Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts

Monday, October 25, 2010

That figures: looks like MSNBC ripped off, eh, borrowed a 2004 DNC video contest winner for its wicked cool new 'Lean Forward' branding campaign

MSNBC recently introduced a wicked cool new slogan and branding campaign called Lean Forward .

Now commenter G tips us off to a report that MSNBC (or its ad agency) likely ripped off borrowed a 2004 DNC video contest winner which concludes, oddly enough, with the watchword "Forward".

If you have been watching MSNBC lately, you have seen the new "LEAN FORWARD" ad campaign directed by Spike Lee... "We talked about all the attributes that make MSNBC what it is," MSNBC president Phil Griffin told TVNewser. "It is active, it is positive, it is about making tomorrow better than today, a discussion about politics and the actions and passions of our time"...

Turns out, the campaign's kick off ad "Declaration of Forward",  looks strikingly like the 2004 Democratic National Committee video contest winner...

..."Americas Party" created by Adam Klugman and Jefferson Smith and funded by the Democratic Party Of Oregon... Also seen here is the debut of the video at the 2004 National Democratic Convention...

...We will let you be the judge (especially the last several seconds of each), but MSNBC and the ad agency that created "Lean Forward" (Minneapolis ad agency mono) should explain how an objective news organization  uses a concept  suspiciously like that from a national political party video to brand itself...

To help distinguish MSNBC's ad campaign from the earlier DNC version, I've created a new poster to help reestablish the network's unique persona.

Joe Scarborough could not be reached for comment at press time.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Shocka: New York Times and WikiLeaks Organize Al Qaqaa II (i.e., Yet Another Desperate October Surprise Intended to Swing the Elections)

Problem is: the illegal immigrants, felons, dead people, government dependents and union bosses -- the Democrats' core constituencies -- don't read the Times, so it's unlikely that Al Qaqaa II will have the same kind of impact as version one.

Why do I call this latest Halloween Surprise "Al Qaqaa II"?

A few months after the 2004 presidential election, Jonah Goldberg dredged up the long since forgotten dirty trick pulled by the New York Times-Fishwrap, which was clearly designed to swing last-minute support to John "D-Student" Kerry.

On Monday, October 25, 2004, the New York Times published a 2,600-word front page story headlined “Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq.” Written by three Times journalists [alleged that] 380 tons of very high explosives–munitions that could be used by Iraqi insurgents to attack American troops–were missing, and had probably been looted, from Iraq’s Al Qaqaa weapons-storage facility.

The story, published eight days before the presidential election, caused an immediate uproar. Aides to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry quickly arranged a conference call with reporters that Monday morning to push the Times’s findings...

Despite questions raised by critics about the story’s accuracy, completeness and timing, in the days that followed the Times mounted the journalistic equivalent of a full-court press on Al Qaqaa. On October 26, the paper ran a front-page article on Kerry’s quick pickup of the issue... That same day, Times columnist Paul Krugman charged that the administration’s handling of Al Qaqaa was part of a “culture of coverups.” ...The next day, October 27, the Times published two stories on the subject... Columnist Maureen Dowd also mentioned Al Qaqaa in an article entitled “White House of Horrors.”

The paper published two more stories mentioning Al Qaqaa on October 29 (one was another Krugman column), then two more on October 30, then two more on October 31, and then two more on November 1, the day before Election Day. Each day Kerry, who abandoned much of his planned final-week strategy to concentrate on Al Qaqaa, tried to capitalize on the latest reports. In all, in the eight days from October 25 to November 1, the Times published 16 stories and columns about Al Qaqaa, plus seven letters to the editor (all of which were critical of the Bush administration).

...And then, abruptly, it stopped. In the four months since the election, the Times appears to have simply dropped the Al Qaqaa story, publishing nothing about the munitions dump and the supposedly critical issues it raised about the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq...

Simple: it was thinly disguised agitprop, designed to sway the masses the way Julius Streicher might have: by using "The Big Lie". And, yes, I'm using Nazi allusions because (a) they're accurate; and (b) I'm sick of the liberals constantly referring to those who love the Constitution as Nazi extremists, when it is they who constantly advocate for bigger government and for more centralized control without any limits whatsoever! But I digress...

Six years later, basically to the day, the Times will run a sensationalistic Sunday hit-piece designed to: (a) swing the elections; (b) undermine our troops; (c) hurt our allies; and (d) salvage six wavering subscribers.

