West, Texas……Not Obama’s America

West fire a reminder of small town values:

by Ron Dreher at USA Today:

Click here for video of West, Texas explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAA5NmmEWqc

Your government and your insurance company may help you rebuild your house after a disaster, but only your community can help you rebuild your life.

Cheryl Marak’s husband, Marty, was down by the burning fertilizer plant in West, Texas, and he wouldn’t come home.

“I am begging, begging him to let me come in and get him,” Marak sobbed to CNN’s Piers Morgan the night of the disaster. “He said he can’t; he’s got to stay with his guys.”

Marty Marak is a volunteer firefighter in the town of 2,800, emphasis on “volunteer.” He installs air conditioners for a living, but like every other member of the West squad, some of whom died in the explosion, Marty doesn’t do it for money. He does it for love of his neighbors.

“I don’t know if you understand how big this is,” my wife, a native north Texan, told me. “West is tiny. West is about the size of St. Francisville.” That put the personal magnitude of the West tragedy, and the courage and compassion of that Texas town, into perspective for me. St. Francisville, La., my hometown, is where we live now.

Watching the West coverage, I thought about my brother-in-law, Mike Leming, who joined the volunteer brigade at 18 because it seemed like what a responsible man does.

When Mike and his neighbors saved their first house, he realized how much good the men of a community could do, working together. It changed his life. He became a professional firefighter in Baton Rouge, but he’s still a local volunteer. He’s trying to serve — and to save, if it comes to that — his community.

To people who live far away, this is the sort of thing we admire about small towns, but it’s not something most of us participate in. I have lived away for most of my life, following my journalism vocation from big city to big city. I admired the life Mike and my sister, Ruthie, a public schoolteacher, built for themselves, but it was too cramped to hold me.

Later in my career, I wrote about the loss of community spirit in American life, but I never seriously considered my role. And then doctors diagnosed Ruthie with stage IV lung cancer. She was 40 and had never smoked. This was a catastrophe for Mike, Ruthie and their daughters.

In that moment, the community stepped up. There was nothing the Lemings needed that people didn’t do for them. Though I watched it from afar in Philadelphia, it was staggering to see. Ruthie was a beloved teacher and had given so much over the years to the community. Now, with their time and their treasure, and in a thousand different ways, the community gave back, walking with Ruthie and her family every step of her cancer journey.

After Ruthie’s death, I stood for hours at her wake, and greeted more than 1,000 people, many of them former students, most of whom said to me, “Sir, you don’t know me, but here’s what your sister did for me.” It gave me a radically new perspective on the good an anonymous woman living a quiet life of love and service in an unseen part of the world could do.

Days after we buried Ruthie, Mike told a friend, “We’re leanin’, but we’re leanin’ on each other.” Watching the tremendous sacrifices the people of my small town were making for my family in their crisis, and had been making all along, shook up my prejudices.

I saw that the communal bonds that held me down as a 15-year-old were, today, the only things holding my Louisiana family together.

The world looks different at age 45, after you’ve seen suffering and come to grasp your own vulnerability. Your government or your insurance company might be able to pay medical bills, but it can’t take the kids to school when you’re too sick to get out of bed and it can’t let you die in peace because you know your husband and your children will not be alone in the world. Your government and your insurance company may help you rebuild your house after a disaster, but only your community can help you rebuild your life.

In the light of Ruthie’s death, I saw my small town with fresh eyes. I saw the deep goodness of small-town people, who weren’t anonymous to each other and who felt a duty of love to each other. I wanted to be part of that. I needed to be part of that.

I moved my family back home. Now, when I hear the people of West on TV talking about how they’re going to carry each other through this catastrophe, I know exactly what they mean. The people of West will not only endure; they will triumph. There is nothing small about the lives of small towns.

Rod Dreher, senior editor ofThe American Conservative, is author of The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, A Small Town, And The Secret Of A Good Life.

Comment: Ron Dreher at USA Today cannot quite loosen his pen enough to give proper term to these values as OLD FASHIONED CONSERVATIVE VALUES.

Intruder Dials 911, Afraid Homeowner Might Have Gun

Kevin Jackson at the Black Sphere, sent the following:

A Portland, Oregon, woman arrived home on Saturday, April 6th, to find an intruder in the shower!

The Portland homeowner called out “Why are you in my house taking a shower?”
The uninvited shower guest replied, “I’m sorry…my name’s Timothy James Chapek.”
Timothy Chapek, 25, then dialed 911 and told the emergency operator, “I just broke in to a house and the owners came home…I think they might have guns.”
The homeowner also called 911 to report the intruder.
I don’t know about you, but it’s a good day when lawbreakers are fearful, rather than the law-abiding! And guns, or even the threat of the good guys possibly having guns, can make that scenario the norm.

Click below for more:

http://theblacksphere.net/2013/04/intruder-dials-911-afraid-homeowner-might-have-a-gun/

Mary Katherine Ham…….Showdown: DWS vs. Beyonce on Cuba Trip

I am still wondering why I am forwarding this article to you, dear readers of the Prager stripe. I only feel hints…..perhaps a word or two of memory of folks of my generation and life’s travel.

I presume these DWS and Beyonce are people. Where they come from and what they represent have passed me by in this my old age…..and I seem to feel quite good about it. But, I do like Mary Katherine Ham via her tv performances usually on Fox Cable tv. Now, there is an attractive woman made so by her brain……one of the handful of American women in public life who seem to be able to hold an idea together for five or more seconds without swooning into lefty habits to pass laws to fix things.

I do, however, follow the ambulatory piece of wood named Debbie Wasserman Schultz of DNC stardom.

Those of you who have been raised in a well-populated Jewish community as I had been, might appreciate the breadth and depth to the words I am collecting to describe Ms DWS and my affection for my Jewish-filled youth.

Thoughout my scholastic life I had an inordinate number of Jewish friends from neighborhood and its schools into university and grad schools, not in my Horticultural graduate work….a farmer’s kind of world, but in my Soviet Studies graduate experience. Throughout my entire school life, I was too obtuse to my environment to compete against another person. I never had such feelings, and only once did an incident (in 8th grade was I slightly upset over an contest where my class of 38 students was competing for a copy of the book, The Yearling, which I, despite certain proclivities, I confess, coveted. Jim, my best friend was the best student in the class overall, but well disciplined and trained by his parents. I was dyslexic and undisciplined but, nevertheless collected knowledge in every nerdy way possible….without any purpose whatsoever beyond satisfying curiosity. I knew Jim was my chief competitor, and I knew I would beat him, due to the results of my nerdiness and dyslexia…which aided me somehow to remember all sorts of facts and figures I’d never forget, useable or not…until a year or two ago. He studied….I didn’t know what studying was.

Of one hundred items in the test, I made one error…..Jim made three…..the best of the rest were in the tens. It was a national Weekly Reader test, a ‘paper’ of mostly hard core knowledge information. However, Jim was a far better all around and more dependable student….the teacher Mrs. Dagmar McClement announced to the class, after the test scores were revealed…..and she gave Jim the book….which she had bought for the prixe. Even then I wasn’t really disturbed. I recognized it was unfair for she had established the book as a prize for whomever had the highest score from the Weekly Reader test. (I knew, and Jim knew, which was even more important, that I had beat him.) Mrs. McClement was right, however, Jim was a more dependable student.

Many of my school friends were Jewish. They, mostly boys, befriended me warmly, however only when the topics of study were in my specialty fields: Geography, History, Math, the War, daily news, Maps, Battles new and old, Presidents, structure of the English language, but I couldn’t read anything that resembled a novel. In that last category, the one of poor performance, I recollected yeqrs later, that although I still had a few friendly kids who knew my name, none of them were Jewish.

I personally benefitted from my Jewish acquaintances. We would enjoy talking about ‘important’ things….’interesting things’ like sharing knowledge. Now we come to a female person, I believe a Jewish female person called Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a representative from Florida and present head of the Democratic National Committee….

It was my training to believe from my experience living in my neighborhood that Jews, at least the guys, had a pretty good head on their shoulders. I still hold that view….among those that are conservative….Dennis Prager, Charles Krauthammer, Ben Stein, and many others.

It is my opinion that the depths of ignorance as displayed over the years by Wasserman-Schutz, her chasm is so proundly deep, so void of substance, that it would take all the intelligence scores of every American Jew who has ever lived to fill in the abyss.

Showdown: DWS vs. Beyoncé on Cuba trip
by Mary Katharine Ham

In one corner, a woman who never met a microphone she didn’t love, known for her striking hairstyles and repetition of catchy, simple, often nonsensical phrases. And, in the other, Beyoncé.

It’s not just Republican lawmakers raising their eyebrows at the vacation recording artists Jay-Z and Beyoncé took to Cuba this week. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is head of the Democratic National Committee, but also represents a chunk of Miami and many Cuban-American voters:

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston said Tuesday she’d like to know more about the recent Cuba visit by mega-entertainers Beyoncé and Jay-Z…

“I’m absolutely uncomfortable with the way, and concerned about, how not just Jay-Z and Beyoncé but some of the travel, the ‘people to people’ travel, that has been occurring in Cuba, has resulted,” Wasserman Schultz said in a brief interview Tuesday with the Sun Sentinel.

“I would be interested to know what type of people to people qualifying activity they did during their trip. The travel that exists in Cuba that was allowed by the Obama administration was specifically to make sure that you could have educational opportunities and there is supposed to be interaction at every step of a trip between the participants and the Cuban people. And I hope that that happened with this particular trip. We need to make sure that people to people travel complies with the law,” she said.
The Carters—the couple’s legal, married name—made headlines by spending their fifth anniversary in the lovely communist regime to the south. This trip would have had to have been approved by the United States government as what they call “people-to-people” contact— an allegedly educational exception the Obama administration has carved out of the U.S.’s ban on tourism to the country. These visits, however, are anything but educational unless you’re looking to learn how super-fantastic the communist propaganda machine is at using fabulously clueless celebrities to distract from the suffering of its people and the repression it imposes upon them. Alberto de la Cruz of Babalu Blog explains what the two stars saw, and what was hidden from them.

The only Cuban people Beyonce and Jay-Z had contact with were officials and puppets of the Castro dictatorship. They dined at the famous La Guarida restaurant, a supposedly “private” establishment that is in reality owned by Castro regime officials. They attended a performance of the children’s show La Colmenita, a government-run Castro propaganda extravaganza that is borderline child abuse for its blatant exploitation of children. They visited an art college where the only artists allowed to attend must be revolutionary artists and any attempts at free artistic expression are punished by at best, expulsion, and at worst, imprisonment. Beyonce and Jay-Z toured the streets of Old Havana escorted by agents of the regime’s East German Stasi-trained State Security, who pretended to control the crowds the government most likely bussed in for a photo opportunity as they have done so often in the past. A video showed Beyonce dancing salsa to a Celia Cruz song in a trendy apartheid establishment prohibited to typical Cubans, utterly oblivious to the fact that Celia Cruz, a Grammy winning fellow artist, had years ago been denied permission to enter Cuba to bury her deceased mother. And most telling and incriminating of all, neither of these two prominent black Americans were allowed by the regime to visit with or utter a single public word of support for Cuba’s imprisoned and repressed black dissidents.

With so much photographic and video evidence, one can almost say that Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Cuba vacation fiasco has done an incredibly effective job of exposing the absurdity of Obama’s Cuba travel policy. Over the years, few Americans have been able to comprehend the fatal flaws in this policy, but when you see two of America’s most prominent music industry titans being played like fiddles by the Castro regime, it becomes a lot easier to realize.
At the same time Beyonce and Jay-Z were being generously shuttled between Cuba’s few destinations sanitized of squalor or dissent for them, just miles away, activists the Ladies in White were holding a regular march and prayer for political prisoners. Sixty of them were arrested for this peaceful protest. Now, meeting them would have been an educational person-to-person contact, enlightening the Carters to the plight of so many in Cuba, who are oppressed for their beliefs, their art, and their skin color.

Celebrities are often silly. They’re also often professing their deep concern for the plight of those less fortunate. But my how they have a blind spot when it comes to dictators of liberal-approved experiments in collectivism. Sometimes sticking up for those less fortunate requires a modicum of Googling before venturing to a fairly notoriously repressive society, for Beysus’ sake. This isn’t the first time Beyonce’s been fooled, either. She reportedly took at least $1 million to perform for Muammar Qaddafi several years ago, later repenting by giving the money to Haiti earthquake relief. Perhaps this time she can fork over the cost of her trip to freedom activists trying to right this beautiful island’s ugly system.

For more on the Cuban-American perspective on this trip, and why even DWS is asking questions, listen to this short radio interview with de la Cruz. For more on Beyonce’s ignorance of the scourge of zombie Communists and insult-to-injury sartorial choices while abroad, read our friend E.M. Zanotti.

More People Turning Cold to Lefty Global Warming Hype

The End of an Illusion

By Robert Tracinski – from realclearpolitics:

Many years ago, I remember thinking that it would take many years to refute the panicked claims about global warming. Unlike most political movements, which content themselves with making promises about, say, what the unemployment rate will be in two years if we pass a giant stimulus bill—claims that are proven wrong (and how!) relatively quickly—the environmentalists had successfully managed to put their claims so far off into the future that it would take decades to test them against reality.

But guess what? The decades are finally here.

At Forbes, Harry Binswanger dates the beginning of the campaign to 1979 and puts it in an amusing perspective.

“Remember 1979? That was the year of ‘We Are Family’ by Sister Sledge, of ‘The Dukes of Hazard’ on TV, and of Kramer vs. Kramer on the silver screen. It was the year the Shah was forced out of Iran. It was before the web, before the personal computer, before the cell phone, before voicemail and answering machines. But not before the global warming campaign.

“In January of 1979, a New York Times article was headlined: ‘Experts Tell How Antarctic Ice Could Cause Widespread Floods.’…

“So where’s the warming? Where are the gondolas pulling up to the Capitol? Where are the encroaching seas in Florida? Or anywhere? Where is the climate change which, for 33 years, has been just around the corner?”

He concludes that “I’ve grown old waiting for the promised global warming.” Literally: “I was 35 when predictions of a looming ice age were supplanted by warmmongering. Now I’m 68, and there’s still no sign of warmer weather.”

He puts the issue in terms of common-sense observation. But it can also be measured in terms of hard data. We’re reaching the point where the predictions have been around long enough to allow for significant comparison against the actual data, and we are now able to say definitively that the predictions were horribly exaggerated.

Steven Hayward points to signs that even advocates of the global warming hysteria are starting to backtrack.

“The new issue of The Economist has a long feature on the declining confidence in the high estimates of climate sensitivity. That this appears in The Economist is significant, because this august British news organ has been fully on board with climate alarmism for years now. A Washington-based Economist correspondent admitted to me privately several years ago that the senior editors in London had mandated consistent and regular alarmist climate coverage in its pages.

“The problem for the climateers is increasingly dire. As The Economist shows in its first chart (Figure 1 here), the recent temperature record is now falling distinctly to the very low end of its predicted range and may soon fall out of it, which means the models are wrong, or, at the very least, that there’s something going on that supposedly ‘settled’ science hasn’t been able to settle.”

See a better version of that graph here, which makes it clear that the actual predictions in the graph date only to about 2006—and they are already being proven wrong.

You know, you can really manipulate a graph to spin the data, for example, by manipulating the scale to “zoom in” and make something look bigger or “zoom out” to make it look smaller. We’re used to seeing the zoomed-in version of global temperature measurements, so it’s nice to see this zoomed-out version:

Rather than narrowing in to measure minor variations from the long-term average, which makes annual variations of a few tenths of a degree look enormous, this one zooms out to show us the data in terms of absolute temperature measurements, in which the annual variations over the past 15 years look as insignificant as they really are.

So basically, all that the global warming advocates really have, as the evidentiary basis for their theory, is that global temperatures were a little higher than usual in the late 1990s. That’s it. Which proves nothing. The climate varies, just as weather varies, and as far as we can tell, this is all well within the normal range.

