(Formerly) Mainstream Media Pronounced Brain Dead, Plug to be Pulled

This just proves that there is no brain activity in the media formerly known as mainstream.  They are doing the usual liberal “you didn’t hear me say what you heard me say” routine, a.k.a. REVISIONIST HISTORY.  First, Obama and the state run media sell Stimulus 1 as “shovel ready” for immediate results in the economy.  Now they are saying they didn’t say that.  Sorry, we have it on record.  Then you get this real gem of sound logic from the NY Times.

They also knew that the size of the final package – which was whittled down in part to ensure its passage in Congress – was not big enough to completely offset the projected drop in the nation’s economic output, which administration officials believed at the time would perform at $2 trillion below its capacity over the next two years.

Let me see if I can simplify their logic for you.  I have a one gallon bucket (representing the economy).  That bucket gets a hole in it and begins to lose water (wealth and jobs).  Rather than drilling for more water (cutting taxes and removing impediments to businesses that create jobs and wealth), I will dip water from the bucket and pour it right back into the bucket and say that I am refilling it (the “stimulus” money was taken from the “bucket” of our economy without creating more jobs or wealth).  The bucket continues to leak, and even more water is evaporating with each dip from the bucket.  Got it?

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Published on NewsBusters.org (http://newsbusters.org)

Media Campaigning for Second Stimulus Package

By Candance Moore

Created 2009-10-13 14:21

Eight months after President Obama signed a stimulus package worth $787 billion, less than half the funds [1] have been spent and nearly half [2] of Americans want the remainder to be repealed.Of course, that hasn’t stopped the mainstream media from pushing for more.

Recall that before the first bill was even signed, Reuters [3] hailed a statement from billionaire George Soros warning that it wouldn’t be enough. In July, NewYork Times columnist Paul Krugman called the bill [4] “inadequate” and bemoaned fiscal conservatives for their “bittter and unrelenting” skepticism.

Now, despite unemployment approaching double digits [5], the federal deficit [6] exploding, and rumors flying that the world is dumping its dollars [7], liberal newpapers have unabashasedly increased their call for more “stimulus.”

An October 6 article [8] from the NY Times first provided some revisionist history to advance the fiscally-challenged cause:

The stimulus was never intended to be a put-shovels-in-the-hands-of-people-on-relief type of New Deal public works program: it was, rather, a combination of tax cuts, aid to states and money for infrastructure projects that would be put out for bid to private contractors and take time to get going.

Those of us with functioning memories know that President Obama did [9] sell the stimulus as a “shovel ready” program. But no matter to the Times.

Aside from that detail, what came next in the article was the real jaw dropper:

They also knew that the size of the final package – which was whittled down in part to ensure its passage in Congress – was not big enough to completely offset the projected drop in the nation’s economic output, which administration officials believed at the time would perform at $2 trillion below its capacity over the next two years.

Yes, according to the Times, an effective stimulus package would have pumped $2 trillion into the economy. Considering that the entire national debt currently stands [10] around $12 trillion, that much spending would increase it tremendously.

Regardless, the Washington Post [11] continued the drumbeat the very next day:

But this has been such a profound, job-destroying recession that even $787 billion wasn’t sufficient. And changes made to secure some bipartisan support in the Senate last February rendered the stimulus less effective than it might have been…The White House is in the position of defending the stimulus and urging that we do more.

And don’t look now, but Congress appears to be working on doing more. The AP noted [12] on October 8 that politicians are trying to craft a new stimulus without actually calling it a stimulus.

Not to worry, for with media that are clearly enthusiastic about more spending, President Obama should have no problem finding support for the new measure irrespective of the name it’s given.

After all, to today’s so-called journalists, a stimulus by any other name would smell as sweet.

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Source URL:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/candance-moore/2009/10/13/media-call-second-stimulus-growing

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Government: Do as I say, not as I do.

Not only did the liberals in congress omit wording that would make healthcare reform apply to them, THEY SPECIFICALLY REJECTED AMENDMENTS that would have made the new bill apply equally to them.  The same has been true of almost all of their legislation in recent years.

If congressmen and senators saying that their healthcare reform ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM doesn’t tell you it should be rejected, you must be a masochist who loves being abused by all comers.

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http://www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/bg2326.cfm

October 13, 2009

Time for Congress to Work Under the Same Rules as the Private Sector

by James Sherk and Ryan O’Donnell

Backgrounder #2326

Abstract: All too often, Congress imposes restrictive and burdensome regulations on employers in the private sec­tor–while conveniently exempting itself from these same rules. Many Members of Congress are currently urging passage of the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act and RESPECT Act, which, again, would leave Congress untouched. This paper demonstrates the hypocrisy of such an approach, and urges Congress to either swallow its own medicine or to extend the same rights to the private sector that it claims for itself. …

(click HERE for complete article)

Baucus “Bill” Passes Senate Finance Committee

The next step towards the socialization of America has been taken.  In a 14-9 vote, all of the freedom hating, anti-American democrats, and one  democrat in republican clothing on the Senate Finance Committee voted for the Baucus notes.  You can’t call it a bill yet, because it hasn’t been finalized and contains none of the language associated with a “bill.”  This vote further proves that our government is out of control.  They have ignored the voices of the constituents for whom they are supposed to work.

