Media

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

The Media’s Constant Palin Hyperbole

July 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent CBS report by Scott Conroy and director of political coverage Steve Chaggaris is typical of the hyperbole to which the Old Media is prone when “reporting” (by that you can read dramatizing) Sarah Palin’s political doings.

This report is not as chock full of it as some others that have utilized over-the-top phrases and rhetoric to beat down Palin, but there are a few here that ring typical of the sort of backdoor slams that the Old Media constantly over use in its Palin coverage.

We start with the opening line:

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The Media’s Constant Palin Hyperbole”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Security/Safety - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

SEIUs Healthcare Pact With Wal-Mart Annoys AFL-CIO

July 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wal-Mart is making unions mad… again. But this time it is for joining forces with one as opposed to merely opposing them. Wal-Mart has recently joined forces with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to help them push through the disastrous Obamacare policies that the SEIU is championing.

While the SEIU is one of the largest, most powerful unions in the country, not all unions are happy with the labor group’s teaming up with the retail giant.

“We’re not too happy with Wal-Mart. We don’t think they should be an example of how to fix the health-care problems in America,” AFL-CIO President James Hoffa, Jr. told reporters.

As it happens, I agree with Hoffa that Wal-Mart’s agreement with the SEIU makes it an imperfect example by which to push healthcare “reform.” You see, Wal-Mart is not pursuing what would be a good policy for the country. It is pursuing what would be a good policy for Wal-Mart and a bad one for Wal-Mart’s competition.

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SEIUs Healthcare Pact With Wal-Mart Annoys AFL-CIO”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - The Law

President Obama’s Case Against Healthcare Reform

July 28, 2009 by

-By Dan Scott

If you take President Obama’s example at face value concerning unnecessary tonsillectomies here are six points to consider why he basically made the case against his so called Healthcare Reform Plan (ObamaCare):

1) He accused doctors of unnecessary medical procedures. His example was a pediatrician profiting from tonsillectomies. Since when does a pediatrician perform surgeries? They don’t, a (pediatric) surgeon does. A pediatrician does not get any kickback or money from the surgeon for the referral. His example shows either a profound ignorance of the division of labor within health care or a deliberate deception. In fact under his example, the pediatrician would make MORE money from seeing the child repeatedly over a period of months by collecting the copay at each visit under a PPO arrangement. In an HMO where the doctor makes most of his money on a flat rate per patient per month regardless of the number of times the person sees the doctor. Under an HMO, the pediatrician would make money by making the tonsillectomy referral since seeing an individual LESS would mean having more patients on the roster thus collecting more money in the aggregate. However, most HMOs would ding the pediatrician for having a higher rate of referrals thus restricting their medical practice to stop such abuse.

2) All medical procedures on a child or adult are done with the prior CONSENT of the guardian or patient. If you are going to question the integrity of doctors, you will also have to question the motives of guardians and patients for acting proactively.
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President Obama’s Case Against Healthcare Reform”

Barack Obama - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Police - President - Race - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

APs Babington Misleads That Gates Arrested Because He’s Black

July 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an “analysis” on how President Obama is dealing with the race issue, AP writer Charles Babington seems to have based his take on what happened to Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on the assumption that Gates was arrested for being black in his home, not that he was arrested for disorderly conduct and for his outrageous disrespect for a police officer — something to which other police officers involved attest, officers that are themselves minorities.

Babington so soft peddles Obama’s gaffe against the police officers, leaving out so many details that, after reading the story, one finds it difficult to understand why Obama’s words were so controversial. And it’s all in a seeming effort to cover for the president and try to help him reclaim the high ground on race in America. The whole Babington piece appears to be far more of an effort to smooth the waters for Obama instead of provide any actual analysis of the incident.

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APs Babington Misleads That Gates Arrested Because He’s Black”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Freedoms YOU Will Lose With Obamacare

July 27, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two recent articles do a wonderful job addressing some of the freedoms that each of us will lose if President Obama’s nationalized healthcare takeover occurs. One by John Fund of the all Street Journal and a second in Fortune by editor at large Shawn Tully really drive home how healthcare “reform” is a barely disguised grab for power by Democrats in Congress and the White House.

Tully outlines for us five freedoms we will lose once the government takes over healthcare and the biggest one makes the lie to Obama’s constant claim that we can keep the healthcare plans we currently have “if we like it.”

In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage — including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money — but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can’t have. It’s a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.

