Michael Barone making a point about "Prosecutorial discretion."
Doesn't this prove that elected Republicans are better because they have to be more accountable?
Friday, September 30, 2005
NEW HAWLINS - CAPITOL OF THE OLD SOUTH
As National Guardsmen return to their states, stories about the actual conditions in New Orleans will be coming in. It's Grinding poverty and political infighting.
NO LONGER GOD'S CREATIONS
A Canadian man drugged and suffocated his 11-year-old son who was suffering from epilepsy. Purportedly, the father thought the boy partially brain dead and wanted to spare him a life of suffering. There was also some babble about saving his family from a child he saw dangerous to other family members.
A Canadian judge (it was a judge-only trial) found him not responsible for his actions on "account of a mental disorder." Family members had eagerly testified to a history of depression and suicide. Which makes you wonder if they should have their children removed for safekeeping.
This is, whether we want to admit it or not, the logical extension of State Secularism in Canada. Children are no longer "God's creations" but ours to do with what we want, or the court directs. I am not big on religion, but I can see what the Religious Right has saved us from here in the U.S. It's a question of balance. If you don't believe it, the Dutch have even more plans in store for infants and patients unable to give informed consent "due to learning disability or dementia. "
Just kill em. God knows, there's precedence in Europe.
A Canadian judge (it was a judge-only trial) found him not responsible for his actions on "account of a mental disorder." Family members had eagerly testified to a history of depression and suicide. Which makes you wonder if they should have their children removed for safekeeping.
This is, whether we want to admit it or not, the logical extension of State Secularism in Canada. Children are no longer "God's creations" but ours to do with what we want, or the court directs. I am not big on religion, but I can see what the Religious Right has saved us from here in the U.S. It's a question of balance. If you don't believe it, the Dutch have even more plans in store for infants and patients unable to give informed consent "due to learning disability or dementia. "
Just kill em. God knows, there's precedence in Europe.
AFFIRMATIVE WONDERFULNESS
You can, if you like, totally ignore the rest of the story by Jack Shafer about how a New Yorker journo lost out on a job at the Washington Post because he was white and the follow-on histronics of the journalists who like to attack even their own. This money quote near the bottom of the article is worth embroidering just so you remember it.
Diversity hires can also shield middle management from criticism. In the newsroom it pays to hire gay copy editors so they can complain loudy about perceived insults. That way, when the section editor makes a decision, it's based on his sensitivity to diversity, and not because he's a flaming liberal with a mission to spike the reporter's work. This happened to Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe when two gay copy editors helped squash his freedom of speech. Diversity hires at universities serve the same purpose. They simultaneously prop up administrations that are incompetent and decidedly liberal and help pass along the defects to their students.
In the workplace, diversity hires function as apartheid markers, separate but equal -- but more separate than equal, if you follow the drift. No one even expects that they were hired for being, well, equal. Certainly not those who hire them. Management wants the cover, and if you demean people by thinking that they are inferior to begin with, and it is just your personal wonderfulness that wants to give them a break, it wasn't your intention to promote an ugly racial stereotype of incompetence. The side benefit, besides the implied "wonderfulness" and shield from criticism, is the personal loyalty that creates an instant shock trooper who will intercede for the manager. "Hey! That's my friend there!" Hire enough "diverse" employees and no one can criticize you for anything.
It's only a slight extension of affirmative action to multiculturalism. The principles are the same.
Whether the claims are true or not, when diversity plays a significant role in hiring it makes race the prism through which folks start viewing their jobs.Exactly. Which is why affirmative action at college campuses, in the workplace, and in newspapers leads to separateness in awareness and by implied fiat. If you are a gay journalist and are hired as such, you know without being told what is expected. You are there to promote gayness first and be a journalist second. (God knows where being human comes in.) Black journalists are expected to be loyal to blacks without question, liberal media notions of "liberalism as a liberator" without thinking, and if you do any investigation it ought to be framed accordingly. The same is true of women in the newsroom, chosen exclusively for their dedication to girlishness. Maureen Dowd comes to mind. A cheerleader in her own mind, she knows the score and stereotype and can flaunt dumb blonde thinking without being blonde.
Diversity hires can also shield middle management from criticism. In the newsroom it pays to hire gay copy editors so they can complain loudy about perceived insults. That way, when the section editor makes a decision, it's based on his sensitivity to diversity, and not because he's a flaming liberal with a mission to spike the reporter's work. This happened to Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe when two gay copy editors helped squash his freedom of speech. Diversity hires at universities serve the same purpose. They simultaneously prop up administrations that are incompetent and decidedly liberal and help pass along the defects to their students.
In the workplace, diversity hires function as apartheid markers, separate but equal -- but more separate than equal, if you follow the drift. No one even expects that they were hired for being, well, equal. Certainly not those who hire them. Management wants the cover, and if you demean people by thinking that they are inferior to begin with, and it is just your personal wonderfulness that wants to give them a break, it wasn't your intention to promote an ugly racial stereotype of incompetence. The side benefit, besides the implied "wonderfulness" and shield from criticism, is the personal loyalty that creates an instant shock trooper who will intercede for the manager. "Hey! That's my friend there!" Hire enough "diverse" employees and no one can criticize you for anything.
It's only a slight extension of affirmative action to multiculturalism. The principles are the same.
APPALLING JUDGEMENT - NEWS AND OTHERWISE
Heather MacDonald of City Journal is one of the best writers in the country. She's what newspapers used to strive for and were thrilled when they got. A keen observer of life, a great writer, and prolific enough to fire those other three reporters who didn't pan out.
She takes on the New York Times' gay obsession, displayed once again in a Metro-section spread detailing gay sex on the way home.
She takes on the New York Times' gay obsession, displayed once again in a Metro-section spread detailing gay sex on the way home.
DEFENDERS IN STRANGE PLACES
David Frum at NRO reports on the defense of Tom DeLay coming from - E.J. Dionne. Nice summary by Frum if, like me, you find reading Dionne is the equivalent of watching porn in the same room as the kids.
(I wish Dionne paid as much attention to the redistricting maps in California where gerrymandering as an art form.)
(I wish Dionne paid as much attention to the redistricting maps in California where gerrymandering as an art form.)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
THE NEXT BIG SCHEME
CANADA's military is seriously underfunded, according to a Canadian Senate report released Thursday. Interestingly, the report notes that Canada was named by al-Qaeda as one of five target nations deserving of attack. I would have put them lower, like 190th, especially with their friendship with the Tamil Tigers, and handing out nuclear technology like lolipops, and Maurice Strong's connection with the Kyoto Treaty, and considering Canada's prized status as a "Peacekeeper" (meaning they do little actual anything but move a few forces around at the direction of the U.N.)
Canada, the report says, ranks 128th out of 165 countries in defense spending as a percent of its GNP. (Supposedly, this rankles the United States and other NATO allies, but I don't see it myself. Mexico spends even less and we are grateful for their parsimony.)
Naturally, all this lamenting of military power leads to -- you guessed it -- a new MASSIVE spending proposal. The military budget should be $21 billion a year instead of the current spending of $1.77 loonie (which is, what? .00008 U.S. cents?) If you follow Canadian current events at all, you know that the whole adventure will end up with politicians with French-sounding names in $300,000 a year jobs and expense accounts at least that much, meeting in restaurants to pass envelopes to cronies they couldn't manage to get on the payroll. And no one will ever go to jail.
It's Haiti to the North, minus the voodoo stuff. You can feel it in dem bones.
Canada, the report says, ranks 128th out of 165 countries in defense spending as a percent of its GNP. (Supposedly, this rankles the United States and other NATO allies, but I don't see it myself. Mexico spends even less and we are grateful for their parsimony.)
Naturally, all this lamenting of military power leads to -- you guessed it -- a new MASSIVE spending proposal. The military budget should be $21 billion a year instead of the current spending of $1.77 loonie (which is, what? .00008 U.S. cents?) If you follow Canadian current events at all, you know that the whole adventure will end up with politicians with French-sounding names in $300,000 a year jobs and expense accounts at least that much, meeting in restaurants to pass envelopes to cronies they couldn't manage to get on the payroll. And no one will ever go to jail.
It's Haiti to the North, minus the voodoo stuff. You can feel it in dem bones.
ALGERIA, VOTING ON FORGIVING TERRORISTS
It never fails to disgust me that our MSM is so tolerant of muslim violence, especially against other muslims. In Algeria, they are voting on a referendum to absolve the terrorists (the Associated Press calls them "insurgents.") who waged war on society, in a civil war that left 150,000 dead. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND. Did you read about that? Was there any European Commission condemnation? Or any United Nations resolutions? Or anyone else?
The terrorism (not "insurgency") began in 1992 when the army canceled voting when it became apparent that the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front might win. As the AP says, "Daily beheadings and massacres committed by Islamic extremists followed. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed." In response, thousands disappeared, probably at the hands of the security forces. Nightly, the terrorists would slit the throats of villagers, sometimes a whole village. Men, women, children. The New York Times on the war:
Timeline of the Algerian War here
(Scroll to 1997 to get some idea of the scale of the terrorism. )
List of Algerian massacres here
In April 1994 civil war broke out in Rwanda. Roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died. And our MSM, the UN, Bill Clinton and the rest of the world were, again, equally silent. Had the terrorists not been defeated, no doubt the EU, the UN, and Bill Clinton would have tried to impose a compromise on the Algerian government to accept terrorists into the government as well.
The terrorism (not "insurgency") began in 1992 when the army canceled voting when it became apparent that the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front might win. As the AP says, "Daily beheadings and massacres committed by Islamic extremists followed. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed." In response, thousands disappeared, probably at the hands of the security forces. Nightly, the terrorists would slit the throats of villagers, sometimes a whole village. Men, women, children. The New York Times on the war:
Algeria soon faced a bloodbath. Militant Islamic groups attacked government agents and civilians, often slaughtering men, women and children at night. Meanwhile, state security forces abducted thousands of people, and the government provided arms to militias that dispensed vigilante justice. Much of this happened without international attention, in part because journalists were made targets and were killed.The writer got this from dredging up this 1996 NYTimes piece by Roger Cohen. What he didn't reproduce was this interesting bit:
Diplomats said Clinton had written two letters in the last year to President Liamine Zeroual, a retired general, urging him to be "inclusive" -- to reach out to as wide a spectrum as possible of the nonviolent opposition in seeking national reconciliation.In other words, deal with the terrorists in the same way Northern Ireland is forced to deal with IRA terrorists and Israel was forced, by the Clinton administration, to deal with Yassir Arafat, terrorist extraordinare.
Timeline of the Algerian War here
(Scroll to 1997 to get some idea of the scale of the terrorism. )
List of Algerian massacres here
In April 1994 civil war broke out in Rwanda. Roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died. And our MSM, the UN, Bill Clinton and the rest of the world were, again, equally silent. Had the terrorists not been defeated, no doubt the EU, the UN, and Bill Clinton would have tried to impose a compromise on the Algerian government to accept terrorists into the government as well.
MEDIA HERO ARRESTED AGAIN
Rodney King, the Los Angeles Times idea of a hero, albeit one that sparked a riot that killed 55 people, permanently crippled a fireman who was shot by rioters, 2,300 injured,** 1,100 buildings damaged,** and caused $1 billion in damage, has been -- arrested again.
This time, the charge is making criminal threats - threatening to kill his daughter (age 23) and wife after the two got into a fight with his current girlfriend. Apparently, they all live together. Which makes "Can we all get along?" a work in progress for Mr. King. Some public spirited citizen kept track of his arrest record up until 2001 when John Q. Public, no doubt, got tired and gave up. There were several more, including this domestic dispute in 2003. CNN calls him a "public figure." I guess he is, in the same mold as John Gotti. Only the media loved him.
