ANALYSIS-Obama's Olympian gamble collapses

Subject: txt 1st reps libs -
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's politically risky Olympics gamble failed to bring home the gold on Friday, with the Olympics committee's refusal to grant the 2016 Summer Games to his hometown Chicago...

[I was genuinely surprised by this development not because Europe's anti-Americanism held sway, but because I'd assumed that no President would voluntarily link his prestiege to a descressionary issue without having first worked it to successful conclussion in advance.

I must say it adds some weight to those making the out-of-his-depth argument - it was rank hubris to take such needless liberties with the prestiege of OUR President's office.

Those the Gods would destroy they first make 'rock stars', I guess.]

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Axelrod defends Copenhagen disaster: 'It's the world's loss'

Subject: txt 1st -

Speaking on the semiofficial Obama news channel MSNBC, David Axelrod manifests the unbearable hubris and arrogance of the White House team. Politico reports:

"I am proud of this president for going to make the case for this country," he said on MSNBC. "Anytime you're going to make the case for the United States of America, you're doing the right thing." [...]

"I think it was well worth the investment of time and I have no regrets about that and I know [Obama] doesn't."

Later on CNN:

"It's the world's loss."

I am sure the world community is going to appreciate that condescending insult.

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White House, lefty blogs going ape over righty rejoicing at Obama's failure

Subject: txt 1st gdd othr libs reps -
If you did not support the president's trip to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics coming to Chicago, you are an unpatriotic moron. If you opposed bringing the games here, you hate America.

Those are the deep thoughts brought to us by the netnuts in blogdom and even the White House , who equated RNC Chair Michael Steele's opposition to Obama's trip (that 43% of Americans opposed also) with not "rooting" for America.

Now some might think it hypocritical for the left to point to anyone and say they hate America or wish America to fail. Given the incredible crap George Bush had to put up for 8 years from this crew, it might behoove our lefty friends to recall their own cheering on the insurgency in Iraq, gloating over American casualties, and generally acting as if losing the war would be a good thing.

And when they protest a bit too much that it's simply not true, remind them of what Gary Kamiya wrote in Salon Magazine as our troops were rolling to victory over Saddam's army: (Via Ace )

"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings...." [all requiring more American service deaths...]

Lefty blogs today are full of accusations that the right hates America and hopes Obama fails. How one can connect the two - tying the person of the president to whether one loves their country or not - escaped much of the left for the last 8 years. They have suddenly discovered that they love America in the same way that the right does - at least as long as Obama is the president.

So let's allow them their spite. No one takes their charge that the right hates America seriously - I mean, really now. Who are they kidding? They just spent the last 8 years telling the right that their blind love of America was destroying us. Now all of a sudden the right hates the country? Phooey.

I devoutly wish that the left's discovery that they love America the same way that conservatives love her will be a permanent thing. But somehow, I think the next president - whoever she may be - will cause liberals to revert to type and see our flaws all to clearly while ignoring our virtues...

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Meanwhile, in our 'Professional' media...

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NBC: Mayor Daley - Not Obama - Biggest Loser in Push

ABC: Shocked TV Journalists Absolve Obama, Insist IOC Rebuke Won't Hurt President

MSNBC: 'Right-Wing Talkers' Responsible for Obama Olympic Defeat

ABC’:‘Crushing’ Olympic Defeat; -- for Chicago

Olympic Failure Bush's Fault

NPR Skips Over Conservative/GOP Critique of Obama Olympics Bid
National Public Radio’s idea of balanced coverage of the Team Obama Olympic bid was exclude any national Republicans in their coverage, before or after Chicago was eliminated.

Roland Burris - 'It's Bush's fault' Chicago lost the Olympics
Go back to sleep, Roland.

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Will Media Finally Adopt ‘Barack the Bumbler’ Story Line?

Subject: txt msm bias - 1st -
Barack Obama’s bumbling of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics is a test for the Washington press corps, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes argues:

Now is the time for the mainstream media to show it’s not totally in President Obama’s pocket.

The Washington press corps will never fault Obama for pushing hyper-liberal policies in a moderate-to-conservative country. Ideological criticism by the press is reserved for Republican presidents.

But the media is faced with three facts as a result of Obama’s embarrassing failure in Copenhagen. 1) The failure itself. 2) The incompetence. 3) The lack of persuasive ability. There’s nothing ideological about any of these items....

Liberal reporters may refuse to see the controversy in Obama’s far-left agenda, but the President’s high-profile Olympic flub offers a non-ideological story of White House incompetence - but can the MSM bring itself to be critical of 'the Won' about anything?

