Journolist and other news of the Day

Journalist and Palin

Journalist was a political forum for left wing journalist. It is now shut down, but we are finding out more and more about it and as we do it becomes more apparent that rather than simply a forum where journalist could share ideas, leads, etc. it acted as a if it were part of the Obama campaign staff.

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/when-mccain-picked-palin-liberal-journalists-coordinated-the-best-line-of-attack/#ixzz0uPdUUmID

Journalist and Palin part 2

Here are a few more specifics we are finding out.

Suzanne Nossel, chief of operations for Human Rights Watch, added a novel
take: “I think it is and can be spun as a profoundly sexist pick. Women should feel umbrage at the idea that their votes can be attracted just by putting a
woman, any woman, on the ticket no matter her qualifications or views.”

Mother Jones’s Stein loved the idea. “That’s excellent! If enough people
– people on this list? – write that the pick is sexist, you’ll have the networks
debating it for days. And that negates the SINGLE thing Palin brings to the ticket,” he wrote. . . .

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote. And indeed Klein’s article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters.

http://volokh.com/2010/07/22/latest-journolist-revelations-attacks-on-palin/

More Bad News if your are a Incumbent and it's even worse if you are an incumbent and in control

Underscoring Congress' image problem, half of Americans now say they
have "very little" or no confidence in Congress, up from 38% in 2009 --
and the highest for any institution since Gallup first asked this
question in 1973. Previous near-50% readings include 48% found for the
presidency in 2008, and 49% for the criminal justice system in 1994.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/congressional-approval-at-historic-low.html

So this Democrat congress has less confidence in it than the Bush administration did as it left office.

Fortunately for Obama there are no Mulligans in elections

The Democrat strategy of trying to "blame Bush" won't work for a number of reasons, but the biggests reason is that the people think Obama should have done a better job. Having spent in less than two years $3 trillion more than he had, Americans are rethinking the whole "hope and change" thing.

Democrats will be gulping this morning at the Quinnipiac Poll’s latest
results. For the first time in the survey’s history, Americans believe by a 48%
to 40% margin that President Obama doesn’t deserve re-election. Almost as stinging, a plurality believe the country would have been better off if John McCain had beaten Mr. Obama in 2008.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/plurality-of-voters-believe-the-country-would-have-been-better-off-if-john-mccain-had-beaten-mr-obama-in-2008/#ixzz0uPhCMjEm

Racism?

With all the noise about Shirley Sherrod, you might not have seen this. It appears race and gender were factors used by the government in deciding which dealerships to shut down when they took over GM and Chrysler.

Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry
bailout -- closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and
Chrysler -- were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by
Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/race_played_role_in_obama_car.html

It appears post racial as practiced by the Obama Administration means discriminating against a different racial and gender groups.

You Can't Understand the Truth

Chris Dodd Strikes again

Before Dodd retires this January, he put through his financial reform bill. One of the regulations allows clearinghouses access to some of the Federal Reserve's loans.

A provision in the legislation allows clearinghouses that may pose risks to
the broader marketplace to access some of the Federal Reserve's loans, including the discount window. The measure would let clearinghouses overseen by federal market regulators, such as the Options Clearing Corp. and CME Group Inc.'s (CME) clearing venture, potentially tap discount window funds without registering as bank holding companies or being primarily regulated by the Fed.

It seems CME's board of directors has a Jackie Clegg who makes $153,000 per year on it. Jackie Clegg is also known as Mrs. Chris Dodd. Remember the golden rule: "Those with the gold rule."

A Climate Bill--On the ropes?

"The Senate climate bill has been at death’s door several times over the past
year. But with the days before the August recess quickly slipping away, the case
may truly be terminal now. "

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39969.html#ixzz0uKIMyucT

Good riddance!


Some fun with Global Warming Proponents

I found this on the web. It is a satire of the famous Jack Nicholson's speech in the movie "A Few Good Men." It's titled "You can't understand the truth!"

"Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to have
scientific equipment on them to gather data, and that data studied by men with
computers. Who’s going to do it? A layman like you? I have a greater
responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the global warming
skeptics and curse the climatologists. You have that luxury. You have the luxury
of not knowing what I know.

Have some fun, you can read it here. http://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/12/04/climategate-you-want-the-truth-you-cant-understand-the-truth/

More Bad News if you are a Democrat

It seem any Republican is now in the position to defeat Barack Obama.

"A year after President Barack Obama's political honeymoon ended, his job
approval rating has dropped to a negative 44 - 48 percent, his worst net score
ever, and American voters say by a narrow 39 - 36 percent margin that they would vote for an unnamed Republican rather than President Obama in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today."

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1478

Race and America

Democrat dirty tricks?

It seems there is a TEA Party candidate who came out of nowhere, is known by no one in the TEA Party movement and is bad mouthing the Republican candidate for the House of Representatives. It appears the Dems are up to no good.