**from the CNN article.
I remember the riots. Even 30 miles away, the pall of smoke was so thick that nursing homes ordered extra oxygen for their skilled nursing facilities in case elderly patients were affected. The ash from the fires was worse than any forest fire we have experienced. And having read the hype that the Los Angeles Times gave to the beating that seems, in retrospect, not only appropriate but remarkably less than what King deserved, the Times worked very hard for the riot they wanted. The second one.
This time, the charge is making criminal threats - threatening to kill his daughter (age 23) and wife after the two got into a fight with his current girlfriend. Apparently, they all live together. Which makes "Can we all get along?" a work in progress for Mr. King. Some public spirited citizen kept track of his arrest record up until 2001 when John Q. Public, no doubt, got tired and gave up. There were several more, including this domestic dispute in 2003. CNN calls him a "public figure." I guess he is, in the same mold as John Gotti. Only the media loved him.
**from the CNN article.
I remember the riots. Even 30 miles away, the pall of smoke was so thick that nursing homes ordered extra oxygen for their skilled nursing facilities in case elderly patients were affected. The ash from the fires was worse than any forest fire we have experienced. And having read the hype that the Los Angeles Times gave to the beating that seems, in retrospect, not only appropriate but remarkably less than what King deserved, the Times worked very hard for the riot they wanted. The second one.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
ALIEN INVASION WARNING (Art Bell please call)
Someone at the Guardian -- Anne Gearan -- has been drinking conservative Kool-aid that is bound to be a career death. Her article is "U.N. Ambassador Bolton Says Reforms Begun"
Even more startling, there was this found elsewhere in the obituary for Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley, age 84, a Johnson appointee:
Aliens have taken over the Guardian!!!!!.
Bolton, President Bush's hard-charging choice to be the U.S. ambassador at the United Nations, has been pulling long hours and winning respect if not friends among U.N. diplomats in the nearly two months since Bush went around Senate Democrats to give Bolton a rare recess appointment to the U.N. job.It's probably because Bolton voted yes on some "reform" items. Nevertheless, a compliment from the Guardian is startling.
Even more startling, there was this found elsewhere in the obituary for Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley, age 84, a Johnson appointee:
At the heart of much of it was Motley, from a case in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957 that led President Eisenhower to call in federal troops to protect nine black high school students to leading the legal charge to win James Meredith's entry into the University of Mississippi in 1962.You mean, Bill Clinton didn't personally order those troops?!!
Aliens have taken over the Guardian!!!!!.
WHEN POLITICIANS GO TO WAR
I was angry at first, positively furious at the headlines at DrudgeReport that Tom Delay had been indicted and had stepped down as majority leader. Disgusted at Delay. The stupid *&@!@# of a **&^%. Until I went to PowerLine.
PowerLine produced Tom Delay's full statement. While it isn't a convincing document (how do you prove you didn't hit your wife?) it made me think about Ronnie Earle and Delay's claims. Paranoid?
A brief trip to Lucianne.com made me wonder.
DNC Stands by Rangel After "Hate Speech"
Sheehan calls McCain "warmonger" after meeting
Dan wants a second go at Bush
Chuck Schumer staff members using opponent's credit card information
FROM YAHOO NEWS
Democrats claim Bush is blocking bipartison health care for evacuees
Brown Shifts Blame for Katrina Response
Dems Vow Battle Over Ideologue Nominees
Democrats criticize US accounting of Katrina money
Kayne West: Bush hates blacks
PERSPECTIVE
AWOL Democrats hole up in Oklahoma motel
The Next Redistricting Target: Ronnie Earle?
BS from [David Brock's] Media Matters
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY
Howard Dean: [About the Republican Party] "It's pretty much a white Christian party."
Howard Dean: "Republicans never made an honest living in their lives."
It's war folks. It's a daily barrage of pettiness and viciousness. At the anti-American, anti-Capitalism, anti-western, anti-war rally in Washington, DC, George Galloway said Tony Blair and George Bush were war criminals. No American in that crowd of misfits stood up in that crowd and said, "Just a minute. That's strong language. Let's be reasonable here." Democrat Ramsey Clark called the war in Iraq an illegal occupation and and "international crime." An NPR personality from KPFK in Santa Monica, CA, called the war in Iraq "genocide." "Poet" Alexis Devaux warned, "Your chickens has come home to roost." Former New Jersey Poet Laureat Amira Baraka: "I am a communist." and lyrically referred to "those assholes in Washington."
It is meaningful, folks, that over half the speakers at the Washington rally were international peace activists. It is meaningful that the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee would have fit right in with the rabble at the Rally.
And it is encouraging that District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted Kay Bailey Hutchinson and then declined to prosecute. It's all about hate, folks. And it does serve to distract the public from comparisons between Democrat and Republican state officials in two hurricanes.
PowerLine produced Tom Delay's full statement. While it isn't a convincing document (how do you prove you didn't hit your wife?) it made me think about Ronnie Earle and Delay's claims. Paranoid?
A brief trip to Lucianne.com made me wonder.
DNC Stands by Rangel After "Hate Speech"
Sheehan calls McCain "warmonger" after meeting
Dan wants a second go at Bush
Chuck Schumer staff members using opponent's credit card information
FROM YAHOO NEWS
Democrats claim Bush is blocking bipartison health care for evacuees
Brown Shifts Blame for Katrina Response
Dems Vow Battle Over Ideologue Nominees
Democrats criticize US accounting of Katrina money
Kayne West: Bush hates blacks
PERSPECTIVE
AWOL Democrats hole up in Oklahoma motel
The Next Redistricting Target: Ronnie Earle?
BS from [David Brock's] Media Matters
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY
Howard Dean: [About the Republican Party] "It's pretty much a white Christian party."
Howard Dean: "Republicans never made an honest living in their lives."
It's war folks. It's a daily barrage of pettiness and viciousness. At the anti-American, anti-Capitalism, anti-western, anti-war rally in Washington, DC, George Galloway said Tony Blair and George Bush were war criminals. No American in that crowd of misfits stood up in that crowd and said, "Just a minute. That's strong language. Let's be reasonable here." Democrat Ramsey Clark called the war in Iraq an illegal occupation and and "international crime." An NPR personality from KPFK in Santa Monica, CA, called the war in Iraq "genocide." "Poet" Alexis Devaux warned, "Your chickens has come home to roost." Former New Jersey Poet Laureat Amira Baraka: "I am a communist." and lyrically referred to "those assholes in Washington."
It is meaningful, folks, that over half the speakers at the Washington rally were international peace activists. It is meaningful that the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee would have fit right in with the rabble at the Rally.
And it is encouraging that District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted Kay Bailey Hutchinson and then declined to prosecute. It's all about hate, folks. And it does serve to distract the public from comparisons between Democrat and Republican state officials in two hurricanes.
COVER YOUR EYES, MAXINE
This has got to hurt. The quarterly ratings are in and Variety reports that Fox scored big.
Fox finished the quarter averaging 1.2 million daily viewers, up 31% from last year, followed by CNN with 693,000 viewers (a 39% increase) and MSNBC with 300,000 viewers (up 11%).And it gets worse for the competition.
In primetime, Fox reasserted its dominance by recording 2.3 million viewers, the highest quarterly viewer total in its history. Fox primetime tentpole "The O'Reilly Factor" remained the most-watched cable news program with 2.8 million viewers.Maxine Waters must be rabid. Oh, wait. She already is.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
A BOX OF CHEERIOS
Chris Matthews had Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, on Meet the Press again to explain, sorta, the discrepancy in his story about the Federal government failing to save a colleague's mother in a nursing home after frantic calls ("Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?") on Tuesday, Wednesay and Thursday but she died on Friday. Bloggers pointed that there couldn't have been any calls. The woman drowned in the St. Rita nursing home on Monday when administrators and staff abandoned them. BACKGROUND: here and here
How did Aaron explain that? The transcript shows he didn't and Chris Matthews was either insufficiently briefed on the facts or wanted to give Broussard a chance to muddy the water as MSNBC did in describing it as "a misunderstanding." Matthews certainly didn't press him hard. Broussard did not retract the outright lie either. (Broussard is under supoena to testify about his part in a corruption case soon so maybe he was practicing.)
He is still accusing everyone.
How did Aaron explain that? The transcript shows he didn't and Chris Matthews was either insufficiently briefed on the facts or wanted to give Broussard a chance to muddy the water as MSNBC did in describing it as "a misunderstanding." Matthews certainly didn't press him hard. Broussard did not retract the outright lie either. (Broussard is under supoena to testify about his part in a corruption case soon so maybe he was practicing.)
He is still accusing everyone.
Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious.People like Broussard used to be called a "cracker." It's still a good description for a very offensive man.
DENNIS PRAGER: THE LEFT AND HYSTERIA
Dennis Prager is a synidcated talk show host who deals primarily in ethics and morality and daily events. Everything the man says is worth listening to and his books are ones you savor for their moral clarity.
Writing in Real Clear Politics, his "The Left and Hysteria", is case to consider whether "leading leftists either use hysteria as a political tactic or are actually hysterics. It's a great article by a generous and kind man.
Writing in Real Clear Politics, his "The Left and Hysteria", is case to consider whether "leading leftists either use hysteria as a political tactic or are actually hysterics. It's a great article by a generous and kind man.
NEW YORK TIMES v SULLIVAN REVISITED
The New York Times is already starting to worry about how Judge Roberts - soon to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court -- will rule on libel laws.
The case in point was New York Times v. Sullivan. In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court revolutionized libel laws to shield newspapers from anything but the most unprovable demonstration of libel.
The Sullivan case was the subject of a book ""Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment" by New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis. His wife is currently head of the Massachusetts Supreme Court who ruled that the state had to accept gay marriage.
The New York Times is right to worry. Their own refusal to correct news stories by Paul Krugman and Alessandra Stanley's libel of Geraldo Rivera demean journalism. You can bet for the immediate future that our MSM is going to worry about some libel case being brought to the U.S. Supreme Court. And that is a very good thing.
UPDATE: The New York Times retracts the story. John Roberts had NOT authored the memo.
The case in point was New York Times v. Sullivan. In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court revolutionized libel laws to shield newspapers from anything but the most unprovable demonstration of libel.
The Sullivan case held that the First Amendment required public officials suing for libel to prove that the statements they complained of were made with "actual malice" - that is, with knowledge that the statements were false or with reckless disregard as to whether they were false.This was a complete reversal of libel laws inherited from, and still in effect, in England. The libel laws that kept media honest. The libel law that keep British newspapers from the lies that American media have been shielded from by the NYT v Sullivan ruling. The libel laws that curbed vicious assaults on the truth.
The Sullivan case was the subject of a book ""Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment" by New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis. His wife is currently head of the Massachusetts Supreme Court who ruled that the state had to accept gay marriage.
The New York Times is right to worry. Their own refusal to correct news stories by Paul Krugman and Alessandra Stanley's libel of Geraldo Rivera demean journalism. You can bet for the immediate future that our MSM is going to worry about some libel case being brought to the U.S. Supreme Court. And that is a very good thing.
UPDATE: The New York Times retracts the story. John Roberts had NOT authored the memo.
Monday, September 26, 2005
TAKE MY PICTURE! QUICK!
A doctor who went to Louisiana to help out describes how he, among others, were just not needed. Not content, however, he had to try to screw up the work that others were doing.
Another case of ego chasing the media cameras.
