Morning Must Reads: Christmas

Obama meeting with business leaders. Even though I called you worthless greedy heartless unpatriotic bastards, you now need to come in spend that $2 billion and help save my political career.

A sampling of how Obama’s rhetoric was just misunderstood and not hateful of business. A Googgle search of “Obama blames” would shut down wilileaks servers

Week after week, Obama has used his bully pulpit to attack American corporations. Companies big and small are accused of everything from intentionally failing to create jobs to reporting excess profits, which in this President’s mind would seem to be any profit at all. Then there is the inscrutable charge that corporate America is conspiring to “steal our democracy.”

Among recent titles in the President’s long-running anti-capitalist talk show are “No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy” (Aug. 21), “Honoring the American Worker” (Sept. 4), “The Republican Corporate Power Grab” (Sept. 18), “GOP Rewarding Corporations that Create Jobs Overseas” (Oct. 16), and “Letting Wall Street Run Wild Again” (Oct. 23).

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama yesterday blamed “irresponsible decisions” by the Bush administration and Wall Street for the country’s economic woes as government officials said the budget deficit would soar to record heights next year.

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The big news of the day is obviously the autos, which Barack Obama is speaking about now.
His message: The failure of the autos is not the fault of labor, but the fault of management “from Washington to Detroit.”

Peter A. Weinberg and Joseph R. Perella are part of a band of Wall Street renegades — “a small group of speculators,” President Obama called them Thursday — who helped bankrupt Chrysler.
That, anyway, is the Washington line

An explanation of why the Demos just don’t understand the economy

ust think about that for a moment. In order to secure the GOP’s support for an extension of unemployment benefits and a one-year reduction in the employee-paid portion of the payroll tax, the administration had to hold its nose, swallow its pride and exhibit other metaphorical manifestations to demonstrate its disgust at the thought of letting the rich keep more of their own money.

“I respect people who are unhappy,” Axelrod said in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “We share their view on the upper-income tax cuts, on the estate tax. That was a part of the deal, odious though it may be, in order to accept, in order to get, all the good things that come along with. That’s the nature of compromise.”

Certain household chores — cleaning the toilet, for example — are odious. Filling out health insurance forms is another repugnant task. Spending hours on the phone with HP tech support in India ranks high on the odious list.

But being allowed to keep money you earned? What is it about tax cuts for the wealthy that so galls the Left?

I can’t answer definitely because I don’t share the antipathy. My hunch is that folks who abhor tax cuts for the rich see the economic pie as a fixed quantity. Your gain is my loss. A tax cut, exemption, credit or deduction for you means nothing for me. It’s a zero sum game, except it isn’t.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-15/why-the-left-hates-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy-commentary-by-caroline-baum.html

Still waiting for the SOuthern Poverty Law Group to name the Democratic party and Obama a hate group. Here is a guy shooting up a school board meeting and blaming the “wealthy”. Hmm where oh where could he have gotten that message?

On the page, Duke describes himself as a “Freedom Fighter.”

“My testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V) … no … I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population

PANAMA CITY — A gunman held the Bay District School Board hostage Tuesday in a videotaped drama, ultimately opening fire on them before being shot and disabled by Mike Jones, the district’s chief of safety, security and police. After being shot several times, Clay Duke, 56, turned his pistol on himself in front of the stunned group, ending his life with a shot to the head, Panama City Police officials said.

http://www.newsherald.com/news/updated-89323-kills-video.html

Care to provide any evidence that Repubs DO have an understanding of basic economics?

