Friday November 5th, Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC suspended Keith Olbermann indefinitely for having made campaign contributions against MSNBC policy. No other details yet.
UPDATE
The irony of it! The star of MSNBC, the creator of a list of his Worst Persons In the World, always Republicans never Democrats, is relieved of his on-air position because his campaign contributions to three Democrats might reveal a bias.
Tea Party
The Tea Party accomplished a lot but is responsible for some damage as well. The damage came out of naïveté, political inexperience and uncompromising principle, not from character flaws. The damage is contained and the movement will learn as it grows. We have Sarah Palin and the TP to thank for turning what might have been just a normal mid-term reversal into a rout, a rousing success.
Split results
Charles Krauthammer said winning the House and failing to win the Senate was the perfect result. The Democrats will be unable credibly to blame the next two years on their loss of control of the Legislature to Republicans. It’s a comforting thought but we question its validity. BTW, this will be the first time ever there was a Democratic President and Senate facing a Republican House. The acrimony level will be high. We only hope John Boehner will be up to it.
Ugliest moment
Chris Matthews lost it when interviewing Michele Bachman. Michele stonewalled him (not a practice we approve) and Matthews castigated her ruthlessly. “Are you hypnotized?” he repeated over and over in various catenations. Matthews’ attacks were not limited to Bachman. He was vicious with Sen. Eric Cantor also. Cantor handled it extremely well, much better than Bachman did. Even Rick Santelli came under disparagement by Matthews who wasn’t even sure of his name. Perhaps Olbermann will recognize Matthews for one of his “Worst” awards.
Districting effect
In the Connecticut gubernatorial race more people voted for the Republican than for the Democrat but the Democrat was declared the winner. It wasn’t fraud. Apparently Connecticut has a process similar to the national Electoral College but where districts rather than delegates cast the votes. It is the political reverse of the time Democrats screamed “unfair” when Gore won the raw vote but lost in the electoral process. Periodically, Governors get to reset the boundaries of districts within their state. This is why Obama made seven trips to Ohio to support incumbent Gov. Strickland and why Strickland’s defeat was a significant victory for Republicans.
Harry Reid
Reid’s victory, though not unexpected is the most disturbing. Not because he won, but because of how he won. It was a victory for intimidation, voting irregularities and casino money. There is still a lot of cleaning up to do in Washington.
The cleaning lady
One has to admire Sarah Palin. From the lowly post of small town Mayor she took on her own party and succeeded in cleaning out the Republican rot in Alaska. That’s audacity we can admire. She has integrity, spunk and bravery. We respectfully propose that in 2013, President Marco Rubio appoint Sarah to the post of Washington DC Cleaning Czar reporting directly to Vice President Paul Ryan.
Posted in News, Opinion, Political polemics
Tagged cleaning lady, Connecticut, election, Matthews, Ohio.Palin, Reid, Tea Party
Alicia Shepard is the ombudsman for NPR. Writing in her official capacity for the network she said “Williams is controversial among NPR listeners because of his long-standing contract with Fox News, which he had before he joined NPR.”. Shepard wrote that back in 2009. The issue has been brewing for quite some time.
Please note it is “because of his contract”. The idea that any one of the elite of NPR has no more sense of decency than to walk into the Fox News building turns their stomach. The fact that he is providing balance to Fox probably angers them more.
Yesterday Shepard penned NPR’s response to the Williams dismissal. We start with the headline.
“NPR’s Firing of Juan Williams was poorly handled”
They should have fired him in a different manner?
“Juan Williams, once again got himself into trouble.”
Once again? You never told us about the first time. Got himself in trouble? Yes, I guess he did that by not quitting breaking his contract with Fox when he took the job at NPR.
“While on Fox, he shows his politically correct submissive Pro Fox bigotry for a few dollars more.”
Shepard did not say this directly. It is from a listener, the only listener she chose to quote out of the 6,800 response she said were received. Then she quotes the same listener further.
“NPR must take a stand against this bigotry and tell Williams he must choose NPR’s code [or] go to join the racist bigoted fearmongerers (sic) of Fox.”
The quotes were given without qualification or comment. Missing was any hint of that phrase we often hear to the effect that the views expressed are not necessarily those of the management. To the contrary, they are consistent with the views of the management. The listener quoted was Mohamed Khodr.
“It is not about race. It’s also not about free speech, as some have charged. Nor is it about an alleged attempt by NPR to stifle conservative views.”
Of course it’s not.
Posted in News, Opinion, Political polemics
Tagged Alicia Shepard, Juan Williams, Mohamed Khodr, NPR
In the beginning of Al Gore’s Michael Moore grade documentary entitled An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore walks on stage and says “I’m Al Gore. And I used to be the next president of the United States of America.” An attempt was made to steal that election, but it failed.
The margin was just a few hundred votes in favor of the opponent when the Democrats tried to prevent some of the overseas ballots intelligible to be counted. The Democrats are very much aware that the troops lean Republican and their only means of voting when deployed is with the overseas ballot form. No form – no vote.
Overseas ballot forms are not distributed by the federal government nor by the states. That responsibility is left to thousands of counties, boroughs and voting districts throughout the country. This decentralization of duty opens the possibility for pockets of manipulation. If one federal office or one entire state defaulted in their duty it would not be tolerated. But if a district or two is late in the bureaucratic function of mailing some forms it could be shrugged off as government as usual.