Figuring that there may, in fact, have been a communication problem between the various groups, I called one of my patients back in Washington who is chief of staff to a member of Congress from the Gulf region. Perhaps he could iron out any red tape. The next thing I knew I was escorted to the nerve center of the entire rescue operation. I met the governor's chief of staff, the head of the federal Health and Human Services team, the coordinator of the state hospitals and a FEMA representative. They were all trying desperately to find a place for a physician with my skills.And they didn't have another bloody thing to do except take time out to meet you, you colossal twit. The good doctor finally seems to recognize this, but not before he, no doubt, made a bloody nuisance of himself.
Another case of ego chasing the media cameras.
HOW COME WE DIDN'T KNOW?
John Fund is setting the record straight. "No state turns out better demagogues than Louisiana.." he intones as he examines A Swamp of Corruption. Starting with Aaron Broussard and the sad story of his colleague's mother drowning because of the Federal delays - a story that was "embellished." It's a way of life in Louisiana.
So why didn't you hear stories of the corruption in Louisiana or the number of mayors --15 at last count -- in New Jersey who had been indicted and tried? Why don't you hear that the Homeland Security coordinator for New Joisey was unqualified for the position and was a foreign national who couldn't attend the briefings but he got his $110,000 a year anyway? How come Cokie Roberts knows Edwin Edwards, former governor of Louisiana, is in jail and she doesn't hold him in contempt for his fraud but is mildly admiring of his ability to get things done?
Corruption in Louisiana and Mississippi is just not newsworthy to a mainstream media that plays by the same rules.
Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of elected officials per capita convicted of crimes (Mississippi takes top prize). In just the past generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted. Last year, three top officials at Louisiana's Office of Emergency Preparedness were indicted on charges they obstructed a probe into how federal money bought out flood-prone homes. Last March the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered Louisiana to repay $30 million in flood-control grants it had awarded to 23 parishes.Did you know any of this? It was, in fact, in the newspapers. The New Orleans Times Picayne covered all those stories and more. The Times Picayne covered every clumsy misstep by the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. The stories are in Lexis Nexis. We may not have access to Lexis Nexis, but you can bet the baby that the New York Times does. You can bet that MSNBC does. And the Los Angeles Times. And ABC. And CBS. And NBC. And every newspaper in the country.
So why didn't you hear stories of the corruption in Louisiana or the number of mayors --15 at last count -- in New Jersey who had been indicted and tried? Why don't you hear that the Homeland Security coordinator for New Joisey was unqualified for the position and was a foreign national who couldn't attend the briefings but he got his $110,000 a year anyway? How come Cokie Roberts knows Edwin Edwards, former governor of Louisiana, is in jail and she doesn't hold him in contempt for his fraud but is mildly admiring of his ability to get things done?
Corruption in Louisiana and Mississippi is just not newsworthy to a mainstream media that plays by the same rules.
UNFAIR AND UNBALANCED
Criticism of the New York Times.
"I find it disturbing that any Times editor would come so close to implying - almost in a tit-for-tat sense - that Mr. Rivera's bad behavior essentially entitles the paper to rely on assumptions and refuse to correct an unsupported fact."From some disaffected pajama-clad, computer-bound blogger? Uh. Uh. Nada.
No pictures of this.
It's doubtful that even if there were pictures if the media would run them. They would be considered incendiary. God forbid that terrorism be defined as shooting unarmed civilians and killing and maiming men, women, and children. But in case you get really incensed about the Tornoto Sun article, the idiocy is an Associated Press story. That means it's from the American MSM who own the Associated Press.
It's doubtful that even if there were pictures if the media would run them. They would be considered incendiary. God forbid that terrorism be defined as shooting unarmed civilians and killing and maiming men, women, and children. But in case you get really incensed about the Tornoto Sun article, the idiocy is an Associated Press story. That means it's from the American MSM who own the Associated Press.
Random thoughts on a Monday morning
MICKEY KLAUS: "TimesSelect doesn't need to be replaced by TimesDelete. TimesSelect is TimesDelete!" YUP Read the whole thing.
GLOBAL WARMING If global warming is inevitable -- as it seems to be with projections that even with adoption and implementation of the Kyoto protocol, the reductions will be miniscule -- New Orleans will be under water anyway in ten or fifteen years years why rebuild? They should just go the Tuvalu route and sue the U.S. for global warming.
CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG CANADA Canada will resume selling dual-use nuclear technology to India. It's reactivating Canada's armament of India. India's first nuclear device used Canadian technology. Hey! Maybe Canada can help Iran along??? Ya think?
CANADIAN IMMIGRATION The Globe and Mail's poll today isn't turning out the way they like. At 11:30 am PT "Do you largely approve of the way Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board handles its job? had a lopsided 1473 yes to 8850 nos. Background
UPDATE: Final tally 1869 yes 11268 no
KEEP THE DONATIONS COMING BECAUSE ... The CBC has good news. Headline: "IRA disposes 'totality' of illegal arsenal" allegedly verified by (from another article at CBC) a retired Canadian general and "The IRA permitted two independent witnesses - a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams - to view the secret disarmament work conducted by officials from Canada, Finland and the United States." Is 'totality' the same thing as absolutely all of them? And speaking of terrorists, isn't Al-Jazeera running on Canadian television? Yep.
GERMANY - a German doll company is selling a Dalai Lama doll in plastic. "The doll measures 46 centimetres in height and its paint matches the Dalai Lama's skin colour." At 165 Euro it will come to $198.90 for the 18-inch statue in Dalai Lama's skin color to replace your garden gnome kidnapped by the Gnome Liberation Front. Richard Gere will be thrilled.
POLISH VOTERS DECIDE This is the difference between Europe and the U.S. From Deutsche Welle: "Poland Veers to the Right After Election" Didn't the voters veer right before the elections??
TAKING NO SIDES Despite two years of investigation and a two and a half month trial, conviction and sentencing, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas is, to the Guardian, “A suspected al-Qaida leader.” He was sentenced for “being the leader of a terrorist organization.” The man was tried and convicted after a preponderance of evidence convinced the Spanish judges of his guilt but the Guardian in their infinite wisdom convicts him of suspicion of being an al-Qaida leader. What more do they need? Osama bin Ladin’s rolodex?
OVERHYPED CELEBRITY I just heard a radio ad by Mary Lou Retton. I could never warm up to the girl who, unfortunately, looked a little like a garden gnome herself.
GLOBAL WARMING If global warming is inevitable -- as it seems to be with projections that even with adoption and implementation of the Kyoto protocol, the reductions will be miniscule -- New Orleans will be under water anyway in ten or fifteen years years why rebuild? They should just go the Tuvalu route and sue the U.S. for global warming.
CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG CANADA Canada will resume selling dual-use nuclear technology to India. It's reactivating Canada's armament of India. India's first nuclear device used Canadian technology. Hey! Maybe Canada can help Iran along??? Ya think?
CANADIAN IMMIGRATION The Globe and Mail's poll today isn't turning out the way they like. At 11:30 am PT "Do you largely approve of the way Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board handles its job? had a lopsided 1473 yes to 8850 nos. Background
UPDATE: Final tally 1869 yes 11268 no
KEEP THE DONATIONS COMING BECAUSE ... The CBC has good news. Headline: "IRA disposes 'totality' of illegal arsenal" allegedly verified by (from another article at CBC) a retired Canadian general and "The IRA permitted two independent witnesses - a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams - to view the secret disarmament work conducted by officials from Canada, Finland and the United States." Is 'totality' the same thing as absolutely all of them? And speaking of terrorists, isn't Al-Jazeera running on Canadian television? Yep.
GERMANY - a German doll company is selling a Dalai Lama doll in plastic. "The doll measures 46 centimetres in height and its paint matches the Dalai Lama's skin colour." At 165 Euro it will come to $198.90 for the 18-inch statue in Dalai Lama's skin color to replace your garden gnome kidnapped by the Gnome Liberation Front. Richard Gere will be thrilled.
POLISH VOTERS DECIDE This is the difference between Europe and the U.S. From Deutsche Welle: "Poland Veers to the Right After Election" Didn't the voters veer right before the elections??
TAKING NO SIDES Despite two years of investigation and a two and a half month trial, conviction and sentencing, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas is, to the Guardian, “A suspected al-Qaida leader.” He was sentenced for “being the leader of a terrorist organization.” The man was tried and convicted after a preponderance of evidence convinced the Spanish judges of his guilt but the Guardian in their infinite wisdom convicts him of suspicion of being an al-Qaida leader. What more do they need? Osama bin Ladin’s rolodex?
OVERHYPED CELEBRITY I just heard a radio ad by Mary Lou Retton. I could never warm up to the girl who, unfortunately, looked a little like a garden gnome herself.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
New Vatican Policy in the works
William Rees-Mogg writing in the Times of London with no apparent irony:
Rees-Mogg is under the impression that it is pedophiles who committed the offenses against children in the Catholic church. He ignores altogether the fact that only 1% of the abused are female. The consequence of that is if he can claim it is pedophiles, he can claim there is absolutely no reason to exclude homosexuals from the priesthood. I hate to disabuse him, but former seminarians acknowledge that homosexuality is rampant in U.S. seminaries, so much so that straights quit in abject frustration. And disallusionment. (Imagine 200 Andrew Sullivans in a seminary and you got the picture. One disagreement with the church and then imagine the emotional tantrums.) A Kansas City Star investigation of priests with HIV and AIDS indirectly confirmed the sexualization of the seminaries by appallingly high HIV/AIDS rates among priests. They wanted to validate homosexuality. They ended up confirming what we know about AIDS and HIV.
HIV virus is sexually transmitted -- infection through needles is rare and confined to drug addicts. Most HIV infected people are men, and the virus is transmitted through anal sex. The higher infection rate in priests in the Kansas City Star article points to an epidemic of sexual activity in the seminaries. And not casual sex either. The victims who have come forward to accuse the priests have not themselves been infected. They do not charge that. You don't get infected through casual or infrequent contact. HIV infection involves multiple partners and a lot of sex. Of course, the Kansas City Star blamed AIDS on celibacy because the seminaries didn't teach enough sexuality.
I hate to shatter Mr. Rees-Mogg's defense of homosexuals, but most boys abused by priests are not children but adolescents. It isn't a love of children that motivates the priest. It is love of boys and young men.
For the past three years, mainly under the late Pope John Paul II, that body has been drawing up a new instruction, which will cover the issue of which candidates should be admitted for ordination. The outcome is a document, not yet published, on which The New York Times has been given a special briefing. That is an unusual way for the Vatican to behave, but it reflects the Vatican's sensitivity to American opinion on this issue. [bolding mine]That's like consulting Mike Tyson before you write domestic violence laws. Who does Rees-Mogg think actively promotes homosexuality everywhere from the diversity quotas in the newsroom to the classroom? It isn't Vatican sensitivity to American opinion, for God's sake. They know the New York Times/WashingtonPost/LosAnglesTimes and the Stepford media will immediately and vociferously condemn the policy. The Vatican just wants to know how they will frame the argument.
Rees-Mogg is under the impression that it is pedophiles who committed the offenses against children in the Catholic church. He ignores altogether the fact that only 1% of the abused are female. The consequence of that is if he can claim it is pedophiles, he can claim there is absolutely no reason to exclude homosexuals from the priesthood. I hate to disabuse him, but former seminarians acknowledge that homosexuality is rampant in U.S. seminaries, so much so that straights quit in abject frustration. And disallusionment. (Imagine 200 Andrew Sullivans in a seminary and you got the picture. One disagreement with the church and then imagine the emotional tantrums.) A Kansas City Star investigation of priests with HIV and AIDS indirectly confirmed the sexualization of the seminaries by appallingly high HIV/AIDS rates among priests. They wanted to validate homosexuality. They ended up confirming what we know about AIDS and HIV.