A billionaire child receives Time’s Man of the Year. While history has forever been changed with the Tea Party, Time elects to shine their light on a social media tycoon.
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Does life get any better?
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What did I miss?
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http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2n.htm
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6 THOUSAND 4 Hundred PLUS earmarks, PORK!
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$277,000 for potato pest management in Wisconsin
$246,000 for bovine tuberculosis in Michigan and Minnesota
$522,000 for cranberry and blueberry disease and breeding in New Jersey
$500,000 for oyster safety in Florida
$349,000 for swine waste management in North Carolina
$413,000 for peanut research in Alabama
$247,000 for virus free wine grapes in Washington
$208,000 beaver management in North Carolina
$94,000 for blackbird management in Louisiana
$165,000 for maple syrup research in Vermont
$235,000 for noxious weed management in Nevada
$100,000 for the Edgar Allen Poe Cottage Visitor’s Center in New York
$300,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii
$400,000 for solar parking canopies and plug-in electric stations in Kansas
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“Additionally, the bill earmarks $727,000 to compensate ranchers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan whenever endangered wolves eat their cattle. As my colleagues know, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Gray Wolf program is under intense scrutiny for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars every year to ‘recover’ endangered wolves that are now overpopulating the West and Midwest. My State of Arizona has a similar wolf program but ranchers in my state aren’t getting $727,000 in this bill.
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“Mr. President, I will have much more to say about this bill later this week. I assure my colleagues – we will spend a great deal of time talking about this bill and the outrageous number of earmarks it contains. But for now let me just say this: it is December 14th – we are 22 days away from the beginning of a new Congress and nearly three full months into fiscal year 2011 – and yet we have not debated a single spending bill or considered any amendments to cut costs or get our debt under control. Furthermore, the majority decided that they just didn’t feel like doing a budget this year. How is that responsible leadership?
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When will our media in this country identify to the people exactly what PORK is in this bill? When will the media educate the people their hard-earned tax dollars are merely bribes to politicians for kickbacks from our money to fund their campaign war chests?
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While I believe some people know the truth about Earmarks, most either do not care, or are not engaged. When will you report the truth, TIME.com? When?

Here is a link to your dysentery:
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http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/no_business_no_jobs.html
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“Even though I called you worthless greedy heartless unpatriotic bastards…”
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Freak, Obama never said that.
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That was what I called you.
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” Week after week, Obama has used his bully pulpit to attack American corporations….”
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Correction Week after week, Obama has used his bully pulpit to attack British Petroleum for turning the Gulf of Mexico into a oil laden cesspool.
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That is because they did do so.
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“Companies big and small are accused of everything from intentionally failing to create jobs…”
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Correction:
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“Since Companies big and small are failing to create job Obama created a plan to create tax breaks for companies which do create jobs.”
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“…to reporting excess profits..”
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Correction:
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When BP claimed that the cleanup was too expensive, Obama pointed out that BP had sufficient profits and would not go bankrupt cleaning up the mess they made.
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“His message: The failure of the autos is not the fault of labor, but the fault of management “from Washington to Detroit.”"
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Considering that Mercedes, Toyota and all of the foreign car maker are, also, unionized but, unlike Detroit, had no problem making cars people loved to buy, unless you think Americans are inherently inferior people who can not work or inherently greedy people who bankrupt companies, you have to say it was management, not labor who came up with moronic ideas of pushing out a line of all gas guzzlers right before an increase in oil prices.
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For the meltdown, indeed, he held responsible only ““a small group of speculators”" not the entire business community.

Right, Obama is anti-business – stated during the record setting year for business and profits. Excuse me if I don’t fully buy the rhetoric.

“In order to secure the GOP’s support for an extension of unemployment benefits and a one-year reduction in the employee-paid portion of the payroll tax, the administration had to hold its nose, swallow its pride and exhibit other metaphorical manifestations to demonstrate its disgust at the thought of letting the rich keep more of their own money.”
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Correction “…to demonstrate its disgust at the thought of letting the rich cause our deficit to get worse and worse forcing our children and grandchildren to pay more and more to subsidize today’s wealthiest”.
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Don’t forget, Freak, we all remember that you, unlike me, do not honor your word on a gentleman’s bet not to post in the future.
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You have no honor.
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“During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases “Wall Street” and “shadow banking” and the words “interconnection” and “deregulation” from the panel’s final report”
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See? That’s how Real Americans solve a problem! By pretending it doesn’t exist!
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Now, can we all agree to ban the words “unemployed”, “cancer”, and “mauled by bears”?