That has been one of my complaints about the global warming scare since the very beginning. We only have systematic global temperature measurements going back about 150 years, which on the relevant timescale—a geological time-scale—is a blink of an eye. Moreover, the measurement methods for these global temperatures have been not been entirely consistent, making them susceptible to changes due to everything from a different paint used on the outside of the weather station to the “urban heat island” effect that happens when a weather station in the middle of a field is surrounded over the years by parking lots. And somehow, among all the billions spent on global warming research, not much money seems to have made its way to the enormous international effort that would be required to ensure the accurate and consistent measurement of global temperatures.

So we have not been able to establish what ought to be the starting point for any theory about global temperatures: a baseline for what is a normal global temperature and what is a natural variation in temperature.

In an effort to fill in this gap—without ever admitting what a fundamental problem it is—the alarmists have made several attempts to patch together a much longer record of global temperatures, going back thousands of years. Michael Mann set the tone for this with his infamous “hockey stick” graph purporting to show temperatures going back 1,000 years, with recent temperatures spiking up ominously like the blade on a hockey stick.

But Mann’s hockey stick came under withering fire for its dodgy statistical methods and selective use of data and has since been pretty much abandoned. But that hasn’t kept the warmists from trying again, this time with a new graph, named after lead study author Shaun Marcott, purporting to show global temperatures over the past 11,300 years, this time with a new, even bigger “blade” to the hockey stick showing the supposed upward thrust of temperatures in the past 100 years.

Except that the whole thing is dissolving in another fiasco.

The problem with using historical reconstructions of past temperatures is precisely the fact that we don’t have direct measurements going back more than 150 years. So scientists have to look at “proxies”—other things that we can measure that tend to vary with temperature, such as the sizes of tree rings in very old, slow-growing trees, which reflect the annual growth rate of the tree from year to year. Notice that I said these measurements tend to vary with temperature. But they are also affected by a lot of other things, from rainfall to sheep grazing on the bark.

So these proxies are not very accurate, and the usual way of compensating for this is to “smooth” out the data to show changes only on very long time scales, where the year-to-year noise caused by other factors is presumably canceled out. But in the Marcott study, the data was smoothed out over such a long term that it cannot actually say anything about changes over the past 100 years.

Quasi-skeptic Roger Pielke, Jr. reports on what happened when the paper’s authors were pressed on this point.

“In a belatedly-posted FAQ to the paper, which appeared on Real Climate earlier today, Marcott et al. make this startling admission:

“‘Q: What do paleotemperature reconstructions show about the temperature of the last 100 years?

“‘A: Our global paleotemperature reconstruction includes a so-called “uptick” in temperatures during the 20th century. However, in the paper we make the point that this particular feature is of shorter duration than the inherent smoothing in our statistical averaging procedure, and that it is based on only a few available paleo-reconstructions of the type we used. Thus, the 20th century portion of our paleotemperature stack is not statistically robust, cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes, and therefore is not the basis of any of our conclusions.’

“Got that?

“In case you missed it, I repeat:…’the 20th century portion of our paleotemperature stack is not statistically robust, cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes….’

“What that means is that this paper actually has nothing to do with a ‘hockey stick’ as it does not have the ability to reproduce 20th century temperatures in a manner that is ‘statistically robust.’ The new ‘hockey stick’ is no such thing, as Marcott et al. has no blade….

“So what the paper actually shows is the following, after I have removed from the graph the 20th century period that is ‘not statistically robust.’”

Pielke’s amended graph shows a long, steady decline in average global temperatures over the past few thousand years, and…that’s it. That’s all it shows.

But Pielke notes that the 20th-century data, the dramatic blade of the hockey stick, was the centerpiece of the official press releases put out by the study’s sponsors, and of the media’s coverage. And the study’s authors chose to put that data on a graph and publish it. This, by the way, is standard operating procedure for global warming alarmists: publish a paper which is cautious and circumspect about the facts—then pair it with a sensational press release making exaggerated claims and an eye-catching, jerry-rigged graph to give the journalists a juicy picture to publish.

Pielke is very circumspect about applying the term “scientific misconduct,” which is itself a circumspect way of saying, “fraud.” But he needn’t be. When I saw this news item, I was explaining it to my wife, and she said, “So they just made the numbers up.” Well, no, I tried to explain, they were using real numbers, it’s just that they weren’t significant under the relevant statistical methodology and—then she cut me off and repeated: “So they just made the numbers up.” I didn’t have an answer to that. My wife has a certain impatience for the tap-dancing abstractions of ivory tower intellectuals, and it gives her the gift of being able to cut through their polite obfuscations and get to the bottom line. In science, if your numbers aren’t validated by a proper method, if you can’t say for sure whether they are real and meaningful, there is only one thing to do: throw them out. If you have invalid numbers and you use them any way, there is no moral or epistemological difference between that and just making them up out of thin air.

So here’s the state of play of climate science a third of a century into the global warming hysteria. They don’t have a reliable baseline of global temperature measurements that would allow them to say what is normal and natural and what isn’t. Their projections about future warming are demonstrably failing to predict the actual data. And now they have been caught, yet again, fudging the numbers and manipulating the graphs to show a rapid 20th-century warming that they want to be true but which they can’t back up with actual evidence.

A theory with this many holes in it would be have been thrown out long ago, if not for the fact that it conveniently serves the political function of indicting fossil fuels as a planet-destroying evil and allowing radical environmentalists to put a modern, scientific face on their primitivist crusade to shut down industrial civilization.

But can’t we all just stop calling this “science” now?

Robert Tracinski is editor of The Tracinski Letter and a contributor to RealClearMarkets.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/04/the_end_of_an_illusion_117795.html#ixzz2PYWRr6ZL
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

Obama to Celebrate Racist Israeli and American Hater, Samira Ibrahim with Special Honors

Virgin on the Ridiculous
By Mark Steyn article sent by Lisa Rich:

Samira Ibrahim is one of those women subjected to the post-Mubarak Egyptian Army’s “virginity tests,” and objected to it. Tomorrow at the State Department in Washington, in the presence of the first lady, Miss Ibrahim will be presented by John Kerry with the United States government’s “Woman of Courage” Award. Our friends at The Weekly Standard have rounded up a few more examples of Miss Ibrahim’s courageous stances.

On the Bulgarian bus driver and Israeli tourists murdered by a suicide bomber last summer:
An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.
Her favorite Hitler quote:
I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler.
And her reaction to the Cairo mob raising the al-Qaeda flag over the U.S. embassy:
Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.
You can view Miss Ibrahim’s tweets here.

The United States has the biggest, most expensive government on the planet. For an ordinary U.S. citizen merely to be ushered into the presence of the president and his wife requires a Social Security and background check. But nobody thinks to do a Google search before getting the first lady and secretary of state to give an award to a Hitler-quoting terrorist-supporting America-hater.

I don’t know whether it takes “courage” for a woman who wants to see “America burning” to accept an honor from Michelle Obama and John Kerry. But, if the U.S. government has a Woman of Chutzpah Award, I certainly hope she makes the shortlist.

Comment: The Obama State Department put a temporary hold on the award for this woman noted for hatred and violence yesterday. Only a hold….for further review before award might be given.

The Trouble Obama Got Himself Into regarding Sequestering Politics

The Sequester and the New Washington Reality
By Ben Domenech – February 8, 2013 at realclearpolitics:

President Obama insists that he’s prepared for a fight over the sequester with House Republicans. But his remarks read less like a politician scrapping for a fight than one who’s had a troubling moment of clarity: this was a trap, and he walked into it. Senate Democrats are scrambling to come up with an alternate plan. But those working in the Defense industry increasingly expect these cuts are coming, and that Republicans will heed Charles Krauthammer’s words: “The political calculation was that such draconian defense cuts would drive the GOP to offer concessions. It backfired. The Republicans have offered no concessions. Obama’s bluff is being called and he’s the desperate party. He abhors the domestic cuts. And as commander in chief he must worry about indiscriminate Pentagon cuts that his own defense secretary calls catastrophic. So Tuesday, Obama urgently called on Congress to head off the sequester with a short-term fix. But instead of offering an alternative $1.2 trillion in cuts, Obama demanded a “balanced approach,” coupling any cuts with new tax increases. What should the Republicans do? Nothing.”

Why did the White House walk into this trap? How did Obama and the Democrats get themselves in this box? Simple: they assumed the Washington Republican elite still represented the dominant paradigm in policy on the right.

This is where Chris Cillizza has it totally backwards, suggesting that the lack of a sequester deal is typical DC politicking of the path of least resistance. On the contrary, that path would be taking Paul Krugman’s advice to kick the can. The calculation the White House and the Senate Democrats made was that Republicans would take the same typical approach. “[A]dministration officials have acknowledged all along that sequestration was meant to be so terrible to prompt lawmakers to compromise and avoid it.” What do Republicans love more than anything else? Defense pork, of course! Load the sequester up with that, and they’ll do anything to prevent cuts from going into place.

Except this was a flawed hypothesis. Obama and his advisors failed to recognize that today’s GOP isn’t the party of Cold War era buildups or George W. Bush’s unrestricted war on terror any more. Perhaps this is a conceit forged by the DC bubble – neoconservatism’s influence is strongest in Washington, and begins to fade as soon as you hit the beltway. Bill Kristol speaks for a faction of Republicans, not the party in toto. And while it is inconceivable to many in Washington that the Defense budget would ever be cut, the right’s grassroots base has dramatically shifted on this point over the past several years. This is not your pre-Tea Party GOP any more. This is a post-financial crisis, post-TARP, post-bailout Republican Party, where concerns about unrestricted spending and out of control budgets take precedence over concerns about spending at the Pentagon.

There were signals of the shift. The joint AEI/Heritage/FPI Defending Defense project has never caught on as much as you would expect in former years. Consider the freshman House split over the F-35 second engine vote a while back. 47 Republican freshmen voted to cut funding, 40 voted to keep it – and those who voted to cut included people like Allen West, while those who voted to keep included Michele Bachmann. When the engine was cut, libertarian anti-tax and Tea Party groups held celebratory parties.

The sequester provides us with a revealing moment, one when we can see how much the Republican Party has shifted fiscal conservatism and limited government back into their top priorities. And it tells us something about President Obama, too. For all of his promises of altering Washington, he’s thoroughly accepted and applied the traditional machine politics approaches to policy fights. He did so once again here, attempting to create a wedge he could exploit to extract more concessions from Republicans. If Obama fails in doing so now because he assumed predictable business as usual, because he assumed Republicans would have no backbone on spending cuts when it encroaches into their traditional territory, it will reveal for the GOP a possible blind spot they can exploit in the future. And it will illustrate an important lesson, if they can accept it: it may be that the only way to beat someone as savvy as Obama is at all this is to fundamentally alter the accepted rules of the game.

Benjamin Domenech is editor of The Transom.

The March of Marxism’s One Party Dictatorship to Control American ‘INFORMATION’

A TOENAIL SKETCH OF HOW THE LEFT SPREADS ITS POLITICS TO CONTROL AMERICAN ‘ENTERPRISE’
sent by Lisa Rich:

Revolving Door Spins Again: Boston Globe’s Glen Johnson to Kerry’s State Department
By Matthew Sheffield | February 01, 2013 | 04:23 A A

Glen Johnson, formerly the politics editor for Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe, has become the latest journalist to join the Obama Administration working as a senior adviser for new secretary of state John Kerry.
In a hilariously self-unaware press release, Kerry is quoted touting Johnson’s supposed neutrality. Even though his new senior aide has accepted a political appointment in the administration, everyone needs to understand that Johnson is “not a partisan.”
NBC Promotes Correspondent Chelsea Clinton’s Role in Obama Inauguration
By Kyle Drennen | January 15, 2013 | 16:22 A A

On Tuesday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer eagerly touted special correspondent Chelsea Clinton being a part of the festivities leading up to President Obama’s inauguration: “She’s going to talk about an important role that she is playing in President Obama’s second inaugural, something I know she would like you to get involved in.” [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Before talking to Clinton about the upcoming event, Lauer explained: “President Obama will kick off his inauguration weekend on Saturday with a National Day of Service….the Obamas and Bidens will attend a service fair on the National Mall….NBC’s special correspondent Chelsea Clinton is the honorary chair of that event.”
Politico Doubles Down on Liberalism, Hires Disgraced David Chalian of ‘Black People Drowning’ Fame
By Matthew Sheffield | October 12, 2012 | 10:05 A A

Veteran liberal journalist David Chalian was fired by Yahoo after he was caught on an open mic at this year’s Republican convention in Tampa saying that GOP officials were “happy to have a party with black people drowning,” a story first exposed by NewsBusters. Politico’s Dylan Byers reports that didn’t stop him from being picked up off liberal waivers by….Politico.

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said management took Chalian’s remark into consideration prior to hiring him to manage their video content. “He’s made clear that remark did not reflect his personal views or professional standards. This is a journalist who carries with him more than a decade of accomplishment and a well-earned reputation for fairness.” That’s not tainted at all by a crack about Mitt Romney glorying in the deaths of black Americans?
Revealed: VP Debate Moderator Martha Raddatz Hosted President Obama at Wedding, Never Told Public
By Matthew Sheffield | October 10, 2012 | 05:59 A A

The liberal media/politician/bureaucrat revolving door spins so rapidly, sometimes it’s hard to keep pace. Today we learn via the Daily Caller that the moderator for tomorrow’s vice presidential debate, ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz, hosted President Obama as a guest at her 1991 wedding to the man who would later become Obama’s FCC commissioner, Julius Genachowski.
That’s shocking enough in its own right but things are further compounded by the fact that ABC News, home of veteran Democratic adviser George Stephanopoulos, has long known about this conflict of interest and did nothing about it. Even worse, the network has actively tried to prevent the public from learning of it.
In 2009, ABC’s Sciutto Touted Kids Saying ‘Yes, We Can!’ Now He’s Joined the ‘Yes, We Can’ Team
By Brent Baker | December 17, 2011 | 20:08 A A

“After 13 years with ABC News, correspondent Jim Sciutto is leaving the network and TV news. He’s moving to China where he’ll be Chief of Staff to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke,” TVNewser’s Chris Ariens reported Thursday in noting the latest journalist to join the Obama administration, this time working for Locke, the former Democratic Governor of Washington.

Sciutto should certainly feel comfortable promoting Obama’s interests and how he is a blessing to the world since that’s what he used his ABC News position to do. The night after Obama’s inauguration, for instance, Sciutto delivered a piece for World News with soundbites from naive kids around the world sputtering beauty pageant-like simplicities about how President Barack Obama will bring “world peace” and inspires them to say “yes, we can!”
NYT’s Occupy Wall Street Reporter-Supporter Lennard Proudly Throws Objectivity Overboard
By Clay Waters | November 15, 2011 | 14:24 A A

Former New York Times freelance reporter Natasha Lennard, who contributed to the paper’s reporting on Occupy Wall Street, then participated in a left-wing panel discussion of OWS tactics with protest participants and supporters, broke the chains of “objectivity” for good in a rather refreshing article posted Tuesday morning at left-wing Salon Magazine: “Why I quit the mainstream media – Journalism must break the chains of objectivity and report truth — and the Occupy movement led me to do just that.” (Lennard has previously contributed to Salon.) She agreed with the “right-wing firebrands” who said “I have no place in the mainstream media.”
Former CNN Producer Joins Maryland Gay ‘Marriage’ Group
By Matthew Balan | September 27, 2011 | 17:27 A A

Former CNN congressional producer Evan Glass announced on his Twitter account on Tuesday that he was “thrilled to be joining the board” of Equality Maryland, the main group pushing for the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in the Mid-Atlantic state. Glass added in his Tweet, “With growing support, we will have marriage equality in 2012!”

The self-proclaimed “recovering journalist,” who left CNN in April after a 12-year stint, wrote a one-sided article for the outlet’s website on January 12 of this year about how Maryland was set for an “expansion of gay rights,” just before the proposed redefinition of marriage failed in the state’s legislature. Glass extensively quoted from proponents of same-sex “marriage,” including the executive director of Equality Maryland itself, but omitted citing opponents of the bill, including the Catholic bishops of the state.
Gore and Olbermann Tap CNN, NBC and ABC Veteran Bohrman to Run Current TV
By Brent Baker | August 08, 2011 | 12:52 A A

TV Newser just posted the news that David Bohrman, the long-time Washington Bureau Chief for CNN, has been hired by Al Gore’s Current TV, the cable home of Keith Olbermann which is transforming itself into a far-left news service. In Current TV’s press release, Gore trumpeted how Bohrman shares the “vision” to create a “progressive voice in the news and political commentary arena.”