HIV virus is sexually transmitted -- infection through needles is rare and confined to drug addicts. Most HIV infected people are men, and the virus is transmitted through anal sex. The higher infection rate in priests in the Kansas City Star article points to an epidemic of sexual activity in the seminaries. And not casual sex either. The victims who have come forward to accuse the priests have not themselves been infected. They do not charge that. You don't get infected through casual or infrequent contact. HIV infection involves multiple partners and a lot of sex. Of course, the Kansas City Star blamed AIDS on celibacy because the seminaries didn't teach enough sexuality.
I hate to shatter Mr. Rees-Mogg's defense of homosexuals, but most boys abused by priests are not children but adolescents. It isn't a love of children that motivates the priest. It is love of boys and young men.
Contemporary English lacks a common word for the behaviors included in the great majority of “clergy-abuse” cases, in which the “abused” is often fifteen or sixteen years old. The best and most comprehensive term is probably pederasty, the erotic love of a youth (Greek, pais), which is etymologically very close to pedophilia but covers relationships with any young person, usually male, up to the age of full adult maturity.Not all homosexuals are pederasts. Most homosexual men are not interested in young boys. All pederasts are homosexual. Many of the pederast priests so accused had engaged in sex with boys who turned out later to be gay which makes you wonder whether the attraction was mutual. It does not make it acceptable and it does not excuse the adult homosexual priest. Adolescents are still below the age of consent. And priests should not be shielded from prosecution for acting on their inclinations. And no homosexual should be ordained. Period.
Blair appears to be losing control
Honest to God. You can't make up things like this. George Orwell anticipated it, but he was off 20 years. GPs will go door to door to target the unhealthy
Unfit and overweight Britons will get doorstep visits from NHS staff to track those at risk of future illness, under radical plans for a new 'contract' between patients and doctors.It's a matter of time before your thinking will be subject for interdiction.
Third World Canada
What a plan - to "ramp up the immigration levels" in Canada. (It would be a rise of 40% in 5 years. Source: Google catch article.)
Small wonder we now require a passport for Canadians entering the U.S.
This is, of course, only part of the story. At some future date, you will see a split in Canada. It's already there demographically. (See Chart 9) And the separatists won't be French speaking.
In a bid to counteract Canada's declining birthrate and aging population, the federal government is looking at a dramatic boost in immigration -- up to 100,000 additional newcomers each year. The increase, part of a new immigration plan to be unveiled next month, means Canada would open its doors to 320,000 immigrants a year by the time the plan is fully implemented in five years.With 50% of Toronto foreign-born already, you have to wonder if the Liberals are hoping to stack the immigrants in areas where they can't drum up legitimate Canadian votes. Toronto is still the only city outside of the Orient to have a SARS outbreak -- a Third World disease for a Third World country. It's a consequence, not only of immigration, but where they are coming from. Wait till bird flu hits Toronto.
Small wonder we now require a passport for Canadians entering the U.S.
This is, of course, only part of the story. At some future date, you will see a split in Canada. It's already there demographically. (See Chart 9) And the separatists won't be French speaking.
Canadian Governor General decides to be -- Canadian.
This story is self-explanatory (reproduced in entirety in case you are not registered at the Toronto Star.)
Michaëlle Jean is giving up her dual French citizenship as she prepares to take up her post as Governor General of Canada.
In a brief statement issued Sunday, Jean said she was making the move given the duties she will be assuming, including the title of commander in chief of the Canadian Forces.
She said French authorities have acceded to her request to renounce her citizenship in that country.
The Haitian-born Jean, who grew up in Montreal, acquired French citizenship when she married film-maker Jean-Daniel Lafond, who was born in France. Jean will be installed Tuesday as Governor General, succeeding Adrienne Clarkson.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Marginalized media
I am sure the AP photographer was walking the beach and stumbled on this shot.
*snort* *laugh*
The only reason I post it is to make the observation that the more marginal our media becomes, the more marginal their sources.
Making a Nigerian e-mailer smile
David Warren on the "German failure":
The SPD is to Germany as the Liberals to Canada: the party to manage national decline. The long-term success of each has depended on turning 'voters' gradually into 'clients'. From the humblest welfare recipients, up to big businessmen whose fortunes depend on sweetheart regulatory arrangements, each party pitches itself, as crassly as necessary, to the beneficiaries of state largesse. Their supporters therefore become quite inured to massive corruption, and revelations of ineptitude -- and remain so, as long as they are guaranteed preferred access to the government trough.While our "Mainstream American Party" -- as Howard Fineman calls the coalition of the Democrat Party and the Mainstream media -- is floundering, challenged by the new media and an internet database, Canadian corruption is on a scale that would make a Nigerian e-mailer smile.
The intention of such governments is not to run the economy into the ground, nor even to destroy the moral order through experiments in social engineering. That is simply the natural consequence of their way of doing business. A Social Democrat or Liberal government will do whatever appears immediately necessary to defend its tax base; and since full socialism has been repeatedly shown to lead directly to economic collapse, a kind of "guided capitalism" is favoured. The long-term economic decline becomes a by-product of a political outlook that mechanically ranks national interests below party interests.
Friday, September 23, 2005
We are doing just fine
A Instapundit reader questions the melodrama and newsworthyness of the "front row" seat coverage of the hurricane. I am with the writer. Watching Shepard Smith turning his hat backwards and clinging to a post while saying nothing of any importance whatsoever is not only not newsworthy, it is fodder for a a Saturday Night Live skit. John Belushi in a black trench coat, holding his hat, clutching a post and eating a chicken sandwich comes to mind.
On the other hand, Al Rantel, a KABC talk show host who used to have some common sense, was asking tonight if, after Katrina and now Rita, and [emphasis his] 9/11, if people were feeling a bit vulnerable. He confessed he was. I guess you would feel that way if you lost your sense of perspective.
What we are seeing is a fantastic display of the power of nature. People used to call those Acts of God as they recognized the inability of man to conjur up such immense power. We are seeing some of the biggest storms to ever hit this country and the loss of life is minimal. There is no question that we have the money and manpower to rebuild. There is no question that people will recover and return and make new homes. If anything, we should feel grateful, not vulnerable. If anything, we ought to feel humbled and awed, not fearful. Can you name another country in the world that can move 3,000,000 people in three days to safety and provide shelter for them in that distant place and make sure they are fed and clothed?
Hell, this isn't a tragedy; it's a test. We got an "A". We're doing just fine.
On the other hand, Al Rantel, a KABC talk show host who used to have some common sense, was asking tonight if, after Katrina and now Rita, and [emphasis his] 9/11, if people were feeling a bit vulnerable. He confessed he was. I guess you would feel that way if you lost your sense of perspective.
What we are seeing is a fantastic display of the power of nature. People used to call those Acts of God as they recognized the inability of man to conjur up such immense power. We are seeing some of the biggest storms to ever hit this country and the loss of life is minimal. There is no question that we have the money and manpower to rebuild. There is no question that people will recover and return and make new homes. If anything, we should feel grateful, not vulnerable. If anything, we ought to feel humbled and awed, not fearful. Can you name another country in the world that can move 3,000,000 people in three days to safety and provide shelter for them in that distant place and make sure they are fed and clothed?
Hell, this isn't a tragedy; it's a test. We got an "A". We're doing just fine.
Fighting pornography
I am glad that someone is bringing perspective to the anti-porn focus by the FBI. Brent Bozell has a thoughtful piece. Quoting Ben Shapiro, author of Porn Generation, on the rising acceptability of porn:
There is reason why child pornography is proliferating. For those satiated and bored with pornography, it is a new rush. Excuse me, but as a parent, I applaud the Congressional-mandated plan to fight pornography. Just google sex addiction and porn addiction for a clue that this isn't just a video in the backroom of Blockbuster anymore. It's a 24-hr cycle.
"Pornography is no longer relegated to the dark corners of the newsstand or the scuzzy box in the video store; it's now in your inbox. It's on the radio, the television and the billboards. We live in an America that makes [amateur sex-tape star] Paris Hilton a cultural icon and [professional porn star] Jenna Jameson a New York Times best-selling author."Frankly, I think this focus is long overdue. As a parent with grown children in their mid-thirties I am glad I do not have to worry about the proliferation of sleaze and the casual acceptance of porn star actresses and singers, the embodiment of small-time criminals as contestants on mainstream media tv reality shows, and the gross and inexcusable sexualization of children.
There is reason why child pornography is proliferating. For those satiated and bored with pornography, it is a new rush. Excuse me, but as a parent, I applaud the Congressional-mandated plan to fight pornography. Just google sex addiction and porn addiction for a clue that this isn't just a video in the backroom of Blockbuster anymore. It's a 24-hr cycle.
JetBlue Flight 292
When the JetBlue Flight 292 Airbus landing gear locked into a 90-degree angle calling for an emergency landing, it wasn't the first time, according to the Los Angeles Times, There have been 7 other incidents in the last ten years. A Canadian study issued last year documented 67 incidents of the landing gear. The Times didn't mention the problem with the fuel in emergencies.
One little fact was revealed on local television on several channels by a number of experts: You can't dump fuel from an Airbus. That's why the pilot flew around for 2 1/2 to 3 hours - to burn up fuel. They were lucky they had three hours to spare to reduce the weight of that fuel.
One little fact was revealed on local television on several channels by a number of experts: You can't dump fuel from an Airbus. That's why the pilot flew around for 2 1/2 to 3 hours - to burn up fuel. They were lucky they had three hours to spare to reduce the weight of that fuel.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Public Service
Is it just me? I find the news media distorts reality when they show a film clip without providing a date and time. This is especially true when viewers rely on visual images to inform themselves. Every news film ought to show the date and time.
Right now they are showing roads leaving Houston as one-way traffic. How old is this film? When was it taken? If they are going to show the clip, they owe it to viewers and evacuees the true picture. Otherwise, they should run a crawl to state -- this is now one-way traffic (updated: date and time).
The news media is in a unique position where they can provide a public service. These film clips shouldn't be backdrops. They ought to inform. Otherwise, they are distortive and, yes, cynically exploitative.
Right now they are showing roads leaving Houston as one-way traffic. How old is this film? When was it taken? If they are going to show the clip, they owe it to viewers and evacuees the true picture. Otherwise, they should run a crawl to state -- this is now one-way traffic (updated: date and time).
The news media is in a unique position where they can provide a public service. These film clips shouldn't be backdrops. They ought to inform. Otherwise, they are distortive and, yes, cynically exploitative.
Lord Watson of Invergowrie
"In 1992 he joined George Galloway and other leftwing pro-devolution MPs who blocked the removal of the Commons mace in protest against the proposed privatisation of the water industry. The protest was designed to stop the Commons rising for the summer recess, signified by the mace being put away.And where is Lord Mike Watson today? He is in jail for deliberately starting a fire in a reception room after a political awards dinner, apparently after being rude to staff who refused to give him more wine. (His "fire raising" all caught on closed circuit television.)
A backbencher throughout his time in the Commons, his seat was axed under boundary changes just before Labour's landslide victory in 1997. He was then ennobled and in 1999 elected as MSP for Glasgow Cathcart. He served as Scotland's tourism, culture and sport minister from 2001 to 2003.
From a union thug to a Peer of the realm to a convict in the U.K., Mike Watson was famous for his stint as the Scottish Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister where he was to promote tourism to a newly-devolved Scotland where he was best known for taking his vacations -- abroad. (At a time when tourism was suffering badly from the post- 9/11 slowdown in travel.)
This is what I mean about Way Down Market.