And all of it will have the same impact as Al Qaqaa I. Which is to say: bupkis.

And they wonder why no normal American trusts the media. Get out on Tuesday morning with the other patriots. Line up thousands strong with your neighbors, family and friends. And help crush the liberal-progressive-Statist-Marxist machine. This time, we really are doing it for the children.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Dead Pundit Walking: How Long Until NPR Fires Mara Liasson for a Manufactured, Faux-Controversial 'Gaffe'?

National Public Radio and Media Matters just received $1.8 million and $1 million donations, respectively, from George "Goldfinger" Soros, presumably to advance the cause of despotism in America. Coincidentally (*chortle*), NPR immediately fired Juan Williams for voicing an opinion about airport travel in the era of 9/11. Curiously, President Obama has yet to complain about all of the foreign money flowing into the coffers of the leftist front groups known as NPR and Media Matters.

The Daily Caller reports that NPR personality and frequent Fox contributor Mara Liasson is the next personality to have a laser-dot on her forehead.

“NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue,” wrote Media Matters columnist Eric Boehlert Thursday in a post entitled “What about Mara Liasson?” “[I]f you look at NPR’s code of ethics, there’s simply no way Liasson should be making appearances on Fox.”

Boehlert cited an official NPR document that says employees may not make media appearances that are “harmful to the reputation of NPR or the NPR participant” or “where the employee’s appearance may appear to endorse the agenda of a group or organization.”

Boehlert said that since Fox News pushes a “political agenda,” Liasson’s association violates the organization’s code of ethics.

In 2009, it was reported that NPR pressured Liasson to cut her ties with Fox News, a network she has contributed to since 1997. Liasson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Yes, Boehlfart insists that Fox has a political agenda, unlike the ultra-centrist NPR and 'non-profit' Media Matters.

These people are would-be tyrants who would do anything to silence the critics of an all-powerful central government. They don't give a damn about free speech unless it's their side's.

The only people sticking up for Juan Williams -- despite the ideological differences with many of his beliefs -- are conservatives. Remember this in ten days' time.


Friday, October 22, 2010

Josh Silver, president of the ill-named FreePress, proves--without a shadow of a scintilla of a doubt--that he is a flat-out totalitarian nut

So much for free speech. The Left, it would appear, really doesn't support the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, or the Constitution, for that matter.

Josh Silver, president of the ill-named FreePress, proves -- without a shadow of a scintilla of a doubt -- that he is a flat-out totalitarian nut. Writing at the Muffington Host, which I'm guessing is also funded by George Soros, Silver decries the Constitution.

The reactionaries of the far-right are clawing and scratching at their latest red meat: National Public Radio's decision to fire Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News Channel...

...Regardless of what you think about Juan Williams' dismissal -- and NPR's own ombudsman has questioned how it was handled -- using it to take away public radio's funding is like asking for the death penalty in small claims court. It's crazy and it must be stopped...

Public media like NPR play a crucial role in the American information ecosystem that is otherwise drowning in a sensationalism and soundbytes [sic]...

...If the United States spent the same per capita on public media and journalism subsidies as Sweden and Norway, which rank 1 and 2, we would be spending as much as $30 billion a year on public media instead of $440 million.

Sweden? Really?

Malmø, Sweden--The police now publicly admit what many Scandinavians have known for a long time: They no longer control the situation in the nations's third largest city. It is effectively ruled by violent gangs of Muslim immigrants. Some of the Muslims have lived in the area of Rosengård, Malmø, for twenty years, and still don't know how to read or write Swedish. Ambulance personnel are attacked by stones or weapons, and refuse to help anybody in the area without police escort.

Sounds... eh... politically correct.

The Left whines endlessly about the separation of Church and State; but they do so, whether they know it or not, in support of KKK lawyer Hugo Black's controversial 1947 decision that magically became an immutable legal doctrine. At least for the Left, which despises free speech when it conflicts with the advancement of totalitarianism.

Fine. They want to claim separation of church and state is in the Constitution? Then defund NPR: after all, it's all about separation of the free press -- and the state.

As for Josh Silver? He'd be perfectly happy as a lackey of Hugo Chavez, Pol Pot, Nikita Khrushchev or Josef Goebbels.


'Let George Soros Support 'Em': Jim DeMint Introduces Bill to Defund NPR

The nimrods at NPR reportedly claim that they don't receive any federal funding. That's true, but only if you don't count half a frickin' billion dollars that taxpayers spend on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The good news: if we can take over Congress, we can put an end to the kind of senseless partisan manure excreted by state-run media. What is this, East Berlin? We need a state-run media?