The press release touted how Bohrman “will also work closely with Current’s Chief News Officer Keith Olbermann, who is host of Current’s centerpiece program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, as the network expands its primetime line-up and election coverage.”
Video: Bozell Discusses Revolving Door Between Politico and Democrats
By NB Staff | July 23, 2011 | 15:20 A A

Andy Barr is just the latest political reporter to go through the revolving door into the realm of partisan politics.
Oddly enough Barr is leaving the inside-the-Beltway tabloid Politico just as a former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) staffer is joining the paper.
NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell discussed the MSM-Democratic politics nexus in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
You can watch the full segment in a video embedded below the page break:
Politico Hires Democratic Staffer on Same Day Reporter Leaves to Work for Dems
By Matthew Sheffield | July 21, 2011 | 11:19 A A

The nation’s elite journalists are forever denying that they have a liberal bias. Of course, the evidence in their reporting proves that claim false every day. One other thing belies their claims–the revolving door between the self-described “mainstream media” and Democrats. There simply is nothing like it for conservatives and Republicans looking to get into elite journalism.

The latest example of this phenomenon comes from Beltway insider publication Politico where the revolving door spun both directions on the same day with one reporter leaving the paper to work for Democrats in Arizona and another coming into the paper fresh from a gig working with Senate Democrats.
Revolving Door Keeps Spinning: WaPo Dem Booster Shailagh Murray Leaves for Biden Post
By Lachlan Markay | March 18, 2011 | 14:41 A A

After penning a number of stories toeing the Democratic line on a variety of issues, Washington Post reporter Shailagh Murray decided to make it official: the Post announced Friday that she has taken a job in the office of Vice President Joe Biden.
Murray marks the 18th journalist to move from a reporting position to a post in Democratic politics or vice versa since President Obama took office. The revolving door between journalism and the Democratic Party underscores the extent to which the ideologies of each overlap.
The bias dossier on Murray is thinner than, say, Katie Couric’s, but contains a number of telling items. Let’s review a few of the highlights.
Ex-Dem Aide Turned Journalist George Stephanopoulos Highlights Journalist Turned Dem Aide Jay Carney
By Scott Whitlock | January 28, 2011 | 15:08 A A

Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper on Friday addressed the fact that Barack Obama’s New press secretary, Jay Carney, is the husband of ABC reporter Claire Shipman. Stephanopoulos, discussing the couple, declared, “He and Claire actually appeared many times on This Week when I was the anchor. And, of course, Claire will now not be covering the White House.”

Stephanopoulos, it should be noted, underwent the reverse career course of Carney. The GMA co-anchor began as a Democratic operative and then became a journalist. (Carney wrote for Time magazine before going to work for Vice President Joe Biden.)

Although Stephanopoulos tried to minimize the conflict of interest, insisting Shipman will no longer be covering “the White House,” he didn’t explain if that included the 2012 presidential race, the opponent’s of her husband’s boss and other issues relating to the administration.
Claire Shipman’s Husband Named New Obama Press Secretary; Conflict of Interest for ABC?
By Scott Whitlock | January 27, 2011 | 17:46 A A

The White House on Thursday named Jay Carney, the husband of ABC News reporter Claire Shipman, to be the new White House Press secretary. Carney is also an ex-journalist, formally of Time magazine.
Will this appointment prove to be a conflict of interest for Shipman? Will she continue to report on the Obama administration? Shipman whose title is senior national correspondent, often covers political stories and has a reputation as an activist liberal. In 2008, she hailed Barack Obama, the now-boss of her husband, as “brave” for a speech disassociating himself with radical preacher Jeremiah Wright. In 2007, she fawned over Obama’s “fluid poetry.”
In 2000, she lauded Al Gore as a “pretty conservative Democrat.” In 2004, discussing former Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, she ltouted him as “generally regarded” for being “the man who broke down the ‘Iron Curtain.’”
DNC $1 Mil Fundraiser Held at Former ABC Reporter’s Home
By Tom Blumer | October 02, 2010 | 10:31 A A

The arrangement described here is so journalistically incestuous I was considering hanging an NC-17 (or worse) rating on this post.
You see, the husband of a former longtime ABC reporter held a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the couple’s home Thursday night at which President Barack Obama appeared for 15 minutes. The reporter’s husband was on the Obama campaign’s national finance committee and now is the chairman of a White House commission. As if it really matters, the former ABC reporter, Linda Douglass, who left to work for Obama’s presidential campaign and who then joined his administration for 18 months until landing a media management gig at the Atlantic, says she was “not involved” in the event.
Keach Hagey at the Politico took a bit longer to describe things, accompanied by what I think was supposed to be a flattering picture of Ms. Douglass (seen above, but cropped for this post):
Linda Douglass explains DNC fundraiser
George Stephanopoulos Strategizes With Old Boss Bill Clinton: How Can Obama Regain His ‘Gut Connection?’
By Scott Whitlock | September 21, 2010 | 10:29 A A

Interviewing Bill Clinton for Tuesday’s Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos’ nine minute segment mostly amounted to a strategy session that was devoid of tough questions. Stephanopoulos stuck to softball comments, such as inquiring of the Clinton Global Initiative. He also speculated how Barack Obama could regain his “gut connection” with the American people. [MP3 audio here.]
Some people, if they were interviewing their former boss, might feel an extra responsibility to ask probing, grueling questions. Instead, Stephanopoulos brought up Sarah Palin: “Is she qualified to be president?” He followed up, “What’s your gut on that?”
The former Democratic operative turned journalist could have pressed the ex-President about the details of his charity, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Considering that the international group deals with several world leaders, he might have asked if there was any conflict of interest for Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State wife. Stephanopoulos could have queried as to the funding for CGI. He did not.
ABC News Exec Joins Left Wing Firm Which Boasts ‘Far-Reaching Role’ in Electing Obama
By Brent Baker | September 14, 2010 | 12:32 A A

Emily Lenzner, Executive Director of Communications at ABC News for its DC-based shows, who spent eight months in 2007-2008 as editorial producer for This Week with George Stephanopoulos (for whom she also toiled inside the Clinton White House), has left ABC News for Anita Dunn’s “strategic communications firm.” SKDKnickerbocker announced Monday she’ll be a Managing Director with the firm led by Dunn, the Obama administration’s Communications Director in 2009. SKDKnickerbocker’s “About” page boasts:

We helped Barack Obama by being the only firm in America to do direct mail and television advertising for his 2008 presidential victory. We helped SEIU fight to stave off millions of dollars of healthcare cuts.

Their “Case Studies” page, which touts work for a bunch of liberal candidates, highlights “FAR-REACHING ROLE IN ELECTION: Obama for America.” That page trumpets: “No other firm had as far-reaching a role in President Obama’s election…with Anita Dunn serving as one of the top officials of the campaign and the firm producing both television advertising and direct mail for the campaign.”

Revolving Door Spins as Peter Orszag Takes NYT Columnist Gig
By Lachlan Markay | September 03, 2010 | 16:06 A A

The massive revolving door between the mainstream media and the Obama administration has spun once again, this time as former White House budget director Peter Orszag signs on as a New York Times op/ed columnist.
Orszag is the eighteenth individual (that we know of) to transition between the White House and the mainstream press. He will surely not be the last. That amazingly high number again underscores the ideological similarities between members of the Obama administration and members of the press.
The New York Times Co. broke the news in a press release today:
CNN Veteran Andrew Breslau Takes Helm at Far-Left Nation Institute
By Brent Baker | August 20, 2010 | 10:35 A A

Andrew Breslau, who for eight years ending in 2006 toiled at CNN “as a senior manager and producer,” has been named President of New York City-based The Nation Institute, affiliated with the far-left The Nation magazine run by frequent MSNBC guest Katrina vanden Heuvel, and home to Christopher Hayes, Rachel Maddow’s fill-in host.

The institute’s August 18 press release described Breslau’s CNN duties: “Tasked with managing a team of journalists covering the U.S economy, he also helped cover events overseas that ranged from the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”

Prior to joining CNN, Breslau was quite active with a series of left-wing enterprises, starting in the mid-1980s writing for Mother Jones magazine and then helping to found Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting as its first associate director, the release from the institute’s Communications Director, Ruth Baldwin, recounted.

AP White House Reporter Loven Jumps to Liberal Democratic Political PR/Lobbying Shop
By Brent Baker | August 12, 2010 | 11:55 A A

Jennifer Loven, an 18-year AP veteran and the wire service’s chief White House correspondent, has decided to put her communications talents to work for The Glover Park Group, a DC-based “strategic communications firm” founded in 2001 by a bunch of Clinton and Gore staffers, most prominently Joe Lockhart, who found themselves unemployed after the 2000 election. She’ll be “Managing Director in its Public Affairs practice,” a Thursday press release from the Glover Park Group, plugged by Politico’s Mike Allen, announced.

She’s the second President in a row of the White House Correspondents’ Association to leave journalism for a left-wing, or at least left-leaning, lobbying outfit. In June, Bloomberg’s White House reporter, Ed Chen, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, jumped to the Natural Resources Defense Council as Federal Communications Director. (My complete Obama-journalism revolving door list.) Loven held the WHCA position for 2008-2009 and was succeeded by Chen.

Amongst the clients touted on the Glover Park Group’s Web site: American Civil Liberties Union, Alliance for Climate Protection, Campaign for Women’s Lives, Better World Campaign and the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty. They also list some corporate clients, but no conservative activist groups.

Embarrassed Obama White House Social Secretary Lands Position Running Media Firm
By Brent Baker | August 10, 2010 | 22:53 A A

A second Obama administration veteran has landed in a media firm’s executive suite. Two months after ObamaCare’s chief propagandist, ex-ABC and CBS correspondent Linda Douglass, became Vice President of the Atlantic Media Company, Michael Calderone reported Tuesday afternoon on “The Upshot” Yahoo News blog:

Former White House social secretary Desirée Rogers has been named chief executive of Johnson Publishing Company, billed as “the world’s largest African-American owned-and-operated publishing company.” JPC publishes both Ebony and Jet magazines.

The news about Rogers came the very week MSNBC entered a partnership with the Chicago-based Ebony magazine to air joint reports on education policy, culminating in a two-hour special at noon EDT this Sunday: “Making the Grade.”

Calderon reminded readers that “Rogers, a former corporate executive and a Chicago friend of the Obama family, resigned in February from her position as the first African-American social secretary” after she “came under fire during her White House tenure after socialites-turned-reality-TV stars Tareq and Michaele Salahi famously crashed a state dinner.”

Larry King Explains Decision to End CNN Show — Says It Wasn’t Pressure from the Media
By Jeff Poor | June 29, 2010 | 23:58 A A

First it was long-time anchor Lou Dobbs, who retired last fall from CNN. Now another fixture of the network will soon be playing another role in the cable news universe.
On CNN’s June 29 “Larry King Live,” host Larry King, who had never been terribly friendly with conservative guests, announced his decision he would be giving up his show this fall.
“Before I start the show tonight, I want to share some personal news with you,” King said. “Twenty-five years ago, I sat across this table from New York Gov. Mario Cuomo for the first broadcast ever of ‘Larry King Live.’ And now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told them I’d like to end ‘Larry King Live,’ the nightly show that — this fall and CNN has graciously accepted to agree to, giving me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games.”
Arizona Writer Latest Journalist to Pass Through Media-Democrat Revolving Door
By Matt Robare | June 29, 2010 | 16:07 A A

Investigative journalist John Dougherty of Arizona deserves a hand from everyone concerned with liberal media bias, because he has given it up. Dougherty, pictured right in a photo from his website, has, shall we say, crossed the border from being biassed to seeking the Democratic nomination for US Senate.
In the late 80′s he was involved with uncovering Charles Keating’s use of campaign contributions to five senators-including John McCain, whom Dougherty would most likely face in an election-in exchange for putting pressure on banking regulators. He also investigated Governor Fife Symington, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and Sherrif Joe Arpaio.
Whatever else he has done in the past, Dougherty has already succesfully morphed into a politician, writing a blog for the Huffington Post on illegal immigration and its relationship to crime that directly contradicts the conclusions he reached in an article he wrote for the High County News.
Awkward: ABC Skips Report That Bianna Golodryga’s Fiance Is Leaving the White House
By Scott Whitlock | June 22, 2010 | 16:55 A A

Good Morning America on Tuesday skipped the news that Peter Orszag, Barack Obama’s budget director, is resigning from the White House. Perhaps not coincidentally, Orszag is also the fiance of GMA’s weekend anchor Bianna Golodryga. CBS’s Early Show and NBC’s Today both covered the subject.
Today reporter Savannah Guthrie explained, “It’s a mix of the personal and the political. Most budget directors stay about 18 months. If he had stayed much longer, he’d probably have to get into the next budget cycle and be in for the long haul. He’s also getting married this fall.”
The Early Show’s Betty Nguyen pointed out, “Orszag would be the first high profile member of the Obama administration to leave.” GMA has a history of ignoring awkward details for Golodryga. In January, the show skipped the fact that Orszag had a love child with his previous girlfriend (after divorcing his first wife). NBC covered it.
White House Correspondents Chief Jumps to Left-Wing Group – One Outside of Journalism, That Is
By Brent Baker | June 15, 2010 | 00:17 A A

The current President of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), Ed Chen – who instituted the silliness of having the organization buy carbon credits to offset the travel of this year’s dinner headliner, Jay Leno, as well as for the President’s motorcade (seriously) – is leaving Bloomberg News to lend his shallow liberal advocacy to the left-wing Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

This is the second spin for Chen through the revolving door. He was the long-time White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times when he left the newspaper “to join the NRDC in 2006, but then jumped back into the world of journalism in 2007 with a job at Bloomberg,” Politico’s Patrick Gavin recalled in a Sunday post. (Screen shot is from an April 28, 2005 news conference with President Bush.)

In an e-mail to the Politico’s Mike Allen, Chen trumpeted that at the NRDC he will be able to perform “the Lord’s work” and that he wants to “help public officials find the wisdom and courage to do the right thing to combat climate change before it’s too late.”

After Two Years with Obama, Linda Douglass Returns to News Media
By Brent Baker | June 11, 2010 | 01:06 A A

Completing a full spin through the revolving door, Linda Douglass, a long-time CBS and ABC correspondent before jumping aboard the Obama campaign in 2008 – followed by HHS and White House positions promoting ObamaCare — has re-joined The Atlantic as a Vice President who “will concentrate on company strategy and communications,” the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reported online Thursday morning.

Before joining the Obama campaign as senior strategist and senior campaign spokesperson on the road, Douglass toiled for National Journal, part of Atlantic Media which also owns The Hotline. Her first stint in the new administration was as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, followed by Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, a slot she left in April.

Atlantic Chairman David Bradley recognizes the conflict between her political agenda and being a journalist, but he told Kurtz “she’s too big an editorial talent for us to keep her out of the editorial product.”

ABC News Deputy Political Director Takes Communications Gig With Far-left SEIU
By Lachlan Markay | June 04, 2010 | 10:25 A A

The revolving door of political journalism underscores the brazen liberalism of today’s newsrooms — 15 former journalists now populate the Obama administration. And though taking a job in such a far left administration demonstrates journalists’ overwhelming liberal politics, ABC News’s deputy political director Teddy Davis has managed to raise the bar.

Davis announced yesterday his intention to leave ABC, and said he will be “working with the SEIU team on their political campaigns and policy agenda.” The Service Employees International Union, of course, is a group of liberal shock troops who recently tried–and failed–to field far left candidates in an effort to defeat centrist Democrats.

So while some journalists have gone to bat for the Executive, Davis has managed to one-up virtually all of them in accepting a gig with one of the most partisan and thuggish groups on the political scene.