Additionally, when there are thousands of officials responsible for one function there will be more instances of failure, intentional or otherwise. It’s worthy of note that all the districts thus far known to be delinquent are heavily Democratic, all of New York City, that’s 5 failures, one for each borough, and Michigan, the home of Detroit.
Can this be called attempted voting fraud? Perhaps not, intent cannot be proven. But as someone (It may have been Confucius.) once said “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and squawks like a duck, it’s a duck.” So to dismiss them all as inadvertent coincidences “would require the suspension of disbelief.” (I know, that wasn’t Confucius). Thanks to some of the press, including the blogs, it looks like the necessary adjustments will be made and our troops will not be deprived of their votes, this time.
John Hofmeister of Citizens for Affordable Energy was interviewed on the CNBC business channel. It is essential viewing but we are unable to embed it. So here’s a link.
Hofmeister makes many good points. Just to give you a sample he says the moratorium dictate may be lifted but there will be no commitment on the part of drillers until they know what the law is or will be. Even the regulatory authorities are still in the dark and unlikely to issue any permits for months. When the permits are finally issued, virtually every one will be hindered by lawsuits from environmentalist factions.
There is more. Click the link and watch the interview.
All in one day.
New York Times
“Soros: I Can’t Stop a Republican Avalanche”
Soros knows a bad investment when he sees one.
NY Daily News
“Terror threat to restaurants as Al Qaeda calls for attacks on government workers in D.C.”
Then would Obama use the word terrorist?
NY Daily News
“Board of Elections may nullify New York soldiers’ overseas absentee ballots”
Supporting the troops, New York style.
The Hill
“Biden: GOP could challenge Social Security in court”
Every election the Democrats pull out this same scare tactic.
Drudge
“GE Gets $25M in ‘Stimulus,’ Cuts 18,000 Jobs”
They must have spent the 25M shoring up MSNBC, nothing left for new jobs.
Politico
“Poll: Women see Barack Obama administration as a failure”
One hard core constituency down, two to go.
NJ.COM
[New Jersey] “Talk of Gov. Christie as presidential contender grows after latest campaign stop in Pennsylvania”
So far we have Bolton, Romney, Christie, Huckabee, Palin, Gingrich, Thune, Ryan and surely more to come.
Posted in News
The Washington Post reports the Obama administration was aware of widespread irregularities at the banks but chose to allow it to continue in order not to hamper implementation of their plan to give a break to people who had gotten in over their heads and were in default on their mortgages. The program goes by the ungainly name of The House Affordable Modification Plan.
With the banks already understaffed for handling the avalanche of mortgages needing workout or foreclosure, a nearly impossible task was made utterly impossible to be properly processed.
It is another case of making a bad situation worse by interfering with the free market process. What follows is the parties responsible for the problem blame it on the free market system which neither the government nor large segments of the population understand very well.
The dot com bubble and burst was pure free market in both the wealth created that caused the surplus for which the Democrats credit Clinton and in the collapse of the bubble that led to a brief recession. The mortgage crisis, on the other hand was entirely government sponsored, albeit with some help from the private sector, the Federal Reserve and of course the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA aka Ginnie Mae) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA aka Fannie Mae).
Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.
Posted in News, Political polemics
Tagged Fannie Mae, foreclosures, Ginnie Mae, mortgage, Obama
JOHN BOLTON
Caricature artists, get ready, here comes John Bolton and his mustache. John has been seen reading maps of Iowa and practicing with a Frisbie. That tells us that, if he deems he has any chance at all, he will be throwing his hat into the 2012 ring. To borrow a phrase from Rowan and Martin’s Arte Johnson, that could be …”verrry eenteresting.”
A Bolton run would be more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. John is already a certified target of the liberal press so we know he is a bona fide conservative. He knows his way around Washington but without the tarnish of ever having been an elected politician. He is a no-nonsense guy who goes right to the point. The greatest scandal in his background was relieving an incompetent bureaucrat from his duties. Somehow I don’t think that will hurt him. And best of all, he can speak with no teleprompter at all.
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BRANDEIS
“Discovery and invention have made it possible for the government, with means far more effective than stretching upon the rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what is whispered in the closet. … The progress of science is furnishing the Government with means of espionage [on American citizens] that is not likely to stop with wiretapping. ” Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928
WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit to lawmakers next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering innovation. New York Times, Sep 27, 2010
To wiretap a phone a government law enforcement agency must show cause and obtain a court order from a judge. It is not a difficult hurdle but it does provide a modicum of protection. What the current administration is reportedly proposing is new law authorizing the government to conduct constant surveillance, no specific justification required. We have seen the Presidential offices of both parties create “enemies lists” with the help of governmental agencies. That is bad enough, but our founding fathers had a far greater concern, the vulnerability of the nation’s falling into the hands of a totalitarian leader. Let’s not make it easy. In this regard, the fear is not Obama, but who may follow in years to come.
Arizonians live next door to routine violence. Fortunately most of it, but not all, takes place on Mexico’s side of the line. Nonetheless, it is difficult to find a place in Arizona where one can feel comfortable walking after sunset anywhere within 10 miles of Mexico.
Both political parties in Washington have prioritized potential votes over the safety of one of its state’s citizens.
RANDOM THOTS 