I think not. And neither does a real American hero, Jim DeMint.

Sen. Jim DeMint, the conservative and increasingly powerful Republican senator from South Carolina, introduced a bill Friday to strip federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the wake of National Public Radio's decision to fire Juan Williams for comments about Muslims that he made on Fox News earlier this week.

During a panel about Muslims and terrorism on "The O'Reilly Factor," Williams said he sometimes is afraid boarding an airplane if he sees a person in "Muslim garb." He went on to say that stereotyping all Muslims is wrong.

After an NPR vice president told Williams he would be fired if he did not stop appearing on Fox News, Williams was terminated. He later defended his remarks as truthful and said that NPR is hostage to narrow thinking.

"This is evidence of one-party rule and one-sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing," Williams wrote on FoxNews.com. "It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought."

With federal spending completely out of control and deficits exploding, I can think of an excellent way to save about half a billion dollars.

Let Soros fund this crap.


Image: iOwnTheWorld. Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Great. MSNBC's 'Lean Forward' Branding Campaign Omits 'Creator' From Its Version of the Declaration, Coincidentally Just Like Barack Obama

MSNBC's latest brainstorm -- the hilarious "Lean Forward" campaign -- uses a carefully edited recitation of the nation's founding document. It omits any mention of God (though it does depict gay marriage).

"We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men and women have certain unalienable rights. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness."

It can't be a coincidence. It conforms precisely with President Obama's new version of the Declaration of Independence, which he is said to have recited on five separate occasions.

"As wonderful as the land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'"

As Mark Levin observed last night, there's a reason the liberals despise the notion of God-given rights.

Because in the statists' formulations, only the government can grant rights.

Case in point: FDR's 'Second Bill of Rights', which is basically a socialist's wet dream:

...Roosevelt's argument was that the "political rights" guaranteed by the constitution [sic] and the Bill of Rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:

• Employment, with a living wage,
• Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies,
• Housing,
• Medical care,
• Education, and,
• Social security

In other words, FDR sought an authoritarian central government that would have unlimited power to confiscate private property and redistribute it in order to create a Soviet-style Utopia. For those who did not wish to comply would be compelled to do so, at threat of life or liberty.

In fact, Roosevelt's construct was precisely the type of government the Framers sought to prevent.

Are you fed up yet with the party of food stamps, illegal immigration, sloth and failed social experiments?

It's time to crush the Democrat Party in this election and every election forward -- until they buy a clue about this country.


Free Juan Williams!

So reads the headline at the invaluable Investors Business Daily.

Public broadcasting strikes a blow for censorship by firing a nationally known commentator for suggesting a connection between Islamofascism and terrorism. Sorry, there is one, and it makes us nervous too...

...To be fair, Williams warned O'Reilly that a blanket condemnation of Muslims wouldn't be any more justified than blaming all Christians for the actions of Timothy McVeigh in blowing up a federal building in Oklahoma City.

This is something liberals do all the time. Watch out for those right-wing militias and those racist Tea Partyers, you know. NPR, interestingly enough, recently engaged in politically correct stereotyping by running a segment on how to speak "tea bagger."

...It is political correctness that forces grandmothers and children through body scanners. It was political correctness that allowed Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to rise through the ranks undetected until the day he shot up Fort Hood shouting "Allahu akbar!" (God is great) despite numerous warning signs. It is what caused us to ignore a group of young Middle Eastern men attending flight school to learn how to fly, but not land, a 747...

...Political correctness is getting Americans killed. And those who worry about our civil liberties being taken away while they sit silently as our freedom of speech is suppressed are hypocrites.

Why do we have government-run news?

That's the first thing we should cut to balance the budget. There are 50,000 radio stations in the U.S. And about a bazillion cable channels.

And we need state-run news why?

And, say, you've got to admit that's a pretty cool t-shirt, if I do say so myself.


Sunday, October 17, 2010

Ron Klein (D-FL) Calls In Reinforcements Against Allen West: NBC Magically Shows Up, Runs Hit Piece #GoWest #FL22

Writing at Michelle Malkin's site, Doug Powers points us to one of the more egregious examples of media bias you'll ever see -- which is truly saying something. Incumbent Florida Congressman Ron Klein must be in very deep trouble against Lt. Col. Allen West, bonafide war hero and Constitutional conservative.