Pentagon Rescinds Franklin Graham’s Invitation, Al Sharpton is Welcome at White House
By Colleen Raezler | April 23, 2010 | 09:21 A A

The Pentagon rescinded the invitation of evangelist Franklin Graham to speak at its May 6 National Day of Prayer event because of complaints about his previous comments about Islam.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation expressed its concern over Graham’s involvement with the event in an April 19 letter sent to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. MRFF’s complaint about Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham, focused on remarks he made after 9/11 in which he called Islam “wicked” and “evil” and his lack of apology for those words.
Col. Tom Collins, an Army spokesman, told ABC News on April 22, “This Army honors all faiths and tries to inculcate our soldiers and work force with an appreciation of all faiths and his past comments just were not appropriate for this venue.”
Arianna Huffington Exploits Coal Mining Tragedy, Cries for Bigger Government
By Anthony Kang | April 14, 2010 | 09:14 A A

The co-founder of progressive blog The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, has attributed the West Virginia mining disaster, along with virtually every other accident under the sun, as a direct result of small-government and corporate greed in the April 13 Huffpo column “The West Virginia Mining Disaster and the Financial Crisis Have the Same Root Cause.”
“Officials say it’s too soon to pinpoint the exact cause of the tragic explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that took the lives of 29 miners, but we certainly know enough to identify the root cause,” Huffington began. “It’s the same cause that led to the 2006 Sago mine disaster in West Virginia that killed 12 miners. And it’s also the same cause that led to the Lehman Brothers disaster, the Citigroup disaster, the bursting of the housing bubble, and the implosion of our financial system: a badly broken regulatory system.”
“The economic collapse has not killed people, but it has gradually destroyed millions of lives. Both calamities occurred because elected officials who should have been creating a regulatory system that protects working families instead created a system that protects the corporations it was meant to watch over.”
Huffington predictably mouthed the response from the left and the mainstream media whenever something goes wrong in a business or industry: Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship and other evil CEOs who put profit ahead of people.
Her ObamaCare Mission Achieved, ABC/CBS Veteran Linda Douglass Departs White House
By Brent Baker | April 08, 2010 | 18:34 A A

Linda Douglass, the former ABC News and CBS News Washington correspondent who signed aboard the Obama campaign in May of 2008, is resigning next week from her post as Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reported Thursday afternoon on the paper’s “44” blog (which I saw plugged on DCRTV.com). Kurtz described her as “a top pitchwoman for President Obama’s health care plan.”

Is another media gig in the offing? No word yet. Kurtz quoted her statement, which only said she wants “to step off the treadmill for awhile and rediscover the experience of dining with my husband on a regular basis.”
Douglass, who appeared frequently on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to disparage conservative criticism and champion ObamaCare, “said she will be ‘cheering with pride from the sidelines as this historic law takes effect,’” Kurtz relayed. And maybe not really making a full break: “Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer says Douglass ‘will continue to be a valued adviser to this President and this White House.’”

Former CA Dem Chairman Bill Press Smears Erick Erickson with False Census Quotation
By Lachlan Markay | April 07, 2010 | 18:27 A A

The former Chairman of the California Democratic Party was for some reason treated as a journalist during yesterday’s White House press briefing, and used the opportunity to smear a prominent conservative blogger.

Bill Press, who chaired the California Democratic Party for a few years in the 1990s, and who now hosts a radio talk show, demonstrated his total lack of serious journalistic credibility at yesterday’s briefing.

He misquoted RedState’s Erick Erickson to make it seem as if he was encouraging the listeners of his radio show to not fill out the Census, and tried to turn Erickson’s statement into an attack on CNN, who recently hired Erickson as a political correspondent.

By Brent Baker | March 13, 2010 | 19:13 A A

In 2008, just four years after leaving NBC News, Jane Pauley gave the maximum allowed donation to Barack Obama ($2,300) and campaigned for him in her native Indiana where she proclaimed “I want to see the cool, steady hand of Barack Obama on that Bible on Inauguration Day” and predicted Obama will be “an exceptional” President, enthusing: “I so look forward to it!”

On Tuesday morning (March 9) Pauley reappeared on the Today show, which she co-hosted from 1976 to 1989 before spending more than a decade with Dateline NBC, as the narrator of a new monthly segment produced by the liberal AARP, “Your Life Calling Today,” about those 50-plus reinventing themselves. “We are welcoming back a very, underline ‘very’ good friend and familiar face around here, Jane Pauley,” Matt Lauer announced, explaining “she’s been working with AARP which has produced and sponsored a new series of reports for us.” Her first report looked at a woman who “left a lucrative career so she would have more time to knit socks.”

Not exactly hard-hitting political reporting, but it gives me a hook to share some 2008 video of Pauley praising Obama as she made appearances on his behalf. “Pauley called the last eight years a mistake and says America must make the right choice come election day,” WISH-TV channel 8 reporter Phil Sanchez related on the Indianapolis CBS affiliate’s Sunday, September 21, 2008 newscast. Just over a month later, following an event in Bloomington, sporting an Obama button she told Indiana University’s public TV station, WTIU:

Political Chief David Axelrod Yet Another Former Journo Working for Obama
By Lachlan Markay | March 11, 2010 | 13:05 A A

Buried in a recent New York Times profile of senior White House advisor David Axelrod was this nugget of information: he used to be a reporter with the Chicago Tribune.

The fact is hardly a secret — the White House notes Axelrod’s brief stint at the Tribune on its website. But that bit of information was an interesting element of a predictably laudatory profile. One of President Obama’s chief message-men was a political reporter for a major newspaper. Who knows better how to address journalists than a former journalist?

For its part, the Times skipped over any discussion of the significance of Axelrod’s experience in journalism. The paper simply noted his former position in passing.

Washington Post’s Thomson the 14th Journalist to Join Obama Administration
By Brent Baker | February 03, 2010 | 13:04 A A

Not a move by a political correspondent, but it counts nonetheless. “Former Washington Post film critic Desson Thomson will join the Obama administration and head to London as a speechwriter for Ambassador Louis Susman,” a big Obama fundraiser, Washington Post “Federal Eye” blogger Ed O’Keefe reported on Monday in a post I saw highlighted on DCRTV.com.
O’Keefe elaborated: “Thomson, who grew up in Surrey, England, worked for The Post from 1983 to 2008, most recently as a film critic for the Weekend and Style sections.”

By O’Keefe’s count, “Thomson is one of at least 14 journalists to join the Obama administration, with virtually all of them serving in a communications capacity,” and, intriguingly, O’Keefe asserted “other reporters at national outlets are known to be considering similar roles.”

My Revolving Door list from late July of last year when it stood at 12. MRC BiasAlert item updated with a 13th revolver.

NBC Highlights (But ABC Skips) Obama Aide’s Love Child Scandal
By Scott Whitlock | January 07, 2010 | 12:27 A A

Nine days after ABC announced on Good Morning America that financial correspondent Bianna Golodryga would be marrying top Obama official Peter Orszag, NBC’s Today made sure to highlight the revelation that the budget director has also fathered a child with his (now) ex-girlfriend. Good Morning America skipped this development, as did CBS’s Early Show.
Orszag, the director of the Office and Budget Management and his ex, Claire Milonas, released a statement on the birth of their daughter. In a possible attempt to embarrass rival GMA, Today touted the story with a graphic that screamed, “Oh Baby, Engaged Budget Czar Has Child With Other Woman.”
Reporter Norah O’Donnell highlighted, “This comes just one week after the announcement that Orszag was getting engaged to ABC’s Bianna Golodryga. She broke the news on national television.” O’Donnell then played a clip of Golodryga discussing the engagement on GMA. NBC doesn’t often delight in awkward situations for the Obama administration. But the correspondent also added, “Simply put, this is an embarrassment for one of the President’s top advisers and a member of his cabinet.”
Listen for the Outcry: Former Clinton Operative Taking Helm of Morning ‘News’ Show
By Rich Noyes | December 09, 2009 | 16:40 A A

The official announcement will apparently come tomorrow morning (NewsBusters’ Scott Whitlock reported on the early leaks last week): former Clinton campaign operative George Stephanopoulos will start Monday as co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America. He’ll also keep his job as the host of ABC’s This Week, at least for the time being.

Here’s one yardstick for measuring the media’s response: Back in 1997, CBS announced that ex-GOP Representative Susan Molinari (pictured at right) would take over as co-host of Saturday Morning. Journalists quickly howled at the breaching of the sacred “barricade that is supposed to exist in journalism between the political people and the officials on the one hand, and the reporters on the other.” NPR’s Mara Liasson said it was “disturbing” of CBS to hire a Republican; Nina Totenberg exclaimed: “This really makes me want to puke.”

Molinari’s Saturday CBS show avoided politics, so she spent most mornings talking about movies and toys and vacation ideas. But according to the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, “Stephanopoulos, now ABC’s chief Washington correspondent, had told network executives he wanted to inject GMA with a harder-news focus as a condition of taking the job.”

Revolving Door: Politico’s Jonathan Allen to Head Dem Political Action Committee
By Ken Shepherd | December 08, 2009 | 13:15 A A

Here’s another entry for the revolving door file: Politico’s Jonathan Allen (pictured at right), formerly of Congressional Quarterly and former Sen. Paul Sarbanes’ office, will take over as the top staffer at Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s DWS PAC, according to Roll Call (h/t e-mail tipster Bob Foster).
For his part, Allen, whose wife works as the communications director for freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), found it an offer he couldn’t refuse:
“I wouldn’t go work for just anyone,” Allen said. “She wanted me to come work for her, and it was impossible for me to say no. She has a heart of gold and resolve of steel. … I find that inspiring.”
Roll Call’s Steven T. Dennis has the story here, but only the lead paragraph is available to non-subscribers. Below is an excerpt, courtesy of Foster:
Report: Liberal Dem George Stephanopoulos Edging Out Liberal Dem Chris Cuomo for Anchor Slot
By Scott Whitlock | November 13, 2009 | 17:11 A A

The Daily Beast on Friday reported that former Democratic aide turned journalist George Stephanopoulos has now pulled ahead of ex-Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo’s son, Chris Cuomo, in the race to become the new co-host of Good Morning America. Correspondent Rebecca Dana quoted an ABC source as saying, “It’s George’s now to lose.”
Dana added, “That both contenders are associated with prominent Democrats has helped to add a campaign vibe to the contest for Sawyer’s anchor chair.” She then gossiped, “There is a rumor floating around ABC that Mario Cuomo has placed some calls on his son’s behalf…” (Chris Cuomo is also the brother of New York state’s current Democratic attorney general.)
If Stephanopoulos does become the new host of GMA, there would potentially be an opening at his old show, This Week. The Daily Beast asserted that the contenders are Jake Tapper and Nightline co-host Terry Moran, a well known liberal. On February 20, 2009, Moran famously provided this over-the-top comparison between Barack Obama and George Washington: “I like to say that, in some ways, Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office.”
Revolving Door: Clinton & Newsweek Alum Waldman Takes Job with Obama FCC
By Ken Shepherd | October 29, 2009 | 16:23 A A

Steve Waldman, the “founding soul of Beliefnet” and a former Newsweek reporter and US News & World Report editor is now spinning through the revolving door into the Obama FCC, reports Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today:
Steven Waldman, founder, editor and leading political blogger of Beliefnet.com, the nation’s top Internet spirituality site, is leaving for a post in the Obama administration.
He’s posted a farewell letter on his blog calling this “the most difficult (and surreal) post I’ve had to write” as he departs to become senior adviser to new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski.
Grossman’s brief October 28 Faith & Reason blog post failed to mention Waldman’s stint in the Clinton administration, but then again Waldman’s Beliefnet blogger bio page also leaves out his work as senior advisor to the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service — the bureaucracy that runs AmeriCorps — during the Clinton administration.
Liberal Pedigree Smooths Quick Rise in Washington Press Corps
By Brent Baker | October 26, 2009 | 15:12 A A

From liberal Democrat Howard Dean to top editor of the magazine which proclaims it has “The Website Washington Lives By.” The “preppy-looking 28-year-old” Garrett Graff “has eased his way up the ladder — from presidential campaign speechwriter to media blogger, from Washingtonian freelancer to top dog — with remarkable fluidity,” Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz marveled in a Monday “Style” section profile of Graff.

Kurtz outlined how, when his father was toiling in Montpelier for the AP, a 14-year-old Graff went to work in the summer for then-Governor Howard Dean, soon “building Dean’s first Web site in 1997.” Graff got into Harvard and landed “Washington internships at ABC and the Atlantic” and “when Dean launched his presidential bid, Graff was his deputy national press secretary.” Then, “after Dean imploded, Graff moved to Washington and launched the Fishbowl DC blog for Media Bistro, showing a flair for self-promotion.”

Kurtz Points Out: Two Democrats Vie for GMA Slot
By Brent Baker | October 26, 2009 | 12:13 A A

In the midst of all the elite upset over the Fox News Channel’s supposedly over-the-top opposition to President Barack Obama, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz pointed out in a Saturday story across the top of the “Style” section that the apparent two finalists to replace Diane Sawyer (who is moving to World News in January) on Good Morning America “have politics, but little else, in common.” Liberal Democratic politics, that is, since the two names in play are George Stephanopoulos and Chris Cuomo.

Kurtz began his October 24 story: “One helped elect a president, the other grew up as the son of a governor. Now George Stephanopoulos and Chris Cuomo are engaged in a very different kind of contest, for one of the most coveted prizes in network television.”

Baskin Becomes 13th MSM Journalist to Spin Through Revolving Door for Obama
By Brent Baker | August 04, 2009 | 00:09 A A

Roberta Baskin, a veteran of CBS News, ABC News, PBS and Washington, DC’s ABC affiliate, with a stint at the Center for Public Integrity mixed in, “will join the Department of Health and Human Service’s office of inspector general as a senior communications adviser in mid-August,” Washington Post “Federal Eye” blogger Ed O’Keefe reported late Monday. Specifically, O’Keefe related, her job will be “to help drum up media attention for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, an HHS-Justice Department task force aimed at combating Medicare and Medicaid fraud.”

My list of journalists who have jumped to the Obama administration — plus one who traveled through the revolving door from helping the Obama campaign into a news media slot — is now up to thirteen. Not counting Baskin: Three each revolved through CNN and the Washington Post; two through ABC News; and one each via the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time magazine.

For the full list, check the July 29 NewsBusters item: “Revolving Door from Journalism to Team Obama Now Up to a Dozen.”

