORQUIST: No. If you take a look at when you cut marginal tax rates, the strong growth in the last six years of the '90s started the day the Republicans captured the House and Senate. Didn't happen in the first two years, certainly didn't happen with the tax increase, and there was a cut of the capital gains tax that helped stimulate economic growth there.
The Bush tax cuts 2001 were not designed to be stimulative to the economy. There were a lot of tax credits in there, they weren't real reductions in rates. The 2003 rate reductions you had on cap gains and others, that gave you four years of strong economic growth that lasted until the Democrats won the House and Senate, and you knew those tax cuts were going away.
JUST LIKE the Tea Party!
Yeah, I remember that big Tea Party where Sarah Palin spoke and then they made a gay porno in the crowd...right?
Gay Porn Movie Filmed At Occupy Oakland
Oh, hey, remember that UC Davis protest where the campus cop pepper sprayed a bunch of "peaceful protesters" just sitting there not being a problem? Yeah, not so much:
UC Davis Student Admits Protesters Surrounded Cops and Wouldn't Let Them Leave
Gay Porn Movie Filmed At Occupy Oakland
Oh, hey, remember that UC Davis protest where the campus cop pepper sprayed a bunch of "peaceful protesters" just sitting there not being a problem? Yeah, not so much:
UC Davis Student Admits Protesters Surrounded Cops and Wouldn't Let Them Leave
"We had encircled them, and they were trying to leave, and they were trying to clear a path. And so, we sat down, linked arms, and said that if they wanted to clear the path, they would have to go through us."
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Your Random Saturday
Lessons more people need to learn:salami decline! Climategate II, the return of the stupid 'scientists' caught making stuff up: link
Let's look at corporate taxes and ask, "Who pays them?"Ouch:
Virginia has a car tax. Does the car pay the tax? In most political jurisdictions, there's a property tax. Does property pay the tax? You say: "Williams, that's lunacy. Neither a car nor property pays taxes. Only flesh-and-blood people pay taxes!"...When tax is levied on a corporation, who pays it?...
If a tax is levied on a corporation and if it is to survive, it will have one of several responses or some combination thereof. One response is to raise the price of its product, so customers share part of the burden. Another response is to lower dividends, so shareholders share a part of the burden. And a considerable portion of reduced dividend burden falls on ordinary non-rich people...
Politicians and leftist elite get away with corporate tax demagoguery because economists haven't done well in making our subject understandable to ordinary people, not to mention that we have derelict news media people with little understanding.
I ask Boone if there are others. He shrugs. In fact, there are others -- an endless list of others. There are medical institutions nationwide funded by him. Brain centers. Cancer centers. Eye centers. Hospitals. For youngsters, there are educational programs; for the elderly there are retirement communities; and in between, for those in-need, there are all manner of shelters, mentoring programs, activity centers, meals-on-wheels and the like.Huh...I saw the foofah about the vote on the 'reaffirmation of the National motto', but I didn't know what it was all about - now I do:
Museums have benefited, so have public policy groups and botanical gardens, too. And there is money -- lots of money -- for dozens of military groups, especially for wounded warriors. That one tugs fiercely at this man.
How much in all? I ask. Boone smiles and answers quietly, "This year we'll hit the billion mark." Yes, as in $1 billion in gifting. "And since I turned 70, I've paid $700 million more in taxes." Then he adds almost in disbelief: "And they're saying I haven't done my fair share?"
I don't know if my old friend Boone considered ours a private chat -- the hell with it. Think about this charity, you Occupied Do-Nothings, the next time you bash the 1 percent that have been so instrumental in helping you in more ways than you'll ever know -- or appreciate.
“In God We Trust” is the national motto, even though Barack Obama told a Jakarta, Indonesia audience last November that our national motto is E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one)...Time to play more hide the
The real motto is, indeed, “In God We Trust,” and Congress re-emphasized this on Oct. 25, passing a resolution saying so in a 396 to 9 vote. Sponsored by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), the bill affirms the motto and “encourages its display in public buildings and government institutions.”
Forbes explained that the reminder was needed in light of Obama’s recasting of the motto and also because of the mysterious replacement of the motto at the National Capitol Visitors Center “with stars in a replica of the House Chamber – and cropping an actual picture of the chamber so you could not see the words ‘”In God We Trust.’’”
Well, the idea of affirming In God We Trust was too much for Jerrold Nadler, the New York progressive who represents ACORN in the House of Representatives and also the socialist Working Families Party and Occupy Wall Street.
“Here we are, back to irrelevant issue debates, the kind of thing people do when they have run out of ideas, when they have run out of excuses, when they have nothing to offer a middle class that is hurting and that has run out of patience,” Nadler said, explaining his vote against the resolution...
Jay Carney, Obama’s spokestheologian, further mangled things by asserting that, “I believe that the phrase from the Bible is ‘the Lord helps those who help themselves.’” Sorry, Jay, that phrase is not in the Bible, which the White House later admitted...
It’s not that Nadler opposes resolutions per se. He sponsored a resolution in 2009 commemorating the 40th anniversary of the drag queen revolt known as the Stonewall riots. He also sponsored a resolution in 2009 condemning the murder of “pro-choice doctor” and “health care provider” George Tiller, the Wichita abortionist. Tiller, who was shot to death at his church, was the nation’s leading practitioner of the gruesome infanticide known as partial birth abortion...
‘“We're more godly than the other people, and by the way, let's waste time and divert people's attention from the real issues that we're not dealing with,’ like unemployment.”
Well, okay. How about unemployment? Nadler reliably voted against the job creation bills that the House passed in recent months, all of which were aborted in Harry Reid’s Senate upon delivery...
Asked by the Washington Times about complaints from businesses in his district around Zuccotti Park that are experiencing loss of customers, restroom overload, broken sinks and other delights, Nadler responded, “I think businesses are being damaged a hell of a lot more by our stupid economic policies and all of us have to live with expressions of democratic demonstrations or whatever."
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Give Me A Break
Dear YNN,
I do not give a rat's shaven fanny what the people sleeping in tents in a park have to say about my Christmas shopping.
You're welcome.
I do not give a rat's shaven fanny what the people sleeping in tents in a park have to say about my Christmas shopping.
You're welcome.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Think About It
Ponder this...
The left and their PR firm (mainstream media) expended almost unimaginable amounts of effort in trying to discredit perfectly mainstream protests, the Tea Parties, claiming they'd never amount to anything. They led to a national political shift of historic proportions.
The left and their PR firm are expending almost unimaginable amounts of effort in trying to legitimize utterly fringe protests, the Occupy Public Spaces, claiming they're going to do great things to fix America, which is broken. They've made no effort to find candidates for next year's elections or even really come to a consensus on what they want, apart from stuff that's nuttier than squirrel poop like abolish all debt everywhere for everyone's everything.
Hmmmm...
On reflection, and this is unrelated, doesn't the same sort of thing apply to their stance on stem cell vs. embryonic stem cell research?
The left and their PR firm (mainstream media) expended almost unimaginable amounts of effort in trying to discredit perfectly mainstream protests, the Tea Parties, claiming they'd never amount to anything. They led to a national political shift of historic proportions.
The left and their PR firm are expending almost unimaginable amounts of effort in trying to legitimize utterly fringe protests, the Occupy Public Spaces, claiming they're going to do great things to fix America, which is broken. They've made no effort to find candidates for next year's elections or even really come to a consensus on what they want, apart from stuff that's nuttier than squirrel poop like abolish all debt everywhere for everyone's everything.
Hmmmm...
On reflection, and this is unrelated, doesn't the same sort of thing apply to their stance on stem cell vs. embryonic stem cell research?
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Get Cracking
I really don't understand all the fuss. The campers occupying public parks without permits complain that they can't find jobs to pay off their puppetry college loans. Nobody seems able to see past the grime, public defecation, odors, attacks on the police, and general unkempt state to the genius of their gender roles degree.
So?
I don't get it. Why don't they just hire each other! I mean, c'mon, this isn't rocket science, we don't need Herman Cain (who actually was a rocket scientist working for the military) to figure this out. The filthy rich (as opposed to the filthy rich, or, well, you know what I mean) don't create jobs with their money, they hide it under mattresses and, I dunno, buy gold-plated jets or something with their money. It's not them that hire people. It's just normal people like Joe the drummer and Bob the crazy guy that kisses the trees and Sally the angry that can't understand why everyone can't just put their tents in an even line that create jobs.
So get to it, chaps. You want to "stick it to the man"? Forget about avoiding the Burlington Coat Factory on Black Friday, hire one of your fellow campers to be your...I dunno, puppet guy?
So?
I don't get it. Why don't they just hire each other! I mean, c'mon, this isn't rocket science, we don't need Herman Cain (who actually was a rocket scientist working for the military) to figure this out. The filthy rich (as opposed to the filthy rich, or, well, you know what I mean) don't create jobs with their money, they hide it under mattresses and, I dunno, buy gold-plated jets or something with their money. It's not them that hire people. It's just normal people like Joe the drummer and Bob the crazy guy that kisses the trees and Sally the angry that can't understand why everyone can't just put their tents in an even line that create jobs.
So get to it, chaps. You want to "stick it to the man"? Forget about avoiding the Burlington Coat Factory on Black Friday, hire one of your fellow campers to be your...I dunno, puppet guy?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Heck Of A Job, Leon!
Good move by Obama, promoting Leon Panetta from running the CIA to running the military.
In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community.Am I detecting a theme? Carter decimates military/intelligence. Reagan has rebuild them to win Cold War. Clinton decimates military/intelligence. Bush has to rebuild them to counter terrorist threats. Obama decimates military/intelligence...what will our next GOP president have to counter with damaged assets beginning in 2013?
The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a terror group backed by Iran.
"Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months...
"Collecting sensitive information on adversaries who are aggressively trying to uncover spies in their midst will always be fraught with risk," said the U.S. official briefed on the spy ring bust.
But others inside the American intelligence community say sloppy "tradecraft" -- the method of covert operations -- by the CIA is also to blame for the disruption of the vital spy networks...
One former senior intelligence official told ABC News that CIA officers ignored warnings that the operation could be compromised by using the same location for meetings with multiple assets.
"We were lazy and the CIA is now flying blind against Hezbollah," the former official said...
Some former U.S. intelligence officials say the developments are the result of a lack of professionalism in the U.S. intelligence community.
"We've lost the tradition of espionage," said one former official who still consults for the U.S. intelligence community. "Officers take short cuts and no one is held accountable," he said.
But at the CIA, officials say such risks come with the territory...
"If you lose an asset, one source, that's normally a setback in espionage," said Robert Baer, who was considered an expert on Hezbollah.
"But when you lose your entire station, either in Tehran or Beirut, that's a catastrophe, that just shouldn't be. And the only way that ever happens is when you're mishandling sources."
Some Occupiers Are MUCH More Equal Than Others
Well. I guess this says it all, doesn't it? 'Occupy Wall Street protesters stay at $700-a-night hotel'
The NY Post seems to be doing the work that the NY Times won't do.
A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel...How do you think them drummers feel about the finance committee now? Poor guy, had to stay at a luxury hotel because his buddies, the ones he left to get arrested, were blocking streets so he couldn't get home.
The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.
“Tents are not for me,” he confessed, when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a “repeat” guest.
Spitzer, 24, an associate at financial-services giant Deloitte, which netted $29 billion in revenue last year, admitted he joined the protest at Zuccotti Park several times...
Meanwhile, Dutro, 35, one of only a handful of OWS leaders in charge of the movement’s $500,000 in donations, checked in on Wednesday, the night after police emptied Zuccotti Park.
While hundreds of his rebel brethren scrambled to find shelter in church basements, Dutro chose the five-star, 58-story hotel, with its lush rooms and 350-count Egyptian cotton sheets. He lives only a short taxi ride away in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
“I knew everything was going to be a clusterf--k in the morning,” he told The Post, alluding to Occupy’s own disruption plans. “How would I get over the bridge when they were shutting it down?”...
