Monthly Archives: September 2012
Main stream media makes replacement refs look like true professionals
Often you’ll get a “re-edited” warning before a television movie starts. It normally goes like this: This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen. Films are often edited for content (sex, nudity, violence, language, smoking, disturbing images, drug use, etc.) and time as well.
With the traditional media the re-edited warning should go as follows: This political video/audio clip has been modified from its original version. It has been edited to fit the agenda of this network, producers, editors, reporters, and hosts.
And while most everything created comes from an autobiographical point of view, it’s somehow easier to filter the biases in print. It’s called closing the tab (or if it’s Dana Milkbag, Tom Frymom, Paul Rugrat, Moron Dowd, or Charles Blows, it’s reading the first paragraph, laughing your guts out—generally not the author’s intent—and then closing the tab).
The biases of edited video/audio clips seen on television, created with a particular point of view and with a particular agenda, are more difficult to filter. After all, when deceptively editing audio/video content, the MSM is taking deliberate action to create a new/false “reality” with political malice and forethought. How is such deception different from lying? It isn’t.
Second, it can be difficult to reconcile what you’ve seen with your own eyes via MSNBC’s deceptively, cleverly, and subtly edited bite designed to denigrate Mitt Romney, even if you know MSNBC couldn’t find basic journalistic principles if they were taped to their shoes. The MSNBC video certainly fooled the Mourning Joe host (pun intended and if you liked that, I’ve got a million more).
So we’re at the point where the gruesome fails of the traditional media make the NFL’s replacement referees look like consummate professionals. In fact, unlike the replacement refs who lacked malice, the MSM seems to be both inept and covetous of the power of the referee.
And how is that made manifest? By a press that’s shown itself to be chock-full of politicos, amateurs, ideologues, and frauds who are attempting to present a false front of objectivity (including fake/sold out house conservatives like Joe Scarborough) while spinning, throwing false flags, and lying for their team.
Has the media’s performance hit bottom yet? Absolutely not: the election is still to occur. And should Romney be elected, their attempts to destroy him will make their anti-Bush agenda look like a first-grade Christmas pageant.
Obama as eye candy
Barry Oh! seems to think he’s eye candy.
For those Americans who work and pay taxes to make ends meet, he’s the fuzzy end of the lollypop.
Is that what he means by eye candy?
Consider some real eye candy (and I don’t mean Tony Curtis).
Harvey Updike, meet Nurse Ratched
Remember Harvey Updike, Alabama fan and state-wide pariah, the man charged with poisoning the aged and landmark oak trees at Auburn University’s Toomer’s Corner—and then bragging about it (as “Al” on the Paul Finebaum radio show)? Well, he’s off to the psych ward in Tuscaloosa.
(We hate to explain it this way, but you really have to be at Toomer’s’ Corner to understand the camaraderie of the Auburn community… assuming a win.)
And although we all desire mercy versus justice (for ourselves), would justice find Harvey facing the same outcomes as Randle McMurphy’s visit to the psych ward?
Based on Harvey’s recent mug shot on the charge of terrorizing (this time, a non-environmental form of terrorism), it would appear the first stage, the lobotomy, has perhaps occurred.
While in lock up, will Harvey have to face the Chief? And if so, is the Chief an Auburn fan?
(AP photo)
Make the wrong video, get arrested
Make a not-government-approved video, get arrested.
From The Smoking Gun:
Investigators have not yet provided details about how [the producer of the film trailer Innocence of Muslims, AKA the Muhammad Movie Trailer, Nakoula Basseley] Nakoula allegedly violated probation, but it seems clear that his involvement in the “Innocence of Muslim” production is central to the government’s new charge.
Next thing you know, he’ll be charged with a thought crime. Oh wait, he effectively is.
Nakoula had restrictions place on his internet usage and was not allowed to use anything but his real name as terms of his probation following a 2010 conviction for bank fraud.
So while we can’t condone a possible probation violation, it would seem the restrictions were likely based on Nakoula’s bank fraud and were not intended to suppress his freedom of speech.
Nakoula should have made a video where instead of looking something like a bewhiskered Randy Quaid (on green-screen and with an overdeveloped libido), Muhammad is instead honor-murdering females, practicing affirmative action, and stoning homosexuals. That would have placed Uncle Sugar/Big Brother in a real moral bind.
The solution to Obama-fail
The solution to Obama-fail (both domestic and foreign), as prescribed by Obama, his handlers, and most of the MSM is simple: apply more Obama.