Now that Klein has run into a buzzsaw, NBC News 'coincidentally' showed up and tried to manufacture a hit piece on West from whole cloth.

In 2007 and 2008, the media went all-out to expose Barack Obama’s past connections with controversial people and organizations (pause for laughter), so now they’re setting their unbiased sights on the background of Republican Florida congressional candidate Allen West.

Lisa Myers goes out of her way to try and strengthen some fairly weak links here. Most of these ties are looser than the ones on my son’s sneakers, and if West was a Democrat, a story with this kind of “evidence” probably wouldn’t have gotten the green-light (if it had even been produced in the first place)

In short, Myers attempts to assail West's heroic military service and, failing at that because he is a gen-you-eye-in hero, she moves on to one of the more tenuous assertions ever heard on a so-called news show.

Did you know that West once spoke about the Constitution to a group of patriotic citizens who happen to ride motorcycles -- some of whom may have known members of The Outlaws bike gang? Which means, obviously, that West supports giving meth to kids.

As Powers points out, the media didn't vet Barack Obama as well as they have West. If they had, they might have noted:

Growing up in Hawaii, Obama's mentor was described in his autobiography as only "Frank". It turns out that this man was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist who had left Chicago reportedly because the FBI was after him.

Obama had a long and deep affiliation with ACORN, the group that was disbanded after numerous criminal charges and allegations involving hundreds of thousands of fraudulent voter registrations. Obama even trained ACORN community agitators.

And Obama appears to have been a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America's New Party -- and received a glowing endorsement from them.

Of course, slumlord Tony Rezko was one of Obama's first financial backers and helped him purchase his Chicago mansion. In turn, Obama appears to have performed several favors for Rezko's company, which ended up cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.

And no list of Obama's bizarre affiliations would be complete without mentioning terrorist Bill Ayers. Obama and Ayers served on several boards together, dispensed money to a series of radical groups, shared an office, and the candidate's political coming-out party was even held at Ayers' house. And the media never said a word.

Obama's friend and spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, is of course an avowed Marxist, racist and anti-Semite. As an evangelist of Black Liberation Theology, which preaches race hatred, Wright even traveled to Libya with Louis Farrakhan to visit dictator Muammar Gaddaffi.

Obama and Michelle also had a close relationship with Edward Said of the Arab-American Action Network dinner. Said was an official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization for a time and was proud of his hatred of Israel.

But Allen West once spoke to some bikers who may have known some members of The Outlaws.

Ron Klein must be in one hell of a fight if NBC is riding to the rescue. You can help West here. Donate a couple of bucks. It will help fight this loathsome network and its sycophants in Congress.




Seriously--St. Louis Post-Dispatch Endorses Democrats Alex 'The Mob Banker' Giannoulias and Incumbent IL Gov. Quinn 'With Fingers Crossed'

Say, maybe this is why the legacy media is hemorrhaging readers faster than Internet Explorer picks up viruses.

The Post-Dispatch, one of the whackiest, far left publications you will ever read, just endorsed Alexi 'The Mob Banker' Giannoulias (D) for U.S. Senate and incumbent Pat Quinn (D) for governor. No, I'm not kidding.

Alexi Giannoulias is the choice for Senate because he understands the existential threat caused by the reality that 20 percent of Americans control nearly half of the nation's earned income and 84 percent of all forms of wealth... "Income inequality has been the cause of the downfall of every great nation," he said.

The Senate is a place where those inequalities can begin to be reversed, through tax policies, job creation and public spending on infrastructure and education.

Really? What level of wealth redistribution is right? Why look at the top 20%? Why not the top 50%? And we can simply steal redistribute wealth from the top half to the bottom? Level the playing field, so to speak.

What kind of masterminds could figure out the proper way to redistribute the nation's wealth? The kind running the Post-Dispatch, of course!

By the way, isn't this nonsensical Marxist class warfare rhetoric brilliant?

Are Democrat billionaires Gates and Buffett enemies of society? Even though they've spawned hundreds of thousands -- perhaps millions of jobs? Amazing how a few left-wing journalist majors are now the world's most brilliant economic minds, able to plan the entire economy from their perches in St. Louis. Never mind that they can't even keep their own newspaper solvent!