New ABC Health Care Reporter Dem Donor-Bozell to ABC News Pres Westin: ‘How…Can Anyone Take ABC Seriously?’
By Seton Motley | July 30, 2009 | 15:32 A A

In an open letter sent today to ABC News President David Westin, NewsBusters.org Publisher Brent Bozell questioned the ethics of ABC as a “news” network and wondered “how in the world can anyone take ABC seriously” after it was announced that ABC News has hired Democratic donor Dr. Richard Besser to be their new Senior Medical Editor.
The letter begins here, and continues in its entirety below the fold.
July 30, 2009
Dear Mr. Westin,
It was reported today that you have hired Dr. Richard Besser as your new Senior Medical Editor. By now you also know Besser is a Barack Obama donor, having contributed $400 to his campaign in 2008.
As your new senior health correspondent, he will play a pivotal role in your coverage of the health care debate going forward. How in the world is this ethical?
New ABC Health Correspondent Is an Obama Donor
By Scott Whitlock | July 30, 2009 | 11:50 A A

ABC’s newly hired senior medical editor is also an Obama donor, having contributed $400 to the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. TV Newser reported on Thursday that Dr. Richard Besser, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, would assume the position in September. A search on the website Open Secrets finds two donations by Dr. Besser on August 22, 2008.
As senior health correspondent, Dr. Besser can be expected to play a major role in ABC’s coverage of the health care debate this fall.
Dr. Tim Johnson, who currently holds the position for ABC, has long been an advocate for government-run solutions to the health care problem in America. Going back to the last big push in the early ’90s, he told then-First Lady Hillary Clinton on July 19, 1994: “So at least from the physicians represented here, you get a 100 percent vote, including mine, for universal coverage.” Johnson will become the “chief medical editor” for ABC News.
Revolving Door from Journalism to Team Obama Now Up to a Dozen
By Brent Baker | July 29, 2009 | 09:37 A A

With the revelation that Newsweek Washington bureau reporter Daren Briscoe will start a new job on Monday as Deputy Associate Director of Public Affairs for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (earlier NB item), my list of journalists who have jumped to the Obama administration — plus one who traveled through the revolving door from helping the Obama campaign into a news media slot — is up to a dozen:
Three each revolved through CNN and the Washington Post; two through ABC News; and one each via the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time magazine.
Complete list below.
Left-Wing Blog Talking Points Memo Now Hiring ‘News Veterans’
By Clay Waters | July 14, 2009 | 13:29 A A

At least one media outlet is bucking the field’s bleak economic outlook: The left-wing blog Talking Points Memo. On Monday, Noam Cohen reported in the New York Times that TPM has received funding from outside investors that will result in a doubling of staff, and may include some veteran mainstream journalists.
The political news Web site Talking Points Memo this weekend completed a round of investment, of $500,000 to $1 million. The move is intended to increase the number of employees, to roughly 20, from the current 11, in the next 10 months.
The financing is the first part of a three-year plan to increase the site’s staff to 60 employees, Joshua Micah Marshall, the site’s founder, said in an interview at his offices on West 20th Street in New York.
Marshall, who in TPM’s early days (the blog was launched during the Florida recount fight of Election 2000) was less reflexively anti-Republican than today, has beefed up the once-humble blog to include TPM café, a discussion site, and TPM Muckraker, an investigative site almost exclusively devoted to conservative scandal-mongering.
Although the established media often rails against bloggers, Marshall is an exception. As Cohen reported back in February 2008, Marshall won the media’s George Polk Award for legal reporting for his work on the Bush administration firing eight U.S. attorneys under what TPM and other liberals claimed were politically motivated circumstances — a perfectly legal effort that was nonetheless considered scandalous by mainstream media.
Washington Post Hired Left-Wing Obama Enabler as Its ‘Chief Digital Officer’
By Brent Baker | July 03, 2009 | 14:52 A A

The Washington Posts’s first ever “chief digital officer” came aboard the newspaper, where he also oversees Newsweek’s online efforts, after three years of working diligently to help elect liberals and Democrats to office — including Barack Obama. A short profile of Vijay Ravindran, in the July issue of Washingtonian magazine, noted that “Democratic strategist and entrepreneur Harold Ickes,” a veteran of the Clinton administration and 1996 re-election campaign, enlisted “Ravindran to build Catalist, a national voter database for Democratic candidates and liberal organizations. From the fall of 2005 through the election of Barack Obama, Ravindran built systems for Catalist.” His title at Catalist: Chief Technology Officer.

Catalist, which dubs itself “The Future of Progressive Organizing,” lists a who’s who of left-wing groups and causes on its client list, from ACORN and the AFL-CIO to Wellstone Action, with MoveOn.org, the National Resources Defense Council and Obama for America (the official Obama campaign) alphabetically in between.

In an interview last November with the “Sepia Mutiny” blog about South Asians, Ravindran recounted his political/career odyssey, including how “I feel somewhat embarrassed that I didn’t appreciate the Clinton years.”

You Read It Here First: Hannity Cites NewsBusters on Revolving Door
By Brent Baker | May 08, 2009 | 01:02 A A

In his Wednesday night “Media Mash” segment, FNC’s Sean Hannity picked up on a Tuesday night NewsBusters post, “Third CNN Staffer Joins Obama’s Team, As Does ABC Vet; Revolving Door Up to Ten,” about the latest journalists to spin through the revolving door to work in the Obama administration. Hannity informed his viewers of how the press corps are “losing three more of their own to the Obama administration. Now, at the outset of the President’s term, several of the so-called objective journalists left their jobs to join the administration. Now NewsBusters.org points out that a few more are following suit.” Hannity named some names:

Senior CNN politics producer Sasha Johnson — by the way, that makes her the third CNN staffer to join the President’s team. Chicago Tribune reporter Jill Zuckman and veteran ABC News reporter Beverley Lumpkin. Now that brings the total number of so-called mainstream media journalists who have rushed to join the Obama administration to ten.
Third CNN Staffer Joins Obama’s Team, As Does ABC Vet; Revolving Door Up to Ten
By Brent Baker | May 06, 2009 | 00:11 A A

Following the path of CNN Middle East correspondent Aneesh Raman and producer Kate Albright-Hanna, who both jumped aboard the Obama campaign last year, senior political producer Sasha Johnson this week announced she’s leaving the network’s Washington bureau to take the Press Secretary slot at the Department of Transportation. She won’t be the only media vet in that shop. As The Politico’s Michael Calderone noted Monday night in reporting Johnson’s move, former Chicago Tribune Washington correspondent Jill Zuckman “already headed to Transportation in February, becoming Director of Public Affairs and assistant to Secretary Ray LaHood.”

Plus, in the past month or so, two other DC journalists accepted administration positions. ABC’s long-time Justice Department correspondent, Beverley Lumpkin, who mostly handled radio news, in April joined the very department she covered for so many years, prompting a Washington Post blogger to quip on Tuesday that she’s “turning sources into colleagues.” Speaking of the Washington Post, its former science reporter, Rick Weiss, is now advancing Obama policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology.

So far, by my count, at least ten mainstream media journalists have revolved into positions toiling for the Obama campaign, transition or administration. And that doesn’t count CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, whom the administration courted for Surgeon General; nor long-time NBC News anchor and reporter Jane Pauley who campaigned for Obama last fall in her native Indiana.

The Washington Post Hires Ultraliberal Blogger Ezra Klein
By Stephen Gutowski | April 30, 2009 | 10:42 A A

It seems that the Washington Post will soon be welcoming ultra-liberal hack blogger Ezra Klein to their online operations. Klein has often been the subject of stories by NewsBusters. This is what the Politico reported on the Post’s acquisition of Klein (h/t OTB):
The American Prospect’s Ezra Klein, one of the top bloggers on politics and policy, is heading to the Washington Post.

Rumors about Klein’s upcoming move spread on Wednesday night during a reception thrown by The Nation magazine in honor of D.C. bureau chief Chris Hayes.
A Post spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO this morning that Klein was hired as a blogger at washingtonpost.com and is expected to start in about a month.
The move continues a regrettable trend started with their hiring of Greg Sargent, who formerly worked for the far left Talking Points Memo, to run a blog at one of the Post’s websites. The addition of Sargent, an accomplished hack in his own right, was covered by Tim Graham here at NewsBusters. Tim quickly identified it as yet another example of the revolving door between liberal organizations and the mainstream media:
News Photogs Flock to Obama’s White House
By Brent Baker | April 04, 2009 | 15:15 A A

The Obama White House is serving as a convenient new employer for members of the media as news outlets downsize, but would they have felt so comfortable coming aboard a GOP President’s staff? The latest hires: Three news photographers — from Time magazine, Cox Newspapers and U.S. News & World Report magazine — are joining the team of photographers snapping pictures at events and meetings in and around the White House complex.
The chief White House photographer, Pete Souza, “announced the hires to PDN,” DCRTV.com reported Thursday in picking up the item from the week before on the Photo District News site. Souza had already tapped photographers from the McClatchy-Tribune News Service and the Associated Press.

The March 24 PDNonline post, “Time Magazine’s Top Photo Editor Exits for White House,” relayed the names of those leaving DC press corps slots for the Obama administration:
Journalist Joins Dem Candidate/Bob Schieffer Brother’s Campaign for TX Governor
By Ken Shepherd | April 02, 2009 | 12:01 A A

Jumping ship from jobs-shedding print and broadcast outlets to Democratic campaigns or administrations seems to be the favored bailout package of liberal journalists these days.
The latest example comes today in a news release from the exploratory committee of Texas Democrat Tom Schieffer, younger brother to CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob “Boners” Schieffer. In an April 2 press release, the gubernatorial hopeful heartily welcomed longtime print journalist Clay Robison — praising him as “a reporter’s reporter” — aboard his staff as Director of Communications (h/t NewsBusters contributor Seton Motley).:
Local DC Fox Reporter Jumps to Terry McAuliffe’s Campaign
By Brent Baker | March 24, 2009 | 00:12 A A

Normally I wouldn’t find a local market television reporter joining a gubernatorial campaign worth a post on a national blog like NewsBusters, but in this case the candidate is a very well-known national figure: Terry McAuliffe, the former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee who also chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign last year and is a long-time Friend of Bill.

Dave Hughes reported Monday, on his DCRTV blog, that Allyson Wilson, a reporter and sometime anchor on Washington, DC’s Fox-owned WTTG-TV/DT, “is leaving to join Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for governor of Virginia. She’ll be his deputy press secretary. Wilson is a native Washingtonian and a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.”

WaPo Chats with Time Writer Turned Biden Gaffe Goalie Jay Carney
By Ken Shepherd | March 12, 2009 | 14:27 A A

In case you were worried, former Time magazine staffer Jay Carney has “had very little trouble adapting” to his job as Vice President Biden’s director of communications. From a recent interview with Washington Post’s Mary Ann Akers published in the March 12 paper:
[Akers]: You left journalism after 20 years with Time. How is life on the other side?
Carney: It’s great. I have had very little trouble adapting to this new role, which is completely different from what I was doing before.
Carney also insisted that while he was just sort of swept into the Obama administration during the post-election transition period, he never was a leg-thrilling puddle of drool like others in the media:
Reporters Revolved Out of Newark Paper and Into Democrat Jobs
By Tim Graham | February 20, 2009 | 22:05 A A

Joe Strupp at Editor & Publisher reports the revolving door between the media and government spun wildly out of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: “at least 16 reporters and newsroom staffers at The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., most of whom left the paper in the past year’s massive buyout, are now working for public officials or state agencies the paper covers…With 151 newsroom staffers taking buyouts last October, out of 330 total, that figure represents about 10% of the departed reporters, although some left prior to that round of buyouts.”
Topping that list is Deborah Howlett, a former statehouse reporter who is now Gov. Jon Corzine’s communications director. However, this is not Howlett’s first job in politics. We at MRC reported in 1990 that before joining USA Today, Howlett, spent four months in 1983 as Press Secretary to Oregon State Senator Margie Hendricksen, a Democrat who later opposed moderate-to-liberal GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield. The Almanac of American Politics blamed Hendricksen’s loss on her “consistently liberal views” which, as The New Republic once noted, include favoring unilateral nuclear disarmament.
As the 1980s wound to a close, Howlett sneered at the Reagan ’80s in a November 27, 1989 USA Today “news” story: “The ’80s were the years of excess. We swaggered through the portals and grabbed as much as we could. We were greedy and gluttonous. As long as we wore starched shirts, we could belch at the dinner table. And Ronald Reagan led us.”
Journalists Insist Media-Obama Revolving Door Due to Economy, Not Bias
By Stephen Gutowski | February 19, 2009 | 12:03 A A

In one of the most comical Politico stories I have ever encountered, several prominent journalists insisted that the revolving door between the media and liberal Democrats, especially Team Obama, is not a symptom of bias. Instead, they blamed the trend on the economy:
In three months since Election Day, at least a half-dozen prominent journalists have taken jobs working for the federal government.

Journalists, including some of those who’ve jumped ship, say it’s better to have a solid job in government than a shaky job — or none at all — in an industry that’s fading fast.
Liberal Newspaper Reporters Revolve Into Jobs With Kerry, Obama
By Tim Graham | February 17, 2009 | 17:14 A A

From the Revolving Door file: more liberal newspaper reporters are leaving their D.C. bureaus behind for jobs in Democratic politics. Scott Shepard of Cox Newspapers is joining the office of Sen. John Kerry as a speechwriter, while Chicago Tribune reporter Jill Zuckman is joining the Obama administration as a public-affairs officer for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Shepard is the second newspaper reporter to accept a job with the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee in recent months. Former Los Angeles Times and New York Times reporter Douglas Frantz is now chief investigator on Kerry’s staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Michael Calderone, media reporter for the Politico newspaper, reported that both Shepard and Zuckman blamed financial troubles at their media companies as a factor in their decision to become federal employees.
A look at the MRC “Notable Quotables” archives show some clues that these reporters may have comfortably signed up for the Democrats. Shepard drew attention in 1994 for going beyond the facts to defend Clinton’s Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders:
New MRC ‘Profile in Bias’: George Stephanopoulos
By NB Staff | February 10, 2009 | 14:23 A A

Following the Media Research Center’s ongoing call for an explanation of George Stephanopoulos’s reported strategy conference calls with Democratic operatives Paul Begala and James Carville and White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, the MRC has released a new Profile in Bias for the “This Week” host.
“[I]n his on-air role at ABC, Stephanopoulos has been a reliable mouthpiece for the Democratic spin of the day — using his perch as an analyst and correspondent to add an extra boost to liberals, undermine conservatives and push a liberal policy agenda,” the profile notes before listing scores of examples, such this one from March 18, 2008, wherein Stephanopoulos lauded Obama for refusing to castigate his former pastor:
By refusing to renounce Reverend Wright, that was in many ways an act of honor for Senator Obama.
As we at NewsBusters have documented, ABC News executives have refused to directly confront the breach of journalistic ethics first reported in the January 27 Politico:
MRC’s Motley on Lib Journalists Joining Obama Administration
By NB Staff | February 04, 2009 | 11:51 A A

Time magazine’s Jay Carney moved on to do communications work for Vice President Biden. CNN’s Sanjay Gupta has been placed on Obama’s short list for U.S. Surgeon General. Former ABC reporter Linda Douglass was an advisor on the Obama campaign and was slated to do PR work for Tom Daschle at HHS.

Download: excerpt%20here

Those are just three examples of the “media wing of the Democratic Party,” MRC Director of Communications Seton Motley told viewers of the February 4 “Fox & Friends.”
What’s more, the revolving door between journalism and the staffs of liberal politicians is nothing new, Motley added that, “[i]n the first two years of the Clinton administration, 33 journalists joined the Clinton administration, so yes, there’s a history of this.”
Flashback: Gupta Raises McCain’s ‘Substance Abuse,’ Scolds Reagan on AIDS
By Brent Baker | January 07, 2009 | 01:45 A A

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, whom President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly asked to take an administration post as Surgeon General and top health policy adviser, last year thought it noteworthy that the release of John McCain’s medical records ignored the Senator’s “mental health,” any “mention of post-traumatic stress disorder” or of “substance abuse.” Back in 2004, upon Ronald Reagan’s passing, Gupta took to CNN to give legitimacy to claims of how throughout his presidency “many would accuse President Reagan of ignoring AIDS.” Gupta falsely charged that “the first time President Reagan would utter the word AIDS in public would be well into his second term, six years after the virus was discovered.”

The jump would take Gupta full circle back to activist liberal politics and policy-making. “He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,” the Washington Post’s Ceci Connolly and Howard Kurtz recalled in a story for Wednesday’s paper (“Obama Picks TV’s Gupta for Medical Post”) which relayed that in addition to the Surgeon General slot “he has also been offered a top post in the new White House Office of Health Reform, twin duties that could make him the most influential Surgeon General in history.” The Post article also noted that Gupta, who joined CNN in 2001 and has since also reported for CBS News, “met for more than two hours with Obama in Chicago on Nov. 25.”