Good list, my early drinking friend!
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But you left off $750,000,000 for nation building in Iraq.
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Keep tippin’ em back, New Freedom! You get wiser with every sip! In vino veritas!

It isn’t even rhetoric at this point. They’ve turned their digestive systems around and are now sh!ting out their mouths.

“This was not the first time Duke fired a gun at someone.

Ben Bollinger represented Duke when he was convicted in 1999 of shooting into a vehicle, aggravated stalking and wearing a bulletproof vest. Duke was sentenced to five years in prison on each count and his sentences were served concurrently. As part of a plea agreement,”
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You’ve just made an amazing argument for far better enforcement of gun control laws forbidding insane people from having guns.
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As for a man who mistook the TV series V with reality… that is called insanity, not being liberal.
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In your warped mind you can not tell the difference.

Jon Kyl says Reid is ruining Christmas.

Jon Kyl wants you to die in a nuclear explosion or from radiation sickness.

“The Senate is expected to debate a proposed nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia as early as Wednesday, despite continuing Republican objections that there is too little time this year to properly evaluate the controversial measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday ordered debate to begin as soon as the Senate finishes the proposed tax-cut package, and predicted that advocates had the 67 votes needed for ratification.

But Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who has fought to delay consideration of the treaty until next year, when Republicans will have more Senate seats, contended that Reid ‘perhaps predicted something prematurely.’

Ratifying the measure would be arguably President Obama’s most tangible foreign policy accomplishment, and would strengthen relations with Russia.”

LOL!
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I love that conclusion!
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It’s hilarious.

Violent riots across the planet. Even Moscow is no longer immune. How soon do we seen the nutballs taking to the streets in America? No long.
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.fea1c030d95ba5c96d74e7000265e4a3.b61&show_article=1
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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BE3FK20101215
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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6BD2FH20101215
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.fea1c030d95ba5c96d74e7000265e4a3.921&show_article=1
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Hmmm, I wonder when Obama will seek out a special law for one year too?

Freak, do the math:
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If country A has unions so strong that it has members on the board of directors of it’s car companies and country B has far weaker unions and the cars from country A are selling just fine despite very high prices while the cars from country B can not be given away they are so inferior, then what must be happening?
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Possible conclusion:
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The managers of the car companies in country A are far brighter than the mangers of the car company managers in Country B.
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Or
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The workers at the car companies in country B, despite far less union control, are inherently inferior to the workers in Country A.
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Mercedes and Volkswagen are from German, Country A.
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The US is country B.
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Why you right wing nuts hate American so much?
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Stop calling Americans inferior workers!
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If you hate Americans so much, go move to Canada or Germany where the unionized workers make far better cars, according to you, because they are a superior people.
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Quit being an elitist SOB and admit that you hate Americans!
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Since I love America but know that we are as prone to having companies which promote morons into CEO positions as anybody else, hold three companies responsible for poor American car sales: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler in a country of people at least as competent as Japan, Germany and Canada.

Jimmy Carter, Barbara Streisan, and Michael Moore. In no particular order, with no particular sense of reality.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/carter-biggest-failure-of-my-presidency-was-not-winning-reelection/
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/streisand-no-reason-the-gop-shouldve-won-seats-in-midterm-elections/
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/streisand-no-reason-the-gop-shouldve-won-seats-in-midterm-elections/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/michael-moore-says-founding-fathers-would-have-been-wikileakers/

Yes We Can!!
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Rather than tackle the job of securing the border, Reid and Obama tackle a “Dream Act”.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/border-patrol-agent-shot-dead-in-az/
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BORDER PATROL AGENT SHOT DEAD IN AZ

“So far, social unrest over the financial crisis has varied from country to country. In some of the worst affected nations such as Ireland and Latvia, acceptance and even apathy has prevailed…”
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Apathy! Oh no! What would happen if the Americans become apathetic?
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Who cares?
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The best joke of 2010?
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/candid-obama-i-dont-think-theres-a-sense-that-ive-been-successful/
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“No, I don‘t think there’s a sense that I’ve been successful. I think people feel that Washington still is dysfunctional,” he said. “I think people still feel that overall Washington is about a lot of politics and special interests and big money, but that ordinary people‘s voices too often aren’t represented and so my hope is that we are going to continue to work to rebuilding a sense of trust in government.”

