Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Obama, Sarkozy Trash Talk Bibi Behind Open Mic---Media Agrees to Keep Story Mum

Selective Journalism---Today’s Liberal Media at its “Finest”

The “story’s” finally getting linked by the Drudge Report that President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were caught making inappropriate/disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a backroom at the G20 summit. According to Ynet News.com, there were still open microphones left on and connected to the two leaders. Reporters who still had their headsets on, (for immediate translation), over heard three minutes of conversation between Sarkozy and Obama after the two had retired to a private back room:

French President
Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."

According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters of the day.

The conversation apparently began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington's strong objection to the move.

The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!"
===================================================
But this is only half the story. Not only had two of the world’s most powerful men been caught in an honest conversation about their true feelings towards Netanyahu, “the media”, in their infinite wisdom had agreed to not publish the embarrassing conversation:
====================================================
The surprising lack of coverage may be explained by a report alleging that reporters present at the event were requested to sign an agreement to keep mum on the subject of the embarrassing comments.

A member of the media confirmed Monday that "there were discussions between journalists and they agreed not to publish the comments due to the sensitivity of the issue."

He added that while it was annoying to have to refrain from publishing the information, the journalists are subject to precise rules of conduct.
============================================================
Tom Blummer at Newsbusters points out that the Associated Press must have also agreed to the “precise rules of conduct”, when they released three publications related to the summit, but chose not to include the two leaders backroom swarray: (check spelling)
====================================================
"Let's try to imagine that any journalist would agree to such a restriction or hesitate to violate it even if he or she did agree to it if a conversation like this involving a Republican or conservative, or really just about anyone other than Barack Obama would have occurred. Neither can I.

As partial evidence that the embarrassing comment blackout was honored, the three AP items from the summit (
here, here, and here) contain no reference to what Ynet revealed.

The least the establishment press could do is stop calling themselves reporters and properly refer to themselves as stenographers."
=======================================================
I think we could find stenographers a bit more accurate in their comprehension of the event. In this case, transparency is in the eye/ears of the beholder. Unless of course, you are a part of the selective media.
============================================================
Update: Allahpundit questions the validity of the story that has taken over four days now to hit the internet.

"I can buy that no one recorded it, and I can buy that some reporters would go so far into the tank that they’d sign a nondisclosure statement, but surely someone in the room would have found a scoop this juicy too irresistible and would have leaked it. The exchange between O and Sarkozy supposedly happened on Thursday; it took four days for news to break about an explosive “hot mic” exchange between the presidents of the United States and France about the prime minister of Israel? C’mon.

Anyone know if Arret is trustworthy? And if so, I want to know which reporters were in the room and refused to report."
==========================================================



Perhaps Allahpundit missed the three articles that the Associated Press wrote, (linked by Newsbusters), that omitted the backroom conversation.

Links to inbed into post:

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/07/uh-oh-obama-sarkozy-caught-on-open-mic-grumbling-about-netanyahu/
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145266,00.html

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2011/11/07/amazing-journos-agreed-not-publish-obama-sarkozy-snipes-about-bibi

More to come......................

(note: this post will be edited for clarity)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Your Senate-----In Action

Harry Reid Amendment # 666



At 3:59 Reid calls up amendment # 666 AND he is the only one who voted! And just like that the bill is passed. This is your Senate in action.

And then there's this little tidbit of class warfare at a recent Obama forum in California:



Let's forget for a moment that the idiot from Google, (unemployed---by choice), doesn't know that a President can not raise taxes. Only Congress can enact such legislation. He can, however, write a personal check to the IRS for any amount, leaving the individual every right to "raise his own taxes". If any one doesn't believe this scene was not scripted by the Obama campaign, I've got some dry south Florida land for sale---real cheap.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Elections Have Consequences---It’s as if 2010 Never Happened

(editor's note: This post is a "work in progress" and will be edited/revised at the discretion of the author)

Is Obama's class warfare/divide and conquer strategy going to work?