Among the things that Tully reveals is that we’d lose the freedom to chose what sort of plan we’d like to pay for and what care options we’d like to have, we’d lose the ability to chose our own doctors, and nearly all of us would lose our existing healthcare plans, whether we have them through our employer or not, within a year of Obamacare’s passing.

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Freedoms YOU Will Lose With Obamacare”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Police - Race - Warner Todd Huston

Part of Gates Gate Not Getting Much Media Attention

July 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent New York Post story brought up a point about the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that few in the Old Media have paid much attention to. Apparently, Gates has since the arrest announced he is in the early stages of involvement in a PBS TV series on civil rights in America. It is odd that this single fact has not been a focus of much discussion.

After all, if Gates is about to start a TV show about civil rights, what better way to punch up that participation than to “suddenly” get mixed up in a national civil rights “abuse” case? What better way to highlight America’s civil rights problem than to become a nationally known victim of so-called racism?

Why is no one asking how long Gates has been in the planning stages of this TV show? Was he planning it since before the arrest? It all leads one to wonder if Gates saw an opportunity to gin up interest in his TV appearance by becoming a victim? Instead of experiencing any actual racial tension, did Gates invent his own ready-made, sensational incident to turn his scholarly civil rights discussion into the quintessential TV reality show extravaganza? Was all this just a TV stunt in Gates’ mind? Was it mere opportunism?

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Part of Gates Gate Not Getting Much Media Attention”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

The Long, Agonizing Decline of the United States

July 27, 2009 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

We are following the downward path of Great Britain, one of the two greatest of Western history’s empires.

We can draw several cautionary lessons from the history of our British cousins. Of all the world’s nations we and the UK are most similar, both in our rise and in our decline.

In addition to sharing the English language, our whole constitutional ethos and legal system derive from the British constitution and from the common law. Ours are the principal nations that made the sovereign’s right to taxation subject to the will of the people expressed in Parliament and our state and national legislatures.

Most especially, ours were the only nations that arose upon the primacy of private property rights. It was this fundamental element of natural law that, more than anything else, accounted for English and American individualism. It was an ethos that the German Empire’s Iron Chancellor Bismarck contemptuously dismissed as a society of shopkeepers, as opposed to the Prussian landed aristocracy. It was, however, an ethos that twice bested the statist collectivism of Continental Europe in world wars.
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The Long, Agonizing Decline of the United States”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Race - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

CNNs Resident Whiner, Rick Sanchez

July 26, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week, CNN’s Rick Sanchez decided in his infinite wisdom (yes, that’s sarcasm) that any “Hispanic” that works for Fox News is a “sellout.” Apparently Sanchez imagines that any person of Latin heritage that works for any network other than CNN is an Uncle Thomas.

First of all, I’d say anyone that identifies himself as an “Hispanic” in the first place is a “sellout.” A sellout to the politically correct. You see, the word Hispanic is a manufactured word invented to lump together so many South American, Central American, and European nationalities, cultures, languages and genetic profiles that it really has no logical meaning. There really is no such thing as an “Hispanic” person when you get right down to it. It’s a meaningless construct.

Anyway, our resident CNN whiner is apparently feeling a bit of heat from all those “Neocons” (another meaningless construct, by the way) and conservatives whose tongues he set to wagging because of his idiotic comment about sellouts. Lil’ Ricky is so put upon that it sent him to Twitter again to bemoan his being all beat up by the conservatives.

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CNNs Resident Whiner, Rick Sanchez”

Anti-Americanism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Military - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Terrorism - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Naval Cmmdr Sues Journalist for ‘Sexual Harassment’

July 26, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Media Bistro, we find an odd story that has it all: foul language, boorish behavior, sexual harassment, a male U.S. Navy officer, and a female journalist. Only the story isn’t what you might think it would be considering the ingredients. In this case it is the naval officer filining a complaint aganst the female reporter for sexual harassment.

Media Bistro has learned that US Navy Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg with Gordon claiming that Rosenberg made comments about Gordon’s “sexual orientation,” repeatedly showered foul language upon him, and made comments of a sexual nature to him in the presence of others.