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Newsweek: Losing Olympics Good for Obama

Subject: txt 1st msm bias =
It goes without saying the State media will be in full damage control mode this weekend trying to spin Friday's announcement that Chicago will not be the host of the 2016 Olympics, but this one has to take the cake:

• Losing the Olympics Bid Is Good for Obama

Such was the headline of an article posted at Newsweek's "The Gaggle" blog Friday.

[Fred's answer.]

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Top 10 Reasons Chicago lost Olympic bid

[HT:FG]Subject: txt 1st fnn othr - owg -
With thanks to Rich Lowry of NRO for sharing

10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings
9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal
8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.
7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements.
6. Obviously no president would have been able to accomplish it.
5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics.
4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created".
3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee
2. Because the IOC is racist.
1. It's George Bush's fault.

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Democrats Quietly Craft 'Public Option'

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Senate Democrats are quietly crafting a compromise over the so-called public option behind closed doors -- two days after a pivotal Senate panel struck down amendments to create the government-run program, congressional aides told Fox News. (Snip) Carper is proposing what one aide called ''an opt in plus a trigger,'' which would allow individual states to choose to create a public option to compete with private insurers in their state.

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Comments:
It's a trap you asses. Once socialist gov healthcare is established in a state you can never be rid of it and it will destroy private insurers...

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Poll: Opposition to Health Care Reform Still Growing

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
As Congress takes action on health care reform, public opinion on the issue remains divided and, at times, contradictory. The latest FOX News poll shows a decline in support for health care reform over the past two weeks.

Currently, one-third favors the legislation being considered (33 percent) and 53 percent opposes it...

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ANOTHER SERIOUS CONSERVATIVE HEALTH PLAN

Subject: txt 1st hcare =
Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has joined a host of other Republicans in the House of Representatives by crafting another serious conservative alternative to the health plans that the President and the Democratic leadership are trying to push through Congress.

"Having practiced medicine for more than two decades, I personally know that the status quo must not stand. Whether coming from the federal government or an insurance company, the third-party decision making that drives our health care delivery system is increasingly distancing patients from quality care. Going down the path of more government will only compound the problem,"

says Dr. Price, who was a practicing physician for nearly 25 years before coming to Congress. Price's

"Empower Patients First Act,"

would:

• Fix the unfairness in the tax treatment of health insurance by extending a tax credit or deduction to those without employer-sponsored insurance;
• Use automatic enrollment, with a right to "opt out" of health insurance coverage, and promote defined-contributions for employer plans, instead of using government coercion and mandates, to expand coverage;
• Establish health plan portals in the states so that patients can own and control their own health insurance;
• Offer low-income Americans the option of a voucher to purchase private coverage; and
• Give states incentives to experiment with how best to cover high cost individuals.

For months President Obama has suggested that on health reform the choice is between the Democrats plans before Congress or the status quo. Congressional conservatives, like Rep. Price, have offered other serious legislative proposals that include practical health care solutions, only to have them all closed out of consideration by the majority party.

It's time for official Washington to stop demonizing its critics and ordinary citizens who are opposed to its health care agenda. There's many good ideas being proposed that would actually increase the quality of health care for the patients - but the President and the Congressional leadership need to get serious about listening to them...

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No place for GOP at Senate health-bill table

[HT:SS]Subject: txt 1st hcare - Harkin:
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.

“It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call.

“And it will have a public option.”

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Obama Now Links Job Growth to Healthcare Reform

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
On September 9, in front of a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama for all intents and purposes declared the recession over:

[T]hanks to the bold and decisive action we've taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.

Less than a month later, following Friday's much worse than expected employment report from the Labor Department, our President is singing a different tune.

As was well-telegraphed by his economic advisor Robert Reich moments after the jobs numbers were released, Obama during his weekly radio address on Saturday told Americans that the employment situation in this country isn't going to improve until -- wait for it -- Congress passes healthcare reform...

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Healthcare Adds Another 19,000 Jobs, 559K Since Recession Began

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As the Business & Media Institute's Julia Seymour previously reported, the September unemployment data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed a larger than expected decline in non-farm payrolls.

Yet, as employers shed another 263,000 workers, the healthcare industry ADDED -- yes, ADDED -- 19,000 employees.

As reported last month, the healthcare industry, despite dire warnings from Democrats and their media minions that it's in a crisis, continues to add to payrolls month after month during this recession...