Has any one noticed that as President Obama’s approval numbers continue to head south, the rise in the level of rancorous vitriol from the left has risen? Further, adding to the “desperation factor” on the part of our liberal friends, the “information age” has become on online factory of misinformation, innuendos, deceptions, and out-right fabrications. Now, there’s fact-checkers for the fact-checkers, truth-o-meters and (insert one more) to scour thousand of stories that are neither fact-based nor honest assessments of current events. How does one comprehend what’s factual in today’s political mine-field when surveys and polling say Fox News is a leader in the misinformation business, yet MSNBC does not lean Democratic or is considered biased?

One thing you can bet on with certainty, the level of liberal media opinion-makers will most likely implode as we head further into this political season.

With the President’s numbers on a downward spiral, (and his perpetual campaign speeches wearing thinner than an Al Gore ozone layer), it’s not hard to understand why the left has become desperately in search of a positive narrative to overcome Obama’s economic failures sending this nation into a fiscal Armageddon. His most recent Jobs bill has supplied late night comedians with plenty of material, while Congress, (specifically the United States Senate), can’t/won’t even come up with a compromise to anything they receive from the House.

Take for example what transpired on Friday. John Boehner and the House of “Representatives” passed a bill early in the morning that directed $3.65 billion to FEMA, (with spending offsets*), that Harry Reid and the Senate immediately rejected. Harry apparently thought it would be a good idea to take the weekend off to “cool off”. My thought is Harry desperately needs the weekend to have his political tools make the rounds on the liberal networks to frame the House conservatives as obstructionist---another political ploy that is wearing thin.

Since the Republicans swept the Democrats out of the House in the 2010 “shellacking”, they’ve sent numerous bills, (some even bipartisan), to the Senate---INCLUDING A BUDGET, (that Nancy Pelosi had taken a pass on), only to see the legislation tabled/killed by the Democrats. Sweeping legislation that had the official stamp of reducing the Obama spending spree containing deficit reductions, spending caps, and pruning the federal regulatory statutes have all enter the Senate chambers only to die at Harry Reid’s obstructive hands.

Of course, the liberal media won’t ask Harry where the Senate’s budget is---for the past 900 + days---or why the Senate Democrats still insist on spending every dollar of the taxpayers with out a hint of how it’s to be repaid. Does anyone remember how many times Pelosi’s House actually implemented PAY-GO into their legislation or how many times “the pledge“ was omitted? (and remember, anything that falls under the category of “a crisis” doesn’t count).

The stock market dropped (insert numbers) last week. The President’s Jobs Bill will go nowhere in the Senate or the House. And now we have both the President and Harry’s Senate opposing “all things passing from the House”, while the accusations of “playing political games with American’s lives” reeks of solipsism from the liberal Democrats as ideologies clash. With Obama’s dismal record, liberal Democrats have little to boast about “their side’s accomplishments”, so they’ve taken the perilous tact of the classic rich vs. poor. This tactic might actually work better in a strong economic picture, but for the most part everyone’s in the same sinking boat. The liberals are even losing the “fair share” argument, (follow this sentence up with a bit more). Obama and Harry are demanding that every bill from the House be “clean” with no responsible strings attached that might reconcile an already burgeoning debt.

(insert last paragraph here)

(add adjective/verb obnoxious) (insert links)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

George W. Bush Strikes Again

Barack Obama's got a perfect excuse for why the market has dropped---It's all "W's" fault.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

President Obama’s Grand Plan, Not So Grand---Blame Game Continues

Calling Obama’s Bluff---(Part Two)

Most likely, under the advice of David Axelrod and David Pflouffe, President Obama has decided to further divide the Congress and make a political argument to try to persuade Americans that the intransigent Republican-controlled House of Representatives is responsible for this nation’s economic woes. With Congress already divided, (except when his Democratically controlled Senate voted unanimously, 97-0, against the President’s budget), Obama, (with the full cooperation of his biased liberal media) believes the public will swallow his ploy to produce “A MAJOR JOBS PLAN” that will be presented shortly after Labor Day. The plot, according to political analysts is to fill his “major jobs plan” with just enough pork, (another stimulus) to get rejected by the Tea Party House Republicans and never reach the Senate for consideration. Hence, the blame for the state of the economy and the lack of jobs will fall directly on those unreasonable Republicans who have been calling for fiscal responsibility since last November when the big spending Democrats were swept out of power.