Los Angeles Times death watch
Mickey Kaus has been fighting a Los Angeles Times battle. In his LAT Desperation Update today he got a phone call to welcome him back, despite his multiple cancellations, their continued billing, and his phone calls. He is referring other victims of the "sleazy LAT death-spiral circ. tactics" to contact the California Attorney General's online complaint form.
Scroll down to Saturday, Sept. 17th for his LAT Death Spiral Watch #1 and #2. He asks, "Isn't it, you know, illegal?" to refuse to cancel subscriptions and bill for papers never delivered. It's a policy they have pursued for years.
We cancelled our subscription to the Los Angeles Times years and years ago and received it for nearly two months afterwards. Then they tried to bill us for the unwanted papers. It got to be a joke in our neighborhood where at one time every house got the paper; today only one house get the paper at 4 am. That's anecdotal, but it is a fact of declining circulation. To give you some idea how far the paper has fallen in the last 30 years, you have to look at their circulation.
I collect old Almanacs for their obscure facts. A 1977 CBS News Almanac ("More than a million facts and records") shows the circulation of the Los Angeles Times (p767) at 1,227,377. That was primarily in Southern California. In order to disguise their shrinking subscribership, the Times started delivery in zones all the way from San Diego to Sacramento and even published a Washington, DC edition. It made for the worst penetration rate in the newspaper business. Today, the Los Angeles Times sells nearly a quarter of a million less papers than they did in 1977, some 900,000 papers in a state where population has tripled in the last 30 years.
I have made the point for years that the MSM isn't in the business of selling papers. They are in the business of setting a political agenda, controlling and driving the Democrat party to the fringes of the political spectrum where it is now stuck on stupid. Howard Fineman called it the American Mainstream Media Party.
The MSM is still engaged in a political war with the American people, trying to impose a political ideology most of us repudiate first at the subscription level, then at the ballot box, refusing to accept their willy nilly social engineering projects, and rejecting their ill-considered candidates. It doesn't deter them. They are, after all, engaged in a war against us. And our elected representatives.
Scroll down to Saturday, Sept. 17th for his LAT Death Spiral Watch #1 and #2. He asks, "Isn't it, you know, illegal?" to refuse to cancel subscriptions and bill for papers never delivered. It's a policy they have pursued for years.
We cancelled our subscription to the Los Angeles Times years and years ago and received it for nearly two months afterwards. Then they tried to bill us for the unwanted papers. It got to be a joke in our neighborhood where at one time every house got the paper; today only one house get the paper at 4 am. That's anecdotal, but it is a fact of declining circulation. To give you some idea how far the paper has fallen in the last 30 years, you have to look at their circulation.
I collect old Almanacs for their obscure facts. A 1977 CBS News Almanac ("More than a million facts and records") shows the circulation of the Los Angeles Times (p767) at 1,227,377. That was primarily in Southern California. In order to disguise their shrinking subscribership, the Times started delivery in zones all the way from San Diego to Sacramento and even published a Washington, DC edition. It made for the worst penetration rate in the newspaper business. Today, the Los Angeles Times sells nearly a quarter of a million less papers than they did in 1977, some 900,000 papers in a state where population has tripled in the last 30 years.
I have made the point for years that the MSM isn't in the business of selling papers. They are in the business of setting a political agenda, controlling and driving the Democrat party to the fringes of the political spectrum where it is now stuck on stupid. Howard Fineman called it the American Mainstream Media Party.
The MSM is still engaged in a political war with the American people, trying to impose a political ideology most of us repudiate first at the subscription level, then at the ballot box, refusing to accept their willy nilly social engineering projects, and rejecting their ill-considered candidates. It doesn't deter them. They are, after all, engaged in a war against us. And our elected representatives.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Sheehan in Washington
From Confederate Yankee - Cindy Sheehan's big protest march on the White House included a whopping 29 people. He rightfully calls it The Million Yawn March.
For a really severely cropped picture, there is this ABC shot.
UPDATE: Byron York on the "Peace Train" confirms there were around 30 protesters.
For a really severely cropped picture, there is this ABC shot.
UPDATE: Byron York on the "Peace Train" confirms there were around 30 protesters.
About that time, a cameraman shooting the scene noticed something. "I've seen a lot of these people before," he said. Pointing to a woman a few feet away, he said, "That one was at the World Bank thing. They're professional protesters."About what we expected.
And indeed, that one — Fithian — had been at the protests in Washington a few years earlier. And so had some of the people working with Fithian. And Code Pink's Medea Benjamin, exchanging a warm hug with Fithian on the Capitol lawn, had been at hundreds, if not thousands, of protests. There were some real protest veterans in the group.
Indeed, the photographer's observation pointed to something telling about the day. On close examination, the Cindy Sheehan phenomenon appears not to be a mass movement of any sort but rather to consist of a small group of relatives of U.S. servicemen and women — there were perhaps 30 in all with Sheehan on Wednesday — accompanied and guided by a group of full-time organizers like Fithian, Benjamin, and the people from Mintwood Media Collective.
Consequences
H&M drops Moss from campaign. The Independent has been crowing for a week about how the fashion industry is supporting the drugged out model. A rational person might wonder why a Leftwing newspaper like the Independent would be so supportive of a cocaine addict posing for ads. It's simple. It just confirms their low opinion of society in general and their hatred of any action that might be part of ground swell of what might be, could be, morality.
Update: As of Wednesday, Chanel announced they would not use Moss after their current contract is over.
Update: Burberry has become the third company to end their association with Moss.
Update: As of Wednesday, Chanel announced they would not use Moss after their current contract is over.
Update: Burberry has become the third company to end their association with Moss.
Moss has worked for Burberry since 1998 and has appeared in nine out of its past 16 campaigns
German politics
While the MSM speculates endlessly on the German elections and the apparent gridlock in German politics with neither major party having a majority, the story isn't the variety of coalitions possible but this home grown truth from Expatica:
The Greens had to reposition themselves after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition was thrown out of office in Sunday's elections, he said.We knew that despite the obfuscation by the MSM.
France to pay for more French babies
France is proposing new measures to encourage a higher birth rate, including an increased monthly grant for mothers who take time off work for a third baby, discount cards for travel or household items.
The EU is beginning to wake up to their demographic time bomb. Despite "demographers predicting that large-scale immigration will be necessary in many countries in order to sustain the benefits enjoyed by a steadily aging population," such large-scale immigration is not possible without loss of a European culture. This is their time bomb. It isn't replacement workers; it's where they are coming from.
France currently has a fertility rate of 1.916 children per woman -- slightly below the 2.07 figure which is required for the population to renew itself over the generations. In the 25 nations of the EU, only Ireland has a higher rate.By comparison, the fertility rate in Spain and Italy is 1.2.
The EU is beginning to wake up to their demographic time bomb. Despite "demographers predicting that large-scale immigration will be necessary in many countries in order to sustain the benefits enjoyed by a steadily aging population," such large-scale immigration is not possible without loss of a European culture. This is their time bomb. It isn't replacement workers; it's where they are coming from.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Unaccountable bureaucracy
David Warren on the 60th anniversary of the U.N. and the summit at Turtle Bay this last week.
Warren is an elegant writer. And he has a surprising problem with the U.N.
But think about his points for a moment - the UN has become a gargantuan lobby
- to resist the spread of democracy and constitutional government
- to protect established criminal behavior, and
- advance utopian projects no electorate has ever supported.
About sums it up, doesn't it?
While dictators in the Third World, and liberal politicians and pressure groups in the West, continue to affirm some mysterious “moral authority”, the reality is that the UN has evolved into a gargantuan lobby to resist the spread of democracy and constitutional government, protect established criminal behaviour, and advance utopian projects that no electorate on the surface of the earth has ever supported.
Warren is an elegant writer. And he has a surprising problem with the U.N.
But think about his points for a moment - the UN has become a gargantuan lobby
- to resist the spread of democracy and constitutional government
- to protect established criminal behavior, and
- advance utopian projects no electorate has ever supported.
About sums it up, doesn't it?
Judge Judy fan
A New York judge resigned from office after a state commission recommended his removal for using racially charge language during a trial. The commission found, among other things:
He is the third New York judge removed from the bench this year.
Pennington responded to an African-American defendant's objection to the phrase "colored man" by saying, "I could understand it if he would have called you a Negro or nigger, that would be racial." The commission said the language was inappropriate.The judge spoke in his own defense.
"'He didn't have representation, so I thought I should explain myself,' Pennington said. 'Judge Judy calls people stupid all the time. I don't see her removed from office.'He was previously censured by the commission. The records of that inquiry from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct show he wasn't an attorney either.
He is the third New York judge removed from the bench this year.
Nagin faces questions of his leadership
Mayor Nagin is showing the same lack of leadership that made evacuation of hospitals impossible and emergency services in disarray during Katrina. Even local New Orleans stations are becoming fed up.
Weeping and cursing in frustration at one point, jauntily announcing the city's comeback at another, Ray Nagin has pursued an erratic course as mayor of this woeful city over the past three weeks. Last week, for example, he announced plans to quickly reopen much of New Orleans without even consulting federal officials.It gets even worse.
This week, Nagin missed a meeting with the top federal official in New Orleans because of a late flight, and at one point accused that official, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, of trying to make himself the federal mayor of New Orleans.While we didn't hear that from the MSM, we'll take the Louisiana tv station's word for it. It sounds like Nagin. (Update: It is, apparently, true. The New Orleans Times Picayune reported the Nagin story. ) From the Times Picayune:
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen had already publicly questioned whether Nagin’s timeline to bring back residents of the Uptown and French Quarter neighborhoods, among those least damaged by Hurricane Katrina, was overly ambitious.All along the Katrina efforts have sounded like a power struggle between the Mayor and the Governor and the Federal government whose greatest failure might have been being unlucky enough to get in the middle with a FEMA director who lacked sufficient aggressiveness to overcome the corruption, the bureaucratic ineptness and inertia that is endemic to Louisiana, let alone the political egos.
Allen cited the lack of vital city services, including drinking water, sewerage, a working 911 system and a lack of functioning emergency rooms, and said the plan was "extremely problematic."
Earlier in the day, Nagin was quoted as sarcastically calling Allen the "federally appointed mayor of New Orleans."At the news conference, he called Allen "a good man."But, he added, "When he starts talking to the citizens of New Orleans, he’s kind of out of his league. There’s only one mayor of New Orleans, and I’m it."
I'll drink to that
Sheeze, I feel like celebrating. The New York Times is eliminating 250 jobs from the New York Times; 160 jobs from the Boston Globe; and The Philadelphia Inquirer was eliminating 100 jobs. Last week Knight Ridder said their 3rd quarter earnings would fall about 20 percent.
This validates my opinion that the American public, given a choice, will decide issues for themselves. The Jerry Springer audience will still cling to the MSM television offerings as mindless audiences do, but elsewhere Americans are fighting back. I don't expect any change of philosophy from the MSM. They are what they are - wedded to power, addicted to the heady sensation of dictating the national agenda and the power madness of social engineering. They simply failed in their mission to make the U.S. fail.
Good bloody riddance.
This validates my opinion that the American public, given a choice, will decide issues for themselves. The Jerry Springer audience will still cling to the MSM television offerings as mindless audiences do, but elsewhere Americans are fighting back. I don't expect any change of philosophy from the MSM. They are what they are - wedded to power, addicted to the heady sensation of dictating the national agenda and the power madness of social engineering. They simply failed in their mission to make the U.S. fail.
Good bloody riddance.
Monday, September 19, 2005
An emotional moment and a, ahem, "misunderstanding"
The Jefferson County Parish President whose tearful story on Meet the Press was supposed to be a hit piece on Federal response to Katrina - well, it isn't true. What a surprise!!!!!