Occupiers told The Post that they witnessed other General Assembly and group leaders stay in both the W Downtown and the Marriott Hotel — and said that key players were not present when cops stormed Zuccotti.
The NY Post seems to be doing the work that the NY Times won't do.
Just The Same
The Tea Party movement held huge rallies, collected money, ran candidates, got their message out, and directly contributed to one of the most massive Congressional seat swaps in modern history. All without violence, attacking the police, becoming a public nuisance, becoming a sanitary hazard, covering up crimes in their midst (because there weren't any), or disrupting the daily lives of their fellow Americans.
Yet the Occupiers need to do all of these things to "get their message heard"?
Yeah, I'm not buying it, either.
Yet the Occupiers need to do all of these things to "get their message heard"?
Yeah, I'm not buying it, either.
Occupy Crossgates!
I see the Occupy The Public Park We Turned Into A Sewer movement is going to be 'occupying' malls on Friday...like everyone else. I guess the Apple store's black Friday deals are just too good to resist, even for these hardened drummers. Conveniently they'll just be 'protesting' at all the good sales.
Lost Message
If the Occupy A Tent movement just 'wants to be heard'...then why are they obsessed with getting arrested? Nobody's listening to you if you spend your day planning to get arrested. How about spending the day coming up with a petition or talking points for a meeting instead of list of who's getting arrested that night? Wouldn't that, I dunno, make sense?
Saturday, November 19, 2011
It's Baaaaaack
You know what I'm talking about...
Yup, the official Albany protest "tax the rich" megaphone!
It's been around before whenever people think that their arguments make more sense when screamed at unnatural levels:
And now it's back!
(Eddy Alkurabi yells instructions as protesters from Albany, Rochester and Buffalo take to the streets as the Occupy movement continues in Albany, N.Y. Nov. 17, 2011. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union))
I'm really curious what the backstory is of this bullhorn...
Yup, the official Albany protest "tax the rich" megaphone!
It's been around before whenever people think that their arguments make more sense when screamed at unnatural levels:
And now it's back!
(Eddy Alkurabi yells instructions as protesters from Albany, Rochester and Buffalo take to the streets as the Occupy movement continues in Albany, N.Y. Nov. 17, 2011. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union))I'm really curious what the backstory is of this bullhorn...
Confused Yet?
The left starts to bleed from the nose when anyone suggests that corporations are people, that is, corporations are basically just collections of people at common cause.
Yet the people turning our public parks into filthy slums are marching around carrying signs like "END CORPORATE GREED" as if corporations are, you know, people.
Yet the people turning our public parks into filthy slums are marching around carrying signs like "END CORPORATE GREED" as if corporations are, you know, people.
Who Stands With Them?
Occupy DC Protestors Heckle, Harass Wheelchair-Bound Woman
When Occupy D.C. protesters stormed the Washington Convention Center on Nov. 4 to disrupt an Americans for Prosperity event, they blocked numerous exit doors and prevented Melissa Ortiz, wheelchair-bound with a service dog in her lap, from exiting the building. They also repeatedly harassed, heckled, and mocked her, she told CNSNews.com...
They kept yelling, “We are the 99 percent,” Ortiz told CNSNews.com. “The security guard said to me, ‘we really don’t want you to leave the building.’”...
“When it came time to leave, they [convention security personnel] pulled me aside and they said, ‘You’re not going to be able to leave the building yet because all of the wheelchair accessible entrances are blocked,’” she said...
"There was just this mass of protesters and they were yelling and saying things like, ‘these people don’t care about you … you should come out here and be with us … we care about people with disabilities … we care about the fact that you need to be taken care of,’ which flies in the face of everything I’m about,” said Ortiz.
“I don’t want to be taken care of,” she said. “I want the government to get out of my way and let me make my way.”
Ortiz said she initially tried to leave by pushing through the door with her wheelchair but when she got part way through, protestors grabbed her dog, which was attached to her with a harness and leash, and then tried to pull Ortiz out of the wheelchair...
Ortiz said she called 911 to help her get out of the building but the police operator hung up on her. "The police had no intention of helping," she said.
Eventually, to get out of the building, AFP supporters had to form a human chain, said Ortiz, and surrounded her to get her down a wheelchair ramp and out onto the street, where they also escorted her back to her hotel, a little more than one mile away...
“And they started chanting back at us,’” she said, “‘This is what Democracy looks like,’ which I thought was a bit ironic.”...
Keading, and two other AFP activists, Andreea McCarthy and Robert Langworthy, escorted Ortiz to the hotel. Keading confirmed to CNSNews.com that throughout the walk to the hotel, protestors followed them and repeatedly yelled and made comments to Ortiz.
Ortiz said that, enroute, the people escorting her were "yelled at " and "spit upon" by protestors. At one point, Ortiz stopped and asked one of the female protestors why she did not just go out and get a job. The woman reportedly said, "there aren't any jobs." When Ortiz said, yes, there were, and to go look in the help wanted pages of the newspaper, the woman said, "Oh, those jobs are beneath me."
"Then it became clearer to me in that moment what this is all about," said Ortiz. "It is a mindset issue. It isn't that people's rights are being violated. It's that they have the mindset that they are entitled to something simply because they graduated from a college in the United States of America."...
On the way to the hotel, protestors called yelled to Ortiz, "You're a scum bag, you're a dirt bag, you're a douche, you're nasty, you're probably not even crippled, things like that," she told CNSNews.com. "And the F-word was tossed around a lot."...
Videos from the evening of Nov. 4 depict chaos around the convention center, where protesters yelled, chanted, banged drums, banged on the doors, and used children as shields to block a doorway and to block cars from exiting a parking garage.
Your Random Saturday
Obama: 'America sucks!'
At a business forum Saturday, President Obama complained that "we've been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades." He apparently meant we've let foreign investment go slack, since "we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America."Yeah, this is comedy gold, hooray for unions!
But this is just the latest slur against the United States uttered by its leader...
And while the president might have been too busy writing autobiographies to notice, the past two decades have shown an America that is anything but soft or lazy. Since our president doesn't seem to know about this, here's a quick review:
We have invented, among many other things, an entirely new industry — the Internet — that has reshaped almost every aspect of our lives, from communication to education to medicine to commerce. Every great Internet company — Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo — has been born in the U.S.
We've produced incredible breakthroughs in science, medicine and technology — everything from smartphones, DVDs, digital cameras and flat panel TVs to the mapping of the human genome and spectacular new medical technologies...
It's certainly true that many things have gotten worse since he took office. Unemployment is up, earnings are down. The poverty rate has climbed, the dollar has fallen. Gas prices are way up but housing prices are way down. And the economic recovery, which started a mere five months after Obama was sworn in, has been the most anemic since the Great Depression.
The head of the Chicago Teachers Union -- addressing a teachers' conference in Seattle last month -- joked about spending her college years "smoking lots of weed" and "self-medicating" -- then apologized because "there are kids here."
"I wasn't supposed to say that, right? Too late," Karen Lewis says in a YouTube video that was picked up by an education blogger and Chicago newspapers.
The Chicago Sun-Times noted that Lewis is a former standup comedian. In the YouTube video, she also makes fun of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's lisp, and wonders if he was "self-medicating" at Harvard University.
"He was an athlete, so he might not have been self-medicating, but I wouldn't count on it," Lewis says. "You know he went to private school," she says at another point, "because if he’d have gone to public school, he’d have had that lisp fixed. I know, that was ugly, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.”
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Occupy Jail Cells
Has this gone far enough, yet? Shooting at the White House? Seriously? Has it gone far enough for rational people to stop supporting these criminals?
Tuesday, CNN runs a positive puff piece on Occupy DC (CNN Offers Sympathetic Look at Occupy DC's 'Rules and Regulations') and its professional protesters.
Wednesday, somebody took shots at the White House, you know, with a gun. A baaaaad gun, an "AK-47". And, surprise, seems he's a resident of Camp Occupy DC. Not that the network news seemed to notice this. Can't have that sort of thing getting out! (Of course the guy is also clearly mentally ill and harbored the same sorts of delusional thoughts about Obama that Giffords' shooter had about her).
And, finally, closing the circle, Occupy San Diego has been 'caught' honoring this nut that fired a rifle at the White House.
Is it time to stop coddling these criminals, criminal worshipers, and criminal harborers?
How about after you read that on the two month "anniversary" of the Occupy (Bowel) Movement a man threw a "molotov cocktail" at a Wells Fargo branch? Probably a coincidence?
Why not vote for more Democrats that support these people? Remember Maxine Waters? The Democrat that said the Tea Party could go to hell? Well, when asked to comment on the crimes and deaths at Occupy shantytowns she had this to say: "That’s life and it happens." Indeed, deaths, rapes, and exposing yourself to children just sort of happens.
Meanwhile, the big day finally arrived, the day they were going to "shut down Wall Street!"
Not so much. Utter fail, in fact. Even mocked. Bwahaaahaaa:
Yeah, they had a "Day of Action"...so did I...I went to work.
Tuesday, CNN runs a positive puff piece on Occupy DC (CNN Offers Sympathetic Look at Occupy DC's 'Rules and Regulations') and its professional protesters.
Wednesday, somebody took shots at the White House, you know, with a gun. A baaaaad gun, an "AK-47". And, surprise, seems he's a resident of Camp Occupy DC. Not that the network news seemed to notice this. Can't have that sort of thing getting out! (Of course the guy is also clearly mentally ill and harbored the same sorts of delusional thoughts about Obama that Giffords' shooter had about her).
And, finally, closing the circle, Occupy San Diego has been 'caught' honoring this nut that fired a rifle at the White House.
Is it time to stop coddling these criminals, criminal worshipers, and criminal harborers?
How about after you read that on the two month "anniversary" of the Occupy (Bowel) Movement a man threw a "molotov cocktail" at a Wells Fargo branch? Probably a coincidence?
Why not vote for more Democrats that support these people? Remember Maxine Waters? The Democrat that said the Tea Party could go to hell? Well, when asked to comment on the crimes and deaths at Occupy shantytowns she had this to say: "That’s life and it happens." Indeed, deaths, rapes, and exposing yourself to children just sort of happens.
Meanwhile, the big day finally arrived, the day they were going to "shut down Wall Street!"
Not so much. Utter fail, in fact. Even mocked. Bwahaaahaaa:
Yeah, they had a "Day of Action"...so did I...I went to work.
In Case
In case you were wondering whether the Occupy Albany protest was a serious movement committed to petitioning the government to make structural changes in taxation and spending...
well, the video of them dancing around on the sidewalk in the middle of the night dressed up like it was Halloween for the sole purpose of not delivering any sort of economic message but taunting the police should pretty much put that to rest.
Yup, just like the Tea Parties that were more concerned about whether they should get arrested for breaking the law than it what their "movement" was supposed to be about.
well, the video of them dancing around on the sidewalk in the middle of the night dressed up like it was Halloween for the sole purpose of not delivering any sort of economic message but taunting the police should pretty much put that to rest.
Yup, just like the Tea Parties that were more concerned about whether they should get arrested for breaking the law than it what their "movement" was supposed to be about.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Is There Truly No Limit To Liberal Hubris?
If for no other reason to defeat Barack Obama in 2012 and prove that his election was an utter catastrophe, look no further than Elena Kagan, his second appointment for life to the United States Supreme Court.
No judicial experience.
The barest hint, if any, of any actual practice of law.
Performances as Solicitor General in front of the Supreme Court that was mocked and derided by even the liberals on the Court as disturbingly inept.
And now...now she has apparently decided that, despite the fact that prior to her appointment she actually was involved, admittedly, at some level with preparing administration defenses against challenges to Obamacare, she will not recuse herself from participating in the very case now before the Court, no longer as a member of the administration, but supposedly as an impartial judge. Even though she was involved in one side prior to it being taken up by the Court.