For the past few weeks President Obama has been staking out the claim that “a certain group of politicians” are “playing politics” to send the President back to Chicago, and not concerned with repairing the nation’s perilous economic situation. As commentator’s have pointed out, he is questioning their patriotism in putting party above country. Obama’s blame game is setting the table for another round of rhetoric-filled promises, and again short on specifics.

But, the President has always been short on specifics. Remember, even the “grand bargain” was never seen by the public. But let’s make an honest attempt to decipher Obama’s latest plan according the Philadelphia Inquirer online:


WASHINGTON - The jobs package that President Obama plans to announce shortly after Labor Day could include tens of billions of dollars to renovate thousands of dilapidated public schools and a tax break to encourage businesses to hire workers, according to people familiar with White House deliberations.

As aides put together the proposal, they are also working out a companion plan to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade, which Obama would share with the 12-member congressional "super committee" charged with finding long-term fixes for the growing national debt.

The deficit-reduction plan would rely on some of the ideas Obama worked on in private negotiations with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) during the summer, aides said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a proposal that is still taking shape.


Got that, folks? Three years of skyrocketing unemployment, record deficit spending, higher gas and food prices and an increasing lack of confidence in the One’s policies that have choked off consumer spending...and Obama’s plan is still taking shape. Specifically, (and ironically), it won’t be ready until after Labor Day, a day celebrating millions of hard working Americans who have made this not only the most exceptional nation in history, but the most successful economy in history.

But let’s get back to this “grand plot”. By producing another grand plan that will call for another round of stimulus to “specifically” rebuild schools around the country---all guaranteed to be performed by UNION CONTRACTORS---and a long-term deficit reduction plan that the President will only share with his new “super committee”, the President will have set up the Congress for another outright rejection based solely on more government spending and raising taxes. Specifically, Obama will say, “see, the Republicans don’t want to solve any issues, and it's all their fault for our economic woes. They have offered nothing but NO DEAL."

WRONG, MR. OBAMA

The House of Representatives PASSED CUT, CAP, AND BALANCE! CCB passed in the House 234-190, (with 19 members not voting), and was overwhelmingly embraced by the general public by a two to one margin. President Obama can ignore this fact. Harry Reid, (who wouldn’t even bring the legislation to the floor for debate), can ignore this fact. The liberal media can also ignore this fact, but every one else out in real America is not ignoring the simple fact that Obama and Harry’s Senate turned down the Republican's plan to put spending caps on a runaway government.

So, Obama will be tying together a deficit spending measure with a jobs measure, (that’s still short on specifics and long on rhetoric), and it will surely be rejected either in the House or the Senate---and he knows it. And for some unknown reason, the White House believes the blame for the rejection will sit squarely on conservative Republicans. Fat chance Mr. President. But go ahead and play these POLITICAL CARDS. Try convincing Americans---starving for work, pleading for leadership, and looking for fiscal responsibility from their government---that this plot is not DEAD ON ARRIVAL AND NOTHING SHORT OF ANOTHER POLITICAL GAME BEING PLAYED BY YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA. Who's really putting their party above the country's needs?

Guess what Mr. President? Americans are not only calling your bluff, they're not playing this game any more. And you’re sitting at the table……..alone. Why don't you attempt to do something Presidential, (for a change), like firing your political and economic advisors, put aside the blame game of "gotcha politics", and present a policy that is A REAL JOBS PRODUCING BILL. Now that would be a real sign of leadership.




Saturday, August 13, 2011

Afterburner with Bill Whittle: Rich Man, Poor Man


The Most Famous Democrat to Lower Taxes



Today, Barack Obama and most Democrats want to raise your taxes, (cleverly called raising revenues), to reduce the debt. These are the same Democrats who tripled the deficits in three short years spending far more than the government takes in. Most economist say raising taxes will certainly slow the growth of this economy, already mired in a 9%-15% unemployment debacle. Revenues are plummeting because consumers simply have no discretionary money to spend. Add to the fact that the Federal Reserve, (Treasury), is printing money at a pace never recorded in U.S. history---driving the dollar down and weakening the purchasing power of the consumer, and we have a recipe for another and more severe recession.