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Naval Cmmdr Sues Journalist for ‘Sexual Harassment’”

Barack Obama - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Police - President - Race - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Acting Stupidly

July 26, 2009 by

-By Dan Scott

At the end of President Obama’s health care sales pitch he made some remarks, which revealed elements of his worldview. He said the police acted stupidly with the preface of not knowing the all the facts, what does this say of Obama’s worldview? President Obama says he respects the efforts of the police whom he then claims they acted stupidly. He admits he doesn’t have all the facts and then pronounces judgment. Equally as revealing were the Harvard Professor Gates’ attitudes toward the white cop, i.e. the police. He made the same assumptions as President Obama. The common element between both of them is their liberal worldview. When someone axiomatically assumes a certain cause for the effect without ANY attempt to determine what the facts are, it says this person is operating on stereotypes. This would be like Archie Bunker assuming the burglary next door was committed by Blacks. Or the owner of the fancy house down the street is a Jew. I submit Barack Obama is nothing more than a modern day Archie Bunker. Just as Archie Bunker was the caricature for conservatives, Barack Obama is the caricatures for liberals. The obvious exception is that Archie Bunker was a fictional character whereas Barack Obama is not.

Here we have the demonstrated epitome of liberal stereotypes and jurisprudence, you are presumed guilty of all negative stereotypes unless you provide concrete proof to the contrary. The Archie Bunker of liberalism has spoken his truth but what truth was it? Was it race? Here’s something to consider, a Hispanic cop and a Black cop back up the actions of a White cop, however the common element between all three is BLUE. The Great Divider tossed the ethereal version of the race card. Perhaps we have all misunderstood his statement, because he said he was sorry that we misunderstood, but he did not say he was sorry for what he said. We were supposed to get the US VERSUS THEM against the police, but being the dolts we are, we thought he was alluding to race, i.e. the color of his skin because the arresting officer was white. Clearly the professor saw the other two cops of different races, so like Obama, he was claiming Blue racism against Blacks. Interestingly, the police union didn’t misunderstand Obama’s message, hence their demand for an apology. Both Obama and the police are operating on the same wavelength.
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Acting Stupidly”

Afghanistan - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Loathes American Success

July 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let’s try a thought experiment. When I say “victory,” what do you think of? Do you think of winning the World Series? Do you picture that famous photo of the U.S. Sailor kissing the pretty girl in Time Square as WWII ended? Do you just imagine “winning” at whatever contest is at hand?

It is likely that even if you don’t picture a particular thing, at the very least your initial emotional response is a warm feeling of worthy accomplishment and an assumption of gaining the accolades that accompanies victory.

It is less likely that upon hearing or seeing the word “victory” an American would immediately get a feeling of defeat and humiliation or picture the end of anything. It is even less likely that a loathing would well up inside of the minds of an American when the word is broached.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama is not like average, patriotic, optimistic Americans. At least we can easily assume this to be the case by what President Obama recently said of our military efforts in Afghanistan.

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Obama Loathes American Success”

Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston

L.A.Times Still Calling it the ‘So-Called War on Terror’

July 24, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the L.A. Times on July 22, writer Catherine Lyons again revealed a bit of her Bush Derangement Syndrome by calling the war on terror a “so-called war on terror.” What is with these people that simply cannot accept terms of reality? It’s like this every time they use the word terrorism, or “terrorism” as the Old Media so often terms it, and the war on terror. The Old Media simply refuses to understand that terrorism exists, that it is a problem, and that we are at war with terrorists.

This usage of the “so-called” remark was doubly amusing because Lyons threw in her “so-called war on terror” comment into a story about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s visit to a closed meeting of Muslims held in Los Angeles on July 18. Her scoffing at the war on terror seemed geared to let Muslim readers in on the fact that she didn’t believe there was terrorism or that Bush was really fighting a war on terror… wink, wink.

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L.A.Times Still Calling it the ‘So-Called War on Terror’”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Why Did MSNBC Edit Hillary’s CFR Speech?

July 23, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On July 15, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the Council on Foreign Relations, the much maligned organization often at the center of many global conspiracy theories.

We won’t talk about the merits of the CFR itself, here, but what made me curious is the treatment that MSNBC gave the Clinton speech. It appears that MSNBC edited out Clinton’s opening statement thanking the CFR for having her. When reading what she said at the outset of the speech one might become suspicious that MSNBC was trying to provide cover for the Secretary of State whose comments opened her up to the tongue wagging of conspiracy buffs.

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Why Did MSNBC Edit Hillary’s CFR Speech?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

What Obama Doesn’t Know WILL Hurt Us

July 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier in the week President Obama was part of a conference call held to talk about his healthcare plans during which he admitted that he was uninformed about what was in the healthcare legislation he was pushing for. But even as he admitted he had no clue about provisions of the bill, he insisted that certain things will happen once it’s passed.