WaPo Hires Lefty Blogger Greg Sargent, Foe of Conservative ‘Wingnut Mendacity’
By Tim Graham | January 03, 2009 | 07:44 A A

Ben Smith at Politico reports that The Washington Post website is displaying a new Internet version of the revolving door between the mainstream media and the leftist barricades: hiring bloggers. Greg Sargent, who worked for the Bush-bashing blog Talking Points Memo and for a time wrote a poor-man’s-Media-Matters blog called “The Horse’s Mouth” attacking the idea of liberal media bias, will work on a new Post website:
Greg’s move is both a reminder of how the new liberal reporting infrastructure –TPM and Huffpo, in particular — were as much competitors as any newspaper in breaking news this cycle; and a sign of how porous the barriers, which used to be fairly substantial, between “MSM” and “blogosphere” (and, for that matter, political campaigns and advocacy groups) have become.
The revolving door first revolved the other way, with old Post vets like Thomas Edsall being hired by the Huffington Post. Now the revolving is going from partisan to “mainstream.” Sargent signed off to his hard-core liberal readership this way:

By Tim Graham | December 19, 2008 | 10:16 A A

PBS Washington Week host Gwen Ifill participated in her monthly Internet chat at washingtonpost.com on Thursday, and committed at least one noticeable error. When someone asked Ifill about the “revolving door” between the media and politics – now symbolized by Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief James Carney working for Vice President-elect Biden – she claimed that it’s “more often the other way” – more often between Republicans and the media.
For many years, MRC’s Brent Baker chronicled the Revolving Door, and it was dominated by Democrats, about three Democrats for each Republican – and that included liberal Republicans like Sen. John Chafee.
Ifill also mysteriously suggested Illinois qualified as the South when one chatter complained Obama had no cabinet picks from the South:
Breaking News: WaPo says Ron Kirk (Dallas) for USTR — does that satisfy the South?
Gwen Ifill: Texas works for me. And some parts of Illinois(Ray LaHood) might too.
Ray LaHood represents Peoria, which doesn’t exactly border Kentucky.
Here’s the question about Jay Carney and the Revolving Door:
Top Time Editor Becomes Latest Journalist to Join Team Obama
By Matthew Sheffield | December 15, 2008 | 18:07 A A

At least he made it official.
Time’s Washington bureau chief Jay Carney is quitting his magazine post to take the fearsome task of managing the communications problems of incoming vice president Joe Biden.
This hardly comes as a surprise. During his tenure at Time, Carney accrued a reputation for bashing Republicans. In March, he urged President Bush to give a speech on the economy and say that he is “a Republican who actually cares about people that are suffering.”
In a November 2007 blog post, Carney slammed the Bush administration for “los[ing] touch with reality” for insisting that the situation in Iraq was improving, despite many indicators that the surge strategy was working.
CNN Correspondent Aneesh Raman Quits to Join Obama Campaign
By Matthew Sheffield | September 24, 2008 | 12:15 A A

Aneesh Raman, formerly an international correspondent for CNN left the network in June to “try something different.”
Little did we know that by “different” he meant working for Barack Obama’s messaging shop sending out emails.
At least Raman has finally admitted his bias, though. He’s quite different from many of his former colleagues at CNN who are registered to vote as Democrats but fail to disclose this fact to viewers.
‘Dateline NBC’ Alumna Jane Pauley Stumps for Obama: 8 People Show Up
By Mike Bates | September 23, 2008 | 15:55 A A

There’s a heartwarming story in today’s Times of Northwest Indiana. Jane Pauley, one-time co-host of NBC’s Today and Dateline NBC programs, made an appearance yesterday for Barack Obama. Joining her was Steve Skvara, the retired steelworker who in August of last year tearfully asked Democratic presidential candidates at a debate, “What’s wrong with America? And what will you do to change it?” The Times reported:
PORTAGE Former television news anchor and Hoosier native Jane Pauley returned to her professional roots Monday during a local appearance on behalf of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Pauley, who said she worked for the state Democratic Party before launching her successful news career, took part in a panel discussion aimed at touting the benefits of Obama’s economic plans for Hoosiers over that of his Republican challenger John McCain.

Journalists Literally Applaud Obama Speech
By Matthew Sheffield | August 29, 2008 | 07:45 A A

Chris Matthews is apparently not the only one who gets “inspired” by Barack Obama.
Blogging from the convention floor, a reporter for the Hill, a DC political newspaper observed “dozens of men and women wearing green media floor passes chanted along with the crowd” at Obama’s speech last night.
Is it any surprise given how many elite media journalists are registered Democrats or how Obama’s speech was almost universally hailed by TV reporters?
We’ll be sending several NB bloggers to the RNC next week to keep an eye out for similar applauding. Don’t worry, we won’t be holding our breaths.
CNN Producer Pitched ‘Video Strategy’ to Obama Campaign, Got Job
By Brent Baker | August 21, 2008 | 00:35 A A

Kate Albright-Hanna, who runs the Obama campaign’s online video operations, got the job after she pitched the campaign “a proposal on video strategy” — while she was still a CNN producer. A Wednesday Washington Post “Style” section feature on the key members of the “Triple O: Obama’s online operation,” recounted the how and when of her pitch to Joe Rospars, a Howard Dean campaign veteran in charge of the so-called Triple O:

An Emmy winner, she joined CNN’s political unit in 1999 and met Rospars while filming a documentary on Dean. When she heard that Rospars was working for Obama, Albright-Hanna called and said she wanted to produce a doc on Obama. The campaign planned to develop its own video content, Rospars said. Intrigued, Albright-Hanna sent him a proposal on video strategy. Weeks later, she left CNN and moved with her husband and 3-year-old son to Chicago.
The key phrase: “weeks later, she left CNN…” So while working at CNN she was simultaneously developing a plan for Obama which, given their decision to hire her, they liked and she’s implementing.

Before CNN, she was an intern in the Clinton White House and, in a Dateline NBC story days after the Monica Lewinsky story broke, she was featured by reporter Dawn Fratangelo as one of a group of former interns who “simply don’t find it plausible the President of the United States could have an affair with an intern.” In a soundbite (see slightly snowy screen shot from the MRC’s archive), Albright-Hanna asserted: “I can’t imagine how that would happen.”

Former Clinton Aide Joins ‘Evenhanded’ Fox News Channel
By Matthew Sheffield | July 08, 2008 | 02:18 A A

Howard Wolfson has become the latest prominent Democrat to join forces with Fox News Channel during the general election, hailing it for its “comprehensive and fair and evenhanded” coverage during the primaries.
That’s quite an endorsement coming from one of the Democratic party’s biggest communications mavens, and not one known for being especially soft-gloved. It’s the equivalent of MSNBC suddenly getting endorsed by the likes of Mary Matalin or Ari Fleischer, something which is far less likely to happen. New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg broke the story:
Howard Wolfson, who was a top strategist for the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is going where some Democrats were unwilling to go during the early days of the election season: the Fox News Channel. [...]
Mr. Wolfson is joining a network that Democrats shunned for a time, complaining that its coverage was unfair. But aides to Mrs. Clinton came to view Fox News as distinctly fair to her in a news media climate that they believed favored Senator Barack Obama.
Ex-Journalist Linda Douglass: I ‘Always’ Had Problems With McCain
By Scott Whitlock | June 16, 2008 | 12:28 A A

Ex-journalist Linda Douglass, now a spokesman for Barack Obama, admitted in a piece in Monday’s Washington Post that she “always” had “fundamental differences” with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The former reporter, whose long history of liberal bias has been chronicled by NewsBusters, also announced to the Post’s Howard Kurtz that she believes “reporters are constantly struggling with themselves to suppress their own opinions,” but Douglass personally finds working for Obama to be “really liberating.”
The former correspondent for both CBS and ABC denied claims of media bias by oddly citing other journalists as proof she was objective: “It was no secret to the reporters around me that I have Democratic-leaning views. But they said I was always fair.” Despite the vouching of other reporters, it should be pointed out that this is the same person who insisted on calling liberal Senator Jim Jeffords a “moderate,” knocked President Bush for not being inclusive and opined that although (then) Congressman Bob Dornan was “extreme,” he fit in well with the “increasingly conservative Republican Party:”
Ex-Journalist Linda Douglass Returns to ABC to Shill for Obama
By Scott Whitlock | June 04, 2008 | 11:16 A A

Former journalist Linda Douglass returned to ABC and appeared on “Good Morning America” Wednesday in her new role as a strategist and spokesperson for Barack Obama. Expressing no surprise or conflict that a longtime reporter would segue from recounting the news to representing a Democratic presidential candidate, GMA news anchor Chris Cuomo breezily introduced, “We’re going to begin with someone representing Obama, whom we know very well here at ABC News. Linda Douglass, a former, respected journalist, a longtime ABC News family member. But now Linda is an Obama campaign strategist and spokesperson.”
Wednesday’s GMA featured a gaggle of journalists turned Democrats, Democrats who became journalists and also those with famous liberal families. Cuomo is the son of a former Democratic governor of New York and the brother of the current Democratic Attorney General from that state. And his segment with Douglass followed one with “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to Bill Clinton. Cuomo, provided some Democratic spin of his own when he asserted that Senator John McCain, by giving a tough speech on Tuesday, did not revel in Obama’s history-making moment. In a tease early in the show, he lamented, “But on the Republican side, the nominee John McCain was all business. He was not basking in history last night.” While interviewing Douglass, he reiterated, “On a night that was history-making for Obama, McCain did not dwell on history.”
Revolving Door: Seattle News Anchor Joins Liberal Mayor’s Staff
By Ken Shepherd | May 28, 2008 | 15:28 A A

It’s sort of like Linda Douglass but on the local level, I guess. I’ll have to ask our Seattle-area readers to note in the comments section if KING’s Robert Mak repeatedly displayed a penchant for gauzy coverage of liberal Mayor Greg Nickels (D).
The 10-time local Emmy-winning reporter is leaving TV news for a job that pays $10,000 more a year than his new boss.
From the Seattle Times (emphasis mine):
One of Seattle’s best-known political reporters – KING 5′s Robert Mak – has been hired as Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ communications director, the mayor’s office announced today.
Mak, known to many viewers as host of the public-affairs program “KING 5 News Up Front,” said he wasn’t looking for another job when Nickels’ office approached him a few weeks ago.
‘I Hate to Keep Being in the Position of Defending Obama, But…’
By Brent Baker | May 21, 2008 | 20:47 A A

Weeks before Linda Douglass announced she would be jumping aboard the Barack Obama presidential campaign as a senior strategist, the former CBS News and ABC News Washington correspondent was already aiding the Obama campaign. Back on the May 4 Reliable Sources on CNN, for instance, she became defensive: “I hate to keep being in the position of defending Barack Obama…” Yet that’s exactly what she did on a panel with Amy Holmes and Joan Walsh. On that Sunday, the weekend after Obama held a press conference to denounce Jeremiah Wright, she pronounced media attention on Wright to have “been too much” and contended: “To make your judgments about how to cast a vote for President based upon the statements of this pastor seems to be a bridge too far.”

After host Howard Kurtz played a clip of Bill Moyers complaining that “white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren’t,” Douglass agreed: “That is actually a point that we should be discussing,” as she contended “Republican candidates have routinely associated themselves with white pastors who have made similarly incendiary statements.” As to attention to how Obama does not (at that time) wear a flag pin, a flustered Douglass countered:

I hate to keep being in the position of defending Barack Obama, but on this question, John McCain does not wear a flag pin. Hillary Clinton does not wear a flag pin. And yet questions about his patriotism come up all the time…
Douglass Joins Obama’s Campaign, Reported from Left at ABC & CBS
By Brent Baker | May 21, 2008 | 18:00 A A

As noted earlier by Brad Wilmouth, Marc Ambinder revealed today, on his blog for The Atlantic, that his colleague at National Journal, Linda Douglass, a long-time CBS News and then ABC News Washington bureau reporter until 2006, “will join Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as a senior strategist and as a senior campaign spokesperson on the roadshow, a newly created position.” Ambinder, a colleague at National Journal, reported:

Douglass confirmed her new position when I walked up to the ninth floor, knocked on her door, and asked her about it. She informed National Journal President Suzanne Clark this morning of her impending departure. “I see this as a moment of transformational change in the country and I have spent my lifetime sitting on the sidelines watching people attempt to make change. I just decided that I can’t sit on the sidelines anymore.”
“Over 34 years in journalism,” Douglass told Ambinder, “she grew disillusioned with the partisanship she saw first-hand.” So, now she’s joining a partisan campaign?

Time Lets Cuomo Honor Tim Russert, But Omits Russert Was His Aide
By Tim Graham | May 02, 2008 | 16:48 A A

The Time 100 list of the most influential people is out, and MSNBC on Friday afternoon was touting its own designated power broker, NBC Washington Bureau Chief and Meet the Press host Tim Russert. There’s only one problem. The gooey profile is written by former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Russert worked for Cuomo as a counselor and media strategist in 1983 and 1984, but Time never mentioned that. Neither did MSNBC anchor Norah O’Donnell as she interviewed Time’s Adi Ignatius on the picks, and turned to ask him giddily which NBCer was honored. Ignatius replied:
It’s Tim Russert. You know, I mean, part of the magic of this list is having interesting people write about the honorees. We had Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York, write the piece on Tim Russert. He said, whether you like Tim or not, whether you like his programming, the road to the White House goes through Tim Russert and his program. So he is, you know, practically a kingmaker in U.S. politics.
Friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton Takes Over CBS’s Early Show
By Brent Baker | March 06, 2008 | 16:54 A A

Shelley Ross, Executive Producer of The Early Show, has left the position and, the AP’s David Bauder reported Thursday afternoon, Rick Kaplan, a long-time Friend of Bill, “will temporarily take over for Ross” while remaining Executive Producer of the CBS Evening News.

Kaplan, a former Executive Producer of ABC’s World News Tonight and Nightline who later ran both CNN and MSNBC, has had a long record of friendly relations with former President Bill Clinton, advising Clinton on how to respond to the Gennifer Flowers scandal in 1992 and blocking anti-Clinton stories from appearing on Nightline. Kaplan has also been hostile to conservatives and once even declared that disgraced CBS anchor Dan Rather’s “legacy” was “the gold standard journalists today have struggled to live up to.”

Essay: So Much More Than Just the New York Times
By Seton Motley | February 27, 2008 | 09:01 A A

Standard-free journalism on parade all day on NBC’s Sunday
Forgotten But
Not GoneIt was another do-as-we-say, not-as-we-do day for the National Broadcast Company this past Sabbath.
Over the weekend NBC offered up their latest versions of Tim Russert’s Meet the Press and the Chris Matthews Show — the latter being political television’s answer to Jerry Springer. In them we were treated to two more glittering examples of all that is wrong with the Jurassic Press.
That being the woeful lack of journalistic ethics demonstrated by those at the heights of the media mountain, and the utter shamelessness they and their colleagues exhibit upon their being outed as amoral hacks.
CNN Veteran Andrea Koppel Joins Left-Wing PR Firm
By Brent Baker | February 09, 2008 | 12:21 A A

Andrea Koppel, who left CNN last July after 14 years as an on-air correspondent, has joined M+R Strategic Services, a Washington, DC-based public relations firm with a long list of left of center and solidly left-wing clients, as chief of its Communications Division. Amongst the clients listed on the firm’s Web site: Environmental Defense, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, Turner Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, People for the American Way, Campaign for America’s Future, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, National Organization of Women – New York State, NARAL Pro-Choice New York, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, as well as the radical left Center for Constitutional Rights and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Koppel, the daughter of Ted Koppel, served as an international correspondent for CNN, then covered the State Department before spending her last months at CNN covering Capitol Hill. She proclaimed in the firm’s press release that she wants to fight for “the voiceless in our society” as she embraced the “impressive roster of clients” and promised to help them “achieve their goals.”

The Latest Media Scam
By Seton Motley | January 24, 2008 | 18:17 A A

Left wing think tank hatchet reporting
The Establishment Media’s Weapon of ChoiceAnd you thought only the New York Times was engaged in not-for-profit journalism.
Behold the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), who on Wednesday made headlines across the nation with their report — co-authored with the Fund for Independence in Journalism (FIJ) — entitled “Iraq – The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War”.
The Establishment Media hailed the study’s lead “finding” — 935 false statements by Bush Administration officials in the two-year period leading up to the launch of the War. The Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and — of course — the New York Times were all exhilarated to once again climb aboard the “Bush Lied – People Died” Express.
Journalist Moving from Paper to ACLU: A ‘Continuation of Her Work’
By Tom Blumer | January 15, 2008 | 08:58 A A

This isn’t The Onion; it’s for real (HT Hot Air; bold after title is mine):
Sun, Jan. 13, 2008
Burke named executive director of ACLU in Texas
Terri Burke, former editor of the Abilene Reporter-News, has been named executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

Burke, 56, will begin work at the ACLU of Texas on Tuesday. Her duties will include lobbying, fundraising, administering the organization and communicating with the public.