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Well, DOH!!!

This sure is the start of POLITICAL TREAT for the Holidays, great way even to end the year and start for a new year!? http://www.pathtoasia.com/jobs/

You are using Andrew Breitbartas a source of information?
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This does count as evidence of severe brain damage to most neurologists.
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How about Nostradamus? Why don’t you use him as your source of information?

What did I miss?

Stan Collender’s predictions for the 2011 budget.

“…the short answer is…nothing good, especially if your expectations were raised in recent weeks by commission reports, election results, and promises to do better.

My seven main predictions are:

1. Gridlock supreme all year long on anything having to do with spending, revenues, deficit, and debt
2. No legislated reductions in the deficit
3. Bowles-Simpson quickly fades into oblivion
4. No fiscal 2012 budget resolution
5. Earmarks will thrive
6. Government contractors will have far more influence than anyone has ever imagined
7. Wall Street is going to be surprised by #s 1-6″

George Soros in his own words.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/he-sent-guerrillas-puppet-master-george-soros-influence-funding-of-usa-financial-reform-revolution/
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Creating a global governance. Creating the global, one world order.

Austerity (The Republican Position) is class warfare against the poor and middle class.

The curious capitalist calls a cow a cow. Best article on time in the last year.

It’s stuff like this that makes taking Fox News Channel (or Breitbart’s sites or Beck’s “The Blaze” seriously.

“In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the ‘veracity of climate change data’ and ordering the network’s journalists to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.”

The directive, sent by Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, was issued less than 15 minutes after Fox correspondent Wendell Goler accurately reported on-air that the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization announced that 2000-2009 was “on track to be the warmest [decade] on record.”

This latest revelation comes after Media Matters uncovered an email sent by Sammon to Fox journalists at the peak of the health care reform debate, ordering them to avoid using the term ‘public option’ and instead use variations of ‘government option.’ That email echoed advice from a prominent Republican pollster on how to help turn public opinion against health care reform.

Sources familiar with the situation in Fox’s Washington bureau have expressed concern about Sammon using his position to ‘slant’ Fox’s supposedly neutral news coverage to the right.”

I’ll wait for Kate Pickert to write a column excusing them before I respond further.

“Border Patrol spokesman Eric Cantu confirmed the agent’s death to The Associated Press on Wednesday morning.

Cantu tells KTVK-TV the agent is identified as Brian Terry. Cantu says Terry was shot and killed after confronting several suspects near Rio Rico north of Nogales.

At least four people are in custody and possibly one more remains at large.

Cantu says the FBI and local sheriff’s officials are investigating.”
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Sad story.
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Are you saying Harry Reid or the president shot this man?
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If a boarder patrol agent killed is a reason we should build an ineffective extraordinarily expensive wall, considering that PA lost about 50 officers, shouldn’t we build a wall around PA, too?
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http://www.odmp.org/year.php

And those are the worst kind of riots too!

GOPer economists decide to make their own fiscal reality.

“So the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), the bipartisan panel created to study and issue a report on the financial crisis, imploded. The four Republican appointees – Peter Wallison, Keith Hennessey, Bill Thomas and Douglas Holtz-Eakin – have decided to go it alone and issue their own report Wednesday.[...]

This will no doubt play into a ‘Democrats say one thing, Republicans say another thing, who can really tell?’ narrative, but what is leaking out of the Republican worldview on the financial crisis is disturbing. Shahien Nasiripour, Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans Defect; Plan To Blame Government For Crisis, catches this gem:”

During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases “Wall Street” and “shadow banking” and the words “interconnection” and “deregulation” from the panel’s final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.

“I think a number of us had really pulled for” bipartisan consensus, said Born, a Democratic commissioner who famously tried to regulate certain derivatives as head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “But this action by the Republicans indicates they have decided to go their own way.”…

Hennessey and Holtz-Eakin, for example, have missed about half of the commission’s meetings since [early August], according to a person familiar with the panel’s activities.”