Unbelievable. It is just unbelievable what these people will do.
Thank God for Justice Kennedy, who has made it fairly clear that he will be voting with the 4 members of the Court that routinely vote in accordance with the Constitution on this and has said that he will not retire from the Court as long as Obama is in office, obviously a direct reflection of his opinion of Obama's appointments so far and not daring to inflict a third on America.
No judicial experience.
The barest hint, if any, of any actual practice of law.
Performances as Solicitor General in front of the Supreme Court that was mocked and derided by even the liberals on the Court as disturbingly inept.
And now...now she has apparently decided that, despite the fact that prior to her appointment she actually was involved, admittedly, at some level with preparing administration defenses against challenges to Obamacare, she will not recuse herself from participating in the very case now before the Court, no longer as a member of the administration, but supposedly as an impartial judge. Even though she was involved in one side prior to it being taken up by the Court.
Unbelievable. It is just unbelievable what these people will do.
Thank God for Justice Kennedy, who has made it fairly clear that he will be voting with the 4 members of the Court that routinely vote in accordance with the Constitution on this and has said that he will not retire from the Court as long as Obama is in office, obviously a direct reflection of his opinion of Obama's appointments so far and not daring to inflict a third on America.
More Occupy Violence, More Media Cover Up
Why it's almost like, I dunno, a pattern or something!
Pattern: Media Relay Occupiers' Claims of Non-Involvement, Then Whitewash the Truth When Learned
You can click through and read it all - long story short is that it's another 'it wasn't us, it was this guy hanging around indistinguishably with us' situation. Again one of the loafers got angry at another loafer playing a drum too loud or too much or whatever and pulled a knife on him. Yadda yadda yadda, police cite drum playing, media reports this, media scrubs this after the fact hoping no one will notice, occupiers say it was just some random drum player wandering by that got attacked by someone else randomly walking by.
Pattern: Media Relay Occupiers' Claims of Non-Involvement, Then Whitewash the Truth When Learned
You can click through and read it all - long story short is that it's another 'it wasn't us, it was this guy hanging around indistinguishably with us' situation. Again one of the loafers got angry at another loafer playing a drum too loud or too much or whatever and pulled a knife on him. Yadda yadda yadda, police cite drum playing, media reports this, media scrubs this after the fact hoping no one will notice, occupiers say it was just some random drum player wandering by that got attacked by someone else randomly walking by.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Just Like The Tea Party!
Via Gateway Pundit: Occupy Portland Overdoses and Public Safety Information
There is a hole being dug in one of the parks and wood is being used to reinforce the area around it. There are reports that nails have been hammered into wood for weapons and that generally there are people in the camps preparing for a confrontation with police...
People were seen carrying pallets into the camp shortly after 1:00 a.m. this morning. The destination of the pallets is a structure with graffiti in the northwest part of Chapman Park, also known as "The 420 Hotel". The people there are very suspicious of any passers by, we are not sure at this point what exactly they are doing. We have been told it looks like they were making shields...
On Wednesday November 9, 2011, Portland Police officers working the Occupy Portland encampments at Chapman and Lownsdale Square Parks, responded to the report of a man suffering from a drug overdose in a tent at Chapman Square. Officers found the man in a tent and he was blue and not breathing. Officers immediately began performing CPR and called for medical to respond. Medical personnel responded and were able to revive the man then transported him to an area hospital. Officers learned that the man used heroin purchased within the encampments.
During this police and medical response, nearly 100 people were gathered around the tent and not following police direction to allow medical personnel room to work on the patient. Officers worked with the Occupy Portland Peace & Safety Team to assist in moving people away from the patient...
Portland Police officers also made several arrests and issued several exclusions related to criminal activity...
Officers took another report from a member of the media about harassment from people in the Occupy Portland encampments. There have been several reports of harassment and physical confrontations of members of the media over the past 2 weeks...
This morning, Wednesday November 9, 2011, Portland Police officers arrested 29-year-old David Joseph Hodson for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the World Trade Center, located at 121 Southwest Salmon Street, in the late evening hours of Tuesday November 8. Officers obtained a very good description of the suspect and later located him within the Occupy Portland encampments...
Hodson was also arrested on November 6 for several charges related to starting fires near the Occupy Portland encampments.
On Tuesday November 8, 2011, Portland Police officers patrolling the Occupy Portland encampments at Chapman and Lownsdale Square parks continue to notice increasing verbal arguments between people in the parks...
As of today, the Portland Police Bureau overtime expense related to Occupy Portland has reached $316,000.
On November 11, 2011, Portland Police officers assigned to the Occupy Portland encampments were contacted by people inside the camps about improvised weapons being found. Officers also received information that a man was going to damage police cars parked outside the encampments.[sic] trees during a police action and that there are people who are attempting to obtain a large number of gas masks.
Officers made contact with the man and he relinquished his six foot long bamboo pole. No damage was done to any patrol cars and no arrests were necessary.
The Portland Police Bureau appreciates the ongoing efforts of people within the encampments to share information with officers about people committing crimes and stockpiling improvised weapons...
On Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. Mayor Sam Adams indicated that the "balance has tipped" at Occupy Portland and that the parks will be temporarily closed for maintenance beginning Sunday November 13, 2011 at 12:01 a.m.
Since that announcement Portland Police have become aware of information that is concerning. We understand a call has gone out to Oakland, Seattle and San Francisco and perhaps other cities encouraging people to come to Portland and engage in resistance. People in the camp are expecting 100-300 re-enforcements from various locations. There may even be as many as 150 anarchists who will arrive soon. There is information that people may be in the in
There is a hole being dug in one of the parks and wood is being used to reinforce the area around it. There are reports that nails have been hammered into wood for weapons and that generally there are people in the camps preparing for a confrontation with police...
People were seen carrying pallets into the camp shortly after 1:00 a.m. this morning. The destination of the pallets is a structure with graffiti in the northwest part of Chapman Park, also known as "The 420 Hotel". The people there are very suspicious of any passers by, we are not sure at this point what exactly they are doing. We have been told it looks like they were making shields...
On Wednesday November 9, 2011, Portland Police officers working the Occupy Portland encampments at Chapman and Lownsdale Square Parks, responded to the report of a man suffering from a drug overdose in a tent at Chapman Square. Officers found the man in a tent and he was blue and not breathing. Officers immediately began performing CPR and called for medical to respond. Medical personnel responded and were able to revive the man then transported him to an area hospital. Officers learned that the man used heroin purchased within the encampments.
During this police and medical response, nearly 100 people were gathered around the tent and not following police direction to allow medical personnel room to work on the patient. Officers worked with the Occupy Portland Peace & Safety Team to assist in moving people away from the patient...
Portland Police officers also made several arrests and issued several exclusions related to criminal activity...
Officers took another report from a member of the media about harassment from people in the Occupy Portland encampments. There have been several reports of harassment and physical confrontations of members of the media over the past 2 weeks...
This morning, Wednesday November 9, 2011, Portland Police officers arrested 29-year-old David Joseph Hodson for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the World Trade Center, located at 121 Southwest Salmon Street, in the late evening hours of Tuesday November 8. Officers obtained a very good description of the suspect and later located him within the Occupy Portland encampments...
Hodson was also arrested on November 6 for several charges related to starting fires near the Occupy Portland encampments.
On Tuesday November 8, 2011, Portland Police officers patrolling the Occupy Portland encampments at Chapman and Lownsdale Square parks continue to notice increasing verbal arguments between people in the parks...
As of today, the Portland Police Bureau overtime expense related to Occupy Portland has reached $316,000.
Your Random Saturday
More Occupy nonsense:
No liberal bias around here:
The vast majority of Occupiers we’ve heard would deviate America from its historic course. Their hero, judging by their tee-shirts, seems to be more Che Guevara, a psychopathic killer, than Madison, Jefferson and Franklin...Don't forget their demands for a bailout of...them. They don't want to pay their student loans for puppetry college, they think the banks should just, you know, kind of forget that loan exists. Or maybe they think I should pay for their college education.
Heading their “99 percent declaration” is the demand for a ban on political contributions by individuals and political speech by associations and groups, including companies and unions.
Such a change would leave us less free and show a woeful contempt for the First Amendment...
The Occupiers decry bailouts, but they seem to reject them only for companies and industries they don’t like. Their grab-bag of special interests looks like Mr. Obama’s, including a special exemption for any corporation that claims to be “green.”
No liberal bias around here:
The newspaper Politico offered an incredibly vague story that somehow required four reporters to compile.Myth, busted:
This is how vague the claims were, which Politico rushed to publish. They assert there were "conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature," and also, "descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual" but made women uncomfortable. What does all this mean? At least in Hill's case, she was making wacky but specific charges about Long Dong Silver...
Cain is only one contender in the 2012 Republican field. Bill Clinton was president of the United States when he was charged with three separate sexual allegations. But from Monday morning through Thursday morning, ABC, CBS and NBC ran 50 stories on the allegations against Cain. Now, let's compare.
In 1994, when Paula Jones publicly, at a national press conference for God's sakes, accused President Clinton of exposing himself while demanding oral sex -- something no one accuses Cain of doing -- CBS and NBC completely ignored her press conference. ABC gave it just 16 seconds.
When Kathleen Willey accused Bill Clinton in 1997 of sexually groping her in the Oval Office when he was president -- another woman coming forward publicly with a charge far more serious than anything even suggested about Cain -- the networks ran a grand total of three stories, the longest of which was just 1 minute.
And in the first five days after the publication of the 1999 Wall Street Journal column in which Juanita Broaddrick reluctantly came forward and charged the President with a bloody rape, the number of news stories totaled to three.
So it's maddening when someone like Tom Brokaw goes on MSNBC and insists that Herman Cain should be laying everything out on the table: "I would think that he would be eager to get the details out as quickly as possible, if he's as innocent as he has described himself in all of this."
That's not how Brokaw felt about Paula Jones's sexual harassment charges against Bill Clinton. On CNBC in 1994, he dismissed that story. "It didn't seem to most people, entirely relevant to what was going on at the time..."
Brokaw didn't demand that Clinton "should be eager to get the details out as quickly as possible" about Jones ... or about Willey ... or even about the rape charges of Broaddrick. Clinton wouldn't even deny the rape charge. He only said he would refer "all future questions to be answered by my attorneys." But Tom Brokaw deliberately never filed a single story on Broaddick's charges on his "NBC Nightly News" program -- even though the break-through interview was broadcast on "Dateline NBC"!
America's share of global manufacturing was 20% in 2009, not far off the 21% portion of 1990. Our manufacturing base is so large that if it were an economy on its own, it would be the eighth largest in the world.
Put another way: This country made $2.15 trillion (in 2005 dollars) worth of manufactured goods two years ago, while China, the world's No. 2 producer, made $1.48 trillion in goods. China, where labor is cheap, might be growing. But this country still has the edge by nearly 50%...
An August report prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco says Chinese-made goods and services accounted for a mere 2.7% of all personal consumption spending in the U.S. last year.
On the other side of the ledger, it turns out that 88.5% of the personal consumption spending in this country goes for U.S.-made goods and services.
As for the trade deficit that gets so many people worked up: Don't worry about that either.
Cheap imports are good for American consumers. Let other countries make simple, low-value things. That frees our industrial base to focus on innovative products that mature economies need to develop.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sad
Well, the media is still romanticizing the Occupy campers...
despite the rising death toll.
For the record - deaths at Tea Party rallies - 0
Without getting into morbid details, I think the Occupiers are up to at least 3, maybe more, including a suicide, a drug OD, and a homicide. Recall that the Occupiers are demanding that they be allowed to "police" themselves, making gangs look like amateurs with their crackdown on "snitching", and have done their best to deny entrance by authorities and health care workers/responders. Oh, and now they're spreading TB, too.