Bloggers, including myself, have known the story was a fabrication since the nursing home was identified. It's taken MSNBC all this time to follow up. To their credit, they acknowledge that bloggers questioned the story. To their discredit, they do not apologize to their viewers for the fraud. They won't even acknowledge it was a fraud. It was a "an emotional moment and a misunderstanding." Excuse me for scoffing.
Jefferson County Parish has been the subject of 14 convictions in the last two years, all involving corrupt local politicians and police and two judges. Jefferson County Parish President Aaron Broussard is himself under supoena to testify in the sordid political scandal. NONE OF WHICH DOES MSNBC acknowledge. Even the New Orleans Times Picayne carried the stories which makes you wonder why the local NBC station doesn't have a single story about corruption convictions.
With their access to Lexis Nexis, MSNBC knows all about Mr. Broussard and Jefferson County Parish, Louisiana. They just don't want you to make the connection.
Bloggers, including myself, have known the story was a fabrication since the nursing home was identified. It's taken MSNBC all this time to follow up. To their credit, they acknowledge that bloggers questioned the story. To their discredit, they do not apologize to their viewers for the fraud. They won't even acknowledge it was a fraud. It was a "an emotional moment and a misunderstanding." Excuse me for scoffing.
Jefferson County Parish has been the subject of 14 convictions in the last two years, all involving corrupt local politicians and police and two judges. Jefferson County Parish President Aaron Broussard is himself under supoena to testify in the sordid political scandal. NONE OF WHICH DOES MSNBC acknowledge. Even the New Orleans Times Picayne carried the stories which makes you wonder why the local NBC station doesn't have a single story about corruption convictions.
With their access to Lexis Nexis, MSNBC knows all about Mr. Broussard and Jefferson County Parish, Louisiana. They just don't want you to make the connection.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Bird Flu
If bird flu is as virulent as the flu I had this spring after a cruise, I fully expect millions to die in a pandemic. I have never been so sick in my life and being relatively healthy I was stunned by the virulence of the illness. That being so, my fear is that any resources that are diverted to the UN's World Health Organization ostensibly for bird flu is bound to be spent primarily for propaganda in order to generate even more money. It's the way things work at the UN as the AFP article demonstrates:
On a less hysterical note, Reuters noted back in April that President Bush issued a directive to quarantine passengers suspected of having avian flu when they arrive in the U.S. Back then, WHO, apparently didn't need cash badly enough. Hence, their optimism.
The organisation is also concerned about about the inequalities between the developed and underdeveloped countries: the former are better prepared, but it is the latter where the outbreak is most likely to occur.No pharmaceutical company is going to race to set up shop in Zimbabwe or South Africa or China which makes those drug companies not only greedy but racist because they aren't Marxists utopias.
Ninety percent of global influenza vaccine production is located in Europe and North America.
On a less hysterical note, Reuters noted back in April that President Bush issued a directive to quarantine passengers suspected of having avian flu when they arrive in the U.S. Back then, WHO, apparently didn't need cash badly enough. Hence, their optimism.
Even so, the World Health Organization has said it had seen no evidence so far to suggest the bird flu virus was changing into a form that could be easily transmitted from one human to another.Naturally Canada is calling for a summit of health leaders under the guidance of Canada, a country whose own corruption rivals that of the U.N.
Marxist Utopia
The Marxist utopia of Zimbabwe is promising to rid the country of white "filth." This is, of course, not racist. While white farmers have been beaten to death and their farms expropriated, this is readjustment for historical improverishment of blacks. Any claims for the expropriations are hereby annulled. As should it be for a Marxist utopia.
A new blog noted by Powerline is Eye on the UN . Proof positive that Zimbabwe is the Marxist utopia most MSM dream of and proof they are not racist is the fact that Zimbabwe rates 31st in human rights violations whiel the evil U.S.A. rates 4th as a major violator (91 violations), only behind Israel (274 violations) and Sudan (122 violations) and the Democratic Republic of the congo (120 violations.) Even the international assassinating Syria only has 31 violations.
A new blog noted by Powerline is Eye on the UN . Proof positive that Zimbabwe is the Marxist utopia most MSM dream of and proof they are not racist is the fact that Zimbabwe rates 31st in human rights violations whiel the evil U.S.A. rates 4th as a major violator (91 violations), only behind Israel (274 violations) and Sudan (122 violations) and the Democratic Republic of the congo (120 violations.) Even the international assassinating Syria only has 31 violations.
Way Down Market
You know the sun has set on the British Empire when you see this monstrously ugly statue that will be on display for six months on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square. (Make sure to enlarge the picture for the full view of the mediocrity.) Naturally, we shouldn't criticize. The "artist" is disabled, which would make us heartless bastards for even suggesting that her art belongs in a distant spot in a dense garden on some remote estate that even the owners don't wish to visit often.
This is "Cool Brittannica," that coalition of rock music and hip Labour where a ferris wheel became the perfect symbol to celebrate the Millenium. For the next significant historical event maybe they could build a water slide. Or a fun house. It's a lowering of achievement not seen since the Roman Empire collapsed. I haven't felt the desire to visit London since the Third Way debuted, and you can bet I will not spend one dollar there until Ron "Red" Livingstone is long gone, which, considering the deliberate policy of importing non-assimilated voters, doesn't seem likely in the near future.
Let's face it, low class is there to stay in Britain, embraced by a mass media BBC where programs that include two decorators who look to be in the rough trade who might be on a first name basis with the Russian mafia can re-do your house in two days is high art. And that's a gem compared some of their programming. I still remember the funeral for the 'People's Princess," as Tony Blair referred to Princess Diane, with the procession of the handicapped in wheelchairs following faithfully, sort of like abandoned favorite pets. I suspect it was a Peter Mandelson Production. The Masses, don't you know.
We now know that Princess Diane was a deeply disturbed, vicious, manipulative, self-absorbed, bulemic who destroyed everyone she touched. I am beginning to think she was the People's Princess after all, because its looking more and more like the U.K. truly deserved her.
This is "Cool Brittannica," that coalition of rock music and hip Labour where a ferris wheel became the perfect symbol to celebrate the Millenium. For the next significant historical event maybe they could build a water slide. Or a fun house. It's a lowering of achievement not seen since the Roman Empire collapsed. I haven't felt the desire to visit London since the Third Way debuted, and you can bet I will not spend one dollar there until Ron "Red" Livingstone is long gone, which, considering the deliberate policy of importing non-assimilated voters, doesn't seem likely in the near future.
Let's face it, low class is there to stay in Britain, embraced by a mass media BBC where programs that include two decorators who look to be in the rough trade who might be on a first name basis with the Russian mafia can re-do your house in two days is high art. And that's a gem compared some of their programming. I still remember the funeral for the 'People's Princess," as Tony Blair referred to Princess Diane, with the procession of the handicapped in wheelchairs following faithfully, sort of like abandoned favorite pets. I suspect it was a Peter Mandelson Production. The Masses, don't you know.
We now know that Princess Diane was a deeply disturbed, vicious, manipulative, self-absorbed, bulemic who destroyed everyone she touched. I am beginning to think she was the People's Princess after all, because its looking more and more like the U.K. truly deserved her.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Andrew Sullivan
Powerline on Andrew Sullivan's latest leap into viciousness when he offhandedly compared Hugh Hewitt to Sid (Vicious) Blumenthal. They give 10 (11) difference between the two.
If the high heels fit.
I was an admirer of Andrew's for a long time--in truth, I still am--but it seems to me that ever since he decided, for whatever reasons, to turn his back on the Bush administration, his writing has lacked coherence.Coherence is the right description. Much of the blogosphere has noticed Sullivan's vendetta against anyone who disagrees with him. Sadly, the screeching histronics are ones too often associated with transvestites as they try to impersonate female agitation.
If the high heels fit.
Dead Man's Float - Why are bodies in the water always facedown?
You learn the most amazing things on the internet.
Friday, September 16, 2005
ABC's stunt misfires
Transcript from NewsBusters of the ABC 6 - 0 interview with Katrina victims. Dean Reynolds, to his dismay, couldn't find a chorus of condemnation for president Bush.
The hotdogs who followed Katrina
Somebody else agrees with me.
Ed Bark of the Dallas Morning News was correct to note the "histrionics" of Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera, who looked like they were performing in Saturday Night Live comedy sketches.I was particularly incensed because FOX should know better than to audition for Tim Russert's job of shouting and ranting. Read the whole article that is strongly critical of all the MSM for their performances.
Paul Krugman,public liar
"A bottom-line question: Does a corrections policy not enforced damage The Times's credibility more than having no policy at all?So asks the Public Editor of the New York Times on Paul Krugman's refusal to correct his stories. And he offers a solution.
If the problem is that Mr. Krugman doesn't want to give up precious space in his column for a correction, there are alternatives. Perhaps some space could be found elsewhere on the Op-Ed page so that readers—especially those using electronic versions of his pieces -- could get the accurate information they deserve.
FEMA Payback Issue
Four months before Katrina Governor Blanco from Louisiana had a reason to hate FEMA.
Full report from FEMA.
And then there were those administrative costs.
Page 8 "The administrative allowance was also used to cover budget shortfalls realized by the military sector of the LHLS/EP." [bolding mine]
Examples: Of the $186, 383 in administrative costs for Hazard Mitigation, FEMA disallowed $163,301. (p17) Of the $465,489 in administrative costs for the Unmet Needs program, FEMA disallowed $454,487.
Some of the ineligible administrative costs will show the Louisiana priorities.
They spent $1,017 for curtains;
$2,400 for sod (grass) for grounds improvement
They spent $407 to install an 800 MH radio.
Makes you wonder what other schemes they had. More Whatever they were, they involved the Louisiana Miltary Department -- "The military department -- which runs the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness -- is part of the executive branch of state government."
Details of the scams are thin but you can find some indication. A private company contracted by many of the Louisiana Parishes was Aegis Innovative Solutions. "Aegis is owned by former Office of Emergency Preparedness employees. " Small world, huh?
Governor Kathleen Blanco says if the state is forced to pay back the federal government more than 30 million dollars, the state's children and sick will suffer. This week, FEMA officials sent a letter demanding back 30.4 million dollars back misspent flood buyout money.The money was intended to buy out homes that habitually flood under a program called Hazard Mitigation grants. The idea is to help reduce the potential of future damage to facilities. In this case flood-prone homes. Louisiana got many grants from 1997-2004. After an audit, FEMA found a number of expenses unwarranted including "a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, audio and video equipment, office supplies, travel, professional dues, charitable donations, an L.L. Bean briefcase, a rain coat, and a trip to Germany by a Louisiana Homeland Security person." Also computer, audio and video equipment; microwave communications systems; a global disaster network; GSA automobile leases; etc etc
Full report from FEMA.
And then there were those administrative costs.
Page 8 "The administrative allowance was also used to cover budget shortfalls realized by the military sector of the LHLS/EP." [bolding mine]
Examples: Of the $186, 383 in administrative costs for Hazard Mitigation, FEMA disallowed $163,301. (p17) Of the $465,489 in administrative costs for the Unmet Needs program, FEMA disallowed $454,487.
Some of the ineligible administrative costs will show the Louisiana priorities.
They spent $1,017 for curtains;
$2,400 for sod (grass) for grounds improvement
They spent $407 to install an 800 MH radio.
Makes you wonder what other schemes they had. More Whatever they were, they involved the Louisiana Miltary Department -- "The military department -- which runs the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness -- is part of the executive branch of state government."
Details of the scams are thin but you can find some indication. A private company contracted by many of the Louisiana Parishes was Aegis Innovative Solutions. "Aegis is owned by former Office of Emergency Preparedness employees. " Small world, huh?