Why is this person operating from hunches about what other people think?
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Why don’t they do some research, and find out what others’ rationales are for their positions on the political economy before writing a critical piece about them?
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Isn’t that sort of reportorial conduct dishonest?

And what’s a post about economics without a side from Krugman?
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/invincible-ignorance-2/
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“Yep. It was all Fannie and Freddie, which somehow managed to cause housing bubbles in Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, and Spain as well as the United States; and the repo market had nothing to do with it.
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And bear in mind that this wasn’t one Republican; it was all of them.
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I really do wonder how this country can remain governable, when one party insists on creating its own reality. Next thing you know they’re going to reject the theory of evolution. Oh, wait …”

“How about Nostradamus?”
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How about Lord Haw-Haw?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw

They aren’t creating their own reality, they are creating their own religion and they are creating disciples.

Also, you should check out the graph Krugman links to. It was a global housing crisis after all & freddie and fannie only were here in the U.S. What caused everyone else to suffer the same fate?

About 10 of these appear to be about agriculture. Stupid farmers!

Another reason why the tax compromise is such a sweet deal for Dems.

“David Shor plugged the growth estimates from the forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers into one of the simplest of the models and found that it predicts this will slightly harm President Obama’s reelection chances…’If the tax cuts don’t get through Congress,’ concludes Shor, ‘President Obama is projected to be a slight favorite for reelection, netting about 50.7% of the two-way vote. If the Tax-Cut deal is implemented in it’s current form, Obama can be expected to receive 49.95%.’[...]

…the basic point is that the administration’s deal, which frontloads in 2011, is not well-timed to bolster Obama’s chances at reelection.”

Because author Caroline Baum hates America.
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How do I know what Caroline Baum feels?
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Well, I said I know what she hates, and since I said so, it must be true.

It will be interesting to see what happens in this country.
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We’ve been conditioned not to expect education or medical care, but what happens when they start rolling back Social Security and Medicare?

Personally, I’m waiting for the soup kitchens.

“We will put people in jail”.

“The lead Attorney General of the 50-state foreclosure investigation, Iowa’s Tom Miller, said ‘We will put people in jail,’ in response to questions during a meeting Tuesday with more than 100 people from 15 states representing community, faith, and labor organizations, foreclosure victims and struggling homeowners from across the country.

Miller also agreed that principal reductions, loan modifications, and compensation for defrauded homeowners are necessary to clean up the mortgage mess created by the big banks.

‘One of the main tools needs to be principal reductions, just like in the farm crisis in the 1980s. There should be some kind of compensation system for people who have been harmed. And the foreclosure process should stop while loan modifications begin. To have a race between foreclosures and modifications to see which happens first is insane.’

The meeting was attended by more than 100 people from 15 states representing community, faith, and labor organizations, foreclosure victims and struggling homeowners from across the country.”

Related: The Congressional Oversight Panel’s findings on the HAMP program.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121400203.html
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“The panel’s report cites various reasons that HAMP has fallen woefully short of expectations, namely conflicting incentives within the mortgage industry.

For instance, although homeowners and their lenders often would benefit from modifying existing loans, companies that service those loans sometimes reap bigger financial gains with foreclosures. Treasury’s efforts to encourage more servicers to modify loans by offering them payments have fallen short, the panel said, ‘in part because servicers were not required to participate.’

Another factor is that many borrowers hold a second mortgage from lenders that stand to gain from blocking modifications to the first mortgage. ‘For these reasons and many others,’ the report states, ‘HAMP’s straightforward plan to encourage modifications has proven ineffective in practice.’

The panel also criticizes Treasury for failing to collect more data about HAMP, not setting more meaningful goals by which to measure the program’s progress and failing to hold mortgage servicers accountable for repeatedly losing paperwork or resisting modifications. “

Treasury, on the other hand, believes that HAMP was a success.

They were against earmarks just long enough for them to appear responsible for the elections.