Remember these people, as well as the other senators and congressmen who are seeking to advance the cause of socialism and Barack Obama’s agenda.  Join me in doing everything possible to ensure that these socialists don’t get re-elected.

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Below are the members of the Senate Finance Committee who voted FOR socialism, government control of healthcare, and the destruction of America, among other things.

DEMOCRATS
MAX BAUCUS, MT
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV
KENT CONRAD, ND
JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
JOHN F. KERRY, MA
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
RON WYDEN, OR
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
MARIA CANTWELL, WA
BILL NELSON, FL
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ
THOMAS CARPER, DE

REPUBLICAN (singular, as in THE ONLY ONE)
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, ME

Insurance Companies Fight Back

The demo-rats call this and “insurance industry hatchet job.”  No, they’re just fighting back because Obama screwed them.  They signed a deal with the devil, and it became evident that Obama and company weren’t going to hold up their end of the bargain.

Now they are fighting for their own survival, because the government takeover is going to drive them all out of business.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091012/D9B9GK1G1.html

Insurers mount attack against health reform

Oct 12, 6:50 AM (ET)
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) – After working for months behind the scenes to help shape health care reform, the insurance industry is now sharply attacking the emerging plan with a report that maintains Senate legislation would increase the cost of a typical policy by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year.

A spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., whose 10-year, $829 billion overhaul plan faces a final Finance Committee vote Tuesday, was quick to react Sunday, questioning the credibility of the industry’s late-in-coming cost estimate.

“It’s a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple,” said the spokesman, Scott Mulhauser.

The health insurance industry has been working until recently to help draft legislation, while publicly endorsing President Barack Obama’s goal of affordable coverage for all Americans. The alliance has grown strained as legislation advances toward votes in Congress.

Late Sunday, the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans sent its member companies a new accounting firm study that projects the legislation would add $1,700 a year to the cost of family coverage in 2013, when most of the major provisions in the bill would be in effect.

Premiums for a single person would go up by $600 more than would be the case without the legislation, the PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis concluded in the study commissioned by the insurance group.

“Several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system,” Karen Ignagni, the top industry lobbyist in Washington, wrote in a memo to insurance company CEOs.

The study projected that in 2019, family premiums could be $4,000 higher and individual premiums could be $1,500 higher.

Baucus spokesman Mulhauser said the study is “seriously flawed” because it doesn’t take into account provisions in the legislation that would lower the cost of coverage, such as tax credits to help people buy private insurance, protections for current policies and administrative savings from a revamped marketplace.

White House health care spokeswoman Linda Douglass concurred. “This is an insurance industry analysis that is designed to reach a conclusion which benefits the industry, and does not represent what the bill does,” she said.

The Baucus plan faces a final committee vote on Tuesday. It got a boost last week when the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cover 94 percent of eligible Americans while reducing the federal deficit.

But the PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis attempted to get at a different issue – costs for privately insured individuals.

It concluded that a combination of factors in the bill – and decisions by lawmakers as they amended it – would raise costs.

The chief reason, said the report, is a decision by lawmakers to weaken proposed penalties for failing to get health insurance. The bill would require insurers to take all applicants, doing away with denials for pre-existing health problems. In return, all Americans would be required to carry coverage, either through an employer or a government program, or by buying it themselves.

But the CBO estimated that even with new federal subsidies, some 17 million Americans would still be unable to afford health insurance. Faced with that affordability problem, senators opted to ease the fines for going without coverage from the levels Baucus originally proposed. The industry says that will only let people postpone getting coverage until they get sick.

Other factors leading to higher costs include a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans, cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors, and a series of new taxes on insurers and other health care industries, the report said.

“Health reform could have a significant impact on the cost of private health insurance coverage,” it concluded.

Insurers played a major role in defeating then-President Bill Clinton’s health care plan in the 1990s. Sunday, the industry stopped short of signaling all-out opposition. “We will continue to work with policymakers in support of workable bipartisan reform,” Ignagni said in her memo.

Pelosi Helps US Air Force Protect Airplanes

Thanks to my headquarters source for forwarding this to me.

For those not familiar with the acronym, BASH stands for Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard, and is the program under which US Air Force efforts are focused to reduce damage, costs, injury and loss of life associated with aircraft collisions with birds and other wildlife.

I believe the repelling nature of this new test program, when implemented fully, will ELIMINATE these strikes.

See the test bed aircraft below.