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[Hmm. One might suspect that folks in that industry think it less likely they'll be hit with the reductions in 'fraud and abuses' promised than in it turning out to be {yet another} government boondoggle...]
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image toon - hcare - Health Care largest employer in country

US sees Iran talks as start of process

Subject: txt gwot -
Washington - The United States is looking for Iran to disclose details of its nuclear program, provide access to facilities and personnel and otherwise take concrete steps to show it is serious about complying with international demands at Thursday's landmark meeting between the countries -

though American officials characterized the parley as the beginning of a long process...

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Sarkozy chides Obama on Iran

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
When France chides you for appeasement, you know you're scraping bottom

"President Obama, I support the Americans' outstretched hand. But what did the international community gain from these offers of dialogue? Nothing."

– French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Sept. 24

Just how low we've sunk was demonstrated by the Obama administration's satisfaction when Russia's president said of Iran, after meeting President Obama at the U.N. that

"sanctions are seldom productive, but they are sometimes inevitable."

You see? The Obama magic. Engagement works. Russia is on board.

Except that, as The Washington Post inconveniently pointed out, President Dmitry Medvedev said the same thing a week earlier, and the real power in Russia, Vladimir Putin, had changed not at all in his opposition to additional sanctions.

And just to make things clear, when Iran then brazenly test-fired offensive missiles, Russia reacted by declaring that this newest provocation did not warrant the imposition of tougher sanctions... [snip]

Confusing ends and means, the Obama administration strives mightily for shows of allied unity, good feeling and pious concern about Iran's nuclear program – whereas the real objective is stopping that program.

This feel-good posturing is worse than useless, because all the time spent achieving gestures is precious time granted Iran to finish its race to acquire the bomb...

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Losing Faith in the Commander in Chief

Subject: txt gwot nsec -
[HT:LDot]

Obama has already achieved what it took Jimmy Carter
an entire term to attain.

[That's the gist.]

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image toon - gwot nsec = Iran = letting proliferation genie out of bottle

World Must Sustain Push against Iran's Human Rights Abuses

Subject: txt owg iran islm -
As the United States and the international community meet Iran's diplomats and hope for the nuclear crisis to be resolved, another critical front should be opened: an investigation into the Iranian regime for abuse of human rights of its own...

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[Instead...]
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You Can't Say That

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech.

The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were there for the first time as full Council members and intent on making friends.

President Obama chose to join the Council despite the fact that the Organization of the Islamic Conference holds the balance of power and human rights abusers are among its lead actors, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. Islamic states quickly interpreted the president's penchant for "engagement" as meaning fundamental rights were now up for grabs. Few would have predicted, however, that the shift would begin with America's most treasured freedom.

Privately, other Western governments were taken aback and watched the weeks of negotiations with dismay as it became clear that American negotiators wanted consensus at all costs... [snip]

Pakistan's Ambassador Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, made it clear that they understand the resolution and its protection against religious stereotyping as allowing free speech to be trumped by anything that defames or negatively stereotypes religion.

The idea of protecting the human rights "of religions" instead of individuals is a favorite of those countries that do not protect free speech and which use religion--as defined by government--to curtail it.

The Obama administration's debut at the Human Rights Council laid bare its very different priorities. Threatening freedom of expression is a price for engagement with the Islamic world that it is evidently prepared to pay...

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Defying Obama, Republican Senator Making Honduras Trip

Subject: txt intl lbrty -
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., will defy President Obama by meeting with de facto Honduran president Roberto Micheletti.

"No U.S. Senator has yet been to Honduras to assess facts of crisis. but John Kerry & the Obama administration are using bullying tactics to hide truth,"

DeMint wrote on his Twitter. The meeting goes against the administration's policy of isolating Micheletti's government,

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Colombia nabs major cocaine smuggler wanted by U.S.

Subject: txt intl trade -
BOGOTA - Colombian police struck a blow against the country's top drug cartel by capturing a trafficker accused of smuggling about 100 tons of cocaine to the United States, officials said on Sunday. Juan Rivera was arrested in the city of Cali after a six-month manhunt. He is wanted for extradition by U.S. courts in Florida and was second in command of the Norte del Valle cartel, Colombia's biggest cocaine smuggling gang.

[Our best ally in the region - not that you'd know it by Congress' stone walling of the free trade agreement it desperately needs at the behest of our labor unions.]