It's really going well.
The 99%? Yeah, not so much. Maybe like 99% of the original Woodstock crowd...
despite the rising death toll.
For the record - deaths at Tea Party rallies - 0
Without getting into morbid details, I think the Occupiers are up to at least 3, maybe more, including a suicide, a drug OD, and a homicide. Recall that the Occupiers are demanding that they be allowed to "police" themselves, making gangs look like amateurs with their crackdown on "snitching", and have done their best to deny entrance by authorities and health care workers/responders. Oh, and now they're spreading TB, too.
It's really going well.
The 99%? Yeah, not so much. Maybe like 99% of the original Woodstock crowd...
Another Reason To Like M&Ms
Can I get some praise for corporate responsibility over here?
M&M’S drops Kyle Busch for rest of 2011
M&M’S drops Kyle Busch for rest of 2011
Kyle Busch has lost a primary sponsor for the remaining two races of the 2011 Sprint Cup season.
M&M’s was to be on the hood of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 for the final two Cup races of 2011 at Phoenix and Homestead-Miami. But as a result of Busch’s actions in last Friday’s Truck Series race at Texas, the company has opted to pull sponsorship until 2012...
“Kyle’s recent actions are unacceptable and do not reflect the values of Mars,” said Debra A. Sandler, chief consumer officer, Mars Chocolate North America. “While we do not condone Kyle’s recent actions, we do believe that he has shown remorse and has expressed a desire to change. We believe our decision will have a positive impact on Kyle and will help him return next season ready to win.”...
The fallout stems from an incident with Ron Hornaday Jr. in the Nov. 4 Truck Series race at Texas when Busch purposefully wrecked Hornaday. NASCAR immediately parked Busch, then held him out of both the weekend’s Cup and Nationwide Series races. He was fined $50,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of the season.
Filth
If you have the stomach, you can find all of these at Newsbusters, I don't have the stomach to quote them or link to them.
The national media have now compared a brain fart by Rick Perry during a serious debate on the economy to:
Hurricane Katrina
The 9-11 terrorist attacks
The space shuttle Challenger disaster
No. I'm not kidding.
The national media have now compared a brain fart by Rick Perry during a serious debate on the economy to:
Hurricane Katrina
The 9-11 terrorist attacks
The space shuttle Challenger disaster
No. I'm not kidding.
Yup, Just Like '08
Ah, yes...
I remember the exact same sort of thing going around after Obama said there were 57 states...
I remember the exact same sort of thing going around after Obama said there were 57 states...
Buh-Bye
So this woman's being interviewed about the TEDx dealie on YNN. She was supposed to be naming famous people that have been involved but could only come up with one, then started stuttering uncomfortably for a few moments as we all winced. Later she was trying to name the types of presentations and came up with one before, again, stuttering and drawing a temporary blank.
Sound familiar?
I'm sure people will be demanding she resign tomorrow.
Sound familiar?
I'm sure people will be demanding she resign tomorrow.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Failed Political Homicide
Remember when the press could 'kill' the campaign of a candidate they didn't like? Ah, those were the days they must think. Rush Limbaugh helped end that. The internet helped end that.
Bloggers sitting in their basement in their pajamas put and end to it, when Dan Rather tried to kill the re-election campaign of George W. Bush with forged documents that CBS was told, by experts, could not stand up to scrutiny. They exposed him and See BS. More importantly, after they were exposed, the blogosphere got the word out to America. Not only did Rather fail to kill Bush's re-election, it ended his career while destroying his journalism reputation in the eyes of all but a few devoted lefties.
Now, in 2011, they're mounting upon their horses bravely, drawing their fathers' swords, and charging the tanks of the new media world.
They've got the same weapons that their teachers used to bring down candidates they didn't like 'once upon a time' - Race. Sex. Lies.
Fail. Fail. Fail.
Someone 'dug up' a couple of unreadable letters on a rock hidden in the brush and tried to smear Perry as a racist because of the name some camp his family started leasing ages ago.
Yup, that used to work. He wants to turn back the clock! Jim Crow! RAAAAAAACISSSSST!
Fail. The right was quick to point out that, just as Perry said, the words are now unreadable because his father had painted over them until they were unreadable and when that wasn't enough, they shoved the rock to where it couldn't even be seen. The attempt failed so badly that even the left started to pour on, with lefty Jon Stewart running a gag about how many places in America still bear similar names, even in liberal enclaves.
Someone dug up some unsubstantiated and denied sexual harassment charges from the sexual harassment heyday 90s against Cain to make him look like...ummm...a crude guy that likes women, but doesn't rape them when they turn him down unlike a certain Democrat?
Yup, that used to work. Fail. Despite a 9-9-9 avalanche, 99 stories in just 9 days on the big networks hyping vague, unsubstantiated charges and lurid claims by one giggling woman (with some interesting skeletons in her closet). Breathlessly they waited for Cain to end his campaign. The rightweb pointed out that, um, what exactly is he accused of doing? And who's accusing him? And why is this damning "pattern of behavior" apparently limited to a brief time with one organization that seemed willing to pay up instead of fight back in court and at no other times in his long business career? And why is this such a big deal when nobody seemed to care that Clinton was raping women and having adulterous sex with a subordinate his daughter's age while at work? On and on went the questioning about how it had to end his campaign and not just his campaign but it was fatally tarnishing the entire Republican presidential field! But he just kept on raising money at a blistering clip and caused the audience at a liberal debate to boo the moderators when they brought it up.
Then Perry made the damning, fatal mistake of messing up a question at a debate! Yes! I know! The questions flew fast and furious this morning - when would he be ending his campaign? How could he survive a flubbed question at a debate that almost no one saw?Why does he think there are 57 states and why can't you go into a 7-11 without an indian accent?! Oh wait, my bad, that was some other guys. Yet, somehow...the headlines at the end of the day have become 'Perry minor flub not necessarily political suicide'.
Of course there's the 'Bachmann's husband is a nut and probably a closeted gay'. Fail. Etc etc.
Sorry, dinosaur press...the 'good old days' are gone. Cain's still running and one of the front-runners. Bachmann's still there. Perry's not going anywhere.
We'll take care of electing our own candidate, thank you very much.
--
Ann Coulter stole my bit!
Bloggers sitting in their basement in their pajamas put and end to it, when Dan Rather tried to kill the re-election campaign of George W. Bush with forged documents that CBS was told, by experts, could not stand up to scrutiny. They exposed him and See BS. More importantly, after they were exposed, the blogosphere got the word out to America. Not only did Rather fail to kill Bush's re-election, it ended his career while destroying his journalism reputation in the eyes of all but a few devoted lefties.
Now, in 2011, they're mounting upon their horses bravely, drawing their fathers' swords, and charging the tanks of the new media world.
They've got the same weapons that their teachers used to bring down candidates they didn't like 'once upon a time' - Race. Sex. Lies.
Fail. Fail. Fail.
Someone 'dug up' a couple of unreadable letters on a rock hidden in the brush and tried to smear Perry as a racist because of the name some camp his family started leasing ages ago.
Yup, that used to work. He wants to turn back the clock! Jim Crow! RAAAAAAACISSSSST!
Fail. The right was quick to point out that, just as Perry said, the words are now unreadable because his father had painted over them until they were unreadable and when that wasn't enough, they shoved the rock to where it couldn't even be seen. The attempt failed so badly that even the left started to pour on, with lefty Jon Stewart running a gag about how many places in America still bear similar names, even in liberal enclaves.
Someone dug up some unsubstantiated and denied sexual harassment charges from the sexual harassment heyday 90s against Cain to make him look like...ummm...a crude guy that likes women, but doesn't rape them when they turn him down unlike a certain Democrat?
Yup, that used to work. Fail. Despite a 9-9-9 avalanche, 99 stories in just 9 days on the big networks hyping vague, unsubstantiated charges and lurid claims by one giggling woman (with some interesting skeletons in her closet). Breathlessly they waited for Cain to end his campaign. The rightweb pointed out that, um, what exactly is he accused of doing? And who's accusing him? And why is this damning "pattern of behavior" apparently limited to a brief time with one organization that seemed willing to pay up instead of fight back in court and at no other times in his long business career? And why is this such a big deal when nobody seemed to care that Clinton was raping women and having adulterous sex with a subordinate his daughter's age while at work? On and on went the questioning about how it had to end his campaign and not just his campaign but it was fatally tarnishing the entire Republican presidential field! But he just kept on raising money at a blistering clip and caused the audience at a liberal debate to boo the moderators when they brought it up.
Then Perry made the damning, fatal mistake of messing up a question at a debate! Yes! I know! The questions flew fast and furious this morning - when would he be ending his campaign? How could he survive a flubbed question at a debate that almost no one saw?
Of course there's the 'Bachmann's husband is a nut and probably a closeted gay'. Fail. Etc etc.
Sorry, dinosaur press...the 'good old days' are gone. Cain's still running and one of the front-runners. Bachmann's still there. Perry's not going anywhere.
We'll take care of electing our own candidate, thank you very much.
--
Ann Coulter stole my bit!
It’s really, it’s interesting, it’s interesting and wonderful how little the attacks on Cain have done to the public’s impression of him. People aren’t falling for it. They aren’t believing it. It shows you the power of the alternative media as much as, perhaps than, what was it, Pajamas Media, Powerline I guess exposing Dan Rather’s dummied up National Guard documents against George Bush. And, you know, various other times Americans have become aware of that they cannot trust the mainstream media stories. Here we don’t have much of a counter story yet other than Cain screaming from the rooftops, “I never sexually harassed anyone.” And people just look at the mainstream media and say, “Screw you, I don’t believe it.”That's a joke. Shows you how transparent the media is when you see how easy it is to notice their carp, whether it's me or Ann Coulter.
I Can't Quite Put My Finger On It
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Senior banker Lucas Papademos has been officially named as Greece's new prime minister, after four days of intense talks to form a coalition government...It's not possible that the increasingly-out-of-control spending and primed-to-default status of so many European nations could have anything to do with the number of socialists these nanny staters have put in charge in recent years...is it?
The 64-year-old former vice president of the European Central Bank was named Thursday to head a coalition backed by the governing Socialists and the opposition conservatives that is expected to operate until early elections in February.
Papademos will replace outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou, midway through the Socialists' four-year term.
One And Only Debate Wrap Up
Not my thing. Still, after reading around the rightweb about how the GOP candidates absolutely mopped the floor with "an all-star lineup of the smartest people on CNBC" throwing leftist questions at them, I had to dig up the transcript for myself. Here are some impressions if, like me, you are basically ignoring the debates. What I see...
==
Perry: (perhaps too busy setting up fantastic lines like this to get everything down pat and ending up being a laughingstock for one answer that was a tremendous brain fart) "The next president of the United States needs to send a powerful message not just to the people of this country, but around the world, that America is going to be America again, that we are not going to pick winners and losers from Washington, D.C., that we are going to trust the capital markets and the private sector to make the decisions, and let the consumers pick winners and losers. And it doesn't make any difference whether it's Wall Street or whether it's some corporate entity or whether it's some European country. If you are too big to fail, you are too big."
***
Gingrich: (I reiterate my demand that, regardless of the nominee, Gingrich be the onedebating rhetorically shredding Obama before the election) "Well, first of all, I think Ben Bernanke is a large part of the problem and ought to be fired as rapidly as possible. (APPLAUSE) I think the Federal Reserve ought to be audited and we should have all the decision documents for 2008, '09 and '10 so we can understand who he bailed out, why he bailed them out, who he did not bail out, and why he did not bail them out. (APPLAUSE) ...So I would say that all of us on the stage represent a dramatically greater likelihood of getting to a paycheck and leaving behind food stamps than does Barack Obama." (APPLAUSE)
***
Bachmann: "Our biggest problem right now is our regulatory burden. The biggest regulatory problem we have is Obamacare and Dodd/Frank. I will repeal those bills. I have written those bills to repeal those bills that have got to go. (APPLAUSE) But beyond that, we have to legalize American energy."