Once the healthcare bill that is under consideration in the House of Representatives was released, it was discovered that one part of it would force all new insurance policies to conform to the government’s public plan options or such policies would be prohibited by law. In other words, the bill would effectively eliminate private insurance as soon as the bill passed. Obama claimed he’d never heard of this provision when asked about it.

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What Obama Doesn’t Know WILL Hurt Us”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?

July 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday a warning from TheTruthAboutTheEFCA.com was published that, despite the news reports, card check was not a dead issue. Dead, weakened, whatever, at least it looked as if the widening disdain for the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a step in the right direction. But, some are beginning to wonder if card check was merely a tactic all along.

A recent National Review editorial thinks that the loss of card check would be meaningless if its removal from the EFCA meant that passage was easier. After all, the EFCA is far more egregious and economy killing than just the destruction that would be wrought by the card check feature. We’ve said as much here on the blog, as well.

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Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

OK, Enough! Cronkite Was NOT That Great

July 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The ebullient, effusive, gobstoppery about the life and times of Walter “the most trusted man in America” Cronkite is getting a little too thick around the Old Media landscpe and the latest slobbering love-in by Roger Simon of Politico has at last driven me to say “enuff’s enuf.”

Simon’s saccharine memorial oozes from my computer like syrup and it is just as oversweet, and just as unhealthy. Like too many such memorials, the piece is more about the living’s sycophancy than the dearly departed’s life as Simon waxed nostalgic on the day he first met the towering news reader in person.

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OK, Enough! Cronkite Was NOT That Great”

Budget - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Natives Getting Restless: HuffPo Blogger Wants to be Paid

July 22, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In How The Huffington Post Can Pay Its Bloggers, HuffPo blogger Michelle Haimoff seems to have gotten a tad miffed at how Arianna Huffington is making millions on the backs of her bloggers without “paying it forward,” as it were. Consequently, Haimoff has developed a prototype scheme on how Arianna can pay her long toiling bloggers to help fulfill her “responsibility” to journalism.

I think that Haimoff, however, misses the point of the Huffington Post. It isn’t now and never was about “journalism.” It’s about left-wing advocacy and advertising sales. Journalists need not apply. As we discussed early in July, journalism isn’t what HuffPo does.

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Natives Getting Restless: HuffPo Blogger Wants to be Paid”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Campbell Brown: ‘CNN Only One Still Doing Journalism’

July 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


On an interview show called “Give and Take,” hosted by sometime TV pundit Julie Menin, CNN’s Campbell Brown patted herself and her network on the back for being “the only one that is still doing journalism” in cable land.

Menin asked Brown if she felt odd being a “political independent” in this world of cable pundits and lamented that journalism seems to be scant these days. Menin told Brown that at one time, “obviously journalists were independent.” Brown replied by assuming the truth of that “independence” and stated that she and CNN are the only ones “doing journalism” any more.

Menin’s odd assumption, though, that journalists are “political independents” is interesting because of the pervasive left-wing bias that is seen throughout the business. Does Menin think “independent” just means free of conservative ideology but otherwise free to be a liberal?

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Campbell Brown: ‘CNN Only One Still Doing Journalism’”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Paper Reports on Itself?

July 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I think this is an example of the distraction that the Internet and the New Media have driven the Old Media to, but it seems that the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia was so amazed that someone finally paid attention to its work that it had to write a whole story about itself to brag about how many webpage hits it got on a recent story by staffer Lily Gordon.

The L-E was all excited that it got “more than 1,000 comments” and received “712,251 page views” after Gordon’s July 14 story headlined, “Soldier balks at deploying; says Obama isn’t president.”

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Paper Reports on Itself?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Even Healthcare Liberal Wants Process Slowed

July 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama is just about to ride his “skycycle” over the edge of Snake River Canyon, right to certain disaster.

Barack Obama is rushing headlong off the healthcare cliff despite rising calls to slow the debate so that lawmakers can wrap their heads around the whole thing. Even liberal Douglas Elmendorf, Harvard trained and member of the leftist Brookings Institute, is practically begging Congress to slow down and deliberate with the attention the whole enterprise deserves.

Elmendorf is a true believer in healthcare “reform,” too. He believes in a massive, socialist take over of healthcare by the government. But even he is saying that the bills currently under consideration are a mess that will cause more trouble in healthcare than they will fix. His primary concern is that the legislation being considered would cause wild increases in healthcare costs despite the claim by Obama that such costs will come down.