John F. Kennedy must have had some pretty smart economic advisers during his shortened stay in the White House, but he knew lower taxes meant more money in American’s pockets, checking, and savings accounts, AND the economy grew. Today’s liberal progressive Democrats are not yesterday’s Kennedy Democrats. They want to spend more, tax more, and expand the government. It’s time to send them a message.

THE DAYS OF BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS OVER!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Flashback: 2006---Senator Obama Voted NO on Raising the Debt Ceiling

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.".....Senator Barack Obama

And who else voted no on raising the debt ceiling?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

NOT ONE VOTE!

Joe Scarborough: “What hard vote have the Democrat’s made on the debt…..NAME ONE VOTE!”


This is a short version but you can skip ahead to around 2:50 for the real juicy part. (or, you can watch the whole episode here)





Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


(note: this post is linked to this Greenroom post)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Promises Never Kept.......



Can we really afford four more years of this big government social experiment?

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Saturday, April 23, 2011


(left-click on photo to enlarge)

15th Annual Blues by the Bay Line-up Released

The Fifteenth Annual Blues by the Bay line-up is here. After the loss of the longest running Blues Festival in the country, 1973-2009, (the San Francisco Blues Festival---due to production cost over-runs and a slow economy), Redwood Coast Music Festivals, (RCMF) is proud to announce the our 15th running of Blues by the Bay. The Labor Day weekend festival will be held again adjacent to the beautiful Humboldt Bay at Halvorsen Park, Eureka, California on Labor Day weekend, September 3rd & 4th.

Our Saturday and Sunday afternoon headliners feature Tommy Castro and Tower of Power with a power-packed line-up proceeding each of them. On Saturday morning Laurie Morvan hit’s the stage at 10:30 a.m., followed by Kaye Bohler, Deanna Bogart, and Joe Louis Walker, leading into the evening finale of Tommy Castro and his now Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue, where Bogart and Walker will join Tommy on stage in what Blues Fans will never forget. Speaking of Blues Revue, Castro is featured on this year's cover that includes a plethora of current music awards sending Castro to the top of charts.

On Sunday the show starts with our own local gospel choir, The Arcata Interfaith Gospel Choir at 9:30 a.m., followed by Twice as Good, Tom Rigney & Flambeau, Earl Thomas, The John Nemeth Soul Revue, leading into the legendary music of Tower of Power at 5:20 p.m.

See all information and links here!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Washington Post: Real U.S. Unemployment Stands Between 10.5% and 16%

(H/T: Breitbart’s Big Government)

The Post today cleverly calls this country’s unemployment rate a “domestic challenge” to economic recovery, while admitting what most Americans already know. The reality is unemployment figures provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t provide the true amount of Americans out of work. There’s a “hidden workforce” according to the Post, yet the only thing hidden is the media’s, (and the government’s), ability to destort these facts—until now.

“Overshadowing the nation’s economic recovery is not only the number of Americans who have lost their jobs, but also those who have stopped looking for new ones.

These workers are not counted in the Labor Department’s monthly unemployment rate, yet they say they are willing to work. Since the recession began, their numbers have grown by 30 percent, to more than 6.4 million, amounting to a hidden labor force that could stymie the turnaround.

Adding these workers to February’s jobless rate pushes it up to 10.5 percent, well above the more commonly cited 8.9 percent rate. An even broader measure of unemployment, which includes people forced to work part time, stands at nearly 16 percent.”
link (emphasis mine)

This story kind of undermines Mr. Morrissey’s report by a WSJ “analysts” that unemployment might be heading down to 7%.

Of course, manipulating sources of information by this administration is nothing new. Recall the figures the Democrats supplied to the CBO when they were trying to keep ObamaCare under a trillion dollars? Does double counting savings from Medicare ring any bells? In the case of real unemployment, the Post calls it “a technical quirk”

“Part of the reason these workers are not factored into the unemployment rate is a technical quirk: Workers are counted as unemployed only if they are actively job-hunting. Otherwise, they are considered outside of the labor force altogether. That means Silver Spring resident Dirk Bos, 42, isn’t technically unemployed, according to the government’s definitions, even though he hasn’t worked since he was laid off from his position as a construction administrator at an architecture firm in 2008. Over a million members of this group have given up looking for work even though they are able to hold a job — people officially designated as “discouraged.” That’s more than double the number at the start of the recession.”