***
Q: But, first, Mr. Cain, the American people want jobs, but they also want leadership. They want character in a president. In recent days, we have learned that four different women have accused you of inappropriate behavior. Here we're focusing on character and on judgment. (BOOING) ...Why should the American people hire a president if they feel there are character issues?"
Cain: "The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations. (APPLAUSE) ...And for every -- one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably -- there are thousands who would say none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain...Over the last nine days, the voters have voted with their dollars, and they are saying they don't care about the character assassination. They care about leadership and getting this economy growing and all of the other problems we face." (APPLAUSE)
***
One of the best moments here as Romney and the crowd demolish what would probably have been a half hour segment of the debate -
Q: "...are you persuaded by what Mr. Cain has said? Would you keep him on if you bought his company?"
(BOOING)
Romney: "Look, look, Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did. The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment..."
(APPLAUSE)
Q: "Governor Huntsman, let me switch back to the economy..."
(APPLAUSE)
***
Q: "Governor Romney, do you believe public companies have any social responsibility to create jobs, or do you believe, as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, the most important, most influential conservative economist of the 20th century held, that corporations should exist solely to create maximum profit for their shareholders?"
Romney: "This is a wonderful philosophical debate. But you know what? We don't have to decide between the two, because they go together. Our Democratic friends think when a corporation is profitable, that's a bad thing. I remember asking someone, "Where do you think profits go? When you hear that a company is profitable, where do you think it goes?" And they said, "Well, to pay the executives their big bonuses." I said, "No, actually, none of it goes to pay the executives. Profit is what is left over after they have all been paid." What happens with profit is that you can grow the business. You can expand it. You have working capital and you hire people..."
***
Gingrich is probably wondering why he has to answer questions from morons -
Q: "Do you think that companies can both be profitable and be able to create jobs? Do you think it's a dichotomy? Do you think they can do it?...Mr. Speaker, how about to you, can corporations do both?"
Gingrich: "Sure. Look, obviously, corporations can and should do both. And what is amazing to me is the inability of much of our academic world and much of our news media and most of the people on Occupy Wall Street to have a clue about history. (APPLAUSE) ...Historically, this is the richest country in the history of the world because corporations succeed in creating both profits and jobs, and it's sad that the news media doesn't report accurately how the economy works." (APPLAUSE)
Q: "Mr. Speaker -- I'm sorry, but what is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?...What is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?" (LAUGHTER)
Gingrich: "I love humor disguised as a question. That's terrific. I have yet to hear a single reporter ask a single Occupy Wall Street person a single rational question about the economy that would lead them to say, for example, "Who is going to pay for the park you are occupying if there are no businesses making a profit?"" (APPLAUSE)
***
Santorum gets in a smackdown of his own, blasting the ignorance of the "smartest people on CNBC" -
Q: "I just came back from North Dakota. We have made the largest oil discovery in a generation there. Not only is it a -- the find a big step toward creating energy independence, it stands to create as many as 300,000 jobs. But what the guys tell me up there is that they can't handle the rush without federal help. Would you favor incentives, incentives to get workers and businesses to where the jobs are to support this boom?"
Santorum: "No, because we have done it in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has Marcellus Shale. It took a while for us to ramp up, but we're drilling 3,000 to 4,000 wells. The price of natural gas, because of Marcellus Shale, which is the second largest natural gas find in the world, has gone from $12 to $3.65. And we let the marketplace work. So, no, we didn't have the federal government come in and bail us out..."
***
Cain zips another zinger -
Q: "Let's get back to tax reform. Mr. Cain, let's talk fairness in taxation...Why now, when the higher income group is doing better than the rest of America, is the time to switch to the same rate for all of us?"
Cain: "My proposal is the only one that solves the problem by throwing out the current tax code...It is simple. The complexity costs us $430 billion a year. It is transparent. People know what it is. There are thousands of hidden sneak-a-taxes in the current tax code. That's why I want to throw it out..."
Q: "How do you ensure that, when the government needs more revenue, that the sales tax doesn't go up and that plan doesn't turn in 19-19-19?"
Cain: "Tax codes do not raise taxes. Politicians do. (APPLAUSE) ...It's not the code that raises taxes. It's the politicians, because the code -- because the approach, 9-9-9, would be very visible, the American people are going to hold the rates at 9."
***
Romney: "Well, I would like to see our tax rates flatter. I'd like to see our code simpler. I'd like to see the special breaks that we have in the code taken out...The Obama economy has really crushed middle-income Americans. This president has failed us so badly, we have 26 million people out of work, working part-time jobs that need full-time work, or stopped looking for work altogether. Median incomes have dropped 10 percent in the last three years. At the same time, gasoline prices are up, food prices are up, health care costs are up..."
***
Bachmann, perhaps finally getting back on point now that she's not a front-runner?, deftly takes the questioner's prod to attack Romney and goes after Obama, instead, which is of course the right way to be going -
Q: "Congresswoman Bachmann, Governor Romney is accepting the premises of the Democratic argument that you have to have a fair approach to taxation that preserves different rates for different people. Why is he wrong?"
Bachmann: "Well, I would say President Obama is the one that's wrong, because President Obama's plan for job creation has absolutely nothing to do with the true people who know how to create jobs. He should really be going to job-creators if he wants to know how to create jobs. Instead, he continues to go to a General Axelrod in Chicago to look for his orders to figure out how to deal with the economy. That won't work. We know what needs to be done. We have a real problem. When you have 53 percent of Americans paying federal income taxes, but you have 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, you have a real problem. And that's why in my tax plan, I have everyone paying something because everyone benefits by this magnificent country. So even if it means paying the price of two Happy Meals a year, like $10, everyone can afford to pay at least that. And what it does is create a mentality in the United States that says that freedom is free. But freedom isn't free. We all benefit. We all need to sacrifice. Everybody has to be a part of this tax code."
I think this is a brilliant way to phrase what is derisively referred to as the 'no skin in the game' argument. Freedom isn't free...two Happy Meals....fantastic. The leftwing in America is so eager to attack "the rich" for not paying "more" (endlessly "more") because they benefit from what taxes are used for, but they never manage to get around to the 47% that don't pay income taxes that benefit from them, also.
***
Paul's moment -
Paul: "So you have to address the subject of spending. That is the tax. That is the reason I go after the spending. I propose in the first year cut $1 trillion out of the budget in five departments. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Now the other thing is that you must do if you want to get the economy going and going again is you have to get rid of price- fixing. And the most significant price-fixing that goes on, that gave us the bubble, destroyed the economy, and is preventing this from coming out, is the price-fixing of the Federal Reserve, manipulating interest rates way below market rates. You have to have the market determine interest rates if you want a healthy, viable economy."
Q: "So you think the economy would be stronger if interest rates were higher right now?"
Paul: "You would have more incentive. You would take care of the elderly. They get cheated. They get nothing for their CDs. Why cheat them and give the banks loans at zero percent? And then they loan it back to the government at 3 percent. They are ripping us off at the expense of those on fixed incomes and retirees."
***
Blammo! Great prep work by the geniuses at CNBC -
Q: "Governor Romney, respond in 30 seconds. Not one of your 59 points in your economic plan mentions or addresses housing. Can you tell us why?"
Romney: "Yes, because it's not a housing plan. It's a jobs plan. (APPLAUSE) ...You have to let the market work and get people in the homes again, and the best way for that to happen is to allow this economy to reboot. What we know won't work is what this president has done, which is to try and hold off the foreclosure process, the normal market process, to put money into a stimulus that failed, and to put in place a whole series of policies from Obamacare to Dodd/Frank that it made it hard for this economy to get going. You want to get America's economy going? We know how to do it. Just do almost the exact opposite of what President Obama has done."
***
Romney blasts away at more stupid leftwing questioning -
Q: "...the housing market has continued to decline. We are at 2003 price levels now. If we keep going the way we are going, in four or five years, we'll be at 1999 price levels...Are you willing to let that happen in America?"
Romney: "And exactly what would you do instead? Would you decide to have...the federal government go out and buy all the homes in America? That's not going to happen in this country. Markets work. When you have government play its heavy hand, markets blow up and people get hurt. And the reason we have the housing crises we have is that the federal government played too heavy a role in our markets. The federal government came in with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd told banks they had to give loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back." (APPLAUSE)
***
See, another + for Perry that he buried with one brain fart -
Perry: "...let's get our energy industry freed up, federal lands, federal waters, pull back all of those regulations. Everybody on this stage understands it's the regulatory world that is killing America." (APPLAUSE)
***
Bachmann does a nice job here taking a question where she wants it to, which she used to be great at -
Bachmann: "When we had the financial meltdown, 50 percent of the homes are being financed by Fannie and Freddie. Today it's 90 percent of the homes. In other words, the government is the backer of the homes. Well, let's take a look, an analysis of what a great, brilliant job Freddie and Fannie are doing. They just applied this week for another $7 billion bailout because they're failing. The other one applied for a $6 billion bailout because they're failing. But what did they do? They just gave bonuses of almost $13 million to 10 top executives. This is the epicenter of capital -- crony capitalism. That's what's wrong with Washington, D.C. For these geniuses to give 10 of their top executives bonuses at $12 million and then have the guts to come to the American people and say, "Give us another $13 billion to bail us out just for the quarter," that's lunacy. We need to put them back into bankruptcy and get them out of business. They're destroying the housing market." (APPLAUSE)
***
Gingrich, again playing the 'are you really this stupid?' card -
Q: "Since -- since you mentioned Fannie and Freddie, Speaker Gingrich, 30 seconds to you, your firm was paid $300,000 by Freddie Mac in 2006. What did you do for that money?"
Gingrich: "I offer them advice on precisely what they didn't do. (LAUGHTER) ...And my advice as a historian, when they walked in and said to me, "We are now making loans to people who have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do," as I said to them at the time, this is a bubble. This is insane. This is impossible. It turned out, unfortunately, I was right and the people who were doing exactly what Congresswoman Bachmann talked about were wrong. And I think it's a good case for breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and getting much smaller institutions back into the private sector to be competitive and to be responsible for their behavior." (APPLAUSE)
***
Cain, playing, and playing well, the role he knows best - decisive CEO that knows how you go about fixing macro problems...and also how you don't -
Q: "What would you do with these -- with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Would you shut them down even though it could mean higher interest rates for America? Does it make it even harder than it is right now for Americans to get home loans?"
Cain: "You don't start there. You start with fixing the real problem, which is growing this economy...Secondly, then you get the regulators off of the backs of the banks like someone mentioned....They would then be in a better position, and they might develop a desire in order to help homeowners reset their mortgages if they were able to see, number three, some certainty. Uncertainty is what's killing this economy..."
Q: "I'm sorry, Mr. Cain, but you would come into office and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be there. The question was, what would you do with them?"
Cain: "OK. After I did those three things that I outlined, then deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You don't start solving a problem right in the middle of it. So we've got to do that first. I would also turn those GSEs into private entities. The government does not need to be in that business. I would find a way to unwind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, such that the marketplace can determine the future of the housing market." (APPLAUSE)
***
Gingrich is starting to sound like he's found himself in an episode of The Twilight Zone when asked to explain how to fix healthcare after repealing Obamacare in 30 seconds -
Gingrich: "Well, I just want point out, my colleagues have done a terrific job of answering an absurd question. To say in 30 seconds..."
Q: "You have said you want to repeal "Obama-care," correct?"