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) epitomizes the conflicted nature of the debate. Formerly a member of the committee that doles out earmarks, McConnell reluctantly embraced a moratorium on the practice last month to send a signal that Republicans are serious about curbing spending.

Yet the legislation includes provisions requested this year by McConnell, including $650,000 for a genetic technology center at the University of Kentucky, according to an analysis of the bill by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog.

Saying he was now “vigorously in opposition” to the legislation, McConnell said Tuesday that rushed consideration of the bill “here on Christmas Eve” compelled him to try to block the bill through a filibuster. “I’m going to vote against things that arguably would benefit my state. I do not think this is the appropriate way to run the Senate,” he said.

But McConnell, like other new earmark opponents, stopped short of asking for his projects to be removed from the bill.

House Republicans are poised to take over the majority next year, vowing to prohibit the earmark practice on their side of the Capitol. With the Senate GOP also nominally opposed to these projects, many lawmakers view this as their last chance at delivering pork before serious fiscal belt tightening begins next year.”

Well, if Reed or Obama killed the border patrol officer, then Rendell or various county executives must have killed those 50 officers…
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Duh…
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Third Way/Centrists/DLCers start their own party.

“Everything you need to know about the new political group No Labels is contained in its slogan: ‘Not Left. Not Right. Forward.’ It’s smug. It sounds like an Obama campaign catchphrase. And it ignores the whole reason politics exists, which is that not everyone agrees on what ‘Forward’ is.

A group of political and media A-listers descended on Columbia University Monday morning for the group’s big launch event, which co-founder Mark McKinnon dubbed in his introductory remarks “our little Woodstock of democracy.” No Label seeks to be the voice of reason in an increasingly hyper-partisan environment—a counterweight to interest groups at either end of the political spectrum. Instead of rewarding candidates who spew partisan talking points, No Label says it will raise money for moderate candidates who embrace what co-founder Jon Cowan calls the ‘three C’s': co-sponsors, common ground, and civility.

The guest list at Monday’s confab said as much about the group as its slogan. Attendees were a mix of media commentators (David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski), recent political losers (former Delaware Rep. Mike Castle, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist), politicians who aren’t seeking re-election (New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh), and moderates who have special permission to buck their party (incoming West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman). In other words, a bunch of people with nothing at stake.”

Thank you, New Freedom Drinker!
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Too long has George Soros been allowed to use the Free Masons and the Illuminati to pull our string like we are puppets and he is puppet mastering us!
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Gen. Glenn Beck started The Revolution last week. I’ve joined the local cell (codenamed: “Tea Party”). Soon we will root the nefarious Soros from his base hidden in the heart of an active volcano. Or on the moon. Doesn’t matter, we’ll get him!
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The important thing to remember is George Soros is out to get us. I know because the National Fox Network told me so. Thank God for great Americans like Rupert Murdoch. Without him leading the country, where would we be? Stuck with a liberal pile of facts. And what have facts done for anyone? Nothing, that’s what!

“It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land”.

“Cheap news is a major reason that every day we are failing in our core mission of providing people with the knowledge they need for our democracy to function. Barry Glassner, in an important book every journalist should read, tells us how cheap news badly done spreads false beliefs and racial distrust. It’s been a decade since he came out with “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things.” By my sights, the problems Glassner described have gotten worse, much worse.[...]

Increasingly what I see are news reports evidencing a basic lack of knowledge about government. And this isn’t happening just with beat reporters but with the assignment and copy editors who are supposed to review stories before they get into print or on the air.[...]

Far too much of journalism consists of quoting what police, prosecutors, politicians and publicists say—and this is especially the case with beat reporters. It’s news on the cheap and most of it isn’t worth the time it takes to read, hear or watch. Don’t take my word for it. Instead look at declining circulation figures. People know value and they know when what they’re getting is worth their time or worth the steadily rising cost of a subscription.

…I’ve grown increasingly dismayed at the superficial and often dead wrong assumptions permeating the news. Every day in highly respected newspapers I read well-crafted stories with information that in years past I would have embraced but now know is nonsense, displaying a lack of understanding of economic theory and the regulation of business. The stories even lack readily available official data on the economy and knowledge of the language and principles in the law, including the Constitution.