Eric Holder and the ‘Blog Squad’

Am I supposed to believe and trust an administration who has been caught in more lies in 9 months than the last 3 administrations combined?  Am I to trust an administration whose idea of “transparency” is a slight of hand trick telling you what they want you to hear while covering up all evidence and ability to find the truth?  The only thing transparent about this administration is that they are transparently a bunch of communist/socialists.  Their unprecedented attacks on ANY media outlet that disagrees with them is openly communist.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/oct/08/doj-denies-existence-blog-squad/

DOJ denies existence of a ‘blog squad’

By Kerry Picket on Oct. 8, 2009 into Water Cooler

Various conservative blogs are talking about the existence of a “blog squad” at the U.S. Justice Department. The website, the Muffled Oar writes that a blogging unit formed within the Department of Justice to counter websites with posts, articles, and user comments critical of the Obama administration.  Matthew Miller Director of Public Affair at the Justice Department told the Washington Times,:

“There is no ‘blog squad’. There is Tracy [Russo] who handles online media.  It’s the policy of the office of public affairs to not post anonymous comments.  We have not seen any evidence that anyone does post comments, and if we did have evidence of that, people would no longer work here.”

Mr. Miller countered accusations of the existence of a “blog squad” pointing to what he says is lack of evidence.

“I noticed, actually, that the posts don’t actually point to any evidence of anonymous comments coming from the Department of Justice, which of course, I believe you can trace.  I think it says they’ve seen an uptick.”

The Muffled Oar, first reported on the existence of such a blogging unit, writing:

“Tracy Russo is one such blogger from the campaign of John Edwards. The unit is housed in the Office of Public Affairs. Not only is the Department of Justice Blog Squad going to reach out to nontraditional media like TPM Muckraker or the Muffled Oar, but they are also tasked with fostering anonymous comments at conservative leaning blogs such as the Free Republic. They are also tasked with fostering anonymous comments, or comments under pseudonyms, at newspaper websites with stories critical of the Department of Justice, Holder and President Obama.”

National Review’s the Corner blog picked up this story from Muffled Oar on Tuesday:

“At the same time that DOJ was refusing to answer questions about its outrageous dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and apparently paying government employees to post anonymous or pseudonymous comments or comments under false names attacking critics of the administration, the department declared that it was launching its new website “to increase openness and transparency in government.”

The Muffled Oar points out that Ms. Russo of the DOJ’s Public Affair’s office is a former John Edwards campaign blogger. However, Mr. Miller defends Ms. Russo’s role at DOJ saying,:

“Tracy [Russo] was hired to lead our online efforts which have been to redesign the department’s web page to lead the post into social media to use new communications tools to communicate with the American people.”

This story seems far from over. Should it be surprising web users are suspicious of a Democrat political partisan former campaign blogger who has the power of the Justice Department behind her now?  Apparently this administration still has not learned much from their past mistakes.

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Dear Senator, JUST SAY NO!

I faxed this to every senator with a published fax number, and went through the pain of filling out the e-mail form and e-mailing this to each senator on the finance committee.  If you don’t like what Washington is doing, what are you doing about it?

In spite of these efforts, and the efforts of millions of you out there who have voiced your opposition to government run healthcare, I feel confident that the senate this morning will give us the middle finger and say “Screw you, peasants!”

Screw us?  No, screw them!  My family and I pray for all of them daily to make wise decisions, but I feel as if that may not be enough to change the outcome of this issue.  I fear that the American people are going to have to take more drastic measures to save themselves and this country from ruin.

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To:  All United States Senators

Subject: Vote NO on Healthcare Reform

Dear Senators:

I urge you to vote “NO” on the pending vote on Sen. Baucus’ proposal for healthcare “reform.”  Many of the provisions in this “bill” that isn’t yet a bill are anti-capitalist, anti-American, and unconstitutional.  At the very least it will tie up the legal system with challenges to its constitutionality, and at worst will cause open rebellion and economic chaos when all of the hidden fees and taxes are imposed and can’t be paid.

Government by definition can’t create wealth, and can only create jobs that are paid for by redistributing other people’s wealth.  Government (i.e. you) should be focusing on removing the restraints from the economic system that has generated the most wealth and the highest standard of living in the history of the world.  Just get out of the way.

• Vote “NO” on government involvement in private insurance
• Vote “NO” on a “public option”
• Vote “NO” on higher taxes (personal or corporate)
• Vote “YES” on TORT REFORM
• Vote “YES” on tax cuts

In encourage you to remember your place.  You work for us, not the other way around.  When our founding fathers broke away from the oppressive government of England to establish the American government, they turned to God for guidance and inspiration.  The Declaration of Independence was a result of that inspiration.  An important passage of that document is presented here.

“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. … “

My family and I pray for you all daily.  We pray for wisdom for you, and grace and mercy for our country.  Please consider carefully the actions you are about to take, for if taken lightly they may destroy the very nation that has given you the freedom to take those actions.

Sincerely,

///SIGNED///

Citizen