Instructions: pick the best explanation for the above “solution.”
a) Insanity (that is, keep doing more of the same and you’ll get different results).
b) The solutions to the problems at hand cannot be adequately addressed by the minds that created the difficulty.
c) He may be an idiot, but he’s our idiot.
d) Nancy Pelosi is not electable at a national level, but Barack Obama is.
e) b and c above.
Discuss among yourselves. The correct answer will be posted at a later date.
Benghazi debacle: nothing here to see
The Obama Administration doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on the Benghazi debacle as being attributable to the Muhammad movie trailer as the source of all Muslim rampage, including its culpability for the in the murder of four Americans.
Why? Because failure to assign blame to an external source means the Administration would be responsible for the gross security failure at Benghazi.
And more so, a gross security failure is indicative of a gross leadership failure which can be further equated to gross policy failures and gross failures of competence.
For an Administration that’s predicating a re-election based on domestic policies of wealth transfer and class warfare (while ignoring the debt, unemployment, crony capitalism, new government barriers to wealth creation, etc.) and foreign policy “wins” via the death of Bin Laden and the success of drone strikes (ignoring the melt-down in the Middle East, the failure of the Russian reset, Iran going nuclear, unending China human rights violations and territorial disputes, etc.), the whole house of cards regarding Obama’s leadership, policies, and competence comes falling down.
What will America’s smartest president and the world’s most powerful man to do? Blame Bush, or better—in the mind of Barry and his handlers, to include the MSM—blame Romney.
Madonna’s new endorsement package announced
(NEW YORK, APIN) The recording artist formerly known as Madonna has just completed an endorsement package with McDonalds which will result in her being known as McDonna for the next five years.
The deal, thought to cost the fast food chain $3 to 4 million and “one Chicken McNugget Happy Meal for every African man, woman, and child” at some future date, is viewed as a career boost to the aging and unattractive star.
McDonna-linked sources have revealed McDonalds won a bidding war with Pepsi who was intending to have McDonna self-immolate in a tie-in promotion and tribute to the late Michael Jackson. Heirs to the Jackson estate are said to be considering legal action.
However, the McDonalds deal is already subject to controversy as the contract’s “good citizenship clause” is thought to be at risk for McDonna calling President Obama a black Muslim, advocating unsafe sodomy, and violating the little-known Hollywood-Michelle Obama fast food deglamorization agreement (sometimes referred to as HOMOFFDA), at a recent lip-sync event.
McDonna’s adopted agent and former Rwandan child star Angelina Follicle, did not return calls or offer further clarification on the situation, but in related news, rap artist Eminem is said to be considering a public-private agreement with Disney which if approved, would result in his being known as Anaheim. In response, former angry rocker Neil Young announced his intent to update, re-master, and re-issue his This Note’s For You music video.
(Philup Nubia and Zerxes Jones-Smith from APIN’s Mumbai Information, Research, and Translation Service enclave contributed to this article.)
Gaffemaster Flash: Biden or Obama?
When a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, it still makes a noise.
When Barack Obama makes a gaffe in the public arena, it still makes a noise. But as with the tree, no one hears the noise. Why? Because the media fails to address the gaffe. It’s not too much unlike explaining away our daily Bidenisms: that’s just Joe being Joe (which is media code for this: he may be a total idiot, but he’s our total idiot).
Barry seems to think the bodies of four murdered Americans are a speed bump in his record of foreign policy achievement, right up there with the Russian reset and rebuilding the American image with the Muslim world.
The good news is he’s stopped the seas from rising.
Why Obama favors campaigning over governing
When Dana Milkbag Milbank sees that Barry Oh! has gone over the top in his re-election efforts, you know things are pretty bad for Obama and his fellow travelers. But for Barry, the lessons are clear: it’s better to be loved than to be respected and it’s better to be re-elected than loved.
Even the intrepid Milkbag knows the American president has an important obligation to meet with foreign leaders (as opposed to courting the hosts and audience of The View).
But it isn’t nearly good enough to point out an obvious, if gruesome, Obama flaw; that’s like not taking one for the team. What to do? An idea springs to life from the Milkbag mind: Blame Romney for doing the same thing!
This, of course, conveniently forgets that Romney is an as-yet unelected candidate. That means Romney isn’t yet in a position to represent American positions because he isn’t yet the President of the United States (even though he’s met with foreign leaders in his role as Republican nominee).