What these stories have in common is a reliance on what sources say rather than what the official record shows. If covering a beat means finding sources and sniffing out news, then a firm foundation of knowledge about the topic is essential, though not sufficient. Combine this with a curiosity to dig deeply into the myriad of documents that are in the public record—and then ask sources about what the documents show.”

And for dessert:

Panda Manbears spotted in China.

The funny thing with statistical data is how you can manipulate the data to cover your specific position. Overall our temperatures have increase 1.4 degree since 1880. But, going back to 1810 the data clearly shows no change at all, and for the most part the earth’s temperatures from 1810 and back were actually warmer than today.
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But, it is convenient for Global Warming alarmist to show the coldest period from 1880 to about 1920 as their starting point when they are reviewing data. Funny how they neglect to average in the temperatures from 1810 to 1880, yes?

Doesn’t this constituency already have a party? It’s called the Democratic Party.
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I mean, surely they’ve noticed that any progressive or liberal rhetoric that may come from the DNC is purely for show.

“Funny how they neglect to average in the temperatures from 1810 to 1880, yes?”
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Is this one of those “because I said so” moments of yours (like all of 2010 being one of those moments) or do you have any proof that 1810 through 1880 is being ignored.
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And, if so, then why has data going back to the last ice age been accumulated.
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What was the annual temperature worldwide from 1810 to 1880?
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It didn’t change even 0.01 degrees?
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Link it or zip it.

1810 temperatures were probably affect by a volcano eruption:
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http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/12/-the-year-without-summer-what-triggered-the-mini-ice-age-0f-1810.html
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http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/12/-the-year-without-summer-what-triggered-the-mini-ice-age-0f-1810.html
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Although you probably won’t believe this, because it comes from scientists who, like, research this stuff.
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Also: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/paleolast.html

The only way that changes is to follow the example of Fox News in reverse. A billionaire with money to burn takes over a few news outlets, makes sure they get their stories accurate, factual, relevant, no-frills, and no flash, loses bundles for years, and finally turns it into profit that other media outlet try to copy.
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Barring that we’re going to have to get used to reading the equivalent of the 1939 version of the Berlin Beat or the 1969 version of the Havana Times.

The funny thing with statistical data is how you can manipulate the data…
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The funnier thing is that you’ve thrown up chaff in order to distract people from the main point, which is the deliberate effort on the part of Fox News Channel management to push a political agenda.
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Which is not news, it’s propaganda.

It really says something about these groups’ pathological, ideological hatred of movement liberals that they just can’t stand to share the same figurative toilet stalls with us, even if we never even actually get to use them.

Bah. Adam covered this above. Apologies for the waste of real estate.

It gets betterworse…
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http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/12/15/zombie-apocalypse-return-of-the-goo-goos/#more-55120
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“Republicans and ex-Clintonistas, spanning the political gamut from far-right to center-right! Hey, no point bothering with ‘unserious’, non-Right points of view, if your whole purpose is to encourage that all-American chimera known as ‘Centrism’. McKinnon & Mark Penn, together again—and if either one takes you by the hand, be sure to count your fingers afterwards.
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There have been any number of high-minded, low-souled third party ‘civility’ movements in American political history—Matt DeLong tallies a few recent examples—but I believe No Labels harks back to the poisoned wellspring, the Goo-Goos of the original Gilded Age[...]
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‘No Labels’ is nothing we haven’t heard before. So perhaps it’s only fitting that “the advertising agency veteran whose firm designed the graphic for the fledgling centrist political organization No Labels acknowledged Tuesday morning that his design was taken whole cloth from the logo of another political group. (Think of it as repurposing, not plagiarism!)
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And if its [new theme song] is a celebration of political ignorance (‘… you may not understand this whole process and how things go… ‘) Auto-tuned to the point that it sounds like the bastard offspring of a speech synthesizer and a drum pad, well… truth in marketing, at least.”
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(watch out for the all-too-important Harold Ford Jr. endorsement)

Jon Kyl says Reid is ruining Christmas
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Boo hoo. I have to work on Christmas eve. Why should the senate be able to take 2-3 weeks Christmas vacation when others have no choice but to go to work. Some will even be working on Christmas day. But it ruins Christmas if senators can’t go home 10 days prior to the holiday?? Talk about being out of touch.
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Maybe if they had learned their lesson last year and actually did something besides stall all of this year, they’d be getting their overly long holiday instead of being told they need to do what they’re actually paid to do.