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Even Healthcare Liberal Wants Process Slowed”

Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Michael M. Bates - Society/Culture

The “most trusted man in America” reconsidered

July 21, 2009 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Just as the media – with the exception of Larry King – were finally getting over the passing of Michael Jackson came the news that former CBS newsman Walter Cronkite died. Cronkite was an iconic figure amongst his brethren and media encomia were suitably lavish.

Cronkite was recognized, we’ve been told over and over again, as the most trusted man in America. According to USA Today:

“How did he become ‘the most trusted man in America?’ It was a Roper survey for U.S. News & World Report, Cronkite once said, and he won ‘because they didn’t poll my wife.’”

Ever the skeptic, I tried to find that poll. The Roper Center’s Web site includes a link to data gathered for a 1974 “Virginia Slims American Women’s Opinion Poll.” Cronkite did indeed do better than any other male in that sampling. But note how the question was worded:
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The “most trusted man in America” reconsidered”

Barack Obama - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Journalism - Judges - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Supreme Court - Thomas Brewton

The Supreme Court And The Commerce Clause

July 20, 2009 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The Constitution’s commerce clause has been stretched beyond recognition to justify traveling the road to tyranny by obliterating the 9th and 10th Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

The Constitution’s Article I, Section. 8 says, inter alia:

“The Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes…”

In the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, she was asked to comment upon the Constitution’s commerce clause. Senator Dianne Feinstein inquired about the extent to which the Court can restrain Congress’s use of the commerce clause to regulate anything and everything it lays eyes upon. As Senator Feinstein noted, that will become particularly important as Congress and executive branch regulatory bodies embark upon procrustean regulations under President Obama’s proposed “green” legislation.
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The Supreme Court And The Commerce Clause”

Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Education - GOP - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Religion - Republicans - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

U.S. News and Hot, Sexy Chicks

July 19, 2009 by

-By Selwyn Duke

If you’ve ever seen the movie Idiocracy, the title of this piece may seem familiar. The film is a dystopian comedy about a futuristic America in which complete ignorance is the norm. People are inarticulate to the point where even those of status — politicians, doctors, etc. — mangle the language and use profanity to fill in gaps when expressing themselves. The president is a porn star and ex-professional wrestler who wears a muscle shirt, the society’s number-one rated show features nothing but an endless array of groin shots, and the farmers water their plants with a sports electrolyte drink called “Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator” and yet can’t figure out why the crops fail to grow. And, to illustrate how people have become consumed with frivolity and sex — and frivolous sex at that — the title of a certain famous news magazine that just recently curtailed its print publication (in reality) has been changed to “Hot Naked Chicks & World Report.”

It’s a silly movie rife with profanity, so I cannot give it a thumbs up, but I’ll tell you what brings it to mind. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Hannity on Fox News, and one segment concerned media attacks on Sarah Palin — in particular, a Vanity Fair hatchet job written by Todd Purdum. Hannity had columnist S.E. Cupp and one of Fox’ anchors, Kimberly Guilfoyle, as guests, and he was making much of what he characterized as Purdum’s sexism in devoting copious ink to Palin’s comely appearance. Guilfoyle chimed in, complaining that Purdum’s implication that Palin only succeeded because of her looks was “insulting and degrading to women.”

Now, while I’m no fan of Purdum, I find Guilfoyle’s commentary insulting and degrading to my intelligence. Let’s face it, to deny that Palin’s looks played a part in her rise to prominence is to ignore the pink elephant with the frilly dress and lipstick in the middle of the room. However, I will add a little perspective. First, I’m not sure Palin’s looks are quite the factor some people think. Second, despite the “Oh, the patriarchy strikes again!” narrative, appearance is a factor with men as well. Remember how Richard Nixon’s five-o’clock shadow sealed his fate in his 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy, the first televised presidential debate in history? Titillating John just trumped Tricky Dick. And could you imagine a short, fat, ugly, bald man capturing the Oval Office? Why, its current occupant is all image, with his decent, youthful looks, resonant voice and rock-star persona. So attractive is he, in fact, that his teleprompter just can’t stand to be apart from him.
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U.S. News and Hot, Sexy Chicks”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Time Warns President He Could Lose Healthcare Battle

July 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It looks like Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty is getting scared that we could be losing the healthcare battle so she is urging Obama to “step in” and fix it all for us. Why, only the dulcet tones of The One could save us all from… wait, isn’t this whole thing his deal in the first place?