Now what could be the motivation behind the government providing these technical quirks? You guessed it, it’s a political disaster for this next election cycle:

“Bringing these workers back into the labor force could prove to be a tricky problem, both politically and economically. If they begin to seek work in an improving job market, they could increase the unemployment rate. That’s a scenario that will be tough for politicians headed into campaign season to explain, particularly since the rate is being used to excoriate Obama’s administration. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, for example, has made the unemployment rate the centerpiece of what he is now calling the Obama Misery Index.”

Might as well fill out those NCAA office pool brackets and take a Rio vacation. It’s sure to get worse before it gets any better.

Meanwhile, Air-head Burnett* on CNBC reports this morning that “jobless benefits dropped for third time in four weeks—”good news”. Who’s paying these people?

* Air-head is really the lovely Erin Burnett, who’s future appears to be an apprenticeship for a high level government accounting job.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Happy 100th Mr. President



They certainly broke the mold with this great American leader.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

The Three Branches of Government---According to Chuck Schumer

Via Hot Air

"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strong they feel — you know, we have three branches of government: we have a House, the Senate, we have a President, and all three of us are going to have to come together and give some. But it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government, just as it is playing with fire to risk not paying the debt ceiling."



Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a margin of 66%–33%.

Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Schumer served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999. He represented New York's 16th congressional district, which was later redistricted to the 10th congressional district in 1983 and to the 9th congressional district in 1993. A native of Brooklyn and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly, serving from 1975 to 1980.


Oh well, sometimes those Harvard Law students just seem to "slip through the cracks".

Saturday, January 08, 2011

College and Pro Football Round-up

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has a post up with his predictions on this Saturday's play-off games:

•Saints at Seahawks – Purists are angry that a 7-9 team even got into the playoffs, and even more upset that an 11-5 team had to go on the road as a wild card to play them. They won’t stay angry long. New Orleans hasn’t exactly looked like the world-beaters of last season and ended with a loss last week, but they should be more than a match for the mediocre Seahawks regardless of whether Matt Hasselbeck or Charlie Whitehurst starts the game. Saints should blow past Seattle on cruise control, 31-13.

•Jets at Colts – Say, do you think Rex Ryan’s admission of a personal mission to beat Peyton Manning has Indianapolis a little fired up this week? The Colts started to regain their form towards the end of the season, while the Jets started playing inconsistently down the stretch. Mark Sanchez seems to have righted the ship, but Manning will do better against the Jets’ tough defense than Sanchez will against the Colts’ more ordinary one. Plus, the home field will be a big advantage for Manning. It won’t be easy and we’ll see a couple of lead changes during the game, but the Colts should outlast the Jets, 24-20.

Here's my response:

I think the Saints will beat the Seahawks but not as convincingly as Ed’s numbers (31-13). My guess: Saints 28, Seahawks 23. The Jets on the other hand will upset the mildly favored Colts 26-17, (Manning will throw three INT’s)

On a side note, the Forty Niners won the Jim Harbaugh sweepstakes as another Stanford coach takes the reins of a team that was without coaching last year. Harbaugh reportedly signed a five-year, $25 million contract, leaving Stanford with a stellar 12-1 record this year, and an impressive 40-12 victory over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Stanford’s lone loss was to undefeated Oregon, (Stanford lead Oregon 21-3 in the first quarter, but were held scoreless in the second half losing to the Ducks 52-31)

Since there probably won’t be a National Championship open thread here, I will predict Oregon defeats Auburn 48-31 on Monday night because of Auburns ranking on allowing points, (54th), and Newton won’t run wide open in this game. He will break out for some quality runs in the game, racking up a team leading 1400yds and 20 TD’s, but not as he has against their foes this year. Oregon ranks #1 in scoring and 12th in scoring defense. They won’t completely stop this potent Tiger offense, but as the game plays out I just think Oregon will outscore them.