In the governor's race, one issue matters more than all the others combined: How to close a budget deficit of $13 billion without profound repercussions to essential state services... Mr. Quinn, 61, inherited the mess after succeeding to the governor's office after Mr. Blagojevich's impeachment. He had the courage to say that a permanent budget fix means tax increases. He finally began to confront, albeit tepidly, the state's out-of-control pension costs.

He wound up patching and borrowing, the same kick-the-can-down-the-road policies that brought Illinois to its parlous state... Mr. Quinn is a man whose heart is the right place. But he'll need some steel in his spine to build a coalition that can solve the huge budget crisis. On his heart, and on the chance he'll find more spine, we recommend Pat Quinn for governor.

Oh my: what a gutsy policy prescription -- pray that Democrats will find the spine to raise taxes, Michigan-style. One hopes that the fine people of Chicago will reject this nonsense once and for all.

Otherwise, they can plan for a reprise of Detroit.


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Warning: Do Not Show This Post to Cast-Members of 'The View'

Dan from New York:

Whoopi and Joy, fasten your seatbelts. If O'Reilly scared you off, just wait 'til you see this:

Three videos of the expert witness testimony for the defense by Simon Admiraal in the Geert Wilders trial.

• Leading Germans giving up on the "multiculti" idea here and here.

• French burqa ban clears last legal obstacle.

• French MP urges Britain to save itself too.

What did I tell you, gang? I said Europe would do what's necessary to defeat Islam's radical Sharia law and preserve its culture, didn't I? Now -- if only Israel could take a hint.


Perfect: Tides Foundation Nuts Trying to Silence Glenn Beck for Reporting on Tides Foundation's Anti-American Activities--Like Censorship

The Tides Foundation is a frequent target of popular radio and TV host Glenn Beck. Tides was founded in 1976 to advance radical progressive causes. It has contributed tens of millions of dollars to organizations like ACORN, CAIR, Media Matters, the New World Foundation, the National Organization of Whores, PETA, the Sierra Club and other radical leftist front groups.

Beck, thankfully, is helping to turn the spotlight on the tangled, symbiotic and often hidden relationships between the Tides Foundation and other radical groups.

So what's the Tides' first tendency? As befits a bunch of Marxist whackjobs, it's to silence free speech. Not sue Beck for libel, I suppose, because they'd get laughed out of court. But to intimidate Beck's advertisers in order to squelch his message.

In an extraordinary move to nip the inflammatory commentary coming from Glenn Beck, the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation (a frequent Beck target) has written advertisers asking them to remove their sponsorship of the Fox News program or risk having "blood on their hands."

Drummond Pike, who along with his organization was recently targeted by an assassin inspired by Beck's program, penned a letter on Friday to the Chairmen of the Boards of JP Morgan Chase, GEICO, Zurich Financial, Chrysler, Direct Holdings Americas, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Lilly Corporate Center, BP, and The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

Pike calls his foundation's programs "charitable [and] nonpartisan" and are certainly not any part of a "conspiracy to undermine America and the capitalist system". Harumph.

Even the PuffHo ain't buying it.

Rather than chalking up the incident, frightening as it clearly was, to the deranged psychoses of its practitioner, 45-year old Byron Williams, he places the blame on Beck. And in coming to the conclusion that nothing short of financial insolvency will stop the Fox News host, he asks the network's benefactors to take a stand or risk future violence.

Pike's letter (which can be read here) is as deceptive as the organization itself.

Silencing free speech is anti-American. Period.

Some crazed crackpot with a gun appears to have been stalking Sarah Palin recently.

Should Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, Keith Olbermann, and every other broadcaster who's tarred her be silenced as well?

If Beck is libeling Tides, then sue him. But you won't. Because he ain't. And your behavior proves that you're first, second and last instinct is totalitarian in nature.

In fact, 'Totalitarian' is a better name for your foundation than 'Tides'.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Nice Deb, and Verum Serum. Thanks!

4 Most Shocking Photos Stolen From iOwnTheWorld

Cub Reporter Biff Spackle told me that if iOwnTheWorld can't figure out how to copy-protect its images, they're getting lifted and moved over here where they'll find a better, safer, more child-friendly home.




Remember, folks, iOwnTheWorld doesn't have the requisite level of respect for our beloved Democrat ruling class. You know, they don't exhibit the kind of courtesy and admiration for their wonderful policies that we do here. Besides, we serve better drinks including Red White & Blue beer and Big K brand soft drinks.