And all those trees falling in the forest of Obama’s presidency? They’re the epic failures and root rot the media somehow can’t see or hear.
Re-examining Robert Rubin
After he stepped away from Treasury in 1999, Rubin moved to Citigroup (C), and until 2009 he served as chairman of the executive committee and, briefly, chairman of the board of directors. On his watch, the federal government was forced to inject $45 billion of taxpayer money into the company and guarantee some $300 billion of illiquid assets. Taxpayers ended up with a 27 percent stake in Citigroup, which was sold in 2010 at a cumulative profit of $12 billion. Rubin gave up a portion of his contracted compensation—and was still paid around $126 million in cash and stock during a tenure in which his serenity has come to look a lot more like paralysis. “Nobody on this planet represents more vividly the scam of the banking industry,” says Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan. “He made $120 million from Citibank, which was technically insolvent. And now we, the taxpayers, are paying for it.”
For most American’s, the above sounds more like rube-enomics, or more accurately, crony capitalism.
Around the internet: world news today
From Virginia, the state’s U.S. Senate candidate, Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said that he’s open to having a “minimum tax level for everyone.” Kaine went on to say he feels the minimum tax level should be an individual $2000 tax credit, a position largely consistent with President Obama and his economic advisors. Obama team insiders are said to be debating a minimum tax ranging from Kaine’s $2000 tax credit to a $10000 tax credit per household. Policy makers are also considering allowing qualifying households to opt for a Chevy Volt in lieu of the minimum tax tax credit.
On the campaign trail, the President decried the “bitter clinging” of mob violence, intolerance, mayhem, and destruction of property said to be planned by Mormons in response to the hit Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon.” Internet sources reveal the President is said to have his concerns sharpened based on Homeland Security briefings which relied upon unimpeachable Southern Poverty Law Center and The New Republic sources for their conclusions.
Appearing on Fox News, Presidential advisor David Axelrod responded to The American Spectator’s challenge to Name a single thing that has improved under his [President Obama’s] rule. Axelrod told host Shemp Smith that many things have increased under the President’s governance including gasoline prices, unemployment, food stamp usage, and the federal debt. Smith then challenged Axelrod saying, “While those are increases, almost no one views them as improvements.” Axelrod countered with, “This campaign won’t stoop to partisan politics,” and walked off the set in apparent disgust as soon as the show went to break.
In Washington, several high-level GOP senators emerged from a top secret briefing with senior Administration officials, incensed that the Obama team offered no new information while failing to answer questions regarding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans. In response, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Sandy Winnefeld told the media they felt the briefings—which in an unusual turn, had been outsourced to the Southern Poverty Law Center and The New Republic—were “accurate, timely, and well received.”
It’s now been more than 100 days since U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. began a “medical leave of absence.” Jackson’s staff has not disclosed when he may be able to resume his official duties but denied that his absence is related to alleged drug abuse. Skeptics have questioned this assessment with the revelation that Jackson has already been announced as starring in the season premier of the A&E Network’s popular reality show Intervention.
In the debates associated with the hotly contested campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, Senator Scott Brown was said to have dismantled his foe, Elizabeth Warren. Warren surprised—and terrified—observers by showing up in a Cherokee head dress, Prada shoes and matching bag, and nothing else. For her part, a Warren campaign spokesman said Warren scored points by saying Brown “spoke with forked tongue.”
In a move disquieting to knowledgeable economists, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has decided to skip QE3, 4, and 5 and proceed directly to QE6. Bernanke said, “Tripling our money supply in six years has clearly not done the trick. I hope QE6 will.” When asked by CNBC host Larry Kudlow later that day, “Just what is the trick you’re trying to accomplish, Mr. Chairman?”, Bernanke shrugged. Bernanke soon departed the CNBC set for a fundraiser for President Obama intended to dishonor street economists Fo’pak (University of Chicago) and Notorious H.A.Y.E.K. (University of Freiburg).
Stay tuned for updates which will occur as time and conditions permit.
Around the internet: world news today
From Washington DC, Hillary Clinton prepares to brief Congress on the issue of the security of the U.S. embassies overseas. A preview of the testimony centers on George W. Bush’s failure to fund embassy security upgrades, his failure to use contracted security forces, his failure to improve relations with Islamists everywhere, his failure to censor American citizens as required, and his failure to provide President Obama with a satisfactory change-of-command briefing on the subject. Unnamed Administration sources add that all is well in the Middle East and that this is all a part of the President’s “lead from behind” effort, which is said to require another four years to complete.