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US Secy Locke: Colombia Trade Pact Not Likely Ratified

Subject: txt trade intl crpt -
SANTIAGO --The U.S. Congress won't likely ratify a free trade agreement with Colombia this year as it's currently focusing on health care reform and energy-related legislation, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Tuesday. "It's pretty doubtful" that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with similar ones with South Korea and Panama, the secretary said,

[Unions, again.]

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If I told You, Would You Have Believed?

Subject: txt 1st reps libs sclm bbro othr -
...that within the first seven months of the new administration,

• > 90% of all mortgages in the United States would be backed by the federal government (placing the taxpayer at risk for over $5 trillion dollars, I might add),
• > The U.S. government would become a major shareholder in one of the world's largest banks, Citigroup,
• > Conduct a hostile takeover of General Motors and Chrysler, sacking their respective CEO's, replacing them with political appointees, and then heartlessly close hundreds of profitable dealerships across the country, with a tangible bias against owners were known to have contributed to Republican politicians and conservative causes,
• > Introduce legislation to to hijack the student loan industry,
• > The budget deficit for Barack Obama's first fiscal year would total $1.6 trillion dollars, and in ten years the predicted national debt would surge to $16 trillion,
• > Drop the lukewarm phrase ‘War on Terror' and replace it an even wimpier one: ‘Overseas Contingency Operation,'
• > Soon be reciting Miranda rights to terrorists captured on the battlefield-AK-47 toting thugs attempting to kill Americans soldiers in Afghanistan,
• > Would have an Attorney General who does not believe the Second Amendment is an individual right,
• > That a Supreme Court justice who feels race makes for judicial wisdom, would be sworn-in,
• > That the Tenth Amendment would be obliterated by the new administration in an attempt to pass ‘health insurance reform',
• > Have president who declared the United States is "no longer a Christian nation",
• > Have a president who would not publicly participate in the National Day of Prayer, but would travel to Egypt to give a major address directed to the Muslim world,
• > Have a president who's first phone call to a world leader was to a former pillar of the Palestinian Liberation [terrorist] Organization, Mahmoud Abbas,
• > Have a president that, offered by Britain to keep it, had the bust of Churchill already in the Oval Office crated and shipped back to England,
• > Have a president who appointed a hater of conservative radio to the FCC.

If we had told you, would you have believed such things were possible in the United States of America?

Well, to a large degree, many of us did, and now many more believe...

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image toon - mny sclm = Oby agenda team nervious re deficit bridge crossing

Do Not Blame Barack

Subject: txt sclm bbro othr edu bdd -
...Obama doesn't alarm me as much as the average American. To explain why, I'll present something Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said 2000 years ago when lamenting Julius Caesar's rise to dictator:

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions . . . . Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man..."

Barack Obama is only one man, but he is a symptom more than a cause. Without millions of fawning Americans, he would just be a community agitator, vainly preaching Alinsky principles from a soapbox. We've had self-professed communists such as Bill Ayers -- and other assorted intellectual mutants, such as Ward Churchill, Cass Sunstein and John Holdren -- in academia for many decades.

But good Americans still donate their money to universities and still sent their most precious possessions, their children, to them.

So, should it be any surprise that millions of these children would, knowing nothing and feeling all the wrongs things, flock to the polls and cast votes for people just like their teachers and professors? You may say that their parents knew nothing of these universities' true nature. But it was their place to find out.

Obama did not create the modern academy - but rather is more a creation of it...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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The Bane of the Federal Government

Subject: txt mny lbrty sclm bbro -

"...[our predecessors] understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited."

President Obama, to a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009.

[I.e.;

1. National Defense against foreign enemies,
2. Interstate regulation for those issue requiring 50-state commonality to function effectively,
3. Devolution of a Federal role in anything not meeting one of the above criteria,
4. Clearing the way for 50 chances to get complex issues 'right', with good ideas quickly adopted/propagated by neighboring States,
5. Except on issues where the people have expressly banned their governments from meddling.

I believe there's a document floating around somewhere which says this...]

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A FEDERAL LEVIATHAN: THE AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT OF 2009

Subject: txt engry =
On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2454, the 1,480 page American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), by the slim margin of seven votes.

The U.S. Senate plans to consider this bill as early as October.

Policymakers [and citizens] across the country need to review the full scope of this bill.

The cap and trade program, under Title III, will be considered first.

Initially known as the Waxman-Markey bill after authors Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), it is typically labeled as the "cap and trade" bill.