What is curious with this piece is the fact that Tumulty seems oblivious to the possibility that if healthcare is failing to win the day, that failure could be squarely laid at the president’s feet. After all, it is his campaign promise and his “highest priority” that we tackle healthcare. Yet Tumulty, while mildly scolding Obama for not being hands on enough, is all too willing to blame everyone but Obama for the floundering of the debate.

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Time Warns President He Could Lose Healthcare Battle”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Education - History - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Secret Dinner With Lefty Historians

July 17, 2009 by 7 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is it any surprise that the historians that attended a secret White House dinner with President Obama last month are nearly all well known for a leftist outlook on history? Is Obama programming his “historical” coverage already?

Was there a Richard Brookhiser in attendance or a Larry Schweikart? Was there someone like Forrest McDonald at Obama’s secret dinner? Nope. Except for one attendee, the invited historians have all used their status as historians to make all sorts of ahistorical proclamations about modern politics which is quite un-historian-like of them.

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Obama’s Secret Dinner With Lefty Historians”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

NYT Decries ‘Partisan Divide’ in Healthcare, Never Mentions Democrat Opposition

July 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here’s another one of those wonderful examples of how the Old Media will use a headline that makes a stark claim about how rotten Republicans are for opposing a Democratic plan while at the same time conveniently ignoring the opposition to the same idea among Democrats.

This time it is the “partisan divide” in the healthcare debate. The Times tsks Republicans for solidly lining up to oppose Obama’s wild grab for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s economy through his healthcare plans. Yet not once does the Times mention the many areas in which Democrats are disagreeing with Democrats on Obamacare. The Times makes it seem as if there is no dissent among Democrats and it is only those meanie Republicans holding up the wonderfulness of Obamacare.

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NYT Decries ‘Partisan Divide’ in Healthcare, Never Mentions Democrat Opposition”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Charlie Cook: Another Out of Touch Liberal

July 16, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know when a liberal has lost any capability to understand the common American when they completely miss the pain that liberal tax hikers cause the average citizen in this country. Charlie Cook recently showed this elitist attitude in a National Journal column on the outrageous costs of the Cap and Trade bill – better called the Cap and Tax bill. Of course, to him, the tax hike on the average American is not a big deal and he doesn’t understand how anyone could be upset over it all.

Cook is perplexed why Washington pols were “getting an earful” from constituents over the energy tax hikes that the Cap and Trade bill will force on the nation. He just couldn’t figure why adding “only” an additional $175 a year to the average citizen’s electric bill was such a big deal.

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Charlie Cook: Another Out of Touch Liberal”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new article on Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies has been published by the Milken Institute Review. The piece reveals how FDR’s strengthening of labor unions contributed to the continued economic downturn experienced during the Great Depression and how the country’s disastrous economic condition was exacerbated by the failure of the New Deal. As time passes more and more honest economists and historians – those not sold out to Roosevelt sycophancy – are coming to terms with the simple fact that FDR was a failure as president with everything except his prosecution of WWII. Here is yet another historical review in that vein. (See .pdf file of article)

The Article, titled “Where the New Deal Went Badly Wrong,” was written by Harold L. Cole and Lee Ohanian. Harold L. Cole, Ph.D. Economics, University of Rochester, 1986, is a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee E. Ohanian, Ph.D. Economics University of Rochester, 1993, is a professor of economics at UCLA.

The pair have noted that the New Deal strengthened unions and gave to them powers for striking that brought industry to its knees just at a time when the country needed as many new jobs as it could get to tug itself out of depression. Unfortunately, the power given unions caused the depression to last far longer than it needed to last.

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Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - John Armor - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - State Government

A Map-Based Answer to the Palin Question

July 15, 2009 by

-By John Armor

[I wrote this column a week ago, and posted it on the Internet without sending it to my usual publishers. Since then, almost a dozen people who live in Alaska and regularly travel to the Lower 48, or the reverse, live in the Lower 48 and travel to Alaska, have responded to my column.

[Every one of those commentators have agreed with my point about the geographic facts – which almost all of the national, media pundits have missed in their hot-air speculations about the reasons for Governor Palin’s resignation. It used to be that I would remind members of the press of their first duty — get the facts straight, before they go out dancing on spider webs of political speculation. But there is so much failure in this area today that it’s useless to point it out.]

There are two aspects of Governor Palin’s decision to resign now, which have not been competently discussed, or discussed at all, in the main stream media. One is based on the map, the other is based in American political history.
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A Map-Based Answer to the Palin Question”