Gingrich: "I did. Let me finish, if I may. To say in 30 seconds what you would do with 18 percent of the economy, life and death for the American people, a topic I've worked on since 1974, about which I wrote about called "Saving Lives and Saving Money" in 2002, and for which I founded the Center for Health Transformation, is the perfect case of why I'm going to challenge the president to seven Lincoln- Douglas style three-hour debates with a timekeeper and no moderator, at least two of which ought to be on health care so you can have a serious discussion over a several-hour period that affects the lives of every person in this country." (APPLAUSE)
==
Long story short...based on what they said here, I'd be generally pleased with any of them. Problem is determining which would actually do what they say they want to do and which would cave in to be pandered to by the press. Time may tell...
==
Perry: (perhaps too busy setting up fantastic lines like this to get everything down pat and ending up being a laughingstock for one answer that was a tremendous brain fart) "The next president of the United States needs to send a powerful message not just to the people of this country, but around the world, that America is going to be America again, that we are not going to pick winners and losers from Washington, D.C., that we are going to trust the capital markets and the private sector to make the decisions, and let the consumers pick winners and losers. And it doesn't make any difference whether it's Wall Street or whether it's some corporate entity or whether it's some European country. If you are too big to fail, you are too big."
***
Gingrich: (I reiterate my demand that, regardless of the nominee, Gingrich be the one
***
Bachmann: "Our biggest problem right now is our regulatory burden. The biggest regulatory problem we have is Obamacare and Dodd/Frank. I will repeal those bills. I have written those bills to repeal those bills that have got to go. (APPLAUSE) But beyond that, we have to legalize American energy."
***
Q: But, first, Mr. Cain, the American people want jobs, but they also want leadership. They want character in a president. In recent days, we have learned that four different women have accused you of inappropriate behavior. Here we're focusing on character and on judgment. (BOOING) ...Why should the American people hire a president if they feel there are character issues?"
Cain: "The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations. (APPLAUSE) ...And for every -- one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably -- there are thousands who would say none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain...Over the last nine days, the voters have voted with their dollars, and they are saying they don't care about the character assassination. They care about leadership and getting this economy growing and all of the other problems we face." (APPLAUSE)
***
One of the best moments here as Romney and the crowd demolish what would probably have been a half hour segment of the debate -
Q: "...are you persuaded by what Mr. Cain has said? Would you keep him on if you bought his company?"
(BOOING)
Romney: "Look, look, Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did. The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment..."
(APPLAUSE)
Q: "Governor Huntsman, let me switch back to the economy..."
(APPLAUSE)
***
Q: "Governor Romney, do you believe public companies have any social responsibility to create jobs, or do you believe, as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, the most important, most influential conservative economist of the 20th century held, that corporations should exist solely to create maximum profit for their shareholders?"
Romney: "This is a wonderful philosophical debate. But you know what? We don't have to decide between the two, because they go together. Our Democratic friends think when a corporation is profitable, that's a bad thing. I remember asking someone, "Where do you think profits go? When you hear that a company is profitable, where do you think it goes?" And they said, "Well, to pay the executives their big bonuses." I said, "No, actually, none of it goes to pay the executives. Profit is what is left over after they have all been paid." What happens with profit is that you can grow the business. You can expand it. You have working capital and you hire people..."
***
Gingrich is probably wondering why he has to answer questions from morons -
Q: "Do you think that companies can both be profitable and be able to create jobs? Do you think it's a dichotomy? Do you think they can do it?...Mr. Speaker, how about to you, can corporations do both?"
Gingrich: "Sure. Look, obviously, corporations can and should do both. And what is amazing to me is the inability of much of our academic world and much of our news media and most of the people on Occupy Wall Street to have a clue about history. (APPLAUSE) ...Historically, this is the richest country in the history of the world because corporations succeed in creating both profits and jobs, and it's sad that the news media doesn't report accurately how the economy works." (APPLAUSE)
Q: "Mr. Speaker -- I'm sorry, but what is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?...What is the media reporting inaccurately about the economy?" (LAUGHTER)
Gingrich: "I love humor disguised as a question. That's terrific. I have yet to hear a single reporter ask a single Occupy Wall Street person a single rational question about the economy that would lead them to say, for example, "Who is going to pay for the park you are occupying if there are no businesses making a profit?"" (APPLAUSE)
***
Santorum gets in a smackdown of his own, blasting the ignorance of the "smartest people on CNBC" -
Q: "I just came back from North Dakota. We have made the largest oil discovery in a generation there. Not only is it a -- the find a big step toward creating energy independence, it stands to create as many as 300,000 jobs. But what the guys tell me up there is that they can't handle the rush without federal help. Would you favor incentives, incentives to get workers and businesses to where the jobs are to support this boom?"
Santorum: "No, because we have done it in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has Marcellus Shale. It took a while for us to ramp up, but we're drilling 3,000 to 4,000 wells. The price of natural gas, because of Marcellus Shale, which is the second largest natural gas find in the world, has gone from $12 to $3.65. And we let the marketplace work. So, no, we didn't have the federal government come in and bail us out..."
***
Cain zips another zinger -
Q: "Let's get back to tax reform. Mr. Cain, let's talk fairness in taxation...Why now, when the higher income group is doing better than the rest of America, is the time to switch to the same rate for all of us?"
Cain: "My proposal is the only one that solves the problem by throwing out the current tax code...It is simple. The complexity costs us $430 billion a year. It is transparent. People know what it is. There are thousands of hidden sneak-a-taxes in the current tax code. That's why I want to throw it out..."
Q: "How do you ensure that, when the government needs more revenue, that the sales tax doesn't go up and that plan doesn't turn in 19-19-19?"
Cain: "Tax codes do not raise taxes. Politicians do. (APPLAUSE) ...It's not the code that raises taxes. It's the politicians, because the code -- because the approach, 9-9-9, would be very visible, the American people are going to hold the rates at 9."
***
Romney: "Well, I would like to see our tax rates flatter. I'd like to see our code simpler. I'd like to see the special breaks that we have in the code taken out...The Obama economy has really crushed middle-income Americans. This president has failed us so badly, we have 26 million people out of work, working part-time jobs that need full-time work, or stopped looking for work altogether. Median incomes have dropped 10 percent in the last three years. At the same time, gasoline prices are up, food prices are up, health care costs are up..."
***
Bachmann, perhaps finally getting back on point now that she's not a front-runner?, deftly takes the questioner's prod to attack Romney and goes after Obama, instead, which is of course the right way to be going -
Q: "Congresswoman Bachmann, Governor Romney is accepting the premises of the Democratic argument that you have to have a fair approach to taxation that preserves different rates for different people. Why is he wrong?"
Bachmann: "Well, I would say President Obama is the one that's wrong, because President Obama's plan for job creation has absolutely nothing to do with the true people who know how to create jobs. He should really be going to job-creators if he wants to know how to create jobs. Instead, he continues to go to a General Axelrod in Chicago to look for his orders to figure out how to deal with the economy. That won't work. We know what needs to be done. We have a real problem. When you have 53 percent of Americans paying federal income taxes, but you have 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, you have a real problem. And that's why in my tax plan, I have everyone paying something because everyone benefits by this magnificent country. So even if it means paying the price of two Happy Meals a year, like $10, everyone can afford to pay at least that. And what it does is create a mentality in the United States that says that freedom is free. But freedom isn't free. We all benefit. We all need to sacrifice. Everybody has to be a part of this tax code."
I think this is a brilliant way to phrase what is derisively referred to as the 'no skin in the game' argument. Freedom isn't free...two Happy Meals....fantastic. The leftwing in America is so eager to attack "the rich" for not paying "more" (endlessly "more") because they benefit from what taxes are used for, but they never manage to get around to the 47% that don't pay income taxes that benefit from them, also.
***
Paul's moment -
Paul: "So you have to address the subject of spending. That is the tax. That is the reason I go after the spending. I propose in the first year cut $1 trillion out of the budget in five departments. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Now the other thing is that you must do if you want to get the economy going and going again is you have to get rid of price- fixing. And the most significant price-fixing that goes on, that gave us the bubble, destroyed the economy, and is preventing this from coming out, is the price-fixing of the Federal Reserve, manipulating interest rates way below market rates. You have to have the market determine interest rates if you want a healthy, viable economy."
Q: "So you think the economy would be stronger if interest rates were higher right now?"
Paul: "You would have more incentive. You would take care of the elderly. They get cheated. They get nothing for their CDs. Why cheat them and give the banks loans at zero percent? And then they loan it back to the government at 3 percent. They are ripping us off at the expense of those on fixed incomes and retirees."
***
Blammo! Great prep work by the geniuses at CNBC -
Q: "Governor Romney, respond in 30 seconds. Not one of your 59 points in your economic plan mentions or addresses housing. Can you tell us why?"
Romney: "Yes, because it's not a housing plan. It's a jobs plan. (APPLAUSE) ...You have to let the market work and get people in the homes again, and the best way for that to happen is to allow this economy to reboot. What we know won't work is what this president has done, which is to try and hold off the foreclosure process, the normal market process, to put money into a stimulus that failed, and to put in place a whole series of policies from Obamacare to Dodd/Frank that it made it hard for this economy to get going. You want to get America's economy going? We know how to do it. Just do almost the exact opposite of what President Obama has done."
***
Romney blasts away at more stupid leftwing questioning -
Q: "...the housing market has continued to decline. We are at 2003 price levels now. If we keep going the way we are going, in four or five years, we'll be at 1999 price levels...Are you willing to let that happen in America?"
Romney: "And exactly what would you do instead? Would you decide to have...the federal government go out and buy all the homes in America? That's not going to happen in this country. Markets work. When you have government play its heavy hand, markets blow up and people get hurt. And the reason we have the housing crises we have is that the federal government played too heavy a role in our markets. The federal government came in with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd told banks they had to give loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back." (APPLAUSE)
***
See, another + for Perry that he buried with one brain fart -
Perry: "...let's get our energy industry freed up, federal lands, federal waters, pull back all of those regulations. Everybody on this stage understands it's the regulatory world that is killing America." (APPLAUSE)
***
Bachmann does a nice job here taking a question where she wants it to, which she used to be great at -
Bachmann: "When we had the financial meltdown, 50 percent of the homes are being financed by Fannie and Freddie. Today it's 90 percent of the homes. In other words, the government is the backer of the homes. Well, let's take a look, an analysis of what a great, brilliant job Freddie and Fannie are doing. They just applied this week for another $7 billion bailout because they're failing. The other one applied for a $6 billion bailout because they're failing. But what did they do? They just gave bonuses of almost $13 million to 10 top executives. This is the epicenter of capital -- crony capitalism. That's what's wrong with Washington, D.C. For these geniuses to give 10 of their top executives bonuses at $12 million and then have the guts to come to the American people and say, "Give us another $13 billion to bail us out just for the quarter," that's lunacy. We need to put them back into bankruptcy and get them out of business. They're destroying the housing market." (APPLAUSE)
***
Gingrich, again playing the 'are you really this stupid?' card -
Q: "Since -- since you mentioned Fannie and Freddie, Speaker Gingrich, 30 seconds to you, your firm was paid $300,000 by Freddie Mac in 2006. What did you do for that money?"
Gingrich: "I offer them advice on precisely what they didn't do. (LAUGHTER) ...And my advice as a historian, when they walked in and said to me, "We are now making loans to people who have no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, but that's what the government wants us to do," as I said to them at the time, this is a bubble. This is insane. This is impossible. It turned out, unfortunately, I was right and the people who were doing exactly what Congresswoman Bachmann talked about were wrong. And I think it's a good case for breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and getting much smaller institutions back into the private sector to be competitive and to be responsible for their behavior." (APPLAUSE)
***
Cain, playing, and playing well, the role he knows best - decisive CEO that knows how you go about fixing macro problems...and also how you don't -
Q: "What would you do with these -- with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Would you shut them down even though it could mean higher interest rates for America? Does it make it even harder than it is right now for Americans to get home loans?"