Image #1: The People's Cube.
Image #2: iOwnTheWorld.
Image #3: HopeNChangeCartoons.
Image #4: Diogenes Sarcastica.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

More O-Pression




We Need a Real Conservative at the Washington Post

The Washington Post is running a contest called America's Next Great Pundit. Uncle Ben writes in to tell us that one of his conservative compadres -- John Buttarazzi -- is a genuine contender for the honor.

Read his column.

Now I'd like you to imagine this scene: An enraged Buttarazzi comes stomping down editor's row screaming for Richard Cohen after the pencil-necked weasel squirted out one of his more outrageous excretions. We pan to Cohen, who is hiding behind the copying machine with a curious dark stain slowly running down the inseam of his khakis.

Support John Buttarazzi for anti-tingler.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

CNN Execs Shocked to Discover That Disgraced Perv and Liberal Media Hack Somehow Don't Resonate With Mr. and Mrs. America

Go figure: a hapless, failed politician with zero media experience and a pathetic drone of an op-ed writer have achieved the lowest Nielsen ratings for CNN in a decade. And, given its programming over that period, that's really quite an accomplishment.

CNN’s prime time ratings woes are only increasing with [its] new program Parker Spitzer.

Monday night was the lowest weekday prime time rating average in more than 10 years, since June 28, 2000. And it wasn’t just the 8pmET that was seeing low ratings.

Larry King had even lower ratings tha [sic] Parker Spitzer, with just 196,000 total viewers. That’s less than Rachel Maddow’s A25-54 demo average in the same hour...

My careful analysis has determined that Parker-Spitzer and King's combined ratings trailed those of MSNBC's Mr. Ed show. Another hilarious stat: the re-run of O'Reilly at 11pm beats the 8pm Olbermann slot in prime time. By 150%.

Eh, that can't be good.

I tried to start a helpful meme on Twitter (#ParkerSpitzerReplacements) to suggest some alternative pairings for CNN, but so far the company's executives haven't sent me a thank you note.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Krugpression

I'm serious. I can quit photoshopping. Anytime I want.

Stealing a page from FDR's failed playbook, The New York Times' Paul Krugman thinks more borrowing and spending is in order. As an aside, Krugman's nickname is "Contrary Indicator."




Moonbattery also dug up some shocking new photos.


Sunday, October 10, 2010

Axelrod: Many Republicans are Witches, Nazis, and Employers of Illegal Immigrant Housekeepers; Also Take Foreign Donations and Drink Blood

Citing a recent study by CNN's Christine Amanpour, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod proclaimed that the Republican Party was dominated by witches and warlocks, Nazi reenactment aficionados, and those who employ illegal immigrants while taking donations from foreign sources.

Interviewed on This Week With Someone From Legacy Media, Axelrod accused the GOP leadership of encouraging extremism. "There is little doubt," he stated, "that secret cadres within the Republican establishment are Nazi witches and warlocks. Furthermore, I have received evidence -- which I cannot disclose at this time -- that many GOP gubernatorial candidates actually employed illegal immigrant housekeepers. And by many, I mean possibly one."

When questioned about the advisers fleeing the White House and polls which show a tidal wave of anti-Democrat sentiment, Axelrod attempted to deflect attention by projecting his voice into the corner of the studio and shouting: "Look, Nazis!"

Continued on Page C-18

Saturday, October 09, 2010

What Are "Larwyn's Linx"?

I first met Larwyn in September 2006 after posting an illustrated rebuke of the Democrats' anti-First Amendment tendencies ("The Free Speech Crowd"), to which Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds was kind enough to link. Larwyn emailed me a complimentary note, copying a long list of some of the most prominent pundits and bloggers in the country. Plus Ace of Spades. Just kidding.

I soon found myself a member of the mailing list as Larwyn directed our attention to articles from a vast array of publications: snippets from policy journals, mainstream newspaper articles, and blog posts from all over the 'sphere, from the most famous folks imaginable to bloggers who got 200 visitors a day (like me). Larwyn's research was nothing if not prolific, and the compendium of links were invaluable for keeping tabs on events of the day.

In April of 2008, I began posting occasional summaries of Larwyn's collections. It was through these collections that I discovered the consistent genius of Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, Thomas Lifson's American Thinker, Roger Simon's Pajamas Media, Jim Hoft's Gateway Pundit, Don Surber, Dan Riehl, Protein Wisdom, Jammie Wearing Fool, The Anchoress, Fausta Wertz, The Gates of Vienna, Vanderleun, Lorie Byrd, The People's Cube, and many, many others.