The Fight for the Democrat Party
Rush Limbaugh mentioned this Howard Fineman article today: "An independence versus capitulation wrestling match". Fineman wrote:
The true activists in the Democrat party have always been those annointed by the MSM. No one else. No George Soros. No shady 527 organizations. No unseen hands of mischief or malice not previously handpicked by the American Mainstream Media Party has ever been heard before. In a previous article chronicling the fall of the American Mainstream Media Party, Fineman cites the "Blogger Nation" for the downfall of CBS. He was referring to the conservative blogs that pushed the story. And then he said something interesting in that article: "It was not accident that the birth [of the AMMP American Mainstream Media Party] coincided with an identity crisis in the Democratic Party."
In other words, the MSM gained control of the Democrat Party in the 196o's - a time of a power vacuum in the party that was transfixed by its own dilemma. The Democrat Party was synonymous with Racism. The Southern States that had fought integration for 100 years dominated a party that was stagnant and corrupt, dying one of those Tennessee Williams slow deaths by chronic corruption and lassitude. Enter the first use of the National Guard to integrate schools in the south by a Northern Republican president into a school in Arkansas. The Democrat Party collapsed. The northeastern established MSM stepped into the breach. It is not now surprising that the "Blogosophere" is wrestling for control of the Democrat party from the control of American Mainstream Media Party (AMMP.) It simultaneously marks the stagnation of the Democrat Party and the precipitious decline of the MSM that the Democrat Party is now, once again, up for grabs.
What we are witnessing is A) the slowfall collapse of the coalition of the American Mainstream Media Party and the Democrat Party and the rush from the hard left to fill the vacuum while at the same time there is B) a publicity push by the MSM to give credence to the hard left in order to maintain the continued leftward drift of the Democrat party, the leftward drift started by the MSM in the first place, a leftward drift that even Democrat loyalists do not accept. And, more importantly, do not vote for in large numbers. The hope, one supposes, is that by comparison the social liberals in the MSM will actually look good.
The problem is that there simply isn't a cogent center for the Democrat party, battered as they are from the Left MSM and the harder Left George Soros groups. It's a case of Social Liberalism versus Socialism. Neither seems like a winning formulas for a mainstream American political party.
If I am hearing Simon Rosenberg right (and he is worth listening to), a nasty civil war is brewing within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton – the party’s presumptive 2008 nominee – needs to avoid getting caught in the middle of it.Fineman makes good points about the aggressiveness of the "blog" Democrats versus the Beltway Democrats. (Think Upstarts and Establishment Dems.) What he does not seem to grasp is that the Blog Dems have achieved such importance because the Democrat Party has effectively left a power vacuum for them after the Clinton fiasco and the near destruction of the Democrat party. The rabid "blog" Democrats - extremists all - are, in Fineman's words, "activists." But are they?
The true activists in the Democrat party have always been those annointed by the MSM. No one else. No George Soros. No shady 527 organizations. No unseen hands of mischief or malice not previously handpicked by the American Mainstream Media Party has ever been heard before. In a previous article chronicling the fall of the American Mainstream Media Party, Fineman cites the "Blogger Nation" for the downfall of CBS. He was referring to the conservative blogs that pushed the story. And then he said something interesting in that article: "It was not accident that the birth [of the AMMP American Mainstream Media Party] coincided with an identity crisis in the Democratic Party."
In other words, the MSM gained control of the Democrat Party in the 196o's - a time of a power vacuum in the party that was transfixed by its own dilemma. The Democrat Party was synonymous with Racism. The Southern States that had fought integration for 100 years dominated a party that was stagnant and corrupt, dying one of those Tennessee Williams slow deaths by chronic corruption and lassitude. Enter the first use of the National Guard to integrate schools in the south by a Northern Republican president into a school in Arkansas. The Democrat Party collapsed. The northeastern established MSM stepped into the breach. It is not now surprising that the "Blogosophere" is wrestling for control of the Democrat party from the control of American Mainstream Media Party (AMMP.) It simultaneously marks the stagnation of the Democrat Party and the precipitious decline of the MSM that the Democrat Party is now, once again, up for grabs.
What we are witnessing is A) the slowfall collapse of the coalition of the American Mainstream Media Party and the Democrat Party and the rush from the hard left to fill the vacuum while at the same time there is B) a publicity push by the MSM to give credence to the hard left in order to maintain the continued leftward drift of the Democrat party, the leftward drift started by the MSM in the first place, a leftward drift that even Democrat loyalists do not accept. And, more importantly, do not vote for in large numbers. The hope, one supposes, is that by comparison the social liberals in the MSM will actually look good.
The problem is that there simply isn't a cogent center for the Democrat party, battered as they are from the Left MSM and the harder Left George Soros groups. It's a case of Social Liberalism versus Socialism. Neither seems like a winning formulas for a mainstream American political party.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
The American Thinker
From Jonathan Cohen at the American Thinker on the Second Battle of New Orleans. Speaking of the media:
This narrative of catastrophic loss of the lives of thousands of poor blacks at the hands of an uncaring and incompetent white administration played out day after day with nobody seeming to notice that events weren’t really following the script.And then there is this,
The media was also filtering the events through racial stereotyping of blacks as either criminal or hopelessly poor, incompetent and wholly dependent on governmental largesse. Complementary to this was the portrait of the Bush Administration as white, wealthy and indifferent to poor blacks. This narrative of catastrophic loss of the lives of thousands of poor blacks at the hands of an uncaring and incompetent white administration played out day after day with nobody seeming to notice that events weren’t really following the script. Tales of anarchy at the Superdome with large numbers of rapes and murders did not turn out to be true (though they have done enormous damage to our international reputation), as police reported no claims of rapes and few weapons were found. Ominously, twenty-five thousand body bags were ordered to the New Orleans area but in one of the all-time cases of over ordering, it seems they have a need for less than 3% of them.What the distorted coverage ignored was,
While the talking heads and newspaper pundits were focusing on a fairy tale about tens of thousands of deaths due to the Bush administration’s indifference and incompetence they were missing the real story of Coast Guard pilots, doctors, nurses, and ordinary citizens whose round the clock heroism saved the lives of almost everyone who hadn’t perished in the original storm. Why did we see so little of that on the news?But, then, no Americans are heroes in the eyes of our MSM.
Mid-life crisis
It's absolutely weird -- the Guardian has had a mid-life crisis and is chasing terrorists -- not insurgents, not innocent radical muslims but terrorists on UK universities.
At this rate, the Daily Ablution will be out of material.
At this rate, the Daily Ablution will be out of material.
TimesSelect service
Come on. Get real. Do you honestly think people will pay to read Maureen Dowd, Tom Friedman, Frank Rich and the New Yawk Times' Op Ed page? The New York Times claims they are putting the op ed columns and writers behind a wall to make - cash.
[Pause here while you wipe the laughter from your eyes.]
Let's face it. They are putting them behind a wall for the same reason that the Globe and Mail put their columnists behind a subscription requirement (the ONLY part of the paper behind the wall) -- to protect their columnists' fragile egos. And reputations.
Business Week doesn't believe the $49.95 for Paul Krugman model will work.
[Pause here while you wipe the laughter from your eyes.]
Let's face it. They are putting them behind a wall for the same reason that the Globe and Mail put their columnists behind a subscription requirement (the ONLY part of the paper behind the wall) -- to protect their columnists' fragile egos. And reputations.
Business Week doesn't believe the $49.95 for Paul Krugman model will work.
It's true consumers are willing to pay more for certain media offerings. (Consider today's cable bill vs. 1995's, or the costs of broadband vs. dial-up.) But one key market perversity is that this dynamic does not apply to print. Financial analysts find a growing dependence of leading papers -- including the Times -- on discounted subscriptions.Face it. The New Yawk Times just doesn't like their columnists to be ridiculed.
Despicable little toads
The Reuter's photo, an upclose shot of a note purportedly written by president Bush has backfired spectacularly. So much so that they have had to explain it.
"There was no malicious intent," he says. "That's not what we do."Bull. It's exactly what you do every day.
Victor Davis Hanson on Our Media Hurricane
Victor Davis Hanson is a breath of decency and a joy to read all the time. A day after hearing Joe Biden, Hanson is near sainthood...
Read the whole thing.
Let ghoulish CNN file suit against the government to film all the bloated corpses it can find. Let a pontificating PBS 'NewsHour' conduct more televised roundtables with grim-faced elites searching out purported national racism. But few any longer trust a frenzied media whose reporters and commentators continually prove as incompetent as they are disingenuous.
Read the whole thing.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Report but don't linger
I am surprised that ABC even reported this story.
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.ABC touched only briefly on the fact that the Justice Department and FBI are investigating Rep. Jefferson. (last few paragraphs on page 3) And they don't mention at all Operation Wrinkled Robe. (Google for a bruising look at Louisiana corruption.)
On Sept. 2 — five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.
Lies and damned lies
UPDATE on Aaron Broussard, the President of Jefferson Parish and his preposterous story told on MSNBC and faithfully retold by the Washington Post.
And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.Well, apparently, even the Bush-hating left now admits that Broussard was ""embellishing" the story.
The 32 people who died at St. Rita's nursing home didn't die Friday. They all died from the hurricane surge, not waiting for FEMA evacuation. They had died earlier in the week. She couldn't have called her son for reassurance. Even if the phones had worked.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Cable News race - Notice who isn't winning?
From DrudgeReport:
CABLE NEWS RACE - MON SEPT 12 2005 - VIEWERS
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,053,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 2,251,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 2,009,000
FNC GRETA 1,817,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,809,000
CNN LARRY KING 1,277,000
CNN COOPER 1,275,000
CNN AARON BROWN 1,269,000
CNN ZAHN 1,174,000
CNN DOBBS 964,000
CNNHN GRACE 748,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 610,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 605,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 589,000
MSNBC RITA COSBY 498,000
MSNBC TUCKER 272,000
CABLE NEWS RACE - MON SEPT 12 2005 - VIEWERS
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,053,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 2,251,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 2,009,000
FNC GRETA 1,817,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,809,000
CNN LARRY KING 1,277,000
CNN COOPER 1,275,000
CNN AARON BROWN 1,269,000
CNN ZAHN 1,174,000
CNN DOBBS 964,000
CNNHN GRACE 748,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 610,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 605,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 589,000
MSNBC RITA COSBY 498,000
MSNBC TUCKER 272,000
The U.N. at a crossroads in the crosshairs
Claudia Rosett on reform at the United Nations and the possibility that president Bush is going to spoil their party.
It seems at this stage that no one expects managerial competence or integrity from Annan. It is enough that he presides over a global icon, runs programs disbursing billions worth of other people's money, and performs well at parties. It is perhaps pleasing to Russia, France, and China that last October he denounced as "inconceivable" the idea that their positions in the debate over Saddam's Iraq could have been influenced by Saddam's payoffs (and ensuing opportunities for blackmail).Read it all. She concludes:
These are not qualifications for overseeing a sweeping reform of the U.N. Nor do Annan's proposals for reform in any way overcome his personal failings. His chief contribution to the future of his imploding institution has been a list of treadworn proposals, a few with merit, but most of them devoted to taking what's wrong with the U.N., making it even bigger, and demanding more money to pay for it.
Having evidently learned nothing from Oil-for-Food, Annan's pet plan these days is that rich nations contribute an automatic 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product for official development aid to poor countries — much of that presumably to be channeled through the U.N. However lofty the intent, the design is perverse, not least in diverting yet more money from the private sector — which is the real source of development — toward some of the world's worst crooks. The U.N. is the leading global clubhouse legitimizing the dictators whose policies produce the world's worst poverty. (Watch for their motorcades on Fifth Avenue this week). And until the U.N. centers its reforms not around shaking down rich donors, but around true transparency and responsible, accountable leadership, sending another flood of money its way is not a recipe for development. It is an invitation for yet more scandal and corruption.