"There also seems to be concrete evidence of Democrat chicanery at work here. DeStefano collected 237 signatures for his candidate petition. Asked if he had campaign staff or volunteers, he said his son is helping him.

Republicans said it was troubling that longtime allies and donors to Adler had signed DeStefano's petition. They include Marshall Spevak, who has worked for the Camden County Democratic Committee, pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, Adler's 2008 congressional campaign, and Adler's state Senate office. He works on the campaign of Chris Coons, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Delaware."

BTW, Adler is the Democrat candidate. Expect more of this type of thing as the Democrats in a panic over the coming election resort to subterfuge to try to get reelected.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/sneaky-dems-plant-phony-tea-party.html

Racism and Journalism

An interesting story here about how the mainstream media attempted to bury the story and the consequences of the Rev Wright scandal when Obama was running for office.

"In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by
changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote,
“Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.” . . . Thomas
Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science
professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why
don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller
proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.

“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote."

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/


I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting the feeling that the charge of racism has been thrown around so much and so recklessly in the age of Obama that it is losing it's power. The left needs to reread the tale of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." And when it comes to talking points evidently it is the left who has made it into an art form.


Is the Health Insurance Mandate a Tax?

Yesterday the Justice Department laid out it's argument that the mandate on Health Insurance is constitutional because it is a tax and the government has the power to tax. But it appears some lawyers tend to disagree.

"In brief, the argument is: The tax is not an excise tax, and it could not be
a constitutional excise tax because it is not uniform. The tax is not an income tax, and it could not be a constitutional income tax, because it is not a tax on derived income. Accordingly, the tax must be a capitation or direct tax. Article I, section 9 provides: “No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid,
unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be
taken.” The tax is not apportioned, and therefore is contrary to Article I, section 9."

http://volokh.com/2010/07/20/of-constitutional-decapitation-and-healthcare/

Polling information

Republicans now hold a 9 point lead on Democrats in the generic congressional poll.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot

Obama is a -17% in the strongly approve/strongly disapprove poll. He's done worse but this appears to be the territory he is in.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

And here's Rasmussen's summary of what the polls told us last week.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/weekly_updates/what_they_told_us_reviewing_last_week_s_key_polls

Does the Obama Administration have a problem with the truth?

After 18 months in office we can look at some facts and have to wonder about how truthful this administration is.

Healthcare Mandate

Obama swore he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year. Now in response to legal cases being brought by the states regarding healthcare, this administration is claiming the requirement to buy healthcare is a TAX. This despite the fact that during the debate on healthcare, the Administration swore this requirement was NOT A TAX. This is a double lie. It wasn't a tax but now it is and no one earning less than $250,000 would see ANY KIND of tax increase.

Abortion

The Obama administration will soon employ tax-payer funds to pay for abortions in Pennsylvania. According to CNS, the “Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.”

This is despite the fact that Obama said it wouldn't do this and that he issued an executive order to that effect. It turns out that an executive order cannot countermand a law. Now either Obama is a constitutional scholar and knew this, or he is a very bad constitutional scholar.

The War on Man made disasters (previously the War on Terror)

Obama had actually pleasantly surprised conservatives but has disappointed liberals. If you are a liberal this is where you see Obama's lying. You can watch John Stewart here and how he characterizes this.


http://tv.gawker.com/5564642/jon-stewart-blasts-obama-for-war+related-lies-broken-promises

Stimulous Bill

We have been treated to a constantly changing numbers on the number of jobs created or saved. Biden is touting 3 million while on the website he is responsible for it say less than 700,000. And 90% of these were supposed to be in the private sector when Obama was trying to pass the stimulus.

Deficit

Obama and the Democrats in general were budget hawks when they were running for office. After getting in office rather than cutting the Bush deficit they have tripled it. Of course they have a mature explanation for this. Bush started it.

Reality and It's isn't pretty if you are a Democrat

Reality comes a knocking

The Democrats are getting a look at reality as more and more polls show them in huge trouble for the coming election. Robert Gibbs admitted as much last Sunday.

"Liberal radio talk-show host Bill Press has teed up the latter option in
response to Obama's weak poll numbers. According to Press, the American public
doesn't deserve a leader as effective and farsighted as Obama. 'It just shows
once again that the American people are spoiled," Press says. "As a people, we
are too critical. We are too quick to rush to judgment. We are too negative. We
are too impatient.'"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/07/16/democrats_are_in_denial_about_november_106347.html

I can agree with Press on one thing. The American public doesn't deserve a leader like Barack Obama. We deserve much better.

The Oil flowing into the Gulf has finally stopped.

It's an interesting story on where the solution came from.

"Six weeks ago, Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, received a late-night call from an apologetic "mystery
plumber." The caller said he had a sketch for how to solve the problem at the
bottom of the Gulf. It was a design for a containment cap that would fit snugly
over the top of the failed blowout preventer at the heart of the Gulf oil spill.