On a related subject, the media is prepared to support the Secretary’s positions.
In Arizona and regarding the Justice Department’s Fast and Furious conspiracy which resulted in the death of one Border Patrol agent and innumerable Mexican citizens, the Administration “did its best to deflect criticism downward for decisions that should have been made and monitored at much higher levels.” The Administration, the highest level of government, had no further comment.
On the business front, GM wants out of the Administration’s $82 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of the automotive industry. The bailout, generously estimated to have saved one million jobs, many of them in China, also killed 200,000 American jobs. The overall effort is a part of the Administration’s commitment to win re-election and to additionally bring the United States in line with its global partners. If true, each “job saved” cost the taxpayers over $100,000. Finally, the Administration hopes to make up on the $50,000 lost on each Chevy Volt sold with higher sales volume.
With gas prices at historical highs, the Administration is asking drivers everywhere to check their tire pressures and consider investing in a Chevy Volt. Administration advisor and former President Jimmy Carter suggest setting the thermostat to 68 (not the air conditioning, the heat), putting solar water heaters on the roof, and should conditions permit, wearing a cardigan sweater.
In the nuclear arena, the Administration is said to be pleased with “useful and constructive” negotiations with Iran regarding their renegade nuclear weapons programs. The U.S. is now said to be considering supplying Iran with a small number of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles if Tehran agrees to end their illegal pursuit of such weapons.
Finally, the Administration has released their new “American Obama” flag. An Administration spokesman descried the flag as “… one for all Americans. The President isn’t any different than anyone else, except being smarter; he just wants to stay stoned out of his skull, ensure government-provided bread and circuses, and let his freak flag fly.” A Romney campaign spokesman said the symbol is disrespectful and should be retired immediately. The media universally condemned the Romney campaign for its insensitivity and referred the issue to the Justice Department as a thought crime before announcing Mr. Romney’s candidacy to be “dead on arrival.”
Stay tuned for updates which will occur as time and conditions permit.
My sharia amour
Sarah Chayes at the LA Times wonders Does ‘Innocence of Muslims’ meet the free-speech test?
…much 1st Amendment jurisprudence concerns speech explicitly advocating violence, such as calls to resist arrest, or videos explaining bomb-making techniques. But words don’t have to urge people to commit violence in order to be subject to limits, says [Anthony] Lewis. “If the result is violence, and that violence was intended, then it meets the standard.”
Indeed, Justice Holmes’ original example, shouting “fire” in a theater, is not a call to arms. Steve Klein, an outspoken anti-Islamic activist who said he helped with the film, told Al Jazeera television that it was “supposed to be provocative.” The egregiousness of its smears, the apparent deception of cast and crew as to its contents and the deliberate effort to raise its profile in the Arab world a week before 9/11 all suggest intentionality.
Wow. It would seem (based on her thoughts) I can no longer wear my Invade Canada t-shirt.
And the whole sharia law thing also seems like it might be a bit of a slippery slope. For example, once someone has had a close relative honor-murdered, had a homosexual friend or two stoned, had the LA Times burned down because they ran a Mohammad cartoon (not that they would ever do that!), or had their cut a tongue out for partaking in fermented beverages, Chayes and her fellow travelers may think twice about the wisdom of such a position.
The befuddling cluelessness of the liberal media
The liberal media thinks they have the definitive Mitt Romney gotcha, the fact that Romney has recognized—and said with his out loud voice—that government has become the tool (not de jour, but des décennies) for forced redistribution.
Or to paraphrase a long dead (and still disreputable) white male, from each according to their ability to pay, to each according to the government standard.
The liberal media thinks the observation might be both a profound destructor of Romney’s presidential campaign and a useful point of departure to highlight the greatness of government. From the paragon of Learjet liberalism, The New Republic and author Jonathan Cohn:
…the fact that the entitlement state has grown shouldn’t, by itself, alarm us. It’s actually a sign of progress, because it’s a reminder that the government has stepped in to do what the market would not.
Liberals fail to ignore that things happen in a market for a reason. Why does manufacturing move offshore? Cheaper labor. Why do families not take care of their own? Because the state does it. Why are food stamp numbers soaring? The government condones and encourages such behavior. Why don’t children have fathers in their lives? Because mother government will provide.