When we have a clean, efficient U.N. — if we ever do — there may come a time for pleasant diplomatic fictions on the General Assembly floor. But right now, to the extent we depend on the U.N. for anything of importance in world affairs, it is not only U.S. tax dollars at stake, but U.S. security. If there is anything the U.S. has done to earn the deep disrespect of the U.N. and its more hostile members over the years, it is that America has too long played the chump. American taxpayers foot the lion's share of the bills. The U.S. provides housing for the U.N. atop one of the fanciest patches of real estate in the country, and is now offering to finance the renovation of U.N. headquarters on terms sweeter than most hard-working Americans could dream of. We put up with anti-American resolutions and declarations by a U.N. which, according to a new website — www.EyeontheUN.org — treats the U.S. as a human-rights violator on a scale surpassed only by Sudan, the Congo, and the U.N.'s all-time favorite target, Israel.Yet another reason why the MSM and the Dems have relentlessly slandered FEMA and the Bush administration and his efforts in the last week. The MSM work to cover for inept and corrupt Louisiana Old South politics but the real zeal is to damage our president in advance of just such occasions as the U.N. summit.
Bush's job when he gets up before the General Assembly tomorrow is not to host a party, or coddle Kofi Annan, or paper over another in a long series of made-to-fail U.N. reforms. Bush's job is to talk straight
The wonderful Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn on the real fallout from Katrina.
But those buses in New Orleans were spotted by a blogger. Not by the New Yawk Times. The Emergency evacuation plan that was never used in New Orleans to take the most vulnerable population out of the city, the plan that was never implemented - that was linked to by a blogger. Not the New Yawk Times. Bloggers will reproduce Nagel's hysteria long after the flood waters recede. And the blogosphere will remember and link to Governor Blanco's sobbing press conferences and quote her in her own words and demonstrate - her cluelessness. While the New Yawk Times plans her next election.
No one can cover up the MSM over-reaction and hype (including FOX's drama queen performances by Shepard Smith, Geraldo Rivera and Steve Harrigan.) And no one can cover up the callousness of the Democrat governor and mayor who panicked and spread that hopelessness to their constituents. (Imagine Pataki at a press conference dabbing his eyes and looking woeful or Guiliani screaming and swearing about wanting someone else to do his job.) No one can hide the fact that it took one day for the military to do what an entire state and city failed to do - evacuate the city and bring law and order. To bring a sense of control.
To act like grownups.
Unlike other dead horses flogged by the media - Cindy Sheehan, torture at Guantanamo, etc - this was at one point a real story: an actual hurricane, people dying, things going wrong. But that wasn't good enough, and the more they tossed in to damage Bush, the more they drowned any real controversy in the usual dreary pseudo-controversy. After watching Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu threatening to punch out the President, a reader e-mailed me Kipling: 'If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.'When the MSM controlled the presses and the record of what they had written, they could get away with tainting a story. No one could examine what they said a week later, let alone a year later. No one could reconstruct what Mary Landrieu said or Governor Blanco did or did not do or the ravings of the idiot mayor of New Orleans and his plan to send the entire police force to Las Vegas for counseling. It made hiding the truth a lot easier. It gave the MSM unlimited opportunity to be the final record and supress all evidence to the contrary.
That's all Bush had to do. The storm has passed.
But those buses in New Orleans were spotted by a blogger. Not by the New Yawk Times. The Emergency evacuation plan that was never used in New Orleans to take the most vulnerable population out of the city, the plan that was never implemented - that was linked to by a blogger. Not the New Yawk Times. Bloggers will reproduce Nagel's hysteria long after the flood waters recede. And the blogosphere will remember and link to Governor Blanco's sobbing press conferences and quote her in her own words and demonstrate - her cluelessness. While the New Yawk Times plans her next election.
No one can cover up the MSM over-reaction and hype (including FOX's drama queen performances by Shepard Smith, Geraldo Rivera and Steve Harrigan.) And no one can cover up the callousness of the Democrat governor and mayor who panicked and spread that hopelessness to their constituents. (Imagine Pataki at a press conference dabbing his eyes and looking woeful or Guiliani screaming and swearing about wanting someone else to do his job.) No one can hide the fact that it took one day for the military to do what an entire state and city failed to do - evacuate the city and bring law and order. To bring a sense of control.
To act like grownups.
Monday, September 12, 2005
United Nations reform (laugh outloud)
Is it just me, or is there something ludicrous about the present administration of the United Nations under Kofi Annan announcing a "reform" of that body just days after a Volker report documented wide-spread corruption, inefficiency, unaccountability, and incompetence?
Like, why would anyone think such people were capable of reforming an insitution they have corrupted so thoroughly?
One of the best quotes was Egypt's Abdelaziz who said it was important to maintain the central authority of U.N. member states and,
Like, why would anyone think such people were capable of reforming an insitution they have corrupted so thoroughly?
One of the best quotes was Egypt's Abdelaziz who said it was important to maintain the central authority of U.N. member states and,
"We are for giving the secretary-general greater authority if he is going to give us a better system for transparency and accountability," Abdelaziz said.Maybe Paul Volker should refresh the Egyptian ambassador's mind?? Maybe the Egyptian ambassador doesn't have a mind.
Darth Vader call home at Yahoo
Yahoo has gone over to the dark side. They've hired their first journalist to cover wars. Two facts illustrate:
1. The former chairman of ABC's entertainment group now oversee's Yahoo's expanded media group in Santa Monica.
2. He has hired Kevin Sites, a "veteran television correspondent" to report on wars around the world. Mr. Sites
Guess what? Yahoo won't be my default choice anymore either.
1. The former chairman of ABC's entertainment group now oversee's Yahoo's expanded media group in Santa Monica.
2. He has hired Kevin Sites, a "veteran television correspondent" to report on wars around the world. Mr. Sites
is probably most notable for a videotape he shot for NBC of a marine shooting and killing, in a mosque in Falluja last year, an Iraqi prisoner who appeared to be unarmed.Pity. I was beginning to respect Yahoo. Except for their reliance on limited news sources that included not one conservative paper or news source. They have AP, Reuters, AFP, Los Angeles Times, USATODAY, CS Monitor, Knight Ridder Newspaper and NPR. You can sign up for FOXnews feed but it isn't a default choice.
Guess what? Yahoo won't be my default choice anymore either.
The family value network -- NOT
NBC's "The Apprentice" contestant the Smoking Gun is rooting for for Trump's next flunky. NBC sure know how to pick em.
Where the adults live
David Warren's essay on "Blame Throwing" is a gem. (Click on the article title at the left. He has no permalinks.)
If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C. The theory being, that when you're in real trouble, that's where the adults live.
And that isn't an exaggeration. Almost everything that has worked in the recovery operation along the U.S. Gulf Coast has been military and National Guard. Within a few days, under several commands, finally consolidated under the remarkable Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, it was once again the U.S. military, efficiently cobbling together a recovery operation on a scale beyond the capacity of any other earthly institution.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Terror war all but forgotten on home front
The incomparable Mark Steyn. [emphasis mine]
Terror war all but forgotten on home front: "Four years ago, I thought the 'war on terror' was a viable concept. To those on the right who scoffed that you can't declare war on a technique, I pointed out that Britain's Royal Navy fought wars against slavery and piracy and were largely successful. Of course, since then we've had the shabby habit of presidents declaring a 'war on drugs' and a 'war on poverty' and, with hindsight, that corruption of language has allowed Americans to slip the war on terror into the same category -- not a war in the sense that a war on Fiji or Belgium is a war, but just one of those vaguely ineffectual aspirational things that don't really impinge on you that much except for the odd pointless gesture -- like the shoe-removing ritual before you board a flight at Poughkeepsie."that corruption of language has allowed Americans to slip the war on terror into the same category.." How very true.
"Just give us what the fuck we deserve."
If you want to see for yourself the "gimme mentality" of some people, you have to watch this video from FOX news.
That's what 80 years of Democrat paternalism, the welfare game, and victimization do. Poverty isn't a lack of money; it's a lack of values.
That's what 80 years of Democrat paternalism, the welfare game, and victimization do. Poverty isn't a lack of money; it's a lack of values.
Youl'll never get on Jim Romensko's site that way
Jack Kelly writing in the Post-Gazette: "the federal response to Katrina was not as portrayed"
But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.Of course. That's what our MSM do. And, guess what? Their cronies won't win the next election either. They're crowing now. But it won't change things. Except. Except the MSM has portrayed this country as vulnerable when it is not. And when terrorists look at that vulnerability, they take heart. Hey, but the MSM managed to smear good men. That's all they care about.
Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:
"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.
So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.
I can't hear you
Probably the most under-reported news releases in the world:
In a news release Lieutenant General H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said today “National Guard deployments to Iraq DID NOT slow the Guard’s response to Hurricane Katrina.”Elsewhere the Bayou Buzz longs for Huey Long. Maybe because he wanted to confiscate money from the rich. THAT, at least sounds like the Democrat party we all know. The graft and corruption of the Kingfisher administration was much admired by the poor and when he was impeached on charges of bribery and gross misconduct, it only endeared him to Louisianans who never fail to love a scoundrel.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Fed up
Some days I get angry enough to spit and I have just about had it with bloggers piling on the blame game. The following is my response to a Bainbridge post.
I really find this emphasis on the delay of one or two days ridiculous. People were discomforted and the 24-hour news cycle played up their plight as piteous, complete with ranting anchors competing with the mayor for the Katrina Hysteria Award given to the person most Caring About Blacks as the evacuees sat around looking like newly- released slaves.
The fact is that in Los Angeles we are told we must rely on ourselves for 7 days. Does that mean we are being discriminated against or is that a resonable expectation? I mean, if they got something against us white folks, let us know now.
That's how silly this argument has become. Michael Brown was a weak link, unable to defend himself, and even the faithful like me acknowledge it. Was he negligent in his duties? We will have to see won't we? As of now, we have no facts, but it doesn't stop a lot of bloggers from competing for that Most Caring About Blacks Award.
Three years ago did you care that 30% of New Orleans blacks were in poverty? Heck no. Did you care that their government was so corrupt that the Dept. of Justice has a full-time corruption office there? Do you care that the Times Picayne presents the came corrupt candidates over and over?
I'll believe you care a darn when two years from now you still read the Times Picayne and are angry.
Until then, get a grip, folks and start acting like responsible adults who could actually be role models for self-reliance.
I really find this emphasis on the delay of one or two days ridiculous. People were discomforted and the 24-hour news cycle played up their plight as piteous, complete with ranting anchors competing with the mayor for the Katrina Hysteria Award given to the person most Caring About Blacks as the evacuees sat around looking like newly- released slaves.
The fact is that in Los Angeles we are told we must rely on ourselves for 7 days. Does that mean we are being discriminated against or is that a resonable expectation? I mean, if they got something against us white folks, let us know now.
That's how silly this argument has become. Michael Brown was a weak link, unable to defend himself, and even the faithful like me acknowledge it. Was he negligent in his duties? We will have to see won't we? As of now, we have no facts, but it doesn't stop a lot of bloggers from competing for that Most Caring About Blacks Award.
Three years ago did you care that 30% of New Orleans blacks were in poverty? Heck no. Did you care that their government was so corrupt that the Dept. of Justice has a full-time corruption office there? Do you care that the Times Picayne presents the came corrupt candidates over and over?
I'll believe you care a darn when two years from now you still read the Times Picayne and are angry.
Until then, get a grip, folks and start acting like responsible adults who could actually be role models for self-reliance.
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