Cain: "You don't start there. You start with fixing the real problem, which is growing this economy...Secondly, then you get the regulators off of the backs of the banks like someone mentioned....They would then be in a better position, and they might develop a desire in order to help homeowners reset their mortgages if they were able to see, number three, some certainty. Uncertainty is what's killing this economy..."
Q: "I'm sorry, Mr. Cain, but you would come into office and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be there. The question was, what would you do with them?"
Cain: "OK. After I did those three things that I outlined, then deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You don't start solving a problem right in the middle of it. So we've got to do that first. I would also turn those GSEs into private entities. The government does not need to be in that business. I would find a way to unwind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, such that the marketplace can determine the future of the housing market." (APPLAUSE)
***
Gingrich is starting to sound like he's found himself in an episode of The Twilight Zone when asked to explain how to fix healthcare after repealing Obamacare in 30 seconds -
Gingrich: "Well, I just want point out, my colleagues have done a terrific job of answering an absurd question. To say in 30 seconds..."
Q: "You have said you want to repeal "Obama-care," correct?"
Gingrich: "I did. Let me finish, if I may. To say in 30 seconds what you would do with 18 percent of the economy, life and death for the American people, a topic I've worked on since 1974, about which I wrote about called "Saving Lives and Saving Money" in 2002, and for which I founded the Center for Health Transformation, is the perfect case of why I'm going to challenge the president to seven Lincoln- Douglas style three-hour debates with a timekeeper and no moderator, at least two of which ought to be on health care so you can have a serious discussion over a several-hour period that affects the lives of every person in this country." (APPLAUSE)
==
Long story short...based on what they said here, I'd be generally pleased with any of them. Problem is determining which would actually do what they say they want to do and which would cave in to be pandered to by the press. Time may tell...
Would You Occupy This?
Probably not what Obama and many democrats had in mind when they came out in support of these nuts:
Occupy Denver’s General Assembly voted on a leader and chose a three-year-old border collie named Shelby to head the group.Perhaps you recall...
According to the groups website, this was done after Denver Mayor Michael Hancock insisted that Occupy Denver choose leadership to deal with City and State officials.
Everything seems to be possible. [Crowd Parrot Chant] You can travel to the moon. [CPC] You can become immortal [CPC] by biogenetics. You can have sex with animals, or whatever. [CPC].Isn't it maybe time to clean up this mess before more people die or are attacked?
In The News. And Not.
What's news to the mainstream media?
Voters reject limits on unions? News!
Voters reject Obamacare? Not news.
Voters reject abortion restrictions? News!
Voters enact voter ID requirements? Not news.
Biased? Who, us?
Voters reject limits on unions? News!
Voters reject Obamacare? Not news.
Voters reject abortion restrictions? News!
Voters enact voter ID requirements? Not news.
Biased? Who, us?
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Facepalm Of Awesomeness
Occupy Oakland makes $20K deposit at Wells Fargo
Last week, one or more Occupy Oakland protesters smashed the windows of a Wells Fargo branch.Can't make it up, folks.
This week, the group’s general assembly agreed — in a near-unanimous vote Monday — to temporarily place $20,000 of the group’s money in an account at the country’s fourth-largest bank holding company, Wells Fargo Bank...
“I can see the ad now: ‘People’s money is so safe here at Wells Fargo, even our sworn enemies use us for their banking needs!’” wrote @davidcolburn.
And indeed, Wells Fargo spokesman Ruben Pulido went out of his way on Monday to notify reporters about this development via email. “If this report is true,” he wrote, “it demonstrates that even Occupy Oakland understands — firsthand — the value and service that Wells Fargo provides its customers. Wells Fargo welcomes the 100 percent of Americans to allow us to help them meet their financial needs.”
Racism Just Below The Surface
Hmmm...scratch a big media liberal and seems like you always find racism just below the surface.
Say it with me...
If this had been someone on FoxNews or a conservative radio show host...
Protests. Death threats. Boycotts. Senate resolutions of condemnation. Certainly a firing.Riots in the streets (Whoops, they're already doing that)
On Wednesday's "Today" show...More telling, perhaps, is his much-less public (via Twitter) apology:
Ann Curry, NBC News: "He's not stepping down, continuing to suck the air out of the narrative the Republican party really wants to tell. Does the party now wish he would just go away?"
David Gregory, NBC News: "Well there is no, you know, Grand Wizard in the party right now who can really force the issue. I've talked to Cain's advisers in Iowa, they think their support is still strong there, that it's not falling..."
'Wizard' remark this morning was a very poor choice of words. Did not mean to make that connection at all. Was not thinking. I apologizeWasn't thinking...racist KKK comment just sorta popped right out when I wasn't intentionally stopping myself from saying such things?
Say it with me...
If this had been someone on FoxNews or a conservative radio show host...
Protests. Death threats. Boycotts. Senate resolutions of condemnation. Certainly a firing.
Move Along, Nothing To See Here
So. Barack Hussein Obama already has a Jew problem. By saying that Israel should pull back to pre 1967 indefensible borders and trying to give away Jerusalem he has already lost a lot of support from Jews that care about Israel more than supporting Democrats (incidentally, what are they getting out of it? still haven't figured that out) in the US.
Now he gets caught badmouthing Netanyahu with disappointing French President Sarkozy (yes, the country whose ambassador, I think it was, called Israel "that shi**y little country), where the Israeli PM that schooled Obama on reality in his own office was portrayed as an annoying liar.
So.
The Gazette carried the AP story on the very last page of the news section, A10. The headline keeps Obama out of it: "French leader Sarkozy caught bad-mouthing Israel's PM". It's not until paragraph 9 that we find that Obama, also, was "caught bad-mouthing Israel's PM". Funny...that didn't make the headline.
The Times Union ran an LA Times version on A4 with a similarly protective headline: "'Liar' remark may embarrass Sarkozy". But apparently not Obama. We have to get to paragraph 5 to get to Obama's "embarrassing" remark. And this after they ran a page 1 story on Iran furthering their work on a nuke that they want to use to wipe Israel off the map. The story goes on to say that the remarks "are likely to cause embarrassment to both leaders"...so why wasn't that the headline?
Surely not an Obama-defending liberal media bias.
--
Not that the press is a herd or anything...but the NY Times did the same thing as the AP and LA Times: NYTimes Twice Omits Obama from Headline to Embarrassing Insults of Netanyahu.
The WaPo mentions Obama, but not that he was involved: "The Washington Post buried a brief item on the tussle on page A14 Wednesday, but the headline at least acknowledged Obama’s presence: “Sarkozy to Obama: Netanyahu is ‘a liar.’”"
Now he gets caught badmouthing Netanyahu with disappointing French President Sarkozy (yes, the country whose ambassador, I think it was, called Israel "that shi**y little country), where the Israeli PM that schooled Obama on reality in his own office was portrayed as an annoying liar.
So.
The Gazette carried the AP story on the very last page of the news section, A10. The headline keeps Obama out of it: "French leader Sarkozy caught bad-mouthing Israel's PM". It's not until paragraph 9 that we find that Obama, also, was "caught bad-mouthing Israel's PM". Funny...that didn't make the headline.
The Times Union ran an LA Times version on A4 with a similarly protective headline: "'Liar' remark may embarrass Sarkozy". But apparently not Obama. We have to get to paragraph 5 to get to Obama's "embarrassing" remark. And this after they ran a page 1 story on Iran furthering their work on a nuke that they want to use to wipe Israel off the map. The story goes on to say that the remarks "are likely to cause embarrassment to both leaders"...so why wasn't that the headline?
Surely not an Obama-defending liberal media bias.
--
Not that the press is a herd or anything...but the NY Times did the same thing as the AP and LA Times: NYTimes Twice Omits Obama from Headline to Embarrassing Insults of Netanyahu.
The WaPo mentions Obama, but not that he was involved: "The Washington Post buried a brief item on the tussle on page A14 Wednesday, but the headline at least acknowledged Obama’s presence: “Sarkozy to Obama: Netanyahu is ‘a liar.’”"
Oh, For Crying Out....A CHRISTMAS TREE TAX?!
Congratulations, America. You did a bang up job with this whole Obama, thing. Lucky for us we don't have to worry about unappreciated Christmas trees, nope, he's got himself a brand new government plan to promote that unloved castoff, the CHRISTMAS TREE! All for just the low low cost of 15 more cents per tree. God bless, America!
==
Heritage is reporting that the outcry has caused them to "delay" the tax. If taxes "help" and "stimulate" things then why isn't raising taxes on CHRISTMAS TREES a month before Christmas a BRILLIANT idea?
President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees — the Christmas Tree Tax — to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.Vote Barack Hussein Obama! Saving Christmas through higher taxes since 2011!
==
Heritage is reporting that the outcry has caused them to "delay" the tax. If taxes "help" and "stimulate" things then why isn't raising taxes on CHRISTMAS TREES a month before Christmas a BRILLIANT idea?
Double Standards At The New York Times
The NY Times fully exposes itself as a liberal tool with double standards set in stone: Occupy Troublemakers Merely Fringe, But Tea Party 'Responsible for the Behavior of People' at Rallies
Sunday’s Metro section led with an above-the-fold look at the state of Occupy Wall Street as winter approaches from reporters Cara Buckley and Colin Moynihan, “A Protest Reaches a Crossroads.” They briefly noted the violence and criminal behavior at Zuccotti Park while providing plenty of room for excuse-making on the part of OWS, something reporter Kate Zernike most assuredly did not do for the Tea Party in her 2010 book on the movement, “Boiling Mad."...Could you be more obvious?
The Times finally provided a little bit of the news the New York Post has been breaking every day, like the fact that “some people seem to be there mainly for the donated clothes and free food,” as well as arrests for sexual assault and violence. Still, the Times excused the bad behavior as "a small minority."Many protesters say the lawless visitors constitute a tiny fringe and are not representative of the movement, which, they say, has espoused nonviolence and mutual aid...But there are concerns that even if the criminal and antisocial elements are a small minority, they are becoming visible enough to tarnish the image of the entire group.Zernike wasn’t nearly as understanding with another leaderless movement, the Tea Party, writing in “Boiling Mad” that the movement bore the blame for any bad behavior (if there was any) by rallygoers...It was difficult, if not disingenuous, for the Tea Party groups to try to disown the behavior. They had organized the rally, and under their model of self-policing, they were responsible for the behavior of people who were there. And after saying for months that anybody could be a Tea Party leader, they could not suddenly dismiss as faux Tea Partiers those protesters who made them look bad.
Looks Like Cain Can Move On
Without passing judgement, simply reflecting on the reality of the situation and the uber-hyperbolic coverage, it looks like Cain can now move on.
The firestorm of ridiculous criticism by the press failed to dent him, even with the piling on by old guard and increasingly-irrelevant GOPers, in terms of support or fundraising.
Remember, when one or two 'anonymous' sources 'came forward' (except they didn't), the nod-wink was 'where there's smoke there's fire' and 'there must be more'.
Well, now at least one of the women is looking like a serial sexual harassment accuser that used it to get her way and get money. Remember, right or wrong, that's what it's going to look like on the surface. Now, instead of 'there must be more' it's going to be 'gee, it's kind of looking more like a political hit job or the baseless accusations he said it was'.
So, right or wrong, it looks like this is going to pass, barring new revelations - and that seems unlikely given Cain's presser yesterday.
At this time I would remind readers of what Ann Coulter had to say about the corporate atmosphere at the exact time in question here.
The firestorm of ridiculous criticism by the press failed to dent him, even with the piling on by old guard and increasingly-irrelevant GOPers, in terms of support or fundraising.
Remember, when one or two 'anonymous' sources 'came forward' (except they didn't), the nod-wink was 'where there's smoke there's fire' and 'there must be more'.