Larwyn has been less active of late, having been waylaid with some health issues that make it difficult to spend significant time at the computer, but the beat goes on through the mailing lists that still energize much of the conservative blogosphere.

And, unlike a few less generous blogs out there that discourage blog-pimping (PoliPundit, I'm looking at you), I welcome notes and links of interest. After all, how can the "Army of Davids" get messages out if not proactively communicating with one another?

How many Davids have benefited from the unceasing generosity of Glenn Reynolds or Michelle Malkin? How many bloggers have been inspired by them? I think it fair to say that they represent the Godparents of the conservative blogosphere. And that is, in part, why Larwyn's Linx exists.

But now I have a few questions for you, our seven regular readers:

1. Do you like Larwyn's Linx or does it suck?
2. Too many links? Too few?
3. What would make it better?
4. Should Biff Spackle be promoted, finally, from Junior Cub Reporter (Level I) to Assistant Cub Reporter?

Unvarnished feedback is always appreciated, the more candid the better.


Thursday, October 07, 2010

What's all this about Joran Van Der Sloot helping out Jerry Brown's campaign with an illegal immigrant housekeeper setup?

This Dan Riehl fellow has really bollixed things up again, what with asserting that Joran Van Der Sloot -- Natalie Holloway's accused killer -- is somehow mixed up with Gloria Allred and the Jerry Brown campaign and illegal immigrants and what not.

Everyone knows that Van Der Sloot is in prison and in trouble again for hosting a pot party behind bars!

These pajama-clad bloggers are really out-of-control. They don't have the layers and layers of fact-checking and double-checks like the real media does. I'm stating for the record that these bloggers need to be regulated somehow.

Perhaps one of the dedicated, non-profit groups that fact-check the media, like Media Matters for instance, could be put in charge of controlling the bloggers.

Because this whole Van Der Sloot thing is the straw that broke the camel's behind. We need real journalists on the case, not these fakes like Robert Stacy McCain. We need men like Dan Rather and Katie Couric and Bob Saget, for heaven's sakes.


Monday, October 04, 2010

Beautiful: Having torn the health insurance industry asunder, Democrats appear ready to lay waste to the life insurance industry

What else can one make of today's Wall Street Journal 'news' article that makes the bizarre claim that life insurance is somehow abused by the rich?

To be clear, while the op-ed page of the Journal is decidedly conservative, the news operation is something altogether different. In this case, the news editors seem to have permitted blatant propaganda. The article's theme is one of out-and-out class warfare and mimics the playbook of the Democrat Party. Worse still, the target is one of the few remaining healthy industries left standing after the meltdown of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 'too-big-to-fail' institutions nurtured for decades by the Party of Weakness.

The life-insurance industry has enjoyed beneficial tax treatment for its products for nearly a century. Whenever Congress tried to change that, insurers always had a mantra at the ready: We protect widows and orphans.

Life insurance needs to be free from income taxes, the industry said, because of its special social function. It keeps survivors from a life of penury when a chief breadwinner dies.

But in a development all but unnoticed outside the industry, life-insurance companies gradually have shifted away from their broad historical base of middle-class households...

...Instead, statistics show, an increasing portion of insurers' business consists of selling large policies to wealthier Americans, often as part of complex estate-tax plans.

Gee, I wonder why? Perhaps the government's incessant meddling with estate taxes -- one year nothing, the next oppressively high -- makes life insurance a valuable weapon for anyone to wield?

The shift means that a growing proportion of the tax benefits of life insurance goes to the well-off, not to the middle class that once was the industry's backbone.

The industry's safety-net role is eroding just as Congress is scouting for new revenue sources amid gaping budget deficits, raising concern among insurance executives that lawmakers could revisit the industry's tax advantages.

In fact, a comparison of the chart at left illustrates that the distribution of life insurance gains (above) is far more egalitarian than that of typical investments.

For you consumers, the executive summary of this article should read: Democrats continue to find new ways to steal your hard-earned money.

And for those in the life insurance industry: consider this story a canary in the coal-mine.

Mark 'life insurance' down as industry #203 that has been demonized by the class warfare rhetoric of the modern left. Never mind that America has no static class structure -- the rich become poor and the poor rich every day of the week. Never mind that life insurance has protected those of modest means for centuries.

Never mind all that. The progressives have American society to tear down. And more taxes to collect in their plot to redistribute everyone's wealth.