Burke said her new job seems like a continuation of her work in the newspaper business.

“I wanted to be a journalist because I thought journalism was a way to further the democratic process,” Burke said. “At its heart, journalism is about the First Amendment. All my life, I’ve been interested in those kinds of issues.”
I will suggest that no one in Old Media will think of Burke’s move as the least bit odd.
Funny, that’s not how they saw it in 1998 when the late David Brinkley retired and became a spokesman for a large corporation.
Shocker: Former Clinton-boosting U.S. Newser Takes Dem PR Job
By Tim Graham | October 31, 2007 | 22:13 A A

Back in the days of our MediaWatch newsletter, we used to have a feature called “Revolving Door” to note reporters swapping their jobs for political appointments or political appointees swapping their jobs for reporting gigs. (See the NB Revolving Door topic for more recent updates.) The Minneapolis Star Tribune announced that its editorial writer Dave Hage is leaving “to become communications director for first-term Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Hage, 52, will take over Klobuchar’s fledgling press operation,” which has already lost its top press aide. Hage, a Minneapolis native, was an economics correspondent for for U.S. News & World Report magazine in Washington from 1991 to 1995, where he drew our attention as he repeatedly attacked Reaganomics and boosted Clintonomics. So the new Democrat job isn’t a shocker.
From our Notable Quotables in March 1993, the myth that health socialism-pushing Clinton would have a “healthy respect” for free enterprise:
Former ABC Anchor Carole Simpson Endorses Hillary
By Mark Finkelstein | October 17, 2007 | 12:31 A A

It took 15 years to become official, but Carole Simpson has now confirmed what we always suspected: she’s a Clinton backer. Readers will recall that during the 1992 campaign, the then ABC News anchor moderated a presidential debate in which she made life uncomfortable for Bush 41, notably with her snide “who would like to begin, the ‘education president?’” poke.

According to this Boston Globe article, back in 2003 Simpson was “eased out” of her anchor chair in favor of Elizabeth Vargas. Simpson has now taken a teaching position at Emerson College in Boston, and last night turned up at a Clinton campaign stop in Salem, New Hampshire, where she proceeded to endorse Hillary’s presidential bid. Here’s how “First Read,” a frequently-updated analysis of the day’s political news from the NBC News political unit, reported it [emphasis added]:
ABC’s Stephanopoulos Attacks Thompson Again: Campaign Must Be Perfect
By Scott Whitlock | September 06, 2007 | 11:31 A A

For the third time in less than a week, ABC anchor and former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos appeared on “Good Morning America” to dourly assess Republican Fred Thompson’s 2008 chances. On the Thursday edition of GMA, the host of “This Week” attempted to set an impossible bar for the former senator. “…He can’t make a mistake,” Stephanopoulos breathlessly claimed.
Earlier in the segment, the ABC host negatively spun Thompson’s standings in the polls. Some might compliment the performance of a candidate who, upon entering the 2008 race, is only narrowly trailing the front-runner. Not Stephanopoulos. After claiming that many thought the former actor would surge into first place early in the summer, he critiqued, “That hasn’t happened. Most of the latest polls show that he’s in second place behind Rudy Giuliani….He hasn’t quite rocketed out the way he expected.”
On ABC, Ex-Clinton Aide Stephanopoulos Touts Book By Chelsea’s Boyfriend
By Scott Whitlock | August 30, 2007 | 14:24 A A

On Thursday’s “Good Morning America,” guest host George Stephanopoulos’s close ties to the Clinton administration were again on display. The ABC anchor interviewed the ex-boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton about his new book on the subject of teaching American history in Iraq. Just last month, Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to Bill Clinton, gave a softball interview to Kristin Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore.
In that segment, the GMA substitute host misleadingly characterized the drug arrest of Albert Gore III as getting “in trouble speeding.” The Vice President’s daughter also joked that she modeled a character in her new novel about Washington politics after Stephanopoulos. During the August 30 piece, the network anchor introduced author Ian Klaus by glowingly announcing, “…Some people might be watching today and saying, ‘You know, I’ve seen him somewhere before. I’ve heard his name before.’ And that’s because you were actually dating Chelsea Clinton when you went to Iraq.”
A Perception Issue? Revolving Door Between the ACLU and National Public Radio
By Tim Graham | July 16, 2007 | 08:33 A A

In his Monday “Media Notes” column in The Washington Post — for some reason, the whole column was demoted to page C-7 — Howard Kurtz reported (in his second item) that National Public Radio’s FBI reporter, Dina Temple-Raston, recently did a report quoting the American Civil Liberties Union. That wouldn’t be shocking, except that Temple-Raston is also co-author of a new book with the executive director of the ACLU on “the dangerous erosion of the Bill of Rights in the age of terror.”
Temple-Raston claimed she’s aware of the “perception issue,” but will try to be “really, really balanced.” (So is NPR, which includes the data in her online bio.) This hire is a complete insult to the idea of creating an impression of a fair, nonpartisan public-radio news network. It would be bad enough if an NPR reporter gave money to the ACLU, or attended their fundraising dinners. But this reporter has written a book, cheek and jowl, with the leader of the ACLU, endorsing their leftist worldview on a blooming Bush dictatorship. How on Earth can NPR think it doesn’t look transparently partisan from the first broadcast word?
Chicago Sun Times ‘Moving Forward’ by Returning To Its Liberal Roots
By Terry Trippany | July 12, 2007 | 05:52 A A

New Editorial Page Editor Cheryl L. Reed has been given marching orders from publisher John Cruickshank and head editor Michael Cooke to re-brand the editorial and opinion section of the Chicago Sun Times with an eye toward the future. Specifically she has been told not to be too conservative. (h/t Republic of Biloxi)
“Don’t be conservative,” Cruickshank urged me. “We don’t want you to hold back.”
One could take this statement in one of two ways. On the one hand you might assume that Cruickshank is telling Reed to think outside the box and come up with some really innovative ideas that might just involve a bit of risk.
On the other hand you could approach this challenge from the perspective of just about everyone else in the newspaper industry and take Cruickshank’s words literally.
ABC, CBS Ignore Drug Angle of Gore Son; Stephanopoulos Gushes Over Novel
By Scott Whitlock | July 10, 2007 | 14:19 A A

Kristin Gore, daughter of former Vice President Al Gore and author of a new political satire set in Washington, appeared on the Tuesday editions of “Good Morning America” and “The Early Show.” Both shows only gingerly addressed the subject of Kristin’s brother, Albert Gore III., and his arrest for marijuana and prescription-drug possession after being pulled over last week in California. GMA guest host George Stephanopoulos misleadingly characterized the incident as getting “in trouble speeding.” “Early Show” host Harry Smith didn’t mention the drug angle at all.
Stephanopoulos, a former top Clinton aide who worked in the same White House as Al Gore, conducted an extraordinarily cozy interview with the former Vice President’s daughter. Apparently completely oblivious to any conflict of interest, he hyped “Sammy’s House,” calling it “very funny.” The ABC anchor even joked with Kristin Gore about whether the main character, Sammy Joyce, was based on him:
Kristin Gore: “Have you recognized yourself yet? ‘Cause I should come clean and let you know you’re Sammy.”
He’s No Tony Snow; Ex-ABCer Geoff Morrell Tapped as Pentagon Spokesman
By Rich Noyes | June 18, 2007 | 16:49 A A

The Politico reports that former ABC News reporter Geoff Morrell is going to be named the new spokesman for the Pentagon. The Politico’s Mike Allen reports that the idea of picking a working journalist like Morrell was that of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “in an effort to improve press relations at a time when the administration is under pressure to show progress in Iraq.”

Back in 1993, the Clinton administration also selected an ABC journalist, Kathleen deLaski, as its on-air Pentagon spokesman. At the time, an MRC review found deLaski’s reporting for ABC was “in step with Clintonite thinking that ‘tax and spend’ equals caring.” For more, see “deLaski’s Defensive Detail” in the August 1993 MediaWatch.

When President Bush wanted a media professional to boost his White House publicity machine, he hired Tony Snow, a polished performer with solid conservative credentials. Geoff Morrell is no Tony Snow.
MSM’s Entry Into Blogosphere Shows Its Leftward Tilt
By Matthew Sheffield | May 15, 2007 | 00:05 A A

It’s taken a while but I think it’s safe to say that blogging has now become pretty universal within the MSM. Despite the howls of crusty old liberals like Bill Moyers, the web has fractured the political audience and the elite media are out for a piece of it. Big Media outlets like ABC, NBC, Time, CBS, and the New York Times are all blogging up a storm. Unfortunately for their claims of political objectivity, all the blogging has revealed what the center-right has said all along: the elite media in this country are skewed left in both demographics and content.
The best way to tell what side of the aisle a media outlet is coming from is what sources they cite. It’s rare that you’ll see conservatives quoting from Dissent, Commonweal or the Nation. Similarly a liberal is not going to be regularly quoting from National Review, Commentary, or the Weekly Standard. The idea is fairly basic: You rarely quote people whose opinions you find unworthy of discussion.

Stephanopoulos’s Double Standard: ‘Something Smells Fishy’ in Bush Firings, But…
By Rich Noyes | March 16, 2007 | 11:31 A A

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys on Wednesday, telling him that “something does seem fishy here,” suggesting that the Bush White House was punishing U.S. Attorneys who were not pursuing a GOP-friendly agenda.

But as a White House spokesman back in 1993, Stephanopoulos faced exactly the same question over President Clinton’s decision to fire U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens along with the other 92 U.S. Attorneys. “There is also a tradition of permitting prosecutors to remain on cases until current cases are completed,” a reporter told Stephanopoulos in a March 25, 1993 briefing. Referring to the investigation into House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski for embezzling money from the House Post Office, a reporter asked, “Is there any intention to keep Jay Stephens until the Rostenkowski case is finished?”
Rundown of New ‘CBS Evening News’ Executive Producer Kaplan’s Clinton Connections
By Brent Baker | March 09, 2007 | 02:24 A A

As noted Thursday morning on NewsBusters, CBS News has hired Rick Kaplan, a former Executive Producer of ABC’s World News Tonight and Nightline who later ran both CNN and MSNBC, to serve as Executive Producer of the ratings-challenged CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
As documented in a Thursday MRC CyberAlert posting reprinted here, Kaplan has had a long record of friendly relations with former President Bill Clinton, advising Clinton on how to respond to the Gennifer Flowers scandal in 1992 and blocking anti-Clinton stories from appearing on Nightline. Kaplan has also been hostile to conservatives and once even declared that disgraced CBS anchor Dan Rather’s “legacy” was “the gold standard journalists today have struggled to live up to.”

My headings over excerpts, see below, from a 1998 Vanity Fair magazine profile of Kaplan: “Clinton Cries on Kaplan’s Shoulder/Kaplan Hired Hillary,” “Helped Clinton Play Media to Overcome Flowers,” “Donaldson Says Kaplan’s Pro-Clinton Bias Showed” and “Kaplan Called Hillary the Night Foster Died.”

Just Another Jailed Journalist
By Mithridate Ombud | December 19, 2006 | 13:39 A A

Former Newsday Publisher Robert Johnson got his sentence; 15 months in a Federal prison and a $50k fine for his collection of child pornography.
Of course, if you left it to journalists, they would be exempt from child porn laws and have a journalist shield law that protects them if they were to get caught.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/issues/media-bias-debate/revolving-door?page=2#ixzz2Jg9z7wxr

By Scott Whitlock | November 09, 2006 | 16:40 A A

Aren’t liberals supposed to be the tolerant ones? On Wednesday’s “American Morning,” co-anchor Miles O’Brien derided a plan by disgraced former minister Ted Haggard to seek spiritual counseling as a “reality show.” Haggard resigned his positions as pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado and head of the National Association of Evangelicals after being accused of drug use and a gay affair. He has announced that he will undergo an intense form of religious counseling known as restoration. Reporter Ali Velshi and Mr. O’Brien seemed to find the whole concept laughable. Velshi, describing the individuals who would and wouldn’t be involved, began by talking about “fixing” Ted Haggard:
Ali Velshi: “But one of the godly men, theoretically, asked to be involved was James Dobson of the — he was the founder of Focus on the Family, also a Colorado-based Christian ministry. He’s already backed out. Apparently, this is so tough, James Dobson says that he backed out because ‘emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help, but the reality is, I don’t have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility.’ I think this is more than just a PR thing. They really — these guys believe it’s going to fix Ted Haggard.”
Miles O’Brien: “Well, I think it could be a tremendous reality show.”
Layoff Rumors at MSNBC
By Greg Sheffield | October 18, 2006 | 16:06 A A

Perpetually last placed news channel MSNBC is rumored to face massive layoffs and see its headquarters moved from New Jersey to New York, where the rest of NBC operates. Says Gawker:
It’s that time again where we float a rumor currently making the rounds and ask you to do our work for us: We’re hearing that NBC is about to get a lot lighter, employee-wise. Some of what we’ve been told involves massive layoffs at MSNBC, with the remaining crew moving from Secaucus to 30 Rock (which means, at least, that MSNBC head Dan Ambrams will be able to have lunch with his pal Dave Zinczenko a bit more often). Fishbowl DC reports that Jeff Zucker (who will surely keep his job, what with the excellent work he’s been doing lately) will announce the firings tomorrow; let’s see if we can’t get a little more information before then. Confidential memos or scurrilous gossip here.
Stop the World, The Times Wants to Get Off
By Mark Finkelstein | August 29, 2006 | 06:23 A A

A New York Times editorial and an op-ed piece by one of its house columnists have something interesting in common this morning: stamp-your-feet frustration with the way the world is and an inability to suggest what should be done about it.
In The Falling Paycheck, the Times editorial board complains that real wages aren’t keeping up with the economy’s continued expansion. “American employees have not shared in the wealth they’ve helped to create,” laments the Old Gray Lady. Sure sounds as if the Times subscribes to the ‘surplus value’ theory of labor. And we know who came up with that.
Hot Times for Democrat Anchors at the Networks
By Tim Graham | August 21, 2006 | 18:30 A A

TV Newser reports that ABC has made it official that Chris Cuomo, the son of long-time liberal New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, will be the news anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America” starting September 5. Cuomo’s been at ABC since 1999, just a little shorter than…
George Stephanopoulos, another Democrat in media clothing. George is a hot property at ABC that CBS wanted to steal, as TVNewser cited a report from Michele Greppi:
“CBS News courted but couldn’t land George Stephanopoulos, who recently signed a new deal, with a nice raise, to stay at ABC News for four more years.”

Stephanopoulos and his agent Alan Berger initiated the talks and “the conversation never turned into an actual offer.” Sean McManus “made an aggressive pitch that included talk about multiple plum roles, including Washington bureau chief and chief political analyst, and a high-profile position as the chief on-air political foil for Ms. Couric. He is said to have been told that he would be able to contribute to ’60 Minutes.’” But McManus couldn’t offer a Sunday show “because Bob Schieffer is assured that he will be moderator of ‘Face the Nation’ for as long he wishes.”
Small World: New CBS Political Director Married Former DNC Exec
By Tim Graham | August 10, 2006 | 15:55 A A

TVNewser broke the news that acting CNN political director Molly Levinson has been named the new political director at CBS News. But he did not note that she’s newly married to Joshua Wachs, a recent executive of the Democratic National Committee, as The New York Times noted in its Weddings & Celebrations pages on July 9:
The bridegroom, 34, was until February 2005 the chief operating officer of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. This month he is to become the vice president for community relations for the National Basketball Association in New York. He graduated from Oberlin College.
Time Mag Elevates Liberal Blogger to Editor Post
By Matthew Sheffield | July 27, 2006 | 13:55 A A

Time magazine’s online operation announced today that it has promoted former liberal blogger Ana Marie Cox to be its Washington editor. Previously, she was the founder of the airhead politics blog Wonkette. Before that, she worked for the liberal magazine Washington Monthly.
Thus far, Time’s online stable includes not one conservative blogger. At present the self-described politically neutral magazine employs Joshua Marshall, Andrew Sullivan, Cox, and its White House correspondent Mike Allen, not one of whom is a conservative much less a Republican. So how is it that Time can get away with this?