We already have soup kitchens. I’m waiting for the day people put ketchup into hot water and call it tomato soup.
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When I was a kid, we had a summer of deep financial hardship. My mother planted a garden and we ate tomato sandwiches almost every day. At least we had the bread for those sandwiches. I work full time and sometimes can’t scrape together the money for the loaf of bread.

UN Security Council lifts embargoes on Iraq from aquiring WMDs, developing a nuclear program, development of long range missiles, the oil-for-food program, and has returned governance of the oil industry to Iraqi control. In effect, they’ve returned Iraq’s International standing to 1990

Graphs included.
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http://biocab.org/global_warming.html

Rusty,
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You’ve proven your point with those graphs.
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At first look, it appears as if one line for temperature is all over the place against a slowly rising line for amount of CO2.
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A more careful look and it is the percent change in temperature against the amount, not percent change, in atmospheric CO2.
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True, these were done by NOAA, but, they are not easy to read.
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When you graph temperature to amount of CO2 you get this very clear correlation:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Co2-temperature-plot.svg
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You’re right, Rusty. The right does manipulate numbers to fool people like you.
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Glad you brought it to our attention, as those of us not to very extreme right like yourself didn’t know this ten years ago.

Remember the porkatorium? Neither does Mitch McConnell.

Is anyone surprised? When did gop rhetoric ever match their behavior? Their track record has been increased government spending (but never for those most in need) by more and more debt for well over thirty years.

Yeah, but they are all conveniently out of site, in buildings or out of the city. As far reaching as this crisis has been, I’ve not seen signs of it outside of the very rare parking lot where someone is actually asking for money or a job out in suburbia. I’ve seen that 2 or 3 times now.
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The sprawl and isolation of our suburban lifestyle has pretty much isolated people enough that you could go day to day without ever noticing the hardships American citizens are in right now.

Well, bears are always number 1 on the Threatdown

newrusty: Glen Beck says soon. Your prophet cannot be wrong. Revolution is coming!

“Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been over 40 years since my last confession.”
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However, I have evidently committed a mortal sin and must unburden myself. I worked many Christmas Eves.

For those who defended DADT on a previous post, meet Eric Alva:

Major General Christopher Cortez (left), commends Staff Sergeant Eric Alva on July 13, 2003, calling him “a credit to the Corps”.[1]
Born April 1, 1971 (1971-04-01) (age 39)

San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Occupation author, United States Marine activist
Website
http://HRC.org

Staff Sergeant Eric Fidelis Alva (born April 1, 1971) is the first Marine seriously injured in the Iraq Occupation.[1]

He was in charge of 11 Marines in a supply unit when, on March 21, 2003, he stepped on a land mine, losing his right leg.[2] He joined the United States Marine Corps in 1990 at the age of 19. He is a native of San Antonio, Texas.

Currently he is working with Democratic representative Martin Meehan of Massachusetts and a bipartisan group of representatives to Capitol Hill to reintroduce the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, legislation that would repeal the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexual conduct.[citation needed] Alva also served as the Grand Marshall of the 2008 Chicago Gay and Lesbian Pride parade held on Sunday, June 29, 2008.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Alva
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Remember how concerned Gen. Amos was that he might visit a vet who lost his legs in war because he was distracted by a gay? Do you suppose Alva was injured because he was distracted by a straight?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/15/mitch-mcconnell-crying-video_n_797073.html
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What’s with the crying Republicans. Is it because of a feeling because they are craven dinks? Is it a hormonal problem? Have they been taking lessons from Glen Beck? Weepy, weepy, weepy.

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“There’s no crying in baseball.”