ACES, however, is so much more:

• The cap and trade provisions comprise only 400 of the bill's almost 1,500 pages.
• ACES, viewed in its entirety, contains a dizzying array of federal dictates and programs to transform and control U.S. energy production and use.
• The bill imposes more than 1,000 new federal dictates through 21 federal agencies.
• The senior attorney for the Sierra Club recently commented that ACES "is the most complex piece of legislation in the history of our country, which may make it the most complex piece of legislation in human history … it imposes on EPA alone approximately 600 [new] mandates."

The colossal price tag of this massive bill is also rarely noted:

• The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimated federal cost in direct spending at $822 billion, another nearly trillion dollar burden on American taxpayers.
• Worse, the revenues to the federal treasury are from the indirect carbon tax imposed on energy users -- all economic sectors and consumers.

In short, ACES sanctions 85 percent of the U.S. energy supply from fossil fuels and pours money and mandates at renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear energy is barely mentioned.

In so doing, the legislation wagers U.S. economic vigor on as yet untested, unproven, more expensive energy sources which have inherent limitations...

[Translation: national suicide.]

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Media Malpractice: Ayers 'Dreams authorship suppressed

Subject: txt msm bias bdd othr crpt -
Perhaps one of the biggest political stories of the year is being completely overlooked by the Obama-struck mass media.

A new biography by veteran author Christopher Andersen, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of a Marriage," reveals that former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers wrote most, if not all of President Obama's book "Dreams From My Father."

In a series of American Thinker articles over the past year, PhD author and columnist, Jack Cashill has been asserting just that. But while he found striking similarities between the two men's writing styles he could never conclusively prove Ayers' ghost authorship.

Andersen's book does... [snip]

It is old news now that Ayers and Obama served on the boards of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund together, but in total, Obama worked with Ayers and other radicals on least six related non-profit boards and shared the same office for three years with Ayers and fellow radicals, Susan and Mike Klonsky.

Now this latest revelation about Ayers' ghostwriting suggests that not only did they work together, but Ayers essentially gave Obama his voice.

All this has somehow been lost on mass media's intrepid investigative journalists.

Nary a peep.

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Dog the Wags

Subject: txt msm bias - fnn -
... A decade later, a self-absorbed Big Media also seems destined to lose to its rival, the new media. Employing a mirror image of the movie plot, Big Media is trying to stay in power by cynically manipulating politics, stoking a culture war. Life seemingly does imitate art -- this time in reverse though. ...

... In contrast, as part of today's mirror image of the movie, Big Media frequently refuses to "run with" negative news about the Left -- even when the journalists know it's true... Big Media has trivialized Democrat scandals ranging from Barney Frank's Fannie Mae malfeasance to ACORN's offer of taxpayer funding for underage prostitutes.

However, in an unscripted plot twist, fewer and fewer Americans are willing to be manipulated by Big Media.

... according to a recent national survey conducted by Sacred Heart University, 89 percent of Americans suspect that Big Media played a strong role in getting President Obama elected.

As the study also showed, the public has become substantially more suspicious of Big Media in just the past few years...

[Recommended > ]

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image toon - msm bias = Oby channel = 24/7

Reich Laughed At For Saying Stimulus 'Keeping People Employed'

Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current Obama economic advisor Robert Reich was laughed at Friday for claiming

"the stimulus package is the thing that is actually keeping the economy up, keeping people employed."

In a discussion on CNBC about the larger than expected September job losses reported Friday by the Labor Department, Reich was explaining to hosts Melissa Francis and Lawrence Kudlow how things would be much worse if not for the stimulus package.

He also implied that things won't get better until healthcare is reformed.

In the middle of this absolutely absurd statement, Francis and Kudlow appeared to look at each other with the former breaking out into laughter and the latter doing his best to hold it back (video embedded below the fold):

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Moore's 'Capitalism' bombs at box office

[B]ut the biggest disappointment of the weekend is Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story (Overture). After a $57K per theatre average on 4 screens last weekend, the picture broke to a wider 962 locations with terrible results. The "documentary" only sold an estimated $1.3M in tickets to start the weekend, and it will finish at about $3.9M for a PTA of less than $4,000. That soft opening will almost certainly make Capitalism Moore's weakest-grossing movie since 2002's Bowling for Columbine ($21.5M domestic gross).

Perhaps if we lived in Moore's socialist paradise, we would all have been forced to line up and shell out $12 bucks to see this turkey.

Fortunately, we still live in a land where those choices are left to us.

And it is obvious that the prospect of being hectored about how greedy we all are for wanting to make a comfortable life for ourselves by a monumental hypocrite who has gotten fabulously wealthy in a system that he thinks is evil just isn't a big sell on Main Street in America.

Gee - ya think?

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