UPDATE 07-28. Aww, how cute. The uberkewl Dave Weigel, one of the men who now run a site named after a woman, defends mommy:
Revolving Door: Katie Couric Using Same Publicist as Hillary
By Matthew Sheffield | July 17, 2006 | 16:49 A A

The “revolving door” is a term reporters often cynically use to talk about the close relationships that political and lobbying people have with each other. It’s certainly true that in American politics, many people do move readily between working in government posts to lobbying positions.
But what many journos won’t tell you is that there’s another revolving door that politicos use, from politics to media. They also won’t tell you that only Democrats seem to have the key. The number of Republicans moving into positions of influence inside the media is small enough you can almost count it on one hand. And in many cases, the sheer audacity of a former Republican politico daring to set foot in the press has caused left-wingers, journalist and blogger alike. The recent Ben Domenech fiasco or the disgraceful hounding that Susan Molinari experienced after being hired as an anchor at CBS are potent examples of this.
‘Balance’ from Time Magazine
By Greg Sheffield | July 14, 2006 | 10:44 A A

Time magazine has hired another liberal blogger in its ongoing effort to make the balance of its conservative vs. liberal bloggers as balanced as its news reporting. Not only that, their new blogger is a fan of Bush conspiracy theories.

AllahPundit writes at Hot Air:
This makes three bloggers writing for Time now: Marshall, Wonkette, and of course St. Andrew.
St. Andrew being the “conservative.”
Remember when WaPo hired Ben Domenech and the left wet its pants for days over the fact that they hadn’t hired a left-wing blogger to balance him out? When does Time sign Captain Ed or Josh Trevino to balance out Marshall?
ABC: Snow a “Conservative Commentator Who Called” Bush “‘an Embarrassment’”
By Brent Baker | April 26, 2006 | 20:11 A A

ABC and NBC on Wednesday night delighted in showcasing how incoming White House Press Secretary Tony Snow last year wrote that President Bush had become “an embarrassment.” But in portraying the quote as a declarative accusation, neither ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas or NBC’s David Gregory put the remark into the context of how Snow was observing that Virginia Republicans not wishing to appear with Bush during the 2005 campaign suggested “Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” And neither bothered to let their viewers in on how they were just funneling quotes from a short list collected by the left-wing Center for American Progress. Vargas teased at the top of World News Tonight, “President Bush chooses a new spokesman: A conservative commentator who once called the President ‘an embarrassment.’” Vargas managed to apply an ideological tag to Snow three times in under two minutes. She also ludicrously asserted that “Tony Snow is the first journalist to get this job.” Tell that to Pierre Salinger, Bill Moyers, Ron Nessen or Joe Lockhart — who was a producer for Vargas’ own ABC News.

NBC’s David Gregory at least hinted at some context, though he still implied it was an accusation, as he related how Snow “has criticized his new boss, writing last year that, quote, ‘George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.’” Gregory twice labeled Snow “conservative” before pointing out what eluded Vargas: “He is the first TV personality to be in the job since Gerald Ford hired away Ron Nessen from NBC News back in the 70s.” (Transcripts follow.)

Stephanopoulos Named ABC’s Top DC Correspondent
By Matthew Sheffield | December 13, 2005 | 01:40 A A

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2011—Karl Rove, the former Bush official was named ABC’s chief Washington correspondent, the network said Tuesday.
In a world where liberal press bias doesn’t exist, such a lede could, theoretically, exist. In the real world, ABC named former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos its chief Washington correspondent Monday afternoon.
With former Mario Cuomo adviser Tim Russert heading NBC’s coverage, that means two of the three broadcast networks’ political coverage will be overseen by former Democratic officials. From Broadcasting and Cable:

Shall. Not. Be. Infringed. Constitutional Law Professor my ass.

Reeds Laughables III Senior Citizen enjoying another Beautiful Day in Florida

Another  Laughable Sent by Regina Reed:

 

A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. “Amazing,” he thought as he flew down I-95, pushing the pedal even more.Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly, he thought, “What am I doing? I’m too old for this!” and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival.

Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his vehicle and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, “Sir, my shift
ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding — a reason I’ve never before heard — I’ll let you go.”

The old gentleman paused then said: “Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back.”

“Have a good day, Sir,” replied the trooper.

Obama Uses Tribal Jealousy to Advance His Brand of Marxism

Is President Obama Really A Socialist? Let’s Analyze Obamanomics?

by Peter Ferrara     at Forbes:

President Obama says that income taxes must be raised on the rich because they don’t pay their fair share.  The indisputable facts from official government sources say otherwise.

The CBO reports based on official IRS data that in 2009 the top 1% of income earners paid 39% of all federal income taxes, three times their share of income at 13%.  Yet, the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, paid just 2.7% of total federal income taxes on net that year, while earning 15% of income.  That means the top 1% paid almost 15 times as much in federal income taxes as the entire middle 20%, even though the middle 20% earned more income.

Moreover, the official data, as reported by CBO and the IRS, show that the bottom 40% of income earners, instead of paying some income taxes to support the federal government, were paid cash by the IRS equal to 10% of federal income taxes as a group on net.

Any normal person would say that such an income tax system is more than fair, or maybe that “the rich” pay more than their fair share.  So why does President Obama keep saying that the rich do not pay their fair share?  Is he ignorant?  Wouldn’t somebody in his Administration whisper to him that he is peddling nonsense?

The answer is that to President Obama this is still not fair because he is a Marxist.  To a Marxist, the fact that the top 1% earn more income than the bottom 99% is not fair, no matter how they earn it, fairly or not.  So it is not fair unless more is taken from the top 1% until they are left only with what they “need,” as in any true communist system.  Paying anything less is not their “fair” share.  That is the only logical explanation of President Obama’s rhetoric, and it is 100% consistent with his own published background.

Notice that Obama keeps saying that “the rich,” a crass term implying low class social envy, don’t “need” the Bush tax cuts.  That is reminiscent of the fundamental Marxist principle, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Good tax policy is not guided by “need.”  It is guided by what is needed to establish the incentives to maximize economic growth.  The middle class, working people and the poor are benefited far more by economic growth than by redistribution.  That is shown by the entire 20^th century, where the standard of living of American workers increased by more than 7 times, through sustained, rapid economic growth.

But President Obama’s tax policy of increasing all tax rates on savings and investment will work exactly contrary to such economic growth.  It is savings and investment which creates jobs and increases productivity and wages.  Under capitalism, capital and labor are complementary, not adversarial, exactly contrary to the misunderstanding of Marxists. More capital investment increases the demand for labor, bidding up wages to the level of worker productivity, which is enhanced by the capital investment.

Increasing marginal tax rates on savings and investment, however, will mean less of it, not more.  That will mean fewer jobs, and lower wages, just as we have experienced so far under President Obama, with median household incomes (hello middle class) declining by 7.3% (a month’s worth of wages) during his first term, even faster after the recession supposedly ended in 2009.  That will only get worse in Obama’s unearned second term, which can only be explained as “democracy failure” analogous to “market failure.”

If the tax increases are limited to those who earn $1 million or more, I don’t know if that alone will be enough to create a recession, as I am certain would be the result with Obama’s original policy of targeting couples making over $250,000 a year, and singles making over $200,000.

But there is so much in the Obama economic program that is contractionary.  His second term promises enormous new regulatory burdens and barriers.  The EPA is shutting down the coal industry, and Interior will join with it to sharply constrain oil production further, despite Obama’s duplicitous campaign rhetoric taking credit for the production produced by the policies and efforts of others.  I expect Obama’s EPA to burden natural gas fracking until it goes the way of the coal industry as well, stealing new found prosperity for many Americans.  All of this will sharply raise energy prices, which will be another effective tax on the economy.

Moreover, President Obama has said that a priority in his second term will be global warming, even though global temperatures have not been increasing for 16 years now, and the developing world led by Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries), which are contributing to “greenhouse gases” at a much greater accelerating rate than the U.S., have rejected sacrificing any slice of their economies to that ideological phantom.  While even the Democrat Congress of Obama’s first term failed to adopt “cap and trade,” EPA is advancing with global warming regulations that will cost the economy trillions in still another effective tax.

Then there are the onrushing regulatory burdens of Obamacare, including the employer mandate, which will require all businesses with 50 employees or more to buy the most expensive health insurance available.  That will be an effective tax on employment.  As Obamacare forces up the cost of health insurance, that will be still another effective tax increase on all employers already providing health coverage.  Hundreds of regulations still in the pipeline under the “Dodd-Frank” legislation are already forcing the financial sector to contract, and threaten the business and consumer credit essential to full recovery.

In addition, few are adequately considering the longer term contractionary effects of the Fed’s current policy mischief.  For years now, businesses and investments have been launched all over the country based on the near zero interest rates, and even below zero real rates, that Fed policies have perpetuated, along with the easy free money .  When those rates inevitably rise back to normal, most likely after these Fed policies have resparked inflation, the basis for those businesses and investments will be gone, and many if not most will go into liquidation, which will be highly contractionary as well.

However, I am certain in any event that the Obama tax increases will result in less revenue rather than more.  Obama has been proposing to increase the capital gains tax rate by 58% on the nation’s job creators, investors and successful small businesses, counting his Obamacare tax increases that take effect on January 1 as well the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.  While his misleading talking points say there will be no tax increases for 97% of small businesses, that counts every Schedule C filed for every part time or hobby sole proprietorship, however marginal the earnings.  The small businesses that would bear President Obama’s originally proposed tax increases earn 91% of all small business income, and employ 54% of the total private sector U.S. work force, as reported in Investors Business Daily on November 9.

Over the last 45 years, every time capital gains tax rates have been raised, revenues have fallen, and every time they have been cut, revenues have increased.  The capital gains rate was raised 4 times from 1968 to 1975, climbing from 25% to 35%.  The 25% rate produced real capital gains revenues in 1968 of $40.6 billion in 2000 dollars.  By 1975, at the higher rate, capital gains revenues had plummeted to $19.6 billion in constant 2000 dollars, less than half as much.

After the capital gains rate was cut from 35% to 20% from 1978 to 1981, capital gains revenues had tripled by 1986 compared to 1978.  Then the capital gains rate was raised by 40% in 1987 to 28%.  By 1991, capital gains revenues had collapsed to $34.4 billion, down from $92.9 billion in 1986, in constant 2000 dollars adjusted for inflation.

Obama’s capital gains tax increase next year will reduce capital gains revenues again as well.

#1……The Male in Me is What Makes Me a Conservative!

This seems to be a good time to talk or write, in my situation here,  a little about sex…..since every thing we do is related to it to some degree or another.

For some reason or another my collection of DNA on most fronts is extremely male, peculiarly male, yet, I think  strange nevertheless…….I am driven, and have been so driven throughout my memorable life to obtain my supreme  male gratification from seeking and conquering  intellectual knowledge  above all other stimuli.  

I have  hunted for such  intellectual stimulation much  as the more normal male hunts for his sexual  mate.     Looking back to my youth, I had suspected this proclivity  when in  high school, but never thought it peculiar, unique, good or bad.   With what or whom could I measure?    Looking further into my past what I can remember only enforces how I believe I understand my life responding to  the drive and  travels of  my male  DNA.

I liked girls…I like women better……decent people with whom one can have a wealth of breadth  of  discussion, but nothing much for depth when seeking  more profound learnings.    I thought for years that I was just like every other guy and  in reverse, that all other guys were just like me.      

We guys, my friends,  talked politics even in 1948….war stuff, Atom bomb  stuff, presidential  and Congressional stuff  Red threat stuff.    My best friend then, Jim Meeker, and I played a board game called something like “Electing the President”  or “Presidents” days and weeks on end whose theme was based on Jim and I as players representing   competing political parties and   strategize  by board moves similar to the board game, Monopoly,  to win the most electoral votes to elect our candidate President and therefore win the contest.

It was a very clever and sophisticated board game back when New York was a two party American  state, and had the largest population among the states and therefore the greatest clout in winning a presidency.   The game was so outstanding in its rules, the loser could  never  get upset with losing…. again rather like Monopoly where someone might accumulate more wealth than opponents, but the strategy of the game was its most enticing enjoyment.

Such ‘child’ games in Obamaland today have been replaced   by sex,  drugs, MTV,  producing  teens  filled with drive but void of knowledge.    Teaching knowledge is replaced by instruction  how to think like Obamalings.

I do not like personal topics expecially those dealing with sex,  to be made public.   I am sharing this blog article series only for its information value of one male’s experience in life to expand citizen  knowledge. 

As a kid, I played with matches.  I lived in the city.   During  World War II it was my job to empty wastebaskets and garbage from the house into the  garbage barrel alley side.   When no one was looking, I would place Quaker Oats oatmeal containers,  anything cardboard such as  cereal boxes, (we were Wheaties people, Jack Armstrong, the all-American boy people)  toilet paper cylinders, any item that would befit my imagination to build a city setting as quickly as possible so I could bomb and burn it without my mother seeing what I was doing….after all it was war time and movies, radio and newspapers  were about war.

It must have been the summer of 1944 when I was nine when Allies were bombing German cities.    I was copying in my imagination what I had seen guys do in the movies.     I had my toy lead airplanes and dropped lit  matches (bombs)  from them into crumpled newpaper inside the toilet paper silos and then I’d step back and watch the conflagration as the entire paper ‘city’ when up in flame.    This went on for weeks and weeks about evey fourth day when it was  my duty to empty the wastebaskets and burn this rubbish supposedly  in the fire barrel.

The scene  was to be made  as if I were  watching Movietone News or the March of Time at the  Highland movie theater on Saturday afternoons.  I was dreaming I was doing what guys do  in the war effort.

The play came to an abrupt end probably in late September or early October  of that year.    My cities were getting bigger, and I had become a better builder by then.   On one  Saturday my bombings were so spectacular,  flames from the burning ’city’  had spread to some dry grass particles  along the alley; dry grass which led directly  to my mother’s meticulously cared for perennial garden.

OH MY GOD!   I was in for trouble, NOW, BIG TIME, and IMMEDIATELY!     No one had yet discovered my  predeliction for  city building, but now  all hell would be upon me if discovered, or worse if I had done even an inch of damage to that beautiful perenial bed.  

I fled into our  garage next to the fire barrel and I got a beat-up broom and a spade shovel as fast as I could.  I could yield more power with faster action  with the straw broom beat up and all than the spade, I thought,  but the firestorm singed the broom;s  straw so badly it,  too,  caught on fire.   But the spade, God Bless the Spade,  was what I needed.   I whacked and whacked the ground with it as I were clobbering  a huge cobra about to bite me.  

I got the fire out, but its black fire print was everwhere Up To the sacred soil of mom’s beautiful flower bed.    Only a stretch of fifteen or twenty feet of  dry  grass by the alley had gone up in flames along with my Nazi city.

Even then I was garden savvy.   I was ruler of my family’s Victory Garden across the alley where my buddies and I would have gun fights in the corn patches fighting Nazis on a different scale and  terrain.

I was never caught for this city bombing indiscretion    However, I was asked by my  mother, the person in chief of such home grounds  matters,  a month or so later, “Whatever happened to that old broom in the garage?  I can’t seem to find it.” she  mentioned  curiously but not  accusingly.

I chose to be silent on the subject.    I had successfully covered the blackened areas with ‘mulch’  I collected from the Victory Garden.   But she never noticed either a hintful  scar from what  I had caused  or its cover I had ‘invented’.   

Had she seen the mulch I would have been praised.    I didn’t think I needed any praise, nor sought it,  so I wasn’t disappointed.

I never bombed Nazi installations  again.   The real war in Europe came to an end the next May.

How many girls my age or any age do you think might be driven by natural force to express such imaginations?     Why?     Think scientific, not Obamathink.    Seek Truth.

(to be continued)