Well, now at least one of the women is looking like a serial sexual harassment accuser that used it to get her way and get money. Remember, right or wrong, that's what it's going to look like on the surface. Now, instead of 'there must be more' it's going to be 'gee, it's kind of looking more like a political hit job or the baseless accusations he said it was'.
So, right or wrong, it looks like this is going to pass, barring new revelations - and that seems unlikely given Cain's presser yesterday.
At this time I would remind readers of what Ann Coulter had to say about the corporate atmosphere at the exact time in question here.
To have been accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s is like having been accused of molesting children at preschools in the 1980s or accused of being a witch in Massachusetts in the 1690s.And, again, why aren't we seeing 'specific' charges in the press (except for the one that was giggling during her press conference) apart from things like he said the woman was about the same height as his wife (we think the USA is too PC now, but in the 90s that was apparently akin to pulling your pants down and dirty dancing with the copy machine in front of someone).
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Thomas Sowell Puts Clown Nose On Recent Class Warfare
Who better than Mr. Sowell to point out the idiocy of the recent class warfare articles on 'income gaps' and 'age gaps' that, gee, just happen to coincide with protests that the press supports. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. Anyway, Mr. Sowell plants a big red nose on them with those pesky facts:
The relationship between age and income is not hard to understand. It usually takes years to acquire the skills and experience that high-paying jobs require, or to build up a clientele for those in business or the professions...Also, Alan Reynolds blasts the Fortune 'from thin air' story here: The Growing Wealth Gap? Fortune Makes up the Numbers.
But these are not different classes of people, as so often insinuated in runaway political rhetoric. Everybody who is 65 years old was once under 35 years of age. And most people under 35 years of age will someday be 65 years old...
While the rhetoric is about people, the statistics are almost invariably about abstract income brackets...
Currently we are hearing a lot in the media and in politics about the "top one percent" of income earners who are supposedly getting an ever-increasing share of the nation's income.
That is absolutely true if you are talking about income brackets. It is totally untrue if you are talking about actual flesh and blood people.
The Internal Revenue Service can follow individual people over the years because they can identify individuals from their Social Security numbers. During recent years, when "the top one percent" as an income category has been getting a growing share of the nation's income, IRS data show that actual flesh and blood people who were in the top one percent in 1996 had their incomes go down -- repeat, DOWN -- by a whopping 26 percent by 2005.
How can both sets of statistics be true at the same time? Because most people who are in the top one percent in a given year do not stay in that bracket over the years...
A University of Michigan study showed that most of the working people who were in the bottom 20 percent of income earners in 1975 were also in the top 40 percent at some point by 1991. Only 5 percent of those in the bottom quintile in 1975 were still there in 1991, while 29 percent of them were now in the top quintile.
Just Sayin'
The leftwing media seems awfully quick to believe that a black man can't control himself around white women.
Just sayin'.
And I seem to be noticing a distinct bloodlust for a guy that, even if you believe the worst of the allegations, knows that 'no means no' from a group that threw themselves on their swords to defend a rapist ("feminists" included).
Just sayin'.
Just sayin'.
And I seem to be noticing a distinct bloodlust for a guy that, even if you believe the worst of the allegations, knows that 'no means no' from a group that threw themselves on their swords to defend a rapist ("feminists" included).
Just sayin'.
Times Union Letter Cites "Pants on Fire" Lie
A letter in today's Times Union was so blatantly in violation of the spirit and letter of the letter publishing standards of the Times Union that I sent a correction request to the editorial page editor as well as the reader representative this evening. I don't normally touch letters, but this one, using a claim found to be a "Pants on Fire" lie by Politifact.com, was indefensible. The text follows:
==
UPDATE
As usual, the Times Union's response to having errors/lies that they published brought to their attention is to say I should write a letter for them to consider publishing. Really? Since when is that how it works?
Here's my less than unsnarky response:
There must be an election coming up, the Times Union is printing letters that violate their own publishing standards again.
There is no plausible excuse for printing William McTygue's letter on Monday without correction. Mr. McTygue's claims are simply untrue and cannot hope to pass any reasonable newsroom editing smell test.
He claims: "Even The Wall Street Journal, known for its ultra-conservative slant, admitted that the Republican-sponsored budget passed by the House would kill Medicare." Leaving aside the claim about the WSJ's "slant", the WSJ never said such a thing. Mr. McTygue references not the WSJ, but an opinion column that ran in the WSJ by Naftali Bendavid, such an "ultra-conservative" that he has written a book praising Rahm Emanuel as well as editing that "ultra-conservative" tome 'Obama: The Essential Guide to the Democratic nominee'. On top of that, Politifact rates the Democrat claim that the Ryan budget would "kill Medicare" as a Pants on Fire lie (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/20/democratic-congressional-campaign-committee/democrats-say-republicans-voted-end-medicare-and-c/).
The Times Union normally seems to rely on the judgement of Politifact. As recently as April 14, 2011, Steve Barnes cites the "Pulitzer Prize-winning website" to justify his attack on Glenn Beck (The Wonderful World of Glenn Beck). On December 29, 2010, a Times Union "Webviews" positively cited the "myth-busting PolitiFact.com". On April 29, 2009, a Times Union editorial suggests using the Politifact site to track Mr. Obama's campaign promises (So Many Issues, So Many Days).
Furthermore, Mr. McTygue disingenuously crops the quote from the opinion column from the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576240751124518520.html), which reads in full: "The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills." I put it to the Times Union editors that an honest weighing of that statement, that it would end the way Medicare pays for care, is a far cry from Mr. McTygue's "end Medicare" claim. He has put words in Naftali Bendavid's mouth, or, more accurately, removed them.
Additionally, but more defensibly, Mr. McTygue on several occasions in his letter says that it would affect the care of "seniors", whereas the Ryan budget did not touch Medicare for any current seniors. However, since it would cover people once they became seniors, I can see how this is at least defensible, though misleading. Nonetheless, printing a letter citing a long-disproven, indeed "Pants on Fire" lie, during election season surely violates the Times Union's policies on letters and a correction/explanation should be printed as soon as possible so as not to mislead readers as they begin to think about their votes.
==
UPDATE
As usual, the Times Union's response to having errors/lies that they published brought to their attention is to say I should write a letter for them to consider publishing. Really? Since when is that how it works?
Here's my less than unsnarky response:
Correcting factual errors is the job of the editors, not readers. Hence the title "editor". You printed an easily demonstrated lie. You fix it. The WSJ did not say what your letter writer claimed. What was said was not what your letter writer claimed. Fix the lie. Edit. When you get the name wrong of the game-winning scorer of a local soccer game, do you make someone write a letter to the editor to set the record straight or do you just fix it? What a ridiculous pants on fire response.
Hey, We Know Her!
So I'm eating my cereal, watching YNN this morning with the sound off because they're interviewing aimless "occupiers" when I notice the graphic below one of the interviewees...why look who it is! Trudy Quaif! Yes, that's right, Albany's answer to any left-wing radical protest that happens to be going on.
Remember? How about now? I almost wish the sound was on because I'm sure the interviewer asked her if she and her compadres stand with the criminals in Oakland and elsewhere.
So, chicken or the egg? Does she search out the cameras and notebooks or is it the other way around?
Remember? How about now? I almost wish the sound was on because I'm sure the interviewer asked her if she and her compadres stand with the criminals in Oakland and elsewhere.
So, chicken or the egg? Does she search out the cameras and notebooks or is it the other way around?
More Occupy Crime And Disgusting Acts
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
SoCal Street Cart Vendors Hurting After ‘Occupy’ Group Splatters Blood, Urine
Notice, if you please, that reports are starting to come from 'mainstream' media sources now, although they're still not being relayed much. That is, instead of seeing something just from a rightweb blog or whatever, local news are actually relating this violence and these despicable acts, but unlike when they want to attack anything conservative, the rest of the media doesn't immediately start reporting it also, etc.
and "arson"? Man suspected of setting fire to Fort Collins condo appears in court
It's really all going swimmingly down in NYC, though: Occupiers terrorize us: eatery
SoCal Street Cart Vendors Hurting After ‘Occupy’ Group Splatters Blood, Urine
Notice, if you please, that reports are starting to come from 'mainstream' media sources now, although they're still not being relayed much. That is, instead of seeing something just from a rightweb blog or whatever, local news are actually relating this violence and these despicable acts, but unlike when they want to attack anything conservative, the rest of the media doesn't immediately start reporting it also, etc.
A pair of Southland street cart vendors who were forced to shut down their businesses after “Occupy” protesters vandalized their carts are hoping to get some help from local residents...Get used to seeing weasel words like "relatively peaceful" preceding things like "death threats", "became violent", "push an elderly woman down a flight of stairs"...
Coffee cart owner Linda Jenson and hot dog cart operators Letty and Pete Soto said they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent.
And according to one city councilman, bodily fluids were used in the attacks.
“Both carts have had items stolen, have had their covers vandalized with markings and graffiti, as well as one of the carts had urine and blood splattered on it,” said Councilman Carl DeMaio...
In addition to the attacks, the vendors also said they recently received death threats...
After a relatively peaceful start, the “Occupy” movement has sparked violent clashes with police in Oakland and recently saw protesters push an elderly woman down a flight of stairs in D.C.
and "arson"? Man suspected of setting fire to Fort Collins condo appears in court
A 29-year-old man associated with Occupy Fort Collins on suspicion of setting the Oct. 24 fire that destroyed an Old Town condominium complex and severely damaged another appeared in court Friday...He might have "stopped by", this guy I got to know there. I like that the writer put the part about him speaking at a Council meeting on their behalf before the part about he's a guy that just kinda "stopped by", maybe, kinda, sorta.
Gilmore, a registered Republican, was an early supporter of Occupy Fort Collins, which has set up camp a block away from where the fire burned. In an online video, Gilmore said he was frustrated by the income disparity between executives and workers, and told people they should turn in their paper money for gold and other metals.
"We are taking over Fort Collins Incorporated and establishing Fort Collins Unincorporated," he said in the video.
Gilmore spoke at a Fort Collins City Council meeting earlier this week seeking more support for Occupy Fort Collins...
One of the supporters of Occupy Fort Collins, Julia Crisafi, attended today's hearing, concerned about the national attention the story might draw.
"I cannot stand by and let it go to national news that Occupy Fort Collins is linked to arson," Crisafi said. "He may have stopped by but he is in no way a direct relation to our movement. We are peaceful protestors. We don't tolerate violence."
Crisafi got to know Benjamin solely through the context of Occupy Fort Collins. She said she doesn't know if he's guilty or not but showed up to court to find out what happened...
The damage to the building is estimated at approximately $10 million.
It's really all going swimmingly down in NYC, though: Occupiers terrorize us: eatery
A business owner near the Occupy Wall Street encampment claims she has been repeatedly harassed and threatened with bodily harm by protesters after she and her employees refused to give in to their outlandish demands.Does "Occupy Albany" "stand with" these people? Does Pelosi? Does Obama? Does the media? When will the media start asking every Democrat they interview whether they will condemn these acts of crime, violence, and rage as Republicans were continually forced to answer for made up incidents that never happened at TEA Parties?
“I’ve been told, ‘Watch your back!’ 10 times,” Stacey Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. Breads, located across from Zuccotti Park, told The Post yesterday.
She and her employees are terrified by the constant threats, which she said began after she demanded the protesters stop using her shop’s restroom as a place to bathe every day.
The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet -- setting her back $3,000 in damages...
And on Friday, she said, a crazed squatter burst into the shop and demanded that workers fill a 10-gallon container of water.
When they refused, “he banged it on the ground and started yelling” and threatened the staff, she said.
“He said he was entitled to have it for free.”...
“They use one of our doorways as a bathroom, and we have to scrub it down every morning...They unplugged my ATM machine and plugged in their computers,” Tzortzatos said.
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