Professor Bea, a former Shell executive and well-regarded researcher,
thought the idea looked good and sent the sketches directly to the US Coast
Guard and to a clearinghouse set up to glean ideas from outside sources for how
to cap the stubborn Macondo well. "

http://http//www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/oil-has-stopped-moment

In the age of Obama, it is interesting that someone without a lot of degrees or even someone who didn't work for the government came up with a solution that eluded the so called experts. I do believe in America exceptionalism.

Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams’ Accusations

Former FEC Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky (pictured at left): “I can confirm a number of facts stated by Mr. Adams in his testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the voter intimidation lawsuit filed against the New Black Panther Party and several individual defendants.”

http://http//pajamasmedia.com/blog/affidavit-of-former-fec-commissioner-hans-von-spakovsky/

A brief explanation of the Obama's Justice Department and enforcing Civil Rights Law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_a9vpo5ec

Liberals should really be concerned

Liberals should really be concerned as a PPP poll shows Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich leading Obama if they ran for President against him. But panic should set in when they see the Sarah Palin is tied with him.

"According to the poll, Obama "trails Mitt Romney 46-43, Mike Huckabee
47-45, Newt Gingrich 46-45, and is even tied with Sarah Palin at 46. The only
person tested he leads is Jan Brewer, who doesn't have particularly high name
recognition on the national level at this point."

http://http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/16/poll-obama-losing-to-romney-huck-and-newt-tied-with-palin/

Jobs, AGW, and Budget

Do these people actually believe what they say?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared yesterday that unemployment insurance
"It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name."

I would have to disagree with her. While it may stop unemployment from going higher, I don't think unemployment insurance is enough to start a recovery. So people will use the money for food, rent, etc., but they won't be going out on shopping sprees and buying big ticket items with the proceeds.

What is scary is that these people are running things.

Global Warming Alarmist blames Senator Robert Byrd's death on AGW.

Brad Johnson in a twitter said:

"June's record heat felled Robert Byrd, 18 other Americans. Will we wake up
to the fossil fuel #climate threat?"

Of course the truth always tends to be a bit more complicated. You can read it here:

http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2010/07/alarmist-brad-johnson-suggests-that.html


House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’

Last night, in an act of cowardice, and as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that "deemed as passed" a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the "deeming" document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget

Now many democrat supporters thought that the Republicans using "supplemental" bills to finance the war was an attempt to hide the cost of the war. It now appears the Democrats have gone one better and are attempting to hide the cost of their entire budget!

As the World Turns

So What to the Smart people think?

John Horgan, director of the Stevens Institute of Technology Center for Science Writings –

"My students confirm one of Chris’s points: it’s often the smartest and
best-informed who are the most skeptical of global warming. Unfortunately, classroom dialogue usually makes them dig in deeper rather than bringing them around to the “right” (i.e, my own) point of view. "

Is Homosexual Marriage a Human Right?

According to the the European Court of Human Rights the answer is no.

European nations do not have to allow same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled, though gay rights groups claimed a partial victory Friday because the court acknowledged growing agreement that their relationships should be recognized in law.

Seven judges at the European court ruled unanimously that two Austrian men denied permission to wed were not covered by the guarantee of the right to marry enshrined in Europe's human rights convention.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igM8F4LEfcn4EMpHF5tI6O5tV8gAD9GID7300

Coloradans favor an Arizona Immigration law for Colorado

61% of people polled favor an Arizona type immigration law for Colorado. 34% oppose it and 5% are undecided. Once again, the Democrat party finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion. November is going to be a nightmare for you if you are a Democrat.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100621/NEWS/100629974/1051&ParentProfile=1001

Independent voters are now indistinquishable from Republicans

Earlier this month, Resurgent Republic conducted focus groups in five key House districts, measuring how independent voters and, separately, self-identified tea-party members felt about the direction of the country.

What they found wasn't simply bad news for President Obama and congressional Democrats, but simply dismal news. Asked to compare Obama to a car, one Iowan chose an Edsel: “Something that had a lot of hype, but failed to live up to expectations.” Another older man described Obama as “a wrecked Ferrari, something that looked great to many people, but was now ruined.”

“Independents are now thinking about the same issues that Republicans are, and their thinking is virtually indistinguishable from Republicans,” he said. “Independents are really engaged, they are really paying attention. That is not normal; usually independents are a little tuned out.”

Better Late Than Never

On June 29, over seventy days after the Gulf oil spill, the U.S. Department of State released the following statement:

"The National Incident Command and the Federal On Scene Coordinator have
determined that there is a resource need for boom and skimmers that can be met
by offers of assistance from foreign governments and international bodies. The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries
and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire
containment boom from Japan. We are currently working out the particular
modalities of delivering the offered assistance. Further details will be
forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."