More:
With any luck, Romney’s controversial comments will get people to think about these contradictions [regarding the elderly, health care for the poor, and Social Security]—and to realize that they like government a lot more than they seem to realize.
While most people are willing to accept a large and continuing gift of cash or services, especially when it didn’t cost the recipient, the disconnect that liberals fail to see is that these programs are unsustainable. I’d like to only be billed $10 to have my car repaired, to fill my gas tank, or for a shopping cart full of groceries, but I know any business offering such deals would soon be out of business no matter how much I like these prices. Such examples are not market failures but failures to understand basic economic principles.
We generally prefer steak to hamburger, Cadillacs to Chevys, and high-speed internet over dial-up and perhaps a lot more than we seem to realize. However, just because this is true doesn’t mean the nation can afford the more expensive options no matter how much we like them or for that matter, how much the above programs—and thousands of other redistribution programs—clear the liberal conscience. What matters to the nation is if they are affordable. Many costly programs are affordable if for a short period of time. But we’re not talking about short periods of time.
Is it wrong in the liberal mind when the government makes promises it knows can’t be kept or when it transfers today’s debt to future generations? To paraphrase Cohn, it’s probably actually a sign of progress that we’ve learned we must defer to the wisdom and power of the state. (Of course, the state is made up of highly flawed human beings like you and me.)
And the reality is we’re in the mess we’re in because we’ve over-deferred to the state.
The media goes all in for Barry
If politics is Hollywood for the ugly, what’s that make the traditional media? Cheerleaders? Court eunuchs? Stenographers? Lapdogs?
Not that there was ever any doubt our brave media types were in the tank for Barry Oh!, but as affirmative evidence, check out this afternoon’s screen shot from Real Clear Politics.
Watch where they spend and not what they say
While words have effect, actions speak louder than words.
And while politicos may ramble on about what’s important (and at the end of the day, it seems everything is important), one can parse out what’s essential by observing where the money is spent.
For individuals, priorities are established via spending, saving, and investment decisions. And for politicos, priorities are established via spending and borrowing decisions. Yet for many in political office, there is one simple priority: re-election.
As the President and his minions have capably steered America towards the rocky shoals of sovereign default, it’s important to understand this: re-election rates are not any sort of reasonable measure of how well our nation is doing. From the above WSJ link:
As historian John Steele Gordon has written, our nation’s ability to issue debt helped preserve the Union in the 1860s and defeat totalitarian governments in the 1940s. Today, government officials are issuing debt to finance pet projects and payoffs to interest groups, not some vital, let alone existential, national purpose.
Read the whole article about how the Fed has become a fourth branch of government and the world’s de facto money market. The lesson is simple: something that can’t continue forever—like a command and control economy with unending deficit spending—won’t.
The Republican’s Obama Dilemma
Republicans seem to have a problem: how do you land effective punches on what amounts to an empty suit (or in the Eastwood version, an empty chair)?
Alternatively, with the Obama meme as “It isn’t my fault,” assigning ownership of the many failed Obama policies to an empty suit becomes more difficult, especially when the empty heads of the media bow at the President’s feet.
What’s a conservative candidate to do? Spend.
Spending—or donating—one’s own money makes the liberal angst associated with the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision easier to understand. Basically, those who oppose the court’s decision oppose the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. That is, the left opposes the people having the power to decide for themselves and would prefer that the media spoon-feed and filter everything. We’ve had our experts look at this and we’ve decided it’s for your own good.
And it’s also interesting to see that the left attempts to smear Citizens United in many ways, including bogus ratings via a web-based tool called Web of Trust.
History repeats itself: Obama as Jimmy Carter
Does history repeat itself or does it just rhyme?
Regardless, we’ve got Jimmy Carter’s intellectual clone holding the White House replete with the misery index, high (and underreported) unemployment, a falling dollar, rising gas prices, and foreign policy foibles.
All that Barry needs to do to complete his pursuit of all things Carter is to come up with a nice malaise speech.
So in November, do we (again) Welcome Back, Carter?
‘Obama’s Middle East Policy Is in Ruins’
Spiegel Online International (quoting—and translating—Die Welt) tells us Obama’s middle east policy is in ruins. The punch (in the gut) line:
Anti-Americanism in the Arab world has even increased to levels greater than in the Bush era.
The President’s middle east policy now joins his economic policy.
Per the President’s plan, unemployment, the federal debt, and the seas will cease to rise in his second term.
mockfactor10 